Yearly Archives: 2018

Kingdom Hearts Union X(Cross)

Kingdom Hearts Union X(Cross) is a free-to-play 2D mobile RPG developed by SQUARE ENIX for iOS and Android that is the sequel to Kingdom Hearts Unchained X and further develops the story that took place in Kingdom Hearts X. In this installment of the franchise you can encounter both familiar and new faces of the Kingdom Hearts series in a game where you become the hero of your own tale! Following the result of the Keyblade War, you are brought to a new realm alongside Skuld and Ephemer where. Upon entering the new realm you and other members of the Dandelions lose all memories of the past world aside from five wielders that are chosen to become Union leaders. It is now your job to help the Dandelions and the new Union Leaders on their mission to explore the mysteries of this new realm.

Features:

Favorite Franchise Characters: As is typical of the Kingdom Hearts series you can team up with some of your favorite Disney and Final Fantasy characters who will aid you on your quest.

Avatar Customization: Customize your avatar with different seasonal, event, and character-themed parts so you can fight in style.

Multiplayer Missions: Cooperate with up to 6 of your friends to explore stages and take on some of the fiercest foes in the game.

Ranked PvP: Unlock the Coliseum so you can fight against other keyblade wielders and show them how strong you are by increasing your ranking.

Elite Dangerous: “Beyond – Chapter One” Open Beta Starts Soon

The first free Beyond update for Elite: Dangerous is coming in Q1 2018, but it’s being kicked off with an open beta for PC players to get a taste of it. The Open Beta begins January 25th, 2018, and will feature some fantastic gameplay at the Beyond content for players to complete. The Wing Missions will offer team-based objectives for players and Commanders will share their adventures and rewards with allies while working together. Advanced in-game Trading Data will empower traders to make better deals and smoother transactions. Information on the galactic economy is now more freely available, allowing every commander to become a master merchant as they journey among the stars. Other updates are coming in Chapter One such as changes to engineering mechanics, mission rewards, and an altered crime and punishment system.

DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY NT Open Beta Now Available for Download

It begins! Today, the Dissidia FInal Fantasy NT open beta is officially live. Step into the arena as your favorite Final Fantasy legends, which is coming to Playstation 4 on January 30th. Access to the Open Beta will be on set times, which we’ll post below and will feature online and offline battles. Summons, character customization and lots of amazing characters are waiting.

  • From Friday, January 12 @ 6:00 AM PST to Monday, January 15 @ 1:00 PM PST
  • From Monday, January 15 @ 2:00 PM PST to Thursday, January 18 @ 1:00 PM PST
  • From Thursday, January 18 @ 2:00 PM PST to Sunday, January 21 @ 1:00 PM PST

Race for the Galaxy has Amazing AI

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Race for the Galaxy Image

This is something I wanted to talk about in brief about a month ago, but the last month was very hard for me, mentally and physically. But, it was a pretty good month for gaming. In particular, Race for the Galaxy received another expansion, Brink of War. I reviewed the game earlier last year, and as a near-perfect replication of one of the best strategy/card games you can play physically, what makes this version stand out, is that you can play alone! You don’t have to find another friend who plays to get a good match in (but you should. You should get people playing it if it’s your bag. It’s incredible). You can play on Steam, Mobile Device, or Tablet, and you’ll have the same incredible experience on all of them. But before I get into the meat of it, let’s talk about the latest expansion too, because it’s worth noting.

RFTG - Search

Get what you’re looking for … if you know what that is.

The Brink of War is the latest expansion, and as its name suggests, the galaxy is getting a little rowdier. Prestige is key and is another way to gain the victory of the PC or your friends. It includes thirty-six new developments to build and worlds to settle, new goals and a new action in “Search”. Need that one card that can seal doom for your opponent? Search just might be the command you need in order to get going. I highly recommend it for this, for cross-play, and insanely deep tactical gameplay that you can normally only receive if you and your friends are all geniuses at this game. Replayability is so key though, and having a complex, powerful AI can give players a new experience every single time.

RFTG - 1

Mm. Gratifying tactical goodness.

One of the things I found interesting, was when I was doing some reading on their AI system, is that their system (temporal difference neural network), requires no human input to generate training data. This means it doesn’t require a gigantic expensive team to make it work, and that this small team of dedicated fans of the boardgame can make it happen on their own with limited resources. This is not their first game designed this way though; they started with Ascension, using a heuristic-driven AI. The AI will favor moves that they deem superior. EG: It will buy cards with high VP-to-cost ratios, or trashes low-value militia cards before others. This, however, was designed by people, and it’s based on what they think the best plays are. This requires the people who developed the game to either be experts at it or to seek out those who truly are the best at Race for the Galaxy. This AI is smart, but people will get one over on it reliably eventually. It’s still far more enjoyable to beat real people, but you can still practice and get better at the game with the AI and not feel like it’s a disappointment. Theresa Duringer had this to say about their AI network:

“Instead, it learns by playing randomly, making predictions at the turn level on which player is winning, and updating the weights in its multilayer perceptron architecture such that the delta between predictions from one turn to the next is diminished. Using this method on over 30,000 training games, it’s learned the black box function that best represents the relationship between input (the state of the game) and output (prediction of who’s winning) for the neural network that drives our AI.  It’s a pretty incredible method, first used for boardgames by Gerald Tesauro who created TD Gammon and now applied to Race for the Galaxy by our AI expert, Keldon Jones.”

I think it’s absolutely fascinating that this AI system is designed around a 5,000 year old game: Backgammon. Gerald Tesauro developed TD Gammon, and it was one of the most cutting-edge games of all time possibly. This AI system was designed around this, and Tesauro’s work changed how Backgammon is/should be played. It doesn’t come with pre-conceived notions of what is a smart play and instead has zero initial knowledge. Basically, the TD Gammon system is teacherless, which is interesting because after all, human error is not really that uncommon. Letting the engine determine what is smart and what will ultimately have a higher win rate.

RFTG - 2

Yay, Rebel scum!

I will spare you the mathematics, but the details can be found here, for those interested. With that in mind, this AI system for Race for the Galaxy only needs to know the “rules” of the game. It will make determinations from there. Over thousands of training games, it develops strategies and tactics such as “Piggy Backing”. To explain from Theresa, “For example, here the AI chose Trade, even though it has no goods to trade.  I fell into the trap, chose settle, the AI can settle a world that comes with a good, effectively piggybacking my settle, and trade it.  The tactics employed can be nuanced and context-sensitive, unlike a heuristic driven AI.”

RFTG - Prestige

I do so love a new way to win; prestige fits that bill.

Why do I think this is so interesting? When I first started playing Race for the Galaxy, I lost to the AI almost every time. I was getting frustrated, because I had not played the actual game in years, and was more than rusty. I was losing all of the time because the AI is incredibly smart. But they did add some noise to this AI system for new players, so it won’t always make the best, smartest choices. You can adjust the difficulty, but they all feel suitably challenging. The bottom line for me, is that the AI is smart enough that you can get tons of replayability out of it, being forced to change strategies and tactics against the AI. In lots of strategy games, simply playing against the AI is not rewarding or fun, because it’s usually too easy. They’re still working on new technology and strategies to make to improve performance and require fewer neural network evaluations a turn (instead of 500,000+).  Do you love strategy games that will challenge you? This is the one you need.

Koei Tecmo Reveals All-New Online Multiplayer Features for Attack on Titan 2

AttackonTitan2_Coop03

Coming to Xbox One, PS4, PC and the Nintendo Switch on March 20th, 2018, Attack on Titan 2 is going to shake the franchise up with some all-new online features. The newly introduced competitive multiplayer option, Annihilation Mode, sees two teams of four Scouts compete to earn the highest score within a set time limit. Defeating the devastating Titans is one of the most important ways to earn individual points and climb the leader board. Although, working together is also key as it can earn the team a Chain Bonus through destroying each Titan body part before subjugating them. Building and defending bases is also an efficient way of securing points. With select areas on the map allowing for base development, opposing teams will vie for the location – defending them is of utmost priority.

Online functionality is not only limited to competitive play, as players are able to take on missions co-operatively in Story Mode and Scout Missions. Gathering a team of close allies during these modes allows them to experience the gripping events while fighting against the Titan threat together. Select your favorite character from a roster of over 30, or simply play your own custom character. New additions include Keith Sadies, Kitz Woermann, Dhalis Zachary and Dot Pyxis!