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Z-Man Games gives us an Essen Preview


With Gen Con in the review mirror, it’s already time to look at what’s to come, which can also be translated into Essen 2016. Oh, yes. We at Z-Man Games are already working on many upcoming titles, most of them being scheduled for an autumnal release at the Essen Spiel 2016! So let’s take a quick look at some of the new games we’ll bring to you in Germany, shall we?

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Month in Review - August 2016


Looks like it’s that time of the month again! See everything that we’ve been up to and catch up on anything you may have missed.

The month of August is that tipping point where the days start to get a little bit shorter, the temperatures start to drop more and more every night, and autumn gently let's you know that she's around the corner. Absolutely loving autumn and the beautiful colours that it brings, Hamza put together a list that has its own beauty. With plenty of colours of its own, here are his Top 10 Beautiful Video Game Covers.


Article by Pierre-Yves
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Riptide GP: Renegade - PC Review


I still remember the halcyon days of booting up my dad's computer and firing up the maddeningly addictive Microsoft's Motocross Madness. Arguably the best title in the now-forgotten "Madness" series of racing titles published by Microsoft, this game paved the way for my affection of off-road dirt bike racing games. It also served as an introduction to tricks and stunt pulling, which is imperative to succeed in the stunt mode section of the game. This ultimately led to an interest in games of similar fashion, such as the SSX series, Team17's Stunt GP, and the surprisingly robust Trick Star on the Game Boy Advance.

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Portal Games announces four new August releases


Two new armies for Neuroshima Hex 3.0, the first expansion for Rattle, Battle, Grab the Loot, and Tides of Madness.

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Demons Age - PC Preview


Demons Age is a modern throwback to classic RPG games like Baldur's Gate and The Temple of Elemental Evil. Set in Moragon, Bigmoon Entertainment's latest offering throws you into a chaotic world full of elves, dwarves, and monsters galore. The dark, high fantasy atmosphere is married to traditional Dungeons & Dragons archetypes, but with Bigmoons own spin on it. The turn-based RPG is one part tactical, three-parts fantasy and full of challenging fights, interesting characters, and a very, very brown world. Though Demons Age is currently in Early Access on the PC, Bigmoon Entertainment is plugging along with new updates, and an eventual console release; until full release though, you can enjoy the dark and mysterious northern regions of the Abidon Sea on the Moragon peninsula.

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We Happy Few - PC Preview


Like most people I know, I hadn’t really heard much about We Happy Few until E3 2016.  As such, I didn’t really know what to expect.  After Microsoft’s conference, it really looked intriguing.  I liked the art style and the pseudo-steampunk vibe. When it was released for preview and Steam Early Access, I knew that I wanted to check it out.

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The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II Release Date Confirmed in North America


We have our soft spots for Trails games (PY Note: especially me! Go check this afternoon's review of the first one), and for good reason. Which makes this announcement a welcome one.

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The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - PS Vita Review


The Legend of Heroes series has seen many releases over the years, though not as many in North America as we would have liked. XSEED has amazingly been able to, and not without their fair amount of trouble for it, bring us the first two third of the Trails in the Sky Trilogy on the PSP / PC and the newest first entry of Trails of Cold Steel on Vita and the PS3 in which the second part is almost here. By almost I mean September 6th a week away from today almost. Being a huge fan of the Sky Trilogy I jumped into the Cold Steel one with the same excitement and while they are fairly different from one another, one is just as good as the other. Just to be noted upfront that this is a Vita only review as Trails of Cold Steel was not compatible with the PSTV.

The major reason for the mentions of the previous entries is because these two trilogies are nothing alike and the possibility of disappointment by going in and expecting more of the same is a big possibility. Unless you’ve played neither in which case what are you waiting for? The scope of Cold Steel versus Sky is different in just about every way from characters, locations, story, and visuals. There are some cameos but it’s hard to tell with the upgraded graphics change from one to the other. The only thing really linking them together other than being in the same world, which is nice as the concepts and terminology stays the same, is the concept of their battle systems using what are known as Crafts and Arts (more below).

Trails of Cold Steel follows the story of Rean and the rest of Thor’s Military Academy Class VII. Unlike the other classes which are separated by social classes and lineage, Class VII is a test in order to bridge the gap between these various social classes of the “average peoples” and the “nobles that sit above them”. Tensions from the outset between a few are high as some hide their backgrounds while others made a huge deal about where someone came from. Banded together whether they like it or not, passing and failing their school year relies heavily on each others actions.



With the above in mind, Rean has his work cut out for him. Each month will see its own set of field work, tests, lessons, and free time that are all important in order to not only demonstrate what has been learnt, but also establish friendships to better help operate as a unit. While in no where near as in depth as say the Persona series for interpersonal relationships, Cold Steel does a well enough job at integrating these moments with the overall events unfolding and the missions that take place over the course of the school year.

This structure lays out the flow of Cold Steel giving a few moments to breathe in between the larger segments but never outright boring you inside of a classroom. Classroom sessions are over rather quickly before giving you a bit of free time in order to get to better know some of your classmates and support staff (such as the class president) before heading out on a monthly field work assignment where the major bulks of the game will take place.

Using the time to get better acquainted with the others in your class will be important as it doesn't just add a bit more to the overall story and experience, it also affects character’s performance together in battle. All being given what are known as ARCUS, two people can link their battle potential together in order to do more damage with follow up attacks or defend one another, as long as they like one another of course. Participating together in battle, hanging out during free time, and playing cards with one another on the train ride between class assignments will raise these statuses which as friendships depend make combat that much easier as there are more options available.



These combat options range from being able to perform a follow up attack to eventually being able to shield an ally so that they don’t take an enormous amount of damage. This comes in very handy especially considering that normal attacks don’t do as much as I feel that they should but that’s also where Crafts, S-Crafts and Arts come in. Crafts are character specific abilities that use CP in order to be used in which up to two-hundred can be stored. When the threshold passes one-hundred, and the skill to do so is unlocked, any character can perform an S-Craft that lets them act at that particular moment regardless of initiative for a flashy and impressive move. If the CP gauge reaches two-hundred then the S-Craft unleashed is even more powerful.

Arts compared to Crafts are in a different field both in terms of usage and acquisition. Orbs, which are shiny round objects that contain what is essentially magic or skills, can be installed into the ARCUS. Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Healing, Darkness magics can all be used and take away from a character’s max EP which increases with every level up. Using spells is a highly effective method of combat as some spells are downright nasty to be on the receiving end of. Whether Arts of Crafts however, proper timing of these actions is extremely important as they can be interrupted, and thus, a character has been charging up for nothing though the same applies to the enemy.

Both of these abilities as well as the linking are all done on a 3D battlefield with each participant has their own movement radius. Having evolved a bit both graphically and system wise, Cold Steel has done away with the Square Grid approach that Sky used and has instead gone with a free movement approach. Characters in battle can either attack or use Crafts and Arts in order to hit the enemy. Each attack type is clearly shown by a circle or line that makes it easy to line up your enemies for maximum efficiency. Having battles drag on in any case is generally not warranted but some enemies are faster than the party and know how to do damage.



With both characters and enemies that can move around the battle map, there will come a time in which one of your party members ends up in a precarious situation sandwiched between multiple enemies. This can happen from them having moved up to attack or having been pushed into the line of fire from a larger enemy or an ability. Regardless of the reason moving them out of the way should be the first thing that they do. If at all possible however moving should only be done if an attack cannot move them out of their location as once a character moves, that’s it for their turn.

As mentioned ending battles fast is always a good idea. While the party is moving through an area the lead character, who can be any of the four selected for the main line, can attack both objects and enemies. Objects will break and maybe hand out an interesting item while hitting enemies can be a bit trickier. Hitting an enemy straight on may give the party the advantage for what equates to a single round. Hitting them from behind however can give about two or three rounds worth of attacks before they even get started. Where things become a bit tricky is hitting the enemy and then trying to circle around in order to get more turns out of it. Sometimes this this easy to do while other times it may not even be worth it. With all of this in mind however make sure not to miss as the inverse is just as possible with the enemy able to have an entire round to attack while your party remains helpless.

There is a fair amount of battle that occurs but there is also a fair amount of character interaction and well paced cutscenes. This may be a bit of a contradiction but Cold Steel starts off both with a bang and slowly at the same time. The bang comes from starting with everyone at level fifty and not knowing what the hell is going on with some crazy enemies coming out of nowhere. What’s going on? Who are these people and why is only one of them not in a uniform? Everything will be answered because the beginning of the game is really near the end. Going back to the beginning is where things can feel a bit slow while everything comes together and all of class VII gets introduced to one another and their teacher. From this point everything slowly falls into place and Cold Steel finds its stride with the formula that it set out: Classroom, Free Time, Dungeon Crawl, Monthly Assignment.



With all the love there are some issues that did somewhat grated on me at times. One of these was the weird balance of Rean’s voice acting. The voice actor chosen for him was perfect but not all of this dialog was voiced while the rest of the cast was. One person could be vocally talking alongside the text yet Rean would only have text a good half of the time. It can create a weird vibe since it makes the experience feel a bit disjointed since you know he can actually talk unlike a silent protagonist. While there is getting some used to it, it remains a bit weird. The other issue that took some time getting used to is that while skills can be skipped in battle, it can actually take more time to skip them than letting them run through their animations. For everything that Cold Steel provides however these were minute issues compared to the rest.

Trails of Cold Steel gets off to a slow start in order to find its bearings but once it gets going it delivers a solid experience. While taking a different direction from Sky which centered on Estelle and her journey, Rean and the rest of his class’ journey was just as enjoyable. With the second chapter coming out next week, there really isn’t much time to wait in order to continue on this newer tale of the Legend of Heroes.

Game Information

Platform:
Sony PlayStation Vita
Developer(s):
Nihon Falcom Corporation
Publisher(s):
XSEED Games
Genre(s):
RPG
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
Sony PlayStation 3

Super Side Note
I normally wouldn’t link outside the site but in this case I really fell in love with, and wanted to mention how much, the First and Second Chapters of Trails in the Sky that can be found over at DigitallyDownloaded.net which were written late last year from the PSP versions that I played through the PS Vita. Trails in the Sky were the sixth, seventh, and eighth (still to be finished being localized) entries into the series and Trails of Cold Steel are the eleventh, twelfth, and upcoming thirteenth. A few have been skipped in order to localize the most recent first. There’s a possibility of localizing the middle ones later on which I really hope that they do.




Review by Pierre-Yves
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Hue - PS4 Review


It was hard not to immediately draw comparisons to Limbo when I started off in control of a young boy named Hue, who lived in a monochromatic world who basically starts off the game with the ability to jump around with little context as to who he is or why he is there. The Limbo comparison one is meant with only the best intentions, as that was a game I absolutely loved when I first played it.

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Hue Review for PS4 is coming... in an hour


We usually post articles at 8am EST and if we have extras, at noon or two. If you've stopped by looking for our latest review? You will have to come back in an hour when the embargo lifts.

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Behold the Instruments of Righteousness in Super Dungeon Tactics


I have a huge soft spot for tactics games, and this one looks like it could prove entertaining given its board game origins.

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Attack on Titan - PS4 Review


In truth I am a bit surprised at how long it took the world to get a true Attack on Titan game. Given the popularity of the manga, as of the end of 2015 selling 52.5 million copies globally (well, 50 million copies in Japan, 2.5 million copies globally), and the almost-feverish craze that the uber-popular anime, commonly referred to in its Japanese name, Shingeki no Kyojin, seems to have taken the shonen category by storm. Since Attack on Titan's initial print-media debut in 2009, and its introduction to the West in 2012, Attack on Titan has been one of the most popular pieces of pop culture to come out of Japan in years. Now, after some pretty lame browser games, a forgettable Nintendo 3DS game, we are given a proper Attack on Titan game.

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Attack on Titan review - in 1 hour


Hey all.

So, we usually post our reviews and articles at 8am, but in this instance? We have to wait until 9 to post our thoughts on the game.

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'NASCAR Heat Evolution' Will Hit the Track With 40-Person Online Multiplayer


The subject line says it all - that is room for a LOT of players.

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Glitched - PC Preview


Glitched is a rather interesting looking indie RPG from En House Studios. Upon first taking a look at the demo, the first thing that came to my attention is that it’s also available for Mac, which is nice because that means I don’t have to keep booting in Windows mode to play games. Glitched feels a lot like Earthbound with a hint of Undertale thrown in. It has that nostalgic feeling to it while still offering something new.

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