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PSYONIX, WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT AND DC ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCE DC SUPER HEROES DLC PACK

PSYONIX, WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT AND DC ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCE DC SUPER HEROES DLC PACK

The DC Super Heroes Storm Into Rocket League® on March 5

SAN DIEGO, CA – Feb. 20, 2018 – Psyonix, independent video game developer and publisher, in partnership with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment, announced today the DC Super Heroes DLC Pack for Rocket League. The pack includes two premium Battle-Cars and a bevy of cosmetic items inspired by the greatest heroes that inhabit the DC universe.

The content included in the DC Super Heroes DLC Pack is:

  • 2 Premium Batman Battle-Cars
    • The Dark Knight Rises Tumbler from Warner Bros. Pictures’ The Dark Knight Rises
    • The ’89 Batmobile from Warner Bros. Pictures’ Batman
  • DC Super Hero Themed Items
    • Aquaman – Breakout Decal and Player Banner
    • Batman – Paladin Decal and Player Banner
    • Cyborg – Roadhog Decal and Player Banner
    • DC – Player Banner (previously released in Collector’s Edition)
    • Flash – Wheels, Venom Decal, Player Banner, and Speed Force Boost (Wheels and Player Banner previously released in Collector’s Edition)
    • Green Arrow – Hotshot Decal and Player Banner
    • Green Lantern – Merc Decal and Player Banner
    • Superman – Octane Decal and Player Banner
    • Wonder Woman – Wheels, X-Devil Decal, and Player Banner

The DLC is licensed by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment on behalf of DC Entertainment. It will be priced at $3.99 USD (or regional equivalent) and will be available for download on all platforms on March 5. For additional information visit the landing page HERE.

ABOUT ROCKET LEAGUE®
Winner or nominee of more than 150 “Game of the Year” awards, Rocket League is one of the most critically-acclaimed sports games of our generation. Boasting a community of more than 42 million players, Rocket League is a high-powered hybrid of arcade-style soccer and vehicular mayhem with easy-to-understand controls and fluid, physics-driven competition. Available on Nintendo Switch™, PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, Xbox One, Windows PC, Mac, and SteamOS via Steam, Rocket League includes more than 100 billion possible customization combinations, a fully-featured offline season mode, multiple game types, casual and competitive online matches, and special “Mutators” that let you change the rules entirely.

To learn more about Rocket League, please visit www.RocketLeague.com, “Like” it on Facebook, and follow it on Twitter @RocketLeague for all the latest developer updates and news.

ABOUT PSYONIX
Based in San Diego, CA, Psyonix is a critically-acclaimed independent video game developer and leading experts in Unreal Engine technology. For more than 15 years, the studio has been a driving force behind some of the most successful games in the industry, including Gears of War, Mass Effect 3, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Bulletstorm, Unreal Tournament III, Unreal Tournament 2004, and the award-winning Sports-Action hit, Rocket League®.

Rocket League, Psyonix, and all related marks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Psyonix Inc.© 2015-2018 Psyonix Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

ABOUT WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, a division of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Inc., is a premier worldwide publisher, developer, licensor and distributor of entertainment content for the interactive space across all platforms, including console, handheld, mobile and PC-based gaming for both internal and third party game titles.

ABOUT DC ENTERTAINMENT
DC Entertainment, home to iconic brands DC (Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, The Flash, etc.), Vertigo (Sandman, Fables, etc.) and MAD, is the creative division charged with strategically integrating across Warner Bros. and Time Warner.  DC Entertainment works in concert with many key Warner Bros. divisions to unleash its stories and characters across all media, including but not limited to film, television, consumer products, home entertainment, and interactive games.  Publishing thousands of comic books, graphic novels and magazines each year, DC Entertainment is one of the largest English-language publishers of comics in the world.

Sailaway: The Sailing Simulator Cruises Out of Early Access February 27th

Sailaway: The Sailing Simulator Cruises Out of Early Access February 27th

Come Sail Away on PC & Mac in the most detailed sailing simulator available

THE HIGH SEAS – February 20th, 2018 – One-man development studio Orbcreation and publisher The Irregular Corporation announced today that the world’s most accurate and detailed simulation game for sailing, Sailaway: The Sailing Simulator, will leave Early Access on February 27th ($39.99, https://www.sailawaysimulator.com/.)

Sailaway can be used to learn to sail or enhance sailing skills, to compete in virtual sailing regattas or to practice for a big journey. The game simulates world-wide ocean sailing and cruising, so long voyages will take literal months and live online in the game’s persistent world, with an option for sailors to receive updates via email. Real-time weather data is pulled from NOAA, allowing virtual skippers to plan their voyage based weather predictions around the world.

Every element that is involved on any voyage short or long is presented in handcrafted detail in Sailaway – from the real starry night sky to how wet or damp conditions will affect your boat and your journey. Captains and crew will need to raise sails, pull winches, set reefs, outhaul, downhaul, vang, backstay and more. For novice sailors, there are a series of easy to learn controls that can assist and automate various options.

The game’s short run in Early Access allowed for major additions to be tested, balanced and tweaked before official launch. Orbcreation has implemented a variety of new boats including a Nordic Folkboat, a 50-foot Performance Cruiser and even a Catamaran. Captains are also now able to customize their boats and create their own liveries in Steam Workshop, share their location between players, utilize private group chat and persistent crew chat and track their success with Steam Achievements.

The full list of updates can be found via the game’s Steam page (http://store.steampowered.com/app/552920/Sailaway__The_Sailing_Simulator/)

For more information please hit up www.sailawaysimulator.com and follow @sailawayworld and @irregularcorp on Twitter.

About OrbCreation

Sailaway is the debut game developed by the Dutch studio OrbCreation which is owned by Richard Knol, a sailor without his own boat, whose biggest dream is to one day sail around the world! Sailaway is the result of 3 years development combining Richard’s passion for sailing and his keen eye for authenticity.

Find out more at: http://orbcreation.com

About The Irregular Corporation

The Irregular Corporation is a newly formed publisher, focused on releasing specialized games for unique communities. Based in London, UK and founded by industry veterans, we aim to bring gaming to new audiences.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/IrregularCorp
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theirregularcorp/
Website: http://www.theirregularcorporation.com/

Survive On a Deserted Island This Spring in Island Time VR 

Survive On a Deserted Island This Spring in Island Time VR 

Comical Survival VR Game to Release on PlayStation VR, Oculus, HTC Vive and Steam VR

Dallas February 20, 2018Pack your Hawaiian shirt and get ready for the spring release of VR survival game Island Time VR from Flight School Studio. Releasing on PlayStation VR, Oculus, HTC Vive and Steam VR, Island Time VR is a humorous approach to being stranded on a deserted island and will challenge players on their crafting and survival skills. Players and media interested in testing their endurance abilities prior to release can play Island Time at this year’s SXSW in booth 2266, while media can also spend hands-on time with the game at GDC.

After a ruckus journey at sea, players are shipwrecked on a tiny island. Using their wit, ingenuity and the advice of their new buddy, Carl the Crab, they have to find a way to keep from starving and survive as long as possible. While deserted, players will craft tools, fend off pesky creatures, try to signal an airplane and do their best not to perish. If time allows, survivors might be able to enjoy a beautiful tropical sunset and forget that they’re in a desperate struggle for existence.

Island Time VR is a comedy survival game where you play on an island the size of a coffee table,” said Adam Volker, Creative Director at Flight School Studio. “The game’s difficulty curve and secrets are designed to be discovered over multiple playthroughs. The player might craft a new item or find new foodstuffs they haven’t seen before. This trial and error is what teaches players to survive as long as they can.”

Island Time VR is comprised of an event system that determines when and what amounts of resources are made available to players. Survivors then use their expertise to perform tasks to stay alive until resources are restocked.

For more information regarding Island Time VR please visit the game’s website, or Flight School’s Twitter and Facebook pages. 

About Flight School

Flight School is a creative studio comprised of an acclaimed team of innovators with a mission to craft inventive and emotionally resonant stories for a multitude of platforms, including film, games, VR and AR.

With a legacy for immersing viewers into remarkable new worlds, Flight School’s team of artists and dreamers have collectively garnered some of the industry’s top accolades, such as Academy, Emmy, Annie, Cannes Lion and Lumiere Awards. At Flight School, we’re fearlessly exploring the unknown to be at the forefront of technology.

10 years of consecutive growth: InnoGames increases revenues to 161.5 million EUR in 2017

10 years of consecutive growth: InnoGames increases revenues to 161.5 million EUR in 2017

Online game publisher and developer grows 62 percent in mobile

Tuesday, February 20, 2018 — InnoGames, Germany’s leading developer and publisher of mobile and online games, released its financial figures for 2017 today. After ten years of consecutive growth, the company increased its revenue once again by 24 percent in 2017. The new record-breaking revenue of 161.5 million EUR was primarily fuelled by mobile with an increase of 62 percent over the previous year. InnoGames’ browser games continued their positive development and strongly contributed to its success with revenues of 107 million EUR (an 11 percent increase). The company’s strategy proved effective: with an EBITDA margin of 25 percent, InnoGames was also able to increase overall profitability.

“2017 was another outstanding year for us at InnoGames. We celebrated our 10th anniversary, welcomed MTG on board and were able to surpass our own very ambitious goals once again – not only financially. We saw an increase of 15 percent in play time and an additional 13 percent in our daily active user base across our whole portfolio which proves our strategy right”, explains InnoGames’ CEO Hendrik Klindworth.

InnoGames’ flagship games, Forge of Empires and Elvenar, saw increases of 36 percent in revenues, with mobile as the main driver for growth. Elvenar’s mobile version was successfully launched in November 2017 on iOS and Android and is expected to scale in 2018. As in previous years, the highest-ranking revenue markets for InnoGames in 2017 were the United States, Germany and France.

“The keys to our success definitely are our teams, our high-quality, data-driven approach and, ultimately, our games. We are focusing on the development of new mobile titles to further invest in future growth while optimizing our existing titles. I want to take the opportunity to thank all the players and everyone who contributed to another record-breaking year for InnoGames”, concludes Hendrik Klindworth.

InnoGames had generated an annual revenue growth of 26 percent in 2016, then 24 percent in 2017 and continues to grow sustainably. The forecasts for the current year are promising as InnoGames had a great start into 2018: More than 1 million EUR in revenue was generated with Forge of Empires’ Forge Bowl Event in February in a single day. Combined with Elvenar’s mobile version and the upcoming launch of Warlords of Aternum, the prospects for InnoGames are set to soar.

In October 2016, Modern Times Group, a leading international digital entertainment group, entered an agreement to acquire 35 percent of InnoGames from its former investor Eight Roads Ventures and the company’s founders. The transaction was based on an enterprise value of 260 million EUR for 100 percent of the company. In May 2017, MTG invested 82.6 million EUR to increase its shareholding in InnoGames to 51 percent.

All financial figures in this press release are based on IFRS; if not stated otherwise, all comparisons are made from year-to-year.

About InnoGames

With a revenue of more than 160 million EUR and 420 employees from 30 nations, InnoGames is Germany’s leading developer and provider of mobile and online games. The company based in Hamburg and Duesseldorf counts more than 200 million registered players and is best known for Forge of Empires, Elvenar and Tribal Wars. InnoGames’ complete portfolio encompasses six live games and several mobile titles in production. After ten years of consecutive growth, InnoGames’ revenues increased by 24 percent in 2017 and are set to further soar with the recently launched mobile version of Elvenar and upcoming titles like Warlords of Aternum.

About MTG

MTG (Modern Times Group MTG AB (publ.)) is a leading international digital entertainment group and we are shaping the future of entertainment by connecting consumers with the content that they love in as many ways as possible. Our brands span TV, radio and next generation entertainment experiences in esports, digital video networks and online gaming. Born in Sweden, our shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm (‘MTGA’ and ‘MTGB’).

THE DISCOVERY TOUR BY ASSASSIN’S CREED® TRANSFORMS ANCIENT EGYPT INTO AN INTERACTIVE MUSEUM

THE DISCOVERY TOUR BY ASSASSIN’S CREED® TRANSFORMS ANCIENT EGYPT INTO AN INTERACTIVE MUSEUM

History Is Everyone’s Playground With This New Educational Tool

SYDNEY, Australia  — February 20, 2018 Ubisoft’s Discovery Tour by Assassin’s Creed: Ancient Egypt is a new educational and entertaining tool which lets anyone explore the entire interactive 3D recreation of Ancient Egypt in Assassin’s Creed Origins free of conflict, time pressure or gameplay constraints. The Discovery Tour by Assassin’s Creed: Ancient Egypt releases from tomorrow on PS4, Xbox and PC at no cost for all owners of the Assassin’s Creed Origins game. It will also be available independently from the game on PC via the Uplay and Steam platforms.

From Alexandria to Memphis, the Nile Delta to the Sand Sea, the Giza plateau to the Faiyum Oasis, the Discovery Tour by Assassin’s Creed: Ancient Egypt lets visitors either explore the rich world of Ancient Egypt at their will or follow the 75 themed tours devised by Ubisoft’s creative teams in collaboration with History experts and Egyptologists. “With the Discovery Tour by Assassin’s Creed: Ancient Egypt, we give the chance to everyone interested in Ancient Egypt to enjoy the beauty of it and realize that video games can be a source of inspiring knowledge” explains Jean Guesdon, Creative Director of Assassin’s Creed Origins and the Discovery Tour by Assassin’s Creed: Ancient Egypt.

Discovery Tour by Assassin’s Creed: Ancient Egypt is a unique experience at the intersection of entertainment and learning. Interactivity, specific to the world of videogames, is at the heart of the experience, creating strong engagement with the content. This makes the Discovery Tour by Assassin’s Creed: Ancient Egypt a completely new type of edutainment tool. “We’ve been in touch with teachers from the very first instalment of Assassin’s Creed games about ten years back. Many of them already used the games during their History classes but soon came to realize that what they needed was an easily accessible educative tool based in our historical reconstructions,” explains Maxime Durand, in-house Historian at Ubisoft Montreal. “With the Discovery Tour by Assassin’s Creed: Ancient Egypt you can visualize and understand thousands of things from Egyptian history in their actual context. As both a game and a learning tool, it is quite a unique asset for teachers to integrate as part of their history classes.”

About Assassin’s Creed Origins

Assassin’s Creed Origins takes place in Ancient Egypt, the most mysterious place in history, during a crucial period that will shape civilization. Playing as Bayek, a protector of Egypt, players will journey into a living, systemic open world, and discover the secrets behind the Great Pyramids, forgotten myths, the last pharaohs and – engraved in long-lost hieroglyphics – the origin story of the Assassin’s Brotherhood.

Assassin’s Creed Origins is a brand-new vision for the franchise, embracing action-RPG elements where players level up, loot and choose their abilities to customize their very own skilled Assassin. A reinvented combat system allows players to experience a completely new way to battle as they master a variety of weapons with different characteristics and rarities to defeat challenging enemies and unique bosses. The revamped narrative experience offers total freedom for players to choose and complete quests at their own pace, with each adventure telling an intense and emotional story full of colorful characters and meaningful objectives. With an entire country to explore, from deserts to lush oases, from the Mediterranean Sea to the tombs of Giza, players will fight against dangerous factions and wild beasts as they explore this gigantic and unpredictable land.

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 2016–17 fiscal year Ubisoft generated sales of €1,460 million. To learn more, please visit www.ubisoft.com.

© 2017 Ubisoft Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft, and the Ubisoft logo are registered or unregistered trademarks of Ubisoft Entertainment in the US and/or other countries.

G2A Dev Studio goes independent as Monad Rock

G2A Dev Studio goes independent as Monad Rock

The newly formed Monad Rock is composed of experienced industry specialists with many projects in their portfolio. The studio is currently open to strategic partnerships and is amid advanced negotiations with investors. Monad Rock’s first title will be available for sale in February 2018.

“We are confident that Monad Rock will achieve great success,” said Maciej Kuc, Head of PR at G2A.COM. “The studio has become independent, giving it full freedom to develop projects and talk with investors,” he continued.

G2A.COM, in turn, is focusing on two of its biggest products: G2A Marketplace and G2A PAY. “We are investing primarily in the development of our transaction system, machine learning, and blockchain technology. At present, this is where we will direct our maximum attention. In the future, however, we plan to work together with Monad Rock on various projects. In fact, we are still working with the studio on one joint venture – the life-saving VR application that helps teach doctors how to detect heart defects in unborn children,” added Kuc.

Monad Rock specializes in creating video games and applications based in virtual reality, but the studio’s ambitions do not end there. Subsequent products will be developed in various other technologies for both PCs and consoles.

“Working for G2A.COM has been a great experience for the entire team. It was an intense time for us. We worked hard, accomplished many things, and learned a lot,” explained Marcin Kryszpin, CEO of Monad Rock. “The next step in our development is establishing a free-standing studio. The projects and brands that we created together with G2A.COM will now be continued and developed by Monad Rock. From now on, we work independently.”

The studio’s newest project is Summer Funland, a simulator thanks to which players can experience all the fun of an amusement park without leaving home. It offers a myriad of attractions, including all the experiences available in G2A Land, classic theme park arcade games, and whimsical adventures, such as riding a neon unicorn through a psychedelic sewage tunnel. “It is worth noting that all players who currently own G2A Land will receive Summer Funland for free,” announced Marcin Kryszpin.

Monad Rock is also preparing its biggest title, the dynamic action game, Blunt Force. The FPS shooter catapults players right into the turmoil of World War II, combining intense gameplay with a thrilling story. The screenplay for Blunt Force is being crafted together with Hollywood screenwriter Mark Bristol. “It is a very ambitious project, which we will give greater details on soon. However, we are currently focused on preparing Summer Funland for its upcoming premiere,” added Kryszpin.

Summer Funland will be released in February 2018 on both Steam and the Oculus Store, and soon also on PlayStation VR.

Fable Fortune Leaves Early Access and Goes Free-To-Play This Month on PC and Xbox One

Fable Fortune Leaves Early Access and Goes Free-To-Play This Month on PC and Xbox One

Superbly-crafted card game rated ‘Very Positive’ after seven months of spit-polish in Early Access

ALBION – February 19th, 2018 – Developers Flaming Fowl Studios and Mediatonic announce today that Fable Fortune, the collectible card game set in the iconic world of the Fable series, will leave Early Access on February 22nd and land as a free-to-play title on Xbox One, Steam, and Windows 10.

Over the last seven months in Early Access, Fable Fortune has flourished thanks to hard work and community feedback. Major new features include Heroic Tales, a single-player story mode allowing players to experience the dramatic histories of the game’s hardy Heroes. Plus, a new emote system means players are able to communicate with their opponents — to congratulate, to mock, or just to fart in their general direction. It’s all strictly tactical, of course.

Other shiny new additions include a Deck Helper and Guildmaster-led tutorial to help new players get into the game, a Daily Bounties system, rare Fancy cards to make mum proud, as well as smaller tweaks, convenient new features, and a treasure trove of new cards to be discovered. There’s never been a better time to return to Albion.

Fable Fortune is a game of choice and consequence. In it, you take on the role of one of six Heroes in the ultimate battle for Albion. But will you be good or evil? Complete quests and choose your destiny to change your abilities and even the cards in your deck. Compete in leagues and events, or partner up with a friend and take on a boss or two in co-op mode.

Want to get in the game early? There’s still time to purchase the Fable Fortune Founder’s Pack. For £9.99 / $14.99 / 12,99€, you get over $40 worth of in-game items, including 20 card packs, the exclusive Flaming Fowl Trophy Card, and the very rare (you might even say ‘Fabled’) Giant Egg card.

You can buy the Fable Fortune Founder’s Pack now at:

Xbox.com: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/store/p/fable-fortune-game-preview/9mswwjwrf4wc?rtc=1

Steam: – http://store.steampowered.com/app/469830/Fable_Fortune/

For more information, head over to http://www.fable-fortune.com, and follow Flaming Fowl and Mediatonic on Twitter: @flamingfowl and @mediatonic.

# # #

About the developers

Mediatonic is a British independent games developer, based in London and Brighton. They’ve been making games for more than a decade, including Heavenstrike Rivals, Foul Play, Hatoful Boyfriend and the Amateur Surgeon series.

Flaming Fowl Studios is a brand new indie games studio, rising from the ashes of the renowned Lionhead Studios. They have over fifty years of combined game development experience and have previously worked on games such as the original Fable trilogy and The Movies.

Together, they’ve set out to bring new life to the Fable universe, armed with years of industry experience, an intimate knowledge of the series, and a bottomless arsenal of bum jokes.

Dynasty Warriors 9 Review

Dynasty Warriors 9

Developer: Omega Force
Publisher: Koei Tecmo
Platforms: PlayStation 4 (Reviewed), Xbox One, PC
Release Date: 13 February 2018
Price: $59.99 USD – Available Here / $99.95 AUD – Available Here

Overview

Dynasty Warriors is one of those franchises where the fans of it know exactly what they are getting. Most outlets that cover the titles simply treat them as average, run of the mill hack and slash entries that never get proper evolution, and for that alone – it seems Omega Force are ready to shake things up for Dynasty Warriors 9. With a new open world and plenty of fresh locales to visit, is this the change that critics have been waiting for? Let’s find out!

Story

Despite all of the promised change for this installment, Dynasty Warriors 9 is rather basic when it comes to actual story. Covering the events of Ancient China, players run through the plot, where they are assigned missions to progress through a very one dimensional narrative. Sure, some may be familiar with this, but I still think that the whole lack of an immersive story is kind of where this franchise needs improvement. Is it suitable? Sure. The returning and new characters are fine as well, but do not expect to be blown away as the story within simply exists to give the game a sense of direction.

Gameplay

Yes friends, the gameplay. At its heart, Dynasty Warriors 9 is still the same hack and slash you remember. The objective remains to hack your way through armies, controlling portions of the map while tackling the in-game missions. However, this is an open world game now, and this version suffers incredibly due to how poorly that feature is implemented. Instead of the world being incredible and full of life, players must travel via horse or other methods to get to their destination. The biggest issue is that the terrain in-between starting point and goal is absolutely lifeless. The travel in Warriors is boring, and while there are small moments of excitement, the game never asks for exploration. There is no reward for curiosity, instead a spread out experience that suffers due to its lack of detail among the stretched out scope.

You see, the idea behind the large map is for players to infiltrate forts, clear out an army, and do it all again. The battles are fine once you are doing them, but the game doesn’t really handle its downtime well. The customization aspect works fine, but the new combat mechanics make weapons feel less unique compared to past entries, and in my opinion – the constant satisfaction of combat is where the Warriors titles got their fire. Now there is just too much space, not enough variance, and an odd feeling that despite the fact that I am now in an open world, I am still being pushed to just do the missions in tow, rather than anything that may take advantage of the large, open space. Sure, there are little objectives one can find such as a unit that can drop loot if defeated, but it all just feels too manufactured and dry to cause any excitement more than once or twice.

As for what works well, the small details in Dynasty Warriors 9 may be the finest features overall. Hideouts can be purchased, giving you a little area to fix up and customize with furniture and decorations. Characters within the game can be invited as well, adding a nice relationship aspect to the experience. There are also no more “charge” attacks, as that system has been replaced with Flow and React attacks, which honestly makes it feel like you are just hitting buttons instead of performing something special. That said, I really did not mind the change, and each character still feels different – so that will mostly come down to preference for longtime fans. Don’t get me wrong, despite my gripes about the open world, there is still a lot of game to love here, it just feels a bit lacking and confused compared to other franchises that made the transition in a more seamless manner.

Visuals and Audio

Visually, Dynasty Warriors 9 is hit and miss. The character models are great. The world itself however is a bit drab, and not exactly that appealing considering you spend a good portion of your time traversing from one point to the next. Animations are amazing in this title, and each character’s own personality comes out due to the heavy amount of work that went into each attack. Sadly, the enemies need a bit of polish. While a lot of titles in this franchise are known for having random issues during battles featuring a heavy number of troops, this one struggles the hardest. Instead of seeing slowdown. Enemy troops now just vanish randomly, and there are times when everything just feels clunky and jarring.

The sound is fine. While the soundtrack is nothing to write home about, the voice actors did a decent enough job to give the game that sense of cocky charisma. The little effects also sound great, such as individual weapon clinks and horse hooves galloping across the dirt below. There was a lot of effort put into making this installment feel like a giant next step, and this is definitely one of the highlights in terms of production. I do wish there was a bit more life added through the sound department when it comes to cities and towns within the game, but what is here is perfectly serviceable.

Overall

Dynasty Warriors 9 is the product of feedback and market research. Omega Force spent years creating games for their fans and I give them a ton of credit as they never changed their own formula to appeal to anyone other than their intended audience. This entry is trying to be Breath of the Wild, and attempting to tackle a market it has no business being in. There is a lot to love here for fans, but there is a lot missing as when this world was stretched out, not enough content went into all of that bonus space. It will always be ok for longtime franchises to try something new, and if you are looking for that – you will find it here. If you are a Warriors fan wanting a pure Warriors game however, this may be one title you should approach with an open mind and a lot of patience.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

EXPERIENCE THE ENCHANTING ADVENTURE OF SECRET OF MANA NOW

EXPERIENCE THE ENCHANTING ADVENTURE OF SECRET OF MANA NOW

Complete Remake of Classic Game Now Available for PlayStation®4, PlayStation®Vita and STEAM

SYDNEY, 16TH February 2017 –   Square Enix Ltd., today invites players to discover the beloved magical adventures of Randi, Primm and Popoi in Secret of Mana®, the highly-praised entry in the respected Mana series, which is now available for the PlayStation®4, PlayStation®Vita and STEAM.

Originally released in 1993, Secret of Mana is a total remake of the original title, bringing the complete experience of the legendary adventure to modern audiences. Along with the classic, magical story and fun single player and offline multiplayer action, additional new features are included, such as:

  • Brand-New Presentation – a total 3D graphical overhaul and brand-new voice-overs bring the characters to life in new and exciting ways, while retaining the charm and personality of their original appearances.
  • Rearranged Soundtrack – at any time players can switch between the original soundtrack and a brand-new rearranged score, including a new orchestral arrangement of the much-loved ‘Fear of the Heavens’.
  • New Interlude Episodes– building upon the charm of the original, new /narrative scenes help enhance the story’s presentation and provide extra insight into the magical Mana-filled world.
  • Gameplay Adjustments – play the definitive version of the classic game, with new features and systems in place to update the game for players on modern hardware.

Secret of Mana is now available physically at select Australasian retailers for the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, and digitally for PlayStation®4, PlayStation®Vita and STEAM. For more information visit: www.SecretofManaGame.com.

Related Links:
Official Twitter page: www.twitter.com/managame
Official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ManaGame
Official YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/uksquareenix
Official Instagram page: www.instagram.com/squareenix

About Secret of Mana
Originally released in 1993, Secret of Mana faithfully tells the story of Randi, Primm and Popoi as they battle a treacherous empire in order to reclaim the power of Mana and bring the world back to order. This new version brings brand-new high-definition 3D graphics, a rearranged soundtrack and voice-over to the beloved volume in the Mana series.

Steam Lunar Sale Starts Today

According to steam.db Twitter, the next Steam sale is Lunar New Year Sale and it will run from later today until February 19th. During Lunar New Year, it is customary for parents and older people to give money to children and young people in red envelopes for a blessing. This is a smart business plan by Valve since both China and Japan follow this tradition. In other words, Valve is going to make truckloads of money once again.

Personally, I’m waiting for a good discount on “The Following” DLC for Dying Light since I just started playing the base game and so far I’m having a blast. If that doesn’t happen, I’m sure I’ll find something else from Steam’s massive PC catalogue. So no time to waste, crack open that piggy bank today!