Let me cut right to the chase here: Grim Patron is an overpowered card in Hearthstone. To highlight just how broken it is I'll share a recent game experience of mine with you.
Players in SEA regions will soon be able to enjoy the intense action battles in Kritika Online. Recently Playpark announced that they will launch Kritika Online in South East Asia in May 2016 with 4 classes
Just as communities of various cultures in real life, the online communities also come in individualistic and collectivistic forms, but one of these seems to be falling behind.
At a recent press conference, NetEase has announced Open Beta in China and the western localization plan for the highly anticipated Chinese fantasy MMORPG Revelation in 2016.
This is a battle power game so you know what that means. Even with that so far it doesn't seem like a heavily pay2win game. It's more pay2belazy, but some things are good to be lazy. Especially in a mobile game, so the ability to auto fight. Until you need to manually do it is fun for me.
It seems lately we're in the Renaissance period for nostalgia and reimaginings of successful properties from the '90s. NightCry is one such game among this movement, the spiritual successor to the Clock Tower horror series which garnered over $300K on Kickstarter a little over a year ago.
A little over a year you say? What a quick turnaround for an indie Kickstarter with a decent budget! I thought the same to myself, and after playing through it, the timing seems to make so much sense now. It's clear that NightCry is not in a good state, or really, any playable state at all.
No, this won't let you marry your squadmates, give birth to little baby alien killers, or pet your soldiers. Instead, a new mod adds something far more important into XCOM 2:
Friendship.
The Squad Cohesion mod uses Fire Emblem-inspired relationship building to award buffs, and potentially debuffs, to squad members based on the bonds they form with other teammates.
Characters are able to raise cohesion between team members by healing or otherwise helping an overwhelmed soldier in combat, completing missions without losing a teammate, or taking down more enemies. Things like character death, captured allies, or injuries will naturally lower squad relationships.
The more cohesion a team has, the better buffs they get to their skills, but higher relationships also increase the chance of becoming shaken when a soldier dies in the line of duty.
Squad Cohesion is just one of the many, many mods up on the Steam Workshop for XCOM 2. While I'm still a little sour about not the game not seeing a PS4 release, I suppose near-universal access to mods is a huge upside to the game's PC exclusivity.
Square Enix. Who hasn’t heard that name before? From Final Fantasy to Tomb Raider, the publisher owns many of the biggest franchises in gaming. But a comment from Gamemaniac3434 recently got me thinking. Responding to his claim that Square Enix designs are pointlessly complex, I started dumping simple and clean artwork from some of their games… And I realized something. For a company this well known, it’s difficult to pinpoint its identity.
I did not doubt that Enter the Gungeon would be good, but given my current roguelike fatigue, I had mentally committed it to being something I'd "get around to eventually."
For me, that could have meant playing tomorrow, or four months from now after a sale, or possibly even never. I didn't expect to buy the game during launch week, much less immediately love it, but that's how it went down. The initial wave of positive reviews, steady pro-Gungeon tweets in my feed, and a few mentions in our office chat nudged me closer and closer to an impulse purchase.
I've been trying to pin down how it was able to break through my ambivalence and surprise the hell out of me. My gut reaction is that, besides loving the basic feel of the game, it comes down to two things.
First, it's the comprehensive vision of a world in which most life is ammunition-based, with "Gundead" and "Ammomancers" and the like running amok. It's a wonderful, original, well-executed theme that makes a strong first impression. But it goes deeper than silly character designs and sillier puns. There is lore -- interesting, weird, funny lore -- and the little touches, like "hearts" in your health bar being fashioned out of red bullets, or gun cylinders baked into the architecture, quickly add up.
Second, and just as important, it's the player-friendly design choices. Well, one in particular: the ability to freely teleport to most of the rooms you've previously cleared out. What a godsend. It cuts out the tedious backtracking that so often kills my interest in roguelikes once the honeymoon phase ends.
Granted, Enter the Gungeon has some issues. I think the early game can be far too slow and the RNG is overly stingy at times. The balancing doesn't seem completely there yet. But right now, I'm hooked, and for a game I wasn't even planning on trying anytime soon, that comes as a major surprise.
How about you? What was the last game to catch you off guard or defy your expectations?
If you tried to tell me that they were going to resurrect Killer Instinct as a free-to-play game and have it be successful, I simply wouldn't believe you. The original had all but faded into obscurity outside of the "c-c-c-combo breaker!" meme that permeated the Internet.
Yet, here we are, with Season 3 upon us, and it's one of my favorite fighting games on the market.
There are some choice deals available this weekend and the retailer of note is actually Walmart (cue the horror music). If you don't mind braving that place, the big box currently has great deals on two excellent titles: Bayonetta 2 for $20, and $12 off Quantum Break on the Xbox One.
Over on the PC side of things, Dark Souls III has a nifty 25 percent discount over at Games Planet (depending on your region). The Steam key is roughly $45 in the US, or about £32 in the UK. Keys are currently being sent out,as pre-loading started last Friday.
Finally, if you're picking up an eighth generation console this weekend, there are a number of Xbox One and PS4 bundle deals. Our top pick would be the Xbox One 1TB The Dvision bundle for only $319.
[Sup Holmes is a weekly talk show for people that make great video games. It airs live every Sunday afternoon on YouTube, and can be found in podcast form on Libsyn and iTunes.]
Today on Sup Holmes we're happy to welcome Felix Bohatsch of Broken Rules to the show. I first learned of Felix's work when I downloaded the paper-made, turn the world while you jump 2D platformer And Yet It Moves on WiiWare all those years ago. Since then, Felix has helped churn out several new original titles, as well as ports of popular indie titles like Guacamelle to consoles. We'll be talking to him about all that, Broken Rules's upcoming Old Man's Journey, and a lot more.
If you have questions about console porting, video game development, now's your chance! Get in the chat and ask us whatever.
Eric Ford's Social Justice Warriors ended up making headlines after the term became a hot button point of contention between various hashtag activists in 2014 and 2015. For his latest game, the social commentary is a bit less overt. On the surface, Automata Empire is a simple game about directing little fuzzy people to migrate and battle each other before the undead destroy them all. Dig a little deeper and you may find some ideas about climate change, tribal psychology, the futility of the environmental cure, and other fancy pants thoughts, but if you just want to get involved with little furry dice people killing each other then call it a day, that's good too.
The game was inspired by The Game of Life, a "zero player game" created by John Conway in 1970. Given Eric's prior work on The Matrix Online, I'm not surprised that he'd be fascinated with a game about watching simple, amoeba-like artificial life forms interact with each other.
I like to run a lot of funky builds in the Dark Souls games. Big guys swinging around huge two-handed clubs and hammers are a favorite. But so are svelte, nimble little assassins with a buckler for parrying and a nasty little spike of a dagger for the stabby-stabby. When I build a character specifically to co-op, I like to really lean into the magic, making the most of all those spells that are just a little too slow to be practical when playing alone.
But those builds are something I get around to later. For the first time out, I always go classic sword and board. Just a sturdy blade, a thick piece of metal, and a whole lot of grit against a world of danger and death.
[Sup Holmes is a weekly talk show for people that make great video games. It airs live every Sunday afternoon on YouTube, and can be found in podcast form on Libsyn and iTunes.]
Not long ago, we were lucky to welcome Downwellcreator Ojiro "Moppin" Fumoto to the program. Though one might guess he and his game were obvious shoe-ins for success, Ojiro's unlikely road to prominence would be hard for anyone to replicate. He initially wanted to compose music inspired by the scores for the early Kirby games. That lead him to study music theory and eventually, opera singing, all at a young age, traveling between Japan and New Zealand along the way.
In the end, he ended up being too humble (my words, not his) to continue pursuing opera singing as a career. He did not feel right in the spotlight. Instead, he made the remarkably unassuming, but intensely-charged game Downwell. Like so many of the developers I've spoken with on Sup Holmes, I felt Ojiro's personality bore a strong resemblance to the personality of his game, though I don't think I put it quite that way on the show. I didn't want to make him feel self conscious.
We discussed that, how the atmosphere and emergent mechanics of Super Metroid were an influence on him, what he's planning for future games, the joys of working with Devolver Digital, scrapped ideas for Downwell, game enthusiast culture in Japan, and a lot more.
Thanks again to Ojiro for hanging out with us, and be sure to tune in today at 2:30pm EST when we welcome Felix Bohatsch of Broken Rules (And Yet It Moves, Chasing Aurora, Secrets of Raetikon) to the program.
You'd think there would be nothing left to wring out of a game like Punch-Out. The NES classic, released back in 1987, has been picked apart and broken down to the point where speedrunners compete to complete the game blindfolded. But, never say never.
Reddit user midwesternhousewives has found a new visual cue to help with the second Piston Honda and Bald Bull fights (for all the people clamoring for pro-tips on Punch-Out these days). If you look very carefully at the first row crowd during the fight, you'll notice a bearded man on the left hand side of the screen. Normally, this guy is motionless as a rock, but during Piston Honda's and Bald Bull's special attacks that leave them vulnerable to a one-hit knock-out, the bearded guy ducks at precisely the moment you need to strike to lay the bruisers out. Knowing that could have saved me a lot of trial and error trying to figure it out on my own as a kid.
This secret was found following a Cracked front-paged article where a developer spilled the beans on a similar trick for defeating the first Bald Bull fight involving a camera flash. Was Punch-Out supposed to be a pixel hunting game based on finding subtle clues and we all didn't notice?
Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata is keen on the idea of bringing Square Enix's upcoming RPG to PC, but doing so wouldn't be a simple process, at least if Tabata has his way.
"I’m quite positive about the idea of developing a PC version," Tabata told French outlet JeuxVideo in a recent interview. However, his ideas for the hypothetical port are quite different than the console release Square Enix currently has in production.
"This version could incorporate things that we were forced to abandon because of the limitations of home consoles," Tabata said. "With the PC, this would be an opportunity to release a version far superior in terms of quality and tech. That said, if we choose to develop this project, the development will start from scratch by doing research of what would be the best technology to use.
"It might not be a simple port of the console version," he concluded.
Final Fantasy XV is scheduled to launch worldwide on September 30 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
The wait is over. Nitroplus Blasterz has finally made its way to Europe and Australia.
Marvelous published the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 fighting game in PAL territories on Thursday, following up on the North American and Japanese releases a few months back.
Since the title supports both cross-platform and region-free online play, that means there should be more competition out to spar with out there, you know, provided you're willing to do so at odd hours.
For more on Nitroplus Blasterz, you can find our full review right here.
Stars in Shadow is a buy to play sci-fi 4X strategy game being developed by Ashdar Games Inc. for PC and is expected to release in the first half of 2016. It has been three thousand years since the end of the Great War, a conflict involving ancient technology and alien civilizations. Now the more primitive species of the past have evolved enough to start looking towards the stars and they are beginning to discover these lost technologies. Whether this will result in more destruction or hope for the future has yet to be determined.
You will be put in control of one spacefaring civilization of your choice, leading your people in space explorations and the creation of a galactic empire. You will engage in turn-based combat against other civilizations with your fleet of spaceships as you expand, taking over new planets for both colonization and resource-collecting purposes. New technologies can be unlocked through diplomacy with other civilizations and by conducting your own research which will help you upgrade and outfit your fleet with different, more advanced tools.
Once your colony has become large enough you will need to carefully prioritize between expanding your fleet, researching new technologies, or finding new planets to mine for resources. The species of aliens that you come across will also play an important role in your success. You might choose to completely eliminate some races to avoid having to convince them to work together, or you could do your best to assimilate all species to take advantage of their unique proficiencies.
Even your own species selection will influence gameplay. The species you choose to lead will immediately come with its own stigmas from the others and affect the types of alliances you form, the trade agreements you can be presented with, and most importantly how much they trust you.
Conflict is inevitable in a universe concerned with expansion and the collection of resources. Your job is to look out for the interests of your own species, help them grow, and prevent their decimation by whatever means you see fit.
The Aetherlight: Chronicles of Resistance is a buy to play steampunk MMORPG developed by Scarlet City Studios for PC and Mac. Geared towards tweens, The Aetherlight is focused on retelling the narrative of the Bible from the Old Testament to the New Testament in a compelling new world with some steampunk flair. As time goes on new episodes will become available for purchase that explore the Biblical narrative past the prior episode, allowing players to further explore their faith in the whimsical land of Aethasia.
The primary narrative of the story is focused on players joining up with the Resistance, helping the Scarlet Man against the evil Emporer Usurper. Usurper’s evil automaton army will oppose players around every corner, so they will need to craft new weapons and equipment that will help them fight off these despicable machines. Many of the quests players embark on will help them restore what has been wrongfully corrupted, stolen, or seized by Emporer Usurper and will also help the Resistance become the hope of Aethasia.
Players will be able to work together on their adventure as they also try and figure out what happened to the Great Engineer. They will be able to fight alongside each other in battles, as well as share some helpful tips and hints as to what they think is the best way to fight off the fog. What could be more enthralling than fighting for freedom alongside both new and old friends?
For parents there are analytical tools available that will track how their child is progressing through the game, allowing them to create opportunities to explore the concepts of faith and life with their children in an engaging environment. Within the Resistance Academy players can even find bible study activities that will help them analyze and examine stories, contexts and meanings of different Scriptures.
Come join your friends in the Resistance Academy and help save Aethasia by bringing down the evil Emperor Usurper!
