Ben Barrett, Creative Producer at Focus Home Interactive, and Romain Clavier, Game Director at Tindalos Interactive, teamed up for livestream to show off Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2’s gameplay. The hour long stream will walk players through the Imperium grand campaign. It covers fleet management, system defense, ship building, and battlecruiser invasions.
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 is based on the classic Warhammer 40,000 board game. It features all 12 factions from the board game and three solo campaigns featuring the Imperium, the Necrons, and the Tyranids. This is the first video game featuring the new Warhammer 40,000 Gathering Storm setting.
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 is scheduled to launch on Steam on January 24th. Pre-orders will get 10% off the game plus instant access to the closed beta. Additionally, owners of the first game will get an additional 15% off, for a total of 25% off the final price.
Idea Factory International has announced that they are aiming to have Record of Agarest War: Mariage released on PC through Steam on February 1st. While no price tag has been announced at the moment, the game will be sold at a 30% discount during launch week while the “Deluxe Bundle” that offers a digital art book featuring character art, event artwork, three PC wallpapers, a 58 track soundtrack, and six mobile wallpapers, will be sold at an additional 20% discount.
To go along with this information the company has also released a handful of new screenshots showing off the games battle system as well as a few in-game dialogue sections.
Dot 4 Joy and Joyient announced their puzzle adventure game Rehtona is coming to Steam on January 23. The game will be priced at $12.99 USD. The Australian price has yet to be announced. No pre-orders are available on the Steam page at this time.
Rehtona is set in a world with two dimensions. The game’s hero Rehtona is trapped in between the two dimensions in the World Behind the Gate. She must collect memory fragments to find out the truth about herself and the world.
The game offers 32 levels with two different worlds. Players must change something in one world to effect the other. There are multiple endings to the game based on the actions of the players.
PQube has announced that they are going to be releasing Our World is Ended for the PlayStation 4 and Switch on March 22nd in Europe as well as on March 26th in North America with a PC release coming sometime later this year.
The company also announced that those who pre-order or pick up a launch copy of the retail version of the game will be given a special “Day One” edition of the game that will include an art book with a hundred pages of beautiful illustrations of the characters, environments, CGs, and more, a key ring of the perverted programmer Owari Sekai’s mascot and of course the game itself.
Our World is Ended follows Judgement 7, a team of young developers working on a brand new game engine called the W.O.R.L.D program. When wearing an Augmented Reality headset, this revolutionary program changes the landscape in real time. When Reiji, the game part-time director, tries the program in the streets of Asakusa, he catches a glimpse of an unsettling cityscape. Could this be a glitch or is there more to it than meets the eye?
His doubts are soon to be confirmed as the members of Judgement 7 will find themselves trapped between fiction and the real world. Characters and creatures from their previous games have breached into the world and now risk of becoming reality.
ASSASSIN’S CREED® ODYSSEY: LEGACY OF THE FIRST BLADE
EPISODE 2 NOW AVAILABLE
Battle the Tempest and Unravel a New Mystery
in the Latest Story Arc Episode
Sydney,
Australia — January 17, 2019 — Today, Ubisoft
announced that Shadow Heritage, the second episode in the first
post-launch story arc for Assassin’s Creed® Odyssey Legacy
of the First Blade,is now available across all available platforms.
In Shadow Heritage, a letter from Darius leads players to investigate a mystery through which the hero will come face to face with a new threat, The Tempest, a mastermind of naval battle who commands her own fleet. With her superior naval techniques and deadly weaponry, she will stop at nothing to ensure the hero’s demise.
Each
episode of Legacy of the First Blade will feature a new ability for each
branch of the skill tree: Hunter, Warrior and Assassin. The first episode, Hunted,
introduced a new Assassin ability, and in Shadow Heritage players
will discover a new Hunter ability, Rapid Fire. It will allow players to
rapidly shoot arrows without having to reload with the firing speed increasing
with each skill level and will be a valuable skill to all players, not only
those with a Hunter playstyle.
To
access Shadow Heritage, players must have completed Hunted, the
first episode of Legacy of the First Blade, and the Naxos questline in
Chapter 7 of the main story of the game, and must have reached character level
28 or above.
The
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey post-launch plan is the biggest and most ambitious in
the franchise, and the launch of Legacy of the First Blade is just the
beginning for players who wish to progress further with new content in Ancient
Greece. Season pass owners will access two major episodic storylines, Legacy
of the First Blade and The Fate of Atlantis. Players can dive into
new episodes as they premiere, or experience the epic adventures in their
entirety once all episodes are available. The season pass also includes Assassin’s
Creed® III Remastered and Assassin’s Creed®
Liberation Remastered and will be released this March.
For
more information on Assassin’s Creed, please visit: assassinscreed.com.
For
the latest on Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and other Ubisoft games, please visit
news.ubisoft.com.
ABOUT UBISOFT
Ubisoft is a leading creator, publisher and
distributor of interactive entertainment and services, with a rich portfolio of
world-renowned brands, including Assassin’s Creed, Just Dance, Tom Clancy’s
video game series, Rayman, Far Cry and Watch Dogs. The teams throughout
Ubisoft’s worldwide network of studios and business offices are committed to
delivering original and memorable gaming experiences across all popular
platforms, including consoles, mobile phones, tablets and PCs. For the 2017–18
fiscal year Ubisoft generated sales of €1,732 million. To learn more, please
visit www.ubisoft.com.
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — January 17th,
2019 — Ubisoft has revealed the dates of the Private Beta for Tom Clancy’s The
Division®
2, the
newest iteration of one of its most critically acclaimed and best-selling
franchises. Players who will have pre-ordered Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, will
be able to put their hands-on the game from February 7th to 11th
2019. Other players will have a chance to join the Private Beta by registering
at thedivisiongame.com/beta.
In a brand new trailer Ubisoft also unveiled more details about Tom Clancy’s The Division® 2’s story, revealing all 3 enemies factions of the game and giving more background to the setting of the game.
True Sons: A
paramilitary force that relies on combat expertise and overwhelming
firepower to dominate their enemies and expand their territory. Smart and
organized, the True Sons are led by a former JTF officer whose
ruthlessness and cunning make him a dangerous adversary.
Hyenas: A loosely
organized gang of opportunistic raiders that prey on struggling civilian
encampments through violence and intimidation. These hedonistic scavengers
take everything they can steal and destroy everything else to deprive
their enemies of valuable resources. The Hyenas are led by a council of
the strongest pack leaders.
Outcasts: Bitter
survivors of a forced quarantine bent on revenge against those who
brutally imprisoned them and the society that stood by and let it happen.
Their charismatic, bloodthirsty leader believes everyone is complicit and
urges her followers to punish the guilty by spreading sickness and
murdering indiscriminately.
Led by Massive Entertainment in collaboration
with seven other studios around the world*, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 is the
next evolution in the open-world online shooter RPG genre that the first game
helped establish. Building upon more than two years of listening to and
learnings from The Division community, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 will offer a
substantial campaign that organically flows into a robust endgame, to create a
cohesive and meaningful experience for all types of players. The game will be
available on March 15, 2019 on all platforms.
For more information on Tom Clancy’s The Division
2, please visit: tomclancy-thedivision.ubisoft.com. For the latest
news on Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 and all of Ubisoft’s games, visit Ubisoft
News: news.ubisoft.com.
*Associate studios are Ubisoft Reflections, Red Storm Entertainment,
Ubisoft Annecy, Ubisoft Leamington, Ubisoft Shanghai, Ubisoft Bucharest and
Ubisoft Sofia
Salt and Sanctuary Washes Ashore on Xbox One
on 6 Feb.
SEATTLE – 16 Jan. 2019 –Salt and Sanctuary, Ska Studios’ brutal hand-drawn
2D Soulslike platformer with more than 900,000 downloads, prepares to
strike Xbox One on 6 Feb., with the help of porting specialist BlitWorks.
After an ill-fated journey at sea leaves their ship and crew annihilated by a creature lurking in the depths, the protagonist washes ashore on a strange island. There, an old man gives them the mantle of the Saltborn, taunting them with riddles about buried secrets cursing these profane lands.
Vicious enemies lurk and
prowl everywhere, from the haunting Village of Smiles to the poisonous Mire of
Stench, hoping to cut the Saltborn down. More than twenty horrific bosses lord
over their respective areas intent on tearing hopeful adventurers to shreds.
What haunting past are these monstrosities trying to prevent the Saltborn from
discovering?
Salt and Sanctuary asks a lot from those who seek answers, but the
heart-racing combat never feels unfair. Customize the Saltborn’s appearance and
preferred loadout, and conquer the island in whatever fashion leaves behind
naught but plundered chests and the viscera of fallen foes.
Wield a wide array of
weaponry and armor, but know that some armaments struggle against certain foes.
Deploy Fire and Sky spells to scorch and shock the opposition, but be wary of
leaning too much on either one as neglecting elemental balance leads to rapid
self-destruction. Enhance the Saltborn over time through a massive skill tree
that expands as the game progresses.
Solve the mystery of the
island but prepare to dive back in through New Game+ and Challenge Modes, such
as no-blocking and permadeath modes that add an extra degree of challenge. Or,
hand an Xbox One Wireless Controller to a friend and work together in local
co-op to conquer the island.
“Xbox holds a special
place in our hearts because of how important The Dishwasher was to us
personally and for Ska Studios as a company, so we’re glad to make this
homecoming happen,” said Michelle and James Silva, co-creators at Ska Studios.
“Everyone who emailed us demanding an Xbox One port, will now be able to
finally enjoy our creepy creation!”
Salt and Sanctuary releases digitally for Xbox One for $17.99 on 6
Feb., and will be available in in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish,
Traditional and Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
About Ska Studios
Ska Studios is a
wife-and-husband team ran by Michelle and James Silva (and their cats, Neko and
Gato, who deserve just as much credit). The two of them enjoy making games as a
hobby but it also happens to be their career. They wish to always focus on the
game first, and if they make money on the side, it’s a welcome bonus. Their
other games include The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile, Charlie Murder,
and I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!.
Obey Me Brings the War Between Angels and Demons
to Console and PC in Q3 2019
SYDNEY – Jan. 16, 2019 –Obey Me, the cooperative holypunk brawler from Blowfish Studios and Error 404 Game Studios, fights through hordes of demons onto Nintendo
Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows PC in Q3 2019.
Unbeknownst to humans, angels and demons wage an invisible war, and mankind’s very souls hang in the balance. A former human-turned-lesser-demon named Vanessa Held works for one of these demons: Ammon, the Archduke of Avarice. She’ll fight alongside her Hellhound companion, Monty, against violent denizens from above and below on an unholy quest where she’ll unravel a conspiracy surrounding her.
To survive on these
bloody streets, the hellish pair coordinate Vanessa’s savage skills, weaponry
and evasive teleportation with Monty’s feral attacks, and magical skills super-powered
by his elemental transformations. By absorbing the souls of her fallen foes,
Vanessa can upgrade her weapons to learn more vicious combos, as well as
upgrading Monty’s transformations.
They can also combine
their powers through a Fusion Mode, which merges the pair together to become an
avatar of destruction, with the ability to unleash the deadly Soul Overload
attack when the Fusion bar is full.
The partnership between
Vanessa and Monty forms the dark heart of Obey Me. Solo players control Vanessa
and some of Monty’s key actions while an AI takes care of the rest.
Alternatively, a partner can control Monty completely for co-op action.
Obey Me’s story of war and conspiracy among Angels and
Demons in a decaying world is told not just through the game, but in a series
of graphic novels published by Dynamite Comics, featuring art from Marvel
veteran Ben Herrera whose resume includes X-Men and Spider-Man covers. Issue #0
releases in March, with five issues to follow. Obey Me comics will be
available through both comic shops and digital comic retailers.
“Obey Me’s
universe, woven through both a game and comics, intrigued us from the moment we
first tried the game out,” said Ben Lee, CEO, Blowfish Studios. “The added
depth from the back story provides much higher stakes while fighting against
the forces of heaven and hell.”
Obey Me releases for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4,
Xbox One, and Windows PC in Q3 2019. Blowfish Studios will feature Obey Me
at PAX South booth 11204, during Jan. 18-20 in San Antonio,
TX.
Blowfish Studios is an
award-winning independent game developer and publisher based in Sydney,
Australia. We strive to release original multi-platform games, while also
collaborating with developers from around the world. As developers first, we
bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise to any partnership. Our team provides
development services to get the game release ready, porting to all major
platforms, platform approval, marketing and promotion to the world.
Error 404 Game Studios
is an independent game developer based in Capital Federal, Argentina. We strive
to create innovative experiences to share and remember. Our goal is
not to just satisfy our users necessities, but to surpass them. We seek to
continually learn and improve while creating awesome games, and help our Latin
American gaming industry grow.
Crackdown(developed by Realtime Worlds and released 2007), is the brainchild of David Jones, creator of Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto. This action-adventure game takes place in the open world of Pacific City and the player controls a genetically modified agent, created by The Agency, who must defeat the three gangs (Los Muertos, Volk and Shai-Gen) who control Pacific City, and win the war on crime.
My first memory of the game was playing it on a CRT TV back around the time it released on the Xbox 360, but with this game being one of many backward compatible games to be Xbox One X enhanced, I scavenged the disc out of storage to tide me over before the much-delayed release of Crackdown 3.
On Xbox One X, this game, of course, looks amazing compared to the CRT TV I originally played on. The cell-shaded graphics gives this game a sharp, timeless look that wouldn’t be too out of place with a game developed in this current generation. There are some bugs with the UI, the main one being that the “chance of infiltration” bars are sometimes rendered mostly offscreen. The game was never strong in the sound department, the guns still sound unsatisfying, the music is generic electric rock and the voice acting can be a bit generic compared to games today.
In terms of controls, the
game feels satisfying enough and is comparable to GTA 3/VC/SA when on foot and the game feels effortless when you get
to the higher levels of agility and are jumping around from building to
building as if this was a Super Mario
game made for adults. The only downside to the control scheme is the camera
when driving, as it always wants to be behind the vehicle and doesn’t allow you
to look much around the world, but for my style of gameplay, I was rarely in
the car anyway. The vehicles control similarly to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, but with a bit more tightness
in the car’s movements.
Regardless of any faults,
the gameplay is still as solid and satisfying as ever, with the choice of
punching and kicking, shooting or exploding your way through countless hordes
of gang members. The power-up system is an excellent progression system that
some modern games would be wise to learn from, as when you level up your skills
there is always a clear difference in how high you jumped, or how fast you ran,
or how fast you aimed and locked on. The game can begin to be a grind by
the time you get to the final island if you have neglected any of your
abilities. For example, I neglected shooting because I was having such fun
punching and exploding my way through the city, but that neglect came back to
bite me when there were enemies I couldn’t easily make my way up to and needed
to shoot from a distance, so playing more balanced and searching for secret and
agility orbs would give you an easier time once you’re in the end-game content.
There is a co-op mode in the game, but I had no one to try it out with
recently, but I remember it being very fun back in the day.
If an original game like Crackdown was being developed today, you could bet that thanks to the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that the game would be some sort of superhero game. It has always been on my list of one of the best superhero games ever made. Crackdown is still a solid game that has withstood the test of time much better than other games from 2007, with all the orbs and baddies to kill, Crackdown is easily 10+ hours of fun for the casual player and is a game I’d recommend to anyone looking to tide themselves over before the release of Crackdown 3 or scratch any action/adventure itch you might have.
Arabian Nights Adventure City of Brass Lashes,
Slashes its Way to Nintendo Switch™
Swinging into Action Feb. 8, 2019
CANBERRA, ACT – Jan. 15,
2019 – City of Brass, the Arabian Nights-inspired
first-person rogue-lite adventure from the BioShock veterans at Uppercut Games, will swing onto Nintendo Switch™ Feb. 8, 2019.
Enter the legendary City of Brass and plunder the fabled treasures within its accursed walls. Armed with a bullwhip and blades, embark on a grand heist, lashing and slashing through the legions of lost souls who guard over the vast riches that adorn this treacherous town.
City of Brass revolves around the rhythmic interplay between
melee combat and movement, as the protagonist’s whip can be used both in and
out of battle in a variety of ways. It can disarm foes, trip and stun them, and
open defensive opportunities that can be exploited by other weapons. The whip
can also be used to grab faraway objects and swing to safety, or manipulate
booby traps littered throughout the mythical metropolis, turning the
environment on its unwitting denizens.
With
procedurally-generated environments that see the labyrinthine streets shift on
every run, City of Brass urges players to put their newfound knowledge
from every playthrough to the test. But the challenge can also be tailored to
every individual with the Blessings & Burdens system, which provides a
wealth of modifiers to adjust the difficulty and game feel with optional
modifiers to various game systems, including player health, damage output, item
cost, and more.
The Nintendo Switch™
version will also launch with three unlockable characters alongside the
starting Fool and Traveler duo. This group includes the fast but frail
knife-fighting Brigand, the spear-throwing Soldier, and the strong but slow
Hellion genie, each bringing something different to the table and keeping the
experience fresh while players strive to attain the ultimate goal.
This new release also
features a myriad of enhancements made to the game since its initial launch,
including new relics, weapons, enemies, and various quality of life
improvements.
“City of Brass brings
the stories from Arabian Nights to life in a fast-paced hack-and-slash
adventure that draws on our team’s experience working on titles like the BioShock
series,” said Ed Orman, co-founder and designer, Uppercut Games. “We’ve
continued to support the game since it launched earlier this year and look
forward to introducing it to a new audience with all those improvements baked
in when City of Brass comes to Nintendo Switch this February.”
City of Brass is currently available for PlayStation 4, Xbox
One, and Windows PC via Steam. The game was financed with the assistance of
Screen Australia’s Games Enterprise Program and supports English, French,
Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese (European and Brazilian), Polish, Russian,
Turkish, Japanese, and Chinese (Simplified and Traditional) language options.
Uppercut Games is a
Canberra-based independent game studio founded in 2011 by Ed Orman, Andrew
James, and Ryan Lancaster. The development team has more than 50 years of
combined experience working on titles such as Bioshock, Bioshock 2,
Fallout: Tactics, Freedom Force and Tribes: Vengeance. As
Uppercut Games, the group has released multiple projects across various
platforms, including Submerged and the Epoch series.
