Award-winning independent video games publisher Wired Productions together with leading developer Caged Element Inc. are delighted to announce the surprise launch of GRIP: Combat Racing VR.

Available today via Steam for Windows PC and free for all GRIP: Combat Racing owners, GRIP VR will allow players to enjoy the complete GRIP experience via their compatible virtual reality headset complete with the game’s signature mind blowing speeds and more barrel roll manoeuvres than a professional air show.

Inspired by Rollcage, and in partnership with key development team members from the original Rollcage, GRIP: Combat Racing has continued to fuel the racing appetite of arcade gamers around the world.

A return to the hardcore combat scene of the 90s, bristling with heavy weapons and packing ferocious speed, the game is an intense, sensory feast. With a dedicated community and player numbers continually growing, GRIP: Combat Racing has seen a huge amount of content and updates since launch, with constant optimisation, new tracks and new playing modes having already been introduced.

GRIP: Combat Racing with VR is available on Steam right now.

The post GRIP: Combat Racing Launches Surprise appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

The new rhythmic action-adventure game Cadence of Hyrule – Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring The Legend of Zelda is now available via Nintendo eShop on Nintendo Switch.

The latest title from Brace Yourself Games combines the move-to-the-beat gameplay of Crypt of the NecroDancer with the characters, items and locations featured in The Legend of Zelda series. The Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring The Legend of Zelda – E3 2019 trailer (above) shown in the Nintendo Direct presentation shows Link and Zelda in action fighting enemies to the beat. 

In Cadence of Hyrule – Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring The Legend of Zelda, each move the player makes – whether it’s moving, attacking, defending, using items or more – must be timed to the beat of the music, which features remixes of familiar tunes of The Legend of Zelda series. Players can choose to embark on their journey as Link or Zelda, each with different powers and abilities. They adventure through a randomly generated overworld map where classic areas like the desert or the Lost Woods will differ in composition, meaning no two playthroughs will be the same.

With just a wrong move, a player’s character can perish, losing all their rupees, keys and consumable items. To help their ongoing journey, Link and Zelda can visit the Oracle to purchase items to use in their next life with in-game currency.

Players who want to play Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring The Legend of Zelda their way can also choose between various modes including Permadeath Mode, where any wrong move could mean starting over from the beginning of the game. This is your journey to undertake, so there’s no right way to endure it.

Cadence of Hyrule – Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring The Legend of Zelda is now available exclusively in Nintendo eShop on Nintendo Switch. The latest title from Brace Yourself Games combines the move-to-the-beat gameplay of Crypt of the NecroDancer with the characters, items, locations and music featured in The Legend of Zelda series. Players can choose between different game modes and characters for an individual gameplay experience.

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Ahoy there, sailors.

World of Warships: Legends is gearing up to release on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One with the announcement of some key upcoming dates for sailors looking to embark on an exciting new voyage. 

Starting from March 22nd to the 24th, 2019, Wargaming will offer players the chance to hit the waves and take part in the final round of Closed Beta testing, and will later release a selection of Founder’s Packs that offer exclusive in-game rewards! 

Over 200,000 battles were fought during the first Closed Beta weekend, and Wargaming and its players are looking to smash that record again! Players who register HERE  will have the chance to participate in the final round of Closed Beta testing from March 22nd to the 24th, 2019. The latest version of the game boasts new content and features like the British nation, 14 more ships, revamped lighting effects, plus Russian and French language support. 

Registering at the official World of Warships: Legends website will also reward players with a treasure trove of in-game rewards at launch, including Premium Currency, Boosters and special customization items. 

Next, it’s smooth sailing to Early Access.

After the Closed Beta weekend has ended, a selection of special Founder’s Packs will be available from the PlayStation Store and Microsoft Store. The World of Warships: Legends Premium, Deluxe, and Ultimate packages offer three different tiers of content to prepare early adopters for launch, with up to two months of Premium time and four rare, powerful warships included. Stay tuned for news about the release of these packs! 

The developers at Wargaming St. Petersburg are hard at work on even more epic content for the Early Access launch of World of Warships: Legends on the 16th of April 2019 and beyond. Players will be able to wage wars across five new maps, and enjoy stunning oceanic vistas with glorious HDR support on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One X. Full 4K support will be available on PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X later in the summer too.

“We’ve worked tirelessly to bring the naval combat enjoyed by millions of players around the world on mobile and PC to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One,” said Daniil Volkov, Head of Development at Wargaming St. Petersburg. “We have introduced a substantial number of console-exclusive features to World of Warships: Legends, which we hope will add new dimensions to the series, whilst preserving the core gameplay that players know and love.” 

World of Warships: Legends is being built from the ground-up with console gamers in mind and will take full advantage of the power and capabilities of the current generation of home consoles. With faster and more exhilarating combat, more options to develop your commanders, a revamped user interface, intuitive new controls, and console-exclusive content, this is an experience that can only be possible on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. 

The post World of Warships: Legends Sets Course for Early Access appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

When I was a kid, I wanted only to be a pilot. Commercial, military, cargo, or charter, I didn’t care, I wanted to sit in the pilot’s seat and take to the skies. Experience the freedom of the air and start the day in one place and end it in another. To that end I loved playing combat games like F/A-18 Hornet 2.0 on the Macintosh and a basic but serviceable joystick that we had only for short stints during school holidays.

If only I could have imagined then how technology would advance to bring us to where Ace Combat 7 lands today. The latest in a long line of titles stretching back to about the same time as F/A-18 Hornet 2.0, the series has become one of the best in its class. That said, some of the later games haven’t quite lived up to the quality that the series is known for. So Ace Combat 7, actually the 17th game in the series, has a lot to live up to.

And luckily it delivers its payload in style. Right from its perfectly toned schlocky B-Grade plot, to the plane selection, bright and detailed world, this is the game to put the series back on track. It catapults the games back into centre stage which hopefully could lead to a revival of the genre has a whole.

But what makes it so special?

For me, it was how the game marries the aesthetics of the 80’s with the game engine technology of a modern title. It still keeps the same core feeling as ever (though, of course, refined), but new entries such as fully volumetric 3D clouds are a great addition to not only the visual presentation of the game but to gameplay as well. See if you fly into clouds then missiles have a harder time locking onto you, and your missiles onto an enemy. It adds a layer of tactical consideration that nevertheless doesn’t feel out of place.

Yes, the overall feeling of the game is that of an arcade game. But that doesn’t mean that your aircraft’s specs don’t matter. Each individual plane felt vastly different to play, and once you customise it with it’s special weapons and stat boosts they become even more distinctive.

The music and soundtrack are exceptional too. Sound effects, diegetic sounds and some of the most unashamedly epic songs raise the stakes and tension around every fight. The soundtrack perfectly matches the intensity of aerial combat.

In addition, for the PS4 version of Ace Combat 7, there is a VR Mode exclusive to PSVR.

It’s separate and shorter than the main game, consisting of just a few missions, but it’s a unique experience that rival the best seated pilot VR experiences such as the special VR mission in Star Wars Battlefront. A note of warning though – this VR mode, with it’s intense dog fighting moves and first-person perspective is not for the faint of heart, or those without strong VR legs. It’s a great addition to the game that gave me a small insight and appreciation into what it’s like for fighter pilots to go head to head with their deadly counterparts, and I could only wish that the full game would be made available in that mode.

Now sadly Ace Combat 7 only runs at 1080p on the PS4 Pro, and less than that on the base console. Instead, it targets a framerate of 60 frames per second. In the grand scheme of things, a commitment to 60FPS is much better than a slightly lower resolution, but it is nevertheless disappointing to see only 1080p on the more expensive pro consoles, not to mention a lack of HDR support, which I could imagine could have been amazing given the grand landscapes and vista on offer here.

Another area where the game unexpectedly falls short is the unforgiving pacing of checkpoints throughout the game. Missions generally only have a couple of checkpoints, and you can’t save at a checkpoint and come back to it later, say, for example, if you wanted a quick round of the VR mode while in the middle of a normal mission. With missions taking quite a long time to complete even without retries of certain sections, this was an area that felt particularly and unnecessarily punitive.

My copy of Ace Combat 7 also came with a copy of Ace Combat 5, restored for PS4. It looks great, though next to the high polygon planes and environments of 7, 5 does show it’s age a bit, even with it’s much higher resolution than the original release on the PlayStation 2.

Apart from some unwelcome difficulty spikes made slightly more frustrating by a lackluster checkpoint system, Ace Combat 7 really delivers where it needs to. With gorgeous worlds, thrilling music and fast-paced arcadey flying combat, it’s everything that a younger me could ever have asked for.

The post Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (PlayStation 4) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Independent developers, Lucid Games, announced today that their high octane arena-based vehicle combat game, Switchblade, is coming to Early Access on PC via Steam and PlayStation 4 on August 28th, 2018.

Teamwork is everything in Lucid’s moba-inspired vehicle action game. Switchblade sees players compete in a frantic 5 v 5 arena-style battle. Switching seamlessly between heavily armed sci-fi vehicles at any time and creating endless tactical choices, teams must react quickly, plan strategically and work together in order to take down opposition towers.

Battling and escorting explosive mobs, healing teammates damaged vehicles and defending towers from the enemy onslaught – every vehicle has a strategic role to play in Switchblade. Players must choose their roles wisely and be willing to switch in an instant to make every second count in the arena. This is war at 150 miles per hour, requiring fast tactical decision making, individual skill and relentless teamwork to be victorious.

Players will be able to join the Switchblade Founders Program on Steam or PS4 at launch. Founders will benefit from a special Founders Pack, details of which will be announced in the coming weeks.

The post SWITCHBLADE GEARS UP FOR EARLY ACCESS appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

If you were a kid of the late 80’s through to the mid 1990’s you no doubt owned a collection of Micro Machines.

The pint sized intricately detailed vehicles burst on to the Toy Shop shelves with extreme popularity. Collecting them all was not just the goal, it was essential.

It wasn’t too long before Micro Machines adapted to the video gaming realm thanks to a joint venture between the toy manufacturers Hasbro and the legendary Codemasters developers, first on Sega Mega Drive / Genesis and then PS One with Micro Machines V3. True, we did see more editions on PS2 and Xbox Classic, but it had started to lose its magic.

Up until very recently Micro Machines as a whole had all but almost disappeared until an official game was released on Apple and Android App stores in May of this year (2017). Then as of a couple of weeks ago, the much hyped Micro Machines: World Series launched on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

(I am hopeful for a Nintendo Switch release!)

Boasting current gen graphics and the same signature top down table top gameplay, Micro Machines offers up a challenging play for newcomers and a race around the reminiscent block for us more established gamers.

Micro Machines: World Series starts of with 12 vehicles in your Garage (viewable by the games’ Main Menu) with everything from a Hovercraft, Police Car through to Construction vehicles and even the G.I. Joe Cobra H.I.S.S.

If you want to jump straight in you can – there is a tutorial, which even if you played the former games, I’d still recommend having a go through – as Micro Machines as a videogame has some very tricky, slidey controls.

The different tracks, from table and desk tops to outside garden areas and more are exactly as they were back in the day. Mocked up tracks that one would make using bits and pieces found around the house, outside or in one’s room.

There are four Game Modes; Special Event which is exactly that, a One Day Event offered up via Online Play. Quick Play, Ranked Match and Skirmish (local / offline play with multiplayer).

Game Modes allow you to play local multiplayer (and this is the better way to play Micro Machines), Quick Play and the namesake World Series. There is also a Battle Mode where you pick up items, just like in Mario Kart, which equips itself to your vehicle.

In nearly all Modes you will have three special abilities that are tuned and specific to the vehicle that you are using. These can be used throughout, at will, but you will need to time their execution and they all have a cool down period.

Quick Race is a good place to start, this at best gets you all too familiar with the controlling scheme and you can earn rewards.

Micro Machines: World Series however is more slated to Online Play. Without a Xbox Live or PS Plus license you will really only be able to play one fourth of the game. It’s also all about the levels and leveling up. To do this – you need to be online.

I can see why this is – as mentioned Micro Machines is better played with others, it is a social game, but for those that do not wish to fork out the extra to be able to play online, it is a bit disappointing that the game they have just purchased will only allow a couple of simplistic and repetitive Modes offline.

Nonetheless it is fair to say that Micro Machines is back in full glory, with Hungry Hippo traps and more. I was humbled to see a G.I. Joe Walkie Talkie set gracing a part of a track (I was a huge G.I. Joe fan).

An excellent pick up and play for a short bout of vehicle mayhem, if you have ever wondered what all of the fuss is about and are somehow not familiar with the Micro Machines franchise (and games) give this a go. Naturally, if you’re a fan… I don’t need to say anymore.

This is Micro Machines. In FHD!

The post Micro Machines: World Series (PlayStation 4) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Little Orbit and Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe today announced the all-new, real-time, fully 3D action-oriented adventure game Adventure Time: Finn and Jake Investigations is now available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, And Nintendo Wii U, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo 3DS at both traditional and online retailers.

Developed by Vicious Cycle and based on the hit Cartoon Network original series, Adventure Time: Finn and Jake Investigations is first and foremost an adventure game, but it is one that also features combat.  Players will be able to dive right into both kinds of gameplay within each section of the game. With an action-oriented twist on the classic story-driven game, players must find and use objects (including Jake), and interact with characters in order to solve puzzles and progress through the game.

Play as Finn (with Jake at your side) and be immersed in the Land of Ooo, talk to new and familiar inhabitants, battle evildoers, and unravel mind-bending puzzles in five playable chapters. Through this one of a kind experience, players will feel as if they’ve stepped into their own personal episode of Adventure Time!

For the first time ever, bonus downloadable content will be available in an Adventure Time console game in the form of an adventure featuring Finn and Jake’s friend Marceline the Vampire Queen.

Just like the five chapters built into the game, this additional chapter plays out like an episode of the series, with players taking on the persona and vampire abilities of Marceline. In this original adventure, Finn and Jake discover that Marceline sold all of the magical but potentially dangerous artifacts they have collected in a Yard Sale.

Help Marceline and our heroes retrieve all the artifacts before chaos and calamity take over the Land of Ooo! The Marceline DLC will be available now

It all begins at Finn and Jake’s Tree House, which serves as the central hub of the game.  Investigators are invited to make their way inside and begin each of their adventures in the easy-to-explore tree house complete with multiple rooms, each stocked with cool interactive items from the show.

For the first time, Adventure Time fans can explore every single room in glorious 3D detail.  From the front yard, to the treasure room (where players will collect their loot), the kitchen, bedrooms, living room, attic and more, players will be able to interact with their favorite characters from the show and explore like never before.

With likenesses incredibly true to the series, Adventure Time: Finn and Jake Investigations will allow players to see as much as they can of the Land of Ooo and its kingdoms in a way never before seen.  Each chapter of the game will take players to more kingdoms and give them an opportunity to visit key locations in each unique kingdom.

From the Candy Kingdom (loaded with all kinds of lush sweets) to the Ice Kingdom (filed with pointy, snow-capped mountains and snowy hills) and Wizard City (a magical settlement with a marketplace!)  to Maja’s (the sky witch’s) Forest, they are all there in gorgeous 3D.

Additionally, secret un-lockable bonus locations are scattered throughout the game and will include spooky forests and subterranean dungeons.

Get ready to Adventure and duke it out in Adventure Time: Finn and Jake Investigations now.

The post Adventure with Adventure Time! appeared first on Shane the Gamer.