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January 10, 2019

OlliOlli: Switch Stance Brings the Legendary Skate Series to Nintendo Switch™ on Feb. 14

AMSTERDAM and LONDON – Jan. 8, 2019 – It’s been a while since genre-defining skate-em-up OlliOlli first tickled the thumbs of trick-hungry gamers. After multiple successful releases on various platforms, board lords Roll7 and sprained-ankle amateurs Good Shepherd Entertainment are here to announce the forthcoming launch of OlliOlli: Switch Stance on Nintendo Switch™ on Feb. 14, 2019.

With an almost embarrassing 75 awards and nominations under its belt, including BAFTA Best Sports Title 2015, the franchise is pulling out all the stops for its Nintendo Switch debut. OlliOlli: Switch Stance includes not only OlliOlli but also OlliOlli2: Welcome to Olliwood, living up to the maxim that more is always more.

Nintendo eShop: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/olliolli-switch-stance-switch

OlliOlli’s 2D side-scrolling world, straightforward controls and rapid-fire gameplay have found perhaps their greatest home yet on Nintendo Switch. OlliOlli: Switch Stance combines addictive die-and-retry gameplay with hundreds of air-defying tricks and grinds, cunningly crafted levels and challenges, plus fan favorites like Spots Mode, Daily Grind and an unlockable RAD Mode. Take command of the Joy-Con, land those sweet tricks, and bathe your ears in a soundtrack of exquisite electronic head music.

If for some bizarre reason (alien abduction, prolonged coma, meat sweats, etc.) you’ve never played an OlliOlli game, OlliOlli: Switch Stanceis your chance to right that wrong. It’s also the perfect Valentine’s Day gift for your partner who wish they’d learned to skate when they were kids but now realize it’s far too late. Rub it in.

For instructions on how to land the perfect ollie, hit up @Roll_7 on Twitter. For ankle bandage stockists in your area, try @GoodShepherdEnt.

About Good Shepherd Entertainment

Good Shepherd Entertainment publishes video games from independent artists worldwide and operates a proprietary investment platform for a growing global network of qualified investors seeking risk-mitigated participation in the $130B video game industry. Originally established in the Netherlands in 2011 as an equity crowdfunding platform under the name Gambitious BV, the Company became a publisher in 2014 with the release of Train Fever, which was the first game ever successfully published with equity crowdfunding. The Company has since funded and released over a dozen original games across eight digital platforms. The founders of Devolver Digital and Croteam, two very successful companies in independent game development and publishing, invested in the Company and joined its management in 2012. The Company rebranded in 2017 as Good Shepherd Entertainment following an investment by Advance/Newhouse, having established a track record of success with both independent developers and investors. www.GoodShepherd.games

Resident Evil 2 Demo Confirmed For January 11

Travis Bruno

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January 9, 2019

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Resident Evil 2 Demo Confirmed For January 11

After being leaked late last year Capcom has made it official, there will be a unique style demo for Resident Evil 2. Today the company announced that they will be releasing a limited time “1-Shot Demo” that will be released on January 11th for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC with the download only being available until January 31st.

As one would guess thanks to the name, players will have a chance to take on the horrors and puzzles of Raccoon City for thirty minutes with death or completion of the objective still allowing players to restart the demo as long as they still have time left. Once you complete the thirty minute playtime a new cinematic trailer for Resident Evil 2 will be released but this does mark the last time the player will actually be able to play the demo since any time after that only the trailer will play, making it a true one and done demo.

You can check out a trailer for the demo below and keep an eye out for the game itself when it is released on January 25th for the aforementioned consoles.

The Princess Guide Trailer Focuses on Teaching System

Travis Bruno

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January 9, 2019

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The Princess Guide Trailer Focuses on Teaching System

Now that NIS America has nailed down a Western release date for The Princess Guide the company has continued to release trailers for the game with the latest one focusing on how players will be able to train the various Princesses through praising them and scolding them for their actions. This latest video focuses on showing off how the player’s actions can help guide the story and the destiny of the nation that the princess you choose rules over.

Check out the trailer for The Princess Guide below and keep an eye out for the game when it is released on the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 on March 26th.

RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures Review

Markus Janßen

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January 9, 2019

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RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures

Developer: Atari
Publisher: Atari
Platform: Switch
Release Date: 13 December 2018
Price: $49.99 USD – Available Here

Overview

Nintendo Switch is a huge success and the hybrid console is also a great fit for strategy titles as the recent release from Sid Meier’s Civilization VI shows. There is another genre that was very popular in the 90’s and now found its way onto the Switch too. RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures is a simulation game where you build and manage your own amusement park. In our review, we’ll tell you if this is worth a ride or should save the money.

Story

You create your own story with the amusement park of your dreams. Although there are some challenges in existing parks, the biggest part of the fun is to use your imagination and create something unique with the given tools. At the beginning we’re already given access to four different game modes starting with a tutorial, where you learn the basics of RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures. After you’ve finished the first steps in your theme park you’ll move on to the Adventure, Scenario or Sandbox modes. While the Adventure mode provides you with a starting amount of cash and only a handful of attractions for your park – the Sandbox mode gives you infinite tools to create everything you wish.

Gameplay

Diving into the Adventure game mode, we start small with the goal to get rich. Of course, a bigger park allows us to create more rides and attract more visitors which results in more income for us. If we choose Scenarios then we have to master challenges with different difficulty levels. If you just want to play for fun or try something out, Sandbox mode is the definitely right option for you. The Nintendo Switch is a great fit for a game like RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures, but you cannot overlook the fact that you’re dealing with a mobile game port. In this title of the series a lot of things are automated. If we want to fix a ride, then we need to build the necessary janitor building in the radius and the problem is gone automatically. There are no ways to evolve the workers from your park and specialize or train them in any way. Basically, the core gameplay is reduced on the research of new rides and keep your visitors satisfied.

The good thing is that there are no microtransactions involved, so you don’t have to wait hours until an attraction is ready for the visitors. Unfortunately, the technical side creates some annoying performance issues that disturb the gameplay experience, especially framerate issues when there are a lot of rides. While the mobile version was called RollerCoaster Tycoon Touch, the new version for Nintendo’s hybrid console also makes a great use of it’s touchscreen. You have the option to individually create the rollercoasters of your dreams by adjusting the length and heights with just a few movements on the display. This is also where it comes to the fun part of RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures. It’s all about designing and decorating your park the way you’d like to. For the creation of your own rollercoaster you have access to a variety of styles, but a feature like terraforming is missing. How much fun would this be? Unfortunately, the more I played the game, more limits and restrictions were encountered while my imagination went wild, and I had all these crazy ideas.

Unfortunately, in the end there is a game that I both love and hate at the same time. It brings back so many memories and it allows me to get creative, but only to a certain point. There’s much more potential and I really hope they consider a completely new game of the series for Nintendo Switch. I know that the developers are working on updates and want to improve the experience on the Nintendo Switch, so it might be worth to wait for the upcoming changes and modifications. Let’s hope there will also be a difficulty for experts, as the 16 given scenarios don’t require a lot of building and management skills. We have a casual game here, but there are still all the old fans of the series out there! Don’t forget them!

Visuals & Audio

The soundtrack catches the atmosphere of an amusement park and is quite entertaining. For the visual aspect, later on I felt that everything looked very much the same. Again I got drawn back to the limitations, which RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures gives me. I could also mention the terraforming feature again, which could make quite a difference here. Anyway, if you’re aware about the limited pool, I don’t think you’ll be bothered by the visuals.

Overall

I came with no expectations at all and can say that this is definitely not a bad game as I enjoyed my time with it. RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures shows that these simulation games work on consoles too and if you’ve played the classics or have interest in this genre, I’d definitely recommend it. With the developers working on updates, you’ll definitely have a good time with it. Just keep your expectations a bit low and don’t forget that this specific title has it’s origin in a mobile game.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Metro Exodus Trailer Focuses on Story

Travis Bruno

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January 9, 2019

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A new trailer for Metro Exodus has been released by Deep Silver and 4A Games with the focus of this trailer being on the storyline for the game. Narrated by Anna, the Spartan Order’s top sniper and Artyom’s wife, the story trailer explores the hostile world of Metro Exodus that lies in wait for the crew of the Aurora as they flee the ruins of Moscow and embark on an epic year-long journey into the unknown. Artyom always believed that there was life beyond the Metro – now his hopes and dreams will be put to the ultimate test in the crucible of the Russian wastelands.

The trailer can be found below while the game itself is set to be released on February 15th for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen Switch Release Planned for April

Travis Bruno

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January 9, 2019

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Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen Switch Release Planned for April

Once again Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen will be arriving on a new console as Capcom has announced plans to release the game on the Nintendo Switch. The title will be priced at $29.99 when it is released on April 23rd and will feature a number of the various improvements that were made to the game after it was released two years ago on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Players will still be able to use the Pawn system without needing an online subscription and, since the Switch is portable, this will also mark the first time that the game will be available on the go. Check out a trailer for this version of the game below.

Atlas Preview

Jamie Laike Tsui

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January 9, 2019

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Atlas

Developer: Grapeshot Games
Publisher: Grapeshot Games
Platform: PC
Release Date: 22 December 2018
Price: $29.99 USD – Available Here

Grapeshot Games is a spin off development team started by Studio Wildcard. Atlas is a pirate themed survival MMO set in a massive world. Players will sail the high seas as they travel around and make their mark on the world as a pirate, an explorer, or whatever else may catch their fancy.

Atlas offers quite a bit of character customization thanks to its massive skill tree. Obviously, most players are not going to be a master of everything, so specializing in certain skills and teaming up with other players to form a crew seems to be a big part of the game. The experience gain is a bit slow on official servers, which makes the game feel a bit grind heavy for casual players right now. I think the experience rate could be increased by 50% to make progression a little easier.

There is a decent amount of content to explore right now as there is a beefy tech tree that is tied to the skill tree. The tech tree will keep players busy between gathering materials, capturing animals, building new facilities, and crafting new equipment. The world is extremely large as each official server is essentially a string of smaller server instances with its own map that connects to another server. Once players get bored of the scenery or need some resource not available locally, they can explore the high seas for new locales and adventures.

The servers were lagging quite heavily during testing, which made combat difficult. There’s a good variety of weapon types in the later half of the skill tree, so players will have a lot of options to fit their preferred fighting style. There is also a decent balance between the number of ranged and melee weapons. Due to the slow experience gain, players will also be spending quite a bit of time with basic weapons like the stone spear.

The ship system is interesting so far. Players start off with the most basic raft that serves as a mobile home base and can slowly scale upwards, creating larger ships and adding crew members. The ship controls do a pretty good job of mimicking the feeling of sailing an actual ship as players need to rotate the sail around to move in a certain direction, then unfurl the sail to control speed. It’s easy enough to learn, but not the most maneuverable thing in the world. Players are still at the mercy of the wind direction, meaning getting stuck is still a very real possibility.

The early game is still very much a work in progress right now. Players choose to join either a PVP or a PVE server, then choose a part of the world to enter. After character creation, new players are dropped off at the nearest Freeport with some basic text instructions. The odd tooltip appears in the top left of the screen, but the usefulness varies wildly. Some basic survival mechanics like vitamins are still poorly explained and are left to Steam guide writers and wiki contributors to deal with. At the very least, Freeports are generally safe areas for players to experiment and get a hang of basic gameplay mechanics until the level 8 experience cap.

The UI could use some improvements. Certain elements on the HUD are not well explained. Menus are usable, but they are not as intuitive as I would like. The crafting menus for crafting stations is very clunky, looking and working more like Windows Explorer than a proper menu. Inventory management is decent, though moving items between inventories can be a little clumsy.

Considering Atlas’ roots in ARK: Survival Evolved, its rocky Steam Early Access release is a disappointment. Testing the game was a challenge as servers were in a dire state. Extreme lag was a constant issue, making some areas of the game nearly unplayable. A lot of technical optimization is needed in the coming months as the game runs poorly. While the state of Steam Early Access titles run the entire spectrum of development, it is clear that Atlas is still in its early stages of development.

Atlas has a lot of intriguing ideas, taking the well trodden path of sandbox survival games and moulding it to fill the empty niche of pirate-themed video games. The current sailing system is an excellent starting point, hitting a decent balance of ship control and helplessness in the face of the powerful seas. Like all Steam Early Access titles, Grapeshot Games has a bit of work to do. The game already offers a decent amount of content thanks to its roots in ARK: Survival Evolved. There is a hefty tech tree, a deep skill tree, and a large world to enjoy right now. But it’s the less glamourous areas where Atlas needs the most work. The game is in dire need of technical optimization and user experience improvements. It’s not as sexy as new features, but these upgrades need to be at the top of Grapeshot Games’ priority list.

Breach Launching on Steam Early Access on January 17

Jamie Laike Tsui

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January 9, 2019

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Breach Launching on Steam Early Access on January 17

Action RPG Breach is set to launch on Steam Early Access on January 17th. While the full game will be a free to play title, gamers will need to pay to get their hands on the Steam Early Access version. Pre-order packages are currently available at the official Breach store, with the lowest tier priced at $24.99 USD. No pre-orders will be taken through Steam.

Breach offers an open class system allowing players to dabble in a variety of skills and magic to create their ultimate hero. Up to four players will enter a dungeon, battling mythical beasts and epic bosses.

Other players can invade ongoing dungeons by taking on the role of the Veil Demon. The Veil Demon can take over monsters to strengthen them and grant them human level intelligence. Additionally, the Veil Demon can tear holes between the modern and mythological Earth, causing environmental hazards to pour into the dungeon.

Project Winter Coming to Steam Early Access in Q1 2019

Jamie Laike Tsui

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January 9, 2019

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Project Winter Coming to Steam Early Access in Q1 2019

Other Ocean announced their social survival game Project Winter will be coming to Steam Early Access in Q1 2019.

Project Winter mixes in the classic party game Mafia with the trendy survival genre by dropping eight players into the middle of of an icy winter. Among the players are traitors who are attempting to prevent the group from escaping by slowing down production and assassinating survivors. The game is designed to be nearly impossible for players to survive on their own, forcing the survivors to work together with the traitors in hopes of slowly exposing the traitors.

Project Winter is scheduled to launch on Windows. It will be priced at $19.99 USD and will be available through Steam, Humble Bundle, and Greenman Gaming.

Tropico 6 on PC Delayed to March 29th

Jamie Laike Tsui

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January 9, 2019

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Kalypso announced they will be pushing back the PC release date for Tropico 6 to March 29th. The game was originally scheduled to launch on Windows, Mac, and Linux in late January, but feedback from the beta highlighted the need for more time to improve the game’s balance and add some more polish to the game.

The delay does not appear to affect the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One release date, which is still on track to be released later in the year.

Kalypso Owner and Managing Director Simon Hellwig posted an open letter on the company blog apologizing for the delay and offering compensation for those who pre-ordered the game. Those who placed their pre-order through an official digital seller before 7 PM CET on January 10th will receive the first content DLC for Tropico 6 for free. The yet to be named DLC is set to launch sometime in Q2 2019.