Upcoming PC title Terrian Saga: KR-17 has chosen an... interesting way to market itself by looking to '90s era video game commercial for inspiration.

If you remember commercials like this one advertising The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening for the Game Boy, then this trailer will look very familiar to you.

As far as the game goes, a classic platformer with 60 levels with 8 bosses, is coming to PC by way of Steam on July 9, with a Mac release planned for July 29.

You can check out the trailer below.

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For more on Terrian Saga: KR-17, you can check out the game's official website here.

The Japanese website for Hyrule Warriors recently showcased some of the costume DLC for the game.

Right now, the DLC is only confirmed for the Japanese version of the game. There are multiple planned editions for the Japanese version of the game called the Premium and Treasure Box. These outfits are part of the courage and wisdom costume costume sets. Presumably a power costume set is also planned in the interest of finishing out the Triforce. More DLC costumes are planned, but these are all that have been revealed so far.

For more on Hyrule Warriors, check out trailers for Link wielding the Master Sword and the Fire Rod, the appearance of Lana, Zant, And Agitha, Zelda, and Impa. For more, check out our hands-on impressions from E3, an interview with the team, and the title's E3 trailer. Hyrule Warriors will be out on September 26 on Wii U.

[Source: Hyrule Warriors via Siliconera]

A little over nineteen years ago, the epic known as Chrono Trigger released in Japan for the Super Famicom. The project was a consolidation of talent between people like Hironobu Sakaguchi, Yuri Hoiji, Akira Toriyama, and Nobuo Uematsu. The game borrowed ideas from the likes of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Secret of Mana, and even things like Ridley Scott's Alien series. Today, Chrono Trigger is revered as one of the greatest games of all time. It has been ported to PlayStation, Nintendo DS, mobile platforms, and is available on the Wii Virtual Console and on the PlayStation Network as a classic download. I do not consider Chrono Trigger to be my favorite game of all time, but it does hold a special place in my heart. When I first tried it out in its Nintendo DS form several years ago, I was awed by how great the game held up over a decade after its original release. After playing countless games over the years, my mind still goes back to Chrono Trigger every once in awhile, and for good reason; in my mind, Chrono Trigger is the closest thing to perfect the video game industry has ever achieved.

Time-travel is my favorite science-fiction element, and it's used in full force throughout Chrono Trigger. After an incident involving a teleportation device built by his friend Lucca, the protagonist Crono goes through a strange portal after a girl named Marle who had been pulled inside. Crono discovers that he has traveled from his native 1000 A.D. to 600 A.D.-four-hundred years into the past, during the period known as the Middle Ages. As the game goes on, Crono, Marle, and Lucca travel to various times and lands through more portals, meeting a brevity of characters from different backgrounds. After discovering that humanity is essentially wiped out in 1999 A.D. thanks to a giant creature known as "Lavos", the party resolves to prevent the disaster and the bleak future they witness.

The story takes many twists and turns, all of them greatly enjoyable. There is enough humor in place (mainly in the fiend Ozzie) to not make the journey entirely gritty, but there are also very dark, real moments that make the fantasy world believable. Crono and his friends fight in a war, infiltrate derelict facilities, and fight a zealous, corrupt queen. Each era of time feels distinct in its own right, but you're able to see how the world has evolved over time, and where humanity ended up settling. This creates a feeling of having one grand story being separated into various parts, all perfectly linking up to each other. Most stories involving time-travel end up confusing players in some form, but Chrono Trigger doesn't suffer the same fate; parallels are drawn, and connections are clearly shown. This means that really anyone, young or old, can get a good grasp on Chrono Trigger's story. 

Chrono Trigger's great plot is advanced by its fantastic cast of characters. The silent Crono, who appears similar to characters like Goku of Dragon Ball (the art for the game was done by Akira Toriyama, Dragon Ball's creator), is sort of left up to player interpretation in how nice he is, but it can't be denied that he cares for those around them, and is dedicated to protecting his friends. Marle, Crono's mysterious friend, acts as a potential love interest for Crono, but the idea is left out of the plot enough that it isn't a distraction, and she's made headstrong in her own right. Crono's childhood friend, Lucca, is a whiz at technology, and helps explain the time-gate portals early on in the story. Frog, an anthro-morphic frog from the Middle Ages, is a fierce swordsman who seeks to avenge his fallen brethren. Robo, a humanoid robot from the future, is a really fun character who must come to terms with some of his original functions. And Ayla, a prehistoric cavewoman, speaks with her brute strength and fights for survival against the Reptiles.

Besides just the party characters, there are also people like Magus, the fiendlord responsible to trying to defeat humanity in 600 A.D., Tome the explorer, and the Guru of Time, Gaspar, who watches from the End of Time. None of the named, fleshed out characters feel trivial, and some of the non-named ones even feel memorable at times, such as one town's mayor who's so greedy he gives you money to spin around and cluck like a chicken. To me, there is no real flaw in Chrono Trigger's story, or characters. They all flow together perfectly, and make for a very enjoyable experience.

Of course, the story and characters are only half of the experience, since Chrono Trigger is a Japanese role-playing game. The game's combat system allows for either turn-based battles, or for an active-time based system where characters can perform actions after a set duration of time. The default is the active-time system, which is what I always used, but the old turn-based system is there for people who prefer that instead. The game is paced very well, so that if you grind just a bit, you're really set for most battles. Some bosses will be harder than others, but it comes down to knowing how to take them down above all else.

There aren't set types of enemies in Chrono Trigger, so much so as there are specific enemies with specific weaknesses and strengths. For example, the Cave Ape from the Middle Ages is very weak to Crono's Lightning attack. Some enemies will be healed by magic, and others can only be damaged by it. Talking with NPCs sometimes reveals these weaknesses, which encourages you to talk to everyone, as well as to just experiment. Most boss battles come down to figuring out the strategy you need to use. I can recall off the top of my head what to do in several different boss fights, solely because each was crafted to require different strategies. These strategies are hinted at, but aren't always laid out for you. You do have to be risky at times, and this makes Chrono Trigger have the perfect amount of balance and difficulty. 

While the characters have their own attacks, like Crono's Cleave and Robo's Laser Spin, there are also Dual and Triple Techs (techs being the name given for moves required MP consumption). These are really, really fun to perform, and reflect the characters' cooperation with each other. One such move has Crono and Frog cross swords on an enemy, and another has Crono strike Ayla with a bolt of lighting, and she proceeds to viciously attack the intended target. Executing these moves was always great, and finding the gems for the Triple Techs requires a keen eye and an explorer's determination...but they're so worth it.

As it originally released on the Super Famicom/SNES, Chrono Trigger employs sprite-based visuals in the 16-bit form...and it's absolutely gorgeous. Characters are able to display a wide range of emotions while speaking, and all of them are designed very well. Each important character is distinguishable from the others; if you look at Chrono Trigger and think it looks bad, I honestly think you should take a second look. The environments are fully fleshed out, with a sense of depth existing where it's needed. The world is just...amazing. They used the color palette of the SNES so well...the style still looks great today, better even than most games, I'd argue.

The final thing I have to mention is, of course, the soundtrack. Composed mainly by Yasuonri Mitsuda and with contributions from Nobuo Uematsu...it's beautiful. Themes likes Chrono Trigger, Corridors of Time, and Zeal Palace all come to mind, and ones like Frog's Theme just...make me so nostalgic. It definitely has my favorite soundtrack of the SNES era...maybe even of the 1990s. Chrono Trigger's music is just that good. If you've never listened to it...you're missing out, and you should be changing that now. I mean, now, this moment.

Alright, that's all I've got for today. In case you didn't see my announcement on my profile, I'm having trouble posting blogs that have YouTube videos inserted, and that just have any images. Hopefully this issue will be resolved soon...until then, hopefully you all can deal with the walls of text!

Peace.

I lost a game today. It was a good game. Well, I liked it. But there were plenty of others that didn't. It was an online only game, so when the plug was pulled, that's it. Game over. The handful of people like me, who liked the game, unfortunately they will never be able to play it again.

This isn't the first time this has happened to me. There have been plenty of games over the years that eventually become unplayable, either because the companies quit supporting them, or players just move on and you can't even scrape together enough players to meet the minimum required to start a round. Battlefield 2 was a lot like this for me. One of my favorite shooters of all time. No single player component to speak of, but some amazing multiplayer action. I don't know how familiar you are with Battlefield 2 (PC version), but you could actually "play" the game even if you didn't have the minimum number of players. It just wasn't a ranked match and it didn't really keep score...but you could at least play. As sad as it may sound, I can remember playing against two or three other players while we waited...hoping enough players would join to start a real round. It usually never happened...and so eventually I moved on to something else.

When you think about it, this is the ultimate fate of nearly every online or multiplayer only game out there. It's probably not something you think of when you buy a game. You think about playing it, not that it will eventually cease to operate. Chances are you'll quit playing the game before that happens, but that's not always the case. Sometimes the game goes away before you're ready to say goodbye. Games like World of Warcraft and EVE Online have managed to survive longer than most might've expected. But there are plenty of other games that haven't been as lucky. I have so many thoughts about this, so many questions.

Perhaps the most prevalent is the irony between me abandoning a game because I'm not interested in it and losing a game I do like because the company is no longer supporting it. When I quit playing a game by my own choosing, I don't think about the impact, if any, it has on the company or the players still playing the game. Quite the opposite is true when it's not by our doing. The response is understandable I suppose. I've seen everything from anger and hatred, to sorrow and gloom. I understand and sympathize with players who feel robbed when a game shuts down because of a company decision, but I also understand the decisions that often lead to this outcome. I look at a game like Titanfall and I expect it to be around for years to come. But I can also see me playing it longer after most gamers have hit Gen 10, got bored with it and moved on. Then what?

It's hard to say whether this issue is getting better or worse. I mean, from a technology standpoint, it seems like it should be better because servers are cheaper, more powerful and sustainable. With cloud computing and similar technologies, you could run an online game forever...if you (you being the game company) want to spend the money on it. When you look at PC games that rely on services like Steam, you assume this well greatly improve a game's longevity. But when you hear of companies who don't meet their sales goals, or worse, start struggling for money...it seems like an obvious first step to cut. And when companies shutdown altogether, well that will almost certainly mean death to an online game. And I'm sure most game companies don't plan on running an online game forever, so there has to be some threshold to decide when to pull the plug. Is it how much it costs? Is it how many people are playing the game still? Is it how long the game has been running? Is it a combination of all these factors? I don't know for sure, but I do know as much as I hate to say it, no game is going to last forever...no matter how much you or I want it to. It sucks. I'll be the first to admit it. But it's inevitable.

While I mourn the loss of a great game, I'm thankful I knew it at all. And to my friends and fellow warriors, you know who you are... Goodnight sweet prince. Salute.

Cheers.

 own the complete 'Sniper Elite' series, and i really enjoyed this one. I always disable the assist features by playing on authentic because otherwise it makes the game too easy and boring. BTW i recommend it to do the same with Ground Zeroes! The flaws and glitches are sometimes hilarious at times and do not break the game imo. It runs pretty smooth on my PS4 and i expect there will be a patch that will fix some of these imperfections! Great game!

People constantly pat themselves on the back for drawing comparisons between the Wii U and the Gamecube.  And rightfully so.  The parallels are eerie:  Wind Waker has been remade on the Wii U, the sales for both failed to meet Nintendo's expectations, the Wii U will soon adopt Gamecube controller support, and heck the idea of the Gamepad likely originated from the GBA-GCN Link Cable that Nintendo experimented with in the early 2000's.  Let's stop to think about this though:  even though the Gamecube enjoyed less than admirable sales, is it really a BAD thing for the Wii U to be similar to it?  I contend quite the opposite; the Gamecube years were a time of experimentation for Nintendo, and while some of their ideas during this time period failed miserably (I'm looking at you eReader), many welcome innovations came about from this.  New IPs like Pikmin and Chibi Robo were born.  The established formulas for existing Nintendo IPs were shaken up in the form of games like Metroid Prime, which reimagined the very way we perceived our beloved franchises.  Nintendo tried out new ideas in their games, such as a more open-world Zelda in the form of Wind Waker, fleshing out Luigi's personality and letting him star in his own game, and trusting their long-time rival Sega enough to let them make an F-Zero game.  The Gamecube may not have lit up any sales charts, but it was an admirable system and was arguably the last Nintendo console where the once industry-kings were willing to take great risks, at times to great results.

This blog will be the first in what I intend to be a series where I discuss how the Wii U should embrace its similarities to the Gamecube as a system to produce exciting new ideas, and surprising new software.  Today, we're going to be examining a game that, alongside Super Mario Bros. 2, is considered the "black sheep" of the Super Mario franchise.  Super Mario Sunshine implemented a plethora of new ideas that greatly distinguished it from its immediate predecessor, Super Mario 64.  Some hate the game, others love it; it's a very polarizing title.  In recent years, Mario games have become increasingly derivative:  look no further than the New Super Mario Bros. games and you'll notice that a franchise once loved for trying new ideas and knocking gamer's socks off has become comfortable getting by on its pedigree name alome rather than truly paving new ground like it once did.  In this article, I will detail how the next 3D Mario game (which has been confirmed to be in development) should borrow a few ideas and concepts from Super Mario Sunshine to deliver a shocking experienc,e the likes of which haven't been seen since Super Mario Galaxy in 2007.  With that unnecessarily long introduction out of the way, let's begin!

The next 3D Mario game should take a few pages out of Sunshine's book to wow players once more.

1) Enough With The Sequels...

Let me clear something up now, the theoretical Mario game I'm about to describe is not "Super Mario Sunshine 2" as you'll soon notice.  If you stop to think for a moment, the last Mario game that wasn't a sequel to an existing game in the series was Super Mario 3D Land in 2011, and before that it was Super Mario Galaxy in 2007.  Since that year we've seen New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Super Mario Galaxy 2, New Super Mario Bros. 2, New Super Mario Bros. U, and Super Mario 3D World.  Don't misunderstand what I'm trying to say:  most of those games were excellent and worthy of Mario's name as a seal of quality.  However, these games essentially expanded on the ideas of their predecessors, and in some cases literally ran on the same engine as the original.  That's not the exciting and daring Mario we're used to.  The next Mario platformer should take inspiration from some of the original Mario titles and come up with exciting new ideas and gameplay mechanics rather than expand upon existing ones, just like Super Mario Sunshine did back in 2002.

The next Mario game better not be a sequel to this, or I will internally rage for years to come.

2) ...and the Themed Worlds!

While games like the Mario Galaxy games have delighted gamers with wacky worlds to explore that couldn't be seen anywhere else, it seems like for the most part Nintendo has been recycling the same environments over and over again in recent Mario titles.  There's only so many times I can play through desert, forest, fire, and ice levels before I get bored.  On the other hand, Super Mario Sunshine had strangely themed worlds that revolved around it's vacation-spot setting.  The levels of Super Mario Sunshine consisted of beaches, seaside resorts, hotels, amusement parks and harbors.  The next 3D Mario could take place in say, a tropical setting, with levels consisting of dense rainforests, raging rivers, dank and foggy swamps and the inside of a volcano.  Or something.  Level design isn't my forte, but I do think it'd be exciting to see the next 3D Mario experiment with a setting revolving around a central environment with uniquely themed levels.

The world of Sunshine felt very connected, and the levels all revolved around a cool vacation resort theme.  I'll take that over fire and ice levels any day of the week.

3) Make The World Fell Alive!

The worlds depicted in Super Mario Sunshine were packed with NPCs to chat up and little details and flourishes that made them feel alive, and aided to the feeling that the whole isle was connected.  You could see other levels in the distance, chat up the locals (and bounce on their head ad nauseam), don sunglasses to lower the brightness settings in charming fashion, and scour every nook and cranny for blue coins.  Most levels in Mario games feel like just that - levels that you attempt to clear as quickly as possible.  By comparison, the levels of Super Mario Sunshine felt more immersive and laid-back as you were encouraged to explore the world at your own pace.

The levels of Super Mario Sunshine were filled with NPCs to chat up, which helped heighten the feeling the world you were jumping around in was alive.

4) Place More Emphasis on Mario's Latent Abilities

It seems as though many modern Mario titles distinguish themselves from their immediate predecessors by advertising the one or two new power-ups they bring to the table.  There is nothing inherently wrong with this as items like the Cat Suit and Double Cherry put a smile on my face in last year's Super Mario 3D World.  However, advertising the return of the Tanooki Leaf as one of the main selling points for a new Mario game is downright pathetic.  Not to mention a wide variety of the "new" power-ups we have seen in recent years like the Squirrel Suit function in  similar fashion to existing power-ups.

Super Mario Sunshine had no power-ups, yet still managed to be an excellent game with a lot of variety.  It didn't depend on the cheap novelty of new items and toys, and instead gave Mario new latent abilities that could be used at any time in the form of the Spin Jump and F.L.U.D.D.  The latter in particular opened up many new doors:  F.L.U.D.D. was required to beat many of the games levels, but speedrunners and those confident in their platforming prowess could also string together exciting combos with F.L.U.D.D's various nozzles, and the game fundamentally controlled differently from every Mario game that came before it as a result.  The spin-shake maneuver in the Mario Galaxy games aimed for what F.L.U.D.D. brought to the table but failed to reach the same heights.  The next 3D Mario game needs to fundamentally alter Mario's moveset and give him new styles of jumping or some kind of permanent power-up similar to F.L.U.D.D. if it wants to bring something new to the table.

F.L.U.D.D. shook up the established Mario formula to great effect by forcing even veteran Mario players to adapt to a new moveset.  The next 3D Mario would be wise to try and make lightning strike twice.

5) "Evil" Throwback Levels

Super Mario Sunshine forced players to adapt to Mario's new moveset and then gave them the middle finger in certain levels by forcing them to do without the squirt-gun they had gotten so used to having.  A handful of the game's levels actually involved Shadow Mario temporarily stealing F.L.U.D.D,  and forcing the player to clear a level using only Mario's old-school moveset.  No fancy doo-dads to help you this time.  What made these levels so enjoyable and memorable was that they were a departure from the rest of the game, and were a welcome throwback to Super Mario 64.  Platformers are all about precise jumping and timing, and because these levels forced you to get by without F.L.U.D.D, they controlled vastly different from the ones that came before it.  In a game full of innovation and exploring new territory, these levels were a nice reference to the past, and featured a catchy remix of the original Super Mario Brothers main theme to boot.

The next 3D Mario title would be wise to take a page out of Sunshine's book and feature a few bonus levels that controlled fundamentally differently than the rest of the game to add variety to the experience.  3D World was on the right track with the Captain Toad levels, but I'd like to see them take this a step further by having these unique types of levels feature more frequently.

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The throwback levels of Super Mario Sunshine were a welcome departure from the norm.

6) A Hub-World That Isn't Shallow

Hub worlds were once a standard of the 3D Mario titles, but they've slowly faded into non-existence.  Virtually all gamers have fond memories of bouncing like a loon for hours on end in Peach's castle in Mario 64, and scouring every last inch of Isle Delfino in Super Mario Sunshine.  The Galaxy games both featured visually impressive hub-worlds, but they hid no secrets and solely existed to take you from world to world.  3D Land and World up and got rid of hub-worlds outright.  Isle Delfino is quite possibly the best hub-world in video game history.  The music was catchy, and never got old no matter how many times it looped.  There were locals to chat up, dozens and dozens of well-hidden secrets, side-quests to engage in, and a lot of little touches that made it feel alive and made it a great place to fool around in.  Indeed, one could waste hours on end running around Isle Delfino like a brainless lunatic, but dammit it was a lot of fun.  Isle Delfino wasn't even particularly large, but there was so much to do or see in it.  Modern hub-worlds are fewer and farther between, and often focus more on making the player's jaw drop over their graphics than providing them a fun environment to goof around in.  The next 3D Mario should change this and create a hub-world that would put Isle Delfino to shame.  Making it big in scope with plenty of things to do, a bundle of hidden stars to uncover, and a ton of locals to converse with and jump upon would give players a nice way to unwind in between tricky platforming bouts.  

I spent hours of my life just bouncing around Sunshine's vibrant hub world like a moron.

7) Continue the Philosophy of "Fun is First."

The reason Mario titles continue to thrive in the modern market despite not being as innovative as they used to be is because people can continue to count on them for a good time no matter what.  Even the New Super Mario Bros. games are rather entertaining if you overlook how "samey" they all are.  As long as the next Mario game continues to focus on providing players with an enjoyable experience that puts a smile on their face, it really doesn't matter if it incorporates any of the above ideas or not.  

I can't tell if this kid is having fun or possessed, but this is what came up under Google Images, so...

The next 3D Mario is still early in development; we have no idea what form it is taking and may not see it for several years.  Here I have merely brought up a few ways it can borrow ideas from the oft-forgotten Mario Sunshine to set itself apart from the pact, but  in all honesty t's doubtful that Nintendo would implement any of this.  It's more likely they're pushing the series in exciting new directions that none of us possibly could have seen coming, and wow us all with the Mario brand again.  Or they could just be making New Super Mario Bros. 3D.  Ewww.

Going into the future, I will continue to seek out ways modern Nintendo could learn from its Gamecube years, but I am always open to suggestions, so if you have any feel free to mention them in the comments below, and I will give you proper credit.  Do you think the next 3D Mario should take influence from Super Mario Sunshine?  Sound off in the comments below, and happy gaming!

Voice actor Bob Hastings has passed away at 89, after a battle with prostate cancer. While he will most likely be remembered most by geek culture fans as the voice of Commissioner Jim Gordon on Batman: The Animated Series (and related DC cartoons), Hastings also performed voice work for video games.

Hastings began his career performing radio dramas, and made the move to television in the late 1940s. He played the role of Lt. Carpenter on McHale’s Navy in the early 1960s and appeared on an episode of Batman (with Adam West) and cartoons, including The Batman/Superman Hour (1968), The New Scooby-Doo Movies (1973), and The Amazing Spider-Man (1977).

Hastings was the voice of Commissioner Gordon in Batman: Vengeance (2001) and Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu (2003). He also did voice work for Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (as Mayor Manac). His final role was as a Judge in Mafia II in 2010.

[Source: ABC News, Image: ABC]

Lindsay Lohan has been posturing for months over claims that Take-Two and Rockstar used her likeness without permission in Grand Theft Auto V. Specifically, Lohan has pointed to character Lacey Jonas, claiming that the developer and publisher have capitalized on her celebrity to sell copies of the title.

The character in question is a minor player in the story, as players help Jonas avoid paparazzi. Lohan also claims that the photo of a bikini-clad woman taking a self-photograph commonly associated with the game is modeled after her. In actuality though, it’s model Shelby Welinder (via NowGamer), who was contracted by Rockstar for the purpose.

Another day, another dollar https://t.co/SpjU1jSmCQ

— Shelby (@ShelbyWelinder) May 22, 2013

A similar suit was brought in 2006 against Sega of America by singer Kierin Kirby of Deee-Lite (“Groove is in the Heart”). Kirby alleged that Space Channel 5’s Ulala was designed to emulate her look and style.

The court awarded summary judgment to Sega, offering that the first amendment provides complete defense for misappropriation of likeness in the cases where use is “transformative.” In other words, provided that Rockstar did something new with the character, Lohan doesn’t have precedent on her side. In this case, parody or satire are not required, though would likely provide additional defense.

Grand Theft Auto V sold $800 million worth of copies to customers on its first day and topped $1 billion shortly thereafter. The title will be coming to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC later this year.

[Source: Associated Press via Joystiq, Image: Oprah Network]

Our Take
Lohan isn’t likely to win this case. Freedom of expression, the fact that the character is absolutely minor, and the added bonus of GTA’s satirical bent all should keep Take-Two and Rockstar safe in the courtroom.

Earlier today, we reported that Lindsay Lohan is suing Grand Theft Auto V publisher Take-Two over alleged unlicensed use of her likeness. We’ve laid out why she’s probably not going to be successful, but the lawsuit did get us thinking.

There have been a lot of actors represented in video games and even more that have loaned their voices to the medium. Heck, The Elder Scrolls Online features half of Hollywood all by itself (yes, that’s hyperbole).

So, we want to know who your favorite actor in a video game is. I’m still partial to Bruce Willis in Neversoft’s Apocalypse for the original PlayStation. In that game, Bruce Willis talks to you as if you’re the player character, but you’re actually controlling him (he was originally supposed to be the sidekick). I’m sure you have a better answer, though.

To give credit where it’s due, Rise of the Dark Spark elicits some genuine emotion from this Transformers fan. Unfortunately, those emotions are anger and disappointment. Activision and Edge of Reality have squandered the good will established by High Moon Studios’ strong Transformers Cybertron games, releasing a product that fails on several fundamental levels. It isn’t entertaining, doesn’t remain true to either of the disparate storylines (which should never have been linked), and can’t overcome technical performance issues.

There may have been a time that this new Transformers game was planned as another installment in the Cybertron series, but has since been co-opted as a movie-tie in, even though they’re different versions of the same story. It’s kind of like doing a crossover episode of the 1978 Battlestar Galactica with the 2004 version. The story sees the Autobots and Decepticons competing over a MacGuffin called the Dark Spark. Two sections starring the movie characters bookend a larger middle section set on the Transformers’ home planet, but the occasional moments that nod to the broader lore are ruined because the fundamental crossover concept is so ill-advised. 

The Transformers franchise doesn’t exactly live and die by great storytelling, so the narrative missteps could be forgiven if the action held up. It does not. The first few minutes of gameplay offer an ample illustration of Rise of the Dark Spark’s most potent problems. Within minutes of hitting start, you’re in the first of many wave-based fights that last too long. Bland, colorless buildings frame the environment as a poorly animated character runs forward along concrete platforms that exhibit little texture or variation. Metal, in particular, looks washed out and oddly reflective, which is a big problem in a game about massive robots. Enemies begin to spawn and run around in haphazard patterns that stand in for competent A.I. tactics. Balancing is shoddy at best; some enemy groups are too fragile to provide a meaningful challenge, while others include enemies that hit too hard and force a restart. 

Prospects improve marginally when the story abruptly jumps to the Cybertron timeline, where Edge of Reality has liberally borrowed the creatively imagined art assets from earlier games, but somehow made them look worse here than they did in 2012’s Fall of Cybertron. Level design and encounters are still a mess during the bulk of the campaign, including a few misguided attempts at platforming challenges and several points where checkpoints are too infrequent and set before cinematic sequences – never a good idea. Many of the playable robots are retreads of characters already fleshed out in the previous game, like Jetfire, Optimus Prime, or Soundwave. It’s a shame that we don’t get more new faces drawn from the vast selection of franchise characters. The boss encounters would have been another way to introduce more memorable named heroes and villains. Instead, on more than one occasion during boss fights, the opposing foe froze halfway through the fight and stood immobile as I gunned him down. Ironhide should not be such a chump. 

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Most of the game sees a fellow Autobot or Decepticon running at your side, leading to the reasonable assumption that cooperative play was once planned like in the original War for Cybertron, but that this time the idea was scrapped. Even so, your cooperative A.I.-driven allies are at least as stupid as your worst game-playing friend, regularly charging headlong into a fight, and sometimes getting killed in inconvenient locations so you’re forced to wade in and revive them. 

Audio is the expected mix of explosions and thumping action music barely audible behind the sound effects. Unfortunately, miscues on character dialogues abound, typified by enemy death screams that trigger over a second after the poor automaton has already exploded. In the final level, a single angry cry of “Let’s see what we got!” came from the speakers every 30 seconds for a full hour.

Rise of the Dark Spark includes the beginnings of a smart leveling and challenge system that unites the single-player campaign and multiplayer cooperative experience. XP is earned over time, and completing distinct challenges provides gear boxes that can be opened for blind rewards, ranging from new multiplayer characters to weapon upgrades. It’s initially rewarding to receive these unlocks, but the system gets tiresome. Every box provides too many items, and they must each be viewed individually. Unlock five gear boxes, and you could spend several minutes just button-mashing your way through the new acquisitions. Moreover, once you complete the campaign and play just a few multiplayer matches, you’re likely to have unlocked most of the content, including more one-use items than you know what to do with, so the drive for investment fades away.  

The return of the popular wave-based Escalation mode manages better than the single-player offering. The four-player cooperative action can be a good time, whether playing with friends of hopping into match-made games. The broad selection of playable characters is entertaining for fans, including favorites like the Dinobots and Insecticons. The weapons are almost all fun to use, including everything from an electrical bola gun to a corrupting weapon that turns enemies into allies.  Nearly all of these armaments are lifted wholesale from High Moon’s previous game. New upgradeable defense installations fill every one of the eight varied Escalation maps; laying out turrets, healing stations, and decoy holograms to bolster your team’s defense is rewarding.

Escalation is not without its problems. The visual and technical issues carry over into multiplayer. Awful enemy spawn placement sometimes sees the bad guys literally charging into a hail of gunfire. Enemies drop too little ammo, which is not a fun thing to contemplate amid the endless waves of bad guys. The lack of difficulty modes means that the excitement wears off after you master the 15 waves of a normal match. 

Even with a passable cooperative experience, Rise of the Dark Spark feels rushed and haphazard in execution. Making and releasing a game is incredibly hard work, and I know nothing about the behind-the-scenes decisions that led to such a poor follow-up to a solid series. Ultimately, it’s hard as a fan to feel anything beyond disappointment. If Activision cares to know, fans are indeed hungry for a new Transformers game – just not one that shamelessly tries to make us trade our hard-earned cash for junk. 

This review pertains to the console and PC versions of Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark, except for the Wii U version, which is reviewed here. The identically named 3DS title is a separate game developed by WayForward. 

Sniper Elite III is a disappointing game, but my work isn't over just because I've finished reviewing it. One task remains thanks to the Hunt the Greywolf pre-order DLC: Kill Hitler. I strapped up my boots, loaded my rifle, and set off back to Africa to take out the sinister dictator in a variety of gruesome ways.

In this DLC, the heroic sniper travels to a Nazi encampment in Africa in response to rumors that Hitler or a lookalike may be arriving. After gathering some intel about the dictator's visit, Hitler arrives on the scene (complete with his palm tree armband) for a dramatic welcoming.

Check out the video below to see all the creative ways we offed history's worst person, included a truncated version of this glorious moment.

Warning: This video is super violent.

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A Tetris lover and apparent poking enthusiast has combined his two loves into a shirt. By pushing buttons on the shirt, you can play Tetris in all its glory.

Watch as Marc Kerger demonstrates the power of 128 LEDs, a few batteries, and an Arduino processor in the video below.

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Sadly, the t-shirt isn't available to purchase and looks to be one of a kind. However, we've covered many awesome shirts in the past ranging from cool crossovers to console wars if you're looking to expand your wardrobe. For more on Tetris, you can watch Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak dominate the game. You can also check out a chat from this year's E3 between Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov and Threes creator Asher Vollmer.

[Source: The Creators Project via Kotaku]

I thoroughly enjoyed Child of Light from start to finish. The art is jaw dropping, the music is fantastic, and the core gameplay is deep and rewarding. The story leaves a bit to be desired, mostly because of the strange decision to make all of the dialog rhyme (more on that later), but it doesn't ruin the game at all and is relatively entertaining. The game is a joy to control, and after you acquire Aurora's flight ability, it is enjoyable to just fly around the beautifully crafted world and just take in the scenery. The game progresses rather linearly, but there is some room for exploration and returning to already visited places to finish side quests. I enjoyed the battle system, which rewards strategy and timing, and also the oculi crafting, which is a way to customize your character's weapons with a basic item that you craft from things you pick up in the world or loot from defeated enemies.

I think that the decision to make all of the dialog in the game rhyme was a HUGE mistake on the part of Ubisoft. After a while, it became so tiresome that I would basically just skip the dialog sequences most of the time. The rhyming felt so forced and fake and was really not a good way to tell a coherent story. I'm also not a fan of the fact that you are only allowed to use 2 characters at any one time. Granted, you can swap them out mid-fight very easily, but it felt like a waste to have a huge stable of characters, and only be able to use 2 at a time, especially when you are fighting 3 enemies at once sometimes. If the enemies can have 3, why can't I? It made me go almost the entire game not really using most of the characters that were in my party.

All in all, Child of Light is very enjoyable and a great showcase of wonderful art and music. Rhyming blunder aside, the game is definitely worth a purchase.

The past two Battlefield games have gotten off on the wrong foot with gamers, offering “beta tests” that were so close to launch that players couldn’t understand how they were meaningful. In an effort to reshape perception (and improve the experience), Visceral and EA offered a much earlier public test for Battlefield Hardline.

As a result, Visceral has shared 10 key learnings that have already impacted the way the game will work on day one. Some are fairly minor, like a stair-climbing bug on one of the maps. Others, like a change to how your game reacts while suppressed by enemy fire, will have impact across the entire experience.

Movement speed has been increased by 10 percent, and there’s an additional 10 percent bonus while running with a pistol instead of a larger weapon. The survivalist gadget, which polarized the community, is getting nerfed and will revive players at one health and auto-inject after five seconds.

Two elements on the High Tension map, the aforementioned stairs bug has been fixed and an intense camera shake during an event related to a crane has been toned down. Objective identification has been improved for different elevations in order to help player locate them more easily.

Visceral will be adding more special vehicles (like fuel trucks) to the maps. The studio is also working on a fix for those that get stuck, and you’ll likely be able to melee them to nudge them out of the way. 

Heavy vehicles will be getting weak spots in the rear so that players have a fighting chance of bringing them down. Finally, there will be better indications for vehicle occupants. It’s important to know if you’re the wheelman for the bag-carrier, after all.

Visceral will be updating the “community most wanted” list throughout development. Of course, more information will be revealed as we get closer to the title’s October 21 launch on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PC. For more, check out our hands-on coverage from E3.

[Source: Battlefield]

Our Take
Communication has been one of EA’s weak points with the Battlefield series, and this kind of communication will go far to repair some of the damage dealt to the brand by Battlefield 4. I hope that EA continues to take cues on communication from the Titanfall playbook.

 I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting to like this as much as I do. On the surface it doesn't seem like the kind of anime I would love, especially when you know a thing or two about it's background. But it all works, Witchblade takes a premise that really shouldn’t be that good, and turns it into something truly special.

For those of you who don't know, Witchblade is a series of American made comics published by Top Cow industries. I don' know the first thing about it, all I do know is that an anime adaptation was made by GONZO studios, and that I absolutely love it. It's the story of a woman named Masane trying to start a new life with her daughter Riyoko after Japan was hit with a disaster called the Great Quake. However, it get complicated when the eponymous weapon known as the Witchblade attaches itself to Masane, giving incredible power. And after being employed by a huge weapons manufacturer, she begins taking care of rouge weapons in order to make the money to support her daughter. What follows after that includes corrupt business, manufactured human weapons, strained relations and a stunning testament to the limits people will go to to protect the ones they love.

As interesting as the plot and characters are (and they're very interesting) it's all anchored by Masane and Riyoko. They carry this show through all of the admittedly silly plot turns that keep things interesting. Frankly this whole show would ring hollow if it the central conflict wasn't carried with such aching sincerity. This is especially true for the last five episodes, which are absolutely heart breaking. Only one other anime I've ever seen has ever evoked a greater emotional reaction from me. (And we're getting to it.)

I'll admit that there's a lot about this anime that can be off-putting; there's a rather uncomfortable depiction of women when the Witchblade is active, there are more than a few frustrating moments, and there's a little too much time spent on characters that really don't matter. But the stuff that makes this anime good, makes it utterly amazing. It's definitely not for everyone, but despite a bit of questionable content and subject matter, Witchblade never fails to strike a deep chord with me.

Sega has announced plans to bring its popular Japanese franchise Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai 2 to western audiences come 2015 on 3DS. The game will feature an assortment of improvements and upgrades and currently has Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai Remix as its working title.

Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai is a rhythm game that has players push buttons in a sequence. The new 3DS version will feature two control schemes, however: button or touch screen. It will also have three difficulties per song.

No further information is known about the western port yet, but we will continue covering it as more information is released. If you enjoy Japanese games, be sure to read our feature on RPGs that we want to see come to PSN.

Ubisoft has announced the first of six planned downloadable content packages for Trials Fusion is coming July 29. Titled Riders Of The Rustlands, the new content takes place in the outskirts of the main game's pristine cityscape, focusing on dilapidated industrial complexes in deserted wastelands.

Riders Of The Rustlands includes 10 new tracks, 18 new track challenges, and additional Rustland-themed track editor objects. The DLC will sell for $4.99 individually and comes at no extra charge with the $19.99 season pass, which also includes an exclusive Crater Hazmat Suit rider gear.

Ubisoft also teased the second content pack Empire Of The Sky, a locale of floating isles, arriving later this summer. In addition to paid content, expect free updates for Trials Fusion, including an online multiplayer mode slated for later this year.

For more on Trials Fusion, read our review of the core title and check out our screenshot gallery of Riders Of The Rustlands below.

BioWare has released a new profile for returning character Leliana on the official Dragon Age: Inquisition website.

This time around, Leliana will be serving as advisor to the titular Inquisition. She's grown up quite a bit since her appearances in the first two Dragon Age titles. To read more about her updated biography for Dragon Age: Inquisition, head here.

Leliana: Advisor to the Inquisition. Get a quick introduction here: http://t.co/xNVB2HqIfK#DAIpic.twitter.com/YHeNcvKnAy

— Dragon Age (@dragonage) July 2, 2014

For more on Dragon Age: Inquisition, click the banner below. You can also head here and here to see the latest trailer for the game.

[Source: Dragon Age: Inquisition, @dragonage]

Rebellion's Sniper Elite 3 is out now. We've already reviewed it and killed Hitler in the Hunt the Greywolf DLC, but we're back with a video preview of the beginning section of the game. Check out hero sniper Karl Fairburne picking off enemy soldiers on the African front with grisly slow-motion X-ray takedowns.

Ben Reeves hosts this episode alongside me (Tim Turi) as we explore the sniping and stealth mechanics of Sniper Elite 3.

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For more episodes of Test Chamber, visit our hub.