Big news out of Passtech Games – creator of the favourable tower defence title, Space Run – as they have officially announced a release date for their upcoming strategy/adventure game – Masters of Anima.
Masters of Anima – What’s It About?
You raise armies of golem smashing guardians in this new adventure across the magical, and dangerous, world of Spark. Check out the announcement trailer below:
You can control up to 100 Guardian soldiers – each type with their own unique combat style, talents and abilities.
You can conjure up the sacred power of Anima – the life source of everything in the vast world of Spark.
You can learn new skills and abilities with every victory against massive armies and powerful bosses that stand in your way along the journey.
We can expect to see the latest release from Passtech Games – Masters of Anima – hit adventure seekers on April 10th, 2018 on the PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC systems.
Exploring the depths of space is an adventure all on its own, so developers really need to dig deep when adding to the flare that is galactic gaming. The Station (not this one!) is a short but sweet tale that follows the relentless curiosities our species seems to have on the vast void of stars, undiscovered planets and distant galaxies.
With attentive puzzle solving and as about as gripping as any story can get in the span of an hour or so, the indie team behind the first-person space station explorer has created an impressively stout adventure that underlines the mysteries of space.
You’re sent to investigate a three-man team of scientists who have gone missing during a top-secret space mission involving interplanetary studies. Upon discovering another race of sentient beings, the team is determined to study the unknown planet caught in a civil war.
Rather than getting directly involved in the unknown alien species’ conflict, the team thought it vital to observe from a distance as the war rages on. That is until the crew turns up silent over the transmitters which is precisely where you come in, a space station recon specialist.
Welcome to The Station – a hidden space station created to study the nearby alien planet caught in the middle of a civil war.
Discover The Truth Behind The Warring Alien Planet
The Station takes players throughout a story that’s told through audio logs recently left behind from the crew, as well as a series of tasks and objectives that will ever so gradually push you towards the truth behind the foreign species.
In its short amount of completion time, however, players will find themselves amidst an intriguing plot line that is never as straightforward as it seems. While collecting pieces of dialogue content like emails and messages, informative audio logs and crucial pieces of equipment, you will continue to progress further into the station uncovering its many secrets.
The game is an honest balance of healthy discourse and thought-inducing puzzle-solving. Tasks lists frequently pop up to remind players of what they should be working on, but most everything else is left to the imagination of the player.
Repairing a maintenance robot by finding and replacing its components, or unlocking the team’s personal lockers by tracing their specific password, are just a few of the random tasks that will allow you to travel further into the station. The simple objective lists may seem easy enough at first, but nothing is ever as it seems when dealing with a failing space station.
Throughout your missions, you will find objective and task lists that help you explore further into the station.
Throughout your linear quest into the lonely space station, the overall mission never changes once. While the length of the game depends entirely on your ability to solve the tedious puzzles of fixing up everything around you or breaking into personal rooms/storage devices, players shouldn’t expect much out of the brisk space adventure.
The story leaves many interesting perspectives on the table with a truly exhilarating ending, but after one time through, nothing else changes and players can easily blast through in less time than an episode of Star Trek.
Uncover truths about the station through recent messages and audio logs left by the three-man team of scientists.
Worth The Trip?
All in all, The Station – as minimal as it is – serves its purpose as a mysterious and involved sci-fi puzzle adventure. The characters thrown into the plotline are interesting enough to keep players intrigued across their short journey, while the puzzles fit nicely into the setting of the lonely and seemingly abandoned space station.
With no outside threats or method of combat, players of all skill ranges can sit back and enjoy the curious and subtle thrills of solving the many mysteries of The Station.
Secret of Mana was released on the Nintendo Entertainment System all the way back in 1993, (the same time Europe received Streets of Rage 2) and a remastered edition has recently been released on PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita and PC.
Secret of Mana HD Remake
The remaster adopted 3D graphics, voiced characters and some new content too. The biggest criticism of the title thus far though, appears to be the horrible optimization, specifically on PC, although it doesn’t look great for any of the versions. The game is said to crash constantly and there are animation problems aplenty, which gives the impression of a rushed to market product.
On that note, Square Enix have announced version 1.02 for the PS4 in early March and it’s due out on PC and Vita soon. The patch fixes many errors, such as black-out screens, colour changes, movement errors and more.
Here’s everything it does:
Fixed common application error.
Fixed personality colour change error.
Fixed black screen after character revived at 0 HP mistake.
Fixed an error in which a conversation won’t finish in some specific locations.
Fixed an error that had characters fall into the first floor of a dungeon to the next.
Fixed an error that slowed an enemy during an assault or magical cartoon.
Left the bow weapon trajectory when assaulting particular enemies.
Added a guide to display how players can switch the Ring Control screen.
Added an icon to display the character currently employing a ring.
Added a display of the effect of a Ring.
Hopefully this patch fixes the many performance problems of the game so that fans can fully enjoy the experience offered by Square Enix. I know things will never be like 1993 again, but this can be much, much better!
The immeasurable list of old-school inspired RPG titles seems too dauntless to rifle through, even for some of the most dedicated RPG gamers around. Dragon Sinker follows in line with the rest of the 8-bit moulded titles released from publisher KEMCO, but still manages to provide a few subtle twists to the waterlogged RPG genre. However, I’m just not sold it’s enough to separate itself from the enormous heap of other traditional turn-based RPG titles that consistently overflow the industry.
As any enthralling attempt at a fantasy story begins, players are thrust into an epic battle with a mighty dragon foe known as Wyrmvarg. In a vast world where the three distinct races – Humans, Elves and Dwarves – are all divided by racial tension, players will need to find a way to unite the land and take out the dreaded dragon threat, (LOTR, to some degree). Throughout the lengthy adventure, players will find themselves amidst a journey that feels similar to the other nostalgic experiences available. Taking on the many monsters that lurk through the overworld map and its many dungeons in search of the coveted weapons capable of slaying the beastly dragon is nothing close to original, but that doesn’t mean Dragon Sinker isn’t an enjoyable experience nonetheless.
Yet Another Dragon/Fantasy Adventure
The 8-bit pixellated visuals scream nostalgia and take players back to what can only be described as the golden age of RPGs. As you wake from your deadly fight with the dragon enemy – Wyrmvarg – players take control of the human warrior, Abram. As you progress through the story you’ll soon discover your hometown is only a small village in a very vast world. Each of the three races has their own regions throughout the lands, as it comes down to our team of heroes to unite them and take out the looming threat.
In standard RPG form, Dragon Sinker has players exploring an overhead map in search of villages and dungeons. As you travel from dungeon to dungeon or village to village, random enemy encounters occur bringing up the turn-based battle system. The combat is as traditional as most other turn-based RPGs, as players choose from a variety of physical and elemental attacks for each one of their party members. After each character – up to four in a party – has selected either offensive, defensive, or support tactics, it’s the enemies turn to react. It’s yet another take on one of the most common and simple battle systems found in traditional RPGs and done so in an easy-to-learn fashion.
As you meet new warriors your party will expand and grow with a diverse cast of characters.
A Unique Team-Based Party System
Where Dragon Sinker takes a different path from the cookie cutter RPG formula is the unique team system. As distinguished earlier, the game’s world is populated by three separate races. As you continue your journey as a noble human warrior, you will meet characters from both the dwarf and elf tribes. As the legend has it, the dreaded Wyrmvarg was once defeated by a trio of warriors containing one warrior of each race. As you may have guessed, this is precisely what players must accomplish, among other tactics, to take down the fearful beast.
As you begin to build your party, players will become aware of Dragon Sinker’s unique team system. As you acquire new allies they will be paired with one of the three different parties. The player will control all three parties with the ability to swap between them in battle. Each team resembles the Humans, Elves and Dwarves – giving a bit more strategy during the tactical battles. Keeping each of the parties – and party members – distinct with multiple effective skills and abilities, the unique party swapping system helps players switch between weaknesses and other affinities while in the heat of battle.
The turn-based combat system is a staple in the retro RPG era and one that’s not forgone in Dragon Sinker.
A Simple Experience
While the overall tone of Dragon Sinker doesn’t actually add anything new to the retro RPG category, the game still provides a sound and simple experience. Whether you’re a gamer who maybe missed the boat on the 8/16 bit RPG era, or perhaps an RPG enthusiast looking for the next sentimental experience – Dragon Sinker hits a few of those feelings, and rather sharply. Just don’t expect any game-changing moments throughout the brunt of the journey.
With the ever-popular action adventure category of video games becoming more and more saturated throughout the years, developing teams are finding new ways to push the envelope for the repetition-riddled genre. After making a name for themselves with titles like DmC: Devil May Cry, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and Heavenly Sword – Ninja Theory is back with another gripping action experience; but doing so by tackling the dark and merciless journey of a Viking warrior, aided by her haunting curse of psychosis and mind-rotting visions in Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice.
Playing as the Viking warrior – Senua – you’ll embark on a disturbing journey to the depths of Helheim.
The path of Senua is a violent and disturbing one, bringing to life the realism of psychosis and interpreting what it’s like perceiving an alternate reality from what’s right in front of the player. The team at Ninja Theory did their research regarding this mental disorder, and it shows dramatically. The entire run-through of the 7 hour or so long campaign is brimming with haunting whispers, flickering lights and distant movements, ever pushing the twitching reality of Senua’s chaotic, and broken mind.
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice – Fighting the Curse of Psychosis
The game is extremely linear, following a given path of intricate puzzle-solving and staged combat experiences. The dark story of the Viking warrior and her quest to Helheim to bring her loved one back to the living is as endearing as any love story, but permeates with evocative dialogue, enveloping sounds and troubling imagery. The puzzles featured are innovative and unique to the story of Hellblade, but add a much-needed sense of depth to the overall gameplay. If not for the ever-present puzzles to solve, the staged combat doesn’t quite fill Hellblade with sword swinging hack ‘n’ slash battles like other titles from the Ninja Theory catalogue.
Throughout Hellblade players will be faced with brutally grotesque monsters in the staged hack and slash combat.
As you begin your journey to Helheim, the grave voice narrates over your slow trek to one new area after another. Hellblade is fueled off the drawbacks of psychosis. The constantly shifting reality of the scenery surrounding Senua is the source to figuring out the many puzzles, by either finding specific shapes scattered somewhere in the world, discovering and aligning segments of a symbol to create the full image or finding other discoveries hidden deep within the Viking world.
As you progress through, the combat in Hellblade will soon enough be introduced. Appearing in front of your from the ashes, enemies come in a handful of different forms. Quick acting sword swingers, shield-wielding brutes and giant warriors bringing down a heavy blade with extreme force are all part of the family of opponents found in Hellblade. Senua fights with a standard mode of attack, with both a light and heavy attack, a melee kick and, of course, the useful dodge technique.
Illusions from psychosis haunt Senua throughout her deadly journey to Helheim.
Along with the defensive tactic to roll or sidestep, Senua is capable of blocking attacks with her sword, as well as performing a parry move to open up an attack window for extra damage. I mention this parry technique because the game simply fails to do so. What seems like an important combat ability, parrying is only discovered by the player when they time a perfect defence against an enemy’s attack. On top of the parry technique and other essential combat manoeuvres, Senua also has the ability to use her focus skill in combat.
Focus. Use Your Inner Eye
The focus skill while outside of combat allows Senua to “focus her inner eye” on important details and symbols throughout the journey. The focus technique is the primary ability to solving the puzzles that riddle Senua throughout her story. That being said, puzzle-solving is not the only occasion Senua will use this secret skill. During combat, using the focus skill – which is charged by connecting Senua’s attacks – will slow down time for a few moments, increasing the number of strikes Senua can land on her opponents. Though simple and unembellished, the what seems like shallow combat mechanics provide an incredibly exciting and thrilling experience when engaging in the vile monsters that come to take Senua’s life.
Using the focus mode, players will need to solve puzzles by paying close attention to details in Senua’s surroundings.
The curse that follows Senua throughout the game is both mental and physical. While the whispers and cynical chants eat away at her mental stability as she undergoes her harrowing journey, the physical torment endured from failing is just as disturbing. The lingering fear of losing your progress is a significant weight the player must carry as the black plague on Senua’s arm crawls upward with every player death. Once the webbing plague reaches Senua’s head, the game is over and the player must start from the beginning. Luckily, with a selection of combat difficulty, text-book staged combat and relatively short story length, starting over doesn’t seem as much of a chore as it sounds. Of course, there are some who claim that losing your progress never actually happens after numerous deaths, but is merely a bluff from the developers.
Senua will often find herself against multiple enemies at once, but using focus in the midst of battle will allow a brief period of slowed down enemy movements.
Impressively Evocative
The winding and distraught road of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is something so powerfully stirring that playing through the linear campaign multiple times still feels fresh and thrilling. The isolated quest to defeat the horrors of Helheim, overcome the dark curse that haunts Senua and return her loved one back to the living is as enthralling as it is disturbing. The realism and time spent on providing an accurate reflection of what it means to wield the curse that is psychosis is impressively alone, not to mention the astonishing visuals and sound effects. Ninja Theory took their time with this one, and it shows, as Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is easily one of the most memorable experiences from 2017.
Sony had a great first year with their PS VR headset, selling more than 2 million units in 2017. It’s a surprise to those that predicted VR wouldn’t quite catch on… That being said, there’s still work to be done to get VR into the mainstream. Sony can overcome that fact by releasing lots of compelling games – simple, but true for any platform.
So what about 2018? What new PS VR games can you look forward to this year, and will the support continue? Well fear not, Sony has recently just recommitted to PS VR and has stated that it will receive over 130 new games this year. (That’s 280 VR games by the end of 2018).
As for those new games, here are some of the best upcoming PS VR titles we’re looking forward to playing.
Moss
The hotly anticipated Moss, from Polyarc Games, quickly became one of the most desired PS VR games after its initial E3 2017 reveal. With platforming, a smattering of action and beautifully clever puzzle-solving on the cards, it’s no wonder.
You can try it out while you wait through the free PlayStation VR Demo Disc 2. Moss is released on the 27th February, and it’s exclusive to PS VR.
Bravo Team
Another one announced at E3 2017, Bravo Team was one of two titles shown off by developer Supermassive Games – the other game being The Inpatient, (see below!).
Bravo Team promises VR co-op play where you’ll need to take cover, go over tactics and shoot your way to victory. Bravo Team releases exclusively on March 6th, 2018.
Blood & Truth
Blood & Truth is basically a full game of The London Heist seen in PlayStation VR Worlds. That was a truly memorable experience loved by many, so Sony London Studios decided more was needed.
Blood & Truth places you into the heart of London’s organised crime syndicate and you’re out looking for revenge – I wonder if Frank is still around? Blood & Truth is coming at some point in 2018, but we don’t know when. It’s exclusive for PlayStation VR.
The Inpatient
Never want to sleep again? That’s ok, Supermassive Games has you covered with The Inpatient. Another expansion of the Until Dawn game universe, The Inpatient takes place in the Blackwood Sanatorium we all remember in our worst nightmares…
Better news: the horror title is due out this month on the 24th January 2018. It’s another exclusive for PlayStation VR.
Golem
Announced way back in 2016, Golem‘s fate suddenly became unknown. Luckily, it appeared again at the Paris Games Week press conference to much relief.
From Highwire Games, it’s a VR adventure that allows you to explore and fight your way through the ruins of the “Endless City”. Golem is due out on the 13th March 2018. Exclusive for PlayStation VR.
Star Child
Star Child is a VR science-fiction adventure featuring classic side-scrolling platforming from the ‘good old days’. That extra, awesome immersion that VR provides will encourage you to really dive into the rich, 2D world created for you by Playful Corp. You can try it out while you wait through the free PlayStation VR Demo Disc 2.
Star Child is coming at some point in 2018, but it’s another one in which the exact date remains a bit of a mystery. Of course, it’s exclusive for PlayStation VR too.
The Other Best Upcoming PS VR Games 2018
Other notable PS VR games coming out this year include the following:
Hydorah took players back to the 80s shoot em’ up era as a throwback to side-scrolling space shooters everywhere. Re-released and revamped for Sony platforms, Super Hydorah returns to the bullet-riddled skies with the same intense shooting mayhem and unique ship customizing options. Glide your way through surreal space environments, and strap in for a completely unforgiving, quick-manoeuvring ride in the latest release from indie developer, Locomalito.
If you’ve played the classic horizontal scroller, Gradius, Super Hydorah will look almost identical as a spin-off of the beloved NES title. Presented in new-aged pixellated form, this shoot em’ up adds a few of its own quirks to the mix of high-energy space battles. As you make your way through each level, more and more enemies hurl themselves at you in never-before-seen ways. Tons of exciting surprises literally leap out in front of the player, and if not careful, will crudely end your current run.
Take to the skies and glide through space fending off enemy spacecraft.
Super Hydorah: Engaging the enemies
The game plays smooth as can be, giving players a tightly wound experience where one mistake could ruin their mission. The levels are broken up into segments, usually ending in some sort of mega enemy encounter, or boss fight. Gliding through the space levels firing away at your cannon, players are able to collect specific power-ups to increase their abilities in flight or combat. Special enemy ships drop rare points when defeated, resulting in either a speed upgrade, protective shield adding an extra hit of damage to be absorbed, or a unique special power. Players can also find extra lives, as well as green and red booster points.
As enemies are blasted out of the engaging skies, more common opponent ships will drop booster points which add to the effect of your primary and secondary weapons. Racking up the green points will improve your primary weapon, while the red boost up the secondary. Fill them both up and enjoy a flurry of charged weaponry, giving players a huge step forward in combat.
Many boss encounters are scattered throughout the diverse selection of levels across deep space.
Advanced Weaponry
Initially, players will have to use the standard laser cannon as their primary, and the semi-useful bomb dropping tactic as the secondary fire. Firing away with the single fire button, both weapons unleash their fury upon the clutter of enemies. While the combo of these two starting weapons is useful in getting players out of a pinch early on, the many different weapons available later in the game provide some serious weaponry to your star gliding ship.
By making it to the end of each level, conquering the final boss, which is usually done in a matter of dodging sequences and continuous firepower, players are awarded with a new weapon to add to the growing customization list. Before each level, players are presented with the ship customizing screen, which provides them with the chance to strategically pick from the selection of primary, secondary and special weapon slots. Pairing up the perfect combination of weaponry could be the only thing standing between you and utterly painful defeat.
The screen will quickly fill up with enemy ships, bullet fire and powerful icons to help upgrade your ship.
As you make your way through the galaxy filled with dangerous foes and enemies, the game begins to grow increasingly difficult. As more weapons unlock players will begin to understand the strategy of picking the perfect arsenal for each level. Of course, the weapons you select will only help with your offence, dodging and thinking quickly is the main skill to keep you alive.
Co-op Anyone?
The campaign mode takes players across a split path and has players choosing which level to conquer first. While the story mode alone is enough to satisfy most horizontal shooter fans, there’s also the co-op feature in that helps add a little more depth to Super Hydorah. The primary focus of co-op is heading through the story campaign, only now with the help of a friend. This is the basic cooperative gameplay that friends could spend hours on digging each other out of overwhelming holes.
However, this is not the only method of co-op/multiplayer modes. Robot Chasers is an original multiplayer game which has 2 player controlled astronauts tethered by a rainbow cord. Coming in from all angles, invading robots float past and it’s up to the duo to stretch their tether in front of the robots and wipe them out clean. The catch is, the tether only expands so far before it’s disengaged. This can be worked around by slaying robots and collecting the rainbow points to help extend the reach of the deadly tether.
Robot Chasers is an interesting two-player co-op mode using the lethal tether.
Super Hydorah is a great way to catch that nostalgic presence of horizontal shoot em’ ups, without having to plug-in the retro hardware. With a decent sampling of weaponry and deadly special skills, the quick-reacting gameplay of this space shooter will likely torment more than a few souls.
When the sequel to one of your most recent projects scores itself a dedicated panel at the PlayStation Experience (PSX), it’s a surefire sign that you’ve done something right as a developer.
Just look at Naughty Dog, whose 2013 third-person horror epic The Last of Us earned itself such massive applause from critics and mass audiences alike that its follow-up’s much-anticipated status and resultant PSX presentation come as no surprise.
Here’s what we learned from writer-director Neil Druckmann and co-writer Halley Gross as they teased what terrors and thrills await us in The Last of Us: Part II…
Takeaways:
Much of Part II‘s top-secret narrative takes place in the city of Seattle, where the increasingly world-wearied Joel and Ellie will pursue some form of justice (probably against the Fireflies, if the sequel’s haunting teaser trail was any indication), only to find the lines of morality becoming evermore blurred en route.
Druckmann warns that “no-one is safe” in the franchise’s plague-ridden, undead-infested world, so even Joel and Ellie – undoubtedly one of gaming’s most beloved modern pairings – mightn’t make it to Part II‘s credits alive, regardless of how much trauma they’ve endured up to this point.
Indeed, one of Druckmann and Gross’ key goals here involved raising the personal and physical stakes for their already battered protagonists, in a similar vein to how Uncharted 4 took Nathan Drake to his very limits, but – according to IGN – with even less in the way of that series finale’s lighthearted hi-jinks. Don’t go in hoping for Joel and Ellie to masquerade as Italian waiters, in other words.
That’s not to say we can’t expect any glimmers of light at the end of the tunnel, however. Despite their storyline’s undoubtedly grim tone, the writers were equally adamant at Part II‘s PSX panel that players would find “hope” and “lighthearted moments” peppered throughout the script alongside its more harrowing sequences.
Speaking of harrowing experiences, apparently nailing down the plot’s second act proved tougher than expected for Druckmann and Gross alike, with the former worrying about a “big giant middle part” – his words, not ours – until the latter suggested some “awesome ideas” to keep players invested throughout.
Much as hearing all these intriguing comments surrounding Part II doesn’t make the undefined wait time any easier, Druckmann did also reveal that “50-60%” of the sequel’s levels have been completed as of this weekend and that we can expect more footage – presumably in the form of a full gameplay demo this time – at E3 2018 next June.
Until then, be sure to let us know your predictions for Part II in the comments section and watch voice actors Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson’s stirring rendition of the teaser trail’s haunting melody, “Wayfaring Stranger”, at the PSX panel below.
Barring Soul Calibur VI‘s full-fledged reveal trailer, our latest look at Detroit: Become Human and smatterings of new details on projects like God of War and The Last of Us: Part II, it’s safe to say that this year’s PlayStation Experience (PSX) event hasn’t exactly been one for the history books.
All the same, Bluepoint Games have ensured that Shadow of the Colossus‘ raptorous fanbase isn’t coming away from the weekend empty-handed; enter a full gameplay demo showcasing the technical updates which the studio’s most beloved production to date has undergone since 2005 in preparation for its PS4 revival…
Takeaways:
Speaking to Bluepoint’s president Marco Thrush and technical director Peter Dalton, PlayStation Blog’s Justin Massongill joins the rest of us in watching in awe as Colossus‘ steeled warrior protagonist Wander explores the mysterious “forbidden land” atop his trusted steed, Agro.
Thrush and Dalton are justifiably keen to point out the upcoming PS4 remake’s myriad aesthetic upgrades, from a wind particle system sweeping leaves realistically across their mysterious setting’s barren forest landscape, to water simulation effects evoking an eerily similar sense of the uncanny.
Naturally Wander can’t spend all his time, well, wandering. Quite to the contrary, only a few minutes of the video pass by before he’s brought face-to-pincer with a centipede-like Colossus boss whom he’ll need to employ a combination of covert archery and savage sword strikes in order to thwart.
If tales of the original’s convoluted control scheme threaten to deter you from attempting to scale such a beast, however, then fret not. Alongside Classic Mode, which retains the 2005 PS2 action RPG’s control layout for veterans, Dalton promises a revised scheme built to minimise potential grief for “new players”.
As with many of the AAA titles teased at PSX this weekend, we’re still no closer to learning a precise release date for Shadow of the Colossus‘ PS4 edition, but with Massongill remarking upon how quickly development has proceeded since E3 2017, don’t expect to wait too much longer before the truth comes to light.
Let us know your thoughts on Bluepoint’s latest Colossus showcase in the comments section below.
The Need for Speed franchise has driven players all over fictional cityscapes, mountain passes, smokey forests and desert stretches. Need for Speed Payback doesn’t change any of that, but substitutes the realistically rendered cutscenes from the 2015 entry, back to the animated cast and arcade style racing. Tyler, Mac and Jess team up and partake in a variety of heated events from classic arcade street and drag racing, to off-road and drifting trials, all to take down the boss who runs the city of Fortune Valley, The House.
In the wide-open world of Fortune Valley, Tyler Morgan reigns supreme as the “best racer in the city”. His two close partners, Jess – the cops smashing, escape artist, and Mac – the off-road, thrill-seeking Brit, team up and find themselves stacked against the odds when facing off against The House – an Organized crime syndicate that secretly runs Fortune Valley, the trio is betrayed by the top street racer of the criminal organization, Lina Navarro.
Fueled by revenge, Tyler rounds up his crew and begin to infiltrate the underground racing scene n Fortune Valley. In hopes of getting closer to The House and Navarro, the skilled trio of racers will take down local street racing gangs all across the widespread map. Earn your spot in the streets, juice up your collection of powerful street machines and race your way to earn the ultimate payback on The House.
The vast world of Fortune Valley has more than just casinos and deserts to drive through.
The huge map featured in Payback drives the player across busy Las Vegas-styled city streets, red canyons mixed with desert landscapes, rich mountains and lush valleys. Race events like time trials, sprint and circuit races, drags, arcade-style checkpoints and police chases will fill the county of Fortune Valley in no time. The map is riddled with various objectives for Speed Runs, Speed Traps and high-soaring stunt jumps. Other locations like tune-up shops, gas stations and car dealers will also unlock the more you explore, or the more money you earn.
Sliding from side-to-side
The car handling in Payback is driven towards the arcade style of the racing spectrum, featuring easy-to manoeuvre drifts, slides and hard turns. Though unrealistic, there’s plenty of entertainment and exciting thrills that come in almost each and every race. The cars are broken down into a handful of classes which act as the main portion of the difference in handling and overall driving. Drag, street race, off-road, drift and runner are the five categories to which you can equip your selected car with.
Races are the primary category, using the most of every performance part available, from high-speed to blurring acceleration, on the dime handling and quick-acting braking. Taking players through circuit races around various parts of the map, sprint races from point A to point B, and even high-speed pursuits to escape from law enforcement. Tyler is in charge of these events, as well as top speed drag races in Fortune Valley.
Sliding and drifting around turns is as easy as they come and serves as a crucial form of taking hard corners.
Drag races have been tweaked in almost every Need for Speed title since they first made their appearance in the 2003 Underground title. Still focusing majorly on the car’s tachometer and manually shifting gears, quick reflexes are required to achieve a perfect shift. However, the race countdown before the race has players revving their engines in an attempt to place the needle for a perfect launch on the green. Once the throttle is engaged, cars burn tread, lifting their front ends up into the air. Perfect shifts and well-timed nitrous bursts will have players screaming past busy streets, civilian vehicles and opponent racers.
Taking the racing off-road
The quick-hitting drag races and adrenaline-inducing street racing events bring the heart and soul of the long-running racing franchise. Drifting and off-road races have been included in a healthy amount of NFS titles in previous years, most notably the focus on car sliding drift competitions. Taking the wheel as Mac, the high-speed cornering of drift events feel slick and easy to navigate, but virtually no change between vehicles. Sliding through turns, ripping the e-brake and guiding the nose of your ride around the inside curve feels comfortable and never giving the player a lack of control. This may sound great in writing but comes off slightly diluted and unimpressive as far as diversity in vehicle manoeuvrability.
Drag racing to drifting to off-road hill hopping makes for a diverse racing experience.
In the off-road events, players will tune a 4×4 vehicle, which could range from a smooth and flashy Subaru WRX to the hulking Ford F-150 Raptor. Dirt roads and huge jumps line the racing course with excessive airtime and rough rally style racing. These events are hectic and require skill to manoeuvre across the deep valleys and rocky terrain. Cutting across the course, finding the fastest way to the finish and smashing into your opponents serves as a nice change from the tight cornering and high speeds of street racing.
Building your derelict cars from the ground up
Aside from drifting, off-roading and drag racing across the vast map of Fortune Valley, there are also collectable poker tokens and the more valuable derelict car parts. Upon defeating a leader of each street racing gang, you’re rewarded with the first of five clues to a secret derelict car. The first clue reveals what car you’re investigating, as well as adds four more clues required to complete the build of the vehicle. Clues are small circled areas on the map to which the player needs to discover the location and unveil the hidden part by approaching the derelict item. After all of the clues are found, players may then select the derelict cars and categorize them to one of the five racing categories.
Many different derelict car parts can be found all over Fortune Valley, collecting them all will grant you a new car.
Upon receiving derelict cars or purchasing a new ride, players will then be inclined to improve its performance and upgrade their racer. The obvious choice is to spend hard-earned cash and improve your car by purchasing speed cards. The tune-up shops update randomly about every 10 minutes and a diverse selection of speed cards is available, from new exhaust and headers to enhanced turbos and brakes. Each card alongside its performance part also has one of 5 brands (or the stock part), and some also come with a performance bonus attachment. The brands act as a bonus when three or all six performance parts are equipped with matching brands.
After each race or event players are also rewarded with a mystery speed card which is revealed after the selection. Equipping, selling for cash or trading it in for coveted part tokens are your three options with what to do with every part you’re not using. Part tokens are another interesting way to receive other, sometimes more powerful speed cards through a “slot machine” style mini-game. With three wheels across the board, each one is labelled with a brand, performance part and bonus stat. Players will spend three-part tokens and select one of the three wheels on the selected part, brand or bonus, roll the other two wheels at random, and thus the gamble begins giving you a shiny new speed card.
Adding performance parts to your ride is done by equipping randomly generated Speed Cards which are loaded with extra bonuses.
A familiar NFS experience
The open world and diverse racing events in Need for Speed Payback are relentless in providing a thrilling experience. The story is brash and full of tiresome, predictable characters. The racing is tilted closer to the arcade side of the spectrum, leaving a controllable drifting, jumping and high-speed racing. Upgrading your car selection via speed cards is nifty and keeps things a little more randomized when visiting tune-up shops. Derelict cars provide a unique spin on the series with search-and-find missions and reward players with collectable cars. All-in-all Need for Speed Payback brings another familiar racing experience delivered by Ghost Games, with slight tweaks and enhancements for an exciting racing experience.
Earlier this year, Guerilla Games launched their new IP set throughout a vast and gorgeous postapocalyptic world in Horizon Zero Dawn. The adventure/RPG took players on an enduring journey 1,000 years into the future where humanity has devolved back to tribal living conditions – only to find themselves an outcast in a world overrun by the many ravenous and hostile machines. Months later, the gaming community uncovered the sacred hidden truths about the ancient world before the fall of civilization and craved more from the Nora warrior, Aloy. Meet The Frozen Wilds.
The icy region of The Frozen Wilds glitters the screen with heavy snowflakes and tundra-like conditions. The Banuk tribe has settled up north in Song’s Edge, a village just before The Cut – a snow-covered territory ravaged by never-before-seen machines, frozen peaks, mountain ranges, and the looming threat known as Thunder’s Drum. A billow of smoke suffocates the sky on the far edge of the map, but reaching the volcanic mountain comes with its own string of both physical, and spiritual, challenges.
The snowy peaks of The Frozen Wilds is an impressive sight, even with the billowing smoke of Thunder’s Drum.
Within the frigid lands of the Cut, Aloy will spend her time completing various tasks and objectives, similar to what she accomplished in Zero Dawn. Along with a new area of the map to explore, new weapons, outfits, characters and, of course, tribe-slaying machines, all await in the sizeable expansion to one of this year’s top releases. Adding more depth to the complex and driven personality of Horizon’s protagonist, Aloy will dive further into the truth surrounding the confusing relationship between the rationally intelligent machines, and their curious, and otherwise unstable, human creators.
The looming threat of Thunder’s Drum
Through the main line of quests featured in The Frozen Wilds, you’ll be introduced to the Banuk settler’s striving to survive in the snowy regions. Led by the chieftain, Aratak, Aloy finds her determination to discover what made the machines so hostile at the feet of the stout and fearless Banuk chieftain. With countless Banuk warriors lost to Thunder’s Drum in previously failed missions, very little hope rests in the dwindling tribe too proud to give in. Luckily, the fierce and persistent Nora warrior sheds any doubt that may inhibit her natural instincts to discover what lies in the depths of the scorching bowels of Thunder’s Drum.
Aloy finds new companions – Chieftain Aratak and Shaman Ourea – in the Banuk settlement, Song’s Edge.
The weapons earned from proving your worth to the Banuk reflect the growth and perseverance our beloved heroine so faithfully exhibits throughout her encouraging story. The Forgefire relentlessly engulfs targets in a rage of flame dealing severe, close-range fire damage, while the Icerail freezes enemies with crisp ice damage in a short-distanced stream of frosty mist. Jolts of electric energy launch from the dominant Stormslinger, adding a useful long-range weapon to the list of cutting-edge weapons found in the treacherous wilderness of The Cut.
In addition to an arsenal of elemental weapons, a fourth skill tree has been added to accommodate the increased level cap. Focused on various travelling aspects of the game, players are now able to grant Aloy with a variety of new skills and abilities. Gathering loot while mounted on an overridden machine, or striking from the back of your travelling companion with the Dismount Strike attack are only a few examples of the added perks to Aloy’s skill tree. Many of these new abilities provide useful and tactical approaches to increase travel time, storage space and repairing your hard-earned, overridden machine mount.
The new Tallneck viewpoint in The Frozen Wilds will first need to be reactivated before climbing atop the roaming machine.
Persevere against all odds
At the core of The Frozen Wilds Aloy finds herself in the midst of a lopsided war between the Banuk warriors, and another corrupt, machine-controlling virus, known as Daemon. Located in the depths of Thunder’s Drum, the Banuk have made their courageous run to infiltrate the mysterious plume of smoke, only to retreat empty-handed, and under-manned. Aloy will be put to the ultimate test of strength and will to determine if she has what it takes to uncover the secrets that lay within the volatile mountain. With the help of the spiritually obedient Shaman, Ourea, players will traverse the frigid lands in search of the hidden mysteries that make up the world Aloy so tenaciously pursues.
The frozen regions of The Cut opens players up to a new cast of keen and colourful characters eager to task Aloy with adventurous missions and reward her with extravagant loot. New hunting missions, side quests including an exciting new Tallneck viewpoint errand, as well as new bows and outfits crafted from the rare and exclusive resource, Bluegleam, are scattered throughout the snow-covered tundra. However, with improved weapons and skills comes new enemy machines, the likes that no warrior has faced before.
Scorchers and the virus corrupted Daemonic Machines are weak but persistent adversaries, while Fireclaws and Frostclaws are enormous and agile machines that deal corresponding elemental damage, often in rapid succession. All of these machines are capable of receiving healing waves generated by the new corrupted Control Towers, which must be destroyed or carefully overridden to reverse its healing effects. These towers are sprawled across the frost-riddled Cut, typically guarded by hordes of hostile machines.
A handful of puzzles await in the Cauldron that rests in the belly of Thunder’s Drum.
Survive. Prevail. We are Banuk.
Horizon Zero Dawn has proven that the courage, confidence and determination of a young, fierce woman, who is overwhelmed with curiosity and under-appreciated by the culture around her, is enough to overcome even the most perilous odds. The Frozen Wilds expands heavily on the brave and righteous protagonist, bringing with it a tale revealing a spiritual Shaman devoted to bringing peace back to the lands in the name of her God, a chieftain too proud and mentally resilient to give in, and a sole survivor achieving everything she can to unravel the mysteries of a world overrun by unpredictable threats, and a dark, catastrophic past.
In the midst of a racing sim releasing frenzy between the biggest names in the genre, Sony’s – Gran Turismo Sport – is closing out the major release trio coming this October 17th (18th EU). Until then, players and fans are urged to check out the upcoming demo release to help sway the players on the long-awaited title.
This new 4-day demo will run from October 9th – 12th with the option to pre-download the demo starting on October 7th. For four days, players will get the chance to earn in-game credits and experience leading up to the arrival of Polyphony Digital’s current gen debut, all transferable to the real game once released.
3 Demo Modes Available
The demo is packed with multiple modes to get a hold of like Arcade, Campaign and the new Sport mode. Also coming with limited look in the demo are the all-new Scapes Photography mode, and the for the first time in GT history, a custom livery editor. Finally, racing fans can feel like they’re actually competing big-name sponsor races like so many of the other racing-sims available.
Get started early on your professional racing career with the Gran Turismo Sport demo headed to the PS Store.
Arcade mode provides racers with their choice of race settings, a huge selection of cars, tracks and race styles. In the demo, only three courses are available, but stretch across the diversity of GT Sport. Jump right into the action and get a solid glimpse of GT Sport’s racing features.
In Campaign mode, fans of the series will waste no time jumping head first into their heated career as a professional racer. Increase your experience, currency and vehicle total by winning various challenges, race events and Daily Workout tactics throughout the pro career.
In the brand-new Sport mode, take on tight trial runs in solo qualifying rounds. Then take on the competition in fairly matched vehicles in heated all-out race. Prove you’ve got what it takes to tackle the tough courses at unforgiving speeds to mark the fastest time possible.
Catch a sneak preview of Gran Turismo Sport with the upcoming demo. Arriving for a short 4-day span from October 9th-12th, get your pre-download from the Playstation Store starting October 7th. Get your engines primed for the official release on October 18th (17th NA).
