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:
Inner Peace – 30G Balance an object on your head for 10 seconds
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Test 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.
Forza 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.
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.
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.
New games know how to get your attention, and the pin number for your ATM card . . .
Today we’ll talk about the new games, June’s Deals, and we’ll also discuss today’s news: Tomb Raider Trailer.
Tomb Raider’s New Trailer
New trailer for Rise of the Tomb Raider has been released, and it shows Lara fighting through a blizzard. The trailer informs us that we’ll be seeing more at the E3 press conferences. Add this title to my list of eagerly anticipated games. Check my review for the predecessor: Tomb Raider. Trailer below. Boop.
June’s Games With Gold
Double Fine’s Massive Chalice leads the pack this month on the Xbox One, and we’re still able to pick up Pool Nation FX. Massive Chalice seems similar to 2012’s XCOM Enemy Unknown’s gameplay, as it’s a turn based strategy. Expect new info from me on it soon. Add it to the list I guess.
On the Xbox 360 we can pick up Avalanche Studio’sJust Cause 2, for the first half of the month, and Thief, in the latter half. I’ve been interested in Thief, so it’s too bad this isn’t the Xbox One version. Oh well.
A little bit of house cleaning here, as I missed a few of the notable releases. Apologizes. Let’s catch up:
Destiny: House of Wolves (Xbox One, 360, Ps3, Ps4) – The second expansion to Destiny, is the House of Wolves. Included is a new social hub in the reef, new story missions and a strike, as well as some new PvP and PvE multiplayer game modes. Notable absence is a new Raid. I’ve played for a bit, trying out the new levels and seeing the new bad guys, but haven’t been able to dive too deep yet. Stick around for further impressions.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Xbox One, Ps4, PC) – 200+ hour RPG. Probably not going to happen, as much as the game looks cool, and does grab my attention, this will be a hard pass until it’s cheaper, and when I have nothing to play (ie: probably never). Witcher 2 was not a lot of fun to get into with its hour long tutorials, and confusingly deep crafting and combat system. This one, #3 may be better suited for non-RPG types, but I’m not there yet.
Game of Thrones: Episode 4 – Sons of Winter (Xbox One, 360, Ps3, Ps4, PC) – I have the Telltale Bundle, so I’ll wait until all the episodes have been released, and then I’ll run through them.
BADLAND: Game Of The Year Edition (Xbox One, Ps3, Ps4) – Picked this up the other day as the gameplay looked fun, and it supports up to 4 players, to do what, I don’t know. Once I jump in, I’ll share my thoughts, in this here word format.
Massive Chalice (Xbox One, PC) –
This game is actually June’s Games With Gold free game of the month, surprisingly on its launch day. Odd. But YAY, free games. Impressions soon.
I’m continuing to build up my E3 Page as we get closer to the event, so keep an eye there for my early impressions, anticipated titles, and news.
Thursday I’ll have deeper impressions of The Crew, and I recently started up SplinterCell: The Blacklist, on the 360, so I’ll share my irrelevant thoughts here, as the game is a little dusty now. I might have new things to say about Badlands, and/or Massive Chalice at the same time. Who knows?
Lastly, I wrapped up Unmechanical, which was a fun little title, so look for that iReview on Friday.
Alright, we have some catching up to do, so let’s stick to the big stuff, shall we?
Today we’ll talk more about: Star Wars Battlefront, Dishonored, Assassin’s Creed, The Last of Us, Rainbow Six Siege, DOOM, Need for Speed, Halo MCC, and Evolve.
I’ll also briefly talk about the games I have on the go and up-coming, and plans for E3.
Star Wars Battlefront: No Ironsights, Squads or Classes EA and Dice are doing away with some of the expected FPS features included in their previous games like Battlefield. Star Wars Battlefront won’t have ironsights for its common blasters, but some rifles will still have scopes. Looks like you’ll be shooting from the hip. Also, there will be no more Classes or Squads. You can outfit your character however you see fit, with the items you’ve unlocked, and there will be a “partner” system, that will allow you to see your friend on the UI, and will allow you to spawn on them.
Dishonored Next-Gen Release? Looks like there might be a Definitive Edition release of 2012’s Dishonored; a fantastic game that I’d like to play through again. Fingers crossed.
New Details on the next Assassin’s Creed Assassin’s Creed Syndicate will feature two main playable characters, one of whom is a woman. Brother and sister duo – Jacob and Evie Frye. The game will take place in Victorian London in 1686. The brother will be taking the lead in the story in terms of playtime, approximately 75% of the story. October 23rd, 2015 release date on the PC, Xbox One and PS4.
The Last of Us’ Left Behind DLC Now Standalone Playstation and Naughty Dog’sThe Last of Us was one of 2013’s greatest games. The Left Behind DLC featuring Ellie is now available as a standalone package, no longer requiring The Last of Us game.
Rainbow Six Siege Release Date Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Siege has found its release window: October 13th, 2015.
DOOM Gameplay Teased, Full Reveal at E3 Bethesda has revealed that it will be showcasing its DOOM reboot at its E3 press conference on June 14th. I’ll discuss my E3 plans at the bottom.
Need for Speed 2015 Electronic Arts and Ghost Games are rebooting Need for Speed, and it’s titled just that: Need for Speed. EA promises “deep customization, authentic urban car culture, a nocturnal open world, and an immersive narrative that pulls you through the game”. Seems like it’s going back to the Underground days? Release date is November 3rd, 2015, and will require an online connection.
“It’s been going from studio to studio, and creatives were creative, but there wasn’t really a strategic way of thinking of what the brand is and what it stands for,” EA Executive Producer Marcus Nilsson. “For sure, it’s been delivering great experiences, but not experiences that can build on top of each other to become better and better necessarily.
“If you look at the last few games – Hot Pursuit, The Run, Shift, Rivals, Most Wanted – and you asked people, ‘What does Need for Speed stand for?’, you’d get a million different answers.
Halo 3: ODST Re-mastered Now Available The re-mastered edition of Halo: ODST for the Halo Master Chief Collection, is now available for those who played the game during the launch window.
Evolve’s New Arena Mode Free Evolve has a new update and it’s free, and it’s a new mode: Arena. The 4 Hunters face off against a stage 2 monster in that typical 4 v 1 method. The change is that it’s in a small enclosure now, and it’s best of 3. No longer are the hunter’s required to track down and chase the monster. Take-Two recently announced that Evolve is permanent franchise for the publisher, joining Borderlands, Grand Theft Auto, among others.
So I recently went through my queue of games that I currently have on the go:
Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China
Assassin’s Creed IV – Blag Flag
Battlefield Hardline
Borderlands – The Pre-Sequel
Contrast
Destiny
Far Cry 4
Splinter-Cell: Blacklist (Xbox 360)
State of Decay
Tales From the Borderlands
The Crew
Contrast I should be able to wrap up pretty quick. Unmechanical is a quick puzzle game I just finished recently, and there’s a review for that on Friday. I recently completed Sniper Elite III as well, with a review around the corner.
I have a few games on the shelf waiting to be played: Metro 2033 and Last Light bundle, Badland GOTY that I picked up today, Assassin’s Creed Unity (after IV), Shadow of Mordor. I’d like to give The Evil Within another shot, but who knows. Also, out in the wild is Evolve, Alien Isolation, and Wolfenstein: The Old Blood. These are homeless, out on the streets, looking for a nice warm home on my hard-drive.
Lastly, E3 is just around the corner. I’m going to be posting a new section for E3 news on the title bar, and I’ll be watching the press conferences on Sunday, June 14th, and Monday June 15th, and live blogging those all day.
Exciting stuff is just around the corner: New Games and deals tomorrow, early reviews and What I’m playing on Thursday, an iReview on Friday. Stick around, as I’m back.
Inner Peace – 30G
Idly Playing the Waiting Game 