#like surely it can be tweaked just enough that if PLAYER HEALTH < ATTACK DAMAGE and OWN POINTS=2 itll just. end the game.

[gutsfics]

sometimes the ai for the solo battles is obnoxious as fuck >:/ its one point away from winning and my pikachu is at 10 health but instead of just using the attack its currently able to that also does way above 10 damage it evolves all its pokemon + puts another energy onto its active pokemon to use an attack that does ONE HUNDRED DAMAGE. like im already about to die you dont need to flay my corpse in one hit >:/

[dinoracha]

Valkie 64 review

[Note: An update tweaked some gameplay mechanics but came after I finished the game. This may make some criticisms/views obsolete. If I return to the game, I'll update this review.]

Link to Steam store page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2190590/Valkie_64/

Steam review version here: https://steamcommunity.com/id/dinoracha/recommended/2190590?snr=1_5_9__402

Throwback games straddle the line between being faithful homages to games of previous generations while injecting modern design, like mechanics and better performance compared to those older platforms. Valkie 64 does a fine job eliciting memories of Nintendo 64 action-adventure classics but stumbles over its own feet in delivering a polished, well-executed homage to said classics. It absolutely looks the part, but playing its part is another story.

The narrative of Valkie 64 is thin enough that it barely exists, but that's not the game's main draw: There are four main worlds to traverse with optional exploration/side quests to net heart pieces for greater survivability. As I finished the game in over four hours, each world can take around an hour to clear out the optional content, poke around and tackle the respective dungeons. Thanks to this the game proceeds steadily, even with some side quests requiring you to start in one world and then complete it elsewhere. Unfortunately, even though they're optional and there's an achievement for completing the game without getting heart pieces, they are practically mandatory to obtain due to the game's combat and its less-than-stellar hitboxes.

The game likes to provide some variety to its combat by having attack buttons for horizontal and vertical sword swings, with the ability to chain them together for lengthier combos or if you're against one or multiple enemies. All of that's great, but it boils down to getting in two or three swings and then dodging to avoid enemy attacks, or annoyingly, just by touching them as most enemies continuously move towards you. Sure, contact damage in a throwback game does make sense, but it looks silly to have a lizard bump their elbow against Valkie and she takes damage for it. Since health restoration when out exploring is limited to dropped/found hearts or a purchasable revive usable on defeat, leaving a dungeon to top up can be a time sink. 

This makes one boss fight incredibly irritating as it teleports away upon being hit. You'll land a hit and the boss will blink away, but because the arena is primarily on a sheet of ice, Valkie will slide into the boss' hurt box the moment before blinking away, resulting in cheap damage being taken. An optional mini-boss and even the final boss plainly showcase how hit-and-run the combat can be and practically encourages cheesing fights, as standing your ground leads to your health being shredded. At the same time, the amount you deal is only a portion by comparison. Heck, the final dungeon is a string of glorified gauntlets with enemies and hazards seemingly smattered around haphazardly, and using every cheesy strategy to deal with the horde is necessary to survive.

Eventually, this makes fighting enemies you encounter needless unless they're tied to unlocking progress - Except the economy of Valkie 64 is very tight, meaning that getting money for items and upgrades is a process that takes time. Saphil (the in-game currency) drops in small increments, and with some purchases requiring multiple hundreds of saphil and no (as far as I found) ways of finding saphil in more significant amounts or as rewards, grinding for cash in a game like this is drab. Yes, most of these purchases are optional so grinding is self-inflicted, but as stated above, not getting them leads to more time spent running to and fro healing or missing out on combat upgrades. If these time sinks were streamlined for better efficiency, the game's playtime would've been shortened drastically. I don't think this was an intentional design choice, but one to keep players from finishing the game too quickly.

Let's be honest: The DNA from the Nintendo 64 Legend of Zelda games is all over Valkie 64, especially in its dungeon designs and polygonal graphics. Although the level of depth in the progression and puzzles isn't as involved in Valkie 64, the dungeons are still passable in being a contained level to explore - The lava dungeon being most memorable, as you climb up high walkways and can see how far you've travelled from ground level. Outside of dungeons, each world has its own flavour and NPCs that populate it: A plains world, an ice world, etc. These sprinkles of life and personality help to fill in the gaps left by the straightforward narrative, and make meeting inhabitants of the next world something to look forward to.

It's hard to recommend Valkie 64 both in terms of a throwback game and a third-person action game as it's fine in both regards, except that's all it is - Fine. Ultimately the combat and how that works mechanically are its most significant drawbacks, exemplified by its boss fights that devolve into hit-and-run tactics. At the time of writing, Valkie 64 is $7.99 (CAD) finishing it in just around four hours, and that's with pursuing most side quests and some saphil farming. I don't regret my time with it, but it left me wishing that the combat, traversal and world-building had a bit more to it. If you enjoy adventures that you can complete in an evening, absolutely, Valkie 64 will provide a nice enough time, but I can't recommend it past that.

[bearpillowmonster]

Horizon Zero Dawn Review

The game that critics have been raving about for years and I just haven't played. I heard a lot of people say "this needs a movie" but they say that about any game that dares to be a little bit cinematic because I personally disagree.

That first part is rough, the story seems so in your face, predictable and bland but I think the problem is that it didn't know how to put in its exposition. I think it naturally builds up as it goes on, getting bigger and broader, it's just those first experiences that can be a slog because you're pretty much learning what style you're going to play in.

I got more or less everything I expected, crafting, a skill tree, various weapons. What I didn't expect though are dialogue options. You can choose normally up to four paths, an intelligent one, a compassionate one, and a straightforward one. You don't have to worry about the stress of trying to reach a specific ending because there's really only one, the only thing that affects it is the amount of people that are in it. So does that make the choices irrelevant? Yes and no because there are different dialogue options and like I said, which means that you can get certain characters to like you more given the option you choose but not in the same way that relationship points work and I definitely felt the draw to do that whenever I came across my first side-quest.

Side-quests are interesting, I love tracking things in games, though it's rare that you actually get the chance to do it and here you have a good amount of opportunities. Is that all though? Far from it. I actually found myself searching for side-quests because the first two were so satisfying. It really only began to show its hand a bit more after those quests. As I mentioned, there are a lot more RPG elements than I first imagined but it starts to send you on scavenger hunts, especially that Dreamwillow one, that one I actually laughed out loud at every time I was turned away. It also starts to gatekeep to where it recommends that you be a certain level which is...odd? I mean at face value it looks like you could rock basically any combat situation that isn't context sensitive. Leveling up gives you abilities but they're more like Deus Ex on that front, where it's just for preference and upgrading, not necessarily strength. The only thing you improve on offense wise basically boils down to having the right materials or units to buy weapons then a matter of finding modifications. Other than that, leveling up seems to just increase your health. It really just depends on the quest too because I'll play one above my level and be fine then play another that's actually under my level and feel stuck.

Now I only played it on normal mode so something like "Ultra Hard" is bound to be more demanding but as far as actual side quest content, I feel like they have potential but just need tweaked, give me more stuff for major characters that affects their standing with me. Rather than having each quest be contained in its own story, have it affect you later in the game, let your actions be shown, give it rewards and consequences. There are some really great side-quests but there are also some crappy ones, it doesn't pass that threshold that most RPGs fall under or anything. However, I did find myself doing side-quests at my own free will and the ones that I didn't like or couldn't do at the time, I just skipped and focused on something else, I felt a lot more freedom with this game, like I didn't feel forced to grind or do a certain number of side-quests or really do anything. It encourages you to explore and play the way you want to play and I respect the heck out of that. Maybe it's different for other players though.

Perhaps my favorite actual side thing was the Cauldrons for those who actually played this, you'll know why. For those who didn't, just know that it's cool and let it be a surprise for when you go to one. You might expect these big set-pieces and bosses like Uncharted or GoW, but it's not really like that. I genuinely think that this is more video-gamey than it lets on which certainly takes up its runtime. One addition to side-quests that I would like to see is one where you don't know it's happening. For example, in this game, you'll come across random hunters who are attacking or being attacked by machines but rather than just going on about your day and them going on about their's, I want to fight off the machine and the person say "You saved my life, my name's Jara, I live in the town nearby and want to repay you." so you go there and there's trouble so it starts up a side-quest. Now don't get me wrong, there are PLENTY of instances of people getting attacked actually being a mission but most of the time someone in town will just tell you "I haven't seen this person in a while, can you go check on them for me?" It's the art of subtlety and also just doing a good deed and getting rewarded for it. It's a conscious choice and split decision rather than just another checkmark on your list to complete.

Now I won't bother listing the characters and rating them but there's a certain aspect that has me really enthused So, Aloy is an outcast and a lot of these side missions and scenarios reflect her, you'll see the way she can relate with other characters, making it almost poetic in a subliminal kind of way. Then they add this tribal and futuristic setting to it where Aloy acts as the medium, there are parts of the game where she questions the tribe because they cut themselves off from technology and just don't know any better and we as a viewer know that but having the main character view things in 'our' lens is pretty genius. To top that off, they give her enough personality to be her own character while giving us enough power to influence her so that we ourselves can REFLECT WITH HER. It's not her character that I'm impressed with, it's the layout of the story.

So, how is the main story? It's kind of like the Flood scenario in Halo if I'm being honest. I'm not going to spoil anything but it's passable, like I said, it's not like an Uncharted and it's not like a movie. The visuals just look good at times (I took all the pictures in this review myself and so much more!). I'd call it a futuristic/tribal mix between Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Skyrim but I see elements of a lot of things. (Also since it's post apoctalypic, you find items that we see in modern day, like how they call keys, "chimes"! They think they're windchimes because there are no more cars! I love that!)

It actually does a pretty good job at being an open world considering that there are tons of things to do on your routes as well as collect but it's not so much so that it seems unfeasible, as I said, I found myself doing a good chunk of the side stuff just because it was fun to do and I'm not even close to a completionist for any game. If you mess up, healing plants will still be there. As long as you save, enemy parts will still be there. A place can be cleared out and conquered so that enemies don't come back. The actual towns are peaceful so you can't get mangled by any bots outside of scripted instances.

The graphics are pretty good but I can see some error here and there, nothing necessarily game breaking but the animations and AI are definitely janky at times. It's pretty obvious from the get-go but I'll do my best to specify and give constructive criticism on what I found wrong with certain aspects of the game. Rost is slow, like slower than walking speed but that's not to speak for all NPCs, some run, some you don't need to follow, it was really just him. I've had NPCs who fight but miss every single time on simple enemies (that might not be a bug, that might just be a funny bit that someone decided to add in). Sabretooths have jumped through walls (granted the walls were kinda broken but I'm not sure if those big boys can fit when they can barely find the entrance) I found myself jumping to a ledge or on a rope but not land it and just drop (it really boils down to loosening the hit box for that). Which to add on to that, I would like more places to climb and jump to in general (other than stupid mountains). I felt like there wasn't really enough that I could climb and the places that I could, could've been a bit more obvious that I could, maybe even make it viewable with your focus if you don't want it to be visually outstanding. There's a day and night cycle and while I like that, I found some of the contrast to be annoying because I could be staring a ladder right in the face and not even know it sometimes because it would be so dark. I'm not going to complain too much about it because I didn't turn my brightness up, I just left it at default and I would assume the PS5 version fixes some of those little things.

Now, this one is kind of a gray area: Hiking up mountains. Skyrim, Fallout, and Death Stranding went too far and gave little to no barriers. They had you looking for sweet spots that weren't there in order to cheese your way through an area either on or off a beaten path. But I would compare this to something like GTA where it's not as bad and does have its limits but might need tightened up some more because I can certainly get to places that lead to nowhere.

I've made headshots that don't make contact or damage while using precision. Part of that problem was that they could be high up in a tower (which have spikes sticking out) and I would hit ABOVE the logs, to make a headshot but since it was in that vicinity, it registered that as the spikes' hitbox so it wouldn't cause any damage and just alert the enemy (same if I was in the tower, looking down). Input lag where I hit up button on the D-Pad to regain health and I have to keep pressing it. If I had to guess, you have to meet the requirements of not taking damage, staying still, etc in order for it to actually work but it doesn't really have a reason to do that and it doesn't "tell" you that those are the requirements (as far as I know).

During the final boss, one of the enemies hit me into a rock wall, trapping me inside of it and the boss was already half health so I really didn't want to have to restart (I also didn't know how far back the checkpoint was) so I kept shooting stuff and eventually the boss destroyed the wall, allowing me to get out (timed section, by the way). There have been a few times where a tree or leaf or something is obstructing a cutscene and sometimes there will be a mech in the background screaming over the NPC talking, which I'm sure is due to the cutscenes being real-time which is still pretty impressive. Now are these errors all the time? No, not at all, I'm just pointing out that some times these things happened and that I felt it needed ironed out but I wouldn't call this half baked or an unfinished product or anything, it's nowhere near that level. I get that there are so many NPCs that it's hard to account for them all with facial animations but whenever they're talking, it seems pretty static and sometimes the lips don't line up. There's this one guy who says that he got lost in a sandstorm but he's standing in snow. Again, little nitpicks in an otherwise great game.

Now, I got this game for free as a Playstation promotion but that doesn't necessarily mean it'll be great, I played a little bit of that Ratchet & Clank reboot that was offered and I wasn't impressed, I quit after the first few worlds and was glad I didn't buy it at launch, (despite being a classic PS2 R&C fan) but we're not here to review that. I also played Abzu and loved it but it was short so it was definitely worth a play but maybe not 60$ (I actually think it's 20$ at this point though). With this game, it's the whole complete edition with DLC and everything, it has the length, so it really just boils down to "Would I have spent money on it otherwise?"

I think I would've if I knew more about it because I think it just got better and better after that first part of the game. It's marketed a bit differently than what I ended up getting but I found myself pouring hours into this game and loving it for one reason or another. I actually bought Shadow of the Colossus along with it (which is considered a cult classic) but I liked Horizon so much better, definitely worth its full price in my opinion. (So your promotion worked on me Sony, congrats) It has its problems but the potential is there and I feel like a sequel would probably iron out a lot of my troubles with it, so it's definitely a franchise worth investing into.

If you're interested in what I thought of the DLC alone (if you didn't get the Ultimate edition and are wondering if the extra content is worth it) I have a separate post that goes into that here.

[kinsie]

Game Impressions from PAX Aus 2019

Wake the fuck up, samurai. We've got a city to burn.

Every year I go to PAX Aus with some close friends to check out the Incredible Future of Games that everyone else already checked out six months ago, along with some cool weird indie shit and some awesome retro stuff. And every year, I write a little diary of what I saw to share my impressions with my friends. This is that diary.

Doom Eternal

Okay, let's get this out of the way. I played Doom Eternal pretty much as soon as I got on the show floor. It may shock you to know that it is, in fact, good.

No pictures of the demo units, sorry, so have this big logo.

The demo started with a little grey-box tutorial map just to teach you what you need to know for the demo level, since it was taken from the middle of the game. It looked very Snapmap-y and had some Doom 2 MIDI music playing. After that we were given about 25 minutes to acquaint ourselves with the lengthy "Mars Core" mission they've been showing since E3. I was at the start of the first arena of the hell bit when I ran out of time. :(

Here are some scattered thoughts from playing:

Your standard running around and double jumping feels much the same as in Doom 2016. The dashing feels great, although I think it might reduce your air control a little afterwards as I had some trouble overshooting a platform in the floating debris bit.

Climbing walls felt a bit weird to me. You have to press E on the wall manually to grab onto it, which feels a bit unintuitive when you're plummeting past it. Also feels a bit odd considering mantling up walls is automatic. You can auto-grab onto walls if you dash into it, but I think it's only for the first bit of the dash? Maybe I'm just bad at videogames.

I think the Combat and Super Shotguns now use different ammo types? I could have swore there were situations where I could select the Combat Shotgun but not the SSG.

The Chainsaw now no longer has even the slightest pretence of being a "real" weapon. It's now just a swing animation when you press the button, like a melee attack, before bringing your weapon back up.

When you have the SSG's Meat Hook attachment, a little meathook icon appears below the crosshair. When you're close enough to an enemy to grapple onto them, the icon floats over them, indicating that it has some kind of auto-aim mechanic to reduce frustration.

There was a monster with swords on its arms that acted an awful lot like the Baron of Hell (might have been the Hell Knight, looking at the Quakecon footage of the same fight) but it looked quite different. Looked fuckin' cool, whatever it was.

The platforming but in the debris section with the giant floating red barrels was actually kind of frustrating. It wasn't always clear where you needed to go, and the climbable bits tended to blend in with the rest of the world. Then again, keep in mind I have a frankly abysmal sense of direction. Thankfully falling into the void just whacks you for a paltry five health and teleports you back onto safe ground.

The locational damage stuff is really fun. Breaking a monster's guns has a satisfying metal "PING" sound to it to inform you that the dude got fucked up and is weaker now, and that you should keep doing it.

When I picked up one of those "?" secrets, the pop-up box told me that they unlocked "collectable dolls" and "cheat codes". The former is vague, but I suspect they'll be like the mini-Doomguys but of more characters. I'd imagine the latter will be like in Rage 2.

Oh, and it looks a million bucks, too. Though you probably didn't need me to tell you that.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with what I saw and it's even more of a pity it's not coming out next month.

Not Indie Games, But Also Not Doom Eternal

The Vive Cosmos felt really comfy - the lack of cabling and the decent display resolution made it feel a lot more natural than the Gen 1 Vives I've previously used. The game they were using to demo (Audica), however, was pretty lame. A rhythm-target shooter that didn't really take advantage of the medium at all.

Bleeding Edge was not inspiring. It was basically the control point mode from TF2 or Overwatch, except every character was a third-person brawler with little emphasis on projectile weapons beyond the occasional special. It felt like someone making a claim at TF2 or Overwatch's throne several years late while bolting a weak character action game on, which is fairly odd considering how innovative and critically acclaimed Ninja Theory's previous game was.

Dreams is fairly fascinating in its potential. The creation tools weren't available in the demo build so I can’t really judge them, instead there was a choice of eight developer-made experiences ranging from Mario-inspired obstacle courses to videogames as art.

I didn't get the chance to actually play MediEvil, but I watched some folks play it and it basically just looks like the PS1 game with more triangles, with all the slightly wonky 32-bit gameplay that entails.

The demo unit for Monkey King: Hero Is Back had some utterly bizarre graphics settings for some reason that made it look like I was playing a JPEG file, with big whopping compression artifacts surrounding each character. Weird!

Not happenin’.

Indie Games

Grabimals is a brilliant local co-op puzzler where players roll around as shapes and link together to solve puzzles like catching a falling water droplet, crossing a gap or casting a shadow that matches an example image. Supposedly it's still a ways off from release, but it's already impressively polished (disregarding one hilarious crash bug we found by accident!)

Hamster Scramble is a really fun take on Puzzle Bobble, with platforming elements, team play and the ability to jump over to your opponent's screen and fuck their plans up directly. It's an absolute blast and didn't feel like it was almost a year away from release.

Fork Knights is a platform fighter with an emphasis on one-hit kills. The character designs are cute, but I can't really say the gameplay itself struck me, to be honest.

Baron is an eight-player single-screen local multiplayer dogfighter. Fairly simple mechanically, but pretty fun all things considered.

Broken Roads had some lovely hand-painted art assets and some interesting ideas like a literal moral compass, but the demo build showcased was waaaaay too early to be shown off to the public. Of the eight or so areas present in the demo, only two had any characters, interactivity or really anything other than wandering around set up, and the combat side of things was extremely rough and sequestered off to a side area as a "well, if you insist..." kind of deal.

Misadventure In Little Lon is a true-crime adventure game for mobile with a unique mechanic - each "scene" is integrated into the real world via AR, with characters (that resemble Poser models more than a little bit) speaking to you directly. Not sure if it holds up over an entire game, but it's attention-garnering at least.

Speaking of true crime, The Black Window tasks players with using an Oujia board to question Australia's first female serial killer, with responses taken from court records and letters from the time. The well-acted performances of the actual individual in question's words lends it an impressive atmosphere, which the booth added to with a big wooden oujia board type thing you could "type" on. Sort of.

ACID KNIFE is real, real early, but the aesthetic is awesome and the pixel art is great. Hopefully it grows and expands into something special.

The Vigilante Proclivities of the Longspur is an oldschool Lucasarts-inspired point-and-click adventure with a custom demo scene set at an oddly-familiar videogame convention. Pretty promising so far, but could do with a good bit of polish - I'm pretty sure there was only one sound effect in the entire demo, and dialogue was often lacking in punctuation.

I didn't get to play Hot Brass but I watched over shoulders and talked with the developers, and it looked pretty cool. It's basically a take on SWAT 4's rarely-imitated brand of tactical copwork, but with a Hotline Miami-style top-down perspective, but with all the characters abstracted down to simple board game like tokens - a circle with a coloured outline denoting attitude towards the player, with a weapon icon if armed.

Blood Metal... Blood Metal is not good. It is extensively not good. Development seems to have only started in July, so one can still hope that the bad AI, unsatisfying gunplay, buggy collision detection and complete lack of damage feedback (outside of some ridiculous, sight-obscuring gouts of blood) get fixed over time. The 80s action movie aesthetic and low-poly artstyle forces it to be compared to Maximum Action, which is at least a fun kind of jank...

This Starry Void is a real-time, tile-based 3D dungeon crawler set in an abandoned spacecraft. It seems pretty cool so far, but it could probably use some UI/UX tweaks. The attempts at a "graphic novel inspired" visual style for the environments could probably benefit from looking at how Void Bastards did things, as well.

Lethal Lawns and Beam Team are fucking arcade games with massive cabinets. In 2019. Granted, they're also on computers and coming to consoles and stuff as well, but still! They're both pretty simple games, and therefore best played in cabinet form.

Unpacking is a "zen puzzle game" by the developers of Assault Android Cactus about the second-worst part of moving house, unloading an unseen character's packing and getting a glimpse into their lives as a result. I wasn’t able to play it due to an unexpectedly-crowded booth, but the pixel art is quite lovely.

Feather is a chill game about being a bird and flying around an island trying to find its secrets. I tried the Switch port, which played alright but obviously (and understandably) toted a lower framerate than the demo PC.

Topple Pop is a cute puzzle game that blends together elements of Tetris, Puyo Puyo and that one joke game that was Tetris but with a proper physics engine. Looks cute, with a fun gimmick!

Shooty Skies Overdrive is an VR spinoff of the popular mobile shmup, and basically similar to that one shmup minigame in Valve's The Lab. Weave your plane, which is attached to one of your hands, through incoming bullets and enemies like a toy! The 3D effect on the incoming projectiles looks great, but they can tend to get in the way of the action sometimes.

Dead Static Drive has been at like the last three PAXes and it looks better every time I see it. I hope it comes out this decade.

Snow Mercy is a third-person shooter/strategy thing where you hunt down icecubes to spend on an army of snowmen to crush your opponent's base before they crush yours. Not a common genre combo, reminds me of C&C Renegade a bit.

The Adventure Pals has graphics straight out of mid-2000s Newgrounds and level design out of pretty much any european platformer, but it didn't seem too bad from my brief prodding at it. The player character is perhaps a bit too small for my elderly eyes in Switch portable mode, but that's about as far as my gripes go.

[xanth-the-wizard]

[Part 1] Hello, hi. Me again (I was first time dm'er if you remember) anywho! I'm dm'ing another one shot again on Saturday because half our party won't be around to continue our ongoing campaign. So I'm writing a one shot right now and I have a 14 challenge final boss. But there is also a possibility of their being a 11-19 challenge encounter (with a lovely homebrew scroll I found) and also another encounter prior to that with a level 15 sorcerer...

[Part 2] and I want my party of 4 to be able to live. But not feel too overpowered, you know? So i was wondering on advice from you of possible suggested levels for my players? I was thinking maybe 10-12 might be suitable. But I'm not experienced enough to be confident in what to tell them without a second opinion. Thanks so much! 😊😊

First I'd like to say congrats! I hope your main campaign is doing well, I'm happy to help once again! Alright, so I've talked a little bit about encounters/difficulty rating recently and unfortunately my answer was more or less, "I'm not entirely sure."

There's been a lot of critiques of the challenge rating since it isn't an exact science and things could always go really well/poorly. And in addition to that, different players and party combinations may lead to encounters being easier since they have a great team synergy and can overcome a challenge a lot easier. Since your players will be playing completely fresh characters that means they probably won't be doing as well as they would with their regular characters at the same level. They need to learn all of their new spells and abilities so they not be fighting to their fullest potential right away.

Now specifically with four 12th level characters, I feel like the amount of higher encounters you are planning might end up being a little too much for them to handle. This of course, can also depend on how often they get to heal. If you match them up with what you have in mind now without any chances to rest, it may be too difficult and wipe them out before the final boss. So if they don’t have a healer in the party, give them short rests after each encounter. You could also try running an NPC Cleric (Maybe 5-7th Level?) who isn’t skilled in combat but can keep your party alive if things get too difficult.

Next I’d recommend that during the session you test them. Try setting a couple of 7 CR monsters to see how they fare before running a more difficult encounter. Since this is a oneshot, you only get a few chances to test them so make it count! If you discover that the challenges are too easy then make the boss a little tougher and vice versa if they are struggling. It’s okay to tweak things a bit as you go. More health, slightly more damage, etc.. Just be careful when you start making the bosses harder.

Another important thing to keep in mind is that numbers matter! Four players versus one boss can be pretty easy if the rolls are good. It’s 4-1, the odds are greatly in the party’s favor if they still have some good health. So maybe give your boss a few minions that swarm to their aid every few turns or are simply there at the start of combat. They can be one hit kill enemies but still even out the playing field if they do enough damage as long as they’re alive.

In summary: Give them opportunities to heal, test them out and adjust stats as needed, and numbers can make a big difference! Also not all combat encounters need to be solved with straight up attack rolls, you can always give them a chance to defeat their enemies by using their environment. A few loose stones that could crush the enemy, pushing an enemy into a river and using lightning spells, taunting the enemy so they lose their concentration, etc…

And here’s a really neat tool I use to see how my encounters might go (just switch experience to challenge rating in the enemy section for simplicity) when I’m really unsure. Make sure you are listing each encounter by itself, not combining all of the session’s encounters into one since it’ll definitely produce a different result!

[lemonadeflashbang]

Children of Morta Thoughts/Review

Children of Morta is a good game. It could, with some tweaking, even be a great game. But for the time being, it’s just a good game. If you’re considering this game because you want an APRG/roguelite hybrid with tons of playtime, I’d consider Heroes of Hammerwatch instead. Children of Morta does have more character, prettier art (wow the art), and a more narrative focus- so consider this game if you want something with some more bells and whistles. This is an interesting one. It’s a Diablo style ARPG, with some roguelite elements and a focus on story. Most of the other indies I’ve discussed in these posts don’t have a lot of sticking power- you beat the games and there’s little to no reason to come back. Children of Morta does have sticking power- but suffers from some design issues that make me want to really deep dive it. The gameplay loop is really satisfying and fun, but there are moments of frustration littered thoughout. The game has two primary modes. The main story- which is much more ARPG’ish, and Family Trials, which is more roguelite-ish. I’m going to tackle them separately, starting with the main story, as they’re very different experiences. For reference, I played on Nintendo Switch and on the game’s “hard” difficulty for the story, and “normal” for family trials. --Main Story-- You dive into dungeons, explore until you die, then spend your gold on additional stats and do it again. As your characters gain levels they transfer passive benefits to the rest of your characters, encouraging you to play the whole cast. In addition, if you play the same character over and over they’ll become fatigued- getting a health penalty until you switch off of them for a run or two. When you return from a dungeon, you’re greeted by the narrator who gives you some more information about the characters / the world, and then you do it again. While it’s neat that there’s a constantly evolving story, I have to say that I could sure have used less of it. The story is at it’s best when we’re watching the lovingly animated sprites interact with one another- they can be expressive and full of character. A great example of show, don’t tell. Unfortunately, most of the story does the opposite. For the most part, the story is quite literally told to us via the narrator. Some classic “Ben felt sad” kind of stuff. And that’s... fine? But I didn’t care about the story or the characters (who I didn’t really know) despite all the effort that went into the storytelling format. It’s a story driven game where the story feels tacked on at the end and isn’t all that exciting. It’s not bad but it’s not good either. It’s just kind of there, taking up game time that could be spent on the actual fun parts of the game. I think the big issue is that it doesn’t leverage the fact that it’s a video game to tell that story. It’s basically an audiobook. The moments that elicited the most emotional response to me where story events that occurred in dungeons where I needed to rescue an NPC character- where the narration was kept to a minimum and I could just focus on saving some cute critter that did the heartbreaking thing just a few seconds ago. Let’s move on from story for a second and talk about gameplay. Firstly, the gameplay loop, like I said above, is fun. This isn’t a surprise. Games that are part of a successful genre like this one are often fun, because they’re built on top of a really solid base. But the game suffers from some serious issues with its’ enemy attacks. An attack has a windup, to telegraph an action, an active component, and then a window of opportunity at the end. Pre-lag, action, post-lag. The enemies in this game have very short pre and post lags. This leaves enemies capable of quickly attacking without much time to respond, and not much opportunity to punish them. The players, on the other hand, have very long windups for whatever reason. Often, in games a windup for a player will be near instant to avoid an attack feeling laggy- see Hollow Knight for an example. Not in this game. This means that even if you start attacking in an enemy’s windup, you will almost certainly get hit and might not even hit them back because many enemies will immediately retreat after striking. And it’s not just that they have long windups on their attacks. Open a chest? Here’s a window of vulnerability. Activate an obelisk for a defense or attack buff? Window of vulnerability. Activate your rage bonus to enable your AoE to clear an oncoming mob? Here’s a big fat window of vulnerability. I found myself not using my rage bonus (effectively a super bar that buffs your character) at all because I would get overrun by any sizeable mob worth using it on in the time it would take to activate. It just turned into a boss killing tool. Unless, of course, I was ranged. And, let me remind you, this is a genre where there may be over a hundred enemies on a floor. So even though you may be able to compensate for the difference in frame data 1 v 1, you almost certainly cannot do it while swarmed. And you can’t always compensate either. There’s a midgame boss who is stationary- summoning enemies to fight with. If you sit in melee range and start dumping damage on them, they’ll raise their hand and then slash forward- doing about 1/2-1/4 of your health (depending on how much hp you’ve invested in) in a single blow. The melee units probably need to hit this guy like, a hundred times to kill him- for the record. The issue here is that the windup (raising the hand) doesn’t actually leave enough room to dodge away from it. At least, with my reaction time (which I have never had an issue with before.) The hitbox on the swipe is so large that if you try to “dodge” the move as you see the windup, you will dodge back... and still get hit. I found myself having to hit a couple times and then pre-emptively back up just in case, essentially having to predict a windup that wasn’t always there. You end up using all the heals the game supplies you to help with the mobs to restock after getting slapped almost unavoidably... or slowing down so much the fight drags on and it becomes much harder to win. And more deflating to lose. In the end, I lost for 45 minutes then just switched characters and cleared it effortlessly. But I shouldn’t have had to just “pick a different character” to one that wasn’t destined to get slapped. I should have been able to play around the windup. And this issue is not exclusive to this boss. The core problem is the same one the basic mobs have! In addition, your dash takes time to recharge- and characters only have 1 or 2. If you need to use a dash to close the gap, to say, hit a ranged unit- you’re left with limited options to evade enemies and their very fast attacks afterwards. If you’re out of dashes as a melee, you’re going to get hurt. This leads to a massive difference in melee vs ranged gameplay. There are two ranged characters, and they’re on an entirely different level than the melee ones. It’s not really comparable. A ranged unit only has to dash defensively, and both ranged units have skills that give them very strong kiting abilities allowing them to play significantly safer than their melee counterparts. And since they don’t have to close the gap, they have a higher damage uptime too- the ranged characters aren’t just safer but they do more damage. Melee characters end up needing way more stats in order to function because they will take damage. There’s no perfect play that’ll let you perfect clear a dungeon- your frame data is too much of a disadvantage for that to be true. So as a melee you need hp and dodge chance to survive, and damage in order to kill enemies quickly so they don’t run you over in your range. Ranged units, on the other hand, can invest purely into aggression. It was about the middle of the game until I got my second ranged unit. Remember what I said earlier about the game punishing you for spamming the same unit? Even if I’d only wanted to play ranged, I’d have been forced into a melee unit. In my specific case, I actually jumped around a lot and played mostly melee just to unlock the full skill trees- but the game really puts the heat on the player. Finally, lots of the melee kits just aren’t good without loads of stats or without all their abilities unlocked. This means that most characters you get will flat out suck until the midgame, because they don’t have the tools they need to succeed. The monk, for example, has the ability to dash-attack folks and suck people to him... but has such piddling damage output that if you reposition enemies early they’ll just slap you silly. It’s not until he has access to the AoE dash-jump and AoE knockback that you get the ability to deal lots of group damage, separate the enemies, and start picking foes off. Of course, by the time you have these skills, the game’s starting to end. Remember, melee characters become viable by basically gaining enough stats to ignore how bad their kits are in the context of the greater game. That means you start hitting a point where the difficulty of a dungeon is mostly due to how underleveled the character you’re playing with because you have the stats to brute force the game’s challenges. As the characters also pick up levels and you get access to more and more gold per run, the game becomes progressively easier until you find you’re very unlikely to die even in a brand new area. So in the end you’re left with a game with a fairly tough start that just gets progressively easier and then just kind of ends since you blow through the third act so quickly. You don’t even have time to unlock all your toys before the game is over. And even if you wanted to play another dungeon, there’s nothing that won’t just kind of buckle over- even with underleveled characters in endgame dungeons. There technically are roguelite elements to each dungeon run- but they’re fairly light. You get runes, which are random drops that buff an ability but they basically all amount to “you’re better now” and don’t change your playstyle. Some active abilities, of which you can collect two but who knows how many you’ll see or if there’s any real decision to make there, and some more passive abilities as well. Nothing that really varies your experience from run to run- even with these elements your runs will feel the same. The Main Story is overall still fun just due to the core gameplay, but it’s really just okay. --Family Trials-- Family trials is an extra game mode, where you play through 9 maps (with 2 bosses and 2 shops, and more maps during harder difficulties) as one of the main 7 characters with the skill tree gone and replaced with a starting set of skills. As you level up, you are granted 3 level up options to pick from- and you gain multiple artifacts and bonuses as you continue to craft your full build. In other words, it’s much heavier on roguelite elements, and has much more sticking power as a result of it. It amps up the roguelite elements that were weak in the main story- and can lead to some different feeling builds and more interesting decision making. I consider this a huge win, and it’s something I’ll definitely return to. The problem, however, is family trials also amps up the worst parts of the game. The characters in this mode are no longer snorting super stats, which means the family trials normal mode is significantly harder than the base game’s hard mode. 5 out of the 7 characters are just bad. I beat it once with the archer and once with the monk, and I have to say playing it as a melee was a struggle. It wasn’t strange for there to be 200 some enemies on a floor, with no safe rooms, and they all required something crazy like 5 hits each for me to kill. So my strategy ended up being relying on random equipment to kill things for me while I just dodged around. On runs where I actually tried to invest in my character’s ability to kill, it simply wasn’t enough to clear a wave of mobs even with all my abilities hitting them for AoE meaning that I was pretty much always in danger of being swarmed by the 60 something units per room. I literally watched my equipment drones solo a boss while I just jumped around the room, because that was just way more effective than actually striking it myself. I was second fiddle to my drones. The final boss also gets a buff- the three times I fought him they were in floating purple crystals that would fire lasers towards each other in a grid, punishing you for stepping in them. They would also get more mobs. So basically, as a melee, you can easily get punished for approaching the boss at all- getting lasered, or pinned into a corner and surrounded by mobs with no way to escape. A ranged unit can keep their damage up during this time, killing either the oncoming mobs as they approach or the boss itself, but as a melee you just have to sit there and hope you don’t take too much damage. Overall it left a bad taste in my mouth. Sure, the game wants me to win once with or at least try all 7 characters- but why would I want that? The game’s just frustrating when playing with everything melee. With that said, it’s still super fun as one of the two ranged units. So if you treat it as a two character game instead, or play in coop with at least one ranged character (and the other character as a support), it can still be tons of fun. It’s not just me. I ran into numerous threads of folks who beat this on the hardest difficulty with ranged units, who couldn’t do it on normal with most of the melees. --Final Thoughts / Summary / Recommendations-- The game has a lot of potential. The upgrades are cool. Some of the kits are really unique and exciting. It feels good to power up and the core mechanics are really fun. The main story is fun enough, but doesn’t give me a reason to come back and the difficulty just collapses. I’d love a set of “postgame” dungeons on a file that just had ramped up difficulty. So essentially what NG+ is, but without requiring me to replay the whole thing over and over again. Something I didn’t mention before is the game does have some issues on switch. The end screen lags every time and once crashed on me, numerous audio bugs, etc., I’d prioritize PC for this one but it’s still mostly fine on the Nintendo console. The enemies need to be re-examined. The game could be made a lot less frustrating and close that melee/ranged gap drastically if they just re-did a lot of the enemy attack animations. For windups, you want the duration of the player’s escape + 0.25 seconds (average reaction time) + some buffer at a minimum. This means they should be at least half a second and often higher. The windows of opportunity need to be extended for ranged units and hit-and-run units. The hit-and-run units in particular cause melees to have to chase after them because they’re not even vulnerable for a full attack for most characters. Often you have to just leave them for last because you can’t feasibly chase after them in a crowd, like being in the thick of it wasn’t hard enough. Playable melee characters need shorter windups on their own attacks. If I use an AoE stun, it’s because I’m surrounded- giving me half a second to a second of lead time on the move just means I eat a bunch of free damage from the mob that the move is designed to help me against. This can be compensated by larger post-attack lag if necessary, but it’s ludicrous that you’ll lose most attack contests against basic enemies. Melee units in particular could probably benefit from a dash enhancement. There’s an ogre unit who walks up to a player and swings, and leaves only enough time for a single attack and dash back before they’ll land a second hit. And they’re in the first area. This means that you end up having to strike the ogre once, dash away, wait for your dash to recharge, get in range to trigger the attack so you can maneuver in, hit him once... then dash away. And then do that ten times. For a regular enemy. Perhaps rewarding aggressive dashing (partial dash refund on if you attack right after) can enable melees to dash aggressively to threatening units and still get out safely without having to sit around and wait for a cooldown to engage. In the ogre example, you could wait for a swing, dash to the other side, strike, then dash through him as he tried to club you again- giving you the ability to stay engaged without taking a long break to sit and think. They could probably use a bit of a stat buff in Family trials too. Specifically where damage is concerned- if I’m going to jump into fifty enemies and my attack has a full second of windup time I better be cleaving through these guys. Which I’m not right now, by the way. Instead I’m just running around laps activating relics and hoping they’ll do the work for me. But here’s the thing- these things are mostly fixable. There’s not going to be a change to the upgrade system for the main story, so its’ longevity is what it is. And the main story itself isn’t going to change, no matter how... just kind of there it is. But attack windups? Dash refunds? That’s all doable. And frankly a lot less work than the Family Trials mode was. The team did a good job, and I honestly mean that. I think mostly the game needed some stronger playtesting before launch. I am a bit saddened to see that in the year+ since the game’s release, and with the launch of Family Trials, that they missed the mark on the player experience for most of the cast though- given they’ve had plenty of time to collect feedback on it. My recommendation is- worth a play if you can get it on sale. If not, check to see if they’ve made any significant balance tweaks to melee vs ranged play. If they have- go for it! If not, maybe hold off until the next big Steam holiday.

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fun fighting let down by a bare-bones launch • Eurogamer.net

Bleeding Edge poses a question I hadn’t considered before: what if the combat from Devil May Cry met Overwatch? A modestly-sized development team at Ninja Theory, spearheaded by DmC Devil May Cry combat designer Rahni Tucker, has worked for the past four years to come up with an answer. The result is a mixed bag. Bleeding Edge is, fundamentally, a fun experience, but it is a tad bland. And this launch on Xbox One and PC feels bare-bones, to put it lightly.

Bleeding Edge

Developer: Ninja Theory

Publisher: Xbox Game Studios

Platform: Reviewed on PC

Availability: Out now on Xbox One and PC

Here’s the setup: two teams of four work together to knock lumps out of each other while fighting for control points or, in the second of the two available game modes, energy canisters. There are 11 characters at launch, categorised into one of three roles: damage, support or tank, and already just two days after Bleeding Edge’s release that doesn’t feel like enough. The diverse roster of augmented heroes (augmentation is a theme, here) is made up of a few Overwatch-alikes and a handful of really quite impressive designs, all drenched in a sort of Borderlands meets ’90s sci-fi aesthetic that rekindles memories of hazy summers spent listening to Garbage. One of the characters is called Zero Cool, a nod to Jonny Lee Miller’s character of the same name from that most wonderfully crap mid-90s cyber thriller, Hackers.

I find myself gravitating towards a few of the characters in particular, the ones that work a little differently to the rank and file. Maeve is a granny (you don’t see many older women in video games – nice one Ninja Theory!) from Wicklow, Ireland, who is a cyber witch ranged assassin who rides a hovering bauble. The trick with Maeve is to perfectly time her traps and land killing blows, the latter of which resets her abilities. Struggle with this and Maeve’s a lightweight. But if you can dip in and out of combat, snatching last hit after last hit, she’s a beast.

On the support side, I enjoy playing as Kulev, who is – and stick with me here – a Voodoo-loving dead professor from Cambridge University whose soul was digitised and reborn into an automated snake that is now the arm of the mummified corpse of the aforementioned dead professor from Cambridge University. He was born in South Cheam, according to his bio. I know of no other video game characters who were born in South Cheam.

On the battlefield, Kulev is a ranged support who uses curses and boons to heal and deal damage. He’s not as direct a healer as fellow support character Zero Cool, but I find him more versatile and, well, cooler.

As far as the tanks go, I have a soft spot for half motorbike girl Buttercup (her “get over here” chain ability is fun to land but hardly inspired design). Makutu, a hulking New Zealander who sacrifices an evade for the ability to switch stances between one that constantly regenerates health, or one that increases movement speed, is more interesting to play. And this is the thing about Bleeding Edge: it is only occasionally interesting. Most of the time it feels one-note.

I’m sure many will be put off by how shallow Bleeding Edge appears to feel during its initial couple of hours. This is a third-person combat game with auto-targeting and just one attack button, which you mash for a melee character’s solitary combo, or hold down to auto-attack as a ranged character (you spend a lot of time pressing X in Bleeding Edge). Each character has just three specials, and you pick one super from a choice of two before heading into a match. It’s pretty limited.

As a result, it feels like your success is determined mostly by your team composition. In reality this is a sort of hit or miss situation. Most of the time players will pick a nice spread of roles – a tank, two damage dealers and a healer, perhaps – but without a role queue you inevitably find yourself paired with a team who refuses to deviate from the ultra popular damage dealers – despite the in-game warning that pops up if you fail to pick a support character.

A zombie from South Cheam. I always knew south of the river was dead cool.

Bleeding Edge also warns that communication is key, and it’s true that if you’re playing with people who stick together, you have a much higher chance of winning. Winning is of course fun! But when you’re in a team of players who do not stick together, Bleeding Edge can feel like pulling teeth. Voice comms are on by default, but you rarely hear anyone speak. Usefully, there’s a ping system, but in my experience it’s rarely used. Bleeding Edge does not suffer lone wolves gladly. If you get caught on your lonesome by more than one enemy player, you’re done for. Bleeding Edge has a sort of MOBA feel in that teamfights are super important and chasing down enemies who try to escape can make all the difference. Target the healers first, then burn down the rest.

However, I’ve found the more you play Bleeding Edge, the more you start to notice there’s a little bit more to combat than that. Team composition is incredibly important, yes, but with the power of mods you can tweak how your character works to re-jig their role slightly. Mod Kulev’s area of effect special so that it does bonus damage, and you turn this support character into something of a shadow priest. Buttercup has a mod that adds an ally buff to her Oil Slick ability, which is by default an area of effect slow. I don’t want to overstate the impact of mods – they can only take you so far. But they do increase the playstyle options per character, which is nice.

Spacing and smart movement is key – and it’s here Bleeding Edge feels most like a MOBA. Moving as a group to interrupt, ambush or swarm the enemy is a tricky thing to achieve in Bleeding Edge, but it’s doable. Don’t fancy that fight? Keep at a safe distance while waiting for backup. Reckon you’re in decent shape to get stuck in? Ping your team and go for it. Retreating is a big part of Bleeding Edge, too. There’s a significant cooldown on your respawn, and given your team is made up of just four characters, staying alive can make all the difference. If Bleeding Edge has a skill gap, it’ll be found in the quiet spaces between the action.

Some of the maps have environmental hazards, such as trains that kill you if they hit you. They are sneaky bastards.

Bleeding Edge also has a parry, which is actually pretty tricky to time when the fights spit out virtual pyrotechnics onto your camera. Mechanically, there’s a good reason why you’d want to use the parry: unlike the evade, the parry does not consume stamina. You can only dodge out of harm’s way for so long, but you can parry forever – assuming you’re good enough.

The problem, though, is the parry doesn’t feel worth the risk of going for it. You can only parry while you’re standing still – in a game that feels like it revolves around keeping on the move that feels stifling. And the effect it causes on your opponent is slight – they’re pushed back a bit. The parry is a deflect, really. It’s not a counter, and I wonder if it should have been, given how hard it is to do in a standard match. It would have been cool to let the characters parry while depositing energy into a collection point. Imagine how cool you’d feel deflecting an interrupt from an enemy while calmly scoring points for your team? That would be some sick 90s Neo stuff right there – and help those who are good enough to parry feel like they can do something most players can’t.

Bleeding Edge’s paltry parry sums up the combat, really. It’s fine. It’s inoffensive. It jabs rather than haymakers. Most of the supers lack spectacle, although I have to admit Nidhoggr’s Ride the Lightning super, which stuns all nearby enemies with an epic guitar solo, hits the right note. Ultimately, though, the bludgeoning in Bleeding Edge is mostly monotonous.

Bleeding Edge has a more pressing problem, though. It has released in such a bare bones state that it feels like a soft launch rather than a full release. Bleeding Edge has just two game modes and already they’re starting to feel old. The power cell collecting and depositing mode is quite obviously weaker than the standard control mode, and I wince whenever the game puts me in it. There are a handful of maps but they all look and feel similar. Mekko, the dolphin who pilots a fishbowl crab mech via a Japanese AI, was supposed to be in the game at launch but is now down as coming soon. There is no ranked play and no meaningful progression system. As you play you level up your profile and your character, but only with the purpose of unlocking mods and earning credits for cosmetics. Ninja Theory has promised Bleeding Edge does not and will not have microtransactions, which I find surprising, but what’s in the game to unlock at launch is uninspiring. There are different board types, stickers for your board and board trails to buy with virtual credits, but I’m more interested in the character skins. Ah – there are just two per character and they’re palette swaps! The emotes are fun but, again, there are only a few to unlock per character. Some characters only have one emote to unlock.

Bleeding Edge is about carefree scraps with a few pals you just met against some random chancers, not unlike a night out in Cheam, actually. Hit FIGHT and the game finds you a match with as little fuss as possible. Hopefully you’re playing with people who stick together, rather than waddle off like some maddening toddler speeding towards their inevitable doom. Rinse and repeat, the hidden rating system (hopefully) working behind the scenes to huddle players of similar skill level together. If you lose – oh well, you get a completion bonus, some experience points and a handful of credits. Win and you get a few more. Do I think Game Pass and the Lockdown (both of which sound like characters in the game) will carry Bleeding Edge till the summer? The combat is just about good enough to get away with it for now, but without some meaningful updates I’ll probably lose interest sooner rather than later.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/03/fun-fighting-let-down-by-a-bare-bones-launch-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=fun-fighting-let-down-by-a-bare-bones-launch-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

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Battlefield 5 – March 25th Battle Royale Update – Full patch release notes revealed

Electronic Arts and DICE have revealed the full release notes for the upcoming battle royale Firestorm update for Battlefield 5. Alongside the introduction of this new battle royale mode, DICE has improved aerial combat and has further polished the vehicle and weapons experience.

Furthermore, DICE has improved vaulting through certain windows on Narvik, will allow now players to choose whether to hold or press button for request/skip revive when down via a new control option, and has fixed an issue that could cause the screenshot resolution to be affected by the resolution scale setting.

Naturally, this patch will also come with multiple crash fixes and stability improvements, as well as performance improvements in Combined Arms and improved NVIDIA DLSS image clarity at 4K and 1440p.

Battlefield 5’s Firestorm update will release on March 25th and below you can find its complete changelog.

Battlefield 5 March 25th Battle Royale Firestorm Patch Release Notes

Wings and Ailerons

Flap Scaling has been tweaked to give less maneuverability at speeds under 200 kmh.

Drag Coefficient is now less extreme at 90-degree angles to remove “floatiness” at low speed.

Going slow will now more heavily impact your ability to maneuver your plane.

Elevator and Rudder

Drag Coefficients for elevators and rudders have been separated out and tweaked to get a more physical stalling behavior as in nose down faster when stalling.

Elevator lift curves are tweaked for giving optimal turns above 180 kmh. This gives you a more realistic stalling behavior and allow good pilots to use this behavior in making more advanced maneuvers.

Airplane Body and Gravity

Drag over velocity tweaked per plane to max out at cruising speeds. This means that planes will retain energy for longer and not slow down as fast.

Gravity will affect planes more when climbing. Combined with drag changes, this makes it more viable to trade altitude for speed.

You will find that decreasing only throttle will no longer affect your speed as quickly. If you really want to slow down, make sure to use gravity to your advantage. With reduced drag in general, you will also find that diving allows you to gain speed faster than before.

Vehicle Fixes

The player is no longer clipping with the machine gun on the M3 halftrack when viewed from a third person perspective.

The throwing grenade animation will now properly play when throwing grenades while in the passenger seat of vehicles that support it.

Players can now fire the rocket launchers while in the passenger seat of a vehicle that supports it.

Players should no longer get crushed when exiting the Universal Carrier at steep angles on hills / uneven terrain.

Fixed some visual issues that would occur when using the Field Drab paint job for the Valentine Archer tank.

The Valentine Archer tank now properly shows that it’s using APDS rounds instead of MG rounds in the user interface.

It is now possible to repair the Valentine Archer tank’s engine once it gets damaged.

Fixed a bug which could trigger the enter vehicle animation when a player pressed the exit vehicle interaction button too many times.

Player are now ejected out of towables should they end up in deep water.

Airplanes will no longer collide with medical pouches and crates, which could cause accidents.

Fixed a bug which would cause players to trigger tank sights while in a Universal Carrier.

Players can no longer damage the PAK-40 with small melee weapons such as knives.

Fixed an issue where players could be immune to damage during a small window of the animation when moving between in-vehicle and the top gunner seat.

Players will now die if they exit a plane at the moment it gets destroyed, previously in some cases you would survive exiting while the plane just had started to explode.

Fixed an exploit related to the resupply stations for vehicles.

The “Camera Roll” option now works with the Blenheim planes.

Fixed an exploit that enables players to use tanks during the “waiting for players” phase.

New damage curves have been implemented for all large and medium bombs. These curves now give more predictable damage levels depending on proximity to a target. This change affects both armor and infantry targets. Additionally, some direct hit damage present on some bombs has been moved to the explosion damage in order to achieve better damage consistency.

The 75mm and 6 pounder cannons on airplanes have had their explosive damage reduced to approximately equal the effectiveness of the BK37 Stuka cannons in damage per second. With a substantial number of additional bombs available to these planes the high damage output of the cannons was simply over-performing.

The trail effects for rockets have been substantially improved to help in tracking the rockets both for the shooter and for victims.

The maximum explosive radius of the GR21 rockets has been slightly reduced to better balance them against RP-3 Rockets. The GR21 only needs to fire two rockets to get maximum damage, and the lethal killing range of these weapons was more effective than balanced.

The small bombs equipped on the BF-109 G2 can now be dropped together to allow both bombs to land closer to their target. This should enhance their effectiveness against infantry and make them a good choice against the GR21 rockets for that tree.

The 4000 lb. Blockbuster bomb has had a significant reduction in blast damage, but retains in impressive blast range. Additionally, the large bomb has significant drag, making it slower to reach the ground when dropped. This bomb is an area weapon designed to devastate a large amount of structures, vehicles, and infantry. For balance purposes it’s important it reliably damages a large number of targets over a large area without outright killing all of the targets.

The 250 lb. bombs dropped by the Spitfire VA can now also be dropped together for a similarly greater effect on target. These bombs have also received a slight boost to their blast damage against infantry, as previously, a single bomb was unable to kill a full health soldier in a reliable manner. This is a change for consistency, and should not greatly increase the potency of the weapons.

Reduced the splash damage of the Bordkannone 37.

Fixed vehicles so that they take the correct consistent damage to the top and bottom of the tank.

Reduced the damage of the Valentine AA’s Canister shot so it takes a few shots to kill.With 40 rounds and a good rate of fire it should not reliably one-hit kill infantry at midrange.

Increased the armor of turrets on medium and heavy tanks. These are now harder to destroy.

Adjusted the STUG and Panzer default HE shell trajectory to be slower initially but retain speed over distance better. This returns the howitzer feeling of this shell without making ranged hits significantly more difficult than other tanks.

Weapons, Gadgets, and Specializations

Adjusted the PIAT for the new tank values. It now has the proper blast damage for infantry kills, but has over all a slightly reduced damage.

The AP Mine’s blast damage has been reduced below a one-hit kill again, with a new damage curve model giving a reliable flat damage amount out to the edge of the blast’s effective range.

Adjusted the damage done to parts by explosives like mines and dynamite so they do not instantly destroy parts upgraded via the spec tree.

Added a new AT Mine and dynamite damage curve. Mines and dynamite do very good damage if stuck to or triggered by a vehicle, but rapidly drop off if detonated only near the vehicle. This also makes the lethality against infantry good only at very close ranges and then reduces to a large wounding radius.

Fixed an issue where weapons would not gain full accuracy quickly enough when zooming in and not using iron sights.

FG42: Reduced base horizontal recoil to 0.5 (was previously 0.525). The FG42 was a bit too uncontrollable for its small magazine.

Sturmgewehr 1-5: Reduced reload threshold to 0.78 (was previously 0.82) to better match the reload animation. This means you can switch to a different weapon a bit earlier without aborting the reload.

Semi-automatic rifles: Tweaked recoil decrease and recoil per shot. The weapon type now has more and longer felt recoil. Numbers are not directly comparable to older versions of the game.

Polished Action: This Specialization now provides a stronger effect on the first shots to make it a better choice.

Fixed a bug which would cause Sticky Grenades to self replenish sometime after using an ammo crate.

Fixed a visual bug that would appear when picking up the Bren gun with an allied Medic that has The Phantom equipped on their torso slot.

Throwing ammo and health pouches have been improved in those cases where they would sometimes be standing close to other objects.

Melee attacks now properly does damage when both players are in deep water.

Improved the V-1 Rocket explosion when directly hitting water and when hitting really close to players.

Fixed a bug where players sometimes would still see a certain gadget in their hand, while the functionality was for another gadget.

Fixed a visual issue with the ZK-383 where a bullet was visible through the body of the weapon when using ADS with the iron sights.

Made additional minor improvements to bipod placement on certain objects.

Fixed a bug which caused weapons to not reload properly, after players had climbed on top of a vehicle while reloading.

The Reinforcement binoculars will no longer float if the player has them equipped and does a slide.

The Kar98k will no longer show the wrong number of bullets inserted during a reload animation after the player has placed the spawn beacon and the last bullet has been fired.

Soldier

Fixed a bug where the walking animations would stop updating if players walked over certain obstacles while crouch-walking.

Improved ground detection to prevent transitioning to falling state when crawling under a low object.

Fixed a bug where a movement animation would be played when standing still.

Maps and Modes

Improved vaulting through certain windows on Narvik.

In Combined Arms, the end-of-mission slow motion effect will now only trigger during the last three seconds of the mission timer.

UI/HUD/Options/Assignments

The Combined Arms mission details screen will now properly show which map it takes place on.

The Tides of War screen on the end-of-round screen will now always show the descriptions for each node.

The player can now choose whether to hold or press button for request/skip revive when down via a new control option.

Screenshot resolution is now affected by the resolution scale setting. For example, if you take a screenshot at 1920×1080 with resolution scale set to 200%, the resolution of the screenshot will be 3840×2160.

Stability

Multiple crash fixes and stability improvements.

PC-Specific Improvements

Made performance improvements in Combined Arms.

Improved NVIDIA DLSS image clarity at 4K and 1440p.

Battlefield 5 – March 25th Battle Royale Update – Full patch release notes revealed published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

[infotainmentplus-blog]

PUBG Mobile tips and tricks: How to survive and win a battle royale PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds—or PUBG as it’s known by fans—is finally available on mobile. The PC, Xbox One, and now Android and iOS smash hit may have lost some ground to Epic Games’ Fortnite in the ‘great battle royale war’, but Bluehole’s sandbox kill-fest reigns supreme on Android sitting on top of the Play Store with over ten million downloads. For those new to the game, the first thing you should know is that PUBG is all about surviving until the bitter end in a 100-person free-for-all or as a team by any means necessary. Yet whether you’re the kind of player that likes to grab the best weapons you can find and go all guns blazing, or you opt for a more stealthy approach, there are some gameplay basics that apply to everyone that enters the battlefield. In this guide, you’ll find some essential tips and tricks that will put you ahead of the pack in PUBG mobile and help you bag those sweet, sweet chicken dinners. Don’t land in the water, obviously. Choose where to land very carefully A game of PUBG can last as long as half an hour or, if things go horribly wrong, it can all be over in a few seconds. One surefire way of exiting early is by misjudging your initial landing spot. As a general rule of thumb, you want to aim for the best loot spots in the game’s Erangel map (the desert map, Miramar, will launch in a future update) while also avoiding as many other players as possible. There are some particular areas that regularly spawn the best weapons and armor such as the military base, power plant, or the various major towns, but bare in mind that other seasoned players will be heading there too. Editor's Pick 15 best Android games of 2018! Gaming on mobile has been improving at a far greater rate than any technology that came before it. Android games seems to hit new heights every year. With the release of Android Nougat and Vulkan … Once you’ve jumped out of the cargo plane, keep an eye out for swarms of other players heading to a single location and avoid those areas like the plague. Likewise, don’t just aimlessly drift once you’re in freefall—pinpoint a safe enough area, preferably with buildings so you can grab some loot, and push forward to speed your way there. Buildings will show up as white blocks on the mini map, so make sure you’re heading in the right direction. If you can’t see one you can always open your parachute early and coast over to a decent landing zone. Just be aware that every second you spend in the sky is a second your opponents will be using to scoop up loot. Loot first, shoot later Let me re-emphasize this one last time—if you die in PUBG you are dead. In solo play, there are no second chances, and in squads you’ll be putting your team’s chances of victory at risk if you keep getting downed early. Once you hit the floor, your first priority is gearing up so you don’t get clipped in any initial skirmishes. You’ll find crucial loot scattered around in buildings and supply crate drops. The latter contain the most sought-after weapons like the insanely powerful AWM sniper rifle but remember you won’t be the only one hoping to grab the spoils. Make sure to share the spoils in a supply drop if you’re in a squad. The most important loot in the early stages is a half-decent weapons, ammo, and some reasonable armor, as well as a backpack upgrade (up to level 3) so you have room for better gear as you start exploring. Any gun is better than your fists or even the legendary PUBG frying pan, so grab any nearby firearms before engaging a foe. Armor is also crucial so you can take more hits in a firefight. Like the backpack, head and body armor is graded from level 1 to 3, but level 3 armor is fairly rare. Aim for level 2 armor before picking a scrap, or level 1 at a bare minimum. Health items are also a priority. First aid kits are preferable, but bandages, painkillers, and the like will all help in a pinch. Thrown items like grenades will become more important later on as an offensive or distraction tool once the player count has diminished, but don’t be afraid to throw an explosive surprise if you come across an unsuspecting group early on. See that tiny outline of a person? No? Then don’t pull the trigger. Only shoot when you’re in range This is the ultimate rookie error and it’ll get you killed more than anything else in PUBG Mobile. Deciding when to hide and when to attack is a tricky balancing act, but you should never ever open fire unless you know your weapon has a chance of hitting the target. While knowing when you’re in range will take some practice for complete newcomers, if you have any experience with PvP shooters you’ll already have a fair understanding of the basics. Shotguns (especially the awesome S12K) and SMGs are useful for up-close burst damage, assault rifles and pistols are good for mid-range fights, and sniper rifles are perfect for long distance pot shots. Shotguns and SMGs are useful for up-close burst damage, assault rifles and pistols are good for mid-range fights, and sniper rifles are perfect for long distance pot shots. If you’re shooting at a distant enemy with, say, the otherwise fairly strong Tommy Gun, all you’re doing is giving away your position which is a fatal mistake. Attachments can extend the range of some weapons—assault rifles with scopes can sometimes be better than sniper rifles—but some guns are only useful in specific circumstances. Shotguns, for example, are a great tool for clearing out a building but are practically useless out in the open fields. Where possible, try to keep complementary weapons on hand and don’t carry two weapons that fulfill the same purpose. Keep an eye on the map It’ll take a fair few games to learn the layout of certain areas of the PUBG map, let alone the whole thing. While you’re getting used to the landscape, make sure you’re paying attention to the mini map and keeping an eye on the diminishing play area. In PUBG, the only safe area lies within “The Circle”. This circle will begin to shrink at select times during the match and if you find yourself outside of it for too long, you’ll eventually die. The damage you take in this electrified blue field will increase as the circle shrinks. Early on you’ll be fine for a few minutes, while in the very final stage you won’t last more than ten seconds. Time to move. Each new circle will show on your map as a white outline, so if you watch your map you’ll always know where to go next. There’s no need to rush in the early phases, but towards the end you’ll need to get moving to avoid death while also trying to steer clear of other players who will be doing the same thing. You should always be trying to remain in cover where possible, but if you do need to move, move quickly and with purpose. The mini map also has one final trick up its sleeve that you absolutely need to look out for—a fire indicator. If you hear gunfire in your vicinity, have a quick glance at the map and it’ll show exactly where it’s coming from. You can lean out of vehicles from the passenger seat for some spicy drive-bys. Wheels are better than legs Need to get somewhere fast? Then you need a vehicle, my friend. Vehicles are littered all around Erangel but you’ll find them most commonly near the larger cities and on the main roads. Unfortunately, while there are plenty of vehicles to go around, there’s also up to 99 other players potentially looking to get behind the wheel too, so be sure it’s safe before approaching. The motorcycle and buggy are both great for zipping to the next play area but will leave you relatively exposed. Larger vehicles like the jeep will be slower but are great for carrying around four players with a nice amount of protection. PUBG Mobile’s touchscreen controls can be a bit fiddly at the best of times, so you can imagine how difficult it is to deliver a lethal blow to an opponent when they’re driving straight at you. The downside, however, is the amount of attention you’ll draw thanks to those loud engines. You can’t see me. Hide and peek PUBG games almost always end with a tiny group of fighters lying around on the floor hoping someone else pops their head up first. That person usually gets domed immediately, by the way, so make sure it isn’t you. Going fully prone in PUBG is an important maneuver, so much so that it has its own dedicated button. It’s also a double-edged sword, however, as while you’ll get a nice recoil and accuracy boost and generally be a little more hidden, mobility is almost non-existent. If someone approaches you from behind while you’re on your chest, you’re almost definitely going to end up dead—especially if you’re looking through a scope at the same time. Keep an eye on your mini map and the surroundings before hitting the floor, and don’t be afraid to flank your opponents when they’re lying down. When out in the open, taking advantage of rocks and the sides of buildings for cover can be a much safer alternative. What PUBG doesn’t tell you is that you can actually peek around the side of cover without exposing your squishy limbs, but to do that you’ll have to take a quick trip to the Settings > Basic menu. Enable peek for an advantage over less studious players. Simply toggle Peek & Fire to “Enable” and you’ll be able to peer around corners. Just be aware that you’re far from invulnerable when doing this, as your head will lean with you, but you’ll be a much smaller target. One final point on controls: remap the buttons if you need to. There are three presets for both general and vehicle controls to choose from, but if you can tweak these even further by hitting the Customize option. You can move around every single aspect of the HUD to your liking, increase button sizes, and alter icon transparency, and you can also reset everything to default if you mess up. Be a good wingman and talk your way to victory. Communicate with your squadmates Erangel can be a very lonely place when you’re squatting in a field somewhere all alone, just waiting for a chance to strike. That all changes in duo or group play where strategic play and constant communication are key to victory. Attacking in numbers is far safer than splitting up. Almost every aspect of PUBG changes in co-op, be it choosing a place to land, deciding who takes what loot, picking a target, or even calling who gets to ride shotgun in a vehicle. Attacking in numbers is far safer than splitting up, but equally, you’ll need to maintain a little distance from your allies from time to time to flank opponents and hold vantage points. Thankfully, PUBG Mobile supports native voice chat using your device’s speakers and microphone, although you will have to enable the latter in Settings > Audio. Alternatively, if you have a few buddies, you can always use voice and chat apps like Discord. Do you have any tips and tricks to share with your fellow PUBG comrades? Fire away in the comments. , via Android Authority http://bit.ly/2qbEXxK

[builtinadaygames]

Games on itch: what I played this month

Hi, my name is Kevin Beissel.  I make game projects under the name ‘builtinaday’ and lurk on Twitter @builtinadayKB.

The purpose of this post is to cover some of the free games on itch.io, from a developer and fan perspective.  I'd like to make it a recurring series, maybe a monthly breakdown but who knows.  Like Douglas Adams said, the best part of deadlines is the great WHOOSHING sound they make while flying by.

Before we get to the games, I just want to clarify why I'm doing this and what I hope it accomplishes.  So here's the what, why and how:

The WHAT

Discuss free games available on itch.io

I've got a list of profiles to check out, but please send along any recommendations.

There are no restrictions on genres.  The whole point of this is to be curious and ask questions.  So no dumb rules like "No walking sims" or "No puzzle platformers", which would prolly eliminate half of the available games anyways.

The WHY

I want to become a better developer and playing experimental/small/art/trash games could help.

Getting an audience is hard and getting constructive feedback is even harder.  I can't help the devs covered in these posts with the former but maybe I can with the latter.

The HOW

There is no rating system.

There is no alter ego here, these are not 'angry' reviews.

These aren't even really reviews.

The goal is to focus on the design choices that were made and discuss the reasoning behind them.

I don't really care about being right, I don't really care about sounding smart ("Yeah, no shit" the reader grumbles), I don't really care about agreeing with you. I'm more interested in looking at the hierarchy of ideas (to borrow a phrase) that form game design.  By working at the ends and working in the middle we can find out more about it, right?

Enough with the formalities, let's get started.

Profile: Steven Miller (@stevenjmiller37, steven-miller.itch.io, 30 projects available)

Game: Calor

Genre/Style: Strategy, base building and combat modes

Strategy games are tall orders, especially as jam submissions, but Calor has plenty of good things going on.  The visuals are charming, the two game modes are fun, and it has some of that 'one more turn' gameplay you want in a good strategy game.

It sort of reminds me of FTL and X-Com, except it's also nothing like those games.  I still caught echoes of them, like an eerie trumpet call over a lost battlefield.  Except there's no sound in space, or so I've heard.

Hey, what spins faster: the planet in Calor or Hunter Thompson in his grave after I just mangled his 'eerie trumpet' line?

The base building mode revolves around placing resources (farms, solar panels, factories) on sections of a planet.  Every turn the planet rotates, and the direction can be changed with wind turbines.  Part of the planet has sunlight and resource tiles produce plus-1 per turn in sunlight.  Sun spots pop up every 7 or 8 turns and will destroy any resource on a tile or damage the player, but a warning message pops up when the sun spot is three turns away.

Enemies can't damage tiles but can attack the player.  It's better to move onto the enemy's tile and initiate combat, especially if the tile contains a resource.  Letting the enemy move onto your tile has a combat penalty.

The combat mode has two parts to consider: a top section with three bars that contain the enemy's attack and shield points and a bottom section laid out like a hex-style grid.  The grid has three starting nodes on the left and three ending nodes on the right with bonus nodes in the middle.  You can choose whether to use a shield node or an attack node during your turn, but not both.

If the top section has a shield in any bar, connecting to the corresponding ending node reduces your attack points.  So you have to plan paths that pick up as many bonus nodes as possible and avoid ending on a penalized node.

Both modes are good and it would be cool to see them expanded on.  There's a few things I'm curious about though, like the attack only/shield only choice you have to make in combat.

If you start a fight with low health, the enemy will prolly wipe you out with one attack.  So I suppose the design incentivizes you to keep moving away from the enemy until your health is refilled during the base building mode, then turn around and engage.  I just wish there was away to use both a shield node and an attack node on the same turn.  I know upgrade systems can be tricky and usually avoid them in my projects, but this ability would be a great addition.

Forgive me if there is this ability, but I'm pretty sure there isn't.

And I gotta ask: if you can't combine the abilities, then what's the point of including a shield option at all?  If you're low on health to start, using the shield just creates an endless loop of defensive turns.  Does health regenerate between turns in combat or only outside of combat?  Could I block the enemy's attack enough times until I'm healed and then switch to attack nodes?  What am I missing here?

I know that sounds negative, but I swear it's just curiosity.  Calor is fun to play and also gave me some challenging design questions to consider.  There are plenty of games that fail to do either of those things.

Game: Capture Horizon

Genre/Style: Puzzle platformer, side-scroller

This is a puzzle platformer that requires you to manipulate the level by taking photos of it and arranging them to form a path to the exit.  I played Camera Obscura on Steam, which uses a simiilar idea, and it's a cool concept.  I like that it relies on spatial design/reasoning skills, instead of using oblique hints to solve unfair challenges based on muddy logic/lazy rulesets.

The photo taking/placing mechanic is easy to understand.  You can't take a new photo while on an existing one and you can have up to three at a time.  It seems simple but I quickly became stumped, especially on levels five and six.

The platforming is OK, but it leads to many cheap deaths.  Most levels have two sections you need to reach; the first is relatively easy and the second is much harder.  The harder section requires a lot of trial and error, due to both photo placement and jumping issues, which means you have to redo the easy section a lot of times which is tedious.

Traditional difficulty progression states that a level should have an ascending scale of difficulty, not a descending scale.  But for short, self-contained levels like this, inverting that formula might have worked well.

And since we are here to inquire within about everything and not here to disparage, let's consider some alternative solutions to this problem:

New speed setting:  I hate when people suggest new settings for traversal speeds in my own work, because there is usually a bunch of connected factors to consider/change that they aren't aware of.  What sounds like a small tweak is actually a much larger change.

So, even tho I hate being THAT GUY, I too often found myself running right off of a platform or, even worse, jumping way too early to compensate for the fast movement.  A walk/run control setup might have fit nicely.

Change the jump mechanic:  Something like the style of jumping used in Gunpoint would have made the platforming simpler, but much more satisfying.  For those who don't know, the Gunpoint-style allows the player to activate a jumping stance, adjust the height/distance of the jump and then confirm or cancel the jump.

This style would eliminate most of the frustrating trial and error sections.  You could place a photo and test whether your jump could reach it, instead of placing a photo and jumping one pixel short and having to retry the whole level.

What helpful advice, huh?  "Ripoff a more popular game to make your own work seem better" is just about the most lazy advice you could give an artist.  And yet here I am, handing out shopworn cliches faster than Michiko Kakutani.  So where the hell is my goddamn Pulitzer?

Game: Entropy

Genre/Style: Roguelike, 8-bit isometric view

Lately I've been seeking out games that put a strong emphasis on combat, like "Superhot" or "Deadbolt".  Roguelikes usually have a heavy emphasis on combat and Entropy certainly does.

You have a fast-moving, low-damage ranged shot that repeats quickly but you can charge up a power shot.  The charged shot literally turns you into a bullet, and can be used offesnsively or defensively.  You could knock out a powerful enemy or escape from a crowd by firing to a safe spot.  You can also use the charge shot for traversal, usually shooting across gaps filled with spikes.

If I could transform into anything, I'd transform into a machine that could make ANYTHING.  I would make anything then transform back into myself and enjoy whatever (or whoever) I just made.  That might seem like an awfully large loophole, a loophole so large you could drive a Pagani Zonda thru it.  A carbon-fiber supercar loaded with guns, cash, and women (or MEN) you made in your ANYTHING machine.

But what are you?  A lawyer?  I don't remember making any of those in that ANYTHING machine.

Or you could turn into a bullet.  That is also a pretty cool thing to do.

The character movement speeds are nicely balanced.  Strafing a lone enemy is fun and juggling large crowds is intuitive.  Some enemies felt like bullet sponges, but I wasn't using the charge shot enough.  Moving around till I had space and time to get it off made those enemies easier to deal with.  The enemy design is good too, with variations in size/speed/strength that feel balanced.  They have a nice spectral, eerie look to them.

The game also opens with a short cutscene.  My favorite part was the "standing" animations.  All the characters constantly bounce up and down, which is fun to watch.  I love this choice.  Animations more sophisticated than this aren't really the point of LD jams and if they stood still that would be boring, so it's a nicely off beat decision.

The one minor problem I had was the reticle color.  It's green, which would be fine except some levels have patches of grass that make it hard to track the reticle.  Otherwise, the game has the color palette nicely split up between player, enemy and enviromental assets.

Remember:  Split up the colors, but don't split up your pants!  Why do people breath in when trying to squeeze into jeans?  If you breath out you get thinner, or at least that's what my bitchy mother-in-law keeps telling me.  I get it, Joan!  Also, get Entropy and shoot stuff.

Profile: Tooth and Claw (Dan McGrath, @daninfiction, toothandclaw.itch.io, 24 projects available)

Game: Valley of the Moon

Genre/Style: Walking sim, puzzle

You are supposed to collect four relics to reactivate your ship and leave the planet.  Despite the walking sim label, there's a couple of nice platforming sections too.  But the real point of this type of game is to create a distinct atmosphere, a space worth getting lost in.

Of all the games in this post, this is the one that gave me the purest moment, or at least the type of moment you can really only get with a videogame.  The game starts up and I see a nearby building with a large door.  Since its a puzzle game and I've just started, I assumed the door was locked.  But I went over anyways, intent on asking one of the fundamental questions videogames can offer: "Can I do that?"

Turns out, I could do that.  The door popped open, and I got a little thrill out of it.  Seems silly maybe, that something so simple could feel that rewarding, but it did.

Inside the building is one of the relics and another nicely put together moment.  You climb the final step and see a platform with a relic on it, and a giant orange moon lined up right above it.  The symmetry of the relic and moon is really nice and its a striking visual moment.

The only question I would ask is about the ending:  Why not try something wild or unexpected, something totally abstract or bizarre?

I don't mean this as a criticism, because it's quite good and I'm glad I played it, it's just a question.

If you've played other walking sims all the way through, like "Dear Esther" for example, then you know how a surprising and offbeat ending can really resonate with the right type of players.  I happen to really like the way that "Esther" ends, and can more strongly recall that odd, poetic moment better than I can recall some of the other supposedly famous moments in recent games.

A unique and challenging ending can make a lasting impression on the player and, whether they loved or hated it, that player will remember your work.

So, in the case of this game, why not do something more eccentric?  Like when you take off and leave this peaceful planet behind you end up crashing onto an uninhabitable, hostile planet?  Or you take off and safely land on a new planet, only to find out its exactly like the one you left?  Is that too 'Twilight Zone' for you?

Or maybe you take off and turn into a freaking Star Child?  Then the Star Child grows up and becomes Galactus?

Anyways, that's what happens when you leave the audience hanging.  They start out reasonable enough and end up arguing about Galactus and his big, dumb headgear.

The point being: not every game needs a meaningful or profound or abstract ending, but some do.

Game: Zealot

Genre/Style: FPS, looks like a 90s shareware game

Other Info: made in 3 days

This is a dope throwback to shareware-era FPS games.  Zealot is like a resurrected title from this era, with glorious visuals and punishing combat.

There was a wider range of titles than most people remember, mainly because the iconic titles of the time (DOOM, HEXEN) loom so large.  I was flipping thru an old PC game magazine (prolly circa 1995) and there was pages and pages of ads for obscure shareware titles, some looking totally generic and others beyond bizarre.  I prolly spent more time looking at those ads recently than I did when those games came out.  Sorry, marketing geniuses!

There was also an article about how advanced stats would become important in sports.  Something about how coaches, players, fans, journalists and gamblers would be interested in new ways to analyze performance and predict outcomes.  Who would have thought?  You know besides Paul Allen and his 300-foot yact and his investment stake in STATS LLC.  Also, fuck Paul Allen, fuck his yact, fuck his Dorsia reservations, and fuck me while we're at it.

But don't fuck Zealot!  Do play Zealot, it's quite fun.  You run and jump around on a floating platform blowing up various types of demons.  You play until you die.  My best time was 74.67176 seconds.  It was much more fun once I realized I could hold down the attack button to autofire, which seems obvious but hey, if you're so smart how about you come over and unclog this drain?  I've tried nothing man, and I'm all out of ideas.

Thankfully Dan McGrath isn't out of ideas, tho!  And Zealot is a pretty good idea.  I've never had a bad idea.  I've had great ideas that turned out horribly wrong, but never any BAD ideas.  I've also stolen ideas/entire jokes from 30 Rock, but Dan McGrath hasn't yet!

Profile: Trasevol Dog (@TRASEVOL_DOG, trasevol-dog.itch.io, 24 projects available)

Game: Blast Flock

Genre/Style: similar to Luftrausers, but more colorful

This is the profile to check out if you like games with bright color palettes and visuals that really pop off the screen.  It helps that the gameplay is excellent, too.

And hey, people who care soooo much about what engine a dev uses: this game wasn't made with Unity, so try to find something else to complain about.

Blast Flock is a variation on Luftrausers, which is an OK game.  I really wanted to like Luftrausers, but whenever I play it I'm always left with the same two questions:  Where is the rest of the game and how come it isn't more fun?

Luftrausers felt like it was all about keeping your multiplier at 20 which feels like a chore, like an uncreative grind.  I was more interested in finding fun and interesting ways to attack enemies, especially since it had such great body/weapon/engine variety.  It felt like they incentivized creative approaches, but instead only rewarded you for following a narrow path.

Well, Blast Flock doesn't have more content, but it certainly is more fun.  The controls are intuitive and allow for a lot of experimentation.  Your group of ships always flies towards the reticle, with fire and boost mapped to lmb/rmb.  You can shoot down enemies and save them as they fall, expanding your group.

Building your squadron up and tearing thru a huge group of enemies at top speed with guns blazing feels so great.  Whipping the mouse around the screen and creating total chaos also feels great, like orchestrating your own bullet hell symphony.

Or you could conduct a symphony of the night.  But how the hell am I supposed to read music in the dark?  My conductor baton glows in the dark, but I don't want people to know that.  It only does that in case I drop it during a performance and have to find it on the ground real quick.  Symphony of the night?  How about a 'symphony of the comfortable recliner' instead?  Or ‘symphony of the better jokes’?

Thanks for reading!  If you liked this then maybe check out my itch profile, too.

[footyplusau]

Match report: Debutant Docker bounces Roos

RYAN Nyhuis has sealed a dream debut for Fremantle with two late goals that helped the Dockers hold on for a heart-stopping four-point win over North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

Nyhuis only came into the Dockers’ team when former skipper David Mundy was a late withdrawal with illness, but the 20-year-old defender was a revelation in attack, kicking four goals, the last of which at the 28-minute mark put Freo six points up.

WATCH: The thrilling last two minutes

The Dockers weren’t home, however. A Jack Ziebell shot on goal two minutes later appeared to be going through before it was touched on the line, then in the dying seconds Todd Goldstein looked set to steal the win for North when he received a free kick 25m from goal after being held in a ruck contest.

Freo dodged a bullet when the Roos ruckman pulled his set shot to the right and hung on for a fighting 13.8 (86) to 12.10 (82) win that broke a five-game losing streak.

Full match coverage and stats

Entering Sunday’s game, the Dockers had not won since their round nine victory over Carlton at Domain Stadium.

And they started the game like a team that was sick of losing, ramming on four consecutive goals in the opening 14 minutes to jump to a 25-point lead.

Five talking points: North Melbourne v Fremantle

Freo never led by more than that margin, however, and with Tommy Sheridan (leg) having been sidelined since half-time, looked in trouble when North cut its lead to nine points at three-quarter time.

North hit the lead for the first time at the 18-minute mark when Ben Brown snapped a clever goal, and appeared to be running away with the game when it had the next two scoring shots – behinds to Goldstein and Jack Ziebell.

WATCH: Nyhuis’ dream debut

But Nyhuis cut the Roos’ seven-point lead to just one when he goaled on the run from 50m at the 25-minute mark before kicking the match-winner from 45m after marking strongly in front of Roo debutant Daniel Nielson.

Freo skipper Nat Fyfe (33 possessions, six marks and one goal) played one of his most influential games this season, and was well supported in the midfield by Connor Blakely (32 possession and seven inside 50s) and Lachie Neale (27 possessions and seven clearances).

Michael Walters (20 possessions, three goals and seven rebound 50s) was class personified, especially when he found his way into space, and Bradley Hill’s run stretched North’s defences.

Dockers coach Ross Lyon acknowledged his team had some luck at the end of the game, but was pleased with his players’ work ethic and will to win. 

“(It was) pleasing the way we went about it. There’s a bit continuity in that now, there’s a real understanding of the effort you’ve got to bring and the intensity (required) to compete at AFL level because we had that three-week period where we didn’t do what was required,” Lyon said.

“Nathan was fantastic today and all of our leaders. We lost Mundy, (he) got on the plane and felt sick and had the flu and didn’t recover, so we brought in Ryan Nyhuis so that threw us around a little bit but he clearly delivered as a forward.

“I think you’ve got to acknowledge that (if) Goldstein kicks the goal we’re in all sorts of pressure.

“There were things we could have done better – kick-in structures and those things – but you need a little bit of luck and we had some with that miss. But our desire and our will to win was really strong, so that was incredibly pleasing and satisfying.”

North’s loss was its fifth in a row, but the Roos lost few supporters with their brave comeback.

Brown stood tall in attack for the Roos with four goals, while his defensive pressure was also outstanding and saw him run down Freo speedster Bradley Hill in the middle of the ground early in the third term.

Shaun Higgins (26 possessions and seven inside 50s) was influential through the midfield despite being shadowed by Docker Nick Suban most of the day, while skipper Jack Ziebell (28 possessions, nine clearances, eight tackles and one goal) and Ben Cunnington (28 possessions, eight clearances and eight tackles) drove the Roos’ comeback in the second half.

Aaron Mullett (two goals) also gave North damaging rebound across half-back and was well supported by Shaun Atley (one goal).

North coach Brad Scott lamented his team’s costly slow start, but took solace from the fightback that put the Kangaroos in a position to win the game.

“I feel really disappointed for our players and our fans. I think a win is always a great antidote to a few losses, so no doubt we’re disappointed,” Scott said.

“But it was all within our control. We gave ourselves opportunity.

“The game is about creating opportunity and to Fremantle’s credit they created it early and we didn’t do enough to defend it. We created it late and we didn’t take our chances.

“I can live with the execution, because that’s what you just keep working on, but we’ve got to make sure we don’t have such a lacklustre start to the game in this case.”

The Dockers burst from the blocks at the start of the game, kicking four consecutive goals in the opening 14 minutes – two through Walters – to open up a 25-point lead.

Spearhead Brown kicked North’s only goal for the term after clunking a strong mark at the 16-minute mark. Neither team could manage another major before quarter-time, with Freo taking a 19-point lead into the first break.

Nyhuis extended Freo’s lead to 25 points when he kicked his second goal inside the opening 30 seconds of the second quarter.

But with Brown providing a strong target in attack, North hit back with four of the next six goals – including a brilliant 35m left-foot dribble goal just inside the boundary by Shaun Higgins – to cut Freo’s lead to 12 points at the 22-minute mark.

Late goals to Darcy Tucker – set up by a courageous Fyfe mark running back with the flight of the ball – and Brennan Cox stretched Freo’s lead back to 25 points before North speedster Atley converted on the run in the dying seconds to reduce the half-time margin to 19 points.

MEDICAL ROOM North Melbourne: The Roos emerged with a clean bill of health.

Fremantle: Joel Hamling limped from the ground after a marking contest midway through the first quarter and received treatment on his right hip on the interchange bench. After going down to the rooms, Hamling returned at the start of the second quarter but was clearly restricted. The key defender played out the game but was switched from original opponent Ben Brown. “He had a bit of a hip that he tweaked. He just lost some power in it. He wasn’t in any pain, but he just lost that power,” Freo coach Ross Lyon said after the game. Tom Sheridan limped from the ground just before half-time with a hamstring injury and played no further part in the match. “It doesn’t seem like a tendon (injury), it seems like a standard 21-day hamstring,” Lyon said. “I could be wrong. Normally I would hear they’re concerned, but I haven’t heard that.” Brady Grey left the ground just before three-quarter time with a shoulder injury but returned with the joint heavily strapped at the start of the final term and played out the game.

NEXT UP The Kangaroos have a six-day break before they travel to Adelaide Oval to take on Port Adelaide. It will be the first time the teams have clashed at the new home of South Australian football, but North has lost all four of its matches there against Adelaide. The Dockers host West Coast at Domain Stadium next Sunday, when they will be looking to break a four-game losing streak in the Derby.

NORTH MELBOURNE     1.2   6.3   8.4   12.10 (82) FREMANTLE                   4.3   9.4   9.6   13.8 (86)   

GOALS

North Melbourne: Brown 4, Mullett 2, Mountford, Swallow, Atley, McDonald, Higgins, Ziebell Fremantle: Nyhuis 4, Walters 3, Kersten 2, Kersten 2, Fyfe, Cox

BEST 

North Melbourne: Brown, Higgins, Ziebell, Wagner, Mullett, Atley Fremantle: Fyfe, Nyhuis, Blakely, Walters, Neale, Tucker

INJURIES 

North Melbourne: Nil Fremantle: Grey (shoulder), Hamling (hip), Sheridan (hamstring), Mundy (illness) replaced in selected side by Nyhuis

Reports: Nil

Umpires: Donlon, Haussen, Hosking

Official crowd: 19,267 at Etihad Stadium

The post Match report: Debutant Docker bounces Roos appeared first on Footy Plus.

from Footy Plus http://ift.tt/2tY0b61 via http://footyplus.net

[symbianosgames]

Fifteen years ago, Blizzard released the fantasy RTS Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. The following year, a mod of that game called Defense of the Ancients created the popular and lucrative multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) genre. Two years ago today, Blizzard brought things full circle by releasing their own MOBA, Heroes of the Storm. 

The 2015 game is like Blizzard's version of Smash Bros: A mix of characters drawn from its other franchises (Starcraft, Diablo, Warcraft, The Lost Viking, and now Overwatch), rebuilt in a genre that has its roots in the company's rich strategy game history.

As Heroes' development has continued, it's been worth paying attention to how Blizzard differentiates its MOBA from its more-established competitors. While it's noteworthy that Blizzard's biggest differentiator is the choice to use multiple maps, it's also worth tracking how it applies the company's renowned polish to its myriad of heroes. 

We wanted to learn a little more about how Heroes of the Storm tweaks and rebalances characters from other franchises and genres. Luckily, Kent-Erik Hagman, lead hero designer on the game, was willing to talk us through the process of conceptualizing, designing, and refining three heroes that show how Blizzard has put its own stamp on the MOBA genre.

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Cho’gall first came up in discussions about a month before the technical alpha started—we had this pitch for a Hero that had a relatively standard ogre mage fantasy. But then we looked at that second head, and said to ourselves, "There's got to be more we can do here!" There were some basic ideas—maybe you select a second talent for the second head; maybe the second head is constantly casting a spell, and as the first head, you need to try to work with it.

"We didn’t want this to be two Heroes glommed onto a single body, so we tried out various levels of interaction between the two heads."

Eventually, there started to be this collective consciousness trending towards doing more with that second head. Multiple members of the team from multiple disciplines (art, engineering, design) were all pitching this idea of the "two-player Hero." He already has two heads so it seemed like such a natural fit, we had to run with it!

We quickly found that there were a lot of ways to do a two-player Hero, but each one had various potential pitfalls. We decided to focus each head in its role, and isolate the movement controls to a single head (Cho). We didn’t want this to be two Heroes glommed onto a single body, so we tried out various levels of interaction between the two heads. In fact, the first iteration of Rune Bomb had Cho summon these orbiting Bombs that would just passively rotate clockwise around his body a good distance away from him, and Gall would have to use Shadowflame to pop the bombs. We quickly discovered, however, that this was incredibly frustrating to play, and not very rewarding.

Cho'gall is one of the biggest technical hurdles ever overcome by our engineering and technical design staff. First we had to figure out how to get the second player there. Setting up Cho was relatively straightforward for our engine—he's just another Hero. Gall, on the other hand, is an "invisible, uninteractive" unit that is grafted onto Cho, forced to travel where he goes. When we were first working on the pair, we came across many situations that could disjoint these two brothers from each other. Our technical design team did a great job answering each new issue quickly so we could get back to playtesting!

TK text

Thankfully we had already developed Abathur—a Hero who offered a similar gameplay experience. We looked at Gall as more of a concentrated version of Abathur, where he was attached to another Hero’s body. The more we played with Cho'gall, the more we started to look at them as Cho driving the vehicle with Gall as his gunner. Cho exists to get Gall into position to deal the damage. We gave Cho his mobility to help him be the "driver" for the two. We initially tried to make most of his mobility have some sort of wind-up or visual tell, so that Gall would know that his firing position was about to change.

Looking back, I think there were two parts to the process of making Cho’gall where we underestimated how difficult it would be to get Cho’gall working to our satisfaction. The first was the coordination factor. We started with what were some pretty tough coordination requirements for Rune Bomb, since they sounded pretty easy on paper. Gall didn't have a "Runic Blast" to detonate the bomb. Instead, his low cooldown Shadowflame was supposed to "pop" any Runic Bomb that Cho had, to create this fun two-player combo. It seemed straightforward, but once the rubber hit the road, we were shocked by how tricky it was to get working. We eventually tried simpler versions until we landed on giving Gall a "detonate" button in the form of Runic Blast. It ended up feeling so much better for Gall, as you no longer felt punished for using your Shadowflame on cooldown, which is what you wanted to do.

The other difficulty in the process was the actual playtesting. The logistics for our daily playtests were not set up to comfortably handle the two-headed Hero. We quickly realized we needed to start doing formal assignments for who was playing what Hero in a playtest to make sure enough people got to try both Cho and Gall and provide their valuable feedback. It got especially rough when talents started getting implemented, as usually each talent needs its own game (or two or three if there are certain synergies) to test, and then when you double it all for the second head . . . it can be quite the task to playtest each Hero and each talent! Going back, I think we should have worked as a team to set up more structure to those playtests to get good coverage on all of Cho'gall's kit and talents.

Other HotS characters ride a mount for a speed boost. Cho'Gall carries his.

Our animation team had so much fun animating Cho’gall. Early on, in our internal art page, we saw the Cho’gall animation of him carrying a horse, set to the Last of the Mohicans theme. Immediately a group of us designers walked over to the animator who made it and we all fell to our knees shouting, "We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!"   

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Ironically enough, D.Va's two forms was retreading ground we had already covered, but probably in a space that doesn't seem connected at all: Lt. Morales' Medivac. While in Mech Mode, Pilot D.Va is really just riding around in her own "Medivac," which is functionally what her Mech is. As an interesting aside, it was also implemented by the same technical designer who had implemented Cho’gall, and looking back had said, "Man, I should've made Cho’gall a Medivac!" 

We definitely wanted D.Va's "thing" to be her two forms: Mech and Pilot. Most of our Tanks and Bruisers have some sort of way to stay in the fight, be it a self-heal (E.T.C., Stitches) or an increasing health pool (Diablo). For D.Va, we wanted the second health bar of her Pilot mode to be her extra survivability, and have it tied to her ability to get back into a Mech before being killed. We also felt that this two-formed Hero, the tanky disruptor and the damaging backline Hero, lent itself to a unique playstyle in our game.

A mech-less D.Va doling out a Big Shot attack

"This two-formed Hero, the tanky disruptor and the damaging backline Hero, lent itself to a unique playstyle."

It had to do with that call to making her Hero identity be the two different forms she can take. We wanted to see her switch back and forth often from the very beginning of a game, just as she does in so many Overwatch matches. Making it her E ability allowed us to explore new Heroics for this Hero. Many potential Heroics were pitched, and in the process, we quickly latched onto the idea of having a "Mech Heroic" and a "Pilot Heroic." Bunny Hop was a pretty quick win, but Big Shot took a lot longer to develop. For a good 4 weeks, her Pilot Heroic was "Stun Gun," which let her channel a stun onto an enemy she tagged with her gun, allowing her to combo with Self-Destruct. But after playing with it, we axed it and explored Big Shot, and quickly fell in love with it. It felt like such a natural fit for what Pilot D.Va is trying to accomplish: deal high poke damage from afar, trying to bait an engagement with having a fresh Mech at the ready.

Working on Overwatch Heroes has been a blast. It's quite a treat to take a stellar Hero from another game and ask yourself, "How does this translate into Heroes of the Storm?" I think if there's anything we've walked away with in all this, it’s understanding the nuance between perceived differences between the two games, versus real differences. There are a lot of obvious differences when you look at the two games, but as we dove into the design and began translating from her Overwatch kit, we quickly realized that just because you think something might obviously be different, it's not quite the case, and vice versa. Designing these Heroes in this game really boils down to figuring out the essence of that Hero, and then re-expressing that in Heroes of the Storm.

When developing Heroes, we'll often talk about the "internal salt meter." A new Hero will enter playtesting, and naturally someone will be grumpy they died to a new mechanic. We all get it, Heroes can be a tough game competitively. It's one where you’re constantly fighting your opponents, meaning one of you will die. When you factor this in, and you bring in a new Hero, the salt will be focused on that new Hero. To that extent, we had left Stun Gun in as a Heroic for D.Va for quite some time, assuming that people would start to learn it better (it’s key to know that at this point in development, we have temp art, temp sounds, and no voiceover callouts, so it can be rough). But I think in retrospect, we may have held onto it for too long. That being said, each new Hero is a learning experience. Much like how Heroes of the Storm has evolved over time into the game we have today, we bring the lessons we learned from each Hero forward to make the next one even better.

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We started with this idea for Ragnaros as a "Core Hero," or a Hero that would replace your Core, and operate from there. There were a tremendous number of hurdles that popped up in trying to replace our Core. It turned out that there were a multitude of systems that had been built with the assumption of what the Core was all along, that we had no longer been aware of. Replacing it led to some serious time spent investigating these systems and de-coupling the specific Core units so that the "Ragnaros" Core could fit with it nicely.

The strong fantasy players associate with each Hero in our game means that they have certain expectations for how we deliver on that fantasy. For instance, the origin of having two Heroic abilities on each Hero (instead of just one) was Arthas. Everyone's seen the Wrath of the Lich King cinematic: Arthas summons an army of ghouls, Arthas summons Sindragosa—it's simply not Arthas if he's not doing both!  To address this feedback, we came back with the idea of the second Heroic. As for Ragnaros, in some ways his strong Raid Boss fantasy was limiting. We had this pitch with the Sons of Flame that would be your temporary avatars out there in the world for you, while you did your Elemental Lord thing across the map. That design, while promising, had to be abandoned to make it feel like you could be Ragnaros himself more often.

Ragnaros rolls a Living Meteor at a foe

Surprisingly, it was more of an issue for our pre-existing Battlegrounds than it was the new ones in development. We quickly found on Cursed Hollow and Towers of Doom that we needed to be careful with the range and duration of his Molten Core to make it so he wasn’t too oppressive in stalling a Tribute or Altar capture. On Blackheart's Bay and Sky Temple, there were some initial fears over "Big Rag" (as his Raid Boss form became known in the office) being able to soak up those shots, effectively negating them. That, like many other designs, turned out to be not nearly as scary as it sounded. On Battlegrounds like Haunted Mines, Battlefield of Eternity, and Infernal Shrines, our balance team put in some serious work to get the tuning just right on his health and damage bonuses against those map mechanics!

We had fun designing his vector ability, Living Meteor. When we got to designing his talents, we quickly learned that the most fun pairing were the redirect and longer range talents. In fact, we discovered they were so much fun together that we felt comfortable collapsing them into one. We also were learning a ton about Questing talents, and decided that when we have two fun synergy mechanics, it makes sense to have them both on the same Quest talent. It was a good crystallization of knowledge we were starting to develop about what makes for fun and engaging Questing talents.