Tag: single player

Dustborn. A special road trip

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Dustborn is a new action adventure game developed by ‘Red Thread Games‘ and published by ‘Quantic Dream‘. Dustborn is said to be coming out 2021 on the Xbox Series X, PS5 and PC. This game has a very cool concept in it but even so, it has to prove itself to us as we are getting a certain image from this game. Let’s take a look.

Dustborn is set in the year 2030. You are in the United States of America but you can’t call it united anymore. Things are very different. There was a specific and big broadcast that took place 30 years ago (so 2000) that changed everything but the sounds of it. You controlPax. She’s an outcast, a con artist and ex convict. So basically a very nice girl who you bring to meet your parents. She’s got a mission, to bring a certain package across America to Nova Scotia. She’s on a journey. A road trip you can call it. She can’t do this alone, especially being four months pregnant. Is there anything NOT going on in her life?! She will meet others who will join her on this journey. 

Dustborn has been described as “third-person, single-player, story-driven, road-tripping action-adventure about hope, love, friendship, robots — and the power of words.” Dustborn is already making us quite concerned. From the description of the game to the design of the characters. It’s giving us that new marvel comics horrible forced agenda character designed feel. Now Dustborn isn’t in that league at all but it’s the feeling we are getting. Instead of writing this game off, we decided to look in and see what’s going on and the main things that made our ears open is their concept concerning words. The power of words. So don’t just write this game off. Just check it out first. It’s doing it’s own thing.

Now the power of words. They say that words have power… actual power. You can use your words to attack enemies, manipulate characters and change things. Another thing inspired by the Bible, as it teaches about he real power of words and it’s impact on people and the world but off course no one is giving credit to the Bible. In Dustborn you can use words to literally attack enemies and literally manipulate peoples thinking and ideas. We saw pax, with the large word “Move” forcefully shove a group of soldiers away, knocking them all down. There are NPCs in the Dustborn world that you can talk to but by using your words, you can completely change things. If it’s not clear, Pax has powers but they are fuelled by ‘disinformation’. Interesting.

 

Your crew is the interesting thing. Like just look at them. It took us just one look to understand what’s going on. There’s a robot for crying out loud and a very large woman with the typical nose ring. She’s bigger than everyone in the crew. Then you got Johnny slick hair with a mechanical hand. Looks like he ran away from a wealthy home or was part of a criminal group. The designs are saying something. Yes that’s right. Robots are moving about, talking and doing their thing. Even the robot has a story. Each character has their own story and what they are running away from. So make sure to listen to them, learn and keep the information in the files within your head. You must manage your crew too so what you say to them and how they interact each other does matter. Do your job as a leader.

This road trip is not a normal one in case you couldn’t tell. You will reach and explore a whole number of places. There’s a decommissioned school in Nevada for gifted children. There’s a former government re-education camp in Oregon. A weird great plains exclusion Zone and even robot factories in Detroit. There’s a whole lot of “pit-stops across America”. Exploration is important, especially to understand the history of America in Dustborn. The civil war that took place. The different factions and ideologies that are going on. Information maybe of the army that’s chasing you guys. Just remember, you are posing as a rock band.  

We checked out some Dustborn gameplay and it’s mostly what we thought it would be. At first we thought their wouldn’t be any real combat but there is actual engagements with the enemy. The game is described as if you will have options when it comes to your crew and recruitment but there really isn’t any. It’s the set people. We like that this is quite the adventure. We like that the world is quite active but our favourite is the concept surrounding words and their effects. Hopefully gamers playing this will rethink their view on words and their impact on things and people.

Overall Dustborn looks like a good game. It’s big and clearly doing it’s own thing with different approaches, from the cast of characters to the unique concept concerning words. We’ve seen this graphic style before and it normally works just fine, like here. We do like the environments too. It’s sort of comical in a way too.  This game looks like it has a big story to tell with twists, especially with Pax, the main character. The developers ‘Red Thread games’ have done a good so far. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to see what happens with Dustborn. Now Dustborn may have a road trip across America but that’s truly a small journey compared to… the ‘Earth walk!’

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Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach is the new horror game developed by ‘Scott Games‘ and ‘Steel Wool Studios‘. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach is said to be coming out the second quarter of 2021 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PS5, PS4 and PC. It’s another Five Nights and Freddy’s game. So expect those jumpscares.

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach is the latest Five Nights at Freddy’s game. We knew this game would trend because people loved how different it was and off course the endless jump scares. Now look. It’s 2021 and we got a security breach. There isn’t much to say for a few reasons. One, there’s little information on this game but we being way more intelligent than the average intelligent person figured some stuff out. No we won’t share with you… why? Have you donated? No, exactly. Two, it’s. Five Nights at Freddy’s game, as in you know what to expect. There are some differences though. Three, the trailer we included down below gives enough information to get what’s going on.

Let’s go over some simple stuff. The Pia joint in Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach is being called the most extreme family fun center. Bold claim. It’s called Freddy Fazbear’s Mega Pizza Plex. Not impressed but this joint is a major upgrade from the previous establishments. Freddy Fazbear’s Mega Pizza Plex is three stories tall. It’s decked out with new technology, lights, flashiness, shininess and artificial intelligence?! They also claim this place is the safest too. Those Freddy places are always safe. The level of animatronic technology is at it’s highest here.

We checked out something concerning Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach and it seems like the selling point for customers is the interaction children can have with the animatronics. They get to be superstars. Party with them. Off course the player is a priority target and you aren’t allowed to leave this place and do as you please. She is looking for you. Don’t let her find you. Jump scares are here and darkness and voices and hiding and mysteries. You have been warned. We know those youtubers, especially game theory, about to get their 17 Five Nights at Freddy’s videos out. Views inbound and kids excited.  

Overall, Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach looks like another Five nights and Freddy’s game but this one is more like the latest games and not the original. So we expect more action mixed in like Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted and Curse of Fredbear. So we expect a hybrid especially with the additional developers working on this but more movement and freedom… hopefully. The developers ‘Scottgames’ and ‘steel wool studios’ have quite the job ahead of them.

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Mundaun. New horror tale

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Mundaun is a new horror adventure game developed by ‘Hidden Fields‘ and published by ‘MWM Interactive‘. Madaun is said to be coming out March 16th 2021 on the Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, PS5 and PC. Mundaun is coming out gamers with a different style. It got our attention so we hope this is worth our time. Let’s take a look.

What the story? What we do know is that Mundaun is set in the valleys of the Alps (the mountain). The character we control learns that his grandfather died in a fire, so you travel to this placed called Mundaun. Last time he was here was when he was a child. Mundaun isn’t the same though. You discover that something diabolical is here and causing some trouble. So instead of… you know… leaving, running away for your life or calling the army instead you act like Freddy from Scooby doo and split and look for clues. You stick around to investigate while all the Jamaicans already ran.

The mission is to basically find out what’s going on and why. Seriously though does this make any sense. What kind of crappy life must our protagonist have to be down with this. Like seriously. He wasn’t knocked out and brought here, held at gun point or forced. He learns that his grandfather died in a mysterious fire, then willingly decides to come to Mundaun, then finds out that some diabolical stuff is going on and hostile beings are around BUT decides to stay and investigate. He asking to get killed.

Mundaun instantly stands out from the others visually. The whole game looks like the old vintage filter is on… 24/7. Not only that but you may have noticed the graphic style. It’s pencilled drawn textures. These hand drawn games take a lot of work and a lot of time so we almost always hope they do well. This old vintage look is not for us though but it does add to the atmosphere making things appear more serious but not documentary level serious. 

This game is bigger than you think though. There are multiple places and open levels to explore and see what’s happening. Places buildings, snowy peaks and even meadows. There’s some variety here. There are some vehicles that you can control like hay loaders and sleighs. The strength of the fear has different effects. The stronger the fear, the slower you move. There are loads of puzzles that are there waiting for you as you progress up the mountain.   

We checked out some Mundaun gameplay and it’s what we thought but weirder. It’s a bit too slow for us. We also didn’t see enough concerning the dangerous enemies in the Mundaun. We haven’t seen enough to get us excited or interested in the game. What about the monsters. Can you beat them or have to evade them. This game has the looks but more can be done to make this awesome. We are most interested in the monsters so do something bout that developers. 

Overall Mundaun so far looks like an alright game. Nothing special yet. We do like that there is life in Mundaun though as there are inhabitants that you can speak to and they have their own spoken language. Some characters are more useful than others. The graphics are good for what it is, we won’t say more though. The developers ‘Hidden Fields’ need to do much more for this game to be a heavy hitter. Now Mundaun may have potential but it’s potential is nothing in the presence of… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Tunnel of Doom. Where does it lead?

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Tunnel of Doom is a new action rouge-lite tower defence hybrid game developed by ‘Antti Vaihai’ ad published by ‘Digerati‘. Tunnel of Doom is said to be coming out in the second quarter of 2021 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC. This looks like another little indie game with some action. Let’s take a look. 

Tunnel of Doom has a very simple story but one you can understand. You play as a woman called Angel. She is on an adventure to save her husband. So reverse Resident Evil 7 Biohazard. The wife is saving the husband and she is willing to go through a lot to rescue him. Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing (proverbs 18:22). She will go through a mine which has randomly generated layouts every time she progresses. She’s armed and ready for what comes her way in the… Tunnel of Doom.

Now these aren’t ordinary mines in Tunnel of Doom as there are monsters and dangers all in there not afraid to take her out (not to dinner). This is here the action tower defence part comes into play. Each ear in the mine is randomly generated including the resources, perks and what’s at your disposal to combat the hordes of enemies. You can set up obstacles like barricades and offensive contraptions like cannons. Plan before you face the horde. Now how they will enter and move, then set up to counter and give yourself the best chance possible to survive. 

As for the action part in Tunnel of Doom, Angel can also fight by herself too. This reminds us of Dungeon Defenders (an awesome game) where you set up towers and defences but your character can also go into the field and fight toe to toe with the enemies. Same principle. Angel can have both ranged and melee attacks. You and leap across gaps to traverse the room, smash boulders with your pick axe to get resources, action roll like in dark souls to smash pots or quickly evade… maybe. The roll looks real weak though. Also make sure to stack up on money too as there are beings that sell items like a shop. So grab what you need. Use everything to your advantage. 

Here is some information concerning Tunnel of Doom from their page:

  • Find Perks: Better traps. Improved weapons. More resources. There are 50 perks to discover, each offering an array of stat boosts and gameplay tweaks.
  • Dream Mode: Escape the mine to unlock this new, endless challenge.
  • Weapon Combat: If your revolver or rifle ammo is running low… improvise! Throw rocks or glass. Swing your pickaxe. Break out the TNT. Do what it takes to avoid being mobbed by the monsters!
  • Randomly Generated: The layout of the mine, perks, and monster battles change with each new game, meaning every run is different! 
  • Set Traps: It’s you against the hordes! Boost your chances of success and survival by strategically positioning cannons and barricades before battles begin.
  • Gather Resources: Smash lamps. Destroy crates. Blow up rocks. Search the mine for materials that can be used as makeshift weapons or ammunition for traps.

We checked out some Tunnel of Doom gameplay and it’s what we thought it would be for the most part. We expected the graphic style but didn’t expect the mining aspect of the game. We like that the character is completely involved in the action. We like that you can improvise too… to some extent. For example you can hurl rocks at the enemies to harm them or even throw glass at them too. Your dynamites can be used as weapons too which makes sense. The enemies do not look scary at all. Feel like we can solo punch them to death. 

Overall Tunnel of Doom looks like another good indie game. We don’t think the did the rouge-lite tower defence hybrid blended perfectly together but Tunnel of Doom did it well still. Not a fan of the graphics and the animations are alright. Tunnel of Doom might have a tough time on release but we hope things change. The developers ‘Antti Vaihai’ have done an alright job with Tunnel of Doom. We at X35 Earthwalker will have to hear where this tunnel leads. Now Tunnel of Doom may have a hybrid going on but even combined it isn’t comparable to… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Hunting Simulator 2. The hunt continues

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Hunting Simulator 2 is a hunting action simulation game developed by ‘Neopica‘ and published by ‘Nacon‘. Hunting Simulator 2 is said to be coming out 2021 on the Xbox Series X and PS5 but it’s already out on Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and PC. Going out to hunt your some deer sounds like fun. Let’s take a look.

Hunting Simulator 2 is exactly what you think it is. You are literally going hunting. Heading out into the forest, walking around, crouching, hiding and looking out for animals or whatever prey you seek. That’s what this game is. Like hunting in real life though, there can be some dangers to man. For example, what if you come across a bear? Wouldn’t you know what to do? Would you be attacked? That’s for you to find out.

We have never played hunting simulator games before nor have we cared about them and the same goes for flying simulators. It’s not because we think they are bad… no, it’s simply because it’s not our type of game. We do know that in Hunting Simulator 2 you are working together with your hunting dog. Dogs… a man’s best friend they say but seriously the dog will be a very useful ally in the hunt. You must select your gear for the hunt from “the best official weapons and accessories”. In context they must mean the best hunting specific weapons and not the best weapons in the world; otherwise you would have the option of a heavy machine gun. That would make hunting interesting. 

There’s some variety to the hunting locations in Hunting Simulator 2 as there is the texan desert, Colorado and the forest of Europe, all large areas. You’re a travelling hunter by the looks of it. Your hunting dog capable of tracking your targets. Also there are types of hunting dogs, like beagle, labrador retriever and German shorthaired pointer and the type matters as they have their own hunting attributes. So there’s quite a bit of stuff to think about before heading out into the vast wild. Hey! Is that a moose over there? We eating good tonight.

We checked out some Hunting Simulator 2 gameplay and it’s what we expected. Lush environments or dry environments, forests or deserts off course. A loyal well trained dog to back you up and just enjoying the hunt. There’s 33 different animal species for players to hunt. There’s over 160 accessories, weapons and clothing items to choose from and equip. Also they are brands like kryptek, winchester, verney-carron, browning and bushnell. So hunters out there might really like this. It’s hunting, what else can we say but the fact that the frames, visuals and performance will be much better now that it is coming to the next gen consoles, especially the Xbox Series X.

Overall Hunting Simulator 2 looks like a very good game for what it is. You are going hunting. You are working with a dog to hunt down your prey. Many different weapons, items, equipment and more. Multiple locations and hopefully some dangers. You hunt. What else? The developers ‘Neopica’ have done a good job. Now hunting simulator 2 might be the real hunt but it’s a complete walk in the par for… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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White Shadows. A colourless weird adventure

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

White Shadows is a new adventure platformer game developed by ‘Monokel‘ and published by ‘Headsup Games‘. White Shadows is said to be coming out in the year 2021 on the Xbox Series X, PS5 and PC. 

White Shadows is set in a weird, dark and apparently at times funny world. It’s the last city of earth and there’s nothing but half human, half animal inhabitants. Basically there was great war which caused a plague which destroyed almost all living things on the planet. Matter of fact, how the developers worded it is excellent. Here’s a direct quote: “the great war led to a plague which wiped almost all living things from the face of the earth. Or so they say. Nobody is safe outside the White City, and the birds are to blame for the plague. Or so they say. Only a shining coat of fresh white color will protect you from the plague, and you must earn your ration of color by staying obedient. Or so they say. But Ravengirl stopped listening.”

Did you get all that. This game White Shadows I supposed to be a “distorted” mirror of our world. A modern fable if you must. So you can imagine there’s going to be representations of character or events from real life in the game. This also means that White Shadows might contain some real life lessons for the gamers or giver the players something to think about. Beware of those as it’s the developers ideas and not always the best advice or lessons but it’s a game so you guys have to decide for yourself. In case you haven’t realised yet but White Shadows should straight away remind you of a certain game. Also black and white, with simple controls and messed up world. The answer is Limbo. We don’t need to say why. 

Like with Limbo, the controls for White Shadows are simple and some times simple is very good, especially for games of this style. Players need to focus on what’s going on around them in the world in White Shadows. You will see other beings actions taking place and even possibly vehicles moving around. Everything is black and hits with a strangely huge emphasis on the colour white. You are being told by the wolf overlords, who are the leaders, that you must be obedient to earn your color. apparently though the colour white has a horrible truth about it. This makes sense historically as in ancient times the colour white had a very bad meaning and represented negative stuff. So maybe this is a historical thing but definitely symbolic. 

This world has all sorts around here. There’s rats, wolves, birds, pigs and sheep. These are all beings like you. They are also buying into what the society and overlords say. This is an obedient you must obey brainwashed kind of world. Ravengirl (you) decides to not listen anymore and escape. The more you continue on the journey you learn more about your characters past and off course the world around you. You also gain the attention of the other half human, half animals around here. Who knows, they might follow you. Oh, we didn’t even mention the goal. Apparently there’s a resistance hidden in the belly of the city. Maybe that is also a lie made by the wolf overlords to lure in those who rebel for an easy capture and kill. Think about it. Look at the image above with a doorway saying ‘whites only’. If white was such a great thing then why aren’t those obeying citizens there trying to be white and get in. Why is the only one white our main character who’s trying to escape. We believe it’s a trap like being the chosen one in that weird movie about cat people. The chosen got sent away on a hot air balloon thing where they will eventually die. Getting rid of the doubter. If this is suppose to be a mirror of our world and the wolf overlords present the government leaders (maybe) then wouldn’t the real lose as they are going against a whole government who an army. We believe this is a trap.

We checked out some White Shadows gameplay and it’s exactly what we though it would be. It’s Limbo. Off course trying to do it’s own thing and it does stand out with a different type of atmosphere. It’s simple controls, obvious objectives s in it’s clear what you have to do. The main information and story is from what you see happening around you. There is going to be interactions though. What kind? We aren’t sure but that’s something for players to think about. It’s said that it’s the interactions that drive the story forwards. Well gamers, are you going to change the fate of this city or are you going to fall right into a trap? What about the world outside of the city? Questions are here.

Overall White Shadows looks like it’s going to be an alright game. Heavy symbolic and representative games tend to try too hard but maybe this one will be pulled off very well. You even wonder how is this little Ravengirl going to stand up to, be a threat or change anything in this city. Maybe she fails in the end and falls back in line with no hop.e We hope something big happens. The developers ‘Monokel’ have done a good job here. The game looks very good and heavily detailed. It has to be with this black and white design. Now White Shadows may have dark secrets but this darkness fades when it comes to… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Tetris Effect: Connected. Fantastic Game!

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Tetris Effect: Connected is described as a tile matching puzzle game. Simply put… it’s Tetris. You know what it is. This game is fantastic! Sure it’s Tetris, but it’e not Tetris and we will get into that later. We are so glad we played this game and it surprised us severely. Don’t let the fact that it’s a tetris game throw you off. Let’s take a look.

Let’s get this out of the way. We don’t like Tetris. We don’t care about Tetris. We never cared about Tetris. Never owned a Tetris game. We care about Tetris Effect: Connected though. Like for real, Tetris is boring… but Tetris Effect: Connected isn’t. We have spent lots of time in Tetris Effect: Connected and had lots of fun in this game. It’s the best Tetris game by far. Do not underestimate this game. We have seen gamers who never cared about Tetris now enjoying Tetris Effect: Connected. That speaks for itself. By the way Tetris Effect: Connected is currently an Xbox exclusive. Best experienced on Xbox Series X though. 

The main mode which is the campaign called ‘Journey Mode’. Here you go through a series of levels where you play Tetris but the main goal is to clear lines. There are three difficulties really as the fourth is practice mode which doesn’t even include all the levels, has no game over and is the slowest speed. In Normal difficulty you must clear 36 lines, beginner is 30 while hard is 48. Also the higher difficulties are overall have faster Tetriminos (the falling blocks) falling speed. For example the first level ‘The Deep’ ca rise up to a fall speed of 3 while in Hard it goes up to 8. The problem we have with Tetris Effect: Connected is that the jump from normal to hard is too big but if you reach the later levels in normal difficulty you would be use to higher speeds than the early hard mode levels anyway but still…. too big of a gap.

The levels in the journey mode are beautiful and vary heavily from each other. You have sea level types but they vary for example ‘The Deep’ has manta rays but concludes with a massive whale. This level is one of the best ways to start of the game. It’s a beautiful display and you see the movement around as you progress through the Level. Mermaid cove has mermaids. Turtle dreams has turtles. There’s also Jelly fish Cgorus and Dolphin Surf which has a immensely bright moment in the level where you come to the surface with the dolphins. Epic stuff. Some levels come with a song with lyrics while others is just music but for the most part the music is very good and we like the songs. The song in balloon high is the best though. It’s relaxing or gets you hyped with the action, making things intense. The big boss level is metamorphosis which has 90 lines to clear on Normal difficulty. It’s a huge battle where the Tetriminos will fall at high speeds which are impossible to work with if you are new to the game. More on that later. Journey mode is awesome, very challenging and you’ll spend good time here training.

The next big mode is off course Multiplayer which what makes Tetris Effect: Connected a different game from Tetris Effect. Some idiot online wanted to spend his day arguing with X35 Earthwalker about that. What a loser. Hopefully he gets a life. Multiplayer is where the action is at after training through Journey mode. Here you can find all the true new stuff. We do recommend players go through the tutorial for helpful tips as there are tricks and certain aspects of the modes you need to be aware of in order to do good. Once you enter multiplayer you see a massive pyramid but at it’s base is the top reflected to make a full shape. Just imagine a pyramid on top of a pyramid but connected at the base. It’s in the center of this galaxy and players names are floating around this massive structure and in the Milky Way looking galaxy. You can select your guardian avatar which is the different images and shapes you unlock through playing all through Tetris Effect Connected. For example if you level up you can unlock the Moon, Nabla and Sun through playing online matches and you get a bonus if you win off course. You can unlock others through playing specific modes or a certain number of matches etc. They are cool and the one you select becomes like your symbol. Cosmetic stuff. There’s 84 in total. There’s orbit mode which allows the player to fly around the galaxy and view players avatars, their names and see the pyramid from different angles. There are three types of multiplayer: Ranked, Friend and Local. Ranked is for points and against random Tetris Effect: Connected players around the world. Friend is a private match where you can invite friends. Local is local couch play. Bring a friend over, family or beat your spouse at Tetris and damage your marriage. 

The multiplayer modes are: Connected, zone battle, Score attack and Classic score attack. Classic score attack is where you face an opponent 1v1 to see who gets the highest score. Old school classic Tetris. Score attack is the same but it’s all modern Tetris though. Now here’s the good stuff. zone battle is about crushing your foe. Not score. It’s whoever loses first. First to two. Cause your opponent’s side to fill up to the top. As you clear lines in fancy ways you send trash to your opponents side which builds up forcing them higher to the top of their screen. So clearing doubles, triples, quads, clearing in combos, T-spin or whatever it is called all contributes. Single line clears don’t contribute at all. Your best tool is the zone mechanic. This mechanic is new to Tetris Effect: Connected (It was also in the inferior Tetris Effect). Basically you stop time and have limited time to clear lines and each cleared line goes straight to the bottom of your screen. Can save your life but the best way to score points. This zone if done right can completely destroy your opponents one shot. There’s ways to win but you need to know what you should and shouldn’t be doing. More experienced players than X35 Earthwalker has lost to him because X35 knew what to do while they didn’t.

The last mode is Connected and this is truly awesome. You and two others face actual bosses who are playing Tetris just like you. It’s 3v1. The bosses are the stupid zodiac signs. They are in groups of three and you face each one one right after the other. For example on normal difficulty you face: cancer, libra and scorpio. Each boss has their own abilities which are designed to mess up the players. For example they might make your next two falling blocks super large taking up so much space. Cause your Tetriminos to fall extremely fast. Rise up your screen, drop in explosive blocks, rotate your field etc. Some abilities are more dangerous than others clearly. The three need to keep clearing lines like in zone battle to contribute to the meter. When it’s filled all three of your fields combine into one big one and you need to create as many lines as possible. The more you do the stronger your combined attack against the boss to force them to the top of the screen. Once defeated the next comes after a quick statistics break. There’s more after hard difficulty. They won’t go down easy.

Lastly is Effect mode where you can try out what looks like community made challenges. They are set though and mx things up. Some have conditions, others are about scoring in a time limit. It’s different from journey and multiplayer and brings in some adventurous stuff. There’s even one where you have to clear 40 lines as fast as possible. Simply put there’s lots to do here. Another thing we wanted to talk about tis that Tetris Effect: Connected trains you. It actually forces you to think faster and be faster. When you first start playing Journey mode you really struggle when the speed reaches 4. Higher speeds like 6 becomes too much and you complain at how fast it is.As you play a bit more and get use to the shapes you find yourself naturally able to handle speed 6 and up to 8. When you first encounter a level with a ruthless speed of 10 you get shocked and fail, again complaining that it’s too fast, which it is. Then over time you find yourself easily handling speed 10. We can now do speed 14 and 16 if we have enough space and actually plan and decide where that piece should go within the practically ‘no time’ that we have to think. This game forces you to be fast. You stop complaining ad say bring it on. You take on those speeds and find yourself handling it. We got faster and better. Since X35 Earthwalker is the best, smartest and wisest gamer of all time he grew in skill way faster than other players and these speeds are very doable for him. Off course we aren’t dedicating our lives to be the Tetris pro players as we have a bigger life and much more going on but for how much we do p[lay it, we are easily masters who are getting better. 

There isn’t really a negative to Tetris Effect: Connected except for the big gap in difficulty between Normal and hard. Other from that, there’s no problems. It’s Tetris and stays as Tetris. Thus game has lots to do. If you want to get serious you can with effect mode. If you want a challenge you can do journey mode on normal difficulty and higher. If you want to get competitive with others you can with multiplayer like zone battle. If you want to relax there’s relaxed modes in effect mode and there’s theatre mode where you can just watch the stages you play in journey mode, control the transition and listen to the music. Literally use Tetris Effect: Connected as your music player. Talk about a versatile game. Unpopular opinion and PlayStation fanboys get mad when wee say this but Tetris Effect: Connected is a better game than Demon’s souls remastered and spider man: Miles Morales. We aren’t joking. If you judged them for what they are, Tetris Effect: Connected is a better game. Don’t make the mistakes simple minded people make by assuming that this games boring because it’s Tetris and there’s no guns, giant axes, huge monsters and death. This game is fantastic. Very hard and unforgiving but fantastic.

Overall Tetris Effect: Connected is an awesome game. One of the best games of 2020 easily and worth playing even now. The graphics are amazing, the particle effects are the second best we have ever seen so far. It would all look better on an Xbox Series X (we currently don’t have the next gen console). So many colours, great music with variety, excellent effects, multiple game modes, boss battles which ascends Tetris as something complete new. There’s local play up to three players. Tetris Effect: Connected is a multiplayer game with many things available. We are glad we gave this game a chance. We would give Tetris Effect: Connected a 10/10. A perfect game. There’s isn’t really anything bad about it except one level where the fireworks effect you get as you do a big move, it causes a lag that does mess you up but that’s the only real negative. Everything else is great. It’s available on the Xbox game pass so you can even get this game for free and play the whole thing. There isn’t much to say as it’s Tetris at the end of the day. It’s kind of hard to mess up Tetris. Now Tetris Effect: Connected may be considered a perfect game but it’s filled with flaws when compared too… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Spirit of the North. An Iceland adventure

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Spirit of the North is an adventure game developed by ‘Infused Studio‘ and published by ‘Merge Games‘. Spirit of the North is said to be coming out in the year 2021 on the Xbox Series X. It’s already out on Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4 and PC. The action is this game takes place in Iceland. Already you know this isn’t going to be a normal game.

Spirit of the North is set in a winter cold, mountainous land that they said was inspired by Iceland. Quite a lot of what you see are based on nordic folklore. So that’s interesting and brings something different to the action. Games that have stories or in game elements based on certain folklore and mythology bring something new and unusual. Very different from the norm. You basically control a red fox. Very normal. You then encounter a female spirit fox who’s called the guardian of the northern lights. These two foxes are working together. Their stories become one. So we just join them.

One of the things that has been said about Spirit of the North that’s unique is that there’s no narrative or dialogue. This was done on purpose. Its up to players to figure out what to do, explore around on this journey and be aware of your surroundings. This land is ruined and a civilisation is lost. So look around, explore your surroundings and solve puzzles. That’s right. Puzzles. Players need to use their heads solve some situations or what’s set before you.

The setting and style of Spirit of the North reminds us of another cold winter game that was also about a journey and based on folklore. That game is ‘Never Alone’. Obviously Spirit of the North is third person and you control a fox but Never alone also has a spirit fox partner but yeah. In Spirit of the North, players get to explore places with practically no variety. It’s a cold Iceland like area so we aren’t surprised. Expect mountains, tundras and glaciers. 

We checked out some Spirit of the North gameplay and it’s good. You’re just a fox but it’s the spirit fox that helps you do the impossible stuff. Slide down ice trails, launch through rings, get empowered, follow the red trail in the sky, activate ancient mechanisms and off course solve puzzles.   It’s exploration yes but there’s a clear direction and you can go at your pace. No enemies, no real danger and no rush. So be a fox and relax.

Overall Spirit of the North looks like a very good game. It’s definitely an adventure and a unique one. Two foxes out there making things happen and traversing their world. It’s not our type pot game but we can tell it’s a good adventure. It would also look it’s best on the Xbox Series X. The developers ‘Infused Studio’ have done a very good job. We at X35 Earthwalker haven’t got any problems with foxes so hopefully these two don’t change our mind. Now Spirit of the North may have nordic folklore and two foxes but those aren’t as interesting as… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes is a new interactive drama, survival horror game developed by ‘Supermassive Games‘ and published by ‘Bandai Namco‘. The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes is said to be coming out in the year 2021 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PS5, PS4 and PC. This is the third game and the one we have the highest hopes for. Let’s take a look.

The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes is set in Iraq in the year 2003. A war or should we say conflict is coming right to it’s end. Rachel King is a CIA operative and she’s been ordered to work with a military squad. Their orders is to check out, what they have been told is, an underground chemical weapons facility. Already we know this is a whole lot of bull crap. As if the Iraqi would have an underground chemical weapons facility. The location is the Zagros Mountains.

Once they reach the coordinates, Rachel and the squad are attacked by a local patrol being led by Sergeant Salim othman. Already we know this is an important character as he has a name and significance. In the middle of this battle between squads, sinkholes open up caused by earth tremors. Both squads fall in. Turns out underground is a buried Sumerian temple. Something bad, very bad, evil has awakened down there and these two squads are in danger. It’s a labyrinth down here to make things worse. So now the two squads have to make a decision: Either put aside their differences and work together to survive or will they instead go alone and prioritise their own survival? 

Now let’s go over a few things. It’s the The Dark Pictures Anthology so we know what to expect but we want some significant changes to make this game better. The last two games were fake threats as in their was no real monsters, demons or supernatural aspects at all. First game had gas that caused hallucinations while the second was demons that was all in someone head. None of it was real. House of sand needs to have actual supernatural threats and aspects otherwise we will straight away write off the game as trash. We don’t want the same thing or factors. Mix it up for the big finale.

Next they need to make The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes real good is to make the game brutally hard. The other games were too easy. The heartbeat time your button press segments were too easy and not intense at all. They should make the room for success smaller to increase difficulty. The time you have to press a button needs to be shorter. Creation riskier decisions need to have multiple swapping button presses to increase a greater chance of fail. The moments where you have two decisions to choose from and a bar appears to show you that your time to choose is running out needs to have pausing the game disabled. If you can pause it defeats the whole point of the timed decisions. Lastly create a form of punishment or negative for players who because of one bad decision start the game from the beginning. Either give them different paths or a harder play through or something as it’s pathetic for gamers to back out because they failed. 

Overall The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes looks like it’s going to be the real deal and hopefully what we want. If the developers make changes to please big babies like markiplier and 8-bit Ryan then we are ready to be disappointed. If they listen to us who has real wisdom they would make their best game in the series by far but let’s see. Big developers tend to not be very smart. We don’t know how well the developers ‘Supermassive Games’ have done so far. We at X35 Earthwalker are looking forward to this game. Now The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes may have some hype but that’s not enough alone to move… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Metal: Hellsinger. Kill to the beat

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker
 

Metal: Hellsinger is a new rhythm first person shooter game developed by ‘The Outsiders‘ and published by ‘Funcom‘. Metal: Hellsinger is said to be coming out in the year 2021 on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PS5, PS4 and PC. Some games have good music while others are all about the music. Kill to the beat. Let’s take a look. 

Metal: Hellsinger keeps things simple when it comes to what the game is about. Players control what’s called the unknown who is part human and demon. This unknown is all about vengeance. So another angry character. You are in hell (rightfully so) and here blasting and fighting through hell and the many demons in your way. Destroy the demons and their leaders… all to the music.

The music mechanic is the best standing out point of Metal: Hellsinger. Do everything to the music. Metal music though. So expect things to be different and quite serious. We hope the music is actually good though. Not a fan of metal. The more in sync you are, the more damage you do to your enemies and the more intense the music gets. So listen to the music, get the rhythm and fire your weapons to the beat. Nice and simple. We don’t know how merciful the game is when it comes to the timing though.

The target of your revenge is referred to as the “red judge”. She is the main bad guy and you have to take her out. Now remember that you are fighting in hell apparently but there is a completely different design for it. Hell’s true name here is the infernal planes which is made up of thousands of hells. All bad. Each location is different have their own stuff going on and maybe own specific enemies. We like the different designs on hell. There’s a frozen world too so that’s cool. The developers must keep the variety going.                                                                                        

We checked out some Metal: Hellsinger gameplay and it’s not what we expected. It has a more DOOM feel. It’s about slaughtering all your enemies mercilessly. It is about revenge after all. Theres many weapons, enemies and  around in this game. We know that there are bosses and killing them will discourage the hordes. There’s a wide range of weapon too. They each have their own ‘ultimate ability’ which are game changers. We definitely would like to see more gameplay and information concerning the enemies in the future. There’s also executions where you finish of a wounded enemy with some style. It really is about the music as killing and attacking to the beat gives you the most damage bonus a and gets the music to be real crazy. 

Overall Metal: Hellsinger looks like a good game. It does what it says on the box. You move around, blast demon, maybe dance but timing your shots and attacks. The graphics aren’t excellent but still great and need to be improved. The sounds are alright but this game is still in development. So we expect it to get better. So run, gun, dance a little and have fun. The developers ‘The Outsiders’ have done a great job with this game. Now Metal: Hellsinger may have weapons and revenge but those certainly do not move… the ‘Earth Walk!’

 

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