REVIEW / Super Cloudbuilt (PS4)
Do you ever wander past groups of kids or sprightly young adults doing parkour in public areas and wonder what it would be like to run along walls and jump insane distances? Well, Super Cloudbuilt has you covered, all from the comfort and safety of your couch. Originally released on PC in 2014 under the name Cloudbuilt, Coilworks and Double Eleven completely remastered the title from the base mechanics up and re-released the game for PS4, Xbox One and PC. Super Cloudbuilt is the definitive edition of the original game and has been designed to make the experience more intuitive to new players while adding increased depth and variation, as well as allowing players the time to explore in between focusing on breakneck speeds and high scores.
In Super Cloudbuilt, you take control of young soldier Demi, who wakes up in a ruined building, detached from her old life and her physical body. You wander around for a while as a light blue, transparent husk of yourself as you explore the strange new world. Eventually you get a more filled-out form, complete with a rocket-powered exosuit and awesome gun that you can then use to perform incredible feats of free-running and sharp shooting.
After you pass through the opening area, you come to a hospital where you see your physical body lying motionless in a bed. You and Demi come to understand that there has been an accident, and the world that you’re pushing Demi through is a simulation of sorts to occupy and challenge her brain as she recovers. Throughout the hospital are a series of doors with different names and difficulty levels, and following the completion of each level the player learns a little more about what happened to Demi. At the same time, Demi goes through the mental and physical hardship of accepting her new reality as she tries to figure out what happened to get her here in the first place.
Super Cloudbuilt is all about the gameplay. It’s fast, it’s flashy, it makes you feel cool – exactly what you’d want from a parkour-based game. The controls are simple, although the use of L1 as the jump button and X as the drop/let go of a ledge button handed me quite a few deaths in the first hour of play. However, as with any game with an abnormal control scheme, it’s easy to get used to it. Most of the action is controlled with the trigger and bumper buttons – L1 to jump, L2 to dash and fly with the jetpack, R1 to shoot and R2 to lob sticky grenades. X is used to do your admin stuff (i.e. checking computer terminals and navigating menus) and fall to your death or to a safe location, if you prefer.
Super Cloudbuilt is all about parkour, so your main methods of getting around are wall running and jumping over long distances. Later, Demi gets upgraded with a jetpack and you can start to do small dashes and giant flying leaps over massive distances. Oftentimes these will be combined with a super speed-inducing slide and that’s…well, that’s just loads of fun. Demi can also hang off ledges and cling to walls like Spiderman and orient herself before launching over to the next destination. However, it’s not all fun and games.
You have a little yellow meter at the bottom of your screen that shows how much flight/movement power you have left for anything more advanced than basic wall running and jumping. You can pick up little power-ups scattered around the levels to fill the meter in a pinch, or if you’re walking around the meter will quickly refill by itself. However, if you run out of juice midway through a long wall-hopping segment, then you’ll find yourself losing a life.
“Losing a life?” That’s right! You have a finite number of lives to use in each level! Oldschool, right? It puts a necessary limit on how many times you can just fling yourself through a level without thinking about what you’re doing first. If you lose all your lives you’ll be returned to the hospital and will have to start over at the beginning of the level. The game does offer checkpoints intermittently through levels, so if you die midway through you won’t always be sent straight back to the start of the level. You can also hunt around and find manual checkpoints that you can set down yourself. The extra checkpoints are perfect for when you’ve found a really difficult spot and don’t want to keep traipsing all the way back over to it every single time you fail.
Enemies are typically small robots that fire projectiles at you from afar, or that crawl along the ground towards you to give you a beating close-up. There are also other obstacles you can smack yourself into, such as force fields, mines, and dangerous beams of light. The blue meter at the side of the screen is your health, and there are health pickups throughout the levels to keep you in top form. You can also die by straight up falling into the never-ending abyss below the platforms you’re jumping around on. Dying will take you back to the nearest checkpoint, or to the start of the level if you haven’t hit one yet.
Throughout each level there are also various collectibles to pick up, chief among them being the four metal pieces with “A, B, C, and D” written on them, respectively. If you find all four before exiting a level, you will receive a prize. In fact, at the end of each level there are a series of lockers you can open if you’ve fulfilled various requirements. Some give a permanent upgrade to your number of lives, others give outfit changes for Demi, and there are many more that I haven’t gotten into because they require completing specific challenges. There are a total of 177 challenges between Time Trial, No Ammo, Fragile, Supercharge, Beacon, and Pathfinder options. While I was playing on story mode, there are two other modes: Ranked and Rush.
Initially I had some issues adjusting to the weird (to me) placement of the jump/drop buttons, but I never had any issue with the general game mechanics and movement. The gameplay is really easy to pick up, but you have to think closely about what you’re doing or else you’ll soon run out of momentum and find yourself wasting lives by falling down into the abyss. The gameplay feels smooth and not at all laggy, and as I mentioned earlier, it’s downright fun hitting a good stride (or a slide!) and powering through a section of a level at insane speeds. I have but one small, petty niggle about the gameplay and that’s that Demi’s walk cycle looks weird.
Super Cloudbuilt has a really nice cell-shaded aesthetic like you’d see in a Telltale game, although it’s definitely more cartoonish and rough. Both Demi and the environments have this lovely sketchy look about them, like someone decided not to do hard, neat line art before coloring and texturing the environments. Personally, I really like this sort of look and I think it suits the game much better than a really neat and tidy approach would have. Despite the early areas (besides the hospital) being predominantly blocky and grey, between the enemies, pick-ups and obstacles, Super Cloudbuilt still feels like it has a lot of brightness and color.
Often there’s a lot going on when there are multiple enemies pursuing or shooting at Demi at once, but even in tenser moments I was never blindsided by attacks. All of the animations for projectiles and the like are very clear and easy to see and dodge (or not dodge, whatever, it happens sometimes, or a lot). It’s also very easy to see where your own projectiles are headed, and you don’t have to adjust for angles or the heaviness of the grenade weapon when shooting, it just blobs over to wherever you had pointed the trigger.
Some might argue that this inclusion sucks away realism, but I prefer it – I know I’m playing a game, it doesn’t have to be realistic. I also appreciated that despite all of the high speed dashing around, the game never felt too hard to focus on, nor did it become dizzying or sickening to play over long periods. The sci-fi aesthetic was really appealing, and the neon colors used in some areas of the game would have easily fit into a lovely B-grade 80s sci-fi movie, which in my opinion is a point to its credit. The music isn’t particularly emphasized in Super Cloudbuilt, but it’s appropriately energetic during levels and sombre and thoughtful during hospital segments.
So, to buy Super Cloudbuilt or not? Honestly, I never would have picked up Super Cloudbuilt based on the cover art or the synopsis. However, I’m really glad that I’ve had the opportunity to give the game a go, because it’s really fun. The asking price (at $19.99 USD on PSN) is reasonable and you’ll get plenty of replay value out of the challenges and leaderboards, in addition to banging your head against engaging puzzles in the main levels. Super Cloudbuilt is a cheap, engaging investment that turns every couch potato into a speed demon and it has my seal of approval!
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Posted on July 26th, 2017
REVIEW / Dead By Daylight (PS4)
I’m not hardwired for excelling at scary games (ie: I’m a complete wuss to the core). When I sat down to play Dead By Daylight, I received further affirmation of this truth. Moonlit cornfields, deadly killers, and myself are definitely not three things that go together. My first round, I thought I could get by just by hiding in dark corners. Boy, was I wrong! The intense nature of this game requires extreme stealth, quick reaction times, and the kind of confidence that for me only emerged when I got more comfortable with it. Touting the slogan, “Death is not an escape,” Dead By Daylight was initially difficult for me to play. But once I really dug into the maps, the character progression, and goals, I found it a MUCH more enjoyable experience!
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Posted on July 26th, 2017
PREVIEW / Destiny 2 Beta (PS4)
Editor’s Note: Salutations, readers! You are about to read some hands-on impressions of the Destiny 2 Beta from my partner, Al Valentín. Al is the shooter and huge Destiny nut in the relationship, so I figured it would be fitting for them to provide their thoughts on the beta. Enjoy!
Bungie knows how to create epic moments. Since the days of Halo, they’ve proven that they understand how to create deep connections with their characters, build universes that feel expansive and lively while also ensuring that you have enough drama, action and heartbreak to keep things interesting and keep the player emotionally engaged. Which is why for some fans of Destiny, like myself, there always seemed to be something missing. For a team that’s proven they can do epic, why has Destiny so far felt ultimately underwhelming?
I’ve always enjoyed the gameplay of Destiny for its subclasses and abilities that allow you to strategize in a bunch of ways, for the way you must work as a team and achieve a goal and for my addiction to the sweet, sweet, deliciousness of getting a beautiful new piece of gear. Still, the story has always fallen flat. While I’m a sucker for some of the truly great lines peppered throughout, as well as the generally badass flavor text on guns and gear, most of the story moments that felt like they should have been big, have always left me feeling underwhelmed.
In fact, I’d argue that my favorite moments have been about the actual mechanics of the play, the moment a strike becomes that much more intense and has you yelling or when a new round in Prison of Elders starts up and pushes you to the brink. That’s always been what made the game supremely playable and replayable despite its flaws. Reflecting on this, there’s a lot of reasons why this is the case.
Kotaku’s Jason Schreier wrote an excellent article that investigates how Destiny was slated to have a much more complex and ambitious story that was ultimately scrapped right before the game was slated to ship. It’s a good read if you have the time. Indeed, the concept of grimoire (additional text content that gives the player more backstory on the world) seems to come from the remains of that original plot and mythos.
While grimoire accessible through the Destiny companion app initially seemed a unique and perhaps ballsy move, and while much of it is beautifully written and interesting, it is a project that has ultimately failed. In a medium like gaming, which affords so many other possibilities via cutscenes or cinematics outside of the game, not taking advantage of that means we’ve loved characters despite the storytelling and not because of it. For comparison’s sake, look at Overwatch.
Overwatch is an incredible example of a game where the story is told mostly through outside content but in a way that is exciting, engaging and feels like a treat. And I’d argue that’s as much about the writing as it is about the means through which the information is communicated to the player. Destiny has never been able to accomplish the same type of storytelling success. It has never recovered from the way it seems that late development changes shook things up and messed things up in the process.
But Destiny 2 seems to be taking a few steps towards correcting this massive problem. In Destiny, there’s a moment where Cayde whispers to the player, “Take me with you.” With the newest installment coming in a few months, we might be able to do just that. Through playing the first story mode in the Beta, we’re offered a chance to not just hear or read about characters like Ikora Rey, Commander Zavala, Cayde-6 and Amanda Holliday, but instead actually see them in action (Speaking of which, where’s my girl Eris Morn at?). Throughout the story mission in the Beta, there’s multiple moments where we meet up briefly and get to see them wrecking Cabal. This is rad.
While some players might find these moments cheesy as there still isn’t much interaction between us and them (aside from Zavala), I’m intrigued by the possibilities. Will Destiny 2 allow us more opportunities to team up with some of its most beloved characters? I hope so. Based on other information released by Bungie via their YouTube, it seems that each of our main guides through Destiny (Zavala, Cayde and Ikora) have settled on different planets which promises to take us to new locales. However, to move from the hype and glory of working with them in the first story mission back to having them simply remain on their respective planets so that we can hand quests in would be a colossal waste. Let’s hope they manage to keep our interactions with the NPC fresh throughout and that the first mission is just a taste of what’s to come.
In terms of the actual plot, I’m genuinely intrigued by the direction that they are going in with this latest installment. The Beta gets us asking lots of questions. What will happen to guardians in a world without light once it’s been taken by the Red Legion? What more will we learn about the Cabal that can make them interesting and unique foes? How does our Guardian manage to survive and restore order? Who are those other Ghosts talking to us in the strike? Just how much am I going to have to listen to Nolan North talk (#teamdinklebot)? And just how evil is The Speaker? He’s like, totally got to be evil, doesn’t he?
The game, most obviously, looks gorgeous. The brief glimpse we get of Nessus through The Inverted Spire strike has me pumped to see what the rest of the worlds are going to look like in depth. The strike itself feels far more involved than some of our previous ones which will (hopefully) prepare us far better for the raids that will come with Destiny 2. The gameplay feels pretty smooth and fun. There’s an introduction of a lot of new types of enemies, particularly within the Red Legion. We have the introduction of Incendiors with long rage incendiary projectiles as well as Gladiators whose heavy melee attacks are fun and challenging to guard against at close range. We’ve also got the introduction of War Beasts, or as I will call them Red Legion puppers, though they are significantly less cute than Far Cry 5’s Boomer.
There’s also a lot of smaller cosmetic changes that are welcome. It seems we’ll be afforded a new level of customizability in terms of our gear and weapons via mods and shaders that seem to be usable on individual items of gear. Because let’s be honest, I’m like 40% just here for the gear drops and shaders. I’m also super pumped that according to the The Worlds of Destiny 2, Destiny 2 Gameplay Premiere, we will no longer have to go to orbit in order to travel from planet to planet. These seem like little changes that will make the more mundane aspects of the game a bit more fun and interesting.
All this being said, there are still some things that might turn players off. For one, weapon loadouts have changed pretty dramatically. While I’m stoked at the new inclusion of submachine guns, we essentially have two primary weapon slots. Submachine guns and sidearms both round out six choices including our older options of hand cannons, scout, pulse and auto rifles. Your first weapon slot are kinetic weapons that obviously deal no void, arc or solar damage but your second slot, now called energy weapons do. Your last slot, power weapons, will now include fusion rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles and grenade launchers (in addition to rocket launchers and swords) which will also deal one of the three energy damage types.
This stands to make PVP a bit more balanced by disallowing people from only moving between their heavy and special weapons but may have the affect of dulling PVE play for some. I’m not particularly bothered by this change yet but it may be far more irritating once I embark on the full campaign. Still, it does seem fairly silly that fusion rifles and shotguns are now in the same class as rocket and grenade launchers.
The new exotics mostly had me drooling. Riskrunner, the Exotic submachine gun you gain access to via the Warlock handles beautifully, looks sickening and can chain lightening damage between enemies which is super satisfying as well as useful for crowds of enemies. Sunshot, the exotic handcannon unlocked by Hunters in the Beta, allows kills to deal explosive solar damage to nearby enemies which is incredibly useful. The Titan option of an exotic auto rifle, Sweet Business, was my least favorite. It boasts increased accuracy when firing from the hip, a large magazine and an impressive rate of fire but felt a bit too unsteady for my tastes. I’ve certainly heard a lot of other players sing its praises however, so you may have better luck with it.
In terms of the new subclass options, my one big issue is that they don’t necessarily feel more and exciting than our old options. It seems a lot of what we’re seeing is reworked versions of old favorites and that’s certainly useful but perhaps may not live up to the desire for new options for some of us who’ve been playing since the start.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m genuinely happy with the reworking of the Striker class as somebody who fell in love with Destiny first through my Titan. And Sentinel seems like it would actually get me into playing a defensive class. But the Hunter and Warlock options don’t feel different or tweaked enough to be super pumped about. Rather than the double daggers of Bladedancer for Hunters, we now have Arcstrider which equips us with a staff that we can strike enemies with repeatedly. Warlocks now have Daybreak through the Dawnblade class which essentially gives Warlocks a modified version of the Titan’s hammers from the last game that allows a bit more range via its more airborne focused design. I found the ability a bit unwieldy at first but found it easier as I went on. Recharge rates definitely do feel a bit sluggish so it felt hard to really develop a flow with any of the subclasses but I’m sure this kink will be ironed out once the game ships.
Furthermore, what seemed like new levels of customizability in terms of weapons and gear seems to come at the expense of customizability of subclasses. While there are definitely a host of perks that seem like they’ll be incredibly interesting and useful, I’m also struck by just how few options there were to choose from in the Beta. Hopefully things do seem more once September comes. Still, for somebody who has genuinely enjoyed the combat thus far, I don’t think that this amounts to enough to warrant too much worry. I still had a ton of fun playing and the addition of new class skills like Dawnblade’s rifts, for example, are going to be interesting to incorporate into our gaming styles along with the other changes. I do hope however that the third subclass options will more radically shift things.
All in all, the Destiny 2 Beta definitely has me ready for the upcoming release of the game. The gameplay feels solid but streamlined, if not a bit too simplistic. All the things that Destiny has done well thus far seem to be largely intact: amazing weapons, cool enemies and gorgeous worlds. The strike feels epic and intense in a way that many of the old strikes never quite managed and the story mission highlights what could be a wonderful new direction. The changes we’ve seen thus far, if implemented correctly, stand to breathe new life into the game that has maintained a ton of diehard fans despite consistent (and justifiable) criticism. If Bungie is able to include more meaningful and exciting interactions NPCS as well as anything that resembles the actual character development that is currently nonexistent rather than relying on the constant barrage of Northbot dialogue and grimoire to tell a story, Destiny 2 just might be able to get the missing puzzle piece that will have made all of our loyalty worth while and bring new players into the fold.
Al Valentín is a PhD student in Women’s and Gender Studies living, loving and nerding in Brooklyn, NY. Their research brings game studies and gender studies together to think through questions of subjectivity, affect, emotions, difference and social justice. While they grew up on games like Sonic, Streets of Rage and ToeJam and Earl in Panic on Funkotron, Al’s gaming love now mostly revolves around shooters, role playing games and dating sims. In addition to gaming, they enjoy baking, selfies and designing their next tattoos. You can read more about their work by visiting their website or following them on Twitter.
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Posted on July 25th, 2017
Pyre is now available on PS4 and PC!
Pyre, a brand new title by Supergiant Games (makers of Bastion and Transistor), has been released today on PS4 and PC. In Pyre, players control a character who is an exile in a high fantasy version of purgatory. Upon meeting three other exiles, the player discovers that they are the only literate one among them and is named “the Reader”. The other exiles recruit the Reader to help them travel across purgatory, where they are looking to cleanse their souls by defeating other exiles by opening a “Rite”. Rites are Pyre’s combat system, where two teams of exiles meet on a field with two columns of flame at opposite ends (aptly named “pyres”).
Rites are 3-on-3 battles where the teams attempt to launch a glowing orb that originates in the middle of the arena into their opponent’s pyre. Throwing the orb into the pyre damages it, and the goal is to completely destroy the opponent’s pyre. The player can only control one character at a time, but can freely switch between any of the three. Any of the exiles can pick up the orb, but holding the orb makes the controlled character vulnerable to the opponent’s aura (a small space around each character). If the exile touches an opponent’s aura, they drop the orb and are temporarily removed from the arena.
On top of unique gameplay, Pyre offers gorgeous art and no doubt a soundtrack to die for, if Bastion and Transistor are anything to go by. The story is told through visual novel-style on-screen narrative passages. Said passages include a hyperlink-type system to allow the player to zone in on particular phrases and explore the story further. The party can only travel during the day and must stop at night, at which point the Reader must determine what actions to take to support or improve the party. For example, the Reader can suggest scavenging for supplies, learning more of the world’s lore, or mentoring the three exiles to improve their skills.
Pyre is out now for digital release on Playstation 4 and PC for Windows, and you better believe I’ll be all over it as soon as I can get my hands on it.
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Posted on July 25th, 2017
Boost Beast puzzles its way on to Switch
Our talented chums over at Arc System Works have been busy of late. I mentioned recently that they’re tantalising our taste buds with BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle due next year. What I haven’t told you yet is that they’ve just announced the release of another game. This time we’re talking about a puzzle/battle title called Boost Beast which has just become available on Switch.
So as the story goes, a sudden viral outbreak has infected the entire human race and turned everyone into zombies. The only survivors are a small group of animals led by Alec, the king of the dogs. He sets out with his army to exterminate the hordes of undead and restore peace.
You will need to use your match three skills while circumventing a series of dangers including cages that trap your animal friends and the grim reaper who will turn your allies into zombies.
The mechanics seem to be simple enough. It’s the addictive block matching that many of us are thoroughly addicted to. You’ll be relying on your puzzling skills to summon your animal companions and use them to destroy wave after wave of undead. With over 200 stages to play across you’ll also get plenty of bang for Boost Beast’s ten dollar asking price.
If you’re a fan of the match-three genre and happen to have a Switch then it’s a pretty solid bet that you’ll be wanting to give Boost Beast a go. It’s been out for a couple of days now so if this sounds like your thing you know exactly what you need to do.
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Posted on July 24th, 2017
H1Z1: King of the Kill Elite Series Tournaments start this weekend
Game developer Daybreak Games is kicking off its Elite Series at DreamHack Atlanta this weekend with two exhilarating H1Z1: King of the Kill tournaments, one for five-player teams and one for solo players, with a combined prize pool of a whopping $250K.
These tournaments will mark the first stop in Daybreak’s Elite Series, H1Z1’s global esports circuit, and is expected to be the largest esports event at DreamHack Atlanta in terms of both participants and prizing.
Two tournaments will be broadcast live from the show floor and will be broken down as follows:
The activities will get underway Friday July 21 and will conclude on Sunday July 23. The tournaments will be broadcast live via Twitch at http://ift.tt/2vKjCwx if you can’t make it out or don’t happen to live in the ATL.
The Elite Series is a new esports circuit focused on bringing together the world’s top-performing players of the single-elimination, massive arena shooter H1Z1. It will feature tournaments in the North American, European, APAC (Asia-Pacific) and LATAM (Latin America) regions.
If for some reason you have not heard about H1Z1 by now, let me fill you in. H1Z1 is a single-elimination, massive arena shooter that pits 150 battle-hardened players against each other in a robust and detailed world. Players scavenge for weapons, ammo, armor, vehicles and life-saving supplies to gain the upper hand on the competition and be the last one standing.
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Posted on July 24th, 2017
REVIEW / SERIAL CLEANER (PC)
In some games you go out and kill people. In some games you have to stop people killing other people, this we know. But how often do you take the role of the poor sod that’s left cleaning up the mess? I think you’ll find that the answer is hardly ever. So what’s any of this got to do with anything? Well keep reading as I give you a little review of Serial Cleaner. Surprisingly enough, none of this has anything at all to do with breakfast.
As I’ve just mentioned this marvelous little stealth game puts you in the shoes of a “cleaner.” Not in the janitorial sense of the word, but rather one of the individuals that cleans up the Mafia’s mess before the police get there and do their own spot of cleaning. In true cleaner fashion you have to remove evidence, make bodies disappear and clean the whopping big pools of red stuff that are painting the levels. While doing this you’re avoiding being caught by the cops. If you’re seen by one of these boys in blue you better have a good place to hide and a quick way to get there. If you get caught you’re going back to the start of the level.
Adding to this pretty simple premise is a story line, which you’ll pick up between levels when you’re at your mum’s house. I mean … of course you live with your mum. After all, who puts “likes putting bodies in bins” on their job resume and has the social wherewithal to be able to look after their own lives properly? So yes the story is good and yes it’s involved, making you want to know what’s happening next. And no, as usual I’m not telling you anything about it. We don’t want to spoil the fun now do we?
One thing I absolutely love about Serial Cleaner is the artwork. It’s colorful and has a smudgy painted feel to it. It makes the game look cartoony without becoming juvenile. This clearly isn’t a game for kids, so the fact that the devs have respected their player base is really nice to see.
Another neat little thing with Serial Cleaner is extra stuff you’ll find if you’re thorough. Collecting magazines that you’ll spot about the place will earn you new clothing for your cleaner. This is obviously a cosmetic thing, but it’s still a nice little touch. Even better than this are the film reels. You’ll find these hidden about the place and when collected, they’ll open new, film-themed levels for you to play through.
This is a brilliant idea. You’re effectively getting what would normally be classed as DLC for free as long as you’re willing to work for it. Personally I think this should be the case with so many more games. If you’re skilled, you’ll get the extras rather than just forking over cash to get everything from the start. This deserves another pat on the back for the devs who clearly place their audience having fun over money.
Something else to note – and I can’t work out whether this is a good or bad thing – is that these levels are hard. It’s far too easy to get impatient waiting for guards to be looking in another direction and make a run for it. In a lot of these levels their are multiple police officers. Just because you’ve managed to dodge one of them doesn’t mean you haven’t wandered into the patrol zone of another. You really have to be aware of your surroundings and only move when it’s safe to do so. Just running blindly about the place will find you repeating levels a lot.
So with all this good stuff being mentioned it’s time for me to have a moan, only a little (and only) moan: the controls. This might just be my opinion, but I genuinely feel that a lot of companies are moving more toward gamepad/PC use. This is great if you have a pad but for us keyboard only users the controls seem to be getting a bit forgotten. In this particular case, I’m not going to moan too much about this. You have a choice between two control sets. For me the most comfortable one is the layout that uses arrows for movement.
Now, the thing with keyboard controls is that it helps when your command keys are close to each other. For the most part they are in that you’re using A and D to pick up evidence and haul/drop bodies respectively. Then someone decided to make the cleaning button shift. This is not a comfortable key to be trying to hit when you’re doing something on the fly and it’s even less comfortable when you’re being chased. This is fine when it’s a command you don’t use often, (I mean, be honest, how many games have movement commands that you literally never use?) but this is serial cleaner and doing that for expanded periods of time is more likely to give you serial carpal tunnel.
All in all I really don’t have a lot to complain about here. Other than the aforementioned control issue which is completely a personal thing there really isn’t anything I’ve come across thus far that I find hugely annoying. This is a title that offers a challenge, looks nice and makes you want to keep playing. As far as I’m concerned that pretty much ticks all the boxes. If you don’t like the stealth genre this is going to really frustrate you. Saying that … if you don’t like the stealth genre then you probably won’t be reaching for this game in the first place.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Serial Cleaner. I base a lot of my review scoring on how much I want to finish the entire game. In this case I’m still playing and will be getting every last scrap I can out of this title. I’d even go as far as to say I’d happily give some cash to just to see this game prosper. If you like being sneaky and thinking on your feet you’d definitely be wise to give this one a whirl.
This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.
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Posted on July 22nd, 2017
Old School Runescape is coming to your mobile
Every so often, a game sweeps the school playground, attracting conversation and argument like a powerful discourse magnet. Most often, it’ll be a card game – Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh spring to mind – but occasionally, if the winds are favourable, it’ll be something a little more… virtual. I am, of course, referring to Runescape: when the MMORPG first appeared on the scene back in 2001, it was all anyone at my school was talking about.
You can skip tutorial island? Madness.
There was always one friend who had bought the premium version even though they were ultimately useless; the one, slightly mysterious individual who terrified everyone by reaching extraordinary heights without paying a penny. But then maybe I went to a particularly geeky primary.
The PvP elements of Runescape really separated the men from the boys.
Anyway. I bring up Old School Runescape (as opposed to the current version, which has among other things infinitely more polygons) because Jagex have announced recently that their smash hit fantasy online RPG will soon be ported to smartphone. Due to appear in the App Store/Play Store by the end of 2017, you’ll be able to log in using your current OS Runescape account details, and play on the move (though I dread to contemplate the data you’ll chew through).
My thoughts are with the poor farmer, whose livestock we murder.
If you’re a fan, and want to get in on the action as soon as possible, you can apply to be a beta tester on the OS Runescape Mobile registry website. If you’re like me, and have only just realised that the Runescape you remember is still around, I have some bad news: your old account – with the Mithril armour and amazing ginger beard – is gone. To play the old game again, you’ll have to start from tutorial island once more.
Did anyone else entrust a high level player with the ‘trimming’ of their best armour, only to have them scarper?
Old School Runescape is slated for release on iOS and Android later this year – no word on price as of yet, though the PC game is free-to-play with an optional membership fee so presumably the app will follow suit.
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Posted on July 20th, 2017
Citadel: Forged with Fire Open Beta starts this weekend
The wizardly world of Citadel: Forged With Fire is receiving a free closed beta in advance of its early access release next week.
The beta starts this Saturday at 9:00am EDT and runs until midnight EDT. Any progress players make within the beta will carry over to the release of the game.
The beta will only run on Steam, which makes sense because even though the game is coming to consoles as well, it will not be until a later date.
To sign up for the beta you can click here.
Also, to learn more about Citadel:Forged With Fire you can check out my first post on the game here.
Citadel: Forged With Fire releases on Steam early access next Wednesday, July 26th for $24.99.
The post Citadel: Forged with Fire Open Beta starts this weekend appeared first on That VideoGame Blog.
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Posted on July 20th, 2017
First images of the new Atari console and what they could mean
Not too long ago Atari gave hints that they were aiming their sights at a re-entry into the console marketplace. I, for one, took those announcements with a grain of salt. For all we knew, it could have just been an aggressive marketing strategy for a new line of those retro plug and play consoles we see all over the place already.
However, recently Atari sent out a mass email with all-new pictures of their upcoming designs for the Ataribox. These new images made me rethink everything that I thought I knew about what this console would be. Take a good look at them here:
I’m a fan of the new designs; especially that they included an option for the classic wood paneling. You can also notice that they gave the design some raised plastic rills that give it a shape reminiscent of the classic Atari consoles. The box also sports a sleek small form factor compared to its potential console contemporaries.
As you can see, the consoles contain several ports designed for USB, HDMI, and SD cards. What we can infer is that the Ataribox will use Bluetooth wireless controllers or possibly some non-proprietary USB control pad. The HDMI port is a good sign that the games will be upscaled to modern specs; not entirely unlike the recent Atari Flashback collections. The email that provided the pictures stated that “[the HDMI port] also means that while we will be delivering classic gaming content, we will also be delivering current gaming content.” This leads to the question of what they define as modern content.
The SD card slot however is a make or break for the console. The SD could operate like a memory card, a la Nintendo’s 3DS, or it could function similar to ATGames Sega Genesis retro consoles that allow homebrew games to be added. I feel the legitimacy of the console hinges on what the cards can be used for. There’s not much of a purpose in creating new, original games if they can be easily pirated through something as exploitable as an SD card. This could also lead to third parties pulling support if the console is not secure enough to prevent mass piracy.
Atari declined to announce any specs, but kept it vague by stating “We know you are hungry for more details; on specs, games, features, pricing, timing etc. We’re not teasing you intentionally; we want to get this right, so we’ve opted to share things step by step as we bring Ataribox to life”. So we will have to keep an ear to the ground for more word on this mystery Atari comeback.
You can keep up with the latest Atari information via their Facebook and Twitter accounts.
The post First images of the new Atari console and what they could mean appeared first on That VideoGame Blog.
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Posted on July 20th, 2017