Week in Review - April 24th to 28th

Welcome back to the weekend and this Week's in Review!

Monday Jed shared his time with The Silver Case and gave it a shiny score. Check out why!

"The Silver Case, more than any virtual art piece I've experienced this year, is a product of its time. It is a reflection and speculation on the technological potential and cultural paranoia that partially defines the digital revolution and, more specifically, global internet culture from the late 90's to the present day."

- Jedediah

---

On Tuesday I shared my even more unforgiving experience with The Banner Saga 2 and I loved it more than the first. Now? Just have to wait for the third.

"One thing that I noticed off the bat is the graphical quality of the second entry is higher than the first. The same incredible art style is back but it looks more crisp and the accompanying text is both larger, an issue that I had with the first, and much more legible. Already things were looking up and it only got better from there."

- Pierre-Yves

---

Wednesday Richard ventured back to the world of Busty Ninja's with Senran Kagura: Estival Versus. The quote below sums it up!

"Welcome to the world of Senran Kagura: Estival Versus, a tropical land of ninjas, boobs, butts, bad puns, and repressed emotional trauma!" *Editor Note: Pretty much sums up my time with the series to a varying degree of depth to the storylines.*

- Richard

---

Only four months into the year and I've already found another of my Games of the Year. Cosmic Star Heroine is that good.

"Technological metropolises, backwards shady deserts, ghost infested ore mines and high class casinos where you meet a robot Freddy Mercury that joins your party. They have a robot Freddy Mercury!"

- Pierre-Yves

---

Finally yesterday saw another entry into the Square Enix Collective with a Preview of the currently in Early Access Oh My Godheads. Not to be confused with Oh! My Goddess. I need to pick this one up.

"I'm really looking forward to seeing where this game ends up, and I'm sure I'll be bringing it out for party games really often."

- Richard

---

Last and certainly not least, "last" Sunday we had out latest bite sized entry with a look at Sunday Bites - Gataela: An Early-Victorian/Steampunk RPG.

"From what can be seen from the Demo, Gataela is already shaping out to be a great experience. Gameplay, character interactions, battle and exploration are all smooth and the dialog is well written."

- Pierre-Yves

Article by Pierre-Yves

Read More

Oh My Godheads - PC Preview

As advertised, Oh My Godheads is "the world's first capture the head action game for 1-4 players", and I can't think of any way to refute that statement. Oh My Godheads has you and up to three other AI or human controlled players battling it out in a sort of "capture the flag" style match, except instead of flags (mostly), you have to cart around giant deity heads, that are still alive and very angry.

There are five modes currently available: capture the head, king of the head, headhunters, last man standing, and trials. Most of these are fairly self-explanatory; capture the head has you grab the head and bring it back to your base, king of the head is "hold the head for X number of seconds", headhunters is more like pvp combat without the heads, last man standing is headhunters except you only have one chance, and trials are various challenges that range from easy to "godsdamnit, no".

Controls are basic and the game is easy to get into, which is good because there isn't really much of an explanation on anything. You literally just have to jump in and try stuff out. For anyone who's curious, you have a melee attack, a dash attack, "exploding pies" that you can throw, as well as a jump and a dodge. I'd suggest checking out the "controls" menu to figure out what buttons/keys do what.

Since most of the modes are similar to what you'd expect I'll use the featured mode of Capture the Head as the defining play style. Once you've found some friends, or decided on AI companions, you can select a location, a Godhead and then set off to attempt to bring the head back to your base. Once you get started watch out as not only your opponents but also the stages and the heads themselves can act against you! Generally the head starts in the middle of the stage and once you pick it up you usually move slower and you can't attack. You can throw the head if you need to however in which you might need to do when it either explodes or freezes your pants off.

Default game settings at the moment are three points to within one round for victory, although you can set it as high as nine points to win in a five round match. Current stages are incredibly diverse, and include: simple head-to-head, navigating terrain, moving bases, a volcano with sinking platforms, and even a stage where you only have one shared base, but need to hit a switch to flip it between team colors. Which was probably my least favourite, personally.

Current Godheads include: Skadi, Gaia, Zeus, Tezcatlipoca, Bastet, Namazu, Agyo, and an unlockable "flag" that doesn't have an effect. Each of these heads does something different, and may either help or hinder you. For example, Skadi freezes everything in a surprisingly large radius, including you, and Agyo has a short range explosion, that will not only kill you if you're carrying his head, but sends the head back to its starting point. Zeus, on the other hand, rains lightning down around you, but not on you.

So that's how Capture the Head works, so let's talk a bit about the "Trials". The Trials are basically one-off little challenges such as "kill all the enemies as fast as you can", or "only kill enemies with pies". Depending on your performance, you can get a gold, silver, or bronze medal, and as far as I can tell you can unlock stuff, such as the flag I mentioned earlier, depending on how many gold medals you've earned. Thankfully, most of the gold medals are either very realistic to earn or incredibly easy, especially if you start abusing the respawns delay before the enemy AI takes action but after they've spawned in. Except for, like, two.

A series of challenges has you make use of certain heads' special traits. The worst are for Gaia and Tezcatlipoca (hereafter referred to as Tezca). The Gaia challenge has you hold the head for 40 seconds for the gold medal, with a 60 second time limit. This wouldn't be too bad, except it's 2v2 and your partner is one of the dumbest AI roulettes I have ever seen, and that's saying something. The enemy AI is fairly decent, and generally both enemies go after you. Which means you either have to be extremely effective managing your time between attacking and holding the head, or have your AI pick up and hold the head.

Here's the issue: your AI has the dumbest tendency to not only walk TOWARDS the enemies, but will occasionally throw the head for no good reason and then ignore it. If there's another way to win this, I haven't found it yet. Extremely frustrating when you get 39 out of 40 seconds and your partner chucks the head, with not enough time for you to pick it up before the trial ends. If you had 70 to 80 seconds, it really wouldn't be so bad. The other one, Tezca, produces a black smoke which makes it impossible to see in an area surrounding the carrier. Your goal is to kill an enemy while they carry the head. Except the AI loves to chuck the head a split second before you hit them, meaning you don't get the point for the kill. I may have cried.

Apart from the trials examples, the AI in actual matches is actually really good. They function at the very least reasonably, and occasionally are really smart about their plays, but never to the point you feel like they're reading your button inputs. The controller support is really good, and there was no difficulty using the keyboard set-up either. Pro-tip, you can reflect pies if you smack them in the air, which I found out rather unfortunately when I threw one only to eat it myself shortly afterwards, not that there is anything stating you can do so before you either see it happen or try the trials.

I had a lot of funny with Oh My Godheads, I sat down with a buddy, and thought we had played for 20 minutes, turned out to be two hours. A couple of things I would like to see for the final release: a tutorial or practice mode that explains how to play, a few more stages to fight on, and a much wider assortment of heads to choose from. And maybe re-balancing the trials AI a little bit. It would be interesting to have a field with maybe water running through it that would slow you against the flow or speed you up with it, or a whirlpool in the center that will switch between "on" or "off", and will pull you in.

A couple more heads would be good to, because after trying them all out we kind of felt like "welp, that's that". Perhaps something like Loki, who would create illusions of players or the head, or perhaps Hel (or a similar God/Goddess) that would summon skeletons or skeletal arms to take back their head. A God/Goddess of light that occasionally releases blinding flashes of light, or perhaps Quetzacoatl, that summons winds to blow the players around.

Even though the game is early access, it really doesn't feel unfinished, and I'm really looking forward to seeing where this game ends up, and I'm sure I'll be bringing it out for party games really often.

Game Information

Platform:
PC
Developer(s):
Titutitech
Publisher(s):
Square Enix
Genre(s):
Action
Versus
Mode(s):
Single Player
Multiplayer
Other Platform(s):
N/A

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Richard

Read More

Cosmic Star Heroine - PS4 Review

If you've been looking or waiting for a retro-inspired RPG to fill your time, Cosmic Star Heroine will have you covered. By the makers of Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves the World, enter a fantasy sci-fi title that is Chrono Trigger meets Phantasy Star and anything else was awesome as Alyssa sets out to save her solar system.

Cosmic Star Heroine sets itself up very early allowing for everything else to simply fall in place. As the adventure unfolds, there's no constantly playing catch up with histories and backstories of the various planets, races and cultures of the people that you'll meet. Things just roll and if something is important, it's mentioned, if it's not, it doesn't bog down the rest. Set in a system with three populated planets, humans and a variety of aliens and cyborgs of all types will both join up, assist or get in your way meaning you'll need to deal with them the good old fashioned way. Turned Based Combat.

Zeboyd Games didn't just sit on their haunches and hope that the inspirations behind their latest title would be enough to carry it through. They've crafted a quite in-depth system that can sing its own praises as is just as fun in the first hour as it was in the literal eleventh hour when I watched the credits roll.

Set in speed based turn order, each party member eventually has up to seven skills that can be used. While this number can seem a bit high it really isn't as few skills can be used more than once before needing to be recharged and some can only be used once a battle because of how powerful they are. To use them again you'll need to recharge with each character's eight ability that exists solely for both defense and recharging each skill that has been used up to that point. The level of defense and extra bonus such as healing the party can be added but unlike the other seven you can't remove the core function.

Because most skills can only be used once before needing to be recharged, a fair amount of strategy can come into the mix. The level of this strategy only increases depending on the difficulty level that you choose but even on the first playthrough of normal it was needed fairly heavily at times. If you find whatever difficulty you aimed for to be too difficult you can also reduce it through your in-game menu. While some skills exist to be a pain in your enemy's' side such as poison to deplete their health or stun to make them miss a turn, a fair amount of others exist to either augment a character's next ability or augment another character to do more damage or to receive less.

Battle is fun. All these elements come together fairly well as each character is different from one another. Not just their personalities or races but also the types of abilities that they possess which makes finding the "optimal" four person party hard as each visited area contains enemies with different weakness that your favorite characters may not have access to. At the moment anyways. Taking the system up a notch is that defensive items can be used to gain access to other skills as long as a character's stats are high enough to use them offering someone based in water to use lightning or fire. The system is fairly indepth and because of that it's fun to use until the credits roll.

All this fighting is done in place on the maps that your party will explore saving players the time of having to watch fancy whooshing screens and flying colors. This pays tribute to more than Chrono Trigger but also to the likes of one of my all time favorites Breath of Fire III. It doesn't waste time to hide the loading process but instead just has everyone get into place and let the battle begin. This also allows for a bit more immersion as you never leave the environments which themselves are visually well crafted. Technological metropolises, backwards shady deserts, ghost infested ore mines and high class casinos where you meet a robot Freddy Mercury that joins your party. They have a robot Freddy Mercury!

The environments themselves don't take that long to run through but they are nice to explore. Generally there'll be one or two branching paths and if you choose to explore then you'll generally be rewarded with treasure chests that tend to hold… not mimics. There were no mimics. I HAD NO TRUST ISSUES!!!! Seriously though, there were no mimics and it was awesome.

What it did have though were nods to others things such as posters of the great being Cthulhu inside of a mansion, Zombies inside of a police station with herbs and gems, Giant Robot fight against large monsters for some serious 1v1 Pacific Rim action, and long winded hallways leading to major boss fights like all those classic 16-bit games back on the SNES. I swear I was waiting for Magnus to make an appearance at one point. These elements all come together and never really feel out of place. Cosmic Star Heroine has the fantasy and the science fiction elements with a variety of locations and it all fits. Some of it may feel over the top but it's brought right back down with the dialog that itself is fun to read.

One thing that I want to highlight above all else is how Zeboyd Games are paying attention and fixing bugs that some people have had. One of the biggest ones that I did have under Version 1.01 was fixed in 1.02 when I finished it for the first time and I've seen the installation of a 1.03 since. The issue that I personally had was that talking with an NPC would need to either mash the "X" button to get out of the conversation because it would simply restart over and over and over and over and over again. Or I would need to carefully press it and hope that worked to let me talk to the next person. This was only an issue while walking around and never within cutscenes but it's been solved and no longer an issue. Checking up on some of the forums it was nice to see them tackling these issues also.

Cosmic Star Heroine is an awesome title. It's story is well paced, the environments are gorgeous in that retro style that they use and the combat is simply fun with the variety of characters that themselves are great with their personalities. All of this is made even better with the various nods both big and small to other series such as Chrono Trigger, Pacific Rim, I believe I saw something for Xenogears and the obvious tribute to Cthulhu.

This is going on my Games of the Year for 2017.

Game Information

Platform:
Sony PlayStation 4
Developer(s):
Zeboyd Games
Publisher(s):
Zeboyd Games
Genre(s):
RPG
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
PC

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Pierre-Yves

Read More

Senran Kagura: Estival Versus - PC Review

Welcome to the world of Senran Kagura: Estival Versus, a tropical land of ninjas, boobs, butts, bad puns, and repressed emotional trauma! Senran Kagura is, at its roots, a sort of 3D fighting game - although it might be closer to a beat'em up style, akin to a 3D Double Dragon. If you've played or seen the reviews for either Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus, or Valkyrie Drive, you'll have a pretty good idea of what you are getting into with this release.

Estival Versus has what I can only describe as a semi-schizophrenic plot. There are two main story modes and one "sub" mode. They all function in a similar way, giving you missions that you need to clear before moving on to the next. The main focus is on the "Kagura Millennium Festival", where the characters battle it out to destroy "festival platforms" in order to have the right to become a "Kagura", which as far as I can tell is the equivalent of "Master Ninja", and to challenge the giant "Yōma" (read 'demon') that is sealed above the island. Spoiler alert: you never get to fight the Yōma, much to my dismay.

Your second mode is "Shinobi Girl's Heart", which are primarily unrelated side-stories focusing on a single character for five missions, instead of switching up characters for almost every mission in the "Festival" storyline. The "sub" mode I mentioned are basically just random bonus missions. I mentioned that the plot is semi-schizophrenic, which is mostly the case in the "Festival" mode. While the looming threat of the Yōma and festival platform destroying is still going on, there will be random intermissions like "let's force feed these people my grandfathers favourite dish" or "I have writers block for my web novel", so the "main goal" seems rather underwhelming, despite its severity. Speaking of severity, Estival Versus isn't all about busty ninjas and the improbable boob jiggle that happens every time they move, there are actually some surprisingly real issues being dealt with, like the death of loved ones and coming to terms with your grief. Which is basically preceded by the perverted equivalent of grade-school track and field day.

Gameplay has improved a lot since Shinovi Versus. The core idea of "beating down a swathe of enemy grunts" and then fighting another character, or characters, is still there, but the game flow has dramatically improved. All characters have a similar tools at their disposal to dispatch their enemies, although they all have different weapons and movesets. You have a light attack meant for combos, and a heavy attack used for knockback and guard break. There's a short dash, a guard, as well as transformations and bombs you can pick up and throw. Smacking things will fill up a skill gauge, which you can expend to transform or use special moves.

Each mission consists of whoever happens to be the focus of that mission, and possibly an assist character, clearing out swathes of enemy grunts in order to remove the barriers preventing you from progressing towards the boss. There are also a total of 80 festival platforms spread throughout the stages that you can break in order to unlock more missions in the "Shinobi Girl's Heart" based on the number destroyed. Unlike in Shinovi Versus, rather than feeling like something sort of arbitrarily thrown in to have you build up your skill gauge, actually feel like a legitimate part of the game now, and area progression feels more fluid. As you hit things you gain experience for the character you're using as well as proficiency for whichever of the three forms you are using when attacking. Character experience turns into levels that increase health, attack, and defense, where form proficiency turns into helpful bonus perks like increased experience and money, or passive health regen.

While there were some of the 25+ characters I wasn't a fan of using, they all have their own unique weapons and combos, and for the most part combat was quite reasonable. There are three difficulty levels that are available right off the bat: easy, normal, and hard, so if the enemies aren't providing much challenge you can always up the difficulty. The game defaults to easy though, so you can't decrease the difficulty if you're getting your ass beat. Of course the stripping mechanic is back, although I can't tell if it's better or worse. It feels more difficult to shred clothes, but there isn't a "top, bottom, all" strip finisher depending on the special move used anymore, if the opponent has their clothes torn twice and you beat them with any special that isn't a "heightened combat form", the enemy gets completely stripped.

There are also "creative finishers now, so if you beat an opponent that isn't a grunt near a "[!]" sign, you get a short clip of some sort of embarrassing, and usually sexual, finisher. Like the banana boat, or the chocolate bananas. The game outright tells you how many festival platforms are in each stage, so you don't need to worry about exploring all the back alleys of every mission hoping to find that one platform that you're missing. One of the things I was really pleased with is what happens if you manage to get knocked out of the gameplay area. Which happened a lot to me, but I'd probably blame my bad luck on that, since I couldn't worm my way out of the play area when I was actively trying. If you get too far away from the play area, you get warped back in to the nearest location, which means I avoided about ten soft-locks during a rather annoying fight.

The ability to customize the characters with accessories and outfits bought at the shop is really nice, since the changes are applied in and out of battle, and one of my favourite video game quotes came from Estival Versus, "Your clarity of emotion is like a guiding light to the rest of us. A signpost, if you will. Which you can always use to bludgeon us, should the need arise". There is also a jukebox mode, which you can buy the tracks for from the in-game store. Which is really good, because the soundtrack for the Senran Kagura series in general has always been really good, so I'm not really ashamed to say I spent a decent portion of time after the 35 hours it took me to complete the game just listening to the music.

There is one thing I feel obligated to comment on, so possible spoiler warning, so skip the rest of this paragraph if you don't want the spoiler: the last boss was actually really tough. And unexpected. I was expecting to fight the giant demon thing, but instead you get a 2v1 fight. And no, it isn't you vs. two people, you have a partner to help. And hoo boy, that was almost mandatory. At the start of the fight, the last boss is invincible while they go "rage mode". I found out the hard way that the "rage mode trigger" does actually hurt you, too. If you haven't been redoing stages for exp, or if you haven't done the "shinobi girl's heart" for the character you have to use for this fight, have fun with that. First attempt I got my ass beat rather handily. Second attempt I won, but it was rather tough. And fun. Really, really fun. I haven't been that pleased with a final boss fight in a really long time. End spoiler.

As fun as Estival Versus is, there are a couple of problems that nearly made me flip a table. The biggest of which is status effects. Each character has a status effect associated to their weapon, or what I feel is an increased chance to stun if they don't have an element. Status effects can stack, but that wasn't my problem. My problem was how often I got inflicted with a negative status. My biggest gripe came during a fight with Yumi, who can freeze you. When an enemy does their "shinobi transformation", there is a brief period where the cut-in is fading, but the enemy can attack you. I got frozen on the first hit. And then stunned just before the freeze wore off, then frozen near the end of the stun again. Rinse and repeat, and I got beaten without being able to do literally anything other than sit there with a look of great displeasure. Not sure if just bad luck or infliction rate is too high, but I really wasn't too happy.

Second problem is the camera. It's dumb. So very, very dumb, getting stuck behind billboards and trees so you can't see the beat-down you're getting. The translators may have taken a few…liberties, let's say, with some of the lines. The voice-overs are all in Japanese, so it might not be too obvious. At one point, a character says the equivalent of "That's enough!", and the translators went with "F*** this shit!", which may not be totally inaccurate, but when there are a bunch of "Bleeps" and "gun soundeffects" to cover up any swearing or politically inappropriate word choice, the actual swear words in the text just make it seem kind of…pointless, really. The hit boxes for picking up the bombs are also really small.

Don't let the copious amounts of fanservice dissuade you from picking up Estival Versus, the gameplay is solid, the soundtrack is absolutely beautiful, and there is actually a surprisingly engaging storyline. If you're a fan of 3D brawlers and anime style graphics, you'll definitely enjoy Estival Versus. Just make sure you know where you're playing, cuz the fanservice might be difficult to explain.

Game Information

Platform:
PC
Developer(s):
Tamsoft
Publisher(s):
XSEED Games
Marvelous Entertainment Inc.
Genre(s):
Action
Mode(s):
Single Player
Multiplayer
Other Platform(s):
Sony PlayStation 4
Sony PlayStation Vita

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Richard

Read More

Banner Saga 2 - XB1 Review

The Banner Saga 2 picks up right after the end of the first that I covered last week. "The day has been won" - but the war is a long time in coming. Your choices for either good or bad will follow right alongside you in this chapter's challenge for survival as you continue to lead those that would follow.

One thing that I noticed off the bat is the graphical quality of the second entry is higher than the first. The same incredible art style is back but it looks more crisp and the accompanying text is both larger, an issue that I had with the first, and much more legible. Already things were looking up and it only got better from there.

If you've lost your save file, played on a different console, or simply decided to start the series here and watch the video recap of the first that is provided from the main menu, the biggest choice from The Banner Saga is put in your hands. Loading up a new game you are asked to either import a complete saved game or to choose who became the hero of the first. No other choices will make an appearance save anything you may have imported. If you haven't played the first even watching the recap contains heavy spoilers so be warned.

The other noticeable factor of the second entry is that the choices this time around aren't "harder" to make but are more punishing especially if you try to take the slower and more sensible route when driving your caravan forward. *spoilers* The one that stuck the most was that one of your ships started to take on water. You can either call the fleet to a halt and patch it up now, tell them to simply patch it on the go, or you can ask the shipwrights on the best course of action. Asking for the best course of action as to the best possible way to fix it and the damned thing not only sinks but kills most of the people that were on it as the drown in the river. Not quite what I was aiming for when wondering if we could just patch it or if we had to land. *end spoilers*

Being indecisive the first time around was bad. Being indecisive this second time around is even worse and will get more of your people killed than saved and in some cases even waste the resources that you need to keep them alive in the first place! This is something that I continued to enjoy about the series as the happy fairy tale choices aren't present. If they seem like they are? It's honestly too good to be true. The brutal nature of this world and the greed of humanity alone will see to that.

Combat, other than being a bit smoother, brings back the same amazing turned based tactical experience. If you didn't import your save file don't worry as units start already leveled up to at least level 3 and they are ready to go. If you did then you will have a bit of a better idea as to who is in your party and who isn't based off of past decisions.

What I continued to enjoy about the combat system was the each party, yours and theirs, each get a turn in order as to how they were set up back at camp. If someone reaches zero hit points a gap will not occur in your turn order but simply move your next person up. If either party reached down to one unit left then the Pillage Mode would activate in order to quickly finish everything up as there's no more your turn / their turn and instead to make things move faster, every unit in order even if they get four turns in a row to your one. Since the flip side of that is also true the only thing you can really complain about if that you didn't manage your forces well enough and that's why you're in that situation.

How combat is resolved hasn't changed and makes for both interesting, amazing, and frustrating encounters at times. Hit Points and Attack Scores are the same number. This means that the more damage you take, the less damage you will do. In order to make sure that you aren't down and out in one hit, Defense Scores are also present and act in a similar way. If a unit's defense is higher than the attacker's offense then minimal damage will be done allowing them to stay in the fight for a bit longer.

Even the tutorials mention to take out a unit's defense before going for their attack but sometimes, especially since the numbers are "low" and "20" is considered freaking high, you don't want an enemy with "17" to hit you even with a defense of "13". It'll hurt and you'll never be able to catch back up. Since there's no time limits on taking your turn, take your time as you'll need to. The battles are tough and only get harder depending on the decisions you make as your caravan makes its journey.

The music of the first ranged from non-existent at times to maybe I want to turn down the base a bit since the walls were shaking. It was a quiet experience from that aspect with the dialog and the graphics taking much more of a front seat and it worked. Not taking as much as a back seat the music is more prominent this time around and the soundtrack is great to listen to from in camp management to tackling your enemies on the field. It was nice to hear and adds a bit more immersion than the vast silence that the snow and ice covered hills once provided.

Overall as much as I enjoyed the first Banner Saga I enjoyed the second even more so. With the small adjustments to the graphics and the visual elements in general, it felt like an even better packaged experience. I don't think that I need to mention it, but, I'll be eagerly awaiting the release of the third and final entry into the Banner Saga.

Game Information

Platform:
Microsoft Xbox One
Developer(s):
Stoic Studio
Publisher(s):
Versus Evil
Genre(s):
Turned Based Strategy
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
Sony PlayStation 4
PC
Mobile

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Pierre-Yves

Read More

Want access to the Marvel Heroes Omega beta on PS4? We've got keys!

The title is pretty straight-forward, isn't it?

I was a huge fan of this action MMO when it released on PC a few years ago, and I for one am excited to see the game's transition to the PlayStation 4. Are you curious about it as well? If so, hit us up for keys to the Open Beta. I'll be giving them away at the end of the week (Friday Night).

Read More

The Silver Case - PS4 Review

The Suda-sensory Mother Lode

The Silver Case, more than any virtual art piece I’ve experienced this year, is a product of its time. It is a reflection and speculation on the technological potential and cultural paranoia that partially defines the digital revolution and, more specifically, global internet culture from the late 90’s to the present day.

Read More

Sunday Bites - Gataela: An Early-Victorian/Steampunk RPG

Gataela: An Early-Victorian/Steampunk RPG is a title that I unfortunately missed while it was being Kickstarted. Having been both funded through Kickstarter and Greenlit on Steam, this Ottawa based developer has a Demo available on their site for anyone that would want to try it. This will be something to look forward to when it's finished.

Story

The idea behind Gataela feels like it could deliver a long and solid experience. Starting off working at a market stall it isn't long before you start to notice that things are not quite right. People are buying less and less because the prices keep going up. The merchants on the other hand don't have a choice as in order to buy the goods that they wish to sell they have to charge more as they themselves have to pay more.

Something isn't quite right with the situation and no one really wants to talk about it until you, Zack, set out to the nearby town after the merchant you work for letter's have gone unanswered and her shipment of apples have come to an end. While out on the road you get attacked by bandits though Zack recognizes the one in charge. Has someone's past come back to find him? Not wanting to sit around Zack packs up and heads out in order to find the leader of these bandits and a friend that followed them instead of you years ago.

Graphics

Visually, Gataela is a pretty 16-bit ish style that took me a few minutes to settle into because it's much prettier than the style normally is. It's not a bad thing and it allows for more detail to be put into the environments and the characters. I also love the designs dialog boxes and how they change depending on if someone is talking or being yelled at and the emotion bubbles that follow what is being said.

Combat

Combat is a turned based RPG style with a bit of a time limit imposed on getting the job done. Instead of the reverse that we are used to with Active Time Battles, you instead have so many seconds to act before the enemy does. If you take too much time, they hit you making you miss out on what was essentially your turn.

A little odd is that in order to attack the player must click on attack and then on the enemy they wish to attack instead of simply clicking on the enemy. The style works very well for items and such but attacking would be nice to see without that extra step especially when the clock is ticking.

Leveling up allows for the player to manually increase attack and defense with points that are granted. Both of these stats obviously increase how much damage and be done or shrugged off but it was neat to see in battle how much damage was being taken by the enemies. With a damage score of seven for example, seven damage would be taken unless they dodged or managed to deflect some of the damage. Each of these actions were clearly indicated and neat to see even if you wish they didn't happen. You have a combat to win after all!

General Gameplay

The menus are simple and clean to use. Raising a character's stats for example simply requires going into their status and raising either the attack or the defense options. Compared to the overall 16-bit like look that Gataela has for gameplay, the supporting hand-drawn elements hold great detail and are awesome to look at. I personally love having artwork for character portraits over in game graphics.

One thing that surprised me were the dialog interactions. In these cases you are presented with a time limit in order to select from a variety of choices that not only shape the type of person that you are but also the direction of the conversation. Rewards are given for speedy resolutions and obviously getting what you really wanted. Letting the timer run out is not recommended unless you want to see what happens.

Audio

Both the music and the sound effects complement the overall experience. The sound effects felt appropriate and fit the situations such as the sounds of punches were used when being punched in battle. There's a lot of that before you are granted your first weapon. The music on the other hand went the quieter route simply playing in the background. Even if you can be attacked by bandits the world itself with the graphical style feels calm and relaxing and the music helps to sell that point.

--

From what can be seen from the Demo, Gataela is already shaping out to be a great experience. Gameplay, character interactions, battle and exploration are all smooth and the dialog is well written. Now we just need to sit and wait for development to reach the end in order to experience more!

If you want to see more head over to Gataela's Website or either their Facebook or their Twitter pages.

Game Information

Platform:
PC
Developer(s):
Atemly Games
Publisher(s):
Atemly Games?
Genre(s):
RPG
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
NA

Source:
Website Demo

Article by Pierre-Yves

Read More

Week in Review - April 17th to 21st

Welcome back to the weekend and this Week's in Review!

Monday started off with a contender for my Games of the Year with Atelier Firis the Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey on the PS4. Considering that this is the second entry into the current trilogy I can only wonder what Gust are going to pull off for the finale.

"Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey has been a great next step for the Atelier series. Yes the "dreaded time limit" made a return but it added a bit of flavour instead of adding stress and worry about not being able to finish the experience the first time around."

- Pierre-Yves

---

Looking back it looks like I've hogged the spotlight a little bit. Tuesday had my first go at The Banner Saga for the Xbox. I loved it and my time with the second is coming up next week!

"The Banner Saga is a well crafted and complex experience that had me rooted from start to finish."

- Pierre-Yves

---

Because it can't be all about me three days in a row Wednesday saw Richard's views on the new retro styled Shoot 'Em Up Captain Kaon for the PC.

"KHHHAAANNNN!!!! Or at least that was my first thought upon seeing the title "Captain Kaon"."

- Richard

---

I never got around to playing Bulletstorm when it originally launched back on the PS3 and the 360. Now seemed like a good as a time as any to jump into the revamped Full Clip Edition. I'll be honestly that I needed that dose of over the top ridiculousness with some of the heavier and serious titles that I've played recently.

"Bulletstorm is back for more foul-mouthed - and at times creative linguistic hilarity - with even more creative ways of taking out your enemies."

- Pierre-Yves

---

Yesterday saw our latest Memorable Music which is always a pleasure. Thanks for the tracks Hamza!

"We have a very PC-heavy dose of Memorable Music in Gaming this time around. However, there is one standout console title that racing fans are also sure to immediately recognize."

- Hamza

--
See you back here tomorrow for our next Sunday Bites!

Article by Pierre-Yves

Read More

Memorable Music in Gaming #34

We have a very PC-heavy dose of Memorable Music in Gaming this time around. However, there is one standout console title that racing fans are also sure to immediately recognize.

Read More

Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition - PS4 Review

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a system judge your every action? If you have, now's your chance to live it! Bulletstorm is back for more foul-mouthed - and at times creative linguistic hilarity - with even more creative ways of taking out your enemies. The better you do? The more the systems rewards you by allowing for an easier time in dispatching the rest of the enemies headed your way.

Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition is an enhanced version of Epic Games' different take on manly men with manlier guns. Bulletstorm took/takes some of the ideas from Gears of War and puts them into a first person shooter with ideas that make the Ratchet and Clank series so amazing. Crazy weapons that make you question "how" followed along with foul mouthed dialog (that have an ingame sensor), brutal and possibly horrifying gory graphics (which also have an ingame sensor) and Bulletstorm is essentially a good marriage of both Gears of War and Insomniac's masterpiece.

This really won't be for everyone even with the filters applied. For me however? I'm regretting not having played this on the previous generation because it's simply over the top and ridiculous. This "maybe should have started off sober" adventure soon turns… nah. It never turns "really" serious and the gameplay is creative keeping things interesting until the credits where most FPS would have gotten fairly stale halfway through. Without the complete over the top dialog and gameplay I don't think Bulletstorm could have pulled it off.

From start to finish Bulletstorm is a fast paced thrill ride with crazy guns, a energy leash and your boot. How often can you really say that your boot is not only a legitimate option in a shooter but also required and just as useful at the beginning as it is at the end? If you spend your whole time shooting all your enemies then you're doing it wrong which is why it was fun.

Each situation can be solved in a variety of ways from the obvious shooting your enemies over to using your leash to pull them closer, use it to pull them out of cover, use it to pull them towards and passed you off of a cliff or simply use your boot to do that instead. Spiked walls, a variety of cactus, electrified billboards, propane tanks and much more are all littered around each area just waiting to be leashed over so that you can kick it at your enemy. If that doesn't work you can simply kick the object or kick your enemy into the object.

However you decide to go about this, prepare to be judged. Defeating an enemy will yield a grand total of ten plus points in order to spend on ammo and upgrades. Kick them off a cliff? You're looking at fifty. Pull or kick them into spikes? That's about one-hundred. These are the easy ways but that'll only buy you a bit of ammo. Being more creative with throwing a gas tank and blowing it up in a crowd will gain you fifty points per person as well as a bonus for having tagged them all at the same time. Kicking a barrier into your enemies will do the same.

All of these points can be spent at what are really re-supply points in which ammo and upgrades can be unlocked. Upgrades unlock over time in order to be able to carry more ammo in a clip or give the weapon a charged attack. Charged shots require their own ammo counts but can be worth it especially when there's a large crowd and your shotgun has a incendiary blast. It'll clear up a good portion if not your entire set of attackers allowing you to move on quickly.

Bulletstorm is not meant to be taken slow. Everything is designed to move fast, shoot fast, kick fast and slide fast. Stay still and you're basically toast. Sometimes literally. This is why there are two aspects that could get in the way. The first is that hopping over barriers in order to move forward was sometimes a hassle as the prompt would not come up right away and trying to get over would instead send me sliding. Other times when going through a narrow space you could get caught on your AI partners going through as they don't need to worry about the space that you are taking up but you need to worry about theirs.

Finally the sniper fights were a hassle and felt slow and clunky with you being able to guide the bullet but the enemy could dodge it having you miss quite often by nothing more than a hair. They went under cover? You missed again because your bullet had no view. Your bullet was too far to the right or left because you wanted to make it around that cover? Forget about it as it once again went out of range and destroyed itself. Having to rely on a target lock was a pain and slowed things down significantly. Thankfully there are only three real sniper fights over the entire course and it can be easily made up with the fact that there was a remote controlled "mini-Godzilla" with a turret that you get to unleash on your enemies.

Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition was a blast. It's ridiculous, fast paced, you have to wonder how much of the dialog was scripted and what was ad libbed and it just works. The variety of over the top weapons alongside the energy leash and being able to kick objects or enemies keeps things interesting. Anytime that the lull that can happen near the end starts to come in or starts to feel like it's getting close, there's a change up in the style to throw some spice back into the mix. I know that it's been almost six years since its original release but I hope that this gives enough push for a sequel.

Game Information

Platform:
Sony PlayStation 4
Developer(s):
People Can Fly
Epic Games
Publisher(s):
Gearbox Publishing
Genre(s):
First Person Shooter
Mode(s):
Single-player
Multiplayer
Other Platform(s):
Microsoft Xbox one
PC

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Pierre-Yves

Read More