Considering that QuakeCon is named after, well, Quake it doesn’t see an announcement about a new game in the franchise all that often. Expectations were high this year though, following the reveal of Quake Champions at Bethesda’s E3 and QuakeCon didn’t dissapoint. id Software’s Creative Director, Tim Willits, took the stage during the keynote at the convention and showed off some new footage of Quake Champions. In addition to the gameplay trailer, seen below, a plethora of details were revealed. So watch the trailer, and then lets break it down.

While many fans were disappointed that Quake Champions seemed to be a hero shooter in the E3 trailer, little of that is on display in the trailer. Instead the game looked fast and frenetic, very similar to the classic Quake 3: Arena.  Instead, Willits confirmed that while each character has a single unique ability, they are more “additive”, stating that games will be determined by player skill and not team comps.

Characters

Several characters were confirmed, and the names and abilities are as follows:

• Ranger – Has a throwable teleporter. You can warp to it while its in midair.
• Nyx- Ghost walk allows her to temporarily turn invisible. This seems like a great escape tool, or a good way to get the drop on foes.
• Anarki- Has a…hoverboard. It seems to make him faster. Ok?
• Visor- Piercing Sight is basically temporary wall hacks, letting him see enemies through walls.
• Scalebearer- Bull Rush lets him close distance quickly and lay the smackdown on his enemies.

Weapons

This is the fun part. While not all of the weapons were revealed, if you pay attention to the trailer you can see some old Quake staples:

• Buzz Saw Gauntlet
• Machine Gun
• Shotgun
• Lightning Gun
• Rocket Launcher
• Rail Gun
• NAIL GUN!!!

The game looked extremely fast, as you can see above. There was tons of bunny hopping, rocket jumping and midair rail gun frags. All of this is reassuring to longtime fans of the franchise. Even more assuring were the comments by Willits that there are no loadouts in the game. Instead, you move around the map and collect weapons. As he put it “That’s how you get weapons in a Quake game.” Given the mixed reactions to the multiplayer of Bethesda and id’s other recent shooter DOOM, its no wonder that fans were pleased by the return to old school arena shooter form.

As if all of that weren’t enough information to send fanboys into overload, me included, the Quake Champions closed beta has been confirmed as beginning in 2017. Details on how to get in have yet to be revealed, but you can be sure we’ll be posting about it when we find out. After we all sign up, of course.

Digital collectable card games are in right now, especially since Hearthstone became a thing and went on to become yet another popular running game from Blizzard, regularly updated with expansions, adventures and balance nerfs a plenty.

Bethesda have tried their hand at a game now, using their Elder Scrolls property as the basis. Produced by Dire Wolf Digital, The Elder Scrolls: Legends has been in closed beta for a few months now; but it’s finally entered open beta meaning that it’s available now for anyone to download on PC through the Bethesda Launcher (the same one you use to play Fallout Shelter). The game is free-to-play and features rules not unlike Blizzard’s own digital card game. Digmbot tried it out and he loved it.

A full release of the game will be coming later on this year and the game will be available on not just the PC, but also Android, iOS and Mac too.

Among the things that have already been shwon off at Quakecon this year, was a demo for Dishonored 2 – a Corvo High Chaos one.

For those not in the know, a High Chaos run in the previous entry meant that you solved problems as quickly and directly – which often meant a lot of killing of those in your way. Needless to say the demo for the new game showed that the same thing goes here.

In it, the powers that Corvo boasted in the last game were on show, but to a much enhanced and extended level. Combat in a high-chaos run can be brutal with them. Shown on screen was the signature ‘Blink’ move in which Corvo teleports himself quickly around, now able to be used to move in closely to a foe and take them from behind or slam into enemies to shove them back. The move also has the “stop time and redirect” improvement taken from the DLC for the last game, The Knife of Dunwall. Bend Time is also still in use, allowing time to be slowed for the set up of devastating combinations of attacks; as well as upgrades allowing Corvo to slowly advance time to better set up those combinations of moves. Possession was also shown off, with upgrades allowing Corvo to transfer from one host to another without needing to unpossess the first.

Of course, the combat moves and his sword and pistol are also useful for dispatching opponents bloodily and spectacularly. Some new non-lethal moves have also been added, such as a combat choke, nonlethal drop and more, for those who prefer to sometimes not go charging in all guns blazing. It’s a good wa to get yourself noticed and killed, you know.

The missions too are slightly different. While they do offer the same choice of approach for taking out targets, just as Dishonored did; there’s now choices of targets where you can do either or. The locations too are striking, with one such location infested with nests of Bloodflies. In that case, you can choose to destroy the nests or simply Blink past them. It’s up to you. Tall buildings surround you and the feel of them is slightly warmer, reflecting that some years have passed since the first game.

So now we’ve seen some of the gameplay for the game, it seems like Arkane are aiming to make the game much more extensive; building upon the foundations put in place by the first Dishonored game. Are you excited to play as both Corvo and Emily? Let us know below!

Bethesda Blog “Dishonored 2 at QuakeCon – Corvo High Chaos Demo”: [x]

I reviewed Star Trek Into Darkness back in May 2013, and although I gave it an 8/10, as a Trek fan, it didn’t live up to my wants and needs as a long term Trek fan!  But reading through that review, I don’t know if I’d give it 8/10 now, but anyway, I did, so it stays and let’s look at Star Trek Beyond!

The USS Enterprise crew explores the furthest reaches of uncharted space, where they encounter a new ruthless enemy who puts them and everything the Federation stands for to the test.

Let’s kick off with the Memorial for Anton Yelchin though, and this film has a LOT of Chekov in it and it feels great for it!  He plays Chekov brilliantly in Beyond, younger than in teh original series and rather a ladies man aswell, one scene on the Enterprise, as Kirk is doing a captain’s Log (monologue) we see Chekov being kicked out of a young ladies cabin, bare chested and top in hand and throughout the film, you get the sense he is rather the ladies man, more so than even Walter Koenig Original Series portrayal of Chekov.

He is a highlight throughout this film, he was fantastic to watch and he will be missed.   I sincerely hope they DON’T recast Chekov and give him a great send off!

Right, let’s get into the review, and just as I did with Into Darkness in 2013, let’s look at the good and the bad…

As with Into Darkness, and 2009’s Star Trek, this film looks gorgeous.

Simon Pegg has done a great job on this script, I was invested nearly completely from the beginning and it was a character showcase from beginning to end!

The characters have a banter and friendship that comes across easily on screen and in some ways, is more solid than in the original series.

Where as Into Darkness bought Section 31 into the reboot universe, this one brings the Enterprise series in, with NX class ships shown off and even the Enterprise uniform blue jumpsuits (a personal fave of mine).

Now the bad points…

To be honest, most of my points that niggled me in Into Darkness still stand…

but let’s reiterate them again…

Why is the interior of the Enterprise like a huge power factory now, instead of the clean small rooms we are used to from the original series and the TNG series like TNG, DS9 and Voyager.  The rebooted Enterprise warp core is fecking huge and looks like a turbine, not the sleek, throbbing beast we are used to from the old universe.

Why is the Engineering deck so fricking huge?  Yes the warp core is 7 decks high, but why is it in the middle of a refinery?

The shuttlebay, why does it look like an aircraft hanger (which in theory it should) and not like the clean bay from the original universe?

The outside of the Enterprise, I don’t like it, I’m sorry, I really don’t…   I know this is a new alternate universe, but why change the design, even subtely?  Bring it upto date yes, but the DS9 episode, “Trials and Tribbleations” proved that a CGI’d original series Enterprise looked fantastic, the Constellation class Enterprise, considering it was designed and built in the 60’s is a beautiful design, why is the reboot version looking like a whale?!?

 

Physics…   Throughout ALL the series and movies, we’ve heard that going to warp IN a solar system is bad…   but both of the reboots have done this, all the ships going to warp in earth Orbit…

ok, lets get into the story then…

“SPOILER ALERT”

The film kicks off as Star Trek should, with a captains log, but this is a captain that knows he shouldn’t be in the centre seat.  Kirk (Chris Pine) knows he’s there too early, he knows he joined starfleet on a dare (unlike Kirk prime (William Shatner) who joined following his dad into service), he has a crew, MUCH younger than they were in the prime universe and in a way, it shows.  They are much more hot headed, more impulsive and get into scrapes a lot easier than Captain pike or even, Kirk Prime would have been.

Spock (Zachary Quinto) and Uhura (Zoe Saldana) are having relationship issues and everyone knows it. Leadign to a very real, very human crisis of concience for Spock after the passing of Spock Prime (Leonard Nimoy) and a beautiful quiet memorial to him.

McCoy (Karl Urban) is the father figure on the ship, giving sage advice aswell as being the bar tender.  What really gets be in Karl Urbans portayal of Bones is actually the closest to the prime universes Bones (DeForest Kelley), as he was already older and more experienced, not only as an officer, but as a practiced Doctor.  In fact, karl Urban holds a lot of this film together, plot twists always revolvoe around his character to one degree or another, from McCoy and Spock being stranded together while Spock is injured, to McCoy and Spock leading a raid to free the Enterprise crew and keeping Kirk from doing something stupid (like quitting starfleet) or out of his depth and really enjoying flying an alien fighter jet. This may have something to do with reports that Urban, as he had little to do in Into Darkness, nearly didn’t return to the film, but he was a main plot part all teh way through.

There was also a big upset in the news about Sulu (John Cho) being openly gay in the film.  Now I actulaly really liked the way this was portrayed, we also know fromt eh prime universe that he has a daughter, adopted or otherwise, who grows up to join starfleet and end up as the helmsman of the Enterprise B in Generations…  “It wouldn’t be the Enterprise, without a Sulu at the helm!” Kirk prime exclaims.  But the very simple scene where Sulu meets his boyfriend/husband is beautiful, a nice simple cuddle and walking off with their daughter to spend time together on Sulu’s shore leave was not only tastefully done, but actually made sense.  A lovely little flash later in the film that i really liked was Sulu having a photo of his daughter on the helm, I dunno if that would be ok, but apparenlty Kirk is fine with it.

Ok, there are LOADS of new characters in this film, but lets just go over the main bad guy and the main good guy thats not a member of the crew…

First up (and HUGE SPOILER WARNING!!!), Krall (Idris Elba) turns out to be a brilliant throw back to the Enterprise era of Star Trek and is actually a NX class starship captain who was classed as MIA and has been living off the life energy of other species while he builds an army to destroy the Federation for abandoning him and his crew?   Ok, I might feel that way too in his situation, but he’s a SOLDIER, he knew the risks, especially as a MACO captain pressed into the role of an NX class starship captain.   Krall (really Captain Balthazar M. Edison of the U.S.S. Franklin, NX-236 and one of the first Warp 4 starships before the launch of the Enterprise NX-01 Warp 5 starship) seemed to have come to the conclusion that Earth Space Forces (later starfleet’s) ideas of peaceful exploration over conquering other races was a sign of weakness that needed to be destroyed.  A strange reaction, but it’s the centre point for the film, although it’s never REALLy explained how he got his regenerative powers or the technology his army are using, which urked me a little.

Next we have Jaylah (Sofia Boutella) and alien who’s parents were killed by Krall, allowing her to escape.  After escaping him, she finds the derelict Franklin and make it her home on the planet, scavenging parts from other crashed ships Kralls forces destroy in orbit.  She finds Simon Pegg’s Scotty in his escape pod (well, hollowed out photon torpedo) and saves him from other scavengers.  She’s a great character, but you never really feel like you know where she learned to fight or how she learned to make all the tech she has, even from the scrap.  thanks to the music library ont eh franklin she has an appreciation for good music, which also makes a cheesy moment near the end of the film and gets an amused smile from Chris Pines Kirk, but yeah, I never really felt overly invested in her character, hopefully she’ll be back in the next one though, maybe as a love interest for Scotty.

Ok, the script for Beyond was written by Scotty actor Simon Pegg, and it sometimes comes across cliched and almost a little rushed in places.  I enjoyed the film as an action film and romp, but I don’t feel liek this new crew could live upto a series as long as most series are now.  Of course we have Discovery coming early in 2017 and we know Star Trek “4” is coming, maybe in 2018/9, ut although this IS Trek, it’s not the Gene Rodenberry Star Trek I grew up loving, it’s still mising the exploration and especially the science that we love from the series…  and this is bourne out by the larger than needed refinery looking engineering decks, rather than the clean original series or functional TNG/Voyager starship engineering decks.  It’s a workable film and I’ll happily add it to my movie collection, but it doesn’t excite me like the series and original movies, but this is certainly the best of the three reboots!

One thing I did love and bought a slight tear to my eye though, was a scene of Spock going through Spock Prime’s personal items and the main one being a photo of the original cast, one that I actually have on my desktop, so I’ll share it here too to finish this review off…

A bold 8 out of 10, but i could take it or leave it, rather than rewatching religiously

~Lone

Its been a strong year for Warhammer games (mostly), and another interesting entry in the universe is set to drop in November. Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach puts you in the shoes the Space Wolves as you seek to defend the last bastion of humanity in the Sanctus Reach system against the ork Grukk Face-Rippa and his Red Waaagh! (That may be in contention for one of the strangest sentences I’ve ever written.)

The game from Straylight Entertainment and published by Slitherine Ltd is billed as a 3d turnbased strategy game. The developer promises that it will have two “uncompromising and long story-driven campaigns: Stormclaw and Hour of the Wolf  with several dozen differnt units to command. It will include unit level ups, terrain that affects tactics and different abilities for units.

The game strongly resembles hand painted models of the real board game, and as I write this Lonesamurai is frothing at the mouth trying to get a code for the game.

Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach on Steam.

Check out the trailer below.