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Social gaming. Once believed to be the antithesis of what gaming should be. In the early days gaming was seen to be something solitary and cut off from both reality and society; however, in the following years we have seen a huge shift in this mentality, with video games becoming commonplace, the rise of the MMO genre, and the recent dominance of games such as Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite.
However as much as the industry has shifted to getting people to play together, there are still holdouts, with the recent announcement that Fortnite will be implementing cross play between PC, Xbox, Mobile and working toward compatibility with Nintendo’s Switch console, the question has once again been posed, why are Xbox and PS4 not crossing over?
With a handful of options for gaming growing, the recent announcement that Xbox, PC, Mobile and Nintendo will be allowing cross platform experiences has been well received, similarly Sony has enabled cross play with PC and mobile, but we are still yet to see a proper Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo cross platform experience so no matter your preference it is currently not possible to team up with or take on players from Microsoft or Sony’s premier consoles from their competitor.
This question is not a new one, with other popular multi platform games having been made available for cross play between PC and console and Fortnite itself accidentally allowing cross play between the Xbox and Playstation versions of the games for a short time.
So that leads to the question, why is cross platform play between the two consoles not enabled? Well if it was up to Microsoft, it would be.
Microsoft representative Phil Spencer has made a recent effort to express his interest in cross platform gameplay, even tweeting that he wished the accidental Fortnite crossplay enabled by Epic games would remain, Sony’s representatives have been far less vocal on the matter, with smaller statements on the subject such as when the issue was brought up with Minecraft cross play, advising their refusal to allow cross play was “for the children” because they cannot control what their players are exposed to outside of their network.
One interesting thing to note is that Microsoft have been openly against cross network play in the past, citing the same concerns that Sony mentioned, but since the PS4 started outselling the Xbox One their concerns seem to have cleared up and they are all for cross platform gaming.
An episode of the show South park also tackled the subject a few years ago (cleverly weaving in a storyline very heavily lampooning Game of Thrones) in which Xbox and Playstation are opposing factions in the gaming war and a choice must be made, a side must be chosen, unfortunately with the lack of cross platform connection currently available the episode is still all too real a concern for gaming fans.
Will we ever see a world in which Microsoft and Sony both allow cross play? At this stage no, but with Nintendo joining, it seems like it’s only a matter of time until we can all play together happily.
Jake Pentecost, son of Stacker Pentecost, reunites with Mako Mori to lead a new generation of Jaeger pilots, including rival Lambert and 15-year-old hacker Amara, against a new Kaiju threat.
Pacific Rim Uprising is the follow up to Guillermo del Toro’s 2013, giant robots vs giant sea monster epic, however this time around Del Toro isn’t in the director’s chair, with Steven S. DeKnight taking the chair for his debut feature film, and Del Toro staying on as both a Producer and Visual consultant.
The choice to allow another director to take over from a visionary such as Del Toro, especially when the new choice has yet to direct a feature film (DeKnight being most well known for his TV series Spartacus), was a bold choice indeed, but it seems to have paid off, the resulting film flowing naturally as a continuation from the first, to the point where most people wouldn’t even notice that the films had different directors.
For most sequels a lot of people will have the first question, do I need to have seen the previous movie? And the answer for this film is, no, not really – the film does a nice job at covering the important events from the last film in the first few minutes of the opening; and then peppers in a few more exposition lines throughout, mostly using returning characters to help fill in the gaps naturally.
Much like the first film the plot of Pacific Rim Uprising, centres on the pilots of giant mechs knows as Jaegers, in their continuing war with giant sea monsters known as Kaiju (from the Japanese phrase “Strange Monsters”), once again the Jaeger program is on the verge of being shut down and needs to prove its mettle against Earth’s giant destructive foes.
Again much like the first film, the weakest aspect of the film is the human characters, a lot of the actors in the film are given “characteristics” instead of actual characters, however there are marked improvements over the first with the charismatic new lead played by John Boyega, and a varied cast of younger actors, who are cleverly brought into the world of the film, despite not really having anything to do outside of plot related action scenes.
Which brings us to the MVP of the series so far, the reason this franchise has become a franchise to begin with, the creativity and visuals, the giant robots and monsters are even more imaginative than the first film, with a large portion of the film dedicated to showcasing all the new tricks the Jaegers have come up with in the past few years, each Jaeger is designed differently enough that they can be easily differentiated from one another, making it easier to tell what’s happening during the fight scenes, which look magnificent, the list of special effects employees during the credits is comically long, but watching the film you can really see where all the man power went, apart from a slightly jarring green screen sometimes, the visual effects are glorious, and the attention to detail is magnificent, each hit showing the weight of the giant adversaries.
When it comes to giant robots in film, a lot of people will turn to Transformers as the pre-eminent example, (interestingly DeKnight was invited to the Transformers Cinematic Universe writing room before being given the chance to direct Uprising), however the Pacific Rim films owe more of a debt to the world of anime, taking a lot of ideas and style from series like Gundam (which is noted in the credits as their is reference in the background of a set), and Neon Genesis Evangelion, although these series typically have a lot more character work than we see in these films, they also have a far longer running time in order to set up the back stories and develop actual characters.
If you are looking for an expertly crafted study of human drama, this is not the movie for you, but if you are looking for genuinely inventive giant action with incredible visual effects, you’d be hard pressed to find a better film, overall Pacific Rim Uprising, is a more than worthy follow up to the first film, building on the lore from the first, adding even more, and setting up an upcoming sequel that sounds like it will be the biggest and most epic one yet.
Willy-Nilly Knight is the great story, based on the legend of King Arthur. Immerse yourself in a single-player, isometric, story-driven RPG with real-time gameplay and turn-based combat, set in the colorful fantasy universe. Will you find the power to save the world in the war of gods? Find your answer.
Developed by Russian Indie label Double Dice games, Willy Nilly Knight is their first full game release: a single player, isometric, turn-based tactical RPG set in an Arthurian themed fantasy world.
The combat in the game is very standard for the S-RPG or T-RPG genre, with each character, ally and enemy alike taking turns to move, attack, use an ability or use an item. All of these actions will use AP – or Action Points – which are displayed at the bottom of the screen, so as long as you have AP remaining you can select any combination of options during your turns.
Winning the battles gives you a few items, coins and some experience which goes toward levelling up. This provides you with an ability skill point to learn or strengthen an ability, and a stat point which you can spend on one of the base stats to improve your character by adding more health, attack, defence, and so on.
In between battles you can explore the world, collecting items from hidden (or not so hidden) caches and talk to people for more back story, sometimes picking up a new quest or objective to achieve. The game also has autosave enabled and it creates multiple files so you can reload from an earlier point if you make a mistake, or want to try something else.
The setting and plot of the game is nothing entirely new as a basic fantasy story taking place within the Arthurian legends. You control Arthur, a boy who wakes up and assumes he is dreaming because the world is fantastical, then pulls a sword from a stone and then proceeds to save a damsel in distress. You later learn this is your second character Guinevere. Arthur gradually starts his journey, where he finds that the Gods of this world are waging a war and wish to use his power as one of their weapons.
The game is somewhat lighthearted in tone with bright colourful characters and locations. Even the darker dungeon setting is still quite family friendly, with no real violence or offensive content. It feels like a game that could be enjoyed by a younger player, assuming they have the patience to plan out their battles, as going in guns blazing and just hammering the enemies is not likely to work for long against enemies that match or exceed your own power.
Overall, Willy Nilly Knight doesn’t really bring anything new to a long standing genre, with familiar settings, story, enemies and battle system – but it does pull them off quite solidly, coming off as a warm, family friendly little adventure.
Verdant Skies is a life simulation game born from a love for games like Harvest Moon and a desire to create something unique with modern gameplay and deep storytelling. Ensure the success of the colony as you make friends and pursue romance with a diverse cast of characters.
Verdant Skies is the latest game brought to us by Howling Moon Software, a small indie developer mostly known for their work in building gaming engines.
However, their true passion (as stated in their bio), is for creating their own game titles such as Verdant Skies.
The idea for the game was formed through Beth and Andy Korth (Narrative and Programming respectively)’s mutual love of games such as Harvest Moon, Rune Factory and Animal Crossing; and existed in concept far before going into development May 2014, undergoing a huge change in design and game engine in March 2015, and finally seeing release late 2017.
The game centers on the character’s avatar – which is fully customizable in gender, skin tone, clothing and accessories – crash landing on a planet (which as luck would have it was their destination already), and starting a new life with a sizeable debt on said planet.
The main game mechanic of Verdant Skies, is building, both in terms of harvesting resources to construct new items, and performing tasks for the locals in order to build relationships with them, the end game of which would be to pursue a romantic relationship with the character of your choice.
This leads me into one of the most pleasant aspects of the game, the inclusiveness. As mentioned above you can customize your character’s gender, you can select the usual male or female, but the game will allow you to use a non-binary selection if you see fit, the same goes for the relationships, with any character being a potential match, assuming you put in enough work in building the relationship with them.
Verdant Skies also incorporates a few menu options into the game that further their inclusive leanings, with both options to slow down aspects of the game for people with motor disabilities, and an option to influence the colors in case of color blindness; and it is this level of heart and inclusivity where the game really shines, taking what could be essentially a remake or knock off of a beloved franchise and injecting it with a real sense that the game was crafted by very caring people.
The music and art of the game (handled by Troy Strand and Lizzie Siemers respectively), are both lovely and fit the overall feel of the game perfectly, with Troy’s music being relaxing, plaintive and occasionally bouncy, but never overbearing; and Lizzie’s hand painted artwork evoking the feeling of exploring a piece of artwork.
Overall the game is a very pleasant experience, one that you probably already know if you’d be interested in going on if you are familiar with their chief inspirations already.
Verdant Skies gets a Barn storming 7/10 from us! ~TGB-Sirhc
You can also check out some gameplay in our review video here:
You can also check out and buy Verdant Skies on STEAM, and follow them on social media at Twitter & Facebook
Remember when it was announced a year or two ago, that soon you’d be able to 3D print your Star Trek Online, and literally within a month of this announcement the company that were going to do it, went under?
Guess what? Second time lucky maybe?!
That’s right, officially announced on February 20th via the Facebook Page for STO, you will (again) be able to 3D print your ships directly from Star Trek Online and recieve them as a model directly to your mailbox!
Perfect World & Cryptic have teamed up with the team at Mixed Dimensions with the goal of introducing the custom Star Trek ships into the community of STO fans. The end result will be a 12’ model made of resin which will come in three different tiers. A single colour version, a primed model ready for your painting at home, and a hand painted version, painted by the talented artists at Mixed Dimensions.
Players will be able to design their own ships in the game, and upload their design to the Mixed Dimensions website for printing. Fans will also be able to order from 20 of the most popular ships in Star Trek Online.
At time of writing, there has been no pricing announced, for custom or pre-made ships. And the planned launch is sometime in March 2018.
Below are just a few pictures of the Pathfinder Long Range Science Vessel model primed and painted.
Remember, Star Trek Online is Free To Play and is playable via ARC or Steam game clients, XBox 1 and PS4.
