A unicorn, sporting a tribal shoulder tattoo and blessed with a purple mane that would make Prince swoon, races through what looks like the ruins of Aperture Labs from Portal. Every so often, a plume of fire erupts from its nostrils, all while a cat eggs him on while brandishing what looks like Robocop's gun. This is the signature image of the Awesome Level Max DLC for Trials Fusion, and it's so far from the basic premise of the dirtbike platformer from last year that it's easy to think that the folks at Red Lynx came up with it while bobbing their heads to the Grateful Dead. This is the kind of stuff dreams are made of, and that's why it's disappointing that Red Lynx wakes us from the little dream they've crafted far too soon. Fortunately, there are plenty of other things to do here as well.
As cool as the cat and the unicorn are, they're only around for eight trials, which is barely more than a handful when considered in the context of the 30 total trials contained here. That's a bit of a shame, as they're visually fantastic levels that include everything from the ruined complex mentioned above to caverns where the cat slides his way down the skeletal spine of a long-dead dragon, or pounces on the helmet of a penguin in a robot suit while suspended in orbit high above the world. At other times, a catapult flings him and his steed into vistas where castles perch atop floating rocks or precariously perched earthworks crumble down into a cloudy void. There's even a lightweight story involved in which the fearless feline reawakens what look like the three LARPing cousins of Puss-in-Boots, but it seems like silly, extraneous fluff, and the animations are elementary at best. When you're dealing with a gun-toting cat on a unicorn, do you really need an explanation?
The unicorn must have received his training in Skyrim.
These fantastical aspects make Awesome Level Max an add-on to remember, but it's unfortunate that certain elements unnecessarily complicate the cat-and-unicorn tracks. Take, for instance, the way the settings sometimes shift from Martian spaceports, to Aperture Labs lookalikes, to medieval ruins all within the span of 10 seconds. The direction of the track usually changes with each dimensional shift, resulting in an experience that is overly contingent on memory over skill.
All of this might have been more enjoyable if controlling the cat and the unicorn were a bit easier to control. The unicorn performs exactly like a dirt bike and responds to the same mechanics of braking and leaning to nail the crazier stunts, but its unique shape means that it lacks the visual cues normally presented by a dirt bike's wheels and the more obvious lean-ins of the rider as he attempts to shift the bike's weight. On the bright side, it's not too challenging a hurdle to overcome, but it does require a bit more guesswork than the dirt bikes.
There's a wide range a themes on display, which adds to the appeal.
Red Lynx seems to know this, as they don't allow you to use the cat and the unicorn anywhere other than their dedicated stages. That's a bit of a tragedy, as the rest of the Awesome Level Max DLC is dedicated to 22 tracks evenly created by both the studio itself and the best members of the player community, and they're usually crazy enough that a cat with a Rambo headband wouldn't have looked too out of place. But no such luck. For the most part, these tracks are but another sampling of the DLC we've come to expect from Trials Fusion, although I'm happy to report that they present a satisfying mix of hardcore challenges and tracks that won't cause brand-new players to sweat too much. They're often as visually impressive as they are satisfying. In the RedLynx-made "Seismic Activity," for instance, roads collapse and scaffolding spikes from the landscape while you make leaps from moving trains; in the tough player-made "Boron City," the need to balance your bike atop falling dumpsters follows a series of tightly-spaced ramps.
But if you do want to get a little crazy in these extra trials, you can. Not gun-toting-cat-on-a-unicorn crazy, mind you, but you can at least slap on a giant Rayman suit (which looks like it just has to be hot) or items like comparatively modest helmets that look like pugs or plague doctors. The catch? You'll have to pay for the privilege, although you can earn some of the premium "acorns" slowly through tournaments. These and other items represent Trials Fusion's first microtransactions, and they launched as a free update at the same time as the Awesome Level Max DLC. While they don't affect gameplay and they're fairly generous--the Rayman suit costs just under $5.00--their appearance still stings in a game that's gone without them for so long.
Mars seems kind of mundane when you're riding a unicorn.
There's a hint of a trend in that decision, as Awesome Level Max is also the first DLC to require a separate purchase even if you've already bought the season pass. Still, it's worth it for the wide range of tracks alone, and its variety of visuals and difficulties makes it the single best DLC to download for brand-new players who've never played anything aside from the core game. Even better for rookies, you can pick up the Awesome Max Edition for $39.99 and get this and all previous DLCs for one price. Sure, the unicorn can be a pain to control sometimes, and the most unique part is over far too soon, but if you're looking for a new infusion of Trials Fusion with a dose of the Internet's favorite animal--go on, you can haz.
. There's a long list of existing Mortal Kombat characters who didn't make the cut in X, not to mention the countless possibilities for more from outside the franchise.
We'll report back with any announcements NetherRealm shares later today.
Last year's popular mobile game for $5. Are you clined to play a free mobile game or pay a few dollars to get an ad-free version? Let us know in the comments.
Game of Thrones' earlier seasons on HBO were excellent at dragging out emotional payoffs. The delicate dance of political intrigue and personal affections never slowed tempo, creating hour-long experiences that were tense, warm, and in many ways anxiety inducing. The drama of the series is what draws that emotional reaction from its audience, the way dozens of characters all trying to stay alive and protect their own interests clash with one another, frequently resulting in some being knocked out of the game altogether.
I've been very critical of ; Telltale doesn't shy away from gore, nor are they precious about whom they kill off. This mentality married to Game of Thrones just guarantees some really harrowing stuff, but Episode Five manages to first build up your hopes for victory and success, only to quickly and mercilessly wreck everything you've been working towards. It's a sadistic episode.
But more importantly, many of these scenes make you think harder about those dialogue choices. There is no way to tell which choice will placate someone and which will anger them, which will save you and which will damn you. This push to think harder--and sometimes panic and choose quick choices in the limited time you have--does an excellent job of building tension, creating situations that don't just pluck at the nerves but sometimes genuinely make you feel sick.
I'm still not sold on the depictions of some characters from the Game of Thrones television show. Daenerys is still weirdly out of character, snarky, mean, and generally worlds away from the benevolent despot we've come to know her as. She's hard and cold, and the behavior breaks the immersion. Cersei and Tyrion both make appearances in this episode as well, and while they're not as out of sync as Daenerys, I can't help but feel for them as boiled-down hyperboles of their show characters. It's a bit distracting, but the way they are written is passable enough to get the point across to players. The standout addition continues to be Ramsay Bolton, who feels like he was meant to be creeping around Ironrath and calling the shots. He feels organic, his performance engaging, and it's an utter and terrible delight to have him on screen.
A Nest of Vipers ends on a heart-shattering note and the promise of an explosive finale. Thing are getting lively, and with quickened pacing to match the action, it's hard not to end this episode without your brain spinning in anticipation. With most prominent character arcs at their highest peaks, it's a perfect penultimate episode.
--has impacted the game's scope and subsequently its release date. As a result of the increased funding, Cloud Imperium has been able to develop new features that were never originally planned. Roberts admits to some level of "feature creep," and acknowledges that Star Citizen may take longer to develop than previously expected.
But he maintains this is in the best interest overall of the game.
"There are people out there who are going to tell you that this is all a BAD THING," Roberts said. "That it's 'feature creep' and we should make a smaller, less impressive game for the sake of having it out more quickly or in order to meet artificial deadlines. Now I'll answer those claims in one word: Bullsh**!
"Star Citizen matters BECAUSE it is big, because it is a bold dream," he added. "It is something everyone else is scared to try. You didn't back Star Citizen because you want what you've seen before. You're here and reading this because we are willing to go big, to do the things that terrify publishers. You've trusted us with your money so we can build a game, not line our pockets. And we sure as hell didn't run this campaign so we could put that money in the bank, guarantee ourselves a profit, and turn out some flimsy replica of a game I've made before. You went all in supporting us and we’ve gone all in making the game. Is Star Citizen today a bigger goal than I imagined in 2012? Absolutely. Is that a bad thing? Absolutely not: it's the whole damn point."
"Is Star Citizen today a bigger goal than I imagined in 2012? Absolutely. Is that a bad thing? Absolutely not: it's the whole damn point." -- Roberts
Will this vision for Star Citizen take longer to deliver? "Of course," Roberts said, pointing out that when the scope of a project expands, development time does as well. But it still presents potential problems.
"How do we balance the mutually conflicting wants of the community; to have this hugely ambitious game, but not wait forever for it?" he said. "Our answer is to embrace open development and share features and functionality that will go into the final game before everything is completed.
"In today’s 24/7 short attention-span world people don't have the patience to wait around for years," he added. "This is why we decided on multiple modules: the Hangar, so you could first see your ships and walk around them in the manner you would in the final game, then Arena Commander, to allow people to get a taste and give feedback on the basic dogfight and flight mechanics. Star Marine, which will be available shortly, is the module for backers to experience and give their feedback on the First-Person Shooting component of the game."
Roberts frankly acknowledged that "feature creep" is indeed a worry for a project like Star Citizen. But he also pointed out that Cloud Imperium games made the "hard choice" to stop stretch goals at the end of last year because it was necessary "for the better of the game."
"Today, we have a radical design that's like nothing else in the industry and we're building towards it every hour of every day," Roberts said. "We count on the community's continued support to build the game to the high level that we set out to accomplish. Allowing independent authors to do more is the point of crowd funding, and going beyond our limitations is the entire point of Star Citizen.
"We genuinely want people to be happy with their decision to back Star Citizen, because I and everyone else on the team passionately believe in Star Citizen," he added. "This is the dream game that all of us have wanted to build all our lives. And while I can’t promise you everything will always go smoothly or features or content won’t arrive later than we want them to, I can promise that we will never stop until we have achieved this dream."
What's your take on what Roberts had to say? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Eight days since it was first reported that , we are not actively targeting players using mods in Story Mode, nor are we explicitly implementing protections against them in-game," it wrote.
"Our primary focus is on protecting GTA Online against modifications that could give players an unfair advantage, disrupt gameplay, or cause griefing."
It added: "As a reminder, mods are still unauthorized and as such, Title Updates may cause Story Mode mods to behave in unexpected ways because they are not supported or tested, and players run them at their own risk."
that it was still supporting Devil's Third, while Itagaki described the report as "lies and rumours."
Early work on Devil's Third began as far back as 2008, and the project was first revealed two years later. Numerous unforeseen issues, such as problems with the game's engine, as well as the collapse of its former publisher THQ, has further delayed Valhalla's debut project.
Unseen64 now claims that "Nintendo of America has changed their minds amidst fan backlash."
It is rare for a publisher to pull support for a game so close to its release date.
The new CEO of developer 22cans, Simon Phillips, is quickly working to repair the developer's image after low morale and broken promises threatened to sink it earlier this year. Phillips spoke of his plans in an interview with winner who came away with almost nothing--Phillips works to make amends there as well.
"It would be so easy for us to go, let's just sort Bryan out," Phillips said. "That's a bit of a cop-out. I've made it my goal to talk to him and say, 'Look, we know we fu***d up with this, let's try and do something.' I'm in contact with him now. It's my remit to talk to him.
"We can either do it. Or we can't do it. Or we don't know. It falls into one of those categories."
