Story

The plot of Revelations takes place in between Resident Evil 4 and 5. Throughout the twelve chapter campaign, the story focuses on three sets of characters, including Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine. The majority of the game focuses on The Queen Zenobia, an abandoned cruise ship in the Mediterranean. In an attempt to search the last known location of Chris and his partner, Jill and Parker find themselves held captive aboard the vessel. The reality of the baron ship is that its overrun by T-Abyss Virus infected that lurk in the shadows of the Zenobia.

The title shifts between the three teams constantly, in an attempt to create a suspenseful mysterious atmosphere. At times this works well, at others the story falls flat on its face. In taking Revelations in the moment, it’s a fun narrative when you excuse the expected cheesy voice acting and lack of character development. If you try to piece the story together in its entirety, however, you might find it a challenge to understand.

Gameplay 

The setting of the desolate cruise ship fits the genre quite well. The tight corridors and flooded halls make the survival horror atmosphere eminent. I found myself jumping at monsters popping out of pools of waters or emerging from an air duct from behind. For the first time I can recall since RE 4, I found myself frightened from a Resident Evil game.

Weaponry is what you would expect. There isn’t a great variety in choices but with the option of customization the player can do quite a lot with the decently sized inventory. Ammo conservation reprises its role in Revelations as well, forcing the player to focus on accuracy. The genesis is a fresh tool to the belt. It allows you to scan the environments through a first person view, uncovering story clues and scavenging items. It adds a new feature to an outdated experience, but doesn’t get significantly involved in the narrative.

Zombies don’t make an appearance in this game. Instead we see the Ooze, the deformed sluggish brutes. Although grotesque, there isn’t a very diverse set of baddies. Each enemy type has a single character model, leaving more to be desired from the monsters. The boss fights are challenging, but lack individuality. Rather than having to depend on weapon strategies and weak points, you will find yourself unloading on the heavies, then retreating to a new vantage point.

Graphics

For what it is Resident Evil Revelation is not an unattractive game, but gamers may find the “HD” subtitle a little hard to swallow. Yes, this game was born on the tiny 4.8 Inch screen of the 3DS, but it is also proclaimed to be one of the most beautiful titles on the system. For the console version, the character models look good, not great. The environments are bland and repetitive, which doesn’t translate well onto the big screens.

Controls

It’s quite clear that this title originates from a handheld system. The controls only introduce a few implementations which were created in the name of the 3DS’s touchscreen. It is worth mentioning that none of this transitions poorly. Someone who is familiar with RE games will quickly find themselves at home with Revelations. If anything, the simplified controls of Revelations are a much-needed regression from the more recent console installments in the Resident Evil series.

Aside from the dodge command, there is no real aid in evading enemies. The implementation of a sprint feature feels missing, making getting out of dicey situation an arduous feat. The melee attack is good in a pinch, but is often futile, causing little damage.

Multiplayer

Your only option to play with others comes in the form of raid mode. This presents extra playtime in the form of two-player co-op. You will level up a character, unlocking and collecting items and weapons along the way. Those BP points you earned throughout the campaign will also be put to use here as the in-game currency.

Although this mode does offer a fair share of entertainment, it doesn’t offer anything new to the title. You will find yourself traversing the same maps, using the same weapons, and fighting the same monsters. Capcom could have used this as an opportunity to introduce additional background to the story, but instead provides no  narrative, giving it the appearance of an obligation to offer multi-play.

Overall

Although Resident Evil: Revelations has its faults, it is worth playing. The story may not be a mystery masterpiece, but it provides the player with an immersive survival horror experience. The controls lack certain innate features and could use tweaking. Raid mode isn’t a slew of new content, but will provide players with a fun cooperative element. Buried under a weak HD port is a solid Resident Evil installment. If you have the option, pick up this title on the 3DS  and see how impressive its graphics can be. If you’re a fan of the series, then Revelations is worth playing.

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Wii U

• Kirby Super Star (Nintendo, 2 players, $7.99)
• Kirby’s Dream Land 3 (Nintendo, 2 players, $7.99)
• Kirby’s Dream Course (Nintendo, 2 players, $7.99)

3DS eShop

• Naruto Powerful Shippuden (Namco, 1 player, $34.99)
• Groove Heaven (Teyon, 1 player, $3.99)
• Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D (Nintendo, 2 players, $34.99)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilwubRv_U3o

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The Yawhg is artistically beautiful, reminding a person of high-definition Hanna Barbera cartoons. The story follows a small town which is preparing for the return of the mythical Yawhg, a creature of untold power and destruction. How the story unfolds, however, is randomly generated and will change on every playthrough, and the game contains fifty different endings. This will allow for multiple games with different storylines, and will likely add hours of replay value.

Emily Carroll is an artist from Vancouver, Canada and her work includes 2013’s The 3 Snake Leaves and 2010’s HIS FACE ALL RED. Developer Damian Sommer runs damainsgames.com and has created multiple PC games including Eye Pilot and Flew The Coop. The rest of the Yawhg team includes Ryan Roth as Sound Designer and Halina Heron as the musician. These four people have worked together from all over Canada to bring this thematically charged game to life.

The Yawhg is coming out on May 30^th, but you can pre-order it today from their official website for the low, low price of $5.00, which is 50% off the retail price. You can check out the game’s website here, which is a very good read and is wonderfully designed (leaving me with a good impression of the game). I, for one, will be pre-ordering this beautifully drawn gem, because if there’s one thing I can’t get enough of, its multiple endings.

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When you start your first adventure into the world of Van Helsing you are thrust directly into combat with a quick thirty seconds to compose yourself. This level of intensity will remain throughout your experience in the game. The developers have taken the classic action-RPG format and pumped some adrenaline into it, perhaps a couple of times. This is not a bad thing or anything to fear, the challenge is quite fun and lead me to personally keep coming back over and over.

Mobs are massive and there are very short intervals between them, this keeps you on your toes at all times. Good thing you have your trusty companion, Katarina, with you at all times too. With her ability to change into three different forms; ghost, ranged, and melee, she is a force to be reckoned with. And the voice work for her character is perfect, I could listen to that voice all day and not get bored with hearing it.

Katarina may seem weak at first but given time and some skill points she will become as, if not more, capable than the sword and guns you carry yourself. Pairing her abilities with your own will ensure you have a fighting force on multiple fronts.

The number of enemies you face head on can be overwhelming to someone new to the genre. But that makes it all the better when you take one down, each win is a little achievement for you to take pride in.

If you want to keep up with ever-growing mobs and challenging boss battles, then you’re going to want to keep your gear updated. This is a major focus for an ARPG, loot, loot, and more loot. Keep popping the tops on those chests and finding better weapons, armor, and items to enchant your gear. All the loot I came across in the wilds were far better than what I found in the inventories of various vendors around the world.

As Van Helsing you will have access to swords, pistols, rifles, and magical abilities. Each has skills tied to the respective weapon type, increasing their abilities and damage when upgraded. Swords feel powerful, albeit slow, they can cut down mobs in no time. Guns are perfect for kiting, or retreating and firing, to take down one enemy at a time. They do feel a little weaker than their close combat brethren however. And magic is another that you will need to throw skill points into to see some real impact. I used it constantly in my playthrough however, the perfect tool for breaking up groups of enemies and taking down weaker ones. Blasting lightning and seeing it streak through the bodies of mythical creatures is a lot of fun.

To further the magical undertones of Van Helsing, Neocore created a whole new world buried deep underneath the ground you walk on. The Ink world is a dark and mysterious other realm, darkly lit with ominous, glowing fauna lining the walkways. Monsters here seem to be the same as ones in the regular world, with a few boss battles breaking up the mix. These portions are of the game are used as a way to move to different areas and to take on some side-quests for various members of the local citizenry.

And once you finally get your own little piece of the world things get even more interesting. Building traps and reviving your underground hideout is quite enjoyable. And then using those traps to defeat waves of creatures is a nice distraction that I was happy to fight my way through. The real adventure still lies beyond the secret lair however.

The one thing you always get the sense of while playing The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing is that the game was made to play with friends. Co-op partners definitely make your time in Borgovia more enjoyable and much easier. A group of infamous monster hunters will take down a mob faster than one after all.

Getting into a co-op game takes some perseverance. Some users were complaining of connection issues and other problems with the game, Neocore was quick to fix these issues. Right now the only thing keeping you from joining a game perfectly is finding the right one. Keep in mind this is only while playing with random players, with friends there will be no issue in getting together and completing the story.

Bring a friend or three along with you to hunt some monsters and you will have an enjoyable night of looting and face-smashing. This is where Van Helsing shines the most. There really is nothing like a co-op adventure to bring friends together.

And on to the technical side of the game, which everyone seems to have an opinion on. The graphics are not the most eye shattering, but do they need to be? I wasn’t looking for a new Crysis when I played, I was looking for a fun experience with the core gameplay being the focus. This is exactly what I got.

The graphics are not on the terrible side anyway, the towns looked how they should, Gothic. Worn-down villagers down on their luck with old architecture was the feeling I got. The Gallowsbog swamps were quite notable, dimly lit and textured perfectly to give you the feeling of a swamp with all kinds of sharp-toothed beings lurking within.

The controls were pretty intuitive, I never had a problem taking on the monster I wanted to. The skills and powers have been setup so you can easily be granted access to them using either the keyboard or a quick click from your mouse. I never once experienced a death while trying to drink that health potion down. Learn your hotkeys and never let the beasts get the jump on you again.

Musically, the game pulls you in and immerses you in the world. The soundtrack playing lightly in the background gave me the feeling of a old-time street musician playing back in the medieval or renaissance days. It isn’t blaring in your face trying to be the center of the show, instead it is doing its job and making you feel it.

There have been a few bugs and crashes I have come across in my time playing the game. The developers have been quick to jump on these issues and fixed the majority with an update. Since then I have yet to come across a crash and everything is running smoothly.

So, will I return to The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing? For the foreseeable future, yes I will. I will recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the action-RPG genre or just anyone looking for a fun time. Neocore Games did an amazing job bringing this world to our eyes and thrusting us into the life of a monster hunter. I will eagerly await the next entry in the Van Helsing tale.

The post The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing Review appeared first on 6aming.

To confirm the new box art, Microsoft released an image for the Xbox One launch title Forza Motorsport 5. The box art was released via Twitter and on the official Turn 10 Studios Facebook page.

This confirmed the rumored look at first showed up on the Battlefield 4 website. The new darker color isn’t a drastic change to their previous look, hopefully it will be eye-catching while scanning the aisles and racks of games in your local retailer.

The Xbox One will be released later this year, currently there has been no price plan revealed. A rumor has been heard stating the Xbox One will launch at a lower price than the Xbox 360 did. This could win more than a few customers over alone.

How do you feel about the new box art? Is it something that would catch your eye?

The post Xbox One Box Art Confirmed appeared first on 6aming.

The Deluxe Edition will apparently feature everything you would think would come in an upgraded version of the game. Here are the contents leaked:

• Battlefield 4 Full game
• Battlefield 4 China Rising Expansion Pack
• Bonus In-Game Content
• Collectible SteelBook Cover

The Battlefield 4 Deluxe Edition is packed with additional content, including the Battlefield 4 China Rising multiplayer expansion pack, bonus in-game content, and comes with a collectible SteelBook cover. The Deluxe Edition is available in limited quantities only.

The Deluxe Edition is listed for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC versions only so far. GAME has the price set at £64.99 for consoles , and £54.99 on PC. This is around £20 give or take more than the regular version, so pretty normal pricing plan.

EA has not yet released any news of the Deluxe Edition or if the United States would see something similar. Hopefully we can get a confirmation on that soon.

Battlefield 4 will be released on October 29th in North America and November 1st in Europe for the PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.

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Used games have an uncertain future with next-gen consoles.

Once you get past the pros of having your games digital, it becomes quite a bit longer of a list of cons. In many digital distributors, gamers are limited to a certain number of times the game(s) can be downloaded before you are forced to purchase another copy. Most Steam games offer unlimited installs, but certain 3rd party DRMs have the same download limitation. I must offer my own account, that a simple email to the company will very likely result in having your download limits replenished, that often isn’t the case for console digital games. So what does this have to do with used games? Well, it appears to be the main device to counter the purchase and selling of used games. There have been rumors going around that eventually, all games will be completely digital, and we won’t really own anything.

Let’s say you go to a dealership, and buy a new car. You buy it for quite a lot of money, but it’s worth it to you. Once you put a 100k miles into the car, you get bored with it, sell it, and save the money to buy a new one. Once you sell the car, you keep all the proceeds, minus tax if that applies. My point here is that video game developers/publishers are complaining that they don’t receive any money when their products are sold used.  So the theory is that if all games are distributed in a one-way fashion, meaning they can only be bought from the source, and they cannot be traded, they control the entire market. Long ago, we used to own video games just as if they were televisions or computers, but now, we are entering an age where we don’t really own our games anymore.

The Online Pass. One of many new anti-used game countermeasures.

I am a huge fan of the PC video game distributor Steam, but if I ever (god forbid) pissed them off enough, they could ban my account, and sever all access to the games I’ve accumulated over the years. Now Steam has several documents stating this beforehand, letting you know that you all should be good little boys and girls or else action may be taken against you. Every time you click “I agree”, you should at least have a look at what you’re agreeing to. As I said, I am quite fond of Steam, but there are circumstances that would put me out of 100+ video games I bought with real life money. This is a potential problem we will encounter in the future, as we are already experiencing it now. I don’t mean to be a revolutionary and say “fight the power”, but really, they seem to be shoving us into a corner so they can control the flow of their games.

These games aren’t really mine, I don’t really own them.

I respect that the media alone deserves to be paid for, but to have identical prices for both physical and digital copies is just absurd. As consumers, we don’t know how much it costs to burn a cd and package it, but we do know it costs a lot less to distribute that media through the internet. Both Music and Video Games began a digital trend at around the same time, so why aren’t we encountering the same problem with music? Well, music has similar issues, but once you download a track or and album, you can keep them forever. Those files can be accessed at any time, and as long as the files are in your drive somewhere, you own them. Even if iTunes somehow “banned” your account, you would still have your music.

Now if you want to support your developer, you should not buy a used game. If you want to reward developers and publishers for creating something wonderful, buy it new, and at full price if you can. The amount of money they receive determines the quality of support for the game including updates or even DLC. High revenue can also send a powerful message that the consumers want a sequel, or at least another game of this fashion. I understand there are people who always buy games new because they want to contribute to the right people. But these wheels in motion point to the decision being made for us. Everyone should be informed that used games can kill the gaming market, but forcing gamers to do what they want is just too much power, we need to have the freedom to choose.

The post The Used Game Dilemma appeared first on 6aming.

This new live-action trailer was directed by Jon Favreau, the genius behind Iron Man 1 and 2, so you know it will be good. In terms of story or any real gameplay detail in the trailer, there is none. But we do get an idea of the kind of teamwork required to be effective in Destiny.

The trailer is narrated by actor Giancarlo Esposito, famous for his portrayal of Gus Fring in the recent television series Breaking Bad. He brings his serious and almost ominous nature to the story being told in the background of all the action.

The official trailer description reads:

As a Guardian of the City sets out on an epic, action-packed adventure to reclaim our Solar System, he recalls the moment when he was first taught the most important lesson of all — The Law of the Jungle.

Make sure to check out our coverage of E3 to find out more about Destiny on June 11th. You can view the new The Law of the Jungle trailer below.

Destiny – The Law of the Jungle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS1BM9XRgvw

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Care for a swim? Too bad!

Sometimes you have to die a few times to know your boundaries in a video game. Sometimes the game will flat-out tell you “You can’t be here”. Even an immersive game like Skyrim will flat-out tell you to turn around, and there is really nothing to see here. While Skyrim has more than enough content inside the massive boundaries, it really kills my game for them to tell me to go away. I understand boundaries are hard to create, especially for an entire border of a small country, but I would appreciate something a little more creative. I remember playing the first Mercenaries game on the PS2, and if I ever walked or flew outside the map, into a red zone, I would get blown to smithereens because that was a no-fly zone. Made sense to me.

Alright, alright, I’m turning around!

I would much rather have a boundary that is nonverbal. I can either see it, or I can receive a warning that I should not continue.  I think the most non-violent boundary I ever saw in a video game was in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City where I simply bounced right off the invisible wall and in the opposite direction. It was nice and simple, and I didn’t get hurt. In more recent games like Just Cause 2 and even San Andreas, they just let you fly for miles and miles because it’s just endless ocean after all. I liked that San Andreas would let me fly out to sea, that way I could settle any dogfights over an area that wasn’t inhabited by pedestrians or more cops. The double-edged sword of a limitless game is that you have to swim back if you ever crashed, but it was worth it I do believe.

Now, I’m not saying every game has to have boundaries or no boundaries, but that depends entirely on the genre of game the developers chose. Skyrim is all about free choice, completing quests any way you want, in any order you want, and at your own leisure. Skyrim is all about doing whatever the hell you want and making your character an extension of yourself. So why does the game tell is in a completely immersion-breaking fashion to “turn around” and go away because we didn’t build anything over here. Gamers can be pretty sensitive people, so telling them “no” can really hurt their game. As Samuel Jackson says in the movie The Negotiator: “Never use don’t, wont or can’t, it eliminates options”. I’ve only hit the invisible wall once or twice when trying to climb a mountain or something, but once is all it takes to make the world feel just a little smaller. It makes me feel like I’m on my own Truman Show and there’s a much bigger world out there, and my world is just a lie.

This is the end of the world, what else is there?

Okay, I am admittedly being really dramatic about seeing the end of the map, it didn’t ruin the game for me, it just tainted it a little bit. Just Cause 2 is arguably one of the most expansive maps in a single player game, offering the most freedom travel-wise. Freedom makes sense in an “open-world” game. My personal favorite open-world game just happens to be Red Dead Redemption. The game gives us the illusion of being a huge map because while most of it is in a desert, there are many terrain differences, and if you look at a screenshot, you can almost always tell what part of the map you are in. The game still suffers from Aquaphobia, but cowboys don’t swim anyway, so who cares. Never in my entire time playing the game did I say “I want to go over there but I can’t because of an invisible wall.” There were parts of the map that had to be “unlocked” but once I had the whole world, I didn’t want anything else. I had enough variety in my world to be satisfied, and with so many modes of transportation, the world size was perfect.

While expansive at a distance, the world is painfully simple up close

Sure Just Cause 2 is huge, but I never drive anywhere because of the many different islands, I fly from place to place about 90% of the time. Red Dead Redemption was specifically tailored for someone walking, riding, or hitching on a train. Red Dead Redemption is a perfect example closing the loop in a completely natural way. The only bits of water were usually in dangerous rivers and deep swamps, which is rather understandable that a cowboy would die inside of that. The power of the pen is mightier than the sword, and strategy is key. Just because your game is powerful, that doesn’t mean you don’t need to think it through. Consider the type of gamer you might be targeting and then decide how many boundaries to have, and how to hide them. Open-world games are kind of a gimmick these days, even in a game that doesn’t need it. LA Noire, for example, could have easily been a mission based game like Hitman, with no driving around, but it really didn’t hinder the game any. I wish to see more appropriate methods of hiding boundaries in the video games that deem it appropriate. If someone is going to get lazy in a video game, I think there are better places than the boundaries of a game. I could probably write an entirely new article on the “invisible walls” in Fallout: New Vegas, but I will save you the trouble. I hope I’m not the only one who is annoyed by these blunders, and I hope future video games hide their limits more skillfully.

If you have any examples of video game borders or limits that annoy you, please post below. If you feel I have left something out, I would be happy to hear about it. Thank you for reading.

The post The Illusion of Freedom appeared first on 6aming.

The four armed robbers will make a return this August with updated gameplay, new features, and all new heists to pull off. Dallas, Hoxton, Wolf, and Chains will make their way to Washington DC for this new crime spree.

The first episode of the live-action web series will be released in two weeks time. From there it is unknown how often a new episode will be released.

Payday 2 will be released on August 13th in North America and August 15th everywhere else for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. The game is currently available for pre-order through Steam.

Payday 2 – Live Web Series Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmpWJbb2obA

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