The Pathless is an action adventure game developed by ‘Giant Squid‘ and published by ‘Annapurna Interactive‘. The Pathless is said to come out February 2nd 2023 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. It’s already out on PS5, PS4 and pc. The Pathless looking like it want to hit hard. X35 Earthwalker know a good game and what’s a special game. Let’s take a look.
The Pathless is about a hunter. This hunter is a master archer. Your mission? To deal with an evil in this mystical land, that affects the whole world. You aren\”t alone as you get an eagle as a companion. Hunter and Eagle in a massive forest to take down evil. Sounds cool. Quick tip: That eagle is important. Be good to it and build a good relationship with it.
Now this game gets action quite right. It’s smooth. An acrobatic character for sure. Dive around, soar through the air, fire shots and stay agile. After all The Pathless takes place in a massive forest. It’s actually very fluid as well. Powerful consoles like the Xbox Series X will have a a good day with this game.
Players will be hunting down corrupted spirits. There are ancient ruins which of course have puzzles. That’s a classic. Temples that haven’t been maintained in a while and even really tall spires. Expect this game too have a nice journey as the ones behind ‘Journey’ and ‘Abzû’ are on the case. Atmosphere should therefore be right.
We checked out some The Pathless gameplay. This game looks clean. Bringing back the light to the land is going to be a challenge for sure. The most standing out thing is the gameplay. The movements, the animations and the agility of the hunter are top tier. Loving it. We know there are big threats out there. Those corrupted spirts are no joke. They might even be the one to hunt you. Defeat them and get that light restored. Boss battles on deck!!!
Overall we checked out some The Pathless gameplay and it’s a bit more than what we expected. That’s rare as well. The Pathless looks like a very good game. Atmosphere is being taken seriously. The partial effects are nice. The graphic style works with this game. We ain’t mad at it. You already know the music is going to be excellent. Orchestrated nicely. The developers ‘Giant Squid’ have done an excellent job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker are glad we discovered this game. Now The ‘Pathless’ may have a beautiful adventure ahead but it’s not enough for…. the ‘Earth Walk!’
The Callisto Protocol came out last year and it was highly anticipated. It’s survival horror and off course similar to Dead Space in a number of ways. The Callisto Protocol has been unfairly attacked and low balled in the rating department and for terrible or not good reasons. We expect that now of low skilled reviews and trash reviewers. Modern gamers are quite toxic too. We have see many people, especially on twitter have such ridiculous standards for rating games and a bad understanding of game scores. So X35 Earthwalker will give his review of the game in his style, as the world’s smartest gamer and ultimate strategist, his view is better than all. Let’s take a look.
For some quick back story information. The Callisto Protocol got development help from Dead Space. For example Glen Schofield, who co-created the dead Space series, directed the development of The Callisto Protocol. Steve Papoutsis, Scott Whitney, Christopher Stone are other examples. Schofield said that about 25 to 30 former coworkers from visceral games and sledgehammer games worked on The Callisto Protocol. Dead Space is highly loved and respected, especially the survival horror game world. So it’s clear these guys know how to make a good game. They might now a thing or two. So we have veterans on The Callisto Protocol team.
Now The Callisto Protocol is an excellent game. We can say that right out the gates. The Callisto Protocol is made very well and we enjoyed the journey. There isn’t really a part of the game we do not like. There were parts of Dead that we didn’t like but not so with The Callisto Protocol. The developers wanted The Callisto Protocol to be the standard for survival horror games going forward… next gen survival horror. We think they did that. Not the best of all time but the standard. Now does The Callisto Protocol have the scares? Yes! Take into account that X35 Earthwalker is built different. X35 didn’t get scared, not even once. We have seen others get truly scared. Is The Callisto Protocol survival heavy? It’s more mid than heavy. You get surprisingly a lot more ammo than you would expect. We always had ammo for shooting and have not once, ran out of ammo. To be fair we did prefer to melee fight enemies for.
Speaking of melee, this has divided some fans. We don’t find this divided at all. The melee combat system is very good. Definitely something innovative and new to the genre. Every battle can be intense and if you mess up… you really mess up. Especially when you are fighting two enemies at a time. You have to really know when to attack and when to switch who you are dodging against. Players have to pay attention to the enemies attacks as some foes may throw in multiple attacks. You can’t assume the enemies will always swing twice and then stop. They might go up to 4 swings. The melee mechanics are quite deep as you can dodge, blocker end your attack string with a quick aim shot. You can dismember enemies too which unlike other games, it does make a different here. Dodging is obvious, get out of the way and take no damage. Block, you heavily reduce the damage you would take but if you block the enemies last hit this allows for a ‘blocking counter attack’ where you do a low attack which knocks the enemy down. This gives you time to decide what to do next. Dismembering enemies matter here as standard enemies can’t do multiple attacks if they are missing an arm. So upgrade the baton to destroy the arm of an enemy that blocks your attack or shoot it off and that enemy can only do one swing at you instead of an attack chain. If you get rid of their leg then they will crawl and lose the majority of their hit points. A crawling enemy gets one shotted if you hit them with your baton. Just remember to block their first attack as it is fast.
What’s also interesting and next gen about The Callisto Protocol is that depending on where you defeat an enemy you might trigger an animated kill. We have shoved an enemy into the wall, parted its legs and went for the head. There’s more of the animated kills too and that’s next gen. The enemies have these animated kills too and they are brutal! We have seen players get their head stomped on multiple times, get beaten to death while in a headlock, have their jaw ripped open and off, grabbed by a massive enemy and ripped in two and more. This is next gen and detailed. Just watching them is quite heavy at times. There’s even a death animation during that section of the game where you are sliding down on huge currents of water and had to dodge pillars and the fans. If the fan gets you, you are caught in it, raised to the top and cut in half. Now that’s gory to watch. Dead Space had gory environmental kills but not enemy kills and player melee like The Callisto Protocol. Stuff like this makes a difference.
Next is the other things you can do like environmental kills thanks to the GRP. Let’s get this one thing quickly out of the way. We found the GRP more useful than the kinesis from Dead Space. The GRP doesn’t just grab objects and items but also the whole person as well which makes it stronger. You can grab a rushing enemy and throw it back to create space or you can just throw them over the edge into the abyss, drop them off in deep water, throw them into spikes on the wall or a giant blender thing. There’s options. The Callisto Protocol gives many environmental kill areas for the players to use. It encourages GRP action and we use it.
We like the use of darkness in this game. The Callisto Protocol is quite dark. Dark with the humour too. This is quite new and an unpleasant change. Those chests that have loot and goods in them are throughout the game. They are worth looking for but there are some that are a trap. If you open one of these traps, you won’t find loot but instead a small foe that will leap on you and attack. So yeah, that sucks but it keeps players on their toes and not falling into some patterns. The enemies will also track you down or try to follow you through the vent and pipe systems. Here’s where The Callisto Protocol sound design is excellent. We remember standing inn an area and hearing a foe going through the vents. We heard it go up, then to the side, then down and we looked down and saw a vent point and moved some distance away and got the weapon ready. It soon popped out off the vent and it was greeted with gun fire. Excellent sound design. We could hear everything and sometimes… that was a bad thing. As noises would be heard and you hear foes but nothing came for you. Atmosphere nonsense. Trying to get in your head.
Now is The Callisto Protocol perfect? No. Only very few games are actually perfect. We will go over some negatives but first let’s defend the game from bad critics and reviewers. Most people bashed the game for having bugs on launch. That’s not that common with games today. No one wants bus but it does happen. Games should not be down marked for bugs as bugs are fixable and not intentional. They aren’t a feature of the game itself. So they shouldn’t be counted. Even Markiplier stated this in his The Callisto Protocol gameplay videos on youtube. It’s not a reason to say the game is bad. Most of the bug issues are coming from people who played on pc. While the true gamers who play on console like Xbox Series X didn’t have much problems. X35 Earthwalker didn’t experience any bugs at all. As for the visuals, we went into the settings and basically turned on performance mode and got 60 frames per second and smooth gameplay. Guess it pays to be on a gaming console. Sounds more like a pc issue. People want to bash it over the combat but it’s better than the combat in Dead Space. Melee in Dead Space is useless, except for Dead Space 3 where you build a melee weapon. If you want to fight like Dead Space, then use your gun and fire at a distance. If they come close, you can dodge and fight back. It’s a weak argument and excuse. We never had any problems with camera except for one moment. Some described the game as unfair or cheap. It’s a survival horror game, you are in an unfair situation by default. You have to find things and be disciplined with your ammo. The Callisto Protocol has a realistic healing process. Not some magical instant heal like in other videos games. By the way, angry joe has one of the worst reviews of this game. We had a counter to every complaint they had. Their arguments weren’t even good.
Now what we think that’s negative with The Callisto Protocol. The inventory. Now we get that as prisoners and only prison clothes, we don’t have much space for items nor would we have access to a storage box like in pokemon. We are on our own. Just hated the lack of space at the start and mid of the game. Wish there was some sort of system to help with inventory space but we made it work. It’s intentional design and it fits the situation of the game but the real issue with the inventory was when you got multiple weapons and you therefore got ammo for each individual weapon. Our space was filled with 5 different ammo typos and they all shared the space. You couldn’t store weapons and their ammo so you had to carry it all… all the time. It was very annoying. We wished we could store or remove some weapons so we only get ammo for certain weapons that we liked. The next issue is the weapons themselves. Some weapons are far more useful than others. Some weapons, we rather didn’t have. The tactical pistol is cool and its projectiles reminds us of Star Wars guns. It’s cool but not needed. We only want three guns and that’s it. There should’ve been a better variety of weapons. A sniper would have been a better weapon. Maybe weapon mods to add more variety to the firepower. The skunk gun and the riot gun just basically do the same thing. Shouldn’t have both. The assault rifle needs increased damage. It’s a full on weapon and yet the pistol is stronger. That ain’t right.
Next complaint is the upgrade costs. The Callisto Protocol was designed for new game + which was recently added to the game. You cannot afford all the upgrades in one play through. You have do decide what matters to you and what to invest in. Some stuff was far too expensive and discouraged us from aiming for it. The top upgrade of the assault rifle is like 4500 Callisto credits. That’s ridiculous. Other’s were 3600. No way. No thank you. We know inflation Issa thing and energy costs have risen but this is so unfair. Next issue is their use of the variety of enemies. The variety isn’t strong but how they use them is weak. We needed more enemies thrown in the mix or utilise more based on how they work. We may have to go into more detail on the X35 Earthwalker podcast. Next up is the length the game. It’s too short for us. We wanted more for sure. It’s solid and great for what’s in it but it being a bigger game would have added more to the experience. There was room for more. Lastly though is that there should have been a gallery mode for players who have beat the game. A gallery where we can view all the executions the enemies can get on the player. The developers clearly worked on these animated kills so make a mode for us to view it.
Back to positives. The attention to details in The Callisto Protocol is immense. There is lots of details. Even angry Joe stated that it was best graphics of the year which is mighty praise. We have to almost agree but the graphics and visuals are crazy good and very few games can compete with it. Look at the snow, the dome, the biome, the icicles and even the sweat on the face of our characters and others. The first, the marks, the blood stains. Come on. You have to give it that. The lighting was top level too. In a horror game, lighting makes a big difference. Sometimes you can’t see the threat… well sort off. Some areas don’t look safe to enter. Speaking of safe to enter. There are optional side areas that in real life, we would never set foot in there… but it’s a video game and we want the loot so we literally jumped down into infected red water with cysts and goopy stuff everywhere and something moving in the water. Nope, nope and more nope. Some areas make you literally not want to go. Now there is much more to say. Another positive which most ignore but it should be said. They’re a photo mode for the game. You can access it at anytime in gameplay and take pictures with the enemies, posing, weapons in hand, remove things in view, put on filters, zoom, rotate and so much more. The photo mode is actually very in depth. More detailed than we thought. It surprised us. You should give that mode a try. Work went into it.
There’s the characters. We hated Dani, then disliked Dani and now care for Dani. She has a good character and it makes sense the way that she is. Once you know more about her. Elias is our favourite and we loved Elias. We trusted Elias and we were right to do so even though others doubted him. Elias was honest, helpful and changed to become a better person. Wish things turned out differently for him. Captain ferris is a piece of crap and will always be crap. Typical abusive guard who needs his but kicked. The warden was a bad guy and we knew its right from the start from how he talked. There’s more but let’s leave it there. The characters are good and interesting individuals. You understand them and get to know them pretty well. We can talk about the story and what is the cause of the infection, what the warden wanted and that he is part of something much bigger, we could talk about the alpha and captain leon ferris and so much more but if you want something more fluid then check out the X35 Earthwalker podcast on Anchor and Spotify. This G-blog is already really long. Spent hours on this.
Overall The Callisto Protocol is an excellent game. It’s not average or as some of these ignorant people online wants to ay it’s bad. They even think 7/10 is bad for some reason. No. The Callisto Protocol is easily 9/10. We aren’t mad at anyone who can argue that it’s a solid 8/10. That’s fair but we see all the work and effort. We enjoyed the combat, we enjoyed the story, we enjoyed the atmosphere, the lighting, the good weapons, the suit upgrade, the characters and more. Another example of do not listen to the dumb reviewers and critics. The Callisto Protocol is not a 6/10. It’s excellent and lots of hard work went into it. The developers ‘Striking Distance Studios’ have done an excellent job and they can learn from this. X35 Earthwalker knows how to review games. is Now The Callisto Protocol may be an excellent game but it’s not good enough for… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Bumblebee: Little Bee Adventure is an adventure exploration game developed and published by ‘EpiXR Games‘. Bumblebee: Little Bee Adventure is said to be coming out the 10th of February 2023 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One and PC. 9th of February for the Nintendo Switch. Now players will control a bee. X35 Earthwalker has experience with these developers. Hope they have improved. Let’s take a look.
Bumblebee: Little Bee Adventure has a very simple story. You control a bee. The bee is looking for a new home. The journey begins in a school building. Things aren’t so safe in there but you push on. That’s the story. You are a bee and flying around.
Bumblebee: Little Bee Adventure is described as ‘story-driven’. So already there are expectations here. We doubt how effective this game will be concerning the story.
You will encounter a number of things. “distant places” and some animals. Maybe they have a talk about animal life. Complaining about their weaknesses. Who knows. It’s Bumblebee: Little Bee Adventure after all.
We checked out some Bumblebee: Little Bee Adventure gameplay and it’s what we expected. The main prize of this game is the exploration. Just fly around and go wherever you want. Players may come across items. Maybe even an energy potion to keep you going. There’s even golden flowers hidden around. Collect all of them if you want.
Overall Bumblebee: Little Bee Adventure does not look like a good game so far. If you want a chill and relaxed atmosphere then there’s better options. There’s limitations on the flying. You shouldn’t need energy potion to boost. Boosting should be available always. flying around and exploring is the best part of this game. It needs to be as free and fun as possible. We don’t see the story driven narrative side of this game. The developers ‘EpiXR Games‘ have to do better in developing games. X35 Earthwalker is not feeling this game. Now Bumblebee: Little Bee Adventure my have a journey but it needs to bee better for… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Clash: Artifacts of Chaos is an action adventure game developed by ‘ACE Team‘ and published by ‘Nacon‘. Clash: Artifacts of Chaos is said to be coming out the 9th of March 2023. X35 Earthwalker has seen many weird games and it looks like we got another one. Let’s take a look.
Clash: Artifacts of Chaos is all about the action. Combat action. Straight hands in this game. So basically what’s going on is that players are a Pseudo. A Pseudo is a master of martial arts “who lives as a recluse in the strange land of Zenozoik.” You eventually come across a boy, who’s a small creature. He has powers, quite weird, and it bringing the attention Gemini. Gemini is “the mistress of the artifacts”. You choose to protect the boy. Off course this move comes with risks.
Clash: Artifacts of Chaos is all, about the hands. Remember we said that. Battle is what’s happening. As you travel and explore you will face foes. It has been declared that your fists are your best weapons. Be fast as well. So fists plus speed is your top advantage. Dodge attacks that come your way. Blocking off course is a thing and sometimes it’s better to block. There’s parrying, so timing is everything. What’s strange is this line, “counter a parry to land a special attack”. Maybe it’s a typo but if you can counter a parry then that’s a bad mechanic. A parry takes timing anded skill and it should be rewarded. Being able to counter a parry makes parrying pointless.
We checked out some Clash: Artifacts of Chaos gameplay and it’s mostly what we expected. We like the different martial arts that you can learn and put to use. Some of these martial arts moves are basically references to other popular things or show or maybe an anime. We won’t say though. As you continue to fight and win you can “improve your characteristics” and level up your moves. We like the mechanic that before fighting you can challenge your foe to a little game. Dice. The winner gets advantages. This includes shackles on the opponent to limit movement, fog covering the arena, summon in help and more. The combat might get crazy after all.
Overall Clash: Artifacts of Chaos looks like it’s going to be a fun game. A good game as well. Even those it’s about giving others the hands, don’t forget you are after the great artefacts. There’s also mercenaries after you for real. We hope there’s a lot going on in this weird world. hopefully elephant dude is chill. Doesn’t look like it. The developers ‘ACE Team’ have done a good job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker know about martial arts and will be the judge of it. Now Clash: Artifacts of Chaos may have rapid fire punches but it doesn’t have the quantity or speed to keep up with… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Wild Hearts is an action adventure game developed by ‘Koei Tecmo Games‘ and published by ‘electronic Arts‘. Wild Hearts is said to be coming out the 16th of February 2023 on Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and pc. A gaming concept like this is easy to get right. So much potential. X35 Earthwalker will see if it is being done right. Let’s take a look.
The story of Wild Hearts is like legend story. There’s these massive animals or beasts, whatever you want to call them, and they are called Kemono. Kemono, not kimono. Get it right. The kemono got angry or something. They went on a rampage such a long time ago that no one remembers why. We already know the twist for this game. You made it too obvious developers. Back to the story. The Kemono rampaged through Azuma, which we hear was doing really well before the rampage. That’s it.
Well that isn’t exactly it. The kemono are unstoppable. No one could beat them. Then one day a hunter showed up. This hunter was clearly a whole cut above everyone else. This hunter had effective weapons and ancient technology. This technology is called Karakuri… not to be mistaken with the Yu-Gi-Oh! monster arch type called Karakuri. So we can see all the references here. This one hunter “could turn the tide of battle.” So yeah, here’s where the player comes into play. You will also use ancient tech to hunt and take down the kemono.
Now off course if you are developing a monster hunting game then the only real competitor is Monster under. So how is this different? Well Wild Hearts is more focused on the technology. We don’t see this was a huge difference yet but hopefully it will be more clear when we see more of Wild Hearts. In terms of the technology being a big deal, it has to be clear in the gameplay and mechanics. We like the vehicle method of transportation. That circular vehicle reminds us of Jack Atlas’ duel runner in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds. We hope to see more big things and signs of technology being the dominant factor and in the hunting and fights against the kemono. They got to get this right.
We checked out some Wild Hearts gameplay and it’s mostly what we expected. The karakuri can take on multiple forms or should we say be shaped into those forms. Karakuri can be used to set traps. The karakuri is also for building, resource gathering and off course training. So yeah, use both the karakuri and your weapons (don’t forget about those) to face the kemono. Now we hope they do the battles with these creatures right. They can’t be a here’s their level, go in, beat them and cross it off your list. These beasts need to live up to their fame. Be powerful, massive and an actual challenge.
Overall Wild Hearts seems like a good game but we want it to be much better. The potential is there. The graphics are looking good and the locations are looking nice with variety. The locations and environments matters in a hunt. We do hope to see improvements to the game as a whole. The kemono need to have variety and more kemono need to show up and bring variety instead of the predictable lot. The developers ‘Koei Tecmo Games’ have done an alright job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker will hope the potential of Wild Hearts is maximised. Now Wild Hearts may be the next big monster hunting game but it’s scale is far too small for… the ‘Earth Walk!’
Deliver Us Mars is an atmospheric Sci-fi adventure game developed by ‘KeokeN Interactive‘ and published by ‘Frontier Foundry‘. Deliver Us Mars is said to be coming out 2nd of February 2023 on the Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4 and PC. X35 Earthwalker sees loads of potential with this game. Deliver Us Mars better not ruin its chance. Let’s take a look.
Deliver Us Mars is off course the sequel to Deliver Us the Moon (2019). So fans of that game should be smiling by now. Deliver Us Mars is set 10 years after the events of the last game. Basically what’s going on is that you are on what’s described as an high stakes mission. You must recover the ARK colony ships which were “stolen by the mysterious Outward.” There’s stuff going on with earth too. Earth’s resources are depleted… cue in Thanos. They should have listened to him.
Players who like the puzzles in their adventures can expect this in Deliver Us Mars. So, yeah use your brains for once in a game… maybe. There’s even climbing mechanics now. We actually like the look of this. It makes sense when it comes to planet exploration. We should be climbing walls and exploring canyons. Deliver Us Mars allows the traversing of Mars.
Like a sequel should, there are references and even picks up the story concerning points and characters from the first game. the developers diid say that they welcome any and all fan theories. We trust that Deliver Us Mars will be an impactful and strong gaming experience by itself. There are a number of ways to handle this game but let’s see if the developers go down one of those routes.
We checked out some Deliver us Mars gameplay and it’s what we expected for the most part. Looks like the story is right in your face with the focus. How much emotions will players display? How much would we actually care. Driving across the terrain of Mars in a vehicle just looks like a good time. They need to pay attention to details concerning this. We want to see dust. We need either a rear mirror view or be able to see 1180 to see a a real storm kick up. There’s potential. X35 Earthwalker out here giving developers free points.
Overall Deliver us Mars is looking like a good game right now and can even be promoted to a great game. The focus in the story has to be right. Nothing cringy please. Some developers just don’t learn. The graphics are looking good but it needs to be cleaner especially when it comes to the environments. It’s easy to get away with sounds in a game like this. The main character is looking weak. Not impressed or rooting for her yet. The developers ‘KeokeN Interactive’ have done a good job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to see how Mars is handled in this game.
Monster Hunter Rise is an action role playing game developed and published by ‘Capcom’. Monster Hunter Rise is said to be coming out the 20th of January 2023 on the Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS5 and PS4. It’s already out on the Nintendo Switch and pc. Monster Hunter Rise is coming to the others consoles. Big monsters, big hunting. X35 Earthwalker knows what real hunting is. Let’s take a look.
Monster Hunter Rise is the latest main Monster Hunter game. Fans of the Monster Hunter games should know what to expect here. Simply put, players are hunters and you go out to get those monsters. big monsters which sometimes include dragons. You have massive and powerful weapons and ideally work in a team to take them down. X35 has checked out previous Monster Hunter games before and liked the variety that’s available. From desert based enemies to ones chilling in a forest. We expect similar and more.
Monster Hunter Rise coming to Xbox and PlayStation means that new players are on the way. So hopefully all the Nintendo Switch and pc players will be advisers, show some support and gaming-ship. Makes you wonder how the new players will change the balance going around. After all the new players will be lower level and less experienced. So will there be functions and mechanics to help out the new players or is it, you are on your own and will always be behind everyone, which isn’t fun. Let’s see.
Monster Hunter Rise isn’t exactly the same thing in everyday. The Monster Hunting action takes place in Kamura village. If you like mountains then… be happy… or whatever. Hunts can even take place at the Ancient Shrine ruins. Now off course when you go to hunt a powerful and dangerous monster, the wise thing to do is get some help. So either go at it solo, something X35 Earthwalker can do with the greatest of ease, or be like a regular mortal and play co-op with up to three other players… both local and online. Wish more games had local co-op. It’s needed and makes a big difference.
Overall Monster Hunter Rise seems like a alright game so far. Monster Hunter still hasn’t made us want to try it yet. Monster still has a ways to go. The fans of course should be happy. It’s time to see what’s up. The developers ‘Capcom’ have done an alright job soo far. We expected the graphics to be better though. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to hear about the impact. Now Monster Hunter Rise may be available on more platforms but it’s still to little for… the ‘Earth Walk!’
MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries – Rise of Rasalhague is a new DLC developed by ‘Piranha Games‘ and published ‘Fireshine Games‘. MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries – Rise of Rasalhague is said to be coming out the 26th of January 2023 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4 and PC. X35 Earthwalker knows MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries very well and its flaws. Let’s take a look.
MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries – Rise of Rasalhague is an expansion that’s going to bring some big stuff. The background behind all this basically is that there’s a conflict going on. Takes place before the formation of the star league. The player will fight along with colonel Månsdottir and the people dwelling at Rasalhague for freedom and independence from the ‘Great houses’ (if you know then you know). That’s basically the story here.
So let’s get into what matters here. MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries – Rise of Rasalhague not only brings the new scenario and storyline, which is a 12 missions quest, but there’s even a whole new mech chassis, called Crusader. It has 11 variants as well so… get experimental or not. One of the variants is the “Hero ‘Crael’ variant” which has melee weapon capabilities. Now we are going full Transformers. We got blasters, lasers, ballistic rounds and now actual proper melee.
Now this is interesting and should liven things up in the Inner Sphere. Rival mercenary companies are here and operating in the Inner Sphere as well. So players can expect interactions with these rivals. Not just the rivals but the so called “famous Bounty hunter”. So if players accept and do work in places or areas where a rival company has garrisoned, you can look forward to either hostile or maybe friendly.
We checked out some Mechwarrior 5 mercenaries: Rise of Rasalhague and it’s what we expected. As tactical as we remember with loads of information presented to the players on the HUD. The so called infamous bounty hunter may pay for intel concerning rival mercenaries. This off course is a way to get rewards. There’s also ‘infiltration’ mode, which the developers have claimed that the infiltration missions are “exciting and dynamic”. We will be the judges of that. Now we hope the developers fix the main problem of Mechwarrior 5 mercenaries which was its unfair difficulty. We already talked and wrote about it. They need to tone it down a lot. The unfair difficulty is why we stopped playing the game. We did hear there is a free game update which has improvements to the “AI performance and behaviour.”
Overall Mechwarrior 5 mercenaries: Rise of Rasalhague looks like it’s going to be a good update dlc. Even the mech hangar is getting an upgrade which allows for more room for mechs. The graphics are looking good and we expect there to be an update to the game Mechwarrior 5 mercenaries as a whole. So sounds as well should be better. We want to see how much details are there concerning the destruction of the trees, buildings and more. The trailer up above is concerning the hero of the inner sphere dlc. The developers have done a good job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker will keep an ear open concerning this game.
Chasing Static is a horror adventure game developed by ‘Headware Games‘ and published by ‘Ratalaika Games‘. Chasing Static is said to be coming out the 12th of January 2023 on the Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, PS5 and PS4. It’s already out on the pc. X35 Earthwalker knows of many games and has taken notice of this one. Chasing Static has a usual setting. Let’s take a look.
Chasing Static is set in the “untouched wilderness of rural Wales.” Now this is unique. How many games can you name right now that is set in Wales? Exactly. So automatically we are interested a bit and listening. So basically what’s happening here in Chasing Static is that something mysterious and not good has happened to the villagers of Hearth. They are missing. There’s also a facility. You got no good information about this place. It’s clearly been abandoned… but like any “good” protagonist in a horror movie, who isn’t black, you’re going in to investigate.
Players will have to actually investigate what’s happening here. Use equipment and rely on your ears to understand what’s going on. Now take note that this is a short game. It’s been described as a bite sized terror. The average playtime is approximately 2 hours. You can tackle the story at your own pace as Chasing Static is suppose to be non-linear.
We checked out some Chasing Static gameplay and it’s what we expected. We do like that this game went for the whole PlayStation 1 (PS1) look. The graphics looks old but the sounds are suppose to be excellent. Think of it like the game Infernax… designed to look like an old school game but has modern mechanics, feel, sounds and design. So yeah, we can appreciate that from time to time.
Overall Chasing Static seems like an alright game. A quick horror experience for players. nothing deep but what should be a good experience. We do like the sound mechanics of it. There’s big scare opportunities for when player5s use the experimental Frequency Displacement Monitoring Device. Don’t waste it. The developers ‘Headware Games’ have done an alright job. This isn’t for X35 Earthwalker. Not our thing at all but others will be interested.
River City Girls 2 is a beat em up action game developed by ‘WayForward‘ and published by ‘Arc System Works‘. River City Girls 2 came out the 15th of December 2022 on the Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4 and PC. X35 Earthwalker wrote about the first game. The second is here.These girls aren’t alone. Let’s take a look.
River City Girls 2 is here and off course being a sequel, it has to be bigger, more loaded and better. The story in River City Girls 2 takes place shortly after the first game. That old foe, who badly wants revenge, is back. This means the girls: Kyoko and Misako are back and kicking butt. So yeah, that’s the story. Fight!
River City Girls 2 is a sequel after all so that means there needs to be more. So Kyoko and Misako aren’t alone this time. They got some friends: Provie and Marian. These two ladies are bringing real firepower. Provie is literally bringing the groove with her dancing and heavy combo moves. Marian has transformed herself and is now all power with heavy moves. These two ladies make a difference. But wait!.. There’s more! Kunio and Riki is here to fight as well. We got some manpower on the team and we know that always comes in handy. So yeah, 6 fighters. Pick one.
We checked out some River City Girls 2 gameplay and it’s what we expected. It is bigger and more loaded. More locations and more abilities. “Lift-off combos”, elemental status effects and even guard-crush attacks, so deeper combat mechanics. There’s over 40 shops for players to buy accessories and items. Don’t forget to hire what’s called ‘heavies’ to support you. You can also recruit fallen foes. Best of all, River City Girls 2 is co-op both online and local. Games like this need co-op. Imagine Scott Pilgrim vs the world but no co-op. That would be terrible.
Overall River City Girls 2 looks like a good game. Definitely better than the last one. The big boss looks far more intimidating and powerful. Ken is an interesting character but we feel like he will made a complete joke in this game. There’s more options, more combat, more mechanics, more characters, more everything and it’s done in mostly the correct way. Animations are better too, especially the defeated ones. The developers ‘Wayforward’ have done a very good job. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to hear what this game accomplishes. Now River City Girls 2 may have reinforcements but it work work against… the ‘Earth Walk!’
