The Xbox One X has launched and with it comes a new mid-step console generation promising cutting edge graphics in your very own living room. With all the talk about vapor chambers, terraflops, and HDR 1440p it can be easy to become lost in a sea of buzzwords that you, as a consumer, aren’t sure of the value they hold. To make a long, technical story short, the Xbox One X makes games look really pretty and run makes them better than they would on your dusty, old Xbox One.

There are plenty of games that I look forward to taking advantage of this new console and there are several that make you question what they would even do with all that power. This is where Ark: Survival Evolved comes into play. I reviewed the console version of the game a few months ago (which you can read here) and left feeling very underwhelmed; one of the biggest disappointments of the game came from the poor graphics and technical bugs. If I may quote myself, “[Ark] suffers from terrible, choppy framerate issues, constant screen tearing, pop-in textures everywhere…”; basically, the game felt close to broken.

So, could Studio Wildcard fix all of these issues with their free Xbox One X update? They boast fast load times, vivid colors, longer draw-distance, and overall enhanced visual effects. Lucky for us the Ark team has provided us with a quick comparison video of the game running on original Xbox One hardware and the new, flashy One X hardware.



Verdict: It’s undeniably a better looking game, but I’m still seeing some issues. For example, the sweeping shots of landscape no longer physically pain my eyeballs, but they still don’t look amazing. The rain effects are still choppy and there are still very noticeable screen tearing issues in this official comparison trailer. For a free update I guess my expectations should have been hampered.

However, the coolest addition in this update that is the real (read: only) highlight of this update is the split screen multiplayer. Growing up in a household with siblings and other family members has left me with the softest of soft spots couch co-op. Despite all of my issues with Ark:Survival Evolved, the addition of a split-screen mode still pulls me in as it would alleviate a lot of the problems I had with the game.

Poop your pants running from dinosaurs…With a friend!

There are certain games I remember well from my youth. These are games that I associate with various stages of my college and university years and ones that hold very special memories for me. Then there are other games that, although I don’t have the same fondness for, I can still recall being important to me for one reason or another. One of these games was Descent. This was one of those titles that a lot of my friends were playing and one that I remember being groundbreaking for a number of reasons at the time. It wasn’t necessarily a game, however, that I threw myself into with the same amount of vigor that they did. I think this is probably because I remember Descent being really bloody hard and although I love a challenge I’ve never been one for out and out difficult games (don’t get me started on virtually anything released by From Software). What has any of this got to do with anything? Well, Descent Underground will be coming to console and your usual PC variants next year and I think I may well fancy another go at the series to see if I’ve suddenly grown the ability with age to stand a cat in hell’s chance.

Little Orbit have announced that they are partnering with Descendent Studios to bring us Descent: Underground. This will be a reboot of the classic full-freedom shooter Descent and as mentioned will be seeing release in 2018.

“We’re proud to help give the Descent series the full, modern AAA rebirth it deserves,” said Matthew Scott, CEO of Little Orbit. “Descendent had the experience, the vision, and the drive. Now with our help they have the support to take Descent: Underground out of this world!”

In order to get the game to you quicker, Descendent will be continuing their development of the game while Little Orbit provide completion funding, additional resources, marketing and distribution. Descendent recently delisted this title from early access on Steam and other sites. Little Orbit have confirmed that players who purchase Descent: Underground in early access will receive the finished game upon release. Players interested in staying up to date with the development process can follow the game on www.BrightLocker.com.

“Little Orbit is helping us to enrich players’ experience in Descent: Underground with a larger storyline campaign, excellent art, and deeper metagame.” Said Eric Peterson, Descendent’s CEO. “With Little Orbit on board, we’re progressing faster towards delivering the amazing modern rebirth that Descent deserves!”

So to give you a quick idea what the game is actually about … Descent: Underground combines first-person shooter action with six-degrees-of-freedom vehicular movement. You’ll take on the role of a celebrity pilot where you’ll command combat spacecraft in high-stakes battles for control of warren-like asteroid mines. If you want a bit of further info (and why shouldn’t you), you can always take a look at Descendent’s website at http://ift.tt/1QBzUAo.

If you’re in the mood for something fast, frantic and actually a bit claustrophobic, this is a great series. As I mentioned at the beginning it was never really my scene for purely taste based reasons but I’m definitely interested enough to give the game another whirl. If you’re in a retro mood and fancy playing the original, it’s bound to be out there too. Why not take a look?

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Beat the Game seems like an experiment. It’s an unholy collection of sights and sounds, an abstract work of art that leaves you clueless from the first cutscene to the very last. Just as you think you’ve found a rhythm – quite literally, in this case, as I will explain – Beat the Game decides you’ve had enough, pulling the plug on what will inevitably have been the weirdest hour of your gaming life. It’s a nonsensical musical journey through an psychedelic-fuelled dreamscape that is so chock full of flaws, it’s amazing that it even exists.

Beat the Game is a musical exploration game created by Worm Animation studios, a tiny outfit based in San Francisco. The idea is to bring the joy of music making to the gaming industry, courtesy of house producer Marc Houle and his grimy bass lines. By sampling sounds created by the world around you, you’ll be able to use the 8-step sequencer to construct your own synthetic sounds, from – and I quote – “mellow, dusty rollers to upbeat, acid house.” It’s about playing a game that doesn’t involve killing people. We can all get on board with that, I think.

A paper thin plot introduces us to our hero, the hover-bicyclist Mistik, and chucks us very quickly into the game’s only real environment. It’s a surrealist’s wet dream: greeted by a vast desert populated by all manner of unusual and often gratingly out-of-place objects, the whole scene is reminiscent of a depository for ruined human structures. Sadly, it’s also incredibly small, offering minimal interaction and maximum repetitiveness within the first 10 minutes.

Now, size matters not, in and of itself. But when this one environment is where you’ll spend the duration of the entire game, it begins to feel claustrophobic. Mistik is tasked with collecting every available sound for his mixer; of the 18 sounds available, at least 12 can be collected simply by using the sampler to record sounds emanating from the myriad floating objects that circle the world space. The remaining sounds require a bit of exploration on Mistik’s part – you’ll soon find that you can influence your surroundings in certain unmentionable ways, and create encounters with the world’s wacky inhabitants that offer new sounds to record.

This could have been where Beat the Game got interesting. It became a puzzle-solving game for a moment, as you lope from one end of the world to the other, opening fridge doors and whacking drumsticks against buried lamp-posts in the search for that final, elusive sound. In my case, however, this was ruined by a game camera that stubbornly refused to budge, instead choosing to randomly spin in dizzying circles whenever I tried to do anything drastic. It rendered the remote-controlled robot mechanic utterly useless, and forced me to guess my way into certain scenarios.

The issue was definitely unintentional, possibly individual, and I respect that: what frustrates me is that a problem so substantial ought to have been ironed out by now. Anyway. It only marginally hindered my progress, and besides; the remote-controlled robot, a tool designed to allow you to speedily navigate the world in search of clues, was rendered largely useless purely by the size of the world.

What you’ll probably have noticed by now is that I have one significant gripe. Beat the Game is too small. Not only in terms of its limiting environment, but also in terms of its simplistic character control mechanics, lacking a jump or sprint option that would have made world traversal so much more bearable. The lack of in-game direction is arguably a positive thing, but in a world so utterly discombobulating – what a word, eh – it helps to at least have some sense of where you ought to be heading.

Lacking vocal talent, Beat the Game relies on its quirky cast. Lacking any longevity, Beat the Game relies on its leisurely pace. This results in a brilliant but all too brief gaming experience; you can complete the game in 60 minutes. This is a shame. Not because Worm Animation have given us a short, underwhelming game, but rather because after having completed the “boss fight” (a performance in front of the inhabitants of Dali-Land) I was actually excited to advance to the next level.

Yup. Beat the Game‘s significant flaws were almost offset by its pure charm. I’m a musical guy, and I adore composition, but it often proves too great an undertaking. To be able to concoct my own driving beats with such ease (mostly) was a thoroughly enjoyable experience; to be able to then have my music play on repeat as the backing track to my adventures was the cherry on top. It’s very easy to warm to the magnificent, hand-drawn visual style, an art clearly influenced by the surrealist school according to Dali, Ernst, and Breton – take a look at the concept drawings and you’ll find a genuinely talented artist at work:

Reminds me of Terry Pratchet or an illustrated edition of the Jabberwocky. Anyone else? No?

It’s been several months since Resident Evil 7 Biohazard graced our consoles. To merely state that I’m excited for the upcoming DLCs is not enough. Developed and published by Capcom, it is a survival horror video game. And it belongs to a franchise that you will have heard of. In this case, even living under a rock is no exception. New trailers and screenshots on the third DLC End of Zoe are now live and online. This goes for the free Not a Hero DLC content as well. Capcom will also release a Gold Edition of RE7 on the same day that these DLC’s will be made public.

About Resident Evil 7

For those who aren’t that familiar with Resident Evil, it focuses around a series of survival horror video games. I would use the term ‘survival’ loosely however. The games made you feel more than just surviving. The concept of a zombie apocalypse is enough to intrigue a new player. However the characters is what will make you ultimately stay. I state this with the utmost confidence. Capcom introduces the player to characters in a way that over the years, one would care for them. They will even have their own favourites. We played Resident Evil 7 not knowing about the sneaky surprise they waited for us to witness, the appearance of an iconic legend.

I still haven’t forgiven Capcom for doing that to me. I can remember letting out a sound in between a shriek and a gasp when the soldier introduced himself to Ethan Winters. This is exactly my point however; the franchise lures us in using the horror elements. Now we’re highly anticipating a DLC that will involve playing a Resident Evil icon. Capcom knew that if one didn’t exactly like where the franchise was heading (although I see no reason why not), then surely Chris-freaking-Redfield will drag them back in. Well played, Capcom.

Is Chris ‘Not a Hero’?

The Not a Hero DLC turns Resident Evil 7 into a first-person shooter. More so than the main campaign as despite having guns (ooh, that Albert-01), the limited ammo meant that we can’t classify it as a shooter. Sure, Ethan had a set of firearms he could earn. But the focus was mainly on puzzle-solving and survival, as it should!

From the trailers and screenshots of Not a Hero, it’s more action-based than anything. It stars Chris Redfield and takes place after the events of the main game. They are after the Baker family’s son Lucas who seem to know more than he let on. As a member of Umbrella Corporation (which I am still confused and freaked out about) Redfield and his team will set out to contain the latest threat. Whether it’s going to be against Lucas only, or if there will be other surprises in store, it remains to be seen.

It can’t be the ‘End of Zoe’, can it?

The End of Zoe DLC trailer is an emotional rollercoaster for anyone who appreciated the main game. Zoe as a character is someone we could sympathise with. If we were given the choice (without having to pick between the lesser of two evils), we would have saved Zoe in the end. She’s the sole reason Ethan and Mia Winters remained alive, and the game made sure to make us feel the guilt when we saved the latter. Therefore this DLC is just the good news I needed!

Contrary to the title, the fact that Zoe makes an appearance in the trailers gives me hope that it definitely isn’t the end of her. The choice that you make at the end of the main campaign’s second act, has been influenced to leave Zoe behind. However the newest trailers show Zoe alone in the woods covered by some crystalized matter. She lays there and a new character named Joe helps her out, calling her ‘family’. I’m not going to lie, I thought it was Jack and I was close to crying – because Jack is awesome.

The two DLCs will be available on December 12 this year. Not a Hero is completely free while End of Zoe can be obtained either as part of the season pass or Gold Edition, or a separate purchase of $14.99/£11.99. Previous DLCs of Resident Evil 7 are categorized under Banned Footage Vol 1 & Banned Footage Vol 2. There’s three games in each title and they simply provide more insight through mini adventures within the Baker premises. Granted some are impossible to take serious, but it gives the player more opportunities to interact with the favourable antagonists which is the Baker family.

Conclusion

The latest game as a whole returns to the atmospheric, slow-burning horror of what the franchise started with. This got somewhat lost during later games, but the comeback it made with Resident Evil 7 is too powerful that all is forgiven entirely. It channels the earlier games of the franchise, and I believe this is what really makes it amazing. The upcoming DLCs will be highly anticipated – the game as a whole will borrow from its legacy yet it won’t shy away from modern horror themes for inspiration.

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In the year 2091, society has devolved into some sort of lower life-form where empathy and compassion no longer exists and all the populace is concerned with is indulging their most lurid fantasies via the invention of Virtual Reality, or how its more commonly known, Virtuality. Corporations control who lives and who dies from the upper floors of a gleaming tower called Heaven while the poor scrounge and scrape out meager existences in the ghettos below. Augmented with implants to make you a better human being, there is a flaw that allows someone of dubious intentions to hijack your implants and send you on a mission to kill the boss. With the help of a mysterious hacker, you are set free and helped to escape before you are able to find the him/her/it and possibly lose your life. Now its time to find out what exactly happened to you and dish out a little punishment in return.

What I have just described takes place in the brutal new cyberpunk shooter Ruiner from publisher Devolver Digital and Warsaw, Poland based developer Reikon Games. What you’re getting in this game is a top-down action shooter created in the spirit of the cult cyberpunk anime and game classics that have defined the genre for the past three decades. Offering quick and satisfying brutal yet paradoxical gameplay, Ruiner presents a surprisingly original game world melded to a thrilling perfected story-line. In addition, the visuals are wholly unique and sets the stage for a dark dystopian future where hope is fleeting and mankind isn’t living up to its full potential. This is a dark world and just the place to insert a challenging and fun gaming experience.

Gameplay in Ruiner is just what you would expect in a shooter. As you make your way through the many sparsely lit corridors and into the those areas where all the bad guys are waiting to pump hot lead into your ass, you can fight fire with fire with your hand gun or pick up the varied number of weapons that said enemies will drop as you send them on to their next life. Once the ammo is consumed, you only need to pick up one of the other weapons that will undoubtedly be laying on the ground and continue your campaign of carnage. The sheer number of weapons in this game, such shotguns, laser rifles and hand-cannons, is amazing and every new area I went into offered up a new weapon to try out keeping me pushing forward to find that next even more powerful killing tool.

Enemies will jump out of hiding from just about anywhere but most often when you enter a room that has multiple exits. The game environments are built a lot like the classic arcade game Smash TV where you are ushered from room to room only being able to advance once you have defeated that rooms assigned number of attackers. These enemies come in the form of Creeps, Heaven Security, Triad gang members, Cyborgs and others that I don’t want to spoil, but rest assured, it is a good variety that always felt fresh. You will also have to face boss characters that all have a specific move-set that you will need to learn in order to best them. The on-screen action is fast and frenetic so you better be on your toes and the edge of your seat if you want to emerge victorious.

As a way to level the playing-field, so to speak, you also have a range of gadgets that you can use to make the baddies wish they had stayed in bed. Being equipped with cybernetics allows you to have a few choice abilities that will aid in your journey to make those who hijacked your mind to pay in full for what they tried to do. You have a charge ability that allows you to run into the enemies and cause severe damage to them. There is also an energy shield that will deflect enemy fire but when confined with the Charge movement will totally decimate your opponent. And last, but definitely not least, is the Dash ability that allows you to quickly move around the killing-floor dodging enemy attacks and weapons fire.

As a huge fan of all things cyberpunk, I had a really good time in the world of Ruiner with its dark themes and cyber-enhanced denizens. However, there are a few issues that would take me out of the moment when they happened that may be of a concern to you as well. For instance, because the environments are so dark and so much happens on the screen at once, I would constantly lose the exact location of my character and would often take damage from enemies because I couldn’t find myself on-screen. Also, from area to area, there wasn’t a lot of visual variation in the environments across fifteen levels. This is kind of understandable for the subject of the story but it did get somewhat boring continually looking at similar environs level after level.

We have seen a few cyberpunk themed games this year (Blooper Team’s Observer being the most recent) in the run-up to CD Projekt RED’s Cyberpunk 2077 which I am hoping will be sometime next year. I loved the pure action rush of Smash TV back in the day and the gameplay in Ruiner scratched that itch quite nicely. All of its shortcomings aside, the story is fantastic and sufficiently weird, the weapons felt substantial and effective and the world itself felt alive and foreboding. Fans of cyberpunk thrillers can appreciate this ride for sure as it will definitely satiate your taste for this type of adventure. Ruiner is available now on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

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

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Sega Networks, Inc. has announced today that Sonic Forces: Speed Battle is available worldwide. Speed Battle is a real-time multiplayer game that will allow players from around the world to go up against each other in competition. Sonic Forces: Speed Battle, much like Sonic Dash, is a runner in which players will collect coins and avoid obstacles in order to reach the goal as fast as possible. The most obvious difference with Speed Battle is that it is a multiplayer experience in which players will have to reach the goal faster than their opponents.

Sonic Forces: Speed Battle was developed by HARDlight. This is the same team behind such mobile titles as Sonic Dash, Crazy Taxi: City Rush and Sonic Jump. Speed Battle will feature 15 playable characters from the Sonic universe, more specifically the upcoming Sonic Forces. Recurring characters such as Knuckles, Amy, Omega and Classic Sonic will appear alongside less frequent characters such as Metal Sonic, Chaos and Zavok. There will be 12 tracks available at launch. The races will take place across three unique environments, two of which were inspired by Sonic Forces. Players will have the ability to build a squad and level up their characters in order to perform at a higher level. There will be global as well as regional leaderboards.

Sonic Forces: Speed Battle is free to download now on the App store for iPhone and iPad. It is headed to Android devices on November 16th, 2017.

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It has been over a month since I last used my Playstation VR. I find myself much more intrigued by the massive amounts of AAA games coming out lately. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy playing my PSVR; I love whenever I take the time to play it, but the lack of good games coming out for the headset has me wary of picking up anything, especially when there are so many other great non-VR games out there. Now that my rant on the current state of the PSVR is over, let’s get started on my thoughts on Archangel from Skydance Interactive.

Archangel is a rail-shooter in which you control a six story tall mech to prevent a tyrannical corporation from obtaining control of a post-apocalyptic United States. While the rail-shooter seems to be overused in VR, Skydance Interactive has something very special in Archangel. Most people may be turned off by the genre, but i assure you, Archangel is both worth your time and money.

Story

The story within Archangel is a fairly simple one. Prevent the bad guys from taking over the United States. Seems pretty straight-forward, right? I’m afraid it isn’t that simple since a combination of the past and present help tell a fairly short, but in-depth story. One thing I noticed while playing Archangel is how much the team over at Skydance Interactive made me care about these characters in such a small amount of time. This small amount of time is very tiny. Like, 5 hours tiny. It would be even faster if I were to go back and play through the game again as I now know the ins and the outs.

The overall character development and plot was something that other VR titles should reference when developing future games. Skydance Interactive took into account the fact that most people with VR don’t want to sit and play a game for hours at a time and with such a short story, they managed to make Archangel very enjoyable. The team at Skydance Interactive makes you feel for the characters in a way you wouldn’t think possible given the short 5 hour story. This says a lot as there are many games that give you absolutely zero reason to care for anybody within the game.

Gameplay

I’m not sure why most gamers tend to have a look of disgust when they hear the words rail and shooter together. Yes, Archangel is a rail-shooter, but it is so much more than that. The game runs and plays so smoothly that I often forgot I was even playing a rail-shooter. Archangel is so complex and has so much going on at one time that it would’ve made the game far more difficult than it already is if you also had to control the movement of the mech.

I found myself loving the mechanics within the game so much to the point that I wanted to see just what the limit was with my different combinations of weaponry. Turns out there weren’t that many combinations. The one thing that took away from Archangel was the lack of guns. Sure, there were 4 different types and a shield, but I was hoping for more. While the “ultimate” ability you have is pretty amazing, it just isn’t enough to fulfill the void of having a vast array of weaponry. Not to mention you only get to use said ability about 3 times total throughout the game. Perhaps this is something they could develop more if they were to decide to make a sequel.

Graphics

Going into my playthrough of Archangel, I just assumed it was like many other VR game graphically. Sure there were some buildings that looked to be entirely 2D structures, but the things within the game that really matter are amazing. The mech you spend 99% of the game in is extremely detailed and they really spent a lot of time working on it, and it shows. The mech as a whole is one of the best things I’ve seen graphically using my Playstation VR. This says a lot. If the team over at Skydance Interactive were to create a sequel, fingers crossed, they should focus more on the surroundings. While this may be something that is limited by the hardware, it would be a nice touch.

Overview

Of all the games I’ve dusted off my Playstation VR for, this is by far the best (though, full disclosure: I haven’t played Resident Evil 7). Archangel is 100% worth the $29.99 price tag. Yes there are only a few weapons to use, but the game makes up for it with it’s really well thought-out and developed story. Graphically, it’s great to look around and check out all the hard work spent detailing the little things. The game as a whole is a VR experience unlike any other. It’s extremely rare to find a rail-shooter with as good of a story as this one. Let’s hope for the sake of all VR units that Archangel is not the last we’ve seen in this universe.

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

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We all knew that Destiny 2 DLC was coming. While we had an idea and guesses, we didn’t know the specifics of the first expansion coming in December.

The wait is no more as we now know the official release date, December 5, and also got a nice video along with it. Bungie revealed Destiny 2 – Expansion I: Curse of Osiris at Paris Games week earlier this week.

The expansion takes place just after the campaign of the full game where you are sent on a quest to find Osiris, who just happens to be the most powerful Warlock within the Destiny universe.

Needless to say the trailer for the expansion is great and if this doesn’t hype you up for it, I honestly don’t know what will.

On October 31st 2017, Ubisoft announced more details on their beloved FPS Far Cry 5‘s multiplayer mode

One of my biggest issues with the FPS genre is it all ends up feeling a bit copy and paste. Okay, the setting might be different as may well be the guns, but generally it doesn’t matter whether you’re trudging through World War II streets or boarding a star ship; when you’ve done it once you’ve sort of done it. One thing we don’t see very often is a fantasy based FPS, I’m not saying it hasn’t been done, it has with games like Hexen but it’s always nice to see something new right? New, in this particular case comes in the form of Amid Evil.

So what are we being told about the game? Well it’s styled on Heretic, which certainly isn’t a bad thing, and it’s by the producers behind DUSK and the creators of Return of the Triad. This isn’t a game that’s going to be out until next year but we’ve got a few interesting bits of information for you thus far.

Amid Evil plays over seven distinctive episodes with each featuring different settings and enemies. On the subject of levels we can expect really large areas to explore and play through, which are going to be stuffed with tons of secrets and game lore. The devs are also touting a smart AI, and this is something that is always welcome in an FPS where in far too many cases you find yourself up against an army of brain-dead bullet sponges that will throw everything including the kitchen sink at you to get a kill. If the enemies are hunting you, they’re thinking and this is a really good recipe for fun. Add an arsenal of awesomely powerful weapons and you have a game that could well be rather brilliant.

Something you don’t really see anymore are cheats. There’s probably good reason for this. I’ve seen what the Gameshark and Gamegenie did to some games back in the day and you really wouldn’t want to go destroying an expensive piece of software in this day and age just to get a few extra lives. There’s something about cheat codes, however, that is just nostalgic and a game harking back to older, (slightly more polygon filled) days wouldn’t be right without them. Cheats and other in-game options have been built into Amid Evil to allow for that truly retro experience. As retro as you can get considering this game has been built with the Unreal Engine 4.

Some of the lucky souls that found themselves at PAX Australia last weekend have already played Amid Evil. The rest of us have a little bit longer to wait. When 2018 comes around we’re bound to learn more about this title. Like which platforms it’s going to be appearing on. Until then we’ll just have to wait and see.

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