By Anonymous on Apr 11, 2015 12:09 am
Final Fantasy XIII streaming on iOSIt may not be the most highly regarded game in the series, but Final Fantasy XIII can now be played on smartphones, albeit in Japanese. Square Enix today made good on its previous promise to deliver a cloud-powered version of FFXIII to both iOS and Android devices in Japan. It is technically possible to play the game outside of Japan if you have a Japanese iTunes account, but with the servers being based there, streaming can reportedly be quite rough. A 3 Mbps connection is recommended. However, you don't have anything to lose by trying it--a free trial is available for the first 30 minutes, and only after that are you asked to buy the full game, which runs 2,000 yen (just under $17 USD). GameSpot has contacted Square Enix to find out if this is something that could see release in North America and will report back with any details we receive. The JRPG, originally released for PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2010, launched on PCs last fall. The screenshot above gives you a look at the interface used for playing the game on a touchscreen. You can check out a few more images from the game's iOS App Store listing below.   
By Anonymous on Apr 10, 2015 11:52 pm
Rockstar Games announced on Friday exactly when you'll be able to start playing the digital PC edition of Grand Theft Auto V next week--and it's slightly earlier than we expected. The downloadable PC edition of the acclaimed open-world game will unlock at midnight UK time on Tuesday, April 14, which is 7 PM EDT or 4 PM PDT on Monday, April 13. Having GTA V to look forward to will certainly help cure the Monday blues, I would imagine.
GTA V is available now to pre-load from the Rockstar Warehouse and Steam. The physical PC version--which ships across a reported seven discs--arrives worldwide on April 14. For more on the PC edition of GTA V, check out GameSpot's new interview with Rockstar North and read up on the game's extensive graphics options. You can also watch the video above to learn lots more about the game's new editor and director mode. GTA V was originally released in September 2013 for last-generation consoles. The game launched for current-generation machines in November 2014, selling 10 million units on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 as of December 31. In all, GTA V has shipped a massive 45 million copies worldwide.
By Anonymous on Apr 10, 2015 11:34 pm
As we've learned over many years of strategy games, the real-time strategy genre is replete with creative possibilities. Last month during the Game Developer's Conference, I chatted with representatives from both Oxide Games and BonusXP Games about their current strategy projects, and the visits were pleasant reminders of how a single genre can provide a framework for many different ideas and tempos. The Oxide game in question was Ashes of the Singularity; The BonusXP game was Servo. Both games intrigue me--but for very different reasons.  Servo: Quick Matches, Big Robots, and Loud ExplosionsIf you know the name Bruce Shelley, then it's probably because you know Ensemble Studios, the celebrated (and now defunct) developer of Age of Empires and Halo Wars. BonusXP is one of several studios that rose from Ensemble's ashes--a 20-member studio half-comprised of Ensemble veterans, including Shelley, a veritable game development hall-of-famer. It's not so surprising that BonusXP would be making a strategy game; what's more unusual is that its game, Servo, represents a thematic departure from Ensemble's work. Halo Wars aside, that studio was known for grand historical strategy with a serious tone. Servo, on the other hand, is a lighthearted game about big customizable mechs blowing each other up in matches that end in a matter of minutes. BonusXP CEO Dave Pottinger, another Ensemble veteran, joined Shelley to show me Servo in action, and the first game I was reminded of was Relic's excellent Dawn of War II, in part because you customize servos--that is, the giant armored suits that give the game its name--by equipping and customizing them just as you do with Dawn of War II's space marines. Pottinger, on the other hand, more likens these piloted servos to Warcraft III's hero units. "The actions that your servo has in the game are partly defined by what you equip," says Pottinger, adding that it's a process that occurs between matches. There are slots for shields, fist weapons, and so forth, each servo made up of many modules that allow you to attach the bits and baubles that best suit your style.  Given this level of customization, however, it was difficult for me to completely let go of the Dawn of War II comparisons, and according to Pottinger, many others have also noticed the similarities. Given those similarities, and the uniquely customizable servos, it was hard not to imagine even more ways to personalize those bots, in the way that I can paint Warhammer miniatures and make them truly mine. Pottinger laughs; apparently, just the week before, a BonusXP staff staffer had blogged on that very subject. "That's exactly the feeling we want you to have, is that this servo team is your boys," says Pottinger. Adds Shelley, "I think that's a real strong thing. Personalizing your gaming experience is a big deal." When Servo launches, however, cosmetic customization will be limited. There will be somewhere between 500 and 1,000 servo parts in the game when it releases to Steam Early Access later this year, but not nearly as many vanity objects, though Pottinger says that they will inevitably follow. Says Pottinger, "It's a game, from the gameplay standpoint, about self-expression."  Of course, Servo is about more than just preparing for battle; it's also about seeing how many fireworks you can create by blowing enemies up with your metal behemoths. On the battlefield, the Dawn of War II comparisons begin to break down. You do command your servo(s), of course, but base-building is still an important component. You and your enemies are fighting over a resource called bloom, which you collect from the bloomwells that dot the combat arena. To utilize that resource and build a small army of drones, healing beacons, and defensive turrets, you order structures to be dropped onto the map from the heavens above. Says Pottinger, "An RTS for us, it's about buildup. It's a shorter buildup, and it's compressed, and it's more automated, but it's still there. If I want to go heavy on drones, for instance, I'm going to need thousands of resources to pump into that. Otherwise, I can spend that on fences. It's about strategy, it's that choice, and the idea of being at the head." Just how short is that buildup? Says Pottinger, "An Age game used to be 45, 60 minutes. Our Servo game is about 10, give or take. So in that same time period, you're playing three or four games. Every game you play, you earn some parts for your servos." He adds that players respond well to exciting onscreen physics and bright explosions, a lesson Ensemble learned when creating Age of Empires III. "Big giant robots blowing stuff up is great," says Pottinger, and it's hard to argue with a solid hypothesis like that. I certainly witnessed a lot of explosions while watching Shelley maneuver his servos and drones around the map. Personalizing your gaming experience is a big deal. Bruce Shelley
 You'll witness explosions across all of Servo's game modes: a single-player campaign, skirmishes, cooperative battles, and of course, competitive battles as well. But across every mode, Pottinger wants to keep the pace lively, using the game's role-playing elements to keep players coming back for more. "We like that interplay [between the RTS and RPG elements], and that's what the whole cycle is. It's not 'just go play for ten minutes, and then I'm done.' It's 'play a game for ten minutes, I'll go tweak my guys, play another game.' That whole half an hour where you play three or four games and you're thinking about tweaking all your guys. That's what a game session is in Servo." Genre-based similarities aside, it's hard to imagine an RTS more different from Shelley and Pottinger's previous games. Even the exaggerated, cartoonish art style represents a noticeable departure, and I asked the men how important it was to make a bold statement that distinguishes their new work from their old. "Bonus is around because we wanted to go make something new," responds Pottinger. "New and highly polished. The Age games had a lot of ways to play. We wanted something that. We love Age, and there's a lot of Age in this. It's definitely boiled down, and it's going to be cast around this idea of a shorter experience. Age 3 with the home city was our first attempt at progression with an RTS. Maybe it didn't go so well, but we've been working at it for a long time, and it's definitely a better rendition of that." "But I think you're right," Pottinger continues. "It's hard to have 100-foot mechs and not have it be a little bit more lighthearted than a long back look at the Dark Ages through the Middle- and Coal Ages." Adds Shelley, "It reminds me of Alien, when they're joking in their pod. It's a serious, scary movie, but they're telling jokes, right? There's the humor of the battlefield for someone. I get this sort of feeling here."  Ashes of the Singularity: How Many Units Can One Screen Depict?What I saw of Ashes of Singularity wasn't so much a game so much as an engine, a real-time display of the technology powering the upcoming strategy game. But what an impressive display it was, featuring thousands of hovering vessels of various sizes firing lasers at each other across a vast land map. Brad Wardell, CEO of Ashes publisher Stardock, and Oxide Games' Brian Wade were on hand to walk me through what to expect from the game's insanely massive battles, and the ensuing discussion was more technical than systemic. I am still not sure I know what Ashes is all about, huge laser-light shows notwithstanding, but given the number of units the game lets you control at once, the possibilities are vast. Rather than summarize, however, allow me to quote Wardell directly regarding the Direct X 12-powered delights.  Says Wardell, "Every single shot is a light source. Let's say your typical game for a console or PC may have four light sources. [Ashes of the Singularity] has around seventeen hundred light sources on it simultaneously. These explosions you see here are not drawn. They are actual effects of smoke being lit by light. It is simulating an actual explosion, rather than a bunch of images of an explosion that an artist drew. Every turn on the ships does it's own target tracking. The player can control either individual ships, which would be insane, or what they do is combine them together into what we call meta units. You take your individual ships, based on what each one will do. Some will have better range, some do protection, some have anti-air, some have special abilities you might want to use. You put them together and they become a meta unit that work together. It's not like a control group where it's just a blob of units, it's every unit in the meta unit knows about each other, so when you give it an objective, the unit AI each goes off and does its thing." Phew. It's easy to refer to Supreme Commander and Total Annihilation when talking about a game that puts so many units into the fray, but Ashes of the Singularity makes Supreme Commander look positively dinky. "StarCraft has a lot of units, might have a hundred. Supreme Commander might have had three, four hundred on the screen. This may have tens of thousands of units in game." As for the meta units, "They can be as few or as many [units] as you want," says Wardell. "On a basic level, a meta unit would be a single, what we call a T2, a cruiser, and a couple frigates, and what makes a meta unit different from, say, a control group, is that a meta unit knows about the other units, and it's hierarchical. There is a queen bee, and she has lieutenants, and they work together as a single unit with a single objective."  Wardell adds, "Literally, the last game that had a lot of units on the screen was maybe Supreme Commander, and that's an order of magnitude difference." Those are big shoes to fill, of course, and the idea of commanding an army of this size sounds absolutely intimidating at first. But Ashes of the Singularity has more tools beyond meta units to keep the masses of ships and drones in check. "That's where the empire tree from Sins of a Solar Empire comes in," says Wardell, "because in Sins you dealt with a lot of units. Not with this many, but you dealt with a lot, and what we wanted to do is, we wanted the user interface should lend itself so that you can use these units intelligently without it becoming frustrating, because this is a game of strategy. From a game mechanics point of view, you could almost describe it as a cross between, say, Sins or Total Annihilation and Company of Heroes, in that regions have specific resources that I need to capture. You must control a contiguous set of regions back to your seed, your home base, to gather those resources, and we introduced a concept that we call victory points so that players can control the length of their game that they want. In a world where people want to play a game that lasts thirty minutes or twenty minutes for streaming purposes, and a game that could last a week. If they're playing single player, we want them to be able to do both, and so those give us the tools to do that." Literally, the last game that had a lot of units on the screen was maybe Supreme Commander, and that's an order of magnitude difference. Brad Wardell
 As Wardell and I chat, I stare at the screen loaded with futuristic ships firing at each other, and something strikes me: these are all land units, yet they all hover. None of them seems to touch the ground, and I wonder how important this detail might be in Ashes' pathfinding systems. Getting thousands of units to navigate around each other must be an absolute nightmare, and as it happens, hovering is a key component in solving potential bottlenecks. Says Wardell, "Dan Baker and Brian Wade pioneered the terrain system that we got together, so there's a couple interesting things about the terrain and pathfinding. One is, the way we build maps, we've already got pathfinding information, so we know how to get from one area to the other smartly, if you will, so we've already pre-calculated pathfinding for the majority of the map. We know where everyone's going, it's actually a pretty efficient cost for us. We basically do that up front and then you have to pay for that during the real time." Both Wardell and Wade describe to me in some detail how the pathfinding operates, taking time to tout the game's true line of sight and procedurally generated maps. Wardell also mentions that while the game looks and performs its best on Direct X 12, it will run on Direct X 11, albeit with fewer bells and whistles. Meanwhile, I look back to the screen, getting lost in the sheer amount of space-age activity, which proves eerily hypnotic, and I wonder if my PC will be ready for this when Ashes of the Singularity makes its way to Steam Early Access this summer. There's no way I will settle for the lesser version of this impressive technological showcase--not after seeing what's possible. I am still not sure I have a handle on how Ashes will play, but for now, Stardock and Oxide have allowed the tech to speak for itself. And as it happens, it made for an impressive argument.
By Anonymous on Apr 10, 2015 11:25 pm
If you choose to do everything possible, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be a very long game. And as it turns out, even if you know how to minimize the time it takes to get through the core, you're still looking at a 25-hour experience just to complete the game's story. That's according to CD Projekt Red, which revealed to Gamereactor that the quickest any of its testers could run through the RPG's story was 25 hours. If that causes you to worry about how quickly you'll be able to complete it, keep in mind that not only omits side quests, but also skips right through dialogue and takes the fastest-possible path, which you likely won't know when initially playing through the game. As for a closer indication of how long you can expect a playthrough to last, the developer previously offered an estimate of about 100 hours, with half of that accounting for the main narrative, and the other half spent on side content. More recently, senior designer Damien Monnier said that it could take upwards of 200 hours to do absolutely everything. Should you find yourself having completed everything in the main game, two DLC packs will be released that, combined, add roughly 30 hours of additional gameplay. The first of these, Hearts of Stone, launches in October, and will be followed by the second, Blood and Wine, in the first quarter of 2016. The Witcher 3 launches on May 19 for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. Check out the latest trailer above.
By Anonymous on Apr 10, 2015 10:48 pm
For some time, you've been able to connect your account on Call of Duty's website with Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and Steam. Now, you can also connect to your Nintendo Network ID, though it's unclear why.  As discovered by NeoGAF member catmario, the Nintendo Network ID option has been added to your profile page. Electing to connect sends you to the page pictured below, explaining that your "basic profile information" (things like your Mii nickname and country) will be shared with the Call of Duty site. Going ahead with the process doesn't appear to have any real purpose at the moment beyond netting you another checkmark on your profile page. But it does raise the question of why this addition has been made, considering that we don't know if any future Call of Duty games are coming to Wii U or 3DS. The first two Black Ops games appeared on Nintendo consoles (Wii and Wii U, respectively), as did 2013's Ghosts. Last year's Advanced Warfare, however, skipped Wii U in a move that Michael Condrey, co-founder of developer Sledgehammer games, described as an "an Activision decision." The Nintendo Network ID connect page Call of Duty: Black Ops III was just revealed and is likely headed to Xbox One, PS4, and PC at the very least. Asked about the possibility of the game also coming to a Nintendo platform in light of the Nintendo Network ID connection, an Activision spokesperson declined to offer GameSpot any additional information. The full reveal for Black Ops III is coming later this month, on April 26. We may get some answers then.
By Anonymous on Apr 10, 2015 10:30 pm
 This week's gaming headlines may have been dominated with the likes of new game announcements for Call of Duty: Black Ops III and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, but another important industry story should not go overlooked. A legal quarrel between the Entertainment Software Association (ESA)--the group that represents the industry's interests on Capitol Hill--and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit digital rights advocacy group, boiled over this week over how video games can be preserved for future generations. In a post on the EFF's website, staff attorney Mitch Stoltz lashed out at the ESA, basically saying that the group is attempting to block the preservation of older games (more on that later). The EFF is asking the United States Copyright Office to introduce new "legal protection to game enthusiasts, museums, and academics who preserve older video games and keep them playable." Stoltz says the EFF would like to see an exemption made to section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's anti-circumvention provisions for hardware (i.e. "jailbreaking") so that people would be allowed to modify games and the consoles they're played on so that they can live on long after servers are shut down.  "Many player communities, along with museums, archives, and researchers, want to keep the games they own playable after publishers shut down the servers the games depend on," he wrote. "Section 1201 creates legal difficulty for these communities, which is why we've asked the Copyright Office to give them an exemption." Indeed, this issue is one that the industry faces today more than ever. Most recently, Sony switched off the online servers for MLB 14: The Show just 13 months after release. But it's not just gamers in their homes who are affected, according to the EFF. "It's also a serious problem for archives like the Internet Archive, museums like Oakland, California's Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment, and researchers who study video games as a cultural and historical medium," Stoltz went on to say. But the ESA says allowing such an exemption could open the floodgates for rampant piracy and lead to diminished intellectual property value for copyright owners. "Because permitting circumvention of the access controls on video game consoles will increase piracy, significantly reduce users' options to access copyrighted works on video game consoles, and decrease the value of these works for copyright owners, ESA requests that the Register deny the proposed exemption," the group wrote in its response. The ESA went on to outline other potential dangers of allowing the exemption. "A significant and practical consequence of granting the proposed exemption, which should not be ignored, is that users would wrongly believe that they can traffic in circumvention tools to hack their video games or engage in wholesale reproduction and distribution of the video game software," the group explained. "The takeaway would be that hacking--an activity closely associated with piracy in the minds of the marketplace--is lawful. Invariably, the market for distribution of hacking tools would grow to serve the market for this 'lawful' use. Should litigation be necessary to thwart the unlawful distribution of those tools, the burdens and costs of such litigation would be significant, and would greatly diminish the value of copyrighted works." The ESA further states that the EFF does not have gaming's best interests in mind because, though some people might mod their consoles to allow games to be played after servers are turned off, even more people could do so to steal games. "There is abundant evidence that the primary reason many users seek to hack video game consoles is not to create new and different works, but to avoid paying the customary cost of existing works or devices" -- The ESA
"There is abundant evidence that the primary reason many users seek to hack video game consoles is not to create new and different works, but to avoid paying the customary cost of existing works or devices," the ESA wrote. It added: "The harm the proposed exemption would impose on copyright owners (and consumers, who ultimately would have less access to copyrighted works) far outweighs any alleged adverse effects." In its filing, the ESA does point out that it has supported and its members have attended various video game museum exhibits before, including the Smithsonian Institute's Art of Video Games two years ago. Games on display, however, included titles like Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros., and Flower. The ESA goes on to say that the EFF's "evidence of adverse effects is, at best, hypothetical." "It is telling that EFF describes the activities of several museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, the International Center for the History of Electronic Games, and the Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment, in archiving video games, but fails to provide a single actual instance of any of these institutions having difficulty in their archival activities as a result of the DMCA's prohibition on circumvention," the ESA wrote. The EFF, on the other hand, foresees a bleak future for the preservation of video games if the provision is not allowed. "Thanks to server shutdowns, and legal uncertainty created by Section 1201, their objects of study and preservation may be reduced to the digital equivalent of crumbling papyrus in as little as a year," Stoltz said. "That's why an exemption from the Copyright Office is needed." For lots more on this case, check out the ESA's full responses here, as well as the EFF's here. GameSpot will continue to follow these proceedings as they unfold. The ESA has some of the biggest players in gaming among its ranks, including Nintendo, Square Enix, Microsoft, Sony, Take-Two, Electronic Arts, and Activision Blizzard. The group is also responsible for oganizing E3 every year.
By Anonymous on Apr 10, 2015 10:05 pm
You'll be able to square off against God of War protagonist Kratos in the PlayStation versions of Shovel Knight, developer Yacht Club Games has announced. This confirms what was teased in the trailer above, which originally aired during the PlayStation Experience back in December. Kratos drops onto the screen and appears to be a boss you'll fight, and it turns out that is indeed the case.  However, as detailed on the PlayStation Blog, Kratos isn't someone you'll inevitably stumble across. Encountering him is described as being "very tricky," so you'll need to "keep your eye out for secrets… and possibly even double secrets" to get him to show up on the world map. Defeat him, and it sounds like you'll unlock some new abilities--Yacht Club teases that "Shovel Knight learns a trick or two from Kratos." When you do face him, you'll be treated to a Shovel Knight-style version of the God of War theme music, which you can listen to below. The GIFs above and below should also give you an idea of what Kratos is capable of.  Shovel Knight releases on PS4, PS3, and Vita on April 21 as the final game in the 2015 Spring Fever promotion. It'll feature Cross-Buy support and be priced at $14.99, or $13.49 during its launch week for PlayStation Plus members. The retro-style platformer is also headed to Xbox One, where it'll feature an appearance by the Battletoads. 
By Anonymous on Apr 10, 2015 09:30 pm
 Path of Exile: The Awakening brings to the table an entire new act, socketed skill tree slots, and much, much more.
By Anonymous on Apr 10, 2015 08:30 pm
 Mary explains the Titan Souls demo and why its worth your time to download.
By Anonymous on Apr 10, 2015 05:18 am
In Paperbound, warriors rip through their paper confines to perform gravity defying battles across a host of colorful worlds. Ninjas clash with guardians of Egyptian pyramids, while demons and skull-headed monstrosities fight tooth and claw. Paperbound is a frantic arena game promising hours of vivid combat, though some flaws make sure those hours are short. Like Gang Beasts and TowerFall Ascension, Paperbound is a local arena multiplayer game. There is no online component whatsoever, making the game a more natural fit in the midst of a party. There are options for bots if you can't manage to fill all four player slots, and they actually do a decent job at keeping the competition fierce. However, Paperbound is best when played with a group of people hollering and laughing at the chaotic action onscreen. 
In Paperbound, warriors rip through their paper confines to perform gravity-defying battles across a host of colorful worlds.
Much of that fun comes quickly, thanks to Paperbound's effortless combat. The game offers a trinity of attacks: melee, projectiles, and bombs. Every one of the cartoonish characters come with his or her own aesthetically different, but functionally equal melee weapon--a comically oversized pencil, perhaps, or a sword--in addition to scissors to throw and an ink bomb. A flick of the right analogue stick sends a pair of glimmering scissors slicing through the air, instantly killing any foe it reaches, while holding a shoulder button down allows you to prep an ink bomb (a little red inkwell) in place of the scissors. You get one pair of scissors; a small icon floating above your head shows you when it's in your inventory (as with the ink bombs) at the start of each life. But you can pick up and store scissors stuck in the walls, floors, or other objects, allowing you to turn yourself into a scissor-flinging paper ninja--as long as your scissor greed doesn't get you snipped in the process. The ink bomb bursts in an explosion of black ink that can blot out several enemies at once in a single glorious splash. But unlike the scissors, which can travel from one end of a level to the other in a straight line, the ink bomb flies in an arc--so aim well, you only get one! Weaponry aside, Paperbound's main feature is gravity manipulation, which has its ups and downs (and no, I will never apologize for that pun). With a press of the button, you can send your nimble fighter from the ceiling to the floor or from one wall to the other. Changing gravity only affects your own character, so don't be concerned about someone else tossing you about. It can be fun, but mastering gravity and using it as an effective tool in Paperbound is, well, a tad tricky. The problem goes beyond just trying to get from one part of the map to the other. Changing gravity will cause you to be attracted to any nearby piece of land, floating or otherwise, so your plan to fly to a certain area of a map may not always end up in your favor. The challenge is elevated in levels with many floating islands, and it's easy to get frustrated while trying to understand the gravity twisting concept. I foresee issues with newer players trying to perform well against experienced ones who have already passed this tall hurdle. 
Mastering gravity and using it as an effective tool in Paperbound is, well, a tad tricky.
Once everyone is on the same page, the action is an explosive brawl of clinking blades, sailing ink bombs, and raucous laughter. Battles in Paperbound are intense, as weapons clash and lethal scissors fill the air. Due to its rarity, picking off an enemy with a well-timed fling of the scissors is easily one of the most gratifying feelings you can find in any competitive arena game. In fact, as you become more experienced, you begin to grasp some of the finer details of the game's combat. Scissors and ink bombs, for example, can be deflected back toward attackers with a deft swipe of a melee weapon, swiftly demonstrating to any would-be assassin that you won't be caught with your paper trousers down. Using gravity to maneuver in mid-air also becomes more natural, allowing you to accomplish feats such as nabbing that perfect sniping position while "floating." If you're savvy enough, you will never have to touch ground as you fly around the map by rapidly tapping the gravity button. The most energetic matches are almost as entertaining to watch as they are to play, as tiny fighters zoom through the air, dodging and knocking away deadly projectiles like a silly action romp inspired by The Matrix and Inception. Paperbound isn't nearly as tonally heavy as those films; its art is light and welcoming, if not particularly striking. Levels are grouped into a set of five books, each with a unique motif. One set of levels has you zipping around environments inspired by ancient Egyptian tombs, while another group mimics classic Japanese art. But while the look of the game is clean, the simplicity of the style isn't inventive enough to be memorable. However, several levels employ some nice visual flourishes worth mentioning. Tall grass and mushrooms sway as characters swiftly pass by, while floating particles of dust whip through the air with each melee clash and ink bomb explosion. The horror book levels, steeped in rich hues such as purple and green, feature the most interesting details, with curling pen scratches and, fixed in the background, blinking eyes and grinning skulls, giving everything a slight Tim Burton feel. The action is an explosive brawl of clinking blades, sailing ink bombs, and raucous laughter.
Though it is steeped in adventurous, fairy tale themes, Paperbound is not quite a wonderland of different game modes. You can play in four modes either in a free-for-all or with teams: Classic Versus, Survival, Long Live the King, and Capture the Quill. These modes are more typical of the competitive genre, although they use some different names to describe age-old ways of playing. Classic Versus sets players against one another either alone or split into a team of two; survival is similar to versus, with each player granted a number of lives; Long Live the King is akin to Call of Duty's Juggernaut, in which a king earns points while being hunted and the player who kills the king becomes the new king. Finally, Capture the Quill is, obviously, Paperbound's take on capture the flag, except with a quill, inkwell, and so on. Paperbound at least attempts to add its own flair into some of the modes by not giving the top player an instant win once the point goal is reached. Instead, in modes like Survival and Versus, scoring enough points opens a tear that appears in the level's fabric, which you must enter in order to make your escape with the victory; dying removes the tear, and you have to score another point to create another. This ramps up the challenge, giving other players a chance to make a comeback, all while creating some rather brief and shaky truces. Beyond the handful of game modes, Paperbound doesn't have much else to offer. It is great in bursts, and when you have friends playing with you, Paperbound glows with energy. But the lack of online or additional content takes its toll. Yes, the matches are exciting but, while plenty of laughs and shouting can be had, that excitement wanes after several intense hours. Still, like a good short story, Paperbound is worth returning to on occasion when you would rather play something fun for a quick hour or so. Just be sure to bring along some reading buddies.
By Anonymous on Apr 10, 2015 04:30 am
 Square Enix get ready to announce a new project, GTA V's graphics settings are revealed, and another Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 teaser drops.
By Anonymous on Apr 10, 2015 04:00 am
 Goro has three distinct variations including Kuatan Warrior, Dragon Fangs, and Tigrar Fury in Mortal Kombat X. Also, check out both of his Fatalities.
By Anonymous on Apr 10, 2015 02:46 am
 A lot of games have been delayed until 2016, but there are still some great games coming out this calendar year. Kevin VanOrd joins Danny and Chris to remind ourselves what they are!
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