Animal Crossing: New Horizons is but a month away, and today, Nintendo shared a brand-new Direct centered solely on the game. Along the bevy of information presented in the Direct, Nintendo also has this new commercial for the game. Plan your deserted island getaway when Animal Crossing: New Horizons arrives on Nintendo Switch on March 20th.
Thursday, February 20, 2020
Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Darksiders Genesis (PS4, XB1, NSW) Review
We march through February with another new review. It's for the latest in the Darksiders franchise, Darksiders Genesis, taking on a whole new perspective while retaining much of what fans of the series love. Let's check it out with the SPC review.
Available on Google Stadia and PC late last year, Darksiders Genesis now hacks and slashes its way onto home consoles with a PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch release. Does this new take on the Darksiders franchise deliver a gift from the heavens, or is it best left to linger and languish in Hell?
Darksiders Genesis is at its heart a cross between the isometric combat and dungeon-crawling of Diablo and the puzzle-solving and dungeon-exploring of The Legend of Zelda. Of course, the game pushes forth its own identity through the foundation, as Darksiders Genesis still plays like a traditional game in the series; it just puts a different perspective on things--literally.
Genesis has up to two players either locally or through online co-operative play, running, gunning (in the case of Strife) or slashing (in the case of War), jumping, and exploring through multiple disconnected levels as they take out enemies and perform small platforming challenges and solve relatively simple puzzles. While co-op is a main focus of Darksiders Genesis, it's important to note that the game can be played entirely solo, offering the ability to switch on the fly between characters instead of having both on the same screen at once like one would have it in co-op (or split screen in the case of local co-op).
There are 17 unique chapters in Darksiders Genesis, and the majority of them feature full-fledged levels to explore. These feature an abundance of collectibles in the form of character upgrades, Trickster keys to unlock specially marked doors, and new abilities for Strife and War respectively. Levels have a ton of secret areas and optional paths to them. One can get lost quite easily, but this is remedied somewhat by an in-game map. I say "somewhat" because the map does not tell you where your character is in relation to it. There's no "you are here" icon to speak of. All that you are told when looking at the map is the general area you're in, which is signified by a flashing highlighted section. Essentially, you have to use your eyes to approximate where you are on the map by noticing the scenery and nearby collectibles that appear on the map. This will most likely frustrate the more directionally-challenged players, especially early on in the game.
Levels also feature a multitude of optional quests to take on, and these hand out rewards for completing them, such as coins and souls--used to purchase goods and new moves and abilities in Genesis's hub world--and creature cores, which are the main means to upgrade both playable Horsemen.
Darksiders Genesis has plenty of similarities to Diablo, save for an important one--it's not a loot-based game. You don't pick up weapons, armor, or equipment from felled foes. Instead, occasionally, enemies drop creature cores, which can then be equipped to a skill tree to sorts. The more cores you earn of a particular creature, the more the core levels up, up to three times, and the stronger both Strife and War become when those cores are equipped to them. Each creature core has a unique ability and bonus when equipped. Some boost War and Strife's maximum health, while others have enemies drop more health when defeated. There's a whole slew of bonuses, and putting the best suited creature cores to your play style will make all the difference in making the more challenging difficulties all the more bearable. (But, in the case of the unlockable Apocalyptic difficulty, it'll still a bear in general to beat!)
Genesis features a mix of combat, exploration, platforming, and puzzle-solving, and that's listed in the order of what you do most to what you do the least in the game. Still, there's a generous mix of all four in the game. Starting off with combat, both characters have a mix of modest combos they can unleash with a range of light and strong attacks. These can be chained together to inflict significant damage, or at least wear down the more tank-like enemies. While War is more accustomed to up close and personal melee strikes with his sword, Strife generally is better at long-range attacks through various ammunition used from his twin guns. He has standard ammunition that comes in unlimited form, and other ammo types that he can discover throughout the adventure that aren't as generous with the ammo supply.
When a foe is weakened enough, an indicator appears over their head, allowing players to unleash a finishing move on them. This grants valuable invincibility frames to the player, perfect for getting a quick breather in on harder difficulties. Unfortunately, many times I'd end the animation of a finisher and wind up being vulnerable just as a surrounding enemy went in for an attack, thus my character getting rocked.
In addition to standard attacks, War and Strife can incorporate special attacks that consume Wrath energy, best used for crowd control and taking down sizable portions of the health meters of bosses. There's also Synergy attacks that serve as devastating team attacks, and ultra powerful Anarchy abilities that temporarily turns either War or Strife into a gigantic, invincible killing machine.
Outside of combat, there is plenty of platforming and puzzle-solving to be found in Darksiders Genesis. The latter uses unique items, mapped to the D-Pad, two of which are unique to both War and Strife. One such item, the Vorpal Blade acts like the boomerang from The Legend of Zelda franchise, allowing War to chuck it to hit multiple targets at once. Then there's Strife's Void Portal, which behaves much like a portal found in Valve's titular puzzle game.
While the puzzles are top-notch, and work well either in solo or co-op form, platforming is more difficult than it needs to be. This is due to the camera angles used. Being at a fixed angle, it can be quite challenging to gauge jump distance and height. Sometimes I'd misjudge jumps and fall into the abyss below. Other times--not any fault of the camera, to be fair--I'd get caught on scenery and geometry way too easily to the point that I'd have to switch characters just to "glitch out" and escape.
And that's a big thing to note with Darksiders Genesis: it's a glitchy game. From moments where finishing moves wouldn't register probably, having a Horseman defeat a foe with a melee attack from across the room, to falling through the floor on multiple occasions, to specific puzzle-related portals not operating correctly, Genesis has more than its fair share of tech issues. The camera in general can make it difficult to see things, and it can also obscure enemies behind walls and foes just out of its field of vision. On the positive side, I do appreciate all of the accessibility options available in the game, such as being able to increase the text size, a godsend for portable Switch players.
Even with its tremendous lack of polish (and this will only improve as more patches are added to the game), Darksiders Genesis managed to hook me in from beginning to end and long after seeing the credits roll for the first time after my initial 15 hour play-through. I found myself routinely returning to levels to retrieve collectibles I had missed or couldn't yet acquire because I didn't have a needed ability from a later level. The combat is simple enough to learn, but the ins and outs will take plenty of time to get proficient enough to tackle the game's toughest challenges, such as the arena and ultra-hard Apocalyptic difficulty. What Darksiders Genesis lacks in polish and an overly capable camera, it more than makes up for in enjoyable exploration, rewarding combat, clever puzzles, and smartly placed secrets.
[SPC Says: B]
The beginning of the end
Available on Google Stadia and PC late last year, Darksiders Genesis now hacks and slashes its way onto home consoles with a PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch release. Does this new take on the Darksiders franchise deliver a gift from the heavens, or is it best left to linger and languish in Hell?
Darksiders Genesis is at its heart a cross between the isometric combat and dungeon-crawling of Diablo and the puzzle-solving and dungeon-exploring of The Legend of Zelda. Of course, the game pushes forth its own identity through the foundation, as Darksiders Genesis still plays like a traditional game in the series; it just puts a different perspective on things--literally.
 |
| War and Strife, a pair that starts out together as smoothly as oil and water. |
There are 17 unique chapters in Darksiders Genesis, and the majority of them feature full-fledged levels to explore. These feature an abundance of collectibles in the form of character upgrades, Trickster keys to unlock specially marked doors, and new abilities for Strife and War respectively. Levels have a ton of secret areas and optional paths to them. One can get lost quite easily, but this is remedied somewhat by an in-game map. I say "somewhat" because the map does not tell you where your character is in relation to it. There's no "you are here" icon to speak of. All that you are told when looking at the map is the general area you're in, which is signified by a flashing highlighted section. Essentially, you have to use your eyes to approximate where you are on the map by noticing the scenery and nearby collectibles that appear on the map. This will most likely frustrate the more directionally-challenged players, especially early on in the game.
Levels also feature a multitude of optional quests to take on, and these hand out rewards for completing them, such as coins and souls--used to purchase goods and new moves and abilities in Genesis's hub world--and creature cores, which are the main means to upgrade both playable Horsemen.
Darksiders Genesis has plenty of similarities to Diablo, save for an important one--it's not a loot-based game. You don't pick up weapons, armor, or equipment from felled foes. Instead, occasionally, enemies drop creature cores, which can then be equipped to a skill tree to sorts. The more cores you earn of a particular creature, the more the core levels up, up to three times, and the stronger both Strife and War become when those cores are equipped to them. Each creature core has a unique ability and bonus when equipped. Some boost War and Strife's maximum health, while others have enemies drop more health when defeated. There's a whole slew of bonuses, and putting the best suited creature cores to your play style will make all the difference in making the more challenging difficulties all the more bearable. (But, in the case of the unlockable Apocalyptic difficulty, it'll still a bear in general to beat!)
 |
| Bosses come at the end of most levels, but the major foes of Darksiders Genesis have their own dedicated levels. |
 |
| Go in guns blazing as Strife. Just be sure to keep your distance. |
In addition to standard attacks, War and Strife can incorporate special attacks that consume Wrath energy, best used for crowd control and taking down sizable portions of the health meters of bosses. There's also Synergy attacks that serve as devastating team attacks, and ultra powerful Anarchy abilities that temporarily turns either War or Strife into a gigantic, invincible killing machine.
 |
| Didn't you hear? Anarchy reigns. |
While the puzzles are top-notch, and work well either in solo or co-op form, platforming is more difficult than it needs to be. This is due to the camera angles used. Being at a fixed angle, it can be quite challenging to gauge jump distance and height. Sometimes I'd misjudge jumps and fall into the abyss below. Other times--not any fault of the camera, to be fair--I'd get caught on scenery and geometry way too easily to the point that I'd have to switch characters just to "glitch out" and escape.
 |
| Depending on the platform, Darksiders Genesis can look fabulous at times. |
[SPC Says: B]
Saturday, February 15, 2020
Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 (iOS, AND) Trailer
After a joint effort with Nintendo's big red mascot, Sonic is heading to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in a solo-franchise affair to go for the gold. Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is set to release on both iOS and Android-enabled devices on May 7th, and you can pre-register ahead of launch at this website.
Thursday, February 13, 2020
Bad Levels in Gaming History - Volume Twelve
After over a year's absence, Bad Levels in Gaming History is back on SuperPhillip Central to deliver to you even more of those obnoxious areas, sections, missions, racetracks, etc. (I use the catch-all term "levels" to describe them) that frustrate and annoy. These can be overly frustrating due to poor or unfair design, bad AI, or a plethora of other reasons.
On this twelfth volume of Bad Levels in Gaming History, we delve into a combination of modern and classic gaming with titles like Luigi's Mansion 3, MediEvil, and GoldenEye 007, to name but a few. So, read on and you'll see just some of the more insidious levels that gaming has unfortunately bestowed on to players.
Check out past volumes of this long-running SPC article series with the following links:
B2: The Boilerworks - Luigi's Mansion 3 (NSW)
The above accompanying screenshot to this level isn't just there because it's adorable--it's also there because it's the reaction a great deal of players had to a certain floor of the Last Resort hotel in Luigi's Mansion 3, a game that was part of SuperPhillip Central's Top Ten Games of 2019. While the Boilerworks, the bottom-most floor of the aforementioned Last Resort, is a creatively designed level, it features a section that is maddening for first-time players (and for many veteran players as well). While a lot of the game is designed around trial and error gameplay, it's mostly done with a safety net or in non-dangerous areas. The section of trial and error gameplay in the flooded floor of the Boilerworks does not occur in a place of safety at all. In fact, it's hazardous as heck.
In the Boilerworks, there are parts of the floor where you must ride in a rubber raft as Luigi. The controls here take a lot of getting used to, having Luigi's Poltergust G-00 vacuum needing to suck air to move forward and blow air to move backward. This is in addition to aiming the nozzle of the vacuum in the right direction to move correctly. It takes a great deal of practice to get the hang of it, much more to even competently do under pressure.
The issue here is that the controls aren't the most intuitive (read: they're not at all), and you don't get much time to learn them either before the game throws some unwanted challenges your way, such as a line of shark-like specters that can pop your raft in a jiffy. Better, clearer instructions on how to control the raft with Luigi's Poltergust would have been greatly appreciated and would help players not get so stuck and frustrated during this easily infuriating portion of the game. That's not even talking about the Boilerworks boss that incorporates the raft as well, with a flooded chamber surrounded a spike-rimmed wall. No wonder so many players shout profanities that would spook even King Boo when playing this portion of an otherwise impeccably designed game.
Ghost Ship - MediEvil (PS4)
Continuing our spooky and haunted theme with this edition of Bad Levels in Gaming History, we delve into a late-game level in MediEvil, which was terrible in its original PS1 version, and it's even more terrible in the PS4 remake. It's the Ghost Ship level, a sky high airship complete with rolling barrels, cannons to dodge, undead pirates, and risky jumps aplenty.
The latter is the most annoying and infuriating part of the level, due to the sloppy and near broken collision detection in it. There's a part where you have to bounce along nets to reach a higher platform, and if you fall into the chasm below, you have to make your way through a deadly obstacle course of cannonballs being blasted out at you.
Each time you fall down the chasm, you have to go through this minute-long, highly hazardous section of level, and it will happen more than you want because of how poorly designed the platforming is in the game. Further, even if you manage to cross over the obnoxious netting of platforms, there's still another chasm to cross, sending you even further back in the level if you fall down those. The Ghost Ship is by far the more frustrating and unfair part of MediEvil, a game that isn't exactly the friendliest in difficult to begin with.
Guard the Freight Train Cargo - Daemon X Machina (NSW, PC)
This mission from the rank C section of missions in the newly released on PC Daemon X Machina is one of the worst types of missions in gaming. It's an escort mission, and it immediately separates the proficient Arsenal pilots with the ones that should just stick to watching episodes of Mobile Suit Gundam.
The mission starts out simple enough with the need to destroy a number of small fry enemies in order to reach the second, more important part of the mission where the freight train needing to be babysit chugs into the scene. It's here that not one, not two--but three enemy Arsenals, all ready, willing and seriously able to deliver devastating amounts of damage to the train in no time at all, arrive on the scene.
It's quite easy for the freight train to go from 100% strength down to just half that in less than 30 seconds, and it's even easier for the train and its valuable contents to be destroyed before you even have a chance to understand what's going on. This mission is a tremendous jump in difficulty, and it oftentimes feels like an unfair one. It's more focused on luck with whether you can lure the three attacking Arsenals away from the train so it can reach its destination safely than anything else. Plus, escort missions just stink in general, as we'll see shortly with another example.
Wrong Side of the Tracks - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Multi)
But while we're on the subject of trains, let's begin with a game that is no stranger to this series of articles with a mission that generally ends for many players with the line, "All you had to do was follow the damn train, C.J.!" Well, it's not like we were just popping wheelies for the hell of it, Big Smoke! Wrong Side of the Tracks is an early-ish mission in gaming mega-hit Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. It asks of you to control protagonist C.J. and have him ride a motorbike with Big Smoke in tow on the back, pursuing a train under control by the Vagos gang.
The aim of the mission is to stay towards the front of the train, on its side, and allow Big Smoke to fire rounds from his gun to kill the Vagos on the train. This is easier said than done due to the various hills and side paths, as well as how unclear it is the exact position you should have the bike in relation to the train. It says something negative about the mission when a good amount of players use various "alternate" methods to complete it instead of the intended way.
Control - GoldenEye 007 (N64)
Continuing off from the idea that escort missions are for the most part terrible, we have one of the most infamous early examples of that with Rare's otherwise terrific GoldenEye 007. There are four missions where James Bond is tasked with protecting computer hacker Natalya Simonova, and by far, for me, the most awful of these takes place in the Control mission. The escort character AI is notoriously dumb, known to run directly into enemy fire as well as in the line of sight of the player's gun.
Control ratchets that up to a ridiculously frustrating degree by requiring you to protect Natalya from enemy gunfire as she slowly tries to re-calibrate and put an end to the GoldenEye satellite. And I do mean slowly, as she must also be trying to log into her GeoCites web page to take the proverbial piss on players as well. That's the only other explanation Regardless, it's a breeze for Natalya to perish in this mission, resulting in players having to restart from the very beginning and contend with the escorting carnage all over again. No wonder this mission was a roadblock for many, resulting in them simply returning to the multiplayer to get out their frustrations on other players of the game.
On this twelfth volume of Bad Levels in Gaming History, we delve into a combination of modern and classic gaming with titles like Luigi's Mansion 3, MediEvil, and GoldenEye 007, to name but a few. So, read on and you'll see just some of the more insidious levels that gaming has unfortunately bestowed on to players.
Check out past volumes of this long-running SPC article series with the following links:
B2: The Boilerworks - Luigi's Mansion 3 (NSW)
The above accompanying screenshot to this level isn't just there because it's adorable--it's also there because it's the reaction a great deal of players had to a certain floor of the Last Resort hotel in Luigi's Mansion 3, a game that was part of SuperPhillip Central's Top Ten Games of 2019. While the Boilerworks, the bottom-most floor of the aforementioned Last Resort, is a creatively designed level, it features a section that is maddening for first-time players (and for many veteran players as well). While a lot of the game is designed around trial and error gameplay, it's mostly done with a safety net or in non-dangerous areas. The section of trial and error gameplay in the flooded floor of the Boilerworks does not occur in a place of safety at all. In fact, it's hazardous as heck.
The issue here is that the controls aren't the most intuitive (read: they're not at all), and you don't get much time to learn them either before the game throws some unwanted challenges your way, such as a line of shark-like specters that can pop your raft in a jiffy. Better, clearer instructions on how to control the raft with Luigi's Poltergust would have been greatly appreciated and would help players not get so stuck and frustrated during this easily infuriating portion of the game. That's not even talking about the Boilerworks boss that incorporates the raft as well, with a flooded chamber surrounded a spike-rimmed wall. No wonder so many players shout profanities that would spook even King Boo when playing this portion of an otherwise impeccably designed game.
Ghost Ship - MediEvil (PS4)
Continuing our spooky and haunted theme with this edition of Bad Levels in Gaming History, we delve into a late-game level in MediEvil, which was terrible in its original PS1 version, and it's even more terrible in the PS4 remake. It's the Ghost Ship level, a sky high airship complete with rolling barrels, cannons to dodge, undead pirates, and risky jumps aplenty.
The latter is the most annoying and infuriating part of the level, due to the sloppy and near broken collision detection in it. There's a part where you have to bounce along nets to reach a higher platform, and if you fall into the chasm below, you have to make your way through a deadly obstacle course of cannonballs being blasted out at you.
Each time you fall down the chasm, you have to go through this minute-long, highly hazardous section of level, and it will happen more than you want because of how poorly designed the platforming is in the game. Further, even if you manage to cross over the obnoxious netting of platforms, there's still another chasm to cross, sending you even further back in the level if you fall down those. The Ghost Ship is by far the more frustrating and unfair part of MediEvil, a game that isn't exactly the friendliest in difficult to begin with.
Guard the Freight Train Cargo - Daemon X Machina (NSW, PC)
This mission from the rank C section of missions in the newly released on PC Daemon X Machina is one of the worst types of missions in gaming. It's an escort mission, and it immediately separates the proficient Arsenal pilots with the ones that should just stick to watching episodes of Mobile Suit Gundam.
The mission starts out simple enough with the need to destroy a number of small fry enemies in order to reach the second, more important part of the mission where the freight train needing to be babysit chugs into the scene. It's here that not one, not two--but three enemy Arsenals, all ready, willing and seriously able to deliver devastating amounts of damage to the train in no time at all, arrive on the scene.
It's quite easy for the freight train to go from 100% strength down to just half that in less than 30 seconds, and it's even easier for the train and its valuable contents to be destroyed before you even have a chance to understand what's going on. This mission is a tremendous jump in difficulty, and it oftentimes feels like an unfair one. It's more focused on luck with whether you can lure the three attacking Arsenals away from the train so it can reach its destination safely than anything else. Plus, escort missions just stink in general, as we'll see shortly with another example.
Wrong Side of the Tracks - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Multi)
But while we're on the subject of trains, let's begin with a game that is no stranger to this series of articles with a mission that generally ends for many players with the line, "All you had to do was follow the damn train, C.J.!" Well, it's not like we were just popping wheelies for the hell of it, Big Smoke! Wrong Side of the Tracks is an early-ish mission in gaming mega-hit Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. It asks of you to control protagonist C.J. and have him ride a motorbike with Big Smoke in tow on the back, pursuing a train under control by the Vagos gang.
The aim of the mission is to stay towards the front of the train, on its side, and allow Big Smoke to fire rounds from his gun to kill the Vagos on the train. This is easier said than done due to the various hills and side paths, as well as how unclear it is the exact position you should have the bike in relation to the train. It says something negative about the mission when a good amount of players use various "alternate" methods to complete it instead of the intended way.
Control - GoldenEye 007 (N64)
Continuing off from the idea that escort missions are for the most part terrible, we have one of the most infamous early examples of that with Rare's otherwise terrific GoldenEye 007. There are four missions where James Bond is tasked with protecting computer hacker Natalya Simonova, and by far, for me, the most awful of these takes place in the Control mission. The escort character AI is notoriously dumb, known to run directly into enemy fire as well as in the line of sight of the player's gun.
Control ratchets that up to a ridiculously frustrating degree by requiring you to protect Natalya from enemy gunfire as she slowly tries to re-calibrate and put an end to the GoldenEye satellite. And I do mean slowly, as she must also be trying to log into her GeoCites web page to take the proverbial piss on players as well. That's the only other explanation Regardless, it's a breeze for Natalya to perish in this mission, resulting in players having to restart from the very beginning and contend with the escorting carnage all over again. No wonder this mission was a roadblock for many, resulting in them simply returning to the multiplayer to get out their frustrations on other players of the game.
Darksiders Genesis (PS4, XB1, NSW) Console Launch Trailer
Already available on PC and Stadia as of late last year, the isometric hack-and-slash, dungeon-crawler Darksiders Genesis finally arrives on consoles tomorrow. See what the critics are saying about the game with this console launch trailer.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)