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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.
My face lit up when I heard the news come directly from the Star Trek Online Facebook page. A brand new episode (mission) was coming to Star Trek Online to kick off the 8th anniversary festivities! For me, the big gap between episodes now is just downright depressing, but Perfect World will be Perfect World!
The mission begins in the Alpha Quadrant, as soon as you transition to this new map after accepting the mission, Admiral Quinn suddenly appears on-screen and tells you a Tzenkethi fleet isn’t too far from your location, and you’re to intercept at maximum warp. There is even a cool animation of your ship jumping to warp IN SECTOR SPACE! *Insert a fanboy face because who doesn’t love new animations?!* Sounds pretty simple right?
So I arrive in the system named NGC-9835 System (Creative right?) and when my camera pans round, I see the massive fleet of enemy ships in front of me, and my immediate reaction? Was a simple “Oh f…” but by some wonderful mercy, the bulk of the ships jump to warp, leaving you with only 3 or 4 ships to take care of. But wait, the lead ship is firing those darn Protomatter Torpedos at the planet!! Great! So the task is to take down these ships, as well as the protomatter torpedoes heading straight for the planet. This happens three times, on system two and system three, the LSS Reskava, captained by Kuumaarke, a very lovely Lukari female who is still in awe of space travel, assists in taking out the torpedoes launched while I deal with the ships. Heck no, I want ALL that glory, I’m taking down ALL of the ships & ALL of the torpedoes launched. There’s even an accolade for doing this. Pretty cool right?!
Suddenly I get a hail stating that the Tzenkethi are heading for Bajor (DS9 fans this mission is for you!) and that all ships must report there. Upon arrival, I even see Deep Space Nine itself has been moved into Bajor orbit, impressive work! She’s a big station after all! And now I have fighting along my side, Martok, Geordi LaForge, and General Rodek. Come at us now! Well, to my surprise here they came, the Tzenkethi on a full blown attempt to launch their weapons of genocide at Bajor, not on my watch Dinoboy!! The battle against the Tzenkethi fleet is pretty straight forward until DS9 contact me. They need repair teams! Oh my! So I send them over and I pan my camera around as I hear more ships arrive. Oh no, not only ships. Godzilla over there brought a freaking SPACE STATION OF HIS OWN!!! Ship after ship falls but not only that, you need to disable that freaking station too! Then guess which mug has to beam over and take down the station from the inside….you guessed it…me. Sometimes I wonder why I even joined up for this.
Once I board, it becomes obvious that they ain’t gonna let go without a hell of a fight. That’s when we come across the weapons control room. Perfect, disarm them now! Only, one big old P’O’ed Tzenkethi turns up ready for a sparring match with Martok. He falls, and the weapons consoles have been disabl…oh what’s that? It’s been rerouted to the bridge? Didn’t see that coming! That’s when it’s to the command deck itself. Before we arrive there, we find that a Captain Tzenkethi has defected to our side, and that just annoys Godzilla further. After a monologue, of what’s right and wrong, it’s time to subdue Admiral Tzen-Terrak (Godzilla) and his men and shut this station down for good. But before we can celebrate after he yields, he tells us that there is a greater evil at large….surely he’s bluffing? Suddenly, that’s when things begin to hit the fan. Some weird looking ships begin breaking free from the planets the Tzenkethi were attacking. Suddenly the fear in Martok’s voice tells the entire story. An old enemy of the Klingons has resurfaced. The only ones to almost conquer the Klingon Empire almost 1000 years ago. It’s the Hur’Q! BATTLESTATIONS!!!
Upon returning to the ship, the swarm arrives, and all hell breaks loose. Hur’Q attack anyone and everyone, and you must defend the Tzenkethi battlestation for 1:30 while evacuations take place. Suddenly DS9 takes a massive hit and an arm is completely blown apart (Oh sh..) and DS9 is now vulnerable. It doesn’t end there, as more and more of the Hur’Q swarm ships arrive. But they aren’t the only ones to arrive, as the newly refitted USS Enterprise F joins the battle defending DS9. Sadly however, for the Tzenkethi their battlestation is destroyed. But wait. Again someone else is coming….ships drop from warp….THE DOMINION ARE BACK, but they fire upon the Hur’Q and not my ship? What is this madness? Finally, after a grueling fight, the Hur’Q retreat and a hail comes in. Loriss 4 appears, and if you recall back to the old DS9 Story Arc, there was a Loriss that caused the Federation a bit of trouble by occupying DS9, but that’s another story! Anyway, she claims someone has come to deliver a message, and when asked who, an all familiar voice comes over the speaker. “We have to talk.”
FREAKING ODO ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! My jaw hit the floor on that one!! The mission concludes on a cliffhanger, and is clearly an opener for the upcoming summer expansion this year. ODO!!! HOLY MOTHER OF MY SOCKS!! The rewards are pretty decent though, a Bajoran Shield, Impulse Engines, and Deflector Dish, followed by the Mek’Leth of Martok himself! Overall from me, this mission gets a solid 5/5 for combat and shock factors. I look forward to seeing where the new content will take us.
Remember, Star Trek Online is Free To Play and is playable via ARC or Steam game clients, XBox 1 and PS4.
Register for an account now at http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online and join in the fun Boldly Going Where Some Men Have Gone Before!!
