Tag: Xbox Series X

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.

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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!’

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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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Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. This getting serious

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is the new action adventure game developed by Ninja Theory and published by ‘Xbox Games Studios‘. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is said to be coming out… well we don’t know… or do we. Definitely not this year though. It will be coming out on the Xbox Series X  and PC. A Xbox exclusive. This game has certainly got our attention. Let’s take a look.

Senua is back! They should have locked her up and threw away the keys. She crazy… but we like her. The story in Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, off course follows the main characters Senua. Senua will probably be facing beings not from this world once again. It’s probably going to be an even bigger battle than last time. Now this would be a task by itself but it’s worse for Senua as she is dealing with psychosis. This effects her brain and how it processes information. So it’s tough to know what’s real and what’s not, whether what she is saying is true or not etc. It’s a problem. So we got an unusual adventure here. It’s not the same but imagine master chief has to face the banished but he suffers from Schizophrenia. Yeah think about it.

We just have to say it… the Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II trailer was bumping for sure. Who knew Senua got bars. She was spitting a whole mixtape in that trailer. By the way what you see in that trailer is all in engine. It looked outstanding. Only matched by the in engine trailer of Forza: Motorsport. If you haven’t seen the trailer then shame on you. We linked it down below. The work they have done even with the facial expressions. It’s excellent. X35 Earthwalker, the most talented person alive, has done motion capture before and let’s just say motion capture can allow for some awesome stuff. We are actually excited to learn more about Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II.

Here’s a more of what we do know. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is set in Iceland… so bring a jacket maybe. Unreal engine 5 is being used to develop Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. The developers are planning to have actual locations or things in Iceland for the game. The team working on Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is twice as big as the team who worked on the first Hellblade game. Also Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II will be on Xbox game pass. That’s awesome news for Xbox gamers. This game definitely seems to be going in deep and dark here.

Now we looked at the Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II trailer and there’s some details and clues in there. Senua is chanting and the symbols appear around a village. The same village that gets shown multiple times throughout the trailer. So clearly this village is important and Senua is there. Probably her headquarters or home. You may have also noticed that the symbol being formed from the chanting is the same symbols on the shields of the group of men or warriors. This symbol basically looks like the ‘helm of awe (or terror)’ which is an icelanic magical stave. It’s also referenced in germanic mythology too. This is all telling us that Senua and the people with her are getting real defensive. Think about, she is at a location and chants to set up those symbols around the village. This is defensive. Meaning they are going to get attacked. What’s also interesting is that the symbol reminds us of algiz runes which are connected to protection, safety, divinity and even the gods. Off course it’s all mythology but the Hellblade games deal with these things so it makes sense in the context of the game. Not only that but the trailer showed a rocky giant creature which was on a mountain. It looked at the soldiers who has the rune symboled shields. Maybe the rock giant thing is a guardian. Either way it looks like a stand against something.

Overall there isn’t that much information out there concerning Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II but there is hype for it and many gamers are showing interest in it. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II hits heavy with the trailer and the contents of the last game so now we need to see heavy hitting gameplay. We want to know more and trust the developers with a now bigger team will do that. The developers ‘Ninja Theory’ have done an outstanding job so far. We at X35 Earthwalker are looking forward to Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. Now Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II may have chanting, symbols and even mixtape but all of those are useless against… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Xbox is currently winning… by far

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker
 

Xbox recently announced the design and price of their newest next gen console, Xbox Series S. So know gamers get a choice between the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. After all, gamers like having options. This new smaller console has not only sealed Xbox’s victory over the competition but also extended how far they are ahead. We will talk about this here. So fan boys (especially playstation and PC) drop the emotions and get logical. Be mature about this. Let’s take a look.

Let’s clear up the most basic subject first, the games, or should we say exclusives. Sadly and not surprisingly many gaming websites and so called reviewers fail this section due to them not being smart or honest. Xbox Series X has lots of exclusives. You can call them console exclusives if you want but exclusive none the less as gaming consoles like PS5 and Nintendo Switch won’t have them. Let’s make this clear again. PC is not a console. It isn’t an gaming console. Go on the internet now, type in consoles. All we saw was new and old consoles like Nintendo 64, Xbox’s. Playstation etc. No PC! We kept scrolling down and dow but no PCs. So a game that’s on the Xbox but also on PC is still an Xbox exclusive.

The argument back in the during the Xbox One and PS4 days was that Xbox didn’t have exclusives while PlayStation did. First of all Xbox did have exclusives just not big named ones, secondly not anymore. Xbox Series X has over 20 exclusives. 22 to be exact that we know off. PS5 currently has revealed 9. So Xbox Series X has over twice as many exclusives coming as PS5. That’s a huge difference. These exclusives are big names too. We have written about the majority of them. The names will also be links. They are: Halo Infinite, Second extinction, Call of the sea, The ascent, Scorn,  Bright memory, The medium, New genesis phantasy star online 2, Hellblade 2, Grounded, avowed, Forza: Motorsport, State of decay 3, Psychonauts 2, Stalker 2, Everwild, Warhammer 40000: dark tide, Tetris effect: connected, The Gunk, CrossfireX, Fable, Exomecha. Now that’s a lot. There’s also lots of gamers who wants to play these games. It’s also a variety of genres too. Racing – Forza: Motorsport. First person shooter – Halo Infinite, Second extinction, ExoMecha. Exploration (also adventure) – Call of the Sea. Cartoony-ish (also adventure) design but – Psychonauts 2, The Gunk. Horror – The Medium. Top down shooter – The Ascent. Etc etc. Simply put, there’s lots of options here. 22 > 9. Since we checked out and wrote about majority of these games, 16/22, we can confirm that they are great games with some looking real special. 

Now we already talked about the build of the consoles in another post. Clearly Xbox Series X is stronger and you can expect better visuals and graphics. We think PS5 will have better load times though. Xbox Series X will have faster load times too but PS5 will just be faster than that so it’s not the biggest deal at all. Power, graphics, visuals > Load time. No contest. What Xbox is also winning at is price. Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S are prices respectively at $500 and $300 so £380 and £230 (we care about and include the UK readers). Now that’s amazing. PS5 price hasn’t been announced but they can’t go lower than that without making a huge loss. Xbox can afford this loss though. Last time we checked Microsoft has WAY more money than Sony. So we can assume that the PS5 will be more expensive or possibly match the price of the Xbox Series X. That’s just the X though. Remember the Xbox Series S? Xbox has stated that the Xbox Series S has: Custom 512 GB NVME SSD, powered by Xbox Velocity Architecture, Faster load times, Steadier frame rates, quick resume for multiple games, ultra low latency, all digital gaming experience, 1440P at up to 120FPS, 4K upscaling for games, DirectX Raytracing, Variable Rate Shading, Variable Refresh Rate. So it’s still a beastly console for sure just smaller but obviously the Xbox Series X is better. It’s just a great second if you can’t afford the main big thing.  

Continuing the topic of price this is also where Xbox beats PC. PC has officially lost their advantage. The silly so called pc master race idiots use to say you save money on games and stuff like that and that PC has the best performance. One thing at a time. First of all you know what’s better than getting games at a discount… getting games for free. With Xbox game pass ultimate you can literally just download games (not own) and start playing the full game. We literally got some awesome games for free (the game pass ultimate obviously has a monthly cost) and dive into them. Free > discount. All day everyday. Also being on the same pass has it’s own perks too (check their website for full information) including discounts for buying games. So yeah you save money with Xbox Series X (game pass ultimate)… not PC. Now concerning performance. Well if you check the specs of the Xbox Series X and PS5, they easily match PC (the high end ones) and the Xbox Series X might even be better. 12 teraflops, 4K gaming and 8K ready, up to 120 FPS all for £380 or $500!! How much does it cost to build those super high end gaming PCs? What’s that? Stop mumbling under your breath. Louder! Oh, over 1000! Some sources are saying $1920 – $2070! Another saying $1500. Another saying $2000. You get the point. The Xbox Series X matches high end PCs while only costing $500! With your high end $1500 PC you could buy three Xbox Series Xs or buy one and buy all the games they plan to release. You could buy one for you and your sibling with fancy controllers. You could buy one for the master, one for the dame and one for the little boy who lives down the lane. So who’s saving money? Consoles. that’s who. PC has been dethroned. Facts.

Now to put the nail in the coffin. xCloud. We wrote about this before. Simply put you can play your games like Minecraft, Halo, Ori and the will of the wisps, Sea of thieves and much much more on your phone or tablet. So you could play on the bus, in the park at your aunties house etc. xCloud makes Xbox the most versatile platform too. At the end of the day it’s still options for the gamers. We are going to try out cloud gaming with Xbox to see for ourselves how it feels. This what if someone is using the TV then we can still game. Can be useful. If you want more information you can check their website.

Sad we have to explain this again but quickly, yes most of the game son Xbox will also be on Windows. Why? Who owns windows? Microsoft. Who owns Xbox? Microsoft. So from a business perspective it makes no sense to put your games on one and no the other. They want to earn money. So that’s how it’s going to be. most xbox games will be on PC. PC isn’t a console. 

Let’s sum up here. Xbox has the price advantage over both PlayStation and PC concerning the consoles AND the games. Xbox Series X will have 22 exclusives while PS5 will have 9. Xbox Series X will have the best or joint best performance with PC (the super high end ones only) in terms of graphics and visuals. If you take price into account then Xbox Series X easily better than PC. Xbox also has xCloud to allow the playing of games on portable devices like phones and tablets, so they have versatility advantage too. So price (games and consoles), exclusives, versatility, deals all goes to Xbox. So yes Xbox is currently winning… by far. No more master race nonsense and PlayStation needs to up their game. Let us know what you think. Now the Xbox Series X may be the most powerful console but it’s still too weak when compared too… the ‘Earth Walk!’    

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