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Rising Star Games, publisher of the 2D platformer 88 Heroes and kid-friendly farming sim Harvest Moon: Lil’ Farmers, announced today that it will be showcasing its 2018 lineup at PAX East. From April 5th to the 8th, attendees of the Boston convention can check out Rising Star’s three new titles Trailblazers, RICO and Decay of Logos, during a public showing at their booth.

As a co-operative, team-based racing title, Trailblazers takes the paint-slinging chaos of Splatoon and brings it to the race track. In teams up to three-versus-three, players must paint the track to their advantage, coating strategic points in their team’s colour so they can boost their way to the finish line. Developed by UK studio Supergonk, Trailblazers encourages players to work in tandem with one another, taking advantage of each character’s strengths and special skill-sets to capture the majority of the track, giving the whole team a winning advantage. And for the lone wolves out there, to whom teamwork just isn’t in your wheelhouse, Trailblazers also boasts the ability to go it alone with a single player story mode that promises a unique set of challenges and objectives to complete.

Going from the pop-coloured, Westworld-style landscapes of Trailblazers, Rising Star’s second title RICO pulls a complete 180, taking players on wild arcade-style, shoot-em-up ride. As a team of exacting police partners, players must utilize their resources as part of an elite task-force to rack the case in twenty four hours in this tactical first-person shooter. Developed by Bristol Games Hub developer Ground Shatter, this game is a run and gun extravaganza, forcing players to adapt and react to shoot-outs as they arise, and features a unique roster of enemies and weapons. RICO offers both online and offline co-operative play with split screen and controller support, so players can team up with friends across the globe, or whoever’s sitting next to you on the couch (if only my cats had opposable thumbs).

And last but not least, the third game on Rising Star’s roster is action-RPG Decay of Logos. Starring a bad-ass, sword swinging young woman in a fantastical world inspired by European folklore, Decay of Logos is the brainchild of lead designer and programmer Andre Constantino, brought to life in conjunction with Amplify Creations. Players have a large, beautiful world to explore and survive in, the latter relying on their ability to manage their inventory and unravel the secrets of Decay’s mysterious kingdom. The combat system is punishing, but rewarding, and there exists a plethora of weapons, armor and items, as well as a level-up system to assist players in developing their own unique play-style.

And did I mention you get a pet Elk? One that you can ride, that helps solve puzzles, reacts to its surroundings and that you can hopefully (for the love of god, please) give chin scratches and treats to? Maybe I should have said that right off the bat.

Rising Star Games can be found at booth #13070 during PAX East, so if any of these games strike your fancy and you’re planning on attending the convention, stop by and check them out during their first ever public showing. And if you do, be sure to ask if you can give the Elk in Decay of Logos treats and pets, and get back to me! Because if not, Rising Star will be receiving a strongly worded letter, penned (anonymously, of course) by this particular animal companion fanatic.

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TERA, an MMORPG with a unique set of precision combat mechanics published by En Masse Entertainment, is bearing down on a console release date. After a successful open beta in early March, the team behind the action MMO (that’s Bluehole, if you were wondering) have announced that the full game will be released on PS4 and Xbox One on April 3rd; those who managed to spend a bit of time on the beta will have access to a host of launch rewards depending on the progress they made.

Veteran players or impatient individuals might also consider getting their hands on the TERA Founder’s Pack; for USD $29.99, you’ll be able to play the game from March 27th, and be treated to a variety of in-game items. Of course, no big announcement would be complete without a shiny new trailer to gawp at, and TERA is no exception. Check it out:

When one thinks of an Episodic Narrative Adventure, one usually thinks of The Walking Dead Series from Telltale Games. Telltale set the bar for what this genre has become yet few have been able to capture the way that TWD games are able to suck you in and keep you wanting more. Square Enix and Dontnod Entertainment’s Life is Strange series took the formula and put their own stink on it to create a series that reviewers and fans both love. Taking the genre even further and bending it to their will, developer Big Bad Wolf and publisher Focus Home Interactive has crafted an ENA that is everything that I wish TWD and LIS were. The Council: Mad Ones takes what works and adds new features that turns the genre on its head by adding RPG elements while crafting an adventure unlike anything that you have played in a long while.

In The Council, you take on the role of Louis de Richet, a member of a secret society called the Golden Order in the year 1793. He and his mother, Sarah Faustin de Richet, have been invited to a private island by the enigmatic and mysterious Lord Mortimer. Joining him at this exclusive soiree are a number of high profile guests, including President of the newly-formed United States of America, George Washington and a young and eager Napoleon Bonaparte. The strange nature of this private reception goes beyond just the prestigious guests, however, as Richet’s own mother has suddenly and mysteriously gone missing after setting foot on the island. What makes this event so unnerving is that each and every one of the colorful cast members seems to be jockeying into position to advance their own plans.

Before you can enjoy what this game has to offer, you must pick the class that you want to belong to in the game. You can’t change this later, so choose wisely now. You can still choose abilities from the other classes, however, those abilities will cost more effort points to acquire. Why these abilities are so important is because having purchased certain abilities will allow you to interact with the other characters in the game without missing out on important bits of information or having the chance to get on someone’s good side so that you can take the route with the least amount of resistance. This system is called the Social Influence system and comes into play when you are in a confrontation with an NPC. Skills and limited resources can be used to gain the upper hand to achieve the desired outcome from your specific play-style. As a general rule, make sure to thoroughly investigate your surroundings because you will be rewarded for your knowledge of each character’s psychological vulnerabilities and immunities.

In a new twist for the Narrative Adventure genre, players will need to develop Louis de Richet’s character with RPG skills in order to assist his journey. There are 15 distinct skills that can be developed as you progress in the game, spread across three different classes and these skills can be mixed and matched between any class. The three classes are Diplomat which contains the Etiquette, Conviction, Politics, Diversion, and Linguistics skills, Occultist, which contains the Science, Subterfuge, Erudition, Occultism, and Manipulation skills and the Detective, which contains the Vigilance, Logic, Psychology, Questioning, and Agility skills. Balancing these skills with whichever class you choose will be crucial to your advancement in the game.

There will be times where you will have to choose a response to an NPC’s question or statement and some answers will be straight forward while others will take some consideration. There are times where you can take your time to choose your answer, but there will be times where you will only have a few seconds to pick the suitable answer so you better choose wisely. All of the decisions that you make are permanent and will affect your abilities throughout the five episodes of the game. What sets this aspect of the game apart from others in the genre is that the decisions that you are asked to make aren’t simple decisions but ones that could effect your physical well-being as well as that of someone else.

For example, I was forced at one point in the game to choose between helping a frail woman who was afraid that someone was trying to hurt her against the decision to continue a conversation with an influential individual who could potentially become a powerful ally later on. I could choose to help her at the expense of gaining an ally but what if she was just being paranoid? These are the types of scenarios that you will be confronted with one after the other making for an intense experience.

Visually, The Council was a big surprise to me. The environments are so spectacularly modeled where in many games, they seem to take a back seat to the work that is done to make the character models look fantastic. Candle light gleans off of the seawater that has splashed onto the cobblestone dock of the island. The leather duster that Louis wears looks appropriately worn and the delicate lace dress of Emily Hillsborrow, one of the aristocrats that was also invited to the island, looks intricate and very expensive. This game is photo-realistic in the best sense and it is what I hope Telltale does with its next game whether it be TWD or even the Batman series.

For all of the good things that The Council gets right, there are a few issues that I had that I think need to be tweaked before the next episode is released in order to make the game feel a little more polished. The first is the fact that there are special sections of the game where you will have a quick timer to choose an aspect either in the environment on on the body of an NPC that will allow you to possibly get the upper hand during a confrontation. The problem is that the time goes so fast, the cursor moves so slow as well as the fact that it takes some time to even pick out the areas on the screen that corresponds with an area of interest that I ended up missing my opportunity to respond and it hurt the outcome of that encounter. This happened to me on almost every event of this type that came up and it was definitely frustrating.

The other issue that I came up against was how I ended up choosing the class that I did (I choose Detective) and how it affected the game moving forward. This first episode contains instances where just about all of the available skills will be called upon, but being that either you picked a class that doesn’t allow immediate access to that particular skill that is being called upon or you haven’t earned enough effort points to put into those skills, you obviously will take a ding to your confrontation outcomes. Now, this is obviously going to happen at this stage of the game but the game itself will let you know that you have failed at a particular skill in game with a popup making you feel that you were unsuccessful even though you had no direct control over that at this point. It would have been better if the game somehow was able to either award more effort points so that you could level up quicker or tailor the game so that only those skills that are associated with your class are needed in order to proceed in the story. As it stands, after finishing the first episode, I felt like I missed a lot of content because of the class that I initially decided to go with and that’s not a feeling that I like to have when playing a game.

This first episode can probably be completed in under three hours but I was so enamored by the story, the visuals and the topic of the game that I am eagerly awaiting the next episode, and it can’t get here soon enough. This is the game that I hope that the next edition of TWD will be visuals-wise and game-play-wise. Lord Mortimer’s estate is sprawling and getting to hold conversations with George Washington and Napoleon Bonaparte was actually very cool and fun. What really grabbed me was the profound decisions that you have to make while trying to find your mother who, in all possibility, could be deceased. Big Bad Wolf is taking a huge gamble releasing a game in this genre, because, let’s be completely honest, it is a part of gaming that, thanks to Telltale, is very crowded and a little long in the tooth. However, I have a feeling that once gamers get their hands on this first episode, they will be as excited about it as I am. Lets hope the next episode is even better and blows the first out of the water.

This review is based on a copy of the game provided by the publisher.

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“I’m not a hundred percent sure what I’m playing but I think I like it.” Never before have these words seemed truer than in my current delve into Soulblight, a nifty little roguelike which released last week. Soulblight is the utter hell I can only imagine would be born from an amorous encounter between From Software and a standard roguelike. This game is infuriatingly difficult and maddeningly addictive in equal measure. Am I having fun? Define fun. Am I enjoying playing the game and do I want to keep going back to see if I can get any further? Yes I am and you bet I do. Am I getting nowhere fast because this game makes elements of Dark Souls look like a walk in the park? Agonizingly yes.

In Soulblight you take the role of a wandering hero (obviously, it’s just that sort of game) heading into The Sanctuary in a bid to remove the blight from the Soultree. This is basically the tree that created man, among other things. Being nice and thankful, man built The Sanctuary to keep the tree safe, but over time they forgot about it. Eventually the tree became blighted and started spawning hideous monsters. There’s obviously more to the tale than that but that would involve spoilers so you can work the rest out for yourselves.

Soulblight‘s difficult comes in layers. This seems to be a game about sin, about testing your own strengths while coping with the dark side that these strengths offer. You actually choose your character’s traits by completing levels; you then go on to face some hideously powerful bosses with these merits and flaws in play. For example, you might choose reckless as your trait. With this trait, you will become stronger the more wounds you receive and gain battlecry which is a nice little bonus for killing multiple enemies at the same time.

The thing is, a lot of wounds won’t go away unless you do something about them, like applying bandages, so you have to weigh the risk of bleeding against the reward of berserker strength. I actually rather like this as it gives the game the feel of a balancing act. You also have to deal with other things like hunger which makes you weaker. Eating can rectify this unless of course you get food poisoning. For every plus there seems to be a minus and this makes for really fun play. This also makes your character feel human, which I love; you get a bit sick of playing these heroes that become literally invincible as long as you play well after a while.

The next layer of difficulty presented by this game is the obvious one. Soulblight is just plane hard and, as a budding member of the roguelike genre, I wouldn’t expect anything less. I wouldn’t necessarily say the grunts were any more or less tricky than each other, but none of them are going to go down easy if you don’t have the correct gear and tactics in mind. You also need to work on timing and skill to defeat the baddies in this title. Remember how I mentioned Dark Souls earlier? Well we all know exactly how far in that game the “hit and hope” approach is going to get you. The same applies here. Flailing your weapon around in the hopes of murdering things is only going to get you killed. The level of thought you have to put into staying alive is actually a lot more than in many other games of Soulblight’s ilk and this is both welcome and refreshing.

The last level of difficult is a slightly artificial one. The controls take a bit of getting used to because there are three ways to approach combat. On account of this it can be a bit easy to get button bashy when things get hairy. When you take a breather and stop hitting everything on the pad in an attempt to survive, you get a bit pickier with your tactics. You can go for an all-out assault, which is a good move if you have hard-hitting heavy weapons. This drains your stamina which means you aren’t always attacking as quickly as you’d want to be. This makes sense because you’re swinging a big heavy axe or two handed sword but it doesn’t do you a great deal of good if your foe is nippier than you are. Secondly you have the ability to block which is handy if you have single handed weapons and, of course, a shield. This really takes good timing and just standing there with your shield up isn’t a very good strategy especially because you get absolutely mobbed.

The last way of getting your kill on is to grab your opponent. You have a grip bar. The bigger this meter, the longer you can keep your hands on the enemy. This offers some decent killing strokes. The enemy can do the same thing, however, and they aren’t always the easiest to break free from. Lastly, and really interestingly for a roguelike, you can take the stealthy approach. This requires a lot of patience and timing and one small slip will see you getting a lot more than you bargained for. If you stop creeping too soon you’ll make noise. Do this and everything in your radius will be using you as a pin cushion in no time short.

Something that struck me as very clever with this game is the way your life works. You don’t have a health bar in Soulblight, you have a “well being” bar. This starts at 100% (as it should), but this is a base level. You want this figure to be going up from here and under no circumstances do you want it dropping. This meter doesn’t just effect your life, it effects your strength and defense as well. The higher it is the harder you hit. This makes absolute sense. The better you feel, the stronger you are both mentally and physically. You’ll also be wanting this to be good and high if you’re going to get at all far in the game. Remember me mentioning that balancing act? This is where all of that comes into play. Your traits offer pluses to this meter depending on what you do but there are plenty of chances to make it drop as well. Getting it all just right is fun an infuriating in good measure.

I always look at the positive things in a game first. I guess this is my attempt at cushioning the blow of the things I don’t like so much. To be honest there aren’t actually that many that I’m seeing so far. The difficulty level is going to drive some players crazy but actually makes me want to go back for more so I’m not going to call this a negative. What is, however, is a transmutation system that doesn’t really seem to work.

You find transmuters on all of the levels. These need fueling with certain items. You put something in and if you’ve also added enough fuel you get something else out. The thing is, even when the game tells you this process has worked you can’t always see a difference, which makes the whole thing a bit pointless. You’ll find recipes dotted about the world and this will give you hints to what works but I’d much rather be told that my combination just failed rather than it worked but I don’t get the spoils. Whether this works or not you get to keep the item you’ve put in and this is a plus but the whole idea really needs refining.

My other issue with this game is that it isn’t always easy to figure out your stat boosts. Usually when you equip gear it’s very easy to determine as to whether that gear is making you stronger. You’ll see pluses to your stats but it’s not always clear exactly what is going up. I’m just seeing a series of figures getting higher but unless I know exactly what those stats relate to I can’t really hone my character exactly the way I’d like. This kind of just boils down to a series of numbers but those numbers still have to mean something and I’m not sure these meanings are clear enough.

All in all the game looks nice, the music is good and everything plays relatively smoothly. If you’re a massive masochist like me, I think Soulblight will be right up your alley. The game is definitely fun and addictive with a few rough edges. These small gripes aside I’m loving that I’m seeing new things being introduced to my favorite genre and will absolutely keep playing this game. Soulblight is going in my, “things to do when I don’t have a lot of time,” pile. As these are the games I usually play the most this is definitely an accolade and a big compliment on my behalf. If you don’t mind ripping your hair and cursing a lot, you may well want this one in your gaming library.

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, you’ve heard of Monster Hunter World; the Japanese craze became a worldwide phenomenon, selling faster than any other game in the franchise’s long history. The world’s most self-explanatory title has managed to perfect a winning formula of gratifying gameplay and gorgeous visuals, appealing to a much broader range of gamers with its streamlined mechanics and weirdly intoxicating blend of slaying, looting, and crafting. In fact, so many of the TVGB team played the game at launch that we couldn’t decide on who got the honour of reviewing it – I played a bit of the open beta, though, so do check that out.

I actually took this one. Dead chuffed.

Here he is, looking swole.

Here he is, eating Great Jagras for snacks.

Here he is, being worn as armour. Images courtesy of VG247.

Surveying the locale.

It’s difficult to talk about what you’ll experience in the game Where the Water Tastes Like Wine without spoiling the game because the game is quite literally the story. You play as a hobo traveling around the U.S. in what seems to be the Great Depression era, although the time period isn’t really apparent from the outset or explicitly stated anywhere. After playing (and losing) a card game with an enigmatic dealer, he offers an alternative way to pay what you owe by tasking you to collect stories. The player finds these stories by walking, hitchhiking and train hopping their way around a fairly sizeable scale map of the country.

Did I mention this guy is voiced by Sting? Yes, I actually mean THE Sting.

Even the damn pause menu is stunning.

Find a cool story? Chances are you’re not the only one, and people will tell their own version of that story over time.

You’ll want to collect a variety of stories, because you never know what a fellow traveler might want to hear.

Trains provide a fast travel method, but if you’re hopping and not paying, you’re limited to one option of where to stop.

If befriending a Velociraptor while waiting for the bus sounds like the pipe dream of a person who’s watched Jurassic World one too many times, you’d be right.

Or rather, you would’ve been. But after Epic Games‘ keynote at GDC 2018 yesterday, wherein Studio Wildcard announced ARK: Survival Evolved is coming to the Switch, you can plan on taking your dinosaur pals (you’re my girl, Blue), your tribe of survivors and your tree-top home base with you, on the go!

Created alongside Abstraction Games, ARK: Survival Evolved is scheduled to launch this Fall 2018 to both digital and retail. Taking full advantage of the Switch’s portability, you can expect to take this prehistoric survival game with you wherever you need to be, whether that’s the gym, your couch or stashed away under your desk, for when you’re supposed to be working. With the inclusion of all the games’ original content, Switch users will get to experience the full game with all its features intact, with the added bonus of being able to hop into ARK‘s open-world anytime, anywhere.

ARK: Survival Evolved went live on Steam’s early access in June 2015, and since, over 13 million players have attempted to survive amongst ARK‘s 100+ dinosaurs and creatures. Playing alone, or with others online, survivors can kill or tame the island’s creatures, building bases as a means of defense and developing technology and weapons, ranging from a rock on a stick to dino-mounted laser cannons. ARK: Survival Evolved’s Switch release will mark the last in a long line for the game on console, which has graced both the PS4 and Xbox One, and Studio Wildcard has also announced that invitations for the Closed Beta have been sent out (courtesy of creator War Drum Studios) to iOS players.

If you happen to be at GDC 2018 in San Francisco, take advantage of the limited time left by playing ARK mobile in the Epic Games booth, and keep a look out for ARK: Survival Evolved this fall for some dino-laden, laser shooting, survival game goodness to go!

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Eastasiasoft, the indie game team behind titles such as Rainbow Skies, Lost Sea and Rainbow Moon, have announced the Asia launch of the highly anticipated game Sir Eatsalot.

The PS Vita-exclusive game will be available digitally on April 6th, with a physical version to follow later in the month via online-retailler PlayAsia.com.

The game is a platformer that aims to take advantage of PS Vita’s touch screen, touchpad, camera and gyro sensor to create a unique control system for the game. Graphically the game looks stunning, with most of the world being hand-drawn which is really unusual these days. Humour is a big theme of the game and will keep players immersed.

Story-wise, the game centres around Sir Eatsalot, the last hope and saviour of The Kingdom of Gluttington, which is currently being plagued by sour lemonade that is killing its crops. The evil witch Hysterica must be stopped and only the brave knight can stop her.

Depending on the game’s success in Asia/Japan we may eventually see a North American or European release of the game at a later time.

Look out for the digital version releasing early in the month followed by a physical version release later in April.

In the meantime, check out the game’s trailer below:

Here’s to you, 2000 years from now: an age where gigantic humanoids eat people for reasons unknown. In this follow-up to 2016’s Attack on Titan, the fearless scout regimen once more don their omni-directional movement gear and slice some necks in a story closely following the events of the anime series. However, this time around, you aren’t controlling Eren Jaeger, Mikasa Ackerman, or any of the established heroes from the Attack on Titan world. In Attack on Titan 2, we’re introduced to an all-new perspective through the eyes of a player-created character.

To call Attack on Titan 2 a sequel doesn’t quite give the game it’s proper due. The story starts at the same point as the manga and anime, with the Colossal Titan attacking Shinganshina, but seen through the eyes of another child in the attack with Eren, Mikasa, and Armin. This gives the player a behind-the-scenes perspective, while the main characters carry out the major story beats of the anime.

For example, while Eren is busy fighting, your character will be working with the other scouts to complete the mission around that event. Despite not being directly involved in the story, your player character is still worked into the events and lives of the cadets and scouts. Make no mistake, even if you’ve never seen the anime you will still get the full story in this game.

I can perfectly create a version of me that’s much cooler than me

I don’t know, maybe I spend too much time in the wrong internet places, or maybe I get too emotionally invested in things that I am 100% a spectator in, but dang it’s nice to see nice guys doing well with their ethics and artistic sensibilities intact. Asymmetric Publications’ best-known previous work, Kingdom of Loathing, is an MMORPG that’s got a reputation for a welcoming player community and financial success without using advertising or requiring subscription fees.

West of Loathing is a single player western-themed RPG for PC, Mac, and Linux released last August. It has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and fans, and this week at the International Games Festival, West of Loathing has been named a Finalist for the IGF Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

The game has been praised for its humor and surrealism, such as the first skill the player’s character learns: stupid walking, and its in-game currency: meat. Described as a “slapstick stick figure rendition of the wild frontier,” gameplay is influenced by classic adventure RPGs Paper Mario and Quest for Glory. The game boasts open-world play with more than 100 locations, a wacky twist on RPG class systems with roles such as Snake Oiler, Beanslinger, and Cow Puncher, and “wordplay, dad jokes, several gulches, at least one drunken horse, and liberal use of the Oxford comma.”

As if the praise and acclaim wasn’t exciting enough for Asymmetric Productions, Nintendo just announced the release of a version of West of Loathing for the Switch this Spring! This will be a console exclusive, as announced in Nintendo’s Nindies Showcase broadcast Tuesday.

The iOS version, which was announced to be in development shortly after the game’s initial release, is also anticipated to be out sometime this Spring.

You can find out more at westofloathing.com, check out the game on Steam, or if you happen to be at GDC, head to the IGF Pavilion, North Hall. You’ll be able to play the game and chat with the devs. If you stop by on Thursday or Friday, you can even check out the Nintendo Switch version!

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