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Our fifth GDC is just around the corner, and the ID@Xbox team can’t wait to descend on the Bay Area to chat with attendees, sit in on some interesting panels and showcase games from around the world to our fans.
We’re excited to feature more than 50 games at the show that will be coming via the ID@Xbox program, including 18 newly announced titles, all of which will be joining us at either the Moscone Center Lobby Bar or at an exclusive press preview event during GDC. These newly announced games launching through the ID@Xbox program include 9 Monkeys of Shaolin, Apocalypse Cow, BackSlash, Can’t Drive This, Dead Ahead: Zombie Warfare, Exception, Flipping Death, Once Upon a Coma, One Finger Death Punch 2, Pinbrawl, Planet Alpha, Russian Subway Dogs, Squadron 51, Supermarket Shriek, Thief of Thieves, Tormental, and Virgo Vs The Zodiac.
Check out the list below for a quick peek at just some of the developers and games coming to the program who are joining us in San Francisco, and we’ll see you at GDC!
9 Monkeys of Shaolin (BUKA Entertainment Enterprises & Sobaka Studio) – Announced Today for Xbox One, Xbox One X Enhanced
The true rebirth of iconic brawler genre in vein of old-school video games! As a simple Chinese fisherman Wei Cheng you have to avenge the death of your friends and family slaughtered in a pirate raid at your peaceful village. So get your trusty battle staff ready for a challenging adventure in Medieval China and for merciless fights with hordes of various enemies.
Aftercharge (Chainsawesome Games)
Aftercharge is a 3 vs 3 competitive game pitting invisible robots against a squad of invincible security guards in high-voltage tactical skirmishes. Sneak around and destroy the energy extractors as the robot team or setup a good defense to prevent the sabotage as the guard team.
Akuto: Mad World (Hut 90) – Xbox One X Enhanced
Akuto: Mad World is an award-nominated, isometric, fast-paced action game where players compete with swords and guns in intense versus matches. The game is set on low poly, diorama arenas where players have to not only watch out for opponents, but also for the environment from killing them.
Apocalypse Cow (Monsters) – Announced Today for Xbox One, Xbox One X Enhanced, Xbox Play Anywhere
A girl, a rapper who can’t rhyme and a redhead enter a bar. The music stops. “Have you seen a giant robotic cow?” the girl asks politely and OMG SHE’S KILLING THEM! Wait, they were ready to talk, WAAAAIT! Explosions, regrets and time bending in a broken digital world; this is Apocalypse Cow, a cinematic arcade adventure that redefines storytelling for platformers.
Arrow Heads (OddBird) – Xbox One X Enhanced
Grab your friends, neighbors, extended family and that handsome cashier from the grocery store and get ready for some sweet, award-winning, couch and online multiplayer. With your trusty bow, shoot, dodge and deflect arrows in this zany isometric archery game.
Backslash (Skeleton Crew Studio) – Announced Today for Xbox One
BackSlash is a spell casting brawler featuring style-mixing, arena destruction, and accelerating duels. Combine two of the ten powerful styles of the Angwaii masters to plunge into a dance of destruction through flying blades, bone breaking punches and devastating spells.
Black Desert (Pearl Abyss) – Xbox One X Enhanced
Explore a vast, seamless world in the MMORPG – Black Desert. Build fortunes by trading, take down monsters and huge bosses with intuitive skill-based combat or engage in intense guild PVP to control regions and the riches of the land. The story is yours to tell, any way you want.
Bomber Crew (Curve Digital & Runner Duck)
Bomber Crew is a procedurally-generated World War 2 strategic bombing sim, where completing the objective is just as important as keeping your crew alive, as death is permanent! Choose and train your crew, customize your Bomber, go chocks away and return victorious!
Brief Battles (Juicy Cupcake)
May your butt reign supreme in Brief Battles! Use your underpants to fight your friends in this fast-paced, underwear-fueled party game. Conquer your foes with flaming hot pants, buns of steel, toxic tighty-whities and more. Brief Battles features over-the-top gameplay, colorful heroes, ridiculous game modes, and hilarious combat powers.
Can’t Drive This (Pixel Maniacs) – Announced Today for Xbox One, Xbox One X Enhanced, Xbox Play Anywhere
Can’t Drive This is a multiplayer party racing game, that has you race your car while the other player builds the track. Also, the car explodes, if it goes beneath the speed-limit. Like in that copyright-protected movie. Compete or cooperate with up to three other players, online and local.
City of Brass (Uppercut Games) – Xbox One X Enhanced
Become a daring thief in City of Brass, a first-person action adventure from senior BioShock developers. Armed with scimitar and a versatile whip, you’ll lash and slash, bait and trap your way to the heart of an opulent, Arabian Nights-themed metropolis – or face certain death as time runs out.
Claybook (Secord Order) – Xbox One X Enhanced
Claybook is a unique world made entirely of clay. In the game, you step into the shoes of brave kids who bring the Claybook to life. Each chapter challenges you with unique obstacles and puzzles. You possess morphing clay blobs and shape the world around you to overcome tricky situations.
Conarium (Iceberg Interactive & Zoetrope Interactive) – Xbox One X Enhanced
Conarium is a chilling Lovecraftian game that follows the gripping story of four scientists and their endeavour to challenge what we normally consider to be the “absolute” limits of nature. Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s novella At the Mountains of Madness, but largely set after the original story.
Dead Ahead: Zombie Warfare (Mobirate) – Announced Today for Xbox One
Defend your bus and don’t let the hungry horde eat the living! Gather your team of gladiators and send them into battle, use any means necessary to ward off the horde of pixel crazed flesh eaters! Slash, shoot or burn the dead with barrels, Molotov cocktails, and grenades.
Descenders (No More Robots)
Descenders is extreme downhill freeriding for the modern era, with procedurally generated worlds, and where mistakes have real consequences. Will you lead your team to glory and become the next legendary Descender?
Earthfall (Holospark) – Xbox One X Enhanced
Earthfall is a frenetic 4-player co-op shooter that reimagines classic Left 4 Dead gameplay in a modern shooter, set in a sci-fi background. Through 10 action-packed missions, each with its own objectives, you use 3D printers to print weapons, barricades, turrets, and experimental tech to beat back the alien hordes.
Exception (Traxmaster Software) – Announced Today for Xbox One
Exception is a combat platformer set inside a computer system which has been hijacked by a sinister virus. As the only uncorrupted member of the system, you must lead the charge against this virus and its brutal regime. Conquer an array of intricate levels which transform to reveal new threats and opportunities.
Flipping Death (Zoink Games) – Announced Today for Xbox One
When Penny dies under mysterious circumstances, she wakes up and finds herself filling in for DEATH HIMSELF! This temp job comes with a new power – the ability to flip between the worlds of the living and the dead! Hopefully, this will help her solve the mystery surrounding her own demise in this puzzling platform adventure.
GoatPunks (StudioCanvas)
GoatPunks is a multiplayer game where you launch your goat into battle against others to become king of the hill. This climbing frenzy will see you fight through an onslaught of bombs and obstacles to reach the mountain peak, where you must hold your ground for 30 seconds to claim victory.
Harold Halibut (Slow Bros.) – Xbox One X Enhanced, Xbox Play Anywhere
Harold Halibut is a modern adventure game about the daily routine on a spaceship stuck undersea.
Slip into the tiny shoes of Harold and enjoy the stop-motion feeling in this world made entirely out of craft materials like wood, clay and metal.
Huntdown (Coffee Stain Publishing AB & Easy Trigger AB)
Challenge yourselves in this hard-boiled co-op arcade shooter! Run, jump, and take cover in the mayhem-filled streets of the future. Kill the henchmen, take their guns, and Huntdown the leaders! Collect the bounty, level by level, and make a healthy living by making living unhealthy.
Jump Gunners (NerdRage Studios)
Jump Gunners is the definitive couch combat game for 1 to 4 players, matching fast paced hilarious recoil jumping mechanics, with tight arcade twin stick gameplay. Described as a perfect blend of Duck Game and Broforce, Jump Gunners brings back the glory days of battling your friends around the TV!
My Time at Portia (Team17 & Pathea)
Start a new life in the enchanting town of Portia! Restore your Pa’s neglected workshop to its former glory, grow crops, raise animals, befriend the towns quirky inhabitants and uncover the mysteries this charming post-apocalyptic land has forgotten!
Once Upon a Coma (Serenity Forge & Atmos Games) – Announced Today for Xbox One, Xbox One X Enhanced
Upon waking from a coma, Pete’s sister is nowhere to be found. In Once Upon a Coma, investigate the screams coming from the heart of Black Wood, the increasingly violent behavior of the grown-ups, and the strange truth about Pete’s past in this hauntingly dreamlike fable.
One Finger Death Punch 2 (Silver Dollar Games) – Announced Today for Xbox One
The world’s faster brawler returns with its unique two-button gameplay. Using our 1:1 response system players will feel the bone-crunching impact of every button pressed. Just remember, do not button mash.
Pig Eat Ball (Mommy’s Best Games)
What would happen if Pac-Man got fatter while he ate? In Pig Eat Ball, you eat all the balls to win, but you get FATTER WHILE YOU EAT. Stuck? Barf to squeeze through! Fight, Solve, and BARF your way through 100’s of tricky levels in a COLORFUL arcade-adventure world!
Pinbrawl (Northern Heart) – Announced Today for Xbox One, Xbox Play Anywhere
Pinbrawl is a shared-screen pinball arena game featuring juicy, cartoon-like action and a diverse cast of hilarious physics-based characters. Flop and wiggle your way around colorful, 4-sided pinball tables and smack the ball between (or over) your friends’ flippers to score as many goals as possible!
PLANET ALPHA (Team 17 & Planet Alpha) – Announced Today for Xbox One, Xbox One X Enhanced
PLANET ALPHA, a beautiful alien world filled with mystery and danger. Pursued by relentless enemies, you must harness the power of night and day as you struggle to survive.
R.B.I. Baseball 18 (MLB)
R.B.I. Baseball 18 takes a huge leap forward with Franchise Mode, Home Run Derby, new graphics and much more. With more ways to play, a new look, and more fun than ever, R.B.I. Baseball is a whole new ballgame! PLAY IT AGAIN!
Remothered: Tormented Fathers (Darril Arts & Stormind Games)
Remothered: Tormented Fathers is the pure and realistic survival horror videogame. Playing as Rosemary, you will have to face everyday people who turn into psychological monsters. Experience the thrill of surviving without any powerful weapon at your disposal, just like you would do in real life.
Russian Subway Dogs (Spooky Squid Games) – Announced Today for Xbox One
Russian Subway Dogs is a fast-paced systemic arcade game inspired by the real-life stray dogs of the Moscow Metro. Startle commuters, steal their tasty food and compete with other subway wildlife. Surviving isn’t easy when you are dodging volatile vodka, rival dogs, and the rare and dangerous Subway Bear!
Shape of the World (Plug In Digital & Hollow Tree Games) – Xbox One X Enhanced
A first-person explorer where you’re cast as an outsider in a surreal organic world that reacts to your presence. Journey through a psychedelically colorful ecosystem of flourishing flora, rambling waterfalls, burgeoning mountains, glowing monoliths and graceful creatures.
Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption (Another Indie & Dark Star)
Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption is a boss battler action-RPG. Face eight abhorrent bosses, the first seven each based on one of the deadly sins. Before each clash, you must sacrifice a stat and level down. Each fight will be tougher than the last as you wage war against sin itself.
Squadron 51 (Loomiarts) – Announced Today for Xbox One, Xbox Play Anywhere
The aliens have discovered Earth! Squadron 51 is a SHMUP game where you play as Lieutenant Kaya in aircraft battles all around the world. Join the Squadron and fight against extraterrestrial enemies as you were in an authentic sci-fi movie from the fifties!
Starbound (Chucklefish) – Console Launch Exclusive, Xbox Play Anywhere
In Starbound, you create your own story – there’s no wrong way to play! You may choose to save the universe from the forces that destroyed your home, uncovering greater galactic mysteries in the process, or you may wish to forego a heroic journey entirely in favor of colonizing uncharted planets.
Strange Brigade (Rebellion) – Xbox One X Enhanced
There are remote corners of the British Empire where supernatural terrors lurk in the shadows. Join the Strange Brigade in a rip-roaring new 1930s adventure for 1-4 players! Explore the ancient world, fight back hordes of mythological menaces, and defeat treacherous traps and puzzles. It’s a veritable safari into danger!
Super Meat Boy Forever (Team Meat)
Super Meat Boy Forever is the sequel to Super Meat Boy, the game that changed the world and probably prevented like a bunch of wars and stuff. Super Meat Boy Forever is coming in 2018 and it’ll probably be instrumental in helping human civilization advance by helping cure all disease, ending poverty, and inspiring younger generations to reach for the stars by colonizing other planets thereby securing a future for countless generations to come. In Super Meat Boy Forever you jump over saws and punch bad guys.
Supermarket Shriek (Billy Goat Entertainment Ltd) – Announced Today for Xbox One, Xbox One X Enhanced, Xbox Play Anywhere
Supermarket Shriek is a unique (shopping) kart racer where a man and a goat, propelled by their wild incomprehensible screaming, must navigate challenges situated inside a range of shops, boutiques and supermarkets. Because, why not? Play alone or in co-op for an experience like no other!
Thief of Thieves (Rival Games) – Announced Today for Xbox One
Based on the best-selling comic by Robert Kirkman, Thief of Thieves: Season One is a story of heists and the people behind them. It’s time for Celia, protege of master thief Redmond, to make the leap from apprentice to master. A new continent and a new team, will you make the cut?
Tormental (Croteam & Gungrounds) – Announced Today for Xbox One
Mental, destroyer of worlds, builds a powerful portal on Earth which he uses to manifest his deepest, most violent thoughts into the real world. Enter the portal and blast your way through the worlds of his mind inhabited by hordes of monsters that you’ll have to face off in order to reach and defeat his ego. Let the showdown begin!
Trailmakers (Flashbulb) – Console Launch Exclusive, Xbox One X Enhanced
Trailmakers is a creative construction game where the sky is the limit. Building a car, airplane, helicopter or walking robot is as easy as playing with toy blocks. Take your machines on exciting expeditions, race them against friends, or build the craziest contraptions you can imagine in a huge sandbox.
Treadnauts (Topstitch Games)
Treadnauts launches four-player tank brawls into the sky. Drive up all the walls! Rocket jump onto the roof! Disrespect your friends by squashing them like tiny bugs! Shoot bullets out of the air! Move with style!
Virgo Vs The Zodiac (Moonana) – Announced Today for Xbox One, Xbox Play Anywhere
In this galactic Sci-fi/fantasy, timed-actions JRPG, play the obsessed villain in an astrological setting with gameplay and story inspired by Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and Earthbound! Every action means a reaction so time your defenses and counter the Heretics on Virgo’s twisted cosmic quest towards the Golden Age!
Wargroove (Chucklefish) – Xbox Play Anywhere
Wargroove is a turn-based strategy game for up to 4 players. Each player takes control of an army and its commander unit to wage war on their enemies! Wargroove is extremely easy to pick up and very difficult to master, with deep gameplay mechanics that complement strategic play.
See the rest of the story on Xbox Wire
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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR is Now Available for Pre-Purchase on Steam.
A true, full-length open-world game for VR has arrived from award-winning developers, Bethesda Game Studios. Skyrim VR reimagines the complete epic fantasy masterpiece with an unparalleled sense of scale, depth, and immersion. From battling ancient dragons to exploring rugged mountains and more, Skyrim VR brings to life a complete open world for you to experience any way you choose. Skyrim VR includes the critically-acclaimed core game and official add-ons – Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and Dragonborn.
Website: LINK
As a direct sequel to The Silver Case, it will come as no shock that The 25th Ward is a fundamentally bizarre game. It plays around with fever dreamy, Twin Peaks-esque logic, with a profound disregard for how reality works. That’s all to say: it is very much a Suda 51 game. It’s also not too surprising, then, that The 25th Ward is rough around the edges; sometimes purposefully so, and sometimes not. Disorderly it may be, but dull it certainly is not.
Set four years after the events of The Silver Case, The 25th Ward takes place in a completely new planned community in Japan, marketed as a home for the super elite. Its residents are specifically chosen to help establish a city with absolutely no criminal activity or negative elements, kept utterly spotless, and where every rule is followed to the letter. The price for even minor infractions–taking your trash out on the wrong day, being rude to a neighbor, playing music too loud–is typically death, either by being shot or having your brains scrambled to the point of being a drooling zombie.
In the most basic terms, The 25th Ward is a visual novel, its storytelling told predominantly through text and still photos punctuated by point-and-click adventure game tangents. Scenes will stop to force you to look around, move through hallways, use a particular item, talk to a specific person in the area, or type in a password. The game is structured as a compilation of three separate stories based around the people who’re responsible for upholding the draconian law in the ward. Two of these tales, Match-maker and Correctness, follow the efforts of the presiding law enforcement branches of the ward: the Heinous Crimes Unit–essentially, a CSI team–and the Regional Adjustment Bureau. The third scenario continues the Placebo plot from The Silver Case, once again following hard-boiled reporter Tokio Morishima, now an amnesiac, as he loses his sanity investigating a mysterious death in the ward.
Compared to its predecessor, each of the scenarios feels distinct. Only Correctness was actually penned by Suda, and it has his jagged, pulpy fingerprints all over it, from the hard-as-nails, sailor-mouthed teammate to a string of attempted assassinations on an HCU detective playing out–for no rhyme or reason–like an 8-bit RPG. Non-sequitur discussions occur with the HCU’s coroner about his burgeoning snuff film addiction and perfectly normal conversations veer off into thoughts about how hungry characters are at that moment.
The other two scenarios were written by Masahi Ooka and Masahiro Yuki, Suda’s cohorts on The Silver Case. Their respective chapters are much more cohesive, purposeful pieces of work. Placebo, in particular, takes on an unexpected but beautifully twisted cyberpunk bent. Match-maker’s story wouldn’t be terribly out of place in one of Sega’s increasingly nutty Yakuza games, with just enough of the surreal involved to make the story unpredictable.
The very idea of the 25th Ward as a standalone, authoritarian dystopia disguised as utopia is enthralling, and all three scenarios manage to mine surprising depth out of the set up. Correctness is, at its core, a story about the mindset that creates crooked cops, while Placebo and Match-maker explore the specific societal factors that create crooked people. It’s far from being the first piece of fiction to tell a tale of how moral deviancy develops when the idea of what’s considered deviant behavior becomes ubiquitous, but it’s a very distinct way of telling it. It’s a game with some heavy thoughts on its mind, and those thoughts are exaggerated and abstracted to the extreme. Helping things out in that area is a singularly off-kilter synth pop soundtrack from longtime Suda collaborator Masafumi Takada, with some simple moody beats contorted around strange instrumentation and eerily hypnotic melodies. The visual style follows suit, with each scenario adopting its own particular stark, gritty art style, from Correctness’ black-and-white, under-lit shadows, to Match-maker’s abstract, bloody, police sketchbook style. It’s all perfectly suited for the kind of crazed psychotropic Law & Order stories being told.
The 25th Ward’s stories were originally released episodically, which makes it slightly easier to forgive just how sprawling the narrative is. Having said that, all three stories inhabit the same time period, each imparting information that helps fill in some of the blanks of the other episodes, though it’s not like the game tells you that going in. While I played each scenario straight through, a more fulfilling approach would be to play each of the episodes in each scenario sequentially (all three episode 1s, then all the episode 2s, etc.). Otherwise, the stories being told, while still comprehensible, are annoyingly confusing instead of fascinatingly obtuse. Without a doubt, however, the game’s biggest narrative weakness is its disregard for time. It’s a game that luxuriates in making the wrong moments last, hammering minute character details down into dust, while forgetting to elaborate on complex plot twists. A 10-minute stretch is devoted to the unorthodox way a character eats a fancy dessert; 20 seconds are spent explaining how a major character seems to miraculously cheat death.
The game also has a bad habit of slowing you down with its disappointing „puzzles.“ They largely come in two flavors: elementary tasks, like memorizing a short series of numbers, or frustrating tests of patience. One such investigation requires you to narrow down which room a victim lived in, and provides 80 floors of a mostly empty apartment complex to explore. The very first room you go to gives a hint that the victim was in an even numbered corner apartment, and the next hint on the second floor tells you which rooms her favorite community groups met in. Narrowing down the target location seems like an impossible task, until you realize that the very first apartment on each floor gives new information, and after reaching the first apartment on the 5th floor, you’re simply told which room to go to, at which point none of the previous floors‘ information even matters. I almost wanted to congratulate Suda on the A+ trolling, except there’s no telling if that was the intent.
More commonly, your progress is gated by the need to exhaust every menu option in a conversation until the story progresses, but more often than not, the action in the menu doesn’t correspond to what needs to be done. The “Look” function, in particular, performs everything from moving into another room to completing a character’s psychotic break and eventual self-actualization as a murderous sociopath. The amount of times “Look” actually means examining something can be counted on one hand. It’s a problem exacerbated by a localization effort that, on top of some frequent, cringeworthy typos, has a tin ear for how character dialogue works. Many of the game’s very grizzled, very adult characters occasionally drop into a very young millennial style of speech that occasionally threatens to break the game’s immersion. It’s a testament to what’s still on the screen that it doesn’t.
Despite a collection of problems, it’s easy to occasionally admire The 25th Ward’s ambitions. Where The Silver Case was a slog, punctuating long stretches of nonsense with blasts of pure horror, The 25th Ward consistently commands your attention with frighteningly relevant themes, bonkers plot twists, or even just the simple thrill of some beautifully rendered and twisted imagery. It’s a game that demands patience and forgiveness, but rewards those willing to put up with its problems.
Website: LINK
Did I just wake up from a crazy dream or did David “The Bullet” Smith really break his own Guinness World Records title for Greatest Distance Travelled as a Human Cannonball for the launch of Sea of Thieves?! Yesterday was such an incredible Xbox livestream event and we’re so happy you viewers at home were able to tune-in!
David launched 195 ft through the air out of the Xbox Pirate Blaster, a 34 ft long cannon at Raymond James Stadium, breaking his old Guinness World Records title of 193.8 ft. The flight was a wild ride for David who was in the air for about five seconds before an impact stop on the landing airbag. On the Mixer Xbox Channel, all of the passion, comments, and use of Mixer sparks (the currency earned through viewing and streaming games) were so helpful throughout this extremely fun and interactive event.
Now it’s your turn at home to feel the thrill and adventure by playing Sea of Thieves and using cannons to take down enemy ships. Cram your pirate into the cannon, take aim at your destination, light the fuse and enjoy the ride! Sea of Thieves is available for pre-order in the Microsoft Store and you can play the game at launch on March 20 as part of Xbox Game Pass. Make sure to grab your copy to experience a rich, fantastical world filled with pirates, danger and discovery – all in native 4K and HDR!
Be sure to keep checking back to Xbox Wire for other unique Xbox experiences and opportunities that you can be a part of just like this one. To read about other amazing gaming record titles, read the “Guinness World Records 2018 Gamer’s Edition” book.
See the rest of the story on Xbox Wire
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Kirby games are guaranteed to have a perky pink mascot, candy-coated platforming levels, and plentiful power-ups to wield and combine; all key pieces of Kirby Star Allies. But what sets the latest game apart from previous Kirby adventures is that everything is designed with co-op in mind, whether you have friends to play with or not. It’s a welcome change that keeps the otherwise traditional gameplay fresh, and even though the extra help is overkill for most of the challenges that lie in wait, Star Allies still puts your cheerful chums to good use.
You’ve been able to team up in previous games, like Kirby’s Return to Dream Land on Wii, but it’s fundamental to Star Allies and far more flexible in practice. Rather than being limited to only playing alongside key characters like Meta Knight or King Dedede, you can now recruit almost any enemy you come across. And after you unlock a pair of extra modes upon completing the story, you earn the right to play as any character in the game in a speedrun mode. It’s not a massive twist given that enemies play the same as Kirby does when he’s absorbed their powers, but for a game built around its variety of personalities, it’s an appreciated bonus to look forward to.
Star Allies perfectly executes its playful cartoon aesthetic from start to finish, stuffed with adorable animations and digital glitter. Meanwhile, the soundtrack swings from uplifting jingles to intense battle themes, providing ample motivation and entertainment, and is up there with the series‘ best works–many of which have been expertly remixed here. And now that you can team up with allies in unique ways–say, when you have a chef power-up and pretend-cook your friends in a pot to produce life-giving snacks–Star Allies is just relentlessly charismatic.
The story mode paces itself well, in part because it’s so short. The procession of new ideas from one stage to the next keeps you wondering what clever platforming obstacle or power-up will appear next. These surprises may force your team to split up to tackle simple, large-scale puzzles, a feat the AI handles effortlessly without your input. You also occasionally group together to roll downhill as a wall-smashing wheel, hop on the back of a flying star for some casual side-scrolling shooter action, or line up to form a train and steamroll through enemies.
Reaching the end of a level or world is generally very easy. The only real challenge is to locate hidden items–puzzle pieces that are used to complete pictures, not unlike the 3DS StreetPass game, Puzzle Swap. Each stage has a unique pink piece, though you can regularly find randomized blue pieces or tap amiibo to generate them on the fly. The pictures you unlock are just that–pictures–which is a little deflating, as far as rewards go.
But rare levels contain hidden rooms with a switch that unlocks a new stage in the overworld. You’re told when a stage contains a hidden opportunity, so the trick is to simply keep an eye out for suspicious-looking objects or doors during your travels. On some occasions an obstacle or object requires you to interact while using a specific ability (such as electrifying a power line or igniting a pile of leaves). Never one to make you suffer, enemies with the relevant power-ups are generally placed nearby so you won’t ever feel totally unprepared.
Strolling through the story mode ensures a generous amount of expertly crafted whimsy and joy, but because levels are so easygoing, with lightweight platforming and a trio of friends watching your back at all times, Star Allies‘ campaign quickly runs out of steam. It’s almost a good problem to have–a game that’s so good that you don’t want it to end–but it’s tough to shake the disappointment when you cross the finish line.
The unlockable extra modes, then, are the game’s saving grace. Nevermind the wood-chopping and meteor-batting mini-games, which are cute but undeniably shallow; the boss rush and speedrun modes are the main attractions. For the speedrun mode, Guest Star, you charge through five sets of levels as the Star Allies character of your choosing. These are the same stages you’ve played before, but the further you get, the faster, stronger, and more resilient you become. Your gradual growth, robust set of actions per character, and the race against time inject Star Allies with the energy to match its overflowing personality.
And to account for the lack of difficulty elsewhere, the boss rush mode (The Ultimate Choice) can be dialed up to unforgiving levels, where enemies hit harder, health replenishments are in shorter supply, and more bosses line up to battle. Both this and the speedrun mode can be enjoyed with a total of four players, which feels more beneficial compared to the pushover story mode.
Star Allies is yet another Kirby game, but it’s up there with some of the best. It’s an artistic showcase, and a great opportunity for co-op platforming. The one real complaint you can levy at it is that it gates off its more challenging aspects, but the fact that they are present to begin with will please anyone who’s grown weary of the series‘ painless platforming.
Website: LINK
Since Xbox made its first appearance at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in 2000, Xbox has had a major presence at the show, delivering exclusive and powerful ways to let fans in on what we’re up to, and 2018 will be no different. In fact, it will be our biggest showing ever.
With the evolution of E3, now including fans and extended show hours, we saw an opportunity to create an entirely new show experience reaching E3 attendees and those that are following the show from afar. With that, in collaboration with the Entertainment Software Association, the organizers of E3, we’re excited to announce that Xbox will be taking over the Microsoft Theater, a perfectly situated space located in the heart of L.A. Live and across the street from the Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC).
The Microsoft Theater will be home to official E3 events like the Xbox E3 2018 Briefing on June 10, 2018 at 1PM PT, various Xbox FanFest activities, hands-on gameplay and demos for all E3 attendees and more. Not only does the Microsoft Theater allow us to centralize our Xbox presence at E3, but it’s size enables us to include even more fans and partners in the Xbox E3 2018 Briefing than ever before.
In addition to the Microsoft Theater, we’ll also continue to have a meaningful presence at the LACC with a new booth completely dedicated to Mixer, where you can play, stream and interact with games and catch the latest E3 news live throughout the entire week.
These changes – expanding our presence, multiple venues, taking over the Microsoft Theater – give us the opportunity to bring together a variety of Xbox experiences into one primary location and, most importantly, let fans in on what we’re up to in 2018 and beyond in a fresh new way.
So mark your calendars for the Xbox E3 2018 Briefing for June 10, 2018 at 1PM PT to kick off the week of E3 with us. We’re excited and will have plenty more to share on our E3 2018 plans soon. Stay tuned to Xbox Wire for an update in April.
See the rest of the story on Xbox Wire
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Website: LINK
Ab sofort steht Dir Deezer auf Xbox One zur Verfügung. Erstelle Deine eigene Playlist und spiele den Halo Soundtrack, wenn Du gerade in Forza Motorsport 7 ein Kopf an Kopf Rennen mit Deinem größten Widersacher bestreitest. 53 Millionen Songs kommen über die neue Deezer Music-App auf Xbox One in Dein Wohnzimmer.
Suche in Deezer Music nach Songs und füge sie zu Deiner Playlist hinzu – und das während Du gerade spielst. Tausende fertige Playlists vereinfachen Dir die Suche nach neuen und tollen Soundtracks. Egal ob epischer Boss-Kampf oder gemütliches Daddeln, über Deezer bekommst Du die richtige Musik für jede Situation.
Deezer ist ab sofort auf Deiner Xbox One verfügbar, aber aufgepasst: Du brauchst ein Deezer Abonnement um die komplette Musikbibliothek erkunden zu können. Falls Du Deezer noch nicht getestet hast, bekommst Du eine Gratis-Mitgliedschaft für 90 Tage. Deezer Music lädst Du direkt über den Microsoft Store herunter.
Website: LINK
Pit People is the fourth title developed by The Behemoth, and also the fourth genre the developer has tried its hand at, after some side-scrolling blasting (Alien Hominid), an old-school beat-em-up (Castle Crashers) and devious puzzle platforming (BattleBlock Theatre). Pit People is a turn-based strategy game in the vein of Fire Emblem or XCOM, and it’s got the same art style and irreverent sense of humor as the developer’s previous games–and even some direct world-building carryover, if you pay close attention.
At a glance, Pit People looks like a simplified tactical game, and in many ways that’s true. But what sets it apart from the norm is the relationship between your position on a battlefield and the automatic action you’ll take once you move to a new location. Land on a tile touching an enemy, and you’ll attack them as expected. But land on a tile touching two enemies and your character will pick and choose which to attack on their own. Likewise, you need to be extra careful when lining up a ranged attack lest you automatically attack an inadvertent target nearby.
At first, this makes the game feel too limited for real strategic planning. Over time, though, these restrictions come to inspire foresight and creativity. The moment one of your characters splits from the pack, they’re likely to be ganged up on, and premeditated blocking and baiting become important. Most characters (including your own fighters) have a lot of health and take many hits to down, so figuring out how to do the most damage while preserving yourself can be tricky. Some characters perform area-of-effect attacks that can also damage allies, so if you put a teammate between an archer and their target they might accidentally hit them with an arrow. Pit People may have distilled the logistics of the turn-based strategy purely to placement, but there’s still plenty of thought required. It’s not up there with the heavyweights of the genre–this simplified system makes the game easier to get into, but there are never really instances where you need to craft a grand, clever strategy that requires thinking ahead more than a couple of moves.
The way you build your team is the game’s smartest hook. If a character can be armed with specific gear (which applies to most human classes), you can have them forego any sort of shield and instead give them a net. During combat, the net can be thrown from two spaces away to bind an enemy to their space for the next turn, but when there’s only one enemy left on the field, you can hurl your net to recruit them, adding them to the list of characters you can control. It’s the same hook that made Pokémon so big (it’s surely no mistake that your team has six slots), and trying to keep the most enticing member of the enemy party alive so you can capture them at the end of the fight adds an interesting wrinkle to the campaign.
There are several different kinds of units, and while their attacks and abilities can be modified with a variety of equipment, they all serve specific functions–archers attack from long range, cupcakes can heal but can’t attack, mushrooms can spray poisonous clouds, and so on. But capturing isn’t just restricted to standard enemies, either–if you can defeat all a boss character’s underlings, you can recruit characters who play a part in the game’s story. The character designs are as cartoonish and fun as The Behemoth’s characters have always been, with lots of gross-looking monsters and weird takes on standard RPG classes, which makes recruiting as many of them as you can more compelling–even if, at a certain point, it sinks in that you’ll probably never use most of your under-levelled recruits.
According to one of the game’s loading screen tips, you can recruit over 500 units. At its core, Pit People is a collect-a-thon–the campaign is brief, and the moment you finish it, the missions start cycling again from the beginning (there are a heap of optional side-missions too, which are mostly good fun). The true goal of the game is to build up your army, level up your best units, collect the best loot from battles, and then take it all into the titular Pit, a combat arena where you can either face waves of AI or fight opponents online. A lot of the loot is purely cosmetic, which makes the grind a bit less interesting than it could be, but putting together a team and taking them online to see how they fare is an interesting experience.
Unfortunately, the lobbies have been quiet since the game’s 1.0 launch, and finding people to play against has been difficult. This is a shame–the competitive multiplayer is a fun addition. The whole game can be played cooperatively too, online or off, which means fighting with two teams against double the enemy count in each mission. Because characters tend to lack passive support roles, it’s not a game where playing with a friend will necessarily enhance your experience, but it’s a nice option to have and doesn’t detract from the game in any significant way either.
Pit People is a fun take on the turn-based strategy genre, even if it’s not the deepest out there. Building an army with the recruitment mechanics is great fun, and pulling off a difficult victory is always rewarding, especially when you manage to scrape through with only a single, battered unit left. On that note, a quick word of warning–do not start the game with permadeath enabled, no matter what your usual predilection in this genre is. If you lose certain characters that you need to take on story missions, you simply won’t be able to finish the game, and while you can restart a battle (most of the time–one mission ended with my entire team spontaneously exploding, the game autosaving before I properly realised what had happened), getting through a match with no losses is difficult.
This would be acceptable–you’re signing up for a more difficult experience, after all–but it also renders the Pit all but unusable. Getting through a match against the AI or an online opponent unscathed is essentially impossible, making this an even more hardcore option than it usually would be within this genre. It’s not just that the permadeath mode is unbalanced–it essentially locks you out of certain modes, which is not clear from the beginning, and because of existing genre conventions it’s fair to assume that some players will go in expecting permadeath to be the ‘right’ way to play. Follow this advice: let your characters come back when they die, and you’ll be okay.
Pit People’s irreverent appeal isn’t enough to make it stand alongside the greats, but it’s entertaining and mildly engrossing. It maintains the cartoonish charm that The Behemoth always imbues their games with, and the gameplay cycle does a solid job of getting you invested in your scrappy team of fighters. Hopefully, over time, Pit People will build more of an audience and the online modes will improve, but even if you prefer to just stick to the single-player campaign, it’s a fun time.
Website: LINK
Today’s update unveils Dota Plus, a new monthly subscription service designed to help you get the most out of every Dota 2 match you play.
Dota Plus is an evolution of the Battle Pass. In the past we released two types of Battle Passes, ones that revolved around the Majors, and one around The International. As a result of the recent introduction of the Pro Circuit, we’ve replaced the Majors Battle Passes with a new type of service that doesn’t depend on a specific start and end date, and one that we can continually add features and content to over time.
This reimagining of the Majors Battle Pass will be an ongoing, uninterrupted service filled with features that provide both progression and opportunities for improvement. Hero Leveling offers you a way to make progress every match while earning Shards, a new currency that can be used to unlock rewards. Test your skills by completing hundreds of new Challenges of varying difficulties. Use the Plus Assistant to help you make build decisions by utilizing real-time item and ability suggestions. These suggestions are based on data gathered from millions of recent games at each skill bracket, ensuring your builds stay current in the ever-evolving meta. Better understand your playstyle by using new graphs and analysis tools both during the match and after it’s finished.
This update also includes the return of the Battle Cup. All Dota Plus members will have free weekly access to play in the weekend tournaments, while non-members can still purchase tickets for $0.99 to participate.
Everything Dota Plus has to offer is available now for $3.99 per month. Receive a discount if you sign up for a six- or twelve-month subscription. Want to gift Dota Plus to a friend? You can purchase gift memberships that will remain active for a fixed number of months.
Check out the Dota 2 store page for more information on all of the features included in your subscription.
Website: LINK
VRFC Virtual Reality Football Club is Now Available on Steam Early Access and is 30% off!*
Take to the turf in VRFC, the world’s only first-person VR football game. Whether you struggle to hit a cow’s backside with a banjo, or your idea of dribbling is something babies do, none of that matters – now you can become a footballing legend in your own living room.
*Offer ends March 20 at 10AM Pacific Time Website: LINK
We’re celebrating the incredible community response to the Twitch Prime Indie Amplifier program and welcoming all of our new members with the introduction of Free Games with Prime, a brand new program that upgrades your membership by giving you a collection of free games every month starting this Thursday, March 15th.
We’re digging into our archives to bring you the best of our previously released games, starting with a pair of critically acclaimed titles: Superhot and Oxenfree.
We’re also happy to announce that all eight titles from the Indie Amplifier program will be made available for free over the next few months. First up are the winner, Shadow Tactics, and strategy-RPG Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation. The rest of the titles will be released in the following months, in no particular order.
Finally, the 2.5D beat ’em up Mr. Shifty will be available for Twitch Prime members for the first time this month.
That’s five games, all available for FREE and yours to keep starting on March 15th!
Here’s the full Free Games with Prime lineup for March:
· Superhot
· Shadow Tactics
· Tales from Candlekeep
· Oxenfree
· Mr. Shifty
And be sure to come back in April because our next Free Games with Prime collection will be available:
· Tales from the Borderlands
· SteamWorld Dig 2
· Kingsway
· Tokyo 42
· Dubwars
That’s 10 games in the next two months, all for FREE and yours to keep forever.
Welcome to Free Games with Prime. Your Twitch Prime membership just leveled up.
PS. If you want to check out any of these games in action, ElegyofGames and seriouslyclara will regularly show off the Free Games with Prime through July on their streams Sundays at 6PM PT and Mondays at 8:30PM PT starting on 3/25 and 3/26 respectively.
Website: LINK
As a game developer, we know it’s crucial for you to understand how your game is performing on Twitch in order to create the most engaging experiences for your community. We’ve heard you ask for insights on how to better integrate with Twitch, make your game more streamable, and encourage more creators to share your game with their viewers.
As a result of this community feedback, we’re launching a self-service analytics solution for game developers. Starting today, you can access data about your game via our new Game Analytics API or your games dashboard on the Twitch Developer site. These metrics will help you answer questions like:
We’ve received great feedback from our beta participants about how these game analytics are helping to measure and optimize performance:
“At CD PROJEKT RED we use data to power our online strategy and are very excited about having official analytics from Twitch. We’re looking forward to more robust insights about our Twitch community so we can understand our broadcasters, viewers, and competitive events.” — Michal Janczewski, Online Strategy Manager, CD PROJEKT RED
“These insights provide an extremely comprehensive view of our Twitch ecosystem. By having such an amazing tool, Tencent can best serve our community as a developer.” — Zhelin Dong, Brand Manager, Tencent
“These game analytics are a great way to help us better understand our presence within Twitch and how to better connect with our gaming community. I’m happy to have this data at our fingertips and excited to see how Twitch evolves its insights offering!” — Toni Griswold, Digital Research Analyst, Adult Swim
There are two ways to access game analytics whenever you want, 24/7.
Game Analytics API: Check out the documentation here.
Games dashboard:
This is just the first step our TwitchDev Insights team is taking to provide you with actionable insights and recommendations for your games. In future iterations, we’ll work towards providing more detailed metrics and an interactive dashboard that will help you understand how to grow your reach on Twitch, create better targeted content, or design in-game and on-Twitch experiences for your community.
Please let us know what you think! Share your feedback with us on the forums or on Twitter.
Website: LINK
The Raven Remastered is Now Available on Steam and is 25% off!*
London, 1964. An ancient ruby is stolen from the British Museum. At the crime scene: a raven feather. Is somebody trying to follow in the footsteps of The Raven, the legendary master thief who disappeared years before?
*Offer ends March 20 at 10AM Pacific Time Website: LINK
The Council is Now Available on Steam!
Experience a Narrative Adventure where your choices and character growth truly matter. As a member of a 1793 secret society, live a tale of intrigue and manipulation on the hunt for your missing mother.
Website: LINK
Yesterday gamers were able to sign up for Fortnite Battle Royale on iOS exciting thousands of fans who just can’t get enough of it.
However, scammers have been targeting these gamers looking to play Fortnite on their iPhones taking advantage of its huge popularity.
According to The Sun, scammers are tricking players into handing over cash for fake iPhone download codes despite the fact the game is being released on mobile for free.
From March 12, players could sign up online to receive an invitation code that will let them play the new mobile version of the game.
However, there was much confusion surrounding the launch leaving gamers vulnerable to scammers.
Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite, have confirmed that codes will not be issued until later this week warning people to beware of scammers.
One apparent scammer known as ‘Haziario’ is using a photoshopped photo of an iPhone screen that has been made to look like the Fortnite app is already installed:
I can’t believe I got a Fortnite Mobile iOS invite!
I’m going to giveaway TWO friend codes to anyone that…
… – Retweets this Tweet
– Follows Me
– PayPal’s ([email protected]) $3First come, first serve⭐️
Good luck 😉🎉 pic.twitter.com/Z6sHPayrUr
— Harry (@_haziario) March 13, 2018
Including links to a PayPal email address, the Twitter user asked for $3 per code.
Another user posted a similar photo along with their PayPal details asking for $10 for a code.
Also on Twitter, ‘Kisukegives’ asked gamers to hand over money in exchange for a code but did not list a price:
If you do receive a code later on in the week, you will be able to invite a few friends to play on the iPhone version with you but these have not yet been released.
So if you see anyone selling their ‘codes’ on Twitter, then these people are scammers.
Some of these people are so desperate they are even requesting followers or retweets in exchange for a code.
Although Epic haven’t released a statement yet addressing the scams, they have warned gamers that so far no codes have been sent out.
They wrote on Twitter:
We have not sent out any mobile invites yet.
Please be aware of false mobile download links. Our official URLs are Fornite.com and EpicGames.com.
If you are unfamiliar with Fortnite, Battle Royale is a hugely popular video game that sees up to 100 players dropped onto an island.
A multiplayer sandbox survival game, players then have to battle it out until only one last gamer is standing.
Currently available on Xbox One, PS4, Windows PC and Mac, on March 9 Epic Games announced it was coming to mobile.
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In a blog post, the game’s development team wrote:
On phones and tablets, Fortnite is the same 100-player game you know from PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC and Mac.
Same gameplay, same map, same content, same weekly updates.
In partnership with Sony, Fortnite Battle Royale will support Cross Play and Cross Progression between PlayStation 4, PC, Mac, iOS and eventually Android.
This means players across devices can squad up with friends and play together.
The game has been incredibly popular since its release last year, with a seemingly eternal battle raging online about the merits of Fortnite versus another battle royale style game PUBG.
However, it has received criticism for making kids too addicted getting complaints from parents saying their children have even neglected family life as a result of the game.
One mum is even calling on the video game to be banned because she believes she’s ‘lost’ her 10-year-old son to it.
Leo appeared alongside his mum, Suzanne, on ITV‘s This Morning as she told hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby he now finds ‘normal life boring by comparison’, and said his moods had changed since he started playing the game.
You can watch her interview here:
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Suzanne said:
Before [Fortnite] he’d go up for an hour to play on his Xbox then he’d come back down and join in with the family.
But then Fortnite came along, it’s [for age 12s] and Leo’s nearly 11, I’m not super strict.
It took a couple of weeks. I’m strict with time, two hours Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I never had to enforce that with Fifa, but with this, I’d go up at 7.45pm and he’d be yelling he’s not ready.
I had to tell him you’re not acting the way you normally act. The game is so full of energy and adrenaline that when you pull them off, they’re screaming at the television; they’re hiding, they’re calling each other, they’re living in it with their friends.
Her comments received a mixed reaction from audiences who either agreed with Suzanne or called on her to be tougher with her son.
Am 19. März startet im Rahmen der Veröffentlichung von Sea of Thieves die internationale Schatzsuche The Quest nach 18-karätigen goldenen Bananen. Schließ Dich mit Deinen Freunden zusammen, folge den kryptischen Hinweisen und löse das Rätsel um einen Schatz im Wert von 20.000 britischen Pfund (etwa 22.500 Euro).
Am 19. März um 9:00 Uhr deutscher Zeit wird der erste Hinweis auf den wertvollen Schatz veröffentlicht. In den folgenden drei Tagen findest Du weitere mysteriöse Rätsel, die Dich und Deine Crew zum kostbaren Bananen-Schatz führen.
Die Rätsel und Hinweise werden online, aber auch an unterschiedlichen echten Orten überall auf dem Globus auftauchen:
Die Lösungen der 15 Rätsel gibst Du am Mittwoch, den 21. März, auf xbox.com/thebananaquest ein und registrierst Dich für das spannende Finale am 22. März. Neben dem Hauptgewinn gibt es eine ganze Reihe verschiedener Sofortgewinne, die im Rahmen der Aktion an alle Teilnehmer verlost werden. Vergiss nicht, auf der offiziellen Website von Entwickler Rare und unseren Social-Media-Kanälen (Twitter, Facebook) vorbeizuschauen. Dort findest Du Hinweise, die Dir den Weg zum Bananen-Schatz zeigen.
Sea of Thieves erscheint am 20. März für Xbox One und Windows 10 PC und ist ebenfalls über den Xbox Game Pass verfügbar. Weitere Informationen zur großen Schatzsuche findest Du auf Xbox Wire DACH.
Website: LINK
Today’s Deal: Save 80% on Rebel Galaxy!*
Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!
*Offer ends Wednesday at 10AM Pacific Time Website: LINK
Willkommen bei Next Week on Xbox. Wie immer stellen wir Dir wieder alle neuen Spiele vor, die schon bald für Xbox One erhältlich sein werden. In der kommenden Woche kolonisierst Du in Surviving Mars einen fremden Planeten, spielst das erste Kapitel des komplexen Story-basierten Abenteuerspiels The Council und kehrst in Burnout Paradise Remastered nach Paradise City zurück. Weitere Informationen zu diesen und weiteren Titeln findest Du in dieser Ausgabe von Next Week on Xbox.
Spiele
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Website: LINK
Last week we announced the celebration of StarCraft 20th Anniversary on Twitch where you will be able to get drops and use a limited time global emote all throughout the month of March. Now, we are excited to announce that Twitch Rivals is making a return this month, and what better game to feature than StarCraft!
Kicking off at 9:00 AM PDT today, 8 of your favorite StarCraft 2 streamers are competing in the $25,000+ Rivals SC20 Achievement Hunt Challenge, where they race to see who will be the first to acquire all achievements from the Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm, and Legacy of the Void campaigns by March 28th, with a bonus being awarded to the first player to get the Lost Vikings Gold achievement! The race will be streamed on all of the streamers personal channels.
Streamers competing in achievement hunt challenge:
There will also be more Twitch Rivals content to watch this month, including FFA and the traditional 1v1 competitive modes, with the first FFA starting today at 11:00 AM PDT / 19:00 CET. All 1v1 and FFA action will be streamed on https://twitch.tv/TwitchRivals, and the players will be streaming their gameplay on their personal channels as well! Full talent announcements for each event to come soon!
Check out the schedule for the remaining broadcasts:
For more information of the Twitch StarCraft 20 Anniversary celebration check out our previous announcement here.
Website: LINK
Germany-based Andreas Rottach’s multi-purpose LED table is an impressive build within a gorgeous-looking body. Play games, view (heavily pixelated) images, and become hypnotised by flashy lights, once you’ve built your own using his newly released tutorial.
LED-Matrix Table – 300 LEDs – Raspberry Pi – C++ Engine – Custom Controllers
This is a short presentation of my LED-Matrix Table. The table is controlled by a raspberry pi computer that executes a control engine, written in c++. It supports input from keyboards or custom made game controllers. A full list of all features as well as the source code is available on GitHub (https://github.com/rottaca/LEDTableEngine).
Andreas uploaded a video of his LED Matrix Table to YouTube back in February, with the promise of publishing a complete write-up within the coming weeks. And so the members of Pi Towers sat, eagerly waiting and watching. Now the write-up has arrived, to our cheers of acclaim for this beautful, shiny, flashy, LED-based wonderment.
In his GitHub tutorial, Andreas goes through all the stages of building the table, from the necessary components to coding the Raspberry Pi 3 and 3D printing your own controllers.
Find files for the controllers on Thingiverse
Andreas created the table’s impressive light matrix using a strip of 300 LEDs, chained together and connected to the Raspberry Pi via an LED controller.
The LEDs are set out in zigzags
For the code, he used several open-source tools, such as SDL for image and audio support, and CMake for building the project software.
Anyone planning to recreate Andreas’ table can compile its engine by downloading the project repository from GitHub. Again, find full instructions for this on his GitHub.
The table boasts multiple cool features, including games and visualisation tools. Using the controllers, you can play simplified versions of Flappy Bird and Minesweeper, or go on a nostalgia trip with Tetris, Pong, and Snake.
There’s also a version of Conway’s Game of Life. Andreas explains: “The lifespan of each cell is color-coded. If the game field gets static, the animation is automatically reset to a new random cell population.”
The table can also display downsampled Bitmap images, or show clear static images such as a chess board, atop of which you can place physical game pieces.
Find all the 3D-printable aspects of the LED table on Thingiverse here and here, and the full GitHub tutorial and repository here. If you build your own, or have already dabbled in LED tables and displays, be sure to share your project with us, either in the comments below or via our social media accounts. What other functions would you integrate into this awesome build?
Website: LINK
Hi everyone! I’m happy to announce that Hello Neighbor is finally coming to PlayStation 4 this summer!
I’ve been living in the US for about two years now, and clearly remember the first time I set foot in a typical Seattle suburb–large houses, fairly spaced apart, all capable of hiding something sinister. This was one of the core inspirations for the setting of Hello Neighbor.
Hello Neighbor is a stealth horror game about sneaking into your creepy neighbor’s house. You play against the Neighbor, an AI-powered antagonist who tracks your every move and adapts to your behavior. The game starts off in what seems to be a normal suburban house, where you play as a kid who catches his next door Neighbor hiding something (or someone?) in his basement. Naturally, the most logical thing to do is break in, and see what’s in it. Of course, we don’t recommend actually doing this in your typical Seattle suburb.
The game plays like a stealth horror experience set in a sandbox. You outsmart the AI while solving puzzles and progressing closer to uncover what’s in the basement. Filled with mysteries and Easter eggs, Hello Neighbor has a story split up into three acts. Each act dives deeper into the rabbit hole.
I would also like to take this moment to thank all the content creators and streamers who have explored our mysterious and spooky game. We wouldn’t be where we are today without you and all your fun, innovative, and dedicated efforts, and are super excited to get Hello Neighbor into the hands of PlayStation 4 players and content creators around the world this summer.
Website: LINK