Today Ubisoft announced that the Assassin’s Creed Chronicles Trilogy Pack is now available for PlayStation Vita. This pack brings the full Assassin’s Creed Chronicles experience to PlayStation Vita system and includes Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India and Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: Russia. Assassin’s Creed Chronicles Trilogy Pack was released on February 9th, 2016 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC.

Developed by Climax Studios in collaboration with Ubisoft Montreal, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles brings the thrill of being a Master Assassin to 2.5D. A natural fit for PlayStation Vita controls, players journey to three distinct civilizations and time periods throughout history, the Ming dynasty in China at the start of its downfall, the Sikh Empire as it prepares for war in India and the aftermath of the Red October Revolution in Russia.

Each chronicle stands on its own with a unique setting, art style, story and Assassin, but they are all tied together narratively.

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles Trilogy Pack for PlayStation Vita is available for download now on PlayStation Store.

The post ASSASSIN’S CREED CHRONICLES TRILOGY RELEASING TO PSVITA appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

When the Earth is destroyed by a mysterious alien race, the last of humanity escapes and crash-lands on the mysterious planet Mira. Facing the threat of extinction, players must survive the perils of their new home in Xenoblade Chronicles X, an RPG set in a massive open world just waiting to be explored in-depth, releasing exclusively on the Wii U in Australia and New Zealand. 

In this new RPG from the creators of Xenoblade Chronicles, players can create their own character and explore a planet five times bigger than the world in Xenoblade Chronicles. A rich variety of hostile wildlife makes Mira an inhospitable place, and players will need to master a deeply strategic real-time battle system to survive.

During combat, your avatar can switch between different battle classes that allow them to become more adept at long-range or close-quarters combat, as well as issue tactical orders to up to three AI partners. Party members will also advise players on when to use special skills, known as Arts, to boost their allies or blast away foes. Each class has access to different Arts, and strategic use of these can be instrumental in turning the tide of the battle.

Outside of combat, players can focus on the necessities of exploration and survival by taking jobs in eight different divisions. Those who want to focus on discovering the massive, open environments and scavenge for new materials can take a job as a Curator, while joining the Harriers will allow players to concentrate primarily on defeating the dangerous monsters that roam the landscape. Another choice, Outfitters, spend the bulk of their time helping to develop the giant weaponised mechs known as Skells.

Eventually, players will be able to pilot the Skell themselves, allowing access to places they couldn’t find before, providing even more possibilities for exploration.

By using the Wii U GamePad, players can access the navigation system, which displays a hexagonal map grid to plot the course ahead to avoid ambushes from giant monsters, uncover new resources, and fast-travel between previously discovered locations. The game can also be played on the GamePad screen alone.

Xenoblade Chronicles X brings the series online for the first time, making it possible to team up and take on co-operative missions as a party of four. Players can also join a party of up to 32 asynchronous characters with whom they can trade items and weapons, even if they are not battling together.

In addition, avatars created by other players can be recruited into your team as AI party members, providing you with even more avenues for strategy in the midst of battle.

Explore humanity’s final frontier in Xenoblade Chronicles X for the Wii U, as it launches across Australia and New Zealand on the 5th of December 2015. The game will also be available as a bundle with a Wii U Premium Pack console and as a Limited Edition.

Those who purchase Xenoblade Chronicles on Nintendo eShop on Wii U will be eligible for a discount (AU$13/ NZ$17) on Xenoblade Chronicles X if they buy it on Nintendo eShop on the same Wii U console before the 18th of December 2015.

The post Are You Humanity’s Last Hope? appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

As if Assassin’s Creed fans have not been spoilt enough already with both Assassin’s Creed Rogue and Unity less than six months old. It’s now time for some more Assassin verses Templar action.

Ubisoft have released the first game in its Assassin’s Creed spin-off series, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China. This is the first of three 2.5D platform games to be followed by similarly styled adventures set in India and Russia.

This time, the sci-fi/historic series takes us to China in the first half of the 16th Century. Whilst the game’s presentation is the same as that found in the regular Assassin’s Creed games, that’s where the similarities stop. Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China is a different beast entirely.

To tell its story the game uses an interesting contemporary take on traditional Chinese art, inspired by the inked impressionist artwork of Jung Shan. The game continues the adventures of Shao Jun, who we last saw in the animated short, Assassin’s Creed: Embers. The game follows on from Embers with Shao Jun returning to China after her meeting with the elderly master assassin Ezio Auditore.

For this spin-off series, developers, Climax Studios, have used a retro 2.5D platform-style that is very reminiscent of the original Prince of Persia game. Considering that the first Assassin’s Creed started out as a Prince of Persia game, it’s like the series has come full circle.

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China is an interesting enigma. As an Assassin’s Creed fan I felt obliged to play through it for completeness sake. I really can’t say that I’d have been so keen if it wasn’t attached to the Assassin’s Creed saga.

Interestingly, though, beneath its immediately retro-looking gameplay lurks quite a sophisticated game. Despite the shift in perspective, this is very much an Assassin’s Creed game. And the more you play it the more the game reveals its very familiar gameplay.

All credit must go to the developers for including pretty much all of Assassin’s Creed’s mechanics in a 2.5D game. Whilst the game will have you running and jumping from left to right as you’d expect in a platformer, Shao Jun is also given plenty of opportunities to transition both into the background and into the foreground. These three plans provide multiple, and more convoluted, routes through the Levels than your usual platformer.

But they are not called Levels in this game, they are, of course, memories.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, the Assassin’s Creed games are based on the idea of genetic memory; in that the memories of our forefathers are locked away in our DNA. Using a device called The Animus a company called Abstergo, which is really a front for the ancient order of The Templars, is scanning history for information on arcane artefacts left over from a precursor civilisation. With this device, The Templars want to guide humanity to reach its full potential. Meanwhile, The Assassin’s, who believe that humanity should forge its own destiny rather than have its path engineered for it, seek to unravel The Templars’ plans.

It is through The Animus that players enters the world of Shao Jun as she seeks her revenge on the Eight Tigers for destroying the Chinese Assassin’s brotherhood. Her quest takes her from the port of Macau, to Na’nan and the Forbidden City and finally The Great Wall of China.

Just as with the adventures of Altair, Ezio and the other assassin’s we’ve met over the years, Shao’s mission is primarily one of stealth. By carefully moving from hiding spot to hiding spot the gaze of the patrolling guards can be avoided, allowing players to either move past without fighting or silently assassinate the enemy.

To help with distracting the enemy, players can whistle or use throwing knives and firecrackers to make diversions. You can also pick up and hide bodies to avoid suspicion.

If a guard spots you, he will call for backup and seek to engage you. All the guards will be on alert (very similar to Metal Gear). If you manage to stay out of their line of sight, the guards go into cool down mode and then resume their normal patrols.

The game’s combat is almost identical to the main game series, with Shao Jun able to perform light and heavy attacks, as well as block. She can also dodge arrows in a very ninja-like way.

As well as some optional objectives (which you will need to complete if you want to properly achieve a 100% synch at the end of each memory), the Levels are peppered with chests containing useful ammo and animus data fragments. At the end of each memory you are given a score and the opportunity to try it again or move on to the next memory.

Between each memory the story is fleshed out using some beautiful animated images in the same art style as the game visuals.

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China may not look immediately appealing, its style seemingly more befitting a mobile game. But it doesn’t take long to realise that it’s actually a lot of fun and retains much of the spirit of the main Assassin’s Creed games. I think it’s actually a great idea of Ubisoft, to give fans an insight into the tales of other Assassin’s away from the main series, fleshing out and enriching the Assassin’s Creed mythos.

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China is out now with India and Russia to follow later in 2015.

The post Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.