Echo Generation, the turn-based adventure game from Cococucumber where a gang of kids investigate supernatural occurrences to save their small town, as revealed during the pre-show for the Xbox Games Showcase.

School’s out for the summer when a mysterious object crashes in the cornfields of a quiet Canadian town. Soon, unexplainable incidents start happening that lead to the appearance of sinister creatures, monsters and mechs. Pack snacks, grab your hockey stick and rally some friends to uncover the source of these strange events.

Find what lurks in the shadows, from mutant rats to spooky animatronics, and challenge them in turn-based battles to level up and gain incredible new powers. Talk with townspeople to embark on new quests to unlock mystifying secrets. Power up to battle gargantuan bosses in fights blending real-time action with turn-based combat.

Brought to life in stunning 4K resolution and 60 fps on Xbox Series X, Echo Generation is optimized to present a gorgeous world true to the era in which it takes place. Hauntingly atmospheric and playfully creepy, synthwave tunes and quirky beats brings a colorful voxel-based world of video stores, abandoned cabins, and a pet graveyard to life.

Inspired by classic coming-of-age films and horror novels from the 80s and 90s, Echo Generation strums nostalgic strings and spurs imagination reminiscent of youthful adventure, when summer seemed to last forever and every day brought new escapades to bravely face with friends.

“With this game, we wanted to capture the feeling of being a kid in the hazy summertime, where the world is yours to discover and everything seems possible,” said Martin Gauvreau, Director of Echo Generation. “Beyond a familiar facade lurks a dangerous world of mystery and adventure — if you dare to venture into the unknown.”

Echo Generation will come to Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and Steam for PC in 2021.

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The post Nostalgic Adventure Echo Generation Revealed appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Get your thumbs pata pata pata pon’ing once again.

The PSP (PlayStation Portable) game which sees a musically inclined native race out to dominate and terminate threats to their existence originally released in 2009 and now, in 2020 has had the remaster treatment.

Patapon 2 is a direct sequel to the first title (also PSP) where they set sail on an adventure to new lands.

But their adventure is cut short by an evil Kraken who destroys their ship and forces the Pataponians to swim to the nearest land – which happens to be their original homeland.

Gameplay is much the same as the original too, you control a tribe with varying objectives in cell-shaded dark 2D animation by timed presses of either Circle, X, Square or Triangle.

The button combinations are dictated by the game and do get tricky to execute after a time.

There is almost a taste of turn based play with this rhythm influenced button mashing.

As you tap to the primal beat your Patapons will defend themselves, perform in-game actions as you work through the game’s story.

Simple? Yep. But it does get very difficult.

Patapon 2 sees a few characters from the first game come on over in to this second edition… some more surprising than others if you played to the first Patapon title from beginning to end.

Ported over to PlayStation 4, this exclusive PlayStation game is easy to pick up and play for anyone.

Remastered graphics see it now playable in glorious 4K.

If you missed the first Patapon you’ll still be good to go on the second game, there is a recap of sorts to get you up to speed.

An addictive title in the same vein as LocoRoco (which also got a remaster do-over for PS4 in 2017).

Recommend as a social game, one for the kids or as a chill out play.

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If it’s an adventure you crave – then it’s an adventure you’ll get — Braveland Trilogy is now available on the Nintendo Switch.

Developed by Tortuga Team and published by Ellada Games, Braveland Trilogy is a collection of epic turn-based fun consisting of three rooted adventure RPGs — the original Braveland, Braveland Pirate, and Braveland Wizard — all available for the first time on the Switch! In the Braveland series, you’ll explore exciting and colorful lands as you gather your forces, meet interesting characters, and do battle with evil around every corner.

All three titles feature classic story-driven role-playing gameplay and exciting turn-based combat that everyone can enjoy – be it on your TV or on the go! Each title offers something a little different, but they all guarantee tactic based fun.

Braveland Trilogy brings with it rich storytelling, vibrant hand-drawn art, gripping battles, and new challenges. Featuring same-screen multiplayer, Braveland Trilogy invites players to enjoy riveting PvP battles.

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I love Pokémon games, I have loved them since my first copy of Pokémon Yellow, and I even enjoyed my time playing Pokémon Go before it became a chore, then a few months later I stopped playing.

This meant I was getting sick of the throwing mechanic – so when Pokémon: Let’s Go announced it was how you’d be catching Pokémon, I can honestly say I was disappointed, but also a little intrigued.

Pokémon Let’s Go is a kind of remake of Pokémon Yellow. Yellow is famous for Pokémon Red / Blue but with the anime’s spin whereby your character picked up a Pikachu for turning up late, and the Pikachu follows you round rather than being contained in a Pokéball. Depending on which game you grabbed, in Pokémon Let’s Go you will have Eevee or Pikachu following you around the Kanto region.

Early on I must warn you it isn’t a remake of the games, so I wouldn’t recommend naming your characters Blue and Red, or it will get awkward early. The biggest change the game has is the previously mentioned catching mechanic. You see Pokémon in the wild and when you walk into them you move to a Pokémon Go catching screen. Doing this gives your party Pokémon experience so it winds up being an easy way to become overpowered, but more importantly, it doesn’t feel like anything is missing form the game by removing traditional battles for these Pokémon.

In fact, it swings the other way.

There are plentiful bounties of traditional battles thanks to trainer battles and having played so many hours of Let’s Go I wonder if too many battles is why I got bored of Sun and Moon. Strong Pokémon like legendaries you must beat in a battle before you go into the Pokémon Go catching screen, but it’s refreshing to have a different way to interact with the Pokémon world than the gameplay that hasn’t changed since Red and Blue.

Another notable feature is you get a touch more customisation with your character. Instead of male or female avatar, you can also change skin tone. It’s a minor change, but the array of minor changes added together add to a fresher feel for the game. Other small but significant changes include seeing Pokémon in the wild, so being able to avoid them, or go after them as you see fit, and being able to release another Pokémon to follow you while your partner (Pikachu or Eevee) sits on your hat.

The gimmickiest aspect of Pokémon Let’s Go must be the Pokéball Plus which you can use attached to your hand to give the feeling of catching Pokémon by doing a throwing action with Pokéball in hand. What was more surprising is thanks to the button on the front being a joystick, and a hidden button, you can play the whole game comfortably with the Pokéball Plus. I was comfortable lying on the couch playing the game on my TV with it for a controller.

It is a more expensive Edition, which I would struggle to justify when the game is still fantastic in handheld mode, but if you also play Pokémon Go you can use it for that, which makes justification easier. But if money isn’t an object then there is a lot of fun to be had playing the game with this quirky controller. The game’s not perfect, it still has its quirks and annoyances. Some Pokémon you let out of their balls will run in front of you, which meant I regularly accidentally spoke / patted Pikachu instead of talking to someone. Letting a Pokémon out lets you find items, so this got annoying until I realised my Pidgeotto flew behind me.

Also, when the game is docked you can’t use a controller. It forces you to use either the Pokéball Plus or a Joy-Con as an equivalent. This is kind of daft because if you prefer it controlling like it does in handheld mode but want to enjoy it on the big screen because it’s gorgeous, tough luck. This is an unforced error, but it is what it is.

Pokémon Let’s Go isn’t perfect, but it’s a damn refreshing take on a classic series. It mixes in streamlined mechanics to making catching Pokémon less of a chore and has plenty of battles, so you won’t be missing out on that classic Pokémon turn based battle system. I don’t know what I want from the next Pokémon game, but I hope it doesn’t make a hard return to the old mechanics if this game shows what can be achieved while remaining faithful.

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Mobile games, especially free to play ones, always make me apprehensive. How much game is there going to be and how much of it is going to be trying to convince me to spend money, and how much money is fair to spend, are always issues I struggle with. Might and Magic: Elemental Guardians falls on the better side of those issue, but it still pulls you a little.

Might and Magic: Elemental Guardians is a turn-based battle and monster collecting game. As weird as it may be to see as the describer of the game, as they are usually aspects of something else like an RPG, the game is boiled down to those two aspects.

Monster collecting is based around a loot box system, or better described as a loot gem system. Throughout the game you get a lot of gems to crack open, and each time you do so you get a creature to add to your collection for the upcoming fights. This is a clear point where you can spend a lot of money if you’re not careful, but the game does dole out gems to crack open regularly. This makes it feel less dirty, but you need to be careful to not get hooked.

Monsters are ranked on a star scale, and when their hit their level cap you can rank them up to increase their leveling capacity. You are also able to strengthen your beasts using runes, which having varied stat boosts, such as increasing attack, defense, and accuracy. You level these runes up as well, using a system where you commit resources, and it decides if it does or doesn’t level it up randomly. This is one of those mobile systems that seems gross as you can burn resources for no gain, letting you spend some real money.

The other way to boost your beasts is with evolution, to make sure the monster collecting doesn’t feel too much like another pocket monster collecting game. Evolving gives more stat boosts, and makes your creatures look more impressive. Monsters vary from looking like witches, orcs, elemental wolf cubs and baby griffins, so evolving them is fun watching them become more impressive looking in your team. Evolving my little fire griffin was especially satisfying as it looked awesome in every stage of the transformation.

Leveling your beasts, their skills, runes, and evolving them involves a lot of resources. Resources are dropped regularly thanks to reasonably short battles, and a massive list of achievements that completion nets a lot said resources, and gems for monster hatching. Making sure you keep an eye on these is the best way to get the most from the game without spending a lot of coin.

I haven’t touched on the gameplay yet, because it’s not the most interesting thing. The game uses a rudimentary turn-based battle system, pitting your team against enemies, in waves. Your creatures each have some moves, and your character has a move that powers up throughout the fight. It’s a well-crafted simple turn-based battle system, but there not much more to it.

The story mode has you playing through a training scenario, which has huge leveling spikes. With minimal dialogue, and a lot of time between dialogue, it’s hard not to forget the story beats soon after you read them. This grinding throughout the modes is consistent, though you can use auto battle to complete repetitive battles while you watch something else.

Online is a bit more fun, which has you set up a defensive team. When you’re not watching, your defensive team has fights with opponents, and you can fight other people’s defensive teams when you’re feeling energetic. Wins net you a specific currency to spend, but it takes an age to afford anything.

Might and Magic: Elemental Guardians is a gorgeous game, that works well, and rewards you often. It’s grindy, which is clearly geared to spending money for time saving, but if you play it casually, you wouldn’t have to drop much coin to enjoy the game. T

he monster collecting, and evolving is fun, but takes so much time to complete. All-in-all it’s free to play enough that you can have a satisfying time, but it will put opportunities to spend money in front of you a lot.

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Steel Wool Studios has announced to us here at STG that they have released The Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Calth.

The first Warhammer 40k game that challenges you to command Ultramarine Legionnaires and defend the Imperium in larger-than-life Virtual Reality. Experience The Horus Heresy with an original narrative, characters and conflict from esteemed Black Library author, Rob Sanders. Horus Heresy fans around the world can finally feel like they are really there and master the ultimate living battlefield in a “human-scale” interactive experience.

The Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Calth is a tactical turn-based strategy game based on Games Workshop’s fan-favorite Betrayal at Calth tabletop game, set during the Horus Heresy era. Betrayal at Calth includes a single-player campaign and multiplayer PvP skirmish mode, built for VR and also available with cross-platform play on PC.

Set in the 31st Millennium on the planet of Calth, you play as Magos Ohmnal Sarc, a tech priest of the Mechanicus caught in conflict as Brother Legions of Space Marines take arms against one another. When Sarc discovers corrupted data in the data stream, he must tactically command his unit of noble Ultramarines against a faction of traitorous Word Bearers. Out-wit and thwart their devious plot to corrupt the Imperium and disrupt the future of mankind.

Early Access unfolds the devious initial chapter of a sprawling five-part campaign. Single-player mode includes a five-map narrative where players control units of Space Marine Legionaries and guide them through the underground arcologies of Calth. PvP Multiplayer has four maps and two play modes (Deathmatch and Objective Based). Pick your side and play either as the Ultramarines or the traitorous Word Bearers. Proceeding updates to include new chapters with new maps, weapons, abilities and units.

“Steam Early Access lets us roll out an evolving narrative and tons of gameplay depth and strategies over the coming months,” said Joshua Qualtieri, Co-Founder and Head of Development at Steel Wool Studios. “And, it gives us the chance to embrace the feedback from core-Warhammer gamers. We’ve already made significant upgrades from the support of our Live Alpha program, including speeding up the gameplay, new unit commands that includes shooting while moving abilities, and visual and UX enhancements to the PC mode.”

The Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Calth offer gamers the option to play either in stand-up VR systems or on gaming PCs. Supported systems at launch are HTC Vive and Oculus Touch.

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Developer Aurum Dust is pleased to share with us at STG new artwork, music, and details about four of the main characters from Ash of Gods, the story-driven tactical RPG coming in March 2018. The greatest heroes often come from everyday places and backgrounds – and aren’t always the “Chosen Ones” of ancient lore. Sometimes, they are just “regular folk” who refuse to give in to the darkness, and take up arms to battle evil in all its forms.

Revealed is the new character overview for Thorn, the fearless warrior and survivor of countless battles; Gleda, daughter of Thorn, a blademaster and scholar; Blance, the mysterious empath; and Lo Pheng, the deadly mercenary from the island of Shadows.

Ash of Gods is a ​turn-based RPG featuring constantly evolving storytelling with risks that truly affect gameplay, along with an extensive online PvP mode. The game features a story based on the complexity and ambiguity of moral choice where any of the characters in game can die. Momentary benefits may cost a character a life, while sacrifice will make the walkthrough of one of following episodes easier.

Ash of Gods features a mix of gorgeous art, lush music, tactical combat, and a powerful story that plays out via dialogue driven layer interaction. Depending upon a player’s decisions, no two playthroughs of the game will be the same.

Along with a constantly evolving storyline, players will be treated to a fantastic visual and aural experience, featuring stunning hand-drawn characters and environments, coupled with music from Adam Skorupa, whose previous work includes The Witcher, Bulletstorm, Painkiller, and EVE Online. Ash of Gods was recently awarded ‘Best Game’ at the Game Gathering conference in Kiev, and previously was awarded ‘Best Game’ and ‘Best Art’ at White Nights Moscow 2017, as well as ‘Excellence in Music’ and ‘Excellence in Narrative’ at DevGamm Minsk 2017.

Along with the new artwork and information, developer Aurum Dust has launched a SoundCloud channel for fans of thematic medieval fantasy music. Tune into their SoundCloud profile now, and immerse yourself in the world of Ash of Gods.

Listen to the entire soundtrack HERE:

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Swedish indie developer Nodbrim Interactive today announced that Acaratus, its medieval steampunk tactical turn-based RPG, is set to launch on Steam on the 25th of May, 2017. Outfitted with customizable battle suits called mecha units, players must use their strategic skills in combat, using collectible cards as boosts, in order to succeed in a perilous yet beautiful steampunk world where randomized maps make each playthrough a whole new experience.

“Over the past year on Steam Early Access we’ve listened to the community and have incorporated lots of feedback into the game”, said Martin Kupski, Creative Director at Nodbrim Interactive. “We really think that players will enjoy the improvements that we’ve made when they see the final version at the end of next month”.

Acaratus has multiplayer and single player modes both brimming with high-strategy challenges which encourage players to plan their battle tactics in advance. Players can construct their own Steampunk inspired mecha units from highly customizable modular attachments and decide between ranged, melee, boosters and defensive parts. Weapons range from war hammers to longer ranged projectile-based weapons, such as cannons. Ability card decks can also be used by players as attack, defence or skill boosts to support their unique play styles and help them succeed in the deep tactical turn-based gameplay. Combat takes place in a mesmerising medieval steampunk setting with randomised maps, or players can also take the fight to each other in the battle arenas.

The campaign mode in Acaratus presents a narrative rich story where players assume the role of a freed slave who saved the life of his former slave dealer Adina unwillingly making her the head of a small rebellion. Adina starts recruiting slaves to fight back against the regime entrenched after the decade-long Valerian Conflict between Queen Valeria in the north and emperor Helios in the southern lands won by Helios and his hordes of mecha units. Now, Helios has enslaved people who oppose him and hunts down the remaining battle suits that are used by the opposition. Armed with forbidden mecha units, players and Adina are in the process of setting an example for human rights.

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Torment: Tides of Numenera tries to turn back the clock and recapture the magic of the RPGs of old. Going back to the days of heavy text based adventures and isometric views, Torment: Tides of Numenera tries to appeal to a more niche audience. Consequently, this is not the sort of game that everyone, or I believe most people, would enjoy. For those who do though, you are in for a real treat.

Torment: Tides of Numenera is first and foremost about the strange world full of wonder you find yourself in and the excellently written text-based interactions you have with various people and objects. It isn’t about combat, open-world mechanics, character customisation, graphics or well-constructed quests. Most these things are in-fact done quite poorly, much to the detriment of the game.

The world it is set in is foreign to not only our own but also to the fantasy worlds we typically see in video games and books.It is a rather curious blend of super futuristic, stereotypical medieval and atypical magic. While imaginative and interesting, oft times the mix of these things just doesn’t fit together. The biggest example of this is the weapons.  Despite all sorts of mind boggling technology you will find throughout the game, the standard weapon set mostly comprises of generic medieval weapons which just feel out of place with the mystical and futuristic setting around you. Ignoring these contradictions, the world is hugely imaginative, littered with strange devices and people that draws your curiosity.

While the physicality of the world draws your attention, the lore behind it is what hooks you. Much of the lore behind both the world and the main story is driven by the Changing God. This seemingly eternal and god-like being gets his name from his habit of changing bodies every decade or so. The results of his actions are castoffs, a person born in the shell he leaves behind. Castoffs possess the gift of near-immortality, along with several other super-human powers. Unfortunately, the Changing God and the castoffs are not without their enemy. A strange entity known as the Sorrow hunts them down.

The game begins with the birth of your character, the LastCastoff. With no memories and no understanding of the world, you set out into the world to find your place in it.

Despite a graphical interface and a large amount of movement throughout the world, the game often feels more like a text based adventure. Everything from the subtle movements and reactions of a character to dialogue is primarily communicated through text rather then through images and voice acting.A good imagination and a love of reading is a must.The upside of this is that it has enabled extensive dialogue options for you to explore if you want to do so.

The text does get too much though. While excellently written and detailed, the text is oft times way too descriptive and verbose for non-important dialogue. I found that you have to exhaust every dialogue option as sometimes seemingly unimportant options can lead to something bigger. Thus the art of knowing when to skip dialogue and when to read is an essential skill to gain. For most people, trying to read everything would just be too dull.

While the story in the quests are well-written, the quests themselves tend to be poorly put together. This is especially the case for the main quest. I found myself interested in what was happening, but not the way in which I had to get there. I also kept running into dead ends, unable or unsure how to progress.While I inevitably got there in the end, the means in which I had to progress seemed too restrictive or not-obvious.

Combat in the game feels like an after-thought or something added just to tick the box. It uses a turn-based system, a system that should be employed to allow greater strategy. The mechanics and your options are too basic however to allow much strategy to be utilised. As a result, battles tend to be overly long and just boring. While it should be a nice refreshing break from reading pages and pages of text, I actually found myself hoping I can avoid combat altogether. Thankfully, combat is rare, something rather surprising for an RPG.

On the PS4 version I played, the game runs very poorly. Both low frame-rates and unforgiveable load times make the game difficult to play. The load times are a big issue as the world is broken up into so many different sections which you find yourself continuously going between. I’d imagine that it may perform much better on decent PC, I’d also argue that a keyboard and mouse set-up would be much better suited to the game as well.

Whether Torment: Tides of Numenera is an exceptional game or a snooze-fest really depends on the player. I think most people would fall in the latter category. If you love exploring unique and well-crafted worlds and don’t mind reading a lot of well-written text, then you may just enjoy this old-school RPG. The game outside of the reading is overall a let down, between boring combat, some badly put together quests, and extremely long load times, at least on PS4, a lot of the game leaves much to be desired.

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