А big update is launched for Hazardous Space — a turn-based space station survival simulator. The game is in early access for now, but the update will change the player’s experience significantly. The developers not only fixed a lot of errors and bugs, but also improved enemy animation, added new tutorials and story missions. The game is planned to be out of the early access on February of 2019.
Hazardous space is a 2D turn-based roguelike survival with RPG elements in which a space courier fights zombies on a spaceship. Using tactics, different weapon types and skills, you must break through hordes of foes and find your way out of the station. Prepare for turn-based combat, character advancement and the atmosphere of ominous danger. The game is in early access for now, the final release is planned on 2019.
“We carefully monitored the players’ behaviour, tested different feedback channels in order to make Hazardous Space much more spectacular and compelling. Now we are sure the gameplay has become significantly more fun”, said the lead game designer (Aleksei Balamutenko)
The update Hazardous Space v0.9 adds new enemy and weapon animation which will make the gameplay experience more realistic and compelling. New quest items unlock additional missions that give a deeper understanding of the Wanderer station catastrophe. New elemental weapons allow to choose a custom style of playing and a reworked tutorial makes it easier to deal with a complicated system of mazes, combat, crafting and survival. Update fixes bugs and errors, the full list is here.
Black Tower Entertainment is an indie games publisher which specializes in old school projects with RTS and RPG elements.
SUPER SMASH BROS. ULTIMATE BECOMES FASTEST-SELLING NINTENDO HOME CONSOLE GAME OF ALL TIME IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
Launch sales for new fighting game more than 80% higher than Super Mario Odyssey
20th December, 2018 – With 74 playable fighters, over 100 stages, more than 800 music tracks and much more, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for Nintendo Switch isn’t just the biggest crossover in gaming history – it’s the fastest-selling game ever released for a Nintendo home console in Australia and New Zealand*, surpassing the launch sales of titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, all of which have shipped over 10 million copies to date.
The new game – which features action-packed fights between popular gaming characters like Mario, Link from The Legend of Zelda series, Donkey Kong, and dozens more – launched worldwide on 7th December and has already made a record-breaking start. Total Australian and New Zealand sales over the game’s first three days were almost 80% higher than Super Mario Odyssey, which has gone on to ship more than 12 million copies worldwide. Along with strong sales at retail, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is also the fastest-selling game in Nintendo eShop ever.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is exclusively available for Nintendo Switch, the unique home console from Nintendo that lets you play anytime, anywhere, with anyone. Now coming into its second Christmas season, and driven by titles like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! / Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee!, Super Mario Party and more, Nintendo Switch has a growing catalogue of over 1,000 titles, covering all tastes and experience levels.
After just over 20 months on the market, five of Nintendo’s ten best-ever Australian and New Zealand home console software launches are on Nintendo Switch**: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu!,Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee!, and now Super Smash Bros. Ultimate are all part of the wide range of games for everyone on Nintendo Switch.
“We are thrilled that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is now both the fastest-selling game in the series and our fastest-selling home console game in Australia and New Zealand,” said Managing Director of Nintendo Australia, Kamon Yoshimura. “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the biggest Super Smash Bros. ever, and we look forward to bringing exciting experiences to players in 2019 with new games in the Animal Crossing and Pokémon series, alongside Yoshi’s Crafted World, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and more.”
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is available now at retailers and in Nintendo eShop, and in a limited hardware bundle complete with branded Joy-Con controllers and dock and a download code for the game.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate becomes the fastest-selling game ever released for a Nintendo home console in Australia and New Zealand, with initial sales more than 80% higher than Super Mario Odyssey.
BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Europe has unveiled a new trailer featuring further details of the Story Mode in upcoming title JUMP FORCE.
A sudden merging of the Jump World and the Real World has caused chaos across Earth, with invading villains leaving a trail of destruction and panic in their wake.
To tackle this new threat, a new team of heroes, named the Jump Force, is formed by Director Glover featuring the strongest fighters from across the manga universe. Players will create their own hero, customising their look and fighting moves with elements across all manga franchises, before joining up with the Jump Force to stop the villains in their tracks.
The trailer also provides a first glimpse at the Onyx Book, a powerful device suspected of having something to do with the mysterious merging of the two worlds.
In addition, the trailer also features four new playable JUMP FORCE characters revealed this week:
Asta, from Black Clover. A stubborn child wielding a unique anti-magic sword
Trunks, from Dragon Ball. The son of Vegeta and Bulma, he possesses the incredible strength of his father, with the intelligence of his mother
Boa Hancock, from One Piece. The captain of the Kuja Pirates and the only female member of the Shichibukai
Renji Abarai, from Bleach. A highly talented swordman
BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Europe S.A.S. part of BANDAI NAMCO Holdings Inc. is a leading global publisher and developer of interactive content for platforms including all major video game consoles, PC and mobile. The company is known for creating and publishing many of the industry’s top video game franchises, including PAC-MAN™, TEKKEN™, SOULCALIBUR™, DARK SOULS™, NARUTO™, NARUTO SHIPPUDEN™, Dragon Ball, GALAGA™, RIDGE RACER™ and ACE COMBAT™. For more information please visit www.bandainamcoent.eu
After starting its life as a mod, Insurgency: Sandstorm marks the franchise’s second retail release. Insurgency: Sandstorm uses Unreal Engine 4 to bring its highly realistic FPS gameplay to modern systems. The game offers both PVP and PVE gameplay along with a brand-new customization system, ranked matches, and community server support.
Story
When Insurgency: Sandstorm was originally announced, a singleplayer campaign was part of the package. It sounded pretty cool, as it was billed as a road trip type story in the midst of a Middle Eastern conflict. Unfortunately, the campaign was canned earlier this year when New World Interactive chose to focus development resources on the multiplayer aspect of the game. As such, there is no story or lore.
Gameplay
Insurgency: Sandstorm sticks to what made the mod so successful in the first place. The game is packed with intense infantry combat using realistic bullet physics, weapon handling, and damage. The game offers PVE and PVP modes, including ranked PVP play.
The gunplay is excellent for the most part, with only a few minor issues. Even the smallest 9mm pistol round punches hard, forcing players to carefully work their way through the map with the help of suppressing fire and support abilities. Insurgency: Sandstorm offers a large variety of weapons, though the practical differences within weapon types can be a difficult to notice at times. For example, the difference between the M16A2 and the M16A4 seems mostly visual in actual use. The bipod system is decent but needs work. Bipods don’t always deploy on surfaces that seem to be usable and the maximum deployable surface height feels about 10% too low. The reload UI feel a little mistimed as a fresh magazine appears loaded on the UI before the weapon is ready to shoot. The mistiming can be anywhere between a split second to a few seconds depending on the weapon and if there is a round in the chamber already.
PVP pits Security forces versus Insurgents in three different gameplay modes. The modes aren’t too radically different from each other, but still offer enough variety to keep things feeling fresh. Insurgency: Sandstorm is not the easiest game to learn, especially in PVP matches. While the wave based respawn system makes the game less punishing, it will take some time for players to learn how to move around safely, detect incoming fire, and manage recoil.
The game’s PVE mode features smaller teams working their way through multiple checkpoints against waves of computer-controlled enemies. While bots are easier to kill, PVP tends to feel fairer as the bots have an uncanny ability to detect players and hurl Molotov Cocktails with disturbing precision. On the other hand, the smaller team size makes it easier to work together and coordinate.
Insurgency: Sandstorm’s progression system is strictly cosmetic. All players have access to the game’s full loadout of weapons and equipment right away. Each account level grants a random cosmetic item and 100 currency to buy specific pieces. I find the progression to be a little slow after level 15. If future updates bring more customization options, the experience gain will need to be tweaked accordingly.
The control scheme is excellent. Unlike other tactical shooters, Insurgency: Sandstorm’s control scheme is very simple and only adds a few keys to the standard FPS layout. It’s generally intuitive and easy to use.
My biggest problem with the game is a sheer lack of content. The existing maps are excellent, with tons of twists and turns for intense close quarter battles. There’s just not enough of them. Considering the game’s price point, I would have liked to see two or three more maps at launch.
Visuals
Insurgency: Sandstorm is an excellent looking game, save for the visual glitches. The maps are filled with enough unique assets that make areas feel natural. The customization system is excellent, letting players create an easily identifiable character without looking out of place. The only real issue with the visuals is the volume of minor bugs that plague the game. I have yet to play a match without seeing some bug, like a missing player model or a floating weapon attachment. Luckily, there hasn’t been any that are game breaking, but the bugs do break immersion.
Audio
The audio experience is good. The sound effects are excellent and create an immersive feeling to the game. The music is a bit limited, but does a good job adding a bit of tension near the end of a match. The voice acting is well within expectations for a mid-range title but lacks the variety and consistency of a triple A game.
Overall
Insurgency: Sandstorm is not going to win over those who hated Insurgency. The new game focuses on minor improvements on the existing gameplay and modernized visuals versus massive gameplay changes. Fans of tactical shooters and co-op titles will have a blast with Insurgency: Sandstorm. However, the game will likely remain a niche title for now as the game suffers from a lack of polish and content at launch.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
The film stars Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne as two hapless suburbanites who make the fateful decision to start a family by adopting children. The story’s based on the experiences of writer and director Sean Anders and looks set to be a pretty good movie to kick off next year.
I honestly don’t think the trailer does the movie justice but you’ll be able to read all about how good I think the film is when I publish my review in this coming month.
The film comes out on the 10th of January next year and you can find the new trailer below…
Falcom has announced that they are continuing the Ys series with the next title arriving on the PlayStation 4. Titled Ys IX: Monstrum Nox the game will be released sometime in 2019 in Japan and will be set in a gigantic city known simply as the “Prison City” where numerous mysteries will unfold and players will encounter powerful beings known as “Monstrum” that have supernatural abilities.
The official website has also been released where we get a look at numerous unknown characters. Most of all, we get a bit of story saying “Who are the “Monstrum” that appeared in the city? What secrets are lurking within the Prison City? And what of the red haired adventurer Adol Cristin?”
With Jump Force set to be released in a couple of months Bandai Namco has decided to release a story mode trailer for the game where we learn a little bit about why the merger between the Real World and the Jump World has occurred including a brief look at Onyx Brook, the device that may be responsible for said merger.
As a result of this destruction the Jump Force is formed to stop the villains from wreaking destruction across both worlds. A few of these members have also been shown off for the first time in the form of Asta from Black Clover, Trunks from Dragon Ball Z, Boa Hancock from One Piece, and Renji Abarai from Bleach. Alongside this announcement a handful of screenshots for My Hero Academia‘s Midoriya Izuku “Deku” have also been released and you can check them out below.
Jump Force is currently slated to be released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on February 15th.
Nicalis has revealed that they are planning on releasing the anime-style adventure game RemiLore: Lost Girl in the Lands of Lore on the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC on February 26, 2019 and sometime in that release window for the Xbox One where the game will be priced at $39.99 with the PlayStation 4 and Switch versions being available both physically and digitally.
Developed by PixeLore and Remimory RemiLore: Lost Girl in the Lands of Lore is a “rogue-lite” game where Remi, an ordinary high school student, has awakened Lore, a talking book who is a self-proclaimed “master” of magic. Together, they are drawn into the magical world of Ragnoah, which has been overtaken by mecha-monsters. Remi and Lore must venture together and find their way home.
Idea Factory International has announced that they are planning on bringing the RPG Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force to the Nintendo Switch as a digital download through the Nintendo eShop in January 2019 where it will be priced at $39.99 but sold at a 20% discount for two weeks after release.
This version of the game will include all twenty five pieces of DLC that were released for the PlayStation 4 version of the game and will tell the same story following a man named Fang who becomes a Fencer, a being capable of wielding powerful weaponry called Furies, and finds himself joining numerous other Fencers. Since this is the remade version of the game, it will continue to offer three different story paths to follow where certain allies may become enemies and villains may become allies.
Dogenzaka Lab and M2’s visual novel Tokyo School Life, which has previously been released on Steam back in 2015, will soon be arriving on the Nintendo Switch courtesy of PQube. The publisher has announced that the game will be releasing digitally through the Nintendo eShop on February 14, 2019 and to go along with this announcement a number of screenshots and a trailer have been released and you can check them out below.
Tokyo School Life places players in the shoes of an exchange student traveling to Tokyo where they will meet three girls and be able to make various choices throughout the story that will bring you down different paths that may lead to romance. In fact, the game even offers players the ability to display the text in kana, romanji, and kanji to allow players to try and study a bit of Japanese while they play.
Gameplay
