When you first look at Galacide on paper, you’d be forgiven for wondering how in the hell the game would even be playable. PunyHuman studios have combined a sidescrolling space shooter and match 4 puzzle game into one package. And the suprising thing is…it works. Well.  I’ve put my share of time into Galacide, and the one constant that I always heard while streaming it in preperation for this review was some variation on “Oh my god, this game looks insane” “Wow, that game is gorgeous.” and “how the hell do you even know whats going on?”

Gorgeous certainly sums up Galacide. While a shmup/puzzler hybrid might not seem like the most likely place to find Epic’s new Unreal Engine 4, Galacide puts it to good use. The backdrops, the enemies, the player ship and the massive walls of blocks impedeing your progress are detailed, glossy and move with silky smooth animations. Explosions and shots jump out of the chaos of the ongoing dance of death that is Galacide with a pronounced visual punch. Vibrant colors are the name of the game in a puzzler, and PunyHuman has nailed that with the vibrant pallete that instantly allows you to pick out the colors of the oncoming “bit” wall of death as it marches inexorably towards you.

And special mention need to go to the sound design. Once again, explosions and shots are punchy and sound great. But the soundtrack to this game is just fantastic. Epic, driving and pitch perfect, it never failed to get me pumped. Put simply, the score of Galacide makes you want to play the game. Hell, it makes you want to dive headlong into insane mazes of bits as you seek to puzzle and shoot your way to safety.

The most unique thing about Galacide is the core gameplay mechanic. Or rather, the melding of those mechanics. I’ve been a fan of shmups since the good old days of R-Type and Gradius, all the way up to modern bullet hell games like Ikaruga. Galacide starts you out with a tutorial that teaches you the basics of it’s world. Shoot enemies. Grab bits of floating scrap and use them to clear bits that are blocking your way. The bits take the form of hexagonal structures that wall off your progress. They come in four different colors, and it’s up to you to fire the matching bits of colored scrap back until you create a match of four or more, thereby obliterating the offending bits. You also have the ability to hold a bit of scrap and, by touching a bit, you can force it to change colors. This is handy if say, you have three same colored bits capped by a different color. Simply force the different block to change and you clear all four.

The puzzling aspect of the game seems simple and straightforward. Until you remember that while you are contemplating the best way to clear a path through the multicolored maze of bits in front of you, you are also fighting for your life in traditional SHMUP style against incoming waves of enemies. Couple this with the fact that your ship can’t pick up scrap while shooting, nor can it shoot while holding a piece of scrap, and things become very frantic, very very quickly. PunyHuman has ratcheted up the pressure even more in the form of the experience system in the game. As you destroy enemies, and (more importantly) as you clear bits, you build up experience which upgrades your weapons. You max out at level 3, but the twist is that your xp is constantly depleting. If you want to keep that big ass beam laser of yours, you better get to clearing bits quickly.

 
Powerups will also drop occasionally, from health, to a weapons overcharge to and xp booster. They each have an associated colored bit that they can drop from, making progression not simply a matter of shooting and puzzling randomly, but effectively and efficiently managing what blocks you are clearing so that you have a chance of getting a useful powerup.

If all of this didn’t seem hectic enough, Galacide then throws in different enemy types and even boss battles. Some enemies are simple, such as destroyers with more firepower. And some bosses are simply scaled of versions of smaller enemies- albeit with much more firepower and a few truly nasty bullet hell like patterns to dodge. But then there are the other bosses, such as the giant space snake that you have to stuff full of bits and explosive barrels until pops and becomes vulnerable to damage.

As if all that weren’t enough, PunyHuman then had the sheer balls to throw in 4 different types of ships. The Mining ship can suck bits of scrap towards it, allowing you to collect them even in tight quarters. The Freighter can store a piece of scrap behind it for future use, and that scrap will actually become a mini turret firing at enemies on it’s own. The Phase ship can use a rechargable power to..phase through bits that are in it’s way, becomining invincible in the process. Each ship also has it’s own unique weapon and upgrades for that weapon, giving you a ship for your preferred playstyle as well as changing the feel of the game significantly depending on which one you are flying. And then there’s the fourth ship, which I haven’t unlocked yet because I just can’t seem to take down the required enemy. I’d go into more detail, but spoilers.

Theres a story to accompany the shooting and puzzling action as you and your helpful cast of characters seek to stop the bits from advancing and infesting the universe. I like that the story is included, but I didn’t pay much attention to it. then again, I didn’t pay much attention to the story of R-Type either. The story isn’t bad by any means, its just that, as with many shmups, story is secondary to me when compared to tight gameplay. Fortunately, the gameplay in Galacide is rock solid. Ships handily snappily, yet differently. The Phase ship is quick and agile. The freighter is a bit slower, and it’s larger size takes some getting used to. It’s a nice balance. Shooting is quick and instantly familiar if you’ve played a shmup before. And the bits of scrap that you fire out have a convenient targeting indicator that will show you exactly where they will land, even if you are firing from across the full width of the screen.

Throw in an endless mode, a fiendishly difficult puzzle mode and multiple difficulty levels, and you have a great shmup. The icing on the cake, for me, is PunyHu7man’s incredibly smart decision to add local co-op. While I would have preferred online multiplayer, I’m certainly not going to argue against being able to sit down with a friend on the couch with the game in big picture mode and thrash some nasty space baddies while plowing through walls of colored bits.

Galacide is a great game. A fusion of two unlikely genres, handled with confidence and aplomb by PunyHuman, its gorgeous, handles like a purebred shmup and throws in a wicked twist with it’s hectic and intense puzzling. A great soundtrack, variety of modes and local co-op only serve to make it even better. If you want a fresh take on the shooter genre, go pick up Galacide on Steam. I’m giving it an 8 out of 10.

Nostalgia for our favourite old games is certainly a thing right now. With things like Rare Replay coming out, we’re getting to replay all our old favourites all over again on modern technology. Now, it seems Mega Man’s original games are about to get this treatment, at least if you’re a PC gamer.

On August 25th a digital release entitled the Mega Man Legacy Collection will release, and it will contain the first six games in the Mega Man system as made popular on the consoles they were once originally released on. The game’s special engine will even be able to replicate what the game would have looked like when played on screen in the 80s.

The company releasing this collection is Digital Eclipse Studio who have dedicated themselves to video game “preservation and restoration” and as well as replicating the 80s appearance, they’ve manafed to source a large collection of production art and 80s-90s flyers for the games as well and have included pictures of them. Sweet.

Mega Man Legacy Collection hits August 25 for $14.99/£11.99.

Ori and the Blind Forest has been somewhat of a hit since we first saw the announcement trailer last year. We could tell from it that at the very least here was a game that we’d remember for its look, and the game itself also stood up very well gameplay wise when it released. Now a definitive edition is due to be released on PC, with some new content and some difficulty tweaks.

Ori’s director, Thomas Mahler explained, “We wanted to do the Definitive Edition of Ori, because while we made a LOT of people happy, there were some outcries we heard from fans regarding some things and we just want to be known for making the absolute best games for our fans out there. We really went back, added more content, fixed ALL the things people have been asking for (not talking about bugs here, but actual design and content feedback) and we just want to give back and make it the perfect experience for people who loved Ori and those who haven’t gotten to try it yet.”

The scale of the tweaks to difficulty weren’t made exactly clear, but we know that the game is due to be released sometime around the holiday season of this year.

A new patch for The Witcher 3 is here, and it fixes a bunch of bugs including a lot of quest bugs.

1.08 stops some quests from being uncompleteable by having certain things happen (such as an NPC dying or the player leaving an area too soon), implements groundworks for the New Game+ that’s coming and oddly stops decapitated heads from vanishing once they’ve been separated from bodies. Who knew that was a feature players asked for to be fixed?

It also provides a sort of fix for an issue that was introduced with the 1.07 patch, which saw requirements for some level-dependent gear ramped up rendering some player’s equipment useless. CD Projekt are giving all players one ‘Wolven Hour’ potion, which will lower the requirements down again for a temporary period so players can level up to the point they can use the gear again or else not have such a difficult time finding new, lower level gear to wear.

 

Full Patch notes:

PERFORMANCE:

• Overall improvements to performance, including some issues that may have been caused by 1.07.

UI:

• [Japanese Only][PS4 Only] Fixes an issue where the background text of certain books would flicker.
• Fixes an issue where part of the Kaer Morhen map would not display properly.

GAMEPLAY:

• Fixes a rare issue where items would disappear from the stash.
• Fixes a very rare issue which would cause Geralt to get stuck when trying to run.
• The interaction pop-up will no longer appear on lootable objects that are empty.
• Fixes an occasional glitch in one of the dwarf combat animations.
• Heads chopped off during finishers will no longer disappear.
• “Players can perform a roll just before landing to significantly reduce the damage caused by falling.
• We’ve added a tutorial pop-up window explaining this to make it clearer.”
• In patch 1.07, the level requirements for certain items were scaled up, leaving some players stuck with only unusable gear. With patch 1.08, we are introducing the Wolven Hour potion. This potion will be available in everyone’s inventory once they install the patch. It will reduce level requirements on all gear for a period of one hour. This will give players time to level up or find alternative equipment using the gear that was available to them in patch 1.05 but became unusable after patch 1.07. After one hour, the potion’s effects will cease and the requirements for all gear will revert to their original, pre-potion values.
• Fixes an issue where players were unable to compare their items with ones sold by merchants.

ACHIEVEMENTS:

• Players will now be able to complete the Card Collector achievement.
• Achievements are now working properly again and will be unlocked if players meet their requirements after installing this patch (PC version).

GRAPHICS:

• Fixes an issue where interiors would sometimes not display properly on the minimap.
• Fixes an issue where certain world elements would sometimes be missing and noticeable visual glitches would be present while in Novigrad.

QUEST:

• Fixes an issue where players were unable to finish the “It Takes Three to Tango” quest, even though they had obtained wine at the Kingfisher.
• Fixes an issue where Geralt would sometimes die after traveling to Velen in the quest “Something Ends, Something Begins.”
• The entrance to the area where the Sunstone is obtained will no longer be blocked off if the player exits it prematurely during “The Sunstone” quest.
• Fixes an issue where players were unable to complete the “Get Junior” quest on certain occasions.
• Fixes an issue where players were unable to finish the “Scavenger Hunt: Viper School Gear” quest due to a closed gate.
• Fixes an issue where some players were unable to investigate rooms during the “Family Matters” quest, effectively blocking their progression.
• Fixes an issue where players were unable to finish the “Hey, You Wanna Look at my Stuff?” quest.
• Fixes an issue where players were unable to talk to Roche during the “An Eye for an Eye” quest.
• Fixes an issue where Roche would stay at his camp instead of going to the Oxenfurt Bridge in the “Get Junior” quest.
• Fixes an issue where, under certain circumstances, Yennefer would not appear in Oxenfurt during the “The Great Escape” quest.
• Drowners will have a harder time killing Nidas during the “Black Pearl” quest.
• Fixes an issue which led to an infinite loading screen during the “To Bait a Forktail…” quest under certain circumstances.
• Fixes a rare issue where the basement was locked during the “King’s Gambit” quest.
• Fixes an issue where players were unable to free the merchant during the Person in Distress event in the Claywich area.
• The trolls at the Circle of Elements will no longer attack Geralt if he opts for a peaceful resolution.
• Fixes an issue where players were unable to talk to Roche during the “Brothers in Arms” quest.
• Fixes an issue where Zoltan’s card was unobtainable.

GENERAL:

• Preparatory features paving the way for the introduction of New Game + in the future.

It’s that time again, and this week’s Gamecom has given us a lot more to think about with reveals to the next Hearthstone expansion; The Grand Tournament.

We got to see another new mechanic that’s being added to the game, although it’s not got its own effect text – rather it’s a sub-type of a Battlecry. The Joust sees both players draw a card from their deck, and in order for the Joust player to win their card must cost more in mana than the opponent’s. In other words, it’s a Battlecry with a condition based on RNG draw.

Ranked play will also see an update in that all players who progress past Rank 20 will gain extra rewards based on their highest reached rank during the month – even if you’ve no longer got that rank it seems. They’ll be presented in a chest that’ll contain the month’s cardback, some arcane dust and one or more golden cards. Nice incentive to play Ranked again there.

And of course, there’s the new cards that have been revealed. Let’s get to seeing them shall we?

Neutral

Paladin

Warrior

Shaman

Rogue

Druid

Priest

Warlock

Hunter

All of them look pretty sweet, I just have one question…

… how the heck did the Hamburglar get into Hearthstone? o.0