Idea Factory International has launched the Steam version of this past spring’s tongue in cheek alternate universe of the self aware Megatagmension: Neptunia + Blanc Vs Zombies.
This game is a much different take in a series that has a number of different iterations and canon entries. Neptunia Vs. ZombiesI is a real time action title that casts Blanc and Neptune as members of the film club of the prestigious GamesIndustri Academy, while filming a movie to try and raise money to save their school from closure the cast comes across real life horrors! This shift in genre and universe surprisingly doesn’t affect the character’s core personality traits or humorous delivery.
Here are some of the game’s key features according to its’ Steam Page:
Key Features
– Fight off zombie hordes in 1080p with a two-person tag team and rack up crazy combos!
– Team up with up to 3 other friends in online Multiplay mode to take on multiplayer quests, with new quests updated daily!
– More characters join the battle with their own fighting styles, including Plutia, Peashy, Uzume, and a new playable character – Tamsoft!
– Dress to kill with customizable equipment, and accessories that can be put pretty much anywhere.
For the next week Megatagmension: Blanc+ Neptunia Vs. Zombies will be available on Steam for PC at a reduced rate and it includes all of the previously PS Vita exclusive DLC.
LinkRealms a Steam Early Access MMORPG that attempts to recreate the glory days of Ultima Online will go free to play as of October 10th developer Mythyn has announced. They believe that the game is ready for a wider audience thanks to the success of recent updates that have brought features like criminal status, newcomer enhancements and class adjustments to the game.
Mythyn describes their game as a “hardcore sandbox MMORPG” with a set of “old school design choices” and challenging dungeons. Basically, it sounds like this game ignores every genre convention or breakthrough that has occurred since the mid-90s.
Currently once a player purchases LinkRealms from Steam for $19.99 they gain access to the full game with no restrictions. Mythryn’s press release did not outline how their free-to-play implementation will work or if there will be a paywall that might limit players from progressing past a certain point.
Here is how they currently describe their in-game shop (Shame they use gender specific pronouns in their descriptions :/)
“Non-Invasive Shop Pay once (or get a Beta Key) and play for free – forever. All of the content is available to you with no restrictions. Using the in-game store helps supporting the development team, but nothing a player can purchase is going to make him suddenly powerful or give him an unfair advantage. Linkrealms welcomes all players to the community”
Reaction to the Early Access version of the game has been mixed with some players pointing out that a single guild owns entire server economies and that dungeon farming is rampant. Others have lamented the lack of features like a hotbar, meaning that spell and abilities must be manages from multiple windows.
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2follows up on its predecessors with a strange proposition. Imagine you’ve grown accustomed to driving a car without brakes. You hit other cars, you die, so you learn how to avoid doing so. You follow the road, you swerve correctly, you do fine, right? Then, one day, your car suddenly has brakes. And, when you hit other cars, it takes a couple hits before you actually crash. This would be disorienting, right? Because you’d have to completely relearn how to drive that car.
In Pac-Man Championship Edition 2, Pac-Man literally has a brake button.
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 follows a recent tradition of modifying Pac-Man’s classic formula. Games like Pac-Man Battle Royale and Pac-Man 256 have proven that Pac-Man’s basic maze gameplay has a lot of unexplored depth, and the Championship Edition series has led the charge in showing off how interesting and unique Pac-Man can become.
As with its predecessors, Championship Edition 2 is gorgeous, with a blissful neon aesthetic and incredible techno music that will keep you going for hours of play. CE 2 takes advantage of its new position on next-gen hardware to deliver mind-bending visuals at a consistently high frame rate.
The game’s new 3D flourishes exemplify this, offering fluid animations as a new reward for skillful ghost busting. It’s not surprising that Namco’s sound team has outdone themselves, either, with clever sound effects and arguably the series’ strongest soundtrack.
In addition, fans of previous outings will find some of their favorite songs, like Pac Rainbow, left in tact, along with some series favorite mazes like Championship I & II, Highway, and Spiral. While the aesthetics remain the same, and callbacks to previous games will make series regulars feel at home, there’s a mountain of modifications to the gameplay that might not excite everyone.
From Pac-Man Championship Edition‘s release, Namco has shown it’s not afraid of changing Pac-Man in subtle ways. In the first Championship Edition, players initially play the game at the speed of the classics, collecting pellets and regenerating the maze’s layout as they collect fruit. DX changes things up a bit by allowing you to collect a “Ghost Train” rather than having to avoid the traditional four ghosts on the map.
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 piles on new systems in a way that isn’t as satisfying as the natural evolution and simplicity found in the older titles. Pac-Man CE 2 adds, in no short order: Angry Ghosts, Boss Ghosts, a brake button, jumping, Ghost Routes, Runaway items, several new modes, and a compulsory tutorial just to cram all this in. It’s clear that Namco doesn’t want the series’ first proper numbered sequel to feel like a gentle iteration, but all of these revisions don’t gel with the simple gameplay of the original two titles.
Players who were looking for a game more similar to the original Championship Edition will be left out in the cold. CE 2 will feel more familiar to DX players who are used to chasing after Ghost Trains. In 2, rather than building up speed after collecting members of Pac-Man’s Ghost Train, the player starts off at full-speed, and any ghostly minions collected become trails behind the four main ghosts, Blinky, Inky, Pinky, and Clyde.
The challenge comes from chasing pellets at full-speed while avoiding both the roaming ghosts and their new trails. It’s a race against time, as before, trying to accumulate as many points as you possibly can before time runs out. At its strongest moments, CE 2 is a fast-paced score chaser that feels reminiscent of the gameplay offered by DX with some new and interesting twists.
Sometimes, those twists end up tangling up in one another and bog down the gameplay with undue complication. Changes pile upon each other and lead to series regulars needing to rethink their traditional CE play.
Grinding on the wall of the maze is still there, for instance, but because of Pac-Man’s increased speed and the unpredictable new behavior of ghosts, it doesn’t feel the same, and it’s something you typically want to avoid.
When eating ghosts, instead of going after the Ghost Train behind you in a satisfying finish, you’re sent on a frustrating chase after the four ghosts and their trains along Ghost Routes, colored escape routes that require memorization and constant attention.
New rules constantly interrupt basic tenets of gameplay put in place by DX, and while offering something new can be fun, the amount of relearning necessary might be challenging to those who have been playing CE DX for the past six years.
If all these new details weren’t aggravating on their own, they’re paired with new modes that only serve to highlight the game’s shortfalls. As in prior outings, the game is rife with unlockables, but rather than simply mastering each maze to seek rewards, players must conquer a new mode, Adventure. Adventure fails to deliver the classic, simple fun of the traditional score attack mode, and most players will likely avoid it altogether.
The new mode challenges players to complete several time attack missions in order to unlock Boss Battles, which are in themselves just a more challenging brand of time attack. Time attack isn’t very rewarding when failure is often found in having to battle stuff like Ghost Routes.
The process of completing stacks of time attack missions only to unlock even harder time attack missions isn’t rewarding, and if it weren’t for the promise of Galaga sprites for use within score attack, I probably wouldn’t have bothered. Within the context of 2, Adventure mode serves as an unfortunate annoyance.
Conclusion
By no means is Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 the weakest entry in the Pac-Man universe. At its best, Championship Edition 2 is fast and engrossing, pulling you in with engaging visuals and throbbing music. It’s a unique evolution on the classic arcade gameplay that you’d be hard-pressed to compare to its 1980 progenitor. Compared to its contemporaries, however, it lacks cohesion. At its worst, skillful play feels more like a wrestling match against new mechanics.
Pac-Man 256 and Pac-Man Championship Edition DX proved that you can iterate on the maze game formula without feeling overly complicated, without needing coercive tutorial levels, and without muddling what makes Pac-Man simple and fun to play. Mastery in titles like these is rewarded by a building sense of speed that motivates and excites.
Championship Edition 2 starts fast, stays fast, and ends with Pac-Man crashing into a wall of minions behind an Angry Ghost. If you’re ready to rethink the way you play Pac-Man, or you want to enjoy one of the best video game soundtracks this year, Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 is absolutely worth a shot, but you’d be remiss without playing stronger entries in the series first.
Psyonix’s surprise summer hit from 2015 recieves a brand new “rumble mode” that provides players with a whole new set of power-ups. 11 new randomized power-up give players new abilities that drastically changes how the rocket powered soccer title is played.
If you’re getting flashback to older racing titles from the 90s that included outrageous power-ups, like Extreme-G for the Nintendo 64, don’t worry you’re not alone. Here is a list of all of the power-ups available to players in the new “rumble mode”.
The Boot (Kicks an opponent’s car)
Disruptor (Forces the opponent to drive uncontrollably)
Freezer (Freezes the ball in-place)
Grappling Hook (Pulls you toward the ball)
Haymaker (Punches the ball)
Magnetizer (Attracts the ball to your car)
Plunger (Snaps the ball to your position)
Power Hitter (Hit everything harder)
Spike (Attach the ball to your car when you bump into it)
Swapper (Change positions on the field with your opponent)
Tornado (Sweep up the ball and cars into a giant funnel cloud)
Today’s update also introduces the “Crates & Keys” system that will allow players to unlock new skins and cosmetics through keys that are purchasable through optional micro-transaction. “Crate & Keys” is a similar micro-transaction model as popularized by Valve’s Counter Strike: Global Offensive and does not affect the core gameplay experience of Rocket League. Keys will be sold for $1.49 USD for 1 or in bundles of 5, 10 or 20. Profits from the “Crate & Keys” system will be used to fund future e-sports prize pools for the Rocket League community.
Independent game developer Bplus announces a new game coming to both Steam and the Nintendo NX. Their new war simulation game Tank it! will be released on Steam in the fall and follow on the Nintendo NX in 2017.
Bplus plans Tank it! to be a realistic and bloody war simulation game designed to show how brutal and dangerous war really is. In Tank it! you command a drone to remotely control a heavy tank. You receive the mission to travel to remote villages, find and destroy the target military camps and eliminate all terrorists. But as in real life, there are many civilians in the villages, as well. The terrorists and civilians alike are at the player’s mercy.
It is up to the player alone to decide how to handle this mission.
Previously Bplus released Puzzle Box Setup and Bit Boy Arcade for the Nintendo 3DS.
WayForward issued an update on the progress of their HD Shantae game, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, and the news wasn’t happy news. The update is by no means dire, but the game is going to be delayed up to six weeks or more.
Developers have stated that the delay is for bug fixing and adding additional polish, which is definitely a good thing. With the rush to get many games out these days, many games are released relatively unfinished. Day one patches aren’t at all uncommon.
The release date has been pushed back from September 27th to sometime in mid-November. Still plenty of time before the height of the holiday shopping season. And while it’s certainly not great news, if it means a more polished and better game. It’ll be worth the wait.
Could some of our favorite Overwatch agents be retired? After an initial comment to Game Informer by Jeff Kaplan regards to the possibility of removing existing heroes the game director has taken to the official forums to expand upon his comments.
Originally Kaplan stated to GI that the dev team had “left the door open” on the retirement on heroes in the future. He cited the game’s business model of providing all players new content for free as one of the reasons he might not feel bad for removing an existing hero.
“We would leave the door open to that. I think the fact that we chose the business model we did – that the game comes with all the heroes and we’re giving you everything [extra] for free so far – allows us to retire a hero without feeling bad about it. But I think we have a long way to go before heroes will need to be. “
Don’t Panic! Because now Kaplan has posted on the official forums to say that the dev team has no plans to retire heroes and that the internet is making “a mountain out of a molehill”.
“We don’t have any plans to retire any heroes. The interviewer asked if there was a possibility that this could ever happen and I “left the door open”. The original poster in this thread did not even link to the original article but rather to an article quoting the article in question.
We’re not even remotely thinking about retiring heroes right now or anytime in the foreseeable future.
I think this thread is making a mountain out of a molehill.
So all of those players (myself included) who have for their most play of the games as Bastion don’t have to worry about the mobile turret being removed from the game anytime soon! Blizzard has spent a lot of time since the game shipped in May teasing new heroes. Ana, the medical sniper was released this past June and the elusive spy master Sombra has not yet been revealed.
As far as early access goes and something that was nearly given away on the base tier of a recent Humble Bundle, Savage Lands is actually a pretty fun experience. At first glance I just assumed it was a basic indie Elder Scrolls sort of game, but it actually falls more into the survival and crafting genre. Sure this early access experience is still a little rough around the edges, but it’s the basics that kind of work the best for it. Stepping out of the way of lunging skeletons, strafing around an enraged boar, firing that one last arrow that hits a deer yards away while you’re character is starving to death, there’s a lot to be said about the little things.
Savage Lands dumps you on the shore of a pretty rough island. The aforementioned skeletons are just one of the dangers you’ll encounter. Let alone starving, freezing to death, and other fun activities. Normally you’d prepare to explore and set off without a care in the world. Meanwhile in this title, you’re more concerned with getting set up at the start. On the plus side there is gear to discover nearby, places to begin turning into a home, and trees to cut down to keep a fire stoked to cook your meals. As the Humble Bundle theme stated, it’s more about survival.
In a way, that makes Savage Lands more of a medieval Lost In Blue rather than an Oblivion like adventure. You could just sit on the beach and watch the icebergs drift by, or you can get going and start establishing yourself in this harsh and savage land.
Things are still rough, and the odd time I’ve been caught up on a hillside or a doorway, but it’s something different. There is a multiplayer component as well, so if you’d rather wander the world with some companions, that’s an option too. I was happy just to see that there was a single player local mode. Still, it’s a fun experience if you’re just looking to take things slow, collect up your resources and enjoy the chilly wilderness. Especially if you picked up the bundle, be sure to actually give the game a go. It’s shaping up to be quite the neat adventure.
Paradox Interactive announced the first expansion for Cities Skylines in almost an entire year – Cities Skylines: Natural Disasters – which will bring an often requested feature, the ability to destroy your metropolis with a variety of devastating events. It’s not just fire reigning from the skies that Natural Disasters adds to the game but also an Early Warning System,Q emergency routes for civilians and response vehicles and so much more.,
Alongside the new in-game events Paradox will also be beginning a unique set of challenges based around disasters and a scenario editor which should let mayors create their own challenges.
CitiesSkylines: Natural Disastersis currently scheduled for a Winter release. Here are some of the new features according to the press release:
Deep, Impactful Gameplay: Keep your city going through the devastation of several possible doomsday scenarios, from towering infernos to the day the sky exploded
With Great Power Comes Great Response Abilities: Plan for, and respond to, disasters using early warning systems, countermeasures, and new disaster responses such as helicopters and evacuations – finally, a Paradox game where “Comet Sighted” actually means something
Radio Saved the Video Game: Citizens can go Radio Ga-Ga with a new broadcast network, helping to rapidly spread evacuation warnings and emergency alerts – or simply relax to new in-game music stations
An Objectively Good Feature: Scenario Mode allows players to design custom game objectives, including custom starting cities, win conditions, time limits, and more – and share scenarios to Steam Workshop
Chirpocalypse Now: Heck yeah, new hats for Chirper
Most of the time with a VN you get a great story, a set of cute characters that fit in to a single archetype. Usually you will have the various dere girls, the cute nerd, and at least one more type, sometimes shes the clumsy one, sometimes shes the super hot one. Doesn’t really matter, point is that you get a set of girls, usually introduced right away and yourself the player character who is trying to woo them. This is done via a fairly simple set of interactions that raise how much a girl likes you over time eventually leading to dates, and then the end game. Just deserts take a much less direct approach to this, for you see aliens have invaded.
The game begins with you pulled on to an unknown military base, shown to the bases commander Cornelia (who has pink hair) and briefed out on the fact that the facility you are at is in fact a secret forward operating base that’s fighting aliens. Not your standard opening to a VN, but I guess its more plausible then finding two cat girls in a box (if you don’t get that go play Nekopara). The rest of the game features 4 other girls, with hair colored Blonde(Ceceile), Black(yumi), White(Eve), and red (Jennifer) plus the commander we already met. You will spend most of the game getting small quests for these girls, and fighting turn based battles against aliens.
The Full Cast
Because this is a VN im going to be talking a lot about art, and voices, and not as much about the game part itself. If you really want a gaming experience I cannot in good conscious recommend that you play a VN. Go play Overwatch or something instead. That out of the way the V part of this VN is really stellar. It features a soft art style that’s full 2D instead of the sudo 3D that many VN’s opt for. There is no character movement in the sprites so don’t expect something like the boobs slider you get in Neko Para to make an appearance. Backgrounds are beautifully penned, but they really do look like paintings because they are static. Everything has a soft glow that makes it sort of resemble an oil painting which feels a bit out of place in a VN about alien invasion.
The girls themselves all have different body types and styles. Each on can be dressed in a variety of different outfits that are purchasable with in game money. You can have each on wear these clothes in various poses which you also purchase. The games CG screens (a must in any VN) are well drawn, but basic, this is also an all ages VN so don’t expect any nudity here. The game is voiced but not fully, instead you get kind of bits and pieces of what the characters are saying, which is a nice feature but id almost prefer the fully voiced Japanese standard that comes with most VN’s.
I really like the games flat UI its one the best I have ever played.
The story is the most basic of VN stories, your dropped in to a (future) harem of girls as the clueless MC, and expected to start doing things to woo these girls. Story is honestly the worst aspect of this otherwise fun VN. I know that sounds sort of backwards since the second letter literally stands for novel, but I really don’t feel like not having a story takes much away here. Bascially you’re the typical super MC who can save the world, but also there are some girls you have to woo, it’s shallow on the level of Honey pop but with less matching and more shooting aliens. As to the earlier mentioned aliens, we never find out more about them than they are invading. They simply serve as faceless antagonists to keep the game moving. The most plot we really get comes at the end of our month of time (yes this is a time limited game) where we go to the alien ship to destroy it.
This is what combat looks like
But you didn’t really come here for the story did you? I mean I didn’t, I saw cute girls and was like lets do that! Each of the 5 girls featured has a purpose, a skill if you will in the upcoming battle with the alien menace. The relationship aspect of this game is that the more you woo a girl, the better her weapons to fight the aliens will get. In each play through you will have 30 days to get to know each girl as much as possible , unlock all of their weapons, and go attack the alien spaceship. The game is pretty kind about those days, and there are only a few planned events during the 30 day period.
The scenes in between the combat are nice enough, you get to interact with the various girls, who slide on and off screen in a cut out sprite style. Since you have 5 different characters to woo, you can expect plenty of time will be spent choosing which one you want to “power up”. These are basically the games different routes, and you won’t be able to do all 5 in one go, so there is at least some replayability here.
Your time is most difficult resource to manage here. Training or wooing or fighting all take time. You also have very limited money, and will need to get more to buy gifts for the girls to get them to like you better. I don’t have much nice to say about the combat in this game, its pretty basic. I never felt like I was going to lose up until the last boss which took a major curve on difficulty in a scary way.
The battle system it self is turn based and most resembles something like an early JRPG. You attack, use items, or special abilities. Enemies are only encountered while on patrol , and on each patrol you can bring one girl, who can also use a special ability. , you can buy new weapons (which all have limited use) and armor, as well as training to increase stats and to increase attack or survivability. This is basically all it is in a nutshell, with just a few more mechanics that I haven’t touched on.
Combat suffer from being almost too simple, but really it’s a VN im here for the cute, not the combat, so I cant fault the game too much. I do have one complaint, enemy diversity is basically 0. Here is the enemy list: a cube, a fire cube, an acid cube, a grass cube, a hexagon, a diamond, and a sun. That’s it. The other “game” part of this is of course the dating sim, which is pretty good actually. The UI is fantastic, I really liked how slick and modern it looked. Just like most VN’s you will be spending your time here buying things for girls, wooing girls, giving them things, and talking to them. Each thing you do will earn you love points, and as those grow you will eventually go on a date. After you complete a set number of dates, you fall in love, and well win.
Overall I really enjoyed Just Deserts. It mixes up the usual VN formula of just dates with just enough combat. The combat is boring after a while sure, but its still way better than it would be if you just didnt have any at all. With the tiny price tag its totally worth it.
After following id Software’s DOOM revival for more than two years I finally got the chance to chew through the lengthy campaign for this reimagining of the 1990s FPS classic. While the reception of the game’s multiplayer component have been met mostly with jeers the single player surprised critics and fans alike. Now that the game is available at hefty discounts should you reenlist with the United Aerospace Corporation or sit this one out?
Unlike the over decade’s old Doom III this new DOOM is well aware of why fans are going to be playing this game’s single player: to brutally murder hordes of demons in several different spectacular splat fests, collect an ever expanding array of over the top weapons, sprawling levels and at the end of the adventure do battle with a larger than life CyberDemon that commands the forces of Hell. The developers didn’t try to fit the existing DOOM franchise into a new mold – in contrast to Doom III’s survival horror inspired design decisions, this new DOOM embraces its gory roots and plays it up with an almost comedic effect.
One again dawning the iconic green armor of one of the FPS mainstays..no not Master Chief… but the grandfather of all other Space Marines DoomGuy. Throughout the 9 – 12 hour campaign (it took me about 10 hours to beat single-player on the medium difficulty) DoomGuy will explore several different compartments of the UAC facility on Mars where a portal to hell has caused hundreds of the damned to flood the halls of this technological wonder. Unlike other titles in the DOOM series this particular game doesn’t begin with a version of the UAC Mars Facility prior to the demonic invasion – instead, DoomGuy will pick up a pistol within the first 15 seconds of beginning the single player and immediately starts slaying Demons to pumping rock music.
Destroying the forces has never felt as satisfying as it has in 2016’s DOOM, this has a lot to do with just how id Software has improved upon the combat systems of old to make them fresh while keeping in things like the over the top violence that makes this reimagining distinctively DOOM. Typically the DoomGuy will take on encounters of 5 – 10 demons with several more waves spawning once the previous group has been destroyed. Unlike other games in the franchise, enemies will flash bright orange or blue if you’ve defeated them quickly enough. Rushing forward and clicking the right stick while this flashing animation will have the DoomGuy perform a “gory kill” – which can range from ripping off an enemy’s arms and beating them with them or ripping out a demon’s entrails and feeding them to them. Yes they are gruesome, and they do get repetitive but the gory kills can provide absolutely necessary extra health to DoomGuy during the middle of an encounter.
The other thing that makes the combat in this game so satisfy in the weaponry. A lot of the DOOM classics return – the pistol, the shotgun, the super shotgun, the pulse rifle and the BFG 9000 to just name a few but iD Software has once again outdone themselves by adding a bevy of secondary modes and modifications for each weapon. While playing challenges will passively be completed throughout the campaign awarding “weapon upgrade” points that can be spent on your arsenal. A standard set of enhancements will be available right from the get-go, such as enhanced magazines and quicker reload speeds but what really makes the weapon upgrade system so robust is the inclusion of modifications. By locating weapon drones in each level DoomGuy can unlock a set of modifications for each weapon. These modifications range from placing an explosive barrel underneath the shotgun to equipping the heavy machine gun with a scope – giving you options that allow you to deal with both up-close groups and far away targets. One of the best parts of the weapons modification system is that once you’ve unlocked multiple of them for a single weapon you can easily swap them with the press of the D-Pad.
With its focus on quick paced combat and first person platforming, it might not sound like DOOM is a game that you’d want to play for the story but id Software has actually spent a considerable time crafting the world of DOOM. Upon completing levels players will unlock dossiers on iconic enemies like the Pinky Demon, Cyber Demon, Hell Knight, Imps ,and others – these dossiers not only flesh out the traits & mechanics of these enemies but also does quite a lot to inform players about the societal structure of hell. Particular attention should be paid to the in-game narrative cutscenes and hidden PDAs contained in the levels because the sci-fi narrative about a mysterious corporation helmed by the first sentient artificial intelligence. For what could have been a throwaway narrative designed to simply introduce reasons for the DoomGuy to slaughter the minions of Hell, I found the narrative quite engaging.
DOOM’s single-player is a damning critique of the 4-hour campaigns we’ve seen in other FPS titles, whether that was id Software’s intention is debatable. What is clear is that they’ve taken the time to craft a very detailed science fiction universe for a franchise that is known more for splattering demon’s brains against the wall than it is for its storytelling. By marrying an optional rich world. gunplay that provides dozens of tools and upgrades to explore, the series’ trademark gore and large levels with dozens of secrets iD Software has managed to create a campaign that is nearly double the length of its competition and demands to be replayed. Finding all of the secrets can be daunting and failing a demon encounters on higher difficulties a few times can be frustrating but none of that detracts from just how slick of a package that DOOM’s single player is.
Last year’s Star Wars Battlefront reboot will receive its third add-on DLC in just a few weeks. We’ve known for a while that players would be taking to the lower orbit above the Death Star to fight alongside Luke or Vader and now we’ve got some more details about $14.99 DLC – which two new heroic units will be joining, two of the new vehicles and a brand new mechanics for the Death Star’s included maps.
Players will build up a separate experience level tied to the individual maps, based upon the level earned your objectives will change. In example: a player with low experience may fight above the Death Star while a more experienced pilot may take on the icon Trench Run from A New Hope.
New Vehicles
Darth Vader’s Advanced Tie Fighter
Luke’s Episode IV Red 5 X-Wing
New Map Mechanics
Dynamic map objectives based upon unique map-based experience
No specific launch date for the Death Star expansion has been confirmed yet, however it is expected to be launched either in late August or early September for Season’s Pass holders. It will be released two weeks later for everyone else on Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and EA Origin for Windows PC.
I like survival games. Day Z, and ARK, are a part of my regular rotation of play. I like even more the battle royal homages, that usually come with these games. Games like H1Z1 King of the Kill, and The Culling have spilt these off in to their own games, with great success. Now its time to see if that formula can transition to the world of low-rez 2d.
The game
PQUBE Ltd is bringing its game Hunger Dungeon to Steam Greenlight. A 1-6 player round-based Multiplayer Online Battle Arena game. It aims to bring the excitement and fun of battle royal to a less graphical interface.
So with out further talk lets enter a cutthroat arena with more than 10 heroes to choose from, including the Skeleton Assassin, the Cunning Profiteer, Cat Ninja, Princess Ranger, and Black Knight.
Unlock new heroes as you progress, each with unique skills allowing for different tactics to always have the advantage over your opponents! Mix and match skill scrolls and equipment between rounds to optimize your build. Additional added effects are available for you to create your personal combat tactics.The victor of the final round takes all. Scheme and strategize carefully for your grand victory! The game will be free-to-play and premium. Premium players will have access to additional characters and equipment.
Features
2D battle style
Free-to-play and premium players play together
Up to 6 player online matches
A roster of distinctive characters
Skins for each individual character
30+ customizable skill scrolls
40+ customizable equipment
40+ stages to explore
Epic boss fights
Sure looks great! check out the trailer and the green light page and follow the game on social media!
Is Mountain a form of modernism or a screensaver? On one hand, Mountain offers a serene landscape and a breathtaking view of a mountain. On the other hand, it ages and becomes its own identity. Mountain lets you look at all sides and the more you look, the more it grows. What sets this mountain apart from other games? A game that offers no control of the outcome, but draws you in.
Mountain was created by David O’Reilly and is a relaxing simulator where its art is defined as not just art, but art horror. Why is it considered art horror? The art is understandable but why horror? We will go into that a little later. If you are a fan of the movie Her, then you might have seen David O’Reilly’s work. The game’s the main protagonist plays are a collection of his works. Unfortunately, those games you cannot play. So instead, David O’Reilly gives us Mountain, a small taste of what he has stored up in his head.
When we think about games we think of a range of things: full controller support, saving, music and sound effects, progression, character design, story, begin and end, protagonist and antagonist, etc.. While this game has some of those elements, it boasts a whole new mindset to instill into the player.
Upon entering the game you are greeted with a very lush and green hill top. Sound effects in the background of blowing wind or chirping birds may come up and clouds blowing past. You spin this hunk of land and you see nothing but a normal looking mountain . You look underneath this massive landmark and you see gravel and foundation. This mountain is floating in space and is surrounded by an aura to keep in the atmosphere.
Overtime, it may rain or snow, but you soon realize that is just a common thing that happens naturally. This is everything you see in the first minutes of game play.
Once you realize that you can’t do anything but look at this monument, you leave it on in the background thinking you might have just bought a screensaver.
Suddenly, a thought pops up in the upper left-hand corner. Some omnipresent being is having a thought while observing.
As the time passes and music cues in, you start to realize things that were not there before. Your mountain starts growing new things and evolving into its own identity.
This is one of the game’s unique features. Once you start the game, you cannot start it over. Each mountain is unique to the gamer. As it slowly spins, more things show up on it. The longer you have the program running the older the mountain becomes.
My mountain is in its infancy, so there is a giant toy block to represent its age. At night, little pixies dance in the trees. It has an adorable look to it. If the day is clear, then the omnipresent voice might type how it wishes to share this with somebody. When the day is rainy and dreary, the voice might express matching emotions, which gives you mixed feelings of who this lonely person is.
After every new dawn, you are greeted to a chime and the game saves for you making sure you did not lose any progress as you leave the game open. Thus, the cycle continues.
What makes this game different from other simulation type games. I think it has something to do with an underlining story and you are the audience watching it unfold. Instead of naturally progressing the game yourself, you are reading this story as it is happening, almost like raising a child.
I think that is where the horror comes in. For new parents, it is a crazy ride and you don’t know what to expect. The danger and fear around every corner and not knowing what will happen next. You may have limited control, but you just have to take it day by day. The messages you get are an inner monologue and interpretation of what a child may be thinking as it sees the world through its eyes. The mountain grows as it ages, like a child would and if you stop watching for a moment something amazing might happen. Art is supposed to be interpreted several hundred ways and this is what I see.
For a game that is only $0.99, I recommend giving it a shot. See what bundle of joy you can create and leave a snapshot in the comments below!
Ty Taylor‘s unique take on the match 3 puzzle formula, Tumblestone, is now available for free to all Xbox Live Gold subscribers on Xbox One and we got a chance to ask him a few questions. In our brief discussion we talked about what it was like to work with Microsoft on Games With Gold, the local Seattle indie games scene and what Ty’s plans are for the game post launch.
Ty Taylor of The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild with his game, The Bridge.
Broken Joysticks: How does it feel to have Tumblestone finally complete and about to be in the hands of potentially millions of players?
Ty Taylor: It’s certainly nearing complete! We’re still working 20-hour days to put as much into the game as we can, fix any last bugs, and just generally polish the game. I’ve been so busy it seems I haven’t really had time to stop and reflect on the project’s soon completion. In terms of number of players, that’s always an interesting and surreal experience. I remember with The Bridge, on our first Steam sale with a front-page feature, we sold nearly 90,000 copies in one day. I opened up a picture of the Seattle soccer stadium that was at full capacity with around 70,000 people, and I ended up starring at that for about an hour. More people had bought my game in one day than people in that picture, and that visualization was literally paralyzing. I try not to think about it at that scale. I try to think about it at an individual level. If my games can make a single person feel smarter, smile, laugh, grow a friendship…then it’s worthwhile. Having that effect on millions of individuals is just millions of times more rewarding.
Broken Joysticks: What was the experience of collaborating with Microsoft like? Did you ever expect Tumblestone to be chosen for Games With Gold?
Ty Taylor: Microsoft has been pretty excited about Tumblestone since early on. It helps considerably that I live and work 10 minutes away from the Xbox (and Nintendo, and Valve) headquarters, so I somewhat regularly see these people at local Seattle game developer events and can talk to them and show them updates on Tumblestone, but more importantly, they can watch other people play Tumblestone. The game has this magic to it that is hard to describe, but when we take it to events like PAX, it gets huge crowds and so much enthusiasm that is contagious. Microsoft themselves has sponsored the game at six different shows, even though there is a soft rule where they usually only sponsor an ID@Xbox game at a show one time. When I started having conversations with them about Games with Gold, I definitely got the feeling that Microsoft was already extremely interested in the prospect.
Four player competitive mode of Tumblestone.
Broken Joysticks: What can players expect in terms of post launch support and release on other platforms?
Ty Taylor: No software is ever free of bugs or issues, and we’ll fix them as they come in on all platforms. Updating Steam is something we can do in a matter of hours. Updating the game on consoles is a bit more of a hassle, but we will likely patch each game with some minor touch-ups and bug fixing/usability fixing/balancing a handful of times after launch as needed. And we’re still going to be working on it. My philosophy is to release on as many platforms as I possibly can, and while that is unfortunately not happening at the first launch, platforms such as mobile and micro-consoles are on our radar within the next year. If the game is well-received, we might even consider some sort of DLC packages for it down the line.
If you own an Xbox One make sure to grab the game on the Xbox Store, if you’re playing on PC the game is available on the Steam Store. Congratulations to Ty and his team on completing the game!
