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After a slew of technical difficulties, timing issues, and confusing games, the TVGB ViveStream is finally returning to what I hope will be a smooth schedule. This week we’ll be playing Vanishing Realms, a dungeon crawler and one of my absolute favorite VR games. Join us for the fun this Wednesday, October 4th, at 7:00 PM Central. You can watch here, or at twitch.tv/tvgbgaming. If you miss the live stream, it’ll make its way to our YouTube channel soon.

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Even if your only experience with anime or manga is accidentally clicking on a Miyazaki movie while browsing Netflix, you’ve probably still heard of One Piece. The sheer size of the franchise at this point only rivals the length of the story itself. When your manga series has more than 40 associated video game releases in the past 17 years, not every title is bound to be a hit. The original One Piece: Unlimited World Red was lackluster action RPG when it was originally released, and the new Deluxe Edition doesn’t change that; it basically slaps a new coat of paint on the character models, sprinkles a hefty helping of unexciting DLC and hopes you’ll forget that the core gameplay feels dated at best and absolutely pointless at worst.

Oh yeah, remember that one time when Luffy went to Punk Hazard? …No? Well get ready to not remember it all over again.

Let’s get down to it – this is an interesting mix we have here. Epic Tavern is a tavern and adventuring management simulator RPG currently in Early Access on Steam being developed by Hyperkinetic Studios (based out of Los Angeles, California). The idea to Epic Tavern is that you, the player, run a tavern where adventurers of all types come meandering through your doors looking to quest for riches. Many RPGs have taught us that the local tavern is where one would go to meet like-minded adventurers to gather a party or find a group for an epic quest. The twist here is that you are the tavern owner, but you also want to get in on this adventuring business that is proving quite profitable.

As a management game, you will have to keep your tavern up and running to attract patrons. You have food and drink to sell, and lodgings to provide. Eventually, you will want to upgrade certain aspects of your tavern to improve your amenities and offerings to your customers. However, while you are running the tavern, you are also in the process of recruiting and hiring adventurers to join your adventuring company. This results in Epic Tavern‘s two main phases of gameplay: manage your tavern and manage your adventurers.

Tavern management is dictated by the time until “last call”, which comes in the shape of Action Points. You’ll have a set number each day to burn through, so there is some strategy involved on how you choose to use them. Offering patrons food, drink, and lodging will require a small amount of AP, but this will in turn improve your relationship with that patron and also add some coin to your bank. Your provisions are not unlimited, so ensuring that you are stocked up will be important. Luckily, if I didn’t have the item that was ordered, there was a quick option to stock that item and serve it immediately, so there wasn’t a penalty for not reviewing your wares (ie, keeping a close eye on your stock) at the start of each day (at least in this version 0.827.5p7h).

As your relationship improves with each adventurer, you’ll eventually be given the option to hire them to your roster. Your initial roster will start off small, but as your tavern levels up, you can increase the number of adventurers under your management. After the tavern management phase comes to a close, you can then send these adventurers out on missions from a list of available quests. These quests are provided by chatting with patrons in the tavern and play out like a mini Dungeons & Dragons campaign, complete with story narrative and roll checks. You can equip party members with items, level up their skills, and assign them to a party to take on a quest. Pending success of their quest objective, your team will return with gold, items, and sometimes, tavern upgrades (this appears to be quest-dependent).

Each adventurer that you come across has a set of skills, and these skills are the mean by which you will balance out your roster. There are 4 main skills (combat, social, survival, and mind), and each has subsets that can add bonuses to completing a quest. This means that balancing out your team is important for successfully completing your quest objective. What does this mean? One of the first quests that I had executed had assigned the combat skill as the main way to complete the quest objective. My fledgling group of combat-oriented adventurers wandered off to complete the quest, which they successfully did due to their high combat stats. Yet most of them came back gravely wounded, because they had failed survival and mind checks along the way, which in turn affected their ability to fight and complete subsequent quests.

With each coming skill check, your party will roll and combine/multiply their skills to successfully perform the check. Should they fail against an enemy encounter, for example, a party member will likely suffer from a wound, which translates to a debuff that could affect their ability to adventure for several days. Passing the check will usually result in gold or party buffs. The narrative style here is entertaining, and appears to be randomly generated. This should keep you engaged as you watch your party move about the map after the bar closes.

As we stated earlier, Epic Tavern is currently in Early Access on Steam. I was playing version 0.827.5p7h, and ran into the obvious caveats of a game that is still under development. But the ideas here are solid, and I think that is shows a lot of promise. Personally, I hope that you will be able to have more control over your party as they wander around the map, like finding alternative paths to locate the objective or additional options for critical successes and failures. We will be very interested to see what the final game looks like when it comes out of Early Access, and hope to provide a full review then. Thus far on Steam reviews, it’s generating some good buzz.

The game is currently available on Steam (in Early Access) for $24.99. For more info, visit their homepage @ epictaverngame.com

There seems to be an obsession lately with goo. Now there’s absolutely nothing wrong with things getting sticky as Splatoon has so effectively proven. So why don’t we move this concept into the platform genre? This is exactly what’s happening with Splasher, an offering from Playdius and the Splashteam.

Splasher is a arcade/action romp set in a wacky cartoon universe. Arm yourself with your splatter cannon and launch an all out assault on a paint factory. In this quest you’ll need to save the factory’s workers called Splashers from the grip of the evil boss Le Docteur.

The action plays out across 22 fun filled levels and as you progress, the splatter cannon will grant you different colours of paint and an increasing number of gameplay abilities such as sticking to walls, bouncing high into the air or even throwing your less than intelligent foes into their own traps.

This is a game that lends itself to time attacks and speed runs. Those of you looking for perfection will have to learn from your mistakes and find the best paths through the many levels of the gigantic factory. Then you can post your best times on line and share your scores on the leader boards.

Splasher is now available on PS4, Xbox One and of course PC and Mac. A Switch port is in the works but it’s not quite here yet. Nintendo fans will need to watch this space for more news on a future release. If you think you might want to give things a new lick of paint why not head over to your respective stores and add Splasher to your own collection?

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You could be forgiven for having a negative “Oh god, no, anime!” response to the thumbnail image for this review of Blue Reflection. However, with developer Gust – of Atelier, Ar Tonelico, and Mana Khemia series fame – behind the wheel of Blue Reflection, the visuals aren’t all that surprising. Gust specializes in very Japanese fantasy RPGs, and in more recent years have really, really pushed the cute and beautiful girl angle. In fact, Blue Reflection is part of Gust’s “Beautiful Girls Festival” project, which focuses on the portrayal of youth for women, and in particular their interactions with other women and personal growth through sharing experiences with others. Blue Reflection really embodies all of these key elements, with the majority of its gameplay concerning your burgeoning relationships with your classmates.

In Blue Reflection, you assume the role of Hinako Shirai, a high school girl who was, until recently, an accomplished ballet dancer. Originally assigned to the special class at Hoshinomiya High School, Hinako begins the year in the less important regular class after an unexplained knee injury leaves her unable to do ballet ever again. With the help of two strange students, Yuzuki and Lime (yes, Lime) Shijou, she is introduced to her magical girl power and becomes a Reflector.

Reflectors travel to the Common, a culmination of society’s emotions, and defeat strange alien and robot-like monsters in order to obtain Fragments. Fragments are left behind in a crystallized form when the Reflectors enter a part of the Common which has manifested due to an overwhelming emotion being experienced by someone they know. For example, Hinako met with a middle school acquaintance who became overwhelmed with the idea that they could finally be friends in the same class. The acquaintance started to repeat herself over and over, gained a weird aura and glassy eyes, and Hinako had to defeat a monster in her section of the Common to obtain a Fragment from the girl’s emotions.

Hinako is the only one of the three Reflectors who can crystallize Fragments, which involves tapping into the emotions the victim was feeling at the time and empathizing with them. Through empathy and understanding the other character’s point of view, we also see snippets of Hinako’s recent past during her time in rehabilitation and her struggle with comprehending a life without ballet. Crystallizing the Fragment keeps the singularity stable and allows one of the other two Reflectors to create a ring for the rescued girl to wear. Girls with rings can be “summoned” in battle as support characters, and building your friendship with them over time will net equip-able Fragments which give special abilities and buffs.

Yuzu and Lime eventually explain that the Reflectors must keep the emotions in their singularity (the area around their school) at normal levels in order to protect against the game’s big bad race – The Sephirot. Hinako is fairly reluctant to participate as a Reflector until she finds out that she can gain a single wish after they are defeated. With her return to ballet in mind, the Reflectors set out to improve their bonds with other girls in the school and save the world from the Sephirot.

Phew. Now, while that explanation may seem very involved, the core gameplay of Blue Reflection is very simple. Blue Reflection operates on a day/night cycle. During the day you are at school. You can travel around the school by foot (which is achingly slow) or by fast travel (which I am very grateful for) completing missions. Almost all missions can be categorized into one of two types – befriending classmates after they become relevant to the story, or saving insignificant NPCs in the lobby area of the Common, which generally involves beating X amount of Y enemies and obtaining a fragment. During the day you can also check your phone and use your chat program with other characters at certain times to get some genuinely funny dialogue, or you can go into your monster-raising game and play around with that. At night, Hinako returns home and you get a limited list of things to do, like studying, taking a bath, or just going to sleep. Sometimes these actions have effects in the early hours of the next morning at school (i.e. other Reflectors may get stat bonuses if you chose to study).

Once they are available through story progression, interacting with and befriending your classmates becomes vitally important. Once the initial befriending is complete, you can invite your classmate to hang out after school, and by selecting the correct answers you can increase their friendship meter. By befriending and helping more people, you raise the overall rating the group receives (all three Reflectors are part of the committee responsible for the upcoming school festival). By hanging out with friends you can also receive new Fragments (equippable Fragments are basically materia that lock onto specific skills and trigger when the skill is used) and even growth points, which are involved in levelling up the Reflectors.

Each Reflector will receive a growth point at semi-regular intervals, either through story progression or friendship events. The player can spend growth points on one of four skill areas – Attack, Defense, Support, and “Technic”. As you’ll see in the pictures below, once you have the required number of points in one or multiple skill areas, you will unlock skills. Every time you spend a growth point, you also level up. Sometimes you can unlock more than one skill at a time, which always feels like a little bonus. Battle is turn-based, with a meter at the top of the screen similar to what you’d find in a game like Child of Light. On the left-hand side of the meter, tiny icons representing your Reflectors race to the middle of the metre, while on the other side the icons representing each enemy do the same. When one of the icons reaches the center, it becomes that battler’s turn.

Many skills have a Knockback sub-skill, which pushes the enemy (or ally!) back from the middle of the meter. Obviously if you want to get all your hits in before the enemy has a chance, you have to make solid use of Knockback skills. You also have your standard HP/MP bars, but you also have the option to spend a turn recharging your MP using Ether Charge (Ether being MP/the energy needed to do anything if you’re a Reflector). You can also use Overdrive mode, which boosts the relevant character’s skill power but only lets them use each skill once, in whichever order they choose. This means you can quickly brutalize an enemy with three attacks in a row, finishing off with a nice healing move before they even get a chance to move along the meter again. There’s also the supporting character abilities, which can be triggered at certain points during battle and offer a range of skills.

So, now that we’ve got all of that out of the way, let’s have a quick chat about how blatantly Persona this is. The notion of having a mostly school-centered Japanese RPG is absolutely nothing new, but the extreme focus on helping other students overcome their personal demons and sort out their emotions, complete with weird eyes and spooky auras? Very Persona 4 and Persona 5.

If that’s not enough, going to a general area where all of humanity’s emotions are kept – very much like Mementos in Persona 5. Going to special individual “dungeons” to do the same thing but for story-relevant characters? Also very Persona 4 and Persona 5. And while the Persona games certainly don’t have any copyright on this, having elemental attack options in addition to 2-3 physical attack types (in this case Heart and Pierce) was certainly popularized by the Persona series. Blue Reflection is absolutely a watered down, fan service and magical girl-focused version of Persona 4 and Persona 5, but that doesn’t mean that it lacks its own charm.

While in other cases I may leap to attack a game which focuses predominantly on its visuals, I feel like I can’t do that with something that’s part of the “Beautiful Girls Festival” line of games. While I don’t think the character designs are anything too out of the ordinary or special, it’s incredibly clear that the artists went to a great amount of trouble to make a lot of varied (albeit often clichéd) characters. It’s also very clear that they went into great detail with their faces and the subtle differences in their uniforms to make them feel like individuals.

While I haven’t picked up an Atelier game since the PS2 era, I have considered picking up one of the newer PS3/PS4 entries from time to time and considered that all the art looks very cutesy and samey. I do still feel this way a bit with Blue Reflection, even though I appreciate how much effort went into the character designs specifically in this title. Unfortunately, the nice character designs are sometimes overshadowed by how weird the model movements are. Game characters have come a long way but many of them still haven’t gotten past that Final Fantasy X era issue of not being able to touch their own heads unless they look like they’re trying to also give their head a wide berth.

While they’re nothing super special, the general graphics in this game are very pleasing to the eye. In particular, the Common is really enjoyable to explore and is just pretty. I can’t praise the UI enough, whether day or night, or battle or school time. While it’s nothing Persona 5 level (I promise the comparisons between these games will stop soon), all of the buttons and menus stand out really nicely and each one reacts to you hovering over it (i.e. the items menu is a bag icon with a charm. When you hover over it, the charm waggles back and forth). I’m a sucker for little details like these and the menus and UI in all areas of the game are very aesthetically pleasing and deserve plenty of praise.

I really liked the leveling and skill acquisition system in Blue Reflection, even though it all feels a bit chaotic at the start when you’re picking up new skills left and right and unsure about how useful they will be. I liked the element of strategy that goes into carefully selecting which of the Reflectors will specialize in physical, magical, or support skills. While I don’t think it was the game’s intent, I ended up using Lime for a lot of my attack magic, so it appears that the game is fairly versatile in that regard – a white mage is not limited to being a white mage. Battle is fairly standard, but I am a big fan of the meter and knockback mechanics, especially since it took me back to playing Child of Light, and to a lesser extent, Grandia. I think adding systems like these to an otherwise fairly standard turn-based battle system is a fantastic idea and it makes fighting enemies so much more interesting. I think the fact that Blue Reflection doesn’t comprise of really long dungeons and forced enemy encounters is definitely a positive, especially considering how chapters fly by really quickly and the game is heavily story and character development focused. While it may feel slightly rushed at the start, Blue Reflection definitely settles into a nice balance of battle and story progression later on which would have otherwise been impeded by having lengthy standard RPG dungeons.

Blue Reflection’s soundtrack honestly doesn’t stand out that much because it’s very soft, even in the battle themes. There’s a lot of gentle piano and effective yet reserved use of string instruments like violins. The music isn’t super memorable, barring the main battle theme which I had stuck in my head at work on more than one occasion, but it is appropriate for the game’s atmosphere and used to great effect. While only one of the songs has really stuck with me outside of actual gameplay, it’s a really nice soundtrack created by obviously skilled composers and musicians.

Hooboy, okay, this next bit needed its own review section so it could be allocated its own awful amount of points – the localization/translation in Blue Reflection is absolutely atrocious. The game audio is completely in Japanese and all of the menus and dialogue are subbed in English. Even in the first few chapters there were countless typos, missing spaces, extra words, and at one point Lime is referred to as “Raimu”. I’m not sure if the translation is rushed, but it’s really, really distracting if you’re relying on the English subtitles. As for the story and character interactions themselves, you have to prepare yourself at the beginning for a really poorly-paced, rushed introduction to someone’s emotions going “rampant” (the weird aura and glassy eyes thing) seemingly out of nowhere. You could argue that even normal-looking people and conversations could hide an array of out of control emotions under the surface, it just feels a bit unnatural at first (it does get better later).

While I appreciate the instinct to get to the point and to not dawdle on introducing the core parts of the gameplay, Hinako’s first interactions with her middle school acquaintance are poorly handled. My next complaint may actually be more of an audio/visual complaint, but significant story points and the completion of missions while in the Common sometimes seem to get no fanfare. There’s not even a ping to say that you’ve completed a mission (although there is a visual cue) and sometimes there’s awkward patches of silence where characters pause and don’t react as quickly as they should. Normally I would blame this on needing to wait for weird times in between dubbed voice acting from Japanese to English, but since there’s no audio translation I don’t really know what the deal is there. As for the actual story, it’s interesting, but I don’t find the support character stories particularly interesting or even that fleshed-out. I’d much rather see more of the main plot and Hinako’s story, as those are the ones most shrouded in mystery.

Oftentimes when I receive a game to review, even if it’s interesting, I seldom go back to finish it. Obviously there are other games to review and just other games I want to play outside of review-writing and these games fall by the wayside and never get picked up again. In the case of Blue Reflection, I fully intend to see it through all the way to the end. It doesn’t appear to be a particularly long game in the grand scheme, and I occasionally enjoy games where battle requirements are kept reasonably light and story and life sim stuff is highly prioritized. Blue Reflection isn’t doing too much new stuff, but if you pick it up you will get yourself a pretty, cute, and fun game with a nice soundtrack and battle system and an exceptionally tasty UI.

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

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News out yesterday was that an old video gaming company from back-in-the-day was going to take another stab at launching a new console. Aptly named the Ataribox, game console maker and game developer ATARI released the news about the new console which they are touting as a device that will bring gaming and more to your living room.

The launch also signals a return by Atari to creating its own hardware for the first time since they launched the Jaguar, the sixth and last programmable console to be developed under the Atari brand, and released in North America on November 23, 1993.

Atari plans for this new console to be state-of-the-art and offer some pretty sweet tech under the hood. Processor-wise, it will be powered by an AMD customized processor with Radeon Graphics technology. Ataribox will offer games and more in an attempt to bring a full PC experience to the TV, offering also streaming, applications, social, browsing, and music.

The coolest feature about this new Atari console is the fact that it will be built with an open architecture. The open nature of the OS will allow players to have the ability to access and play compatible games from other content platforms. Ataribox will obviously launch with a large back-catalog of Atari classic games, as well as current titles from a range of other games studios.

“With Ataribox, we wanted to create an open system, a killer product where people can game, stream and browse with as much freedom as possible. Atari games and content will be available as well as games and content from other providers,” said Fred Chesnais, Atari Chief Executive Officer. “We also wanted to launch Ataribox with our community, and reward our fans with exclusive early access, special editions, and include them as active participants in the product rollout.”

Has the following thought ever popped into your brain: “Gee, I sure would like a rhythm-based music game that’s like Amplitude mixed with Dungeons and Dragons!” You are indeed a strange person but it looks like you are not alone! Akupara Games has released its new rhythm RPG title The Metronomicon: Slay the Dance Floor. Combining music, RPG, rhythm, and medieval themes, The Metronomicon mixes various genres to create a unique title that’s a fun time for solo or co-op play, provided you enjoy a bit of RPG grind and have some competence in rhythm-based videogames.

Your typical battle against a Big Daddy and Party Bear

In addition to regular foes, Slay the Dance Floor also includes bosses, like this orgasming cyclops spider

You’ll encounter characters along your journey to add to the party; badass Sara here can both heal AND cast lightning!

I look so fly in my dance shoes

The Arena is not for the faint of heart

Alright, alright, alright! Just earlier this month, Kevin Hart had begun his full partnership with StandUp Digital. He has also announced the release of Gold Ambush with Kevin Hart. The free-to-start game is now available in the App Store with micro-transactions.

Chemistry within companies?

Originally, Gold Ambush had been without Hart. It is StandUp Digital’s first major release this summer. Mutual connections brought Pinxter Digital and PolyPlay in conjunction with each other. Together, they cooked up the new mobile gaming powerhouse they named StandUp Digital. It is something we would have seen coming in any case. With Pinxter’s personality associations and PolyPlay’s innovative game mechanics, it became quite the recipe. Gold Ambush with Kevin Hart is a vision brought to life. This is made possible through transforming celebrity and brand participation through gaming.

Nearly two-thirds of the population in America are smartphone users. These devices are the crucial way into the online world. Of course, the game isn’t at all limited to the US. However, Kevin Hart did gain his stardom in said country. So it’s only reasonable to expect that it’s the best location to start up in. Pinxter believes that mobile apps incorporate the pivotal gateway in order to link consumers to brand experiences. By teaming up with PolyPlay, the audience are certain that StandUp Digital is in safe hands. This will be due to the quality of apps they release. Prior to this, PolyPlay has created and released games such as Hex and Will Hero which makes an impressive portfolio. This includes Gold Ambush. StandUp Digital isn’t stopping there as it aims to establish an entire mobile gaming empire.

What has Kevin Hart been up to beforehand?

Having sold out an entire football stadium and Madison Square Garden due to his rise to fame, Kevin Hart is recognised everywhere. His comedic reputation continues to grow immensely. It was only a matter of time that he tried out his luck in the gaming side of entertainment. He says this is a “completely different world that I’m now getting educated on.” Here’s hoping that Hart will be able to entertain fans virtually, with as much success as his stand-up. These types of gigs aren’t the only ones that Hart is all about, however. This year, he has starred in the movies Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie and The Upside. This includes the upcoming film Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.

In Hart’s stand-up, he is known for talking about his family. Therefore, it stands to reason for the game to feature himself, his wife Eniko, and their kids Heaven and Hendrix. And they will all be present as playable characters. The game mechanics consist of city-building strategy components and maze-running gameplay combined. The player is able to lay traps and raid other cities for their own resources. This will make your own city stronger and richer. Pinxter highlights that there will be inside jokes thrown in the game. This will be from Hart’s previous and prominent stand-up performances. As an avid fan of Kevin Hart’s work, I am looking forward to the double entendres that I’ll be met with when I play this!

Conclusion

Hart’s children love videogames and they are big on Minecraft and Mortal Kombat. This happens to be the inspiration that Hart needed to work with the game developers. This is because he wants to do something that his kids will appreciate. Ultimately, he hopes that other children of other parents will appreciate it, too. It’s gentle on roughness yet ambitious on Hart’s grin in caricature form. This is what the comedian is renowned for in the first place.

The post Kevin Hart releases Gold Ambush – get that gold! appeared first on That VideoGame Blog.

As we all know multiplayer games can be an awful lot of fun. They can also be some of the most rage inducing creations out there. What better way to lose your temper than one bad dice roll in a certain game involving a certain plumber that we all know well? Regardless of all the frustration these games can bring us something always pulls us back. The simple fact is that regardless of what irks us about a multi-player title fun always wins out. In this particular case a wee spell of archery is in order in a brand new addition to the competitive genre called Arrow Heads.

Arrow Heads is a creation of Canadian Oddbird Studios. It’s Avian themed, (kinda fitting for the studio really,) and invites you to sling a variety arrows and other objects at up to four of your friends in a frantic, isometric, game of archery.

“We’ve been looking forward to this day since we first started development of Arrow Heads as game design students,” said Benjamin Scott, Co-Founder of Oddbird. “We’re thrilled that Arrow Heads is now available on Steam and that everyone has a chance to experience the game’s silliness and crazy chaotic moments. We hope that people will have as much fun playing the game with their family and friends as we did working on it.”

Whether you’re trying to turn online players into feathered pin-cushions or going up against waves of enemies with a mate on the couch you will be handed an unlimited number of arrows and dropped into a series of unpredictable and dangerous environments. There’s a bunch of unlockable content and hundreds of customisable options to ensure your bouts behind the bow don’t get stale. Bored with arrows? Not to worry. Why not shoot some fish or … weaponised unicorns? (yes is just typed that, no it’s not an error.) Whatever your choice of arsenal there’s plenty there to keep you coming back for more.

Arrow Heads is definitely making an impact in more ways than one. The game has already received some pretty awesome recognition by winning Best Overall Game and Artistic Achievement at the 2016 Level Up Showcase. In addition to this, Arrow Heads also won the 2016 ESAC Student Game Competition and was semi-finalist in the 2016 Adobe Design Achievement Awards.

If this title sound like it might be right up your street you can find it now over on Steam at a cost of $14.99. For console fans reading this, you can expect to be able to grab your own copy next year when this title will be released for PS4 and Xbox One.

The post Arrow Heads sets its sights on Steam appeared first on That VideoGame Blog.

Another day, another Rocket League update. After a successful 2 year anniversary, the guys behind the hugely popular car football game made several nods in the direction of streamlining their game for the competitive scene – the Rocket League eSports crowd is growing by the day, after all, and the ranked game modes remain equally popular. These nods have since become definite movements, and as the Autumn Update draws near, so too does the promise of some much-needed adjustments to the Rocket League base game.

Oh, and some cool new stuff.

Cool New Stuff

Let’s get the new seasonal content out of the way first, shall we? The latest Rocket League update is introducing a brand new arena, a brand new battle-car, and a ton of brand new cosmetic items, to be unlocked while playing. The new arena is called Farmstead, and it looks a little like this:

You’ll be able to storm this barn on Casual, Competitive and Private matches for what the website describes as a “limited time.” Whether that means the arena really is seasonal, and will be removed come winter, remains to be seen. I’ll get onto the new limited-time Events in a bit.

For now though, let’s take a look at the new battle-car. It’s called the Jager 619 RS, and it looks like a Porsh-uh:

This battle-car is available in the new Accelerator crate, alongside a pearlescent paint job, popcorn goal explosion, ‘Hot Rocks’ trail, ‘Power-Shot’ boost, and new ‘Chrono’ animated wheels. If you want to see just how these new items look, check out the official site here. We’re also being treated to over 90 new cosmetic items, from toppers to animated boosts, which can be unlocked as in the old days, simply by playing the game.

Mrs. Avocado, on a car (doh).

N’aww. Cute sound, or car engine?

Pinwheel. I can’t find even a terrible pin for this one. Pun. I mean pun.