I'm also not a fan of Bravely Second's melodramatic dialogue. As the character you followed from beginning to end in Bravely Default, Tiz was an excellent lens through which to view the story; he was hopeful and more often than not the group's voice of reason. But he also felt emotions very deeply and was quietly strong when he needed to be, making him a well-rounded protagonist with a good balance of flaws and strengths. Yu, by contrast, is a mess. He's juicy and emotional in sappy ways, often more anxious than ready to fight. He exhibits sporadic moments of courage, but they fade away quickly as he demonstrates he is unable to really take care of things on his own. I'm not that far into the game, so I can only speak for the first several hours of Bravely Second, but I hope his character development is significant.
Another annoyance I encountered with Bravely Second is something that Japanese players have been complaining about since launch. Bravely Second has its own version of Bravely Default's Norende Village restoration, in which you use online features and 3DS Street Pass to rebuild a destroyed village. In the previous game, you could swap items and builders with other players, allowing you to help each other in the process. In Bravely Second, in order to access the restoration project, you need to register or login to the Square Enix member website. This means if you're not a Square Enix member, you can't do anything with the project. It's a pretty crappy thing to do, considering restoring the village is ultimately helpful to you in the long run. Sticking it behind a registration wall is inconvenient and unnecessarily limiting.
If you enjoyed Bravely Default, Bravely Second is just more love. So far, it feels like the same game with new characters and a few small tweaks. However, some of these changes drag down the experience; the absence of the random encounter slider in particular slows down leveling, one of biggest pillars of the JRPG experience. Despite that, I'm still enjoying combat and fighting alongside old friends from Bravely Default. I'm enjoying seeing how the new job classes work, and if you were invested in the story of Tiz and Agnes, you won't want to skip this game when it, hopefully, gets a worldwide release.
In Last Word’s prim and proper world, words speak louder than actions, and combat is fueled by discourse, shifting the momentum of a conversation. This might sound dull in theory, but in practice, the numerous tactics and systems at play lead to an enjoyably varied, if initially confounding system. Combining tact, power, and a healthy dose of subtlety leaves your discussion partner susceptible to your every whim--providing little more than a deflated ellipsis in response to your last word. Despite its elementary presentation, Last Word stands out as a witty, novel venture carried by clever writing and a creative form of combat.
To buy into Last Word’s concept, you need to suspend your disbelief and accept the bizarre power of the spoken word within this otherwise realistic society. The courtly, cultured characters have the gift of gab, constantly spouting long-winded tales of their family names and the distinguished natures of their storied houses. Their words carry unique weight, though, as whoever speaks the last word and “wins” an argument leaves his or her counterpart powerless. You’ll often see NPCs at a door endlessly trading polite “after yous” or “I insists” in fear of letting someone else finish the conversation.
"After you!" "No, after you!" "No, I defer to you." "I simply insist you enter first." GET IN THE HOUSE ALREADY, DUDES!
This strange societal wrinkle produces plenty of silly moments, but when it comes to actually engaging in longer conversations, the “Discourse” mechanism is anything but simplistic. Think of it as a basic RPG battle, but instead of swinging a blade or blasting enemies with a fireball, you leverage disruptive, submissive, and aggressive forms of banter to push the conversation in your favor. You often open with a disruptive phrase in order to fill up your power meter, followed by something more submissive that spends power to gain tact. Aggressive phrases, which consume stored tact, effect the most change in the conversation bar, so you need to parlay your power into tact before the opportunity to really push the dialogue arises.
More and more systems are stacked atop this foundation. A character’s composure changes from collected, to irritated, and eventually to uncivilized, based on a sort of rock-paper-scissors system. Certain actions serve as counters to others, and if you continue to correctly rebut your foil’s last assertion, their composure cracks and eventually shatters. This adds a bit more venom to your aggressive moves, lowering your opponent’s defense and more quickly swaying the conversation meter in your favor. Purchased skills and attributes continue to add bite to your bark, but it takes practice to sharpen your conversational steel and become a true threat.
Some people are just better than you. It's best to accept it.
Even with a tutorial that helps you navigate through the dense schemes, Last Word’s Discourse feature is far too opaque early on. All the different tones and meters take time and effort to both understand and intelligently utilize, so you have to bang your head against the systems and fail a few times before the flow of conversations becomes clear. After you learn the ropes, this unique take on turn-based action begins to shine, and the fair-yet-steep difficulty curve gives you ample opportunity to test your tongue.
Outside of the conversational duels, the regular discussions you have with the cast are brainy and nimble. Last Word never falls too in love with its aristocratic tone, staying on the right side of "tongue-in-cheek" through its intentional pretentiousness. There’s a deep well of text to draw from, too, since the other major mechanism at play surrounds gossiping with your peers about specific hot-button topics. Leveling up these topics by talking to the right person at the right time opens up new narrative avenues, and if you manage to examine each corner of your environment and learn everything you can from its guests, a few interesting wrinkles are added to the last few story sequences. For a game trapped in windowed mode and focused on a single location, Last Word is rich in subsidiary content.
Coming to terms with Last Word's mechanics isn't easy at first.
On the surface, the characters appear as little more than colored silhouettes, their different hues based on each house of origin. But once you enter a conversation, hand-drawn caricatures appear, sporting expressions and audible squawks that pair well with their personalities. Each member of the small cast has a name as fanciful as their persona--from Whitty Gawship to Professor Chet Chatters. It’s a peculiar world with far too much one-upmanship for anyone to want to live in, but for a four-hour visit, it’s a treat.
It isn’t exactly easy to pick up, but the layered Discourse system in Last Word is worth the few verbal jabs and hooks needed in order to master it. The turn-based structure succeeds at supplying a fun alternative to the cavalcade of fantasy RPGs on the market, and while it can be easy to roll your eyes at all the patterned bow ties and discussions of fine wines, the posh tenor never tips so far that it becomes pretentious. Last Word shows that you don’t need a towering sword or a 15-minute summoning sequence to create an exciting battle system--sometimes it just takes a sharp script and an even sharper tongue.
Editor's note: Due to a discrepancy between the version of the game used for review and the full release, the original Action Henk review contained some inaccuracies. It has been updated to reflect the game as released. - KV, 5/14/2015
I like to think of Action Henk as a retired action hero on the fast road to retaking the spotlight. A distended beer belly hanging far over his belt, Henk is a small action figure sporting a wide, yet determined grin separating an impressive set of 1980s sideburns. It’s hard not to root for him as he slides down ramps and over obstacles at a relentless velocity. This side-scrolling, speed-running platformer has the rush of a classic
There is still some stress involved. At the end of most sections, you face a tough boss challenge. These races can require a lot of patience and restarts as they test your speed-running skills. The final section missions, however, are the most difficult, and are capped off with a boss challenge that had me wearing down my restart key. Earning a gold medal in every level of a section unlocks a touch bonus mission to collect coins. The medal also unlocks the rainbow medal ghost, as well as the ghost for the top player of the level--both of which are the hardest challenges you can face. The game doesn't suffer much from technical issues; there is minor lag in some levels, but it doesn't stay noticeable for long.
Though reaching the final series of levels is possible in only a few hours, there is still a lot of extra content to experience and discover. Completing challenges such as boss battles unlocks new characters and skins--the Sonic costume for Henk with his belly bursting through the front is an easy favorite. Action Henk is a community-focused game, and includes tools to build and share your own custom level and download other users’ levels from its Steam page. I tried a few of the higher rated tracks, many of which are great. Some send you through enough loops to make your head spin, while others are designed for pure speed. There is also an online racing mode, where you and a group of fellow speed-runners compete for the best time in a level. You are given a time limit and as many restarts as possible to secure the best time and a chance to bop the top runner off the first-place podium. There is one problem with multiplayer, however. Having a text chat box is great, as it gives you the opportunity to talk smack or get running advice form the pros. But because of its size and position on the dark background, it covers too much of the screen.
The disco levels are groovy!
Completing Action Henk will set you back around five hours or so, and you will be at the edge of your seat for most of that time. The speed is immensely satisfying, and earning those precious gold medals after replaying levels feels good. It’s a heart-pumping adventure starring action figures and toy tracks, so give yourself a break and come play.
Ahead of the game's release next week, Polish developer CD Projekt Red on Thursday released a new cinematic trailer for that speaks to the size of game's massive world.
[UPDATE] Bethesda has released a new statement on the matter, confirming that the earlier statement was incorrect.
"The physical console version of The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited does not require a one-time game code; as with any other boxed PS4 / Xbox One game only the game disc is needed for verification. Any previous statements counter to this were incorrect."
The original story is below.
Developer Zenimax Online Studios has confirmed that disc-based copies of .
Last week, gaming giant Nintendo and theme park behemoth Universal Parks & Resorts . Iwata and his team got to "learn precisely" how Universal built that park, and this gave Nintendo assurance that the company would be able to pull off a similar plan for Nintendo.
In addition, Iwata said Universal--which is owned by Comcast--possessed the kind of corporate culture Nintendo was looking for in a partner. He said he was inspired by this initial meeting, and returned to Japan to inform Mario creator and Nintendo director Shigeru Miyamoto that he wanted to move forward. After more meetings in Japan and the United States, which Nintendo game producers and the people tasked with creating the actual attractions attended, it was decided that the deal would go through.
"We confirmed that we share a lot of common ground between our corporate cultures, and because parts of the proposal made us really excited, we have decided to work together on a long-term basis," Iwata said.
What Nintendo theme park attractions would you like to see at Universal? My vote is for Mario Kart go-karts or a Pokemon Snap ride. Share your ideas in the comments below.
It's election season. How will you campaign for mayor? Will you promise better schools? Guarantee that you'll fix all those potholes? Perhaps you'll run on the more straightforward assurance that you will "shoot criminals in the face"? That last one might not be the most humane of political platforms, but it makes for an entertaining 2D action game.
In Not a Hero, you are a hired gun for a politician named Bunnylord, an anthropomorphic purple rabbit who has come from the future to, presumably, save the world. He is convinced that to prevent the disastrous future he has seen, he needs to be elected as mayor by the end of the month.
In theory, this would make you, his employee, a hero. But true to the title of the game, you do a lot of things that aren't very heroic. Sure, you might take down a drug lord and save some hostages, but along the way, you murder a lot of people. Bunnylord himself isn't a big believer of things like court trials. He has open disdain for religious people, hates children, and throws around a word that disrespects the mentally handicapped. It's odd to think that he's supposedly on a mission to save the world, considering that he doesn't seem like a very nice man (or rabbit ... whatever).
The violence in Not a Hero might be disturbing if it weren't for the absurdity wrapped around it.
It's to the gameplay’s credit that I usually wanted to get through the story beats quickly and jump into the next mission. Each of the game's 21 levels (24 if you count a few secret ones) are short and relatively straightforward--kill enemies, maybe collect a few things, find the exit--but each stage's layout is well-designed, often offering a few different paths to the goal (maybe, for example, you crash through a window instead of entering a room from the door on the opposite side). A few different enemy types also help mix things up because several of the bad guys you come across are immune to certain attacks, like slide tackles. Occasionally, the longer levels in the game can be frustrating thanks to enemies that have a tendency to kill you in one hit (forcing you to go back to the beginning), but their size and complexity is still welcome.
The plain "kill all enemies" mission structure is also broken up with extra challenges to complete in each level, such as ... well, "kill all enemies." Other than that, you might be asked to find a hidden item, defeat a certain number of enemies without getting hit, or complete a level without using a certain number of bullets. You can reach the game's credits without completing any of these objectives, but they usually add challenge and variety to what might otherwise be a bland mission.
If you don't try to complete all these challenges, you can easily blast your way through Not a Hero in a handful of hours, unlocking most or all of the characters along the way. You can extend your time in the game by completing levels with all the different characters, but the game doesn't do a good job of incentivizing you to do so. Still, there's a lot of fun to be had in this explosive quest for political domination. Not a Hero's humor may not always hit the mark, but the action makes up for it.
Third-person action game , Smite has attracted more than 7 million players to date. The game is focused around the Gods of mythology, and Hi-Rez claims it offers "more game modes than any other leading game in its genre."
We talk car customization, car-bicycle kicks, rocket trails, and scoring goals in Rocket League.
Mary and Rob try out some of the hottest Grand Theft Auto V mods of the week, including Telekinesis, Interior Teleport, and No Water + Atlantis Mods.
Take a look at this trailer for LEGO Jurassic World which shows off some gameplay footage of the different types of dinosaurs you'll see in the game.
