Nordic Games and KING Art made sure to make quite the announcement earlier today – and did so by revealing that the 2011 favorite The Book of Unwritten Tales would be receiving a follow-up with The Book of Unwritten Tales 2. Along with the announcement comes a Kickstarter page and quite a few details to munch on, which have been provided by both parties.
Check out the official statements for yourself:
“This is a very ambitious project”, says Martin Kreuch, Producer at Nordic Games. “The fans have been waiting for a new adventure in the world of Aventasia that continues the story of BoUT 1. We have a long and very fruitful track-record working with KING Art, which is why it is important to us to support them in any way that is needed. If KING Art wants to try out something new, why should we be hindering them in doing so? At first, it seemed strange to us thinking about an already funded game being on Kickstarter, but then we were amazed about the possibility to get direct feedback from the crowd about this additional on-top content and features.”
“We’re thrilled to be working alongside Nordic Games again on The Book of Unwritten Tales 2,” adds Jan Theysen, Creative Director, KING Art. “At a later stage of the development process – production start was in October 2012 –, we suggested to Nordic Games to add additional features (multiple ways to solve certain puzzles, optional sidequests with different outfits to customise the appearance of your character etc.) and more community communication to further improve the game. Based on our very positive experience with Kickstarter on a different project (Battle World: Kronos), we suggested involving the community directly via Kickstarter to see if these features are something that gamers would like to see in an adventure game. Every cent from the campaign goes directly into the on-top content and we are excited to see how the adventure community will react to our ambitious plans.”
Since the Kickstarter is already nearing the main goal, Id say that this 2015 release looks to be one we can already get excited about. As you can see in the trailer and first released art for the game, the art style is superb and there is a lot to be excited about with this sequel. Donate to the Kickstarter for some great goodies, watch that clip below, and get ready for the PC, Mac, and Linux point and click adventure coming next year.
Next month, Rising Star Games will release Coilworks’ action/platforming free-runner Cloudbuilt on Steam for PC. We were able to get some hands-on time with a 80% content complete build of the game, and as a preface, it is important to note through reading our impressions – and viewing the video run-through of the level ‘Underneath’ at the bottom of the article – that many more enhancements will be made for its release, including improved animations, enemy feedback, menus and online functionality.
Cloudbuilt‘s art style is eye-catching, with its overlaid pencil cross-stitch lines creating an almost parallax-like effect during movement. In fact, the entire world feels pencil-drawn, although most would hastily refer to the aesthetic as being cel-shaded due to its vivid colouring and outlining. Either way, Cloudbuilt‘s visuals are unique and effectively portray the dreamlike landscape as just that – a surreal figment of one’s imagination. In particular, the imagination of our player character. From what is communicated via a series of electronic diary logs of sorts, she is (or more accurately, was) a soldier in a futuristic war who is now in a comatose state, going through a process of repair. The environments the player experiences are a mixture of her faded memories of battle on the field and old, recurring nightmares influenced by the horrors of said combat. Before finding any of this out, the player is plunged into a tutorial stage, in which our nameless lead is guided through by a blue light, trying to make sense of her surroundings.
The controls are introduced to the player therein, and though they may seem somewhat unintuitive at first glance, in practice they feel quite natural. As is the norm in PC gaming, the left and right mouse buttons are utilised to aim and shoot, the ‘WSAD’ control scheme is in place and the ability to jump is mapped to the ‘Space Bar’. Charging up your shot can take out several obstructions at once or stun certain foes. Pressing ‘Shift’ – similar to racing titles and games with a sprint functionality – gives you a boost that is managed by a yellow energy meter at the bottom of the screen. This can be used in mid-air or whilst running on any surface. The boost becomes necessary to climb a vertical face or maintain/regulate a wall run, which can be initiated by jumping at a wall head-on, or at an angle respectively – for the latter, holding the boost will cause the player character’s run to climb, and not using it at all will see her gradually descend. Multi-directional jumping is as easy as aiming the camera in the direction you want to leap in.
The one oddity that remains is the necessity to tap ‘Ctrl’ in order to drop from a ledge, as the natural inclination is to simply press whatever key represents down/backwards movement, which in this case would be ‘s’. Each level presents a challenge, with their fractured layouts, damaging obstacles and a timer to contend with – that being said, the clock will never run out, blocking you from advancing; it’s there to determine your leaderboard score and also how many more lives you will add to your Cap. You may feel the need to rush through, but taking a second to observe and spot alternate paths could prove fruitful, especially on particularly adversarial stretches in later levels. And there is nary a linear avenue from point A to point B in Cloudbuilt – you might be dissuaded from attempting a seemingly death-defying crossing to a distant, floating platform, but the heightened range of movement means that it is very possible. Coupled with the verticality of the geometry, the dreamscape becomes your playground.
Robotic ground-walkers, turrets of machine-gun and sniper variety, mines, flying drones and more act to obstruct your progression and kill you off before reaching the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, which in this case is a red door. Dying multiple times on any given level is not uncommon, but if you’ve found a glowing beacon marking a checkpoint, then you will not be forced to retry from the beginning. If you do lose a life, and are returned to the last checkpoint, the timer carries on from the moment you initially reached that checkpoint. Penalisation for dying is handled with a 3 second addition to your overall completion time, instead of the clock just continuing to run despite your failures. And as mentioned earlier, there is a ‘Cap’ – once you’ve reached it, only then will the game ask you if you’d like restart the level or tackle a different one. Which brings me to the branching paths accessible by interacting with your lifeless body in ‘the Room’…
There are four branches to explore – none of which you are ever locked into exclusively – offering four distinct endings upon completion. After finishing a stage, further difficulty options/conditions are unlocked for replay-ability, and an extra data log is entered into the computer found in ‘the Room’, presenting deeper insight into the player character’s mind, her backstory and the history of the realm our story occurs in. Going into my play-through, I expected Cloudbuilt to be relatively difficult by nature, but its fluidity and ease of control never allow you to feel truly overwhelmed. It’s a game of precision, with a sense of speed and locomotion that is startling, raising the tension and getting the blood pumping. If it proves too much to handle, the field of view can be lessened, but that could create an even more intense, claustrophobic experience. Regardless, Cloudbuilt is fun, and once it is released, I look forward to exploring more of the narrative beats (and their quartet of conclusions).
Check out image gallery below and video gameplay further down.
Over this weekend, Bethesda has opened up the world of Tamriel to beta testers. The aim of the weekend was to test the servers, find glitches and to hype fans up for Elder Scrolls Online, as the pre-orders for the game are now available.
The idea was announced in 2012 and seems like a great move by Bethesda as Skyrim sold more than 20 million copies in 2011. However, only a few massively multiplayer online games have made it into gaming mainstream and a pre-existing reputation to the game’s theme doesn’t necessarily mean success; two classic examples are the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings MMOs.
The PC launch isn’t till April 2014, but I got to be one of the lucky players to get a taste of the game. I am not a regular MMO player, but I was interested to see the online game compared to the popular single player Elder Scrolls games. I wanted to see how well the freedom and openness of an MMO was combined with the features and gameplay of the single-player versions that we know and love.
The opening of the game certainly makes you feel like you are playing an Elder Scrolls game. As usual, there is a highly in-depth character creation that is like a mini game in itself, affecting everything such as your race, tattoos and even the size of your ears. You can also have up to 8 different characters, almost one for every race.
True to the legacy of both Oblivion and Skyrim, you start as a prisoner and your escape is the basic tutorial. The break out was quite epic as you escape of the realm of the dead (with help for an old guy that sounds like Dumbledore) and end up in Bleakrock Isle, an island somewhere in Tamriel. From there, you can start exploring, fighting and take up minor quests to learn more about the game’s controls.
A noticeable difference from Skyrim was the skills, character and inventory menus. The skill and inventory screen uses a diagram of the character much like a traditional fantasy game.
The spells and abilities are mapped to the numbers on your keyboard rather than the old left-hand/right-hand system for combining weapons and spells. This means you can have a number of attacks and spells ready at hand, but with a ‘w,a,s,d’ movement system, it something can be difficult to seamlessly move and attack at the same time. Also, with the number of quick-key attacks, it is easy to slip into button bashing.
I haven’t yet been able to get the true feel of the expansive world as there was a limited amount of players. However, I instantly felt the gameplay was quite flexible, as you could venture out by yourself to complete quests and level up, or go through tombs with a small group and defeat higher level monsters together.
The game was really what I expected, In my opinion, it lives up to the reputation of the single player games. Bringing the Elder Scrolls to an online platform was a good move as the sense of community really added to the experience. From what I’ve seen, I am looking forward into the adventuring deeper in to the game to see how you can play your role within your alliance and claim the high throne.
One heads up I would give to future players is to should consider their hardware capabilities. The download is quite fat at about 30Gb and the game uses a lot of juice to run. I have 8 gigs of RAM and the best resolution I could use while it still being playable was low-medium. It is still worth playing on low resolution, but those whose computer can handle it, the ultra-high resolution adds so much more to the beauty and gameplay.
With a good experience and vibe from the beta version, I would certainly recommend Elder Scrolls Online to fantasy fans, as the game has so much potential. Even though I only got a 3 day taste of the game, I am sure it will reach its potential and most player’s expectations. Well, with a pre-order price of $89.95 and a $15 monthly subscription, it better.
Square Enix and Eidos-Montreal have today released the third and final story trailer for thier much anticipated upcoming title Thief. The trailer is called “The Thief Taker General’s Hunt” and centers around Commander of the Baron’s Watch whose objective is to hunt and hang every thief in The City, with his most desired prize being the capture of Garrett, The Master Thief (the character whom the player controls).
The Thief Taker General is corrupt as they come and uses fear to enforce an extortionate ‘black tax’ on members of the underworld; with those who refuse to pay finding themselves at the end of a noose. The Thief Taker General also runs a shady ‘operation’ where the bodies of the victims who have died from the mysterious sickness known as ‘The Gloom’ are collected and stripped bare, with anything of value being stolen from their corpses.
Thief is coming to PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One in PAL territories on February 28. If you would like to watch the other two narrative focused trailers in this three part series, you can watch part 1 and part 2 by clicking on the respective links.
In a rather interesting move, Viz Media has announced that their English anime streaming service, Neon Alley, will soon be transitioning into a free service. Starting on April 1st, Viz Media will change it’s programing to the free ad-supported Hulu and subscription-based Hulu Plus service in the United States.
This means that all of Viz’s anime will be available for free at any time through the Hulu services on any device or console that supports the app and anime will also be available for free from Neon Alley’s website. Currently details for Canadian users are unknown and more information will be revealed soon. Previously Neon Alley worked the same way as a television station, with linear programming available at a set time so this change to on-demand is certainly great for anime fans but one that is certainly unexpected.
At long last American fans of the wildly popular anime series One Piece will be able to get their hands on One Piece: Romance Dawn, the video-game adaptation of the series which compiles the series story from the very beginning and retells it in an RPG format.
The most devoted One Piece fanatics will surely be interested in picking up the limited edition version of the game at select retailers, which features a special holographic foil package. It is a special collector’s item that is a must have for fans of the series.
Just in case you aren’t already sold on the game, check out our review of the 3DS title here. Be sure to let us know what you think of the game in the comments section below.
Earlier in January this year it was announced that Ao Haru Ride was green lit for an anime adaptation, it has now been confirmed that the studio in charge of the adaptation will be Production I.G.
The currently published manga follows high school girl Yoshioka Futaba, who gets a second chance at reconnecting with Kou Tanaka, the boy she used to love back in middle school. The adaptation will be directed by Ai Yoshimura, who has worked on a number of anime including The Daily Lives of Highschool Boys, Gintama and My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU. Yoshimura will also team up with Tomoko Konparu who was the series composer for Nana, Futakoi and Kimi ni Todoke. The manga, created by Io Sakisaka, began publication in 2011 inside Bessatsu Margaret Magazine and is about to reach its 10th volume on the 23rd of May, a special drama CD of the series will be included with this volume.
Let us know what you think about Ao Haru Ride and Production I.G by leaving a comment down below.
Here’s something that will please many of you trading card fans out there, the Bakemonogatari themed Weiss Schwarz cards will be available in booster packs in two days’ time. The Trial decks were released last month on the 17th in both English and Japanese versions and the booster packs will also available just in time for valentine’s day, although I’m not too sure if these will make the perfect gift (unless your significant other likes the anime and/or trading cards).
The Bakemonogatari Booster box will contain 20 booster packs with each pack holding 8 variously assorted Weiss Schwarz cards; a special singed card may also be in one of the packs however this will be rare as the cards are inserted randomly. Each box will also contain a special promo card as well as the standard rule book for the game and a play mat.
Weiss Schwarz (created by Bushiroad, the same company that make Vanguard) plan to release cards themed around the currently airing anime Love Live and the much anticipated Sword Art Online 2 later on in the year. Let us know what you think about Weiss Schwarz or the anime mentioned by leaving a comment down below.
After the release of its “Freedom Cry” DLC it looks like it is time for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag to get another healthy dose of multiplayer DLC. The three new characters being released are the new “Guild of Rogues” feature The Siren, The Stowaway, and The Shaman. Each with their own reasons for joining the fray, each of the characters have their own style and weapon choice from The Siren’s naval saber, to The Shaman’s hatchet.
But the new characters aren’t the only additions that players can expect for multiplayer, as Ubisoft has also announced that there will be free DLC coming in the form of new maps coming February 17th. These two maps will include a new map based on Kingston and the favorite from ACIII, Charlestown.
Those wanting to see what each of the new characters and maps have to offer can check out what they’ve got going on in the new trailer embedded below. Anyone wanting to take the new characters out for a spin can download them today for Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC, with PS3 and PS4 coming tomorrow, as they are available by itself or included with the Season Pass.
Techland and Warner Bros. have been focused on showing off gameplay for Dying Light for some time now, which is why it is nice to see them breaking the trend to focus on a more narrative driven style trailer. Simply titled “Humanity”, it features a survivor looking at what the people left have become compared to the ravenous monsters that now walk the streets.
These are certainly deep thoughts, though being the same team that brought us the first Dead Island trailer, it will be time alone that says just how much of it actually gets into Dying Light. Those wanting to see what other new tidbits can be gleamed from the trailer can check it out down below and post your own thoughts in the comments below.
Outside of the trailer, the only game to play with Dying Light is the waiting game as it is set to release this year for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.
