Chronovania

Some games wear their influences on their sleeve; Timespinner has a full-body tattoo that reads "I ♥ Symphony of the Night" from the top of its head to the soles of its feet. That's by no means a bad thing. Aspiring to one of the best 2D platformers ever made is a noble goal, and Timespinner comes?? closer to the mark than  almost anything?? I've ever seen.

About five years ago, I invited some friends over to hang out. We got to talking about upcoming indie games we were interested in, and one of them mentioned a couple of Kickstarters he was following. I remember distinctly that night was the first time I heard about Shovel Knight,and the other game that made an impression on me was Timespinner. Both projects launched in the wake of Double Fine Adventure's unprecedented Kickstarter windfall, when the gold rush for indie dev?elopers was we??ll and truly on. 

Five years later, Shovel Knight has taken the world by storm, with his own amiibo and a supporting role in the new version of Smash Bros. And I kept checking in on Timespinner's Kickstarter page every couple of months, just to see how things were progressing. I'm not sure if Timespinner will see the same success as Shovel Knight, but I can say it's d?efinitely been worth waiting for.

Timespinner (PC, PS4, [reviewed], PS Vita)
Developer: Lunar Ray Games
Publisher: Chucklefish Games
Released: September 25, 2018
MSRP: $19.99

Timespinner does a fantastic job of borrowing the mechanics and feel of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (SOTN) while still telling a fresh story and adding its own twists. Like Alucard, your heroine Lunais explores an interconnected 2D castle and the surr??ounding grounds, finding upgrades that help her move about more ef?fectively. She has a dedicated backdash button and leaves a blurry afterimage when she moves, just like the vampiric scion of Dracula. Enemies have a chance to drop items when they die, and the odds are affected by your Luck stat. You can equip a familiar which will follow you around and fight on your behalf, and there's even some patricidal themes later in the game once Lunais learns more about her origins.

While imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Timespinner tells a much different story than SOTN. Lunais is a "Time Messenger," one of her clan's last line of defense against the Lachi?em Empire. Time messengers can make use of the Timespinner, a machine which allows them to go back in time with a warning if disaster should befall them. This ability comes with a heavy cost, since the messengers are deleted from their own timeline and must adjust to a new life in the past once they step through the portal. The Empire is understandably interested in this technology, but Lunais??' clan has managed to stay one step ahead of them thanks to the sacrifices of the messengers.

As the story begins, Lunais is ready to celebrate the end of her training. Unfortunately, her services are required much sooner than she'd anticipated, as the Empire cra?shes her party without warning and rather violently. Her mother is killed right befo?re her eyes, and Lunais swears revenge. 

Timespinner has a spectacular pixel artstyle inspired by early 32-bit games like SOTN and Chrono Trigger, and everything on screen looks amazing. Lunais is extremely well animated, and?? I enjoyed the flourishes added to give her more personality, such as the spin she performs with every double-jump or her idle animation that lets her juggle her weapons. There's a wide varie?ty of environments and enemies, from knights and archers to animals and skeletal monstrosities. You'll travel through caves, castles, and even a biomechanical research lab. Several screen-filling bosses make memorable appearances, and these showdowns will require good reflexes and a mastery of the game's combat system.

Speaking of combat, this is the biggest way in which Timespinner differs from SOTN. Instead of equipping a melee weapon, Lunais can fling several types of elemental orbs she'll find on her travels. She can have two equipped at once, and they don't have to match (though I kept mine in pairs because I just thou??ght it looked cooler). Each type of orb flies with a different attack pattern, a??nd each gains experience and attack power over time by being used. 

Once an orb has been recovered you can also speak with an NPC to borrow some of its power for a ring or amulet, which can give Lunais special magical attacks or grant her passive bonuses. The special attacks require her to expend some of her aura,?? but this recovers slowly over time or fully along with her health whenever she uses a save room. With the right relic equipped, you can set up three loadouts of orbs and jewelry to swap between a few favorites or take advantage of an enemy's elemental weakness.

In addition to her orbs, Lunais can call on some of the abilities of the Timespinner, and one of the first functions she recovers is the ability to freeze enemies in place and use them as platforms. Freezing time also lets her move behind an enemy to strike at them while vulnerable, avoid incoming attacks, or just charg?e up a special move without worrying about being hit. Activating this ability requires magic sand, but fortunately this resource is easily collected from candles and other light sources, or can be earned b?y striking enemies. Lunais later discovers that she can warp between her own time and the same region 1000 years in the past, and some of the obstacles in her way can be dealt with by changing the timestream. 

Not long after setting out Lunais discovers a baby dragon who wil?l follow her around and attack enemies. If you have a second controller available, a friend can take control of this familiar to play through the game cooperatively. Some other familiars may join you on your travels, but most are very well hidden. Familiars can move freely about the screen, but can't interact with the world beyond moving and attacking enemies. 

Once Lunais has explored a bit she can find some NPCs and bring them back to a hub area. Some of them will offer her quests to kill a certain number of enemies, find information about the future, or recover a lost item. I found it interesting that pretty much every important character? in the game, from the protagonist to the NPCs, is LGBTQ. There's even a sidequest where you help two male characters go on a date late in the game. Quests can be ignored if you're in a hurry, but do provide a decent amou?nt of currency or some bonus items when completed.

And you might be in a hurry if you're into speedruns. Just like the games that inspired it, Timespinner lends itself well to shaving seconds off your best time. Unlike Chasm there's no randomization to the map, so it should be po?ssible to perfect a run and show off your skills. I ??expect some maniac will have posted a run under an hour by the end of the week, but my first trip through took about 10.

Once you complete the story for the first time, a couple of ??extra options unlock. First and most welcome is a New Game + mode that lets you keep most of your upgrades and experience, including a move speed boost. Most of the other movement abilities must be earned again, but your items, equipment and any experience your character, familiar, and orbs have accumulated will carry over. I was a little disappointed to see that starting a New Game + will ove?rwrite your initial save file, and the items that allow you to upgrade your orbs without fighting are lost.

Beyond New Game +, you also earn the most challenging difficulty setting, whic??h adds an additional restriction to hard mode. In Nightmare + mode, Lunais can't gain any levels and is much more dependent on her equipment. No matter what difficulty you play at, there's plenty of hidden lore and gear to collect, and there are several ??; possible endings depending on your actions, some of which allow access to a nifty bonus dungeon with some optional superbosses.

Jeff Ball's work on the soundtrack deserves a mention, as the music does a great job of bringing to mind Michiru Yamane's eclectic mix from SOTN. Just like the 1997 classic, Timespinner's soundtrack includes several different types of music ranging from thrash metal to harpsichord chamber arrangements, and it all works surprisingly well in the context of the game. Timespinner might even have the advantage in this department, since there's no embarrassing "I am the Wind" track with cheesy vocal??s to?? bring it down. I found myself humming some of the songs hours after I stopped playing, and hope there's an option to buy the soundtrack when the full game is released.

Even though Timespinner set out to imitate SOTN, it managed to find its own identity during its long development. It's not quite as deep as its inspiration and it won't take as long to finish, but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute I was playing. There's been no shortage of quality indie games inspired by Super Metroid and Castlevania recently, but in my opinion Timespinner stands out as one of the best. If you've ever enjoyed Symphony of the Night or one of the many games it's inspired over the last 20 years, you'll have a great time with Timespinner.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Will anyone buy the Windows 10 version?

During E3 2016, Microsoft took to the stage to announce its "Play Anywhere" initiative. This new program would see games being released simultaneously on PC and Xbox One with crossplay enabled. One purchase (most of the time) would grant you access to both versions and you wouldn't need to worry about restarting your progress as save files would transfer over. While there aren't that many titles available with "Play Anywhere" (this Wiki page lists 57), Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite is suddenly now a part of the program.

Popping up on the Windows store out of the blue, the crossover fighting game is currently available for $39.99 with the entire host of DLC ready to go. A deluxe version is also available for? $59.99 and includes the character pass DLC. If you ?purchased this game digitally on Xbox One, you should already have the PC version (along with any DLC), but anyone who was waiting (for some reason) should know that this version is Windows 10 exclusive. It will also be a UWP (Universal Windows Platform) app, so that might bring performance problems or installation oddities.

I have very limited experience with newer UWP apps, but both Forza 7 and Age of Empires: Definitive Edition run perfectly fine?. I would imag?ine this does, too, as the previous PC version was solid.

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite gets Xbox Play Anywhere support [Windows Central]

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Knack is wack!

You might as well put aside all of your February plans, because Sony has dropped a bombshell with the PlayStation Plus lineup. Instead of offering up relatively unknown indie titles or even four-year-old AAA releases, we're finally getting the greatest game that has ever graced a home console; Knack! While the lineup stumbles a little by not including Knack 2 alongside this gem, at least Plus members finally have ??a reason to keep their subscript??ions active.

The other games don't even matter, but you'll be able to download Rime on PS4, Mugen Souls Z and Spelunker HD on PS3 and finally Exiles End and Grand Kingdom on Vita, with that last game being a cross-buy title for PS4. I suppose the disappointing lineup was all thanks to Knack being such a huge pull.

StarBlood Arena is also being offered as a bonus for owners of the PlayStation VR headset and will be available for the duration of Febr?uary. Again, anything looks paltry compared to M??ark Cerny's baby.

PS4

• Knack
• Rime
• Grand Kingdom (Cross-buy with Vita)

PS3

• Mugen Souls Z
• Spelunker HD

PS Vita

• Exiles End
• Grand Kingdom (Cross-buy with PS4)

PlayStation Plus: Free Games for February 2018 [PlayStation Blog]

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King of the Road

The Forza Motorsport series has somehow become Microsoft’s flagship franchise for the Xbox brand. Regardless of how Halo launched the console into prominence in 2001 or how Gears of War blazed a whole new trail of third-person, cover-based shooters, Forza is the game that has stuck around for three consecutive gen??erations while other attempts to galvanize the Xbox brand have come and gon?e.

When the Xbox One launched back in 2013, people were expecting the next-generation version of Forza to be a real treat, but it mostly came out undercooked. Lacking features and cars that the phenomenal Forza Motorsport 4 contained, 5 felt like a rushed effort to meet a la?unch for a console that was rushed to combat Sony’s impending launch of the PS4.

It wasn’t until Forza Horizon 2 that Turn 10 and Playground Games nailed what a next-gen entry in the seminal series should look and play like. Thankfully, Forza 7 gets basicall?y every??thing right, including its PC port.

Forza Motorsport 7 (Xbox One, PC [Reviewed])
Developer: Turn 10 Studios
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Release Date: October 3, 2017
MSRP: $59.99

Similar to how Forza 6 starts off, Forza 7 pits you in a series of introductory races to get you acquainted with the feel of the updated handling model. You’ll take the role of three legendary racers and recreate the most pivotal moments of their career (which you can oddly fail and still proceed on). It at least introduces the fact that the roster of available cars for 7 is insane.

My biggest gripe with Forza’s next-gen debut was that Turn 10 seemingly forgot the massive collection of vehicles they included in Forza 4. I know next-gen development is expensive and car manufacturers tend to be incredibly stingy with the models they want on display (hence why Gran Turismo didn’t have damage modeling for nearly a decade), but dropping the count from nearly 500 down to 200 just felt odd. It was like Turn 10 wasn’t given enough time to properly develop the game, which also came off in the visual prese??ntation side of things.

Forza 7 corrects those errors and even tops the last entry in the series by including a little over 700 cars at launch. Just browsing through the “My Collection” screen is intimidating. Where do you even begin? I suppose it pales in comparison to Gran Turismo 6’s 1197 cars, but you also don’t get a lot of repeats or novelty vehicles (like a Moon Rover) and the sponsored Fast and Furious cars are kept to DLC t?o help limit copied vehicles. It makes for a vehicle selection that offers a wide range of options and styles to accommodate every kind of racing fan.

The technology powering these newer Forza titles is just as insane as the car selection. There are moments of such graphical fidelity that I honestly forgot I was playing a video game. If you were to put your TV or monitor on a wall, you would be forgiven for mistaking it as a window. Forza 7 looks absolutely gorgeous and even has support for resolutions beyond my measly 1080p (which I will be looking at on my fr?iend’s beefy rig).

As for the handling model, this definitely feels reminiscent of past Forza titles. This isn’t exactly a realistic sim, nor is it a straight arcade racer. Forza has always straddled the line between hardcore and casual racing and 7 continues that. The full range of assists and di??fficulty options that have become standard are present and accounted for while the excellent Drivatar system makes a return. I love having my friend’s driving patterns get interpreted into an AI that I can race when he’s busy.

The campaign mode on offer this time is very extensive. Offering six different categories that are progressively unlocked, you&rsq??uo;ll have various events strewn across a multitude of tracks that offer up challenges such as standard circuits, car bowling, model showdown (racing a newer make of a car against older ones) and even Gymkhana representation (which I’m sure everyone was screaming for).

What I love is the ability to tweak parameters of each race. If you truly wanted to, you could turn every event into an endurance race and circle around your favorite track for 45 laps. Why anyone would want to start the campaign with such a parameter is beyond me, but Forza 7 lets you customize yo??ur experience as little or as much as you want.

This also boils over into your driver, though w?ith very limited options. Through the introduction of prize boxes (a.k.a. loot crates), you can acquire different uniforms to put on your driver and show off online. It is completely basic and doesn’t even factor into the actual racing, but it’s nice to finally have something other than liveries to lo??ok forward to.

What does strike me as odd is how multiplayer seems to be cut down. Maybe this is due to me testing it on PC, but there is no split-screen whatsoever. Despite having multiple controllers and even a keyboard plugged in, the only mult??iplayer option available was online lobbies. Those work without a hitch (due to Xbox Live being pretty solid), but it feels weird that a more powerful machine isn’t given the option to offer simultaneous multiplayer.

Finally, I’ll address the performance of this PC port, which is nearly flawless. There are some stuttering issues due to the way the Windows Store compresses files, but even on my meager setup of a Core i7-3770K and GTX 1060, I was able to max out the visual settings for 1080p and even enable some super sampling while maintaining a solid 60 FPS. Forza 7 is a dream to play on PC and having the ability to enable ?a dynamic quality option will basical??ly ensure that a wide range of configurations maintain solid performance.

Even only a few hours in, I can tell that I’m in for quite the experience. Forza 7 doesn’t necessarily rewrite the playbook on how racing games should play, but it provides the most content of any game in the series while also looking like an absolute wonder. This feels like the game that should have launched alongside the Xbox One all those years ago, but at least we’ve? finally gotten there.

Now we’ll just have to see if the campaign holds up after extensive play. Still, even if it doesn’t, the choice offered to the player in how to experience this latest iteration of the franchise separates it from most racing games. You’re given the keys to the castle from the get go and you can explore as slowly or as quickly as you want. Choice is king and nearly every aspect of Forza 7 has an option that you can tweak. That customization is what excites me the ??most.

_{[This review in progress is based on a retail b??uild of the game provided?? by the publisher.]}

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Better late than Sony

The big day for Minecraft unification is at hand. Mojang and Microsoft have finally launched the "Better Together" update for nearly every version of the block bu?ilding game, save for a last minute delay with the Switch port. This new update allows players on any platform to play and share together, making for a massively appeal?ing way for friends to screw around after school or even during school.

There is one odd caveat, though. If you happen to own the physical version of Minecraft: Xbox One Edition, you'll need to have accrued five hours of game time or purchased one DLC pack before January 30, 2018 to receive the free update to Better Together. After that??, I guess you'll need ?to rebuy the game? Weird that this is just now coming out, but it won't affect owners of the digital version.

As for Switch owners, Mojang is citing that they've encountered issues with the cross-network play. They will be working their hardest to get this solved ASAP, but the ETA for the Switch update is now Winter 2017. Seeing as how Master Chief will be coming to Switch, I think that is a fair enough compromise to make sur?e everything is in working orde??r.

As for what will happen with the older versions moving forward, all compatible versions will simply be named Minecraft while isolated versions will retain the Edition moniker (i.e. Wii U Edition, PlayStation 4 Edition, etc.). If you still want to play the older versions after today, you can launch them separately from the new update. That is pretty neat, I suppose. This also means you'll receive two sets of achievements for the Windows 10?? and Xbox One po??rts. Hooray for achievements!

Better Together FAQ [Minecraft]

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Here's how to order...

Tomorrow sees the long-awaited, highly-anticipated return of Data East's Windjammers, screaming onto a Sony console ne?ar you. ?A fun launch trailer has been released, shot in the style of early '90s infomercials.

This isn't the first time a retro-release has seen this type of marketing strategy, but it's still an amusing spot, bringing back memories of late-night, low-budget advertisements for duck-shaped telephones, Tel-Star CD box sets and radio-equipped baseba??ll caps.

Windjammers was published by SNK in 1994, for both the arcade market ?and their own Neo-Geo console. It's a simple-but-addictive flying-disc game set in a futuristic environment where frisbee has apparently conquered the sporting world. The game has recently become a darling of the internet, being played frequently on the Giant Bomb website and even being hosted as an official EVO entry last month.

If you want a piece of the action yourself, then you won't have very long to wait. Windjammers will be hitting? the P??S4 and PS Vita tomorrow, as a cross-buy title, priced at $15.

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My guess? Not enough $$$

Microsoft's announcement that Minecraft would be getting unified servers for almost every version was huge for fans of the game. It means that there is no longer going to be separate eco-systems and that friends could enjoy the game regardless of their platform of choice. It's a similar story to what developer Psyonix has done for Rocket League, allowing PC, Xbox One and Switch players to all ??play together while PS4 users are left in the dust (although they can play with PC users on separate servers).

One would imagine that Sony would want cross-network functionality on PS4, since people buying games for their system is a priority. Apparently, that isn't? the case. In an interview with Eurogamer, Sony's global head of sales and marketing, Jim Ryan, gave a pretty silly answer with regards as to why Sony isn't allowing m??ore flexibility with PSN.

"We've got to be mindful of our responsibility to our install base. Minecraft ??- the demographic playing that, you know as well as I do, it's all ages but it's also very young. We have a contract with the people who go online with us, that we look after them and they are within the PlaySt??ation curated universe," Jim stated. "Exposing what in many cases are children to external influences we have no ability to manage or look after, it's something we have to think about very carefully."

That certainly is a load of nonsense, especi??ally when Nintendo (a company built on a family friendly image) is allowing the game to interact with other platforms. Ryan continued to give some generic PR language to defend the decision, but did end up saying, "It's certainly not a profound philosophical stance we have against this. We've done it in the past. We're always open to conversations with any developer or publisher who wants to talk about it."

I guess that means if someone is willing to pony up enough cash, Sony will open the flood gates for other platforms. Regardless of what the true answer is, it seems we won't be having a unification of online games with Sony anytime soon. I guess when you're selling 60 million consoles, you don't need to care about anyone else.

Sony defends decision to block ?PS4 cross-play with Xbox One and Nintendo Switch [Eurogamer]

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When hell is full, the dead will walk the Earth

Call me a hypocrite, but I think the trailer for Dead Rising 4: Frank Rising looks decent. The main game did basically nothing positive to change the Dead Rising formula, but playing as a zombie is something that was never even tackled. I don't think Zombie Frank will be using much in the way of weapons, but this looks to be a lot ??more interesting than just the same crap all over again.

Apparently this is already available (for $9.99 separately or $19.99 in the season pass). Even though Capcom promoted this a little, the release seems awfully sudden. Maybe they are trying to surprise gamers into buyin??g the DLC without much reception?

POTENTIAL SPOILER WARNING

I wonder if Frank Rising will end up being the canonical ending to Dead Rising 4. The game abruptly ends with Frank sacrificing himself to let the new journalist character escape with all of the information about Willamette. Since this DLC is about Frank finding a permanent cure to his new affliction, maybe Capcom is planning to have this work as the "true" ending. If so, it's pretty typical of them to sell it months after the game came out. 

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BARF!

I'm kind of at a loss for next month's PS Plus selection. I do appreciate that Sony still bothers with the idea of free games, but just one look at the selection would make anybody sad. Credit where it's due, Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime looks awesome (and was also recently offered on Live Gold), but I can't say I care even the slightest bit about the rest of this line-up?.

For PS4 users, you'll be getting a pretty big month with four games available. Vita was basically an afterthought and the PS3's choices might as well not exist. I'm more surprised with how Invizimals: The Lost Kingdom is th?e fourth game in the series? than with how Sony thinks anyone cares about it being free.

• Drawn To Death, PS4
• Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, PS4
• Invizimals: The Lost Kingdom, PS3
• Alien Rage – Extended Edition, PS3
• 10 Second Ninja, PS Vita (Cross-buy with PS4)
• Curses ‘n Chaos, PS Vita (Cross-buy with PS4)

PS Plus: Free Games for April 2017 [PlayStation Blog]

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I bet Terry Cavanagh can't even beat his own game

Sony's hasn't really been setting the world on fire with its free games for PlayStation Plus ??subscribe?rs this year, but December looks to be one of the better months for the service.

The two PS4 titles aren't heavy hitters, but VVVVVV is being offered for free on PS Vita. That alone is worth it. Tiny Troopers: Joint Ops is also on offer, which is a curiously fun little twin-stick shooter (I played the free Wind??ows 10 vers??ions this year).

PS4

• Color Guardians
• Invisible, Inc.
• Stories: Path of Destinies
• Tiny Troopers: Joint Ops

PS3

• Hyper Void
• Tiny Troopers: Joint Ops

Vita

• Tiny Troopers: Joint Ops
• Color Guardians
• VVVVVV

These games will be filtered onto the PlayStation Store on December 6, which will also be the final date for last month's games. I'm not sure if anyone will miss Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, but at least grab it before it disappears.

PS Plus: Free Games for December 2016 [PlayStation Blog]

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Frank goes solo

With each new update for Dead Rising 4, my enthusiasm diminishes. In what is sure to be the final nail in the coffin for most, Frank West's new adventure won't feature campaign co-op. In a special stream on the ExpertZone_Community Twitch channel, Capcom Vancouver played a demo with some em??ployees answering questions about the upcoming zombie action game.

David McAnerin (who was surprisingly hard to find on Google) gave a definitive response on whether or not the story mode would feature co-op of any form. The short, sad answer is no. The longer answer can be read in this transcript (or in the video at the 18:10 time stamp);

Fan Question: Is this game going to be four player co-op and if so, what’s?? the type of mode is it?

Capcom (David McAnerin, Producer): Yeah, we have?? an online four player mode. So, in the story mode, it’s a single player story mode, you’re going to play just as Frank…The four player co-op is our multiplayer mode. It’s a little bit inspired by the original Infinity mode for the old school fans?.

It’s four player co-op. It takes place in the mall. You play as four survivors who are also featured in the story as well. You get?? a little more backstory on them, as well. You go into the mall and take part in crazy missions, ??trying to survive.

The structure is, the four of you start the game together, you start in a safe house; you get a load up, get some weapons, get yourself ready to go; we unlock the doors, it’s killing, mayhem, madness lot??s of interesting missions that take advantage of our systems…Y??ou have to get to the safe house to survive the end of the day.

To me, that sounds more like Left 4 Dead or some lame throwaway bonus mode. The true joy of Dead Rising 2 was experiencing everything with a friend. While I've certainly enjoyed the series on my own, I had a transformative experience with both 2 and Off The Record when playing with friends, so to lose that just hurt??s.

I'm not sure I can even muster up the energy to care about this title anymore. With T.J. Rotolo being replaced and the time limit getting cut, what is left in Dead Rising 4 to even tie it back to the main series? No two games in a ??series should be the same, but this seems to be catering to a mainstream audience.

I'm really tired of reading about companies turning their backs on the fans that made them famous. Dead Rising was successful because it offered something new and hilarious during a period where the Xbox 360 was still making a name for itself. Fans liked all of the crazy opportunities presen??t a??long with the rigid and unforgiving structure of the title.

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Offer includes Xbox One version

Upgrading your PC for the latest games is something of a lost practice. Since a lot of games are based on console architecture, most newer toasters are able to run anything. Some games (Crysis) will push you?r system to the breaking point, but a lot of games don't ??really need super computers.

Regardless of that, Nvidia has teamed up with Microsoft and will be offering Gears of War 4 for free with the purchase of select GTX 1070s or 1080s. Its website ha?s all of the details, including c?onfirmation of 4K and 21:9 support. Sounds super fancy.

Since Gears of War 4 is an Xbox Play Anywhere title, th?is offer will also include an Xbox One version of the game. Xbox gamers wouldn't have any use for a fancy graphics card, but at least the offer doesn't exclude access.

Oddly, the recommend graphics card for solid 1080p gaming is a GTX 750 and for 1440p a GTX 1060. Those cards don't come wi??th? the game, but whatever. I guess if you're going to bust out some new hardware, you might as well go big or go home.

Gears of War 4 GeForce GTX Bundle Includes A? Full-Game Dow?nload For PC [GeForce]

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It's about time!

Quantum Break’s cross-buy and cross-save functionality will become a Xbox feature, says??? Xbox boss Phil Spencer.

@Nahkapukki @MSFTY @Nicodemus9 @DCNationSlade We'll make it a ??platform feature. We?????????????????????????? think it's good for gamers.

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) February 11, 2016

Replying to fans on Twitter, Spencer said that there were plans to make it a plat?form featu??re, as it would be “good for gamers.”

The reply acknowledges Xbox is looking beyon??d just first party games, too. 

The cross-buy / cross-save feature has been available on Sony platforms for some time, but up until now, Microsoft seemed to have focused on bringing backwards compatibility to the Xbox One.

Quantum Break is coming to PC and Xbox One on April 5, 2016. Pre-orders of? the Xbox One version will receive a free copy of? the game on PC. Woot.

What Xbox One game would you lik?e to see offer cross-buy/save functionality?

HAPPY FRIDAY! <3

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Free for those who own it on PS3

Journey has been a staple of everyone??'s PlayStation 3 indie catalog for th??e past three years. In a scant two weeks, it'll be that exact same fixture except on PS4. They grow up so fast.

Sony and thatgamecompany have announced that Journey is finally making its way to PS4 on July 21. To commemorate the occasio??n, they released this launch trailer ("launch" used very loosely) wherein a lot of nice folks said a lot of nice thing?s about the game.

While this gives users who switched platforms this generation a chance to experience one of the best PlayStation exclusives, it won't come at any extra cost for those who have already purchased it once. Journey is part of the Cross-Buy program, meaning that it can ?be downloaded for free on PS4 if you've already purchased it on PS3. The emotions and savin?g are running high.

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Them's fighting games

Picture it: Skullgills. It's a fighting game, but all the participants are decayed fish heads. I haven't been able to shake the i?dea since yesterday.

For the less head decayed out there, the gorgeous fighting game Skullgirls is getting its Ultimate Arcade Ultra edition in the form of Second Encore for PS4 today with access to the Vita version coming in a few weeks thanks to cross-buy. It's got everything the previous version had, including the token men added as DLC, and new bits like a fully voiced story mode and more.

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The gorilla fate is yearning!

I love Skullgirls. It’s probably the most fun I’ve had with a fighting game since Soul Calibur 2, and I fuckin’ love fighting games. Now Lab Zero ??and Autumn Games have announced some pretty major updates to the game and boy am I excited.

Dubbed Skullgirls 2^nd Encore, the game will be released on PlayStation 4 and PS Vita in the summer. Some of the major updates include a story mode featuring full voice acting, a challenge mode, a trials mode to learn more combos, and a survival mode. A lot of these are fighting game staples which Skullgirls has unfortunately lacked u??p to now, so it’ll be great to see them added.

Additionally, the PS4 version will be able to support peripherals such as arcade sticks that were made for the PlayStation 3. Those things are freaking expensive, so yay! No crippling debt just to nail a combo! Crossplay will also be available across all of the PlayStation copies of the game, including the PlayStation 3 version which isn’t currently confirmed to be receiving 2^nd Encore content.

We’re looking into releasing the #Skullgirls 2nd Encore new fea??tures as DLC for the Steam release. Will let you know when we know? more!

— Skullgirls (@Skullgirls) April 29, 2015

The downside is there’s currently no confirmation 2^nd Encore will be coming to non-PlayStation platforms, however a tweet on the official Skullgirls account says they are looking t??o br?ing it to PC via DLC for the original game. They haven't even mentioned Xbox 360 or Xbox One yet, so don't get your hopes up.

Hopefully they’ll also be able to add more characters like Beowulf for me to fawn over, but hey a challenge mode is good too. Gotta keep them fingers de??xterous.

The post Skullgirls 2nd Encore bringing HOT 2D FIGHTIN??G ??to PS4 and Vita appeared first on Destructoid.

?\_(ツ)_/?

A little more than four years ago, Nintendo released Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem! on the original DS. It continued the series' focus on the miniature Mario robots, to the chagrin of fans of the platforming in the original. In our review, Jonathan Holmes said "It didn't make me feel much, or think much, or ??have much of a memorable effect on me at a?ll."

Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars plays the same as Mini-Land Mayhem!, but with a few new features. It remains a puzzle game that acts as filler; it can be picked up and played just as easily as it can be ?put down and forgotten.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars (3DS [reviewed], Wii U)
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: March 5, 2015
MSRP: $19.99

Once again, various minis are scattered across stages, and they must touch all of the coins and get to the exit. The "why" of it is unimportant, it's the "how" that is the focus. Minis cannot be controlled directly. A mini will start walking forward once tapped with the stylus or if another mini walks into it. Most of the player???'s job is to manipulate the environment in order to allow the bots a safe path to the exit.

To that end, there is a handful of t?ools at the player's disposal. There are girders that can act as platforms, ramps, and walls. There are springs that allow the minis to clear gaps or reach new heights. There are conveyor belts, lifts, and pipes that will move the little toys around the map.

A tenet of Game Design 101 is to gradually introduce new elements to the player, never overwhelming but eventually creating something complex. Tipping Stars adheres to this idea strictly. Each world features a new environmental piece: the first level introduces it, ??the next ??few levels mix it with everything else, and the last few levels require the player to demonstrate mastery in order to move on.

There are a few common threads that tie the worlds together. Each has eight levels. The seventh level always features a Mario mini holding a key and a locked exit. Not only does the player have to complete all of the usual objectives, but he has to have the robots lined up in the correct order, or else ??the keyless one at the front will just bump stupidly into the lo??ck while the one with the key cannot access it.

The eighth level acts almost as a boss encounter, where one mini becomes possessed and must be bopped wit?h a hammer before the stage can be completed. It adds motion to the otherwise s??????????????????????????tationary puzzling of choosing which pieces go where.

Despite the fact that Tipping Stars follows all of the rules of good game design, it lacks anything special to make it noteworthy. The puzzle design is straightforward to a fault. Solutions never require lateral thinking and a?s a result I never f?elt any sense of accomplishment upon completing one. Instead of making me feel smart it just made me feel mechanical, like one of the minis marching aimlessly ahead. Oh, I finished that puzzle. Onto the next one.

That isn't to suggest that Tipping Stars is too easy. Some of the late??r levels (and especially the bonus levels) can be quite difficult. However, the difficulty ?is often in timing and execution rather than in strategy and foresight. For some puzzles, it's possible to see the solution but still muck it up by not poking the minis at exactly the right moments.

The level editor from Mini-Land Mayhem! makes a comebac?k, with the expected incremental upgrades that come with the new hardware. Levels can be shared on Miiverse, and more player-created levels can be saved than before. Basic levels can be created right away, but a lot of cosmetic alteration?s and the higher level equipment must be purchased with stars.&nbsp;

Stars are the in-game currency, and are generally earned by completing puzzles. Higher scores earn more stars, but each level only grants up to three stars. The key to the economy is that it's not pos?sible to gain enough stars to buy everything by playing the built-in levels alone. To make up the difference for some of the higher-priced items, stars can also be generated by playing user-generated levels, having one's own levels played, or by "tipping" another creator for particularly well-made content.

The most commendable addition to Tipping Stars is the inclusion of cross-buy and cross-play. A purchase on either 3DS or Wii U will net a download code for the other, and saved levels can be transferred between the two. It's nice to see Nintendo testing out the idea, even if it's on a mundane titl?e.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars is not bad. It is essentially Mini-Land Mayhem! with visual and technical upgrades. It never instills any sense of wonder or accomplishment, and it often feels more like work than play. ??It's a very paint-by-numbers affair; for a puzzle game it doesn't actually require much thinking, only doing. It is a gam?e that exists, and that's about as much as there is to say about it.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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In the grim darkness of the near future...

Mankind has expanded throughout the galaxy, having come together under one government, a "managed" democracy. From the Super Earth homeworld, humanity spreads its message of liberation and freedom to every planet they land upon; the liberation of their natural resources and freedom from?? human opposition, that is.

And if you don't like it, expect? them to spread a whole lot of ordinance instead.

Helldivers (PS4 [reviewed], PS3, PS Vita)
Developer: Arrowhead Game Studios
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
Released: March 3, 2015
MSRP: $19.99

Helldivers is a squad-based sci-fi shooter, presented from an overhead perspective. Players take the role of a Helldiver, a special forces soldier trained to drop onto enemy planets from orbit as the tip of humanity's conquering spear. Given command of a ship, Helldivers are directed to venture into star systems controlled by three alien races which threaten Super Earth's way of life, pressing forwar??d in an effort to conquer alien homeworlds.

While there's an absence of any real plot, the setting of Helldivers does enough to establish itself as a pointed satire of American exce??ptionalism, colonialism, and military pride. From propa?ganda messages promoting the idea that Super Earth is spreading "democracy" through the galaxy (by the totally legitimate means of conquest), to the flavor dialogue spoken by Helldivers in the midst of a firefight ("Have a nice cup of liber-tea!"), it presents a scenario in which it's made perfectly clear that there are no "good guys" in this war, only conquerors. With tongue planted firmly in cheek, the sparse but effective setting material does just enough to allow the player to consider what they're engaging in without distracting from the action, while delivering wry chuckles here and there.

Gameplay takes the form of planetary assaults, planned from the player's orbiting ship. Choosing between one of the three fronts of the galactic war, players are presented with a range of incrementally difficult worlds to attack, each with missions which must be completed to deliver it into the control of the Super E?arth government. Missions consist of objectives which, while varying based on which race is being fought, boil down to defending control points, activating Super Earth technology already on the planet, escorting people and supplies, and destroying enemy installations.

It's a decent variety, and missions tend to offer a mix of objectives across the maps, rarely weighing too heavily on any one type of activity once the player is taking on missions with three and four objectives to complete. Escort tasks will probably still be everyone's least favorite thing to do, whether it's leading a group of survivors or following a supply train, but there isn't a whole lot of punishment received for failing objectives on a mission, so long as you ca?n get off the planet. Every mission ends with a last ??????????????????????????stand scenario where the team must hold out against oncoming enemies for an extraction shuttle to carry them safely away, and at least one Helldiver must extract for the mission to succeed.

On the ground, Helldivers plays with an interesting balance of stealth and combat. Enemy patrols roam the map, looking for your squad. At worst, these are small packs of a few enemies that can be easil?y dispatched, but they're a ??tremendous threat to the mission. If a patrol spots the squad, they have to be killed immediately. Within seconds, patrol units can call in reinforcements to do real damage. And, while those troops are being dealt with, more patrols are moving in and calling their own squads of heavy hitters, snowballing into an massive conflict. Before long, the only options available become retreat or death.

This system allows the gam??e to produce two distinct, potent forms of tension for the player. Combat encounters are exhilarating, with enemies actively working to flank and surround, Helldivers firing madly into hordes. That's all good stuff. But the system of patrol units makes it equally tense to be out of combat, knowing that an encounter with the potential to escalate into an unsalvageable mess could happen at any ??moment.

The three enemy races, Bugs, Illuminates, and Cyborgs, are all distinct entities. Illuminate patrols consist of lone scouting robots, while the Cyborgs have a pack of light troopers surrounding a sturdier commander and Bugs use units ?of four scouts, all able to call reinforcements. Cyborgs focus more on ranged weapons and Bugs take up a hard melee approach to combat. All of the races have their light, medium, and heavy enemy? types, but that and a common enemy in humanity is about all they share.

Helldivers can access many imp?lements of destruction to help bring democracy to the galaxy. Players select a primary weapon before missions from a pretty standard selection of assault rifles, shotguns and submachine guns, though more exotic flamethrowers and laser cannons are options too. All of the weapons are fun to play with and there is no weapon with disadvantages that cannot be overcome by skillful use.

In addition to guns, players complete their loadout with four "?strategems," special abilities provided by the Helldiver's vessel in orbit. Strategems come i??n many shapes and sizes. Some drop in a pod with extra ammunition, powerful secondary weapons, or even vehicles. Others provide defensive countermeasures, like enemy lures and antipersonnel mines, while more offensive strategems lay down strafing fire or drop explosives. They're even used to heal and return fallen comrades to the battle. Coordinating with your squad in selecting them further enhances their power, as more squad members means more options.

These powerful tools also come with some downsides. Deploying a strategem is a two-step process which begins by using a communication device to input an authorization code, achieved by correctly tapping out an onscreen sequence for the desired strategem with the directional pad. This puts a targeting beacon in the player's hand, which may be thrown into the field to indicate where the strategem should be deployed. Here's the hitch: If one wanted to get technical, one could say it's actually a three-step process, in that the first step is putting down the gun. If you're tapping away at codes, you are not shooting that horde of cyborgs bearing down on you, and you're certainly? not going to be able to take out that patrol creeping up from behind.

And then there's gravity. The Helldiver's requisitions arrive on the planet essentially the same way the Helldivers themselves did; they're dropped in from orbit. And while it seems obvious that you would avoid the immediate area around a beacon to which a ?phone booth sized hunk of metal is expected to plummet any second now, that little beacon can be overlooked when the bullets are flying (this is, of course, also a useful tactic for eliminating more troublesome enemies). It's especially risky when reviving squad members, as there's always doubt as to exactly where in the proximity of the beacon one to three people are going to suddenly crash on. Losing one Helldiver in the act of reviving another is a common occurence.

There is a certain measure of glee to be taken from Helldivers' unsympathetic attitude toward its rules of engagement. Friendly fire isn't a possibility; it's a certainty, but it's one the game applies to all living things and can be exploited as a combat strategy. Defensive turrets are able to dist?inguish friend from foe, but they cannot distinguish between foe and friend standing in front of foe. They'll just cut down anything in the direction of a target, ??knocking a hapless Helldiver prone and struggling for life. Death happens so often and so quickly, it becomes a source of constant humor. You will eventually see someone crushed by an extraction shuttle as it lands and you will probably laugh. They will probably laugh too.

Completing missions earns experience points toward increasing rank, wit??h higher ranks gaining access to more powerful weaponry. Weapons and strategems can be upgraded by spending resource points, earned with each rank and by collecting samples scattered throughout mission areas. Finishing all of the missions on a planet provides its own reward, either a new strategem or bonus experience points.

Missions also award influence, representing the player's contribution to the larger galactic war participated in by all players. Influence is earned by finishing all mission objectives successfully, escaping with the full squad intact, and keeping casualties to a minimum, with higher difficulties multiplying the amount of influence earned. These points are used to determine lea?derboard rankings, but also to determine the course of the war. A single war will last four to six weeks, with the results ?affecting the difficulty of the war to follow.

Each front is represented by a map with sectors separa??ting Super Earth and the enemy homeworlds. Sectors become controlled by Super Earth when enough influence has been earned by all players, eventually extending all the way to the enemy homeworld. Reaching a homeworld triggers an event during which players have a limited amount of time to assault the source of an enemy race in the hope of conquering them completely, a feat which will require far more people than the small group playing in pre-release.

The galactic war doesn't have a huge?? impact on the game, other than providing an excuse for event missions to occur. Yet, it does make you feel as though you're contributing to the accomplishment of a goal, and it's satisfying to see the rundown of which sectors have been taken and lost since the last time you played. It feels like something's happening around you, even if that something may just be statistics.

Helldivers is best experienced as a multiplayer game, and joining an online session is about as quick and easy as starting a mission of your own. A couple of quick menu selections and you will, quite literally, drop in on another player's mission in progress. Local multiplayer is also an option and, in the absence of outside life, it's still enjoyable solo. Playing alone requires different strategies and offers less flexibility in strategem selection, which does make the already b?rutal higher difficulties seem even more insurmountable, but the satisfaction of single-handedly conquering a planet cannot be denied.

Unrelenting and brutal, Helldivers delivers fast-paced combat, epic standoffs and a comic??al approach to death. Its enemies are varied, powerful and a constant threat to the players. While the full impact of the larger multiplayer experience remains to be seen, it still adds ?a nice little scratch to the progress itch. The strategem system provides great flexibility in squad building with many ways to build out team roles to maximize defensive and offensive capabilities. With procedural map generation and just enough mission and enemy variety to prevent a sense of repetition, the twelve levels of difficulty ought to keep players challenged for a good long time.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Wii U and 3DS share the love

Much like when Mario vs. Donkey Kong launches on March 5, those looking to get OlliOlli on Wii U or 3DS will unlock the game for both systems. This ??is an outstanding trend that PlayStation fans have been enjoying for quite a while with the Vita and its big brother consoles, so it's good to see this happening for others.

Players will be able to purchase OlliOlli on March 5 from the eShop. If you have yet to try it out and own either of these sy?stems, then I highly recommend you do. It's a fantastic game.

Curve Digit?al PR - Curve's OlliOlli to offer cross buy funct??ionality on Wii U and 3DS [GoNintendo]

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The best game you'll ever play about washing poop out of a basement with your tears

In 2011, I lost a chunk of my life. An insidious tendril of addiction, despair, and obsession caught me by the ankle and dragged me into the The Binding of Isaac's darkened basement. I lost dozens of hours, whole days at a time. I let life slip by around me while muttering a demented mantra of “just one more try, just one more try...�/p>

Now with the release of Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, a 16-bit looking half-remake, half-sequel of the original, I can feel the same cold touch on my leg. Its grip is stronger than ever, pulling me back into the same dark pit. I should kick and scream and try to escape... Well, maybe just one more try won't kill me.

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (PC [reviewed], PS4, Vita)
Developer: Nicalis Inc, Edmund McMillen
Publisher: Nicalis, Inc
Released: November 4, 2014
MSRP:$14.99

Everything about Binding of Isaac is crazy and feels like it somehow shouldn't exist. But it does, and there is a kind of naughty thrill in that, like getting away with a rude joke at the dinner table. For those unfamiliar with the original, Isaac is a roguelike twin-stick shooter/dungeon crawler where you play as a small naked boy named Isaac, whose mother, believing she has heard the commanding voice of God, is trying to kill him. He desperately flees into the basement where he encounters deadly insects, mutated siblings, and every sort of grotesquery you could care??? to imagine. He fights them with his tears. Yup.

Every run is a new experience, a single chance at heaven or ??hell. If you die, it's back to scratch. The game is deeply mysterious, featuring no fewer than 16 different ending, at least 8 unlockable alternate characters, 4 bonus levels, and literally hundreds of items to discover, unlock??, and experiment with.

It's a deep, dark rabbit hole and if you have any kind of completionist streak it will ruin your life (take it from me). Isaac may present itself in the familiar sheep's clothes of a Zelda clone, a fun romp through some old-school top-down action, but that's just the skin-suit pulled tight around the beast. At its heart, Isaac is its own twisted, beautiful monster.

The most notable difference between Rebirth and the original Isaac is the shiny new engine and graphical overhaul. The original was made in Flash, giving the game a distinctly smooth and cartoony look, and with no shortage of technical problems to boot. Rebirth ditches Flash (and thankfully all of the bugs and glitches associated with it), dropping the smooth lines for a more detailed, SNE?S-era pixelated look.

More importantly than the faux 16-bit trappings, the new engine allows for a smoother and more stable experience. Where the frame rate of the original would drop through floor like a bowling ball when too many shots or enemies got on the screen, that's no longer an issue. Rebirth runs at a flawless 60 FPS come he?ll or high water.

With the smoother graphics come some gameplay changes. Rebirth is a much more shooty (to use my highly technical vocabulary) game than fans might be used to. The dependable frame rate allows for much more intense fights than the original ever dared to attempt, veering into bullet hell shmup territory on occasion. All of the new bosses introduced in Rebirth (and there are a lot of them) are much faster and aggressive? than the old guard, and some of the returning enemies, particularly the final bosses, have been overhauled to be FAR more trigger happy than they used to be.

I never thought I'd be happy to run into the likes of Loki or Peep, but? I'll take them any day over the new recr??uits in Satan's army.

Thankfully, bullet hell is a knife that cuts both ways. Rebirth does not shy away from crazy item combinations that comp?letely break the game. At one point I had a fully upgraded rate of fire with floating anti-gravity tears mixed with ricocheting rubber cement and a boomerang effect. I would step into a room, hold down the fire button for about a second or two, let go, an??d watch the entire room be enveloped in tears and instantly eradicate everything. The game might have gotten more difficult, but there are also more items to help turn it around.

Along with the other technical advancements, there is more variety in the shape and size of the dungeon chambers in Rebirth. Rooms are no longer limited to the single screen rectangular format they used to be. You will come across long hallways rigged with traps, huge arenas filled with enemies, big multi-screen affairs that will scroll along with Isaac's movement. These massive rooms have hosted some of the most intense moments I've had with Rebirth, the added space allowi?ng for multiple mini-boss battles or elaborate traps.

Rebirth includes a small, but delightful, two-player mode. At any time player two can join in as a tiny, floating ghost baby at the cost of one of player-one's heart containers. Ghost baby is definitely second fiddle, unable to plant bombs, walk through doors, or pick up items (no cheating and grabbing something from across a gap), but he will benefit from whatever kind of shot upgrade Isaac has collected. It won't become the new way to play Binding of Isaac any time soon, but having a wingman is loads more fun th??an it has any right to be.

Rounding out the new additions are a few quality of life tweaks. Control pads are now supported o??n the PC version, and work perfectly fine if that's your preferred style. You can choose between “Normal�and “Hard�modes now, letting you somewhat regulate what brand of insanity you're looking for. Hard mode, of course, hides its own set of exclusive items and enemies, s??o anyone looking to collect all the goodies should prepare to suffer for the compulsion.

Rebirth graciously now allows you to quit mid-way and return later, instead of holding you hostage to a good run. (“I'm going to be late but I have fu?lly pow??ered tears and twelve heart containers! I mean, the divorce rate around here is like 55%, so I can probably get another shot at being my brother's best man, right?�/i>). It is potentially a life-saving addition for the truly possessed.