Mothergunship: Forge Review

Mothergunship: Forge by developer and publisher Terrible Posture Games—PC (SteamVR) review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes. 

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Having originally released as a first person shooter / roguelike / bullet hell back in 2018, Terrible Posture Games is back again with more Mothergunship action. Taking you from behind the screen and putting you right into the action within VR, Mothergunship: Forge is all about the same thing but from a less safe space as it drops you right in that middle of the action instead of keeping you safely behind a screen.

Full disclosure? I jumped many times and this isn't even a horror experience. Like in real life though, when you don't expect something to be somewhere it's going to scare the crap out of you. Thankfully you can punch things but more on that shortly.

Mothergunship: Forge is an intense experience that doesn't hesitate to throw you right into the action. Starting off with nothing more than your fists for a tutorial, you'll be punching and blasting your way through various rooms with various enemies. The goal? To both hopefully complete the challenges ahead and defeat the Mothergunship by any means necessary. Even if that means equipping your guns with 80s style boomboxes and cowboy stetsons.

The great thing about Mothergunship is that it's easy to pick a starting point. Loading up an adventure will bring you right into the action where you'll literally be using your two hands to put crazy weapons together. Split between gun parts and connectors, there's no shortage of insanity as long as what you have on hand, oh yes, I went there, fits together with neat little arrows of what direction a node can be attached.

The best part of this is that all of these connections go straight onto your primary connectors which are attached to your in game gloves. This means if you move your hand, you move your weapon. Have a connector that has three horizontal outputs? You can attach three different items. Three guns. Two guns and a power up. Two power ups and a gun. Three power ups if this connector is already attached to another. The options become limitless once you start to get new pieces and if you're not happy with the loadout? Swap it all around as everything is plug and play!

This flexibility makes combat that much easier, or that much more chaotic, depending on what you have on hand. While most guns will shoot forward, and some may lob such as grenade launchers, not all connectors will be offering straight shots. Some are at angles, some will be literally shooting to the left or the right of what's currently forward, and others will be up or down. So while you're standing in the game and looking around to see what's currently attacking you, you'll also have to pay attention to how your hands are placed in order to get the best shot(s) possible.

I can also easily state for the record that I will never star in a John Woo film. Not with my performances!

Looking through a screen is one thing as you're detached from the experience regardless of how immersive it could be. Standing in a room with a virtual reality headset though? There's nowhere to run as you're now in it for better, or worse! With this came something that I appreciated. While pulling the trigger guns blazing in the direction of anything shooting at you, the only thing you need to worry about not getting hit is your head. Not your body, not where your legs would potentially be. Just your head.

This makes the rest of the action a lot smoother as Mothergunship: Forge is a bullet hell and oh, let me tell you, it lives up to that name especially in boss fights. So only having to move your head means that you can easily play standing up in a small to medium sized room, or, sitting in a chair if you're willing to strafe a bit by pushing your chair wheels over whenever necessary. It also means that you don't have to really worry about moving around with the joysticks on your motion controllers as just a good step or two should be good enough most of the time… as long as you see it coming.

For the moments that you don't see coming, that's where either your fists or your health bar come in. In terms of enemy types, you have turrets, flyers and what I'll call crawlers. With your eyes "up" you can miss these still sizable metal munchers that make me think of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mousers, or Digimon's Metal Greymon. This is where you'll want to make sure that you have a bit of pressure on your controller sensors to activate your fist weapons and you'll need to be ready to punch, straight or uppercut, if needed. It's a good thing to have as knee jerk reactions will often save your health meter.

This is where I'll take a second to lead in to maybe my only potential suggestion as I don't have any complaints on Mothergunship: Forge. Because of how I was standing, it took me two actual runs to find out where my health meter was or where my currency was being listed for whenever I would get to a shop. More on that shortly. These are displayed on the back of your gloves instead of a heads up display. While it does keep the experience super clean as there's nothing to distract you… you do have to either extend your arms or look down to see how many more hits you can potentially take.

In between all of the gunning and punching, after each room has been cleared of enemies, you'll get a choice to pick a door forward. Do you want to go towards cash? Gun parts? Shops? Purple embershards... crystals... stuff? More on those shortly but NPCs make up your mind! Or do you want to tackle a challenge which ups the difficulty of what comes next? There's no real right choice other than what makes sense for you at that moment in time.

Finally, the last element to Mothergunship: Forge are these purple "crystals" that can be acquired. Collected either by defeating enemies or by choosing them as a room reward, the accumulation will unlock new weapon options for you on your next run. Available from the main hub menu, you can see what can be unlocked once you have collected enough of these such as what was called a pizza launcher. Looked like a pizza launcher but shot out metal saw disks of destruction. Side to these, other perks such as starting off with extra health can also be obtained if you perform certain actions that are listed which only help to give you a head start on your next challenge run.

Summary

As a fan of Roguelikes and still a beginner in the realms of VR, I thought that Terrible Poster Games' Mothergunship: Forge was a solid experience. Solid visuals, scary bosses when they come up to your face, loads, and I mean LOADS, of weapons and weapon combinations to choose from, there's more than enough to keep anyone going for hours at a time all from the… safety of your living space. Hard to be safe when you're technically in another world!

Score: 8.25 / 10

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Watch LOUD Gameplay Full Song Playthrough on Hard Difficulty

12 July 2022, Warsaw, Poland | Polish developer Hyperstrange have put out a full song playthrough from LOUD, their upcoming passion project that is a wholesome rhythm arcade guitar game. The footage is captured from the Nintendo Switch version of the game and features the custom-written song, Fear No More.

We can all choose to ignore that the dev playing wasn't able to make this a perfect run and botched it right towards the end :D

LOUD also comes with a full story mode staring Astrid, a young teenage girl with big dreams of becoming a talented musician to avoid a potentially mundane adult life. So she dives head first into the world of guitar, pop-punk, and emo.

14 custom-written songs make up the 14 chapters of Astrid’s story as she goes from playing air guitar in her basement to hopefully signing her first deal with a talent scout. Master songs and improve your timing to unlock additional cosmetic upgrades such as outfits, guitars, and locations. Three difficulty modes plus a 4th tier are unlockable in-game.

LOUD will release first on the Nintendo Switch on July 15th, 2022, and will be coming to other platforms at a later date.

About Hyperstrange

We are Hyperstrange, and so are our games.

Hyperstrange is a games development and publishing studio operating from Warsaw, Poland. Founded on the day of 2015 Solar Eclipse, we continue to bring Metal, Fantasy, Action and Hyper-strangeness to gamers worldwide.
 

Article by: Susan N.

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Sanabi Preview

Sanabi by developer Wonder Potion and publisher Neowiz Games—PC (Steam) preview written by Robert with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes. 

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The term, “Metroidvania” tends to be tossed around a lot in gaming. Though there are parallels between the Metroid/Castlevania titles of old, with Sanabi, I found myself thinking it more along the lines of Mega-Man, Strider, and Bionic Commando as the gameplay elements are just different enough to put them in a class of their own.

Strange as it may sound but I would even posit that Sanabi has quite a bit more in common with industry juggernauts like the Dark Souls franchise out of From Software, Guerilla Games’ Horizon franchise, CD Projekt Red’s Witcher franchise, and Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima. Sure, those games are all supermassive franchises with giant game studios and publishers behind them, but they all share some basic elements in common, and one of those elements? They weave the tutorial section into and as a part of the world-building.

Sanabi does something special with its tutorial section in that few other modern games seem to do- it builds an emotional connection between you and the main character. I have to commend the folks at Wonder Potion as their brilliant use of color was something I excitedly picked up on right from the get go and that’s significant because I’m colorblind… badly, so the use of two contrasting color palettes themselves help with the narrative at play.  The abrupt but not unexpected launch from pastel-forests to moist concrete-and-neon jungles might be a bit predictable, but it’s tasteful, and more importantly, feels natural.

After the obligatory tutorial, you’re launched into the sequence that finally opens the game up to you, and it immediately puts your slinging skills to the test. Everything you learned will be eked out of you but not in a punishing manner- instead it helps highlight just how freaking satisfying movement in Sanabi is.

Before you know it, you’ll be using your prosthetic arm to sling yourself through levels that though modern, brought me right back to the late-80’s/early-90’s. For a game so dark, it also feels wholesome. That’s a special feeling, one I hope others from the era will remember and appreciate. Most games these days push you through a tutorial section as fast as they can so you can get to the real meat-and-potatoes of the game.

While the introduction / tutorial section is narratively strong and functionally appropriate it, and the rest of Sanabi isn’t flawless. In speaking with colleagues here at Chalgyr’s Game Room, I reiterated a few times just how bad I was at Sanabi and how I was excited to be able to use a gamepad and how confident I was that I’d be a wicked good super star at the game.

I was wrong.

While there is gamepad support in Sanabi, it’s rudimentary at best and didn’t feel natural. When a primary gameplay mechanic hinges on precision, having unnatural keybindings and plenty of input lag is an antithesis to the game itself. After a bit of gameplay my bruised ego felt a bit better, I gave it another go with mouse and keyboard. In about a billion in-game kursplats and the like, I started to get the hang of it and when I finally clicked with the controls … that is when I felt the most engaged.

The good news is that Wonder Potion’s feedback channels are very active, with their dev team regularly checking in so they can make changes influenced by the player. There’s one in particular that definitely makes me want to go watch paint dry. For no reason at all … the mouse movement gets stuck in a random direction. Frustrating to be sure, but I also have faith in Wonder Potion- they are genuinely excited to get the game into your hands and in a way, allow us (the gamer) to be a part of the development process. While that’s always been the spirit of “Early Access” titles, Wonder Potion feels genuine. That’s important in this day and age.

There are some weird chugs every now and then, and though this is weird and likely only unique to me, but there are sounds within sounds and tunes within the music that sound distractingly close to other sounds from other games, though I couldn’t name or place those games. They simply sound familiar.

 

Summary

It's hard to talk about Sanabi without absolutely gushing on about how well it nudges the ol’ nostalgia button while also being a humbling title. Before Sanabi, I considered myself “good” at playing video games.

I enjoy the challenge, the world-building, the lore, everything … but boy-oh-boy am I bad at playing Sanabi but in a way that’s humbling, not demeaning. Not because it’s a functionally bad game (it’s not), not at all- in fact, it’s designed well enough that it’s in a state far more stable than typical Early Access games.

Score: N/A

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Coromon RPG Headed to the Nintendo Switch July 21st!

Zevenaar, The Netherlands – July 7, 2022 – Coromon, the modern monster-taming RPG from developer TRAGsoft and publisher Freedom Games, chooses Nintendo Switch to join its squad after collecting more than 100,000 unit sales on PC. Cross-save features between PC and console will also become available at launch, on July 21, 2022.

Plant an eager foot into the Velua region and encounter powerful creatures called Coromon. Assume the role of an apprentice Coromon researcher to study and catch these adorable, yet formidable animals as a member of the illustrious Lux Solis organization. Join the Titan Taskforce to foil an evil rival institution’s corrupt plans to harness the fabled Coromon Titans’ powers and rain chaos upon the world.

Explore six beautiful pixel-art biomes including icy terrains, marshy swamps, and dark dungeons, all containing their own distinct Coromon. Encounter more than 120 different species and bring together an A-team of ferocious fighters to battle enemies. Strategize for each encounter with the use of seven element types and custom stats distribution for each Coromon to develop a top-tier roster.

Cruise through the adventure with a variety of difficulty options ranging from a more casual gameplay experience or test the squad’s limits with the built-in fan-favorite “Nuzlocke” and randomizer options. Craft a personalized trainer and take the Lux Solis personality test to choose the best beginner battling buddy.

“Coromon is our love letter to a treasured game genre and we cherish this opportunity to finally bring it to Nintendo Switch,” said Jochem Pouwels, Founder, TRAGsoft. “After the overwhelmingly positive response to Coromon’s PC launch, and with how patient everyone has been, we want to thank our community for being so supportive and encouraging. We expect everyone’s creature catching journeys on the go will meet all expectations they have had for us!”

Coromon comes to Nintendo Switch for $19.99 with English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (Simplified) language support.

To learn more, visit Coromon’s official site and join the community on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Discord, and search #Coromon on social media.

About TRAGsoft

TRAGsoft is an independent game studio founded in 2016 by Two Ridiculously Ambitious Guys, Jochem Pouwels and Marcel van der Made. Based in Zevenaar, Netherlands, the developer is passionately devoted to releasing its debut project Coromon to critical acclaim in 2022 selling more than 75,000 copies in its first month.

For more information, check out the official Coromon website.

About Freedom Games

Freedom Games is a publisher dedicated to offering best-in-class services to partners and providing players around the world with unique and memorable experiences. With over 50 years of combined industry experience at the executive level, Freedom! Games seeks to leverage its expertise to facilitate great games and even better publishing experiences.

To learn more, visit the official Freedom Games website.

Article by: Susan N.

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City of Gangsters: Shadow Government (DLC) Review

City of Gangsters by developer SomaSim and publisher Kasedo Games—PC (Steam) review written by Susan N. with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes. 

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In August of 2021, Kasedo Games published City of Gangsters, a simulation management game that revolves around the prohibition era of the 1920s. Players begin as a new gangster trying to make their mark by driving rival gangs out of business. After our original preview SomaSim released a few DLCs like Atlantic City, Bourbon Bootlegging, Criminal Record, and a few different outfits for players to choose from. On June 15th, SomaSim released Shadow Government where players get to meddle in political affairs. This is where the fun begins.

NB: Before continuing, I will acknowledge that the original preview of the game had some criticism about the graphics. After the game dev reached out to us, we were informed that my graphics issue came from an AMD driver problem that they rectified. Since I run an AMD GPU, I had a graphics bug where assets didn't appear as intended, and I had based some of my impressions on that fact. Any image contained in this review displays the proper nicer-looking assets.

Gameplay

My general feelings about this title have not changed since my original look at City of Gangsters. Its core gameplay loop gets to be tiresome rather quickly, the management aspect of the game relies on the production and distribution of goods, and the vehicle maintenance aspect adds a unique element to the genre. While all of this makes for a decent foundation, it's not enough to hold my interest for very long.

One reason for that is the leveling system seems to be relatively random. There is no way to track how much experience a character has gained. It also doesn't have a character sheet or skill tree. Thus, there's no way to effectively plan out your gangster abilities, making it feel like an afterthought to the game. Unlike Empire of Sin where I felt like the game had too much micromanagement of individual characters, City of Gangsters tells you nothing until the character levels up.

Another point about City of Gangsters is that it suffers from a lack of urgency and interest. Sure, it becomes more complex as time progresses, but the beginning gameplay is dull. Players spend a lot of turns driving around to pick up resources and they sell what they have for cash. Generally, this isn't bad, it just boils down to a random chance of finding the resources needed. Unfortunately, that means clicking on every establishment possible.

One of the aspects I do like is building connections with the NPCs. Players must increase their standing before they can make deals with the shop owners. And once standing is high enough, you can call in favors. The only downside is that it's done for each person which negatively draws out the experience. That said, I enjoyed the game but found myself bored with it early on because it takes too long to get going.

Aside from the general impressions of City of Gangsters, let's talk about the Shadow Government DLC in specific and what it brings to the table.

What the DLC Adds

Interest.

The DLC brings in some actual stakes to the game and does so incredibly early on. I felt more interested in generating funds to invest in the local political candidate. At first, it seemed a bit steep as it takes a couple of grand to sponsor a candidate, but this aspect has many future implications. Ultimately, this is an element that makes me more enthused to play the game.

To initiate the Shadow Government storyline, players need to start in New York. Not only will players build their empire on the largest map available, but they can play the new content immediately. As we received a review copy of the game, our player received the start-up cash freely without having to earn it. That said, in other maps, players may have to save up money for political donations. Again, I love this concept but I don’t believe there is enough starting cash to make a real impact. While adding a political system to the game speeds up gameplay, it only accomplishes that for a short time. Let me elaborate.

Shadow Government Gameplay

The Shadow Government DLC gives players the chance to foster and bolster political connections to both meddle in the affairs of other gangs but can potentially lead to the removal of problematic legislation or perhaps abolishing prohibition. And adding this DLC to the mix certainly creates an urgency that the game was so desperately missing before. Players now have a time limit to earning money for contributions which will increase the heat value of your operation. Not only that, but the other rival gangs will be more interested in taking you out. Also, if your candidate loses the election, then there will be dire consequences as other gangs will take notice.

Players need to build up funds not only to maintain their operations but to save money for bribes and contributions. Each political term will transpire over a certain amount of time when candidates are nominated. During a political term, players can pull up information about the candidate, which displays their type of leadership, traits, total elections won, and nationality. This is useful information to the player because it allows them to determine their next course of action. Not only that, but in certain cases, the candidate will request favors from you to complete! Fulfilling those requirements will affect how the vote goes. In fact, some of those requirements carry additional leg work for the player which adds to the complexity of the strategy, which is something I appreciate.

Once the political term ends, players go back to the normal grind of building an empire of illegal goods. After that, I felt like I was more interested in the political aspects than engaging in the regular gameplay loop. I just wanted to skip the constant back and forth of buying and selling. Unfortunately, that is a clear indicator that City of Gangsters is not quite ready yet. If it had an influx of cash or an employee requirement before engaging in the political landscape, it would be better. Essentially, you really have to understand the game first before appreciating Shadow Government and that is a shame.

Final Thoughts and Summary

City of Gangsters is a great game on the surface. It has the makings of an incredible game set during the prohibition era but, even with the Shadow Government DLC, it just misses the mark. There is nothing wrong with the gameplay loop except that it needs more urgency. Even with the DLC adding more complex strategies, it's not enough to hold interest for very long. Despite that fact, Shadow Government does a great job of forcing players to think about their connections and rivalries. Unfortunately, to appreciate the title and this DLC, players need to fully understand the game first. 

Summary

People that are in the market for a relaxing strategy game can feel confident in the Shadow Government DLC. It changes the entire landscape of the game by letting players influence legislation that can hinder other gangs or abolish laws that impede your supremacy.

As such, Shadow Government is a great addition to City of Gangsters as it adds more strategies for the player. For those reasons, this DLC adds enough of a unique spin to receive an 8 out of 10!

Score: 8 / 10

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"TapTap Presents" to Feature Game World Premieres, Reveals from DeNA, Mihoyo on July 23

THE CLOUD – July 6, 2022 – TapTap Presents, the digital showcase connecting gaming fans worldwide and earning more than 10 million views in 2021, returns with its third event introducing world premieres of new games and updates for popular titles on Saturday, July 23, 4:00 a.m. PDT. Watch the show live on YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, and the TapTap App.

The hour-long broadcast will feature more than 20 games including significant new content updates for Genshin Impact, Wuthering Waves, Torchlight: Infinite, and others; alongside reveals from partners including DeNA and Mihoyo; as well as special segments from the talent bringing these games to life.

The inaugural TapTap Presents in 2021 spotlighted more than 20 cross-platform and mobile titles, including updates from star franchises including Hearthstone: Mercenaries, League of Legends: Wild Rift, MARVEL Super War, and APEX Legends Mobile; the premiere of Soul Knight Prequel, exciting news from Neon Abyss: Infinite, and many more. Previous TapTap Presents have always been packed with valuable game plays and fresh information for gamers all around the world; this year will be no exception.

“We share our love and passion for games by introducing exceptional titles to gamers through TapTap Presents,” said Huang Yimeng, Co-Founder and CEO of XD Inc. responsible for the production of TapTap Presents. “It is through the joint efforts of TapTap and XD Inc. that we are able to produce and amplify games with the level of quality we ourselves desire.”

TapTap is a one stop hub for mobile gaming and community bonding through open player to player, and player to developer connections. Gamers can climb active leaderboards as well as reserve, download, rate, and discuss their favorite mobile games with developers who regularly engage in the community. The platform’s dedicated team is committed to providing consistent support for games living on TapTap and ensures that all profits are rightfully given to their developers to support the improvement of their games. All resources are properly allocated to uphold the standard of the games within the community.

TapTap Presents’ broadcast will begin on Saturday, July 23, 4:00 a.m. PDT (7:00 p.m. CST) via YouTube, Twitch, and TapTap App in English and Chinese, with a rebroadcast available later on YouTube.

Outlets and content creators interested in co-broadcasting TapTap Presents 2022 can sign up here to register their interest with incentives available for those who register.

For more information, please visit the official website, follow TapTap on Twitter and Facebook, join the community on Discord, and search for #TapTapPresents on social media.

About TapTap

TapTap is a mobile gaming oasis built on the pillars of community and accessible gamer to developer connection. Co-founded in 2016 by XD Inc., TapTap hosts a wide variety of high-quality AAA and indie mobile titles, and aims to bond like-minded gamers through their favorite games. The platform allows players to connect with developers, content creators, and each other creating a united community of passionate individuals.

To learn more about the TapTap community, visit the official TapTap website.

About XD Inc.

XD Inc. (HKEX: 2400) is a games developer and publisher. Founded in 2011, XD and its video game craftsmen are on a mission to deliver captivating experiences and inspire gamers around the world. In addition to its extensive portfolio of award-winning games including Sausage Man, Muse Dash, and Ragnarok M, XD has built the mobile game distribution platform and community, TapTap, to become one of the most vibrant gaming ecosystems with over 41 million monthly active users worldwide.

To learn more, visit XD Inc’s official website.

Article by: Susan N.

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Fobia: St. Dinfna Hotel Review

Fobia: St. Dinfna Hotel by developer Pulsatrix Studios and publisher Maximum Games—Microsoft Xbox One review written by David with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes. 

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I’ve had some funky experiences with hotels, but this might be the first one I actually sit down and write about with Fobia: St Dinfna Hotel from developer Pulsatrix Studios and publisher Maximum Games, a horror homage with immaculate vibes.

When I was younger I played a fair bit of old horror games, despite not being a genre fan. Gore has always made me uncomfortable, and a lot of horror movies and recent games have landed off my radar because of it. Horror is a fantastic art medium though, crossing boundaries of genre, culture, language, and social taboo varying from the all-too-real to the entirely absurd in its execution, sometimes intending the opposite and finding gold, sometimes making exactly what was intended and flopping hard because that’s how Art goes.

The old Resident Evil games were big in my social circle, Silent Hill as well, and I remember my sister and I spending weeks staring through the camera lens in Fatal Frame. I found that Horror had more going on as time went by though. These movies explored things where we weren’t comfortable talking about or showing outright, or things social codes kept us from showing in certain ways. I got older and found I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, as an adult I questioned existence with SOMA. Today, I question the nature of Free Will with Fobia: St Dinfna Hotel.

I love the journal's aesthetic so much I'm stealing it for my real one.

Roberto Lopes is a journalist who visits Treze Trilhas, a village in the Brazilian countryside, home of the fine St. Dinfna Hotel, a bit of a tourist spot, but with a series of disappearances over the years. He’s fed the lead by a woman named Stephanie, shows up to find she’s not at the hotel like she said she would be, and finds his way to his room to be bored for a week. Roberto keeps some notes of what little he can find here, starting with the disappearance of private investigator João Luis in 1960. This is not the modern mystery he'd been led to believe, as he'd found out over that week of empty-handed digging.

After that week, he finds some sort of anomaly in his room’s bathtub, and is knocked out, only to wake up in his room sometime later, the place ransacked. There’s a cool camera still here though, and looking through it shows a different reality; past, present, parallel is unclear, of the room you’re in, and free passages that are blocked in the mundane world. Disappointingly, the camera has no picture-taking ability in-game.

Inventory management is the biggest key in Fobia, and you add slots with different bags and camera pouches stashed throughout the hotel. They add up quickly at first, and then every new slot feels necessary, especially if you keep your eyes peeled and your mind sharp. There are puzzles connected to what seems like more rooms than not, and I’ve definitely not found or solved them all. That might be underselling the need for patience with this game though. Just like many that came before it, this horror mystery includes a lot of backtracking. More if you manage your inventory tightly or keep a lot of saves, both of which become increasingly accessible as the game goes on.

The Hotel's Pianist had a very bad year.

A phone rings and you hear the voice of the reason you’re here: Stephanie. She informs you that you disappeared a year prior, and that you need to get to the first floor library. This involves a few basic but well done puzzles to get you going on the main story. Some creepo humanoid mobs appear so I highly recommend keeping the pistol on you throughout the game to deal with (and listening to the diegetic advice, it’s there for good reason).

Note that it is not just simple or obvious puzzles here, they just don’t wall you off from progressing through the game with them. Those get more interesting as the game goes too, taking your progress as acknowledgement that you’re ready to get those gears going. You need that ammo, those bandages, the key to that lock, and how do I open these stinking chains (With bolt cutters that you’ll get way later. No, the crowbar/pistol/shotgun/ThingYouWannaTry won’t do it), and these problems, including the bolt cutter, are solved primarily through world-interaction puzzles spanning both realities and in some cases, the entirety of the hotel.

Like the medium it asks its questions through, Fobia: St Dinfna Hotel stands firmly in homage to the giants whose shoulders it stands on. From the gunplay to the cheesy voice acting (in English at least), to the way you interact with the world and manage your inventory, everything about this game feels intuitive. I’ve not played those horror classics in a decade or more, nothing like them really, and I was able to slip smoothly into the operations of this one, the familiarity bringing me that much deeper into the game, and making the intent of some easter eggs that much more appreciated.

Standing in the same spot, the camera can sometimes drastically alter the landscape, and sometimes it keeps the same paths obstructed

Everything flows so smoothly together, showing you exactly what it is and how your next dozen or so hours will be going. Including trying to figure out which squelches are creepy spider things coming to snatch your precious health, which ones are something in the sound design, and which ones are how many times is something going to fall over before I stop screaming like a child at it?

There’s a Big Nasty you run into a few times early in the game, you meet him first in the prologue, where you actually play as João briefly. You can’t kill him, not yet, just run. Shoot at his arm/light and stun him if you need to, but when the game tells me to just run, I follow its advice too. His name is Aquiles, and he grew up here. He’s got a wild story, and you find out about it once you finally leave the hotel, dropping down into a basement research lab where you find plenty of half-formed monster corpses, notes, a final showdown with Aquiles, and questions with the man whose memories from 1910 you’ve walked through between sections. You’ve seen what happens. You’ll see it again. Você não tem escolha.

An homage to the mysterious survival horror history we've got with an amazing sense of creeping dread and lonely helplessness despite your victories; Fobia: St Dinfna Hotel delivers on all fronts with a slice of perfect ambience.

Score: 9 / 10

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Blood Bowl 3 Reveals Infographic from Last Beta Run!

Lesquin, France, July 5, 2022 – Greetings, sports analysts! The third phase of the Blood Bowl 3 beta came to an end on 12 June, and the feedback from fans has been overwhelmingly positive. Let’s take a look at a few stats from the beta, which saw an abundance of blood, sweat, and tears, along with a heavy dose of stunning successes and failures.

Nearly 11,000 coaches led their teams onto the pitches, with a total of 35,755 hours of game time. The coaches' strategies led to 23,823 touchdowns, 2,668 completed passes, and 216,933 tackles were expertly dodged (though sometimes it was just blind luck).

Speaking of luck, a few coaches had less than their fair share: there were 752 dropped passes, and 26,884 (intentional) fouls were called by the referees - to the crowd’s evident displeasure. Dices do count, but by the end of the day, victory rewards no one but the best tactician!

“What about brutality” you’re asking? There were 224,194 injuries, 4,618 players left the pitch in a coffin, and… 575 team-mates were hurled across several yards by Ogres, Trolls, and Treemen. This is Blood Bowl after all.

Wackier, bloodier, and more spectacular than ever, Blood Bowl 3 is a hit with fans of the universe and strategy games alike. At launch, the game will include 12 teams each with their own pitch and cheerleaders, Solo and Multiplayer modes, and more customization options than any Blood Bowl game has offered before.

Blood Bowl 3 will be available on PC, PlayStation®4, PlayStation®5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch™ later in 2022.

Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Discord, and YouTube.

Add Blood Bowl 3 to your Steam wishlist

All NACON games and accessories are here: nacongaming.com

About NACON

NACON is a company of the BIGBEN Group founded in 2019 to optimize its know-how through strong synergies in the video game market. By bringing together its 8 development studios, the publishing of AA video games, the design and distribution of premium gaming devices, NACON focuses 20 years of expertise in the service of players. This new unified business unit strengthens NACON's position in the market, enables it to innovate by creating new unique competitive advantages, and achieves its ambition to become one of the world's leading players in gaming. https://www.nacongaming.com/

About Cyanide Studio

Cyanide is a French video game development studio created in 2000 and based in Nanterre. It has two subsidiaries located in Montreal and Bordeaux. The studio is known for its sports games, such as the popular PC series Pro Cycling Manager and its console version, Tour de France. Cyanide is also the author of Blood Bowl (Sport/Fantasy, 2009), the adaptation of the famous Games Workshop board game; Game of Thrones (RPG, 2012); Styx: Master of Shadows and the sequel Styx: Shards of Darkness (Infiltration, 2014/2017); and Call of Cthulhu, a game adapted from the tormented world of HP Lovecraft (investigative RPG, 2018). Since 2018, NACON, one of Europe's leading video game publishers, holds a 100% stake in the company. More information can be found at www.cyanide-studio.com

About Games Workshop

Games Workshop® Group PLC (LSE:GAW.L), based in Nottingham, UK, produces the best fantasy miniatures in the world. Games Workshop designs, manufactures, retails, and distributes its range of Warhammer®: Age of Sigmar® and Warhammer® 40,000® games, miniature soldiers, novels, and model kits through more than 529 of its own stores (branded Games Workshop® or Warhammer®), the www.games-workshop.com web store and independent retail channels in more than 50 countries worldwide. More information about Games Workshop and its other, related, brands and product ranges (including our publishing division ‘Black Library’ and our special resin miniatures studio ‘Forge World’) can be found at www.games-workshop.com.

Blood Bowl 3 © Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2020. Blood Bowl 3, Blood Bowl 3 logo, Blood Bowl, the Blood Bowl logo, GW, Games Workshop, Warhammer, and all associated logos, illustrations, images, names, creatures, races, vehicles, locations, weapons, characters, and the distinctive likeness thereof, are either ® or TM, and/or © Games Workshop Limited, variably registered around the world, and used under license. Used under license. All Rights Reserved.

Article by: Susan N.

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Matchpoint: Tennis Championships Review

Matchpoint: Tennis Championships by developer Torus Games and publisher Kalypso Media—Sony PlayStation 5 review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes. 

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Finding myself back on the digital Tennis courts this summer, I found myself competing in Matchpoint: Tennis Championships. Coming from Torus Games and Kalypso Media, this newcomer to the court definitely has some potential especially with how easy it is to pick up compared to some of the others in the stadium.

Having not actually sat down to a Digital Tennis experience since the 2020 releases of AO Tennis 2 and World Tennis Tour 2, I figured I was in for a bit of a tough lesson before things could start to go my way. Making sure to not repeat past mistakes, I went into the tutorials, I learned how to do everything that it could teach me and then I started up my career. From there, imagine my surprise to find a Tennis title that not only felt comfortable to play, but was also comfortable to play with my custom made character that was only starting out in the rankings. I hadn't even trained yet!

This is where I think Matchpoint may find its niche. Unlike some of the other titles out there with loads of big names, tons of features and loads of player customizations, Matchpoint may not have as much under the hood, but it’s really easy to pick up and get started. Split between My Career, Quick Match, Practice, Tutorial and Training under a Local Mode, there’s also a Ranked Match, Casual Match, Block List and the ability to Invite a Friend under an Online Mode. While starting off with the tutorials and training modes is always a good place to start, you’ll probably want to dive into the Career Mode to really learn your way around Matchpoint’s real learning curve, your digital opponents on the court.

Starting off with a qualifier match to find your overall starting rank, once that’s done, for better or… worse in my case… you’ll start to be able to pick what you want to do out of a running schedule. Training Exercises, Exhibitions, Opens or Championships, each will have its own amount of time that needs to be invested to better yourself and your standings. Starting off with the Training Exercises, these are probably the quickest to do both in terms of time required out of your schedule, and actual time to complete them. Generally coming in under two or three minutes, whether it’s practicing how to perform an Ace Serve or volley the ball back into a specific spot, it won’t take long before your stats increase making you that much better for the next challenge.

From Training Exercises, you can move onto Exhibitions where you’ll face off against a random opponent. This is a bit where you can start getting a real feel for Matchpoint as the AI won’t just sit around letting you pull off dirty tricks over and over again. Your opponent will adjust themselves based on your routine and start pulling off some dirty tricks of their own. The level that this comes about will depend on that opponent’s rank, but this leads into partaking in the Opens for the first time as it can skyrocket your standings.

So for example, after winning my first open I went up 139 ranks to bring me from a horrid 274 to 135. While I did lose another two ranks going back down to 137 by going to a training session instead of an open, this led me to the next open where I really started to find my stride with the mechanics, the computer AI, and my own player AI.

Starting with 6-1 with the qualifications match, the quarter finals would see back to back 6-3, 6-0 before stepping into the semi finals for a 6-0, 6-0. By this point I was sweating from more than looking at the clay court that my player was standing on. Moving into the final match of this Open, I found myself matched up with the number 16 seed making me wonder… how bad is this going to go? With my stats in the 20s and theirs in the low to high 80s, it was going to be a fight to win.

This is really where I started to appreciate Matchpoint: Tennis Championship. While the stats of the opponent far dwarfed mine, it didn't mean an instant loss. It did mean a constant adaptation to find new tricks, serve and return patterns, but it wasn't impossible as it often is when playing way outside of your "weight class". Winning 6-0, 6-0, this would once again skyrocket me another 49 ranks to rank 88 which like the precious 137 would let me enter into the more intensive Championships now that I wasn't ranking in the 200s.

With this said, and I did on an overall enjoy my time with Matchpoint: Tennis Championships, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows to get there. Like I said above, unlike others in its class, there are some bigger missing options and the gameplay itself when it comes to the AI, opponent and your own, were not always on the ball.

Starting off with character customization, it's bare bones. You have access to a few different face types, a couple hair styles and one beard. One. For someone like me who's never been the most athletic, being able to recreate myself had always been a high point but with Matchpoint I couldn't even get close. Is this a deal breaker? I don't think so but the options are very limited so you're basically stuck with whatever is currently available.

Next up is one gameplay feature that I thought was sorely lacking. The ability to call for a review. There are a lot of balls, both hit by the opponent and myself that should have been called out of bounds, or reviewed to declare that they were inbounds. Not having this option could cause some grumbling as it was clear as day that it was inside the lines, yet, I lost the point because it was called otherwise.

Moving into the features that may be deal breakers, is the AI. Perhaps a point of frustration for me at multiple points, sometimes the AI was for lack of better terms, sleeping on the job. A fair amount of your character's movements will not be entirely in your hand, but that of the AI. This is why Matchpoint may be more accessible to new players as there's help in how your character moves allowing you to perhaps return a ball you may have otherwise missed by moving in the wrong direction.

The issue with this is that it doesn't always respond to your input. Oftentimes while in back to back matches in an open, I would miss returning a serve because my character stood there, and then moved once the ball had passed. It's also like the system knew what had happened because it would again oftentimes offer me up a freebie as it was clear that my opponent should have returned that.

And while I can to a degree live with that as it generally did more good than bad, where things got complicated is in how it affects your court movement. It wasn't the easiest to move up to the net and play a close style that can stress out your opponent. You really had to force your character up to the net as even the right shoulder (R1) function to play that style didn't help you until you were close. It's unfortunate because the rest of Matchpoint, with or without the customization, is fun. 

Summary

So while the current status of Matchpoint: Tennis Championships could use some smoothing out and a few extra features, such as character customizations and an ability to call for review, it's still a decent Tennis game and I enjoyed my time with it.

Score: 6.75 / 10

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2K Announces the Limited NBA 2K23 Championship Edition with Michael Jordan!

A player who needs no introduction - Michael Jordan - returns to grace the cover of the NBA 2K23 Michael Jordan Edition and the limited NBA 2K23 Championship Edition

2K today announced that 14-time NBA All-Star, five-time Kia NBA Most Valuable Player, six-time NBA World Champion, and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer, Michael Jordan, will appear on both covers of the NBA® 2K23 Michael Jordan Edition and the ultra-premium NBA®2K23 Championship Edition.

Jordan’s career transformed the NBA into a global phenomenon, making him a household name and leaving an undeniable impact on the basketball world. For the 24th year of NBA 2K, Jordan is the perfect embodiment of this year’s campaign theme: Answer the Call. As an athlete who always rose to the occasion, Jordan returns to star on two NBA 2K23 covers, giving an opportunity for old and new fans alike to celebrate a talent who left the world in awe throughout his career.

“After making 23 the most recognizable number in sports, it was only fitting that for NBA 2K23 we introduce the Michael Jordan Edition," said Alfie Brody, Vice President of Global Marketing Strategy for NBA 2K. “Additionally, we’re thrilled to introduce a brand new premium edition of the game with the NBA 2K23 Championship Edition, as no other player embodies the word ‘champion’ like Jordan. This limited-edition version will also offer players the opportunity to catch on-court action throughout the season with a 12-month subscription to NBA League Pass* included. We look forward to celebrating this game with the community when it’s released on September 9.”

Along with Michael Jordan returning to grace the covers of NBA 2K23 this year, the game will also reintroduce The Jordan Challenge, which encourages players to recreate 15 iconic moments from Jordan’s illustrious career. All ten of the original Challenges from NBA 2K11 have been completely rebuilt from the ground up and will make their return this year - alongside five new iconic Jordan moments - for an entire new generation of players to experience. These Challenges take advantage of more than a decade of technological leaps to provide a completely new way to play through Jordan’s accomplishments - all housed within its own game mode.

The Jordan Challenge also elevates an array of spellbinding performances across Jordan’s college, NBA, and Team USA Basketball careers that players can experience across all 15 Challenges and includes unique video vignettes that come with special commentary from an array of NBA luminaries: Jordan’s teammates, opponents, and other sports personalities, who saw him do it live and can bring to life his legacy to a younger generation of NBA fans. More details on The Jordan Challenge in NBA 2K23 will be released later this summer.

Michael Jordan is one of the most decorated athletes in the NBA and NBA 2K history, and the NBA 2K23 Michael Jordan Edition and NBA 2K23 Championship Edition collectively mark his fourth time headlining an NBA 2K cover. He was previously on the cover for NBA 2K11, NBA 2K12, and the NBA 2K16 Special Edition. Stay tuned for more cover athlete reveals in the next two days and pricing when pre-orders go live on July 7.

Follow NBA 2K on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook for the latest NBA 2K23 news.

Visual Concepts is a 2K studio. 2K is a wholly owned publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO).

*Offer only available with purchases of the NBA 2K23 Championship Edition. Championship Edition (Digital) only available for pre-order. The Championship Edition (Physical) will be available in select regions and select retailers while stocks last. Pre-order to guarantee a copy. Not available on Nintendo Switch. NBA League Pass code will be delivered to the email address associated with the NBA 2K Account with which the Championship Edition Bonus Content was redeemed within 5 days of redemption (but no earlier than September 27, 2022) and must be redeemed by December 31, 2022. NBA League Pass is valid for 12 months from redemption and auto-renews monthly unless canceled prior to renewal date at the then-current published MSRP for NBA League Pass in your territory Availability restrictions apply. See nba.2k.com/2K23/league-pass for full terms, availability, redemption, and cancellation instructions.

Article by: Susan N.

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