#shes a combo of two characters from previous campaigns

[inabadancedcrazy]

[Link to previous part]

[Link to next part]

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Surviving in Tokyo was the easiest thing in the world for Loretta. The guys here may not speak a lick of English, but everybody understood what it meant when a pretty girl got real close to you in a club. A little grind here, a bit more action there, and every guy in here was in the palm of her hand. She felt a little guilty for leaving Marion all high and dry, but the girl could use some time to unwind! Always worrying about her studies, she was just gonna end up with her head in a book her entire life! She needed to go out and meet people, go hookup with somebody! Do something other than just sitting there worrying and- Ugh, now Loretta was bumming herself out.

“Excuse me miss... Might you be Loretta Beale?” She turned around to find the guy she had been grinding on during her internal monologue to be gone. Instead, there was this random blond dude. Looked kind of girly, but she could dig it. A bit creepy that he knew her name, but he looked American, right? Might be on the same trip as her and Marion. Not like she really remembered the faces of the other guys in their group. She mainly remembered other things.

“You know my name, huh? What, you do your research on the hottest girls in town? Guess I’m gonna have to give you an A+ on your homework... Want a reward~?” She backed up to get closer to him when he in turn backed away. She fell right on her ass because of that! That was not a trust fall she was used to failing.

“Ah, I apologize, but that is unfortunately not what I was looking for at the moment.” He reached into his pocket and brought out a book. She groaned from her spot on the floor. She said the homework line to be sexy, not to actually get homework. She didn’t even do her own homework, that was Marion’s job. “A friend of yours wished for me to give you this.”

“Can you at least help me up first? It’s your fault I’m down here anyways.” She could get up on her own, but to get back a little control in the situation would be nice. Thankfully, the guy could take a hint, lifting her back on her feet. The only friend she had in here was Marion, so it had to be her, right? “Why would she give me a book in the first place? She knows I don’t like reading.”

“It’s concerning your trip, as some plans have been altered. Please look through it when you can.” She took the book- a pamphlet, honestly- and inspected it with squinted eyes. The lion on the front was cute, but that meant pretty much jackshit to her right now. Something that he said did catch her attention though. “I’m sure we’ll meet later on in the night, so perhaps then I can take you up on what you offered earlier.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever. How come you said ‘your group’ though? Aren’t you on the same...” She looked up to realize that the bastard was gone. She watched the crowd to see if she could find him again, but the guy had basically vanished into thin air. The only sign that he was even real was the book still in her hand.

“That was freaky... Welp! Time to get back to business.” Loretta put the book in the waistband of her miniskirt and stretched a little. Seeing all of these dopes turn their heads towards her sent a rush through her system. Business was going to be booming.

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#disco survivor #loretta disco survivor #shes a combo of two characters from previous campaigns #except shes the worst aspects of both amped up by 10 #love her very much #also gonna put the sprites above the readmore from now on #so that the posts can be better differentiated #maybe i should make a post with links to each part...

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E38 (October 16, 2018)

Tonight’s guests are Sam Riegel and Taliesin Jaffe (and, as always, Dani Carr and... Tiny Corner Max?)!

Announcements:

The latest episode of Between the Sheets, featuring Daytime Emmy Award-Winning Sam Riegel (TM), aired last night and will be available on YouTube tomorrow morning. Sam: “I feel like this channel is mostly just you and me talking?” Brian: “Are you saying that everyone else is just riding our coattails?” Taliesin: “He’s also saying that you look a lot like Liam at this point, and he can’t tell the difference.”

Another episode of All Work No Play will debut this Friday on the Critical Role Twitch (uploaded to YouTube on Sunday). In this episode, Sam and Liam do yoga... with goats. TJ Storm and Travis Willingham guest star!

Next week the cast will be at London MCM! Taliesin: “I’m packing slightly more tweed.” Brian: “Gettin’ tweedy with it.”

There’s a new (harp music) Laura Bailey emote on the CR Twitch for subscribers.

@critrolestats for this week’s episode:

The M9 hit 150 natural ones in this episode. Number 150 was Jester’s acrobatics check to get away from the yuan-ti abomination.

Jester also set the record for the most natural ones in a single episode: 5. The previous record of 4 was held by Nott and Beau. Brian: “You guys remember these are not still going to charity, right?” Sam and Taliesin: “What?”

Taliesin was the one who helped Momlan glue on her elf ears. Taliesin: “I would be very nervous if my mom were going out there.” Brian: “Well, she’s got hundreds of years of secrets on you.” Taliesin: “Mom of the damned.”

Cad’s definitely been upset about being around undead; Taliesin’s rolled a few times to see if there’ll be a worse freak-out, but there hasn’t been one so far. “The notion is that there’s a direction things are supposed to move, and [undead] is something moving against the grain in an intense way. What’s the point of having an imaginary organized religion of any kind if you can’t have something they’re fundamentally against?”

Nott’s extremely far from her comfort zone right now, being outside the Empire, working for a captain on the sea who’s threatened their lives: “There’s snakes and lizards and... wouldn’t you drink, dude?!”

Given how much he’s been getting the shit kicked out of him lately, is there a breaking point for Cad? “Probably. I haven’t really finished nailing him down emotionally yet. I genuinely don’t know what zen people do when everything goes to shit.” Jester’s speech genuinely comforted him a lot. “Apparently Laura knew what to say.” Sam notes that the party hasn’t really had a chance to sit down and ask him questions about himself so far. Taliesin mentions that Cad’s been ordering drinks but hasn’t actually been drinking.

Nott’s fallen into the role of the mom friend mainly because nobody else has (everyone agrees that Caduceus is more of “a wise pothead”). Brian: “Everyone seems to have so much baggage right now. Half the people seem focused on just holding it together, the other half are focused on the mission.” Dani: “Somebody has to be the level-headed one.” Sam: “And why can’t that leveling force come from a three-and-a-half-foot insane goblin alcoholic?”

Once Caduceus levels out (he’s still a little shell-shocked), he’s going to realize that he’s surrounded by “unhealthy lunatics” and will want to do something about that.

Sam’s done some research about chemistry (although he wants to make more of a cheat sheet after Travis’ experience with sailing), knowing it might come up with Nott’s alchemy knowledge. Taliesin is trying to learn more of what Sam terms “that fungus shit”. Also tea, and zen. Sam: “I was thinking you should go to a morgue and see how bodies decompose.” Taliesin: “Oh, I have some experience in that.” 

(don’t worry; it’s just some friends in forensic anthropology)

Gif of the Week: Taliesin casts Detect DM Shenanigans.

“There was a certain order to the universe that he has come to expect, and it has been thrown into great disarray.” Cad was expecting the Epic Quest to save his home, but he wasn’t expecting the Mighty Nein. He’s mainly staying because of what Jester said about not necessarily needing to understand what’s happening right now. “He’s confused and trying his best to just let things happen, because that’s how the Wildmother works.”

Nott’s been surprised by some of the Mighty Nein’s actions, but so far she knows it’s out of necessity. She doesn’t view the incident on the docks as quite as bad as some of the others did---it was chaotic and based in self-preservation rather than actively causing harm. “But some of the other actions lately have been surprising to her.” Sam points out that she and Caleb did a lot of things to survive, and that she still steals a lot, and reminds everyone that she lives in a very morally grey area. She’s not thinking of leaving at this point, and all the high-stakes trauma has brought her closer to the group. “It’s a fucked-up dysfunctional family, but it’s starting to look a little bit like a family to her.”

Taliesin and Sam are both enjoying being moral compasses of the party this campaign, in major contrast to the previous campaign. Brian: “You were a teenage asshole. You were a teenage dirtbag.” Taliesin: “It’s so weird. I love it.” Sam: “Oh man. We’d better step up our game. If we’re the moral compasses...” Taliesin: “We’re like Cracker Jack compasses, we almost point north.”

Cad’s got a lot of abilities he just doesn’t use very often. “He knows that some of it is... rude? Death cleric, man, they’ve got some insane shit.” Cad doesn’t have the same opinions on life and death as most people. Brian: “How surprising.”

Taliesin is having “a ton of fun” playing Caduceus. “I love Molly... and the character. Too easy.” No, but seriously: “I loved playing Molly, but the nice thing I got to do with Caduceus that I didn’t get to do with Molly is we had an established group and I got to create a character that was useful to the dynamic both mathematically and emotionally.”

Sam: “Wait, is it twitch.tv or twitch.com? Oh my god, I’ve been putting the wrong links on my Twitter for like a year.”

Cad was very selective about who he told about Jamedi, and purposely didn’t tell Nott because he knew she’d tell others. Sam, trying to keep a straight face: “Nott’s nothing if not trustworthy.” He’s more surprised that Caduceus has figured that out already, given how little he knows about Nott. “Maybe it speaks less to Nott and more to Caduceus being judgey...” Taliesin clarifies that it wasn’t so much that Nott was untrustworthy, it was more than Nott couldn’t keep a secret. Sam, as a player, was shocked that the rest of the party didn’t instantly tell everyone that “we are being led through the jungle by a dead guy.” Taliesin points out that with two clerics (Brian: “well, a cleric and a battle Mercy”), they literally have a button they can push to make him go away if they need to.

Sam: “It seems like Fjord’s going into a real bad place without any information, and Nott’s there to support and make sure he doesn’t die, but it seems like a bad idea.” Taliesin: “This seems like a test of one’s soul, and Caduceus is on board but aware that this could go badly.” Taliesin also points out that the rest of the group isn’t aware of the creepiest stuff going on because they weren’t there for it.

Fanart of the Week: the group (sans Jester and Caduceus) inside Leomund’s Tiny Hut! 

Taliesin got recognized in public, and the fan immediately called out the two clerics for going off on their own in the middle of the night. Taliesin: “It was a good burn.”

Caduceus had some experience with fights pre-M9 (grave robbers, wildlife). Taliesin: “Have you ever seen Cemetery Man? Shit gets weird!”

There’s a brief interlude while everyone arranges a movie night. As you do.

Has Nott been feeling protective toward members of the Nein other than Caleb? Fjord is probably the next-likely candidate, followed by possibly Yasha. Sam: “Caduceus is just too tall.” Taliesin: “I feel that.”

Taliesin describes Lesser Restoration as “the aspirin of D&D”. He’s done some healing of illness before, but this has just been a bad time. Sam points out that in the last campaign they didn’t really have to deal with disease so much. “I assume it’s Bird Flu.”

Scanlan stealing the gun was messing with both Taliesin and Percy. Nott is interested in the mechanics of the gun, interested in the chemistry of gunpowder, and has already designed and manufactured one explosive arrow as a result. “But Nott has also noticed that there’s people with guns wherever they keep going, and it might be a good idea to have a gun. It’s a self-preservation thing. If that also happens to mess with Taliesin Jaffe, I’m not going to say no to that. I mean, the heart does what the heart does. If that happens as a result, we’ve all grown as people.”

They realize there’s about a four-foot height difference between Caduceus and Nott. Taliesin: “He squats.” Dani: “He’s got killer calves.”

Caduceus is very, very good at reading people. Nott doesn’t lie because of goblin upbringing, but more out of her travels with Caleb and having her first impulse to be to get out of any situation by lying to stall/delay/confuse. 

Taliesin: “Why lie to a plant?”

There’s a brief interlude about telling your plants inappropriate bodily measurements. As you... do? Brian: “I’m calling an Uber right now. I’m sorry. I’m done.”

Taliesin is collecting spells based mainly on what he can guess might be helpful. He doesn’t need a lot of damage-dealing, so focuses more on deflecting and healing. He’s picked out some feats he’s interested in to make Caduceus less likely to take damage. “That’s been a problem. I don’t like being hit.”

It is pointed out that all of Sam’s characters in the campaigns have had high intelligence and low wisdom. “That’s a pretty great winning combo for comedy.”

Legends of the Hidden Talks Machina:

Overwatch mains? Sam: “What’s a main?” Taliesin: “It’s like Quidditch...”

Taliesin is a support main, especially Zenyatta and Brigitte.

Brian is a D.Va main (woo!) and also plays a lot of Orisa.

Look, I gotta cheer on anyone who also mains D.Va. Those are the rules.

They agree that watching Sam play as Hanzo would be funny, but decide Roadhog would be the best. Sam: “Yeah. It’s Hog Noon. Is that what he says?” Brian: “Yep.”

What’s Matt’s character name?  Sam: “Tyrone McCabe.” Brian: “It’s close!”

Ghost stories? Taliesin: “I’ve been ghosted.” Sam: “I saw some raccoons in my backyard?” Taliesin: “I got attacked by a skunk when I was in my hot tub.”

Taliesin: “Now I’ve seen a ghost.” Past and present combine:

Taliesin has a 1930s stripey swimsuit, because of course he does.

What (harp music)-style sound cues would they have? Taliesin: The sound of building a temple in the original Warcraft. Sam: An... explosion? Brian: The sound of my mom’s tears because he never became a doctor. Taliesin: “I was thinking the Golden Girls intro.”

Goth advice for the week, courtesy of Taliesin: Best style eyeliner is eyeliner on day 2. Put on the eyeliner before the shower. Know if your choker’s loadbearing.

#critical role #critical role spoilers #talks machina #talks machina spoilers #long text post

[sangriatimes]

Nintendo Switch saves Valentines Day

Can you believe that we are almost half-way done with January? Maybe it’s just me and the countless hours I put into reviewing the latest titles for the Nintendo Switch...which is our focus point that can change the tide if you hit a hard spot this V-Day. Maybe you don’t have enough money for that dinner, movie and gift. Maybe you thought that restaurant you made a reservation at is more expensive than you though. Maybe you just started a new relationship but you still have some awkward silences that seem to kill the mood. Whatever the situation may be a Nintendo Switch can get you to second base and home plate...trust me.

So let’s look at some of the titles for switch that are great to play with that special someone. (Games are listed in no particular order; games are not based on “)sales”; Games are mainly hidden gems)

1. Monopoly | 9.5 out of 10

Hear me out. I was one that grew up playing the original board game with my family and the overall appeal of the game was astounding, but I lost interest when I got older and noticed how long it takes to make everyone go bankrupt. ...but this is something...otherworldly. The first awesome thing you will notice when you pick up this title is the use of the Joy-Con controllers to shake the dice and throw them. Though this is still the same mechanic in spirit as its predecessor but with the newly animated boards populated by Mii’s and watching a living city grow as you play and add properties adds an entirely new respect for Money Bags. Our team lost track of time having so much fun with this one and before we knew it, we had seen 5 hours pass. (No one wants to play Monopoly for that long.) 

2. Uno | 8.5 out of 10

Uno is another one of those games I grew up playing with family. When I purchased the game, I was expecting some sort of controller mechanic similar to Monopoly’s dice...but with cards instead...but I was let down. None the less, going into this, I didn’t even know that there were so many ways to play Uno besides the normal rules. Once again, I was amazed at how much more fun this was than the physical cards themselves. Rules like “Stacking. Where Player 1 can play a “Blue Draw 2″ card and Player 2 can counter play a “Draw 2″ card as well. ...but if Player 3 doesn’t possess a “Draw 2″ card, Player 3 then has to pick all 4 cards from the previous turns” was so exciting to try and there are many other ways to customize rules and play styles. 

3. Super Smash Bros | 9.0 out of 10

I really don’t need to go into detail about this one. My only issue with the Smash series is I would really enjoy a multiplayer adventure mode or campaign. I was quite pleased with the full roster of characters though. Disclaimer: Make sure your partner isn’t a sore loser. We all know about SSB’s steep learning curve for beginners. “Don’t be a butt...”

4. Diablo 3 | 9.0 out of 10

I remember having this title on my old PS4 and being able to enjoy it on my PS Vita while I was in a relationship with someone who liked the game as much as I and we would both take our Vita’s to the restroom with us so we could keep the experience going. This title can definitely be used to understand the mindset your partner has by the way they customize their character and the actions they take in response to events. It’s a top-down action-adventure-role-playing-hack-n-slash (inhale.) It is a port of it’s original released on PS3 & 360...the price tag is still $59.99. That’s a deal breaker in my book.

5. NES Emulator | 7.5 out of 10

I honestly chose this one because of how many gamers I know and how 89% of them are males. This is something for those who don’t game to get their feet wet. The emulator is free on the eShop for a 7-day trial but comes with a subscription cost after. Pretty inexpensive for the titles they have. Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros, Metroid, and many more. It even comes with special versions of some of the games which gives the player the experience of playing with Game Genie cheats.

6. 99 Vidas | 7.0 out of 10

Your probably thinking, “ Why is this even listed?” Well, just in case that partner your with doesn’t dig the 8-bit look or the low-res adventures of the NES Emulator and desires a little more action and has a fetish for Streets of Rage and Beat ‘em Up’s. Simply. The available characters are cool enough to get players to find a favorite out of them. ...so...that’s good!

7. Oh Sir...The Hollywood Roast | 8.3 out of 10

After seeing the Samuel Jackson clone named “Bad MotherHugger” who’s personality is totally canon, I had to dig deeper. If you didn’t play the prequel, you don’t need to. I honestly only used the first title to learn how to play. In this installment, you and a co-star face off on a movie set where your scenario is to insult the other the worst. It plays like a fighting game, complete with health bars, special insults, tag team insults and so much more. For the price it is, I was expecting something way less entertaining. Oh, and one point or another you will joke against a Deadpool copy...a less funnier Deadpool but funny enough.

Consider this the American version of The Office.

8. Oh Sir...The Insult Simulator | 7.8 out of 10

Obviously, this is the European version of The Office. I won’t say this is better than the sequel and I can’t say it’s worse either but I will say “I am an American...” What this game does is teach you how to layer your jokes and how lay the foundation for repetition in your topics to create combo’ s. I like to let the opponent bombard me with little weak jokes and build a super mean and super long insult that grants victory for only one joke. I call it, “The Kamehameha Effect!”

9. No More Heroes: Travis Strikes Back

The third installment to the series hits the eShop and retailers in a few days and I am super excited to get my copy. If you aren’t familiar with the series, let me fill you in:

Travis Touchdown is the protagonist of all three games. In NMH1 we find Travis at his lowest moment in life. Jobless, hopeless and drunk, he runs into a mysterious woman who offers him employment with a sketchy syndicate group he knows nothing about. Luckily he had lost all his money by winning a bid at an online auction for a Beam Katana,  his main choice of weaponry. Not long after, you find out you were hired as an assassin in a shady game by her higher-ups. Travis takes the job after being promised some passionate TLC if he can take out all 10 of the already top ranking assassins all over the world. Travis is a pretty simple guy. He likes mecha anime, luchador wrestling, old school video games, porn, sex, and sleeping on the toilet.

In NMH2, Travis finds out that after becoming the #1 ranking assassin in Santa Cruise, he finds out that he actually has hundreds of more assassins in a new ranking system where Travis is the lowest ranking.

This time around, Travis is joined by the father of one the assassins he killed in NMH1, and the co-op option is something that would have been outstanding to have in NMH2 but none the less the developers always deliver great content in their titles and this one will not disappoint. Couples will enjoy the kinky nature of the series for sure. It has been proven many times.

10. Broforce | 9.5 out of 10

Every wanted to play Super Mario Bros on NES but with guns? Ever want to change Mario for, let’s say...any huge action movie star from the 80′s, 90′s, 00′s? Ever wanted it to be a co-op experience with up to 4 players with local and online co-op? As a mercenary for the USA, you are sent to 3rd world contries to liberate them from the evil control of Satan and his hell spawn. Before that, you will have to fight through waves of kamikaze soldiers, war dogs, giant helicoptors, aliens (...from the movie “Aliens”) and much more. Along the way, you will recruit an entire cast of badasses. From Rambo to Robocop, you will find Chuck Norris, Neo, Blade, Bruce Willis, Terminator, Preditor, Machette, Michelle Rodrigez, The Bride (Kill Bill) & so many more including Mortal Kombats Raiden.

Very easy to pick up, very hard to put down.

11. Nidhogg 2 | 8.0 out of 10

2D-Side Scrolling Fighter. You start of with a sword. When you die, you respawn with a dagger. When you die, you respawn with a bow and arrow. Die again and respawn with an ax. Die again and respawn with your fist. This cycle will continue until you our your opponent makes it to the opposing end of the map. Maps are relatively small and consist of about 2 to 3 different frames. Sounds easy on paper right? 

Tons of laughs to be had!

12. Tales Of Vesperia

If your looking for an in-depth RPG you both can play while she sits between your legs and you both focus on the Switch screen laying in front of you: this is for you two. The co-op system usually only functions when you enter battle. Player 1 will always be the one running around the world map but this is still fine if you keep an open-mind and communicate on decisions that impact the story and more. (Keep track of your own money.)

side-note: All Tales games are co-op in this sense, even the Super Nintendo picks.

13. Harvest Moon: Light of Hope

I’ve been a Harvest Moon fan since Super Nintendo and got my first copy on the N64. I know a lot of people see this game and hate the thought of a farming simulator but unlike it’s counterpart with the same name-sake; Harvest Moon is so much more. This can easily tame the craving for an adventure-rpg-dating sim with a very rich story and characters that actually grow on you. I have not had the chance to play this particular version yet, but I saw it was multiplayer and that sold me. If you want to try a good yet cheaper version, Harvest Moon: Back to Nature is by far, one of the best, next to Harvest Moon 64.

So there you have it, our picks of love for your love to love with their love! Honestly...I don’ t celebrate Valentines Day (poly-gang), but I love exposing partners to new things that they can enjoy together.

OUT!

#cyt magazine.tv #sangria times #sangria times publication #dreadsperado #cytmagazine.tv #@cytmagazine.tv #deangilo willis #cel-man iller #Nintendo switch #monopoly #uno #super smash bros #super Mario party #diablo 3 #nes emulator #99 vidas #oh sir #insult simulator #Hollywood roast #no more heroes #no more heroes 3 #travis strikes back #travis touchdown #goichi suda #suda51 #grasshopper manufacture #broforce #bro force #nidhogg #nidhogg 2

[gascon-en-exil]

I Liked Fates Before It Was Cool!: Conquest Part 1

Prologue

Opening Chapters

Chapters 6-14, in which if you squint really hard there might be a plot in there somewhere.

Chapter 6

But let’s not be unfair right from the start. Conquest offers what I consider the best version of Chapter 6, both as a narrative introduction to the route and as a gameplay challenge fitting the difficulty of what’s to come. Birthright is basically just Ryoma soloing Xander and Revelation throws you against generics, but here you have to make use of all the Nohr royals to defeat all but one unit on the Hoshidan side - and being able to take care of Ryoma quickly enough nets you a prize of sorts in that you don’t have to beat up an unarmed Sakura. The chapter also sets up the tense undercurrent of Conquest that Corrin chose wrong, that the Hoshidans (except Takumi) think they’ve been brainwashed and that their love for their adopted siblings is meaningless. On the one hand it feels rather spineless that what is supposedly a villain campaign is hesitant to allow Corrin to own their choice and makes it sound like blatant railroading by the player, but on the other there’s something to be said for the contrast between how Xander and Ryoma deal with Corrin’s decision. After two refusals in Birthright Xander is happy to label Corrin a traitor and becomes determined to kill them for their choice, whereas Ryoma persists in his brainwashing theory and in so doing denies Corrin’s agency completely. That actually works fairly well as setup for an antagonist - if we allow that Ryoma is one, of course, and the game itself seems uncomfortable with the concept.

Chapter 7

...And all my goodwill toward this story dries up almost immediately. There’s flat villainy, there’s a bunch of self-doubt from Corrin over their choice, and there’s foreshadowing that only adds to the confusion if you already know what’s going on. It’s kind of a mess, and it’s pretty much all downhill from here.

I have little to say about this chapter as it stands, except that it’s appropriately difficult and that the conflict feels fitting in terms of tone and atmosphere...even though it only exists because of the aforementioned flat villainy. I instead want to zero in on the moment pictured above, in which Garon “prays” to Anankos to deliver unto him the plot of the next few chapters in front of Corrin and Iago and the Nohr royals. Bizarrely, it’s Iago who goes furthest in calling Garon out on how absurd this is, though not even he bothers to ask who or what Anankos is or if he’s the same entity as Nohr’s Dusk Dragon.

Ok, I know I might be the only person in the fandom who regularly complains about the absence of pseudo-Catholic elements in Fates when they’re present in every other game in the series, but on a fundamental level I do get it. The priest -> sage/war monk class line from Awakening was given to Hoshido, so it makes perfect sense that those classes would be shifted over to the blend of Shintoism and Buddhism that comprises Japanese spirituality. It’s also not unheard of for a nation or group of people in FE to worship a dark dragon/god in lieu of the main organized faith, ex. the Lopytrians from Jugdral, Rigel’s Duma Faithful, and Plegia’s Grimleal. As seen with Salem from FE5 and Tharja and Henry from 13 it’s even fairly common for playable dark magic users in the games to come from the ranks of those faiths. I therefore don’t have a problem with the theory that there’s a theological element to Nohr’s dark mages and that it ties into the Dusk Dragon - who may or may not also be Anankos - in some way. The problem is that we never see any definitive evidence that this is the case, not even enough to understand how unusual it is in this scene to see Garon praying to Anankos. When Iago sounds like the closest thing to a voice of a reason you know the plot’s got some problems. For all we’re told Nohr’s clergy are just bookworms moonlighting as strippers with a crow feather fetish.

Chapter 8

It’s strange how easy it is to forget this guy exists since he only appears in Conquest in this one chapter, but the Ice Tribe maids do indeed have a father. Where was he during Chapter 17 of Birthright?

This brings up an interesting - or as some would probably call it, lazy - quirk of Fates’s map design. The early and midgame sections of all three routes are full of maps that get reused across routes, or different maps of the same location like the previous one and Birthright Chapter 18. I’m feeling rather charitable about this decision personally, for two reasons:

1) In most cases the reused maps are approached from different angles and feature different, sometimes opposing gimmicks. The Ice Tribe village map, for example, sees you racing to visit as many villages as possible in Conquest but encourages you to avoid them in Birthright, and the function of the Dragon Veins in the middle of the route differs depending on the route.

2) Fates’s worldbuilding needs all the help it can get, and visiting the same locations in multiple routes adds a degree of continuity that the story on its own often struggles to display.

See, cost-cutting measures don’t have to be a bad thing if you use them creatively! 

This chapter also deserves some praise for having a more plausible point of conflict than its Wind Tribe counterpart in Birthright. Instead of Iago’s shenanigans Elise grabs the conflict ball because no one taught her basic diplomacy, and Corrin saves the day through their first of many acts of pacifism on this route. It is a bit strange to have the characters talking about how Corrin’s army spared everyone just after you’ve finished mowing down a bunch of generics, but not unlike Niles I can use my imagination.

Chapter 9

A wild loli appears! Ugh...Nyx is one of several characters in Fates who could have been interesting with better execution. As it is, her best use is as a punchline or somebody’s fap material of course.

This chapter has nothing to do with her though really. Instead it’s just a set of contrivances - how did a Hoshidan force make it so deeply into Nohr so quickly (for comparison, Corrin’s army reaches the same location in Birthright by Chapter 20), and why did they bring Azura all this way with them if their only plan was to kill her? I do appreciate the reminder that Nohr and Hoshido are actually at war now as the rest of the Conquest’s early plot is more concerned with putting down rebellions, but some kind of logical reason for Azura’s reappearance would have been nice.

Still, this chapter goes further than most at showing an explicit example of Hoshidan racism, even if Azura is quick to absolve the royals (except Takumi, I assume) of any wrongdoing. I genuinely have no idea if we’re meant to interpret this as Stockholm Syndrome, or if the writers couldn’t bear to vilify all of Hoshido even for one chapter.

Chapter 10

Like a number of other defense maps in the series, this is the most infamous chapter of its game, and depending on who you’re using and how it can indeed live up to its reputation. I don’t care for how this makes for an uneven bump in Conquest’s difficulty curve, but with such varied chapter goals and mechanics on this route that was likely inevitable at some point.

For all that it’s a memorable piece of gameplay though there’s not too much to talk about in terms of story. Takumi is established as a strong and motivated antagonist right from his first reappearance after the route split, and as I said back in Birthright it’s a good look for him. He and Oboro are among the few Hoshidans who really make more sense as antagonists than as allies, and even though it devolves into yet another round of possession in the end there’s something very real to Takumi’s feelings of betrayal and inadequacy, to say nothing of his grief over his mother which unlike in Birthright barely comes up otherwise.

Also, Camilla is here, but with only a bit of retainer banter to flesh her out she’s more or less the same as FE10 Haar in Chapter 2-E of that game: overleveled flying death, with only a few stray bits of effective damage to worry about.

Chapter 11

The Sevenfold Sanctuary appears again, this time with tricky skill combos to contend with like archers with Counter and ninjas with Lunge as well as more of the by now common enemy pair-ups and a boss with an unfair enemy-only weapon. Does anyone else find it strange just how many such weapons exist in Fates?

In this route it’s the Hoshidans who get to troll Corrin, dragging the Rainbow Sage up Mount Sagesse for no real reason and doing their best to not sound like they’re invading a sovereign territory and kidnapping its most venerable inhabitant who also happens to be an ancient dragon. Granted the Nohrians’ mission feels a bit confused as well, as dialogue vacillates between Garon wanting to conquer Notre Sagesse and everyone else wanting the Rainbow Sage’s power. The two sort of come together in the end with Iago ordering the Sage’s death, though if there’s a logical explanation for Garon/Anankos’s continued desire to see Corrin suffer but not die it’s beyond me. That Corrin gets an eventual sword power-up out of the deal feels almost accidental on this route.

Incidentally, while he doesn’t get the gravity of a potential death scene in this version I do like how Kaze joins up with the Nohrians. It conveys the subtext of his connection to Corrin while not coming across as a weird obsession like his approximate counterpart Silas does in Birthright. Speaking of which, I’ve noticed that Silas gets a decent amount of the protagonist chorus roles in Conquest even when some of the royals are available. Eh...they are supposed to be BFFs.

Chapter 12

Now that’s just not as funny as the version of this picture with Takumi.

Elise comes down with a case of the plot, and as a consequence we bear witness to Ryoma’s most infamous act of dickishly non-heroic behavior. I’ve seen it argued back and forth that Ryoma withholding medicine from Elise in an attempt to coerce Corrin into returning to Hoshido constitutes a war crime, but regardless of semantics it is a surprisingly underhanded tactic for someone like him. Now that I think about it Birthright shows off this side of him as well, when he disguises himself as a Nohrian soldier at Cheve to ambush Leo. Not exactly becoming a shining exemplar of heroism here awkwardly forced into the antagonist role...but then he goes off about how his retainers have a more righteous cause than Xander’s and suddenly I lose what little sympathy I had for him. Sure, one of the retainers he’s insulted is Peri, but on the whole that’s an eminently hateable level of self-righteous posturing.

This chapter is quite fun, if a bit chaotic with all the random effects from the pots. For some reason I always forget about the turn limit, which can become an unexpected source of stress when there are shrine maidens spamming status staves to slow you down and such. Fates (and Conquest specifically) is the one game other than Thracia that frequently turns enemy staff wielders into serious threats, and this chapter combined with Azama’s Hexing Rod in the previous one show that off thoroughly.

Chapter 13

Pictured: a subtle and nuanced depiction of villainy.

Aside from his sudden reappearance and this one still, Hans is actually...not that bad here though? Corrin points out how weird it is that they (and the player) are expected to forgive him after he attempted to kill Corrin at the Bottomless Canyon, and the worst atrocities of Hans’s army - particularly Scarlet’s death - are effectively gruesome because they’re left for the player to imagine. It’s comparable to how FE8 handles the ghastly presence of Orson’s wife. It is pretty silly how much is made over Hans clearly enjoying his work when Peri was recruited in the last chapter and Reina is also in this game (in this chapter, even), or that explicit bloodlust among the playable cast has shown up before in past FEs in characters like FE7 Karel. Player-centered morality, yay!

In any case, there’s also a good deal of genuine character complexity on display in this chapter too. Takumi is still consumed by grief and rage and lashes out specifically at the bond Corrin shares with the Nohrian sisters, calling attention to his increasing isolation from even his own siblings. Between taking an arrow in a cutscene and last chapter’s illness Elise just can’t catch a break, can she? Camilla too gets to show a rare bit of character for this route, encouraging Corrin to keep their head down and go along with Garon’s orders because self-centered pragmatism is how she’s learned to survive in situations where she can’t solve problems with violence and/or sex. 

Chapter 14

What an incredibly effective disguise. No one would ever recognize her. 

Ok, ok, the audience at the opera is seeing her from a distance and obscured by all the water effects, but it’s still pretty dumb that Corrin of all people can’t put two and two together here.

Honestly, as much as I enjoy the opera house setting and praised its appearance in Birthright this chapter all falls into that same generally silly vein. There’s again no logical explanation provided for Garon’s trip to Nestra, the enemy combatants on this map are a random squad of Hoshidans unrelated to the unfolding story, Keaton’s recruitment has even less buildup than Kaden’s did, and everything culminates in Leo teaching Corrin the obscure and arcane art of lying and in so doing bequeathing him with a sword upgrade because that’s what passes for (anti)heroism on this route. There’s not even much in the way of gameplay to discuss, which is disappointing when contrasted against the Birthright version. 

I would however like to close this post by reiterating the point I made at the start: so far, this route is severely lacking in an actual plot. All of Corrin’s movements since returning to Nohr have been directed by Garon (and Anankos by extension, though his motives remain vague even if you know the full story). In a way this helps to reinforce the feeling that the Nohrian royals are trapped in abusive situation, though that would be an unusually deep psychological reading of what is in reality an unfocused plot. The following chapter and what comes of it ought to be proof enough that any similarities between Conquest’s narrative structure and the familial issues of its main cast are purely coincidental. 

Next time: Conquest Chapter 15 - 20

#Fire Emblem #Fire Emblem Fates #Fire Emblem Conquest #FE14

[recentanimenews]

Princess Connect! Re: Dive Brings Back the Princess Gala to Celebrate the Coming New Year!

  Heyas, Knights! The holiday season is still in full swing, but the residents of Landosol are zoning in onto a very special holiday - New Years! We hope you’re ready to celebrate the changing of the year. We’ve got some special new characters to announce, the return of the Princess Gala, a brand new story event, and more. 

  The Princess Gala’s back - tell a friend! The doubled 3★ Draw Rates are making a return for a brand new Princess Gala, featuring the brand new limited character Yui (New Year)! Alongside a brand new outfit primed for celebrating the coming year, Yui (New Year)’s skill kit is also fine-tuned to support her allies on the battlefield, while still providing that healing support that Yui is known for. 

  With this being a Princess Gala, you can expect doubled 3★ Draw Rates, making this the best time to meet new characters that you might have missed previously. Speaking of characters you might have missed - since this is a Princess Gala, we’re adding Christina back into the rotation for a limited-time encore appearance! The charismatic member of Nightmare, alongside the serene member of Twinkle Wish - what a perfect combo to ring in the new year with. You’ll also be able to use character redemption points to redeem for either one of the two characters. 

  The Princess Gala makes its triumphant return for 72 hours, from 12/20, 23:00 UTC to 12/23, 22:39 UTC. Don’t miss out!

    After the Princess Gala ends, we’ll have to say goodbye to Christina, but Yui (New Year) will be sticking around and getting her own time to shine with a brand new Focus Gacha! We’d be remiss to not let her stand in the solo spotlight for a bit.

  Like other seasonal characters, Yui (New Year) is a limited character, which means she won’t be added into the regular Premium Gacha lineup after her Focus Gacha ends. If you didn’t meet her during the Princess Gala, you’ll definitely want to make sure to obtain her here, before the new year festivities end!

  The Yui (New Year) Focus Gacha will run for 13 days, from 12/23/21, 23:00 UTC to 1/5/22 22:59 UTC. 

    Oh, remember those Daily Free 10-Draws we talked about last time? Well, the good news is that they’re gonna carry over into the Princess Gala and Yui (New Year) Focus Gacha! That means you’ll be able to apply your Daily Free 10-Draw on the Princess Gala three times, and on the Yui (New Year) Focus Gacha once. Don’t miss out on this 6,000 jewel value!

  As a reminder, the Daily Free 10-Draw Campaign is on now and will continue to run until 12/24, 12:59 UTC. Make sure to keep logging in daily to get those Daily Free 10-Draws!

    Nothing brings in the new year quite like a shrine visit. Join Twinkle Wish’s Rei, Yui, and Hiyori clad in their new year attire on a memorable trip to the shrine to help out with the festivities. Wait, you’re telling me we’re not going to get to relax? Oh well, even if things go wrong you know you’ll be able to rely on Rei, Yui, and Hiyori to get the job done! Be it monster mochi or troublesome wishes, you’re in good company. Get ready to make a shrine visit that you won’t soon forget and get your wishing game on!

  As with our previous events, this event also features exclusive boss battles, where you can test your skills in varying difficulties: Normal, Hard, and Very Hard. You'll want to prepare yourself for the Very Hard boss, as it can prove to be quite a challenge, and is only clearable once per day. You’ll need Boss Tickets to earn a shot at defeating the boss, which can be obtained by clearing event stages and from login bonuses while the event is active. If you don’t successfully defeat a boss on your first attempt, you can retry as many times as necessary, and non-lethal damage dealt to a boss will carry over between attempts. 

    As with our Holiday event, players will be able to obtain an exclusive free unit in Rei (New Year) after defeating the boss 5 times at any difficulty level. Rei is dressed for success in her new year outfit and is ready to make a twinkling wish! Make sure to join her for a shrine visit while you still can!

    To ring in the New Year early, we’re also boosting experience gain rates for completing Event Quests. During the event, clearing Event Quests will give 1.5x times the normal experience, in addition to the normal Mana, items, and Boss Tickets that these quests give out. 

  The Victory Medal Gacha also makes its joyful return for the event! Clearing event stages, event missions, and defeating the previously mentioned bosses will earn you Victory Medals, which can be exchanged for a plethora of goodies. There’s a predetermined series of reward lineups, each featuring a key reward - once you roll the current lineup’s key reward, you’ll have the opportunity to either reset the rewards and move ahead to the next lineup, or hold off on resetting to clear out all the possible rewards. Here are the key rewards you should look out for!

  Lineup 1: Yui’s Memory Shard x 20

Lineup 2: Rei (New Year)’s Memory Shard x 25

Lineup 3: Yui’s Memory Shard x 30

Lineup 4: Rei (New Year)’s Memory Shard x 40

  Just remember - once you’ve gone through the four initial lineups, you won’t be able to reset the active lineup until you’ve obtained all the possible rewards from the current active lineup.

  The New Year’s Day Twinkle Crisis! story event will be available from 12/20, 23:00 UTC to 1/3, 22:59 UTC.

    New Unique Equipment for more characters will also be available after the latest update. I hope you’ve been working your way through the Sanctum Survey and collecting those Princess Heart Fragments to further power up your favorite heroines. The following characters will have their Unique Equipment unlocked:  

Arisa

Tamaki

Yukari

Akino

Mifuyu

Ninon

  This unique opportunity for new Unique Equipment will be unlocked on 12/22 at 08:00 UTC. Now is a great time to get a head start on collecting those Princess Heart Fragments and character Memory Shards.

    Heading into the new year low on Mana or EXP potions? There’s no need to make a wish with our selection of double drop events. First up, we have the Dungeon Double Drop Campaign, where clearing Dungeon floors will give double the usual Mana. With all the Unique Equipment coming out, you’ll want to stock up on Mana to make sure your heroines are uniquely equipped.

  The Dungeon Double Drop Campaign runs for 13 days, from 12/21, 13:00 UTC to 1/2, 12:59 UTC.

    For easy reading and accessibility, included below is a summarized version of all the updates announced today. Thank you for all your support, and we hope you continue to enjoy Princess Connect! Re: Dive! 

  See you in Astraea, Knights!

— Crunchyroll Games

*Note: All event details may be subject to change. Please check the in-game notifications at the start of the events for the full details.

  Yui (New Year) & Christina Princess Gala (12/20 23:00 UTC to 12/23 22:59 UTC)

Boosted rate-up for Yui (New Year) & Christina, also available for redemption via character exchange points.

Doubled draw rates for 3★ characters in the Yui (New Year) & Christina Princess Gala.

Christina is a limited unit and will only be available during the Princess Gala Gacha period.

Yui (New Year) is a limited unit and will only be available during the Princess Gala Gacha & upcoming Yui (New Year) Focus Gacha period.

Yui (New Year) Focus Gacha (12/23 23:00 UTC to 1/5 22:59 UTC)

Boosted rate-up for Yui (New Year), also available for redemption via character exchange points.

Yui (New Year) is a limited unit and will only be available during the Focus Gacha period.

Focus Gacha Daily Free 10-Draw Campaign (12/11 13:00 UTC to 12/24 12:59 UTC)

Continued from the previous update.

Story Event - New Year’s Day Twinkle Crisis! (12/20 23:00 UTC to 1/3 22:59 UTC)

Event exclusive Rei (New Year) can be obtained.

Event missions give 1.5x experience.

Unique Equipment (After 12/22 08:00 UTC)

Unique Equipment added for Arisa, Tamaki, Yukari, Akino, Mifuyu, and Ninon.

Dungeon Double Drop Campaign (12/21 13:00 UTC to 1/2 12:59 UTC)

Grotto Quest Double Drop Campaign (1/2 13:00 UTC to 1/13 12:59 UTC)

  By: Guest Author

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

[spicynbachili1]

Review: Black Bird

Fantasy Zone by way of The Brothers Grimm

Last year, the two best games on mobile didn’t come from King, or Nicalis, or Tencent. They came from Onion Games, a Japanese indie studio founded by Rule of Rose and Little King’s Story developer Yoshiro Kimura. Dandy Dungeon and Million Onion Hotel were shining beacons of imagination and incongruity in a marketplace that has largely grown derivative. 

Black Bird follows in the footsteps of its predecessors. Kimura has once again crafted an experience ripe with imagination, amazingly unique art direction, and a score that’ll worm its way into your brain. Only this time, he’s releasing his game on Switch and Steam, and while it might not be totally worth the asking price, it’s certainly a title that should find its way onto your wishlist.

Black Bird (Switch [reviewed], Steam)  Developer: Onion Games  Publisher: Onion Games  Released: October 18, 2018, October 31, 2018 (Steam)  MSRP: $19.99

Black Bird begins with a rather upsetting sequence which kicks off the title’s slight story. A young girl, possibly emaciated though who really knows, given the minimalist art direction of these cutscenes, wanders out into the streets where she collapses and dies. People pass her body by, paying no mind to the corpse on the ground until a man saunters by and pokes her with his cane, only to keep on walking when she doesn’t respond. As somebody who works in San Francisco, the greatest fear I have for my soul is that one of the countless homeless people I walk by every day won’t actually be sleeping as I tell myself they are, so right out of the gate this story hits me hard, reminding of how calloused I’ve become.

The girl doesn’t stay dead for long. Her corpse transforms into a massive egg and it’s not long before that egg hatches, giving birth to the titular black bird, ready to rain chaos, death, and destruction on the people who ignored the stiff in the streets. It’s like if Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Match Girl ended with the girl coming back from heaven as a fire monster, burning Copenhagen to the ground.

The actual gameplay of Black Bird is a side-scrolling, bullet-hell shooter reminiscent of the Sega classic Fantasy Zone. Controlling the bird, your free to move around each stage as you please, firing bubbles at unlucky pedestrians on the ground as well as the many enemy forces sent to stop you. Each of the four stages has a set of watchtowers that must be destroyed, at which point the stage boss will appear, for a fight that’s generally easier than anything you’ve faced in the level preceding it.

Right from the opening salvo, Black Bird is an absolute riot. On the surface there isn’t much to it, looking like a simple side-scrolling shooter. But it’s when you actually play through the game again and again that you see just how deep the well goes. You can blast through each level as fast as you choose, but if you do that you might miss the many secrets to be found. The asparagus from Million Onion Hotel make a guest appearance as do the cows, and those are just the cameos I’ve found so far. There are also hidden pots to discover – those too are cameos from Onion Hotel – that grant extra health, more bombs, or faster movement speed, the latter of which I never found too useful.

What sets Black Bird apart from its possible inspiration is how it handles scoring and upgrades. The game has a combo system that rewards taking out as many enemies as fast as possible. When there are dozens of people running for their lives on the ground, it’s easy to hit the max combo and absolutely rack up the points. Upgrades are instituted automatically as you collect gems. Enemies, watchtowers, and boss characters will drop gems of differing sizes that quickly shrink the longer they’re left unclaimed. As you collect these gems, you’ll see a green circle start to form around the bird. Once that circle is complete, you’ll transform into a stronger variation of the bird. The bubbles you blow will become more powerful, as will your limited bomb attack.

Mastering the gem system means engaging in a little risk-and-reward strategy. Big gems will start to shrink immediately, meaning the sooner you pick one up, the more quickly your green circle will fill. To pick them up as fast as possible, you need to be right in front of an enemy when you destroy them without actually running into them. You also need to be wary of projectiles. While most enemy attacks are telegraphed, some aren’t, leading to multiple occasions where I went in for a kill and a big gem, only to take a missile to the face and lose a bit of life.

Even in those moments, Black Bird is a great deal of fun, but be warned this isn’t for everyone. For starters, as mentioned above, this is a side-scrolling, bullet-hell shooter. While it never reaches the hellish anguish of, say, Radiant Silvergun, it’s no walk in the park either. There are no extra lives or continues in Black Bird. When you run out of energy, it’s game over, back to the level one with you. It is a rather short game, so repeated runs aren’t exactly taxing of your time, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to straight up delete the game after dying in the closing moments of the final boss battle. It’s a break-your-Switch-in-half type of frustration that’s pretty rare to come by in this era of gaming.

Onion Games did decide to help players out by including a practice mode that lets you train on any level you’ve unlocked. There is also a time attack mode, leaderboards to chase, and a “True Mode,” which runs you through the campaign again with an altered story, new secrets to uncover, and an increased difficulty. The levels here can be absolutely monstrous, though the boss battles remain relatively docile.

On Switch, the game holds up pretty well considering just how much can be happening on screen at any one time. There is some slowdown, never enough to cause a loss of energy, but it is noticeable and is pretty much the only bad thing I can say about how this game looks. The art direction of Black Bird is stunning. From the sepia-toned streets of the opening stage to the retro sci-fi look of the final level, this game is an absolute knock-out. Onion Games has produced some of the best pixel work on mobile with Onion Hotel and Dandy Dungeon, but Black Bird is leaps and bounds ahead of either of those titles. That superiority of design extends beyond the look of the game as well. Musically, this is the best work Onion Games has done. It’s truly mesmerizing and completely catchy, even if the language it’s sung in is utter nonsense.

There’s really nothing left I can write to get across just how much I enjoy Black Bird. In fact, looking at the word count for what is a relatively short game, I’ve probably written too much. A more succinct, tl;dr version of this review would simply state “Onion Games has done it again.” For fans of the developer, that’s pretty much all I’d have to say to convince them it’s worth it. For anybody who hasn’t had the good fortune of experiencing the studio’s previous offerings, well, there are over 1,000 words above to tell you whether or not Black Bird is worth a shot.

[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]

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      Black Bird reviewed by CJ Andriessen

8.5

GREAT

Impressive effort with a few noticeable problems holding it back. Won’t astound everyone, but is worth your time and cash. How we score:  The destructoid reviews guide

        from SpicyNBAChili.com http://spicymoviechili.spicynbachili.com/review-black-bird/

[aion-rsa]

Control: AWE Review – Alan Wake Pays Jesse a Visit in the Oldest House

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Control’s first DLC, The Foundation, offered a lot of exploration but surprisingly little world-building. Protagonist Jesse Faden had settled into her role as Director of the Federal Bureau of Control, and learned more about the game’s ever-shifting brutalist setting, the Oldest House. Limited by the mostly identical hallways of the House’s undercroft, The Foundation never matched the wonder of finally seeing the sky in the initial campaign or meeting some of the characters for the first time.

Fortunately, the newest venture into the Oldest House, AWE, is a much more substantial expansion, bringing horror and quirky humor to a story that feels a bit constrained by its length and unanswered questions. AWE has some of the same problems with scope as The Foundation, but offers stronger world-building and a miniature return to the game’s expertly balanced tones. Humor and horror effectively collide as Jesse follows a message from supernaturally harried writer Alan Wake, who, in true Remedy fashion, has reached out of his own game through the power of fiction and the Cauldron Lake. Or has he?

This DLC is absolutely at its best if you’re already familiar with Alan Wake and its spinoff, Alan Wake’s American Nightmare. You’ll get a loose introduction to Alan himself, Thomas Zane, and Dr. Hartman in AWE, but it’s hard to imagine some of Wake’s interludes meaning anything to someone who has only played Control. Unfortunately, the exploration of his story is actually the shortest of the expansion’s three sections. As expected from a game as cryptic as Control, dialogue stops just short of truly explaining anything. The finale is especially frustrating in this regard, landing both as a hokey sequel tease and an oddly cold moment for Jesse herself. 

However, this is one of those cases where it’s really about the journey, not the destination. The writing, level design, and art all remind me what I loved about Control the first time around: the weird bureaucracy, the effective horror, and the dry humor. In AWE, Jesse primarily interacts with the containment supervisor Langston, whose rambling dialogue makes for a funny twist on the video game trope of a friendly voice in the hero’s ear. 

Players will encounter three main areas in the expansion, each a different incident examined by the shuttered Investigations Sector. All three emphasize what was suggested in the base game: the Federal Bureau of Control was a squabbling organization with regular instances of prisoner abuses during the previous director’s tenure. The first two sections offer some satisfyingly difficult fights and puzzles, interspersed with the expansion’s best and worst addition: the monster Dr. Hartman has become. Both new Altered World investigation areas were fun and intriguing, especially the one that explains why the FBC has a lunar lander in one of its cavernous storage rooms. 

Hartman’s doubly-corrupted form is a masterful example of when to show the monster. Most of the time he’s in shadow, clear enough that you can see the body horror that results from Hiss possession and swathed in the kind of darkness that became infamous in Alan Wake. When the expansion finally reveals Hartman’s monstrous shape, the sight is unnerving, to say the least. The first few fights against Hartman gave me that distinct “He’s right behind me, isn’t he?” feeling, and often he was. His teleportation ability makes dodging his attacks particularly difficult, and it’s very satisfying when you manage to evade one of his swipes at the last second. In some sequences you can’t fight or repel him at all, leading to SOMA-style haunted house adrenaline. 

Hartman avoids light, but AWE never quite reaches the novelty of Remedy’s use of light in the Alan Wake series. I found myself wishing for a gun mod that would give me something like Alan’s gun and flashlight combo. Instead, you use Jesse’s psychic Launch ability to shine conveniently placed lanterns on seething, snarling pools of darkness. Since the psychic grab was effectively developed as a tense, powerful attack, Launching with more delicacy can be fiddly. 

Release Date: August 27, 2020 Platform: XBO (reviewed), PC, PS4 Developer: Remedy Entertainment Publisher: 505 Games Genre: Action-adventure

Jesse does have a new weapon form at her disposal: Surge is a sticky grenade launcher with delayed detonation. I used it to wail on the boss more often than for carefully timed crowd control. Speaking of crowd control, players who want more combat challenges can use two arcade machines to jump into a horde mode or survival challenge in previously visited locations. 

The Oldest House itself has always been its own character in Control. While most of AWE’s locations look like the office spaces the game is known for, there are some new House features that add to the wonder and weirdness. That said, plot-relevant developments between Jesse and the other powerful entities in the House are one area in which The Foundation was far more substantial than AWE. By now, Jesse has fully embraced her role as director, but that turns out to mean she doesn’t seem to feel anything about these fights — not about defeating Hartman, not about her old favorite poet, Thomas Zane, or about potentially being a side character in a story about Alan. 

Some problems from the base game still persist: some attacks are badly telegraphed, and maps and menus chug slowly along. Remedy has added some welcome quality of life changes, including more control points, which mean less backtracking, and a variety of difficulty sliders. You can adjust incoming damage and the power of your attacks on a 100-point scale, or simply make Jesse invincible. Running at 50% will make some of Control’s infamously difficult bosses and side missions less frustrating while still maintaining the challenge.

Unfortunately, the very last Hartman fight dispelled a lot of my good will toward earlier encounters. The last fight is extremely difficult, with Hartman regaining full health every time the lights go out. This is the worst part of the expansion: not a particular test of survivability, accuracy, or the light mechanic, it’s just a war of attrition, a process of unloading grenades into a monster who, revealed, isn’t quite as scary as he was in the shadows. It’s the worst of the few occasions where the game seems to be putting walls in front of Jesse for the sake of walls. Since paranatural abilities don’t regenerate in the dark, it was frustrating to plot out Jesse’s next few moves just to remember she couldn’t use any powers. 

Like a lot of Control, AWE teases more than it reveals. However, the new areas are quirky and imposing enough to make it an effective reminder of what is so great about Control’s atmosphere in the first place. How much you enjoy it might depend in part on how willing you are to enjoy the mystery, not the answers.

The post Control: AWE Review – Alan Wake Pays Jesse a Visit in the Oldest House appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2G6Qr0S

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[terryblount]

Mortal Kombat 11 – Review

Mortal Kombat is more than a game: it is the closest thing we as gamers have to a counter-culture. It is an I.P. that has consistently laughed in the face of censorship boards by never compromising on giving fans the unfiltered carnage of close combat. This was literally (part of) the reason why there exists an ESRB rating system today.

What’s more, this violence is not just for looks – it is also about skill. The genius of Mortal Kombat’s formula has always lain in demonstrating the player’s fighting ability through how sadistically they can crush their opponent. You don’t just K.O. an opponent in this game; you FINISH THEM!!!

Is it weird to admire the way blood is animated in a game?

I am quite pleased to say that this 27-year-old spirit of Mortal Kombat is alive and well within the eleventh arrival. Let’s not beat around the bush here. This is essentially the perfect fighting game, and players and pros alike will surely regard it as one of the best this series has ever produced. This is because Mortal Kombat 11 manages to include every modern convention that works, while being mindful of the old-school novelties that cemented the I.P. in gaming culture.

Time and time again

In the single-player ‘kampaign’, Earthrealm yet again comes face to face with an apocalyptic threat. The story opens with a now corrupted Raiden (see MK XL) decapitating the elder god Shinnok as a message to anyone who dares to threaten his domain. This was was a most serious error in judgement as Shinnok turns out to be the son of a new character, Kronika – the guardian of time itself.

“But know this–the arc of the universe bends to my will.” – Kronika

Needless to say, Kronika is rather unhappy not just about her son being reduced to the usefulness of a bowling ball, but also due to the balance of good and evil now being uneven. She vows to restore equilibrium in the timeline up to the events of her son’s beheading, but is also aware that Raiden and the Earthrealm gang could present a troublesome thorn in her side in any dimension.

Kronika therefore merges the past and present together, and teleports an army of Netherrealm’s most formidable villains, like Baraka and Shao Kahn, from the past into the present as her insurance policy. As per usual, the player will represent the fight for Earthrealm’s fate from the perspective of Johnny Cage, Kotal Kahn, Kung Lao, and other classic and contemporary characters.

I get that the whole time travel motif has been done to death, but the team at NetherRealm have once again shown their practiced hand for storytelling. They have wisely used the motif of temporal distortion as a McGuffin to re-imagine and bring back some of the franchise’s most beloved figures for the modern gaming climate.

Johnny squared!

This makes for a deeply interesting plot with some exciting and unexpected alliances forming or breaking between characters from different time periods (because their major clashes haven’t happened yet). More than that, Netherrealm sets up the opportunity to introduce characters like Cetrion and Geras who have fighting abilities centred on the manipulation of time.

Overall the story really oozes the kind of cinematic quality that would make Marvel Studios sweat bullets. The combination of excellent graphics, captivating voice acting, and the return of favourite characters will most definitely have new fans engrossed, and old fans spiralling into nostalgia.

In with the old, out with the new

Objectively speaking, Mortal Kombat 11 plays it extremely safe. This game demonstrates the old adage that players are bound to enjoy what lies in their comfort zone, and it is not necessary for sequels to reinvent the wheel. Instead, MK 11 goes for the ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, but make it a whole lot prettier’ approach.

Indeed,  MK 11 plays just as slick and precise as every game Netherrealm has developed thus far. What can be perfected has been tweaked, but a whole slew of small changes collectively add up to an experience that will still feel fresh and engaging to long-time players. Not much is new here, and I am very happy about that.

You get to see quite a lot of Sub Zero’s face in this game.

So aside from the single player campaign, the ‘Klassic Towers’ mode also makes a return in which the player must defeat a sequence of opponents to ascend up the tower. Except for infinite modes, these always end with Kronika as the final boss. Defeating her also gets you a brief cut scene that fills in some story details specific to the character you happen to be playing much like Tekken or Street Fighter.

You will not find the ‘Living Towers’ of the previous installment as Netherrealm has ditched this mode in favour of the ‘Towers of Time’. These differ from Klassic Towers in that opponents get more challenging as you approach the top, and players are also permitted to activate certain modifiers (they unlocked as loot) either for one match, or for the duration of the entire tower.

As an example, you can assign Jade one or two of Cyrax’s cyber webs to fire at her opponent stunning them momentarily. Alternatively, the match might have a vampire modifier in which the player’s health bar drains constantly to the opponent’s, so it is best to finish the match sooner rather than later. These towers can certainly get infamously punishing, but the game drowns you in rewards for completing them.

Lemme smash! This is who you will be playing in the Krypt. Note the three currencies in the bottom of the screen.

The Krypt is back again, of course. This time the event plays out on Shang Tsung’s island (see MK 2011) during which you open chests, smash vases and crush meteorites for some sweet loot and unlockable goodies. The Krypt also adopts a third person perspective now which only makes the act of swinging around Shao Kahn’s colossal hammer at vases and statues all the more gratifying.

Light puzzle solving is also a way of collecting some treasures, and it is clear that the developers really want the player to enjoy exploring for goodies to make your game more interesting. I have always been intrigued and, a little creeped out by this subsection of Mortal Kombat games, so it’s nice to see it return here. It’s really beginning to feel like a crucial component of the experience.

Kompletely Unreal

I have never been shy to express my admiration for the Unreal Engine, but what Netherrealm has achieved on a visual level in this game is outright astounding. Here we have a super modified version of the Unreal Engine 3 no less, throwing around particles and rendering high definition textures like it is trying to put Frostbite and Unity out of business.

Even though certain sections of the game have been mysteriously capped at 30fps (most of which can now be fixed by a mod), this game flows on the PC like butter down a centrefold’s butt cheek. In contrast to Mortal Kombat XL, the vibrant graphical tone of MK11 really throws the bountiful details of the visuals into sharp relief. I feel like the unique cast of characters that has always defined this series finally get the representation they deserve.

Damn this game is beautiful. This allows for particularly dramatic cut scenes.

The environments and fighting arenas have also been given the deluxe visual treatment through dramatic lighting and environmental effects. I found the arenas to have an enigmatic and refreshing feeling to them, and a particular favourite of mine became the decaying Shaolin temple where the corpses of dead monks observe your match. I clearly have issues.

They are noticeably the tightest fighting planes that Netherrealm has implemented within one of their games, but this has the pleasing outcome of somehow making the action feel closer… more immediate. The close-quarter combat also places more importance on finding openings in the opponent’s technique rather than just  flying from one combo to the next.

Combos are still just as important, but it is clear that MK 11 wants shorter, more potent moves to play a bigger role too. This means that the one guy with supersonic thumbs you always get paired with online is less safe than he thinks this time round. You know who you are!

The fatalities and other post-match tomfoolery have, naturally, also been given an obvious graphical upgrade. Seriously, seeing brains being splattered and bones being shattered in this level of realism is not at all for the faint of heart. Be that as it may, I nevertheless have a hard time imagining a more beautiful, albeit visceral fighting game.

The very definition of fighting chance

As I mentioned, the roster of fighters is a mixed bag of old and new characters including the original 7, but like all the other yobs on the internet, I feel like some characters leave a conspicuous absence. Where the hell is Goro!? I also miss, Takashi who had a snappy and responsive feel in his fighting that appealed to my playing style in the previous game.

Perhaps old Goro will get his chance with DLCs, but the roster is still a bit smaller than I would have liked. It is once again too obvious that most of us will be expected to fork out more of our hard earned cash as extra content later down the line. Netherrealm has chosen quality of quantity, but this rather anemic roster just smacks too much of leaving room for microtransactions.

At least Geras more than makes up for my four-armed favourite being conspicuously M.I.A. His time-travelling abilities allow him to execute a punch, blink back in time, and execute another attack before my opponent could even find a moment to move. I also liked the beefy, warlock look he had going on which looks particularly slick during fights. Definitely my favourite new character in this game.

Geras warping back in time behind his opponent. Cannot remember who the other is… uhm was…

It also helps that the developers have really gone the extra mile to give MK 11 a truly comprehensive and helpful tutorial segment. They even included a lesson on frame times and hit advantages – something I usually ignored and left to subconscious strategy until I actually paid attention to it in this game.

Best of all, for the really nasty combos and chained assaults the game will actually demo the move on screen with button prompts. I am embarrassed to admit that some combos in previous games took me upwards of an hour to get right. With this new system, it was ten tries tops. As such, newcomers to Mortal Kombat, and fighting games in general, will undoubtedly feel more welcome than ever before.

On the subject of techniques, MK 11 has swapped out X-ray moves for a new system called ‘Fatal Blows’. Like X-ray attacks, they are once-off, deadly attacks taking you microscopically close to your, or your opponent’s, cracking jaw and rupturing internal organs. Except there is one crucial difference: Fatal Blows can only be activated in the last third of your health.

In other words, if the player has only been maintaining a slight lead with their opponent throughout the fight, the last section becomes indescribably tense. You can no longer rely on short-distance techniques or longer combos to win because if you allow even one opportunity to have a Fatal Blow performed on you, you’re toast.

Let us have the talk

So what exactly is the deal with this grind getting everyone all upset? Well, the manner in which MK 11 deals with in-game currency makes us all want to gather our raincoats for the inevitable microtransaction storm that is surely going to hit soon. At the time of writing, MK 11 has very little to offer in the way of DLC on Steam.

Still, something tells me that this will change soon not just because this is the nature of our industry, but because fighting games are also particularly lucrative opportunities for monetisation. They always have been because it is so satisfying seeing no grey blocks on your roster, or adding some cosmetic personality to your favourite fighter.

This is my only major issue with MK 11 because it feels like there is simply too much being gated off from the player when you start the game. Every time I completed a fight, the game goes through a huge pomp and circumstance to inform me of all the different currencies I just earned. Not that the handouts are even that generous mind you.

You read that correctly. This time there is not just the Koins  used to unlock outfits, fatalities and modifiers for tower modes. Even in the Krypt, you now have to juggle multiple kinds of currency units like hearts and soul fragments if you want all off the riches the hidden content has to offer. Oh, and the Krypt chests are randomised so your friend may find a liquid metal suit for Sonya Blade in the same place you get concept art…

Playing around with some of the unlockable skins and finishing moves.

Even though I have never really cared much about cosmetic items in the games I play, I don’t like the sense of gaminess MK 11 creates with the endless pop-ups eagerly informing me how much I have earned. I am playing because I am having fun, and this just feels like Netherrealm is trying to force me into some scheme inevitably leading to microtransactions.

FINISH IT!!

In case that last section threw you off a bit, I want to state again that Mortal Kombat 11 is essentially fighting game perfection. This game is completely saturated with the kind of creative vision that has been the worked into the design of my favourite fighting games. This game looks great, sounds great and feels great.

If Netherrealm vow never to turn the superfluous currencies online into an evil plot of monetisation, I will not need another fighting game for the next ten years at least. Combined with an excellent story, this will become an essential classic in your Mortal Kombat collection.

Remember to check out our Mortal Kombat 11 performance analysis!

Tight and refined combat

Tutorial section

Story

Excellent visuals and sound

Design of new fighters

Temporal fighting abilities

Somewhat limited roster

Too focused on currencies

          Playtime: About 28 hours total. 10 hours on the single player campaign with much of the remaining time spent online.

Computer Specs: Windows 10 64-bit computer using Nvidia GTX 1070, i5 4690K CPU, 16GB RAM – Played using an Xbox Controller (Thanks to my friend Niel for lending me his!!)

Mortal Kombat 11 – Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

[operationrainfall]

Title Darksiders III Developer Gunfire Games Publisher THQ Nordic Release Date November 27th, 2018 Genre Action Platform PC, PS4, XBox One Age Rating M for Mature Official Website

The return of the Darksiders franchise could be considered a victory all on its own. Originally owned by THQ and developed by Vigil Games, the Darksiders franchise saw both a strong effort and favorable reception in its titular first game. With the makings of a successful series on their hands, Darksiders II was released with similar favor, yet fewer than expected sales. THQ would then go on to declare bankruptcy, dissolving Vigil Games and breaking many a hope for the continuation of the Darksiders series. Fans of the franchise, myself included, could only think of the shame this was as we struggled with our disappointment and loss. Fast forward several years and we see the acquisition of the Darksiders trademark by Nordic Games, now THQ Nordic, the passing of the series onto developers Gunfire Games, and, finally, six years later, a brand new installment in our treasured series. In Darksiders III, we see the return of legendary heroes, a vast story full of deceit and tragedy, and unfortunately, many imperfections and shortcomings that plague what could have been an exceptional experience.

No kidding…

Darksiders III, similar to Darksiders II, takes place many years after the beginning of the Apocalypse, but decades before the Darksiders I storyline. War, answering the call of the Four Horsemen, stands accused of prematurely triggering this Apocalypse, which serves as a final showdown between angel and demon, heaven versus hell. With the near complete annihilation of humanity in the process, he now awaits judgment by the Charred Council, a group of powerful beings whose purpose is to maintain balance in creation. Fury, our heroine for this game, returns to the Charred Council and is tasked with the recapture of the Seven Deadly Sins, individuals with immense power who seek to establish their own rule in the now dilapidated creation. With their very existence a threat to the balance, Fury sets off to hunt them down, unraveling a story full of lies and treachery, but with glimmers of self-growth and hope.

Similar to Darksiders I, Darksiders III possesses a straightforward story with a few twists and turns along the way. The overarching mission, the hunting and defeat of the Seven Deadly, takes us across the scoured earth where we will meet many new faces and a few familiar ones on all sides of this timeless, apocalyptic war. Throughout her journey, the narrative begins revealing several of the secrets of the previous games, as well as their present influences. If you played the first game, you will already know what happens in the future, so seeing how certain acts and events affect this moment in the story is intriguing. And of course, being a prequel, many new facets are added to bulk up the overall series plot. This is actually handled fairly well, as the story for this chapter was entertaining enough to keep me engaged until the end. One added element that stands out is humanity, in that there are living humans in this game. After playing the first two games, I thought humanity ended and awaited some form of rebirth or recreation, but, apparently, there are survivors. However, they are ultimately just a device to build Fury’s character. Humans and humanity, despite being built up as a major element to the entire series, are in actuality just terms thrown around and NPCs that don’t do much. They didn’t get the depth to make that implied importance resonate. The rest of the plot plays out somewhat predictably and can get a bit dry at times, but, again, there’s enough mystery and curiosity, as well as a truly surprising twist or two, to keep me going.

What surprises me the most narratively in Darksiders III is its character development. Although subtle and exclusive to Fury, it’s something we didn’t see in the first two games. War and Death are two concrete personalities with little to no growth throughout their campaigns. Fury, however, sees an appreciable evolution. As she discovers more about the events and people around her, she discovers herself too. I think it’s my favorite element of the entire game, in that it’s a new addition to the series and it connects me to Fury in a way I never did with War or Death. Fury, starting off as an arrogant, self-centered fighter who craves battle and couldn’t be bothered with anything not relating to herself, slowly transforms into a strong, dependable character who finds a genuine purpose for her existence and, along with it, a new strength born of compassion. Even if her growth and character depth are lacking compared to other characters from other franchises, it’s noticeable in this series, as it’s something new and unexpected.

Unfortunately, that’s all we get. Other characters, whether they are new or returning, don’t see any valid depth or growth. While they all may be relevant to this story and it’s nice to see what returning characters are up to before the time skip to the first game, none receive any real development. They are introduced and we just have to take them for what they are. For example, the Lord of the Hollows serves as a guide and mentor to Fury, yet his character is incredibly vague. We know he’s knowledgeable, powerful, and disillusioned towards the Charred Council, but that’s it. He seems really important, but we never get that depth or impact to establish him as a series-changing character he was perhaps meant to be. Ulthane, a returning character, is the same sarcastic, good-humored Maker from the first game. And again, I appreciate seeing him in this game with a new role during this time, but again, other than his current purpose, we don’t learn anything new about him, nor does he show any different sides to himself beyond his care for humanity. It’s not even legitimately hinted that he acts out of remorse after what’s revealed in the first game. Finally, there is the Watcher, who aids in Fury’s development as someone Fury can speak and self-reflect with. However, as she serves as a way for Fury to verbally demonstrate her growth, the Watcher herself hardly changes from what she’s meant to be plot-wise. Overall, there was a ton of potential for more character growth by multiple characters, but only Fury receives any memorable development.

Moving onto gameplay, Darksiders III plays similarly to the previous games, in that combat is the focal point. Whether it’s clearing small mobs, taking down multiple strong enemies, or an epic one-on-one fight, combat is a familiar experience. In similar Darksiders fashion, there is a basic combo system in place, in which Fury can pull off various moves. What I especially like is that as the game progresses, Fury will obtain Hollows, allowing her different elemental affinities and new weapons. The variance in weaponry is something I liked in Darksiders II, so seeing a version of that here is appreciated.

Several other mechanics influence gameplay, ranging from platforming, to puzzle solving, to a leveling system. Platforming in this game is a bit dull, as Fury herself isn’t the most mobile or acrobatic character. As you gain Hollows, you’ll be able to propel higher, float, and carve out new paths. Really though, this all adds up to your typical item barrier mechanic that the Zelda or Metroid series are known for. Puzzle solving is also a fairly straightforward endeavor; the only real challenge being the sheer size of some of the rooms that need to be explored beforehand. With huge rooms full of multiple doors and corridors, getting turned around and lost can be an issue. The puzzles themselves aren’t all that difficult or creative and once the right path is found or the right item used, it becomes a routine chore. Finally, related to combat, is a leveling system. As you acquire blue lurchers, the currency for the game, you can give them to Vulgrim to gain attribute points. These points can increase your HP, power, or arcane power, which is the attack power specific to counter and wrath attacks.

The issues I have with gameplay are more than I would have liked, especially after a six year hiatus and the successes of the previous games. In addition to my complaints above, I am upset that this game is painfully linear. There is generally a main path to take with hardly any exploration. Even though some areas are massive rooms with plenty to hide, the general formula of big areas connected by hallways and single paths doesn’t change much. Exploration, which is really just item hunting, happens within these huge spaces. However, open spaces do not equal open world, and in the case of Darksiders III, this is terribly evident. This is an exercise in going from points A to B.

Combat, the major aspect of the game, is also flawed. The basic combo system is just that, basic. Ultimately, many players may end up settling for mashing the attack button. Nothing’s lost from mashing, as the combos themselves aren’t very inspired. Also, combat is almost always a close-quarters affair. Despite using a whip, Fury’s reach and combos are meant for up-close combat. It’s here where we should have seen combos and range play off one another. The only times I really enjoyed combat was against the Seven Deadly. Those battles felt as dangerous and epic as they are meant to be and the only time I was genuinely satisfied. I looked forward to those few battles because outside of those, combat is an uninspired, repetitive process, barely saved by the few great battles and variance in weaponry.

Another issue I have is the difficulty scaling. Although this is not the level scaling seen in The Elder Scrolls games, the increase in enemy attributes and difficulty are irritatingly implemented. Naturally, enemies will become tougher as you progress through each area and to stay capable of surviving, you need to raise your attributes. My issue here is that the extent in which enemy difficulty is raised belittles your efforts of leveling, as well as improving your arms and armor. Unless you flat out grind, it will feel like the same amount of, or sometimes even more, work is needed to defeat enemies and clear areas, despite all of your supposed progress. I wish improvements to attributes, arms, and armor all had more impact and substance to them. Instead, it feels like you’re not making any significant progress in growth and development. It still takes effort to kill minor enemies and they can still kill you in the same, average 5-10 hits, even fewer for stronger and boss enemies. It degrades the attribute system and any means of improvement. I felt Darksiders I did it right; even though later mobs were tough, War could take plenty of hits and still dish out heavy damage. Fury’s potential and improvements are just as soon cancelled out, so it leaves me feeling dissatisfied. If you don’t level up or improve your gear, however, you will suffer from it, so it’s a necessity, yet it still fails to add senses of achievement or growth. It’s not broken in any sense, but it definitely feels cheap rather than feeling like proper challenge.

The last few issues I have with gameplay are in regards to build and implementation. During my play, I noticed several framerate drops. For me, this occurred while I was in more open areas with many textures rendered and several enemy mobs attacking. In my playthrough, this happened equally during the beginning and latter half of the game and even though it wasn’t often, it was enough for me to comment on it. My biggest gripe, though, is the camera. The camera will do you zero favors in this game. If you’re near a wall or in corner, the camera loves to zoom in, preventing you from seeing anything else but Fury’s torso. The camera also doesn’t let you manually zoom out and this is especially annoying when surrounded by enemies. The majority of times you take minor damage, it will be due to enemies behind you and the camera. There is a lock-on system in combat, but other enemies will continue attacking, breaking combos or getting several cheap hits on you before you can ever swing your whip in retaliation. Now I’m not against having multiple enemies attacking, as this in of itself can provide more challenge. Yet, I think I prefer the combat style of Darksiders I, as when you’re locked-on an enemy, the others tend to hold back more. However, that style matched that game’s preference of fewer, but more engaging fights, versus here where there are just a few too many minor hordes that require a bit too much effort to clear. It’s tough to enjoy a good battle if you’re constantly looking over your shoulder and wrestling the camera to make sure you can fight properly. Simply put, the implementation needed to be stronger. Overall, the few gameplay strengths are cancelled out by its flaws, providing a study in pure mediocrity.

At least the characters and the lighting, too, are impressive

Mediocrity seems to be the magic word, as they reflect my feelings for Darksiders III’s aesthetics too. Visually, Darksiders III is exactly how you would imagine it. Backgrounds and environmental aesthetics are what you would expect from an apocalyptic dystopia. We’ve seen this for three games now and yes, the visuals are form fitting, yet they fail to offer anything new, unique, or outstanding. The graphics quality is fairly strong, so it feels like a wasted chance to utilize strong graphics to build up a more appealing effort. Having said that, I am very impressed with all of the character models. Fury looks awesome. She’s perfectly depicted as the capable, violent badass we come to know. I love her base design and I appreciate her appearance changes via the Hollows. Even the subtle details, like the accents on her armor, the color and lighting changes via the Hollows, or the acquired items that hang from her waist, I am thoroughly impressed with Fury’s looks. I am equally impressed with the bigger enemies, especially the Seven Deadly. From huge and grotesque to sleek and regal, the designs of the bosses are fantastic. They easily fit the sins they represent and just by their looks I was pumped to fight them. I wish that level of effort for character designs and intricate details was the same for the world designs, as it would have propelled this game’s overall visuals immensely.

Audibly, again, there are pros and cons. The voice acting is solid, as Cissy Jones gives dimension to Fury that matches well with her development arc. Jones does an excellent job of bring to life Fury’s multiple sides and vast array of feelings that War and Death lacked. But beyond Fury, it’s all lackluster. The Seven Deadly typically give cliché lines that don’t add anything to the mood. The NPCs suffer the curse of recycled, overused, generic lines that are as bothersome as an arrow to the knee. The voice actors themselves are great, but could and should have been better utilized. Musically, there is not a single memorable song in its soundtrack. Overuse of “artistic” silence and tunes that fail to catch your attention, the soundtrack might as well not have been implemented in the first place. That’s all I can really say about it; it’s that uninspiring. Strong pros muddled by too many cons make Darksiders III’s aesthetic appeal sorely average.

So yes, we got another Darksiders and perhaps that in itself is a victory. I only wish the experience was stronger in its entirety instead of feeling like a first effort. The first Darksiders, a true first effort, was a stronger production overall, which only makes this game’s flaws more evident. There is still plenty of enjoyment to be had and long-term fans will most definitely find and appreciate it. Truly though, I had high expectations for Darksiders III and can only hope this is just a one-time exception in what will hopefully be a longer-lasting series.

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[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3″]

Review Copy Purchased by Author

REVIEW: Darksiders III Title Darksiders III

[shakeel786blog]

Golmaal Again Review – Bollywood Hungama

While there have been a lot of comedy films in Bollywood, horror comedy as a genre is rarely explored in Bollywood. BHOOL BHULAIYAA was one such rare attempt and it was loved big time. In recent times, GREAT GRAND MASTI also dealt with horror but it was more of a sex comedy than exactly a horror comedy. TUTAK TUTAK TUTIYA on the other hand never found awareness due to bad marketing campaign and as expected, sank without a trace. Now makers of GOLMAAL AGAIN take up the challenge of giving the audience a combo of laughs and terror. So does it give the audience a great time? Or does it fail to impress? Let’s analyse

GOLMAAL AGAIN is the story of five friends who encounter strange occurrences when they visit their orphanage. Gopal (Ajay Devgn), Madhav (Arshad Warsi), Lucky (Tusshar Kapoor), Laxman Prasad Apte (Shreyas Talpade) and Laxman Sharma (Kunal Kemmu) are orphans who grew up in an orphanage owned by Jamnadas (Uday Tikekar). As kids, they were close to each other but then they became rivals. Gopal and Laxman Prasad Apte separated while Madhav, Lucky and Laxman Sharma went their own way. When they all grew up, they start working with land sharks and their job revolved around getting the plots vacated. This also created further friction among them. But when they learn that Jamnadas has passed away, they decide to iron out their differences and go together to the orphanage to pay their respects. They stay at Colonel Chouhan’s (Sachin Khedekar) bungalow located right next to Jamnadas Orphanage, where their childhood friend Anna (Tabu) is also residing. Anna has a special power – she can communicate with the dead. At the Colonel’s bungalow, Gopal gets attracted to the caretaker Damini (Parineeti Chopra). Meanwhile, Vasu Reddy (Prakash Raj), a builder and a close friend of Jamnadas announces that Jamnadas gave away the land to him where the orphanage is situated. He also says that he has decided to shift the kids at Bengaluru where he’ll provide them with better facilities. Gopal is ghost-fearing person and he starts to see the spirit of Jamnadas’s dead daughter (Ashwini Kalsekar). However, the truth is something else and when the five friends find out, it shocks them like never before. What is that truth and what happens next forms the rest of the film.

GOLMAAL AGAIN is drastically different from the previous GOLMAAL films, not just because of the horror element. There’s a lot more drama and emotional moments than what one would expect. However, it works more or less although few sequences lack punch, especially in the second hour. The first half is 1.30 hours long and neatly incorporates comedy, madness and also the horror bit. One of the highpoints of the film is how Gopal, Laxman and Lucky get possessed and start speaking like Nana Patekar. It’s sure to bring the house down! Also hilarious is the sequence where the five friends fight over samosa. But the best is reserved for the intermission point – the film reaches on a high in this sequence! The second half however gets a bit serious although Pandu’s (Vrajesh Hirjee) sequence provides laughs. The climax is well helmed but audiences might have reservations since they must have ventured into the theatre expecting an out and out comic caper.

Rohit Shetty‘s story is interesting and a bit complicated thanks to so many characters. But it’s put together well. Yunus Sajawal’s screenplay does justice to this complex storyline. The horror is such that it won’t scare the hell out of viewers. At the same time, it’s not even amateur. A nice balance is maintained and that’s definitely praiseworthy. Few sequences however are taken from the previous GOLMAAL films, especially GOLMAAL 3. A section of audience however might not like that as the jokes get repetitive. Farhad-Sajid’s dialogues are hilarious and provide laughter. But shockingly, at a few places, they fall flat. This is especially in the beginning portions of Babli (Sanjay Mishra). Rohit Shetty’s direction is interesting and it’s good to see him trying to attempt something different. Notice the flashback sequence in the second half when a prominent character is killed and it’s depicted in black and white. Also, the sequence where Lucky, Madhav and the two Laxmans are reading the diary while Gopal is out there fighting the baddies. These sequences are executed very well and it shows that Rohit has evolved.

Ajay Devgn delivers a fine performance and it works, although it’s not something that he has not done before. He’s quite good in the dramatic portions in the second half. Parineeti Chopra has a crucial character and from the first sequence itself, there’s an element of mystery surrounding her character that adds to the fun. She looks beautiful and does a good job. Arshad Warsi is quite nice in his wicked avatar. Tusshar Kapoor impresses a lot with his mute act and also, as said above, he takes the cake in the scene where he gets possessed. Shreyas Talpade leaves a mark thanks to his lisp which contributes to laughter at several places. Kunal Kemmu gets a bit lost in the crowd but nevertheless, gets a chance to show his worth. Tabu is restrained and underplays her part very well. Neil Nitin Mukesh is too good in the negative part. It suits him well. Prakash Raj plays the baddie nicely but his comic timing is brilliant. The sequence where he dances like a madman will be loved for sure. Johny Lever too gives a performance that would provide entertainment. His speech during Jamnadas’s ‘tervi’ is hilarious. Sanjay Mishra is funny but only at places. Vrajesh Hirjee repeats his act and is fair. Mukesh Tiwari, Ashwini Kalsekar, Murli Sharma, Sachin Khedekar, Uday Tikekar and Vijay Patkar are good in their cameo appearances.

The music of the film is strictly average. The Title Track is exciting and same goes for ‘Maine Tujhko Dekha’. ‘Hum Nahi Sudhrenge’ is decent while ‘Itna Sannata Kyun Hai’ is played during end credits. Amar Mohile’s background score is exhilarating especially in the post-interval scenes. Bunty Nagi’s editing is nothing special. Jomon T John’s cinematography is satisfactory. Sunil Rodrigues’s action and Rohit Shetty’s action design is appealing although it’s not novel. One has seen it before in Rohit’s own films. Also, the trademark cars toppling and explosion sequences are missing. Swapnil Bhalerao, Tajamul Shaikh and Madhur Madhavan’s production design is very nicely done and noticeable. N Y VFXwaala’s visual effects are rich.

On the whole GOLMAAL AGAIN is an ideal fun ride which delivers ample entertainment quotient without any logic. An out-and-out entertainer, it’s sure to light up the celebratory festive mood. At the box office, the movie has all it takes to emerge as a sure-fire hit although the real test of the film will begin post Monday.

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[takenews-blog1]

The 50 most anticipated video games of 2018

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The 50 most anticipated video games of 2018

In relation to video games, this previous yr goes to be a tough act to observe. However 2018 is skipping onto the stage with a flourish of promising titles.

Huge sequels like The Final of Us Half 2 and Pink Useless Redemption 2 are prone to seem. Extremely artistic oddities like The place the Water Tastes Like Wine and Wattam are shifting up for launch. Multiplayer video games like Anthem, Crackdown three and Sea of Thieves need to change the way in which we play collectively.

This listing was put collectively by the entire Polygon workforce and is, after all, subjective. Tell us, in feedback, which video games you’re most trying ahead to in 2018.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

Set in a lush, alien world, BioWare’s open-world monster shooter embraces loot drops, as gamers search to improve exosuits and weapons. With the sport focused for launch within the fall, there’ll be a heavy emphasis on in-game occasions and shared-world, squad-based challenges.

Nintendo Swap, PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

Koei Tecmo’s fight sport is predicated on the second season of the anime sequence, wherein human-eating giants assault fortified cities. Based on the sport’s builders, this sequel to the 2016 authentic will function extra story and extra choices for gamers who like their enemies to be tremendous robust. It’s set to reach in March.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

Created by Hazelight Studios, led by the person behind the excellent Brothers: A Story of Two Sons, this two-player co-op sport is about two males attempting to interrupt out of jail. It’s set within the early 1970s and makes use of a wide range of gameplay set-ups, reminiscent of capturing, driving, crawling and fixing different bodily issues. It’s out on March 23.

PC

The unique BattleTech’s creator, Jordan Weisman, is heading up the workforce behind this newest tackle mech fight. It’s a turn-based technique sport, which attracted greater than $2.7 million on Kickstarter. Gamers assemble a workforce of mechs, and prepare up sufficient pilots to create a cohesive combating power.

PlayStation four

Introduced at Paris Video games Week, this beautiful sport comes from the makers of Entwined. It’s a few teenage artist who explores his gloomy hometown, utilizing a magic quill to create residing artwork in an effort to defeat a gang of bullies.

Home windows PC, Xbox One

Initially scheduled for launch in 2016, this oft-delayed open world sport is all about mayhem and destruction in metropolis environments. If you happen to like to interrupt skyscrapers, that is in all probability for you, particularly in multiplayer environments the place destruction is extra free-flowing than within the marketing campaign.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

A sequel to Ubisoft’s open-world auto-racer from 2014, this isn’t nearly racing vehicles. Just about something with an engine is on supply, together with airplanes, grime bikes, boats and excessive efficiency sports activities vehicles on closed tracks. The open-world avenue racing of the unique can also be included.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

On this third-person platform hack-n-slash, gamers tackle the function of Fury, an “unpredictable and enigmatic” member of the 4 Horsemen. Fury wields a magical bladed whip, whereas she explores colourful, post-apocalyptic environments, fixing development puzzles alongside the way in which.

PlayStation four

This choose-you-own-narrative sport is a stacked matrix of potential outcomes, based mostly on a world wherein androids serve humanity. Created by David Cage (developer of Heavy Rain and Past: Two Souls), it is a story that tries to place the participant within the function of storyteller.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

Arriving on Jan. 26, Dragon Ball FighterZ is a 2.5D fighter from Arc System Works. It duties gamers with forming a workforce of fighters, based mostly on characters from the Dragon Ball anime sequence, and controlling one in every of them in flip. Combo sequences yield particular upgrades, reminiscent of well being regeneration.

PlayStation four

From the makers of LittleBigPlanet, this beautiful world stars somewhat imp who travels by impressionist landscapes, fixing puzzles through merchandise assortment, bodily skills and possession of different characters. The sport’s marketing campaign is designed to encourage sharing of player-created sport worlds, whereas the actual meat appears to lie in these creation instruments.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

Developer Iron Galaxy is greatest recognized for combating video games like Killer Intuition and Divekick. However Extinction is all about battling 150-foot ogres as they stomp and destroy numerous places, together with cities and forests. The participant should additionally save quaking people from the incoming menace, so there’s loads of exploration and route-finding. It’s out on March 31.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

The most recent set up in Ubisoft’s open world fight sequence takes place in rural Montana, the place a demagogue is controlling the native inhabitants. Gamers device up with weapons, devices and automobiles to take down enemy outposts utilizing stealth, smarts and brute violence. It’s out on March 27.

Nintendo Swap, PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

Developed by Swedish outfit Zoink, Fe is a symbolic private fantasy that brings to thoughts highly effective video games like Journey and Shadow of the Colossus. It stars a fox-like creature who seeks to guard the forest by enlisting animal allies by audible calls.

PC, PlayStation four

Two mates discover surreal islands, manipulating time to unravel puzzles. Every island is plagued by giant-sized variations of on a regular basis objects: online game consoles, walkie-talkies, recycling bins, soda bottles, Jenga blocks and extra. It’s being developed by The Voxel Brokers.

PlayStation four

On this rebirth of a much-favored PlayStation franchise, huge brawler Kratos has developed right into a doting dad. This doesn’t imply he goes all gentle on the giants and monsters he fights. It simply means his child comes alongside for the trip. Developed with sturdy action-RPG overtones by Sony’s Santa Monica studio, it’s scheduled to reach within the subsequent few months.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

Frontier Developments’ dinosaur park administration sim lets gamers run their very own Jurassic Park, bio-engineering new dinosaur breeds whereas constructing points of interest, containment amenities and analysis labs. It’ll seemingly launch in the summertime, across the time the film, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, hits theaters.

PlayStation four, Xbox One

Celebrating its umpteenth look in ‘video games to look at this yr’ tales, Tetsuya Nomura’s journey options characters from Disney and Pixar in a grand and colourful journey involving leaping, capturing, casting magic and combating towards enemies, huge and small.

Nintendo Swap

On this first new Kirby sport for Swap, our rotund hero is joined by as much as three teammates in a sideways-view platform sport. In trailers launched by Nintendo, Kirby is seen combining skills to create assaults with all the occasion, whereas utilizing teamwork to unravel puzzles.

Home windows PC, PlayStation four

The primary launch from new outfit Foam Sword Video games carries excessive expectations. It’s being created by workforce members with a historical past at Media Molecule, and the sport’s vivid artwork model reveals these roots. It’s a puzzle journey set in a childhood world harking back to The Goonies.

PlayStation four

Set 5 years after the unique, this post-apocalyptic fight journey is performed by Ellie, a personality who was initially a sidekick. With anticipation for this title so excessive, developer Naughty Canine hasn’t revealed a lot concerning the sport, however we are able to anticipate it to be handsome and intensely violent.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC

Former Steel Gear character designer Yoji Shinkawa is concerned on this Sq. Enix shooter. Judging from the restricted gameplay we’ve seen in trailers, Konami’s sequence is a particular affect. With the sport set within the Entrance Mission universe, there’s a touch of stealth motion as gamers attempt to take down big mechs.

Home windows PC

This single-player and cooperative multiplayer card sport is a digital launch based mostly on the profitable Lord of the Rings: The Card Sport. It’s going for the market dominated by the likes of Hearthstone, though card-packs aren’t random, as a substitute being based mostly on recognized mixtures.

Home windows PC

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries, introduced at MechCon a yr in the past, would be the first MechWarrior sport with a single-player marketing campaign in additional than 15 years. It’s being developed by Piranha Video games, greatest recognized for MechWarrior On-line. Gamers take management of big mechs in first-person capturing matches, with four-player co-op supported.

Nintendo Swap, PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

Capcom’s newest addition to the long-running sequence is a side-scrolling motion platformer within the vein of the earlier Mega Man video games, however with 3D visuals. Engaged on the title are producer Kazuhiro Tsuchiya and director Koji Oda, each veterans of Capcom and the Mega Man sequence.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

This survival spinoff of Steel Gear Stable 5: Floor Zeroes is the primary Steel Gear sport to be launched for the reason that fraught divorce between Konami and Hideo Kojima. It takes place in an alternate actuality, the place members of Large Boss’ Militaires Sans Frontières have been transported off-world through wormhole. The planet on which the troopers now discover themselves is infested with crystalline zombie-like creatures.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

Beginning in a grim wasteland model of Moscow, inhabited by mutants, this sharp-looking shooter picks up the place Metro: Final Gentle ended. Gamers will ultimately depart Moscow and discover new areas providing unfamiliar settings. Pleasant faces from earlier entries within the sequence additionally reappear.

PC

An indie sport from Meowza Video games, this Animal Crossing-like journey is bursting with cuteness. Gamers inhabit a land of cats, as they go about managing a market stall: exploring, crafting and gathering assets.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

We had a hands-on session with Capcom’s sport earlier this yr, in addition to an extended play session, and got here away deeply impressed. Monster Hunter: World follows the sequence’ tracking-and-hunting system, however with helpful additions to weapons and crafting in addition to seamless maps. It’s out on consoles on Jan. 26, with the PC model coming later.

PlayStation four

An up to date and expanded fight system may make this story-based RPG interesting to gamers who discovered the unique heavy going. However the core worth of Studio Ghibli-like animation and tone continues to be there. Developed by Stage-5, this sport is the story of a boy king who groups up with allies to reclaim his throne.

PlayStation four, Xbox One

Rockstar’s Western-themed motion sport will seemingly be one of many yr’s highest grossing hits. It’s a prequel to the 2010 launch. Gamers tackle the function of an outlaw as he ranges round an open world, elevating hell on horseback.

PC

Created by Lucas Pope, maker of Papers, Please, this startlingly monochrome thriller sport is ready aboard an deserted 19th century ship. The participant takes on the function of an insurance coverage adjuster who explores the vessel to seek out out the destiny of its crew.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

This technique world-building sport spans the historical past of steam locomotives in america, starting across the 1830s and lasting for one more 100 years, till the approaching of diesel engines. It’s out on Jan. 26.

Home windows PC, Xbox One

Uncommon’s squad-based journey takes place on the excessive seas, the place gamers cooperate as pirates: steering, capturing, pillaging and looting. It’s an formidable undertaking, to make certain, however we’ve had enjoyable taking part in the sport at any time when it’s been on present. It’s out on March 20.

Unconfirmed title

The title of this sport has but to be confirmed, although teasers and leaks make a convincing case that Lara Croft’s subsequent journey makes use of the phrase “shadow” in its title. Introduced late within the yr, this sport is promised to be launched comparatively quickly. Sq. Enix says it needs a shorter ready interval between first introduction and arrival. The final Tomb Raider sport was launched two years after it was first introduced. A brand new Tomb Raider film can also be popping out in 2018.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

After years of teasing, writer Bandai Namco introduced the long-awaited sequel in its weapons-based combating sport sequence just a few weeks in the past. It’ll be launched in time for the sequence’ 20th anniversary. The primary Soulcalibur got here to arcades in 1998, so it’s becoming that this sport can pay homage to the unique, when it comes to fight design and characters.

PlayStation four

Insomniac’s first foray right into a licensed sport is an open-world fight, stealth and parkour title, making use of Spider-Man’s particular skills. Comparisons have been made with Batman’s much-loved Arkham sequence, which makes liberal use of assorted set-piece occasions. The sport is being constructed on a modified model of Sundown Overdrive’s engine.

Home windows PC, Xbox One

4-player co-op was the primary thrust of Microsoft’s E3 presentation for State of Decay 2 this yr, as gamers labored collectively to outlive a zombie apocalypse. The primary State of Decay, additionally from Undead Labs, launched again in 2013 and was well-received.

PC, PlayStation four, Xbox One

Nightdive’s remake of the 1994 first-person sci-fi basic opens up some areas within the authentic in addition to tidying up dialog and filling plot holes. Constructed on Unreal Engine, the sport raised greater than $1.three million on Kickstarter.

PlayStation four

Tennis World Tour is being developed as a non secular successor to 2K Video games’ Prime Spin franchise by individuals who labored on that sequence at 2K Czech. It options licensed professionals like France’s Gaël Monfils and Switzerland’s Roger Federer.

Nintendo Swap

No Extra Heroes is returning as a Swap unique. Grasshopper Manufacture’s fight sport will as soon as once more star Travis Landing, the star of the earlier No Extra Heroes video games. The primary one launched again in 2007 on Nintendo Wii, whereas a sequel adopted in 2010.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

The most recent entry in Kalypso’s political administration simulation goes to be harder than its 2014 predecessor. As a dictator, it’s the participant’s job to maintain warring factions completely happy, lest they gang-up and throw a coup. Political speech-making additionally makes a return, providing alternatives for the type of fatuous, dishonest self-aggrandizement liked by tinpot authoritarians.

Home windows PC

Earlier this yr, Whole Struggle developer The Artistic Meeting introduced plans to create a derivative sequence of its historic technique video games, targeted on pivotal moments in historical past relatively than entire historic eras. This primary entry is all concerning the Viking assaults on Britain.

PlayStation four, Xbox One

Distinctive watercolor visuals are coming again with a brand new story on this Japanese RPG sequence. It takes place in a struggle, vaguely harking back to early 20th century conflicts, on the continent of Europa. It includes a new class of soldier, the grenadier. The sport is sticking to its roots of a turn-based, strategy-style battle system.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

Dontnod’s Vampyr is a third-person motion role-playing sport set in 1918 London. Gamers tackle the function of a doctor known as Jonathan Reid who can also be a vampire. Reid goes in the hunt for victims, scoping out targets. However he has a conscience, so gamers can select fastidiously who they want to kill, and might even play the sport with out killing anybody.

Nintendo Swap, PC

A side-scroller with a fight system pushed by music, Wandersong stars a bard who defeats enemies and clear up puzzles utilizing his singing voice alone. We took a take a look at the sport earlier this yr, and got here away impressed with its Night time within the Woods vibe.

Home windows PC

Sam Barlow, the creator of Polygon’s 2015 sport of the yr, Her Story, is engaged on a re-imagining of 1983 Chilly Struggle thriller WarGames. Set within the fashionable world, the narrative selections sport stars a hacker known as Kelly who has the talents to ask tough questions on how protected we’re in a world dominated by pc networks.

PlayStation four, Home windows PC, Xbox One

Wattam, the following sport from Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy creator Keita Takahashi together with studio Funomena, is all about friendship. Gamers tackle the function of a city mayor who solves puzzles and befriends flowers, rocks, greens and bizarre stuff, creating an exploratory world of colour and motion.

Home windows PC

Created by former The Fullbright Firm developer Johnnemann Nordhagen, this sport attracts affect from novels reminiscent of Grapes of Wrath and On the Street, in addition to folks songs. It’s about exploring a dream-like different America, assembly characters alongside the way in which

Nintendo Swap

The final Yoshi sport launched by Nintendo was Yoshi’s Woolly World in Oct. 2015 for the Wii U. Introduced throughout E3, this new title provides a well-recognized world the place our previous, lovely pal runs by a sequence of ranges, interacting with gadgets alongside the way in which. Nevertheless, the participant’s view could be flipped, to see something hiding behind objects. Nintendo has but to announce a ultimate title for the sport.

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Soulcalibur VI review | Rock Paper Shotgun

Developer: Bandai Namco Studios Writer: Bandai Namco Leisure

Launch: Out now On: PC From: Steam Value: £50, $60, €60

That is Hooves. He likes to stab and parry and slash and communicate in an alien tongue about how good he’s in any respect of these issues. Hooves additionally enjoys setting people on hearth, and paralysing individuals with horrifying runes, which has led some observers (me) to dub him “Horse Geralt” after the hero of The Witcher three. Unbeknownst to Hooves, he is a clone of the Witcher. That’s proper, poor horsey doesn’t even know who daddy is.

Though this backstory of Hooves’ is my very own dumb invention, it’s no extra fanciful than any of the opposite tales in preventing sport Soulcalibur VI, a rampant, fun-loving area of swordplay and silliness.

To get one thing out of the way in which: I’m a preventing video games dabbler. An indignant wee toad, not a champion. I wouldn’t swear on a replica of Road Fighter II in court docket, however I benefit from the odd bust-up in Tekken 7 or For Honor or Absolver. There’s a tense satisfaction in memorising the appropriate button-slaps for a vaulting deathkick or a flurry of needle-like pokes. And much more satisfaction in stunning your self, and finishing up these dance-like combos in the course of sloppy battle towards some nervy skeleton in a giant costume. However extra on the odd warriors of this explicit preventing sport in a second. First, we should contemplate the constancy of its stabbing. That’s crucial.

The fundamentals are easy sufficient. There are horizontal assaults, vertical assaults, kicks and a guard button. It’s simple stuff, largely. Every character’s movelist is split into totally different pages. A single web page provides you all their predominant assaults: the slashes and lunges and heelstomps you’ll discover most helpful. It’s a strong introduction to every swordsperson. Maxi is a dandy who likes to hit individuals with nunchaku, for instance, after which he does a somersault, most likely from pleasure. Xianghua is a lady with a wobbly sword. She is blood kind B, and likes to carry out the next strikes: murdering you.

There’s additionally an honest tutorial constructed into the “Libra of Soul” mode. This can be a sort-of-RPG through which you journey round a map preventing pc enemies for factors. It’s largely good for studying the fundamentals by preventing an AI sensei early within the journey, who tells you the best way to parry correctly. All these educating strategies and coaching modes make the sport really feel like a great place to shuffle into the Soulcalibur world, and for a Tekken boy like me, that’s largely true. However being a Tekken boy, I’m additionally immunised towards a sure flaw of 3D fighters: terrible storytelling.

The story mode here’s a dangerous anime folded upon itself a number of occasions, like a soggy origami crane. Every character will get their very own paper sculpture of cringey dialogue and scatterbrained plot on prime of the vanilla marketing campaign. For loreheads, perhaps there’s something in these tales, however there wasn’t for me. And I’m guessing even followers care little about Xianghua’s quest for the sword of legend, or Kilik’s quest for the sword of legend, or Taki’s quest for the– you get the concept. The actual thrill is within the sidestep, the parry, the launcher.

Right here’s the place it will get complicated. Coming from Tekken or Road Fighter, the hidden sport of rock-paper-scissors-guard-throw-break-parry-reversal-counter leaves me a bit feverish. In multiplayer, the sport throws all its weight at you quickly sufficient. Making an attempt to take care of the onslaught, I delved deeper into the coaching modes, and shortly lumps of jargon have been sticking to my eyelids like gore. Deadly hits, guard impacts, reversal edge, run counters, soul cost, reverse impacts. Razzle dazzle preventing sport terminology. It’s nothing a diehard biffer received’t have the ability to swallow in a single gulp, however a slowpoke similar to I wants a little bit of time to sup.

However studying is nice. And you may solely actually study within the ring. Right here, glowing results and pop-up notes spotlight the risks. I do know when Nightmare (giant, impolite man whose solely good friend is a sword with a watch) spouts flames that he’s charging up an unblockable assault. I do know when Seong Mi-na (unremarkable lady everybody within the village needs to marry) twirls her pointy Guandao above her head that she is “soul charged” and can now do extra-damaging strikes. I do know when Cervantes (zombie pirate and creator of Don Quixote) strikes me with a crimson slash it means a “reversal edge”.

This can be a good ‘un, the previous reversal edge. It’s a cinematic second through which every participant has to decide to a single assault, or carry out a feisty dodge. It’s nice stuff, particularly whenever you each go for a similar transfer, clanging off one another and leaping again in a panic, earlier than taking yet another hectic guess. It’s a bit extra sophisticated than rock, paper, scissors. However mainly: a sideways slice will beat somebody attempting to kick you, a kick will beat somebody attempting to hack into you with a vertical hit, and a vertical chop will beat somebody swinging from the facet.

However when this and different strikes are all combined collectively by a well-trained participant, I fall to items. Which means two issues: I have to get higher. And that is extra sophisticated than it first seems to be.

Right here’s the place the “fight classes” are neat. These are small “the best way to” manuals for every assassin. They’re dry textual content dumps however in addition they break down the essential technique for every character. I thumbed by the recommendation for stick-swinging Kilik, for instance, and discovered the best way to maintain foes at vary with a handful of staple strikes: extensive, sweeping swings of his bo employees. Positive sufficient, after I went into an actual battle with that mentality, it labored. Wanting by Horse Geralt’s fight classes, I see that some strikes whip out his silver sword, which does extra harm to opponents pumped stuffed with soul cost. In different phrases, a great way to place down a raging bull of a participant.

These are the small print you usually have to search for in YouTube movies stuffed with impenetrable chess-like notations. I like these movies, however I’m glad to have some fundamentals defined within the sport itself, as a result of I’m an fool. 4 paragraphs in the past I wrote a couple of Guandao. I had no concept it was known as that. I needed to look it up by googling “chiense spear” [sic].

However I’ve been dancing across the true great thing about Soulcalibur VI lengthy sufficient. The character creator is the true star of this sport. It’s a feast of potentialities, providing you a bunch of fantasy races to base your character on, then forcing you to repeat and paste the preventing model of a predominant character into their slider-born physique. I’ve made a complete gang of lizard lads, and photographed them as in the event that they have been indulging in some reptilian stag do. I’ve created total Halloween boybands, mummies in waistcoats, orcs in hotpants, a skeleton with a bandana.

But all that is nothing in comparison with the hideous creativeness of the internet-at-large. Any individual has made Marge Simpson. Any individual made a Xenomorph. There’s Zoidberg and The Hulk and “Sexy Venom”. There are such a lot of good issues. Right here is Spiderman preventing a fully-functioning Magikarp.

The moment-to-moment preventing is robust stuff. While you and an opponent get right into a string of blocks and geese and parries, it takes on the power of a lethal tennis rally, and that’s all I actually demand from a preventing sport: a handsome injection of adrenaline. But it surely’s the preposterous and fantastic character creator that makes the entire thing stand out, offering sufficient daftness to take the sting of that adrenal hit. For lengthy stretches, I put aside the shoulder-hunching stress of ranked mode and simply frolicked in informal rooms, preventing shapeshifters and stone individuals and elves and inappropriately proportioned rabbit girls. Though, that model of fighter isn’t restricted to participant creations.

Leeriness is hard-coded into this sport. Girl swordsters duel with boobs akimbo, nipples perking by their leotards, asses clamouring to flee the claustrophobic boundaries of a HD monitor. Pull off the appropriate strikes and you’ll hit your opponent so arduous that their garments come off or deteriorate, and although this impacts all fighters, it’s arduous to not elevate a sceptical eyebrow at such a schoolboy characteristic, seemingly designed to let gamers lech a glimpse at Sophitia’s sideboob. None of this takes away from the clashing of spear and dagger, the standard of the preventing itself, however it nonetheless feels immature and embarrassing.

This lizard with a dick is ok although.

In all, I’m happy by my scrappy fights, and my tutelage of Hooves the horse man continues. One unhappy factor to notice is that £50 is a excessive worth, a fandom worth, and that’s a pity. As a result of the character creator, thorough tutorials and RPG-ish story modes are an open-armed invitation to people who would possibly usually run away from preventing video games with their arms flailing. I think about lapsed followers too, these bizarre vampires and demons and nightmarish Sonics would possibly assume to themselves: “I used to like Soulcalibur. Possibly I might…” However then they’ll see the worth tag, and all that good will and Dreamcast nostalgia will vanish like a closed browser tab.

If that’s you, I can’t blame you. You could possibly purchase a smelly armchair from Greg down the highway for £50, and also you’d most likely get simply as a lot adrenaline and problem from getting that into your third flooring house as you’ll preventing one other terrifying Voldo to the demise. However the second this goes on sale, good friend, the very second it drops its guard – you slice open your pockets and let it bleed. Since you’ll by no means have a good friend like Hooves.

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