Marion Frayna – Geek Culture

Shadow of the Colossus Developer Sneakily Teases New Game In 2021 Greeting Card

Marion Frayna — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 05:03:42 +0000

After many years of general silence, the makers of The Last Guardian and Shadow of the Colossus have finally dropped a substantial hunt at their latest project.

Japanese developer Fumito Ueda and his studio GenDesign recently revealed a 2021 greetings card, which displays artwork from three games that it previously made, including Ico (2001), Shadow of the Colossus (2005), and The Last Guardian (2016), as well as artwork for a fourth untitled game.

More artwork can be found on Ueda’s personal website, depicting the main characters from all of the previous games, including what looks to be a zoomed-out version of the fourth image, depicting a massive robotic arm.

Though there isn’t much to go about with this upcoming game, we do know that Ueda did confirm that his team has been working on this project for a while now, as detailed in his interview with Famitsu in 2018 (via Gematsu).

In the interview, he stated that this game will be “something on the scale” of his past three games. Again, this is still a little vague, but based on what we’ve seen in Ico, Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardian, all three games are somewhat interconnected in a larger universe, so if anything, it’s highly probable that the fourth game could be part of said universe.

GenDesign was formed in 2014 by former members of Team Ico, the studio that developed the first two games under Ueda. The developer has yet to give a concrete update on the new project.

Marion Frayna

Marion has a serious RPG addiction. Sometimes it bleeds into real life; he forgets to sleep because he thinks he has a Witcher’s body clock. Forgive him in advance if he suddenly blurts out terms such as “Mind Flayer” and “Magic Missile”, because never once does he stop thinking about his next Dungeons & Dragons game.

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Fall Guys Gets Doom Skins On 12 January

Marion Frayna — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 04:44:07 +0000

Devolver Digital’s Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout has certainly knocked it out of the park since its release in August last year. Heading into the new year, players will get some themed content from the iconic Doom games.

From 12 January, various Doom-themed costumes will be coming to Fall Guys, including the Cacodemon, the Cyberdemon, and – who else – the Doom Slayer himself. The teaser trailer above also teases what looks to be a new hellish environment based on the game’s aesthetic, so could we also expect new Doom-themed maps in this update too?

In any case, there is plenty to look forward in Fall Guys heading into 2021, with it still in its third season. Other collaborations it previously did with other IPs include Godzilla and Sonic the Hedgehog.

Marion Frayna

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Star Wars Battlefront II Goes Free On Epic Games Store Next Week

Marion Frayna — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 04:25:51 +0000

Three years since the launch of EA’s Star Wars Battlefront II, and the love for the game is still going strong. To kickstart the new year, the game will be free to keep for a week on the Epic Games Store on 14 January.

Specifically, this version of Star Wars Battlefront II is the Celebration Edition, which includes a complete collection of the game’s content updates up to and including the Rise of Skywalker update.

While waiting for next week, you can download the tactical sci-fi rogue-like game Crying Suns for free on the Epic Games Store this week.

Marion Frayna

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Geek Culture’s Best Games Of 2020

Marion Frayna — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 03:15:00 +0000

2020 will go down as the year time stood still. The COVID-19 pandemic has gotten almost the entire world to close their borders and many folks have had to live within the four walls of their homes for almost the entire year and counting. Not only that, many other calamities, be it social, or economic, also piled on to the chaos and certainty brought about this year, which made it truly a miserable time for the world.

But amid all the negativity that 2020 brought us, perhaps the one shining light that kept us going was video games. Interestingly, it was dubbed Public Enemy No. 1 by the World Health Organisation after being declared as an official catalyst for mental illness in 2019.

One year later, WHO pulled something of a 180 on its stance toward video games under the #PlayTogether initiative for the sole reason that games provide endless amounts of entertainment to people across the globe in a time where folks have been forced to stay home. Such is the unifying factor of this entertainment medium, which has become so much more accessible over the years compared to the likes of movies and TV.

Fortunately for us, we have been blessed with an entire treasure trove of quality games in 2020. The developers, many of whom were also forced to take their projects home during this period, went above and beyond to deliver the absolute best to our consoles and PCs, even if some were ultimately delayed. But it was all for the better, and we’re all the richer for their dedication and hard work.

And to honour these developers over the past year, we’ve put together our own list of the best games that have come out in 2020. Without further ado, here is our list!

Best AAA Game – Ghost of Tsushima

2020 was not only the year the PS5 released, but it was also the year that marked the swan song of the ever-reliable PlayStation 4, and Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima stood out as the game that made the most out of the last-generation machine’s hardware to its full potential. Of course, we’re not just talking about immaculate technical presentation in its mystical interpretation of Ancient Japan, but also really solid gameplay and a tight, albeit not overly complex narrative that will take your breath away.

Honourable Mentions:

Best Indie Game – Hades

In a year that boasted a ton of quality indie titles, one stood out among the rest in the form of Supergiant Games’ Hades. Though it is relatively new in the rogue-like genre, it easily stands among the pantheon of the best with a deeply engaging gameplay loop, a heartwarming story (with a really cool ending and epilogue!), and an incredibly addictive endgame that truly makes it a god-like experience.

Honourable Mentions:

Best of the East – Final Fantasy VII Remake

Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII Remake really knocked our socks off as a polished, slick, and extremely beautiful new take on the 1997 classic. Its sheer quality is owed in part to the dedication of director Tetsuya Nomura and producer Yoshinori Kitase and their team’s reverence to the original.

Honourable Mentions:

Best of the West – Hades

Though Western games have really come out in full force in a strange year, Hades stands out as the game that caught our attention after it was released in the last few months of 2020. Despite having been forced to work from home months before release, Supergiant Games really gave their all in adapting to the changing environment and blessed our gaming machines with an absolute beast of a rogue-like.

Honourable Mentions:

Best Action/Adventure – Ghost of Tsushima

Though Hades was a really tight experience overall, one can’t ignore the sheer scope and breadth of Ghost of Tsushima. It really hammered home the Action and Adventure elements of this category, packing neat and satisfying real-time combat with decent physics, as well as a deeply engaging experience riding on horseback through the lush landscapes of the island of Tsushima with tons to see and do in between missions.

Honourable Mentions:

Best RPG – Final Fantasy VII Remake

This category is rife with stiff competition, but after the dust had settled, Final Fantasy VII Remake stands tall as the best role-playing experience this year. Though its core gameplay has a more action-centric focus to it, there is no denying that there are tons of ways in which to equip and build Cloud and his ragtag team with the extensive amount of equipment and Materia at their disposal.

Honourable Mentions:

Best Strategy – Gears Tactics

Gears Tactics

2020 also saw a ton of really cool and engaging strategy games, but The Coalition’s Gears Tactics stood out as our pick of the bunch. It is not only an excellent love letter to the original series (it’s more of a bonus, actually), what makes this game so good is, well, the fact that its core tactical experience is just so satisfying, and will keep you on your toes each time you pick it up.

Honourable Mentions:

Best Story – Ghost of Tsushima

Let’s face it — we all love a good story. 2020 packed a ton of games with really, really good stories, which made us all the richer for it. But if we had to choose the best of the best, it would have to be Ghost of Tsushima. While it admittedly isn’t the most complex story out there compared to the other entries on this list, sometimes being simple and straightforward is more than enough to get us emotionally invested, and this game is just that.

Honourable Mentions:

Best Art – Ghost of Tsushima

The best way to accompany a good story is some great eye candy. Though there are a ton of absolutely breathtaking games out there in 2020, Ghost of Tsushima was truly the apple of our collective eye. The backdrop of Tsushima is just incredible to look at, and we wouldn’t blame you for just stopping every once in a while to just take the scenery in. Not only that, the way it displays the game-y elements such as UI and the infamous breadcrumb trail is presented in a way that doesn’t distract you from the sheer beauty of this game.

Honourable Mentions:

Best Music – Ghost of Tsushima

Completing what is a truly cinematic experience in a good game is its music, and the score put together by Ilan Eshkeri and Shigeru Umebayashi in Ghost of Tshushima is nothing short of masterful. The hauntingly beautiful soundtrack resonates strongly with Jin Sakai’s emotional journey, as well as his various treks across Tsushima. For starters, if you haven’t listened to “The Way of the Ghost”, the game’s main theme, it’s available for free on Spotify, and it never fails to give us goosebumps every time it comes on.

Honourable Mentions:

Best Playable Protagonist – Zagreus (Hades)

Every good game needs a good main character, and Zagreus from Hades best exemplifies that. Young, brash, sometimes arrogant but with a heart of pure gold, the biological son of the titular God of the Dead is everything we want to see in a leading role in a game We already can foresee tons of folks cosplaying as him in future conventions.And not to mention the efforts of voice actor Darren Korb, who is also the game’s main composer, who does a fantastic job at capturing Zagreus’ lovably aloof personality too.

Honourable Mentions:

Jin Sakai (Ghost of Tsushima)
Miles Morales (Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales)
Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy VII Remake)
Doom Guy (Doom Eternal)

Best Sports/Racing – Burnout Paradise Remastered

Okay, technically Burnout Paradise Remastered isn’t the newest game on this list, being a remaster, and it technically isn’t a proper sports or racing title, but how can we ignore just how great of a chaotic experience this is on the Switch? There is a multiplayer component that lets you race or just duke it out with your friends online, which can be done for sport, so we’re leaving it here.

Honourable Mentions:

Best Mobile Game – Cat Quest II

Singaporean developer The Gentlebros has gone from strength to strength with Cat Quest II, the direct sequel to the 2017 original. Don’t be fooled by its cutesy art style; it’s actually quite a solid and satisfying experience that will provide you great pick-up-and-play company while on the go, in the loo, or just a few minutes before bedtime.

Honourable Mentions:

Best Multiplayer/Co-op – Demon’s Souls

We have reviewed a great deal of multiplayer titles or games with solid multiplayer modes, and Demon’s Souls ranks as the best 2020 has to offer. Though it is a primarily single-player experience, the ability to summon other players as Blue Phantoms to help you in not dying via Blue Eye Stones is always a breath of fresh air, especially when it’s being snuffed out of you by the many horrible bosses and monsters that lurk in the shadows of Boletaria.

Honourable Mentions:

Best Remaster/Remake – Final Fantasy VII Remake

2020 was also a great year for remakes and remasters, with some probably even outdoing the original with an upgraded quality of life or a fresh new take on the source material. Square Enix really did a number on Final Fantasy VII with Remake, with a complete overhaul of the original story. There’s a reason why Remake is in the title, as it is a retelling of the events of the original that is so fresh that it will make even naysayers and FF7 purists squeal with excitement at what’s to come in future installments.

Honourable Mentions:

Best VR Game – Star Wars: Squadrons

EA has really knocked it out of the park with its recent Star Wars titles, and Squadrons is no exception. Though it is already a good game when played with a controller or, god forbid, even mouse + keyboard, it is an entirely different experience when played on a VR headset, especially hooked up to a HOTAS joystick. Seriously, if you have this game but haven’t gone around to do it with this specific set-up and have the means to do so, why are you still here?

Honourable Mentions

Best Puzzle Game – Superliminal

Games are truly the stuff of dreams, but Pillow Castle’s Superliminal literally explores how lucid dreaming works. It’s not the longest game in this list (only clocking in at around 2 hours, give or take), but if you can set aside some time to finish it in one sitting, which is our recommendation, you’ll be rewarded with a truly mind-boggling experience that can actually make one shed a tear or two towards the end.

Honourable Mentions:

Best Dating Sim – Hades

“Hey, Hades isn’t a dating sim! How dare you!” might be a possible response for some of you reading this, but hear us out. During Zagreus’ many attempts to flee to the mortal world, he will build relationships with many characters he meets along the way. Pay enough attention to these relationships by giving them bottles of Nectar and Ambrosia, and some may even develop romantic feelings with him (you). And with a dialogue style that practically apes typical dating sim games, Hades actually does make for a really satisfying dating experience, especially for you thirsty types.

Honourable Mentions:

Best Next-Gen Game – Demon’s Souls

If there was a game that truly defined the launch of the next generation of gaming, it would have to be the Demon’s Souls remake for the PlayStation 5. Bluepoint Games, mostly known for HD remasters of the likes of Gravity Rush and Shadow of the Colossus, has really upped the ante with a full-on remake of one of the most iconic games of the PS3 generation. For those that have missed out on the grandfather of the Souls-like genre of games from 11 years ago, now’s your chance to do so, and in 4K at 60fps to boot.

Honourable Mentions:

Best Next-Gen Console – PlayStation 5

It goes without the shadow of a doubt that the PlayStation 5 is the winner in the next-gen console launch. Its sheer processing power that practically eliminates loading screens from all games is a breath of fresh air, and its first-party launch titles in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Demon’s Souls just beat out the competition by a mile.

That said, the Xbox Series X|S is nothing to scoff at either, with its superior backwards compatibility. After all, who else can boast about being able to run games from all four generations of Xbox so far on just one console?

Honourable Mention:

Xbox Series X

Game of the Year – Ghost of Tsushima

And of course, who can deny Ghost of Tsushima as Geek Culture’s Game of the Year? Seriously, this game is the whole package: a straight-cut, no-nonsense story; easy-to-grasp, yet incredibly satisfying combat; a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack and crisp sound design; and jaw-droppingly amazing visuals. Sure, many of the other titles on this list had practically everything nailed to a tee as well, but what Sucker Punch did was more than just captivate us.

Now, if only it was made available beyond the PlayStation system, but let’s just say the exclusivity makes it all the sweeter of an experience, and you’d be remiss not to have played it. If you don’t own a PS4 or PS5, maybe borrow one from a friend if they’re nearby, or save up for one (so long as your parents/spouse is okay with it) so you won’t miss out on this absolute gem.

Honourable Mentions:

What a year it has been for some games. Again, it was unfortunate that 2020 was a tough year for everyone, but we believe our daily lives in the past year have been made so much more bearable with all these amazing games available at our fingertips.

If you had your own list of games of the year, do let us know in the comments below. We certainly look forward to another kickass year of games in 2021, and hopefully by then we’ll get to see more of them in person in the likes of conventions such as E3 and gamescom should borders open up again. Fingers crossed.

Till then, happy gaming new year!

Marion Frayna

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Monster Hunter Rise Demo Now Available On Nintendo Switch

Marion Frayna — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 03:07:34 +0000

It won’t be long before gamers will finally get their hands on Monster Hunter Rise, the next mainline title in the series coming exclusively to the Nintendo Switch.

A free demo of the game is out now on the Nintendo Eshop from now through 1 February. Aside from owning a Nintendo Account, the game will take up 1.6GB of storage, so make sure your Switch system or microSD card has sufficient space for it.

In the demo, players can play all 14 classic weapon types, as well as learn how to use the Wirebug as an aerial traveling option, as well as Wyvern Riding, which allows players to mount monsters and literally ride them around for a short time.

There will be four playable quests in total, including two tutorial missions, as well as two full hunts, including the Bird Wyvern Great Izuchi, or the more familiar fox-like Leviathan Wyvern Mizutsune. Players can opt to play in single-player and local or online multiplayer with up to 3 other players.

Like many other Capcom demos, the one for Monster Hunter Rise will be only playable to a limited capacity within the time period. In this case the hunts will only be playable for up to 30 times, after which they will be locked out.

Don’t sweat it yet, though, as some clever gamers over on Reddit discovered that if you delete your save file for the game could reset the hunt count (Capcom has yet to address this issue for now, so err on the side of caution if you’re trying this out!). Otherwise, you could always use or make an alternate Nintendo Account to be able to play the demo again.

Local and online multiplayer, however, will be unlimited throughout the demo duration.

Monster Hunter Rise launches on 26 March exclusively on Nintendo Switch.

Marion Frayna

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Geek Interview: Paul W.S. Anderson Explains How The Monster Hunter Games That Kicked His A** Led To The Movie

Marion Frayna — Fri, 25 Dec 2020 16:01:00 +0000

If there’s a monster that needs to be tamed, controlled, controlled or hunted in Hollywood, who do you call?

The shortlist won’t be extensive, but no matter how you cut it, Paul W.S. Anderson’s name should be front and center of that list, given his rich history in successfully bringing the Resident Evil franchises to life in not one, two or three, but in six successful films starring Milla Jovovich.

With a combined gross of US$1.2 billion at the global box office, it’s no wonder that when Capcom and Sony wanted to bring another of Capcom’s highly rated and popular franchise, Monster Hunter, to worldwide audiences, both companies fell to the same husband and wife duo – Anderson and Jovovich – to bring some of their cinematic magic to the big screen again.

To Anderson though, this has been a love affair that has been 11 years in the making. Yes, some directors might have heard of the game but know nothing of the lore (Super Mario Bros. anyone?), while others can pick up a controller and learn about the game as they go along, but for this case, Anderson is more than just someone who has merely played the games to some capacity in preparation for the live-action adaptation – the game has been a major part of his life in all this time.

“[The Monster Hunter games] kicked my ass! But I had a real sense of wonder [while playing the games]. And I thought, that’s what I want to do with the movie,” the 55-year-old exclaims in an interview with Geek Culture.

But even with over a decade of experience with the Monster Hunter franchise, with an intimate knowledge of the games’ lore and monsters, all while working with the folks at Capcom closely to bring the games to life on the big screen, the journey to get to Dec, when the movie is slated to open, hasn’t been easy.

“We’ve always approached the adaptations we’ve done with a lot of passion and a lot of love. They’re movies that we’ve worked incredibly hard on and they’re worlds that I love. I loved Resident Evil, which is why we did the adaptation. I loved Monster Hunter, which is why we did the adaptation of that as well. I fell in love with Monster Hunter 11 years ago, and I first played the game in Japan, and so this movie has been a real labour of love.”

From the recent trailer, we see lead actress Jovovich, who plays Lt. Natalie Artemis, and co-star Tony Jaa, who plays The Hunter, taking on the likes of iconic monsters, such as the sand-burrowing Diablos and, and the fire-breathing Rathalos, in scintillating action sequences with vibrant and crisp visual effects. What’s interesting about the creative process behind Monster Hunter is that all filming is done on set, as opposed to a green screen, with the visual journey dominated by technology.

Paul W. S. Anderson

Naturally, the monsters and other visual effects themselves are added in post. For Anderson, the technology available to the crew was essential in ensuring that the film gets steeped in reality, without compromising on the fantasy elements of the games.

“I like to shoot everything as real as possible. So if it were permissible for me to breed giant monsters and train them to fight and film them for real, I would have done it. But because I’m not allowed to do that, I knew the monsters had to be CG. So I made the decision that if the monsters have to be CG, everything else in the movie has to be as real as possible. And I didn’t want to do what a lot of modern blockbusters do: they go into a backlot in the studio and shoot everything against a green screen. And I think it’s very hard to avoid things looking a little synthetic if you do that. I wanted to immerse the audience in a real world, so I felt I had to find some of the most striking landscapes on Earth. I couldn’t go and shoot there for real. And that’s what we did,” he explained.

The best part about the Monster Hunter games is that they feature a design that mirrors real life. This is especially true for the latest mainline entry in the franchise, Monster Hunter World. The 2018 game is by far the closest thing gamers got to real-life versions of the likes of the Rathalos and Diablos, so it was only natural for Anderson and company to use the renders of these creatures in the live-action movie.

It also certainly helped that game series director Kaname Fujioka and producer Ryozo Tsujimoto were on board for the project as consultants, and gave Anderson and the CGI team the best possible direction and guidance they could get to get the best possible adaptation of the games.

“We wrapped the movie a year and a half ago. And the reason for the delay hasn’t really been COVID-related, because we’re only releasing like a couple of months later than we were going to. The reason why [finishing the movie] took so long was we spent a year and a half doing the visual effects for the movie. We didn’t rush the visual effects. I wanted the creatures to be the best possible creatures they could be. And I worked very closely with Tsujimoto-san and Fujioka-san to get the creatures 100% accurate. And then we labored for a year and a half to kind of do those visual effects. And I think the movie, as a result, really benefits from their care and attention.”

While many will be excited to see the monsters in (kinda) in the flesh duke it out on the big screen, there is also the understandable notion that adapting a video game for Hollywood will inevitably invite discussion from fans of the source material, and take any form of deviation as blasphemy. Anderson understands this wholeheartedly, having turned the Resident Evil movies into a franchise on their own. Older fans might also remember him as the director of Mortal Kombat (1995) which was his breakthrough in Hollywood.

“Sometimes, maybe the stories of the movies deviate slightly from the world of the video game, but they’re always made with a lot of respect for the video game. The fabric of the games is very much built into the DNA of the movie adaptations we’ve done, and especially in this movie, I would say more than any other movie I’ve done. This was an incredibly close collaboration between me and Fujioka-san and Tsujimoto-san, the director and producer of the games. I love the world they created in Monster Hunter, and [because] I just had a real sense of wonder when I first played it 11 years ago, I wanted to work very, very closely with them to bring their vision to the big screen.”

And just in case Monster Hunter purists may still feel some sense of apprehension, Anderson also dropped the bombshell that that the movie takes place canonically after the events of the Monster Hunter World: Iceborne expansion, If that isn’t enough to rile eager fans of the games on board the hype train, we don’t know what will.

“The movie is a sequel to Monster Hunter World, so it takes place after the events of Iceborne. So other than Milla’s character and her team, you’d recognise everybody else who’s in the movie from the games. The Admiral, The Handler, Lea, Aiden, the Meowscular Chef, even — they’re all taken directly from the game, as is a lot of the locations, so you’d recognise those in the movie as well.”

There are more game-centric easter eggs in the movie that Anderson teased during the interview, such as the inclusion of the bones of an Elder Dragon, which, for the uninitiated, sits at the apex of monster types in the games. Which Elder Dragon, though, Anderson was coy about, but his excitement about what we can expect to see in the movie was effervescent.

Anderson explains that the choice to intertwine the games into the movie’s narrative was deliberate, and it was a way to celebrate the gamers like himself who are well-versed in the franchise in its 15 years of existence. Also, with Monster Hunter World still very much relevant in the gaming space, even 2 years after launch, it was an “organic” decision to tie the movie in with the game.

“The idea of a real world character traveling to the Monster Hunter world was inspired by a crossover that Monster Hunter actually did with Metal Gear Solid several years ago, where you had Solid Snake [as a playable skin]. So you had ‘real-world’ military characters crossing over into the Monster Hunter world and being confronted by the creatures. And I thought that was a very organic approach for me to kind of take something that was already part of the games and use that as part of my adaptation.”

Having wrapped up a project that spanned over a decade, Anderson seems to cut a thoroughly satisfied, if not extremely satisfied, figure. Of all the projects that he has done, it seems none has fueled his geeky passion more than Monster Hunter, and he clearly has hopes that it will do well in the mainstream audience.

And depending on whether fans love it, he might just expand the film universe more, given how expansive the games already are. But that’s not on his mind just yet; what matters now is getting veteran fans of the games and non-fans alike to be enamoured with the vistas and the terrifyingly unique creatures that Monster Hunter has to offer, and walk away with a sense of awe and amazement.

“I think one of the things that I’ve always been impressed with about Japan is the strength of Japanese design. I think Japanese graphic design, like manga — it’s truly mind-blowing. And I think that really lends itself to these amazing creatures that they’ve created. I mean, that was one of the things that I was blown away by Monster Hunter, when I first saw it was these incredible creatures. We had some creatures in Resident Evil but not on the scale, and the scope, and the majesty of what these creatures were. I mean, it reminded me of movies that I loved, like Godzilla and King Kong and the Jurassic World movies,” said Anderson.

“But I love those movies already. And I already know what those creatures look like here was a universe of creatures that were on that level, but no one had ever really seen.”

Monster Hunter drops in cinemas on 30 December (31 December in the US).

Marion Frayna

The post Geek Interview: Paul W.S. Anderson Explains How The Monster Hunter Games That Kicked His A** Led To The Movie appeared first on Geek Culture.

Geek Review: Monster Hunter

Marion Frayna — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 16:00:00 +0000

The live-action video game movie still remains a relatively lightly-tread territory even today, despite numerous adaptations in the last decade. Let’s say that, so far, no movie has quite managed to balance presenting these massive worlds with unique ecosystems, societies, and even more colourful (sometimes quite literally) characters, or found a way to present the more gamey aspects of said video games in a believable sense in the live-action format.

Many have tried, but these live-action video game movies have ultimately fallen flat on their faces.

And now, with Monster Hunter by Paul W. S. Anderson, we have quite an interesting anomaly. On one hand, it is quite a gutsy and faithful adaptation of the popular video game series by Capcom, with tons of visceral moments between the main characters, Captain Natalie Artemis (Milla Jovovich) and a dude simply called The Hunter (Tony Jaa), against some of the iconic monsters that many who played the games over the past decade have come to know and love.

On the other, it’s confused with what kind of video game movie it wants to be: a character-focused drama with a sprinkling of monsters to the side, or a balls-to-the-walls action-oriented slugfest.

To give you the lowdown on what’s going on what little plot there is in Monster Hunter, it involves a United Nations peacekeeping unit ending up stranded in another world in a freak sandstorm. Led by Captain Artemis, the squad tries to fight their way out of their new, immediately hostile environment in the form of towering monsters twice the size of tanks, and hit probably twice as hard too.

After getting floored by the beasts, Artemis meets the Hunter shortly after, who then forms a tenuous friendship with her as he trains her in the ways of hunting monsters using more traditional weapons such as dual blades, greatswords and bows. With her newfound skills, Artemis, predictably, takes down those which previously caused her so much trouble, with the aid of her companion.

It’s not the most engaging story in the world, and it’s certainly not helped by how oddly-paced the story is, and how inconsistent its tone is. For a movie about monsters and hunting them, we see an unnatural lot of moments involving the characters experiencing head trauma and what goes on in their head in these instances. While it’s understandable that even anyone, even elite soldiers, can go through severe traumatic breakdowns when faced with extreme situations, we tend to see quite a little too much of it.

Side note, it’s interesting that the preview that we caught in the cinema wasn’t the one that contained the racist scene that landed the movie a ban in China, but we digress.

It is without the doubt that the most striking feature of this film is the fact that it is a love letter to the games. Anderson is by and large one of the better go-to directors (in Hollywood, at least) to deliver a video game film such as this. It certainly helps that the 55-year-old director played the original games up until the more recent Monster Hunter World in 2018, and even got the franchise’s producers at Capcom on board as consultants to boot. Anderson’s intimate knowledge of the franchise, as well as his previous video game movie experience in Mortal Kombat and the Resident Evil franchise, is on full display here.

Aesthetically, he and his team have absolutely nailed it here. From the ships that glide across the sand, to the world’s denizens (the Meowscular Chef is the best character in the movie, period!) that dress in armour crafted from the hides of various monsters and wield unnaturally-large weapons, there certainly is a feeling of immersion when Artemis engages with these characters. Fans of the games will certainly get their due fanservicing in even these small moments. It certainly helps that the game draws its roots from the aforementioned Monster Hunter World, and, according to Anderson himself, actually takes place after the events of that game chronologically.

Though the hunters generally speak in their own native language, it does seem a little jarring when the Admiral (Ron Perlman) suddenly blurts out in English. Don’t worry, there’s actually an in-movie explanation for that, but it’s still brow-furrowingly strange and breaks verisimilitude somewhat. It might have been cooler to have all the natives speak in their own tongue with subtitles to show how Artemis has gradually learned the lingo, though we imagine there might have been other issues that led to Anderson ultimately going for this creative choice, but to each their own.

But of course, the undisputed stars of the show here are the monsters (sorry Jovovich and Jaa, but let’s face it, audiences are here for the monsters). The two main ones that have appeared in the trailer – the fearsome, sand-burrowing Diablos, and the terrifying fire-breathing ruler of the skies, Rathalos – are given so much love and attention that will make fans of the games dizzy with excitement. The decision to animate them entirely in post-production as opposed to having substitute models being filmed on set certainly helped with just how realistic they look against the backdrop of the “real” world, and the characters. It feels especially visceral and believable when Artemis and the Hunter trade blows with the beasts, with blades sinking into hide and tooth, claw, horn and barb digging into flesh in bloody awesome (pun intended) style.

Other monsters get quite a bit of screen time too, especially the spider-like Nerscylla (or more accurately put, an entire colony of them), which gets its own Alien-like horror sequence which is a surprisingly nice addition to this movie.

Anderson’s research didn’t end at just making the monsters and the world look as realistic as possible as he even went so far as to showcase their individual behaviours using visual storytelling in a really cool way – something you might even see on the Discovery channel. From how the Diablos detects sound through the vibrations in the sand; to how the Nerscylla avoids sunlight like the plague, being a cave-dweller – all these small instances are what make Monster Hunter so enjoyable from a fan’s perspective. Now all we need is David Attenborough to come in and do the voice-over narrative, and we’re gold.

As awesome as the monsters shown in the movie are, it ultimately isn’t quite the showcase gamers would have liked, as there is only so much screen time one can fit to properly give these monsters their due justice. Anderson did make the most out of what time he had with the monsters that he showed, and that is probably good enough for now. That said, he did tease a potential sequel towards the end that gives us a hint at a much larger setting than was shown. And we all know that with a franchise as big as this, a sequel is the natural choice, given there are just too many monsters with their own unique characteristics to show here. Even the way in which the characters use their weapons looks quite good and shot in scintillating fashion, though the minor special effects here are not as well-animated.

With all this fabulous fan-servicing going on in Monster Hunter, it’s natural for one to assume that only fans of the games would truly be able to appreciate just what Anderson has done here, as to the uninitiated, Monster Hunter does feel like a generic fantasy film with decent special effects and cool and unique monster roars. The language barrier between Artemis and the Hunter and his ilk seem a little awkward on-screen.

Somewhere along the way, it’s as if Anderson and his writing team were a little confused as to how they wanted to present the experience of fighting hulking monsters such as the Diablos or Rathalos. As such, the movie feels a little disjointed with how it wants to present the subject matter, ending up in a rather confused audience more often than not. There’s even a good 20 minutes dedicated to just Milla Jovovich’s and Tony Jaa’s characters beating the living daylights out of each other, which seemed to go on a little too much to the point that one might’ve even heard the monsters cry for their screen time back.

That said, the dynamic between Milla Jovovich and Tony Jaa is actually quite affable, be it in the fight scenes or in their characters’ attempts to understand each other linguistically to hilarious effect. If you wanted to care about any characters here (besides the monsters, of course), it would probably be these two, but then again, don’t expect much of a character arc for any of the two lead characters, let alone minor ones, in a brainless slog-fest such as this.

Overall, we imagine many would be hopeful for Paul Anderson’s Monster Hunter to be the one that breaks the curse of the video game movie. Sorry to disappoint you, but it isn’t, as it is a hot, blistering mess when it comes to a plot, tone and pacing. But for what it lacks in those departments, it does makes up for it in geek-out moments in the showcase of some of the flagship monsters of the franchise (Diablos and Rathalos mainly), as well as the rather accurate depiction of the minor characters in the game’s world.

There is a set-up to a sequel or at least a larger world in general, but ultimately the film doesn’t do much to keep audiences invested enough to want to know just what will happen to the characters and the world. The only pertinent question here is most likely just exactly what monsters there will be in the potential new movie. And if Sony Pictures is willing to fund Anderson once more, we may yet get our wishes fulfilled with even more awesome – if campy – monster-hunting action.

Marion Frayna

The post Geek Review: Monster Hunter appeared first on Geek Culture.

Geek Review: Gigabyte Aorus 5 SB Gaming Laptop

Marion Frayna — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 17:18:12 +0000

Thanks to the advancements in technology and hardware, gamers are now in an era of technology that prides itself more on presentation than actual depth and complexity, with many tech companies constantly vying for top spot as the be-all, end-all for PC gaming.

For every top-of-the-line ASUS ROG, Razer, Lenovo or Alienware gaming laptop available in the market, there also exists a niche catered toward gamers on a budget. But what used to be in the realm of smaller, boutique PC makers has slowly made its way to the bigger boys. The Gigabyte Aorus 5 SB is one example of a machine that is a slightly more accessible alternative for gamers who want to experience the latest and greatest, but don’t exactly have the money to shell out for the best gear around.

After all, top speed is one thing for a car, but even the best of casual drivers won’t have the roads or ability to ever hit that, as gamers do not always need to be hitting the recommended top specs to enjoy a game. Instead, it’s about hitting the minimum, to be able to play games at a decent speed and capacity.

At S$1,979, the Aorus 5 SB is definitely a value-for-money option compared to the sub-S$3,000 gaming laptops available today. Packed with hardware including the latest Intel Comet Lake processor and an NVIDIA GTX 1660 Ti graphics card, this isn’t a sports car in the proverbial sense, but it’s a reliable machine capable of running most AAA games smoothly at scaled-down settings.

Here are the specifications of our review unit:

Processor: Intel Core i7-10750H (2.6GHz – 5GHz)
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GDDR6 6GB
Memory: 16GB RAM DDR4
Storage: 512GB M.2 PCIE SSD
Price: S$1,979

At first glance, one might easily mistake the Aorus 5 SB for the Aftershock Forge 15 series laptops, as they share the same OEM chassis, with a few visual tweaks here and there. That said, its stealthy exterior makes it fit seamlessly into office and school settings, should you happen to find the need to bring it out of the house. It measures 361mm by 258mm by 27.9mm, and weighs around 2.2kg, which is about the standard for similarly-built laptops, which makes this quite a cumbersome machine to carry around. Thankfully, its 180W power brick isn’t at all that bulky, so the most trouble you might get out of bringing this laptop around is the main unit itself.

Having been manufactured using the exact same OEM chassis as the Aftershock Forge 15, this is probably inevitable given the plethora of bands that use OEM parts to reduce production costs. This is also evident in an otherwise plain-looking exterior that neither looks nor feels premium at all. The chassis seems to use a hard plastic material that seems to bend rather easily especially on the hood, almost threatening to snap out of place if we applied a bit more pressure.

Additionally, the hinge where the laptop flips open also feels a little shaky. This laptop unfortunately doesn’t seem at all that durable as its tank-like appearance suggests, so one will have to exercise caution when handling it, not that you should be throwing this around without a care.

Under the hood, the Aorus 5 SB sports the exact same full-size keyboard as the Aftershock Forge 15, which, in this case, isn’t actually a bad thing. The keyboard feels super responsive and tactile, and even has a numpad to boot for additional utility – something that most other gaming laptops ditch altogether. This makes it great not just for playing MMORPGs such as Final Fantasy XIV and World of Warcraft, but also doing work on the likes of Microsoft Excel.

However, it tends to be a bit of a fingerprint magnet. From just two weeks of use, we’ve already started to see fingerprint and sweat marks on some of the keys. As such, you might want to either invest in an external keyboard to preserve the integrity and look of the laptop when hunkered down on a desktop, though using it as is on your travels may be a bit of an inevitability.

In terms of ports, here is what the Gigabyte Aorus 5 SB has:

1‎x USB2.0 Type-A
1x USB3.2 Gen1 Type-A
1x USB3.2 Gen2 Type-A
1x HDMI 2.0(with HDCP)
1x Mini Display 1.2
1x DisplayPort 1.4 Type-C over USB 3.2 Gen 2
1x Audio combo jack
1x Microphone jack
1x SD Card Reader
1x DC-in
1x Ethernet port

That’s a healthy amount of ports present on this laptop, and instantly one that gives it an advantage over its pricier counterparts. The presence of an SD card reader is always welcome on a gaming laptop such as this, especially for gamers who also happen to be content creators who shoot a lot of photography and/or video. However, having so many ports also creates the inevitable possibility of the Aorus 5 SB looking like a grotesque octopus or spider, with so many dongles and cables sticking out of it from the back and the sides.

The 15.6-inch display is an IPS-level anti-glare Full HD LCD panel, with the most striking feature being its native 144hz refresh rate. For a budget laptop, such a display would be considered a luxury, but somehow it made its way onto the Aorus 5 SB, and looks extremely good when watching content, editing photos and videos.

More importantly, this makes playing games an absolute breeze, especially competitive shooters and MOBAs, which require players to be constantly on their toes (read: fingers) with split-second reactions.

Here are the various benchmarks that we performed on the Gigabyte Aorus 5 SB:

PC Mark 10

Geekbench

Single-Core Score: 1256
Multi-Core Score: 5468

Cinebench R15

OpenGL: 144.95 fps
CPU: 1082 cb

Unigine Heaven 4.0

FPS: 88.5
Score: 2230
Min FPS: 8.9
Max FPS: 191.3

As the various benchmarks suggest, the Aorus 5 SB is really none too shabby in its overall performance. That said, its 1660 Ti GPU, while none too shabby, won’t be able to run the likes of The Witcher 3, Red Dead Redemption 2, and the more recent Cyberpunk 2077 smoothly at Ultra settings, it certainly is able to get said games running at a constant 30fps at scaled-down settings, and having the likes of ray-tracing and DLSS turned off.

Of course, it truly shines when running the likes of Overwatch, Dota 2, and League of Legends. These competitive titles don’t require the PC or laptop to be the most advanced spec-wise, which makes playing them on the Aorus 5 SB an absolute breeze. The 144Hz display complements the fast-paced nature of these games, and players will certainly appreciate the ability to make the most out of the refresh rate with a constant 60fps throughout these titles.

While the Aorus 5 SB was running these games and benchmarks, it seemed to remain at a relatively comfortable temperature. This is thanks to the Windforce cooling system that Gigabyte has installed on the underside of this laptop. While the Aorus 5 SB shares the same OEM chassis as the likes of the Aftershock Forge 15, it makes the most out of the vents on the bottom and and sides, and didn’t seem to overheat even while running more graphically-intensive titles like Cyberpunk 2077. Granted, it isn’t exactly cool (pun not intended), but it’s not blisteringly hot so it can actually sit comfortably on your lap.

Speaking of which, one massive downside we’ve encountered on the Aorus 5 SB is its poor battery life. On average, it lasted for an underwhelming hour while running Overwatch before requiring to be hooked to power. This makes this laptop only suitable for the desktop life, as it can barely last an hour on its own. But of course, if you’re intending to use this laptop as your main computer, then this shouldn’t be an issue.

Overall, the Gigabyte Aorus 5 is a good example of making the most out of a limited budget. Not every budget laptop can boast that it has the latest Intel Comet Lake processor, a slick 144Hz display, and decent cooling, all for just under S$2,000. That’s quite a good deal all things considered. But of course, with a limited budget, it’s clear that sacrifices had to be made, with cheap material for the chassis and an almost-nonexistent battery. But if you can look past these flaws, this is actually quite a solid gaming workhorse.

Marion Frayna

The post Geek Review: Gigabyte Aorus 5 SB Gaming Laptop appeared first on Geek Culture.

Geek Interview: Sharpening Up For The Monster Hunter Movie With Milla Jovovich & Tony Jaa

Marion Frayna — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 16:00:52 +0000

If you’ve played any Monster Hunter game, then you’d most likely have your main or preferred weapon of choice when going on hunts and investigations. Say what you want about the meme-worthy Sword and Shield or Hunting Horn, but each of the fourteen main weapons in the franchise has gotten their fair share of love from the community, and will actually all appear in some capacity in Paul W. S. Anderson’s Monster Hunter movie.

Recently, Geek Culture had a chance to speak with the two lead stars of the live-action adaptation of Capcom’s action RPG franchise, Milla Jovovich (Lt. Natalie Artemis), and Tony Jaa (The Hunter). Both had absolutely no qualms about the physical demands of this project, as they not only had to endure the harsh, sweltering deserts of Cape Town, South Africa, but they had to do it while decked out in deceptively heavy Hunter gear and weapons.

“They’re really big and really heavy!” exclaims Jaa, who spoke of his time using the massive greatsword and bow and arrow.

“When you’re using a weapon that is really heavy, you think about how the body has to measure up physically. It’s not easy. When you’re using a small sword, you can do everything quickly, but it’s not easy when you’re using a big sword or bow.”

The former Ong Bak star, 44, admits that this project has been one of his toughest ones to date, as he had to not only quickly learn how to use the weapons proficiently, but he actually had to go back and play the games, and study the moves, to prepare for this role. Unlike having to train in a dojo or gym, as he typically does, he, and Jovovich by extension, had to learn how to fight like a Hunter by actually playing the game, studying the moves the in-game characters performed and trying to imitate their movements.

This was not something years of muay thai training under his belt could prepare him for. But of course, the physical training did play a part after that, as he had to condition his body to get used to the load of the gear.

“I train every day [before production begins]. I wake up, go to the gym, run one hour, and then try to decide how to use the weapon, because these weapons are really [tough to use]. I’ve never done this before, because it’s different, using these big swords and all,” said Jaa.

It is clear that the master-student relationship that The Hunter and Artemis shares in the movie also translates in real life too. Anderson actually pointed out that the duo had very strong “camaraderie” while filming, and actually made efforts to build on each other’s strengths while working on their respective weaknesses.

Jovovich had her fair share of challenges working on such physically-demanding scenes and weather conditions, but the actress, also 44, pushed on thanks to her inspiration: Tony Jaa himself.

“Tony is literally, in my opinion, a real life superhero. I follow him on Instagram, and I see his posts, and he’s like, ‘I’m training two hours a day’, and he’s doing backflips in his living room. And it was awe-inspiring to work with him, because he literally is a guy that, when you show him a scene with [stunt] wires, he’s like, ‘well, let me just try that on my own’,” said Jovovich.

“And nine times out of ten, he can do it all without wires. Which, of course, for me, is very humbling, because I’ve always depended on wire work to help me look like a superhero whereas he is just kind of a superhero in real life. So it’s amazing to watch him work; it’s a real honour to work with somebody like Tony.”

“She learned really fast,” said Jaa encouragingly. “We only had rehearsals [for fight scenes] in two weeks, but she learned really fast. How to fight, how to spar, everything. We practiced face-to-face, always doing it again, and again, and again. And finally, we managed to get it 100% in the film, so it was really fun working with Milla.”

While Jovovich had tons of help from Jaa working on her physique and form while wielding these weapons in Monster Hunter, the Thai actor has an equal amount of praise for Jovovich’s ability to convey emotion on screen and translate that raw emotion into action.

“Every time I work with Milla, I’m really excited,” says Jaa. “I’m a big fan of her in Resident Evil — she’s a great actress. When I work with her, I’m happy. [While filming] I asked her to teach me about how to display my emotions, how to connect with others using feelings.”

“I play a character who doesn’t speak English, but rather the native language of the games. It was hard for me to express myself at first, but Milla understands how to do it through body language, so she helped me a lot with that.”

Working on Monster Hunter was certainly an experience of transitions for both Jaa and Jovovich. The former had predominantly worked on martial arts films such as Ong Bak and The Protector, so the transition to Hollywood was an eye-opening experience for him, even though he’s been in several American blockbusters in the last few years.

The transition for the latter, on the other hand, had to “downgrade” in terms of power level, from the superhuman Alice in the Resident Evil franchise, to the more down-to-earth (pun intended) Artemis. But if anything, the ability to relate to a fellow human being who has human emotions, struggles and challenges, seemed more like a personal upgrade for Jovovich, and for the audience, naturally.

“The two characters are different. Artemis is a real person who has had incredibly intensive training. And she’s got that discipline, and that kind of spirit; she doesn’t quit. But she’s human. Alice, she’s a bit of a superhero. She is like this heightened sense of reality, a supernatural creature. I think Artemis is like the me that I feel like I could actually achieve if I worked hard enough, where Alice is an icon, a beautiful inspiration, but she’s unachievable for anybody that’s just a human,” explains Jovovich.

With so much going for the two stars raring to have a go against these majestic creatures with ridiculously huge weapons, it looks like they won’t mind revisiting the series should they have a chance, and it may not always be on film or the big screen. In fact, Jovovich believes that this video game franchise has the potential to become a fully-fledged multi-season TV series, simply due to the sheer breadth and scope of the world and its inhabitants.

“I always told Paul [Anderson] that Monster Hunter should be a TV show, because there’s so much detail, so many creatures, and so many characters that you need time to show everything. And you never know, maybe after this movie, we’ll get approached to do it.”

And would Jaa be signing up for this? A resounding “Yes”, says the action star. Let the hunt begin.

Monster Hunter roars into cinemas on 30 December (31 December in Singapore).

Marion Frayna

The post Geek Interview: Sharpening Up For The Monster Hunter Movie With Milla Jovovich & Tony Jaa appeared first on Geek Culture.

Rejected LEGO Ideas Projects Will Live On Via BrickLink Designer Program In 2021

Marion Frayna — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 06:57:32 +0000

The LEGO Ideas program has been a constant source of some of the most zany and creative sets ever conceptualised outside of the official LEGO labs. However, only 4 to 5, out of thousands upon thousands, are selected to be mass-produced each year, despite many other projects reaching the required 10,000 supporters for the crowdfunding to be successful.

However, there is yet hope for all the creators whose rejected LEGO Ideas projects have been collecting dust in the backburner, as BrickLink will be launching the Designer Program in 2021 to provide a platform for said projects to finally come to life, and be mass-produced.

In collaboration with LEGO Ideas, the BrickLink Designer Program will invite “select designers” whose projects that have amassed over 10,000 signatures in recent years to have their projects approved for production.

However, IP-based designs (this wasn’t specified in the blog post above, but we imagine projects involving official IPs such as Naruto and The Legend of Zelda) will not be eligible for the program.

“For a long time, we have read feedback and experienced the disappointment from both fan creators and their project’s supporters. While we can only produce so many official LEGO Ideas, we longed to find an alternative way see more of these amazing fan designs come to life,” a statement on the official LEGO Ideas blog said.

“BrickLink’s successful AFOL Designer Program pilot indicated that there was an interest among fans to help bring fan creations to life in a different way; making them the perfect partner to test the desire for this among LEGO Ideas 10K Club creations and their supporters.”

Selected designers will be contacted from January 2021 onwards, after which the BrickLink team will proceed with making these projects a reality.

Marion Frayna

The post Rejected LEGO Ideas Projects Will Live On Via BrickLink Designer Program In 2021 appeared first on Geek Culture.

Hades Finally Gets Cross Saves On Nintendo Switch And PC

Marion Frayna — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 03:31:04 +0000

After mere months since its launch on the Nintendo Switch (and after over 2 years of early access on PC), Hades players will finally be able to port over their save files between both platforms starting today.

Developer Supergiant Games announced this on its social media channels, with a full set of instructions to be able to access cross saves between Nintendo Switch and PC.

Hermes is here with some good news: Our Cross-Saves update for HADES is out now on Nintendo Switch!

Please read the in-game Help & Info section for details. This update also includes various other improvements from our post-launch PC patches. #HadesGame #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/UgwBRQsUOo
— Supergiant Games (@SupergiantGames) December 16, 2020

Just in case you can’t see the Tweet above, here are the instructions to access cross saves on Hades on the Switch:

Select “Cross-Saves” in the main menu of the game.
Connect your Steam or Epic Games account.
Pause and quit your current session to upload save data.

And voila! Now you can bring Zagreus’ journey to the surface with you on your commute to and from work, or even to the loo, just in case you need to quickly answer the call of nature mid-run.

Hades was met with critical acclaim since its official launch on PC and Nintendo Switch back in August, and has gone on to win Best Action Game and Best Indie Game at The Game Awards 2020, among other accolades.

Marion Frayna

The post Hades Finally Gets Cross Saves On Nintendo Switch And PC appeared first on Geek Culture.

Geek Review: Demon’s Souls (PS5)

Marion Frayna — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 02:55:01 +0000

At some point in our lives, we’ve all encountered that one friend that left a lasting impression in our childhood, but somehow lost contact with them over the next decade or so. And then they reappear somehow later on in life, looking all dolled up and mature, but still the same, awesome person you’ve met all those years ago.

For many gamers, that perfectly sums up the Demon’s Souls remake on PlayStation 5.

After skipping the PlayStation 4, fans of the iconic PS3 game that came out in 2009 who might have missed out on the original have their prayers finally answered with this dazzling new remake by Bluepoint Games and Sony’s Japan Studio. And as a TL;DR of our review, let’s just say Bluepoint really blew (blue) it out of the water with this absolute stunner of a remake.

First thing’s first — Demon’s Souls looks absolutely gorgeous on the PS5. Even if you weren’t a gamer, or a fan of this franchise, you’d be stopping to just admire the incredibly detailed and sprawling vistas this title has to offer.

From the majestic yet forlorn halls and battlements of Boletaria, to the dark, dank depths of the Stonefang Tunnels, each location is just rife with character and atmosphere and looks nothing short of breathtaking. Yes, even the poisonous swamp of death that is the Valley of Defilement looks hideously awesome, what with its many dilapidated huts littered across a putrid pool of pustulence.

We totally understand if you happen to pause for a moment just to look around the various environments across the five different worlds, and maybe even dying in the process. The new processor and graphics card really did the classic game wonders, and even one who has played the original may even feel like they’re jumping into an entirely new game altogether, even if it’s only for the first few moments.

Going from the background to the foreground, character and monster models are also both beautiful and grotesque in all the best ways, as opposed to their more simple and primitive-looking counterparts from 2009 that now, by comparison, look like moving sacks of potatoes. Seeing their armour glint under the candlelight, or their cloth articles billow at the slightest gust of wind are nothing we’ve seen before in this era of games, but given how far Demon’s Souls has come in terms of visual fidelity, it’s like watching a kid all grown up and feeling proud for them.

However, the facial animations for human NPCs feel a little too overdone. In just one conversation with Stockpile Thomas in The Nexus, we saw at least five different facial animations in just one sitting to comical effect. It feels like Bluepoint tried a little too hard in the name of achieving photorealism in this game. But it’s something players will just have to get used to in this remake.

Regardless, Demon’s Souls is still really pretty to look at, and to have everything run at a smooth 60 frames per second? That’s the killer, right there. As slow and methodical the pace of this game is, it always helps to be able to look and move around as smoothly as butter. When moving around the hulking bosses such as the Tower Knight or Adjudicator and rolling to avoid their massive, sweeping attacks, it always pays to be able to react a hair’s breadth quicker due to the speedier framerate, which makes gameplay all the more enjoyable as a result.

And as a launch title celebrating the release of the PlayStation 5, how can we not talk about how Demon’s Souls utilises the DualSense controller?

Let us first preface that while we can absolutely describe the feeling of the nuances of holding the DualSense while playing this game, it, like the rest of the PS5’s launch slate including Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Astro’s Playroom, is something you’d have to personally experience in order to suss it out for yourself.

Every swing of the weapon feels impactful, and that is enhanced by the strength of the vibration applied by the motors in the DualSense controller, and this intensity varies depending on the weapon used. So a greatsword will feel massive and weighty compared to the faster, more subtle dagger. External effects such as lightning hitting a tree or flames nearly scorching your character can be felt with even more subtle rumbles on the controller, which truly make for a much more in-your-face sensation.

Even sounds such as hitting enemies or getting struck yourself are replicated on the internal speakers of the controller really well, so even if you’re playing the game while your TV is muted, you’ll still be able to literally hear the crunching impact of such elements literally in your hands. Sure, while one can just say it’s a series of varied rumble effects, it does make for a much more cinematic gameplay experience that, in a way, makes you feel almost as if you were the one holding the weapon or being hit by enemies in turn.

When we spoke to Japan Studio’s creative director Gavin Moore, he said that the hardest part about Demon’s Souls wasn’t actually the gameplay itself, but the ridiculously long loading times on the PS3 system. Those that played the original can certainly attest to this, having had to wait the upwards of 20 – 30 seconds just to get back into the thick of things after dying.

On the PS5, however, all that is almost gone! The processing power of the new console is really demonstrated to amazing effect here, and after dying to the Armor Spider for the umpteenth time, we were frustrated, but not because of the loading time, but because we couldn’t get our timing right when rushing in to hack away at it.

The point we’re making here is that with the nonexistent load times, we could really focus on what matters at hand – “getting good” and familiarising oneself with the environment, the monsters and bosses, and not dying until reaching the next Archstone. Nothing kills momentum (and eventually, enthusiasm) more than having to wait before you try again. It’s like having to wait incessantly to get on a ride again when you’re the only one in line, and it’s awesome that Bluepoint found a way to practically eliminate that.

For new players especially, this is a great boon as it lets them get familiar with the Souls-like system of trying, dying, and trying again, as many folks would want to maximise their time playing on the PS5 (especially if they have kids). Other aspects that make this game so much more accessible than it previously was 11 years ago include eight-point rolling, which lets players roll diagonally in addition to the standard front/back/sideways rolling. The ability to climb ladders faster is also a welcome new feature too.

These may seem small inclusions, but they’re actually massive improvements to the original overall, as it gives players much more freedom and control over their movements to be able to reposition themselves in fights and avoid death much more easily. Of course, this is complemented by the snazzy 60fps on the PS5, which makes the new player experience all the richer.

But of course, for all the amazing polish and gloss that Bluepoint has added to Demon’s Souls, the decision to port most of the original game’s code over to the PS5 means bringing the title’s every single quirk (good and bad) to the new console too. Most prominently, the sometimes erratic AI is back to haunt players once again. On the occasion, enemies will take a good two seconds to notice you’re within their attacking range, and by then, you’ve either darted past them to the next area, or have been reduced to nothing but a mass of Souls with which you can use to level your character up.

The most problematic AI issues actually come with the bosses, which produce a good mix of frustrating and comical moments. The Flamelurker will sometimes hop from side to side as if it were dancing to some weird tune; the Maneater continues its notorious streak of being incredibly nasty to deal with because there is absolutely no way of telling just what it‘ll do — it can either floor you within seconds with a flurry of attacks with little telegraphing, or just roam around like a total idiot as you hack away at its form.

Unfortunately, this AI pathing was something Bluepoint seemingly neglected, or didn’t have the resources for, or just wanted to leave there just as a tongue-in-cheek way of honouring the original down to a tee. Regardless of the reason, it has the potential to make for either hilarious or hair-pulling moments, depending on how (un)lucky you are when meeting with these issues.

Another point of contention regarding Demon’s Souls overall player experience is its pace, which, in our opinion as seasoned Souls-like fans, didn’t exactly age well, but that’s ultimately dependent on who is playing.

When juxtaposing it against original developer FromSoftware’s much more recent titles such as Bloodborne. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and — dare we say it — even Dark Souls 3, all of which encourage some form of speed, tenacity and aggression in order to gain the upper hand in combat, it does feel like a step down in difficulty when coming back to Demon’s Souls. Enemy attacks feel sluggish and incredibly easy to read as a result, making going through the various levels feel like a breeze. This, of course, is assuming you’ve played at least one other game in FromSoftware’s rich history, or even other Souls-like games for that matter, and the genre’s godfather does feel like a dinosaur in that regard.

That is not to say that it’s an inherently bad thing, as this slower pace will benefit players who are just getting into the franchise with Demon’s Souls. This allows for newcomers to the genre to really hone their skills and instincts in getting by. The fact that players can freely travel across the five different worlds (at least after defeating the first boss, Phalanx) as they each have their own sub-levels with increasing difficulty makes for a much more varied player experience as one is free to pursue the game at their own pace, as opposed to having certain areas locked behind, well, locked doors and blocked paths in previous FromSoftware games.

In a sense, Demon’s Souls serves as a great 101 for the entire genre, simply due to its more forgiving pace.

But when we say forgiving, it’s really only the slow speed at which most enemies attack that makes this game so. The original Demon’s Souls was notorious not just for its ridiculously long load times, but also its ridiculously complex death system. So when players die in the game, they respawn with half of their maximum health in Soul Form. To recover their Body Form (and their max health by extension), players either have to defeat a boss, or consume a Stone of Ephemeral Eyes (a rare item which can be found, bought, or dropped from specific enemies).

Additionally, if players die too much in one area, it’ll affect the World Tendency of that location — a circle that, if turning black, will cause that entire world to spawn much tougher monsters. Fun times, right? But of course, as many hardened fans of the franchise are aware, it’s all part of what makes this game so fun. And again, owing to the technical achievements of the PS5, we were able to make the most out of our time improving the craft of not dying so much.

When all is said and done, Demon’s Souls is by far one of the best, if not the best, examples of what a console launch title should look and play like. Bluepoint Games really did a number on Hidetaka Miyazaki’s creative vision and beefed this title in ways none have anticipated even when the trailer first dropped back in June.

The remake plays to the technical strengths of the PlayStation 5, even on the DualSense controller, and though it is still pretty much the same game at its core, old players will be able to appreciate the amount of polish the game has received, even while retaining its original flaws.

And most importantly, the fact that it still remains a PlayStation exclusive all the more makes owning a PS5 so much more significant, as it is a little piece of the platform’s (and FromSoftware’s) history that many will have to finally get to try in this console generation.

Marion Frayna

The post Geek Review: Demon’s Souls (PS5) appeared first on Geek Culture.

Sony Removes Cyberpunk 2077 From PlayStation Store With Full Refunds Assured

Marion Frayna — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 02:29:32 +0000

Cyberpunk 2077 has endured quite a messy release despite having been lathered with praise by critics (ourselves included). Unfortunately, its troubles certainly aren’t over with Sony pulling the game from the PlayStation Store.

Sony also issued a statement promising PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 players full refunds for those who bought the game via the PS Store. The company prompts those who want a refund to visit their official website to submit a request.

SIE strives to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction, and we will begin to offer a full refund for all gamers who have purchased Cyberpunk 2077 via PlayStation Store and want a refund. Please visit the following link to initiate the refund: https://t.co/DEZlC0LmUG.
— Ask PlayStation (@AskPlayStation) December 18, 2020

Here’s the full statement on the PlayStation website:

SIE strives to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction, therefore we will begin to offer a full refund for all gamers who have purchased Cyberpunk 2077 via PlayStation Store. SIE will also be removing Cyberpunk 2077 from PlayStation Store until further notice.
Once we have confirmed that you purchased Cyberpunk 2077 via PlayStation Store, we will begin processing your refund. Please note that completion of the refund may vary based on your payment method and financial institution.

Interestingly, if one were to search for Cyberpunk 2077 on the PS Store at the time of writing, they would end up with something like this:

Of course, those who choose to opt out of a refund will still be able to play the game on their system as updates and patches can still technically be downloaded onto the game. Whether CD Projekt Red actually releases said updates officially, despite the game having been taken down from the PS Store, remains to be seen.

CD Projekt Red’s reputation certainly took quite a hit following the rather messy release of Cyberpunk 2077. Hopefully it manages to fix the many issues that currently plague the game across all the platforms it released on, most especially on last-gen consoles, before it can be released back onto official physical and digital retailers.

Also, the game’s Tweet back in 2018 certainly didn’t age well (thanks, Kotaku):

Whole game is going to be a meme.
— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) July 2, 2018

Yikes.

Marion Frayna

The post Sony Removes Cyberpunk 2077 From PlayStation Store With Full Refunds Assured appeared first on Geek Culture.

Original Star Wars Boba Fett Actor Jeremy Bulloch Dies Aged 75

Marion Frayna — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 01:45:29 +0000

Jeremy Bulloch, who many fondly remember as the man originally behind the suit of Boba Fett in the original Star Wars trilogy, has passed away at 75.

Jeremy Bulloch

The English actor died “peacefully” in a hospital in London, according to his agents from Brown Simcocks and Andrews.

“We are very sad to announce the death of actor Jeremy Bulloch, earlier today. He died peacefully, in hospital, surrounded by his family, from health complications following his many years living with Parkinson’s disease. Jeremy was best known for the role of Boba Fett in the original Star Wars trilogy. He had a long and happy career spanning more than 45 years. He was devoted to his wife, three sons, and ten grandchildren and they will miss him terribly,” said the agency in a statement.

Jeremy Bulloch, whose unforgettable performance as notorious bounty hunter Boba Fett has captivated audiences since he first appeared in 1980's Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, has sadly passed away. pic.twitter.com/Wekhv3rxqN
— Star Wars (@starwars) December 17, 2020

“He spent his final weeks in the wonderful care of staff at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, close to the house where he and his wife Maureen had lived together for more than fifty years. Maureen and two of his sons, Jamie and Robbie, were with him during his final days,” wrote the official JeremyBulloch.com website.

Bulloch was born in Leicestershire in 1945. His acting career began in 1958 shooting commercials as a teenager.

His rise to fame became most prominent in the 1980s, having appeared as Smithers in Octopussy (1983), as well as the aforementioned Boba Fett in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983). Bulloch also returned to the Star Wars prequel trilogy as Captain Jeremoch Colton in Revenge of the Sith in 2005.

Jeremy Bulloch’s Star Wars legacy as Boba Fett lives on in The Mandalorian, where Temeura Morrison has taken up the mantle of the iconic bounty hunter.

Marion Frayna

The post Original Star Wars Boba Fett Actor Jeremy Bulloch Dies Aged 75 appeared first on Geek Culture.

Diablo Immortal Promises No Pay-To-Win Elements; Technical Alpha To Arrive In Australia First

Marion Frayna — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 23:00:00 +0000

Following the shock that Diablo Immortal would be making an appearance on mobile devices, which came as a surprise to many at BlizzCon 2018, it seems that the only way fans can respond is with continued resistance from the community. Yet, the title seems to still be going strong, as it slowly ramps up to its eventual release.

In an interview with Geek Culture, Caleb Arseneaux, lead producer for Diablo Immortal, revealed more about the game, and as with most mobile games these days, developers are quick to declare that while there will be in-game purchases, all purchases are completely optional and only supplementary to the core gameplay experience.

Gear and weapons will have to be found by the player by just playing the game. And only from playing the game.

“At Blizzard, gameplay comes first. All of your gear is self-found [as you play the game]. That also means you cannot use in-game purchases to buy gear either. We want to ensure that players who do not spend money still have access to every piece of gear in the game as well. Second, players who choose to spend money should feel that purchases are worthwhile and deepen their engagement and enjoyment of the game and where possible, the enjoyment of other players as well,” said Arsenaux.

Caleb Arseneaux, Lead Producer, Blizzard Entertainment

Killing more and more enemies will not only net players experience and gold, but more importantly the equipment that they will equip themselves with and replace as they find something better. That means there will be no purchasing of gear of any kind in the in-game cash shop, which is the core gameplay loop of any Diablo game anyway, and, as the developers feel shouldn’t be any different even on a mobile title like Immortal.

Currently, the game is only in its technical alpha stage, which will be available to the public in limited quantities soon. Arseneaux explains that the radio silence for over two years was due to the fact that the mobile platform is relatively new to the Diablo franchise. So the team’s partnership with Chinese tech company NetEase, who is well-versed in the art of making mobile games for the commercial market was essential in the development of Diablo Immortal.

“We’ve been very busy in the past few years since our initial debut. We’ve really built out the game. The technical alpha is an immense milestone with a ton of content, new features, all of these things that we’ve been hard at work on for the past couple of years. And so we feel like our process, both internally and with our partnership with NetEase, has allowed us to make sure that we committed to quality, first and foremost, for this game, because the expectation for this game is very high. And so we want to meet the experts those expectations for veterans of Diablo but also newcomers that have never played an action RPG MMO on the phone,” explains Arsenaux.

For those who have been following the long-standing action RPG franchise since its very first game, Diablo Immortal takes place chronologically between the events of Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction, and Diablo 3. This lets Immortal serve as a narrative bridge to link the two games together, given that there is a 20-year gap in terms of the narrative timeline between them.

While the full story details are yet to be shared, players will start in Wortham, the game’s starting area, and embark on story quests, and meet with familiar faces in Diablo history such as the iconic scribe Deckard Cain, and face off against past Diablo villains in The Countess, who is back for blood against those who felled her in Diablo 2.

In addition, there will be tons of other content to pursue in side missions such as bounties, randomised instanced dungeons called Elder Rifts, and participate in multiplayer content such as Zone Trials a.k.a world bosses, and Challenge Rifts, where players get to duke it out on regional leaderboards for who can clear dungeons the fastest.

As far as playable classes go, there will be four available in the upcoming technical alpha as well as the full launch version: Barbarian, Wizard, Monk, and Demon Hunter. The two other classes that were seen in past trailers and promotional materials – Crusader and Necromancer – as well as subsequent future classes, will all be launched as part of future updates at no additional cost.

Diablo Immortal will be free-to-play on both iOS and Android. This marks the first time a brand-new game in the franchise has been released free of charge to players, which instantly makes it accessible to the ever-growing mobile demographic. While there will be in-game purchases, the developers say they are completely optional and only supplementary to the core gameplay experience.

To complement the free-to-play experience, there will be a Battle Pass system similar to most other mobile MMORPGs, where players can purchase a premium progression system that gives them access to unique quests and objectives that, once complete, will award bonus XP and gold. Like most other Battle Passes in other games, the one in Diablo Immortal will be a season-based system that refreshes its progression bar on a regular basis. On top of the premium progression track, there will also be a regular version that rewards free-to-play players as they play as well.

In addition to in-game purchases, Diablo Immortal will see a feature very much akin to that of the Auction House in Diablo 3: a player-to-player marketplace. In this online marketplace, players can put up ancillary items up for sale for additional in-game currency, such as gems and reforge stones, for some additional gold income.

However, the developers have specifically stated that this marketplace, while similar to the Auction House, is not a direct replica of that model, as no real-world money is used (market rates for items are based on in-game currency, and is based on what players are hunting for the most in the respective server), and player anonymity is enforced as they put the items up.

Though the two entities are ultimately different from one another, Diablo Immortal’s lead game designer Wyatt Cheng concedes that the team based the player-to-player marketplace on previous experiences in developing and maintaining Diablo 3’s Auction House.

“I think probably the biggest [lesson we’ve learnt from the Auction House] is that the gear is not on the market. So in [Diablo Immortal’s] market, you can’t get gear that guarantees that players ultimately want to play the game; you know if you want to make your character more powerful, you go to a dungeon, complete some quests [to earn gear]. Another lesson that we’ve learned there is that we’ve put in protections against bots. That’s not something that we talked about a lot in the past, but it’s something that we’re taking into consideration in the design for Diablo Immortal,” explains Cheng.

Wyatt Cheng, Lead Game Designer, Blizzard Entertainment

Though Diablo Immortal draws its roots heavily from the single-player action RPG experience seen in past games in the franchise, the title will include a massively multiplayer component as well. Players will be able to take on dungeons alongside others with parties of up to 4, similar to what was done in Diablo 3. In addition, there will be the aforementioned Zone Trials, massive world bosses that will spawn at regular intervals that will require practically the entire server to beat in order to gain access to equally massive rewards.

The latter feature especially, in many ways, parallels the world boss feature seen in the upcoming Diablo 4. Though Cheng ultimately dismisses the possibility of any direct overlap between the two games in terms of content, there is plenty of reason for players to look forward to Immortal simply due to the fact that its unique to the mobile gaming space, with a similar scope but much greater accessibility as it all takes place on one’s mobile device rather than logging on to a stationary PC to get in on the action.

“The Diablo Immortal and Diablo 4 teams are two separate development teams, and each team has been empowered to make the best decisions that they can for their game. So we get along well, we talk and we share ideas, but ultimately, we focus on our game and doing what’s right for that game,” said Cheng.

“In the case of Diablo Immortal, I love to be able to share that our world bosses are pretty cool. In Ashworld Cemetery, there is a ghostly carriage that comes through the area every one or two hours that all players in the zone can gather and attack. And as you deal damage to it, loot comes out and then if you manage to destroy it and all of its guards before it reaches the other end of the zone, you’ll get a big shower of loot at the end and there are all sorts of different zone events like that. So that’s a great moment for players to come together.”

So in order to get the most number of players to get together to play Diablo Immortal as one community, the development team has taken steps to ensure that the game is playable on devices that are three, four, even five years old. This is important for the team in their efforts to reach out to as big a player base as possible, given how the mobile market, especially in Asia, is a big, booming business.

“It’s very clear that our goal at Blizzard is to make sure that as many people can play the game as possible,” said Arseneaux. “So we want to be able to afford to support as wide a range of devices as we can, while still making sure that it’s a great experience for players. We don’t have the full details on [the technical specs for mobile devices] yet, but we will have details [at a later date].”

The stage is set for Diablo Immortal to launch on mobile devices, though Blizzard has yet to announce a release date for the final version of the game. The technical alpha will be first available in Australia, though a launch date has yet to be announced as well.

Marion Frayna

The post Diablo Immortal Promises No Pay-To-Win Elements; Technical Alpha To Arrive In Australia First appeared first on Geek Culture.