Odin Sphere Leifthrasir is coming as a physical and digital release for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita in 2016 in North America.
Thanks to my efforts, there's now a basement in the Alamo. Not the real Alamo in San Antonio, of course, but the one I built in a cleft between two green hills while mosquitoes the size of Paul Reubens pestered me. You'll find the entrance just inside the main door to the left, and I've decorated it with the heads of the robots, dragons, and evil knights I've stumbled across on my travels throughout Trove's voxelated vistas. I probably would have added a guest bedroom in there, but once again, Trove's queues kept me from playing.
Yes, this is another voxel game. Even the most cursory glance at Trove's voxel-heavy landscapes and characters is enough to determine that it owes some heavy debts to last year--but it's a testament to Trove's quality that the waits don't seem to affect its popularity. Without fail, every time the queue winds down, I land in a pile of other newly logged-in players, and we rush for the portals to the explore worlds with all the joy of children newly released on the playground.
After many hours of play, that feeling still hasn't entirely faded, but I suspect I'll soon have to step away from Trove for a while to maintain it. Trove is all about the business of exploration, hoarding, and crafting, and in the absence of other MMOG standbys like story quests or PvP, the weight of the requisite repetition starts to nag just a bit past level 10. Trove does its best to fill these gaps with other options, such as leveling different classes, attempting to build a dungeon worthy of inclusion in the game, or simply collecting cosmetic items from boss kills, but for me, it doesn't deliver the kind of MMO addiction that sends me to the computer to sneak in more playtime after everyone else is asleep.
Dungeons often look just as cool on the outside as on the inside.
That's the beauty of the free-to-play model, of course. Should I decide to step away for a few days, Trove and its troves are right there waiting for me, just as I left them. It doesn't hurt that Trion's latest MMOG has about as benign a free-to-play model as they get, as you can amass most of the premium coins needed to buy items like new classes or new mounts fairly easily. What's more, Trove allows players to spend real cash to buy in-game gold (along with some performance boosts), but that matters little since there's almost no competition involved.
Is Trove the kind of MMOG that I'd like to spend a part of every day in? No. But it is an MMOG that I'd enjoy visiting every now and then, possibly several times a week. That's enough to make Trove a success, and its speedy updates and randomly generated worlds help make every visit feel different from the last. Now, if they'd just get those queues in line, I'm thinking about making the Alamo 40 stories high, and I don't have time to wait.
The update adds Mr. Handy, the Fallout robot assistant, to the game. Although it's not clear how players will acquire the robot, Mr. Handy was revealed as an award of some type. The robot will move around your Vault and collect resources automatically. You can also send Mr. Handy into the Wasteland to explore, and he will defend your Vault from attackers.
In addition, there will be more kinds of attacks and several new enemies. Deathclaws, the iconic creatures from the Fallout universe, will now attack your Vault much like Raiders do now. Molerats will be a new infestation, as well, second to Radroaches.
This update will launch concurrently on both iOS and Android when the game is released on Android devices. Check back on GameSpot for more Fallout news coming from Quakecon today.
Activision released the Biohazard Bundle for the Prototype games almost as if it was hoping no one would notice, like it was a digital baby left on everyone’s front stoop. After spending some time with the bundle, it’s easier to see why they aren’t the proudest of parents.
The remastering effort here is, without mincing words, an embarrassment. While we’re currently drowning in a glut of remasters, graphical spitshines, and definitive editions--a mild problem in and of itself--nobody can deny that the vast majority of them have been made current-gen worthy. At best, you get . At its best, a remaster can be a great reminder of why we loved a game to begin with. Had the Prototype Biohazard Bundle actually been a full upgrade, it would at least show us how far we’ve come. But given even Prototype 2’s mind-boggling technical limitations, this troubled bundle is more of a reminder that mediocrity is still not obsolete.
Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is a shallow, lifeless golf game--rich in technical failings but bankrupt of interesting content. The game types are limited, the number of players and courses is laughably small, and the textures awkwardly pop in and out of view as the camera scrolls across a course. Actually swinging a club and mapping out shots feels right, but whatever goodwill is earned on the course evaporates as you pull away to discover the unimpressive Pro Career mode and the restrictive nature of even the basic Play Now feature. The fresh face on the cover and fancy new game engine can't mask the fact that Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is an undercooked debut that feels like half of a game.
It starts strong, at least, with a detailed tutorial on the various swing styles that provide you with more freedom than ever before. There are three set swing types: a basic analog stick setup where power is determined by the backswing, a more complex version where the follow-through is also taken into account, and the classic three-button press system. If none of the above suits your style, a custom swing option allows you to combine elements of each approach into a personalized pairing of preferences. You can determine if you'd like to be able to hit power shots, zoom in on the trajectory of your ball, see how the wind shapes its flight, and even closely control its spin. Whether you'd like to play Rory McIlroy PGA Tour as a sports simulation or an over-the-top arcade game, the options are there.
Brace yourself, this swing is going places.
No matter what style you choose, taking a smooth backswing and making solid contact with the ball feels authentic, and the putting is challenging without feeling punishing. A dashed line represents the path of your ball from its place on the green to the hole, which takes into account the putt's speed and break. It takes time to correctly read greens with steep hills or sharp ridges, but watching a 20-foot putt bend from right to left and clink at the bottom of the cup is very satisfying.
Other than the lack of load screens between holes and an improved putting system, the swing selection is the only area where Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is bigger and better than what's come before it. The number of real-life courses has been more than halved, with only eight locations that golfers will actually recognize. There are four additional make-believe locations, but none of them make up for the fact that you can't experience the Masters at one of the most famous courses of all time, Augusta National. If that’s not disappointing enough, there are just 12 playable golfers--about a quarter of what previous games have trained us to expect.
Fewer golfers wouldn't be all that damning if the character creator was even passable, but what's available is one of the worst customization tools ever stuffed into a sports game. There are so few options when creating your custom golfer that it's nearly impossible to make a character that you can even pretend looks like you, unless yours happens to match one of the 11 pre-set heads or three body types provided. Instead of feeling like you're starting your own unique career on the PGA Tour, the barebones tools force you to role-play as some anonymous young golfer straight out of a stock photo.
Relax and putt.
You take this indistinct, cookie-cutter avatar through a single lower-level Web.com event, and from there, you're off to the races. There's no grand buildup, no scenes of your collegiate career, and no narrative to push you forward. You go from tournament to tournament, either competing in quick rounds where you play five or six of the most important holes per day or going through all 72 holes with the hope of becoming the world's number one golfer. But without any sort of subsidiary content to complement the tournaments--such as a story, drills, or even a schedule to outline your goals--the Pro Career can quickly devolve into an unexciting slog devoid of drama.
The only saving grace is the fact that your character raises levels, earns new clubs, and unlocks additional outfits just about every time you complete a round of 18. This sense of progression makes the gauntlet of tournaments much more palatable, as you're able to see your power, accuracy, and spin vastly improve and lead to pretty shots and even prettier scorecards worth hanging on the fridge. You don't manually add points to specific aspects of your game, but you can choose from different packages that might focus on power, accuracy, or more balanced play.
Rory McIlroy PGA Tour fails to pair its solid mechanics with diverse and interesting content, and its myriad technical failings drag the otherwise picturesque courses into the dirt.
Unfortunately, the bleak only gets bleaker as you venture outside of the career, where the online community-based Country Club and popular modes like Skins, Best Ball, and Battle Golf have all been removed. Online tournaments and head-to-head play give you some reason to test your created golfer against players more savvy than the AI, but the utter lack of gameplay variety is disappointing.
If you find yourself hungry for something--anything--new to grab on to, a fresh Night Club Challenge mode is available. This extended series of challenges has you landing balls in small circles and through floating hoops to earn points, but a mid-air nitrous boost just isn't enough to make target practice drills any fun. You can earn three stars per level--similar to most popular mobile games--but the deeper you travel down the road of challenges, the less it feels like golf.
Even outside this neon-lit, objective-based playground lie moments that, again, don't feel like anything you'd find on the real PGA Tour. Sinking birdie putts as your created player often leads to a shot of him or her awkwardly busting out the robot or the sprinkler--and while I don't think golf needs to be some sacred pursuit devoid of humor, the celebrations feel completely out of place.
That's one heck of an arc.
Additionally, the commentary sporadically mismatches its messages with what's actually taking place on-screen. Even though I sliced my ball out of bounds and into the trees at St. Andrews, both commentators talked about how unfortunate it was that I just hit it into the water--despite my ball being completely dry. After that, they mentioned how my approach shot had too much speed and not enough backspin as they watched it softly land on the back of the green and spin backward toward the front hole location. Like most other aspects of the game, the commentary is careless.
Rory McIlroy PGA Tour fails to pair its solid mechanics with diverse and interesting content, and its myriad technical failings drag the otherwise picturesque courses into the dirt. There are just too few courses and golfers to keep you playing, and even the limited game modes available don't have anywhere near the complexity or depth we've come to expect. Whether you want to call it a shank, a duff, or a whiff, all that really matters is that Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is a poor effort from a series that was looking to make a splash in its generational debut.
Having grown up playing Doom back in the days of shareware and VGA monitors, I was looking forward to the reveal of the latest sequel at E3 as much as anybody. While the single player stuff definitely intrigued me (repetitive death animations aside), it was the multiplayer footage that got me really excited. I love a good arena shooter, with from E3, but now that I've experienced it first hand at QuakeCon, I'm happy to report that it doesn't disappoint. There was only one map and one game mode to play with, but I kept lining up to play it again and again.
The demo's single map was typical of the series: a heady mix of industrial structures and conveniently placed pits of lava. The arena was replete with tight corridors, typically dotted with health and ammo pickups, necessities if you hope to survive for an extended period of time. These hallways snake around a central chamber where the aforementioned lava awaited sloppy or anxious combatants, gulping them up in a matter of seconds. Counting the dangerous platforms that surround the lava, there are three levels on the map. Launch pads and double jumps will help you take the high ground, but if there's an enemy waiting for you, you may find yourself scrambling for safety only to land feet first in a boiling cauldron of death.
That's not to say that a crafty player can't find their way back to safety, even if they're falling towards the lava pit. One of the sub-weapons that you can choose in the demo is the teleporter, with the other being the traditional frag grenade. Tossing the teleporter and then hitting the same button again at a later time will instantly teleport you to wherever it was placed. While it may be too difficult to deploy the teleporter while you're falling, you can preemptively place one in a safe room, just in case you find yourself either falling into lava or stuck in a sticky situation where you're surrounded by enemies.
Choosing a loadout that suits your playstyle is paramount in Doom, but it's equally important to keep your eyes open for power ups that appear during matches as they can turn any player into a super powered killing machine. Quad damage and invisibility are back, but the new revenant power up is by far the most valuable asset that you can acquire.
When the revenant icon--a pentagram--appears on the map, it turns the tide of battle as everyone rushes to pick it up. Even if you don't get it, so long as someone on your team does, things quickly turn in your favor. Whoever picks it up becomes a flying, rocket-spewing demon with increased health, and it's nearly impossible for a single soldier to take it down. Where a match, pre-revenant, is about individual performance from moment-to-moment, once someone transforms, it's all about teamwork. With the revenant on your side, your team gains a wall of destruction that can be used to your advantage. But when the enemy gets this powerful demon on their side, coordination as a team becomes the most important thing. Becoming the revenant is also super empowering. Where you perhaps felt fragile on foot with standard weapons, transforming into the revenant grants you the freedom to let loose and throw caution to the wind. Yes, a team can take you down, but any time spent as the revenant typically results in multiple kills for your team, not to mention the rush of being the most powerful player in the match.
The revenant is either your best friend, or your worst enemy.
My experience playing Doom's multiplayer mode was everything I'd hoped for, but there's still so much to see in the future. New modes and maps will hopefully play to the game's strengths in different ways, but we'll have to wait and see. Meanwhile, with an Alpha demo looming on the horizon, I can't wait to jump back into battle. In some ways, it feels like I've leapt back in time, but with things like the revenant and the teleporter on hand, Doom's multiplayer feels distinct. I may go back and try my hand at Quake Arena for the hell of it, but once the Doom Alpha goes live, it's time to say goodbye to the memories of old and embrace a new, if not slightly familiar, breed of demonic, multiplayer mayhem.
Turns out your ship can turn into a combat mech in Galak-Z. You come equipped with a sword, shield, and the ability to grapple and throw rocks, ships and more.
Xbox fans can watch Microsoft's Gamescom press conference live on Aug 4 via Xbox Live, the platform holder has announced.
The media briefing is due to begin at 7am Pacific (3pm UK), and will air on , Spencer explained: "Another demo so close to E3 is just tough on production."
Kevin and Chris had a chance to play Civilization Beyond Earth: Rising Tide and were impressed with the in-depth leader personalities and new territory mechanics involving moving cities.
"Our arcade machines were thankfully not vandalised, as this is the element of the Heart of Gaming that would literally have been irreplaceable," read a statement from the arcade's owners.
It continued: "I'm struggling to find the motivation and the team of staff are just in bits. People... give their lives to help out here because they believe in what it is we do. No one can comprehend why anyone would do this."
Estimates put the total losses of goods at about £5,000.
But fortunes for the arcade's owners changed dramatically on Wednesday, after a Go Fund Me campaign managed to raise more than £5,000 from fan contributions in about a day.
According to the arcade's Twitter feed, the business is to reopen on Friday at 2pm UK time.
The was somewhat positive, with critic Peter Brown explaining: "Though you have to wade through mediocre puzzles and endure cringe-worthy dialogue and references to past games, episode one successfully entices you to look forward to the next episode."
Microsoft combats violations of privacy, stresses the difficulty of backwards compatibility, and Rise of the Tomb Raider gets PC and PS4 release dates!
Back in 1961, the prolific Rod Serling adapted a short story for an episode of his Twilight Zone series titled "Five Characters in Search of an Exit." In this episode, a clown, a hobo, a ballerina, a bagpiper, and an Army major find themselves confined within a large, metal, silo-type enclosure. There are no doors or windows--only an open ceiling much too high for any of them to reach. The characters are blank slates. They have no memory or knowledge of who they are, where they came from, or how they wound up in the silo. Racking their collective brains, they posit whether they have been abducted by aliens, have gone insane, have died and been sent to Hell, or exist only as figments of someone's imagination--as characters in another person's dream. Eventually, the major plots an escape and manages to clear the wall. As he tumbles over the edge, the twist is revealed. (Spoiler!) The camera smash-cuts to a child picking up an army doll from the snow and placing it back in a bin used to collect Christmas toys for orphans. The major is returned to the group, all depicted as dolls now, while the ballerina’s eyes fill with tears as her plastic hand reaches towards his.
While Serling's tale centers on the unknown horrors of existential dread, it also demonstrates the way in which the creative process itself becomes manifest in the final product. The twist ending is encapsulated by the meta-narrative of the child, who embodies the spirit of this creative potential. Without a child to play with the dolls, they remain sedentary lumps of cloth and paint. Dreamfall Chapters Book Three: Realms begins with its own child, Saga, scuttling around her Storytime home. From here, the worlds of Stark and Arcadia may be viewed from a different perspective, a meta-perspective, in which the boundaries of their occupations by the Azadi and the Syndicate alike form the walls of their respective toy bins. Like the Twilight Zone episode, the Dreamfall trilogy simultaneously is, was, and will be in this abstract, ethereal place.
Abby and Hannah. Awwwww.
Admittedly, the postmodern layers weaving through the story are often difficult to pin down. So what better way to illustrate their connection to the boots on the ground than with a little straight-forward adventure-game fare?
The player's first task after assuming the role of Saga in Interlude II involves a laborious easter egg hunt for a series of the child's drawings hidden around the house. Saga's clumsy toddling through the home begins as a cute romp of stilted, giggling mania and quickly becomes an exercise in patience and perseverance as the drawings become exponentially difficult to find and Saga's movement grows more frustrating to negotiate.
Fortunately, as Saga explores the house, she has more to do and interact with than the goal requires. Whether she plays with a picture on the mantle, a poster on the wall, or a simple hat on a rack, Saga's superfluous interactions with these objects fill in some of the rather drab enviro-narrative spaces with flares of color. In classic adventure-game fashion, many of these interactions, such as plucking an umbrella from a pail and pronouncing, "I'm a fancy lady!" are more satisfying than the objective at hand. Typically, "click on all the things" tends to be a fruitless undertaking, but in this case it was absolutely worth it. Saga communicates a real sense of wonder and captivation consistent with her muse-like character.
The stealth is better this time around.
Once the entire series of drawings has been acquired, Saga must order them chronologically, with each piece depicting an event from
On the other side of the coin, Zoë emerges from the explosive conclusion of Book Two with a new look of her own (dig the short hair!) and a similarly intensified security presence in Propast. Again, the limited access offered by Syndicate forces serves the pacing of this act well. Aside from a couple of quick jaunts through Chinatown to check in with Queenie and Mira (who actually shows some niceties to "petal" for once), Zoë is off to the races as she struggles to procure a modded dream machine to further explore the connection between the Syndicate and WATICorp, including an important revelation involving Hannah and the Dreamtime.
Once her task is complete, Zoë's return to the Dreamtime finally makes good on a long-awaited reunion with one of Dreamfall's most familiar and notorious compadres, Crow. This intermezzo of cheeky banter provides a welcome if brief respite from the bustling tempo of Zoë and Kian's journey to this point. It proves yet again that this story still has a few surprises up its sleeve in the way of character development and dialogue treatment.
Along those lines, Book Three continues to pack punch after punch when it comes to character insight. From the bombshell dropped by Anna in her meeting with Kian to Kian's extremely brave and personal confession at the onset of the opening chapter (not to mention an especially sweet scene between Hannah and Abby), Dreamfall Chapters raises the stakes of not only the conspiracy game but also its players. They have true skin in the game, and the conflicts surrounding them become more palpable and complex as a result.
Zoe must tip her barber extra.
Without giving too much away, Book Three takes our heroes in new directions, which are sure to affect their characters in interesting, potentially different ways depending on the final and most significant player choice in the episode. Regardless of the outcome, the conclusion sees Zoë finally making her first leap over the proverbial toy bin wall, while Kian is set to do the same. But instead of an out, both heroes are seeking an entrance to infiltrate new spaces in which worlds collide and player decisions dictate the terms of trespass.
In many ways, Book Three acts as the fulcrum from which the story's trajectory pivots on your past choices. It is short and powerful, using the momentum of previous chapters to leverage dramatic weight going into the penultimate act like narrative jiu-jitsu. In contrast to the previous two acts, the third clocks in at around four hours, none of which seem to waste a minute. What will Kian and Zoë find as they continue to scale the walls of conspiracy? At this point, the "what" hardly matters. Book four is poised to bring much teresting answers in the how, why, and with whom. This is perhaps its greatest victory as I, for one, can't wait to see who else is lying in the snow outside that toy bin.
Odin Sphere Leifthrasir is coming as a physical and digital release for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita in 2016 in North America.
Turns out your ship can turn into a combat mech in Galak-Z. You come equipped with a sword, shield, and the ability to grapple and throw rocks, ships and more.
Kevin and Chris had a chance to play Civilization Beyond Earth: Rising Tide and were impressed with the in-depth leader personalities and new territory mechanics involving moving cities.
Five Night's At Freddy's 4 is out! It was a surprise, but Mary and Alexa do their best to survive the home invasion that is Freddy Fazbears.
10 years after its release, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II pushes out an update allowing users to play the game at 4K resolution.
Microsoft combats violations of privacy, stresses the difficulty of backwards compatibility, and Rise of the Tomb Raider gets PC and PS4 release dates!
