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Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Review

Dustin Spencer
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Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Review

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero

Developer: WayForward
Publisher: XSEED Games
Platforms: Playstation 4 (Reviewed), PC, Wii U, PS Vita, Xbox One
Release Date: December 20, 2016
Price: $29.99 USD – Available Here

Overview

WayForward broke out over ten years ago with the original Shantae for the Game Boy Color. Since then, we have seen magic made with the development team crafting hit after hit, with most being licensed properties. With a successful Kickstarter and a lot of work, our beloved mascot has returned in Shantae: Half-Genie Hero. This entry deviates a bit from the original, but still brings back the fluid platforming and charm that the franchise is known for. The question is, can this version stand with the high quality work WayForward have delivered over the years? Let’s find out.

Story

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero takes us back to Scuttle Town, with Risky Boots up to no good (as usual). This time however, a greater threat is preparing to attack, and Shantae must fulfill her obligation and protect all of Sequin Land by recovering blueprints to the Dynamo – a device that can protect all of the townsfolk from potential danger. For spoiler purposes, I won’t elaborate too much more, but the story is quite deep compared to past entries as we get to learn some of our half-genie’s motivations and past like never before. Shantae may be four games old now, but the wit and humor as remained in tact for this adventure, showing our protagonist in a new light while still retaining every aspect that made her so endearing over the years. The rest of the cast such as the mayor, Bolo, Rottytops and so on are also in full form, letting the player dive back into to an excellent new adventure with an old friend.

Gameplay

Most of the games in this series generally have the same feel when it comes to gameplay, and in most ways – this installment feels very familiar. Shantae can still bop enemies with her ponytail, transform into animals, and utilize potions for powers – as the platforming is extremely fluid and fun. Honestly, that should come as no surprise as there is not one of Half-Genie Hero‘s predecessors that have ever slacked. There is one difference that does change a lot however, and that is that this title has chipped away its outer layer of a “Metroidvania” styled game in order to appeal as a pure platformer. Yes, that is right. Instead of exploring one large map in order to get to the next stage, we now have a handy stage select screen where players can fly from world to world as they progress. This may miff a few hardcore fans, but the transition is a smooth one and you still get a large hub city to wander in – you just have a bit more focus for this adventure as a whole.

Another change can be found in the overall difficulty. Shantae has never been a terribly hard game to start with as like Mario, the platforming has always been accessible and simplistic. This title however has a bit more of a trial and error approach to some stages however, meaning if you run into danger without looking or thinking beforehand, you might wind up doing the same area again until you nail the appropriate platform or take out the particular enemy blocking the way. There is no down side to this as the game is fun (yeah, that can be a positive) and I never found myself frustrated even when I died at my own fault as it took less than a minute or two to get back in and give it another go. I personally dislike trial and error, but Shantae’s is light in this outing and causes no foul due to how simple it is to hop right back into the experience.

Shantae brings a ton of upgrades with her in Half-Genie Hero, such as the transformation abilities as well as special potions that allow her to utilize new moves. The transformation aspect includes the likes of the monkey, a mouse, a crab, and even a blobfish, with each treating the player to a new mechanic that will allow further progression once obtained. Because older stages can be revisited at anytime, this means that you can now discover new areas and items once you revisit, and with the stages changing after the first completion (usually in difficulty), players will be happy to know they can turn into a fish and bounce onto the heads of their enemies until their craniums crack. The currency system is about the same as it always has been, with a shop in tow that allows players to buy upgrades and powers for Shantae to utilize, with the ability to add techniques to the animal transformations being an option.

Completionists will get a huge smile on their face when playing Shantae as well, as there is a ton of reason to continuously replay stages aside from the silky smooth gameplay. There are a ton things like souls of pirates to pick up, and this title rewards excellence with more content that can be unlocked for both Shantae and the player. While the game in itself is rather short, this is a title that encourages replay-ability through several means with just enough shake-up to feel new with back-tracking, boss battles, and enjoyable dialogue that spurts from the many residents of this alive little world.

Visuals and Audio

Visually, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is the most beautiful 2D game on modern platforms. The colors are loud and stunning, with fantastic animation and an upgraded art style that bleeds deep within the detailed worlds within. For a game already founded on exploration, I found this title to be particularly joyous to progress in as everything is just so pleasing to the eye, whether you are in a dark, burning city or a lavish green level. The character designs themselves may look familiar to most WayForward fans as Mighty Switch Force now has a striking resemblance, but if the devs want to trade pixels for that kind of polish and crank it up to ten, I say why not?

The soundtrack is also amazing here. Featuring a blend of audio with plenty of unique tracks, Jake Kauffman has crafted an epic with the music featured here. There is also a small amount of voice acting despite the story being mainly text-driven, and the actors made their characters come alive even more due to some stellar performances that capture the quirk exceptionally well. It is actually a rarity for a game to hit the nail on the head for almost every category when it is crowd-funded, but the splendid audio ties together a fine package of consistency and quality to make this adventure upbeat and warm from beginning to end.

Overall

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is one of those rare releases that manages to capture what we love about “those games we grew up on” and completely modernize the gameplay with fresh ideas and mechanics alike. Sure, the concept of a half-genie saving the world may not bring in a ton of new players, but those who are looking for a smooth, polished platformer will be ecstatic to load up one of the best examples of the genre we have seen in years. Half-Genie Hero is now the title that can represent the positives of crowd-funding, as this sugar-coated treat is a breath of fresh air to a genre that has been watered down due to cheap cash-ins and overhyped challenge runs. Simply put, Shantae is back and better than ever, proving that hard work can equal great rewards.

Urban Empire Preview

Jamie Laike Tsui
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Urban Empire Preview

Urban Empire

Developer: Reborn Interactive
Publisher: Kalypso Media
Platform: Windows
Release Date: 20 January 2017
Price: $39.99 USD – Available Here

Finnish indie developers Reborn Interactive is putting a new twist on the classic city building genre with their new game Urban Empire. The game makes the players mayor of a city in Swarelia; a fictional area in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Players will need to maneuver the shark-laden waters of city council to build their city and elevate the city to greatness.

City builders are not exactly known for their storylines beyond the game’s meta, but Urban Empire is surprisingly rich in plot. There are four families chosen by the Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to lead the brand new city in Swarelia, each one with their own background and political beliefs. As time progresses in game, players will navigate both the political and personal lives of each character, before passing their title on to their chosen heir in the next era. Over time, I found myself becoming a little attached to my chosen ruling family as their drama unfolded. Unlike the campaign that sprawls from the 1820s to present day, the scenarios focus on a single era with its own little back story.

In addition to the ruling family and scenario stories, Urban Empire slips in some excellent writing that would normally go under the radar. Newspapers pop up as time progresses with headlines about the latest political events in game, but also historical headlines. In a nod to Civillization, Urban Empire has selected some great quotes to feature in their technology tree.

Urban Empire uses a more hands off approach when it comes to city building. The game feels a lot closer to the likes of Sim City than Kalypso’s other city builder Tropico. The basic building block of the city are districts. Each district has its own balance of residential, commercial, and industrial zoning along with any optional infrastructure, institutions, and services. On top of general city expenses, each district has its own set of expenses that are offset from personal taxes, business taxes, and edicts. To get a city running well in Urban Empire, players will need to ensure citizens are happy and healthy by providing enough services, keeping the budget balanced, upgrading infrastructure, and issuing edicts to improve their quality of life.

Of course, city building would be a lot easier if the player behaved more like a dictator as in most city builders (or quite literally in Kalypso’s other city building series Tropico).  In Urban Empire, players must manage city council and its political machinations just as much as the city itself. The only thing the player seems to be directly in control of is what to do about their own personal affairs and what innovations their city should research. With a few exceptions where players can use their personal wealth to build what they wish, every decision must be put to a vote to the democratically elected city council. Traditionally, politics is seen as a right/left divide, with conservatives on the right and liberals on the left. Urban Empire opts for a more realistic four way system, splitting social and moral values between conservatives and liberals. Economic values is listed as the traditional right/left divide. A party can believe in liberal moral values, but be staunchly conservative when it comes to the economy.

As mayor, players must manage their own approval ratings and prestige with all types of voters and their relationships with the parties in city council. The relationship with the parties on city council will need to be leveraged in a variety of ways to ensure that a proposal you support will pass through city council. Players are able to make appeals to members of city council through pleading, demanding, threatening, or using negative information discovered through spying against political parties to force them to support your views. Of course, a lot of these actions are only helpful in the short term. Dealing with pesky parties takes a little more long term planning, such as issuing edicts that will ensure the growth of certain sectors that normally support friendly parties and working towards limiting the number of hostile party members elected to city council. To make things even more challenging, the political landscape changes along with the eras. Parties and political movements come and go as the historical and technological landscape changes, ensuring that players are constantly jostling around to ensure power in city council.

Urban Empire’s initial learning curve is pretty low, but mastering the game’s intricacies will take some time. The optional tutorial is built right into the game and will take players through the essential steps of building their city and then let them continue on their own. The tutorial style works well for a game like Urban Empire, but I think the level of documentation could be better. There are a lot of helpful tool tips in the game, but I believe a proper encyclopedia or help documentation that can be accessed at any time would be of great benefit.

Urban Empire has a solid audio/visual presentation. There is no voice acting, but the sound effects are enjoyable. The soundtrack is excellent, striking the right tone for a city builder: epic in scale without being too energetic. The user interface is pleasant and is easy to navigate. While the graphic quality is not the most bleeding edge quality that will cripple the most powerful of rigs, the game still looks very good.

I think Reborn Interactive has a great concept on their hands. The city building is a touch simple on its own, but the political system gives the game the right amount of complexity. Reborn Interactive seems to be on the right track towards releasing an excellent city sim title.

Gremlins Review

Mateja Simovic
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Gremlins Review

Gremlins

Studios: Amblin Entertainment
Publisher: Warner Brothers
Platforms: Cinema
Release Date: Out Now

Overview

The urban legend of gremlins grew out of superstitions of WW2 air crews who attributed mechanical failures in aircraft to the malicious attentions of these tiny monsters. These were the same guys who came up with the idea of ‘Murphy’s law’ wherein anything that can go wrong, according to the law, will go wrong. From these two facts, one can ascertain that perhaps being a pilot during this particular era was something of a gamble. Rather than gamble with other movie options for the evening, I instead decided to revisit the popular 80s interpretation of the monsters at the In the House screening of the film Gremlins.

The MC for this evening was a very lonely and hungover David ‘Quinny’ Quinn who soldiered on regardless. In between sparring with snarky audience members and reading a bit from the Gremlins picture book (which somebody had brought in), he shared with us some interesting tidbits of movie trivia. The one I found most interesting was the fact that the puppeteers working on the set hated the Gizmo puppet and made a game of planning out interesting ways to ‘kill’ them. Death via dartboard was a popular option which ended up making it in to the film proper (kinda). After Quinny had finished warming up the audience, the screening proper began.

Story

The film opens with Randall Peltzer (Hoyt Axton) as a hapless but optimistic inventor attempting to hawk his wares to the owner of a Chinese curio shop. Instead, Randall is charmed by the cute nature of an unusual little creature in the shop called a “mogwai” which he takes home as a pet to his son, Billy (Zach Galligan). He directs his son to follow the three rules given to him for care of the pet: don’t expose the mogwai to bright light as it will kill it, do not let it get wet, and never feed it after midnight. Following in the rebellious nature which inherent in all Americans (‘Mericuh!), Billy almost all of these rules immediately upon gaining responsibility over the adorable little creature which he names Gizmo. Things almost immediately go downhill with the idyllic town of the film being brought low by tiny monsters.

The film itself has a range to it which is honestly lacking in the characters onscreen. The first half of the film depicts fairly hum drum melodrama unfolding in an almost idyllic depiction of a small American town. When the gremlins finally arrive on set, the film takes a turn directly into horror-sville, population: you. The film does build up to the horror elements somewhat, but it’s still a bit of a disjunct to go from showing us cute and cuddly furbies to suddenly killing tiny monsters quite gorily using kitchen appliances. If you can handle the film’s tonal whiplash then you’ll probably get a kick out of it.

Largely, the human characters and their motivations fall to the wayside once fecal matter hits the proverbial fan with the gremlins finally letting loose upon the town. From the second act onwards it’s pretty much all puppet mayhem all the time with very little character development or even screen time for anyone who isn’t made out of plastic. The characters we got introduced to in the first half of the film largely serve as hapless victims for the mischievous depredations of the little gremlin monsters. We see them get syringed, catapulted via chair lift, and crushed by tractor. It’s all deliciously macabre with plenty of slapstick to counterweight the actually somewhat terrifying events which unfold.

The gremlins themselves are actually a fairly compelling onscreen presence. They’re all pretty much two-dimensional as far characters go, but they’re played in such a way that you kinda see them as live-action cartoons. Another apt comparison would be to a more murderous and malevolent version of the muppets. This is largely a good thing as the human characters were rendered in similarly broad characterisations of virtue and villainy.

Visuals

In terms of the puppetry and visual effects, the film really hasn’t aged all that well. To be fair, the film is over three decades old and I doubt many special effects in today’s films would be able to stand the test of being compared to contemporaries thirty years down the line. The mogwai puppets still have a strong creep factor to them even before they morph into the vicious gremlins. The way that their eyes moved was pretty unsettling and not to mention the addition of human-looking teeth to the creature design of the mogwai. Inversely, all of the onscreen gremlin deaths are pretty gory/satisfying to watch as you see them get chopped, blended, and microwaved.

The film features some very strong visual comedy and slapstick skits however. The scene in the bar is definitely worth highlighting as you see the gremlins get rowdy as they play around and get up to mischief. That scene featured some moments which genuinely made me laugh out loud, which is high praise from me considering that visual gags so rarely find their mark with me.

Audio

The film’s soundtrack is largely unremarkable and passes by without leaving too much of an impression. The film makes use of aural clichés with the background audio taking on a more Asian influence in its melody but otherwise the orchestral score performs the job of reinforcing the emotion of a scene. The one exception to the buck the general rule and actually standout is the gremlins theme itself which sounds like a twisted version of a Christmas Carol. Notionally, Gremlins is a Christmas movie and its theme does a pretty good take on demented Christmas jingles.

Overall

Gremlins was an interesting choice to round out this year’s In the House season as its Christmas movie. The story and plot largely serve as a vehicle to let the gremlins loose from the second act onwards. The film was at its best for me when it focused upon the cartoony slapstick of the gremlins entertaining themselves which provided fertile ground for plenty of visual gags. The gremlins theme is also a catchy standout from the otherwise standard soundtrack which punctuates the film. Overall, it was a fun film to end the year with, but it certainly did not match the highs of previous offerings like Die Hard. I look forward to coming to In the House in the new year for the next season.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Assassin’s Creed Review

Mateja Simovic
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Assassin’s Creed Review

Assassin’s Creed

Studios: Ubisoft Entertainment, Regency Enterprises
Publisher: 20th Century Fox
Platforms: Cinema
Release Date: 01 January, 2017 – Tickets Available Here

Overview

Assassin’s Creed is a gaming franchise which has taken the gaming world by storm. When one thinks of mainstream, AAA, big-budget games, one can only look at Ubisoft’s quasi-historical, quasi-science fiction series. It’s big, and it’s now branching onto the silver screen with Ubisoft itself forming a new division in their company to help produce the cinematic entries into the franchise.

Video game films are often described as acting under a curse by which their very nature as an adaption from a video game works against them. Ubisoft, however, proudly proclaimed that their film will overcome this curse and set the stage for a new cinematic foray for the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Did they succeed? Read on.

Story

The film opens up with the initiation of Medieval Spanish Assassin Aguilar De Nerha (Michael Fassbender) as he swears his life to protect and serve the Creed. After this the film jumps forward into the modern day and right into the troubled childhood of Callum Lynch (also Michael Fassbender) as he witnesses the immediate aftermath of his mother’s murder at the hands of his father. The film jumps forward once again to the day of Callum’s execution where he is whisked away by mysterious benefactors. Callum then wakes up in an Abstergo research facility, where he is forced to enter into an animus and relive the memories of his ancestor, Aguilar, in order to find an ancient artifact known as ‘the Apple’. The film jumps between the perspectives of Aguilar and Callum as they learn and fight for the creed.

To say that the pacing of the story was all over the place does not do justice to the narrative parkour which this film engages in. My companion for the evening was so unengaged by the film’s plot that he largely abandoned spectatorship in favour of making pained expressions at me whenever the film delivered a particularly cringe worthy line or moment. I dispatched with him quickly, as he was no doubt a Templar plant, but ultimately I do have to agree: the film’s plot is almost pointless. The first act can pretty much be done away with entirely as so much of the detail that was put into it turns out to be completely extraneous to any of the main plot.

There are no characters for the actors to inhabit as too often the personas they depict make decisions and perform actions which appear to be completely out of synch with previously established traits, relationships, and even emotional state. The emotional beats that the characters constantly jump from and to, ostensibly in order to advance the plot, essentially makes it seem that they all have quite severe cases of some manner of emotional disorder. It’s pretty much impossible for anyone to connect with these characters as there really isn’t anything much which you can connect with.

I feel that the film tried too hard to hedge its bets by sticking too closely to the game’s canon. Too many times, there were moments where the film would vainly attempt to approach some aspect of the game’s lore but then fail in adequately explaining it. For fans this shouldn’t be a problem to keep up with the story, but for any lay people it is going to be a confusing and muddled experience to go through. This has been said before by other authors but, the same narrative you find in a game cannot be simply translated to film simply due to the vast difference between in material which each can cover. This film would have much better to have chosen one aspect or perspective of the Assassin’s Creed universe and explored it thoroughly rather than attempting to cover all the beats it did. For fans, it will come across as shallow fan service and for lay people, it will be completely nonsensical.

I feel that the film’s greatest flaw is that it chooses not to commit to any aspect of itself. As an example, there is a scene where other prisoners of the Abstergo facility attempt to warn Callum of the danger of the Apple through very guarded, almost surreal code. This only lasts for one scene and ultimately bears no effect on the plot or its trajectory. Another example is that the film never shows us a completed ‘leap of faith’ from start to finish. It always cut away from showing the audience the landing into a conveniently placed hay bale. If the film could not commit to even showing a signature moment from the game then, of course, it cannot hope to capture the spirit of what drew the game its audience in the first place.

Visuals & Audio

The film’s editing and visual direction were almost completely off-kilter with lots of decisions that I felt made no sense. The film has a habit of providing us with sweeping panoramic establishing of various locations both in the past and present. This may be an attempt at an homage to the original games wherein when the player would climb to the top of some landmark would be treated to a sweeping panorama of the surrounding area as a reward for a job well done. It ultimately serves no purpose in the confines of the film however as it is done too frequently and only takes us away from the action.

Inversely, the action sequences are completely undermined by the rapid editing and close-ups of the characters. We lose all track of time as we see characters fight their way through a number of, admittedly, very well-choreographed fight sequences which we ultimately cannot enjoy as we lose all track of space and speed. Rapid cuts can help reinforce an action film’s fast sense of pace but here it just works to disengage its audience.

The scenes with the animus were repeated far too often and become both visually and narratively boring. Originally, I thought the design of the animus looked cool from all the trailers I had seen. It looked like an actually feasible design for a machine which effectively serves as a vehicle to explore genetic memory with more than a few cues taken from designs of virtual reality machines. Unfortunately, its novelty wore off quickly and did not really

The film’s soundtrack is perhaps the one element which was largely solid in this piece of cinema. Most of the time, it serves to punctuate the mood or reinforce the change in location. There is some Arabic influence present, especially when the scene features Aguilar or is set in a Historical Spanish location. Nothing particularly stood out, either good or bad, and honestly that’s a point in its favour.

Overall

This film, on reflection, ultimately had little to no redeeming qualities available to it. The story lacks focus and ultimately is unable to create any sort of emotional engagement. The visual direction is almost entirely wrong and I cannot fathom just how badly the director could mess things up. The soundtrack, at least, is competent in working as a background accompaniment to the film. The curse of terrible video game films has still not been lifted. Feel free to stay home.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Day of Infamy Enters Beta ahead of Q1 2017 Release

Jamie Laike Tsui
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Day of Infamy Enters Beta ahead of Q1 2017 Release

Day of Infamy has come a long way since its early days as a mod for Insurgency. Now a full retail release title, Day of Infamy has been in alpha testing since July. New World Interactive announced today that Day of Infamy has entered beta testing ahead of its Q1 2017 release date.

Some big features have been added to the FPS. A new stats and ranking system has been added to the game that will change the rank on the arms of players in-game as they climb through the ranks. The unit system has also been implemented that adds distinct units to the Axis and Allies sides of the game. As a special thank you to those who purchased the game while it is in Steam Early Access, players will snag themselves the Gordon Highlanders for the Commonwealth, the 1st Ranger Battalion for the U.S. Army, and the Infanterie Division for the German Wehrmacht. More units representing Canada, India, Australia, the USA, Germany, and more are currently in development. Finally, carpet bombings has been added for all factions. Players will now be able to call in bombing runs by Mustangs (US Army) and Stukas (Germany).

To celebrate the holidays, Day of Infamy is 25% off during the Steam Winter Sale.

https://youtu.be/ORhqI8_ghxs

 

Indie Gala Friday Christmas Bundle Now Available

Jamie Laike Tsui
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Indie Gala Friday Christmas Bundle Now Available

Indie Gala is here to save those of you waiting til the absolute last minute to do your Christmas shopping. The Friday Christmas Bundle ten great indie games for one very low price.

For a minimum purchase of $1.00 USD, buyers will receive:

It Comes Around – After the death of a student, the Sugimori Occult Club have been trapped in a hellish world. Who will survive is up to you.

Secret Santa – Sneak around homes to deliver the Christmas cheer to children everywhere in this retro styled stealth game.

Stargazer Christmas – John Wizard must help Santa by summoning characters from his video games into the real world to save Christmas.

For a minimum purchase of $1.75 USD, buyers will also receive:

Just a Cleric – A retro style action RPG featuring a cowardly cleric who must step up to the plate to avenge his fallen friends.

TIMEframe – Explore the remnants of a mysterious civilization in this atmospheric game set in slow motion.

Running Gods – A 2d runner with 28 levels set in seven unique worlds.

Andoran Skye XD – Teenaged Staff Wielder has been chosen to tame and protect a skye in an epic 2.5D RPG.

Immersion – After waking up from cryogenic sleep, you must solve a series of puzzles to unlock the exit, but beware, the Evil Tile Creator plots to destroy you.

Star Phoenix – A first person VR shooter currently in Steam Early Access.

Deathwave – An arcade FPS inspired by classics like Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem, and Serious Sam.

Don’t idle any longer! The special $1.75 price will only last for the first 24 hours of the sale. Head on over to Indie Gala to grab your bundle today.

 

 

IT’S A MERRY DINOSAURUS XMAS FOR ARK: SURVIVAL EVOLVED

Philip Federico
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IT’S A MERRY DINOSAURUS XMAS FOR ARK: SURVIVAL EVOLVED
Winter Wonderland Update for Steam and Xbox/PS4 ARK Players Unleashes Raptor Claus + Unique Holiday Gifts! Additional Steam Content Delivers 5 New Dinos to Capture, Two New Underwater Caves

Seattle, WA – December 22, 2016 –  Ho-Ho-holy smokes, it’s that most wonderful time of the year again! ARK: Survival Evolved (Steam, Xbox and PS4) prepare for the arrival of Raptor Claus and his load of gifts, both naughty and nice. In the Winter Wonderland 2 event beginning today, ARK survivors will chase the scaly gift-giver around the world as he drops loot, coal and a few new goodies, all of which can be used to craft holiday-themed items. The holly-jolly team at Studio Wildcard also adding a very special surprise holiday item to the PC version of the game…what could it be? The only way to find out is to play (or to watch the trailer to the end)!

Don’t own ARK yet? Here are the ways to play:

  • The Steam’s Winter sale is now live and new players can grab ARK: Survival Evolved on PC/Mac/Linux for a 60% discount, and the Scorched Earth Expansion Pack for 33% off.
  • Download ARK: Survival Evolved and its Expansion Pack Scorched Earth now on Xbox One!
  • ARK: Survival Evolved recently launched worldwide on PlayStation 4. Grab your bundle of the main game and Scorched Earth now!

Along with the Winter Wonderland 2 update, Studio Wildcard is releasing the v253 update today for Steam players – which includes two new full-scale underwater caves and setting loose five new creatures: Cnidaria, Troodon, Tusoteuthis, Pegomastax, and the Therizinosaurus.
If that’s not enough, Raptor Claus and his helpers at Studio Wildcard are also releasing a new Spotlight trailer today, which can be downloaded below.

New Dinos and Creatures!

Cnidaria Omnimorph: A combination of everything good and bad about various species of Jellyfish, the Cnidaria is too simple to tame or train, but tribes keep schools of them around for their bioluminescence and their ability to sting. Containing them in pools around a camp is a great way to make a barrier of swimming, stinging security that also illuminates the night. They also drop a special biotoxin which can be used to create shocking torpor darts and is 2x as powerful as regular ones.

Troodon Magnanimus: Outside of human beings, the Troodon might just be the most clever creature on the islands. You don’t “tame” a Troodon, you earn its loyalty through its social nature and love of the hunt. While Troodon is considered a  smaller relative of the island’s Raptors, they are no less dangerous, especially with their love of hunting at night.

Pegomastax Fructarator: Life ain’t easy when you’re at the bottom of the food chain on carnivore-filled islands, just ask the Pegomastax. This is a relatively harmless herbivore who prefers to live alone and gorges on just about any plants it can find. Far from the definition of “pretty”, Pegomastax features a nasty looking beak (with tusks for extra effect!) and feathers, making him a unique sight on the island. Some tribes keep a few Pegomastax around, as they are excellent scavengers who collect an extraordinary quantity of seeds and berries, while also handily gathering the rare Flowers, Mushrooms, and other ingredients necessary to cook up unusual concoctions.

Tusoteuthis Vampyrus: A monstrous relative of the vampire squid, Tusoteuthis bares a closer resemblance to giant squids. It may be slow, but the aquatic Tusoteuthis is a horrific threat to anyone who dares get too close, using its tentacles to first grab, then crush…and then syphon the blood out of, its hapless victims. Tribes will sometimes tame this nightmare of the deep in order to extract its unique ink, which contains oils that can be processed into fuels.

Therizinosaurus Multiensis: Built like a T-Rex, but completely tameable and an herbivore to boot, the Therizinosaurus is one of the strangest dinosaurs on the islands. Its claws allow it to perform both brute-force or delicate actions; from taking down enemies (though it would prefer to just leave them alone) to plucking leaves from a particularly tasty bush. Because of this ability, Therizinosaurus are always handy to have around for harvesting specific resources, or, when needed, decimating enemies in combat.

ARK: Survival Evolved is in development for Xbox One via the ID@Xbox program, Steam Early Access and PlayStation®4. The game is currently playable in on all three platforms, which includes Oculus Rift VR support and an integration of Steam community features such as Steam Economy and Steam Workshop for custom maps and mods. Players can host private/LAN servers and have access to a custom-built version of the Unreal Engine 4 Editor for creating mods. The world of ARK is designed to be modder-friendly and ever-expanding!

For the latest updates follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, subscribe to us on YouTube, visit the Website at playark.com and watch us tame and train leviathan dinosaurs on Twitch.TV.

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ABOUT STUDIO WILDCARD

Studio Wildcard was co-founded in 2014 by industry veteran Jeremy Stieglitz and Jesse Rapczak, former Technical Art Director at Microsoft Game Studios, with the mission of bringing AAA quality to ambitious indie productions that are designed for core gamers. With combined 25 years of industry experience across multiple independent and studio-backed titles, Jeremy and Jesse have teamed up with other veteran developers for Seattle, WA-based and Gainesville, FL-based development studios that also include distributed team members across multiple continents. Wherever talented, driven developers may reside, Studio Wildcard intends to seek out and work with them!

ABOUT INSTINCT GAMES

Instinct Games is Egypt’s leading game development studio. Started in 2011 by former Timeline Interactive co-founders, the Instinct Games team develops and produces video games on all major platforms utilizing its competent technical team. Its mission is to collaborate with world class partners to foster Egypt’s video game development ecosystem and set a precedent of high quality, low cost, entertaining indie games with worldwide appeal.

Steam Winter Sale 2016 Begins with Steams Award Voting

Jamie Laike Tsui
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Steam Winter Sale 2016 Begins with Steams Award Voting

It’s the most wonderful time of the year… for PC gamers at least. The Steam Winter Sale of 2016 is in full steam and will run until January 2nd. New featured deals will be released daily, but the sale prices will be consistent throughout the entire sale. There are plenty of bundles created specifically for this sale to boot.

The theme for this sale’s cards is the Steam Awards, as voting for this years light-hearted awards is running during the sale period. Gamers can net themselves a card by spending money during the sale, crafting badges, voting every day for a Steam Awards winner, and checking out their discovery queue twice each day.

There are some great deals this year. Here are some of our favourites:

Big Names, Big Savings

Bundle Up Your Savings

Awesome Indie Games

Hidden Gems

Too Cheap to Pass Up

Heroes of the Dungeon Celebrates A Million Downloads with Holiday Update

Jamie Laike Tsui
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0
Heroes of the Dungeon Celebrates A Million Downloads with Holiday Update

Taiwanese mobile developers InterServ is celebrating a million downloads of their RPG Heroes of the Dungeon with a big holiday themed update and special discounts. The in-game world has been spruced with Christmas decorations to get players in the mood for the holidays. Additionally a special holiday themed challenge stage will run until December 29th. Players will get up to four chances a day to team up to defend a stack of presents from waves of enemies.

Two packs featuring the character Cloris have hit the in-game store as part of the celebrations. A holiday themed skin for Shadow Archer Cloris is available now for 1800 diamonds. Players can also stock up on Cloris’ soulstones for 9980 diamonds or net themselves a million gold for 300 diamonds.

Heroes of the Dungeon is available for free on iOS and Android on the App Store and Google Play.

Vampyr’s Latest Trailer Explores The Darkness Within

Jamie Laike Tsui
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0
Vampyr’s Latest Trailer Explores The Darkness Within

DONTNOD and Focus Home Interactive released a brand new cinematic trailer for their upcoming action RPG Vampyr. The trailer explores the protagonist Dr. Jonathan Reid’s inner conflict: as a doctor, he works to save the lives of people stricken with the Spanish Flu in 1918 London, but as a new vampire, he must also also kill to feed his hunger for blood. There are thousands of unique individuals in Vampyr, each with stories, families, and friends. With vampire hunters prowling the streets, players will need to choose their targets wisely as each kill will have serious effects on the people of London.

Vampyr is set to launch on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One some time in 2017.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dcti0aUhlak

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