Author: Thomas Ortsik

Founder and Kinda-Editor-In-Chief at Twinstiq.
Also known as Dr. Strangethumb

BloodVania? CastleBorne?

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As a fan of old school Castlevania, the more I play Bloodborne, the more I notice parallels between the two. From podcasts to forums, I see other gamers drawing the same comparisons. Read on for a breakdown of the similarities I've noticed.

Fundamentals

Besides the obvious horror and gothic vibe the two share, there are fundamental game mechanics both rely on. In Castlevania, you commit to every jump or whip slash. There's no changing direction in mid-air or breaking out of the attack animation, to act brashly is to court certain death. Similarly, every move you execute in Bloodborne must have the same forethought put into it, you have to be very deliberate and aware of the vulnerabilities you expose with each move you make.
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Both games tell a story through their setting, it's mostly discoverable and inferred by the player as they get a sense of it through the level design and artistic delivery. For example, Castlevania starts off in the courtyard, Simon Belmont then reaches the castle entrance, goes through the lobby, climbs to the roof and advances toward its highest tower. The background usually contains some hint of what you're heading for. Similarly, in Bloodborne there is a natural progression to the environments. You can also point out in the scenery the next area you will reach, and upon arrival look off in the distance and see where you came from.

Gods and Monsters

Bosses require a lot of observation and memorization to survive the encounter, and once mastered, you can usually get by taking very few hits. As for the individual enemies, there are a lot of commonalities here too.
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Cloaked ghouls slowly plod towards you, giving you a pretty easy kill. Let them gang up on you from different directions and you might have a harder time.
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Mud zombies love to crawl around in the filth and swipe at you with their only appendages.
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These jerks will fly right for you at high speed in Castlevania. Bloodborne's crows are much larger and less mobile, but will still try to drop down and maul you when they get the chance.
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Giant poisonous arachnids will drop down on silken strands and shoot webbing at you.
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If a Franken-beast spots you, it will lumber forward and then try to club you repeatedly with whatever blunt instrument is handy, or knock you down flat with a boulder. You'll face Frankenstein's monster in Castlevania 3, and he'll try and drop as many rocks on you as possible.
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This cyclops would like to cave your head in with a mallet in Castlevania 3. In Bloodborne, a cyclops rushes forward and tries to mash you with a cinder block.
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The Cleric Beast, Bloodborne's first boss, bears a striking resemblence to the starting stage's gatekeeper in Castlevania Bloodlines.
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These basic baddies are just around to distract you and catch you off guard if you're not paying attention.
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You'll find werewolves skulking around in the forests of Castlevania 2. Bloodborne's werewolves patrol the area and leap towards you, jaws agape.

What a Horrible Night to have a Curse

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Taking place mostly during the night, the moon constantly looms overhead as you visit the various locales. Bloodborne could be a type of 3D MetroidVania, with intertwining areas that lead back into each other from other angles, letting you open up more and more of the map. Each distinct area comes together to form a cohesive world that lets you run around from end to end.
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Cathedrals are present in each game, a primary requisite of any gothic horror.
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Foreboding forests with lakes and marshes will swallow whole any hero who dares linger in one spot too long.
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A horror movie cliché, but one that would be foolish to omit. The mist-laden cemetery always has a few surprises.
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Dingy underground waterways are as gross as the monsters that lurk within.
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The always dreary towns are full of corrupt denizens who treat any stranger with hostility.
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Likenesses are not limited to areas and enemies either, Alfred looks just like a vampire hunter if you ask me.
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What arsenal is complete without these fiend slaying items and weapons?

Is Bloodborne a Spiritual Successor?

I wouldn't go as far as to say that Bloodborne is the new Castlevania, but perhaps both draw inspiration from the same material so it's not hard to see a lot of similarities. Konami has its work cut out for it trying to mirror the achievements of its 2D precursors, but there are a few things to be learned by examining From Software's successful title. How do you think a 3D Castlevania should take shape? Are there any other parts of Bloodborne that you think would lend themselves to Castlevania, or vice versa? Let us know what you think!

Microsoft Aims for Sony’s Sore Spot With E3 Focus on First Party

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With Uncharted being pushed to 2016 and the Xbox One lock on Tomb Raider, Microsoft is further exploiting a perceived weakness in its arch rival by focusing on first party exclusives at this year's E3. The head of Microsoft's Xbox Division, Phil Spencer, is saying "this may be the best year for first-party content on Microsoft consoles than ever before."
At least one exclusive new first party IP will be unveiled at this year's E3 in addition to other franchises that will see new entries unique to the Xbox One's library. Perhaps we'll see more of Crackdown, a title which was previously used to demonstrate the potential of leveraging Microsoft's cloud computing. What would you like to see?
Source: Neowin

DriveClub April Update and Plus Info Soon

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Driveclub's April update is being sent out on the 28th - 30th depending on when the PlayStation Store updates in your territory. With it comes the addition of the LeFerrari, Startline Tour, multiplayer race replays, more granularity to the "time of day" setting for single events, adjustment of steering lock rotation on steering wheels, and various performance updates.

The Plus edition of Driveclub is still in the works, and server upgrades are currently being carried out to support this and the Driveclub companion app. Finally, news for the Plus edition is expected "soon."


Extra ranks and rewards beyond level 50 are expected, as well as a ShareFactory theme based on Driveclub.

I'm one of the people who have been patiently waiting on the Plus edition of Driveclub and I'm excited we'll finally get to hear something soon. Have you just lost hope, bought the game, or discounted the franchise entirely? Let us know!

Source: Facebook

Opinion:  I’m Tired Of Saving The Universe

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Words by Greywolfe

I remember the first video game I ever played.

It was the summer of 1979.  My father, my sister and I were heading off to get drinks of some persuasion.  It was the beginning of the golden age for Coin Operated games.  Essentially, you dump a quarter into the game and play as far as you can on three lives, sometimes accumulating extra lives as you bumped your score past a certain marker.  Maybe you got 20,000 points and now you had an extra life.  Or perhaps you found a certain token in the game and that added to your lives tally.

The games were two dimensional, but sadly, the plots were very one dimensional:  You Have To Save The World!

One of the first games I ever played very seriously was Asteroids, a game in which you piloted a very difficult-to-steer ship around a crazy asteroid field, trying to blast the asteroids before they killed you

SPACESHIP! Also, many happy hours blasting geometrical shapes in Asteroids

Technology as a limiting factor

Games technology was such that graphically, there wasn’t a whole lot going on.  In the case of my first game, everything was jagged, geometric shapes.  No roundness at all.  No colour, either.  Just two dimensional sprites on black and white.

That was Asteroids, of course.  And that year, we played many rounds of it between my father and I.  When we encountered Space Invaders, we played that too.  And then Donkey Kong after it as well.

There was Frogger and Tapper and Pac-Man and all the while, in the background the games began to evolve, but one theme began to stick out among all of them:  no matter what game you were playing, you were always saving the universe.

Gaming grew up and took root in our living rooms – there was the Atari 2600 at first, and after that market crash, the NES came along to rescue gaming as we know it.  And through all of this innovation, the games never moved on.

Admittedly, in those times, there were memory constraints.  Complex story wasn’t possible in a universe where 8-bit was the norm.

But the problem is, we aren’t in those times anymore.  It’s 2015, we have more graphical fidelity than we know what to do with, better sound systems than we ever could have dreamed of and great control methods [like touch] that have – in some ways – changed how we game.  But we’re still saving the world.

I have lamented, before, that our gaming stories aren’t varied enough and I think that’s kind of problematic.  You could level some accusations at gaming as a whole about this particular issue:  we’re not grown up enough, yet, to have story diversity, or we’re only telling these particular stories because they “suit gaming,” but I find both of those assertions to be problematic.

Gaming is – at a conservative estimate – forty years old – if you want to count older “concepts”, then video gaming stretches all the way back to the 60’s even.  That’s fifty years.  At this point, gaming is also vast.  There are a lot of people making games.  That we’re treadmilling on “let’s make a game where the hero saves the world” is a bit frustrating.

Likewise, nothing “suits gaming.”  Gaming is a vast, vast ocean of all sorts of topics.  High fantasy,  Cyberpunk,  the simulation of life.  Within those broad arcs, there’s a lot to look into and yet...we’re always saving the world, or more problematically, always rescuing the damsel.
in Ultima 4, your goal was to become the Avatar. To do that, you had to live by a particularly strict moral code. That is: If you want honour, don't kill the fleeing guys!

The Ankh. Fashion Statement Symbol of Avatars Everywhere!

Historical Games That Overcame The Technical Constraints

Looking at the history of gaming, there are a handful of stories that stand out for how very different they are.  Ultima 4 is one of those – while, yes, there is a theme there of saving the world by becoming the avatar, the actual ideal of the avatar – a being that strives to live by a certain set of standards – has never been explored again, really in a video game.  Some games come sort of close – Quest for Glory keeps positing that the Paladin is righteous and just, but then the game wants you to tap the left button a million times to level up your parry.

Likewise, Planescape:  Torment was all about how you are immortal – and what that actually means for you as a person.  There hasn’t been another game with quite that sort of story-driven scope since.

And finally, from the annals of history, we have Sanitarium – a game – literally – about a man trapped within the four walls of his own mind.  Some of it is incredibly disturbing.  Some of it is emotionally harrowing, but that journey has never really been replicated much [save for Psychonauts]
But these are just some standouts.  And even then, they’re only a handful of games.  Most old games – as with modern games – are content to let you blast away the aliens so that you can rescue the damsel in distress, but before that, you’d best kill your ten rats so you can grow amorphously stronger.
In Braid, the central protagonist rewinds time to solve his problems.

Rewinding time was an incredibly strong hook for Braid

Modern Games That Are Deeply Emotional

For the most part, our modern games are simply content to settle into the groove of the universe-rescuing trope, but a select handful have decided to embrace other ideas – more personal ideas.

One such is To The Moon.  To the Moon is effective on many levels.  It seems like a traditional JRPG, but it averts that trope fairly early in the game.  It tells a very effective, very personal story about one man’s last, dying wish and it does so with more nuance and emotional punch than very many AAA games could ever hope to muster given their larger budgets.

Another fantastic and thought-provoking story shows up in Braid – while I don’t really care for the mechanics [sometimes, it can be a little /too/ gamey], the reveal at the end is quite shocking.  Saying any more would spoil the game, but it is refreshing to see at least one writer try something different.

Finally, there is the masterpiece of Limbo – which is just about finding [what might be] your sister across a very desolate and helpless seeming landscape.  There’s no real text in limbo, nor any real communication, but the way the world is set up and the situations the protagonist must steer himself through all help the player bond with the protagonist in ways that few games ever really try.

Conclusion

Frankly, I think we can do better.  I think we can tell many different stories using many different devices and themes.  The technology certainly exists to support these ideas, they just need to be embraced by more writers.
Images Courtesy of Pixabay:
Pixabay

Fine RTS Announcement!

We here at Twinstiq are announcing our newest series of videos and articles, Fine RTS. It's a long term series and if you'd like to know more then watch the video, the transcript is after the break in case you can't watch the video.
Welcome to a new ongoing feature on Twinstiq: Fine RTS! In this new series of videos and written articles we will be taking a look back at the RTS genre in a more or less chronological order. Now, I'm not going to be a stickler about it and I will undoubtedly miss someone’s favorite game here or there but that's what the comment section is for. We'll be covering the big names, as well as some of the hidden gems and forgotten trash of the genre in a loose review format. In this video I want to lay down some ground rules for the series:


Rule 1: RTS is going to be loosely defined as a descendant of Dune 2, or Dune 2 itself. What this means is that we aren't going to be covering games like Total War or Dota 2, even though they do fall into the Real Time Strategy umbrella. In addition I know that Dune 2 was not the first RTS game and that other games came before, but Dune 2 really set the standard for what RTS would be going forward, so it’s the style we will be focusing on.


Rule 2: We will be going in mostly chronological order, with allowances for coverage of games we missed if brought to our attention.


Rule 3: We will be focusing mostly on the single player portion of the game. I know that one of the best parts about RTS games is usually the multiplayer and if I can find some other players I will test that part out, but it’s going to be difficult getting some of these older games into multiplayer matches and I won't be spending enough time with any one game to become a multiplayer expert, so it's safer for everyone if I mostly concentrate on the single player aspects.


Rule 4: All of these rules can and will be broken throughout the course of this series. This is about entertaining and informing you, the reader, and if I feel like that purpose would be better served by ignoring one or more of the rules, then I will do that in a heartbeat.


With all that out of the way, the first game we will be covering in Fine RTS is Dune 2: The Building of a Dynasty by Westwood Studios! 

Slow Down, Bull Review

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Slow Down, Bull is a simplistic game with a cute art style about steering a bull into decorations. It is also way harder than I expected it to be.
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Don't sweat it Esteban.

In Slow Down, Bull you control Esteban, a cute blue bull who enjoys making art. The problem is that Esteban is easily stressed out by his perfectionist tendencies and he frequently destroys his imperfect creations. I get the feeling that the developers at Insomniac who worked on this game are trying to tell me something about developing video games…
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Things start easy...

The gameplay is pretty basic. A right click will rotate Esteban right and left click will rotate him to the left. Clicking both right and left simultaneously will charge a boost move that allows you to pass though some enemies and builds a bit of speed. The stress that Esteban suffers from also flairs up when he turns. Turning Esteban will slowly build his stress and if you build enough he will go on an uncontrollable rampage that not only destroys decorations but can also force you into enemies causing you to drop all of your unbanked decorations. Your quest for shells, buttons, bells and such might initially seem simple but the difficulty ramps up and never comes back down.
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Run Bull, Run!

In the first several levels your only concern is leisurely collecting decorations and dropping them in baskets placed as checkpoints. Increasingly restrictive time limits and more wandering enemies will force you to speed up your collecting while still maintaining caution and control. Esteban can be sped up by bouncing him into walls or by preforming boosts. Multiple impacts and boosts will allow you to incrementally increase Esteban’s speed but his turning is never diminished.
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He never stood a chance...

Almost every stage throws a new cog in the machine. People wander the levels carrying jars and panes of glass and bull catchers relentlessly pursue Esteban. Each of these living obstacles behave slightly different and have different effects. The jar carriers can be moved though using the boost maneuver but the glass pane carriers and bull catchers cannot. The bull catchers don’t cause Esteban to drop his decorations but drain time from the clock instead. New complexities don’t just come from people though. Bashing trees and hedges will knock decorations on to the level and occasionally drop stars the act as point multipliers. Water pits allow you to instantly drop your stress at the cost of all your speed boosts and also act as a trap for bull catchers. Rainbow colored wormholes will teleport you across levels and a possum named Spike will multiply your decorations assuming you can hold him long enough. Then Mango shows up.
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You can always count on your big sister when things get bad.

Easteban’s sister makes things even more complicated. Mango essentially acts a projectile attack. A vision cone appears when she rides on Esteban’s head and pointing her at someone will launch her and knock them down. She also acts as a key in some places. You need to drop her in a separate basket that often obstructs the route to the decoration basket. Carrying her near enemies is problematic as she she will launch herself at anything that passes into her vision. This often sends her bouncing off in the wrong direction as you are try to leave. This is one of the few parts of the game where the minimalistic controls needlessly complicate things.
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Thanks...

Not all stages are set up in the basket to basket fashion. There are several arena stages that place you in open areas with reappearing decorations and people. These levels change up the game slightly and task you with using a limited number of multipliers to maximize your score before returning to a basket in the center of the area. Slow Down, Bull actually requires you to be good at it to keep advancing though the 5 areas. The exit of each area is locked and requires you to have collected a specific number of score stamps to advance. There isn’t much wiggle room though. You much finish most levels with three score badge in order to accumulate enough badges to advance with the story.
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Slow Down, Bull!

There isn’t much story in Slow Down, Bull but what is here could be seen as commentary on both the difficulty of game development and the nature of gamers who must obtain 100% completion. The game requires a degree of mastery to even advance but failing to collect enough badges will force Esteban back to collect more but at the risk of losing his temper.
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This game might push you...

Slow Down, Bull is a fun and occasionally frustrating game that manages to induce the stress that it so lovingly warns about. There’s a solid challenge here for someone willing to take the bull by the horns.

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Steam copy of Slow Down, Bull provided by Insomniac Games

A quick GTA PSA

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A few months ago Rockstar released a statement saying that most if not all connectivity issues with both PSN and XBox Live players had been resolved. Though with the release of GTA:V for PC the same issues are starting to creep up and rear their ugly head again for console players.

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Players are starting to report that they are having a 'doozey' of a time trying to connect to friends games or even connecting to their character online. As of Monday Rockstar released a workaround to try and help with some of the problems but the forum posts are starting to pile up with people reporting the same issues that were happening when heists release the first time.

PC players aren't exactly exempt for the problems either, players from all over the world are having issues with the game freezing, ram issues, bugs in game-play, or the game not even starting after downloading. Moderator's are trying to help to the best of their ability, so you are encouraged to post what's happened with as many details as possible.

-Tisnight

Which Unique Console Feature Surprised You?

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The PlayStation 4 has a feature I find hard to go without on other consoles. I'm not talking about the controller speaker, although it is cool when someone calls you on your cell in GTA V and the audio gets patched through there. It's a little gimmicky and although available to developers on the Wii for that entire generation, was still rarely well used.

I'm talking about the standard headphone/mic jack on the PlayStation 4 controller. I find myself wishing it was there when I play other consoles.

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I'm not made of money, I can't afford to buy a fancy wireless headset that works on one or two consoles that I own. I can barely afford to buy a new pair of earbuds when mine break every year, no matter how careful I am with them. Besides, I'd much rather spend the price of a wireless headset on a new game.

I live in a house with other people and don't want to bother them. Sometimes my son is asleep, I've got neighbors that don't want too much noise, and sometimes I just don't want to hear anything else. My earbuds are noise canceling, they're always handy for my portable music player, tablet, or laptop, and they sound good enough. Sometimes "good enough" is all you need.

The headphone jack on the PS4 controller is right there, I can just plug them in and be immersed in the game's soundtrack without bothering anyone else. I've played games all my life through the TV speakers and it was fine, I enjoyed myself a lot, but I've noticed a lot of advantages to using my plain old $10 earbuds.

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There's a magic that comes through when you don't hear anything else, naught but the game's soundtrack. The quiet moments sound appropriately quiet, you can make out the subtleties such as the rain hitting the pavement, as well as the footsteps of people walking by while they carry on in conversations. You can even make out what they're saying instead of having it drowned out by the air conditioner in your room.

The loud crescendos have much more impact when they overcome these quiet moments, like when you enter a boss's lair in Bloodborne and the orchestra swells as the fierce beast makes its appearance. Positional audio comes through brilliantly even through your average headset, allowing you to track enemies around you or find a secret beacon which transmits intermittent audio blips.

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Are there any console or even handheld features that have made a notable impact on your gaming experience? Is there something that changed things enough that you have a hard time living without it? Voice commands? Chatpad? 3D effect? Portable LCD screen? What's your number one surprise feature?