Monthly Archives: May 2016

Chronos Review

Chronos is a game about combat mastery. Hostile encounters lead you through its world, separated only by puzzles and moments of discovery. Understanding your enemies and overcoming them is key to moving forward, while death acts as the teacher that keeps you after class to discuss what you did wrong. Some foes can prove highly difficult, but learning their patterns and how they react to your actions turns such encounters from stilted and daunting to rhythmic and exhilarating. Chronos could be accused of mimicking a number of different games, but what it does with all it has makes for a highly enjoyable experience that stands on its own despite a few flaws.

A third-person action-adventure game, Chronos puts you in control of an 18 year old character, and every time you die and respawn, you age a year. With aging comes changes to your character. While you're young, there's a bigger emphasis on your strength, agility, and vitality stats, but that wanes as you grow older--your arcane stat becomes more significant, as your other three stats grow at a slower rate. Starting at age 20, you earn a trait every 10 years that grants you a significant stat boost in either strength, agility, arcane, or vitality. Getting older is just as scary as it is in real life, so staying alive feels paramount to staying strong and healthy; thankfully, it's not quite as dire as that since I felt like I needed to restart because I had gotten too old--you don't lose any of the points you assign after leveling up.

VR lends an incredible sense of scale to Chronos' world and enemies.

Your options in combat consist of attacking, dodging, and blocking. Your weapon of choice should correspond to where you're putting your skill points; if you use a sword, you'll benefit from more agility, while an axe will become more powerful with a higher strength stat. It's unfortunate that there are more strength-oriented weapons earlier in the game, as I only got a chance to switch up my sword for a worthwhile weapon when I was deep into the second half of my playthrough.

Arcane is Chronos's form of magic, though it acts less like what you'd expect and more like a power attack. However, this isn't a bad thing, as executing arcane-infused attacks is incredibly satisfying. When you get the first arcane stone, it adds a little extra kick to your heavy attacks. Additionally, your attacks become infused with the arcane magic when you dodge at the right time, further enhancing the satisfying rhythm of combat.

Puzzle solutions range from finding and combining the right items to spotting hidden points of interest in the environment. The former works every time, however, the puzzles that require a keen eye can be a pain; an early puzzle that required me to notice a relatively small detail had me stumped for quite a while. The solution consisted of looking intently at something I wasn't yet able to interact with, so I just brushed it off as something I would deal with later. Eventually, after going through every room and tinkering with every little thing a couple times, I discovered the solution and was able to progress--it was a frustrating bump in what was and would continue to be an engaging adventure.

The story revolves around three different worlds, defeating three bosses, and then slaying a dragon. There's more to it, and it even (sort of) explains why you age a year every time you die; however, it's all delivered through computer terminals, books, and other optional articles. It's not the most exciting or interesting narrative, and you won't feel lost or confused if you choose to ignore it--the sparse narrative acts more as a world-building device than anything else. Chronos allows itself to be all about the combat, puzzle-solving, and adventure.

Initially, Chronos didn't strike me as something that would make much sense in virtual reality. However, as I played, my mind was quickly changed. Chronos made things you wouldn't even think about in a non-VR game stand out in effective ways. Gigantic enemies feel huge and made my palms sweat more than I'd like to admit, and there's a type of enemy that only moves when you don't look at it--not your character, you. These seemingly small touches make a big impact when playing in VR.

Chronos made things you wouldn't even think about in a non-VR game stand out in effective ways.

Chronos is played at a fixed camera angle that shifts as you explore the world, similar to classic Resident Evil games. In one room you'll be positioned on top of a table, while in the next you could be looking down on your character from a ceiling corner. This method allows for great scene composition, adding to Chronos' already foreboding atmosphere in an awesome way. One particular moment sets a creepy mood as you--the viewer--are put behind the bars of a prison cell, watching your character move about on the other side. This approach is a defining element of Chronos, and it's a boon the majority of the time, but it proves problematic on occasion when you have to judge the location of pitfalls from an ill-fitting perspective. Enemies can also get in your way and obstruct your view, and while this is a rare occurrence, it plagues your encounter with the last boss, who's otherwise frustrating. It's a disappointing bookend to what is otherwise a game filled with fantastic enemies and rewarding combat.

Chronos' flaws are obvious, but thankfully few and far between. When you push your way through its more annoying aspects, it welcomes you with enticingly grim set pieces and tense encounters. It's a highly-rewarding game that proves you can leverage VR to enhance traditional games, but Chronos doesn't use it as a crutch; it stands tall all on its own.

IGN UK Podcast #330 – Overwatch Is Accidentally Our New Obsession

To use the parlance of our times, Overwatch has emerged out of a jungle of MOBA-infused FPS games and ganked us right in the excitement buttons. Krupa, Joe and Dale are just a little enthused about the potential of Blizzard's new characterful shooter.

And that's not to mention trips to see hidden Star Wars stories, a man nearly stabbing Gav off of a balcony, and the genetic differences between those who are... affected by asparagus. Get involved, if you please.

IGN UK Podcast #330 - Overwatch Is Accidentally Our New Obsession

Continue reading…

Take a Tour of Tokyo’s Incredible Mario-Themed Bar

If you wander far enough into Tokyo, you’ll find Star Club, an unassuming Super Mario-themed bar above a restaurant in the Shinjuku district.

Star Club may not look like much from the outside, but inside is an awesome collection of Warp Pipes, Boos, and even Mario Kart steering wheels spread throughout the bar.

Swipe through the image gallery below for a look inside of the best Mario bar you’re likely to find:

For more on Star Club, be sure to visit the bar’s official site.

Continue reading…

‘Battlefield 1′ Title, Art Leaked Ahead of Official Reveal

It appears that Electronic Arts' upcoming Battlefield game will be set in an alternative-reality World War I, and titled Battlefield 1.

An image from the game showed up this morning on Xbox Live, advertising today's Battlefield reveal livestream.

Over on Reddit, a retail promotional poster shows the same image, potentially revealing the game's title as Battlefield 1. An additional image suggests the game's release date will be October 18, 2016 and a Hellfighter Pack featuring the "Harlem Hellfighter infantry regiment."

Continue reading…

Chadwick Boseman Has a Bizarre Story About Becoming Black Panther

Chadwick Boseman has been discussing his role as Black Panther, and the "weird sign" that led up to him being offered the part of T'Challa in Captain America: Civil War.

Speaking on Live with Kelly and Michael, Boseman explained:

"It was some weird sign, sort of, that it was going to happen

 I got in a conversation with the security on set for this movie called Gods of Egypt in Australia, and we didn't really even talk about Black Panther at all, but he had them put the first issue of Black Panther - his original issue from when he was a kid - in my trailer and wrote a note that said, 'you're going to get this role'."

Continue reading…

New Pokemon Sun and Moon Details Coming Next Week

More details about Pokemon Sun and Moon will be announced next Tuesday, May 10.

Pokemon director, Junichi Masuda made the announcement on his blog, saying the information would be revealed "around 21:00 JST" on the day - that's 5am PT / 8am ET / 1pm BST.

Barring a short teaser, we've so far seen and learned very little about the new 3DS installments in the Pokemon franchise. Here are five cool things we spotted in the teaser.

Continue reading…

Witcher Studio CEO Approves of Xbox-PS4 Cross-Network Play

Marcin Iwinski, CEO of The Witcher developer-publisher CD Projekt, has come out heavily in favour of Microsoft's decision to allow for cross-network play.

"The announcement about cross-play?" he told GI.biz, "F**kin' yeah. Cross-play with other networks? That's not the Microsoft of ten years ago. No way. And Sony is very fast coming back and saying, 'Yes, yes, with us it's okay.' And that's great."

Continue reading…

Opinion: Marvel’s Civil War Shouldn’t Have Ended

The original Civil War storyline might just have the best hook ever devised for a Marvel crossover. Beneath all the punching and the spectacle, Civil War was about a very simple and fundamental question - should superheroes be held accountable for their actions? Is it right to insist that they reveal their identities to the government and submit to training and registration before heading into action, or does that violate the very ideas of personal responsibility and freedom that they stand for? We saw that conflict play out over the course of seven issues and dozens of tie-in comics, and now moviegoers are seeing a similar conflict unfold on the big screen.

But a decade later, the dust has long since settled from Civil War. And even though Marvel's heroes will soon be at each other's throats once again in Civil War II, the sequel is focusing on a completely different conflict. It's always struck me as odd that the idea of superhuman registration was quietly forgotten in the Marvel Universe. Civil War is not a conflict that ever should have truly ended.

Continue reading…

‘Get Windows 10′ Notifications to be Removed From Windows Soon

If you haven't upgraded to Windows 10 and are sick of getting notifications telling you to do so, you won't have to endure them much longer.

WinBeta reports once the free Windows 10 upgrade offer runs out on July 29, the Get Windows App will be "disabled and eventually removed" from PCs.

There was some controversy last year about PCs automatically upgrading to Windows 10 without permission from users.

Continue reading…