Hello everyone and welcome to Echo Isle! A land with a mysterious lighthouse, monsters prowling the woods, and a wonderful throwback to some classic games I enjoyed in my childhood.
The tower defense genre is one that doesn't tend to innovate much with static maps, various traps, and its simple to grasp gameplay loops. At least, that is until Minos with a mighty laugh to prove you wrong.
Hello everyone and welcome to the next instalment of KEMCO RPG: Isekai Villain! This time we get to witness the tale of a regular dude who gets transported into his favourite webnovel, but as a villain mob character!
Have you ever grown up feeling like you don't belong? For our Heroine, that's the feeling she lives with everyday in her small farming village. But it's not her only secret...
Medieval Crafter: Blacksmith, to me, is a relaxing simulation game until you get to the time-management portion of it. I've had the pleasure of actually making a part for my sewing machine at a friend's forge which this game brought back some fond memories.
Today we’re looking at what has rapidly become an absolute favorite in the open-world RPG genre for me. An interesting story, memorable NPCs, stunning visuals, and a setting absolutely dripping with flavor, Dread Delusion sets its tone immediately and sticks with it.
Nitro Gen Omega may be one of the weirdest experiences that I've ever sat down to. Having lost the war to the AI and its robot armies, humanity is on the brink of extinction.
EA Sports UFC 6 is one of those titles that felt almost immediately comfortable and familiar in my hands, but with enough updates and nuanced changes to make it interest after having taking a few years off from the series.
Net.Attack() is dangerously fun. From thinking that I could dip my toe into the tutorial during a lunch break to having put more hours into the game on my first day with it than I did my full-time job, Net.Attack() smoothly pulled me into a ‘just one more level’ mindset.
Very early this year I got the chance to get back into a more serious
style of digital Tennis with Big Ant Studios and Nacon’s AO
Tennis 2 for the Xbox One. Moving to the end of the
summer and into the fall, the studio and the publisher are back and
taking Tennis action to the world stage with Tennis World Tour 2.
As AO Tennis 2 had been my first time back onto a more realistic
court in quite some time, there was a lot that had to be learned from
the ground up. How were drop shots being handled? Top spins, slices
or lobs? It took some time under a rather rough career mode before
finally caving and getting some training done because it was clear
that I was missing something. Not to pull off the same mistake a
second time within the same year, I went straight for the training
sessions and I’m glad that I did because Tennis World Tour 2 is not
the same beast as AOT2 was back in February.
Sporting a new interface and a lot of simplified modules, players can
select from:
Exhibition Matches;
A Career Mode;
Official or
Custom Tournaments;
Online Matches
against others; or
Several
Tutorial Challenges to get you familiar with everything.
While playing an Exhibition Match or a Tournament are fun on their
own, it’s really the Career Mode that keeps drawing me back in. A
beginner and a no one, you get to create yourself from the ground up
in order to hopefully find yourself as somewhat of a match for the
greats over the course of time of your career.
Like a lot of other menu features, even the career mode felt a bit
simplified but in a good way as there wasn’t any fluff to get in
the way. From a main menu of five items, you can either go into a
tournament, play an exhibition game, train, meet your coach or agent
(and hire new ones), or finally take the day off to rest as you’ll
need to from time to time to keep in tip top shape. Everything has
been re-designed to go straight to the point and with the shorter
load times? Unlike AOT2, I didn’t feel like I had the time to get
up and do a bunch of chores before my match was ready. Now, if you
want to play, you play.
While looking and feeling rather similar as I played both back and
forth to make sure of a few things, Tennis World Tour 2 has had
several adjustments and a lot of them were for the better. The other
major change is to the gameplay that now feels a lot more natural as
you don’t have a cursor to glide across the court for where you
want your ball to go. Instead, you simply “feel it in your gut”
and shoot. It makes the overall experience feel more immersive, as
you simply adjust the tension on the thumbstick for about where you
want to go and then make sure to hit the ball right. Perfect, too
soon, too late, each of these will affect where and how far your ball
goes.
Without the target though, and this probably my only complaint, some
challenges are just stupid hard as while I can pull off drop shots in
a match, while I can ace through the tutorial for them, I can’t for
the life of me pull it off in a challenge. Even now, that challenge
remains unfinished in both the Tutorials and for my poor Career
player’s training which is a fair amount of experience points to
help them level up. Instead, I’ve had to rely on gaining experience
solely through matches. Otherwise, Tennis World Tour 2 provided a
fairly decent Tennis experience.
Finally, in a bit of an in-game “loot crate” style, you can use
prize money in order to buy new packs of ability cards that can be
used during a match. Does this help make things more realistic? No.
Can it help you win? Very much so! Coming in a few types and grades,
ability cards allow for you to either increase your potential or
decrease your opponent’s. Better accuracy, more power, or more
stamina to dash back and forth as you’re sent running after the
ball after losing control of the rally. Likewise, you can also
decrease your opponent’s everything and like your own abilities,
and depending on the strength of the card, if can be for one hit or
the next several hits. Starting Tennis World Tour 2 up for the first
time, you’ll be treated to several packs but after that? You’re
on your own!
Otherwise, if you’ve been looking for a new Tennis game to
challenge yourselves and have already been through Big Ant Studios’
AO Tennis 2, Tennis World Tour 2 is a great place to look with hours
of gameplay at the ready between the various modes and your potential
golden career.
While it's been a long time since I've personally held a racket, it
had been even longer since I had played an actual Tennis title that
did not start with the words “Mario Tennis”. Coming from studio
Big Ant Studios and published by Bigben Interactive, Australian Open
(AO) Tennis 2 was quick to remind me of the real rules and that a
custom made PY starting out his career was going to be a hell of a
lot harder than using a pro like Rafael Nadal.
Unless you’re good enough to start off without doing the tutorials
in order to learn the lays of the court, there are three main modes
available to you. The first is going straight into the Australian
Open with any real pro player, the second is to start up a career
with either a custom designed character in terms of both looks and
stats, and the last is to take your skills online. Making the mistake
of starting off my new career and flunking my first training session,
I went to get some practice and saw just how different AO Tennis 2
can be until you’ve leveled up and really developed your custom
character into a force to be reckoned with.
Creating your character is more than just adjusting your hair, beard,
shorts and shoes to match with your preferred color combination in
which that alone with all of the options present could take quite a
fair amount of time. Creating your character will define your
playstyle as you are given a monetary budget in order to train your
character into a specific playstyle. Do you want to specialize in top
spin serve? Drop shot returns? Lobs? Or just flat out send it back?
The initial choice is yours but it’s not where it ends as you can
both level up your character and keep training those styles that suit
you best.
Once you’ve decided to either make your own character or jump right
into it with one of the pros, the gameplay becomes everything as you
take your sneakers and your racket onto the court. The basic rules of
Tennis are simple. One side serves, the other returns, the return
must stay within the defined lines of either Singles or Doubles and
mechanically? It plays so damned smoothly. The only thing that I wish
I knew right before starting were exactly how to do the shots but
that’s why there’s a tutorial.
To either serve or return the ball you can press and hold the buttons
on your controller that both control the power of the shot as well as
where you’re planning on returning it to the other side of the
court. Because you only ever have to worry about the pressure by
pressing the four separate buttons for both returning or serving, you
never really have to think outside of those four styles unless you
really want to start playing “dirty” by drop shotting it just
slightly over the net. By doing this you force them to run so close
that even if they return it they’ll be hard pressed to return it
after you’ve sent it right back and over their heads near the back
of the court. It’s not full proof depending on the skill of the
player or the stats of the character, but it’s learning how and
when to use these nuances that can change a losing match into a
winning one.
The above is really where you’re going to see the difference
between a brand new character and a pro. Using a starting character
you’re going to have to be really careful on your timing as not
holding a shot long enough for a serve or holding on too long and
your ball may not even pass the net. As a pro? Hell that ball sailed
right over making you wonder why you would even want to make your own
when you can play at that skill level. And that’s where you have to
decide for yourself how you want to play and if you’re willing to
spend the time and effort into making your own character into a pro
at the game.
The only issue that AO Tennis 2 suffers from is SUPER long load
times. Once the game is loaded, things go by super quickly and
smoothly but getting into any match or switching between the main
menus and categories needs a bit of time so if you have anything to
do before sitting down to a match? That’s the time to do it!
Overall, Big Ant Studios and Bigben Interactive’s AO Tennis 2 is a
great title. With the only real issue being the load times, playing
either singles or doubles for any amount of time whether a quick set
or a couple of them is great fun either against the CPU, your
friends, or the scary people online that make things look way too
easy like Ryouma in the Prince of Tennis.
Lesquin, France, December 11, 2019 – BIGBEN and Big Ant Studios are proud to introduce the second AO Tennis 2 developer diary. Come and meet Big Ant’s team in Melbourne to know everything about the career mode of the second game in the official Australia Open series, coming to consoles and PC on January 9th.
Earn your reputation!
The reworked AO Tennis 2 Career Mode offers brand-new perspectives to players seeking a challenge. While performance on the court remains crucial, players will also be rewarded based on their behaviour during external events, immersing them even deeper into the world of professional tennis. During press conferences or discussions with your manager, maintaining good relationships with those around you is important to gain favour among the public and the sponsors. Each public speaking event can have an impact on your career advancement, thus giving the player the freedom to build their own identity.
A comprehensive interface
In the AO Tennis 2 Career Mode interface, players can check their personal profile to see their progression status, as well as the evolution of their attributes and physical skills. All these elements need to be taken into consideration in order to pursue a successful career throughout the season. Players will need to navigate matches, their travel schedule, and training sessions, while giving themselves time to rest and prevent injury. An injury limits performance on the court, while time spent traveling the world to follow the tour induces fatigue. In this narrative-driven career mode, everything has been done to let fans experience the reality of daily life as one of the greatest professional players.
AO Tennis 2 is planned for release on January 9, 2020 on PC, PS4™, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch™.
* * *
AO Tennis 2 is the second game in the official Australia Open series. Developed side by side with the team at Tennis Australia, the game gives tennis fans an intense experience of the first of the year's four Grand Slam events, which begins on 20 January. In AO Tennis 2, players can take themselves from the outside courts to centre-stage glory in the all-new narrative-driven career mode, enriched with a reputation system, or choose to customise every element of their game through Big Ant’s content editor. Above all, they will be able to play in the shoes of many tennis stars, such as Rafael Nadal, Ash Barty, Angélique Kerber and more.
About Big Ant Studios
Big Ant Studios Pty Ltd, a privately owned and operated independent game developer and publisher, is one of Australia’s largest and longest-running game development studios, having developed and published games from historic platforms including the Game Boy Advance and PlayStation®Portable, through to PlayStation®4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch™. Best known for producing high quality sports titles, Big Ant Studios have developed the highest selling AFL, Rugby League, Lacrosse and Cricket games of all time.
About BIGBEN
BIGBEN, a leading publisher of video games on PC and consoles, is known for its creativity and innovation. After its acquisition of four development studios (Cyanide, Eko, KT Racing and Spiders), which are all internationally recognised for their expertise in different genres, BIGBEN is strengthening its position as a developer and publisher of premium games and is aiming to become the world's leading AA publisher. www.bigben.fr
Company listed on Euronext Paris, compartment B – Index: CAC SMALL – Eligible SRD long | ISN: FR0000074072 ; Reuters: BIGPA ; Bloomberg: BIGFP |SALES 2018-2019: 245,5M€ | HEADCOUNT: 600 employees | INTERNATIONAL: 13 subsidiaries and a distribution network in 115 countries. www.bigben-group.com
Lesquin, France, November 7, 2019 – BIGBEN and Big Ant Studios, Australia’s leading developer of sports titles, are delighted to announce their partnership for the publishing and distribution of AO Tennis 2, the second game in the official Australia Open series.
In AO Tennis 2, tennis fans can take themselves from the outside courts to centre-stage glory in the all-new narrative-driven career mode. For the first time in AO Tennis, success for a young talented player depends as much on external events as great play on the court, which provides deeper immersion into the world of professional tennis.
Players can once again use Big Ant's celebrated content editor, which was loved by the community in AO Tennis, to customize every element of their game. Furthermore, all content created and shared by users since the first game from 2018 will be available in AO Tennis 2. That's over 20,000 players and hundreds of courts that can be enjoyed by fans of the sport.
For fans that want to relive the glories of their favorite players, AO Tennis 2 includes a roster of some of the brightest talents across both the ATP and WTA, including Rafael Nadal, Ash Barty, Angélique Kerber and many others. All venues that will be used in the 2020 Australian Open will also be available in the game, so fans can enjoy maximum authenticity as they play along with the Australian summer of tennis.
Big Ant also listened to the community and has implemented many other improvements and new features requested by players. More details about content and the career mode will be shared soon.
Developed in close collaboration with the tournament's organizers, AO Tennis 2 will give fans a more intense experience of the Australia Open, the first of the year's four Grand Slam events, which begins on 20 January.
AO Tennis 2 is planned for release on 9 January 2020 on PC, PS4™, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch™.
About Big Ant Studios
Big Ant Studios Pty Ltd, a privately owned and operated independent game developer and publisher, is one of Australia’s largest and longest-running game development studios, having developed and published games from historic platforms including the Game Boy Advance and PlayStation®Portable, through to PlayStation®4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch™. Best known for producing high quality sports titles, Big Ant Studios have developed the highest selling AFL, Rugby League, Lacrosse and Cricket games of all time.
About BIGBEN
BIGBEN, a leading publisher of video games on PC and consoles, is known for its creativity and innovation. After its acquisition of four development studios (Cyanide, Eko, KT Racing and Spiders), which are all internationally recognised for their expertise in different genres, BIGBEN is strengthening its position as a developer and publisher of premium games and is aiming to become the world's leading AA publisher. www.bigben.fr
Ten countries are competing to take part in the international grand final played live at Roland Garros: get ready for game(pad), set and match!
Paris, 12th February 2019 – Roland Garros, BNP Paribas and BIGBEN are delighted to announce the second edition of the Roland-Garros eSeries by BNP Paribas, an e-sport competition played on the Tennis World Tour video game, which will crown this year’s world tennis gaming champion.
The qualifying rounds will be launched in ten different countries in February to decide which national champions will take part in the international final, which will be played during the Roland Garros tournament. Pretenders to the title can enter now on the official website: https://RGeSeries.BNPParibas
“Following on from the enthusiasm shown for the first Roland-Garros eSeries by BNP Paribas, we wanted to go one step further this year with the second edition of this international e-tennis tournament, to offer fans and gamers the best possible experience. I’m convinced that this new worldwide competition and its new features will incite great enthusiasm in participants from the competition’s ten host countries. We are proud to share this ambition with our partners BNP Paribas and BIGBEN, and are eager to get this new season started!” explained Stéphane Morel, Deputy CEO of the French Tennis Federation’s Marketing and Business Development department.
Qualifying rounds held worldwide for a spectacular international final
This year, the tournament is even bigger! Germany and the United States are joining the eight countries from the 2018 line-up: France, China, India, Brazil, Great Britain, Belgium, Italy and Spain. For this second edition, the Roland Garros eSeries by BNP Paribas is forging new bonds with the tennis world by organising certain national finals off-court at some of the tour’s tournaments, such as the Internazionali BNL di Roma and the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes de Lyon. BNP Paribas will also host national finals in its premises in Shanghai, Bombay, Frankfurt and London.
The national qualifying rounds will be launched on theTennis World Tour’s online mode on PlayStation 4, to open the competition up to as many people as possible. The eight best players in each country’s first qualifying phase will then come together in person to play a final qualifying round in their respective country. The winners of these national finals will be invited to represent their country in the grand final, which will decide the winner of the 2019 Roland-Garros eSeries by BNP Paribas.
Two special tournaments will be organized. One is reserved for registered members of the French Tennis Federation, and the other is an online tournament for members of the We Are Tennis by BNP Paribas platform. Held during the first week of Roland Garros, this tournament will decide who takes the last place in the final.
For the second year in a row, this international grand final will be held during the Parisian Grand Slam, with spectacular staging that is designed to immerse the participants in an atmosphere that echoes that of the most prestigious professional tournaments. The participants will share an exceptional cash prize of €10,000, half of which will be awarded to the winner!
Preview of the new Roland-Garros on Tennis World Tour
In this second edition of the tournament, the participants will play each other on a pre-release version of the latest Tennis World Tour - Roland-Garros Edition video game, which is due to be released on 16thMay on PlayStation®4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch™ and PC. It is a unique opportunity to discover the game’s new features, in particular the newly-renovated Philippe Chatrier court, centre court at Roland Garros.
“We are delighted to extend our partnership with the FFT and to support the RG eSeries by BNP Paribas for the second year running. For several months, the studio has been working on improving the gaming experience and enabling this tournament’s participants to play each other on the famous Philippe-Chatrier court that will feature in the Roland-Garros Edition of Tennis World Tour, which is due to be released in May. Eagerly-awaited by the community, this online competition is an integral part of the game, so we are delighted to be part of this fantastic tournament,” announced Thomas Carpentier, product manager at BIGBEN.
BNP Paribas, the bank for “all branches of tennis”
This year once again, BNP Paribas are confirming their commitment to supporting “all branches of tennis” by continuing to develop innovations and new practices connected with video gaming.
“The organisation of this second edition of the Roland-Garros eSeries by BNP Paribas, in collaboration with the FFT, was a logical step for us. As a long-term sponsor of tennis, the bank has always supported the innovations developed in this sport, especially ones that concern the younger generations,” explained Vincent-Baptiste Closon, international sponsorships manager at BNP Paribas.
Follow all Roland-Garros eSeries by BNP Paribas updates live on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. For more information or to enter the qualifying rounds, please visit: https://RGeSeries.bnpparibas
About the Roland-Garros eSeries by BNP Paribas
Created in 2018, the Roland-Garros eSeries by BNP Paribas is the world’s first ever tennis gaming tournament. With qualifying rounds held in ten different countries, this tournament gives e-tennis fans from all over the globe the chance to play each other on the Tennis World Tour game, published by BIGBEN. Roland Garros is breaking ground as the first Grand Slam tournament to organise this type of competition.
About Roland Garros
In the eyes of sports fans, and indeed the general public, the Roland Garros tournament is an unmissable event that enjoys immense prestige. The 2018 French Open attracted more than 480,000spectators and was broadcast in 223 countries worldwide, confirming the tournament's status as a first-class international sporting event. Organised by the French Tennis Federation, Roland Garros is the only Grand Slam tournament to be played on clay, one of the oldest and most noble surfaces in the history of tennis.
About BNP Paribas and tennis
BNP Paribas is today the number one partner to tennis worldwide, with a commitment, unrivalled in sport, which goes back all the way to 1973. The Group’s support covers all levels and dimensions of the game all over the world, including singles, doubles, team tennis, wheelchair tennis and family tennis, ranging from beginners’ training to the top professional tournaments.
Professional Tennis: Official sponsor of the French Open at Roland Garros; title sponsor of the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas and the Fed Cup by BNP Paribas; title sponsor of three ATP Masters 1000 tournaments – the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters, the Internazionali BNL d’Italia (Italian Open) in Rome; partner to the Open 13 (Marseille), the Parc de Lyon Open, the BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open and the Fever-Tree Championships (Queen’s Club, London), European Open (Anvers);
Wheelchair Tennis: BNP Paribas Open de France; BNP Paribas World Team Cup;
Junior & University Tennis and Academies: The Junior Davis Cup by BNP Paribas and Junior Fed Cup by BNP Paribas; the Master’U BNP Paribas;
Amateur Tennis: Sponsor of the BNP Paribas Family Trophy; also providing support to over 1,000 amateur tournaments around the world through partnerships with more than 20 national tennis federations; also working with dozens of tennis-based charities such as Yannick Noah’s charity organisation ‘Fête le mur’; as well as being the mainspring of a number of ground-breaking social projects linked to tennis;
The ‘BNP Paribas Young Talent Team’ mentored by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, sponsored in association with the French Tennis Federation.
Having entered into all these partnerships, BNP Paribas set up in 2011 a programme called We Are Tennis, whose purpose is to promote interest in the game of tennis all over the world. The wearetennis.comwebsite and its social network accounts bring together a community of tennis lovers and dedicated fans from all continents who are keen to obtain the latest news from the ATP, WTA and ITF circuits. Furthermore, in 2015 BNP Paribas created the We Are Tennis Fan Academy, which enables fans to express their passion for tennis as never before. BNP Paribas also supports local tennis through crowdfunding campaigns designed to finance projects.
In addition, the Group initiated in 2015 a charity programme called ‘Aces of the Heart’ to assist young hospital in-patients and their families. The programme seeks to improve the daily lives and reception facilities at children’s hospitals and arranges for the children to attend tennis tournaments sponsored by BNP Paribas.
About BIGBEN
BIGBEN is a key player in video game publication and the design and distribution of smartphone and gaming accessories, as well as audio products. Renowned for its innovations and creativity, the group’s ambition is to become a leader in all of its fields of expertise. www.bigben.fr
