Considering the complexity and hybridization that's en vogue in the games scene these days--where role-playing games are being grafted onto online arenas, and shooters are also looters--it's not so surprising to see a sort of reactionary minimalism begin to appear at the fringe, its adherents calling for a trimming of fat and a renewed focus on more pure genre experiences. Spacecom is just that sort of endeavor, and it angles for a simpler sort of strategy game, divorced from superfluous abilities and special effects.
Spacecom presents a flattened galaxy in abstract: ringed orbs for planets, and lines to string them into daisy chains of interstellar travel. The goal is simple: occupy, defend, and destroy as necessary en route to the opponent’s homeworld. Modus operandi stays true to strategy game traditions here: amass resources and production centers to churn out units as efficiently as possible, maintain your supply lines, and simultaneously command your units in the field. It's a two-button affair: left click to build a unit or select an existing one, right click to set a destination. The gory bits--hat is, the ship-to-ship combat, annexations en force, and planetary bombardments--are all handled in abstracted automations where damage is done by one side or the other when their respective meters fill.
At a glance, there's a lot to like about Spacecom's trim look.
The design of the units themselves is characteristically restrained. They look like little Imperial Star Destroyer wedges, trisected into highlighted parts to show which of three roles they fill. A highlighted prow means a battleship, which fares the best in ship-to-ship combat. A highlight at the stern signifies an invasion unit, which can seize planets and convert itself into stationary defenses. Siege units, ever the awkward middle child, straight-up destroy planets, rendering them unusable by anyone. Seeing one of the latter sneak into one of your undefended manufactories is a real downer, let me tell you.
Problem is, it can take some squinting to figure out which unit that rogue ship actually is. The little, mutely colored buggers can rotate every which way, so at a glance it's hard to identify which part of their thorax bears the telltale highlight. It's just one small example of a broader inscrutability, inscrutability that's particularly disappointing in a game with such simple visual elements.
Spacecom presents a flattened galaxy in abstract: ringed orbs for planets, and lines to string them into daisy chains of interstellar travel.
For one, units stack, appearing as a single ship with multiple sections highlighted. An adjacent number gives you only the sum total of units therein. So when you eventually deduce that the single wedge advancing on your frontline is not one, but seventeen units, you'll still need to click it for a more detailed breakdown and count the battleships, invaders, or siege units by hand so that you can plan accordingly. Even at slow game speeds, the seconds this takes are precious, and sometimes delay your response long enough to turn what might have been a battle won into terrible loss. Planets themselves are similarly coy about their contents, and if you direct your fleets to battle over one, they disappear; you'll have to click the red circle that forms in order to witness the proceedings.
The delays mount. You need to watch the battles play out, because it's frequently unclear who'll win until the deed's actually done. There's a ribbon of text above the battle abstract that attempts to predict the outcome, and the way it flits about is comically capricious--from "everything is lost" to "winning slightly" to "losing slightly" to "victory at hand." That's because while units in Spacecom damage one another at regular intervals, their targets are chosen at random. So the enemy's three ships might beat your five, if yours happen to spread out their fire while your opponent's concentrate theirs.
That little bit of unpredictability might normally have an appreciable effect of keeping battles from becoming rote, but there are more engrossing strategic concerns that you'll want to devote your attention to. That's particularly true if you've roped in a friend or two, because there's a strong board game quality to Spacecom--I'm reminded of Othello's old mantra "A minute to learn, a lifetime to master." Or the board game Twixt, with its supply lines of points and bridges that, when broken, would see your best laid plans thrown off kilter. With a human opponent, there are plenty of strategic gambits to play--feints, distractions, and tactical retreats are all effective, and I've got one particularly nefarious opponent to thank for learning the horror of that lone siege infiltrator. Units are excruciatingly slow to respond, but this keeps the focus on the right skill: the ability to see three moves ahead.
"Stacks of doom" make an unwanted appearance.
That's only the case if you're playing against a fellow human, however. After being humiliated in a few matches, I decided to try my hand against five expert-level AIs, with the hope of honing my abilities. I figured I'd get a workout, hard-pressed on multiple fronts. Imagine my surprise when I stormed through all five in rapid succession, finding the opposition milling about, producing only intermittent siege units--and not at their production centers, but at their homeworlds, in apparent disregard for the rules I'd understood to apply uniformly.
That sort of thing just won't do. When systems reach a certain level of complexity, they start prompting greater expectations. Why can't you set rally points to automatically ferry your newly produced units where you need them? Why can't you specify hotkeys for fleets or production centers? Why does everything need to be clicked in order to see what it's doing? Auralux, Galcon...these games do minimalist space strategy better. Perhaps the hard constraints of a mobile device are more conducive to pared-down design than any self-imposed rigor can be.
In some sense, the world already has a series that carries on the Gauntlet legacy; it's called Diablo, and clearly, it's done all right for itself over the years. That said, while Diablo is accessible, it's not the kind of game you'd have found swallowing up quarters for quick 10-minute sessions back when arcades were still profitable. As such, there's room in the current landscape for something far less ostentatious.
The Gauntlet reboot wants so very badly to be that game, and on some level, it is. The formula has changed little since the 1985 original. You have four classes: warrior, valkyrie, wizard, and elf, and after a short introduction to the controls and the personalities--there's some mild but enjoyable Terry-Pratchettesque banter between the heroes throughout--you walk through a door, down a hallway, and then jackhammer the attack button into oblivion for the next six hours, laying waste to skeletons, cave monsters, trolls, and sorcerers. When you're done clearing enough rooms of them, and you've collected enough keys, eaten enough meat, and stolen enough gold, you find the exit. You rejoice. You repeat.
The first stages of nu-Gauntlet almost give the impression that the game requires just as little thought as its arcade forebears did. The good news--and the bad--is that this is not the case. Like the best of the best in this genre, Gauntlet does surprisingly solid work making each of the four characters play wholly differently from each other. The warrior is a straight top-down brawler; the valkyrie is a defensive, reactionary, strategic class; playing the elf is like playing a twin-stick shooter; and the wizard is an escapee from a real-time role-playing game, whose attacks involve two-button combinations that change spells from simple fireballs and beams of ice to full on cyclones summoned up to level the playing field. Put all four characters in the same level for some cooperative adventuring, and you've got a field of absolute chaos the likes of which you rarely see. Yes, you can still shoot the food. And yes, the game and your teammates are even snarkier and angrier when it happens.
And therein lays the problem. As much as Gauntlet wants to be the freewheeling alternative to other, more complex dungeon crawlers, it also seeks to deepen its decades-old gameplay, but does so in all the wrong ways. Ideally, a game like this would allow the player to slice and dice through enemies in one or two hits, but when all four classes are involved, even the most basic enemies, like the skeletons and mummies roaming the first stages, require putting some arduous work in. If friends are joining you, the challenge contributes to the sense of teamwork that naturally occurs when you have four different skill sets in play. If you're playing solo, you're guaranteed to play each level a few times over because an average grunt was able to demolish you in three hits, and you didn't kill enough enemies to earn a skull coin, the game's elusive version of a continue. All four characters have their own special versions of crowd-control skills--the warrior has a Zelda-ish spin attack, for instance, and the valkyrie throws her shield, Captain America-style--but the expected catharsis of taking out entire fields of your enemies in one fell swoop is nowhere to be found. Most of the time, you're stuck with standard attacks, and none are as precise or as free-flowing as you'd hope.
The ghosts of Gauntlet past.
Yes, you do have the ability to level up your characters. You can either buy new gear from the shopkeeper in the hub, or by use of a mastery system which rewards you for everything from killing a certain number of enemies with specials to getting yourself exploded. Pursuing mastery rewards gives Gauntlet a jolt of fun, but the rewards are slow coming, and should you perish during a stage, the game takes away the gold you've collected. And thus the stuff you could really use to get past that hard stage is out of reach until you clear the stage without it. Such cruel, cruel irony.
The end result is a game that seems stuck in an uncomfortable middle ground, harboring more intricacy and challenge than the Gauntlet pedigree implies, but too bare-bones of a package to stand tall next to the action role-playing games currently competing for your time. The new Gauntlet has charms, and teaming up to take down the endless hordes is one of its most gratifying ones, but in a game like this, you shouldn't have to fight so hard for your right to party.
Recently, we asked IGN fans what questions they had for developer Sledgehammer Games about their upcoming new title within the Call of Duty franchise, Advanced Warfare. Sledgehammer co-founder and co-studio head Michael Condrey fielded your inquiries, and here are the answers:
Brockalicious (@boss_ass_brock) asks: Will the game be available through Xbox store for download before release date and then be played at 12:01 Nov 3?
SLEDGEHAMMER GAMES CO-STUDIO HEAD MICHAEL CONDREY: Yes it will. Look for some news on this in the weeks to come.
Bryan Rodriguez (@bryanrod27) asks: Can we create our own emblems in the game, much like Call Of Duty Black Ops 2?
CONDREY: Check my Twitter today…
Cameron Smith (@BuellBlast68) asks: I want to know how many scorestreaks there are. :-)
CONDREY: With a dozen of base scorestreaks, and our customable scorestreak system giving the player the ability to add up to three individual modules per scorestreak, there are literally hundreds of different combinations of unique scorestreak create-a-class options for players.
Garrett Gibson (@GarrettGibsonx) asks: What games modes will be available on Hardcore at launch?
CONDREY: Fan favorite modes like Team Deathmatch, Kill Confirmed, Domination, and Search and Destroy will all be included in the Hardcore Playlist.
DAISY (@GirlGamerDaisy) asks: How many maps are gonna be available when the game is released?
CONDREY: We’ve got 13 new maps on disk. In addition, there’s the Atlas Gorge bonus map that comes with the Collector’s Editions.
Noah Englert (@Englert602) asks: Will there be any other classic COD maps coming back in Advanced Warfare like Gorge did?
CONDREY: We actively listen to fan feedback and, as fans of the franchise ourselves, we look at great classic maps that might be exciting to bring to Advanced Warfare. Atlas Gorge, available in the Collector’s Edition, was inspired by one of our classic favorites, Pipeline from COD4. It’s the only classic COD map available at launch.
bloodyheart15 (@bloodyheart155) asks: What was the most important thing for you to achieve with Advance Warfare?
CONDREY: We wanted to bring innovation and new ways to play for fans. We found that through the Advanced Soldier, and at its core, the Exoskelton. The Exo brings speed, power, and a fundamental new movement set to Call of Duty, and it is the heart and soul across all of our game modes.
DAISY (once again!) (@GirlGamerDaisy) asks: How many prestige [levels] are gonna be in the game and do we need to start over with our weapons like in other CODs?
CONDREY: Fifteen prestige levels, with 50 levels per prestige, at launch. You will have the option to unlock one item during each prestige before restarting the experience at level 1.
I jussstify (@IJussstify) asks: Please tell us more about the competitive side of things, like is there league play, CvC, broadcaster mode???
CONDREY: The competitive community is important to us and we’ve listened closely. We’ve brought back competitive favorite modes like CTF, Hardpoint, and Round-Based Dom. We also introduced a new mode, Uplink, built for team play that we think is going to be a hit with fans, competitive and public alike. We’ve worked closely with key competitors to design fast-paced, small- to medium-sized maps, with clear three-lane designs. We’re working on competitive ranked play, improved broadcaster features, and more.
Daben Sevic (@12Minus6_Cloud) asks: What are some of the developers' favorite weapons?
CONDREY: In Advanced Warfare, there’s nearly 350 unique Weapon Loot variants available at launch. That provides a huge amount of variety for fans, and for devs at Sledgehammer Games, to choose the specific weapon that works for their playstyle. The brand new Heavy Weapons class, including the dual akimbo XMGs, and the Direct Energy weapons like the EM1, are popular choices.
Anonymous asks: Does the game run at 1080p/60fps on both the PS4 and Xbox One?
CONDREY: Not ready to confirm quite yet, but on Xbox One, we've improved upon last year's and are above. We think fans of both platforms are in for a great experience. We're really excited.
Retail juggernaut Amazon has updated its listing for the Smash Bros. bundle, which includes a GameCube-styled controller, a copy of the game, a four player USB port, and retails for $99.99.
The Super Smash Bros. Wii U controller is a return to old for GameCube fans and is instantly familiar to those who cut their teeth on Smash Bros. Melee. During the Wii era, many players expressed distain for playing Smash using only a Wii-mote or the Classic Controller. For those, simply plugging in a GameCube controller was a more attractive option than attempting to use a fiddly D-pad to manoeuvre their characters out of tight predicaments.
For competitive play, the Wii-mote wasn't an option, which is where the GameCube controller comes in to save the day and avoid any latency issue via its wired input. It'll be interesting to see how the rereleased controller fairs against the Wii U's current line-up of controllers, namely the GamePad and the Classic Controller Pro.
Also bundled with the Smash Controller is a two-pronged USB hub for up to four players. The reason for the two USB cables is due to the way the Wii U handles power output. Much like how portable USB hard drives are handled, the Wii U requires the use of two USB ports to draw enough power through the console to power the required add-on.
A recent rumor suggests that Super Smash Bros. for Wii U may be released in November. Super Smash Bros. for 3DS is set to launch on October 3. In the meantime, you can get yourself ready reading our review of the handheld title.
A Destiny bug has potentially revealed a ton of incoming content for Bungie's popular shooter.
Recorded in action and posted on YouTube by multiple users (user Kinsey_92 has one of the most thorough recordings) the bug appeared to affect the map screen after this weekend's patch. While gliding the cursor over certain planets, the message “requirements not met” and "expansion required" would pop up - similar to the messages we received during Destiny's Alpha and Beta periods, when locked out of the game's main missions.
The bug appears to have leaked a bunch of new story missions, strikes, raids, and Crucible content, under the name of planned expansions The Dark Below and House of Wolves.
via YouTube. via YouTube via YouTube
Redditor KilledbyDice has handily compiled all of the information from the recordings - check out the through list.
As with all leaks of this nature, take the info with a grain of salt, as content could change in between now and an official reveal. Certainly, some of the content descriptions appearing in these videos appear incomplete (one reads 'Reef Raid Description.') But as VG247 points out, all this content has already been listed by DestinyTracker, a Destiny datamine service, which further lends to its credibility.
We've reached out to Activision for comment and will update if and when we hear back.
Without Watch Dogs protagonist Aiden Pierce in the lead role, Watch Dogs: Bad Blood is less of an epilogue to the full game's story and more of an epilogue to the city of Chicago as a Watch Dogs setting. Aiden has long since vanished, shifting the focus to part-time collaborator T-Bone, who himself is working hard at his own disappearing act. He's more skilled than Aiden in the computer security infiltration arts, and he's almost as talented in combat as Aiden. Yet Bad Blood is the furthest thing from a collection of repurposed missions with a character reskin. It introduces a slew of new gameplay features that wouldn't feel out of place had these mechanics been introduced in the original game. That includes taking Watch Dogs' theme of surveillance to its natural next step: mounting guns on cameras.
I appreciate that Bad Blood's premise is one involving the tying up of loose ends as opposed to the worn out one-last-job narrative at this story might have been. This DLC's three acts--strung together by 10 missions--effectively delve into one of T-Bone's many backstories. It's a history with significant baggage, tied to another familiar face: the affected Tobias Frewer. Tobias is crucial to Bad Blood, and his interactions with T-Bone reveal the depth of their shared past. Their sentimental conversations make for convincing exposition; the same can't be said of T-Bone's contrived thinking-out-loud narration when he's by himself. He sounds especially unnatural when he comments on radio reports that detail the aftermath of the events of the main game.
Remember how Mission Impossible 2 wasn't so much a John Woo movie as it was a remixed greatest hits edition of John Woo's directorial trademarks? This came to mind as I considered Watch Dogs' mechanics as a collection of influences from other Ubisoft games. Whenever you make subtle pushing motions to negotiate past a crowd, think Assassin's Creed. Tailing targets? Also Assassin's Creed. Marking enemies? Splinter Cell. Taking over enemy-controlled territory? Far Cry. The frequent and obvious borrowing isn't necessarily a bad thing: it's sensible for projects and same-publisher studios to share design ideas, especially when they work as well as they do in Watch Dogs.
Bad Blood ups the ante with a pimped-out remote-controlled car heavily inspired by the drones in Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. As T-Bone's sidekick and mechanical pet, the RC is a handy scout that can access ventilation ducts, and acts as T-Bone's eyes for discrete hacking opportunities. The car fits his known penchant for do-it-yourself gadgetry, right down to the RC's electric stun ability. It's an amusing, inventive toy that isn't intended to make up for T-Bone's shortcomings, because he doesn't have any (aside from his inability to fit in a vent). In fact, T-Bone is essentially a reskin of Aiden Pierce, except that the latter wields a retractable baton, while the former prefers a taser. Given Bad Blood's modest length, it's fitting that T-Bone's skill tree be limited, though T-Bone still has access to essential talents pertaining to crafting and firearms use.
Aiden Pierce's steady hand and supernatural focus made the majority of Watch Dogs curiously easy. Given how T-Bone is endowed with similar time-bending talents, it is a welcome change to find some difficult combat challenges in Blood Bad's third and final act. I can't remember the last time I died this often but didn't suffer aggravation--probably because dying led to more time messing with the game's delightful gun-mounted cameras.
Just as Watch Dogs and Bad Blood feature an amalgamation of Ubisoft game designs, this add-on is also an unsurprising compilation of mission types taken from the full game. These includes tailing, chasing, hacking, infiltrating, and escaping--familiar Watch Dogs objectives that occasionally feel different due to minor gameplay tweaks made to Bad Blood (e.g. T-Bone's RC). Hacking is given an augmented reality twist; the Watch Dogs minigame of digital pipe-routing can at times be found superimposed in the physical space. It's a new method of visual hacking that befits the Watch Dogs universe, and I'm betting that it will make a return in the inevitable sequel. Yet as much as Bad Blood makes use of many unexplored blocks and buildings in Chicago, it's puzzling that this DLC reuses at least one area featured prominently in the full game, when so many others would have minimized the sense of repetition. Lastly, the ability to lock enemies in rooms offers a new non-lethal way minimize potential hostilities. It's one of those seemingly sensible and obvious ideas that the main game lacked, and provoked the same "Why didn't we have this before?" feeling The Last of Us: Left Behind did when we finally saw hostile humans being attacked by the infected.
Focus abilities can nerf what is still an engaging combat experience.
After playing as the morally confused and inconsistent Aiden Pierce, it was easy to jump at the opportunity to play as any other member of Watch Dogs' ensemble cast, and I would not be opposed to another installment from the dark comedic perspective of fixer Jordi Chin. Bad Blood introduces new mechanics that fit snugly within an already fully-featured world. It's these qualities that make Bad Blood an essential purchase for Watch Dogs fans.
Things are always scarier in the dark than they are in the light. This is a fact that is exploited to great effect by most horror stories. But in many games, the moment you see the monster in the shadows is when you're in the most danger. In Kraven Manor, keeping your enemy in view is the only action that assures your safety. Kraven Manor is scary; unfortunately, the game is full of enough missed opportunities that disappointment outweighs the fear.
Kraven Manor begins by dropping you in the entryway of the titular manor itself, though you are given no indication of why you are there or what you are doing--questions that are never really answered during the course of the game. The setting itself, however, is sufficiently creepy for the simple horror story that is told within it. While you find horror tropes like tracks of blood and cryptic notes throughout the house, the game relies on more subtle tools like lighting in order to evoke a sense of dread. You solve a few simple puzzles along the way, but for the most part you just need to explore and survive.
It's no wonder the Kraven family moved out: there's too little natural lighting!
It isn't long before you have your first encounter with the game's antagonist: a bronze statue that only moves when you're not looking at it. Doctor Who fans can draw an easy comparison to the show's weeping angels, creatures that are locked in immovable stone when they're being observed but which can move fast and kill you the second you look away. "Don't blink," the survival advice goes. "Blink and you're dead." The episode in which the Angels debuted ("Blink") is one of the creepier stories in the show's history.
As it turns out, the same concept makes for an equally disturbing video game. Seeing your enemy frozen in time makes the thought of it coming alive the second you turn your back all the more unsettling. When watching a horror movie, do you ever have the instinct to close your eyes when you know the scary stuff is coming? Well, Kraven Manor forces you to look at the thing that wants to kill you. This is especially nerve-wracking on the game's harder difficulty setting, where your flashlight runs out of juice quickly if left on, but recharges even more quickly as soon as you switch it off. You can't stare at the statue forever, keeping it still and non-threatening: your battery will run out before you know it.
If you want me to get out, why don't you let me leave? I don't even know how I got here!
The aspect of Kraven Manor that is most clever (and shows the most promise) is the layout of the manor itself, which you determine as you play. A model of the house sits in the middle of the entryway, but at the start, it's missing most of its rooms. As you find the models for each room (the cellar, the library and so on), you manually attach them to the model of the manor, placing then wherever you like provided there's a door through which to get to them. When you do, the house actually changes to match the model, essentially giving you the power to place rooms wherever you want.
This is a terrific idea, and there are a couple of times where it almost feels like a game changer. Unfortunately, where you place each room barely matters the vast majority of the time. You pick up each room piece in a linear fashion, and throughout most of the game you are only entering one room at a time. As such, the only thing you're really changing is which door you're going to enter in order to get to the room in question. Everything else is static. The only exception is a completely optional puzzle (leading to an alternate ending of the game) in which careful room placement leads to areas that were previously inaccessible, but that instance feels like it should be the start of a much more important mechanic rather than a one-off gimmick. There is a lot of potential here that feels squandered.
What you can see can't kill you.
Some of that disappointment can be attributed to the game's short length, which clocks in at around an hour. The brevity isn't inherently bad, but there is a sense that the game ends without fully exploring everything it set out to do. The puzzles you have to solve are too simple, the story doesn't feel fully fleshed-out, and the end sequence, while not quite anticlimactic, doesn't have the same sense of fear the rest of the game instills.
It's not that your time with Kraven Manor won't be well spent. There's fun to be had and there are scary things to jump at, but this short adventure comes up shy of other great first-person horror games from recent years.
I scale up a tower I have never climbed before and survey the land. There are new events in which to participate now, and new adventures to undertake. I leap to the ground below from this dizzying height, landing safely and breaking multiple laws of physics in the process.
I crouch in the bushes and wait for a sword-wielding guard to approach. I surreptitiously assassinate him when he draws in close, then rush towards a nearby lookout. I clamber up the structure until an unsuspecting archer is standing just above me. I plunge my blade into his torso, then watch as his corpse falls victim to the laws of gravity, emitting a thud when it strikes the rocks below.
You'd suppose I am describing the next Assassin's Creed, but the adventure in question is Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, a game that invites countless comparisons to Ubisoft's parkour-oriented series. On the surface, Shadow of Mordor is Assassin's Creed set in the Lord of the Rings universe. You ascend tall structures and engage in rhythmic combat against large numbers of swordsmen. You activate a special mode of vision that allows you to identify objects and people of interest. I wouldn't call Shadow of Mordor a rip-off, but its inspirations are clear: Developer Monolith chose a foundation that is instantly familiar to anyone who has met Ezio Auditore or Edward Kenway.
Shadow of Mordor's hero--or heroes, as it were--shares little thematic DNA with Desmond Miles and his kin, however. You are a ranger called Talion--but you are also a bitter wraith who shares Talion's body, the two cursed by unknown forces, each seeking the answers that would allow for peace. For all purposes, Talion should be dead, but his spiritual homecoming has been delayed by this unholy union. Their journey of discovery takes them through Mordor and a nearby region, where the cracked earth and the sight of suffering slaves serve as warning signs; Death here is more common here than the healing herbs that sometimes rise from the decayed soil.
I'll allow the more erudite Middle-earth experts to debate the authenticity of this wraith-ranger hybrid. Talion certainly seems like a good fit for Tolkien's universe, with his stringy shoulder-length hair, his stoic manner, and his three-syllable moniker, which recalls names like Faramir and Aragorn. The wraith's identity has been previously revealed, but I'd prefer not to disclose it here: the murky flashbacks that depict his past deeds are all the more impactful when you've denied yourself the spoiler. In any case, the Talion/wraith dichotomy leads to Shadow of Mordor's slickest moments. The ghostly wraith slides out of Talion's body from time to time to talk with him and then dissipates in a vaporous sigh. When the wraith's anger becomes all-consuming, Talion's face melts away to reveal the apparition underneath. Vague whispers and murmurs bring an eerie chill to an otherwise parched setting; it's as if there is danger of being frozen even in this grim hellscape.
There is evil there that does not sleep.
These touches give Shadow of Mordor a gossamer coating it greatly needed. The game's occasionally iffy frame rate doesn't make a strong argument for the power of the new console generation, but the burnt orange-brown cliffs and clouded skies are nonetheless given their proper due. To exist here is to suffer a heavy heart. Your ears are invaded by the growls and grunts of the grotesque Uruk-hai that roam the land, and your eyes are overwhelmed by the crumbling ruins of once-proud buildings. The same-ish landscapes wear thin in time, though a mid-game change of scenery allows you to breathe in air not yet fully spoiled by the evil Sauron's rancid presence. They say that the devil is in the details, but in Mordor, the devil is plain to see. It is in the details that you find the glimmers of light, even though you know that no happy ending is nigh. There is hope in the hearty laugh of a dwarf that becomes your hunting partner, and in the gentle words of a daughter protective of her sorcerous mother.
Had I been more invested in the game's outcome, I might have appreciated those glimmers even more. Shadow of Mordor hits the ground running, referring to the past and future both while crafting its own story within the crevasses left unexplored in book and movie form. Gollum is as disquieting a presence as ever, and actor Liam O'Brien's excellent vocal performance is so on point, you would assume Andy Serkis, who portrayed Gollum on film, had reprised the role here. But for every recognizable character there is a less-established one, and both variations weave in and out of the story with little explanation, kickstarting the plot when necessary and then departing before you can truly come to know them. The game's main villains appear before they're even properly introduced; a Tolkien fanatic may be intrigued by their identities, but Shadow of Mordor does too little to make them anything more than mean guys in fancy armor. The incomplete storytelling, combined with a series of tepid final encounters, unfortunately softens the sting of the conclusion's slashing and gnashing.
Your ears are invaded by the growls and grunts of the grotesque Uruk-hai that roam the land, and your eyes are overwhelmed by the crumbling ruins of once-proud buildings.
Of course, this is Tolkien, whose novels have always been about the unexpected journey, not the expected destination. Shadow of Mordor is a raucous adventure. You hold a single button to rush up towers and leap improbable distances, and fluid animations make the locomotion feel (usually) breezy and fun. An Uruk archer may be waiting atop that tower, but no matter: another button allows you to stab him from below, though you could always sneak up from behind and sink your hidden blade--er, your totally unhidden dagger--into his stinking flesh, if you'd rather. Yes, it's easy to make the Assassin's Creed connections, particularly when you encounter the frustrations Shadow of Mordor shares with that other series: a lack of precise movement that makes certain simple actions more trouble than they're worth, clumsy camera angles, and animation quirks that turn close-quarters battles into awkward, jittery dances.
Luckily, Shadow of Mordor greatly refines and improves other aspects of that established formula. Combat, for instance, has a similar kind of flow, but it's more challenging than you might be used to. Hordes of Uruk-hai surround you, and your experience with other games might fool you into thinking you can manage the mob. That little voice telling you can handle the challenge could be lying, though. There are times when you must simply run. You might be able to hide in a bush a few hundred feet away, or you might rush to a higher vantage point until the crowd calms down. But to face the Uruk swarm, even when you time your counter-attacks properly, is often to face your own demise and subsequent resurrection.
Shadow of Mordor loves to inundate you with reminders of basic mechanics it taught you 20 hours before. Enough, already!
The addition of a real challenge to this recipe has a lot of rewarding repercussions. Stealth becomes a vital tool, for instance, even when the mission at hand doesn't demand it. Orcs can be oddly oblivious when you brutalize the fiends walking directly behind them, but iffy AI aside, sneaking around is both helpful and exciting. Thinning the herd is a wise move, and doing so often means gliding up to your target from behind in a crouched stance that recalls Batman: Arkham Asylum, Shadow of Mordor's other great inspiration. Try murdering Uruk-hai from a perch above, or fire the wraith's spectral arrows into their heads. You'll be glad you did so when you command the attention of an Uruk captain or the region's warchief.
A captain's arrival is a big deal, and Shadow of Mordor ensures you know it. Your sword meets the leader's, the camera zooms in, and the Uruk taunts you with howls and hisses that expose his situational awareness. Upon a first meeting, the Uruk may promise you a grisly dismemberment; should you die and face the same captain again, he will wonder how you cheated death, or ask if you are that other ranger's twin brother. He might remark on the sneaky way you approached him, or declare that he's now on to your combat tricks. The game's database of potential responses must be enormous: I rarely heard the same lines twice, and when I did, I was still amused by the Uruks' grand posturing. Such melodrama! Each captain is so incredibly certain of his own victory that he must bare his fangs and puff his chest up with pride.
It's like a leap of faith, except you can do it anywhere; no haystack required!
The only problem with making a mountain out of every orcish molehill is one of pacing: after a while, I became annoyed by the incessant theatrical introductions, which would sometimes occur just when nearing my target. It doesn't matter if you're in the midst of battle or just rushing through the area: the Uruk demands your respect, even if it means disrupting the flow and forcing the camera away from its original direction once the hullabaloo is complete. But what to do? Each captain craves his 15 minutes of fame.
Captains aren't impossible to defeat, of course, but you'll be better equipped to defeat them once you add a few additional skills to your repertoire, which you do by performing missions and assassinating enemies. The move I came to most appreciate allowed me to stun an enemy by leaping over his head, then unleash a barrage of strikes that culminated in a cranial explosion. Repeating this move is the closest I came to exploiting the combat system, unless you count my reliance on converting Uruks to my cause, an option that doesn't unlock until the game reaches its second act. In fact, Shadow of Mordor's best asset, the hierarchical machinations it terms the nemesis system, doesn't truly shine until the latter half.
Talion certainly seems like a good fit for Tolkien's universe, with his stringy shoulder-length hair, his stoic manner, and his three-syllable moniker.
You see, a dead Uruk doesn't tell tales, but there's always a mouthy filthmonger ready to replace him. You can view the Uruk-hai's reporting order at a glance, though you don't necessarily know every captain's identity or combat weaknesses: you'll have to gain some intel for that. You most commonly gain intel by dominating your foe rather than outright killing him. Shadow of Mordor's executions are gory indeed, but domination is an even more fearsome process: Talion's flesh fades away and the wraith is revealed in all his ferocity. You roar out a battlecry--even simple shouts like "You are mine!" are pregnant with barely-contained rage--and then violate the Uruk's mind. You then examine the organizational Uruk flowchart, expose a captain's identity and/or combat weaknesses, and then squash your victim's head like an overripe cantaloupe. (Or, later, allow him to go free to spread word of your reign of terror.)
This is useful information to have. Again, overthrowing a captain or warchief is not always a walk in the park, so knowing that your enemy is invulnerable to your phantom arrows, or will succumb to a stealth kill, makes all the difference. You can even instill fear in captains by shooting explosive barrels and catching them on fire, or by riding a caragor into battle. Oh--did I not mention you can mount a four-legged feline beast and command it to feast on Uruk entrails? You can even clamber up walls while riding a caragor. Try that, Altair!
A dead Uruk doesn't tell tales, but there's always a mouthy filthmonger ready to replace him.
Shadow of Mordor's second half introduces even more ways to mess with Uruks' minds. Ultimately, you are able to command individual captains and assist them in battle as they fight their way up the pecking order. The story gives this system a purpose so that your political shenanigans don't come across as neverending busywork, though even without narrative context, the nemesis system is remarkably absorbing. It is the orcish congress, and I am a muscled version of Kevin Spacey's character in House of Cards. I am the puppetmaster, and the Uruk-hai are my puppets.
All of these tasks are dotted across the game's two expansive maps, which invite you to chase one waypoint after another, murdering captains, infiltrating Uruk feasts, and collecting artifacts that unveil truths about the wraith's past misdeeds. This structure (of course) recalls Assassin's Creed, but it is now imperative that the Assassin's Creed series learn from Shadow of Mordor. Easy comparisons aside, this is a great game in its own right, narratively disjointed but mechanically sound, made up of excellent parts pieced together in excellent ways. I already knew what future lay in store for Middle-earth as I played Shadow of Mordor; I'm hoping that my own future might one day bring another Lord of the Rings adventure as stirring as this one.
If it feels like it's been a long time since you've seen any South Park, you're right...sort of. Show creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker switched from their long-established tradition of doing two six-episode "half-seasons" to doing one full run of a dozen shows every fall. Season 18 kicks off tonight on Comedy Central (look for IGN's review of the premiere very soon, and get a sneak peek before you watch it). But we've actually kinda sorta already had a Season 18 in the form of this year's stellar South Park role-playing game The Stick of Truth for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.
Remember its grossest moments?
And how about the parts that got banned in certain European markets?
Finally, if you haven't seen or played the game yet yourself, it's absolutely fantastic. Take a look at our video review:
And don't miss our South Park: The Stick of Truth wiki to help you find all of the secrets and collectibles.
Titanfall's IMC Rising DLC will arrive tomorrow, September 25.
A new gameplay trailer, which you can see above, confirms the date for the Xbox One and PC versions of the game with the Xbox 360 due to get it at some stage in the future. Season Pass holders will get it for free, while it's $10 as a standalone purchase.
IMC Rising is the final of three Titanfall map packs, and features three new maps called Backwater, Zone 18 and Sandtrap.
Second DLC pack Frontier's Edge launched July 31 with three new maps, a slew of bugfixes, and a new feature called the Black Market. To learn more about the previous map pack, you can check out our playthrough of Frontier's Edge.
The cancellation of Blizzard's long-in-development MMO Titan may have cost upwards of $50 million USD.
This is according to independent analyst Billy Pidgeon, who told GamesIndustry.biz that development costs for the game "may have amounted to tens of millions, perhaps $50 million or more."
"This is not an unusual event, however," Pidgeon adds. "Blizzard has cancelled several games in various stages of development in the past. Costs for unreleased games can be significant, but launching substandard games can harm the reputation of a successful publisher such as Blizzard. Expenses for development can be considered R&D, and benefits can include invaluable training, IP and technology that can be applied to other games."
Pidgeon cites that the team working on the game had spoken about Titan's lack of a subscription-based model, keeping an eye on the current trends and eventually cancelling the project when they felt it wasn't quite up to par.
David Cole of DFC Intelligence echoed Pidgeon's statement, noting that in order to be successful in today's market, an MMO has to meet a very high standard.
"They realized that unless a big MMO is out-of-this-world unbelievable it won't work in today's market where it competes against a bunch of low cost options. If they felt that it just wasn't getting to that point it makes sense to cut your losses," Cole said, adding that Blizzard's free-to-play card game Hearthstone has managed to be successful despite its significantly lower budget.
Blizzard recently announced the cancellation of Titan, claiming that the team no longer felt any desire to continue working on it and that it wouldn't meet the standard the company was aiming for.
Anonymous sources have come forward with more information on Titan, describing it as a "sci-fi MMO set on a near-future version of Earth."
Keep it locked to IGN to learn more about Titan as details emerge.
Editor's note: This story originally claimed 1.5 million copies of the game had been sold. InXile's representative has now confirmed the figures sent in the press release were incorrect, and we've updated the story to reflect this. We apologise for any confusion caused.
The post-apocalyptic RPG launched on Friday after a fairly lengthy wait for fans.The direct sequel to the original 1988 Wasteland title was made a reality through a successful Kickstarter campaign back in 2012. It was originally pushing for a release window of October 2013, but was delayed due to ambitious plans. Looks like it was worth it.
Our review of Wasteland 2 found it captures the harsh hypothetical realities of the post-apocalyptic American Southwest with excellent writing, decisions with terrifying consequences, and background voice work that reinforce the human suffering that results from them.
You can learn about the Wasteland series' backstory of the apocalypse by checking out its live-action opening cinematic.
The third round of downloadable content for Trials Fusion, Welcome to the Abyss, is coming to all supported platforms worldwide on October 7, with the exception of the PlayStation 4 in Europe on October 8, Ubisoft has announced.
Set amidst mysterious underwater ruins, Welcome to the Abyss includes ten more tracks to tear through, alongside 24 new track challenges, additional trophies or achievements, and loads of new editor items.
Those who previously purchased the Trials Fusion $20 USD Season Pass will be able to jump right in on release, while everyone else can pick up the downloadable pack for $5 USD.
Welcome to the Abyss marks the halfway point in six planned DLC packs, with the remaining three, Fire in the Deep, Fault One Zero, and After the Incident all slated to launch by May 2015.
The previous pieces of downloadable content, Empire of the Sky and Riders of the Rustlands, were released earlier this year at a similar price point.
We found Trials Fusion to be a great experience, praising it as a fun, deeply challenging experience with lots to see and do.
To say that Minecraft is a game about digging and building huts to protect you from zombie attacks is to only scratch the surface of its immense depth. Minecraft has evolved considerably since it release to PC more than five years ago. Its boundaries have been tested by its community, which has birthed stunning castles and cities, as well as music machines, calculators, and tender homages to popular television shows and film. While the game eventually made a home on consoles, the aging hardware of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 kept Minecraft's voxel world restrained by an invisible border.
Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition shatters that barrier, allowing you to fully experience seemingly endless worlds in which to explore and create. The stretching horizon, combined with better performance and sharper aesthetics, do not only make this version of Minecraft the best you can find on modern consoles. The boundless delight in creation, coupled by challenging exploration, all shouldered by supreme accessibility, makes Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition one of the best games to own on PlayStation 4.
Minecraft drops you into a vast, procedurally-generated world, armed with only a map and your imagination. Typically, the first order of business, after taking in your surroundings, is to find the nearest tree and give it a few good whacks with a blocky fist until it drops wood for construction. Your first tools are modest: a wooden pickaxe for tearing into hillsides for coal or rare ore, or an axe to gather more lumber. But it doesn't take long before you upgrade to stone tools, and later you'll have iron to construct more efficient tools. Crafting and equipping a sword is always wise, as dangerous monsters thrive in the darkness, roaming the lands once the square sun has fallen. You also wouldn't want to be ill-prepared to match up against a shuffling zombie or explosive creeper deep in a labyrinthine mineshaft.
There is an immense feeling of satisfaction in Minecraft's construction. You start small, perhaps constructing a humble shack made of wood or dirt. As time goes on, projects become more substantial. A multi-roomed cabin in the forest starts with but a foundation and a dream. But a house in the woods is only one of many options. A walk through the jungle, with its trees scraping against the sky, could spur the creation of a tree house. Digging into the side of a mountain for precious building materials can turn into a project to create an immense underground lair. And because any project is one borne of your own vision, there is an enormous sense of pride in accomplishing a build.
Check out that draw distance.
The joy of Minecraft is not just derived from delving into caves or constructing homes, but also with exploration and interacting with the world around you. Combing an arid desert can reveal an ancient temple constructed of skillfully carved sandstone. Braving its darkness and bypassing its deadly trap leaves you rewarded with chests full of treasure. Finding a neighboring town filled with A.I.-controlled villagers provides an ample opportunity for trade. Or, if you're feeling villainous, you can steal their books or dig up their crops before continuing your adventure. You can till the land to create a plentiful garden of wheat, potatoes, or carrots. Slap together some sticks and string and you have a fishing pole for when you want to relax by the water's edge after a long day of spelunking through caves. Minecraft is a sandbox game filled with activities for any mood, whether that means getting your happiness from scavenging abandoned mines, or from watching the sun go down from the safety of your hand-constructed home.
The environment is constructed of blocks, which comprise everything from the dirt beneath your feet to the many species of trees that dot the landscape. Animals, plants, monsters, and even the clouds above are made up of sharp angles and bright hues. It's a distinct look, one that has made its many iconic building blocks and creatures instantly recognizable. Minecraft's landscape is a patchwork of divergent biomes. It's common to see snow-capped hills sharing borders with an arid desert spotted with cacti. Dark-oak forests can be shadowed by a nearby jungle biome, bright green and full of life, home to dense, choking flora and wild ocelots. All the while, blue, polygonal rivers and seas slice into the land. It's a daunting sight, and you can't be blamed for feeling a little overwhelmed. Fortunately, the game is glad to offer some guidance.
The PlayStation 4 version of Minecraft is bigger and better than it was on the previous generation.
Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition is a lot more accessible than the PC version. This is thanks to an in-depth tutorial system, which makes learning about the many aspects of the game as painless as turning the pages of a book. Tooltips pop up in the game, featuring information on materials and their many uses. If you're curious about anything, from how to use a furnace to building a staircase, a press of the button is all it takes to find out more information. If you're still feeling lost, the impressively detailed tutorial map can guide you on your way. Starting with the basic mechanics, the tutorial gently eases you into the most complicated aspects of crafting, including potion-brewing and enchanting. Playing Minecraft with friends or family is also a snap. On the PC, setting up servers can be a nightmare; on the PlayStation 4, you can easily invite up to seven others join you online via the PlayStation Network. Or, if you prefer keeping your friends close, Minecraft supports four-player cooperative split-screen play.
That is really a rather poor house, Steve.
Minecraft is bigger and better on the PS4 than it was in its previous console iterations. The map size is enormous, and coming in at around 37 times larger than what was possible on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. But it should be noted that the size is measured by volume, including the air above and ground below. Before, the map was a large square bordered by an endless ocean, and you were met by an invisible wall if you attempted to go outside your box. Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition stretches far beyond that barrier, providing a vast expanse of new lands to discover and caves to plunder. The version also outperforms its prior iterations, offering a further view distance, as well as improved frame speed, more anti-aliasing for sharper visuals, and faster world loading. Another improvement comes with the quick save feature. Minecraft no longer pauses the game in order to save progress. Putting a bow on the package is a much-welcome updated musical score, which provides some excellent tunes for any activity, whether that means digging for treasure or building a new house.
With the amount of activities available, there's no telling which ones you will say are your favorite, and the reason you have to keep coming back time after time. Hunting down elusive diamonds in twisting catacombs is thrilling, but maybe you find that crafting a boat and lazily floating down a river to unknown shores to be more gratifying. Regardless of how you derive your enjoyment, Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition has countless hours of it, whether you explore its lands alone or alongside some good friends.
Perhaps more than ever, this year's FIFA comes down to the little details. If you played last season's game, then the visuals, game modes, on-pitch action, and means of interaction will be immediately familiar. As a result, the learning curve in FIFA 15 is almost nonexistent. What's different is the degree of style and elegance with which everything is executed, giving the game a sense of refinement that was lacking last season. If last year's game was a skeleton of what FIFA wanted to achieve over the course of this console generation, then consider FIFA 15 the first layer of meat on top of that.
Nowhere is this more obvious than with goalkeepers, whose new animations make them instantly more lifelike in terms of both look and behavior. Their movements are more diverse, allowing skilful players to perform a range of spectacular gymnastics in an effort to keep the ball out of the goal. More importantly, their movements hint at a keeper's basic thought processes, which does a great deal to humanise keepers and shake that feeling of playing against a pre-programmed machine.
If you're on goal and one-on-one with a keeper, it's not uncommon to see him initially rush out from between the posts and attack, only to decide that it's a bad idea and hightail it back to his line. Similarly, running out from the goal to punch or catch the ball from a corner results in lots of backtracking when a keeper realizes that either a friendly defender or opposition attacker is going to get to it first.
While these actions create a seemingly dynamic environment in which players act and interact with each other in absence of your direct input, they have little effect on the outcome of a match. There's a slight improvement in a keeper's ability to save long strikes, but they still tend to concede the same percentage of shots as last season; the overall impact on gameplay has been balanced in such a way so as not to disrupt the established difficulty of netting a goal.
That's no bad thing, though. FIFA has done a good job over the last half decade of avoiding regular instances of scorelines that look as though they belong to basketball or American football. To change such a thing now would be to change the nature of an incredibly popular series. Having said that, it's now somewhat easier to score the kind of goals that you'd expect to see in an end-of-season highlight reel. Goalkeepers might be that much better at stopping long shots, but truly outrageous efforts seem to find the twine more often than you'd reasonably expect.
Once the final whistle is blown, that's what FIFA 15 does: it makes you feel like a star.
On a number of occasions I scored goals from the edge of the centre circle, the ball zooming straight into the top corner with the precision of a guided missile or a Maradona handball. Arjen Robben and Yaya Toure seem to be especially adept at executing this kind of extravagance, with even missed shots coming back into play following a fumble by the keeper.
The formation and ideology of the team you're playing against makes a significant difference to whether you can score those ridiculous shots, though. On higher difficulty settings, AI teams drastically change their approach depending on the circumstances. If you're playing as Manchester City in a Premier League game against a Burnley side struggling to avoid relegation, then you're going to face a strategy designed to limit your time and space on the ball. In instances such as this, it becomes extremely difficult to get the likes of Yaya Toure into a position from which he can launch a deadly long-range strike, with Burnley's central midfielders working hard to fill the gaps and limit your options.
Being aware of these differences in approach throughout the game is important, because teams frequently adapt to the scoreline and the clock. If you're a goal up in the last few minutes, rival managers often tell their players to push forward and grab that equalising goal. Should you not be ready for these changes, or fail to adapt to them, then it's easy to be caught out.
Team management menus have been reworked so you can make these kinds of changes more quickly and easily, with big, bold icons being the design order of the day. It's much easier to assign different instructions to individual players, which gives you more flexibility when it comes to specifying which attacking players you want to drop back, or whether you want your striker to run in behind the defense.
You can also switch between basic counter-attacking, long-ball, and possession based schemes at the press of a button. The kinds of options available are in no way as exhaustive as in the likes of Football Manager, but they at least provide a simple means of having your players move in a way that suits your favoured style.
The goal is not to make you feel like a football manager or a central defender grinding out a tough one goal victory on a bitter winter night. That would be too realistic, and not exciting enough.
In truth, FIFA is such a mainstream proposition that tactical options of great depth and complexity would be counter-productive to what the series is trying to achieve. The goal with FIFA 15, as with almost every other FIFA game, is to replicate the most interesting parts of what you see on TV, hence the ability to score goals of sublime lavishness. The goal is not to make you feel like a football manager or a central defender grinding out a tough one-goal victory on a bitter winter night. That would be too realistic, and not exciting enough.
The supremely popular FIFA Ultimate Team mode shares this highlight reel feel, with star players now available on short loan periods for those times when you can't afford to purchase them outright. Rather than grind out those tough early victories using your team of journeyman footballers, you can now just loan the likes of Lionel Messi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, immediately making you feel like the manager of a credible team.
If you're not interested in spending the time and money to build up a quality Ultimate Team squad, you can dive into Tournament Mode returns, which makes a welcome return in FIFA 15. There are a huge amount of tournaments on offer, with major competitions such as the English FA Cup and German Deutscher Pokal rubbing shoulders with comparative minnows like Mexico's Apertura and Norway's Braathens Cup. Licensing restrictions means international tournaments, such as the World Cup, European Championship, and Copa America are missing, which is a shame.
Career continues to be the deepest mode, allowing you to take on a role as a player or a manager. As manager your job revolves around winning trophies and building a working team, while as a player you need only worry about performing well enough to cement your place as a first-team regular. If you played career in FIFA 14 then you'll know what to expect here, with improved presentation and scouting options being the only real changes to the working formula.
Increasingly, however, FIFA is all about online play, and it's there that the focus on big shots and attacking football comes into its own. Scoring a sublime goal is all the more satisfying against a real human player, especially if that person is a friend you can taunt afterwards. The new consoles' video sharing ability means you can also share the moment with everyone else that you know online, whether they're interested or not. After all, nothing makes you feel more like a star than sharing your game winning goals on your parents' Facebook page.
Once the final whistle is blown, that's what FIFA 15 does best: it makes you feel like a star. Goalkeepers may appear more skilful, but spectacular goals are frequent enough to make you believe that you're incredible at defeating them. Tactical options have just the right amount of depth to allow you to change the course of a game and call yourself a genius for doing so, but not so much that you're at risk of confusing yourself. Ultimate Team still requires you to grind (or pay real cash) to put together a top team, but loaning in great players lets you perform magic instantly.
Such an approach might not have an enormous amount of depth, but that's not so much of an issue for a series that sees one core release every year. If you're looking for football that is exciting, exaggerated, and immensely entertaining, FIFA 15 is the game to get.
If patience is the cardinal virtue shared by all role players, then Natural Doctrine will be the game that turns a lot of saints into profanity-slinging, rage-quitting sinners. To some extent, this is what developer Kadokawa Games wants. Many of the game's most sadistic battles are laid out with cruel intent, the designers beckoning you closer and closer to the evil jack-in-the-box waiting for you behind a rock wall, or sitting in a cave after you pull the wrong lever. Unfortunately, most of Natural Doctrine's greatest challenges to your patience don't arise from a fair and balanced battle system, but from the game's failure to adhere to comprehensible logic.
In many ways, Natural Doctrine is a traditional turn-based role-playing game, but it's one that finds a number of unique ways to annoy you. The fields of play are typically wide enough to allow breathing room, but Natural Doctrine still often funnels your party members down cramped corridors for fights, with occasional high grounds for riflemen to gain the advantage. The game screen is often absolutely choked with information, exacerbating the sense of claustrophobia. Button guides are at the bottom, the turn order is at the top, attacks options are on the left, information about them is underneath, and if you've switched the graphics style for the dialogue into full mode, character portraits often block the right half of the screen. Once you start arranging actions for your turn, the lines of attack look like Jackson Pollock's interpretation of the New York Giants' playbook. When the game is at its cluttered worst, you watch your characters move in a space the size of a Tetris block; at its best, the act of even seeing and targeting enemies is a kaiju-scale grappling match with the unwieldy camera, and that's before you endure 10 minutes of watching enemies move into place and perform overelaborate attack animations.
And so we are all connected in the great circle of HUH?
This is the irony of Natural Doctrine: it overwhelms you with unnecessarily detailed data, but rarely communicates anything truly essential. There's an extensive amount of voice acting and text dedicated to the game's mawkish and inconsequential anime story, for instance, yet the tutorial leaves volumes to the imagination. In time, you learn that Natural Doctrine's big gimmick is the link system, in which one character's action can allow some or all of the others an additional crack at the enemy; furthermore, just the right positioning grants each attacker damage or defense bonuses for the entire turn. When the link system is at its best, your team of heroes circles three or four enemies, seeking just the right vantage point from which to do the most damage.
Should you perform this deathly dance properly, you may be able to completely shut the enemy down. Sadly, performing it correctly means devoting hour upon hour to trial and error, because the tutorial only teaches you a few scant basics. Learning how to guard allies, why you can't open chests and doors on a linked turn, how to configure your party for maximum buffing, what your movement limitations are, how accurate your gun-wielders may or may not be--you must wing your way through these considerations and many more until the game forces you to figure them out in increasingly unforgiving ways. For what it's worth, Natural Doctrine's upgrade system is a fine one, allowing you to intuitively swap around skills and attributes at will until your characters play the way you need them to, but even so, you're going to have to die, and die often, just to determine what each character's particular strengths are.
Sadly, this scene does not end with the Orc King belting out Seek and Destroy.
Again, the patience of strategy role-playing veterans cannot be underestimated, so you may persevere. Even on easy mode, you may spend many an hour learning the game's intricacies, replaying stages, practicing your favorite strategies on hordes of bad guys, and tweaking your preferred combat style. You will struggle, fight, die, and grind for experience for days, and a moment will come when you realize that your enemies are and will always be better at Natural Doctrine than you are.
Anyone who's played a Souls game at this point will be used to the theory Natural Doctrine is trying to espouse here. Victory is paid for with trial and error, with heavy emphasis on the "error" part. But where Dark Souls and its brethren reward experimentation, improvisation, and just plain cunning, there is quite often only one viable solution to a problem in Natural Doctrine, and it's your responsibility to find out what exactly that one solution is. The alternative is being stuck for 30 minutes on an encounter in which one false move results in the enemy linking dozens of attacks together in an unstoppable string of death. It's not strategy: it's Byzantine safe cracking. Many of the early battles involve getting to one specific room, being confronted with the possibility of a boss battle, and discovering that the conditions for victory involve escaping behind a closing door. That might have been acceptable if making a run for it didn't take 30 minutes just to move two rooms away. See, you can link attacks and heal to your heart's content, but escaping to a different area must be done one character at a time. You spend most of your time with Natural Doctrine restarting stages after spending close to an hour escaping an enemy you can't even fight. That's not “hard, but fair.” That's suffering of the kind that's legendary even in hell.
Made of a special steel from the faraway land of This Will Not Save You.
All of this is in aid to a watery thin story that mimics the plot of Attack on Titan, with generic World of Warcraft-style castoffs supplanting Titan's creepy frozen-faced abominations. There's the occasional twist, including an early one whose suddenness and brutality you will never see coming, but the story is otherwise a great nothing. The times when the game offers joy--typically, when you actually do figure out the perfect link to completely decimate your enemies--don't outweigh the pervading sense of overwhelming frustration.
Despite the aggravation, there's an audience for Natural Doctrine, a brand of uber-patient strategist who focuses with laser precision on how to manipulate the system and do his dirty deeds. The tools are there to do so, and with enough commitment and dedication, there's a point in which the true joys of the game open up for you to see. With that same commitment of time and energy, however, you could also play a better role-playing game several times over.
Koji Igarashi, who served as Co-Director on Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, has put his “dream game,” and the game he knows his fans want, on hold. As a result, he’s taken a job at a mobile developer/publisher, and has struck a deal to eventually continue his project.
“It’s kind of an unusual agreement,” he told IGN. “I have a special carve-out that allows me to work with another publishing partner or find other routes to fund my dream game.”
Seeking funding with a publishing partner has been challenging for Igarashi, who’s been forced to consider other options. “I’m a normal person just like anybody else. Unless I have a salary, I can’t feed my family. Not that this is a tale of woe is me…but ultimately you need to find other solutions to get by.”
The “special agreement” means that making mobile titles is “something I’m going to enjoy as well. It gives me the opportunity to feed my family and and ultimately gives me the option in the future to pursue my dream if I’m able to find a separate partner in funding the game.”
I think I have a direct intuition of what my fans want.
Igarashi -- who's worked on more than a dozen Castlevania games -- left Konami in March, 2014 to found a new independent studio, but his desire to make games, rather than run the business side of them, has created friction.
At one time, Igarashi thought he has “sincere interest” from publishers, but agreements fell through for, among other reasons, an uncertainty in its financial success. “Publishers want data” that he didn’t have. Igarashi also explained that publisher interests lie in cheaper indie games or blockbuster AAA — his game is in “a strange space that doesn’t fit in either of those.”
The longtime Castlevania producer said, “I have a concept, I have an idea of the game I want to make that I’m pretty sure fans would like…I really like tight action games, so having a game that would require a controller to enjoy it is definitely key to make a dream game.”
Kickstarter is certainly an option Igarashi has considered for funding his game, but he said “I think I’m perhaps a little more old school.” Fans want games quickly, and publishers can make development more efficient. Additionally, he asks himself “if it would make fans happy. Is this what they want? That’s the question I would pose toward the fans.”
Igarashi is confident in himself and his audience. "I think I have a direct intuition of what my fans want. If I made it, the fans would definitely play it and enjoy it.”
Focus Features has revealed the first teaser photo for Insidious Chapter 3, which is set to shed new light on The Further.
The minimalist Insidious Chapter 3 poster seen below uses wordplay instead of strong images to creep people out, with a chilling verse about a man who lives in the vents. The upcoming horror film focuses on a teenage girl and her family and is set before the Lambert family haunting.
Filmmaker Leigh Whannell is directing Insidious Chapter 3, with Dermot Mulroney, Stefanie Scott, Lin Shaye, and Angus Sampson starring in the film. Whannell also penned the screenplay for the third film in the franchise — he's a co-creator of the scary series — and he will act in the flick, too.
Insidious Chapter 3 is scheduled to come out May 29.
The fate and history of the Dragon Ball universe as we know it rests in the hands of the players in Dragon Ball Xenoverse. Unveiled at a special Namco Bandai TGS2014 presser in Tokyo, DragonBall Xenoverse puts players in the shoes of a brand new, fully customizable character which travels from the future to set the past right e.g the way we know it from the comic books. Similar (albeit opposite) to the premise of X-Men: Days of Future Past, it is all about maintaining what happened, rather than changing what have transpired.
Before you go "Hey I'm gonna be Trunks!" , hold on a sec. You're not.
In DragonBall Xenoverse, players now get the freedom to create their own character of any race - Buu, Namekian, Saiyan or Earthling - complete with customizable moves to be included into the storyline.
Female Majin in action Looks like Picollo but ... don't they all do? Male earthling? Where's your imagination?
This character will then travel to key moments in the DragonBall historical timeline to help Goku and gang in some of their most poignant battles such as the ones against Vegeta and Nappa, fending off Cell and Androids 17 and 18 to battling Majin Buu.
Apart from the singleplayer missions, players can take on the multiplayer aspect of the game with a maximum of three players at one go. In case you are wondering, yes. You can still play as any of your favorite DragonBall characters in the game but why would you want to when you have your very own created character waiting on the sidelines eh?
With improved graphics compared to the past titles including more destruction, along with better lighting & particle effects, DragonBall Xenoverse will be the first DragonBall title to hit both the Xbox One and PS4 and will still be available on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
![Insidious3_Tsr_1Sht_FM2[2].jpg](http://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2014/09/Insidious3_Tsr_1Sht_FM22.jpg-720x1066.jpeg)
