This is the Police out now on Nintendo Switch™ console
Vienna, Austria/Minsk, Belarus – October 24, 2017: Owning A Nintendo Switch™ console is paying off… Unleash your inner police chief with This Is the Police now! This is the Police is the 7th title receiving a PEGI 16 rating for the Nintendo Switch, according to the PEGI website.
Grab your Joy-Con™ and help Jack Boyd, Chief of Police, Freeburg PD, to fight crime, annoy the Mayor, the Mafia, the Labor Union and everyone else… but, more importantly, make a f****** fortune!
Starting with December 5, 2017 This is the Police for Nintendo Switch™ will also be available as a retail version.
About This Is the Police
This Is the Police is a strategy/adventure game set in a city spiraling the drain. Taking the role of gritty Police Chief Jack Boyd, you’ll dive into a deep story of crime and intrigue. Will Jack reach his retirement with a nice stack of bills, or will he end up broken … or worse?
Your mission is clear: make $500,000 in 180 days, before Jack Boyd reaches retirement. How? That’s up to you!
Decisions, decisions! This Is the Police is all about a dark story and how you react to it. Whatever you decide, your choices will influence the game – and the fate of Jack Boyd.
The Good, the Bad, and… the Ugly? The Chief of Freeburg’s Police Department deals with all kind of people. It is up to you to find the bad guys, and decide how to deal with them.
Carry out your duties. As head of Freeburg PD, Jack deals with all sorts of challenges every day: responding to emergencies, managing his officers, defending the department against City Hall and a corrupt mayor, and much more.
Solve Investigations and gather evidence against the criminal gangs of Freeburg.
Deal with the competing powers of the city. Everyone offers you favors, and each one comes at a price.
Rich and fully voiced story: Jack Boyd is portrayed by Jon St. John, the voice of Duke Nukem.
This is the Police is also available for other consoles, PC, Mac and Linux as digital download and retail box (console version only).
About THQ Nordic
Founded in 2011, THQ Nordic is a global video game publisher and developer. Based in Vienna, Austria and Karlstad, Sweden with subsidiaries in Germany, Sweden, and the USA, THQ Nordic brands include Darksiders, MX vs. ATV, Red Faction, Titan Quest and many more. THQ Nordic is meant to represent a core approach of doing much more than “owning” a highly competitive portfolio of IPs. It revolves around cherishing them, and aligning them with the very best development resources to expand upon them with the level of experience that communities and established fan bases expect and deserve.
The company’s internal development studios are Grimlore Games based in Munich, Germany; Rainbow Studios based in Phoenix, Arizona; Mirage Game Studios AB based in Karlstad, Sweden; Foxglove Studios AB based in Stockholm, Sweden; Black Forest Games based in Offenburg, Germany, and Pieces Interactive based in Skoevde, Sweden. www.thqnordic.com
ANNOUNCING STEEL RATS, AN OCTANE-FUELED COMBAT RACER BLAZING ONTO CONSOLES AND PC IN 2018
WRECK AND RIDE WITH YOUR CREW IN THIS STUNT BIKE COMBAT GAME SET IN A DIESELPUNK-INSPIRED WORLD
LONDON, Oct. 24, 2017– Prolific Polish publisher and developer Tate Multimedia are strapping on their spiked shoulder pads and fire-spewing wheel saws as they today announce that the all-out motorbike action title Steel Rats is coming to the PlayStation® 4 computer entertainment system, Xbox One and Windows PC in 2018.
Steel Rats is a visceral and groundbreaking evolution of the 2.5D action arcade genre, fusing destructive, octane-fueled motorbike combat and death-defying stunt gameplay, set in a visually stylized retro-future world.
Become one with your bike as you master the realistic physics-based controls of these powerful and deadly vehicles. Choose how you want to tear through the stylized and highly detailed environments of Steel Rats, traversing up, down, left and right as your bike speeds fluidly in and out of the game world, over rooftops and through enemy-infested tunnels.
Join the Steel Rats, a larger-than-life punk biker gang who once ruled the streets of Coastal City and now find themselves as the last line of defense against an invading horde of destructive and constantly evolving army of junkbots. Choose your character, and unlock new special abilities and customizable bikes to fight with style through vast areas of the city in a deadly mix of speed, agility and firepower.
Steel Rats features music from the Japanese rock trio The 5.6.7.8’s, who shot to fame after being featured in Kill Bill: Volume 1 with their hit song “Woo Hoo.” A remastered version of their track “Hoovering” will be featured in Steel Rats and was recorded exclusively for the game in the famous Parisian Midilive Studios, where music for films such as Taken and Hellboy II: The Golden Army was also recorded.
“Steel Rats is set in an atmospheric, stylized, retro-future version of 40s and 50s Americana,” says Jacek Gburczyk, Tate Multimedia art director. “We’ve taken everything we love from America in that time period and mixed it up with our favorite parts of dieselpunk and steampunk influences to create something that has a wholly original feel and character.”
Wojtek Biliński, head of studio at Tate Multimedia, says, “In terms of gameplay, we want to have something for speed runners, racers, brawlers, stunt drivers and all those who want to pull off insane and stylish fight moves from the back of a turbo-powered motorbike. We hope that everyone will enjoy playing Steel Rats in one of these ways and discover the many styles of gameplay we aim to deliver.”
Today’s announcement sees the release of an explosive CGI trailer, created by Deep Blue Studio, featuring The 5.6.7.8’s and their track “Hoovering,” with plenty more news and information on Steel Rats still to come.
Tate Multimedia S.A. is an independent games developer and publisher based in Poland (Warsaw-HQ) and France, with successful operations that have spanned across Europe, North America, Japan and China since the year 2000.
The studio operates according to the “house of ideas” model on an everyday basis, which means no idea is off the table allowing developers to have the creative freedom to continually seek new, daring, and even risky projects.
Tate Multimedia’s biggest success is Urban Trial Freestyle, which sold over one million copies and was released in over 150 countries. The game topped the PlayStation® Vita sales list in Sony Europe and Sony America online stores and was ranked third amongst games sold for PlayStation® 3 – the only such achievement of a European publisher. The game also came third on the list of best-selling games in Japan for Nintendo 3DS™.
An almost 40 person strong team of creative professionals are currently involved in the development of Steel Rats and the company’s next project, which will be revealed later.
Tate Multimedia was awarded a “Forbes Diamond” prize and in 2016 began to participate in the GameINN programme for Polish game developers.
KOEI TECMO EUROPE REVEALS FULL CHARACTER ROSTER AND LAUNCH WINDOW FOR A.O.T. 2
Future Titan Slayers will Experience Their Own Adventure as One of Nine Currently Announced Playable Characters or Create Their Own Scout
Hertfordshire, 24th October 2017 – Earlier today, KOEI TECMO hosted a Titan-sized live broadcast from the global headquarters in Japan detailing a massive news update for their upcoming action title A.O.T. 2, the sequel to 2016’s hit action game. The mouthful of news included the always anticipated release window—A.O.T. 2 will be released in March 2018 on the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, Nintendo Switch™, and digitally on Windows PC via Steam®.
Delving deeper into the series’ fascinating narrative, the game will have fans experiencing the gripping events of the anime’s second season along with versatile action gameplay, all new challenges, and a wide selection of playable characters from Attack on Titan, including some new faces from the second season!
During the broadcast, KOEI TECMO introduced a selection of playable characters in A.O.T. 2, while simultaneously unveiling the ability for players to create their own Custom Scout. They also confirmed that players will be able to play as; Eren Jaeger, Mikasa Ackerman, Armin Arlert, Levi, Miche Zacharias, Nanaba, Gelgar, Ymir and Christa Lenz.
A.O.T. 2 will feature enhanced Titan movements and attacks, requiring more precise manoeuvres from players. Additionally, it introduces the Monocular; allowing scouts better analysation based on pinpointing Titan positions from afar and attack strategy utilising their Omni-Directional Mobility Gear.
Outside of their excursions, Scouts can also deepen their relationships with fellow comrades by training and preparing battle with the new and improved Town Life gameplay. Strengthening relationships is an important element of A.O.T. 2, providing a greater insight into the series’ cast in a way that has yet to be experienced.
KOEI TECMO released a selection of brand-new assets showcasing the Monocular and Town Life features, alongside a first look at the playable characters to be featured on the game in its launch in March 2018.
KOEI TECMO EUROPE LTD. is a publisher of interactive entertainment software for current generation consoles, handhelds and digital download content based in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, UK. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of KOEI TECMO HOLDINGS CO., LTD., headquartered in Yokohama, Japan. TECMO is best known for the Dead or Alive® and Ninja Gaiden®series. KOEI is best known for its Dynasty Warriors® and Samurai Warriors® franchises. On April 1, 2009, KOEI TECMO HOLDINGS CO., LTD was established as a result of the TECMO, LTD. and KOEI Co., Ltd. merger. More information about KOEI TECMO EUROPE LTD and its products can be found at www.koeitecmoeurope.com
Daedalic’s AER – Memories of Old Takes Flight today
Take to the Skies and Explore the Land of Gods in this Atmospheric Exploration Adventure and Debut Game from Indie Studio, Forgotten Key
Hamburg – October 25, 2017 – Daedalic and Forgotten Key are proud to announce that AER – Memories of Old is now available on Playstation, Xbox One, PC, Mac and Linux for 13.89 pounds. Developed for five years and nominated for Best Indie Game at Gamescom 2017, AER – Memories of Old is an exploration-focused adventure game set amongst the clouds featuring a grand, expansive world of floating islands and mysterious shrines. Players play as Auk, a girl who has the ability to transform at will between bird and human form, as she effortlessly soars amongst a sea of fully explorable islands to visit nomads, discover spirit animals, and uncover the ruins of a lost ancient civilization. Players can easily slip between the worlds of land and air to experience the true freedom of flight and the vast beauty of the awe-inspiring landscape.
Long ago, a great calamity shattered the world leaving only the drifting fragments of the floating islands behind. Auk must journey to learn more about the world that preceded her own as well as its downfall in order to prevent such a catastrophe to befall her world again.
With a distinct, low-poly art style, the world of AER is designed to be both beautiful and mysterious as explorers take in soaring vistas while encountering secretive temples and the puzzles within. The playstyle is unrestricted as players are free to explore the vast world at will, taking up objectives and quests as they go to uncover more of the enigma at the heart of the game. Transform seamlessly into bird-form with free flight mechanics as you dip below the waterfalls and mountains or return to human form to explore old ruins and venture down into the ancient temples of the Land of Gods.
Features:
Transform into a glorious bird to soar amongst the clouds
Explore a large open world of hidden secrets and new discoveries
Take on a series of quests filled with mysteries, puzzles and cryptic temples
Immerse yourself in the fantastical atmosphere and vibrant minimalistic aesthetic
Winner of Game Concept Challenge 2013 and IndieCade Select 2016
Daedalic Entertainment, based in Hamburg, publishes and develops computer and video games for all platforms. The studio focuses on interactive literature and character and narrative-driven games like adventures and RPGs. Daedalic Entertainment has a staff of more than 160 employees, including the Writer’s Room, a team of writers unique to the German media industry.
Since May 2014, Daedalic Entertainment is part of the Bastei Lübbe group of companies. In July 2014, the publisher opened a new studio, Daedalic Entertainment West, in Düsseldorf. The studio’s first project is the Space Exploration RPG The Long Journey Home.
Daedalic won the German Developer Award 21 times („Studio of the Year“ 2009 and 2013, among others). In 2013, the studio won the prestigious German Games Award for “Best German Game” with “Chaos on Deponia”. Daedalic Entertainment is also the six-time winner of the German Video Game Award and the European Games Award.
With titles like State of Mind, Silence and Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth, Daedalic will raise the bar for the whole adventure genre. With Blackguards they also gained a reputation for creating high quality RPG games. As a publisher, the studio is also known for releasing unique and outstanding titles like Shadow Tactics, Crazy Machines 3, Valhalla Hills and Candle.
About Forgotten Key
Forgotten Key is an award-winning indie game studio based in Karlshamn, Sweden. With a focus on atmospheric adventures and experiences, Forgotten Key strives to innovate in game design while building rich worlds steeped in ambiance and feeling. Forgotten Key was founded in 2011 when a small student team from Blekinge Institute of Technology began working together, and has since grown into an indie studio of 15 with several projects in the pipeline.
AER Memories of Old is the first game release for the studio and a project of love and dedication through 5 years of constant development, which has given fruit in several awards and nominations including Game Concept Challenge 2013, IndieCade Select 2016, and a nomination for Best Indie Game at Gamescom 2017.
DREADNOUGHT ADDS ONSLAUGHT GAME MODE, REVAMPS PROGRESSION AND MUCH MORE WITH MASSIVE PLAYSTATION®4 OPEN BETA CONTENT UPDATE
HOUSTON and BERLIN – Oct. 24, 2017 – Grey Box, Six Foot and independent developer YAGER have released the Onslaught update for the open beta of Dreadnought, the class-based spaceship action game, on the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system. The highlight of this latest major content update is Onslaught, a game mode new to consoles in which players battle both the enemy team’s capital ships and neutral AI-controlled vessels in massive, all-out warfare.
The Onslaught update also overhauls progression, including how players get acquainted with their new ships, starting with Proving Grounds, a new game mode that replaces the old training matches. Players join up with each other and AI-controlled ships to learn the game’s mechanics while earning credits and experience in battle against the AI. Captains can now complete challenges across different ship classes for rewards like XP and credits. And new battle bonuses increase the amount of credits and XP fleets earn after matches, replacing the old ship maintenance system to allow players to use their selected fleets as much as they’d like without cooldowns or other usage penalties.
“We’re constantly listening to our community to make Dreadnought better for longtime captains and newcomers alike on every platform,” said Six Foot producer Chris Owen. “From Onslaught to Proving Grounds and beyond, we’re incorporating that feedback and getting closer and closer to the game we want to launch on PlayStation®4.”
Dreadnought puts players in the captain’s chair of massive capital ships on the front lines of competitive team-based battles across a variety of multiplayer game modes. Five distinct ship classes, specializing in tactical roles like frontline assault, long-range bombardment, strategic support and more, offer captains unique powers to exploit the enemy team’s weaknesses and claim victory. There are more than 50 playable vessels to master, each customizable with an array of weapons, modules, coatings and decals.
Dreadnought is currently in free open beta and available for download on the PlayStation®Store and on Windows PC. For the latest updates, visit www.dreadnought.com, and follow the game on Facebook, Twitter and Twitch.
About Grey Box
Grey Box is a video game publishing brand that champions the idea that games are an influential art form and players should be treated as sophisticated consumers. Grey Box aims to set a unique standard for quality in interactive entertainment. www.greybox.com
About Six Foot
Six Foot was founded in 2000 as an interactive agency, building digital experiences designed to make connections between people, brands and technology more human and meaningful. Now, as a full-service games company with offices in Houston, Los Angeles and Berlin, we apply that same passion to building extraordinary video games and providing creative direction, marketing and brand management, front- and back-end development, customer service and community support for game publishers. www.6ft.com
About YAGER
Founded in 1999 in the heart of Berlin, YAGER is one of the gaming veterans of AAA development. The award-winning studio is dedicated to the creation of vivid and meaningful multi-platform gaming experiences. The YAGER team comprises gaming enthusiasts, technical experts and creative minds from across the world who all share a passion for great action games. YAGER was most recently recognized for its gripping military shooter Spec Ops: The Line. www.yager.de
About Iron Galaxy Studios
Iron Galaxy is one of the world’s largest independent video game developers, delivering both home-built, original experiences and their partners’ visions to all platforms. Founded in 2008, Iron Galaxy has touched an astonishing number of projects, large and small. www.irongalaxystudios.com
Ubisoft is getting into the spirit of Halloween a little early this year. For Honoris running a spook-tacular event from October 19th to November 2nd called The Feast of the Otherworld. For the next two weeks, 4v4 Dominion Mode will be running The Endless March rule set that adds skeletal soldiers to the game. To win, teams must kill either skeletons or enemy players to reach the 1000 point victory threshold and then wipe out the entire enemy team. However, the skeletons will not make things easy. Unlike their living AI counterparts, the skeletons will deal massive damage to players.
In addition to the changes to Dominion mode, The Feast of the Otherworld is adding Halloween themed rewards to the game. Some of the items include a voodoo mask that glows green and a fearsome werewolf emote. The weekly content releases will also be Halloween themed for the next two weeks.
For Honoris available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows.
The first game came to me as a pleasant surprise. Strangely, it managed to somehow slip under my radar ever since release. It was on sale at one point last year, I saw it was developed by Shinji Mikami and that was more than enough to get me interested. What I got (after 25 hours of playtime) was a strong horror experience with a compelling and slightly convoluted story, interesting characters and creative level design. So here we are with a sequel, going back into the horror realm we barely escaped from once.
Story
As I said, the story of the first game was more complex that it should have been, yet not impossible to follow. Imagine watching some intense procedural drama, you take a 3-minute bathroom break, come back and suddenly everything shifted 3 years ahead with some new characters as a bonus. I’m happy to say the story of The Evil Within 2 is not as needlessly complicated and much easier to follow. The bad news is that you should have some past knowledge of the previous game since it throws you straight into the business. But don’t worry, I’m here to give you a quick rundown of the previous game and tell you what to expect in this one. The first one introduced us to Sebastian Castellanos, a detective of Krimson City who is suddenly pulled into a nightmarish realm while investigating a mass murder. The name of that scary place is STEM, a project made by shadowy organization Mobius, that’s capable of uniting minds as one. Sebastian finds himself in a race against time with his partners Juli Kidman & Joseph Oda to rescue whoever else is trapped there while trying to stay alive along the way. That’s it for a super simplified recap of the first game. Now, The Evil Within 2 shows Sebastian three years after those events haunted by experiences of his first plunge into STEM as well as the loss of his wife Myra and daughter Lily in a house fire. When it rains, it pours. While getting drunk in a bar, he is approached by his former partner Juli Kidman (who acted as a secret Mobius operative all along), telling him that his daughter is actually alive in STEM. She was being used as a “power core” for a new STEM creation of a town called Union. At some point, Mobius lost contact with Lily and it’s up to Sebastian to take another trip into it and save Lily. Upon entering, we see that Union is far doing fine now with Lily missing. All of the residents of Union turned into mindless monsters, aside from a few Mobius operatives still trapped there.
Gameplay
With new locations, new characters, The Evil Within 2 brings some exciting (and fun) gameplay features into the mix. It includes an improved cover system, new enemies, resource crafting and the best part – the addition of semi-open world in the game, with far more liberty to explore. You see, Union is a pretty big place. There are live Mobius operatives to find with their own safe houses (pretty useful thing). Then we also have dead ones but with ammo and crafting materials they left behind (also super useful). And from time to time, you might get an offer from someone to finish a side mission for them and get rewarded with a unique weapon or something equally valuable. There’s also a lot of monsters mindlessly wandering around, which is a good opportunity for sneak kills if you’re stealthy enough. You save ammo that way and end up with free green gell upgrades so everyone wins! (well, except the monsters). Not to mention a lot of documents and other collectibles to find that helps you learn more about the Union and expand the lore of the game. A useful little thing in all that exploring is the introduction of “communicator”, a radio gadget that can pick up “resonance points”. They’re sort of audio-visual imprints left by inhabitants of Union. It also helps you find random ammo stashes throughout the city and keep track of objectives on the map.
Visuals
As much as the introduction of more exploration is great, some things suffered because of it. Have no fear, the visual aspect is still astounding with an amazing level design but there’s not as much tension compared to the first game. Most fear and horror is present in closed areas and during scripted sections but the open world of Union only looks scary now. Carefully sneaking around and thinning down enemies slowly turns the game at those section from a pure horror game to an action game with horror elements. There is one point later in the game where everything in Union is on fire so it looks like broad daylight. It’s not The Evil Within I got used to but at the same time that’s not a bad thing. It lost a bit on the visual horror front but managed to introduce a lot of fresh takes on every other aspect.
Audio
However, what lacks in Evil Within 2 in horror angle of the visuals, it sure makes up for it in the audio department. I’m going to be super serious now: this game was made to be played with some quality headphones or a surround system. There’s not much music in the game but the sound effects are guaranteed to send chills down your spine. They’re always there to make you feel paranoid and keep checking every tight space. Something as simple as a gust of wind while you’re going through the Union can make you run into the nearest bush and hide expecting for some monstrosity to appear. Instead of resorting to cheap jump scares, the audio in Evil Within 2 uses every second to leave you with a constant sense of dread and anxiety.
Overall
I respect The Evil Within 2 for not shying away to bring something new to the table. It did not play safe and the results more than satisfying. We now have more freedom and it would be a shame to not use that opportunity to explore every corner of Union. The characters are more fleshed out and the sequel also has something I didn’t expect. An improved and emotionally charged story. Easier to follow and far more engaging than the original. But most importantly, by not holding onto the same formula, we ended with a sequel with more substance, content and last but not the least – fun. You know, that one thing that makes a game actually worth your time. So once again, everyone wins (except the monsters, of course).
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
After multiple delays, the latest South Park RPG is finally here. Fantasy battles are out of fashion, and the boys of South Park have their eye on starting their very own superhero franchise to rake in the big bucks. It’s superhero civil between Coon & Friends and the Freedom Pals as the New Kid takes on the role of the farting vigilante that is destined to save South Park.
Story
South Park: The Fractured but Whole is essentially an interactive South Park movie. The script won’t win any new converts to the series, but it is brilliantly written. The dialogue is sharp and pays tributes to all the video game and superhero tropes. In true South Park fashion, the humour is crass with plenty of toilet humour. Yet at the same time, anyone willing to drill deeper into the story will be rewarded with incredibly smart writing. I am impressed with the thought that has gone into creating each superhero alter ego. While I may not know the characters very well from the show, the writers do an excellent job of channeling personal motivations that inspire each super hero alter ego while mixing it with a bit of South Park whimsy. A character like Captain Diabetes who turns his illness into his source of strength is serves as a great counter balance to the game’s crass humour. While many gamers may not experience it, South Park: The Fractured but Whole is likely the first narrative-based game from a major developer that actually offers the opportunity for The New Kid to identify as transgender. I am pleasantly surprised how well the writers handle the matter. They give it just enough screen time to make it relevant to The New Kid’s identity, without having transgender consume The New Kid’s entire identity. South Park: The Fractured but Whole’s social commentary extends well beyond gender, exploring themes like race, religion, addiction, parenting, and policing. There is a thoughtful and well written story tucked neatly under all the layers of pop culture references, cursing, and references to sex and bodily excretions.
Gameplay
South Park: The Fractured but Whole is a turn based RPG with light tactical elements. The game mechanics are designed to be approachable enough that video game newbies who are picking up their first game because they like the show won’t be overwhelmed, but the game has just enough depth to enjoyable to most RPG veterans. Character creation is simple. Players start off by picking one of the three starting classes. Each class has three basic skills and an ultimate skill that can be used when the meter fills up in combat. Each skill is tied to the game’s basic offensive stats of brawn, brains, and spunk. Every level unlocks artifact slots. Each artifact awards a flat boost to the base character stats and one or two secondary stats. Later in the game, DNA mods lets players begin to do some general optimization for their character’s base stats. As the game progresses, players are able to multiclass, allowing them to mix and match their four skills from an ever-growing library of skills.
Combat is turn based in South Park: The Fractured but Whole. Players will need to instigate combat if they want the first strike and possibly inflict a status effect or two in at the beginning of combat. Each player character has three basic abilities that can be used at any time and an ultimate ability powered by the ultimate meter. The meter fills as players deal and take damage. Every ability has its own attack pattern and range. Like many tactical RPGs, success hinges on smart use of status effect and character positioning. South Park: The Fractured but Whole is on the more forgiving side of the spectrum since more advanced features like line of site and flanking are absent from the title. The game features a critical system that adds an extra layer of interaction. Hitting the action button when prompted will let players deal a little extra damage or heal some of the damage taken plus provide a very healthy boost to the ultimate meter. There are three levels of combat difficulty, which is completely separate from the skin colour “difficulty” setting at the beginning of the game. Personally, I find the normal difficulty to provide a decent challenge that requires some strategic thinking. While South Park: The Fractured but Whole is not the most challenging or complex RPG in existence, it is very easy to learn and still fulfilling enough to stay interesting.
Probably the most frustrating part about South Park’s combat system is the lack of variety in enemies in combat. There are different groups of enemies such as the sixth graders and the Chaos Minions. Often times, players will deal with long stretches of the game where they will see the same enemies over and over again. There are no random encounters, which helps limit some, but not all of the repetitiveness. The boss fights, however, are an absolute treat. These multi-phased battles often have some hilarious and challenging mechanics that shake up the game’s combat.
The town of South Park is your playground. As players progress through the story, more parts of the town are unlocked. How the developers have opted to progressively opens the map is one of the game’s great annoyances. There are significant chunks of the game where two adjoining neighbourhoods are available for exploration, but some sort of environmental hazard that can only be cleared later in the game blocks the direct path. Until that clearing skill is acquired, players are stuck taking a roundabout route of fast travel points and old fashioned long walks on the pavement. There is a lot of exploring to do in South Park: The Fractured but Whole. The game is packed with crafting items and collectibles like Tweak and Craig yaoi art and costume pieces to discover. There is a toilet mini-game where players need to input variety of combinations that can get downright devious at times. While the mini-game it completely optional, it is a bit too easy usually and gets repetitive very quickly. There are some solid environmental puzzles that make great use of the game’s buddy skills and fart abilities.
South Park: The Fractured but Whole relies on its crafting system to provide most of the consumables in the game. There are vendors almost everywhere in town, and every building seems to have a plethora of items to loot. It feels like there are hundreds of individual items, but they all fall under a few basic categories. For the exception of the more powerful items, most items simply need a few categories to craft versus specific items. The sheer volume of items to loot kills a bit of the excitement of looting, as it seems like emptying every drawer and cupboard in a house becomes more of a chore than a rewarding treasure hunt.
South Park: The Fractured but Whole was meant to be played on with a controller. The game is perfectly serviceable on a mouse and keyboard, but the mini-games were designed for controllers in mind. The keyboard variations to these mini-games are usually a dull afterthought in comparison.
Visuals
South Park: The Fractured but Whole shines visually. The game looks like it could be used to record a TV episode for the show. The animation and textures are all spot on. I really like the subtle use of the colour to signify interactive items in the environment. On the technical side, the game uses the Snowdrop engine previously used in Tom Clancy’s The Division. While South Park: The Fractured but Whole isn’t the most taxing game in the world, I didn’t encounter any issues with the game during testing.
Audio
The audio experience in South Park: The Fractured but Whole is excellent. The voice acting is perfect as expected. The sound effects are solid. While its easy to forget about the rest of the audio experience with the strong voice acting, the soundtrack is a fitting tribute to the superhero film scores.
Overall
South Park: The Fractured but Whole is a solid tactical RPG meant to cater to the widest audience possible. It is easy to learn with well executed, though slightly basic mechanics. There are a some rough patches where the gameplay feels a bit repetitive, but it is easy to forget about them with the game’s strong writing and solid audio/visual presentation.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
For those of us who have been feeling the itch since the recent Star Wars: The Last Jedi trailer, it’s time to get your Star Wars fix in! EA released a brand new trailer for Star Wars: Battlefront IIthat reveals new details about the game’s single player campaign. The trailer sets the stage for the First Order to rise from the ashes of the Empire, thirty years after the events of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. As previously revealed, the single player campaign focuses on Iden Versio, the leader of Inferno Squad, a special forces unit of the Galactic Empire. While the trailer doesn’t give away too many plot points, it appears the remnants of the Empire are struggling for power as they engage in a bloody rampage to avenge the Emperor and the second Death Star.
Star Wars: Battlefront II is set to launch on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows on November 17, 2017.
So here we are. After many sleepless nights, worries about more delays, worries if I’ll be able to get past the tutorial – Cuphead is finally here! At this point, everyone has heard of the game. It grabbed the attention of many with its gorgeous art, colorful boss battles, and promising soundtrack. The only thing that’s left now is to actually play it. Which isn’t so hard at all, but progressing through the game is a different story. But let’s go one step at a time.
Story
Cuphead and his buddy Mugman were enjoying the careless life in Inkwell Isle. One day, they stumbled upon a casino, got carried away with a gambling fever while on a winning streak and that was the cue for the Devil to enter the stage. The Devil is none other than the owner of the said casino so he challenged them to one more game with stakes raised this time. “If you win, you get everything that’s in this casino, but if you lose I take your souls” – the Devil said. Our protagonists, carried away with their streak of luck, took him up on a challenge and what do you know – they lost! However, the Devil offered them a replacement deal. He won’t take their souls if they take the soul of his debtors for him (you guessed it, these will be our boss enemies). And so their new adventure started!
Gameplay
Oh boy, where to start. Well first off, everything that you’ve seen in the promo videos and gameplay demos lives up to the expectations. The levels could be split into two categories. You have the usual run ‘n’ gun parts where the goal is to get to the end of it (duh!) and grab as many coins on your way. There aren’t a whole lot of them, maximum five per level but you need as much as you can if you intend to buy new skills and powers in the shop. What’s interesting about those run ‘n’ gun sections is that they’re all completely optional. The real progress in the game is done through the boss fights. Before starting each, you can choose between simple and regular difficulty. Don’t let the name “simple” fool you, it’s still pretty easy to die there (regardless of the difficulty, you always have 3 hit points available and after that, it’s game over). The only difference is that in regular mode, bosses have one extra stage, usually the most difficult one. Taking down all the bosses in regular mode is kind of mandatory too, since only that way you can get soul contracts and each of them is necessary in order to face the final boss. So in some way, you can view the simple mode as a “practice” for the real thing.
Visuals
This is the point where instead of writing anything, I’d just post perhaps 50 screenshots here and let you see for yourself how amazing everything is. Every frame in Cuphead has been hand drawn and what that means exactly? Show it to someone who has never heard or seen the game and they would have serious time recognizing that it is a game, instead of a real cartoon. You can’t even get mad at dying often in Cuphead (and trust me, you will!) since there’s just so much detail in the background, on enemies, on bosses, world map…..nothing but admiration.
Audio
One thing that Studio MDHR pointed out during the development is that the music in Cuphead was “recorded live with the help of 42 musicians including a 13-piece big band orchestra, a 10-member ensemble, and various soloists and ragtime pianists. Major influences of “Cuphead’s” 1930’s jazz sound include music legends such as Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, and Gene Krupa”. And oh my, the smoothness and class are oozing from every note, every second as you play. The whole soundtrack is something that worth of your attention outside of the game (with “Die House” aka King Dice theme being my favorite).
Overall
The truth is if you’ve been following Cuphead so far this review won’t push you away or entice you more to purchase it. Your mind has been made up a long time ago and now you’re just enjoying the written praises of some random guy on the internet (hint: that’s me). But just in case: do it. Get it. Now. The amount of love, work, and dedication poured into this game is astounding and the least you could do is to support this fine work by buying it, playing and die a whole lot in the process. Speaking of that last bit, there is something I need to address. Something that’s keeping it away from being the perfect 10. Gatekeeping. Look, the game is hard. We have all heard of that (or experienced it) by now. The question is how determined you are to push through the game. How much of the stress you’re willing to invest to prevail in the end. I know myself, but I don’t know you. Still, I can imagine a small army of people going at one point “you know, this is it for me. This is my stop”. With that said, I can’t imagine anyone being disappointed with the game whether you make it to the end or not. If there is one game you need to reward yourself in 2017, it might very well be this one. As I said above, you owe it to the devs, to support great game such as these, but most importantly – you owe it to yourself.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Gameplay
Visuals
Audio
Overall
Gameplay
Visuals
Audio
Overall
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found