Battle Royale: The Last Generation Of An SNES-CD Saga
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Fall 2014 (Part 6) - Assassin's Creed: Liberation
Assassin's Creed: Liberation
Background:
After the events of the last game, you might be thinking "Where do things go from here?" Well Ubisoft wanted to bring about two games for 2014. Fortunately, that particular idea was scrapped.
It was decided that finally Assassin's Creed would visit the American Revolution. To that end, it was decided to set the game between the years 1758-1783 and cover as much of the war as they can, with extras as DLC. It would have three main cities: Quebec City, Boston and New York, with the frontier connecting them. And the lead would be another female protagonist.
Cast/Characters:
Kaniehtiio Horn as Kaniehti:io (Ka-nia-zio)
Scarlett Johansson as Elise Stillman
Danny Wallace as Shawn Hastings
Jessica Alba as Anita Crane
Chantal Riley as Layla Hassan
Kristen Bell as Lucy Williams
Sarah Greene as Anne Bonney
Andreas Apergis as James Montgomery
Noah Watts as Ratonhnhake:ton (Ra-doon-ha-ge-doon)
Neil Napier as Charles Lee
Julien Casey as William Johnson
Kevin McKidd as John Pitcairn
Donald Glover as Achilles Davenport
Gideon Emery as James Wolfe
Jim Ward as Benjamin Franklin
Robin Atkin Downes as George Washington
Shawn Baichoo as Stéphane Chapheau
Mark Lindsey Chapman as Nathaniel Greene
Michael Fassbender as Baron von Steuben
Kevin McNally as Robert Faulkner
Fred Tatasciore as Nicholas Biddle
Tom Kenney as John Adams
Tod Fennell as Horatio Gates
Bruce Dinsmore as Paul Revere
Paul Hopkins as Benedict Arnold
Lyssa Fielding as Eve
Plot:
After a brief recap of the end of the last game, we open up in Upstate New York. In an effort to understand what was chasing them Lucy, Elise, Layla, Anita and Shawn are here following the coordinates that Desmond got during the Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood DLC The Da Vinci Disappearance. It was something that always bothered the team that was with him at the time.
Layla expresses her concern over whether Abstergo wouldn't have found out about this place already. Elise says that it shouldn't matter but they'll cross that bridge when they come to it. When they open the cave, Layla tells Lucy that she went over Lucy's genetic profile and was surprised to find that, in addition to Elizabeta from Black Flag being a distant relation, that she also has African and Native American ancestry too. It's far enough back that people today hardly notice.
Going into the Animus, we find Kaniehti:io infiltrating a meeting of Templars in Upstate New York in 1758. They include James Wolfe, John Pitcairn, Benedict Arnold, William Johnson and Charles Lee. Lee appears to be the Grand Master of the Colonial Rite. Kaniehti:io doesn't seem to know what they're talking about and, unlike the last game, she manages to get out unnoticed. She meets her brother, Ratonhnhake:ton, as they go back to their village. It is here that they meet Anne Bonney and Achilles Davenport. They are trying to get the tribal elders to come to their side in the Assassins/Templars to no avail.
However, Kaniehti:io and Ratonhnhake:ton afterwards meet up with them and say that they want to train with them. Happy for some success at least, they agree. At the Bonney/Davenport estate, Kaniehti:io and Ratonhnhake:ton begin their training. Ratonhnhake:ton doesn't take well to it and returns home to protect their village. Kaniehti:io also meets Robert Faulkner who will be running the Naval Missions for this game. Near the dock, is also the setup for the "armor" in this game (really a personal force field from the First Civilization).
After months of training, Kaniehti:io and Achilles go to Quebec to meet with Stéphane Chapheau, who leads the Quebec branch of the Brotherhood. Chapeau says that Quebec City has been under siege for months now and that Wolfe is here. Kaniehti:io has to kill Wolfe, while Achilles tries to protect Montcalm. Though Achilles fails, Kaniehti:io tries to comfort him. When they get back to the estate, they think they see something: a woman pointing to the north. When they get to her location, she's gone. She shows up at several points throughout the historical portion of the game, always pointing to the cave that the modern protagonists are in.
During this, Ratonhnhake:ton is trying to convince Anne to give him another chance. Anne is reluctant and decides to keep him around. When he leaves, Anne tells Kaniehti:io and Achilles that she is suspicious of the timing of this. Kaniehti:io objects, but Anne tells her that the Assassin/Templar war comes at great costs and has torn families and friends apart in the past. We then move forward to 1770. During a side mission, they meet Benjamin Franklin.
Ratonhnhake:ton has gotten better, however the Templars have managed to strengthen their hold on the colonies. The first step is to go to Boston and seek out John Adams. Unfortunately, both Kaniehti:io and Ratonhnhake:ton come across him in the aftermath of the Boston Massacre and Adams wants their help in finding the person who some say fired a shot before the soldiers did. During this, they run into Paul Revere who points the way. (The guy they are chasing is essentially Thomas Hickey from OTL Assassin's Creed III.) Ratonhnhake:ton kills him before they get any information out of him.
Once that's done, Ratonhnhake:ton realizes that maybe he shouldn't be in the field. Not right now anyway. Kaniehti:io and Achilles try to talk him out of this line of thinking but Anne agrees with him. When William Johnson comes around looking to buy the land of their tribe in 1773, Ratonhnhake:ton goes back to try to talk them out of it while Kaniehti:io and Achilles meet with John Adams to get at Johnson's income.
Adams says that Johnson has brought in a lot of tea in that's still in port and that a number of colonists are going to throw that tea, amongst other things overboard that very night. In the resulting stealth mission, they are successful. Later Ratonhnhake:ton comes to the mansion with news that Johnson came back with more money. Kaniehti:io decides to kill him, which she succeeds in.
Soon afterwards, Paul Revere asks for help to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock about the British trying to round them up. During this, Kaniehti:io learns of Pitcairn's possible involvement. At the Battle of Breed's (or Bunker) Hill, she manages to kill him. Though he says that he wants to stop the war.
Shortly thereafter, Ratonhnhake:ton, thinking that he is helping the revolution, leads the forces of James Montgomery to the gates of Quebec. When she gets there Kaniehti:io finds that he is captured by Benedict Arnold. She gets him back but, in the confusion, Arnold accidently kills Montgomery. Hoping to get back at Arnold they meet with Horatio Gates and block his promotions, even after Arnold helps win the Battle of Saratoga.
The action then shifts to New York (there is a side mission involving getting a portrait of Anne and Elizabeta during this segment) as Lee tries to undermine George Washington. Fortunately, Baron von Steuben is helping out in this section of the game. Lee appears more prominently in this section of the game, even briefly capturing our heroine. Lee tells her that he wants to protect the peoples of this land from conflict. To that effect, Lee suggests a truce. Kaniehti:io does consider it but when she learns that George Washington is going to attack her village and that the Templars are going to do nothing to stop it, she prevents that and spends the rest of the war elsewhere, which is covered in the DLC.
In the last segment of the game, Lee goes to Kaniehti:io's village. Kaniehti:io asks what he's doing there. Before Lee can answer, Ratonhnhake:ton stabs him. As he dies, Lee says that he wanted to make sure the new American government would treat the Native Americans right. With that, Lee dies. Shortly afterwards, Kaniehti:io returns to the Mansion to find that Anne Bonney died.
In the present, our heroes figure out that Eve, one of the humans that rebelled against Those Who Came Before, is trapped in the temple somehow. About midway through the game, Layla reveals that she has been in contact with someone in Abstergo's Entertainment Division and that they might be willing to act as a mole. However, at the end of the game, it's revealed that Abstergo wants a truce and that they will come to New York. But first there is a part of the puzzle in Moscow they need to pick up. And the Assassin's contact will be the one looking for it.
DLC:
In Greene-r Pastures takes place during the Southern campaign during the American Revolution. Nathaniel Greene asks Kaniehti:io to help him drive the British out. She does what she can but Gates, though ostensibly on their side, blocks her at every turn. This leads to an angry confrontation where she says that she should have let Arnold kill him and leaves in disgust.
In The Treachery of Benedict Arnold, Kaniehti:io tries, and fails to kill Benedict Arnold. Instead she captures, and turns in John Andre (who is knocked out when she gets there).
Gameplay:
With multiplayer no longer a part of the game, the developers were able to concentrate on the single player gameplay better. Not only that but they added a so-called "air-rifle" (really a primitive grenade launcher with different effects: explosive, poison, berserker and knockout gas). The game also builds on the hunting mechanic of the previous game to make things slightly more realistic. Other than that it's the same stealth gameplay that it's always been.
Achievements/Trophies:
Master Assassin: Get all other trophies -/Platinum
Just My Luck: Reenter the Animus 10g/Bronze
Mystery Guests: Complete Sequences 1&2 20g/Bronze
Paths of Glory: Complete Sequence 3 20g/Silver
Not Now: Complete Sequence 4 20g/Silver
Making Legends: Complete Sequence 5 20g/Silver
Tea for the Englishman: Complete Sequence 6 20g/Silver
Two if by land: Complete Sequence 7 20g/Silver
Whites of their Eyes: Complete Sequence 8 20g/Silver
Merde!: Complete Sequence 9 20g/Silver
Not at this time, I'm afraid: Complete Sequence 10 20g/Silver
No page unturned: Complete the game 50g/Gold
Not Right: Complete Present 1 20g/Bronze
Watching over us: Complete Present 2 20g/Bronze
A Good Cause: Complete Present 3 20g/Bronze
Not Wrong: Complete Present 4 20g/Bronze
Prince of Thieves: Rob a caravan without killing any of the guards 10g/Bronze
Jaeger Bomb: After becoming fully notorious kill 10 Jaegers before losing your notoriety 20g/Bronze
Coureur des Bois: Deliver undamaged pelts to all of the general stores 10g/Bronze
Eye Witness: Watch a predator kill an enemy 10g/Bronze
Fin: Complete the epilogue missions after the credits role 30g/Silver
By Invitation Only: Be invited to join a club 20g/Bronze
In Good Standing: Complete all challenges for any of the clubs 30g/Silver
Man of the People: Capture all Gang HQs 30g/Silver
Blowing in the Wind: Capture all the pages for one of Ben Franklin's Almanacs 20g/Bronze
Patent Not Pending: Build one of Ben Franklin's inventions 10g/Bronze
Original Gamer: Win a game of Fanorona, Morris and Bowls at the Mansion 20g/Bronze
Bring Down the House: Explore Fort Walcott 20g/Bronze
Kidd Gloves: Uncover the mystery of Oak Island 30g/Bronze
Phantom Queen: Fully upgrade the Aquila 20g/Silver
A good run of it: Complete all Naval Missions 40g/Silver
Ghost of the North Atlantic: Complete all privateer missions 20g/Bronze
Halfway there: Complete 50% of progress bar 20g/Bronze
Huzzah!: Complete 100% of progress bar 50g/Silver
Circus Act: Kill 15 guards with one cannon shot 10g/Bronze
Camper: Loot 20 supply camps 20g/Bronze
What's yours is mine: Loot 20 ship convoys 20g/Bronze
Master and Commander: Complete all four legendary battles 50g/Gold
Stars and Stripes Forever: Capture all forts 30g/Silver
Raise a parting glass: Pay tribute to an old friend 20g/Bronze
Nap Time: Put 5 enemies to sleep with the sleep grenade at the same time 20g/Bronze
Instant Vikings: Hit 5 enemies with the berserk grenade at the same time 20g/Bronze
Open a window: Hit 5 enemies in an enclosed space with the poison grenade at the same time 20g/Bronze
Fire in the Hole!: Hit 5 enemies with the explosive grenade at the same time 20g/Bronze
Do not want: Counter 20 smoke bombs successfully with the gas mask 20g/Bronze
DLC:
A Few Problems: Meet with Greene 20g/Bronze
Cowpens and Needles: Survive the Battle of Cowpens 20g/Bronze
Not a Chance: Try to catch Gates before he leaves 30g/Silver
Always: Complete In Greene-r Pastures 30g/Silver
Finally!: Discover Arnold's plot 15g/Bronze
Hold it!: Keep command of West Point 25g/Silver
Got you!: Capture Major Andre 30g/Silver
By that much!: Complete The Treachery of Benedict Arnold 30g/Silver
Review:
Assassin's Creed: Liberation was released worldwide for Nintendo Reality, Google Nexus and Apple Virtua on November 11, 2014. The DLCs were released on December 14 and 16 respectively. While Liberation was a good game overall, most critics and fans didn't like it all that much, with scores in the mid to high 7s. It is true that Liberation had a hard act to follow with Black Flag, most agree that it didn't do enough to shake things up.
Not helping matters was Kaniehti:io who came off to most fans as being too stiff compared to Elizabeta Azarola. She still has her fans don't get me wrong and I myself like her too. However, she just doesn't come off very well. Of course, her actress, while good in other things she has done, probably needed better direction. In the end, Assassin's Creed: Liberation was a good, though flawed, game.
Next time, we go on the march with a little War and Peace.
-Review of Assassin's Creed: Liberation by R. C. Anderson, Nothing is True: A History of Assassin's Creed on Consoles,Gamesovermatter.com, December 25, 2017.
Background:
After the events of the last game, you might be thinking "Where do things go from here?" Well Ubisoft wanted to bring about two games for 2014. Fortunately, that particular idea was scrapped.
It was decided that finally Assassin's Creed would visit the American Revolution. To that end, it was decided to set the game between the years 1758-1783 and cover as much of the war as they can, with extras as DLC. It would have three main cities: Quebec City, Boston and New York, with the frontier connecting them. And the lead would be another female protagonist.
Cast/Characters:
Kaniehtiio Horn as Kaniehti:io (Ka-nia-zio)
Scarlett Johansson as Elise Stillman
Danny Wallace as Shawn Hastings
Jessica Alba as Anita Crane
Chantal Riley as Layla Hassan
Kristen Bell as Lucy Williams
Sarah Greene as Anne Bonney
Andreas Apergis as James Montgomery
Noah Watts as Ratonhnhake:ton (Ra-doon-ha-ge-doon)
Neil Napier as Charles Lee
Julien Casey as William Johnson
Kevin McKidd as John Pitcairn
Donald Glover as Achilles Davenport
Gideon Emery as James Wolfe
Jim Ward as Benjamin Franklin
Robin Atkin Downes as George Washington
Shawn Baichoo as Stéphane Chapheau
Mark Lindsey Chapman as Nathaniel Greene
Michael Fassbender as Baron von Steuben
Kevin McNally as Robert Faulkner
Fred Tatasciore as Nicholas Biddle
Tom Kenney as John Adams
Tod Fennell as Horatio Gates
Bruce Dinsmore as Paul Revere
Paul Hopkins as Benedict Arnold
Lyssa Fielding as Eve
Plot:
After a brief recap of the end of the last game, we open up in Upstate New York. In an effort to understand what was chasing them Lucy, Elise, Layla, Anita and Shawn are here following the coordinates that Desmond got during the Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood DLC The Da Vinci Disappearance. It was something that always bothered the team that was with him at the time.
Layla expresses her concern over whether Abstergo wouldn't have found out about this place already. Elise says that it shouldn't matter but they'll cross that bridge when they come to it. When they open the cave, Layla tells Lucy that she went over Lucy's genetic profile and was surprised to find that, in addition to Elizabeta from Black Flag being a distant relation, that she also has African and Native American ancestry too. It's far enough back that people today hardly notice.
Going into the Animus, we find Kaniehti:io infiltrating a meeting of Templars in Upstate New York in 1758. They include James Wolfe, John Pitcairn, Benedict Arnold, William Johnson and Charles Lee. Lee appears to be the Grand Master of the Colonial Rite. Kaniehti:io doesn't seem to know what they're talking about and, unlike the last game, she manages to get out unnoticed. She meets her brother, Ratonhnhake:ton, as they go back to their village. It is here that they meet Anne Bonney and Achilles Davenport. They are trying to get the tribal elders to come to their side in the Assassins/Templars to no avail.
However, Kaniehti:io and Ratonhnhake:ton afterwards meet up with them and say that they want to train with them. Happy for some success at least, they agree. At the Bonney/Davenport estate, Kaniehti:io and Ratonhnhake:ton begin their training. Ratonhnhake:ton doesn't take well to it and returns home to protect their village. Kaniehti:io also meets Robert Faulkner who will be running the Naval Missions for this game. Near the dock, is also the setup for the "armor" in this game (really a personal force field from the First Civilization).
After months of training, Kaniehti:io and Achilles go to Quebec to meet with Stéphane Chapheau, who leads the Quebec branch of the Brotherhood. Chapeau says that Quebec City has been under siege for months now and that Wolfe is here. Kaniehti:io has to kill Wolfe, while Achilles tries to protect Montcalm. Though Achilles fails, Kaniehti:io tries to comfort him. When they get back to the estate, they think they see something: a woman pointing to the north. When they get to her location, she's gone. She shows up at several points throughout the historical portion of the game, always pointing to the cave that the modern protagonists are in.
During this, Ratonhnhake:ton is trying to convince Anne to give him another chance. Anne is reluctant and decides to keep him around. When he leaves, Anne tells Kaniehti:io and Achilles that she is suspicious of the timing of this. Kaniehti:io objects, but Anne tells her that the Assassin/Templar war comes at great costs and has torn families and friends apart in the past. We then move forward to 1770. During a side mission, they meet Benjamin Franklin.
Ratonhnhake:ton has gotten better, however the Templars have managed to strengthen their hold on the colonies. The first step is to go to Boston and seek out John Adams. Unfortunately, both Kaniehti:io and Ratonhnhake:ton come across him in the aftermath of the Boston Massacre and Adams wants their help in finding the person who some say fired a shot before the soldiers did. During this, they run into Paul Revere who points the way. (The guy they are chasing is essentially Thomas Hickey from OTL Assassin's Creed III.) Ratonhnhake:ton kills him before they get any information out of him.
Once that's done, Ratonhnhake:ton realizes that maybe he shouldn't be in the field. Not right now anyway. Kaniehti:io and Achilles try to talk him out of this line of thinking but Anne agrees with him. When William Johnson comes around looking to buy the land of their tribe in 1773, Ratonhnhake:ton goes back to try to talk them out of it while Kaniehti:io and Achilles meet with John Adams to get at Johnson's income.
Adams says that Johnson has brought in a lot of tea in that's still in port and that a number of colonists are going to throw that tea, amongst other things overboard that very night. In the resulting stealth mission, they are successful. Later Ratonhnhake:ton comes to the mansion with news that Johnson came back with more money. Kaniehti:io decides to kill him, which she succeeds in.
Soon afterwards, Paul Revere asks for help to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock about the British trying to round them up. During this, Kaniehti:io learns of Pitcairn's possible involvement. At the Battle of Breed's (or Bunker) Hill, she manages to kill him. Though he says that he wants to stop the war.
Shortly thereafter, Ratonhnhake:ton, thinking that he is helping the revolution, leads the forces of James Montgomery to the gates of Quebec. When she gets there Kaniehti:io finds that he is captured by Benedict Arnold. She gets him back but, in the confusion, Arnold accidently kills Montgomery. Hoping to get back at Arnold they meet with Horatio Gates and block his promotions, even after Arnold helps win the Battle of Saratoga.
The action then shifts to New York (there is a side mission involving getting a portrait of Anne and Elizabeta during this segment) as Lee tries to undermine George Washington. Fortunately, Baron von Steuben is helping out in this section of the game. Lee appears more prominently in this section of the game, even briefly capturing our heroine. Lee tells her that he wants to protect the peoples of this land from conflict. To that effect, Lee suggests a truce. Kaniehti:io does consider it but when she learns that George Washington is going to attack her village and that the Templars are going to do nothing to stop it, she prevents that and spends the rest of the war elsewhere, which is covered in the DLC.
In the last segment of the game, Lee goes to Kaniehti:io's village. Kaniehti:io asks what he's doing there. Before Lee can answer, Ratonhnhake:ton stabs him. As he dies, Lee says that he wanted to make sure the new American government would treat the Native Americans right. With that, Lee dies. Shortly afterwards, Kaniehti:io returns to the Mansion to find that Anne Bonney died.
In the present, our heroes figure out that Eve, one of the humans that rebelled against Those Who Came Before, is trapped in the temple somehow. About midway through the game, Layla reveals that she has been in contact with someone in Abstergo's Entertainment Division and that they might be willing to act as a mole. However, at the end of the game, it's revealed that Abstergo wants a truce and that they will come to New York. But first there is a part of the puzzle in Moscow they need to pick up. And the Assassin's contact will be the one looking for it.
DLC:
In Greene-r Pastures takes place during the Southern campaign during the American Revolution. Nathaniel Greene asks Kaniehti:io to help him drive the British out. She does what she can but Gates, though ostensibly on their side, blocks her at every turn. This leads to an angry confrontation where she says that she should have let Arnold kill him and leaves in disgust.
In The Treachery of Benedict Arnold, Kaniehti:io tries, and fails to kill Benedict Arnold. Instead she captures, and turns in John Andre (who is knocked out when she gets there).
Gameplay:
With multiplayer no longer a part of the game, the developers were able to concentrate on the single player gameplay better. Not only that but they added a so-called "air-rifle" (really a primitive grenade launcher with different effects: explosive, poison, berserker and knockout gas). The game also builds on the hunting mechanic of the previous game to make things slightly more realistic. Other than that it's the same stealth gameplay that it's always been.
Achievements/Trophies:
Master Assassin: Get all other trophies -/Platinum
Just My Luck: Reenter the Animus 10g/Bronze
Mystery Guests: Complete Sequences 1&2 20g/Bronze
Paths of Glory: Complete Sequence 3 20g/Silver
Not Now: Complete Sequence 4 20g/Silver
Making Legends: Complete Sequence 5 20g/Silver
Tea for the Englishman: Complete Sequence 6 20g/Silver
Two if by land: Complete Sequence 7 20g/Silver
Whites of their Eyes: Complete Sequence 8 20g/Silver
Merde!: Complete Sequence 9 20g/Silver
Not at this time, I'm afraid: Complete Sequence 10 20g/Silver
No page unturned: Complete the game 50g/Gold
Not Right: Complete Present 1 20g/Bronze
Watching over us: Complete Present 2 20g/Bronze
A Good Cause: Complete Present 3 20g/Bronze
Not Wrong: Complete Present 4 20g/Bronze
Prince of Thieves: Rob a caravan without killing any of the guards 10g/Bronze
Jaeger Bomb: After becoming fully notorious kill 10 Jaegers before losing your notoriety 20g/Bronze
Coureur des Bois: Deliver undamaged pelts to all of the general stores 10g/Bronze
Eye Witness: Watch a predator kill an enemy 10g/Bronze
Fin: Complete the epilogue missions after the credits role 30g/Silver
By Invitation Only: Be invited to join a club 20g/Bronze
In Good Standing: Complete all challenges for any of the clubs 30g/Silver
Man of the People: Capture all Gang HQs 30g/Silver
Blowing in the Wind: Capture all the pages for one of Ben Franklin's Almanacs 20g/Bronze
Patent Not Pending: Build one of Ben Franklin's inventions 10g/Bronze
Original Gamer: Win a game of Fanorona, Morris and Bowls at the Mansion 20g/Bronze
Bring Down the House: Explore Fort Walcott 20g/Bronze
Kidd Gloves: Uncover the mystery of Oak Island 30g/Bronze
Phantom Queen: Fully upgrade the Aquila 20g/Silver
A good run of it: Complete all Naval Missions 40g/Silver
Ghost of the North Atlantic: Complete all privateer missions 20g/Bronze
Halfway there: Complete 50% of progress bar 20g/Bronze
Huzzah!: Complete 100% of progress bar 50g/Silver
Circus Act: Kill 15 guards with one cannon shot 10g/Bronze
Camper: Loot 20 supply camps 20g/Bronze
What's yours is mine: Loot 20 ship convoys 20g/Bronze
Master and Commander: Complete all four legendary battles 50g/Gold
Stars and Stripes Forever: Capture all forts 30g/Silver
Raise a parting glass: Pay tribute to an old friend 20g/Bronze
Nap Time: Put 5 enemies to sleep with the sleep grenade at the same time 20g/Bronze
Instant Vikings: Hit 5 enemies with the berserk grenade at the same time 20g/Bronze
Open a window: Hit 5 enemies in an enclosed space with the poison grenade at the same time 20g/Bronze
Fire in the Hole!: Hit 5 enemies with the explosive grenade at the same time 20g/Bronze
Do not want: Counter 20 smoke bombs successfully with the gas mask 20g/Bronze
DLC:
A Few Problems: Meet with Greene 20g/Bronze
Cowpens and Needles: Survive the Battle of Cowpens 20g/Bronze
Not a Chance: Try to catch Gates before he leaves 30g/Silver
Always: Complete In Greene-r Pastures 30g/Silver
Finally!: Discover Arnold's plot 15g/Bronze
Hold it!: Keep command of West Point 25g/Silver
Got you!: Capture Major Andre 30g/Silver
By that much!: Complete The Treachery of Benedict Arnold 30g/Silver
Review:
Assassin's Creed: Liberation was released worldwide for Nintendo Reality, Google Nexus and Apple Virtua on November 11, 2014. The DLCs were released on December 14 and 16 respectively. While Liberation was a good game overall, most critics and fans didn't like it all that much, with scores in the mid to high 7s. It is true that Liberation had a hard act to follow with Black Flag, most agree that it didn't do enough to shake things up.
Not helping matters was Kaniehti:io who came off to most fans as being too stiff compared to Elizabeta Azarola. She still has her fans don't get me wrong and I myself like her too. However, she just doesn't come off very well. Of course, her actress, while good in other things she has done, probably needed better direction. In the end, Assassin's Creed: Liberation was a good, though flawed, game.
Next time, we go on the march with a little War and Peace.
-Review of Assassin's Creed: Liberation by R. C. Anderson, Nothing is True: A History of Assassin's Creed on Consoles,Gamesovermatter.com, December 25, 2017.
I really enjoy this especially the inclusion of the Battle of Cowpens. I live just a few miles from the site of this battle and several of my ancestors fought at it.
Fall 2014 (Part 7) - Games As Art In 2014
Lenora's Last Masterpiece
Lenora's Last Masterpiece is a mystery/horror game developed by Giant Sparrow and published by Apple exclusively for the Virtua. The game's protagonist, Ian Winterthorpe, learns that his old love, a beautiful artist named Lenora, has gone missing, and decides to go to her mansion to investigate. There, he finds nothing but her old paintings, pulsating with a strange energy, and learns that Lenora may have been transported into one of them. He must explore the mansion and paintings from top to bottom to find his love, while learning about her last few months and also dodging the strange demonic forces that have infiltrated her work. The game was partially funded by Apple, which assisted Giant Sparrow in designing assets for the game and also helped to test the game and develop its unique control scheme. This enabled the game to have a significantly larger budget than most games of its type, and is thus far more complex and polished than most of the indie titles available for current systems. The game plays much like an adventure title with elements of horror, with each painting containing a different type of world and featuring slightly different gameplay. Some of these paintings are puzzle focused, while others include combat, and still others play much like visual novels. Each painting tells a piece of Lenora's story, as does the mansion itself, which can also be thoroughly explored and is sometimes infested with demonic creatures. The game features both a normal control scheme and a motion control scheme, with the motion controls making heavy use of the Virtua's ability to simulate moving objects, which is utilized in both puzzles and combat segments. The game is fully voice acted, with Ian Winterthorpe voiced by Scottish actor Iain de Caestecker and Lenora voiced by Elizabeth Henstridge (so yes, even though Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't exist as a TV show ITTL, Fitzsimmons lives in some form!), with other incidental characters fully voiced as well. The game plays out in six acts, taking place across fifteen different paintings. Some paintings contain only a single short scene, while others are fully developed worlds, encompassing at least an hour's worth of gameplay. As the game progresses, Ian learns how Lenora was painting the things she saw in her mind, and that she was slipping deeper and deeper into madness as her paintings progressed. Ian initially blames himself, knowing that the two broke up on bad terms, but he eventually learns that Lenora's mental illness had nothing to do with him, and was just something she was trying to live with as long as she could. He eventually learns that Lenora blamed herself for her own illness, and inadvertently made a deal with a demon in an attempt to rid herself of it, only to be sucked into one of the paintings by the demon as it gained enough power from Lenora to inhabit the real world. Ian goes into the last painting to free Lenora, and in the process, learns to live with himself as well. He manages to find Lenora, who is not a prisoner of the demon, but of her own thoughts. He is able to reach her, though only just long enough to remind her that she was a good person. The two forgive each other, though Lenora is unable to return to the world of the living, as she has been away too long and her mind and body have atrophied away. She passes into eternal rest, and is able to guide Ian home, helping him to vanquish the demon in the painting and make his way back. He leaves Lenora's mansion and the paintings it contained, and moves on from his relationship with her. Released in November, Lenora's Last Masterpiece is one of the year's most acclaimed games, with its graphics, gameplay, and storyline all scoring well with critics. The game itself sells slowly at first, but becomes a sleeper hit after word of mouth spreads and the price comes down. It's remembered as one of 2014's most surprising but also most memorable games, pushing the medium forward and helping to further the message that games are increasingly becoming a more artistically focused medium.
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Lenora's Last Masterpiece might be blurring the lines between games and art, but there have already been several other games this year that have also focused on providing players with an experience more aesthetic than action-packed.
The RPG Nix, which hit PC and Macintosh in September, has become one of Steam's best selling games of the year, and it's accomplished this feat by telling a unique story in a unique way. It focuses on an imp named Nix, who, with enough power, transforms into a magical dark faerie of the night who is able to battle her foes and help her friends. However, Nix gradually loses this power as the game progresses, forcing the player to find other ways of keeping her powered up. The game plays out much differently than the typical "grindy" RPG that players are used to, with the world itself changing around Nix each time she powers up and powers down. The game's graphical style, which looks closer to an interactive painting than a bleeding edge 3-D game, has won acclaim from critics and fans alike, in contrast with its biggest "rival" this year, the grittier, grayer Necrocracy 3. While many like to compare the two titles, the game's developers say there is no comparison: "we set out to make something different from any RPG on the market, while also making a game that players would never forget". While Necrocracy 3 has proved more successful from a sales perspective, Nix has achieved stronger reviews, and is considered by many to be one of the year's best games, proving that its unorthodox style is paying off.
Then there's To Live And Die In The Walls, which follows in the footsteps of games like Silent Hills and Lenora's Last Masterpiece and can be considered a "horror" art game, though the horror isn't so disturbing or grotesque as it is tragic: a man trapped within the layers of a walled city, navigating the narrow tunnels but unable to communicate with anyone on the inside or outside. The player must acquire food to stay alive while looking for some way to effect the world beyond in such a way that will enable someone to notice him. The game explores the horror of isolation and despair, while offering glimmers of hope for players willing to push themselves to their psychological limits. Released for only $9.99 on Steam, the game has been described by some players as 'absolutely nightmarish' and others as 'strangely touching'. While the game is extremely simplistic, there's a massive amount of things to do and secrets to uncover, and new secrets continue to be found more than a month after the game's release.
2014 has seen the release of massively successful blockbusters like Grand Theft Auto III and Squad Four Betrayal, but it's also seen some of the most inspired interactive art projects ever unveiled, and as the medium progresses and expands its scope, there's no doubt we'll continue to see the lines between games and art continue to blur as more and more players are inspired by what they've played and seen.
-from a November 22, 2014 article on ArsTechnica
Lenora's Last Masterpiece is a mystery/horror game developed by Giant Sparrow and published by Apple exclusively for the Virtua. The game's protagonist, Ian Winterthorpe, learns that his old love, a beautiful artist named Lenora, has gone missing, and decides to go to her mansion to investigate. There, he finds nothing but her old paintings, pulsating with a strange energy, and learns that Lenora may have been transported into one of them. He must explore the mansion and paintings from top to bottom to find his love, while learning about her last few months and also dodging the strange demonic forces that have infiltrated her work. The game was partially funded by Apple, which assisted Giant Sparrow in designing assets for the game and also helped to test the game and develop its unique control scheme. This enabled the game to have a significantly larger budget than most games of its type, and is thus far more complex and polished than most of the indie titles available for current systems. The game plays much like an adventure title with elements of horror, with each painting containing a different type of world and featuring slightly different gameplay. Some of these paintings are puzzle focused, while others include combat, and still others play much like visual novels. Each painting tells a piece of Lenora's story, as does the mansion itself, which can also be thoroughly explored and is sometimes infested with demonic creatures. The game features both a normal control scheme and a motion control scheme, with the motion controls making heavy use of the Virtua's ability to simulate moving objects, which is utilized in both puzzles and combat segments. The game is fully voice acted, with Ian Winterthorpe voiced by Scottish actor Iain de Caestecker and Lenora voiced by Elizabeth Henstridge (so yes, even though Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't exist as a TV show ITTL, Fitzsimmons lives in some form!), with other incidental characters fully voiced as well. The game plays out in six acts, taking place across fifteen different paintings. Some paintings contain only a single short scene, while others are fully developed worlds, encompassing at least an hour's worth of gameplay. As the game progresses, Ian learns how Lenora was painting the things she saw in her mind, and that she was slipping deeper and deeper into madness as her paintings progressed. Ian initially blames himself, knowing that the two broke up on bad terms, but he eventually learns that Lenora's mental illness had nothing to do with him, and was just something she was trying to live with as long as she could. He eventually learns that Lenora blamed herself for her own illness, and inadvertently made a deal with a demon in an attempt to rid herself of it, only to be sucked into one of the paintings by the demon as it gained enough power from Lenora to inhabit the real world. Ian goes into the last painting to free Lenora, and in the process, learns to live with himself as well. He manages to find Lenora, who is not a prisoner of the demon, but of her own thoughts. He is able to reach her, though only just long enough to remind her that she was a good person. The two forgive each other, though Lenora is unable to return to the world of the living, as she has been away too long and her mind and body have atrophied away. She passes into eternal rest, and is able to guide Ian home, helping him to vanquish the demon in the painting and make his way back. He leaves Lenora's mansion and the paintings it contained, and moves on from his relationship with her. Released in November, Lenora's Last Masterpiece is one of the year's most acclaimed games, with its graphics, gameplay, and storyline all scoring well with critics. The game itself sells slowly at first, but becomes a sleeper hit after word of mouth spreads and the price comes down. It's remembered as one of 2014's most surprising but also most memorable games, pushing the medium forward and helping to further the message that games are increasingly becoming a more artistically focused medium.
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Lenora's Last Masterpiece might be blurring the lines between games and art, but there have already been several other games this year that have also focused on providing players with an experience more aesthetic than action-packed.
The RPG Nix, which hit PC and Macintosh in September, has become one of Steam's best selling games of the year, and it's accomplished this feat by telling a unique story in a unique way. It focuses on an imp named Nix, who, with enough power, transforms into a magical dark faerie of the night who is able to battle her foes and help her friends. However, Nix gradually loses this power as the game progresses, forcing the player to find other ways of keeping her powered up. The game plays out much differently than the typical "grindy" RPG that players are used to, with the world itself changing around Nix each time she powers up and powers down. The game's graphical style, which looks closer to an interactive painting than a bleeding edge 3-D game, has won acclaim from critics and fans alike, in contrast with its biggest "rival" this year, the grittier, grayer Necrocracy 3. While many like to compare the two titles, the game's developers say there is no comparison: "we set out to make something different from any RPG on the market, while also making a game that players would never forget". While Necrocracy 3 has proved more successful from a sales perspective, Nix has achieved stronger reviews, and is considered by many to be one of the year's best games, proving that its unorthodox style is paying off.
Then there's To Live And Die In The Walls, which follows in the footsteps of games like Silent Hills and Lenora's Last Masterpiece and can be considered a "horror" art game, though the horror isn't so disturbing or grotesque as it is tragic: a man trapped within the layers of a walled city, navigating the narrow tunnels but unable to communicate with anyone on the inside or outside. The player must acquire food to stay alive while looking for some way to effect the world beyond in such a way that will enable someone to notice him. The game explores the horror of isolation and despair, while offering glimmers of hope for players willing to push themselves to their psychological limits. Released for only $9.99 on Steam, the game has been described by some players as 'absolutely nightmarish' and others as 'strangely touching'. While the game is extremely simplistic, there's a massive amount of things to do and secrets to uncover, and new secrets continue to be found more than a month after the game's release.
2014 has seen the release of massively successful blockbusters like Grand Theft Auto III and Squad Four Betrayal, but it's also seen some of the most inspired interactive art projects ever unveiled, and as the medium progresses and expands its scope, there's no doubt we'll continue to see the lines between games and art continue to blur as more and more players are inspired by what they've played and seen.
-from a November 22, 2014 article on ArsTechnica
AeroTheZealousOne
Monthly Donor
Getting some vibes of Super Mario 64 and Myst from this one. This one is yet another one in an extensive catalogue of games I wished I owned.
Fall 2014 (Part 8) - Mario vs. Sonic: Ultimate Handheld Showdown
Super Mario Dimensions 3
Super Mario Dimensions 3 is a 3-D platformer published by Nintendo exclusively for the Nintendo Connect. Featuring similar gameplay to the previous two Dimensions titles (and also featuring a lot of the new gameplay elements from Super Mario Laboratory), the game is a fully fleshed out 3-D adventure, with graphics exceeding those of OTL's Super Mario Galaxy. It features a total of 14 different worlds to explore, which is less than the two previous games, but the 14 worlds are for the most part bigger and more complex than those of Super Mario Dimensions 2, and the Mushroom Kingdom hub world is also much bigger, bigger than any of the 14 other worlds in the game, and featuring a huge amount of things to do. The game itself has a total of 360 collectible Stars, which can be collected as both Mario or Luigi, giving the game a true total of 720 Stars to collect. The Mushroom Kingdom hub world has a total of 80 Stars, while each of the 14 dimensional worlds in the game have a total of 20. Mario and Luigi both have an enormous amount of skills at their disposal, able to run, jump, climb, punch, and kick, with comparable mobility to OTL's Super Mario Odyssey (not quite as many moves as in that game, but close enough). The game's worlds are a massively diverse collection of environments, each with its own unique flora, fauna, and gameplay quirks, with memorable characters, both friend and foe, populating each one. Super Mario Dimensions 3 hearkens back to a more "traditional" Mario experience, with Bowser as the villain and Peach as the damsel in distress needing to be rescued, not dipping into the more complex plots seen in other games like Flip or Laboratory, or even Super Mario Dimensions 2. There aren't any "throwback" worlds in the game, though there are plenty of elements hearkening back to previous games in the series, as well as some 2-D sidescrolling segments in the form of separated areas (much like the throwbacks in Super Mario Odyssey). The game's overall visual aesthetic can be compared to OTL's Super Mario 3D World, and its musical style is also closer to that game than to a more epic game like OTL's Galaxy or Odyssey. The game is crafted to provide a Mario experience that will both please old school fans and draw in new ones, while providing challenge to veteran players and a welcoming experience for beginners.
The game's fourteen worlds are divided into five "chapters", so to speak, and usually, you'll need to clear a group of three worlds before moving onto the next ones. However, there's usually one world that has to be visited first within each chapter, or a world that has to be opened up last. The list of worlds is as follows:
Fairplay Dimension: The first world players will visit is themed on sports of all kinds, with Chargin' Chucks appearing alongside baseball and hockey playing Koopas, and several sports minigames to enjoy.
Desert Dimension: A desert-themed world with pyramids and palm trees, though it distinguishes itself somewhat from the Shifting Sand Lands of previous Dimensions titles.
Poison Dimension: A world with pools of poison and acid everywhere, with somewhat of a swamp theme. Mario must defeat the boss of this world to move to the next chapter.
Mechanized Dimension: A factory world filled with Mechakoopas and gears, where Mario has to build a giant robot to battle a huge Mechakoopa.
Underground Dimension: A world spread out in a network of crystal caves, there's an almost maze-like quality to this dimension.
Ocean Dimension: A dimension themed on water, though it also features an extensive beach area.
Growing Dimension: A garden-themed dimension full of giant plants and giant houses.
Vine Dimension: A jungle-themed world, somewhat similar to the poison dimension, but with taller trees and more platforming.
Spire Dimension: A dimension themed on crystal spires rising high into the sky, quite beautiful but featuring lots of deadly challenges.
Temple Dimension: A dimension themed on Greek and Roman architecture, with a giant maze at its center.
Carnival Dimension: A carnival-themed dimension, with rides, bright lights, and aggressive enemies.
Palace Dimension: Based almost entirely around a medieval-styled castle, this dimension is filled with Koopa knights and stone walls.
Molten Dimension: This dimension has some similarities to Bowser's Kingdom from OTL's Odyssey, with lava everywhere and a fortress-like structure to explore.
Star Dimension: A space-themed dimension, this is the final dimension visited in the game, and Mario needs to defeat a powerful boss here to access the final challenges.
Once the Star Dimension objectives are cleared and Mario (or Luigi) has 120 Stars, a door in the Mushroom Kingdom opens that allows players to battle Bowser in a spectacular boss fight. Unlike in other Dimensions games, where most Bowser encounters take place in the individual worlds, Dimensions 3 gives players separate areas to explore, somewhat like the Bowser worlds in OTL's Super Mario 64. Of course, the game does feature plenty of bosses in the Dimensions themselves, both large and small, with the Koopalings all showing up at various times to challenge Mario, and a few throwback bosses appearing as well. Once all 360 Stars are collected with a single character, a new challenge level opens up, while collecting all 720 Stars unlocks the game's ultimate challenge, a gauntlet of obstacles that the player must survive with only one health point. Defeating that gauntlet allows the player to truly conquer the game and declare themselves a Mario Dimensions 3 master.
Super Mario Dimensions 3 is released in November 2014 for the Nintendo Connect. It doesn't take a huge amount of risks, and doesn't change things up like Super Mario Laboratory did, but what it does, providing a fun Mario platforming experience, it does EXTREMELY well, and is an absolutely gorgeous game for a handheld title, providing tons of fun and replay value. Reviewers give it extremely high scores, almost all 9s and 10s, and it's considered the best Connect game of the year and one of the best games of the year overall, while sales are through the roof, driving Connect sales throughout the holiday season.
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Sonic The Hedgehog 7
Sonic The Hedgehog 7 is a Gemini exclusive action platformer title and the direct sequel to 2012's Sonic The Hedgehog 6, continuing the story from that game and featuring Shadow the Hedgehog once again as a major antagonist, though the primary antagonist of the game is a robotic creature named Metallis, forcing Shadow to eventually team up with Sonic to save the universe. Like its predecessor, the game contains mostly 2-D gameplay, with some 3-D segments including bosses and certain levels, making the game a hybrid of both styles. While Sonic, Tails, and Shadow are the main playable characters, Sonic's friends all play a larger role in this game, with Amy, Knuckles, Corona, Big, Espio, and Rover all seeing significant screen time, and in some cases (Amy, Knuckles, Corona, and Rover) being playable. Sonic The Hedgehog 7 doesn't change much of the basic gameplay of its predecessor, but instead decides to mix things up with more "out there" ideas for worlds, bumping up the graphics fairly significantly and introducing a few more gimmicky gameplay elements, giving Sonic, Tails, and Shadow the ability to pick up objects and throw them, or even mix them into different objects. This gives the game a more "experimental" style that some critics believe to be inspired by Super Mario Laboratory, though the application of these elements is significantly different. Enemies have a lot more variety in this game, and more complex attack patterns, which makes Sonic 7 noticeably more difficult than Sonic 6. The platforming hasn't really changed, but combat has, and though the boss fights are better received overall, some regular enemies do become annoyances in certain levels. Shadow himself controls somewhat differently from Sonic: he's slower, and more reliant on combat than Sonic is, gaining his own repertoire of special attacks, and also able to create more weapons than Sonic can, though he doesn't use a realistic gun like he's been known to do in OTL's games. Meanwhile, Tails, the genius inventor, has an entire quirky repertoire of fun gadgets, and the "experimentation" element of the game makes him a lot more fun to control than he has been in other titles, while he can also deal with enemies much more easily. Fans of the series take immediate notice, and while some are upset, others rejoice at Tails getting a "buff", with speedrunners preferring Tails over Sonic or Shadow for this reason. Other characters like Knuckles and Amy can't use the item system, but they are able to use their own innate abilities, some of which can be quite strong.
The plot of the game sees Shadow finally gathering all the pages of Eggman's journal. He hopes to build a Life Machine to resurrect Maria, but the journal is suddenly stolen by Metallis, who plans to use them to create the Ultimate Death Machine, fulfilling Eggman's final plans. The game's first two Zones (Battlefield Plains Zone and Stormy City Zone) feature Sonic and Shadow respectively, before finally having them meet and giving the player the choice between the two characters (and Tails) for the last five Zones. These five Zones are significantly longer and larger than the Zones in previous Sonic titles, each one with its own distinct storyline, theme, and boss to defeat. The zones are also more complex than in previous games, featuring more than one different element to them, not just themed around a single thing.
Angelwing Falls Zone: A zone based around a town in the sky centered around a waterfall, with a mix of aquatic, grassland, and urban areas. The boss of this zone is a flying cyborg woman named Angelika, who rules over the town with a brutal iron fist.
Night Rider Zone: A zone of rocky canyons and ruined cityscapes, ruled by a motorcycle gang led by the motorcycle/cyborg hybrid Choppar, who utilizes a powerful electrified chain.
Weathershift Warning Zone: A zone of many environments, themed around shifting weather conditions caused by a cyborg named Gustanzo, who can control the weather and who unleashes powerful windstorms.
Broken Hearts Zone: A zone of mindscrews and twisted visions, based on the idea of friendships and romances being destroyed, and ruled over by a cyborg named Shattera, who uses her siren song to turn friends into foes.
Once these four zones are cleared, the way is opened to battle Metallis in the Death Machine Zone, a floating space station poised to destroy everything. Sonic and Shadow team up to defeat Metallis, and Shadow has the chance to use the last of the Death Machine's energy to revive Maria, but he decides instead to destroy the machine, having realized that Maria would never want its power used for evil. Shadow then sacrifices himself to allow Sonic and friends to escape. The world is finally saved, but the game's ending hints that Metallis had one more trick up his sleeve... and that Eggman has finally been returned to life, setting up the events of the first Virtua Sonic title, Sonic and the Rings Of Order.
Sonic The Hedgehog 7 is released in November 2014, on the exact same day as Super Mario Dimensions 3 (a deliberate marketing choice by Apple). The game receives strong reviews, but not quite on the level of Sonic The Hedgehog 6 (or Dimensions 3, for that matter). Critics praise the game's design choices and the item system, but criticize the frustrating difficulty of some segments and the awkwardness of certain platforming sequences. They also praise the game's voice acting, especially Keston John as Shadow, Rutger Hauer as Metallis, and Sarah Stiles (her first, but definitely not her last voiceover performance ITTL) as Shattera. It's seen as being a fun game that expertly sets up the Virtua Sonic title, but that it could've been better, and just isn't quite as fun as the best of the best platformers. Its sales, however, are excellent, keeping pace with those of Super Mario Dimensions 3 and pushing a ton of Gemini units, especially the Gemini Mini, which has a special bundle version with a Sonic faceplate and all seven Sonic The Hedgehog games downloaded onto the device for $249.99. While Mario once again won this round, it wasn't an overwhelming victory, and this game's success proves that Sonic is still one of the best game franchises in the world.
Super Mario Dimensions 3 is a 3-D platformer published by Nintendo exclusively for the Nintendo Connect. Featuring similar gameplay to the previous two Dimensions titles (and also featuring a lot of the new gameplay elements from Super Mario Laboratory), the game is a fully fleshed out 3-D adventure, with graphics exceeding those of OTL's Super Mario Galaxy. It features a total of 14 different worlds to explore, which is less than the two previous games, but the 14 worlds are for the most part bigger and more complex than those of Super Mario Dimensions 2, and the Mushroom Kingdom hub world is also much bigger, bigger than any of the 14 other worlds in the game, and featuring a huge amount of things to do. The game itself has a total of 360 collectible Stars, which can be collected as both Mario or Luigi, giving the game a true total of 720 Stars to collect. The Mushroom Kingdom hub world has a total of 80 Stars, while each of the 14 dimensional worlds in the game have a total of 20. Mario and Luigi both have an enormous amount of skills at their disposal, able to run, jump, climb, punch, and kick, with comparable mobility to OTL's Super Mario Odyssey (not quite as many moves as in that game, but close enough). The game's worlds are a massively diverse collection of environments, each with its own unique flora, fauna, and gameplay quirks, with memorable characters, both friend and foe, populating each one. Super Mario Dimensions 3 hearkens back to a more "traditional" Mario experience, with Bowser as the villain and Peach as the damsel in distress needing to be rescued, not dipping into the more complex plots seen in other games like Flip or Laboratory, or even Super Mario Dimensions 2. There aren't any "throwback" worlds in the game, though there are plenty of elements hearkening back to previous games in the series, as well as some 2-D sidescrolling segments in the form of separated areas (much like the throwbacks in Super Mario Odyssey). The game's overall visual aesthetic can be compared to OTL's Super Mario 3D World, and its musical style is also closer to that game than to a more epic game like OTL's Galaxy or Odyssey. The game is crafted to provide a Mario experience that will both please old school fans and draw in new ones, while providing challenge to veteran players and a welcoming experience for beginners.
The game's fourteen worlds are divided into five "chapters", so to speak, and usually, you'll need to clear a group of three worlds before moving onto the next ones. However, there's usually one world that has to be visited first within each chapter, or a world that has to be opened up last. The list of worlds is as follows:
Fairplay Dimension: The first world players will visit is themed on sports of all kinds, with Chargin' Chucks appearing alongside baseball and hockey playing Koopas, and several sports minigames to enjoy.
Desert Dimension: A desert-themed world with pyramids and palm trees, though it distinguishes itself somewhat from the Shifting Sand Lands of previous Dimensions titles.
Poison Dimension: A world with pools of poison and acid everywhere, with somewhat of a swamp theme. Mario must defeat the boss of this world to move to the next chapter.
Mechanized Dimension: A factory world filled with Mechakoopas and gears, where Mario has to build a giant robot to battle a huge Mechakoopa.
Underground Dimension: A world spread out in a network of crystal caves, there's an almost maze-like quality to this dimension.
Ocean Dimension: A dimension themed on water, though it also features an extensive beach area.
Growing Dimension: A garden-themed dimension full of giant plants and giant houses.
Vine Dimension: A jungle-themed world, somewhat similar to the poison dimension, but with taller trees and more platforming.
Spire Dimension: A dimension themed on crystal spires rising high into the sky, quite beautiful but featuring lots of deadly challenges.
Temple Dimension: A dimension themed on Greek and Roman architecture, with a giant maze at its center.
Carnival Dimension: A carnival-themed dimension, with rides, bright lights, and aggressive enemies.
Palace Dimension: Based almost entirely around a medieval-styled castle, this dimension is filled with Koopa knights and stone walls.
Molten Dimension: This dimension has some similarities to Bowser's Kingdom from OTL's Odyssey, with lava everywhere and a fortress-like structure to explore.
Star Dimension: A space-themed dimension, this is the final dimension visited in the game, and Mario needs to defeat a powerful boss here to access the final challenges.
Once the Star Dimension objectives are cleared and Mario (or Luigi) has 120 Stars, a door in the Mushroom Kingdom opens that allows players to battle Bowser in a spectacular boss fight. Unlike in other Dimensions games, where most Bowser encounters take place in the individual worlds, Dimensions 3 gives players separate areas to explore, somewhat like the Bowser worlds in OTL's Super Mario 64. Of course, the game does feature plenty of bosses in the Dimensions themselves, both large and small, with the Koopalings all showing up at various times to challenge Mario, and a few throwback bosses appearing as well. Once all 360 Stars are collected with a single character, a new challenge level opens up, while collecting all 720 Stars unlocks the game's ultimate challenge, a gauntlet of obstacles that the player must survive with only one health point. Defeating that gauntlet allows the player to truly conquer the game and declare themselves a Mario Dimensions 3 master.
Super Mario Dimensions 3 is released in November 2014 for the Nintendo Connect. It doesn't take a huge amount of risks, and doesn't change things up like Super Mario Laboratory did, but what it does, providing a fun Mario platforming experience, it does EXTREMELY well, and is an absolutely gorgeous game for a handheld title, providing tons of fun and replay value. Reviewers give it extremely high scores, almost all 9s and 10s, and it's considered the best Connect game of the year and one of the best games of the year overall, while sales are through the roof, driving Connect sales throughout the holiday season.
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Sonic The Hedgehog 7
Sonic The Hedgehog 7 is a Gemini exclusive action platformer title and the direct sequel to 2012's Sonic The Hedgehog 6, continuing the story from that game and featuring Shadow the Hedgehog once again as a major antagonist, though the primary antagonist of the game is a robotic creature named Metallis, forcing Shadow to eventually team up with Sonic to save the universe. Like its predecessor, the game contains mostly 2-D gameplay, with some 3-D segments including bosses and certain levels, making the game a hybrid of both styles. While Sonic, Tails, and Shadow are the main playable characters, Sonic's friends all play a larger role in this game, with Amy, Knuckles, Corona, Big, Espio, and Rover all seeing significant screen time, and in some cases (Amy, Knuckles, Corona, and Rover) being playable. Sonic The Hedgehog 7 doesn't change much of the basic gameplay of its predecessor, but instead decides to mix things up with more "out there" ideas for worlds, bumping up the graphics fairly significantly and introducing a few more gimmicky gameplay elements, giving Sonic, Tails, and Shadow the ability to pick up objects and throw them, or even mix them into different objects. This gives the game a more "experimental" style that some critics believe to be inspired by Super Mario Laboratory, though the application of these elements is significantly different. Enemies have a lot more variety in this game, and more complex attack patterns, which makes Sonic 7 noticeably more difficult than Sonic 6. The platforming hasn't really changed, but combat has, and though the boss fights are better received overall, some regular enemies do become annoyances in certain levels. Shadow himself controls somewhat differently from Sonic: he's slower, and more reliant on combat than Sonic is, gaining his own repertoire of special attacks, and also able to create more weapons than Sonic can, though he doesn't use a realistic gun like he's been known to do in OTL's games. Meanwhile, Tails, the genius inventor, has an entire quirky repertoire of fun gadgets, and the "experimentation" element of the game makes him a lot more fun to control than he has been in other titles, while he can also deal with enemies much more easily. Fans of the series take immediate notice, and while some are upset, others rejoice at Tails getting a "buff", with speedrunners preferring Tails over Sonic or Shadow for this reason. Other characters like Knuckles and Amy can't use the item system, but they are able to use their own innate abilities, some of which can be quite strong.
The plot of the game sees Shadow finally gathering all the pages of Eggman's journal. He hopes to build a Life Machine to resurrect Maria, but the journal is suddenly stolen by Metallis, who plans to use them to create the Ultimate Death Machine, fulfilling Eggman's final plans. The game's first two Zones (Battlefield Plains Zone and Stormy City Zone) feature Sonic and Shadow respectively, before finally having them meet and giving the player the choice between the two characters (and Tails) for the last five Zones. These five Zones are significantly longer and larger than the Zones in previous Sonic titles, each one with its own distinct storyline, theme, and boss to defeat. The zones are also more complex than in previous games, featuring more than one different element to them, not just themed around a single thing.
Angelwing Falls Zone: A zone based around a town in the sky centered around a waterfall, with a mix of aquatic, grassland, and urban areas. The boss of this zone is a flying cyborg woman named Angelika, who rules over the town with a brutal iron fist.
Night Rider Zone: A zone of rocky canyons and ruined cityscapes, ruled by a motorcycle gang led by the motorcycle/cyborg hybrid Choppar, who utilizes a powerful electrified chain.
Weathershift Warning Zone: A zone of many environments, themed around shifting weather conditions caused by a cyborg named Gustanzo, who can control the weather and who unleashes powerful windstorms.
Broken Hearts Zone: A zone of mindscrews and twisted visions, based on the idea of friendships and romances being destroyed, and ruled over by a cyborg named Shattera, who uses her siren song to turn friends into foes.
Once these four zones are cleared, the way is opened to battle Metallis in the Death Machine Zone, a floating space station poised to destroy everything. Sonic and Shadow team up to defeat Metallis, and Shadow has the chance to use the last of the Death Machine's energy to revive Maria, but he decides instead to destroy the machine, having realized that Maria would never want its power used for evil. Shadow then sacrifices himself to allow Sonic and friends to escape. The world is finally saved, but the game's ending hints that Metallis had one more trick up his sleeve... and that Eggman has finally been returned to life, setting up the events of the first Virtua Sonic title, Sonic and the Rings Of Order.
Sonic The Hedgehog 7 is released in November 2014, on the exact same day as Super Mario Dimensions 3 (a deliberate marketing choice by Apple). The game receives strong reviews, but not quite on the level of Sonic The Hedgehog 6 (or Dimensions 3, for that matter). Critics praise the game's design choices and the item system, but criticize the frustrating difficulty of some segments and the awkwardness of certain platforming sequences. They also praise the game's voice acting, especially Keston John as Shadow, Rutger Hauer as Metallis, and Sarah Stiles (her first, but definitely not her last voiceover performance ITTL) as Shattera. It's seen as being a fun game that expertly sets up the Virtua Sonic title, but that it could've been better, and just isn't quite as fun as the best of the best platformers. Its sales, however, are excellent, keeping pace with those of Super Mario Dimensions 3 and pushing a ton of Gemini units, especially the Gemini Mini, which has a special bundle version with a Sonic faceplate and all seven Sonic The Hedgehog games downloaded onto the device for $249.99. While Mario once again won this round, it wasn't an overwhelming victory, and this game's success proves that Sonic is still one of the best game franchises in the world.
Yeah I'm finally getting around to working your idea into a Sonic game
A game probably 5-6 years in the making too, feel free to PM me if you've gotten more ideas since the last PM as well.
Fall 2014 (Part 9) - Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare is a first person shooter published by Activision and developed by the team behind Call Of Duty: Coalition. Much like OTL's Advanced Warfare, the game takes place in the future, utilizing futuristic weaponry such as laser guns and powered exoskeletons, and taking much of its inspiration from the Techno Angel series, with an unconventional heads-up display and a storyline focusing heavily on American aggression. Apart from the futuristic weaponry and setting, the game takes a lot of its gameplay from Nightfall II and Coalition, building on the elements of those games that proved most popular amongst players and creating a true, streamlined, next generation FPS experience, with quality of life improvements throughout and giving players the ability to customize their loadout like never before. As IOTL, the game allows players to choose between conventional and futuristic weaponry, with some situations calling for the former and some calling for the latter. As IOTL's game, the player is awarded skill points during the campaign that can be used to enhance either their own combat attributes or those of their Exo suit, allowing for more utility and firepower in combat. Though the game's campaign is the center of most of the promotion and hype, there's an extensive multiplayer mode, as always, that features both futuristic weaponry and the new Exo suits, allowing players to battle it out in a wide variety of game modes. Players who prefer conventional combat have modes available for those purposes, and players who prefer Exo suit combat can battle it out against each other as well. Advanced Warfare features the best graphics in the series to date, and has five console versions: Reality, Virtua, Nexus, Connect, and Gemini, each with their own unique features. The Reality version utilizes VR, and the developers have planned VR modes for the Virtua and Nexus as well, when/if those systems acquire VR accessories. The Virtua version utilizes motion controls for the Exo suit, the Nexus version uses the second screen extensively, the Connect version allows players to access special audio and visual content on their Sony devices, and the Gemini version features an exclusive tactical mode similar to the XCOM series. The game also features a wide range of celebrity voice actors, with Charlie Sheen as the game's primary antagonist, the power hungry and corrupt American president Keith Saugus (who is fairly similar in personality to Jonathan Irons from OTL's game, though Saugus, being the president, has different motivations and methods than a corrupt corporate suit like Irons). The game's protagonist, a soldier named Matt Willems, is voiced by Aaron Paul (who hasn't had a Breaking Bad style breakout role as IOTL, but is known for several successful supporting roles in various movies throughout the past five years). Other supporting characters include a scientist voiced by Vera Farmiga and a sergeant voiced by John C. Reilly. The plot of Advanced Warfare sees the United States' military becoming increasingly irrelevant in the presence of highly advanced mercenary groups deployed by corporations throughout the world. These mercenary groups, which have acquired new generation WMDs that include kinetic impact weapons from space and new chemical agents, rival even the most advanced militaries in power. However, the military is still needed to fight wars around the world for resources, as well as battling terrorists and rogue nations who have also gotten their hands on some of the same WMDs. Saugus is initially portrayed as a somewhat jingoistic but also patriotic president doing his best to keep America safe and wealthy in a changing world, and the first half of the game sees him deploying Willems and his squad to battle a rogue nation in South Asia which has formed out of the remnants of war-torn Malaysia. This segment of the game climaxes in a spectacular battle for Singapore, which the rogue nation has taken over as its capital. However, this war turns out to be a pretext for Saugus to grant himself emergency powers, and when the military attempts to stop him, he reveals that he's been secretly working with two mercenary corporations that have acquired a new generation of weapon, allowing them to eclipse the military in power and allowing Saugus and his loyalists to execute a coup, transforming the United States into a corporatist dictatorship. Saugus has most of the top brass of the military executed as he deploys his mercenary squads in all the major cities of the country. Willems and his squad are able to sneak a few surviving generals to safety, and the second part of the game focuses on the struggle between the military and Saugus' merc squads to take back the country. Meanwhile, the surviving leader of the rogue nation, who assisted Saugus in his takeover, now wants to be paid, and when Saugus tries to have him killed, he takes control of one of the merc squads, leading to a battle amongst Saugus' own followers that gives the military a chance to fight back. The final battle of the game sees Willems' squad battle their way into the merc-defended White House, finally taking on Saugus himself, who has donned an Exo suit of his own. Willems manages to defeat Saugus, though as he's dying, Saugus laughs and gives one final speech, remarking that power as been returned to the people and as technology advances, anyone with enough money can take over the world. He then dies, and the military regains control, though America has been heavily damaged and Saugus' words still ring in Willems' ears during a ceremony celebrating the liberation of the country.
Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare is released in November 2014, and achieves outstanding sales, comparable to those of recent Call Of Duty games including last year's Nightfall II. Reviews, while solid, don't quite achieve the same level as the Nightfall games, and are comparable to those of OTL's Advanced Warfare. The plot gets a lot of criticism for being outlandish and silly, though Keith Saugus and Sheen's portrayal of him does receive a lot of praise. The Call Of Duty games remain as popular as ever, and fan fatigue isn't quite at the same level as it is IOTL, largely due to the fact that there's no Ghosts-like disappointment ITTL (instead, we got the excellent Nightfall games, which will continue in 2015 with Nightfall III). The game is still seen as an overmilked cash cow by many, but there's no sign of the series slowing down any time soon.
Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare is a first person shooter published by Activision and developed by the team behind Call Of Duty: Coalition. Much like OTL's Advanced Warfare, the game takes place in the future, utilizing futuristic weaponry such as laser guns and powered exoskeletons, and taking much of its inspiration from the Techno Angel series, with an unconventional heads-up display and a storyline focusing heavily on American aggression. Apart from the futuristic weaponry and setting, the game takes a lot of its gameplay from Nightfall II and Coalition, building on the elements of those games that proved most popular amongst players and creating a true, streamlined, next generation FPS experience, with quality of life improvements throughout and giving players the ability to customize their loadout like never before. As IOTL, the game allows players to choose between conventional and futuristic weaponry, with some situations calling for the former and some calling for the latter. As IOTL's game, the player is awarded skill points during the campaign that can be used to enhance either their own combat attributes or those of their Exo suit, allowing for more utility and firepower in combat. Though the game's campaign is the center of most of the promotion and hype, there's an extensive multiplayer mode, as always, that features both futuristic weaponry and the new Exo suits, allowing players to battle it out in a wide variety of game modes. Players who prefer conventional combat have modes available for those purposes, and players who prefer Exo suit combat can battle it out against each other as well. Advanced Warfare features the best graphics in the series to date, and has five console versions: Reality, Virtua, Nexus, Connect, and Gemini, each with their own unique features. The Reality version utilizes VR, and the developers have planned VR modes for the Virtua and Nexus as well, when/if those systems acquire VR accessories. The Virtua version utilizes motion controls for the Exo suit, the Nexus version uses the second screen extensively, the Connect version allows players to access special audio and visual content on their Sony devices, and the Gemini version features an exclusive tactical mode similar to the XCOM series. The game also features a wide range of celebrity voice actors, with Charlie Sheen as the game's primary antagonist, the power hungry and corrupt American president Keith Saugus (who is fairly similar in personality to Jonathan Irons from OTL's game, though Saugus, being the president, has different motivations and methods than a corrupt corporate suit like Irons). The game's protagonist, a soldier named Matt Willems, is voiced by Aaron Paul (who hasn't had a Breaking Bad style breakout role as IOTL, but is known for several successful supporting roles in various movies throughout the past five years). Other supporting characters include a scientist voiced by Vera Farmiga and a sergeant voiced by John C. Reilly. The plot of Advanced Warfare sees the United States' military becoming increasingly irrelevant in the presence of highly advanced mercenary groups deployed by corporations throughout the world. These mercenary groups, which have acquired new generation WMDs that include kinetic impact weapons from space and new chemical agents, rival even the most advanced militaries in power. However, the military is still needed to fight wars around the world for resources, as well as battling terrorists and rogue nations who have also gotten their hands on some of the same WMDs. Saugus is initially portrayed as a somewhat jingoistic but also patriotic president doing his best to keep America safe and wealthy in a changing world, and the first half of the game sees him deploying Willems and his squad to battle a rogue nation in South Asia which has formed out of the remnants of war-torn Malaysia. This segment of the game climaxes in a spectacular battle for Singapore, which the rogue nation has taken over as its capital. However, this war turns out to be a pretext for Saugus to grant himself emergency powers, and when the military attempts to stop him, he reveals that he's been secretly working with two mercenary corporations that have acquired a new generation of weapon, allowing them to eclipse the military in power and allowing Saugus and his loyalists to execute a coup, transforming the United States into a corporatist dictatorship. Saugus has most of the top brass of the military executed as he deploys his mercenary squads in all the major cities of the country. Willems and his squad are able to sneak a few surviving generals to safety, and the second part of the game focuses on the struggle between the military and Saugus' merc squads to take back the country. Meanwhile, the surviving leader of the rogue nation, who assisted Saugus in his takeover, now wants to be paid, and when Saugus tries to have him killed, he takes control of one of the merc squads, leading to a battle amongst Saugus' own followers that gives the military a chance to fight back. The final battle of the game sees Willems' squad battle their way into the merc-defended White House, finally taking on Saugus himself, who has donned an Exo suit of his own. Willems manages to defeat Saugus, though as he's dying, Saugus laughs and gives one final speech, remarking that power as been returned to the people and as technology advances, anyone with enough money can take over the world. He then dies, and the military regains control, though America has been heavily damaged and Saugus' words still ring in Willems' ears during a ceremony celebrating the liberation of the country.
Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare is released in November 2014, and achieves outstanding sales, comparable to those of recent Call Of Duty games including last year's Nightfall II. Reviews, while solid, don't quite achieve the same level as the Nightfall games, and are comparable to those of OTL's Advanced Warfare. The plot gets a lot of criticism for being outlandish and silly, though Keith Saugus and Sheen's portrayal of him does receive a lot of praise. The Call Of Duty games remain as popular as ever, and fan fatigue isn't quite at the same level as it is IOTL, largely due to the fact that there's no Ghosts-like disappointment ITTL (instead, we got the excellent Nightfall games, which will continue in 2015 with Nightfall III). The game is still seen as an overmilked cash cow by many, but there's no sign of the series slowing down any time soon.
Aaron Paul vs Charlie Sheen is something TTL will never properly appreciate and that’s a shame
Fall 2014 (Part 10) - Online Worlds, Home And Away
Nexus Homestead
Nexus Homestead is a tower defense/simulation MMO developed by Google in conjunction with Paradox for the Nexus and Android. Its premise sees players building their own fort and defending it from attack, both from the environment and from other players. The game has some similarities with Sojourn, in that it involves players building up their own territory and defending it from online attackers, but has much less of a focus on exploration and story, and has more of a focus on gameplay and micromanagement. The game's overall graphics are somewhat less detailed as well, with Sojourn being a fully 3-D experience and Nexus Homestead looking more like XCOM or Civilization, with the graphics easily able to translate from the Nexus console/television screen to Android devices, and an interface that can work with touchscreens just as well as with a normal controller. Paradox's involvement with the game allows for a deep system of development and resources, though the game is designed for new players to be able to pick up, play, and enjoy, and the game's more deeper features not really being necessary to enjoy the game (save for high levels of online play). Players can micromanage any of their units, from soldiers to machines, and can also micromanage the building of their fort itself, with building materials, amenities, and enhancements all able to be manipulated and created (it's even possible to make custom resources in the game). It's possible to build up one's fort into a large city, and even expand to gather up resources and secure defensive outposts, though, as mentioned before, there's not really exploration like in Sojourn (instead, players mostly expand outward in order to build up more layers of defenses). The game does feature a single player mode, and this mode can be played on either Android or Nexus, with the Nexus version featuring a bit more worldbuilding and complex cutscenes compared to the Android version of the game. However, much of the gameplay takes the form of online battles, with the standard battle featuring four players facing one another across a randomly generated map built to accommodate all four players' homesteads. Players can choose to play with their own forts, or play a “rapid fire” mode in which they have to rapidly build their fort (though most people choose to play with their own, and the game is designed to accommodate that mode of play). There's also a “universe” mode in which players' forts can be freely explored and in which players can visit each other's forts, and can choose whether or not they want to allow themselves to be attacked.
Nexus Homestead is released in October 2014, to extremely positive critical reviews. Though the comparisons to Sojourn are obvious and widespread, most critics recognize the two games as unique and distinct from one another, and rate them both on their own merits, with the two games scoring exactly the same on Metacritic (90). The game doesn't get a lot of prerelease hype, but word of mouth spreads quickly, and it becomes one of the Nexus' most successful titles of the year, and sales pick up quite a bit during the holiday season. It helps to break new ground for MMO titles, and along with Pixelworld 2 and Sojourn, establishes itself as one of the major games in what becomes known as the “interactive universe” genre, which established itself with SimSociety and Pixelworld but got a major boost in 2014.
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Final Fantasy Online II
Final Fantasy Online II is a subscription-based MMORPG developed for PC and Macintosh, as well as the Reality, Virtua, and Nexus. It's comparable to OTL's Final Fantasy XIV - A Realm Reborn, but unlike that game, which was a remake of an earlier poorly received Final Fantasy MMORPG, OTL's Final Fantasy Online II has a significantly longer development time and is quite polished and finished upon its release. The gameplay builds off of the original while also incorporating elements from TTL's Final Fantasy XII and XIII, giving it a Xenoblade-like feel at times, especially in combat. Players can choose to go solo or party up with friends or strangers, much like the previous game, and there are a huge variety of classes and skills to obtain, far more than were present in the original game, spanning jobs from across the series. There are a total of eight races in the game, including five from the original (Humes, Moggarts, Regals, Visadra, and Sylva) and three new races: Lalihon (dwarves), Arisen (angels), and Lizaurs (Bangaa-like lizard creatures). Each races has three exclusive classes, and there are dozens of classes available to either multiple races or all races, giving the game more than twice as many classes as the original. Later on, after the release of the Invasion Of The Espers expansion pack, it will be possible to pilot Guardian mecha into battle. The game's plot focuses on the collecting of different artifacts, with each artifact unlocking secrets and connecting to a person or creature within the world. These artifact quests will eventually uncover an ancient civilization and a lost continent to explore, with the main story focusing on defeating a villainous emperor attempting to conquer this continent. Side quests involve the discovery of other artifacts that lead to dungeons, islands, and different civilizations, with the main theme of the game as a whole being one of discovery. The game is littered with voiced NPCs to interact with, and the game's overarching plot, which unfolds weekly as more quests are added, is influenced by what players are doing and what certain races and factions choose to accomplish within the game. For example, if Humes perform better on quests than Lalihon, the plot may start to gravitate toward Humes pushing into Lalihon territory, with Lalihon NPCs then giving out quests to even the score. While the writers have their own plot beats that they'll hit over the years as the game is played, this plot is open to influence from the player base, and even, in rare occasions, from individual players or parties, with a particularly heroic act leading to a quest line that plays out in the game as a result of that player's accomplishments. This leads to a real sense that Final Fantasy Online II takes place in a living, breathing world, and heavily motivates players to push forward and accomplish things in the hopes that they too will become immortalized in the game's lore. The score of the game is composed by much of the same team that did the score for TTL's Final Fantasy XII, giving the game an epic, sweeping feel (and again making it feel a lot like Xenoblade).
Final Fantasy Online II is released in November 2014, to immediate critical acclaim, even surpassing OTL's A Realm Reborn. The game is considered a major leap forward for the Final Fantasy series and significantly better than even the excellent Final Fantasy Online, with many critics proclaiming it the new king of the MMORPG genre, surpassing World Of Warcraft. It enjoys the best launch week for an MMORPG ever, not just a paid MMORPG, but all MMORPGs, though the subscription-based payment system does hurt sales over the rest of the year. It's still considered an overwhelming success, accumulating over a million paid subscribers by the end of 2014, making it by far the fastest adoption rate for a paid MMORPG in history. It's also seen as a taste of what Final Fantasy is capable of on the new wave of consoles, with graphics slightly better than that of TTL's Final Fantasy XIII on the Nexus. It helps to begin the hype for the next mainline Final Fantasy game, Final Fantasy XIV, which was unveiled for the very first time at the 2014 Tokyo Game Show the previous month, and is expected to be released in 2016.
Nexus Homestead is a tower defense/simulation MMO developed by Google in conjunction with Paradox for the Nexus and Android. Its premise sees players building their own fort and defending it from attack, both from the environment and from other players. The game has some similarities with Sojourn, in that it involves players building up their own territory and defending it from online attackers, but has much less of a focus on exploration and story, and has more of a focus on gameplay and micromanagement. The game's overall graphics are somewhat less detailed as well, with Sojourn being a fully 3-D experience and Nexus Homestead looking more like XCOM or Civilization, with the graphics easily able to translate from the Nexus console/television screen to Android devices, and an interface that can work with touchscreens just as well as with a normal controller. Paradox's involvement with the game allows for a deep system of development and resources, though the game is designed for new players to be able to pick up, play, and enjoy, and the game's more deeper features not really being necessary to enjoy the game (save for high levels of online play). Players can micromanage any of their units, from soldiers to machines, and can also micromanage the building of their fort itself, with building materials, amenities, and enhancements all able to be manipulated and created (it's even possible to make custom resources in the game). It's possible to build up one's fort into a large city, and even expand to gather up resources and secure defensive outposts, though, as mentioned before, there's not really exploration like in Sojourn (instead, players mostly expand outward in order to build up more layers of defenses). The game does feature a single player mode, and this mode can be played on either Android or Nexus, with the Nexus version featuring a bit more worldbuilding and complex cutscenes compared to the Android version of the game. However, much of the gameplay takes the form of online battles, with the standard battle featuring four players facing one another across a randomly generated map built to accommodate all four players' homesteads. Players can choose to play with their own forts, or play a “rapid fire” mode in which they have to rapidly build their fort (though most people choose to play with their own, and the game is designed to accommodate that mode of play). There's also a “universe” mode in which players' forts can be freely explored and in which players can visit each other's forts, and can choose whether or not they want to allow themselves to be attacked.
Nexus Homestead is released in October 2014, to extremely positive critical reviews. Though the comparisons to Sojourn are obvious and widespread, most critics recognize the two games as unique and distinct from one another, and rate them both on their own merits, with the two games scoring exactly the same on Metacritic (90). The game doesn't get a lot of prerelease hype, but word of mouth spreads quickly, and it becomes one of the Nexus' most successful titles of the year, and sales pick up quite a bit during the holiday season. It helps to break new ground for MMO titles, and along with Pixelworld 2 and Sojourn, establishes itself as one of the major games in what becomes known as the “interactive universe” genre, which established itself with SimSociety and Pixelworld but got a major boost in 2014.
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Final Fantasy Online II
Final Fantasy Online II is a subscription-based MMORPG developed for PC and Macintosh, as well as the Reality, Virtua, and Nexus. It's comparable to OTL's Final Fantasy XIV - A Realm Reborn, but unlike that game, which was a remake of an earlier poorly received Final Fantasy MMORPG, OTL's Final Fantasy Online II has a significantly longer development time and is quite polished and finished upon its release. The gameplay builds off of the original while also incorporating elements from TTL's Final Fantasy XII and XIII, giving it a Xenoblade-like feel at times, especially in combat. Players can choose to go solo or party up with friends or strangers, much like the previous game, and there are a huge variety of classes and skills to obtain, far more than were present in the original game, spanning jobs from across the series. There are a total of eight races in the game, including five from the original (Humes, Moggarts, Regals, Visadra, and Sylva) and three new races: Lalihon (dwarves), Arisen (angels), and Lizaurs (Bangaa-like lizard creatures). Each races has three exclusive classes, and there are dozens of classes available to either multiple races or all races, giving the game more than twice as many classes as the original. Later on, after the release of the Invasion Of The Espers expansion pack, it will be possible to pilot Guardian mecha into battle. The game's plot focuses on the collecting of different artifacts, with each artifact unlocking secrets and connecting to a person or creature within the world. These artifact quests will eventually uncover an ancient civilization and a lost continent to explore, with the main story focusing on defeating a villainous emperor attempting to conquer this continent. Side quests involve the discovery of other artifacts that lead to dungeons, islands, and different civilizations, with the main theme of the game as a whole being one of discovery. The game is littered with voiced NPCs to interact with, and the game's overarching plot, which unfolds weekly as more quests are added, is influenced by what players are doing and what certain races and factions choose to accomplish within the game. For example, if Humes perform better on quests than Lalihon, the plot may start to gravitate toward Humes pushing into Lalihon territory, with Lalihon NPCs then giving out quests to even the score. While the writers have their own plot beats that they'll hit over the years as the game is played, this plot is open to influence from the player base, and even, in rare occasions, from individual players or parties, with a particularly heroic act leading to a quest line that plays out in the game as a result of that player's accomplishments. This leads to a real sense that Final Fantasy Online II takes place in a living, breathing world, and heavily motivates players to push forward and accomplish things in the hopes that they too will become immortalized in the game's lore. The score of the game is composed by much of the same team that did the score for TTL's Final Fantasy XII, giving the game an epic, sweeping feel (and again making it feel a lot like Xenoblade).
Final Fantasy Online II is released in November 2014, to immediate critical acclaim, even surpassing OTL's A Realm Reborn. The game is considered a major leap forward for the Final Fantasy series and significantly better than even the excellent Final Fantasy Online, with many critics proclaiming it the new king of the MMORPG genre, surpassing World Of Warcraft. It enjoys the best launch week for an MMORPG ever, not just a paid MMORPG, but all MMORPGs, though the subscription-based payment system does hurt sales over the rest of the year. It's still considered an overwhelming success, accumulating over a million paid subscribers by the end of 2014, making it by far the fastest adoption rate for a paid MMORPG in history. It's also seen as a taste of what Final Fantasy is capable of on the new wave of consoles, with graphics slightly better than that of TTL's Final Fantasy XIII on the Nexus. It helps to begin the hype for the next mainline Final Fantasy game, Final Fantasy XIV, which was unveiled for the very first time at the 2014 Tokyo Game Show the previous month, and is expected to be released in 2016.
@RySenkari Coming up next, as the first Bouns of 2015: The first major change to Pretty Cure seasons, and it is:
If this is okayed, I just have one thing to ask: WHO'S DUBBING IT?
He actually does like Betrayal slightly more, but continues to aggressively defend Protectors, since pretty much everybody loves Betrayal and it doesn't need much defending.
It actually does get a lot of Let's Play traction for sure, though it's a much, much better game than Five Nights At Freddy's, so more people will take the plunge and actually play it.
The color scheme for the Reality headset is white, actually. It resembles the PSVR, quite streamlined and smooth looking, though with a bit of Yokoi design touches for sure, so it has small hints of VR32 but not much.
Still need to think about this, it's not really my wheelhouse, so it's not something I'd have an easy time with thinking about.
@RySenkari Ok, so Happiness Charge did so badly that all of Toei became a prime target for a takeover or split.
First time commenting on this series but I doubt it did that bad and I know the series is divided but Toimei wouldn't go under due to it. They have Sentai and Kamen Rider (unless I missed something?).
@RySenkari I don't usually ask this since I think it rude to hijack another series but may I do the precure write up? If not then that's okay but I like to see what I can do with it.