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Play Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows on September 17

Yacht Club Games has finally declared when Shovel Knight’s DLC will be released. Every version of Shovel Knight, which includes the 3DS, Wii U, PS3, PS4, PS Vita, Xbox One, and PC, is receiving a free update that will add a new campaign for the game called Plague of Shadows on September 17, 2015.

Read information about the game that Yacht Club Games has on their blog below.

Description

sk_PlagueOfShadows_02Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows is a free expansion for Shovel Knight, a sweeping classic action adventure game that won over 70 Game of the Year Awards in 2014. You play as Plague Knight, the villainous master of alchemy, in a quest all his own. Using his maniacal scientific mind, Plague Knight is seeking to concoct Serum Supernus, the Ultimate Potion. However, to retrieve these ingredients, he must extract them from his
former allies… the villainous knights of the Order of No Quarter! World class platforming, music, storytelling, and art all return in Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows; an explosive quest with a new play style, new story, new bosses, and more!

Features

An adventure featuring a New Star: Plague Knight!plagueKnight010

  • See your favorite game from a new point of view! Play as the explosive trickster Plague Knight with new story and gameplay!
  • Join Plague Knight on his quest to overthrow the Order of No Quarter! Become the ultimate alchemist… and maybe find some romance, too…

New Gameplay

  • Explode onto the scene as Plague Knight! Use explosives, bomb jumps, and alchemy to blast your way through the game in a whole new way!
  • Crafting Comes to Shovel Knight with the Alchemy System! Collect loot and use alchemy to craft equipment and power-ups
  • Collect new recipes and reagents to become the master of disaster!

Remixed Game Content

  • New objectives and enemies!
  • Brand new areas and new paths through classic levels!
  • New bosses!
  • Is your science up to snuff? Take on Plague Knight specific challenges with new Feats!
  • Prove your mettle in Challenge Mode. Take on speed run challenges, boss rematches, and other rule-benders… and expect some tricky puzzles too!

monaPotionarium480Yacht Club Games has also mentioned that you will need to complete the original game before you will be able to play the new campaign and Challenge Modes. However, if you have lost a save file or have repurchased the game on another platform, the developers are willing to offer a special code that unlocks the new content.

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Homefront: The Revolution gameplay trailer showcases game’s progress since last bankruptcy

Homefront: The Revolution has had a rocky history with it’s original owners (THQ) went bankrupt, and then the company they were sold to (Crytek) moved them again due to “internal restructuring.”

Now the game’s developers at Deep Silver have finally come to something resembling a finished product and the latest “Red Zone” gameplay trailer shows off some fantastic visuals for the guerrilla-warfare focused FPS.

While this trailer does run in real time at 1080p, 60 FPS, it’s important to consider that it is run on a PC rather than the Xbox One console like the control scheme shows in the trailer. So the visuals may not look quite as spectacular on Xbox One or PS4, but even if these visuals are simply the height of what the game is capable of it still will look very good on whatever platform players choose.

The combat shows some great interactions between CPU players and the player in an open world, but Deep Silver also suggested in the past they’re hoping for equally immersive online multiplayer.

Combat looks to be smooth and polished with CRYENGINE running things. CRYENGINE boasts not only an excellent engine, but compatibility with Linux and Mac promises great gameplay on every platform.

Homefront: The Revolution is due to release on Xbox One, PS4, PC, Linux, and Mac in 2016.

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Spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie, Yooka-Laylee confirmed for PC and console release

Sporting an eccentric art-style with a popping color scheme, Yooka-Laylee has impressed gamers enough to entail a full release on PC and all major new-generation consoles.

The adventure/platformer game has reached £1.2 million ($1.8 million) in less than 24 hours since it appeared on kickstarter. The developers at Playtonic Games are now just tacking on features and working to make Yooka-Laylee the most polished game it could be.

Yooka (bottom) and Laylee (top) are the newest stars of this "Rare-vival"
Yooka (bottom) and Laylee (top) are the newest stars of this “Rare-vival”

Made from the creative directors and developers behind Banjo Kazooie and Donkey Kong Country, the style of the game is immediately familiar to players of the classic games and one look at the gameplay the mechanics of that remains as well. Even the two-character duo approach is done in the same fashion as it was in the past though this time a chameleon and a “wise-cracking” bat take on the protagonist roles.

“We always sought for the game to be a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie just because platformers haven’t really been around in recent years,” said Steve Mayles, character artist and animator at Playtonic.

The entire team at the studio has so much familiarity with each other — a stark contract from the typical AAA studios. The whole team can be certainly motivated now by both the extreme showing of love from fans and the nearly two million dollar budget. And there’s still 44 days remaining for more funds to be generated to support the developers.

Yooka-Laylee is expected to release in late 2016 on PC, Mac, Linux, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Wii U however an exact release date hasn’t been announced yet.

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Titan Souls: First Look

If you haven’t checked out the Titan Souls demo from Devolver Digital, please do so before descending into the harrowing dungeon that is this first-look. Adventurers beware.

Titan Souls is veritable souls-like RPG, influenced heavily by elements of both genres. It’s an isometric, pixelated wonderland filled to the brim with… well… nothing, really. This is completely fine, contrary to how it sounds. Direction is implicit at this point in my gaming career, and piecing together a three-part puzzle is comparable to pointing and shooting.

I loaded up the game with no context as to where I was headed, what I was supposed to be doing, and within the first five minutes of playing, the challenges I had yet to mount were laid before me next to a simple and concise control scheme. The game recommends you use a gamepad, but the arbitrary mapping – which allows you to press three or so buttons for the same effect – makes me wonder if there is going to be any more features imbedded in what appears to be a glorified stress test.

The land of Titan Souls is a beautiful place with an astounding soundtrack to boot. I sat on the main menu for some time, rigging the settings, encapsulated by the transcendental aura provided by the OST,

and without a doubt I knew this would be an “enjoyable” experience. It’s an amalgam of my childhood and teenage years, sporting the layout and dungeon experience of A Link to the Past, the rolling and running from Dark Souls along with Skate‘s jedi-summoning tricks, and finally the boss-fest escapades provided by Shadow of the Colossus. That last part gets me though. I understand it’s a challenge to overcome, but trying to dodge a train without leaving the tracks is just making it easier for the coroners.

The thing about hard games is the learning curve. I loved Dark Souls’ “tutorial” in which several methods of attack could test your mettle, and in the end you reap the gains of knowledge. Rogue-lites galore teach you upon each death the methods of survival, and all hell breaks loose if you don’t save seventeen times before entering a cave or dungeon in party-based RPGs. Titan Souls keeps it nice and tidy with a direct route to whatever boss bent you over, and thirty seconds to remind yourself where the exit menu is. The desire to win is great, and even now I’m mulling over strategies, deciding whether or not this masochism simulator is going to get the best of me.

But it’s striking how inconsequential each attempt felt. Granted, you can’t chain dodge-rolls, you can’t rapid fire, and you feel like a little pipsqueak of a child taking down giant cubes of death, but regardless, my power is a product of repetition, of training and grinding. The first time you fight a boss it’s going to kill you,

“Kill” being a blanket term for the various ways you can be pounded into red mist.

no questions asked. There is an element of timing, meta-strategy, and a head-space which requires thirteen Redbulls and a pack of cigarettes to live inside. I looked around the map, taking a total of several minutes to explore every nook and cranny, disheartened when I realized the only plan of attack was throwing myself at the proverbial wall of spears until one day I broke through. There was only one character with their given strengths, and no one for miles to grind upon. It was death before rebirth, a purgatory in which this small girl (I assume) must fight titanic beings to obtain freedom.

I killed all three bosses, perhaps the easiest, considering they’re demo material, but spiritually these bosses seemed to have the same difficulty. It didn’t feel impactful, weighted, or even well-deserved to shoot the Death-Star cosplayer in his big, stupid eyeball, or liberate the brain from a glacier, and I was eerily surprised when I actually John-Wayned them without even holding my breath. It was a kill-or-be-killed mentality in that moment, but when both you and the boss have 1hp to spare, the game minimalizes my beast-slayer attitude and relegates it to a 3-D shooting gallery. I want to fight the long fight, devs.

Here’s my final consensus:

Gamers: Keep your eye on this. It’s games like this that bring nostalgia and life back to the cluttered table of triple-A and indie titles alike. It’s clean, well designed, and offers potentially infinite hours of gameplay. The producers have given us some wonderful titles, I hope this is no different.

Developers: If you’re reading this, understand these are qualms from an endeared heart. Narrow customization, world variation, and event states to prepare the character for each fight are detrimental to maintaining a prospective attitude, and if not that, give the boss fights a dimension akin to swordplay or dancing for that matter. Nothing feels better than trading blows with an enemy that outmatches you, only to fell them with a resolution of pure skill. On top of that, either more characters to choose from, or a local multiplayer option gives TS a greater chance for replayability and caters different play styles as well as built-in networking. In regards to the input graveyard, taking full advantage of the gamepad is much more than giving outs to a dead man, it’s giving diversified strategy rather than waiting for your opening and blindly firing. Buffs, boons, booze, and more can be attached to those infinitely pressable buttons; I know my hands could use the workout.

The game might change upon release, and if it does, then consider these words melted cheese. I’ll be getting it on release and offering a full-fledged review, but until then, I just hope I can piece my controller and dignity back together.

 


 

Titan Souls is developed by Acid Nerve and produced by Devolver Digital and will be releasing mid-April for PC(Apr 14th), PS4, PS Vita, Mac & Linux. RP$13.49 on Steam

 

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The Floor is Lava: The video game? Hot Lava awaiting Steam Greenlight

A game spawning from the imaginations of millions of kids — Steam user Rambus is looking to bring a favorite childhood game — “The Floor is Lava” — to the fitting digital world as a 3D platformer called Hot Lava.

The game is currently open to voting through the Greenlight system on Steam.

Little is shown so far regarding the game’s progress, but the developer promises 50 levels across five different settings wherein players climb on top of couches, tables, and various furniture to avoid certain death on the floor below.

Players sprint and jump through the worlds scattered with tight ropes, platforms and traps to create a greater challenge as they attempt to “surf” the world by gaining speed and stringing together their progress through the level in one motion.

The game is awaiting to be Greenlit on Steam, but would release on PC, Mac, and Linux provided the project takes off.

Check out the trailer below for a look at the gameplay: