- God of War III (Sony, 36.8 GB, $39.99)
- Rory McIlroy PGA Tour (EA, 26.3 GB, $59.99)
- Prototype 1 & 2 (Activision, 15.7 GB, $49.99)
- Godzilla (Bandai Namco, 7 GB, $59.99)
- The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts, 4.6 GB, $19.99)
- The Fall (Over the Moon Games, 359 MB, $9.99)
- Buta san (Hamster, 18.8 MB, $7.99)
- Deception IV (Tecmo Koei, 1.8 GB, $49.99)
Month: July 2015
Bastion Rap by Dan Bull
Chroma Squad Reviewed
We spent the last few weeks with Chroma Squad and I'm here to tell you what I think of it. Is it a great tactical RPG? Is it a nostalgic turd? Watch the video and continue past the break for details!
Growing up as a young boy in the nineties, there are certain things that I was predestined to like. I liked video games, specifically my Genesis and Sonic the Hedgehog, I liked Toonami and my first taste of anime with Dragon Ball Z, and I really liked Saturday morning cartoons. But I loved, I fricken loved, Power Rangers!
I had Power Ranger action figures, video games, even the morphers and the green ranger’s flute dagger. I even have a picture of my younger self in a Power Rangers T-Shirt, sitting in a Walmart photo booth with someone in the shittiest pink Power Ranger costume I have ever seen. I think it was so bad that even back then I recognized it was awful, yet I was so excited it didn’t really matter. Now, I know what you’re all thinking, but back off ladies and gentlemen, this studs taken. Oh, you were wondering what all this rambling has to do with anything? I just wanted you to understand that I am completely impartial and entirely unbiased when it comes to this game.
The game is one of those successful Kickstarters that you hear about. Behold Studios, creators of another love-letter game, Knights of Pen and Paper, asked for $55,000 to fund development and they received over $97,000 from 3,964 backers. They nearly doubled their goal, but fell just short of an episode editor that would have been a huge plus. The game itself is a tactical turn based RPG with management mechanics and if you’re thinking X-Com meets Final Fantasy Tactics then you aren’t too far off. Of course, you’ll always be destined for disappointment until you stop comparing things to X-Com, so let’s just forget that game for now. The story is every bit as cheesy and fun as the shows it takes inspiration from. It follows a group of stunt men who decide to start up their own sentai show, which means you get to pick nearly every aspect about it. From the name of the show to the phrase your team shouts when they transform, even what they yell when they call their mech. You can also pick the suit colors of your team, allowing you to match up with your favorite Power Rangers season or forge your own route. You can even pick the actors that play each squad member, but sadly that means that you can’t create characters, only pick from a list of pre-made ones that come with specific stats. Your squad will be comprised of a Lead, a Scout, an Assault, a Techie, and a Support who will more often than not be your healer.
There is more customization for each class in a very simple, very shallow talent tree. You can also equip new armor and weapons that will change the look of your squaddies, which is both a good and a bad thing. On the one hand it keeps their look from getting stale and shows growth through the seasons. On the other hand if you find a style you like for your squad you’ll end up having to ditch it before too long in favor of gear with better stats. Additionally you’ll rarely have the entire crew in the same set of gear, due to differing stat requirements, which means your squad will rarely look like a cohesive team during combat.
Speaking of combat, it’s where you’ll spend the majority of your time with Chroma Squad. It’s mostly a simple affair with each unit getting one movement and one attack per turn. The number of tiles a unit can move in a turn is determined by your movement rate stat and this means your scout will be running circles around the map while your techie just...doesn’t. Mine could move around 4 squares per turn, so I focused him on ranged combat.
You’ll move each of your units and use their skills, both default and those chosen from the talent tree, and finally end your turn allowing the enemy to do the same. This could easily become rote and boring, but thankfully Behold Studios did a few things to keep it interesting. The first is the teamwork feature where, instead of attacking, you can end a units turn by putting them in teamwork mode. This allows them to boost friendly units to extend their movement range, and I always felt awesome having my entire team flip off of one of my squaddies to surround a bad guy.
If you attack an enemy unit, any friendly units in range that are set in teamwork mode will also join in the attack. If you get five squaddies to all attack one enemy like this then you’ll get a group finisher with a special little animation. If you get five squaddies to do it with weapons, then you get a weapon specific teamwork finishing move just like on the show! Make sure that it kills the enemy though, as an early finisher that fails to end the fight will see viewers changing the channel.
The above would have made the combat much more fun by itself, but the real standout feature for me was the director’s orders. Essentially they are just optional objectives for each fight, but if you follow them it can make the fights much more difficult and interesting. The orders range from not letting any of your squaddies get knocked out, to my favorite which was to have a specific squaddie hit the boss during every round. This lead to a lot of frantic teamwork throws and last minute attacks that barely worked and it was a lot of fun.
Sadly the director’s orders are usually very simple and repeated often, which lessens their appeal after a while. That of course is not the only area of the game that let me down as it does have a fair few bugs. Nothing game breaking, but more annoying bugs, the kind that make you think you have something crawling on you long after you’ve killed it. The worst of these was an issue where tiles would remain highlighted forever, which made it difficult to see if a square was within range of my squaddie without clicking and committing to the move.
Another area of Chroma Squad that really let me down was the crafting. Crafting allows you to make equivalent gear to what you would buy in the store, but the drops needed are rare and you can’t make gear for every type of stat you would want. You can purchase more materials for in game cash, but the mats you get are random. You can also break down old items for materials, but again it is random and it is entirely possible to break down a valuable item and get nothing for it.
The frustrations with the crafting system are only compounded by the fact that it’s the only way to upgrade your mech. It’s confusing because the whole system feels very much like an iOS money trap, but it’s not and it never was. I can’t imagine why they went this route as it is easily one of the least enjoyable aspects of the entire game.
Speaking of mechs though, of course there are moments where you summon your giant robot and fight an equally giant monster. The fights are turned based and focused on percentages for attack, miss rate and block. If you attack and miss an enemy, your turn ends and the enemy gets a chance to attack. These battles start off extremely boring after the initial badass mech excitement, but eventually as you gain more abilities for it the mech battles become a welcome change of pace from the normal combat.
Outside of combat you also need to manage your studio. You’ll be able to upgrade things like the quality of your green screen, your lighting, or even your catering table. The only effect this has is on the stats of your characters or your audience level, but it’s a nice addition. Speaking of audience, depending on your stats you’ll gain a certain amount of money and fans per episode based on the shows audience level. You need fans to increase your initial audience per show as well as to keep your show from being cancelled entirely.
You can boost your audience and several other aspects by hiring one of several advertising agencies ranging from a legit company to a guy with a blog in his basement. It’s not as deep as I would like, but you could say that about the entire game actually.
That’s not to say I didn’t like the game though, far from it. It’s an incredibly fun game that I had a blast with. For fans of Power Rangers I give Chroma Squad a 4 out of 5. For everyone else it’s a 3.5 out of 5.
Opinion: Things I’m Grateful For
You guys all know that I’m a curmudgeon, right? I mean, I write mostly scathing opinions of the modern gaming industry because I think it’s in a pretty awful place.
So, allow me to tell you about some things that I’m truly grateful for. Some of these have to do with the modern industry and some, of course, are of things from older times and places.
So, I am grateful for...
Joystiq, Massively And Wowinsider - The Sites That Reconnected Me With Gaming Fans
I am thankful for the fact that those sites existed and grateful that two of them now live on as separate entities not controlled by AOL. [I am, of course, referring to MassivelyOP and Blizzardwatch. And you should certainly go and visit them if you didn’t know about them before. They are both worth your time.]
I am also eternally grateful that – in the wake of the AOL shut down, we – the fans – didn’t just roll over and accept that our sites were going away. We gave those writers the money they needed to keep going, because we believed in them.
I am also very pleased that Twinstiq got born out of those deaths. Through it, some of our community – and its spirit lives on.
DRM-Free Gaming
There were various copy protection schemes that all lead to the same end-point: making sure you didn’t disseminate the software to other people.
One good thing that’s come of the modern industry that I’m truly thankful for is sites like GOG and developers who consistently [and insistently] develop so that their games are DRM-free. It will be far easier, in the future, to archive and preserve and play these games.
A [Largely Flat] Technology Peak
The first computer I ever bought had no hard drive, no sound card, an amber CRT monitor, no mouse [yes, really, mice were optional back then] and just about 128 kilobytes of onboard memory.
In those days, technology zoomed by as people came up with bigger and better pieces of software. One of the first upgrades I ever did on that machine was bump the 128 kilobytes of memory up to 640, because it turned out that most games [at the time] struggled under anything less.
I’m truly thankful that we’ve hit a sort of plateau now. Instead of things getting more “advanced” they’re generally widening out. That is: Graphics cards all use a unified library like DirectX, now. Generally, from one generation to the next, there’s no “huge leap” between older video cards and newer ones. This makes it far easier to recommend and buy a computer. Even console systems have evened out to about a 5 year gap between new machines.
The Internet Exists
There are bad things that come with the internet: Gabe’s Internet Jerkwad Theory is a part of life on the modern internet. Day One patches could only exist as a result of the current bandwidth situation we’re in. The minefield of issues with social media. [and for some, the resultant Fear Of Missing Out]
Certainly, all of these things are terrible – and things that we need to be vigilant of, but to my mind, and especially as gamers, there are quite a few plusses to the fact that the internet exists. For example, it’s now possible to find people to play a game with, even if your friends are nowhere nearby – and, in fact, you can keep in touch with those friends more easily as a result, should they move. You can buy games without having to go to a store – and a greater number of games than you ever could before, too. [including classics that you’d struggle to find on store shelves, today.] You are also able to find far more resources about potential purchases than you ever could, in the past [when we were basically reliant on what your friends thought and magazines.]
And I am thankful for all of these.
Sierra On-Line and LucasArts
While I’m not as crazy about Lucasarts [because they never felt like “a family” to me, the way Sierra did] I am grateful to all those designers that made beautiful games in the form of The Dig, Loom and Grim Fandango.
Thanks, Ken and Roberta, for believing in the medium. [and thanks to the countless amazing developers you had at Sierra.]
And Finally
You guys genuinely make me proud that my hobby is computer games.
Joystiq Logo: Wikipedia
Massively Logo: MMOGames.com euologizes Massively
WowInsider Logo: Engadget.com [don't click and give AOL ad views ;)] Diablo 3 DRM: Imgur
KQ1 Specs: Gamefaqs King's Quest I Box Shots
Witcher 3 Specs: VGBoxArt
Internet Map: Wikipedia
Sierra On-Line Logo: UMBCast
LucasFilm Games Logo: ATMachine's Lucasarts Logos, A History In Pictures
Owl Family: Pixabay
The Twinstiq Podcast – Ep. 9: #RIPIwata
Second Opinion – Batman: Arkham Knight
You weren’t expecting a living and breathing city, did you? If so, you’ll be in for a disappointment. Every now and then you’ll encounter a police car chasing someone, but otherwise it’s mostly thugs and some plants that make up the biological diversity in Gotham. Can’t have Batman accidentally kill some innocent bystander while he travels around in one of the new additions to the game: The Batmobile.
I'm pretty sure at least 2 people died during this scene ...when I did a burnout on their faces
This is not without reason. Scarecrow has two more hidden roles in this story. One becomes very obvious early on through the side effect his fear toxin has on Batman. The second one is to keep you guessing, questioning the “reality” Batman experiences.
In a way, he is acting as a sort of psychiatrist to Batman, and the fact that, despite him being the direct threat to the city, he’s still only a delivery tool for the more intricate bits of story, is a clear testament to the writers understanding of the world and the intelligence that went into crafting this final adventure of Batman. Sadly, this doesn’t help Scarecrow’s underdeveloped character fill the main antagonist shoes and urgency in dealing with him is something that you probably won’t experience much of.
Still: The reveal of who’s behind the mask? Underwhelming. The person beneath it? No surprise. The timing of the reveal? Not working in its favor. It’s astonishing when you think about how little time the game spends on a character whom it gives three or four boss fights. The Knight is great as a character concept, but there just isn’t a whole lot of character in him at the end of a game that wears his name.
Still, the way they are sewn into the underlying open world game play fabric is to be commended. Every villain serves as a master of ceremonies for a unique set of side missions. Be it stopping Two-Faces goons from robbing banks, incl. an interesting twist on the stealth mechanics, beating up Penguins henchmen with Nightwing, doing some detective work to discover who’s behind a serial murder case, or chasing down Firefly in your Batmobile. All of those do a great job at keeping the game from becoming stale. A special shout-out goes to Hush, who has an amazing role to play in this game, easily beating out everyone else when it comes to twists.
The collectibles? Screw that. Even if we don’t count the over the top amount of Riddler Trophies (and yes, you need to collect all for the complete ending), there are too many watch towers to “climb”, mines to destroy and guarded checkpoints to clear. Even worse: new ones spawn throughout the story and they don’t show up on the map at all unless you’ve found them previously, or the “police” discovered them (which happens about once every full moon or so). It took me about an hour to find the last 2 mines and it was the second worst time I had in the game.
The Batmobile consists of two flavors put into one sexy package. First off, the traditional role: The Bat-car. It’s fast and gets you around. You’ll need some time until you’ve mastered the steering, but once you do, it’s the fastest option to get from point A to point B. I suspect that Rocksteady is using some sort of guided steering, which makes it feel rather awkward at first, but I never really had any problems with it besides one instance that we’ll discuss shortly. The most offensive thing about it is the engine sound. It’s like a mid 90’s Honda Civic motor stuck into a modern supercar.Depending on controller configuration, pressing/holding a button switches you into mode of operation #2: The Bat-Tank. That thing is a beast …on a vegan diet. Keeping with the spirit of Batman, you are of course not allowed to kill. Thank god the Arkham Knight is so technically advanced and uses remote controlled tank drones. Why he never thought about strapping some goons on those tanks remains a mystery.
I wonder how Batman would have handled that situation, if he couldn't just blow up the tanks.
It’s a fun, mindless, almost zen inducing game play loop every now and then, breaking up the “monotony” of punching bad guys, but tends to outstay its welcome. Especially later on, when you deal with up to 50 enemy tanks, spawning in waves. At this point, it would have needed some deeper mechanics. And don’t get me started on the stupidity of the pseudo-stealth “boss fights” you have with that thing. It’s fun once, not 3 or 4 times.
But that alone possibly can’t be where the frustration about the Batmobile stems from, right? No, most people would probably still be fine with that. The real problem is that it’s everywhere, often feeling shoehorned in. You use the tank for platforming puzzles. Do I need to say more? It also doesn’t help that the worst parts in the game all happen while you are behind the wheel.
Not sure if Rocksteady planned for things like this, but it's still great if you pull it off.
It’s not all bad however. Again, driving works well, the change of perspective is nice (would have loved a real cockpit view though), tank combat is fun every now and then, there are some fun riddles and challenges revolving around it, and you will experience some great scripted and emergent gameplay moments thanks to it.
The FEAR takedowns are new to the series and allow you to take out multiple opponents. Nobody knows how they work, but the guy at the end shows that quantum physics are probably involved somehow.
It’s not the best entry in the series, but still the second best Batman game ever. Full recommendation from me.
For a more in-depth analysis of the gameplay mechanics and an opposite point of view, make sure to hop by Cody’s review.
Steam Sale Aftermath: 140
New Steam Store Releases: Battle Fantasia (GTFO F1 2015)
Also, also released this week, the popular sequel to a PlayStation-only soccer game with cars, a very cool-looking and original Japanese fighting game that was supposedly inspired by Street Fighter III, and a pair of classic, futuristic real-time tactics games. Bring a sword to an arcade fight, then jump past the break to see more of this week's new releases.
- Battle Fantasia (Arc System Works, Single & Multi-player, $14.99) (Controller Support, Steam Achievements)
- Rocket League (Psyonix, Single & Multi-player, $19.99) (Controller Support, Steam Achievements)
- Yatagarasu (Nyu Media, Single & Multi-player, $14.99) (Controller Support)
- Ground Control (Massive Entertainment, Single & Multi-player, $4.99)
- Ground Control II (Massive Entertainment, Single & Multi-player, $4.99)
- The Red Solstice (Ironward, Single & Multi-player, $24.99) (Steam Achievements)
- Coffin Dodgers (Milky Tea Studio, Single & Multi-player, $10.99) (Controller Support, Steam Achievements)
- The Amber Throne (Joshua Missile, Single-player, $14.99) (Controller Support)
- Knee Deep (Prologue Games, Single-player, $29.99) (Controller Support, Steam Achievements)
- Timeframe (Random Seed Games, Single-player, $7.99) (Controller Support, Steam Achievements)
- Gunpowder (Rogue Rocket Games, Single-player, $9.99) (Steam Achievements)
Can I Get A WRUP WRUP!?
So, what's everyone playing over the weekend?
- Andrew J Amideo (@Andoro36): A tennis game of one variety or another (in honor of Wimbledon). Also, Fallout 3. *EDITORS NOTE: Make sure you check out Andrews favorite tennis games here*
- Billy Colley (@Amuntoth): Finishing up the Chroma Squad Review, and hopefully playing and streaming some Fallout 1!
- Cody Hall (@Yoda0VGs): Playing more Witcher 3 and Rocket League all weekend!
- Dante: Heathstone, Heroes of the Storm, Fire Emblem and Hatoful Boyfriend.
- Greywolfe (@lostwolfe, YouTube): Larry 5: we're going to meet the first lady of that particular game. kyrandia: MAZE OF DOOM TIME, OK. more hearthstone brawls! and i really need to pick up final fantasy 7 again, i've been slacking.
- John Rausch (@visitzebes): Dead Rising 2 and Bionic Commando (the bad one). Also, watch my girlfriend play Batman. I can play Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, or Ninja Gaiden and whatever, no big deal. Try to punch thugs as Batman? I get slaughtered.
- Thomas Ortsik (@Dr_Strangethumb): Depending on how much time I have over the weekend, probably some Witcher 3 and something on my 3DS. Animal Crossing is slowly building into an actual game ...one month or so after I started playing it.
- Trisha Baumgartner (twitch): Oh my god I'm going to be going to some resale shops and seeing if I can find any new 3ds deals of older games, 20 bucks can go far if you make it!
- Trey Valeska (@Trey_Valeska): Square Heroes, TF2, and Duke. Family goes back home after a week.
Serving an Ace: Six Of My Favorite Tennis Games
This weekend, I (along with countless others) will be watching the finals of the most prestigious tournament in tennis, Wimbledon. Truth be told, I've had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the sport over the years. Like so many things in life, I found tennis to be easy to learn and difficult to master (I'm still working on that last part). Frustrating as it can be, it is still a great sport that is fun to watch and play.Unfortunately, you need a partner to play tennis and those are not always readily available. That is why simulated tennis is sometimes just the better way to go. Fortunately, tennis games are not that difficult to find.
I've been playing tennis games on one system or another since I was 10 years old. In that time, they really haven't changed all that much except for the graphics. I enjoyed them when I was a kid and I still enjoy them today. Here are six of my favorites.