Inside is a difficult game to discuss. With a length of only 4 hours or so, there’s little enough game that it’s hard to mention anything without it being a potentially huge spoiler. And when talking about a game receiving this level of critical acclaim, reaching the upper echelons of Metacritic within the first few days of release, there’s a paramount sense of importance in avoiding spoiling anything. Inside has in fact produced a fascinating contradictory response where people are desperate to talk about how good it is but when pressed cannot bring themselves to actually say anything for fear of spoiling any part of the experience.
Experience really is the best way to describe the game. While not going so far as to be the sort of “interactive story” being put forward by companies like Telltale, the approach of Inside is very much one focused on the atmosphere rather than hugely overt mechanics. With just three controls, Playdead have taken the foundation they laid with Limbo and built it into what is very nearly a masterpiece. Near monochromatic, 2.5D sidescrolling with a heavy horror element and a combination of puzzle and platforming element, Playdead’s team have nailed what makes their games so very much their own.
At its best, this is a game that utilises simplicity of gameplay to tremendous effect, focusing in on establishing what mechanics it has as incredibly solid and surrounding them with chillingly beautiful art. Moving between various hideous deaths and fascinatingly played out puzzles, all wonderfully integrated with Martin Stig Andersen’s superb soundtrack, Inside moves along at a near perfect pace, the momentum constantly keeping you moving through scene after scene of bizareness and horror. There’s too much spoiler potential attached to describing scenes in detail but suffice it to say that water levels hold all the panic that they do in other games, the presence of chickens is pleasantly absurd and the physics of this game can sometimes be truly madcap.
At worst, Inside suffers from a slight disconnect between the player and the story. With no dialogue or narration, essentially no exposition of any kind, you are forced to work out what is going on entirely on your own. While this mystique lends a certain fascination to proceedings, it also has the unfortunate consequence of placing a layer of separation between the player and the character/story that can result in a feeling of witnessing rather than playing. For some this may work, for others, not so much.
This is ultimately a true work of game craft. In turns beautiful and monstrous, Inside underpins a haunting experience with solid gameplay and beautiful art.The puzzles may not be mindblowing but they do require a certain level of thoughtfulness, often accompanied by a death or two, and they operate within bounds of incredibly solid gameplay and superbly smooth animations. More than worthy as a spiritual successor to Limbo, Playdead have succeeded in expanding upon their established stylistic with a game that pushes the aesthetic and mechanical elements they had previously established, into new realms.
I don’t really know whether it would be correct to say I enjoyed Inside. Enjoyed somehow doesn’t seem like quite the right word for what this game is. Instead it would be better to say that I appreciated the hell out of this game and the experience it put me through. I don’t know exactly what happened or what it was about, I’m not quite sure what I felt except for certain moments of abject terror, but I do know that Inside is four hours of something all right. What that something is, will be largely up to you and how you read the strange and sinister events of this strange and superb game.
Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game is one of the most addictive, replayable and downright entertaining games I have ever played, and the Secret Wars big box expansions adds a whole load of new content that keeps the game fresh and interesting.
So, a quick look at the main game. Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game is set in the Marvel Universe, where you recruit Heroes from across the comics to battle against a stack of henchvillains led by an evil Mastermind. Standard deck had heroes like the Avengers and X-Men, where you had multiple cards of a character which offered different abilities. You then had to face off against a Mastermind, such as Magneto, Loki and Doctor Doom, and offered a variety of’ ‘Schemes’ which the nefarious villains were trying to make happen.
Eventually, the game began to crank out expansions, to flesh out the rosters of heroes and villains, from Spider-Man and his amazing friends, to the Guardians of the Galaxy. These expansions varied from Small Box (which focused on specific hero circles and offered 5 new heroes, 2 Masterminds, 2 Villain Groups, and 4 new Schemes), to Big Box Expansions (which offered about as many cards as you got with the original game, which add up to 350 cards per box). Additionally, a Legendary Villains edition was produced to allow you to reverse the roles and play as your favourite villains as they attempted to thwart various heroes and their allies. This version is receiving it’s own expansions, with one based on the storyline Fear Itself out right now.
Now, onto the main review, the Secret Wars Expansion – an expansion so massive, it had to be split into two boxes.
Now, as both expansions are Big Box Sets, they each come with 350 cards, so we have 700 cards to work with. What’s worth noting is that unlike the previous Big Box Expansion Dark City, this expansion is based an actual Marvel event – specifically, the Secret Wars event which ran last year, and so contains a variety of unique heroes and villains which some people (even those familiar with Marvel) may have trouble recognising. They add some new abilities to the mix, as well as a new game-type for players to mess around with.
So, you have a whole bunch of new heroes, which I shall categorise in their various groups -Illuminati (Captain Britain, Beast, Black Bolt, Black Panther, Dr Strange, Superior Iron Man) / Cabal (Maximus, Namor, Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight, Black Swan, Thanos) / X-Men (Old Man Logan, Apocalyptic Kitty Pryde, Ruby Summers, Time-Travelling Jean Grey, Phoenix Force Cyclops, Magik, Soulsword Colossus) / Spider Friends (Agent Venom, Spider-Gwen, Silk, Ultimate Spider-Man) / Avengers (Captain Marvel, Lady Thor, The Captain and the Devil). Addtionally, you get a new representative of SHIELD, Elsa Bloodstone, and three other members from the Secret Wars Battleworld; Shang-Chi, Dr. Punisher The Soldier Supreme, and Arkon the Magnificent.
Okay, if you took a look at that list and found yourself thinking “Wait, who the heck is that?” then you won’t be the only one…turns out Arkon was the main character in the limited series Weird World during the Secret Wars event, The Captain and the Devil is just Captain America riding on Devil Dinosaur, and Dr Punisher The Soldier Supreme is the amalgamation of Steven Strange and Frank Castle
Secret Wars introduces several new abilities, like Wall Crawl (which allows you to add the card you just purchased to the top of your deck instead of your discard pile), Teleport (you can set this card aside to add to your hand next turn) and Spectrum (where the new idea of Multiclass Heroes comes in handy, allowing you to pull an extra card or other special ability). Heroes can also Patrol certain areas (like the City, the discard stack, the KO pile), and get certain bonuses if conditions are met.
I personally love to play the Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, mainly because they favour low cost and wall-crawl to allow you to collect their cards quickly and play them immediately. I also find playing as Thanos tons of fun, because his abilities revolve around sending Bystanders to the KO pile and gaining power from their demise (though the drawback is you have to play against villains who love to ambush bystanders).
Now onto the Villains! First of all, we have the new Masterminds, Zombie Green Goblin (leading the charge of the Deadlands), Immortal Emperor Zheng Zhu (Baron of K’un Lun), Nimrod, Super Sentinel (Overseer of the Sentinel Territories), King Hyperion (King of Utopolis), Wasteland Hulk (Hulk of the Wasteland), Madelyne Pryor, Goblin Queen (Queen of Limbo), Spider-Queen (Leader of the Spider-Infected), and Shiklah, Demon Bride (Regent of Monster Metropolis).
We also have some teams from Battleworld who have no affiliation with a Mastermind but still patrol the villains deck – the Guardians of Knowhere, residents from Domain of Apocalypse, the survivors of Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars, an army of M.O.D.O.K.S, a gang of Ghost Riders, a hub of Magma Men, and a collection of Khonshu Guardians. Additionally, the expansion introduces the concept of villains defecting to your side following their defeat, and these are the remnants of the Ultimate Universe, the mutants from X-Men ’92, and the members of the Thor Corps.
First of all, I love the Deadlands villains. Every game I have played with them have been close games, and this is because of their ability Rise of the Living Dead. What this means is that when they enter the field, the latest villain you defeated gets resurrected and re-enters the city. If this is midway through the game, you end up having to fend of wave after wave of villains you just beat. This ability does not affect villains who now work alongside you, which means every Ultimate and Thor you beat still remains with you, which is another neat addition to the game. This resurrection isn’t restricted to the zombies though – Fateful Resurrection grants the villain a chance to res if the next card in the villain deck is a Mastermind Tactic or Scheme Twist.
Second, the game ups the difficulty by giving certain villains the ability to become a Mastermind themselves should they reach the Escape pile. This really comes into its own when you’re struggling to take down the villains, ensuring that the fight lasts a little bit longer. It also makes it that much more satisfying when you catch up, and tear them down like the mid-bosses they are to get to the final boss.
Finally, an ability which some heroes also have – Cross-Dimensional Rampage. What this essentially means is that when the effect is activated, each player must show a variant of that character (currently limited to Hulk and Wolverine) in either their hand or victory pile, or they receive a Wound card.
I’m not saying I always wanted to be God-Emperor Doom…but I’d be lying.
The expansions add a plethora of new Schemes which involve Battleworld Dimensions, mixing up the gameplay by having you face specific villains (like the Khonshu Guardians and Deadlands zombies) or by messing with the city spaces to expand the battlefield.
However, one of the more intriguing mechanics that the Secret Wars expansion adds to the game is allowing the a Player to take on the role of the Mastermind, getting their own collection of Ambition cards to add next to their deck and mix up the game just that little bit more. The Mastermind can still recruit (or in this case, corrupt) heroes from the HQ, and use these heroes to power the Ambition cards which can have devastating effects on the other players. Additionally, if you have the Legendary Villainsset you can have the Mastermind play with these cards…or use the whole f the set by having three Villainous Players set against a single Heroic Commander Player!
FINAL THOUGHTS;
This double-volume expansion definitely packs a whole lot more into an already impressive game. You are provided with a variety of heroes and villains to play around with and create your own scenarios. Also a nice little improvement is that each different card has a different art attached to it (whereas in the original you were stuck with that hero in the same bog-standard position which made it hard to differentiate the cards visually, especially when they were the same colour). You also have a nice variety of heroes to play around with – one game you might have all Spiders to allow you to create your own Web Warriors team, and the next you decide you want the Mad Titan Thanos to be paired with some lost Avengers to survive against the hoards of the Deadlands. It’s also relatively easy to pick up and play, though no one will mind if you keep the rules nearby just to clarify what some of the card effects mean. That’s not to say that the game is easy though – if anything, the new Masterminds and Schemes ramp up the difficulty to a whole new level, which makes the game that bit more enjoyable and challenging.
I do have some issues with this expansion though. The main issue was that when I got the expansion, I only had the Legendary Villains set but was confident I could use the expansion with this as I had been told the original wasn’t necessary. However, it does seem that this expansion was tailored for the original Legendary game, although I would like to stress that it is possible to play the expansion with just the Legenday Villains set – the problem is that the expansion feels rather limited when you take out the heroes and tailored Scheme cards. Additionally, the board seemed to get quite overcrowded with these new decks you placed on the board – I’m sure you can space it out, but it would have been nice to have got an official side-mat for Sidekicks and the like.
All in all, this expansion is a fantastic addition to an already expansive game. It adds a whole new dimension to a truly Marvelous experience, providing you with the opportunity to play by yourself or with a group of friends. It does have a few characters who were created solely for the Secret Wars event, but that doesn’t make Arkon or the Soldier Supreme any less cool and useful. In fact, it might prompt you to check out the event now that it’s over, and see how your favourite hero fared! Work together, or against a turncoat who has joined the enemy – you choose how you play!
With GoT season 6 at an end and season 7 what feels like an eternity away there have been a lot of concerns and nerd rage over the delays in filming, the length and possible delays in airing the new season.
Well one of our sources, who works on Game of Thrones ( and has done for some time), has provided us with a bit of clarification.
“Filming hasn’t been delayed, it’s currently in pre production and due to start in August, as normal. Though we are filming till February this year instead of December. Hence the possible delaying the show broadcasting.
Why is it filming for longer this year since there’s less episodes? Well I haven’t seen the scripts, but common sense would say because of logistics. With Dany over in with the rest of them now, her stuff will likely be shot over here instead of Spain, more crews wanting to shoot in the same places slows things down.”
So filming starts when it usually starts but there will be a likely delay in its release, simply down to logistics. Which, based on who the source is what we have heard thus far, is plausible.
Moral of this story though, it will come when it comes and it will be action packed, scandal filled, covered in snow and laced with dragons, so who cares that it might come a month later?
So as they say in my home land, “Stop yer Gurning” Winter is here and we are in for a treat come 2017!
Geek Pride will be keeping you up to date with what ever news and information that rocks up on our door step and we will, of course be busily scribing away on some new theories for Season 7.
Got an opinion on this? Got a theory? then let us know in the comments below:
I doubt that when Mr Stoker wrote a little novel called Dracula in 1897 he could have imagined the bizarre and myriad forms his creations would take over the next century or so. Having single-handedly kickstarted pop-culture’s obsession with all things vampiric, he could arguably be blamed for every transgression upon the original southeastern European folklore, from Twilight to Bloodrayne, to the atrocious Dracula 3000. But it is not just his pointy-fanged antagonist who has become entangled in a never-ending wash-repeat cycle, doomed to an eternity of re-imagining and re-envisioning. The name Van Helsing, originally a tough Dutch doctor named Abraham with no more than a passing knowledge of Transylvanian aristocracy, has become a synonym for Monster Hunter, conjuring images of a leather-clad figure in a wide-brimmed hat and enough firepower to bring down an undead elephant. Blame Hugh Jackman perhaps for his portrayal of a Gabriel Van Helsing, the eponymous hero of 2004’s Van Helsing with which this game shares a strong fraternal bond.
The lovely Lady Katarina in ‘Beast Mode’
I was therefore not entirely sure what to expect when I booted up the Xbox One and decided to take this, Hungarian indie studio NeocoreGames‘ sequel to their 2013’s PC-based offering, for a spin.
First Things First, What Are We Talking About Here?
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II is an isometric action RPG in the worthy tradition of the Diablo franchise (and the much-underrated Nox) in which players don the leather duster of a Christian name-less Van Helsing, son of Stoker’s learned Nederlander, who has been tasked with…something. The game itself takes place in a fictional 19th century steampunk Europe in a country called Borgova which was, until recently, ruled over by a mad scientist named Fulmigati (the big bad from the previous game). With him gone however the power-vacuum has caused a war to break out between the country’s equally mad scientist government run now by a General Harker (no relation) and a human/monster alliance calling themselves The Resistance for whom you work.
I must admit I had not played the original, so was worried that I might be a touch lost at sea, but my fears were allayed by a fairly comprehensive and mercifully brief backstory, narrated by Van himself. I still found myself quite confused as to why I was doing what I was doing, especially as the game leans away from the “show don’t tell” maxim and I found myself running from point A to point B killing faceless enemies for no other reason than they were trying to kill me, as various characters tried to explain what was going on.
Just as Bram Stoker imagined
Sounds Confusing
It was! But then something wonderful happened. I stopped trying to follow whatever plot-shaped goose I was chasing at that moment and found that I was enjoying myself immensely. The combat system is incredibly deep and customisable with options to play as a death-dealing dervish, shocking enemies with electric blades, or as a master of the firearm delivering explosive murder-bullets from afar. Or lightning bolts. And that’s just with the Hunter character. TIAoVH2 offers players the options of playing a magic-throwing sorcerer or embracing the weapon of the enemy as an arcane engineer, bringing mad science down to bear on, well, mad scientists mostly. Each character class brings with it its own tactics, weaknesses, and specialist loot, seriously enhancing the game’s replayability.
And want to replay it you will. What starts off as a bit of a clumsy shambles quickly finds its footing and turns into an absolutely huge adventure, jam-packed with secrets and rich detail. As well as a solid hack-slash-loot jaunt through a series of well-imagined and interesting locales, there is plenty of side action going on here to keep even the shortest of attention-spans occupied. Once past the first chapter players are given access to Van Helsing’s secret base, a gothic dungeon filled with strange artifacts, handy merchants looking to relieve you off your old loot, and resistance fighters standing around looking for someone to give a quest to. From here you can organise your troops, train your army, send your captains off on their own adventures and generally assist the resistance in their battle against whatever it is that’s happening in this game. Don’t think too much about it; go, craft some stuff, buy a bigger gun and head out to kill some more mechanical zombie giants or whatever!
Van defends himself against a zombie martian golem. Probably.
And Did I Mention It Was Funny?
It’s hard to get mad at TIAoVH2. I really wanted to be. The writing is incredibly inconsistent, insisting on shattering your sense of immersion at every turn to the point that I was on the verge of setting down the controller and just copy-pasting a review from www.game-larks.lol or wherever. But the relentless jokey snipes and meta-commentary between Van Helsing and his phantasmal sidekick-cum-comic relief the formidable Lady Katarina wore me down. You’ll groan at the bafflingly dated Saving Private Ryan reference, but by the time they’re referencing Angry Birds and Monty Python you’ll be happily chortling into your Xbox controller.
Anything else?
The Xbox One release includes both PvP and Coop multiplayer modes and a scenario mode which unlocks after the main game has been completed and offers bigger challenges and more sweet, sweet loot. Also check out the DLC for extra items, clothes and even a hideous house spirit to follow you about.
You’ll get no resisting done standing about here, my lads!
So, What Now?
Buy it. It’s a no-brainer (zombie pun!). NeocoreGames may not have produced the most cerebral RPG of the year, but there’s a reason they slap the word ‘action’ at the front there. This game is all about killing enough baddies so you can get better at killing more/bigger/more and bigger baddies, something that it does very well. There is just enough of a story to get you going on your monster-murdering way, but there is so much to do out there and it is all so much fun that it’s very easy to forgive omission of an engaging plot.
For the hack & slasher in you that loves micromanaging the perfect killing machine and has a habit of skipping through the dialogue, treat yourself to The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing 2.
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing 2 is out now from all good video game purveyors.
Played it? Let us know what you think in the comments!
And now for something completely different. Mostly.
Given the success of American Horror Story and The Walking Dead, it seems horror has entered the mainstream. There has been a proliferation of sci-fi conventions in recent years, therefore it is no surprise that horror conventions have begun to appear.
HorrorCon UK is one such horror convention. It is a prime opportunity for connoisseurs of horror to mingle with like-minded fiends in an atmospheric space to celebrate the weird and wonderful world of horror in all its mediums.
Special guests for HorrorCon UK include the prolific actor and author Doug Bradley, who is best known for playing Pinhead, AKA “The Dark Prince of Pain, Angel of Suffering and Leviathan’s Lord of the Damned” (try saying that after a few beers) in eight of the Hellraiser films.
Also appearing will be the actor, stuntman and author Kane Hodder, best known for his portrayal of Jason Vorhees in the Friday the 13th films, as well as taking Jason Vorhees into space with Jason X. Kane is also recognized for his role as swamp killer Victor Crowley in Hatchet, a role he continued in the two sequels.
Joining them will be Scream Queen and B-movie aficionado Emily Booth, who first appeared in the madcap ’60s-esque love-fest Pervirella. Since then, Emily has since appeared in Cradle of Fear, Inbred, Evil Aliens and Doghouse.
Not forgetting the literary side, there will also be Graham Masterton. Graham is one of the world’s bestselling horror authors, having won several awards for his stories. His first novel, The Manitou, was made into a film with Tony Curtis in the lead role. Three of Graham’s horror stories have also been adapted by the late Tony Scott for his TV series The Hunger.
Alongside Graham will be the award-winning graphic novelist Nick Percival. For two years, Nick created artwork for Clive Barker’s Hellraiser comic book series and designed the new female ‘Pinhead’ character. He was also the first horror artist to win the prestigious Rondo Hatton Horror Award in 2014 for Best Cover Artwork
There will be a series of Q & A sessions, as well as live SPFX make-up demonstrations throughout the event, indie film screenings and live music from the zombie band Iron Sphincter.
There will also be a Scare-play (bit like cosplay, but spookier) competition for those dressing in costume and brave enough to enter.
Finally, there will also be a horror market, selling everything from clothes and original art, to cakes and homewares.
HorrorCon UK will be held next month on the 9th and 10th July at the Magna Adventure Centre, near Sheffield. Tickets can be bought in advance here.
I’m no stranger when it comes to Lego® video games. I was first in line for the original Lego® Star Wars on the ps2 in 2005. I even sent in a video tape in of me glitch hunting to the OPS2 magazine and got myself on the dvd and a free copy of a game. I have since gone on to fill my steam library with the titles and can safely say I had played the series to death, then came Lego™ Avengers.
At its core it is still the old Lego® we know and love, just with a nice new lick of paint. When I was “exposed” to the character collection window I was gobsmacked. A wall filled to the brim with padlocks each hiding a mystery character just waiting to be played with. As usual there are many ways to tackle the stages once new characters are unlocked further down the line in free play keeping the levels fresh when tackled later on.
That Comic Book Feeling
As a big fan of the marvel series I was excited to see the characters re-imagined on the block screen and I wasn’t disappointed. Each of the heroes has their own unique skills enabling then to approach the situation in a variety of ways. For instance when playing with Captain America you are able to deflect incoming attacks but if we were to choose Iron Man we might merely fly over their heads, whereas ‘hulk smash’.
Lego® Avengers relies heavily on a series of puzzles in order to block your progress through the level. The levels themselves are quite short but regardless I found myself constantly stuck with no hints as to how to progress. At one point we found ourselves stuck for nearly 30 minutes because the game wanted us to engage with an object with no hint as to which object or how one might go about interacting with it. This understandably led to some frustration but it did not stop us from having fun.
Watching Nick Fury guzzle down milkshakes whist having a serious conversation with Loki about the invasion of earth was a treat and of course there was the usual nonsense in the background of each shot to keep things entertaining.
If you are a fan of the Lego® game series and The Marvel universe then I would recommend this game for a good laugh, especially if you have seen the Avengers movies, otherwise you might be disappointed in the game.
Fury Enjoying His Shake
My 7 year old nephew is a huge fan of the game and is most likely the intended audience but there is nothing on the box that says us adults can’t enjoy it!
Imagine a world where, when you die, your soul is uploaded to a man-made digital afterlife. Then imagine that you can choose to relive certain memories and experiences as much as you wanted, as well as your loved ones. Sounds intriguing, right? Well Wales Interactive‘s Soul Axiom provides a glimpse of what that could be like.
I have to admit; I’m a sucker for first-person puzzlers, which is why titles like Portal and Wales Interactive’s Soul Axiom really grab my attention. There’s something much more immersive if the perspective insinuates that you’re there, actually doing what your character is doing.
With Soul Axiom, it’s a little harder to become so immersed, as the general premise is that you’re dead and you’ve uploaded your soul to Elysia; a state of the art Digital Soul Provider, which allows you to effectively “live” for eternity. The idea is that your dreams and memories become a reality, so you can leave a digital legacy for your loved ones who’re still alive, or you can relive whichever memories you want to, forever.
As a newly-uploaded user, you’re thrown in at the deep end, and given abilities that are fused into your hands. This initial ability allows you to deconstruct and reconstruct objects, and you use this to solve puzzles and provide yourself platforms to traverse Elysia. These powers don’t develop as you progress, but you gain access to other powers as you continue throughout the game. These other abilities include being able to move objects and hold them in place, like a “pause/rewind” mechanic, and also a projectile ability that lets you blow things up. These come with their own respective colours – blue, green and yellow respectively, and you have the visual cue of objects in the world having the hue of whichever ability you need to manipulate it.
These abilities are acquired by progressing through the levels, and removing the abilities from what appear to be digital corpses – you also discover a memory fragment when you do this, progressing the storyline.
Each ability has it’s own distinct colour; green, yellow and in this case, blue.
The gameplay mechanics work well, and help to make Soul Axiom feel original and inventive. Using your abilities to solve puzzles feels natural and intuitive, once you’ve got to grips with which hand does what for each ability. There’s some interesting platforming sections, where you’re flicking between abilities to desconstruct, move and reconstruct platforms, along with puzzles like distracting automated gun turrets so you can blow them up. The developer has even incorporated some old classic puzzles into the game too – remember that one where you have to line up the pipes so water can flow from point A to point B? That’s included here too, but on a larger scale, requiring your “pause/rewind” ability. Once completed, a trap door opens to reveal your next step to progression.
Although the gameplay mechanics do a good job, I did find that because you’re not able to use your abilities on anything and everything, it made the experience feel a bit too linear. If we had the freedom of being able to use the abilities on anything you liked though, this could end up becoming a monster of a sandbox title that could get too much to handle. I’d really love to see something like that though! Something to consider in the future perhaps, devs?
I love some of the level design, but felt the PS4’s abilities were going to waste a bit.
The other thing I noticed is that the only form of guidance you receive is the coloured tinge that manipulatable objects have. It’s quite easy to not know where you’re going in later levels, or what it is that’s hampering your progress. I also found that if I left the game for a couple of days, when I logged back in I’d completely forgotten what I was doing, so I had to backtrack a little to work it out.
In terms of style, Soul Axiom has it in spades. It’s a cyberpunk-infused and often trippy-looking game, which has visual nods to movies like Tron, and games like Bioshock and System Shock. For an indie title, it’s really great and works well in the technological dystopia you have to traverse. What I did find is that although the visual style suits what you’re doing, and the Tron-like “hub” is beautiful, the game doesn’t take full advantage of the PS4’s graphical prowess; you’d almost be forgiven for thinking the title is a PS3 game (albeit a great-looking one).
The different abilities makes for an innovative gameplay experience
What lets it down are the cutscenes when you’re viewing a memory; the characters look a bit wooden in the way they move, and the design of them wouldn’t look out of place in a last gen title. This almost lends the impression that the storyline scenes were an afterthought, which is a little disappointing. It doesn’t help that the storyline is very segmented, but this is purely because of how it’s presented; this has a knock-on effect of making it difficult to emotionally connect to the protagonist or other characters in the game.
The soundtrack and sound effects work well with the atmosphere, even including audio cues for when you switch to different powers. This is a nice touch, but feels unnecessary as the game goes on. The voice acting is ok (not outstanding), and serves its intended purpose well.
The “hub” looks awesome
All in all, although I really enjoyed playing Soul Axiom I can’t help but think it could’ve been so much better. With a solid basis in it’s gameplay mechanic, and a relatively low price tag (£15.99 on PS4 & Xbox One, £14.99 on Steam… though in the current Steam sale, it’s a bargain at £7.49), it’s definitely worth playing. However, should Wales Interactive make a sequel, I’d expect some rather big things. If you’re a Portal fan, or just like puzzle games, go check it out.
Welcome to the second GP crowdfunding roundup which this time takes in documentary film making, computer gaming and boardgames.
Death of Glamour is a documentary project from Alex Sim-Wise and Carla Brown that looks at the rise and fall of the British glamour industry, from its early days in the 60’s to its slow death in the modern age, looking at the good and the bad.
Why should you care about Death of Glamour?
The glamour industry is an interesting facet of British culture, and one that’s distinctly divisive. Whether you think it’s exploitative or empowering it’s had an impact on numerous lives and the cultural landscape over several decades. Unlike most of the documentaries that pop up on Kickstarter, Death of Glamour is headed up by people with actual experience of the subject matter. Carla Brown is an experienced model working in the industry for over a decade and Alex Sim-Wise was a model for 9 years featuring on the covers of various magazines as well being a columnist for Front magazine (amongst numerous other ventures) but now looking back wants to document the industry, an industry which Alex and many other women were part of, both the good and the bad. Sim-Wise isn’t a stranger to being behind or in front of the camera hosting her own lo-fi madcap show In Bed With Sim-Wise and being a roving reporter for Attack of the Show amongst other things.
System Shock from Night Dive Studios is a complete remake of the influential mid nineties cyberpunk horror FPS aimed at fans of the old game and introducing a new generation of gamers to the nightmarish environment of the Citadel.
System Shock was released in 1994 and set in the future of 2072. Players took on the role of an anonymous hacker caught trying to steal info on the Citadel space station from the TriOptimum Corporation. After making a deal to escape punishment the player awakens after several months in a coma and finds the Citadel in a state of disrepair,something has gone catastrophically horrifically wrong. The Citadel’s robots are now aggressively hostile and the crew that aren’t dead have been made into cyborgs all under the control of a malevolent rogue A.I named SHODAN.
Why should you care about System Shock?
System Shock was an early forerunner for 3D genre splicing narrative based FPS titles that have gone on to become some of the most well known titles in modern gaming. Bioshock, Deadspace, Deus Ex, Dishonoured and more besides were all influenced by the foundations laid by System Shock. Now Night Dive Studios are recreating the original, with Terri Brosius returning to voice SHODAN, and aiming for AAA quality to make a game that will match those that System Shock influenced. An early build demo is already available to play.
Cosmic Balance is a card and board game hybrid from Alex & Brian Tinsman. Players take the role of gods, deciding the fate of defeated minions by sending them either to Heaven or Hell. This balance of good vs evil is represented by an actual scale in the middle of the board, a kind of karmic see-saw. Tipping the balance one way or the other causes a gate to open in either Heaven or Hell, releasing Angels or Demons that score you points depending on the minions you have in play and the territories you control.
Why should you care about Cosmic Balance?
It’s got some cracking talent behind it, both Brian and Alex Tinsman have years of experience between them working on several sets for Magic the Gathering amongst other games. The artwork from Lars Nielsen looks edgy-cute, like a Roald Dahl book in a knife fight. Plus the see-saw looks to add a fun quirk to game play that doesn’t diminish the experience or add any unwanted fiddly-ness. Colour me intrigued with this one folks, the theme, components and artwork all add up to what looks to be a great game.
At the end of the last season of The Flash, Barry Allen, still reeling from the death of his father, decides to throw caution to the wind and pops back in time to prevent his mother’s murder, effectively cancelling out everything that has happened in the first two seasons. Eagle-eyed viewers will have noted something very familiar about this scene however, something that was confirmed by the show’s star Grant Gustin only last week:
In DC Comics continuity, Flashpoint is the event that marked the end of the old DC Universe and kicked off the New 52, a rebooted series of stories aimed at bringing it’s characters up to date and streamlining decades of complicated history. In both the comic story and the show, the events of Flashpoint are ignited by Barry going back in time to save his mother, setting off a chain reaction that changes the timeline and creates an entirely new status quo. Given the multiple DC televisual and cinematic universes flying around at the moment, this would be a great opportunity to bring some of them together (such as the Supergirl show which has recently relocated to Flash’s home channel CW). We’ve collected some of the highlights of the event that we think would be fantastic to see in The Flash season 3.
A World Without A Flash
It appears that righting the wrongs of the past comes at a price. Upon waking up in this new reality, Barry Allen finds that, although his mother is still alive, he never had the accident that gave him his speed powers and The Flash doesn’t exist. It’s fairly likely we’ll see this on the show, although we’ve only just seen something pretty similar when Zoom stole his his speed.
Thomas Wayne Is Batman
In the Flashpoint timeline, instead of Thomas and Martha Wayne dying at the hands of Joe Chill on that rainy night in Crime Alley, it was their son Bruce who was laid low by the mugger’s bullets. Wayne Sr. dons the mantle of Batman and fights crime as the Caped Crusader on Gotham’s twilit rooftops as his wife, driven mad by their son’s murder, becomes this reality’s Joker. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who played Thomas Wayne in the recent Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice has already shown interest in reprising his big screen role on The Flash saying:
“Man, I would love to play that Batman… It would be very cool, Flashpoint would be very cool.”
World War III
In a world where Steve Trevor never washed up on Themyscira’s golden shores and Arthur Curry never learned compassion from the human land-dwellers, the Amazons and the Atlanteans wage war across Europe, sinking most of the western part of the continent in the process. Given the setup required to show an Amazon/Atlantean war it is unlikely we’ll see this played out exactly, but I would be surprised if there isn’t some destructive conflict that occurs as a result of Barry’s meddling with time. Dr Harrison Wells even sets it up in the season 1 episode “Rogue Time” when he warns that Barry saving his mother might result in the death of many other people.
Whatever happens, season 3 promises to shake up the Flashverse at its core, with co-star Carlos Valdes saying at MegaCon this year:
“All I’m going to tell you is things are going to be different, way different. Not in a bad way; I think in a really exciting way, and it’s that difference that’s going to inform Barry’s trajectory throughout the season, and I think people are going to like it.”
All this along with the casting of Tom Felton as a suspicious new CSI makes us very excited for the Scarlet Speedster’s return in October 2016.
What do you hope to see in the next season of the Flash? Which classic Flash stories would you like to see next?
Coming fast on the heels of the news that Season 3 of CW’sThe Flash will be closely following the DC Comics storyline, Flashpoint, we’ve now received word that Draco Malfoy himself, Tom Felton will be appearing as a series regular, according to TVLine.
Having built a career on playing the eminently slap-able platinum blonde in the Harry Potter films, Felton has been cast as Julian Dorn (don’t worry, I’ve already googled it, it appears to be an original character), a CSI at the Central City Police Department who has his suspicions about a certain Barry Allen.
How Dorn will fit into the time-line scrambling shenanigans that Flashpoint will no doubt entail is anyone’s guess, but we are super excited to find out!
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