Category: Coming out

In Sound Mind. Funky stuff

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

In Sound Mind is a new first person psychological horror game developed by ‘We Create Stuff‘ and published by ‘Modus Games‘. In Sound Mind is said to the coming out on the Xbox Series X, PS5 and PC in 2021. In Sound Mind is taking a risky sub genre for horror. We do hope they can pull it off though. They do have a cat though. Let’s take a look.

In Sound Mind (‘Sound mind’ is a phrase from the Bible but once again no shout out. Lame). In the world of In Sound Mind, you wake up and find yourself in the corridor of a building. Now this isn’t a regular building though. It sort of has a life of its own. The plot thickens though. The building leads you to a group of survivors or should we say victims. They all been effected by an “experimental chemical”.

Our character must be effected by the same experimental chemical as now we are seeing some strange things too as we try to figure out what’s going on around here. You now experience visions, crazy ones. Not only that but a whole load of what’s described as “imposing horrors”. this has to be referring to the dangers and enemies you will face. Not only that but there’s a cat. This isn’t just your cat sitting on a wall. This cat is weird and apparently it’s called Tonia. In Sound Mind has nothing to do with an actual sound mind.

Now remember gamers, In Sound Mind is a psychological horror. Meaning this is most likely just in the characters mind. It’s a mental thing. Unlike other psychological horror games, you can actually defend yourself. There are weapons. So expect a gun. There’s a flashlight to light your way, you know the drill. Oh there’s mannequins by the way but not regular ones as they are sentient. So have fun with that. It might be right behind you now.

Another thing that In Sound Mind is pushing hard is the puzzles. In Sound Mind has emphasis on these puzzles. Beating the bosses, that’s right… bosses, is a puzzle. There are certain mechanics and weaknesses that require gamers to use their heads… for a change (shots fired). Literally the game makes it clear that beat bosses by solving “mind-bending puzzles”. We know that the player will be stalked throughout the game too. There’s lots going on.

We checked out some In Sound Mind gameplay and it’s not exactly what we expected for some parts but more or less what we expected. You are jumping all over the place by going through door. You end up in many locations, all pretty much dark and atmospheric. We even saw smoke. There are ghoulish ghost enemies called watchers who are not friendly at all and can’t be defeated straight up. The inventory seems easy to use and understand. Some more solid enemies can be killed by firearms. A headshot can take down an enemy almost instantly. The graphics look good so far but the music is better. Sound track was done by someone called ‘the living tombstone’. Some of the tracks are very good. 

Overall In Sound Mind looks like it’s going to be a good game. We hope the puzzles are good quality and not annoying. That they are of varying difficulty and actually make sense. It’s psychological horror so it better be scary and confuse the player due to mental strain and not bad plot. There’s lots of work to be done in the game. We aren’t thrilled by psychological horror but maybe In Sound Mind can change that. Maybe. The developers ‘We Create Stuff’ have done a good job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to see what In Sound Mind brings. Now In Sound Mind may have a cat, mannequins and bosses but none of those are remotely special when compared too… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Sable. Desert exploration

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Sable is a new adventure game developed by ‘Shedworks‘ and published by ‘Raw Fury‘. Sable is said to be coming out 2021 (more sources say 2021 than 2020) on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PC and Mac. This game looks like another big but relaxing exploration game for players to chill and have a good casual time. Let’s take a look. 

In the world of Sable players control a character called… Sable. Yeah, that’s her name. This is a huge desert world and it requires exploration. So hope on your hover bike and make your way around. There is lots to discover and learn here. after all it is an alien planet. Sable is being described as on a rite of passage. Somehow Sable is connected to this world. She must find her place in it. 

There isn’t much to say about Sable really because this type of game has been done before and you can predict it. You know what to expect. We have seen games like ‘Shape of the world‘, ‘Beyond Blue‘ and ‘Abzu’. You stay relaxed, got good music and just cruise through the game at your own place being large places and being amazed. We know that in Sable there are ships that have fallen from space, monuments that are ancient and even architecture but clearly ruined. So get to it.  

So off course Sable wants to know the history behind these things. There’s more though. You aren’t alone. There is a nomadic people on this desert planet too. Sable has the opportunity to learn how they got here and why they are staying here. This desert planet isn’t full of life, nor is it the most welcoming place in existence. What’s this rite of passage though? 

We checked out some Sable gameplay and it’s what we expected except for the graphic style. The graphics style is very line drawn heat and bubbly particle if that makes sense. The gameplay is what we predicted though. It’s smooth and the hover bikes are a great idea for traversing the world. Climb walls, run, enter, go underground, light up, hover bike etc all around this place. Apparently this is a personal journey and lessons to learn. games haven’t been the best at teaching good lessons for life.

Overall Sable looks like a simple game. We can’t tell if it’s good or not yet. It does what it says on the box. It’s entertainment factor is unknown. It’s an exploration game. No suggestion or showing of enemies so we don’t expect a surprise factor either. We like the design of the planet and environment though. The developers ‘Shedworks’ have done an alright job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to wait and hopefully hear something new about this game. Now Sable may have a large desert world to explore but what’s way more exciting is… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. hmmmmm

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is a new action First Person Shooter game developed by ‘Treyarch‘ supported by ‘Raven Software‘ but published by ‘Activision‘. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is said to be coming out November 13th 2020 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PS5, PS4 and PC. It’s another Call of Duty game. We know what to expect but let’s hope this one has something going on for us. Let’s take a look.

Let’s get this out of the way first. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is another call of duty game. Most gamers should know what to expect. We have literally zero excitement for this game. From what we have heard and seen from most call of duty fans is that they don’t really care about the story (campaign). Multiplayer is where it’s at and then secondary it’s zombies. We expect people trying to drop shot, camp with snipers, spam the meta gun and hop/ jump around corners. We just hope Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has something that actually interests us.

Now concerning the campaign this is all the whole website had to say about. “players will come face-to-face with historical figures and hard truths, as they battle around the globe through iconic locales like East Berlin, Vietnam, Turkey, Soviet KGB headquarters, and more.” This is literally all what the ENTIRE WEBSITE said concerning the campaign. So it’s taking a bit of a historical turn and players can expect to hear some maybe famous names. We have checked out some campaign gameplay and it definitely looks good and actioned packed. We don’t believe all the levels will be like that one but it definitely makes you want to see more. Since players will be in different parts of the world, we can expect a variety of environments and therefore hopefully different combat styles of the enemies. After all the countries do not fight the same way. Ask Vietnam (reference, if you know it you know it. if not then shame on you).

The multiplayer is where it’s at. The multiplayer in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is similar to previous Call of Duty games which isn’t a bad thing at all. It works doesn’t it? Pick your weapon. The maps have loads of spots for hiding and cover. So the return of the campers. Sniper rifles are dangerous and off course can one shot you. The aiming feels easy right now. The beach level looks very cool. It has multiple levels, water, sand, boats, lights and it’s night time. Nice design from a visual perspective right now. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is sticking to it’s fast paced gameplay. Quick respawns and sadly even quicker to die. We’ve seen people spray someone and kill them within a second, not including headshots. If someone sees you and aims well, then expect death almost instantly. Not our style. You literally die so fast. So you can kill someone, then they know where you killed them from because of the death cam then you respawn so fast and could even respawn behind that person and get instant revenge. S far it’s standard Call of duty multiplayer. Nothing standing out. You can call in abilities and support, so make sure to earn those.

Zombies is back and that’s a good thing for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. If you don’t know what zombies is then basically you and a team (or alone) must try to survive against a horde of zombies. To overly simplify it. Zombies has some new stuff. For starters squads can be created across platforms and console generations. Not only that, you are awarded for playing as the battle pass is advanced through time spent in Zombies. Concerning the upgrades and perks, there is crafting of items and even field upgrades. Old one like speed cola and juggernog are here too. Now about those weapons. All weapons have a rarity system like Apex legends and Fortnite as in the more rare it is, the better the damage. Fan favourite weapons are here too so be proud of that fans. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will also have what’s described as “Cold Ear-era weapons”. We’ve seen some futuristic and wacky weapons in there. It’s cool and gives of a more relaxed less serious image to this mode. Be chill and have a good time.

We checked out some Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War gameplay and it’s what we expected. The multiplayer will be what all the videos and streams be about mostly. Zombies will be second and campaign last. It’s fast paced, looks great, lots of action and does what it says on the box. The only real problem is meta weapons in multiplayer. There’s one gun (we won’t say which) which is dominating the matches. We even saw a match where everyone except one person was using that gun on the opposing team. That says a lot. So glancing needs to be improved for sure.

Overall Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War looks like a very good game. We never said the game wasn’t good. Just doesn’t interest us at all and it’s multiplayer isn’t our style. There’s cool modes like VIP where you must kill the enemy teams VIP while guiding yours safely to extraction. Gets tactical. Graphics and sounds are great. The maps are very good and there’s some variety in this game. The developers ‘Treyarch’ with ‘Raven Software’ have done a good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to see what Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War really got. Now Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War may have more action and speed but none of that matters in the presence of… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Samurai Shodown. Swords sharpened

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Samurai Shodown is a action fighting game developed and published by ‘SNK‘. Samurai Shodown isn’t a new game and has come out in 2019 on the Xbox One and PS4 and also 2020 on the Nintendo Switch and PC. Also game out on Stadia. Interestingly though it will come on the Xbox Series X BUT not the PS5 in 2020. This game is definitely flashy and about powerful battles. Let’s take a look.

Samurai Shodown takes place  between the events of Samurai Shodown V and the original game. Samurai Shodown is said to “carries on the legacy of the one true weapon-based fighter”. Simply put this is a fighter game like Street Fighter in the sense that it’s two characters on opposing sides of the screen and you use your attacks and whatever to bring the enemies life to zero. Off course this isn’t street fighter but something still very different. In Samurai Shodown it’s more about weapons like Soulcalibur but no 8 directional movement. The game being called samurai has an obvious theme. So expect swords, blades and flashy abilities.

Let’s talk a bit more about the fact that Samurai Shodown is coming to the Xbox Series X but not the PS5. We are seeing a number of games doing this. Develeopers are picking the Xbox Series X over PS5. Even one of the recent games we just wrote about called R-Type Final 2. A number of games are moving like this. On top of that. The Xbox Series X has been selling out like crazy in Japan. Japanese developers are going to be releasing games on the Xbox Series X and not PS5, especially thanks to Sony and it’s unnecessary censoring. Japan is a significant place when it comes to video games. It’s a fact that PlayStation, Sony is losing ground to Xbox, Microsoft. How many more nails is Xbox going to put into the PlayStation coffin?

We have never seen this game before so it’s new for us. We noticed that there’s mechanics around the weapons themselves. For example you can knock a player away from their weapon and off course they then are a much smaller threat, have limits and less range. This leads to certain tactics like knocking the enemy away from the weapon then backing off to get the weapon off screen or stand by their weapon and play keep away. It’s an interesting feature and reminds us off when Vega looses his claw knives in Street fighter.

We checked out some Samurai Shodown gameplay and it’s what we expected. There’s strange symbols, imagery, lots of flash and explosive moves. Weapons are the focus, a heavy theme and action, action, action. The characters don’t look that interesting to us though. No one stands out to us but the gameplay does. The special powerful moves get right to the point and does what you’d expect. It does look good and the background settings are very fitting and relevant to the Samurai theme.

Overall Samurai Shodown looks like another fighting game to us just having a mechanic that makes the game stand out but clearly still falls into the group. The graphics and visual aren’t impressive but possibly that could change with the next gen console Xbox Series X. It’s definitely flashy though. The developers ‘SNK’ has done an alright job. We know some gamers are looking forward to this. Now Samurai Shodown may have swords and flashy action but that’s all super dull when compared to the action of… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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The Falconeer. Next Gen air combat

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

The Falconeer is a new open world, aerial combat role playing game developed by ‘Tomas Sala‘ and published by ‘Wired Productions‘. The Falconeer is said to be coming out the 10th of November on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One and PC. It’s another Xbox exclusive coming out on the Xbox Series X launch day. The Falconeer is said to be bringing a “new take on air combat”. We would definitely love to see that. Air combat is pretty standard but The Falconeer has got something going on. Let’s take a look.

Now the story in The Falconeer is practically unknown. It’s described as an “singular conflict”. So this is basically one big war. There are multiple factions too and it’s been made clear that players will get to play as all the factions to see each perspective of the war and battles. That’s simple and still easy to understand.

Let’s dive into what we see right off the bat. You are a Falconeer who use to be a messenger and guardian. You are riding a falcon or a really big bird and diving head first into wars. You will be targeted and attacked by all types of forces in this game. Everything is in third person so you have better views of what is going on which is good because there is a lot going on. The types of enemies you will face have been described as land, sea and air forces. So basically you aren’t safe anywhere.

We have seen others on big birds coming after and taking shots at the player in the Falconeer. There are big ships with loads of turrets and cannons. There are even what looks like stationary turrets and vehicles on the land. We like the variety of enemies here. The whole land, sea and air thing reminds us of two things: Supreme commander 2 (the units) and Kaido (from One Piece). This literally means that you aren’t safe and there’s more room for a wider variety of enemies. Games like this with loads of combat need loads of enemies to keep things interesting and have enough to keep things difficult.  

We are seeing airships, battle ships and other big bird riders. The real question is how are the going to balance this? This might help. The Falconeer has creatures too. not just machines. You will face what looks like flying beetles, There are also manta rays but they don’t look cute. There’s even long bodied fling “dragon-like weavers”. Do It gets worse… there’s even krakens! Giant octopus looking things. This is a good move by the developer. Machines and creatures are here in this battle.  

Now off course being a Falconeer doesn’t mean you fly up to enemies and your bird punches and kicks enemies. Wrong! You are equipped with powerful long ranged weaponry. Shhot and blast from a distance, manoeuvre and dodge bullets and other projectiles. Outfly and swivel around your enemies. It’s straight up aerial combat around here in the Falconeer. Since it’s open world, there’s numerous areas to explore.  

Guess what we saw. The big green badge. You know what that means. “Games built using the Xbox Series X development kit are designed to take advantage of the unique capabilities of the Xbox Series X. They will showcase unparalleled load-times, visuals, responsiveness, and framerates up to 120 FPS.” The developer made it clear he wants the Falconeer to have constant 60frames per second. The best visuals and best performance will only be on Cboc Series X and high end PCs.

We checked out some gameplay and it’s what we thought it would be. Big bird or falcon, flying around, slower than we thought though. Falcons are incredibly fast birds but off course they are slower here for gameplay reasons. It’s been confirmed there are secrets in this game and some are even below the waters. Now that’s sounding cool. Can we dive. Does our falcon survive under there? We got questions. There is a form of in game currency called soulshards  so players need to make sure to grab as much as they can. So search the whole Ursee which is the name of this whole place.

Overall The Falconeer looks like a good game. More information is needed specially concerning the combat mechanics, the enemies etc. From a concept and world perspective it’s good and we like what we are hearing and seeing. Visually it’s not impressive but it’s good for the style that it’s doing. Just take a look and you’ll see what we mean. The developer ‘Tomas Sala’ has done a good job here. We at X35 Earthwalker will keep an eye out for what the Falconeer will accomplish.

For more information check out the link below: 

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R-Type Final 2. It’s gone crazy

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

R-Type Final 2 is a new side scrolling shooter game developed by ‘Granzella‘. R-Type Final 2 is said to be coming out in 2021 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PC. R-Type Final 2 definitely has something going for it. Side scrolling shooter games have a tough time standing out and a number of them are just too similar. Let’s take a look. 

Now we didn’t know anything about R-Type Final 2. We never heard of it. Even the story we aren’t sure of what’s going on. We do know that the main enemies in the R-Type are the Bydo. Humans are in a serious battle with the Bydo… for years. Simply put it’s man vs aliens with space battles and machines. Now that’s not the focus here. The focus is that you control big ships with mad firepower to destroy pretty much everything. So focus on that.

One of the main focuses on the R-Type Final 2 gameplay is to make players feel real good about destroying the enemies. There’s multiple weapons for clearly different purposes. There’s a charged up weapon that has piercing effect that flies through multiple enemies. Good for a line up. There are bombs for when extra damage is needed or just to clear out a group of them. Laser beams which have obvious purposes. There’s spiral based flaming attacks. There’s loads of weapons in R-Type Final 2 from what we have seen. 

Your weapons can be frontal or backwards which is a good feature. Games like this need loads of weapons, there needs to be a form of upgrade system. Some games do have this but something more is needed. R-Type Final 2 does try something that’s actually different. It seems like some levels have special conditions. There’s one stage that has decaying organisms. So new enemies are formed from the destroyed remains of other enemies. So basically as you play R-Type Final 2 you will face new and stronger enemies. Stage factors like this a good spin. 

Now the stages evolve as well. Off course players will be making changes to their fighters over time with different weapons and features. So the stage, enemies and fighters will be going through changes over time. What stands out to us more than any of that stuff in R-Type Final 2 is the ship designs. Like seriously look at them. There’s all sorts and types with some looking like living creatures. Technology has come a long way hasn’t it. 

We checked out some R-Type Final 2 gameplay and it’s what we expected for the most part. R-Type Final 2 brings a sense of progression as players will unlocked and develop new fighters of different types as they go through the game. Some ships (fighters) are clearly better for some levels than others because of their features. So it’s up to players to know what’s the best options for the situations ahead. We like the level of flashiness and explosives and special effects. Thos look amazing and the design of the aliens. We always respect creativity and we hope to see more unique and cool looking alien enemies. 

Overall R-Type Final 2 looks like a real good game for sure. There’s loads of action, unique and cool looking enemies, customisation, multiplayer is going to make R-Type Final 2 a serious game. Just being able to play with others is a big deal. The graphics of the ships, enemies and the visuals of the firing and attacks are very good. The developers have done a very good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker look forward to seeing what R-Type Final 2 will do. R-Type Final 2 may have loads of action but that action is real boring when compared to… the ‘Earth Walk!’

For more information check out the link below: 

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Sword of the Necromancer. Solid combat

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Sword of the Necromancer is a new dungeon crawler action role playing game developed by ‘Grimorio of Games‘ and published by ‘JanduSoft‘. Sword of the Necromancer is said to be coming out in the last quarter of 2020 on the Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, PS5 and PC. Sword of the Necromancer doesn’t look flashy but looks like solid action. Let’s take a look.

The story of Sword of the necromancer is actually quite simple. You are this dude called Tama. The girl you love is dead but you won’t leave her dead. So you do whatever it takes to bring her back. This apparently means acquiring the Sword of the Necromancer (the title by the way) and slaying enough monsters and even the necromancer himself to get enough soul power to bring Koko (the girl) back to life. We at X35 Earthwalker condemn the practice of necromancy, so don’t go grabbing death swords to bring back a loved one. You’ve been warned. 

Now just take one look at Sword of the necromancer and you already know what you are getting yourself into. It’s pixel graphics, you going through what looks like dungeons and you are swinging your sword at many foes. That’s all you need to know really, but there’s something more though. This sword, sword of the necromancer, has an unsurprising ability where the enemies you kill can be brought back to life under your control. You keep what you kill. So eventually you need to raise an army of monsters to help you destroy necromancer and the guardians.

Now it’s not just your sword that you will be wielding. The weapons are different and there are relics to acquirer to help you out. Also the weapons are random generated so you will get something different from your friend… or by pure chance you do get the same thing. The problem is you only have four item slots. So you can equip a monster you defeated to summon it against your enemies, or you can equip the bow and arrows or go for a giant axe, or maybe equip a shield which protects you from projectiles. There’s a whole lot of different combinations of resurrected monsters, relics or weapons. So get creative.

As you fight and defeat enemies you will level up. As you fight alongside the monsters you turned and summoned they will get stronger too. So there’s quite a bit of management to do. Levelling up is key as you need levels to improve your stats and upgrade. If you die (you will die… probably), you lose all your equipped weapons and monsters but keep half the levels you gained. On the other hand there may be opportunities for you to leave the dungeon. Doing this let’s you keep all your equipment but lose all your levels. So you need to take risks to become the ultimate killing machine. 

We checked out some Sword of the Necromancer gameplay and it’s what we expected. It’s nothing flashy or fancy. It’s your dungeon crawler, action game. A solid game at that with a cool new concept of turning defeated enemies into allies. This concept along will catch the attention of gamers. We like this concept and it makes you wonder what monsters you want to aim for, how useful they will be and who to spend time fighting alongside to level up. The pixel style works here and the designs look good. Work went into this game for sure. Again, nothing big or special but solid.

Overall we like what we see. It’s interesting and cool. Best of all Sword of the necromancer has local co-op. You can play with a buddy and face the dungeons together. Local co-op is just the best. You hear that Halo Infinite! MAKE SURE TO HAVE LOCAL CO-OP!!! Sorry readers we don’t know what came over us. *clears throat* The graphics are nice, the combat is solid and the options seem plentiful. This game just needs a bit more and some flair. The developers ‘Grimorio of Games’ have done a good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to see what Sword of the Necromancer truly brings to the table. Now Sword of the Necromancer may have a great concept but it’s a dumb one compared to the creativity of… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Hood: Outlaws & Legends. Not all outlaws are legends

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Hood: Outlaws & Legends is a new multiplayer, action, stealth game developed by ‘Sumo Digital‘ and published by ‘Focus Home Interactive‘. Hood: Outlaws & Legends is said to be coming out in 2021 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PS5, PS4 and PC. Hood: Outlaws & Legends is definitely doing something different concerning the concept. Let’s take a look.

Hood: Outlaws & Legends is set in a violent medieval place with an oppressive government. It’s being called a state. This place is crazy though as there are rebels, scum, thieves… basically outlaws out here and they are making some moves. Simply put, it’s Robin Hood. Hood: Outlaws & Legends is based on a rare concept that’s not easy to do right. There’s so many rival gangs and are trying to steal from the rich to give to the poor which will of course gain the support of the oppressed people. These gangs are competing against each other while off course the rich will want to protect what’s theirs too.

So it’s basically a three way battle in Hood: Outlaws & Legends. The guards of the rich/soldiers vs the players and their team vs other players and their team. That’s right. While you are sneaking around, assassinating soldiers and making your way to the goods. There are other players doing the exact same thing with their team. You might be hunting or being hunted. The treasure is right there and the area looks clear but they could be right there hiding. Waiting for you to turn your back. So it’s PvEvP. The game has a saying, “We are all outlaws… but some of us will become legends.” You need to prove you are the best. This concept does remind us of Hunt: Showdown. Hood: Outlaws & Legends is a fight but also a race.

Since Hood: Outlaws & Legends is also a stealth game and dangerous A.I enemies are around, you need a plan. It’s like trying to rob a big super secure bank (obviously not as difficult). Running through the front door scream with weapons out is a bad move for sure. Each character in your squad have their own skills and “mystical abilities”. So know your characters, know the situation and know what needs to be done and who ought to do it. Now when it comes to facing the other players, there’s where things will get loud. Think of it sort of like ‘For Honour’ where you need to judge your distance and timing very well to get the hits on your enemy and back off, evade etc. So mix it up out there.

There isn’t that much on Hood: Outlaws & Legends. The concept and past games tells you everything you need to know. It’s a team based game for the most part. Whether you need a group of friends or if there’s matchmaking, we don’t know. So pick your character, have your team, sneak around towards the objective, take out guards and get the goods. Most likely running into the other teams of players. How many teams per match or world, we don’t know either. Just prepare for a fight. 

We checked out the Hood: Outlaws & Legends trailer and it gives a good idea of what to expect and it’s what we expected. It’s definitely more brutal than we thought though. There appears to be executions of some sort. Weapons with special effects, possibly stuns. Not clear if there’s a penalty for losing an ally. Is there permalinks death? Who knows.

Overall Hood: Outlaws & Legends looks like an alright game for now. It has potential to be much better and very good but only when we see more. The concept is rare and difficult to pull off. There’s many factors. The developers ‘Sumo Digital’ have done an alright job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to see what Hood: Outlaws & Legends becomes. Now Hood: Outlaws & Legends may have a brutal battle of outlaws but those outlaws are just children in comparison to… the ‘Earth Walk!’  

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Immortals: Fenyx Rising. The god’s hope

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Immortals: Fenyx Rising is a new open world action adventure game developed by ‘Ubisoft Québec‘ and published by ‘Ubisoft‘. Immortals: Fenyx Rising is said to be coming out the 3rd of December 2020 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Stadia, PS5, PS4 and PC. Immortals: Fenyx Rising is looking like a big mythological adventure. Let’s take a look. 

The story in Immortals: Fenyx Rising is quite simple. The greek gods are in trouble (again). This time their powers are getting nerfed and sealed away (being sealed away was stated in the trailer). Not only that, ‘Typhon’ who is the deadliest titan in greek mythology is rolling up to the gods. It’s about to be a full fledge war against weakened gods. The gods will lose. Their last hope is now a “new winged demigod” called ‘Fenyx’. She’s going to save the greek gods and prevent the ‘dark curse’. It’s going to be an epic battle for sure.

Immortals: Fenyx Rising right from the start gives of a friendly look and feeling. This also makes sense as it’s coming to Nintendo Switch too. Some people have compared the graphic style to Fortnite which is a compliment as loads of people played that game and it was incredibly successful. This would suggest that Immortals: Fenyx Rising will have a family friendly design and pretty much all gamers are welcome. This is a good move though, as the bigger the target audience, the more potential gamers. The graphic style overall looks very good. 

Speaking of graphics, just check out the Immortals: Fenyx Rising world. It’s large, after all it is open world. The world is huge, colourful and got a lot going on. There are large creatures just minding their own business. Structures and completely different environments. There’s civilised areas, wilderness, plains, tall mountains, rocky canyon like area and forests. There’s also what looks like a volcanic area too. So there’s clearly a lot of variety here and places to explore and fight in. This would also suggest that there’s a variety of enemies to face, based on their environment. There is a confirmed 7 different regions.

There is character customisation in Immortals: Fenyx Rising. You don’t need to play as Fenyx. You can change up your character with good levels of customisation. You can change skin colour, markings on the face, hair colour, male female are what’s clear so far. You can find a bunch of amour and equipment which unlike some games you actually see your character wearing the armour and wielding the equipment. That’s cool.   

We checked out some Immortals: Fenyx Rising gameplay and it’s not exactly what we expected. You can fly, which is like one of the best mobilities ever. You can get and form some serious god type weapons too. Get giant mallets, fire arrows and use god powers. Fight in the air, melee on the ground, dodge and react to giant monsters and fast foes. There’s wide open spaces and numerous abilities to use to your advantage to create combos, and even launch foes. The combat is looking quite free style and good substance. Now one thing that should be clear is that our character is incredibly powerful. You can defeat and sash enemies with almost no problem. The enemies do come off as too simple so far. This game isn’t anything crazy though as you know what to expect overall. For example if you look at that game ‘breath of the wild’ it’s similar in the sense that there’s a big world, travel around, face monsters, some too strong, reach areas, enter places, solve puzzles upgrade your character and get new stuff. Immortals: Fenyx Rising does this well from what we have seen.  

Overall Immortals: Fenyx Rising is looking like a good game so far. Colourful, relaxed and big action. There’s got to be collectibles, secrets and more all around the world. The flying is cool though but the puzzles are looking real advanced and cool We saw a laser area where you have to fly through and avoid the lasers. The graphics and sounds look real good, the environments look real diverse. The developers ‘Ubisoft Québec’ are doing a very good job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker look forward to seeing what else is happening with Immortals: Fenyx Rising. Now Immortals: Fenyx Rising may have gods and titans but those two are complete jokes if they faced… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Gears Tactics. Get tactical Gears!

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Gears Tactics is the new turn based strategy game developed by ‘The Coalition‘ and ‘Splash Damage‘ and published by ‘Xbox Game Studios‘. Gears Tactics is an Xbox exclusive said to be coming the 10th of November 2020 out on Xbox Series X and Xbox One. It’s already out on PC though. Gears Tactics is coming into a serious genre. Let’s take a look.

Gears Tactics is another big genre change for Gears of War. Gears pop has a big matchmaking and balancing problem. Gears Tactics though is going to be very different and we trust to be a very good game. The story in Gears Tactics is set 12 years before the first Gears of War game. Remember ‘E-day’? Yeah that basically. The focus is on Gabriel Diaz or Gabe for short who is the father of Kait Diaz. He was a lieutenant colonel in the pendulum wars but now a sergeant due to his own decisions and disagreement with the Cog. When things got real crazy the Bog call him back into the action. The problem is a locust monster called Ukkon. A ‘monster who creates monsters’. This locust, Ukkon, is the master mind who genetically engineered the Reaver, Corpser and Brumack. So this guy is the top priority target. So you must gather and recruit people as the Cog is basically in disarray. So it’s a squad of survivors. Get to it. 

So straight of the truck we know this is a turn based strategy game. This means intelligence is needed. The golden rule of the Cog is take cover or die. Now it’s only natural to compare turn based strategy games to the best which XCOM 2 War of the Chosen. Now Gears Tactics no doubt will have the visuals and graphics advantage especially being on the Xbox Series X. We also trust Gears Tactics will have the advantage in terms of story. So what truly matters will be the gameplay and mechanics. Now Gears Tactics has been described as fast paced. It has to be. Especially when you have wretches around who like to rush you for melee damage while drones move around to flank. The action has to be strong in Gears Tactics. Plus it feels good to finally be able to face the locust again. We getting along with the swarm but they aren’t in the same league as the Locust. 

Now off course there is character and equipment customisation. It’s a necessity at this point. So expect Lancers with extended drum magazines. Expect rifles with bayonets for close range action. There are five different classes for your characters: Vanguard, Support, Heavy, Sniper and Scout. Obviously each of these have their own roles and advantages but also get their own skill tree. The skills is where things get interesting. It’s too deep to get into real detail but let’s simplify. The Vanguard loves bayonet charting and gets bonuses like damage reduction for successful charges. They also heal by themselves every turn. The Sniper has a reduced accuracy penalty against targets far away. Killing targets can lead to damage bonuses or extra actions. The support literally focuses on buffing everyone from giving out extra reloads, extra actions, healings etc. The scout gets a cloak ability. It’s all about attacking from cloak and regaining your cloak. Mobility and deadly. The Heavy brings explosives, damage reduction and all about standing it’s ground and dishing out big damage (at times). 

Now gamers who have played turn based strategy games should know what to expect at this point. Just apply the Gears of war formula. There will be missions of variety. Some off course will be more favourable for certain unit types. Some situations are better for the cloaking of the scout. There will most likely be a mission where you need to hold your ground for a time so the heavy is best. We hoped that each branching of skills are pretty much equal instead of one branch of skills clearly being better or more practical than the other. That’s a hard thing to do when you have so many. We were checking out the skills and for example concerning the Vanguard , the ‘Shock trooper’ branch is easily superior to the ‘Warden’ branch. Warden isn’t useless at all but doesn’t compare. As a Vanguard we would get shock trooper and Paladin. Easy. Hopefully they make a patch to improve the weaker paths.

You see the green badge? Off course you do. You know what that means. “Games built using the Xbox Series X development kit are designed to take advantage of the unique capabilities of the Xbox Series X. They will showcase unparalleled load-times, visuals, responsiveness, and framerates up to 120 FPS.” So you expect the best visuals, graphics and performances on Xbox Series X. Yes Gears Tactics has been confirmed 10th of November for Xbox Series X. We will leave a screen shot right below.

We checked out some Gears Tactics gameplay and it’s what we expected from this game. It looks good already and it’s going to get better. There’s a lot of detail on the screen. Overwatch is here to keep enemies in check, executions grant allies an extra action. Use disabling shot to ruin the enemies plans and shut down their overwatch. We hope the building up of your characters leads to you eventually become unstoppable for the most parts. Excellent turn based strategy games have loads of options and powerful combinations if the players know how to do it. Intelligence needs to be rewarded. The difficulty needs to be nice and high. Players need to find what works and what doesn’t. We like the details you get provided with while aiming at an enemy. From what we have seen we believe this is a good game.

Overall Gears Tactics is going to be a good game for sure. Whether it becomes the best turn based strategy game we will have to see for ourselves. It’s Gears of War, it’s turn based strategy and it looks good. There are boss battles and obviously it would be against the brumack, corpser, reavers and Uddok himself. The boss better not be a complete joke but can’t be tedious and annoying either. The developers  ‘The coalition’ and ‘splash damage’ have done a very good job. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to see what else Gears Tactics has to offer. Now Gears Tactics might be getting tactical but none of their tactics will work against… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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