Valkyria Revolution is also in a sense a revolution from the traditional Valkyria Chronicles universe, as it's set in an alternate timeline based on the European industrialization era and eschews the traditional turn-based strategy gameplay for a new hybrid of real-time combat and tactical strategy across battlefields. In the wake of a revolution, Jutland's elite soldiers, the Vanargand, must band together to defeat the Ruzi Empire and stop death itself--the Valkyria. This grizzled anti-Valkyria squad is equipped with advanced mana weaponry and has the powerful ability to wield ragnite spells to combat this terrifying threat. The unit is comprised of soldiers who have a high affinity for ragnite, and even Jutland's own Princess Ophelia has joined the ranks. The princess carries the utmost love for her country and has answered the call of duty to liberate those who are suffering from the Ruzi's tyranny. However, Amleth Grønkjær, the commanding officer of Vanargand hides a … [Read more...]

What made Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag so special wasn't the plot, assassinating Templars or being an Abstergo Entertainment employee. No, it was getting your own ship and sailing around the Caribbean as a pirate that made the game so special. While Assassin's Creed III may have introduced naval combat, it was Black Flag that perfected it. Beloved by fans, many were disappointed when Ubisoft took it away in the next Assassin's Creed game, Unity. While naval combat, as it was in Black Flag, won't be returning in Assassin's Creed: Origins, it will be returning in the new IP, Skull and Bones. Ubisoft Singapore, the same team that designed the naval combat in Assassin's Creed III, are back and crafting a new IP around the gameplay they created. Skull and Bones is a shared world title where players will sail around the Indian Ocean either solo or teaming up and doing battle with other players. For our hands-on time at E3 2017, however, Ubisoft was only showing off the PvP element of the … [Read more...]

Titanfall 2's next free content update will introduce two new maps in addition to one of the biggest changes yet to drop for the game: a third-weapon slot for pilots. The current Titanfall 2 pilot loadout consists of one primary weapon and one secondary weapon. The secondary slot could be filled by either an anti-titan weapon or a side arm, meaning players had to choose between helping their team dismantle enemy titans, or boosting their personal defensive capabilities. The new update is doing away with this format by allowing players to equip one primary weapon, one secondary weapon, and one anti-titan weapon simultaneously. The update will also bring with it two new multiplayer maps, one for the standard multiplayer and one for the game's Live Fire Mode. The standard map, titled War Games, is another remaster of an old Titanfall DLC map, updated for the current age. The map is set in a simulated combat zone full of vibrant, Tron-like surfaces that meshes together various areas from … [Read more...]

Laser League is a modern take on arcade multiplayer mayhem. Two teams of combatants with different abilities face off against each other in various environments where an assortment of different laser traps are deployed. It sounds simple, and it is, but it is also fast paced fun that is a blast to play when you have a few friends over. In a nutshell, it is a competitive '80s action game if it were made with modern technology. Hardcore Gamer recently sat down with studio director Simon Bennett and discussed this upcoming title. [Hardcore Gamer] I enjoyed playing the demo. Laser League seems like it'd be a good time if some friends got together and felt like playing some old school games. Can you describe the basic premise of Laser League? [Simon Bennett] Absolutely. Laser League, at its core, is a simple game about eliminating the opposition with lasers. That might sound really basic, and at its core it is, but ultimately it's left stick to move and run around the arena and avoid various … [Read more...]

Since 2017 began, I can think of three games off the top of my head I reviewed that I thought were great games but were hurt by supporting online multiplayer but lacking local co-op. Online multiplayer is great for friends that live far away but there's just something nice about having a buddy come over for some couch co-op. Apparently I am not the only person who felt this way, and after reviewing feedback from players Kalypso Media and Games Farm are proud to announce that local co-op is now supported in Vikings - Wolves of Midgard as part of a massive free update. This feature is available now on PlayStation 4 and Windows PC. This update will also apply to Xbox One soon. Additional changes in this update include changes to New Game+ where player can carry over their items while increasing the difficulty in subsequent playthroughs. A stash has been added to the village to allow players to share items among all their characters as well as other people they play with in multiplayer. … [Read more...]

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor was a strong game that borrowed heavily from Rocksteady's Batman games to deliver its vision. Though the story was tough to swallow for Tolkien fans, the game's many mechanics, especially the Nemesis System, were well loved by fans. Mordor was able to capture the imagination of wandering around Mordor and picking off orc scum. What the game wasn't able to do was capture the scale of both the books and Peter Jackson's films. That's something the sequel, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, is attempting to remedy. After seeing an exhilarating Fortress Siege at GDC 2017, we were finally able to go hands-on with the game at E3 2017. While there were story and side missions to play, the crown jewel of our hands-on time was the Fortress Siege, which aims to replicate the epic action we've seen from Jackson's The Lord of the Rings films. To accomplish this, Shadow of War utilizes a heavily upgraded Nemesis System. In Mordor, the Nemesis System was primarily used to … [Read more...]

The War Games, the sixth free DLC drop for TitanFall 2, will take pilots to two new maps and add a few new features that players have been asking for. War Games the map is one that is made to look similar to the simulator pods used in the world of TitanFall for training pilots. It's set up as a city, with shops, multilevel buildings and long streets. This one promises window-to-window pilot combat and open lanes for Titans. Also included in The War Games will be a new execution called "Shadow Boxing." It's for the Holo Pilot and can be executed after getting twenty pilot kills while a Holo Pilot ability is active. All pilots will be getting a third weapon slot so that everyone can run around with a primary, secondary and an Anti-Titan weapon at all times. The game mode Titan Brawl will be added to the permanent rotation with a small alteration - instead of showing the number of assists you got, it will show what percentage of damage you did to the Titan. The War Games drops into … [Read more...]

Nintendo stole the show at E3 2017 with reveals of new Kirby, Yoshi, and Metroid titles, as well as Super Mario Odyssey. There's one feature, though, that has some fans even more excited: Nintendo embracing cross-platform play with other consoles for games like Rocket League and Minecraft. In a recent interview with GamesBeat, Nintendo of America corporate communications director Charlie Scibetta explained Nintendo's reasoning. It's pretty simple: Nintendo is trying to give the players what they want. "If it's right for gamers, we're going to entertain it," Scibetta said. "If we can make it work, we're going to do it. "We want people to have a good time. In the case of Rocket League, if that's what [players]… want to be able to play cross platform. We said, let's make that happen. It's really not more complex than that. Every game is different. Some games are great for multiplayer, some are better as a single-player experience, some are better in all kinds of situations for all … [Read more...]

Electronic Arts doesn't seem to have much faith in its Titanfall franchise any more, which is a shame for developer Respawn Entertainment. While several games got prominent play at EA Play's 2017 press conference, not a word was uttered about the popular mech game, despite the fact that a new free DLC pack was on the horizon and more are planned. It's as if EA sees Titanfall franchise as a titanic bust and is deliberately treating the critically acclaimed sequel as robota non grata. Respawn appeared to be doing everything right for the sequel, at least in the eyes of fans. It was now offering a single-player campaign and the game was coming to PS4 as well this time instead of just PC and Xbox One. It was even revealed that all content after launch would be free. Things looked promising. Right before E3 and EA Play last year, however, EA took the wraps off Battlefield 1, the next installment in EA's pride-and-joy franchise. It gave it an October 21 launch date, which fit comfortably … [Read more...]

The latest Overwatch Developer Update revealed some major and highly anticipated changes coming to Highlights and Loot Boxes. The video begins with game director Jeff Kaplan discussing new Highlight features coming to the game. Previously, only five of a player's best highlights would be saved to the game's Highlights tab, and options were limited regarding what to do with them. Following this next update, an additional section will be found in the tab which can hold up to 32 clips of highlights, manually recorded by the player with a newly implemented key-bind setting. These highlights can now also be saved as video files on players' respective platforms, giving us the freedom to capture and save some of our greatest moments. Before the video wrapped up, Kaplan revealed some major tweaks coming to the game's Loot Boxes as well. The number of duplicates players will now receive in Loot Boxes has been "drastically" decreased for as long as players still have substantial amounts of … [Read more...]

A recent interview with Destiny 2 project lead Mark Noseworthy revealed that the game's PC version might completely get rid of all weapon recoil. It's already easier to aim in first-person shooters with a mouse than it is a controller, so it seems odd that Bungie would leave weapon recoil out of the PC version of Destiny 2. But, according to Noseworthy, recoil feels better on controller than PC, so they decided to leave it out altogether: [Recoil] feels great [in the console versions], especially with magnetism and all the magic in the controller that makes you feel it. With a mouse and keyboard, you don't want the mouse moving without you moving it, so recoil doesn't feel good, so there is no recoil on PC. EGM's own Emma Schaefer played Destiny 2's E3 2017 demo on PC and thought that it felt easy. Now we know why. It's possible that Destiny's weapons do feel better without recoil on the PC. The only other time that Bungie has even been involved with a PC shooter that utilizes recoil … [Read more...]

Traveller's Tales LEGO series of video games have always done a good job at delivering fun experiences for kids and adults alike. After nearly a decade of sticking to the same formula, however, the franchise feels tired with LEGO Marvel's The Avengers being the weakest point. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 is the latest LEGO game in the series and comes with some significant advantages. Though based on a well-known IP, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 tells an original story and Traveller's Tales is the best in the business at creating charming and funny LEGO renditions of everyone's favorite characters. We went hands-on with LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 at E3 2017 to see what the developer is doing with the title. The demo focused exclusively on the Guardians of the Galaxy cast, who now have roles in the story. The plot focuses on the world of "Chronopolis," which exists at the intersection of the Marvel Universe's timelines. As such, Kang the Conqueror seeks to capture it and bend the universe … [Read more...]

Friday the 13th continues to be "the little game that could," as the development team has addressed new issues surrounding the recently announced apology gifts. Sadly, Xbox One players had to shoulder the brunt of these hiccups, again, with their version of the patch delayed by a few days. Starting June 20th, players on all three platforms were supposed to receive several in-game gifts to remedy the shaky launch and many server issues plaguing the survival horror experience. However, only PlayStation 4 and PC owners were able to enjoy the free spending points, new camper outfits, and Jason's retro NES skin, as Xbox users have been hit with a memory leak issue that caused the update from passing Microsoft's certification process. This issue is just another to add to the list of problems for Xbox players, as the Day One patch left the same bugs from the Alpha version of the game and the recent matchmaking patch was only delayed on Microsoft's platform. Thankfully, as of June 22nd, the … [Read more...]

Call of Duty: WWII could bring back Sledgehammer Games' popular Uplink mode, but it would undergo some major changes due to the setting's limited technology. Uplink- a multiplayer mode hybrid between Team Deathmatch and basketball- was first introduced in Sledgehammer's Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, and has been in every installment since. Talking with Daily Star Online, co-founder Michael Condrey announced that the developer was looking into a return of Uplink that realistically fit the time period. "We haven't announced all the modes we're bringing to the game.… We introduced Uplink in Advanced Warfare and we have a lot of heart for that," Condrey said. "So we're looking to make that thematically appropriate for WWII. It's something we're still working on. There will be a much broader suite of modes." He went on to explain that the mode would need to face some changes considering the new game's omission of jetpacks and double-jumping, but he stressed that the developer is … [Read more...]

Overwatch's latest update made a secret tweak that might kill off aimbots. The recent update added in the new Horizon Lunar Colony map, boosted Reaper's usability, and nerfed Roadhog's status as a one hook, one kill murder machine. Most players, though, probably won't notice another important change-unless they're using third-party software to cheat. As Korean Overwatch players have discovered, and one user of the Overwatch subreddit reported, Blizzard has found a way to deflect image recognition-based aimbots (a problem especially rampant in Korea). These aimbots work by detecting one specific image-in this case, the distinctive red outline that surrounds enemy players-and targeting it. Blizzard's solution? Changing that red outline ever so slightly. Now, enemy outlines will change between slightly different shades of red. It's not enough of a change to bother the human eye, but it's enough to confuse the aimbot programs (which also have to contend with red colors in the background of … [Read more...]

It's been nine years since Call of Duty explored World War II. Treyarch's Call of Duty: World at War, released in 2008, marked the last time players would take up arms against the Nazis. However, after numerous modern and futuristic titles, Call of Duty is heading back to the most brutal conflict in history. Call of Duty: WWII is taking the long-running franchise to its roots, but is going back in time enough to recreate the magic that made the franchise so successful in the first place? While we went hands-on with the multiplayer at E3 2017, our time with the campaign was hands-off. Sledgehammer Games has spent three years studying World War II to build a compelling and authentic experience. They wanted to create a story with a sense of camaraderie and bonding between the squad. Unfortunately, none of that was present in the demo. In Call of Duty: WWII, you play Ronald "Red" Daniels, a 19-year-old from Texas, and part of a squad in the 1st Infantry Division. His story begins in … [Read more...]

More information about Destiny 2's dungeon-like Lost Sectors have emerged, and if you were looking forward to farming these dungeons for loot, you might be a little disappointed. According to a recent Reddit thread, Lost Sectors will have no "repetition value." That doesn't mean you can't raid them multiple times; it just means that you probably won't get new loot every time you beat the dungeon boss. We already knew that Lost Sectors would be handcrafted experiences, rather than procedurally generated content, and like Adventures - Destiny 2's version of side quests - Lost Sectors will expand the game's narrative instead of Grimoire cards. Fortunately for the loot farmers out there, you'll still have Raids and Strikes to complete ad nauseum. One interesting thing to note is that, if what a recent video claims about Lost Sectors is true, the loot you get for completing a Lost Sector will scale to your level, meaning if you complete a Lost Sector at a low level, you won't be able to go … [Read more...]

Deus Ex Machinarium Machinarium is a game I've someone managed to play through numerous times. I gave it a shot after it was free on PlayStation Plus and then grabbed it in a Humble Bundle before acquiring the PS4 copy last year. Somehow, it has become my comfort food for when I'm down and need something familiar and charming to play. Much to my surprise, I'm now reviewing Machinarium years after its debut because of its new PC update (available today), which developer Amanita Design has dubbed the "Definitive Edition." Seeing as how I've almost committed the game to memory, I think I have a good understanding of why this title is so enjoyable and how this new PC version really does feel like the best way to enjoy it. Machinarium is a hyper stylized point and click adventure game. If you have any familiarity with genre classics like The Secret of Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle or even recent Telltale efforts like Back to the Future, you should have a basic understanding of how … [Read more...]

Publisher Techland and developer Ice Flames are excited about Pure Farming 2018. This is a title that has been in development for so long that they had to change the year (it used to be Pure Farming 2017). Ordinarily, this would be seen as a harbinger of bad things to come, as games that slip that much in their schedule tend to arrive messy. Obvious exceptions abound, though, and it appears that Ice Flames have been putting the time in to make this the best true farming simulator to hit the market. This might seem like a foolish target to hit, but the Focus Home Interactive's Farming Simulator titles have developed a loyal and profitable fanbase that puts hours upon hours into tilling the fields and harvesting wheat. The extra time has been put to good use. As much as one hates to deploy such clichéd terminology, the graphics of the various ranches and homesteads reach the level of photorealism. The wisps on the wheat can be seen, reflections in the water have just the right … [Read more...]

Assuming the guise of Newbie, a cardboard box, players must bounce and roll their way through glorious 3D worlds filled with scenic vistas, mountains, islands and the like. Newbie's lot in life is to prove his worth as a sentient, self-delivering package and in doing so save the Global Postal Service from bankruptcy. As a living cardboard box, Newbie can explore epic worlds accepting missions and challenges as he goes. Along the way he'll meet new friends, discover a plethora of collectables and uncover oodles of super-secrets. Of course, there are unfriendly inhabitants out there too, the Wild Cards and their boss are out to ruin the GPS. Only by completing challenges and collecting reward stamps will Newbie be able to square up to menacing world Bosses! In addition to a single-player adventure mode, Unbox: Newbie's Adventure also offers classic split-screen action. Up to four friends can gather together and challenge each other in madcap speed races and last-man-standing battles. … [Read more...]