The Conception series may have been rather absent in recent years but now Spike Chunsoft has announced that they are planning on bringing Conception Plus: Maidens of the Twelve Stars to the West for the PlayStation 4 and PC with a planned release date of November 5th in North America and November 8th in Europe. On release the game will feature both English and Japanese voice work as well as English subtitles.
Unfortunately, due to Sony’s new censorship policies the game will be censored when released in the West as the company has stated that “During the Classmating rituals, the Star Maidens’ 3D models will appear as blue and purple (rather than flesh-colored) and will not have detailed facial features. The animation itself is identical.”
As for the game itself, the players take the role as the main protagonist, Itsuki Yuge, who is suddenly summoned to the magical world of Granvania to save it from evil impurities. As the savior from another world known as “God’s Gift,” Itsuki and his Star Children, born between him and the 12 Star Maidens, are the only ones capable of banishing these impurities. To return to his own world, he must save this one with the help of his Star Children.
WayForward has announced that they are working on a brand new game called River City Girls which will be releasing digitally on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC on September 5th where it will be priced at $29.99 on all platforms. River City Girls stars Kyoko and Misako, two street-tough high-schoolers who must fight their way through the six regions of River City to rescue their kidnapped boyfriends, series mainstays Kunio and Riki.
Along the way, they’ll utilize an arsenal of combos, counters, throws, and special attacks; battle an assortment of enemies; accept numerous side quests; level up with experience points; interact with NPCs (including guest stars from past River City games); and shop for a variety of items, food, and gear to boost stats and unlock new abilities. The girls can even wield weapons and recruit defeated foes to join them in combat.
WARFRAME DELIVERS INNOVATIVE
VISION OF SPACE COMBAT WITH 30 MINUTES OF EMPYREAN EXPANSION GAMEPLAY AND RELEASES
NEW CINEMATIC INTRO BY HOLLYWOOD DIRECTOR
At TennoCon 2019
Digital Extremes Surprises Players With New, Instantly Available Nightwave
Season 2 Update and Wukong Prime Access on all Platforms, Delivers Roadmap to
Three Future Updates
LONDON, ON – July 6, 2019 – Canadian developer and publisher Digital Extremes is proud to reveal a riot of explosive announcements today led by a 30-minute live demonstration of its visionary cooperative space combat expansion, Empyrean, from TennoCon 2019, the fourth annual Warframe® conference. Bustling with a sold-out crowd, Digital Extremes presented Empyrean’s new, larger-scale cooperative gameplay with fluid ship-to-ship combat, the new ground-breaking multiplayer Squad Link system, and customizable battleship options.
The team also astounded players by unveiling a movie-quality cinematic introduction to Warframe by Director Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane, Black Mirror: Playtest, The Boys, Uncharted). This stunning re-imagination of the game’s introductory story presents Trachtenberg’s and Digital Extremes’ vision of an older era in the Warframe universe. In the Old War — the Orokin Era — when the original Warframes rebelled against their Orokin masters, flashback scenes depict them in battle against Dax Warriors in action scenes with proto-Grineer soldiers looming in the background. The new intro brings new narrative context and intense cinematic action to the Warframe universe like never before.
Captivating new trailers of the open world expansion Duviri Paradox and the fourth Cinematic Quest The New Warwere revealed, along with an extraordinary contest that gives players the chance to win cash toward a trip to space.
Digital Extremes kept the surprises coming by unveiling two Warframe updates, Nightwave Series 2 and Wukong Prime Access, both available immediately across all platforms — PC, PS4™, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch™.
Nightwave is Warframe’s
free, rotating seasonal system. Each Series unfolds over several weeks and
tells a brand new story. By completing daily and weekly challenges, Tenno
will unlock limited-time, exclusive rewards (gear, cosmetics and more)
while experiencing the story as they play. In Series 2: The Emissary players will meet a
strange mute child (Arlo) who emerges unharmed from the Infestation and
brings with him the miraculous ability to heal the sick.
Wukong Prime is
now ready for action! Available to earn through gameplay or purchase, the
enduring, swift and unruly Wukong Prime brings eager Tenno an enhanced
version of the original for the first time ever. Everybody’s got something
to hide, except Wukong Prime!
EMPYREAN EXPANDS DEEP SPACE COMBAT Empyrean expands the premise of Warframe by handing players and their clanmates the keys to the powerful Railjack battleship. Prepare to soar through the Origin System, explore new territory, and fight hostile forces with serious firepower! With an in-ship interface to control speed and direction, shield deployment, offensive missile volleys and gunner fire — including the ability to deploy Archwings and infiltrate enemy ships — players are now armed with an arsenal of tools to fend off and destroy enemy opposition. Player ships can be upgraded, take damage, and be customized, among many other things. New details from TennoCon 2019 bring an even deeper level of freedom, power and cooperative gameplay:
Connect the Community With
Squad Link!: This ground-breaking multiplayer system connects the
world of Warframe in
an entirely new way. Transcend beyond your solo objective and connect with
the larger community by reaching out to other Tenno squads using the Squad
Link. In multi-objective missions from space, players can call up on other
squads of active players to help the bigger cause — lower enemy ship
shields, steal valuable data, and more.
Assault, Steal and Pilot Enemy
Ships: Players
can now infiltrate opponent ships using Archwings and command them in a
variety of missions. Become a swashbuckling #Spaceninja, Tenno!
Customize and Upgrade Everything:
The Drydock
is your Railjack’s personal space garage. Build out and upgrade your
battleship’s Equipment, Cosmetics, Systems and Reinforcements with a huge
array of options, name your ship, and beautify it all by customizing
primary, secondary and tertiary colors, accents, decals and more.
Revenge: Enemies have begun adapting to
Tenno lethality, and from it kingpins will emerge! Players familiar with Warframe’s
in-development Kingpin system will be rewarded with a first look at how
these reactive enemies behave, starting with the Kuva Lich, Emra Rok, in
an epic boss fight on the capital ship.
Graphics
Upgrade:
Digital Extremes is dedicated to providing the single best graphic
fidelity to AAA free-to-play gaming. Using a completely re-written
rendering technology (“Deferred Renderer”) in its proprietary Evolution
Engine, Warframe’s
graphics have never looked better.
A BIGGER STORY The new introduction to Warframe builds a bridge between two eras. For the first time, players can catch a glimpse of the original Warframes fighting in the Old War using their robust Abilities and incredible fighting skills. Couched in a larger narrative, the three enticing flashback sequences are designed to introduce players to choose one of their first chooseable Warframes (Excalibur, Mag and Volt). The new six-minute introduction sets up players with a better understanding of the universe they are about to embark on with a deep, meaningful and more comprehensive storyline for Warframe.
“Getting to work so collaboratively with the dev team at DE has been an awesome experience,” says Great Guns’ Director Dan Trachtenberg. “As a massive fan of the game myself, having logged in hundreds of hours of play time, it’s been so much fun crafting a story that both sets up the universe for new players in a pretty epic way, while sprinkling it with moments that, I hope, make it doubly rewarding for hardcore fans with a better understanding of the game’s lore.”
Digital Extremes plans on incorporating the new introduction in late 2019/early 2020.
ROADMAP TO THE FUTURE The Devstream crew revealed several additional surprises on stage. After the massive Empyrean demo ended, Digital Extremes delivered a new Duviri Paradox update trailer. Following the first two open worlds, The Plains of Eidolon and Fortuna, the Duviri Paradox takes players on a reality-bending journey of the surreal. Digital Extremes teased players with the third open world comprised of an ominous new environment where Operators have grown up to become mature adults.
Digital Extremes also unveiled a new trailer from the fourth entry in Warframe’s narrative series with The New War. The team’s short teaser video relays a new chapter in the saga of the Lotus and the rise of the Sentients.
WIN CASH TOWARD A TRIP TO SPACE! This year’s TennoCon moves the space needle even further with a spectacular opportunity. In this incredible contest, Digital Extremes will offer players a chance to win $250,000 USD toward a trip to space by playing Warframe in the “Become a Real #SpaceNinja” sweepstakes today. Strap in and prepare for the Gs! Get full details here https://www.warframe.com/spaceninja.
All efforts behind TennoCon are designed for the benefit of Digital Extremes’ players and this year’s charity partner Canadian Mental Health Association, Middlesex Branch (CMHA Middlesex). CMHA will receive a portion of proceeds from TennoCon ticket sales as well as from online donations during the live show. CMHA helps to bring a greater understanding of self-care and mental health to the digital and gaming industry at large. For more, go to https://cmhamiddlesex.ca/.
Would you like to join the Warframe community? Head to our forums to start a conversation. Check our official website at www.warframe.com. To keep up with the latest updates from the development team, be sure to follow Warframe on Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
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ABOUT DIGITAL EXTREMES Founded in 1993 by James Schmalz, Digital Extremes ranks as one of the world’s top independent video game development studios. Originating with the co-creation of Epic Games’ multi-million unit selling Unreal® franchise including Unreal, Unreal Tournament – and all its iterations – Digital Extremes went on to develop Dark Sector®, BioShock® for the PlayStation®3, the BioShock 2 multi-player campaign, and The Darkness® II. The studio has reached its greatest critical and commercial success with the free-to-play action game, Warframe®, boasting a global community of more than 50 million registered players on PC, PS4™, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch™. For more information about Digital Extremes, visit www.digitalextremes.com. To sign up for Warframe, visit www.warframe.com
After being released in Japan earlier this year NIS America has announced that they are planning on bringing the Langrisser I & II remake over to the West where it will be released for the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC sometime in early 2020. The game will be released with Japanese voice work accompanied by English text.
In Langrisser I the forces of darkness are descending upon the kingdom of Baldea. Take up your sword as Prince Ledin, and discover the evil that lies in the heart of the Dalsis empire. While in Langrisser II the forces of darkness once again threaten the realm. Thrust in between warring factions, it is up to our hero Elwin to navigate this war and determine which path will bring peace to this conflict.
A new three minute trailer for Azur Lane: Crosswave has been released by Compile Heart with Cleveland’s voice actress providing the narration. This three minute long video, found below, shows various ship girls doing combat against a number of enemies followed by a look at other modes in the game such as the story mode, the Extreme Battle Mode, Photo Mode, and even a bit of what may be a marriage system, otherwise known as “oath” in the English version of the mobile game.
Currently Azur Lane: Crosswave is set to be released on the PlayStation 4 in Japan on August 29th with a North American and European release coming sometime in 2020.
A couple of weeks ago we learned that a new Utawarerumono game was in the works and now we know that it is in fact going to be a mobile game that will be released this year in Japan for Android and iOS phones. Utawarerumono: Lost Flag as it is called will be a free-to-play game with gacha mechanics that will likely be used to draw characters both new and from the original series.
In an interview with Famitsu it was announced that the game will still be an RPG and that it will be set in a region that has not appeared in previous games, though many characters from previous games will be appearing. To help assure fans of the series, Aquaplus’ president Naoya Shimokawa did state that there are other projects for consoles in the works and to look forward to them in the future.
Sega has announced that the next game in the Hatsune Miku: Project Diva series will be heading to the Nintendo Switch. Called Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Mega39’s the game will be releasing in early 2020 in Japan and marks the first time that the Diva series of the game has been released on a Nintendo Platform.
At release Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Mega39’s will feature 101 songs, over three hundred module costumes, a new game mode made specifically for the Switch, and the 3D models for the Vocaloids have been given an anime-style visual upgrade. The video below includes a bit of a teaser for the game and some screenshots have also been released.
After a brief break Idea Factory International has continued their introductions of the heroines in Date A Live: Rio Reincarnation with this time focusing on the idol Miku Izayoi. Miku, who is also known as Diva, is a Spirit who possesses an enchanting voice that is not of this world. One theory is that she blends in with society to observe human behavior, but the truth behind her intentions is still unknown.
The angel she is able to manifest is named Gabriel. You can find the screenshots focusing on Miku below and as for the game itself currently Date: A Live: Rio Reincarnation is set to be released on the PlayStation 4 on July 23rd in North America and July 26th in Europe with the PC version dropping on July 23rd.
Skybound Games has announced that The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series will be releasing on September 10th for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC with the console releases being available both physically and digitally on this date. The game will cost $49.99 upon release and feature over fifty hours of gameplay spread across twenty three unique episodes with ten hours of developer commentary, behind-the-scenes bonus features including concept and character art galleries, a “Return of The Walking Dead” documentary short, faithful recreations of classic menus, and a music player with over 140 musical tracks.
The collection also includes the application across all seasons and content of “graphic black,” an art style that pays homage to The Walking Dead comics and was previously only available for The Final Season. A trailer showing off various scenes featuring this art style can be found below.
Steel Division 2 takes gamers to the eastern front of
World War 2. It’s 1944 and the Soviet forces have pushed the Nazis back into modern
day Belarus. Steel Division 2 offers two main styles of gameplay, allowing
players to work as a general controlling the movement of battalions during turn-based
campaign or as a colonel directing troops in real time combat. The game offers
over 600 historically accurate units that can be combined into battle-ready divisions
using the revamped deck builder.
Story
Technically, Steel Division 2’s story is already
written and can be read on Wikipedia, but there is a little room for alternate
history. The Army General mode offers the most opportunity. Each episode covers
a famous battle during Operation Bagration. As each day progresses, a bit of
text is provided to explain the current situation. At the end of the campaign, the
player is presented with the actual events of the battle so they can see how
well they fared compared to the actual generals. The alternate history aspect
feels like an untapped vein of potential for the writers, but the writers do a
good job setting the stage before each campaign and recapping the actual
events.
Gameplay
Steel Division 2’s gameplay is broken up in two sections. The new turn-based, singleplayer Army General mode offers four famous battles. Players move their units across large scale maps to accomplish the historical objectives. Individual battles can be either automatically simulated or players can opt to go into the real time battle mode and control their units directly. This turn-based campaign mode is more in line with the Wargamefranchise that Eugen Systems previously developed.
Steel Division 2’s real time battles don’t stray too
far from Eugen Systems’ established style. Each player brings a battlegroup
into the fight. The battlegroups can be either pre-made sets based on the
scenario or custom builds. For those not wanting to fuss with custom builds
outside of scenario-based missions, Steel Division 2 can auto-populate decent
battlegroups in the deck builder. The real time battle mode can be found in the
skirmishes and historical battles modes or as part of the Army General mode.
Each real time battle is broken up into four phases, set up and three combat
phases of ten minutes each. The player’s battlegroup will determine how many deployment
or requisition points are available during each phase and which units are
available.
Steel Division 2 opts for a realistic take on the RTS
genre, dispensing with resource gathering and building management. Unit
management is the name of the game here and building defensive structures is
about as close as Steel Division 2 gets to an actual building. Resource
management is still a big part of the game though as troops can only carry a
limited supply of ammunition in combat. Successful players are the ones who are
best able to position their units in terrain that play to the unit’s strength,
like putting tanks in open areas with large sight lines and easy access to the road.
To give some context, I’m a casual RTS player. Most of my
RTS hours were in the Age of Empires, Command & Conquer, Warcraft,
and StarCraft franchises. I’m not a complete rookie at RTS titles, but I
don’t have a ton of hours in realistic RTS titles. Right away I noticed one of
the biggest problems with Steel Division 2 is the complete and utter unfriendliness
to new players. It’s not quite outright hostility, more like a general state of
apathy. The new Army General mode has a dense manual explaining the mode, but
that’s about it. New players will need to rely on community-made guides, as the
best I could find from Eugen Systems dated back to their beta. There’s not a
single tutorial in sight, and it appears the beta guide’s suggestion to play a
skirmish on a small map against a very easy opponent still stands. Luckily, the
real time battle AI on very easy difficulty is very forgiving, though the easy AI
in Army General mode is already quite punishing. Eugen Systems titles have been
notorious over the years for being difficult for new players. The problem seems
to be worsening over the years, as if Eugen Systems has completely given up on
bringing in new players and are reliant on fans who enjoy the developer’s previous
works or are diehard fans of realistic RTS titles. Steel Division 2 is a
complex title with a lot of moving parts players need to consider, but it’s not
an excuse to tell new players to just figure it out yourself.
The game’s control scheme is a hit or miss. There are plenty
of unit commands which can all be accessed via the buttons on the cluttered
bottom right menu and keyboard shortcuts. Luckily, time can be slowed down or sped
up in singleplayer, allowing players to issue lots of commands at their own
pace. To my endless frustration, the mouse controls are non-standard compared to
other RTS titles. Most RTS titles use only the left or right mouse button to
issue commands. Steel Division 2 uses a mix, with left mouse button used
to issue move commands and right for attack commands in the real time battle
mode. Army General mode seems to use the right mouse button exclusively. While it’s
a small annoyance players will eventually get used to, the mouse is not particularly
intuitive to start.
When I finally made some inroads with the game, it became
easy to appreciate Steel Division 2’s complexities in simulating combat.
The game’s maps were made using actual historical maps, giving players true to
life tactical options. The map is just as much the enemy as the opposing
forces, as moving units into vulnerable areas is a death sentence. The game
does a great job simulating the effects of combat stress, reconnaissance units,
and leadership. The amount of singleplayer content is a little short. Currently,
there are only four Army General scenarios and six historical scenarios. While
there are plenty of skirmish maps to keep players busy, the low number of
singleplayer scenarios and their disjointed nature feels hollow for a game that
is supposed to be exploring a major historical operation. Steel Division 2 would
have been much better served by a proper campaign.
Visuals
Steel Division 2’s visual design seeks to be as
realistic as possible. When zoomed into the real time battles, it’s clear unit models
have been carefully recreated. The infantry models have a painfully low number
of polygons, so they look a little blocky compared to the gorgeous vehicles. This
is excusable as the infantry are usually only clearly visible in the deck
builder mode. As players zoom out, the game begins to look more like a map sitting
on a commander’s table. The Army General mode takes it one step further,
turning divisions into actual miniature statues on an old school style map. The
style works out very well and does a great job reinforcing the game’s emphasis
on historical accuracy.
Audio
The audio experience is very good. The soundtrack is a solid
mix of epic scores. The sound effects are well done. Subtle touches like increasing
the volume of the units as the camera zooms in or having unintelligible office
chatter in the background of the Army General mode creates a sense of realism.
The unit voice acting is done in German and Russian. There are two English
narrators. The one who does the cutscenes does an excellent job, but the in-game
narrator sounds awkward in comparison.
Overall
Steel Division 2 is a good game for fans of Eugen Systems. For better and for worse, the game is a clear descendent of Eugen Systems previous titles. Steel Division 2 offers deep and realistic strategy gameplay that can be really rewarding. The problem lies in the difficult learning curve for new players made worse by Eugen Systems’ indifference, the slightly awkward control scheme, and the disjointed scenarios that have taken the place of a proper campaign. Unfortunately, Steel Division 2 is probably best left to Eugen Systems fans and the truly passionate RTS player.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
