Pokemon Twitch Event!

Reporting on an article from Gamespot.

I’m 25 years old. Not many times in my life have I ever said that “I feel old,” but the few times I have generally revolve around things I used to see or play when I was younger. Being a 90s kid, sometimes those rose-tinted nostalgia glasses go on and I can’t help but reminisce on my childhood. So when I hear that Pokemon is about to celebrate its 20^th anniversary on February 27^th, I can’t help but feel one thing:

Old.

But that’s ok! Because this Saturday, the official Twitch Pokemon channel will be hosting more than a day’s worth of everything Pokemon! Starting at 1PM EST, developers and other individuals important to the creation of Pokemon will have a lovely discussion about the culturally defining innovation that became the phenomenon that is Pokemon.

All hail Bird Jesus!

Then starting at 9PM EST, the official Twitch Pokemon channel will begin streaming 24 hours of nothing but Pokemon. How long has it been since you’ve seen the original series or some of the movies? Well, Saturday is your chance! Stop on by and celebrate!

Victorus aut Mortis!

-Valiant

Tom Clancy’s The Division – Two Weeks Until Apocalypse

Impression: This article is an Impression piece. It does not in any way reflect the final product of a game, but represents the author’s initial contact with a game’s demo or beta.

Hours Played: Between the closed and open betas, about 10.

Things look bleak.

I mean, I guess the apocalypse does tend to make things look significantly darker than sunshine and rainbows.

Enter The Division, an oft rumored legend among the gaming community that appeared at E3 several years ago and then subsequently disappeared for two years with nary a word or a preview. Then suddenly as though Ubisoft channeled Lazarus, the next game in the Tom Clancy line reappeared and…looked surprisingly good. Why do I say ‘surprisingly’?

Well, we’ve seen this before. Does anyone remember the debacle that was Duke Nukem Forever? Or Aliens: Colonial Marines? Those are the game that had potential and then suddenly disappeared into development hell only to suddenly rise from the grave as a zombie with a pretty looking face. Here’s the problem, though. It’s still a zombie. It wants to cull you into a false sense of security and while you have your guard down and your wallet out, it will take your hard earned $60 (I don’t do the Pounds or Euros, does this look like a British or European zombie?), slap you in the face for assuming that it wasn’t a zombie, and then run off to go develop more horrible games. Those gosh darned zombies.

The Division, however, genuinely impressed me. Set in the middle of a horrible virus outbreak in New York City, The Division puts players into the role of their very own Division agent (I know, ‘Division’ is used a lot here) and tasked with getting to the bottom of what happened to the first wave of Division agents and who could have released this virus into the city. Of course, nothing in a video game is ever that easy so you will have many obstacles standing in your way: angry rioters, various different psychopathic gangs one of which loves using flamethrowers, and several missions necessary to restoring your base of operations and upgrading your abilities and skills.

Players could smash through the beta’s content in a couple of hours and while I found the game play enjoyable, the relatively short completion time of the variety of missions leaves me concerned. Before we dig into that, let me discuss the things I greatly enjoyed about The Division.

Games with excellent weather effects make me giddy. When the snow began to fall and visibility dropped to about 5 meters in front of you, when night time approached and the broken lights of a suffering city sparked on, and when the sun hits the fallen snow on the ground, it all makes me swoon. The Division does an excellent job at setting the mood and creating a wonderful atmosphere. I can’t stress enough how much I enjoyed just walking around the city and taking it all in.

The overall story of The Division has promise and Ubisoft tells different pieces of that story through interactive sequences called ‘echoes’. These echoes begin a small visual and audio recording of an event that transpired in an area and like any triple-A game, the voice acting and sound design gives players a sense of exactly what happened. One of my most intriguing, yet horrifying echoes presented a couple in a car panicking to escape while a group of psychopathic gangers known as ‘The Cleaners’ began to torch their car…with them in it. You don’t actually see any of the images (the screen is this static hologram made up of different colored dots that outlines people and objects), but the sheer fact that you heard this couple screaming for their lives sent goose bumps up my arms. After that, I swore to find every Cleaner in the city and mercilessly eliminate them.

These bastards deserve a good whooping.

Like any Tom Clancy game, shooting should take the forefront of the medium and The Division pulls this off relatively well. It reminds me a great deal of Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, a game I absolutely adored and found the gunplay within the game above par. Like Future Soldier, you have the ability to customize your weapons with a good variety of modifications (though not as much as you could in Future Soldier’s ‘gunsmith’) and modify how your firearm performs in the field. Rapid fire weapons such as submachine guns, assault rifles, and light machine guns can potentially suppress a target and force them to huddle behind cover so your friends can flank and finish them off. NOT ENOUGH GAMES DO THIS. Future Soldier had a suppression mechanic similar to this and it greatly amplified the usefulness of the LMGs as well as granted XP during multiplayer matches for any player who suppressed another. It encouraged teamwork and I can’t stress enough how much I enjoy having this in The Division.

Your skills and abilities range the gamut from a healing gun to a deployable shield with some defensive turrets sprinkled in. They all seem quite fun and really let you change your play style to match whatever you’d like or to compliment the style of your friends. Even better, once you’ve unlocked an ability, you have the option to further upgrade and customize it and you can seamlessly switch between any unlocked abilities with a few button presses. You are not beholden to one particular tree of skills. Though the beta didn’t have a large number of choices for your abilities (and completely ignored the interesting ‘perks’ section of the game), the taste I received left me wanting more.

Finally, let’s discuss the Dark Zones, The Division’s PvP zones that allow players to acquire some spectacular loot while facing very difficult enemies and potentially other players. When you enter into a Dark Zone you are labeled as ‘non-hostile’. In order to extract any loot you’ve acquired, you have to head to a designated extraction zone, fire off a flare (which warns everyone that an extraction helicopter is on the way), and wait 1:30 for the helicopter to arrive. The tension this creates has an intensity I haven’t felt in a game for some time. The worst part? Someone could kill you and take your loot! Here’s how it works: should you choose to shoot and kill another player (thus forcing them to drop any loot they’ve collected), you are tagged as ‘hostile’ and any player can shoot at you freely. It’s a massive risk, but one that could potentially pay off. Hunting hostile players became a favorite activity of my friends and me, for we enjoyed punishing the jerks who hunted down innocent people just trying to upgrade their gear. This creates a fascinating dynamic.

Yet it also presents a possible issue. During the open beta, I explored the Dark Zone as I had done in the closed beta. Though you shouldn’t go alone, I had meandered through the more terrifying parts of the DZ alone before and felt confident in my ability to take down NPCs. All went well until I saw a rogue agent running from two non-hostile agents in the subway. I joined in on the hunt and helped them take him or her down, receiving some lovely XP and some Dark Zone cash (used to purchase things from Dark Zone vendors). The three of us exchanged nervous glances, but then noticed another rogue agent farther in the subway. Charging at him, we quickly backtracked when we noticed that six other rogue agents followed him or her. They created a roving gang of rogues who quickly dispatched the three of us and took any loot we had. It sucked and none of us could do anything. They terrorized the southern half of the Dark Zone until I left. It was the first time I didn’t have fun playing The Division.

The Division also has a series of in-game items you can collect in order to gain more information about the story. While you can access these items in-game (unlike Destiny), I fear that Ubisoft might resort to a reliance on the echoes and collectibles to tell the story. Even then, the story itself has promise but does still reek of the usual Tom Clancy flavor. Not that I’m opposed to the usual Tom Clancy (rest in peace) storytelling! I simply fear that The Division will become predictable. Also like Destiny, this game presents itself as an ‘MMO, but not really an MMO’ and while I logged over 600 hours in Destiny, I became innately aware of just how little content it had. The Division follows the same vein as Bungie’s prolific shooter and I only hope it promises more content than Destiny did. Otherwise, players will quickly burnout and turn to another source of entertainment.

Some news sites complained about how enemies became bullet-sponges capable of absorbing an entire clip’s worth of ammunition without even missing a step. Though Tom Clancy games generally prefer to make both the player and the enemy easy to kill (bullets tend to do that), The Division doesn’t suffer from changing the formula. It is a third person shooter/RPG after all! Sometimes, however, it does seem a little absurd that a large man wearing what looks like a knockoff costume of the Pyro from Team Fortress 2 can take 8 clips and multiple grenades before he dies. I don’t think that incorporating RPG elements into a game necessarily means that opponents, especially bosses, should use fewer tactics. Yes, you could focus on his fuel tanks to whittle his health down faster, but I prefer an intelligent and tactical fight. Hopefully not all of the boss enemies are like this.

The Division releases for the Xbox One, Playstation 4, and PC on March 8^th. I hope to see you all in the Dark Zone! Let’s hunt some hostile agents together!

Victorus aut Mortis!

-Valiant

Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie

This is the first part of a two part article about Warhammer 40,000 animation and media, where it’s been in the recent past, and what we can look forward to in the coming years.

You all have to trust me. I’ve locked him away. I’ve attached him to adamantium chains that even a Primarch couldn’t break. Who am I talking about?

That Warhammer fanboy that likes to break out of his imposed exile and muck up the place when anyone even says the words ‘Raven’ or ‘Guard’ in a sentence (let’s be honest, a paragraph) together. I promise that I locked the door and threw away the key. But he has his ways.

You’re all probably wondering why I chose to discuss a movie made in 2010. It’s simple, really: We have to understand the past in order to move forward into the present. If this is the first time you’ve ever heard of Warhammer 40,000 (sometimes affectionately called ’40K’ by its fan base), then you have quite a lot of catching up to do. Go look it up on Google. There’s a whole wiki dedicated to the universe and let me tell you, it’s incredibly substantial. Go ahead! I can wait…

Finished? I doubt it. No worries, however, for I can give you a quick version of the universe. Don’t tell my boss this, but it just might be the best thing the British ever made. 40,000 stands for the 41st millennium, a time when humanity exists within a stagnating futuristic society ruled by the Imperium of Man, the literal juxtaposition of the Medieval Catholic Church and Medieval Europe tens of thousands of years into the future where mankind numbers in the trillions and is constantly beset by aliens, traitors, and the forces of the Chaos gods. In the 31stmillennium, this spectacular individual of legend called ‘The God-Emperor of Mankind’ began his Great Crusade to reunite all of the scattered vestiges of humanity under one rule: his. Using his own supernatural DNA, he created 20 sons called Primarchs in order to assist him in his mission. The gods of Chaos, understandably upset that the Emperor wanted to rain on their parade, tossed his infant Primarchs into the void and each one landed on a world far away from Holy Terra.

Does this stop the Emperor? Of course not! He instead creates superhuman warriors using parts of each Primarch’s DNA and calls them ‘Space Marines’, with each Primarch getting his own legion of warriors that shares his specific DNA. The Emperor eventually reunites with all of his sons, a LOT of bloodshed occurs, fully half of his sons (and their respective legions) betray dad, and while the Emperor and his loyal sons win this event called the ‘Horus Heresy’, the Emperor is critically wounded and forced to remain on the Golden Throne, an advanced type of life support. Humanity understandably panics and in a moment of brilliance, they decide to do the only natural thing that anyone would do: completely throw away the Emperor’s desire to create a society based on science and reason, become a feudal religious state where human life is worth practically nothing, and the Emperor is worshiped as a god (thus the God-Emperor). This creates 10,000 years of stagnation where technology barely advances (and in some cases, regresses) and things slowly escalate.

*I apologize to any Warhammer veterans who may read this article. There’s a great deal of information and background to this universe and I hope that very short version provided enough to enlighten the nonbelievers. Let’s move on to the movie.*

Created in 2010 and directed by Martyn Pick (Evil Never Dies), Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie follows the story of a squad from the Ultramarines chapter of Space marines who respond to a distress signal sent by some of their brothers from the Imperial Fists chapter. Written by Dan Abnett, a prolific writer heavily involved in many of the Warhammer novels, the movie does a reasonable job at staying true to the lore of the universe while providing fans of the tabletop game with several iconic set pieces: Humanity vs. Chaos, weapons nearly as large as a normal human, and the obsessive warrior tradition of the Adeptus Astartes (Space Marines).

If Ultramarines accomplished anything as a film, it was the voice actors who lent their talent in order to breathe life into the characters. Known for his roles as the Prophet of Truth in the popular video game series Halo and Chancellor Valorum in Star Wars Episode I – The Phantom Menace, along with many other superb characters, Terence Stamp plays Captain Severus and truly helps bring depth to this movie. Along with Stamp, John Hurt (you Potterheads know him as Mr. Ollivander) voices Chaplain Carnak and Sean Pertwee (Alfred Pennyworth in Gotham) plays as Brother Proteus, the obligatory headstrong warrior who wants to prove himself in the field of battle. The story has predictability to it and without the superb cast of actors, along with the impressive musical score by Adam Harvey, I feel as though Ultramarines would have failed spectacularly.

The story itself doesn’t present anything new or dynamic to this long running, fictional universe. I sometimes wonder if Games Workshop wanted to pander to a wider audience with this film; while certainly not horrible, I am familiar with Dan Abnett’s work and am well aware that his storytelling can significantly eclipse anything Ultramarines set out to accomplish. The animation helped set the mood for the dreary situation in which the Ultramarines find themselves and though certain portions of the animation had stunning detail (did you see Chaplain Carnak’s armor?!), the environmental details of the Shrine World felt bland, and the facial and body animations made the Space Marines look like the plastic models you assemble out of the box. Perhaps Martyn Pick, Games Workshop, and the production team set out to intentionally create the movie in this manner, or maybe they couldn’t afford anything more. The latter reason has plagued many potentially wonderful projects in the past and detractors can levy little blame against the production crew. The former, however, asks for criticism. 2010 saw phenomenal animation in the form of superb hits such as How to Train Your Dragon and Batman: Under the Red Hood; either style could have been modified and adapted to the grim future of Warhammer 40,000.

Despite all of this, I adore this movie. I really shouldn’t. It’s about the Ultramarines, Games Workshop’s poster boys for the franchise (who are apparently, according to the movie,are the “best” of the Space Marines). It’s incredibly predictable, the combat looks like a Nintendo 64-era fighting game, and it accomplishes absolutely nothing in terms of the greater storyline of Warhammer. Yet I want to watch it again. By the Emperor, the fanboy is loose! It’s a Warhammer  40,000 MOVIE! How many of these do we get?

Not many. Ultramarines, however, had potential. This potential can be realized. With a dedicated animation team willing to create beautiful content, actors who burn with a passion for their craft, and a talented production crew, fans could very well get the Warhammer 40,000 movie they deserve. It’s not that it might happen…

It can happen.

What does the future hold?

Hopefully a lot of grimness and darkness.

And Erasmus Brosdau can help.

Victorus aut Mortis!

-Valiant

Stay tuned next week when we talk about The Lord Inquisitor and the potential for the Warhammer 40,000 universe in the digital medium.

‘Michael Fassbender’ Reveals New Information On ‘Assassins Creed’

Hollywood star Michael Fassbender opens up about his latest film Assassins Creed in a recent article on Empire Online.

In the interview, Fassbender likens the popular game adaptation to seminal sci-fi film The Matrix explaining “the idea of DNA memory elevates it from a basic fantasy genre [story]. Because you have something an audience can actually believe in.“

Realistic elements also extend to how the film was shot with the British actor revealing that the film used “very little green screen” which Fassbender described as “highly unusual.” Fans will also be glad to hear that the game franchise’s classic ‘leap of faith’ will be in the film with the actor disclosing that the stunt was done by professionals using wires.

The film, also starring Marion Cotillard and Ariane Labed, wrapped in January with the film expected for release on December 21, 2016.

For all your Assassin-Adaptation-News, stick with @mitch_rated only on Skatronixxx

Ubisofts ‘Assassins Creed’ Movie Wraps

Can’t wait for this – Skatronixxx

Fans of the Parkour roaming Assassins Creed are one step closer to seeing their favourite game realised on screen as Ubisoft’s movie wraps. A picture from the last day filming was posted by head of content Azaïzia Aymar confirmed to be have taken on January 15.

​​

 I can’t wait for this film YAY!!! – Skatronixxx

The film is expected to be the first in a projected franchise mirroring Ubisoft’s succession of games revolving around a secret society of Assassins and they never-ending fight through the ages against the Knights Templar.

It was revealed by Yahoo! back in August last year that the movie will be an original story with Michael Fassbender portraying Callum Lynch who was “created specifically for the film.” The movie will follow Lynch who “discovers he is a descendant of the secret Assassins society through unlocked genetic memories that allow him to relive the adventures of his ancestor, Aguilar.” Fans should expect the movie to reflect the games format with Lynch time-hoping between the modern day and 15th century Spain where he must gain the knowledge and skills “to take on the oppressive Knights Templar in the present day.”

Actress Marion Cotillard will also appear alongside Fassbender in an as-of-yet undisclosed role. But Ubisoft have confirmed that the movie will exist within the same universe as the games, with the modern day setting a key element in the film. Could Cotillard be a blast from the gaming past? Wouldn’t be the first time she has portrayed a character who is revealed to be an integral part of the cinematic past, just ask Batman.

Given cinema’s past failures with adapting games to celluloid. Assassins Creed fans have become increasingly worried after the films lead actor admitted in December to Entertainment Weekly that he “hadn’t played it before these guys approached me.” Although this isn’t a crime worthy of incarceration, although i’m sure ardent fans would believe otherwise. The actor did at least revealthat he has since played at least one of Ubisofts many titles in order “to get an idea of the physicality of the character.”

Phew, panic over.

For all your Parkour-Stabby-Assassin News, stick with @mitch_rated only on Skatronixxx.com

‘Pokemon Go’ Will Introduce Region Specific Pokemon

Regional Pokemon? Will we see a West Country Bulbasor and a Cockney Squirtle? – Skatronixxx

Pokemon Go will be the Mobile game that every pocket monster fan will be craving to download.  Essentially an Augmented Reality game that will drop Pokemon into the real world via you handheld devices display, gamers will be able to battle, capture and trade their favourite Pokemon.

The games developer John Hanke revealed that the little critters will be everywhere, “You can  walk out of the house and within five minutes, you can find Pokemon.” 

The developer also revealed that even though Pokemon will be easy to find but Gyms on the other  hand “will be a bit more rare.” Meaning to in order to level up your team and battle fellow trainers will be a concerted effort to find.

Hanke continued the list of new information confirming that different types of Pokemon will be discovered in their natural environment such as water types may only be found by the water. But also that some types, such as rare Pokemon “will only exist in certain parts of the world. Very rare  Pokemon may exist in very few places.”

This could mean that a Pokemon who is regular face down your street may be considered rare to other trainers, opening up the need to trade with other gamers as you compete to be better than all the rest.

It has already been confirmed that Pokemon Go will have regular competitive events when the game is released sometime in 2016.

If you can’t wait however enjoy the release trailer below.

For all you Pokemon news, stick with @mitch_rated only on Skatronixxx.com

Witcher Movie Coming In 2017

First was an update of WOW now we get The Witcher, what game will be next?

Video game movies seem to be hitting their stride as a string of movies appear on the horizon. Both Director Duncan Jones Warcraft and Justin Kurzel’s Assassins Creed will be making their way onto the big screen next year, but now the popular game series Witcher joins them.

In a press release by Polish film company Platige Image, they announced that they have joined forces with Sean Daniel Company, the team behind The Mummy franchise, to adapt the novels on which the games are based. According to Platige Image the film adaptation will be directed by Tomasz Bagiński, the man who was behind the cinematics on the Witcher games and also was nominated for an Oscar for the animated short film The Cathedral.

Currently the creative director at Platige Company, Bagiński’s feature length Witcher film will focus on Geralt, the main protagonist of the The Witcher novels and games. With themes from the short novels The Witcher and Lesser Evil providing much of the frame work for the film, fans will relive the events from Lesser Evil that details how Geralt gained the moniker of ‘the butcher of Blaviken.’

Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans will also be excited by the presence of Thania St. John, who has written for numerous television show including the seminal slayer-with-a-tude series. Who has been tapped to write the screenplay for the film scheduled for release in 2017, the first in which is

It is also worth noting that the film wont be the first to be based on the Witcher, with Polish film The Hexer released in 2001. The film started life as an unreleased 13-episode Tv series that was chopped down to 2 hours. Directed by Marek Brodzki, who has worked with Steven Spielberg on Schindler’s List, the film was poorly received by critics and fans alike. The film was eventually released as the 13-episode intended series but although more coherent than its predecessor, the series was much maligned and criticised for changes to its source materiel.

Since Project Cd Red released The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt earlier this year, the game has already garnered much praise including talk for game of the year amongst gaming sites. With a beloved series such as The Witcher on its hands, it will be interesting to see how the adaptation will handle fan expectations and film-goers pre-conceived apprehensions when it comes to game adaptations.

For all your gaming news, stick with @mitch_rated only on Skatronixxx.com

Warcraft Will ‘Rights The Wrongs’ Of Video Games Adaptations

 I’m intrigued by this – Skatronixxx

With the trailer for Director Duncan Jones’ video game adaptation Warcraft released this week, buzz has begun for the film based on the widely popular MMO World of Warcraft.

In a recent interview with The Guardian, Jones expressed that as a fan of the games series it was ‘a unique opportunity to take a game that I knew well and loved and try to craft something that would invite an audience to see what all the fuss was about. I wanted to give people a sense of why so many people play and care about the game.’

Based on the game released in 2004, the story of Jones Warcraft will focus on both sides of a war between Man and Orcs that threatens to tear apart the region of Azeroth. As leader of man, Anduin Lothar (played by Vikings actor Travis Fimmel), and Chieftain of Orcs, Durotan (Toby Kebbel), the two start on a collision course that will decide the fate of their family and friends in a war where everyone has something to fight for. ‘The protagonists on each side are noble and empathetic,’ explains Jones. ‘They have reasons for doing what they’re doing that we understand. Both the humans and the orcs present rich cultures in their own right, with people you care about and people who are obnoxious.’

With Ubisoft’s Assassins Creed currently in production and Naughty Dog keen to get there hugely popular adventure series Uncharted off the ground. The success or failure of Warcraft may determine if today’s movie goers have an interest in video game adaptations. ‘I love games and I feel they’ve been sold short shrift in films so far,’ quips the director. ‘It’s my generation’s opportunity to right that wrong.’ With the recent renaissance of comic book movies as an example, Jones expressed his confidence that ‘there is no reason why video game-based movies shouldn’t be able to do the same thing.’

 This looks surprisingly good – Skatronixxx

With the film scheduled for released next summer, only time will tell if the first film in a planned trilogy will inspire audience to delve into the world of Warcraft.

Are you a fan of the popular-MMO and keen to see the film? Does the trailer work for you?
Sound off on Twitter and as always, stick with @mitch_rated only on Skatronixxx.com

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