NEWS – E3 is Around the Corner, and Destiny Won’t Go Away

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Ah, Monday, the day everything reboots.

Today in Video Game News, we’ll talk about Gearbox’s Battleborn, Uncharted, Dues Ex, Mirror’s Edge, Wolfenstein and Destiny.

Battleborn’s Reveal – E3 Trailer

Gearbox presents Battleborn, their latest game since Borderlands 2, and it appears to be a fusion of game genres. It’s a very stylized first person shooter with a MOBA framework. The game boasts 25 different playable characters that we can play alone or co-op, in a narrative driven campaign, and online competitive.

Uncharted – The Nathan Drake Collection
Nathan Drake’s first three adventures are coming to PS4, remastered in full 1080p and at 60 fps.

Dues Ex: Mankind Divided E3 Gameplay
Square Enix has confirmed that gameplay footage for the Dues Ex highly anticipated sequel will be revealed during their upcoming Square Enix E3 Press Conference. Square Enix’s showing will be on Tuesday, June 16th, however I will not be watching it live like Monday’s shows, so I’ll be doing a late write up post that evening.

EA files Mirror’s Edge Trademark

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New intriguing info has come to light as EA files trademark for Mirror’s Edge Catalyst. The sequel for Mirror’s Edge has been confirmed for 2016, and is currently under development at DICE. Hopefully we’ll hear more about it at EA’s E3 press conference next week.

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood gets Physical Release
Previously thought only to be digital, a disc version of Wolfenstein: The Old Blood for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC will be available July 21, Bethesda Game Studios announced today.

Even More Destiny Info, Possibly MORE at E3
New rumours have surfaced about the next big Destiny expansion, The Taken King. $40 expansion, to be released Sept 15th, 2015.

The new content will offer a new subclass and new elemental super ability for each of the three character classes.  Warlocks will get an electrical storm (arc), Hunters will receive a gravity bow (void), while Titans will have a flaming hammer (solar).

The expansion will introduce new Strikes, new PvP maps and a new raid.

Enough News, check back tomorrow for some new games and Gold Deals, and then impressions on an older but amazing title, in Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Hopefully an iReview before the week is out – I think I promised Sniper Elite III. Maybe a column, and then Achievement of the Week to wrap it all up.

-iRogan

ACHIEVEMENT OF THE WEEK – Unmechanical

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This week’s Achievement of the Week goes to Unmechanical, on the Xbox One, a cute little physics platformer. Recent review here -> iReview – Unmechanical.

This game was a little frustrating when it came to the achievements.

Not that any of them were in any way truly difficult, but just how the value of each achievement was chosen. Typically, achievements are in multiples of 5, so its always nice to end my gamerscore in a 5 or 0.

Unmechanical does away with this trend, and ends the majority of its achievements in 6. Most are actually worth 66G. This is great if I wanted to land on numbers like 99, but I like the clean zeros, where my next milestone is 200,000G. Luckily this game can be 100%’ed.

Achievement of the Week, in Unmechanical:

97889-hiInner Peace – 30G
Balance an object on your head for 10 seconds

Work/Life Balance?

Work/Life Balance?

This is an achievement that is easily miss-able if you don’t know about it. There’s plenty of physics objects to carry around in this game, but the tractor beam is on the bottom of our little robot, so it would counterintuitive to carry something on our head. Counterintuitive: word of the day. ;).

Tomorrow, and the week following is back to news, and new games, and reviews, and progress updates on what I’m playing. I’m also thinking up ideas for a weekly column/opinion article each week.

Lots of things always in store ’round here, just not consistency.

-iRogan

iReview – UNMECHANICAL: EXTENDED – It’s Lonely In Here

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Unmechanical is a 2.5D puzzle video game about a robot that gets sucked underground into a new mechanical world, and the goal is to escape. It’s a lonely game.

Title: Unmechanical – Extended
Developer: Talawa Games & Grip Games
Platform: Xbox One, PS4, PS3, Vita, PC, iOS
Publisher: Teotl Studios
Reviewed on: Xbox One

Originally released in 2012 on the PC and iOS, Unmechanical has now been updated and extended, and released on the consoles, with the help of Grip Games. The extended version includes new levels.

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Unmechanical is a physics puzzle game. You play as a little robot with a propeller attached to its head, that can propel himself around the levels, and is equipped with a handy short-range tractor beam to carry objects to assist with the puzzles. Just grab stuff, no need to talk about it.

You do occasionally come across another mechanical robot that is usually hindering your progress, or setting up the next puzzle, but these interactions are sparse.

Made on the Unreal Engine, the game is nice looking enough. As a 2.5D side-scroller, the game features a nice array of different looking levels, usually with interesting background and foreground detail. You’ll mainly just find lots of rocks and metal framing. The visuals are quite muted though, as you are underground for the duration of the game.

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The puzzles of the game start off pretty easy: simple, switches, or buttons to press. The physics portions of the game usually involve carrying a rock to hold down a button, or a metal beam to stop some gears, positioning these things to solve puzzles and open doors.

Later on the puzzles become more challenging, utilizing lasers and reflective mirrors. Some of the areas are quite large, with multiple exits and entrances, so it can be hard to keep track of where you left from and where to go to next. You’ll really only find where to go next by process of elimination. Luckily the game features a hint system, for those that need a little extra nudge.

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The puzzles are challenging to the point where they’re not frustrating, and some are quite enjoyable and clever, and will make you feel a sense of achievement when you move on to the next area.

The extended levels are more of the same, if a little more difficult. The addition is about 1/2 the length of the main game, and that’s because you spend a large portion of it in disrepair, unable to fly for more than a couple seconds at a time.

The game is a fun way to spend an afternoon, taxing your brain, as you navigate our little adorable robot around underground. First play-through might net you 3-4 hours, but the 2nd time, knowing the puzzles, might only take you an hour or so to sweep through and grab those remaining achievements. It’s easy enough to 100% this game.

Notable Achievements
My one complaint about the achievements is that most of them end in a non-even 5 or 0, potentially messing up my clean gamerscore. Is that OCD?

Inner Peace (Balance on object on your head for 10 seconds) – 30G
That’s Why Helicopters Need Elevators (Some things are just way too heavy) – 76G

-iRogan

WHAT I’M PLAYING – The Crew

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The Crew gives us everything we could have hoped for from prior games such as Test Drive Unlimited 2 or Forza Horizons 2, or even Fuel. These games promised scale, a plethora of vehicles, an always online and connected world, and a means to drive anywhere. Most delivered.

TDU2L-4Test Drive Unlimited 2 worked. It had two large islands where you could drive everywhere, and compete in races whenever you wanted. It was online where you could join friends and compete in the solo story, 1 on 1 vs a friend, and group races. Unfortunately the game was ruined by its online handling, and never recovered.

Reviews_03_WM_ForzaHorizon2Forza Horizons 2 offered a decent size world, and a very pretty one at that. You could drive anywhere, and it boasted 200+ vehicles, and an endless campaign. It had an online presence where you could race in a group, go on road trips, or compete in games. But that’s where the online capabilities ended. It didn’t truly feel like an online connected world, just one where you join a lobby, and follow the leader. My review is here.

The Crew seems to take the best of these worlds and gets it right. The game world is huge. HUGE. The Crew’s map spans the whole USA, showcasing all the major cities, allowing the player to drive anywhere, or fast travel anywhere with almost zero loading. It’s a truly impressive feat. The visuals are decent enough; it’s no Forza Horizons, as with the scale such as this, does come some sacrifices.

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The game is connected to an online world as well, which I haven’t fully experienced yet. You start with the ability to have a crew of up to 4 people. These crew members can join in almost all of the story missions and faction missions. Factions are online missions that contribute to the online world competition. Every time you sign in, you earn some rewards that your faction earned while you were offline. There are 5 factions you can join, 3 available at the start with the final 2 unlocked at later stages.

I haven’t experienced PvP or much of the online competitions or challenges yet, but I hope to soon. The online race type I’m currently missing, found in Test Drive, was the ability to challenge a friend to a race on the go. The game would set up an unscripted race destination, and then you race. That was a lot of fun, and spontaneous. Maybe it’s a feature that I haven’t found yet. Maybe I’m just grasping.

The race types themselves seem a little limited, along with the car list. So far I’ve come across the typical checkpoint, race to the finish, off-road races, escape the cops, and take down mode, where you’re challenged with taking out a single opponent. I’m not very far through the story yet, so I’m expecting more to be unlocked. The vehicle list seems limited as well, but each vehicle allows for 6 class mods, standard, off-road, and perf (professional street racing mod) which I’ve unlocked so far.

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A couple days ago I posted a quick time lapse of a 1hr race that I streamed on Twitch. Expect more of these as this game has some pretty epic multiple hour races.I might add a video page to store these Game Night videos.

Tomorrow is a review for Unmechanical, and then Sunday will be the weekly Achievement of the Week. And keep checking back in as I’ll be posting more news as we head into E3.

-iRogan