#starlink: battle for atlas

[spacenintendogs]

hi, a few years ago on artstation there was one of the artists who worked on starlink: battle for atlas named rundeep khaira and on his page he had renders and animations of the star fox team (and wolf o'donnell) that he had done

the looked like this

i am searching for any and all of them, i have quite a number of them already due to searching through old discord messages but i am not 100% sure i have all of them, especially the actual moving animations (idle animations, breaker pips, etc)

anything is greatly appreciated even if you think i might already have it 💃🎉

[awkwardstarfoxscreencaps]

tag yourself

[sketchycryptid]

Sadly, I've been sick the past few days and haven't made anything for Star Fox's 30th anniversary ;-;

Here's some pen sketches of Fox to look at until I come up with something cool for the upcoming anniversary of the game's North American release next month 😅

[v-v-angel]

I think the one or two people that see this will enjoy this

Also have some UB Funkeys I need to find

[cozygaymes]

[miloscat]

[Review] Starlink: Battle for Atlas (NS)

An Ubisoft open world... in space! Also Star Fox is there!

Lylat Wars is one of my childhood favs, so I'll play anything if they put Star Fox in it. It just so happens that the Switch version of this open world toys-to-life game included a bunch of Star Fox side content as an extra, so here we are. Now it's taken me a few years to recover from Star Fox Zero, but the characters are handled very well here, enough for me to open my heart to them again.

At the very tail end of the Skylanders/Lego Dimensions/Disney Infinity craze, when shops were cutting back on the shelf space they had reserved for plastic figure after plastic figure of dubious usefulness, Ubisoft decided to launch their own entry in this space... for some reason. This being a customisable space ship game, their implementation involves large ship models that attach to a controller mount. The ships then have slots where different weapons and pilots can be attached, and each component can be swapped on the fly depending on the situation. In practice this is clunky and cumbersome, but luckily the physical models are entirely optional. Instead you can buy the components digitally and switch them around in a menu, and I was pleased to score a version off the eShop that included all wave 1 components at a good discount.

Locking weapons that have situational usefulness, or suit your playstyle, behind a purchase feels a bit scummy; especially when I stuck to just four of the 27 available (double gatlings and double missile volleys). Ships are helpful to have a handful of, as they essentially act as extra lives. The pilots are more understandable as optional DLC, but you do need ones from certain factions to unlock global upgrades and I think questlines. So there's a big FOMO component that feels exploitative, but it does make extra purchases feel helpful in-game. Beyond the "digital deluxe" set I also got the Star Fox team pack that adds Falco, Slippy, and Peppy to the base game's Fox (plus a new questline), and the monkey-like pilot Startail because she looked cool... sadly she had an annoying voice (she's not alone), but I still used her and Falco for most of the game thanks to their abilities.

But how does Starlink actually play? Funnily enough it feels a lot like a follow-up to Star Fox 2, Argonaut's SNES sequel that Nintendo cancelled then finally released 22 years later. You have a big star system map with various planets, where the baddies spread to over time. Strategy elements are present but light, where most of the progress comes from the player's direct action. Most of your time is spent ranging over planet surfaces, doing tasks and activities that get you resources and push back the army of robots. These build towards climactic battles with space battleships which you fly inside to destroy (again, very like Star Fox 2). Then follows much rinsing and repeating: this is an open world game, after all.

On the surfaces your ship becomes a sort of hover-speeder. I had more fun with the planet-bound sections than the space stuff, mainly because there's a much greater density of things to do there, and movement and combat is also more manageable when it's constrained by gravity and dimensions. Special mention must be made of how almost seamless it is to transition between ground and space by simply flying up; especially impressive on the Switch which handled the whole thing remarkably well, only chugging when there was an abundance of enemies on screen. The other platforms probably have better overall performance, frame rate, etc., but Star Fox is the winning draw (the other platforms don't have any equivalent extra content of this sort either).

Anyway, in the first few hours you'll get an idea of the loop: zipping around, building up outposts to get map information and resources, and fighting enemies to capture points of interest. All of this builds up a planetwide meter that represents your control vs. the evil alien robot whatevers. I settled into this groove and found it quite fun, never getting too bored of it, although this may vary with your tolerance for repetition. A scant few sidequests can give you some different things to do (and let you hear more voice lines from the actors other than the very oft-repeated expositionary chatter) but a lot of the time it's the ol' open world grind.

The plot is your standard YA sci-fi stuff, not much to write home about. The main team, a set of largely unlikable human schmoes, have uplifted themselves with alien technology to help an alien buddy, and in medias res arrive in the Atlas system. There's some uncomfortably heavy colonial vibes here, as the planets are all some variety of wilderness teeming with settlers, explorers, prospectors, and bandits, and your role as outsiders is uniting these folk under your banner—ostensibly to fight some monster guy and his robot army—and make big decisions about how the system is run before presumably jetting off again after the credits roll. Hmm.

The personal stories of the characters, especially the alien friends you make in Atlas, were the highlight for me, although I feel like they aren't always introduced effectively. As both a game where characters can be spawned in any time from the start and one with some open-ended elements, developments can feel abrupt and the pacing uneven. The Star Fox team and their story is actually integrated very well, although Wolf as the antagonist of this sidestory was, I feel, acting quite out of character from what I would expect. I see him as an amoral mercenary, while here he's set up as a would-be galactic conqueror. Ah well.

Otherwise the Star Fox stuff is excellent: you get a spiffy Starlink version of the Arwing, there's some nice covers of classic music tracks, and the team chatter is top-notch (again, when it's not just open world exposition). The voice actors have mostly carried over either from their original Lylat Wars appearances in a few cases, or the recasts that have stuck since the 3DS remake, and they nail it, especially because they're not just doing weird alternate takes on a reheated script (Zero still hurts my soul so much...). The team are integrated into prerendered cutscenes and there's unique events and missions, plus having them as an addition only makes the overall roster stronger. It's not a full new Star Fox game, but it's pretty much the next best thing. My only complaint is having the characters still trapped in this Lylat Wars/Zero-era setting, continuing the writing-out of Krystal, Sauria, Panther, the Aparoids, everything that Command introduced, etc... but I guess that wasn't really Ubisoft's decision. It's better than nothing, I suppose.

Anyway, Starlink was a pretty good time. As long as you resign yourself to spending more than the normal cost of a game to get a full experience. And you don't think too hard about the themes of the setting. And you don't mind a bit of open world repetition, or the uneven weapon balance, or that obnoxious influencer kid who's on the team for some reason. But let's not focus on the negative; there's a lot to like here. It's a cool sci-fi space game that integrates planet surfaces well, the core gameplay loop is solid and satisfying, and it has a very good crossover with my favourite rail shooter series. I wouldn't get my hopes up for a sequel though, as the retail toys underperformed and five years later the developer is now making Watch Dogs and Far Cry games (as if Ubisoft didn't have enough of those) or assisting on every other Ubisoft release.

[wevelocityteampresents-blog]

That last scene was funnier than the first for some reason. So, anthropomorphic birds can communicate with regular birds? It's incredibly puzzling when there's a piece of media where walking, talking animals exist alongside their feral counterparts. Does that mean characters like Fox and Peppy can hold conversations with average foxes and rabbits?

I mean, Toripi, a bird character, was able to speak to and understand a small injured bird. So, I guess the same thing could apply to the Star Fox universe. But, then again, this portion just makes it seem like Slippy was discriminating against Falco. In that case, Falco had the right to come down on him for that.

Some underrated Slippy and Falco banter

[melskytodstar]

Concerning Star Wars Outlaws

People might not know, but I am a huge Star Wars fan. In fact, I think I might love it even more than Sonic The Hedgehog, and that’s saying something! So when I heard Ubisoft were giving us a game where you can explore different planets AND fly through the galaxy far, far away, you’d better believe I was excited!

I’ll just get my three biggest problems out of the way now. First of all, the game is slow to start. So slow in fact that Ubisoft have given gamers a in-game gift as well as an apology. Secondly, it’s buggy. In the week that I’ve had the game, enemies and NPCs have been appearing in different spawn points (whether that’s by design or not is in question), and it’s crashed on me four times. Finally, Kay herself. The way she’s written didn’t sit well with me, that she only cares about herself, Nix (her furry little pal) and ND-5 (the Commando droid in the trench coat). Then again, I may not be used to playing as an outlaw…

The gameplay itself is nothing that hasn’t been done before. Ground combat felt like a mix of Battlefront and the Batman Arkham games, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Space combat felt exactly like it did in a previous Ubisoft game, Starlink: Battle for Atlas (that game with the Switch-exclusive Star Fox content), so it felt familiar at the very least. I may also have developed an addiction to playing Sabacc. It’s strangely relaxing for me… as long as I have the credits to spare…

Music is very much like an experience from the movies and Disney+ shows, which is good. Story was all right too, despite the problem I mentioned previously. And despite getting spoiled for a character in a YouTube thumbnail, it didn’t ruin the twist at the end of the game, which I did NOT see coming!

In conclusion, I might be biased, but I have legit enjoyed my time with Star Wars Outlaws. I hope that Ubisoft continue to patch the game, especially with what’s to come in the season pass. Now if anyone wishes to disagree with me, I’ll be exploring the galaxy… or playing more Kessel Sabacc. - Todd

[slothattorney]

Starlink: Battle For Atlas was kind of cool as fuck for about 45 minutes. Toys to life was an embarrassing trend, but flying out into space and barrel rolling through the blasted shell of a pirate mothership while dog-fighting was really rad.

[awkwardstarfoxscreencaps]

[muses-of-the-memory]

“Here it is.” Slippy Toad said getting the Corneria Cake out of the Great Fox’s fridge. “It might look weird, but it lives up to its name being the best dessert in the system.” Fox said. “And it’s my favorite. The cake is inside of it. It just looks like small souffles” Peppy spoke as Slippy started opening it with his wrench.

“Dig in.” Slippy spoke to his friends. “The ingredients to make it are a bit hard to get, though.” Slippy said as he eats some. “Just don’t eat one cake made by Slippy.” Peppy warned to Zizzi. “Thanks a lot, Peppy...” Slippy spoke offended.

“I’ll take real food from Corneria than frog-boy’s cooking any day.” Falco stated turning down Corneria Cake. “Sheesh Falco! You too?” Slippy frowned at Falco.

Zizzi would shake her head gently as she had been teleported on a mission. This a bit different for her as it seems like she was a large ship by the looks of it. She made over a window as she was looking out into space. "Woah." She put her hands on the window as she was taking in everything. (Star Fox)

The large ship that Zizzi was in is the Great Fox, a flagship, space carrier and the mobile headquarters for the mercenaries-for-hire, the Star Fox Team. Slippy Toad, the team's mechanic was heading over to the bridge when he saw Zizzi. "AAHH!!"

"Slippy, what is it?" Fox shouted as he, Falco Lombardi, and Peppy Hare came to the bridge. "What in the?" Peppy Hare spoke. "Hey! Who let you in the Great Fox?" Falco Lombardi asked seeing Zizzi.

"Who are you? State your business on the Great Fox." Fox asked crossing his arms.

[trendagon]

Starfield Alternatives for PlayStation Plus Subscribers

The long-awaited game, Starfield, has finally arrived for some lucky players. However, it's worth noting that this epic space adventure is exclusively available on Xbox Series X/S consoles, leaving console-only players without one of Microsoft's latest systems in search of alternatives. Fortunately, Sony's PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium subscription service offers some compelling gaming options.

1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

For those craving a choice-driven RPG experience, revisiting Bethesda Game Studios' classic, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, is a timeless choice. With its expansive open world, numerous character classes, rich lore, and captivating stories, Skyrim has cemented its status as one of the finest fantasy RPGs. While many have likely ventured into Skyrim's landscapes already, it remains a go-to game for scratching that Western RPG itch.

2. Prey

Prey, developed by Arkane Studios (also owned by ZeniMax Media, like Bethesda), offers a different yet immersive experience. As a sci-fi horror game and immersive sim, Prey combines chills with versatile gameplay mechanics. Players must navigate a space-bound horror adventure armed with various tools to overcome challenges, including a roguelike mode for added replayability. If Starfield's sandbox potential appeals to you, Prey's space horror playground might be the perfect fit.

3. Starlink: Battle for Atlas

Starlink: Battle for Atlas offers an intriguing alternative for those fascinated by space exploration. This game features galaxy-exploring gameplay, allowing players to traverse space and planetary surfaces in customizable spacecraft. Originally a toys-to-life game, it's now available to PlayStation Plus Extra subscribers without the need for physical toys. If you're craving space exploration and don't mind a game primarily set in a customizable spaceship, give Starlink: Battle for Atlas a shot.

4. Star Wars: Bounty Hunter

For gamers with a penchant for older titles, Star Wars: Bounty Hunter offers a space bounty hunter fantasy reminiscent of Starfield. This LucasArts game, originally released for PS2 and GameCube in 2002 (remastered for PS4 in 2016), stars Jango Fett and provides insight into the bounty hunter's activities before Attack of the Clones. While the game's camera

Read Here Another One

[lifebeginsat8bit]

The toys-to-life video game craze that kicked off with “Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure” in 2011 and then followed by the likes of “Disney Infinity” (2013) and “Lego Infinity” (2015), was more or less wound down when Ubisoft got into the mix in late 2018. “Starlink: Battle For Atlas” was an attempt to revive the genre with a game that combined space-based flight sim dog fights with mix and match physical toys including various pilots, ships, and weapons that could be swapped on the fly. 

Starlink will undoubtedly be remembered best for the Switch version which included an entire side-campaign featuring the Star Fox squadron that was left out of the Xbox and PlayStation versions of the game. Since the release of “Star Fox Zero” on the WiiU in (2016), Starlink remains the closest thing we’ve received to a proper Star Fox game. 

Streaming tonight at 7:30 Central: We’re advocating for Starlink which is a really decent game despite its failure to launch upon its release. We’ve got some other games on standby as well for this final stream featuring the games of 2018! Twitch.tv/lifebeginsat8bit

[cozygaymes]

[spacenintendogs]

@chewpacabras <3

Fox McCloud animations for Starlink: Battle for Atlas

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