When one thinks of a vampire game they usually don’t think of becoming an investigator at the same time but that is what Big Bad Wolf Studios’ Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong focuses on, especially in the latest developer diary released by the company. The game is a narrative RPG that mixes elements of adventure and role-playing games where players will take control of three different Kindred in Boston.
In the walkthrough, found below, the lead quest designer Eliot Hipeau andfreelance writer Matthew Dawkins show off Galeb as he investigates a murder under the orders of the Prince of Boston while making use of his vampiric abilities to help sway those around the crime scene and try and uncover more information. Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong is currently set to be released on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC on May 19th.
NIS America has announced that they will be releasing Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 3 for the Nintendo Switch and PC on August 30th in North America and September 2nd in Europe. The collection will feature La Pucelle: Ragnarok and Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure. The company has also noted that all physical versions of the game will include a soundtrack CD as well as an art book.
The most notable of these two games happens to be La Pucelle: Ragnarok as the title was never released in the West and will now feature tons of new content including the Overlord Prier Scenario, and new characters like Etna, Flonne, Laharl, and more.
As such it only makes sense that the trailer that the company released to accompany this announcement highlight La Pucelle and you can check that out below. As for Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure the title will offer improved graphics and even an option to mimic CRT should the player choose.
American developers Running with Scissors decided to take sole responsibility over the Postal franchise after Postal 3was met with universal disdain. With exclusive control, they felt they could turn things around. Postal 3 was completely retconned out with the Postal 2: Paradise Lost DLC, and Running with Scissors really got down to business when they put Postal 4: No Regerts on Steam Early Access in late 2019. After two years in Early Access, it’s time to see if Running with Scissors’ efforts have paid off.
Story
It’s been years since the events of Postal 2: Paradise Lost. Our hero Postal Dude and his dog Champ have been living their best life until their mobile home is stolen. Now broke and homeless, Postal Dude enters the town of Edensin, Arizona in hopes of finding work and a new roof over his head.
The writing is terrible. It is predictable and stupid. The characters are shallow and completely forgettable. The plot does nothing to draw people in or provides any incentive to care about anyone in the game. I spent the entire time feeling like I was being hauled along for some stranger’s to do list.
Postal’s big draw is supposed to be the controversial humour. Unfortunately, franchise’s reputation far eclipses the actual game’s content. The writers seem content with jumping between one attempt to be edgy to the next. It all falls flat. The writers just lazily use the lowest hanging fruit and sound more like a bunch of teenagers spitting out a word salad of key phrases they think will enrage the social media crowd. The comedy isn’t written intelligently or even that cuttingly for that matter. In the end, it leaves us with a string of toilet humour, bad sex jokes, and a few limp pokes at the social justice crowd that isn’t even worth getting out of bed for. Postal 4 has a lesson for future game developers looking to make controversial humour a selling point: go for the throat with smart, witty writing or don’t bother.
Gameplay
Postal 4’s gameplayis a boring, repetitive mess. All the main missions have the same linear design. Each mission consists of walking from point A to B while doing the same task over and over. If the player is lucky, they may even get a chance to engage in combat at some point.
The AI is brain-dead. They provide no challenge at all, just the odd moments of buggy frustration. The AI is more than happy to stare at a hostile player, run aimlessly into a wall, or spend minutes trying to figure out how to open a door to get to the player. For me, the real kicker is discovering half the human AI have a hard time opening doors, but the rats seem to have no problems with it at all.
The open world level design is a bore. The world feels dead. Buildings feel like they are there to take up space and maybe provide an objective for a future mission. Armies of NPC clones wander aimlessly in the streets. There are supposed to be lots of side activities and collectibles to be found, but the open world doesn’t have enough interesting things to see to motivate players to poke through every back alley in hopes of finding the last stuffed toy. As a result, I found myself hunting down the nearest mobility scooter so I could get to the next main mission as quickly as possible.
The side activities themselves are dull. The bulk of it is finding collectibles. It feels blatantly obvious that the developers were seeking a way to pad the game time versus putting together any meaningful content.
The gun play is extremely disappointing. The weapon handling is unresponsive and sloppy, making players feel like they’re getting into a gun fight while wearing oversized mittens. Animal hit boxes seem wrong, and there are a lot of times where a hit animation plays but nothing appears to happen to the target.
To make matters worse, there are too many weapons for the game’s control scheme. Scrolling through weapons takes forever. While it’s not a normal control scheme for old school FPS like Postal 4, the game would have been better served by using an inventory style hot bar like Minecraft.
Postal 4 is dying for quality-of-life features. The game needs a proper objective tracker on the HUD. The in-game map provides very little useful information and is very basic. Some quest markers are a little off. The map needs more detailed objective markers, and the GPS directions are completely useless half the time. Usually, it directed me through impassable hills instead of pointing me to the road that would actually get me to my destination.
To cap things off, the game is very buggy. I saw everything from a constant stream of visual glitches like floating objects to game breaking issues that locked out all weapons. The game breaking bugs are common enough to be annoying, but not enough to make the game unplayable. I found myself having to reload a save every hour or so.
Visuals
Postal 4’s visuals makes the game look like a cheap mobile FPS than a $40 USD PC title. The art style has an odd look. I think the art team was shooting for a hybrid cartoon/realism style given the cutscenes’ cartoon look. The game ends up looking more like a 4K remaster of a title from the 2010s than an actual stylistic choice. The awkward animations, lousy models, and lack of visual variety contribute to the cheap, dated look.
The HUD is a clumsy mess. It stacks too many elements on the top right hand side. It takes up way too much space and isn’t easy to use. It could have benefited from simplifying the artwork, using clearer colours, and moving elements closer to the edge of the screen.
Audio
The audio experience is the only part of Postal 4 that’s barely passable. A few voice actors, especially the legendary Jon St. John, put on a half decent performance considering the garbage lines they’ve been fed. The soundtrack is forgettable but isn’t offensive either.
The rest of the audio experience is bad. The sound effects are of varying quality. The firearms lack any sort of crispness. They sound like generic sound effects purchased from a variety of bargain bins around the internet due to the lack of cohesiveness. Idle chatter is overplayed, and the volume of the Postal Dude’s lines is too high compared to the rest of the game.
Overall
Running with Scissors may have been looking for a clean break from the wreck known as Postal 3, but they delivered another pile of garbage in the form of Postal 4. The writing is flaccid, immature, and just plain lazy. The gameplay is incredibly boring and repetitive. It feels more like a cheaply made mobile FPS churned out for someone’s university project than an actual retail PC game. The audio/visual experience is a disappointment. To add insult to injury, the game is a buggy mess in dire need of quality-of-life features. Running with Scissors should have a lot of regrets about how Postal 4 turned out.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Focus Entertainment confirms Dream Powered Games’ new fast-paced FPS is in development for PlayStation®5 & Xbox Series X|S
PARIS — May 5, 2022 — Warstride Challenges, the explosive FPS from Focus Entertainment and Dream Powered Games, has released its first update today, available for all players in Steam Early Access. The first of many to come, this update sees the arrival of Very Hard mode for Chapter 1, plus improvements for the level editor.
Today’s update gives players a first taste of Warstride Challenges’ Very Hard difficulty level, unlocked for Chapter 1 with 12 additional levels. Many improvements and fixes have also been made, with a focus on making the level editor more precise and accessible. A new Level Editor Guide has also been added on Steam to make it even easier to create your own devious trials – let your imagination run wild and share your designs with the community! In addition, Focus Entertainment and Dream Powered Games have confirmed that Warstride Challenges is in development for a future release on PlayStation®5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Check out the game’s early access road map on Steam to see all content coming in subsequent updates.
Lesquin, France, May 4, 2022 – NACON and Piece of Cake studio, developers of the multi rewarded game Hacktag, are pleased to reveal their new game: My Fantastic Ranch, a management game for young players set in a magical world inhabited by fantastic creatures.
The gameplay, designed to be easy for children to access, involves developing and managing a dream ranch. The player has to adopt and care for new dragons and unicorns, arrange riding lessons and match the right student to the right creature, watching them progress together and helping them participate in events and tournaments that will raise the ranch’s profile.
“We wanted to create a management game that the youngest players can access, a game that makes them think and still leaves room for the imagination, and My Fantastic Ranch is the result. All of the game mechanics have been designed to be easy for children to understand, so they can have fun owning their imaginary ranch.” Marine Lemaïtre, CEO and co-founder of Piece of Cake studios.
My Fantastic Ranch has a unique design ideal for developing a child’s management game skills in a fantasy world full of incredibly cute creatures.
My Fantastic Ranch will be available on PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Steam and Epic Game Store in fall 2022.
Find all of our NACON games and accessories on our website nacongaming.com
About NACON NACON is a company of the BIGBEN Group founded in 2019 to optimize its know-how through strong synergies in the video game market. By bringing together its 16 development studios, the publishing of AA video games, the design and distribution of premium gaming devices, NACON focuses 20 years of expertise at the service of players. This new unified business unit strengthens NACON’s position in the market, enables it to innovate by creating new unique competitive advantages and achieve its ambition to become one of the world’s leading players in gaming. https://www.nacongaming.com
About Piece of Cake Piece of Cake Studios is an independent French video game development studio based in Paris. Founded by experienced professionals, Piece of Cake creates cooperative video game experiences. With the launch of its new label, Fabulous, the studio is seeking to develop original management, simulation and/or strategy games set in imaginary universes.
Sprout life wherever you go through the power of light
Gliwice, Poland – May 5th, 2022 – Indie developer DreamStorm Studios has revealed its upcoming narrative-driven puzzler Narru: The Forgotten Lands, is coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox consoles. Use the power of light to resurrect an abandoned world and discover the mysteries of its past.
Narru: the Forgotten Lands is a story-driven puzzle game about bringing a dead world back to life and uncovering the secrets of an ancient civilization. As a mysterious orb of light, you must explore this derelict landscape searching for clues about its past inhabitants. Everywhere you go you leave a trail of blooming flora in your wake, offering a colorful painterly experience to your movement.
As you explore the land you’ll solve puzzles to activate ancient mechanisms and reveal secrets of those who came before you. Learn and master new abilities like water walking, wall climbing, and more to reach new secrets as you explore the island. Travel through forests, seas, mountains, and underground ruins to explore different stages of the lost civilization’s history.
“There are many puzzle games on the market, but we want Narru to be something more than just a relaxing puzzle game,” said Michał Łazowski, Art Director at DreamStorm Studios. “We want it to be an experience, with its deep narrative and mesmerizing world-painting system that allows you to break away from everyday worries. It’s a game that helps calm your mind. With Narru, we wanted to explore the idea of bringing life to the world, instead of destroying it.”
About DreamStorm Studios Based in Poland, DreamStorm is a team of over 40 artists, programmers and all around passionate people, working together since 2018. Over the years, the studio worked on various projects, ranging business applications to games like the wildlife management sim Natural Instincts and the mobile builder game Kayko and Kokosh. Now it’s using its cumulative experience to create a truly inspiring game with the upcoming story-driven puzzle game Narru: the Forgotten Lands.
Cyberpunk Styled Shooter Brought To Life by Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium) and a Script Writer Richard K. Morgan (Altered Carbon, Crysis)
Frankfurt – May 5th, 2022 – Gunzilla Games announced today OTG (Off The Grid), an all-new AAA Battle Royale third person shooter, due for release on PlayStation®5, Xbox® Series X|S and PC, and expected to arrive in 2023.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6InNyCE2Rc
Set within a dystopian future, the cyberpunk styled shooter plans to evolve the genre through strong emphasis on narrative progression, led byChief Visionary Officer Neill Blomkamp and Script Writer Richard K. Morgan. In addition, industry veteran Olivier Henriot (Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed) assumes the role of Executive Narrative Director, ensuring a wealth of top-tier talent to bring the world of OTG to life.
Set within a dystopian future, the cyberpunk styled shooter plans to evolve the genre through strong emphasis on narrative progression, led byChief Visionary Officer Neill Blomkamp and Script Writer Richard K. Morgan. In addition, industry veteran Olivier Henriot (Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed) assumes the role of Executive Narrative Director, ensuring a wealth of top-tier talent to bring the world of OTG to life.
A Battle Royale like no other, in OTG, 150 players fight each other in PvP (Player Vs Player) skirmishes, as well as PvE (Player Vs Environment) storyline missions using the same map inhabited by other players in real time. Players have the freedom to control how the hard-boiled story unfolds, with each decision made directly impacting everyone’s gameplay. Core to the experience and deep narrative structure is the unique way in which players can craft, customize, and trade their in-game items with each other. In OTG, the lines between hero and villain become blurred as players fight to survive the covert corporate battles of the future.
Commenting on OTG, Neill Blomkamp, CVO said, “With OTG, our ambition is not only to create the Battle Royale 2.0 by adding deep player progression, but to build an evolving world designed to take on a life of its own, changing in unexpected ways each time a player rejoins the game. With an innovative approach to the Battle Royale core session flow and a deep narrative experience, we add purpose to each element of the game, allowing players to revisit the OTG world repeatedly where there is always something new to find and explore, and for us to expand upon.”
Founded in 2020, Gunzilla Games is a fresh, independent AAA developer working on its next-generation multiplayer shooter IP in three metropolitan locations: Frankfurt, Germany (HQ); Los Angeles, USA; and Kyiv, Ukraine. The company is helmed by serial entrepreneur CEO, Vlad Korolev and CSO Alexander Zoll. Gunzilla is built on the desire to innovate and push the limits of the industry. Gunzilla’s formidable team of talent come from a variety of industry-leading studios and publishers, including Ubisoft, Electronic Arts (EA), THQ and more. Oscar-nominated screenwriter, director and producer Neill Blomkamp joined Gunzilla as Chief Visionary Officer. In addition, the team features industry veterans like video game writer Olivier Henriot who helped shape the story of such notable games such as Assassin’s Creed, The Division, Far Cry and many more, and Richard K. Morgan, the author of the Altered Carbon series, which has since been adapted into a popular Netflix show. Gunzilla’s Chief Technology Officer Timur Davidenko led the development of CryEngine as Technical Director, and worked on Far Cry, Warface and Crysis. Art Director Jussi Keteli was involved in the iconic Gears of War series, Star Citizen and Hunt: Showdown.
GUNZILLA™ is a trademark of GUNZILLA LLC.
“PlayStation,” “PS4” and “PS5” are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners.
Warner Bros. Games celebrates Star Wars™ Day with the launch of two new DLC (downloadable content) packs forLEGO® Star Wars™: The Skywalker Saga – “The Mandalorian™” Season 2 and “Star Wars: The Bad Batch™” Character Packs. The Mandalorian Season 2 Character
Pack will include Ahsoka Tano, Boba Fett™, Bo Katan, Fennec Shand and Moff Gideon. “Star Wars: The Bad Batch” Character Pack will include Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, Crosshair, and Echo. Released on April 5, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has since set the record as the biggest LEGO game launch and is available for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One consoles, PlayStation 5® (PS5™), PlayStation®4 (PS4™) consoles, Nintendo Switch™ and PC.
View the official LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga– DLC Trailer
Developed by TT Games in collaboration with the LEGO Group and Lucasfilm Games team, and published by Warner Bros. Games, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga features the biggest roster of LEGO Star Wars characters to date with over 300 unlockable characters from across all nine films and the Character Collection Pack (Season Pass) further expands on the roster by including characters from beyond the three trilogies. In addition to “The Mandalorian” Season 2 and “Star Wars: The Bad Batch” characters released, the Character Collection Pack includes previously released character packs “The Mandalorian” Season 1, “Solo: A Star Wars Story™”, Classic Characters, Trooper Pack, and “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story™”. All seven packs are included in the Character Collection Pack or via standalone purchases.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker SagaStandard Edition is available for $89.95 (RRP). The LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker SagaDeluxe Edition is available for $109.95 (RRP) and includes the base game, Character Collection, and physical retail versions will include an exclusive LEGO Star Wars minifigure, Luke Skywalker™ with Blue Milk.
With the undeniable success of Ghost of Tsushima, we’ve been seeing more western-developed games with Asian themes and backgrounds lately; more precisely, games focused on the rich Chinese and Japanese history, folklore, and, of course, martial arts. The recently released SIFU -an excellent kung fu-based brawler- is a very good example of this. The newest game following this trend is Trek to Yomi. A -very- cinematic action game inspired by the celebrated filmmaker Akira Kurosawa and developed by Polish studio Flying Wild Hog.
Story
Trek to Yomi is set in Japan during the Edo period (Sometime between the 16th and 19th century). A young boy named Hiroki trains under his master Sanjuro in order to become a samurai. Unexpectedly, thieves invade the village, killing everyone in sight mercilessly. Hiroki is able enough with a sword to hold his own and help drive off some bandits. Upon confronting Kagerou, the leader of the thieves, Hiroki is completely powerless. Luckily for Hiroki, Sanjuro steps in in the nick of time and is able to slay Kagerou although at the cost of his own life. Several years later, Hiroki, now an adult, is the head of samurai in the village. A new group of bandits has been causing trouble lately. Fearing that his village may be the next to be invaded, and also blinded by anger and pride, Hiroki assembles a group of samurai to take the fight to the thieves. This sets Hiroki on a path of grief and revenge that will take him to Yomi itself; the land of the dead and darkness.
Despite its clichéd premise, Trek to Yomi tries its best to capture the feeling of many of Kurosawa’s movies. A lot is left for the player to imagine or simply feel. Even then, Trek to Yomi doesn’t do a very good job of balancing the story along the length of the game. There’s a lot of very good Japanese voice-acting in the beginning. After that, the dialogues and story bits grow more and more sparse. This wouldn’t be much of a problem if the gameplay held up better.
Gameplay
While playing the introduction as young Hiroki, the game basics are explained well and fast. The player is able to explore the environments in a third person view with mostly fixed camera angles, think PlayStation One’s Resident Evil titles, or more aptly, Onimusha. There are also optional corners and rooms, where you can collect artifacts that tell us a bit more about how people lived in that era in Japan, such as drawings of Shinto gods and amulets; this is a very neat feature for those interested in Japanese mythology as there is a good amount of these artifacts to find, each containing a brief but insightful description. You can also find new skills in the form of new sword combinations, defensive maneuvers, and ammunition for your ranged weapons. There are even alternate paths that allow you to avoid engaging in direct conflict with enemies by setting off traps and dispatching them all at once.
While in combat, the camera will take on a side view, like in a 2D action game. This is all seamlessly implemented, meaning that there are no transitions between camera angles. Everything is done in a way to make the game feel as fast and easily digestible as possible. There are four difficulty options, with the final and hardest setting being locked until you finish the game once. I found the normal mode to be too easy, so this review is based on the hard setting.
The game’s controls are responsive, and the combat is fast and fun enough for the movie-like experience that the game proposes. You can attack using your sword or a ranged weapon, block, and also parry enemies’ attacks. Sword strikes consume your stamina bar, as does blocking. Parrying and countering, on the other hand, won’t consume stamina and will also replenish some of your health if you happen to kill an enemy with a counter. You have a large enough window to parry which makes the game very welcoming to even those inexperienced in action games. Later on, you’ll discover skills that can stun enemies, allowing you to perform finishing moves that also restore health; these mechanics are crucial to survive in the game as they are your only way to replenish your health besides save points.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much gameplay variety as the introduction would make you believe. Towards the second half of the game, which is already fairly short, you’re basically left with moving forward, and cutting down a limited variety of enemies while you collect more artifacts and skills. There are also some inane puzzles that involve aligning some Kanji characters in a wheel. These puzzles are so ridiculously easy that you’d think that they’d at least have some kind of meaning. I think that they probably do, but the game won’t tell you what those Kanji mean. The highlight of the gameplay, in my opinion, are the bosses; they’ll certainly provide a challenge and break the monotony a bit, especially since the rest of the game is relatively easy and won’t prepare you well enough for them.
Visuals
Trek to Yomi’s visuals are presented entirely in a black and white, letter-boxed way, and with a lot of video filters to deliver the feel and look of an old movie. What it lacks in high-production values, it more than makes up for it with its graphical artistry. The game uses a now -sadly- outdated way of presentation that uses semi-static camera angles, like those seem in early Onimusha games, except in Trek to Yomi everything is rendered in real-time with no use of pre-rendered images. Every screen is full of life and details. The characters models are nothing fantastic, but fulfill their purpose. All these features combine to make Trek to Yomi a veritable “playable movie” in the most essential meaning of the expression.
Audio
The soundtrack, much like how it’s presented in Ghost of Tsushima, comprises traditional Japanese instruments, ambient sounds such as rain falling, and the sounds of swords clashing or meeting flesh. A special mention goes to the quality of the Japanese voice-acting; the dialogues feel natural and serious, fitting of the game’s themes. Screams and cries for help from dying villagers are so believable it’s frightening.
Overall
Despite its shortcomings, I had a good time with Trek to Yomi. The presentation alone is worth the price of admission, and the combat works much better than what I was anticipating. Ultimately, the lack of varied gameplay and an enticing story holds back what is otherwise a treat to the senses.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Join us for our latest gameplay for Trek to Yomi, as we guide young Hiroki’s first steps on his Trek to Yomi. An action adventure game with gorgeous photography inspired by Akira kurosawa’s movies.
As a vow to his dying Master, the young swordsman Hiroki is sworn to protect his town and the people he loves against all threats. Faced with tragedy and bound to duty, the lone samurai must voyage beyond life and death to confront himself and decide his path forward.
Trek to Yomi Developer: Leonard Menchiari, Flying Wild Hog Publisher: Devolver Digital Website: http://devolverdigital.com/ Platform: Windows Release Date: 6 May, 2022 Price: $19.99 USD
Recommended – “Trek to Yomi has an astonishing film-like presentation that pays homage to Akira Kurosawa’s samurai movies. Unfortunately, the gameplay fails to match its audio and visual excellence.”
