Chess Ultra is coming this Spring!

• Chess Ultra is the first in-house 4K title from Ripstone Games
• Brand new chess title built from the ground up with Unreal Engine 4
• Coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam
• Also coming to VR platforms PSVR, Oculus and HTC Vive

Ripstone Games, the British developer and publisher behind hit games including Pure Pool, Stick it to the Man, Ironcast and Pure Hold’em, is excited to reveal Chess Ultra, a brand new in-house chess title that launches this spring on consoles, PC and VR platforms.

Chess Ultra is a sequel to Ripstone’s original million-selling 2012 title Pure Chess, and is a massive improvement on the original title in every way, with crisp, beautiful 4K visuals across a whole variety of environments and chess sets.

Ripstone’s first in-house developed game, built from the ground up using Unreal Engine 4, features a range of single-player and online game modes, including 10 different AI levels to conquer all the way up to Grandmaster-approved levels.

When players take the game online, they’ll quickly find their friends and other Chess Ultra players in ranked, regular, Fischer and Marathon matches.

Twitch integration is just one of the brand new additions in Chess Ultra, allowing Steam players to stream the game live on Twitch and play against their streaming community, who will be able to enter chess moves into the chat.

For those hoping to see the game and the Twitch integration in action, Ripstone is currently hosting a special livestream on Twitch right now, where viewers can play Chess Ultra against Grandmaster Simon Williams, and also ask questions about the game.

More details about Chess Ultra will be revealed in the coming months before launch, including how the game plays in virtual reality on PlayStation VR, Oculus and HTC Vive. Chess Ultra is set to launch across console and PC platforms later this spring.

You can also check some screeshots of the game:

2Dark gets a new gameplay trailer!

Bigben Games and Gloomywood studio has released a new gameplay trailer for their latest upcoming title 2Dark which releases on March 17th for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

You can watch the trailer here.

From the creator of Alone in the Dark and pioneer of the survival horror genre, Frédérick Raynal’s new masterpiece 2Dark is a stealth adventure game without remorse mixing elements of sleuthing, horror and covertness. You play as an ex-cop, Smith, investigating the kidnapping of his two children. Be bold and cunning in your investigation leading into the lairs of psychopathic killers, use shadowy darkness to your advantage, and above all rescue the children!

Wick Game Review

Wick is a first-person survival horror game, in which you are going to explore a local ghost story in the woods. You are supposed to survive from Midnight to 6 am in game time by using light from you matches or you can use candles that you can find scattered around the woods. This game is made and published by Hellblent Games.

You play as a girl who you were talking about ghost stories with your friends, your friends close your eyes and you are alone in the woods where all the creatures that you discussed with them are alive and they try to hunt you down! All you have is matches and candles you should use them wisely in order to decrease your fear. You have to survive from 00:00 am to 06:00 am. Every time has many different scenarios and different tactics should be used in order to avoid your enemies, each time takes place in the same space in the woods which is framed as well, so it isn’t that open for you to explore. In addition, you can collect mysterious collectibles which are scattered around the woods.

The question is if Wick is a great horror game, well the answer to this question is a yes and a no. The game has some jump scares, but they are pretty cheap which means you will get scared, but if you think about it 10 seconds later, you will laugh. Another part of the game that can prove frustrating for the players is the death system of the game when the enemies find you, you get an instant death, you don’t have a chance to dodge them. In addition, the game is short after you finish the 6 hours of survival, the game finishes, so there isn’t much replay value to the game.

The technical department of the game is mediocre as well. The graphics aren’t a huge spectacle as you play in foggy woods in the night, they look good, but there isn’t something that sparkles in that department, however, the sounds of the game suit the game’s atmosphere very nicely and they do all the work to scare you as the player.

Hellblent Games made a horror game which I have enjoyed and I would recommend to my readers, despite its shortcomings. This game is recommended for people who get scared easily and love jump scares, however, if people look for a game that will scare them or traumatize them for months this certainly it isn’t.

I give Wick a 7/10, this horror game is a mediocre one but it’s enjoyable in some cases.

Wick is available on Xbox One, Playstation 4 and PC via Steam.

***Reviewer’s Note: The game copy was provided by the developer/publisher for the purpose of the review.

 

 

 

Xbox Live Games with Gold March 2017

Larry Hryb has announced this March’s Games with Gold for 2017 and that includes  Layers of Fear and Evolve: Ultimate Edition for Xbox One. Xbox 360 owners and for Xbox One via the Xbox Backwards Compatibility program will get Borderlands 2 and Heavy Weapon.

Layers of Fear and Borderlands 2 will be available for download on March 1st until 31st for the Xbox One game and until 15th for the Xbox 360 game.

Then on March 16th Xbox One owners can download Evolve: Ultimate Edition until April 15th and Xbox 360 owners can get Heavy Weapon until March 31st.

There is an official trailer showcasing the Games with Gold for March 2017 here.

Zombie Vikings release on Xbox One today!

Zombie Vikings which previously got released on Playstation 4 back in 2015 makes its way on Xbox One today with bonus content. Zoink Games who is known for Stick it to the Man game is the developer and the publisher of the game.

About Zombie Vikings:

From the creators of indie smash hit Stick It to The Man! comes a new one to four-player co-op stab-you-in-the-gut-a-thon. Embark on a dead funny adventure with the Zombie Vikings. A putrid posse sent on a mission through the most epic of worlds to retrieve Odin’s lost eye.
Play as the most fearsome Vikings ever raised from Norse soil – Gunborg, Seagurd, Hedgy and Caw-kaa. Hack through the gingerbread swamps of Molgaga! Cruise through the intestines of the Midgaard Serpent! Fight giant poultry!

Zoink Games has also released a launch Trailer for Xbox One showcasing the game. You can watch it here.

Table Top Racing: World Tour races onto Xbox One this March

Indie developer and publisher Playrise Digital today confirmed that its pint-sized, powered-up combat racer ‘Table Top Racing: World Tour’ will launch for Xbox One on 10th March 2017 at £11.99/€14.99/$14.99.

Playrise Digital’s statement:

“Our small but hugely talented Indie dev team at Playrise Digital have worked wonders with Table Top Racing: World Tour for Xbox One!” commented Nick Burcombe, CEO and Game Director of Table Top Racing at Playrise Digital, “I really hope Xbox One players fall in love with its slick gameplay, cut-throat 8-player online multiplayer and tongue-in-cheek humour. We’re very excited to finally bring TTR to XBOX One and we’ve made a number of tweaks and improvements to it too!”

There are two major differences that make Table Top Racing: World Tour on Xbox One stand apart from its previous incarnations:

-Playrise has rolled all the content released to date into one awesome value bundle. On previous platforms, players could only host and play multiplayer games with other users that had the same DLC packs. Multiplayer ‘fragmentation’ will not be an issue for Xbox One gamers.

-Playrise has added voice-com support in multiplayer races and lobbies.

With Table Top Racing: World Tour for XBOX One, players will jump into the driving seats of all 16 super-cool miniaturized racing cars, taking a grand tour of 8 unique locations around the world. For XBOX players, there are 32 courses to master and 12 Championship Trophies to collect.

The Championships consist of more than 120 individual events featuring 9 different gameplay modes, plus an additional 54 rule-bending special events. To fully complete special event challenges, players must learn all tracks inside out while effectively dealing with route changing destructible objects mid-race. Players will also need to discover and utilize multiple shortcuts per track as well as unlocking and mastering ‘Super-Weapons’ and ‘Wheel-Weapons’…

In addition to the extensive single-player mode, players can jump online and challenge up to 8 friends with the vindictive-yet-addictive multiplayer combat mode. Find out who is the ultimate Table Top Racer!

Playrise Digital has also released an Xbox One Trailer that you can watch here.

Dead Effect 2 Game Review.

Dead Effect 2 is a sci-fi first-person shooter with RPG mechanics which it takes place after the events of the previous game in ESS Meridian spaceship. It is developed and published by BadFly Interactive.

The story continues after the events of the original game. It is set on spaceship ESS Meridian after the death of Wagner who was a professor and your main enemy in the first game. You are playing as Gunnar Davis who have to fight soldiers and hordes of zombies who breach in the spaceship. There are people who will help you in this mission. Danette who is your mission provider, she can help you with power upgrades. Minikin who is one of your best mechanics in the spaceship, but he suffered brain damage apparently and he is your guy for weapons and upgrades and finally Doctor Bielik who is a scientist and he worked on your character by adding implants to your body before the infection and he can help you with body upgrades and gear.

The gameplay is really satisfying. You will have to kill hundreds of zombies and soldiers in order to complete the missions you are assigned from your crew. You will have a huge amount of guns and powers that you can purchase and upgrade. If you finish the campaign story of the game, there are many extra missions and scenarios you can play like Survival which assigns you waves of zombies that you will have to clear, and there are much more modes. The game features a few difficulty options, the AI is pretty good and it plays very smart and there isn’t any unbalance between them.

BadFly Interactive made a spectacular job in the graphics department of the game. They have used the Unity engine pretty well. The spaceship looks beautiful and I really do like how the zombies look. They have created many types of zombies, for example, space zombies with suits and some powers, zombies with chainsaws, zombies that throw dirt at you, zombies that throw grenades at you, zombie scientists and doctors and zombies that wear hazmat suits and more.

Dead Effect 2’s gameplay is addictive, however, the voice acting is very poor and plain annoying in some cases. For example, Minikin, your mechanic who have brain damage repeats the same thing over and over again which makes it very unpleasant to hear, thankfully there is an option that you can skip some dialogue. The same thing can be said about everyone in your crew, the quality of sound is lacking. The sounds in the game are poor overall, but zombies sound incredible. In addition to the negatives of Dead Effect 2 are the main menus and user interface. The Multiplayer and CO-OP modes are absent in the console versions of the game which is another disappointing point.

I have really enjoyed playing Dead Effect 2, despite its shortcomings. It’s a pretty nice game which offers you so many things and customizable options on how to play the game. You can level up your character and unlock more powers and weapons that can make you powerful. There are so many missions that you can complete, so it has a fair replay value.

BadFly Interactive made a great game, but it got its negatives. The game is enjoyable even if you haven’t played the original game. I can recommend this game if you enjoy killing-zombie games.

I give Dead Effect 2 a 6/10, as the game is really enjoyable, but the sounds, the menus, and UI needed more than that, and, multiplayer modes are lacking in the console versions of the game.

Dead Effect 2 is now available for Xbox One, Playstation 4 and PC via Steam for the price of $11.99/€11.99/£9.59. If you want to learn more about Dead Effect 2 you can visit the dedicated website of the game.

***Reviewer’s note: The game copy was provided by the developer/publisher for the purpose of the review.

 

 

 

Trulon: The Shadow Engine Xbox One launch date and trailer!

Headup Games have announced that Steampunk RPG Trulon: The Shadow Engine will release on Xbox One consoles on Friday 24th February 2017. It features a unique card combat system that combines traditional deck management with random elements. Its tactics are intuitively activated using over 50 cards in an easy to play way that makes both RPG veterans and new players feel immediately at home.

Help Gladia find the source of a mysterious disease that spreads through the kingdoms of Maelon and Tripudia. Inspired by the novel from the game’s author Johan Lillbacka and the award-winning American writer Jak Koke, known from the Shadowrun best-seller Dragon Heart Saga, Trulon: The Shadow Engine is set in a steampunk-flavored fantasy world.

Headup Games have released an Xbox One Trailer that you can watch here.

DiRT Rally gets VR support on PS4 today!

Codemasters have announced VR support on DiRT Rally for PS4 and it’s out now! One of the most realistic driving games in the games industry gets real with VR! All you need is a Playstation VR, a copy of the game and the VR DLC which you can buy from here. If you don’t have the DLC, Codemasters have you covered. They have released DiRT Rally PS4 VR Edition which includes the game and the DLC in one sweet package!

Codemasters has released a trailer showcasing the Playstation VR experience on DiRT Rally, you can watch it here.

In case you missed my DiRT Rally Review, you can read it here.

Another Xbox 360 game joined in the Xbox Backwards Compatibility Program.

Larry Hryb has announced today a new Xbox 360 title that is playable on Xbox One whether you own it on disc or digital, thanks to the Xbox One Backwards Compatibility Program!

The title has been announced via Twitter here

The title is:

• Hitman Absolution

It will show up in your Ready To Install library if you own it digitally, if you own it on disc, then put the disc in and it will install on your console.