By Anonymous on Sep 29, 2017 11:30 pm We flash back to the 2016 election and find out a bunch of background information about the key players in American Horror Story: Cult including Kai's recruiting efforts, how Gary K. Longstreet lost his arm and why Winter may not be so innocent after all.
Everyone is talking aboutBlade Runner 2049. From the early reviews, critics are raving about director Denis Villeneuve's visionary work. As the sequel to Ridley Scott's 1982 cult-classic film, it takes place 30 years after the events of the first movie, when a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K (Ryan Gosling), unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge the world into chaos.
To bridge the gap between 2019 (when the original Blade Runner took place) and 2049, Villeneuve enlisted the talents of acclaimed Japanese anime director Shinichiro Watanabe--creator of Cowboy Bebop--to create Blade Runner Blackout 2022.
Picture Los Angeles, May 2022. Everything's gone dark. Cars are falling out of the sky, and there are no lights or power. Who's responsible for this? A replicant named Iggy. This citywide blackout is to show humans and the Tyrell corporation that replicants deserve the right to life, and a life free from persecution. Iggy is a Nexus 8, a new type of replicant built with a natural human lifespan--a development that caused natural humans to begin taking their anger and paranoia out on innocent replicants.
Upon hearing Denis Villeneuve wanted an anime set in the Blade Runner universe, Mamoru Oshii, director of Ghost in the Shell, came to mind as the perfect candidate. But no one can argue with Watanabe's expertise. He directed Cowboy Bebop, one of the most celebrated anime series ever. And the man knows his way around the science fiction genre. One hallmark of Watanabe's work is his ability to use different anime styles within the same story without overdoing it. In Blackout, the scenes in black and white show the paranoid state of humanity, while bright colors are used to establish a sense of hope.
The city landscape feels familiar, with images almost mirroring those from Ridley Scott's film. The atmosphere is dark and hopeless. Buildings stand tall and hover over the city. Tensions are high, and there's violence on the ground, replicants fighting to stay alive.
Speaking of fighting, Trixie has an amazing action sequence in which she moves with the same slithering acrobatics as Pris (a replicant played by Daryl Hannah in the original Blade Runner), even down to the blend of gymnastics and martial arts she utilizes. The fight scenes are well choreographed and hyper realistic, as you can hear and feel every bone-crushing kick and punch.
Then there's a quick appearance from Morton Sapper--a significant easter egg for those looking forward to Blade Runner 2049.
In 2049, Sapper is played by Dave Bautista. His appearance in the anime gives the audience some insight into Sapper's character, implying that he's not just a replicant, but also a military deserter. Of course, this raises yet more questions about the upcoming film: Is K is hunting him because Sapper's gone AWOL? Or does Sapper play a larger role in K's mission?
Blade Runner Blackout 2022 is a visually stunning follow-up to Blade Runner, and a welcome refresher before the release of Blade Runner 2049. Shinichiro Watanabe's modern animation techniques manage to capture the spirit of the original while giving the audiences a taste of what to expect next. Animation is also a smart way to connect the material to a new era of sci-fi fans by giving them something easy on the eyes, with a story engaging enough to make them want to see more.
It's been an unusually busy week for Nintendo Switch. Following yesterday's huge batch of Eshop games, another pair of titles is now available for the console, bringing this week's total number of new releases up to 18.
Today's other new release is One Piece: Unlimited World Red Deluxe Edition, an enhanced port of the 2014 title for PS3, Vita, Wii U, and 3DS. Unlimited World Red is an action-adventure game that lets players play as Luffy and other members of the Straw Hat pirates. The game features an original storyline, new and familiar characters, and a variety of quests and bosses to take on. The Deluxe Edition also includes the full slate of DLC that was released for the game. You can download One Piece: Unlimited World Red Deluxe Edition from the Eshop for $40/£55.
These two games follow the 14 titles that arrived in the Eshop yesterday, including the charming golfing RPG Golf Story, the "negative-space" shooter Inversus Deluxe, the fantasy rhythm game Deemo, and many others. Before that, the first in Nintendo's line of classic arcade ports, Arcade Archives: Mario Bros., made its debut, while Grasshopper Manufacture's acclaimed shoot-'em-up Sine Mora EX launched at retail and in the Eshop on September 26. You can find the full list of this week's Switch releases here.
By Anonymous on Sep 29, 2017 09:30 pm Time to repay a debt to the devil by shooting down bosses in Cuphead a run and gun shooter with 1930's cartoon visuals.
Destiny 2's enigmatic merchant Xur has once again appeared in-game, bringing with him a selection of weapons and armor that Hunters, Warlocks, and Titans can use to marginally improve their performance in the great battle against the almighty power level cap.
This week ya boy Xur has landed on Io, and if you open your map you'll see him lurking in the top left corner of Giant's Scar. Although it's pretty easy to get to his general location, he's actually tucked away inside a little cave, so keep an eye open for the entrance. Here's what he's selling this week:
Transversive Steps (Warlock Class Leg Armor) -- 23 Legendary Shards
Destiny 2's servers will be taken offline next week as part of the deployment of the game's next hotfix update. Servers for PS4 and Xbox One are going offline on Tuesday, October 3 and will be unavailable for around three hours. You can read more about the upcoming Destiny 2 server maintenance here.
In other Destiny 2 news, Bungie has confirmed that Faction Rallies are not going to be a weekly event. Once the event is over players will no longer earn Faction Rallies tokens. However, tokens that are already in a player's inventory can still be redeemed and all engrams from vendors will be auto-decrypted and sent to the player.
For more on Destiny 2, check out our recent stories linked below:
Divinity Original Sin II is an RPG filled to the brim with clever dialogue and hidden secrets, so much so that you could spend well over 10 hours in the opening area, Fort Joy, alone. To help you make the most of your early adventures across Rivellon, we've highlighted nine cool things you might've missed in the fort. Be wary; there are potential spoilers ahead.
Was there anything you can do at Fort Joy that we missed? Let us know in the comments below.
For more about the acclaimed RPG, be sure to read our Divinity: Original Sin II review. The game is out now for PC, but it's been in Steam Early Access for almost a year. It's the sequel to our 2014 PC Game of the Year, Divinity: Original Sin, and it netted over $2 million from 40,000 fans on Kickstarter. It features over 1,200 characters, all of them fully voice-acted.
For more on how to better play Divinity: Original Sin II, check out our in-depth guides below:
From the moment you wash ashore on the beach, it's clear that you'll need to work your way up from the bottom. Luckily, some essential, yet easy-to-miss items are nearby. On a partially crumbled platform nearby, you can find a bedroll, which allows you to easily heal your party outside of battle, as well as a shovel, which you can use to uncover treasures whenever you come across a mound. It's possible to get a lizard character to dig for you, but where's the fun in that?
Save The Black Cat!
Before you actually reach Fort Joy, you'll come across a black cat that takes an immediate liking to you and starts to follow you. If you've got the Pet Pal talent, you can chat with the cat a little, but you'll want to do everything in your power to keep it alive. That means no walking through fire, stepping in poison, or getting too close to superstitious guards.
If you manage to keep the cat alive, you'll be handsomely rewarded with a new companion. When you leave Fort Joy, the cat will become a familiar, meaning you can summon him in and outside of battle to use its teleport ability.
The Gloves Of Teleportation
If you're in the market for some flashy looking armor, try getting the Teleportation gloves. To acquire them, talk to Gawin inside Fort Joy and tell him you're interested in his plan. Head to the beach he marks on your map and kill the pack of crocodiles. Retrieve the Teleportation Gloves from the dead body and then return to Gawin. Follow him until he inevitably dies, thus completing the quest. With this handy pair of gloves, you can teleport in combat, warp your party members behind an enemy for a sneak attack, help circumvent environmental obstacles outside of combat, or even use it on any random NPC or inanimate object.
The Healing Ring
The Teleportation Gloves aren't the only cool piece of equipment you can find in Fort Joy. There's also a Healing Ring you can obtain from the quest, The Murderous Gheist. Magister Yarrow will ask you to confront and bring back Migo, a missing inmate who's now a grotesque-looking monster. Unless you've got a Yarrow Flower on you, you're gonna have to fight him for the Healing Ring. Once you retrieve it, you're required to give it back in order to complete the quest. Your options are as follows:
Give it back and lose that cool healing ring, you doofus.
Keep it and have a cool healing ring.
Give it back, kill Yarrow, and have a cool healing ring, you murderer.
Like all things in Divinity: Original Sin II, the choice is up to you.
Battling In The Arena
Fancy a fight? Then the arena is perfect for you. Find and talk to Noosey near the Fort Joy Ghetto to receive the quest, and enter the arena through the trapdoor on the ground. Speak to the leader of the arena and defeat the contenders. After you win, you have a chance to choose a reward and you'll be deemed as "the One."
With your new title, you can visit a blacksmith to remove your Source Collar, which actually, if you do it too early, could pose a problem for your character. While this might be the easiest way to remove it, the magisters that you run into will promptly throw you into prison, making getting anything done in town a hassle. We highly recommend getting further into the game before taking on the Arena.
Find Your Companions
What's an adventure without some great party members to experience it with? While it's entirely possible to go at it alone, you'll want to recruit some hardy teammates to help you in your journey, and Fort Joy is the first and most convenient place to do it. The Red Prince, Ifan, Lohse, Sebille, Beast, and Fane are all situated in various spots around Fort Joy, waiting for you to pick them up. Here's where you can find each of them:
The Red Prince: He's located outside Fort Joy near the beach you washed ashore on.
Ifan: Once you enter the Fort, you'll hear a commotion over some thugs harassing an elf. Intervene and then talk to Ifan.
Lohse: You'll find her next to Ifan in front of the Fort Joy waypoint shrine.
Sebille: Stalk the Lizard Stingtail, who you'll find near the Ghetto Camp Boss Griff. Afterwards, Sebille will be near Stingtail's camp, which is to the west of the elf cave.
Beast: He's located on the beach, west of Griff's camp. You can see him fixing up a wrecked ship.
Fane: Head out north of Fort Joy and follow along the right side path. You'll come across a Hidden Alcove. Go through it and you'll find Fane leaning over a body.
While you're free to seek out each of these characters, keep in mind that you can only have four party members at a time. Luckily, you're free to swap between them all during this section of the game, but you'll inevitably have to give a few of them the boot once you complete Fort Joy.
In addition, don't forget to complete their character quests. They'll give you plenty of backstory, as well as some sweet loot, but perhaps more importantly, doing the quests early will affect your companions' attitudes towards you.
Pick Up All The Books
As a rule of thumb: always pick up and read as many books as possible. These crafting books have recipes for spells, food, and other helpful items. Fort Joy is filled with books, so make sure to acquire as many books as you can there, so you're not struggling to find a good recipe later on.
Make Sure To Talk To All The Animals
If you have the Pet Pal skill (if you don't, then why don't you? It literally lets you talks to animals), make sure to talk to every single animal you encounter. Not only do you receive funny dialogue, but you also unlock new quest opportunities. For example, if you talk to the dog named Buddy at the beach, he'll ask you to find his mate at a nearby castle. Animals offer plenty of fun experiences well worth seeking out.
Check Vendors Every 30 Minutes
In the beginning of your adventure, it's important to get your hands on as many good weapons, armor, and recipes as you can. You'll find a fair amount of these items for sale at the local vendor, but if nothing they have suits your tastes or budgetary constraints, fret not. Vendors stock new items every half hour, so make sure to check back often as you never know what useful items you can purchase that could help you in your early runnings.
Blade Runner's iconic Voight-Kampff test, originally lifted from Philip K. Dick's source material in the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, doesn't appear in Blade Runner 2049. Master director Denis Villeneuve's new Blade Runner sequel takes place decades after the original, and over those years a lot has changed in Ridley Scott's hard-boiled world of poverty, extinction, and androids.
Likewise, plenty has changed in the real world since the 1982 release of the original Blade Runner. With 2049, a new constant has emerged: Blade Runner remains at the peak of cinematic sci-fi.
To say much of Blade Runner 2049's plot would verge on spoilers, but there's plenty of backstory to discuss. In the 30 years since the original took place, replicants--androids who are nearly indistinguishable from humans--have undergone a resurgence thanks to advancements in their technology. After a major event known as "the blackout," during which all technology (hard drives, the cloud, any data stored anywhere) was wiped clean, replicant maker Tyrell Corp. was bought out by Niander Wallace (Jared Leto). Wallace created a new line of replicants--the Nexus 9--that is allegedly unable to disobey, and can be easily identified by ultraviolet markings on their eyeballs (rendering the Voight-Kampff obsolete).
Replicants are no more readily accepted in society in 2049 than they were in 2019, though, and Blade Runners like Harrison Ford's Rick Deckard in the original film, and Ryan Gosling's character "K" in this one, do the dirty work of "retiring" those who step out of line.
2049 perfectly recreates and expands on the original's dystopian-noir tone and aesthetic. This cyberpunk future Los Angeles is not a place you'd want to live, but it's gorgeous to visit, thanks to expansive practical sets and the unmatched work of iconic cinematographer Roger Deakins. The movie ventures outward from LA, too, from the garbage-strewn wastelands of greater California to abandoned, irradiated Las Vegas.
Carrying much of the weight of decades of legacy and anticipation is Ryan Gosling. The actor is becoming increasingly known for roles in which he says a lot with a little, and his character here is far more Drive than La La Land or The Notebook. Much of the movie's first half follows K as he investigates a mystery he unearths while on the job, a slow burn that mirrors Deckard's search for the renegade replicants in the original. Where Deckard was cocky and jaded, K is quiet and determined; but Gosling carries this movie just as expertly as Ford did the original.
He doesn't do it alone, though. Leto's Wallace appears in just a couple of scenes, but he adeptly portrays the sociopathic, god complex-driven tech CEO of the future, as we can't help but envision that archetype from here in 2017. Ford's entrance comes late in the film, after which point it becomes a very different movie, the long, slow burn replaced with a flurry of meetings and reveals that hurtle toward an emotional, tense resolution.
Blade Runner 2049's female stars carry just as much weight. Robin Wright steals scenes as K's stone cold commander in the police force. Sylvia Hoeks is Wallace's sidekick Luv, an intimidating and striking force of nature whenever she's on the screen. Ana de Armas' character, a companion to K, propels some of the movie's most thought-provoking themes, from what constitutes "human" (a conversation from the original that 2049 adds to and builds on) to how technology isolates us (a uniquely modern debate).
Unlike pretty much any other contemporary big-budget blockbuster, 2049's climactic action set piece involves just three characters in a deadly tussle with hugely personal stakes--no spaceship armadas or collapsing CG skyscrapers in sight. Like the rest of the film, Blade Runner 2049's scant action scenes are driven by atmosphere and story, rather than spectacle. The white-knuckled tension Villeneuve so expertly captured in earlier movies, like Arrival and Sicario, is present here as well, making 2049 a perfect tonal continuation of the original.
At the same time, 2049 adds much to the foundation on which it was built. The story, penned by Michael Green and original Blade Runner co-writer Hampton Fancher, uses the events of the first film as a jumping-off point in a future that's progressed logically in the 30-year-gap, with complex events, history, and cultural shifts having occurred off-screen in the meantime. Some viewers may find it overlong at nearly three full hours, but it's so engrossing that many won't want it to end.
Pounding drums underscore an evocative, synth-heavy score, by composers Jóhann Jóhannsson, Benjamin Wallfisch, and Hans Zimmer, that references the original's iconic soundtrack while forming its own, modern identity. Visually, 2049 is to the original what 2017 is to 1982; gone are the old CRT displays and newspapers of the past, replaced by holograms that live in your apartment or dance through the streets, 10 stories tall, to sell you liquor or other vices. There are some truly spectacular special effects on display here, the blend of practical and CG so believable that 2049 will likely be viewed as a benchmark for years to come.
The original Blade Runner is one of those rare sci-fi films that comes along once in a generation, and there are certainly fans who could never be satisfied by any follow-up, no matter how respectful of the original, nuanced in its advancements, or intelligently crafted it may be. It's natural to be wary when Hollywood sets its sights on yet another classic, given how many of its reboots, reprisals, and re-imaginings come stillborn into the world as limp, lifeless cash-grabs.
But whether it was needed or not, Blade Runner 2049 is as close to a perfect sequel as has ever existed, a phenomenal return to the world created by Philip K. Dick and Ridley Scott, the masterpiece result of a thousand expert minds making every right call as they worked toward a singular goal over the course of many years: simply to do this gargantuan thing justice. Needless to say, they succeeded--and then some.
It's with a heavy heart that we have to tell you that the Wii Shop Channel will be shutting down on January 31, 2019. Users will no longer be able to add Wii Points to their account from March 26, 2018.
Thankfully, it will still be possible to re-download purchased WiiWare and Virtual Console titles, then transfer them to the Wii U using the Wii System Transfer feature, but Nintendo notes that this functionality will also cease to work in 2019, so get it done sooner rather than later. Nintendo has said it will provide exact timing on when redownloads will be disabled in the future.
"In 2019, we will close the Wii Shop Channel used on Wii and Wii U (the Wii Shop Channel is accessible on the Wii U via the Wii backwards compatibility feature), which has been available since December 2006," Nintendo said in a statement. "We would like to thank our loyal customers for supporting the Wii Shop Channel, and would like them to continue to enjoy software downloaded from the shop."
Of course, WiiWare and Virtual console games will be playable on the Wii and Wii U as long as they are on the system's memory. But if they are deleted, there's no guarantee you'll be able to reacquire them after the transfer support ends.
The Wii Shop Channel has given us many wonderful digital and classic games to play over the years. However, arguably its lasting legacy will be the absolutely delightful menu music that plays while using it. This jaunty little ditty is undoubtedly among the best system-level music ever included in a console, and it's sad there will be a time when we won't be able to hear it in its purest form.
Thankfully, the song is available to listen to on YouTube. In fact, let's just take the opportunity to enjoy it now. And while we're getting nostalgic about Wii music, why not check out the brilliant Mii Channel trap remix. And then this superb video of a dude dancing to the shop theme.
Nintendo's latest platform, Switch, uses the Eshop for all its digital game delivery. Fans have been clamoring for news on whether Nintendo will introduce a Virtual Console-like system for classic games, however, the company hasn't provided any concrete details as of yet.
In the US, we know Best Buy stores will have SNES Classic units in stock today, while GameStop and ThinkGeek will apparently have a "limited and varied amount of consoles" on sale. UK consumers can try their luck on the high street, but major online retailers like Game, Amazon, and Argos are all sold out for the time being. Australia, meanwhile, has to wait until tomorrow, September 30 to get their hands on the device. For more, you can check out our SNES Classic buying guide.
In our SNES Classic Edition review, critic Michael Higham said Nintendo has done a "damn fine job" of evoking childhood nostalgia. The console--which costs US $80 / £60 / AU $120--also includes a rewind feature so you can go back and try again if you fail.
We've been looking forward to playing Cuphead, Xbox One's latest console exclusive, ever since its initial reveal in 2014. After a delay, the action-platformer is finally out, and critics' verdicts have started to go live.
In our Cuphead review, Peter Brown said the game is "relentless," but that "toppling Cuphead's imposing bosses is both a monumental and rewarding task." He praised the game's "endlessly charming" 1930s cartoon aesthetic, which "truly re-creates the look of hand-drawn cel animation." He awarded the game an 8/10; if you want to see the platformer's unique art style in motion, check out some Cuphead gameplay.
For more critics' opinions, you can take a look at our review roundup below, or check out GameSpot sister site Metacritic.
Game: Cuphead
Developer / Publisher: Studio MDHR
Platforms: Xbox One, PC
Release: Out now
Price: US $20 / £16.74 / AU $30
GameSpot -- 8/10
"Cuphead has been a longtime coming, and it's great to see that it lives up to its initial promises. It's beautiful to look at, and with a pitch-perfect soundtrack, it flawlessly captures the era its developers so clearly revere. It's also an intense action game that pulls no punches. It could benefit from a few tweaks, and two-player co-op doesn't feel like the valuable addition you might imagine, but Cuphead remains a rare, unique game that truly stands out." -- Peter Brown [Full review]
Polygon -- 8.5/10
"Cuphead's deal with the devil eventually leads to hell, and so perhaps it's fitting the conclusion should be so torturous. Though, honestly, even the residual headache has been soothed by the sweet, sweet salve of victory. When I think of my time with Cuphead, instead of frustration I'll remember the dozens of tiny breakthroughs, when the impossible became possible, and a game that built an identity around difficulty helped me to feel, however briefly, undefeatable." -- Chris Plante [Full review]
GamesRadar -- 5/5
"Yes, Cuphead was worth the wait. Too often, I find myself thinking "Thank God I never have to do that again" after wrapping up a difficult game--but with Cuphead, I'm mighty excited to further my eight-to-nine-hour Regular run by trouncing those bosses in an Expert encore. If you're partial to a tough-but-fair challenge, and you have even the slightest appreciation for the rich history of animated cartoons, you'll be overjoyed by the wonderfully artistic adventure that is Cuphead. Maybe you'll even get a blistered thumb or two to remember it by." -- Lucas Sullivan [Full review]
Destructoid -- 9.5/10
"Cuphead's incredible style belies its magical complexity. It's so much more than a hard-as-hell shoot-'em-up with artistic flair. It's cerebral in a way that these kind of games rarely are. Cuphead's commitment to forcing the player to understand is commendable. Those who don't have the patience to learn won't get far. That's the kind of stand-your-ground moxie that makes this a hallmark of game design. My praise runneth over." -- Brett Makedonski [Full review]
By Anonymous on Sep 29, 2017 12:31 pm Spoiler alert! Watch as we take to the skies and barrel-roll through some of Cuphead's flying stages, including a couple of never before seen bosses!
Everything you've heard about Cuphead is true. It is a difficult side-scrolling shooter with relentless boss battles that demand rapid-fire actions and reactions. Think for too long, and you won't stand a chance against the game's toughest enemies. Battles may only last three minutes at most, but they feel far longer when you know that you can only absorb three hits before you have to start from scratch. When you are navigating your way around bullets, smaller enemies, and pitfalls, while simultaneously trying to damage your primary target, toppling Cuphead's imposing bosses is both a monumental and rewarding task.
But difficult battles only tell half of the story. Cuphead's 1930s cartoon aesthetic is endlessly charming, popping with color and expression unlike anything seen at this scale in a video game before. The sheer variety of characters and settings yields consistent delight as you go from one stage to the next, with everything bearing the telltale signs of grainy '30s film and rudimentary production techniques. Cel-shading means something to a lot of people, but Cuphead truly re-creates the look of hand-drawn cel animation.
The characters and bosses that are clearly inspired by cartoon legends like Betty Boop break free from the expected to surprise you with something new. Never mind that Betty's lookalike is a mermaid now; it's the moment her head breaks free from her body and spews caustic skulls that gives you pause. If you can appreciate the unique animation style, you will be doubly impressed when you see what developer Studio MDHR has brought to the table. If its technical execution wasn't enough, MDHR's creativity puts Cuphead in a league of its own.
A world map sets the stage for your adventure. As a Cup-thing who gambled with the devil, you now must go around collecting debts from the devil's other acquaintances--the game's bosses. Outside of one-on-one fights, you also have a few opportunities to run and gun through less-imposing platforming stages. These help break up the action and give you a chance to collect coins that can be cashed in for "weapons" and passive buffs. Coins are in short supply and can only be collected once, so farming to gain an advantage is out of the question. These stages don't compare to Cuphead's main attractions, but they add valuable substance nonetheless.
The mix of ammunition for your hand gun--character fire from their fingers--includes the likes of a spread shot, a charge blast, and a boomerang round. There are six in all, and each comes with a secondary attack that's tied to a meter that fills when you successfully land shots on enemies. You can also earn meter by parrying pink projectiles and enemies, a task that requires you to jump towards an enemy and then tap jump again at just the right moment before impact. These range from a fireball and a ring of damaging gems to a burst of bulky, short-range arrows. Finally, you have a super art, which can only be fired when your entire meter is full, as opposed to spending one section of that meter to fire your weapon's secondary attack. The one catch here is that when your meter is full, you can't perform a secondary attack--you are inconveniently forced to unleash your super art, which isn't always desirable.
Given that you are able to equip two weapons at once, the variety of loadouts you can equip before a fight allows for flexibility on your part. While you may benefit by bringing a specific set of arms into some boss battles--say, using tracer rounds to pick off minor enemies swarming overhead--you can still carry whatever you wish into battle so long as you have the confidence and knowledge meet the challenge ahead.
Learning the bosses' attack pattern is oftentimes half the battle, and it's typical to run through a fight multiple times until you see everything that might get thrown your way. Every boss fight consists of multiple stages or forms. Bosses will change shape, position, and behavior with each new phase. And within an individual phase, you may see as many as four different attacks, though you aren't always guaranteed to see them all during subsequent fights. When bosses begin to mix multiple attacks at once, the potential for various deadly combos keeps you on your toes no matter how familiar you are with the fight in question.
The fear of the unexpected is part of what makes Cuphead such a thrilling game, beyond the frantic moment-to-moment tension. You only have three hit points per stage by default--you gain a fourth if you equip a charm that also weakens your firepower. But when the only question in your head is, "In what order will the boss' attacks appear?" fights take on less-appealing light after the dozenth attempt. It's in these moments you start to identify a few places where Cuphead could do a slightly better job of keeping you informed of your own progress and capabilities.
You never can tell exactly how close to death--or a phase change, for that matter--bosses are. At best, you can see a plotline of the battle after death, to loosely gauge your relative progress. In the face of defeat, you may begin to question if you're carrying the right tools for the job. Beyond revisiting old fights, which is more arduous than it should be as you traverse the map slowly and can't fast travel, there isn't a great way to familiarize yourself with new weapons. And there's unfortunately no way to tell exactly how much damage one weapon does compared to another. Vague descriptions are all you get.
If Cuphead's fights were indeed puzzles with one correct solution, this would be incredibly frustrating. As it stands, there's only a small amount of frustration to be found while fumbling with new weapons and dying in the process. It may sound like a minor thing to praise, but the fact that boss battles reload in one or two seconds is a godsend when it comes to trial-and-error tactics. And no matter how frustrating a boss may be, you can't escape the draw of their expressive animations.
Cuphead does support two-player local co-op as well, but it's pretty evident that this makes life more difficult for you and your partner. Despite the intricate chaos that you face alone in any given fight, when you add another character and more projectiles on screen, playing with a friend makes it far more difficult to discern your surroundings, and much easier to slip up. You do have a small window of time to revive a fallen comrade by parrying their ghost, but it's a mere few seconds while it floats up to the top of the screen before disappearing for the remainder of the fight.
For anyone interested in getting a taste of Cuphead without facing almost-guaranteed defeat, there are simpler versions of every boss that you can fight--but you won't be able to access the final battle unless you beat every standard boss on the normal difficulty. And in reality, you may as well stick with the standard fights as Cuphead is relentless no matter how you play.
Cuphead has been a longtime coming, and it's great to see that it lives up to its initial promises. It's beautiful to look at, and with a pitch-perfect soundtrack, it flawlessly captures the era its developers so clearly revere. It's also an intense action game that pulls no punches. It could benefit from a few tweaks, and two-player co-op doesn't feel like the valuable addition you might imagine, but Cuphead remains a rare, unique game that truly stands out.
By Anonymous on Sep 29, 2017 12:30 pm Our two plucky heroes get into fisticuffs with a duo of fishy frogs before taking to the not so friendly skies to make a genie wish he'd never messed with Cuphead and Mugman!
Ahead of the main game's release next month, a version of Middle-earth: Shadow of War for iOS and Android devices launched today. The free-to-play strategy RPG challenges you to the task of taking down Orcs and ultimately the evil dark lord himself, Sauron.
Some of the playable characters include Shadow of War protagonists Talion and Celebrimbor, along with Gandalf, Gimli, and the new version of Shelob, among others.
In the mobile game, Celebrimbor made new Rings of Power and it's your job to collect as many as possible to improve your skills on your journey to ridding evil from the world. The gameplay takes the form of real-time battles with squads you assemble.
Shadow of War's mobile version also makes use of the franchise's trademark Nemesis system. As in the mainline games, this means that Orcs will remember you. Also, you can choose to kill them for rewards or recruit them to do your bidding. You can get a glimpse at the gameplay and more in the trailer embedded above.
Shadow of War's mobile version was developed by IUGO, in partnership with WB Games San Francisco and Monolith Productions.
"We're thrilled to have collaborated with the incredible team at IUGO whose passion and innovation were paramount in creating an authentic Middle-earth adventure on mobile that lives up to players' expectations," WB Games SF boss Jonathan Knight said in a statement. "Together we've brought to life Middle-earth's greatest Champions and combined that with the award-winning Nemesis System, setting the stage for an epic battle against Sauron and his armies to take back Middle-earth."
As with other free-to-play games, Shadow of War lets you pay real-money for extra items, though these are optional. You can download the game now using the links below.
We flash back to the 2016 election and find out a bunch of background information about the key players in American Horror Story: Cult including Kai's recruiting efforts, how Gary K. Longstreet lost his arm and why Winter may not be so innocent after all.
Take a look at Real Madrid facing off against Barcelona in FIFA 18, running on a docked Nintendo Switch.
Time to repay a debt to the devil by shooting down bosses in Cuphead a run and gun shooter with 1930's cartoon visuals.
Spoiler alert! Watch as we take to the skies and barrel-roll through some of Cuphead's flying stages, including a couple of never before seen bosses!
Our two plucky heroes get into fisticuffs with a duo of fishy frogs before taking to the not so friendly skies to make a genie wish he'd never messed with Cuphead and Mugman!
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