Yearly Archives: 2019

They Are Billions Announces Pre-Order Campaign

They Are Billions has officially announced the pre-order campaign for the Xbox One and Playstation 4 editions of their zombie survival title. This begins on Friday, June 21st, and will run from two weeks, until the game launches on Xbox One on July 5th. They are Billions launches on PlayStation 4 on July 9th, 2019. The BitWorks team are sure that the console audience will love the survival mode, especially being able to pause at any time to plan their strategy, as well as having the option to play with a controller, or keyboard & mouse.

Features:

  • Survival Strategy Game – The aim of the game is to build a successful colony and survive for a specific period of time against billions of zombie enemies. Build walls, gates, towers, and structures to protect yourself. Train your army and contract the best mercenaries to protect the colony. Management of your resources and forces is the key to survival!
  • Real Time with Pause – While They Are Millions is a Real Time Strategy game, It comes with the ability for players to pause the game at any time. With the game paused, players can focus on making the best strategic decisions, giving them a layer of control missing from most RTS games.
  • Randomly Generated Maps – Every game presents new challenges for the player as each new game creates a random world generated with its own events, weather, geography, and infected population.
  • Thousands of Units on Screen – They Are Billions brings massive numbers of units to the game screen, up to 20,000 units playing in real time! Some are on your side, but be prepared to face the biggest swarms of infected you’ve ever seen.
  • Mouse and Keyboard Support – They Are Billions gives players the choice of playing with a keyboard & mouse or a controller, allowing players to experience the game how they choose.
  • Weekly Challenge – Weekly Challenges will be offered where participating players must play the same random map. The best scores are published on a leaderboard to allow for bragging rights and friendly rivalry among players.

Children of Morta Begins Steam Free Preview

11bit Studios announced that a Steam Free Preview will begin today (June 19th, 2019) for Children of Morta, that runs until June 22nd. This event lasts for 72 hours, and players will be able to check out this story-driven ARPG from Dead Mage and 11bit Studios, as they get a taste of things to come. Ina ddition, there will be a pre-order sale on Steam, with 10% off, in addition to access to the soundtrack. Children of Morta will release this summer on Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4 and PC.

“We’re excited to give the community a taste of Children of Morta. We’re confident about the game’s development and are certain that, once people try it during the free weekend, they’ll be hooked. Even though it’s still in development, it already looks fantastic and is a title we’re proud of. With the additional time until launch for polish, we’re confident that this is going to leave an impact on everyone that gives it a shot,” says Marek Ziemak, Executive Producer at 11 bit studios.

Blade II: The Return of Evil Arrives on Nintendo Switch

The sequel to “Blade”, Blade II: The Return of Evil has arrived on the Nintendo Eshop in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. This makes it the first Korean Mobile Game to hit the Nintendo Switch. It takes place a century after Blade and is about a group of heroes searching for Archangel Ramiel, to save the world from evil. In addition to having dynamic action with subtle control, the interface has been improved to work on a console. ActionSquare also changed the game’s balance and removed all microtransactions, to optimize the console experience.

HyunSeung Shin, PD of ActionSquare said ‘From the beginning of Blade II: The Return of Evil project, we focused on how the original action and cinematic scenes can be shifted from mobile onto console device’ He further stated ‘I believe the fans of ‘Blade’ as well as all action game fans will find exceptional thrill and fun on this console version’

Pawarumi – Release Teaser

Pawarumi is an upcoming shooter heading to the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One, set in a futuristic universe that has a very much pre-Columbia feel to it. It has a game mechanic inspired by Rock-Paper-Scissors and lets players maximize damage, heal their shields, or charge a super attack, simply by shooting with the optimal weapon on the right enemy. It is being developed in France by Manufacture 43, and is largely self-funded, with an exception from support by the Centre National du Cinéma, the Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine, and a successful Kickstarter Campaign.

Dragon Ball FighterZ – World Tour Returns for a Second Round in 2019/20

The DRAGON BALL FighterZ – World Tour is a global tournament series that runs for 8-9 months from June 2019 to the beginning of 2020. Players from around the world will compete throughout the year to decide a Grand Champion at the DRAGON BALL FighterZ – World Tour Red Bull Finals in France.

The top 15 players will be decided based on winner-takes-all Saga events, with points accumulated across the tour at Saga and ‘Tenkaichi’ Events – or through the Last Chance Qualifier. There will be three Saga events across the tour – EVO, DRAGON BALL FighterZ – World Tour Red Bull Saga Spain, and DRAGON BALL FighterZ – World Tour Red Bull Saga Japan – with the winner of each securing their spot in the finals. Twelve additional spots will be given to those players with the highest total points rankings at the end of the tour, including points gained at Saga events and Tenkaichi Events.
Tenkaichi Events will be offline events spanning the globe, enabling players to compete for points and climb the rankings. Further details of these events will be revealed soon. The final spot will be given to one player at the Last Chance Qualifier, hosted in France the day before the Grand Final. CEO can also be registered for at this link.

Dead or Alive 6 Welcomes The King of Fighters to The Battle

Dead or Alive 6 revealed that two DLC characters are on the way to their universe, all the way from The King of Fighters – Mai Shiranui and Kula Diamond. These characters are in DOA6’s Season Pass 1 and are also available for individual purchase for 7.99. Their costume packs are available for 2.99 per fighter as well. There is also a special bundle that includes both characters, with five outfits for each, for 15.99.

Mai Shiranui is known as “The Alluring Ninja”, and is a powerful kunoichi, and successor to the Shiranui ninjutsu style. She wilds huge fans and can generate flames from her attacks, as she also mesmerizes her foes with her flashy outfits. Conversely, there’s “The Ice Doll”, Kula Diamond. She uses quick, unexpected transitions to her special attacks with useful cancels. She can use ice in her attacks, and freeze opponents thanks to her ability to instantly freeze water particles in mid-air. She’s a modified human created by the NESTS organization, though her conception came with some complications – including an odd addiction to candy and the fact that she appears much younger than her actual age.

XERA: Survival Preview

By Terris Harned (NWOrpheus)

What happens when a prototype robot becomes self aware, and also apparently has the ability to self replicate? XERA: Survival apparently is what happens. In this not-so-aptly named PvPvE (but mostly PvP) looter-shooter, you’re dropped into a hot zone full of the aforementioned robots. The fun part is, you’re dropped in with nothing but the clothes on your back! Yeah, you’d think they could at least issue you a starting 9mm pistol or something, but, no, you’re on your own.

Let’s make a quick checklist of things that might make something a good survival game, shall we?

  • Food and water needed to survive (or at least gives benefits like replenishing health or energy).
  • The ability to suffer status ailments, such as poison, hunger, or broken/wounded limbs.
  • Environmental hazards, such as extreme heat or cold.
  • Crafting elements, preferably including but not limited to structures.

Technically, XERA: Survival has two of these four elements, but even those two aren’t particularly well executed. Food and hydration are required to survive, but are such trivial factors that I’m not even sure why they bothered. Both of the resources are relatively easy to find, and if you die they replenish your health to full. Mind you, this also comes with an experience penalty, but the benefits of leveling up seem limited to unlocking the handful of crafting recipes available and increasing your global stash size.

Like, all 5 of them, I think? You can make some gauze bandages from cloth, and then dump booze on them to make them “better”. You can put some nails in a baseball bat. You can construct a drone from a chassis, blades, and a battery. Oh, and you can make some C4 out of household components. It’s really just annoying that you have to level up to craft the things at all, especially considering it’s such a small list.

XERA Crafting

Why did they even bother? Really? You can find plenty of all of these pre-fabricated in the game.

Thankfully, there’s plenty of stuff to forage around the map, both in regards to food and water, as well as weapons, backpacks, ammunition, etc. As I mentioned before, there is a global storage, where you can drop off your finds, but it does have limited capacity. What thus seems to be the tactic is to log onto a slower server, run around and loot while largely avoiding other players, then go to a more populated server and engage in PvP.

The PvE elements of the game leave something to be desired. The only non-player opposition are the robots gone crazy. These robots don’t have any weaponry, however. Only the ability to punch you, and in some cases self destruct. The latter does a hefty sum of damage, admittedly, but generally you can shoot the robots before they get anywhere near you without too much problem, thus making them generally ineffective, unless you happen to not hear them loudly clanking as they approach.
 

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto… for them bullets.

 

Even on smaller servers, it is possible to engage in some amounts of PvP, but the likelihood is that if you’re solo, you’ll probably just get ganked by two or more players who have teamed up. I’m not saying there’s anything necessarily wrong with this, so long as you enjoy being teabagged by a twelve year old cackling toxic profanity into your speakers through their microphone. Oh the joys of the internet. I guess it’s better than having a bunch of empty servers?

Be that as it may, there are airdrops that frequently have some nicer gear, but they are hotspots of contention, and you’re likely to run into other players at them. There are also events that spawn periodically at specific locations called “compound events”. The object of these events seems to simply be to eliminate a set number of robots. I never did end up finishing one of these events, out of sheer general boredom. Although I did have one humorous event at one where I ended up following another player into a trap. Truth be told, it was worth it.
 

I was totally singing Yakkity Sax.

I will say that the scenery of XERA is generally well done. The graphics are above par for what you see in the price range of the game’s $20.00 price tag. That being said, there is a cash shop that seems to be focused on cosmetic filled loot boxes. I really am not sure what the developers figure to get out of that cash shop, but I’m guessing they took some inspiration from CS:GO and decided to run with it.

I’m not sure if there’s more to come in XERA, but if not, I wouldn’t anticipate it being around for very long. Not in today’s competitive market. Yeah, it’s pretty, and it’s fun to explore for about an hour, but I don’t think it really qualifies as a survival game, and I get the distinct impression that trying to bill it as one is just an attempt by the developers to cash in on a catchphrase.
 

17 minutes of walking followed by getting shot through a wall. Awesome game.

That’s right, XERA, you’re the kale of video games. I doubt you’ll last as long, though.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Launches for PC, PS4 and Xbox One

Don’t worry, Switch fans: Your version comes next week.

It’s finally here! Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night by the legendary Koji Igarashi has arrived on PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox XOne, with the Nintendo Switch edition coming next week. The godfather of the Igavania genre is back, with music by Castlevania: Symphony of the Night’s own Mirichu Yamane, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a modern side-scrolling Action-RPG, that will no doubt satisfy fans of Iga’s style of gameplay. More than a dozen DLC releases are planned as free updates, including Online and Local Co-Op, as well as VS. Mode, Roguelike Mode, Boss Rush, Chaos Mode, and Nightmare Difficulty. Secret Playable Characters will also be waiting.

The Speed Demon Update, which adds optimized graphics, visuals and balance, in addition to Speed Run Mode, Boss Rush Mode, and the Pure Miriam Outfit, will be available at launch for PC and is expected later next week for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.

Also available today for PC is the “Iga’s Back Pack” DLC, priced at $9.99. Players who opt in will be able to fight Koji Igarashi himself as a boss in-game and once defeated, earn the powerful Swordwhip weapon. The “Iga’s Back Pack” DLC will be available for Nintendo Switch™ on Friday, June 28. PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players will be able to purchase the “Iga’s Back Pack” DLC beginning Tuesday, July 2.

Set in 18th century England, where a paranormal force has summoned a demon-infested castle, revealing crystal shards infused with tremendous magical power, players of Bloodstained take on the role of Miriam, an orphan scarred by an alchemist curse which slowly crystallizes her body, enabling her to use spells, weapons, special items and abilities to tailor the game to their playstyle. To save humanity and herself, Miriam must fight through the castle while collecting, crafting and unlocking a vast array of weapons, equipment and loot to defeat the summoner Gebel and the countless minions and bosses of hell that await.

Physical and Digital Release Information:

Digital Releases

  • PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One:

o   Tuesday, June 18

  • 7 a.m. UTC (GMT) / 12:01 a.m. PDT on Sony PlayStation Network (Europe, Korea*)
  • 7 a.m. UTC (GMT) / 12:01 a.m. PDT on Xbox Games Store (North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand)
  • 13:00 UTC (GMT) / 6 a.m. PDT on Steam and GOG (NA, EU and ANZ; Steam only in all Asian territories*)
  • 17:00 UTC (GMT) / 10 a.m. PDT on Sony PlayStation Network (North America)

o   Wednesday, June 19 on PS4 in Southeast Asia including Hong Kong and Taiwan*

  • Nintendo Switch: Tuesday, June 25 on Nintendo Game Store (NA, EU, ANZ, Korea and SEA including Hong Kong and Taiwan*)

Physical Releases

  • PlayStation 4 and Xbox One:

o   Tuesday, June 18 on both consoles at participating North American and Korean retailers

o   Wednesday, June 19 on PS4 in SEA including Hong Kong and Taiwan*

o   Thursday, June 20 on both consoles at participating retailers in Spain, Portugal, Australia and New Zealand

o   Friday, June 21 on both consoles at participating retailers in U.K., France, Italy, Germany and other European territories

  • Nintendo Switch:

o   Tuesday, June 25 at participating retailers in North America, Korea and SEA including Hong Kong and Taiwan*

o   Thursday, June 27 at participating retailers in Spain, Portugal, Australia and New Zealand

o   Friday, June 28 at participating retailers in U.K., France, Italy, Germany and other European territories

All standard versions are 39.99.