Conan Unconquered Releases Early on Steam!

OSLO, Norway – May 24th, 2019 – The upcoming RTS game created by the Command & Conquer veterans at Petroglyph is now due to release late afternoon on May 29th, one day earlier than previously announced.

“We're eagerly looking forward to launch and to getting Conan Unconquered into the hands of players. The game has really come together and although the skill cap is high, it's tremendously fun to play,” says Lawrence Poe, Chief Product Officer at Conan Unconquered publisher Funcom.

The upcoming RTS has already received positive previews, with several journalists comparing it to the highly successful game They Are Billions. The game has a number of features that set it apart from the other games in the genre, however. Among them the fact that you control a hero, as well as the army you amass. Also, the game’s co-op mode and the newly announced challenge mode, in which players can challenge one another on a unique map with a unique leaderboard, look to be welcome additions to the RTS genre.

About Conan Unconquered

Conan Unconquered is a strategy game set in the barbaric world of Conan the Barbarian where you must build your stronghold and assemble an unconquerable army to survive the savage hordes of Hyboria. Wave after wave of increasingly more difficult enemies will rush at your gates and you will need to manage resources, research new technologies to advance your defenses, and recruit an ever-growing army if you are to save survive utter destruction.

You can choose to play the game entirely alone in single-player, but Conan Unconquered can also be enjoyed in full two-player co-op allowing for a truly unique, shared multiplayer experience. Players share a base, but both can freely construct new buildings and amass an army to reach their common goal.

Similar to games such as They Are Billions, the enemy hordes will keep coming at you and how long you can resist the invasion depends entirely on your ability to build your stronghold and lead your army. Gameplay is real-time, but you can also pause at any time to issue commands and start construction of new buildings. Battles will be bloody and savage with players having to deal with anything from fires raging through their stronghold to piles of corpses spreading death and disease.

The savage horde is at your gates. Will you fall or will you remain unconquered?

System Requirements

Minumum: Windows 7, 8 or 10 (64 bit) 8GB of RAM Core i3 (dual core) @3Ghz+ or equivalent Intel HD Graphics 620 or DX11 graphics card w/ minimum 1GB dedicated RAM Storage – 10GB

Recommended: Windows 7, 8 or 10 (64 bit) 8GB of RAM Core i5 (quad core) @3Ghz+ or equivalent Nvidia Geforce GTX 970 or AMD RX580 or better Storage – 10GB

The game is currently available for pre-order on Steam and via www.conanunconquered.com.

ABOUT FUNCOM

Funcom is an independent developer and publisher of online games for PC and consoles. Funcom has provided outstanding entertainment since 1993 and continues to expand its track-record of more than twenty released games. Titles include 'Conan Exiles', 'Secret World Legends', 'Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures', 'The Longest Journey', 'Anarchy Online', 'The Park', and 'Dreamfall: The Longest Journey'. For corporate information please visit www.funcom.com. Funcom is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker FUNCOM.

ABOUT CABINET

The Cabinet group consists of Cabinet Entertainment, a tv/film financing and production company, as well as Cabinet Licensing, a consumer products division which manages and develops global entertainment franchises in all forms of media, including motion picture, television, and the gaming, publishing and toy/collectibles industries. Our portfolio consists of well-known brands such as Conan the Barbarian, Kull of Atlantis, Solomon Kane, Mutant Chronicles, Mutant: Year Zero, and Kult.

ABOUT PETROGLYPH STUDIOS 

Based in Las Vegas, Petroglyph has over 30 employees with many team members coming from Westwood Studios, creators of Command & Conquer. They’ve been responsible for a range of tactical and strategic PC games including Star Wars: Empire at War, Grey Goo and the recent ‘8-Bit’ RTS series. They are also currently developing the remaster of Command & Conquer to be released by Electronic Arts.


Article by Susan N.

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Lapis x Labyrinth - PS4 Review

Lapis Labyrinth is extremely cute. It has the cutest adventurer party I’ve ever seen, the cutest stack of characters, the cutest villagers, and the cutest death and destruction I’ve ever rained down upon my foes.

Lapis Labyrinth is a tale of adventurers, looking to discover the golden tree, a legendary tree said to be at the center of a large labyrinth that no one has been able to reach the center of. How they knew about the tree then is a mystery to me, but the town that acts as a base for adventurers has dwindled in recent years, as less and less adventurers are looking for the tree. Fortunately for the town, your group of adventurers have heard the legends and come to the town to explore the labyrinth. Hopefully, this will increase the number of people coming to the town in order to revitalize the failing economy! That and there are monsters to beat up.

The gameplay of Lapis Labyrinth is pretty up-front about what it has to offer. You take a stack, quite literally, of up to four adventurers into the labyrinth in order to fight monsters, collect treasure, and discover what lies at the end of the great labyrinth. A lot of the tools are available to you right off the bat, as the majority of gameplay revolves around getting your stack of adventurers through the labyrinth. In your stack, the character on the bottom acts as the Leader, and will be in charge of the primary attacking. The adventurers “above” the leader not only combine their stats to affect the leaders, but can also be sent off to perform a special move as well, provided you have enough “charge” for it. You can also cycle between characters acting as the leader during labyrinth runs, so feel free to stack your favorite units so you can alternate between them.

One thing you’ll probably notice as soon as you set foot in the tutorial is the ridiculous amount of “bars” and “gauges” on screen. There’s, like, five or six of them, and it can be really overwhelming at first. Fortunately, half of them are there mostly just for display, and don’t need to be watched constantly, but it can still get a little confusing at times. So what do they all do, you might ask? Well, most of them are related to combat. While your Leader can attack using standard combo moves, you also have a “skill” available, that takes action points to use. These come back rather quickly over a short period of time. Then there’s the EX gauge, which will allow you to send all your stacked adventurers to attack the on-screen enemies. Then there’s the party level, which is reset upon re-entering the labyrinth, and acts as your average adventurer level.

By killing monsters, this will go up and your characters will “level up” for the duration of your dungeon run. Then there’s the fever gauge, which will give you a period of invincibility when full where you can go slap up all the enemies without worrying about being hit. If you do get hit however, that will reset the treasure gauge, which goes up as you beat baddies and will reset when taking a hit. The higher this is, the better loot you get. Like I said, that’s a lot of gauges and bars, isn’t it? There’s also a timer, health bar, and “gem” bar. While the health bar should be rather self-explanatory, the timer and “gem” bar are related to labyrinth exploration.

The Labyrinth that you will be exploring essentially works in “stratums”. Every batch of areas has a recommended level, not that I’m certain what that’s particularly referencing, as well as a “theme” for the area you’re going through. As an example, the first stratum is a forest. Your goal is to make it through each floor of the labyrinth segment you’ve been tasked to explore, beat the boss at the end, and return with as much treasure as you can carry! Exploring the floors is actually a really interesting experience.

You have a 2-D platforming style area to explore, with a bunch of little warp pads and one big warp pad that will bring you to the next floor. There are a bunch of purple crystals around the stage, and destroying them will unlock the warp to the next floor, or give you a treasure bonus if you get a lot. Be careful though, as you only have 5 minutes per floor. If you take longer than 5 minutes, a giant phantom will appear and chase you. And let me tell you, it is REALLY hard to avoid. If it touches you, you get booted out of the labyrinth and lose your treasure, which is also what happens if you fail the quest you’re on.

Exploring the labyrinth is also really fun, as there are a bunch of destructible blocks and puzzles, treasure chests galore to collect, enemies to beat up, and a really fun movement system. You have as many jumps as you do adventurers, each one adding another jump, and “coming off” as you use them as a stepping stone to reach higher heights. Not only is this really handy mobility wise, but it feels really fun to be jumping around all over the place. You have to pay attention though, because if a head gets too far away from your stack, or gets knocked off by a powerful blow from a monster, that head will take damage from the ambient miasma in the labyrinth.

While you might not notice this due to the fact that each adventurer has their own health bar, keep in mind that if an adventurer “dies”, or gets left behind on a floor, they won’t be available for the rest of the labyrinth run. While you can just move to the next unit if your Leader gets knocked out, the stack of adventurers stats are, well, “stacked”. If one is no longer able to continue, their stats get removed from your collective pool, making it more difficult to continue. Remember to always take care of your party members!

Upon beating the boss at the end of the labyrinth section you’re exploring, you will be given a number of keys and chests based on how well you did, and how lucky you are respectively. Chests have different rarity values, with higher rarity needing more keys to open. Unfortunately, rarity generally means “quality”, and not “rank”. For example, you can have a legendary “quality” wooden stick that does 4 damage and has a chance to poison on hit and slightly boosts health pool, or you can have a common “quality” cosmic-beast-slayer that does 1200 damage, but has no added skills. Probably aren’t going to be using that stick. It’s important to weigh what you want when considering spending less keys for more gear, or spending more keys on “better” gear and hoping it’s of a higher base status.

Once you’ve padded your collection out a little, you can equip your gear on your adventurers. Each class has their own traits, weapons, and fighting styles, which are clearly visible in Labyrinth delves, but are also reflected in their gear. For instance, the maid class uses pots and pans as weapons, and to my recollection, other characters aren’t able to use the same weapon types. There is some overlap in defensive gear though. You have a set amount of “party equip points”, and your total “equip value” of your gear can’t exceed that number.

You can increase that value later in the game however, but it still means you have to balance having a range of mediocre gear for all your units, or a few really powerful pieces for just one or two adventurers. Gear also comes with skills as well, which may tip your favor one way or the other. For instance, my personal favorite I believe was called “Lunar”, which sends a sort of magenta spinning cross at your enemies. Not super damaging, but good for crowd control.

Overall, despite how complicated Lapis Labyrinth can seem at the beginning, it’s pretty basic in what it does. You go dungeon dive, bring back better gear, go to harder areas, all to revitalize a town. Stage runs are rather short, generally speaking, and a lot of the areas will get that “similar” feel to them after a while. That being said, there is a lot of variety in the floors, the combat is hectic, but fun, and the adventurers are just too damned cute.

While Lapis Labyrinth isn’t something I’d expect you to spend a day just sitting down playing, it’s fun in bursts, and the stratum transitions happen right around the time you could go for a change in scenery. With solid music, fun gameplay, and the cutest stack I’ve ever seen, give Lapis Labyrinth a shot if you’re in the mood for a hectic platforming dungeon delve!

Game Information

Platform:
Sony PlayStation 4
Developer(s):
Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher(s):
Nippon Ichi Software
Genre(s):
Action
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
Nintendo Switch

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Richard

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PQube Announces New Platformer AeternoBlade II!

PQube (London, UK) - May 22nd, 2019 - PQube and developer Corecell Technology are excited to announce AeternoBlade II, a brand-new action/puzzle platformer for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One! Dynamic and versatile time-bending mechanics give a fresh spin to the fast-paced combat and ingenious puzzles, making AeternoBlade II a game to set your watch for this Autumn!

Harness the AeternoBlade and play as three unique characters, including returning heroine Freyja and newcomers Felix and Bernard. Each equipped with an individual set of skills, they journey across dimensions in a desperate struggle against the destruction of the Dark Abyss. The power of the AeternoBlade must be returned or reality, as they know it, will face total collapse.

Darkness is closing in: defy the Abyss with Freyja and her new allies!

The gameplay of AeternoBlade II is pure poetry that puts puzzle-platforming elements and dynamic combat in perfect sync. Engaging jump'n'run and puzzle passages seamlessly transition into action-packed battles that let you push the game's visually striking combo system to its limits. Combining both components by using launched enemies as mid-air stepstones to access new areas and much more will challenge your creativity in completely new ways this Autumn!

Use the power to control time wisely to solve tricky puzzles!

For more information and the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Twitch, Instagram, and our official website: http://pqube.co.uk/

About Corecell Technology

Corecell Technology Co., ltd is a game company base in Bangkok, Thailand with 17 years experience of making games on all console platforms and mobile with many international game companies world-wide.
 

About PQube

PQube is a leading publisher, distributor and service provider for the interactive entertainment industry with a global reach through UK, Europe, Middle East, Australia and North and South America from its offices in Letchworth (UK), Bristol (UK), Paris (France), Los Angeles (USA) and Hong Kong. As a licensed publisher with Sony, Microsoft, Valve, Nintendo and Apple, PQube’s software division publishes and distributes video games for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, iOS, Android, PC and has full coverage across all digital download platforms, establishing a track record of success with major franchises including: Gal*Gun, Chaos;Child, Cat Quest, Valkyrie Drive, White Day, Root Letter, BlazBlue, Guilty Gear, Kotodama, MotoGP, Ride, MXGP, Harvest Moon, Senran Kagura and Steins;Gate. PQube’s hardware division designs, manufactures and distributes officially licensed consoles and accessories including the brand-new Atari ‘Retro’ range.

We thank all our partners and acknowledge all game names, brands and trademarks as properties of their respective owners. Visit: www.pqube.co.uk/games


Article by Susan N.

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Death End re;Quest - PC Review

Just a few months ago, Richard had the chance to delve into one of Compile Hearts and Idea Factory's newest JRPGs. Now having made its way over to the PC, it was my turn to dive into this very interesting blend of JRPG elements that while always feeling familiar in one sense or another, was refreshing because of how different it was in its construction.

Death End re;Quest is pretty much it's own brand of crazy where even the Neptunia series hasn't tread. Having disappeared from the real world, our protagonist Shina has been locked in a now defunct MMO project that she had been working on. Trapped seemingly alone with very few NPCs left, you quickly learn that the world, which shouldn't even be online after the project has been shut down, is corrupted and only getting worse.

Being trapped in an MMO is nothing new with .Hack and Sword Art Online having both explored this theme from different perspectives. One had people falling into comas because of a particular style of attack known as Data Draining while the other approached it by trapping everyone into the game with fail safes put into place that would kill anyone trying to log out immediately. The difference here though is that starting off Shina has no idea she's even in a virtual world much less that her dangers are rather real and extremely dangerous. Exploring the world you find out the details as she does making the whole context feel pretty cohesive as details fall into place at a proper rate and any backstory that you need to understand is given to you when it is needed.

Visually Death End Re;Quest is pretty to look at with vibrant colours that acts as decent accents once you've moved into the more barren wastelands. The character models look a bit more realistic than those of say the Neptunia series but I would be lying if I didn't mention that the main cast looks very MeiQ / Mary Skelter-ish. That is a bit of what I meant up above in that the various elements feel rather familiar because you can see a bit of each of the previous projects including the combat which feels right at home in the middle of Fairy Fencer F and Mugen Souls.

Running into enemies on the field or due to storyline combat, the battle field is the same. Set in a circle in which characters and enemies can move around, your party will have access to normal attacks or more powerful ones that require MP. What is really neat is that instead of Mugen Souls in which you needed to make sure an attack had a blast attribute, performing a combo can launch an enemy backwards and either into another enemy or group. If however while they are flying backwards they hit the edge of the encounter circle they'll bounce back and run into anything else that could have been run into which leads into one of the last combat features that is unique to this title.

Within the circular field of battle are markers on the ground that are a form of data corruption and will hurt your characters if you're not careful. What you can do however to avoid or navigate these dangers is smack enemies into them which will cause extra damage. This is not only a viable battle tactic but often a necessary one as while they are hurt while being thrown through these markers, they can use these markers in order to power up if you let them. It adds a bit more depth to the combat which isn't exactly basic, but has essentially become the baseline for the company between its various IPs.

A big detail that I want to praise is the dialog. Conversations feel natural and part of the overall experience instead of just being an add-on. Sometimes though these conversations are so damned long that you wonder when control is going to be dropped back into your hands. Sometimes this could be because you're simply ready to go out and take out a few monsters but other times you really just need to make sure that you can save. Nothing is one-hundred percent certain so saving often is important as you don't want to lose progress because of a game crash so being able to save during conversations was HUGE. This covers all of the bases including being able to reload because you made the wrong choice and game overed.

"But the "choose your own adventure" thing. Hoo boy, that's the first place this game really got me, and let me tell you, I was royally pissed off, and I loved Death End for it. Every so often, or more like five minutes depending on how fast you power through the game, you will be given what is generally a choice between two options. One option, will have you progress through the story. The other? Game over. No, I don't mean "it's a poor choice but carry on anyway", I mean you literally get a Game Over. Guess who failed the first choice? That's right, me.

-Richard" 

Knowing this I was a bit more prepared than he was. It also helped that Richard continued to remind me as I started and checked up on how I was going probably just to laugh at me when the inevitable finally did happen. Well it did but I didn't tell him so he can laugh about it now I suppose but I do agree with him though that the overall experience is just as much a Visual Novel that it is a JRPG. The reason isn't just because there's a ton of dialog, the reason is that while you get to explore the game world with Shina, you can also explore the real world with Arata as there's a whole different story going on in the outside world.

With the gaming servers mysteriously up, the world world's stock exchange has plummeted and the only thing those attacked can see is the MMO world's login server. Somehow stuck in the middle, Arata will be both helping out Shina in the game work as a hacked bear known as Enigma while having his own adventures outside the virtual world. This not only lends more depth to the experience but it also allows for a bit of a break from the glitchy visuals that while not as bad as the original .Hack series, were still enough to give me a bit of a headache over time.

So overall, mashing up the likes of .Hack or Sword Art Online's being trapped in a digital world, MeiQ's character design and finally a penchant for the macabre, and you have one of the better titles this partnership have ever put out which in the past couple years is a fair amount of praise. Whether fans of RPGs or JRPGs, Death End re;Quest is worth grabbing either on the PC or on the PS4 where it was already available.

Game Information

Platform:
PC
Developer(s):
Compile Heart
Publisher(s):
Idea Factory International
Genre(s):
RPG
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
Sony PlayStation 4

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Pierre-Yves

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New Gameplay Video Released for The Sinking City!

Lesquin, France, May 22, 2019 – One month before the game's release, Bigben and Frogwares are pleased to present a new gameplay video of The Sinking City.

In this video, the player witnesses the madness and atmosphere impregnating Oakmont. Charles Reed is a private detective gripped by more and more disturbing hallucinations, and he believes he can find the cause in this devastated town.

Surrounded by monsters and unexplained events, he desperately hopes that it is all nothing but a figment of the imagination.

Discover all the answers soon on June the 27th, on PC, PlayStation®4 and Xbox One.

More info about The Sinking City can be found here.

Stay up-to-date with the latest news and information for The Sinking City on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Youtube.

About Bigben

Bigben is a major video game publisher, designer and distributor of mobile phone and gaming accessories as well as audio products. The group, recognised for its innovation and creativity, aspires to become a European leader in each of the sectors it is active in. www.bigben.fr

About Frogwares

Frogwares is an independent video game development studio based in Dublin and Kiev. Since 2000, the studio has become renowned for its vast catalogue of games, ranging from RTS to action-adventure games. The studio is most known for creating the critically acclaimed Sherlock Holmes games franchise. Frogwares' games are available on all major game platforms, including the latest generation consoles. It is now concentrating on its upcoming new IP The Sinking City.

For more information, please visit www.frogwares.com or www.facebook.com/frogwares.



Article by Susan N.

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Rock of Ages II: Bigger & Boulder - Switch Review

Rock of Ages 2 is arguably the weirdest, if not only, combination of tower defense and monkey ball that has ever deigned to exist. Is it entertaining? Yes. Is it full of Monty Python style animations? Yes. Does it have a Pokemon joke? Yes. I think that paints a pretty basic picture of how this game is going to play out.

Rock of Ages 2 has you playing as Atlus, from Greek mythology. He was tired of holding the Earth up, so he set it down for a bit when God wasn’t watching, but then he dropped it. When trying to pick it up again, he got a strangely animated boulder. So he ran away from God to…go find the Earth? The rest of the game is rather…nonsensical, to say the least. You roll around the boulder on a sort of world map, and there are castles and item tokens on the map. By interacting with a castle, you start a…war? Battle? Game? With some personage of historical significance, all introduced with a skit that I wouldn’t be surprised if you told me was written and animated by John Cleese, or whoever was in charge of the Monty Python animations.

Battles consist of, and I quote this “rolling large rocks down hills at each other”. Yes, I’m fully serious here. Essentially what happens is a two phase sort of system. First you get to lay down some traps (the tower defense mode) to try and prevent your opponent from getting his rock to your castle. You have an amount of cash that you can increase by destroying enemy traps, and objects on the field. While you are doing this, a bunch of workers are carving out your boulder. When they finish, you can roll the boulder down the hill, dodging or destroying traps, and trying to ram the enemy castle gates as hard as you can.

Your boulder does have a “health bar” of sorts though, and getting damaged too much will destroy your boulder, or your opponents’. Ram into the enemy castle gate with as much speed and health as you can, and try to crush your opponent! Traps are…varied, to say the least. There are the standard walls and spring floors, but there are also traps such as “sticky cows” and “lions on balloons”, which are weird, but really useful.

You also have an obstacle course challenge, where you race your opponent to the end of a stage, as it gets progressively harder each time. First to three points wins. Both of these modes are available in an online and local multiplayer as well, so you and a friend can roll on out! Stages are all varied and themed with different world locations, and all the paths to roll down a rather unique in their own ways. While the opponents in the solo campaign mode can get a little, or ok, VERY annoying at some points, it’s still really fun, and the sense of euphoria when you set up a blockade or really annoying trap just before a large jump, and the enemy boulder goes careening off the edge? MMM, feels so good.

There’s a lot of variety to rock of ages 2, despite being rather short and straight forward. There’s a myriad of game modes, and even boss battles in the campaign mode. The opening skits are hilarious, and it’s fun to play with a friend. You get some nice classical music as background, although the looping could have been handled better, and the traps are all interesting and fun to play with.

There is an online mode available if you don’t have any friends on hand, so there’s no too much worry if you get fed up with playing against the AI, I’m sure there’s someone out there just as bad as you! While I didn’t notice any particularly glaring flaws, there were times when the switch was REALLY struggling to render some of the drawings, essentially giving you a nice blur of color to stare at until you figured out what it was.

Rock of Ages has released for a bunch of platforms now, and the port to the switch has gone pretty well. If you haven’t picked it up on another platform, and are looking for a good game to play in your spare time or with a friend, give Rock of Ages 2 a roll, I’m sure it will be smashing!

Game Information

Platform:
Nintendo Switch
Developer(s):
ACE Team
Publisher(s):
Atlus / Sega
Genre(s):
Tower Defense
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
Sony PlayStation 4
Microsoft Xbox One
PC

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Richard

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Tiny Metal Releasing on Steam in June!

TOKYO – May 22, 2019 – TINY METAL: FULL METAL RUMBLE, a turn-based strategy wargame of intrigue with a distinct Japanese flavor from the AAA veterans at AREA 35, Inc., signs up for its tour of duty on Steam for PC, alongside the previously announced Nintendo Switch version.

TINY METAL: FULL METAL RUMBLE (FULL METAL RUMBLE from here on) is a completely new title that pushes the tactical, turn-based strategy genre forward, inspired by classics like Advance Wars. Greater challenges and stronger enemies test the mettle of TINY METAL veterans, but with enhanced commander powers, new passive abilities, and additional difficulty modes, thrilling challenges await in every new firefight.

FULL METAL RUMBLE improves and expands upon the original’s formula across 39 new campaign missions and 77 skirmish maps, both escalating in complexity and ferocity. Units head into battle with never-before-seen tricks, take cover in the fog of war, refuel and stock up ammo when depleted, and ambush sinister Dinoldan forces to change the tides of war.

The world of TINY METAL levels up through exploration and new victory conditions. A new world map pays homage to classic RPG elements, packed with secrets for inquisitive adventurers. Challenge enemies posing a variety of new win conditions in every level. Triumph against the Dinoldans demands strategic planning and more than just extra firepower.

Only the sharp, independent Commander Wolfram and her White Fangs can hope to stand against the conquering Dinoldan armies. Search for Wolfram’s brother and lead the White Fangs to victory, preventing dangerous ancient technology from falling into Dinoldan hands. The fate of a world ravaged by war hangs in the balance.

Acclaimed writer Hirotaka Inaba (I Am Setsuna) spins a twisting tale of intrigue, triumph, and tragedy, brought to life by a charming cast of memorable characters. Venerable composer Tomoki Miyoshi (I Am Setsuna, Lost Sphear, STEINS;GATE) wrings emotion and intrigue from every cutscene and firefight.

“The all-star team of developers at AREA 35 are thrilled to bring our gripping wartime narrative packed with exciting new features and challenges, to PC alongside Nintendo Switch,” said Hiroaki Yura, producer, AREA 35, Inc. “The tremendous community support for TINY METAL’s nostalgic tactical gameplay drives our development on this next chapter.”

TINY METAL: FULL METAL RUMBLE will be available to demo at MomoCon on May 23-26 in booth #10. FULL METAL RUMBLE will also be at E3, taking place June 11-13 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in West Hall booth #5200.

TINY METAL: FULL METAL RUMBLE is coming soon for Nintendo Switch and PC in North America and Europe. The game will support English text and audio localization.

Visit the Tiny Metal website for more information, follow them on Twitter, or join them on Discord.

About AREA 35, Inc.

Based out of Tokyo and composed of Japanese game industry veterans, AREA 35, Inc. is dedicated to the craft of making games. Its developers aim to perfect their craft and create fun, fulfilling experiences for players everywhere. For more information, visit the AREA 35, Inc. website.



Article by Susan N.

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Vambrace: Cold Soul - PC Review

Vambrace: Cold Soul is one of those titles that seems harmless enough until you've finished the tutorial. Easy to get into, it doesn't take long before the cold wintery fangs sink into your warm flesh draining you of your heat and of your life.

Even before getting my hands on an advanced enough copy, in which after some updates you'll never know the true horrors that we experienced unless the developers release a hard mode patch, there was a lot of comparison to Darkest Dungeon. You move from left to right. It's pretty dark. There's a ton of perma death. And your character abilities rely on your position from front to back. There's a lot that could compared and honestly it's a fair comparison as let's be honest that almost everything recently is compared to Dark Souls in one manner or another. Is it Darkest Dungeon in the northern reaches of the world however? No. It isn't.

Starting off with one of the best nods to Final Fantasy, you learn the ropes with Sarge, Biggs and Wedge. As these three cross a frozen settlement with corpses all around, you're told that because of the uselessness of one that you won't be seeing the ghosts coming your way because they forgot to pack the tool that measures their presence. Following along a path, you are taught to loot and to just generally hope that your party can handle a trap if it so happens to walk right over one as all encounters of this sort are handled automatically with your party's stats versus the difficulty of a trap. Finding your protagonist at the end of their little trip, they head back to their base with you in toe and then things start up for real.

Waking up and being thrown into interrogation, Lyric gives you the player a bit more context as to what she's doing up here while also getting a bit of detail of where she finds herself. Having followed instructions left to her in her father's last will and testament, Lyric traveled the world until she came to this wintery wasteland. After having crossed the snow plains and icy mountains, she must have collapsed which is where the Sarge and her two cohorts found her but one question remained. How?

Surrounded by an incy barrier, people can make it into the city along a very particular path, but there's no way out as any that would touch the barrier or any others put up will instantly die. Telling her interrogator that she simply touched one of outer walls and walked through, it's here where everything falls into place. Wearing a Vambrace that her father left her, she can pass through dangerous magics that allows her an edge against the souls of the dead that plague this place as she sets out with any brave enough to face the cold as you search for a way out.

Basically starting for real at this point, Lyric after setting up shop in the back of the pub can shop for items that will help along the journey, store items that she and the party have found while out and about or hire new party members to help out. While there's no real set rule to how you should set up your party, there should still be a bit of a balance struct if you want to be able to make it both through the various battles of both the living and the dead trying to kill you as well as the various traps and environmental hazards awaiting your party's crossing.

Here's about where things start to truly set the bar for what you can expect. While sharing huge intertwined maps with the likes of Darkest Dungeon in which you can go back and forth, you don't need to worry about things like torches to see or stave off insanity. Instead you need to worry about health and stamina in which if either of these falls to zero, you die. If it's a hired hand, they are dead and you've just lost whatever they were carrying. If it's Lyric however, you are instantly brought back to town with whoever was still alive and whatever items you held in your inventory. You can also if you know things are not going well simply travel back to town and the most that you will lose is your forward progress. There's no penalty for being careful and you'll probably want to take the more careful route more often than not.

Not having a penalty to call it quits and head back was nice but at the same time it made me wonder why at first. You head back to town, you have all of the items that you've accumulated, minus the ones that you've used of course, and then you can make a killing on profits and buy new items for your team to equip. The team itself costs you nothing so where's the catch? What's the downside? There honestly really isn't any, but, and you knew the but was coming, Lyric and others don't level up. You don't get experience for heading out into the wasteland. You simply get more resources that can be used to craft new items or be sold for cash.

There is a maximum load that be carried however, so from that end of things you need to pay a bit of attention as you don't want to have to leave precious loot behind, but at the same time, you want to keep enough on you as there are items or equipment that can only be acquired outside of the town hub for the “right price” which is sometimes a load of materials that you literally just deposited back in your home base's storage. So what do you keep? How much do you keep? It's all up to you depending upon what your actual purpose is when you head out.

Honestly starting off I was more cautious than I ever should have been. Carefully checking space for what I could find, figuring out which route made it easier to pass from one room to the other, and seeing what could be gained from staying often at campfires brought more misery and woe that I can attest to. While staying at a campfire can allow you to explore and check out the various surrounding environments what they hold and keep you warm, it also puts some fairly huge ticks into the “ghost counter” that once passed the threshold will have you battling infinite undead beings often several times per map depending upon how far you had to travel within it. It doesn't stop at the map segment either, it lasts until you leave the area so I hope you're up to the task if you take your time because healing isn't cheap, healers are not the most effective, and healing items add ticks onto the ghost counter when used at a camp.

Battling is done in a turned based fashion in which I swear I never, ever, EVER, went first. So basically after your party took a few hits, you are then free to start hitting back or using abilities in order to impede your enemy. Shouting at them to cause them to freeze in their steps, using fire ammo or hitting a few at a time, each is available as long as your character has the gauge filled for it. Otherwise, standard attacks or defending is as easily done as running away from the battle if a character is way too close to death.

Starting from the front of your group which always goes from left to right, you have your first two melee and then your two ranged characters. Each character type that you can take along for the ride have their own abilities and weapons making them unique additions to your team. The rogue have daggers and flashbangs for distractions, the knight has a shout along with a sword and shield for defense while the dwarf is good with traps and mechanical elements while also sporting a flintlock rifle and incendiary ammo. Side to the more martial classes you have the blood mage who can attack with her draining ability or boost any of your own allies at the cost of their health while the healer can heal very minimal damage to two of your party members or launch a longer over several turns spell.

Now as I mentioned, you don't get any character experience while facing off against your normal random encounters or the spectral horde that will chase you once the gauge reaches its threshold. You, the player, will get plenty as you learn the dos and donts against the various enemies that you encounter as you move forward. Some are seriously not worth the effort and running from battle isn't something to even be ashamed about in this case as let's be honest, you get “nothing” out of it. What your party does get out of it however are items and material for crafting or trading that you won't really be finding within your environment so if the plan is to move forward, battle the least amount as possible in order to keep your party healthy. If you plan on mowing down enemies after enemies in order to accumulate resources? Get the ghost meter to full as fast as possible and then head back to town. Rinse and repeat as many times as necessary until you feel ready to truly push forward.

Now this may sound a bit silly, but something that I truly appreciated is that if you walk left or right, you see the left or the right or your character. You don't just see the same visual but on the other side. If a character has a shield walking one way, then you see it on their other side when walking in the opposing direction. The same is with Lyric in which the Vambrace is quite noticeable when walking in one direction but not the other. So many artists simply “swap” the asset but there are loads of tiny details like these ones that just improve upon the experience as it feels much more natural to look at.

Overall, whether playing on a keyboard or with a controller from the couch, Vambrace: Cold Soul is an adventure worth having. While not being an RPG in the traditional leveling up sense, there's plenty here to enjoy and the experience itself while being dark and snowy is still a very pretty one to look at with its choice of color palette.

Game Information

Platform:
PC
Developer(s):
Devespresso Games
Publisher(s):
Headup
Genre(s):
Adventure
Roguelike
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
Sony PlayStation 4
Nintendo Switch

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Pierre-Yves

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Taiwanese anime action-game Dusk Diver announced for Europe and North America! - News

You say Musou and I'm already interested. Coming from a Taiwanese developer, Dusk Diver is going into a territory that few others often venture short of Tecmo Koei's Omega Force and I'm interested to see what this Anime Action Beat 'Em Up has in store for us later this year!

Taiwanese anime action-game Dusk Diver announced for Europe and North America 

"Thus, every afternoon from 17:00 to 19:00, 

- the Moment of Dusk -

energy flows tend to become chaotic and violent." 

PQube (London, UK) May 16th, 2019 - DeveloperJFI Games Inc., Justdan International Co. Ltd. and PQube are excited to announce that Dusk Diver is coming to Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 worldwide this Autumn! The anime action-game is based in Taipei's iconic Ximending district and takes the Musou genre to the next level. Additionally, Japanese voice actress Kate Mizukiri of sound studio Kotori Voice Inc. will not only play one of the characters, but also perform the exclusive cooperation song "Sensen Shoujo”!

Dusk Diver is being locally developed in Taiwan and the first game to capture the vibrant and exciting lifestyle of Ximending district, one of the country's most popular tourist locations. The story starts at Exit 6 of the MRT station Ximending, showing a recreation of its streets in a realistic but fantasized world, rendered in beautiful anime style. From there on, players follow ordinary high school student Yang Yumo and experience her fantasy action adventure through Ximending and Youshanding, a mirror world with two faces.

Blow monsters off their feet with flashy combos and finishers!

Visit iconic Ximending hotspots recreated in beautiful anime style!

Upgrade the Guardians according to your favourite playstyle!

The special collaboration track – “Sensen Shoujo”, sang by Kate Mizukiri, is about the world as seen through the character's eyes. It is produced by Kotori Voice Inc. and composed by shade, a successful composer for games such as “Rance VII - Sengoku Rance” and “Azur Lane”. On top of that, the team cast a very talented selection of Taiwanese and Japanese voice actors to breathe life into the unique characters.

Article by Pierre-Yves

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Total War: Three Kingdoms - PC Review

Epic battles, memorable characters and an ancient, politically charged setting felt like a match made in heaven with the Total War series as soon as I heard it announced. I am happy to say that after many hours taking this title on from various angles, Total War: Three Kingdoms delivers on that promise that I was anxiously awaiting.

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Afterlight - A New Kickstarter Adventure Puzzle Game Begins

Madrid (Spain), April 16th, 2019 - Afterlight’s Kickstarter campaign starts today. Developed by Silent Road Games, the title proposes a mixture of adventure and puzzles in a unique environment: Titan, the largest moon orbiting Saturn.

Along with a staging in 2.5D and a narrative that addresses all kind of psychological and emotional elements, Afterlight makes an original and different proposition capable of revolutionizing the genre -as titles such as Journey or Inside did in their day.

Although the development of Afterlight has already advanced beyond its initial phase, it will be key that its Kickstarter is successful, in order to finish properly.

Afterlight is an introspective adventure into the mind of an isolated astronaut in Titan. This journey is about trust and forced friendship, perception and psychological traumas -as a metaphor for toxic relationships in desperate overcomes.  Set in Titan's Kraken Mare landscape in the XXII century, Afterlight is a puzzle-adventure game in 2.5D with environmental narrative. You are Xin, an astronaut who has to update the mission’s corrupted AI in order to establish communication and ask for rescue.

Afterlight is being made with lots of care, focus on the environment, emotional and psychological elements and animation to provide a rich gameplay experience as well as a compelling story.

Main Features:

• A creative interpretation of a large documentation on Titan's environment -bringing a dreamy and beautiful setting.
• An emotional insight into mental disorders, not focused on the cliché aspects, but to talk about their consequences in relationships and personal growth.
• Carefully crafted animations to tell from gestures and little details.
• Vast possibilities in puzzles by getting to control giant robots.

Afterlight, the oniric 2.5D adventure set in Titan and developed by the Málaga based Silent Road, opens its Kickstarter page today.

Keep up to date on Twitter and the Official website! Don't forget to wishlist it on Steam.


Article by Susan N.

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Motor City Comic Con - Cosplay Contest: Part 2

I put up a lot of words in the last article. This one? We're just going to wrap things up with the rest of the cosplays from the Motor City Comic Con contest.

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Motor City Comic Con - Cosplay Contest: Part 1

Certainly one of the biggest parts of any comic con is the elaborate cosplay that you see throughout the event. Earlier this week we took a look at some of the best we saw on the show floor, but Saturday evening was the official contest and it was an entertaining one.

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World End Syndrome - PS4 Review

Welcome to Mihate town, a place where the dead are said to gather, and where people come to either throw their past selves away, or to meet the spirits of those deceased. The protagonist (that’s you) arrives in Mihate town and hears the local legend of the Yomibito, a tale where every hundred years a deceased person will roam the streets of the town, unaware that they are dead, but will progressively lose their grip on their sanity. At the end of summer, it is said the Yomibito will start a murder spree, unless confronted. But that’s just a local legend…right?

Our protagonist transfers to the local highschool, where he meets fellow classmates Miu, Maimi, Kensuke, and Saya, a teacher who also doubles as the author for a recently popular novel, as well as out-of-town reporter Yukino and…person, Hanako. Will our protagonist find something to do with his life? Perhaps love? A hobby? Maybe a sealed evil deity to combat? Who knows, but this summer will certainly be unforgettable by those living in the town.

World End Syndrome is an interesting supernatural/suspense style visual novel set in a small Japanese town. While that description could be attributed to a great many different visual novels, I found the World End Syndrome set itself apart, sometimes by betraying my expectations, sometimes by being self aware, but mostly because it’s set up in a way that I was really pleased to see. As a Visual Novel, there isn’t a whole lot of “gameplay” per se, mostly just reading. World End can be roughly divided in two parts: a prologue of sorts, where you meet the main cast, and the “chapter” portion, where you actually “do” things. The prologue is mostly text, but when you start in the chapter portion, you get to choose where in the town you want to go over your summer break. Most days are divided into three: Morning, afternoon, and night. Different events will take place in different areas at different times, and you need to decide where you want to go and what you want to do before your summer ends.

Here is where we start getting into the stuff I really like to see in World End, at least from a gameplay perspective. Having the player choose from a number of different possible locations, instead of just text choices, really brings a more “interactive” feel to the game. In fact, I feel more apt to call it a game rather than just a visual novel because of the sheer amount of options they give you. Included in that are the occasional “missions”, where a character will give you a task to complete. Sometimes this is rewarded with an item or “aura”, and sometimes you just get a bonus scene.

World End Syndrome also has a “global” system to it. What I mean by that is collectibles and such are retained through multiple “playthroughs”, and requirements for certain events depend on whether or not you’ve experienced other events that you would need to see either later, or on a different route. To help you out with this, if you’ve visited a location previously, the game will mark the location with a blue icon, signifying you’ve already visited that area to view the scenes. Additionally, there are also little character portraits to indicate who will be there for you to interact with. Extremely helpful if you can’t figure out a route, you can, for the most part, hit the events or character portraits pertaining to the character you’re interested in.

In fact, World End Syndrome does a lot of things I really liked to see. The biggest is the fact that characters turn. What do I mean by this, you may ask? Well, in most visual novels, characters tend to be hand drawn “cut-outs”, static portraits that may express a small array of emotions. In World End Syndrome, while this is still mostly true, unlike in other visual novel I’ve seen, character portraits actually have side and back views, and they will blink at you too. In fact, the art for the game is really stellar. Most of the backgrounds aren’t just beautifully hand draw backdrops, they almost all have some sort of dynamic component too.

Maybe the grass is rustling, maybe there are pinwheels spinning, maybe a stream is flowing, the point is, very rarely is anything in this game truly static, and I felt as if that really drew me in more than anything else. A lot of care seems to have gone into crafting World End Syndrome, or at the very least a lot of thought. For instance, when you talk to a character and they leave afterwards, you hear them slowly walking away, even outside of the text boxes. Also, if there’s a door around, they will “walk” to the door, and you hear it open and close, which I thought was really neat.

Are there any bad or annoying points? Well, yes. If you aren’t interested in the story, these style games can be a real drag, but that’s primarily personal preference. I rather enjoyed the story behind World End Syndrome, and I feel it lends itself to being accepted by a wider range of people, if not for the plot, for how they’ve drawn all their characters and scenes, or organized their gameplay. The protagonist can’t seem to differentiate between internal monologue and spoken words sometimes, as what I thought were his thoughts turned out to be spoken.

There’s also the whole “aura system” thing. You can pick up a handbook about halfway through the chapter section that explains what it is, but essentially, as you interact with various people, you get “dyed in their color”, helpfully color coded by route (although I expected yellow and blue to be switched). Some events require a certain level of aura to initiate. Aura is gained simply by interacting with the various characters, and is permanent across the “system save data”, so if you needed a set amount to activate an event, you can simply go gather more, and then load a previous save point if you really wanted to. Unfortunately, I felt it took too long to really explain the system, and can be a little confusing when you get white auras, which aren’t really explained at all. Fun fact, if you combine all the colors in the spectrum, you get white.

I’ll be perfectly honest here, I wasn’t expecting all that much out of World End Syndrome when I first got it. Heck, I was told it was going to be a different game altogether. So imagine my surprise when I sit down to play it, and then notice it’s three in the morning and I don’t want to put it down. World End Syndrome is super user friendly, intriguing, has a really fitting soundtrack, and totally drew me in almost from the get-go. If you enjoy interactive novels, World End Syndrome is definitely an experience you probably don’t want to miss. So come and unravel the mystery behind the Yomibito, and join us in our World End Syndrome.

Game Information

Platform:
Sony PlayStation 4
Developer(s):
Toybox
Publisher(s):
Arc System Works (NA)
PQube Games (EU)
Genre(s):
Visual Novel
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
Nintendo Switch

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Richard

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New Moss Expansion called "Twilight Garden" Releasing

SEATTLE – May 14, 2019 – To celebrate the release of Oculus Quest, Polyarc will introduce new content for Moss, making it even harder to put down the game that’s captivated players around the world. One of the top-rated VR games of all time with more than 80 global industry awards and nominations, Moss brings to life a compelling, fantastical story in a way never before possible. And on May 21, with the release of Oculus Quest, players on the platform will be able to unlock and explore the Twilight Garden, a brand-new chapter of Moss. The content delivers a complimentary experience to existing gameplay, bringing additional environments, challenges, and storytelling to players. PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift/S, HTC Vive, and Windows MR platforms will receive the update this June.

“The Quest is a game changer for the VR industry, and something we’ve been eagerly anticipating as developers specializing in VR content. Its wireless head and hand tracking technology allows full immersion in another world, simply by picking up and putting on a headset, regardless of where you are,” said Josh Stiksma, principal designer, Polyarc. “Now you can explore the whimsical fairytale from home or on the go as you travel, commute, and visit friends or family. In addition, to make this experience even more magical, we’ve updated the game. Players may now discover and explore new content hidden within the world of Moss.”

In Moss, players guide a young mouse hero named Quill, while also manipulating the field of play as their own character. Together you embark on an epic journey to save Quill’s uncle. Along the way, you can now discover portals to the strange and vibrant Twilight Garden. Here you’re tested in new ways as a mysterious presence prepares you for the dangers ahead. You’ll explore vast chambers, discover unique weaponry, and face a new realm of puzzles and enemies. Success will require mastery from you both, but if achieved, could change what’s believed possible for a partnership of your kind…

Moss for Oculus Quest will launch on May 21. Moss is currently available for download through Steam, PSVR, Oculus Rift, and HTC Viveport stores for £23.79 GBP MSRP. The free update announced today will automatically update when available on other supported platforms this June. Moss is rated E10+ by the ESRB. For more information, visit our website and follow the official Polyarc channels Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

© 2018 Polyarc, Inc. All rights reserved. Moss is a trademark of Polyarc, Inc.

About Polyarc

Polyarc, located in Seattle, was founded in 2015 to explore the energizing and momentous possibilities of virtual reality, and to champion a culture where deep collaboration, creative expression, and high player value are at the forefront of every innovation. Polyarc’s team is made up of talented developers with deep experience working on well-known, AAA franchises such as Destiny, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Reach, Red Dead Redemption, and Guild Wars 2. https://www.polyarcgames.com/


Article by Susan N.

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