The locations you explore in Monster Hunter Rise have already felt the delicate touch of humanity's hand. Traditional Japanese torii can be found weaving through mountainside paths, leading to sacred shrines, while decaying temples have been reclaimed by nature as local plant life envelops the aging architecture. Signs of human life can even be found at the base of a raging volcano and in the midst of a flooded forest, where a Mesoamerican-style pyramid dominates the landscape.

If 2018's Monster Hunter World was all about unearthing a new continent as an intrepid frontiersman, then Rise is a triumphant return to the Old World with valuable lessons learned. An enhanced port of the 3DS title Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate may have already graced the Nintendo Switch, but Rise is the first game in the series built from the ground up for Nintendo's latest console. As such, Rise closely follows in the footsteps of World while reneging on some of its changes and introducing plenty of new impactful ideas that excellently shift the focus towards the series' heart-pumping action.

The core Monster Hunter gameplay loop has remained relatively unchanged as you hunt down gargantuan monsters, harvest their materials to craft new weapons and armor, and tackle increasingly tougher foes. World coalesced both the single and multiplayer parts of the experience into one cohesive whole, but Rise reverts back to the old ways by splitting them into disparate Village and Hub quests. Village quests can only be played alone, while Hub quests can still be tackled solo but are designed with multiple players in mind. This isn't the most welcome setup for newcomers since it isn't immediately clear which quests progress the story, nor is there any indication of whether or not you should be alternating between both paths. The impact this structure has on the game isn't as substantial as it initially seems, though. Hunting the same monster multiple times has always been a part of Monster Hunter's DNA, so repeating the same mission as both a Village and Hub quest is something you would typically seek out anyway.

This is amazing...... a Japanese Company is giving employees the day off for a new holiday "Monster Hunter Rise Launch Day" because so many employees were planning on taking the day off anyway.

Source: https://t.co/yY77qRCUtw — Stealth (@Stealth40k) March 23, 2021

This is amazing...... a Japanese Company is giving employees the day off for a new holiday "Monster Hunter Rise Launch Day" because so many employees were planning on taking the day off anyway.

Source: https://t.co/yY77qRCUtw — Stealth (@Stealth40k) March 23, 2021

"That is not the experience that these guys had, right? They got one shot. And how are we going to recreate that in a game? So we spent literally months bordering on years developing this technology that allows us to recreate entire sections of the city dynamically. So, not only do you not know what's going to happen when you kick open the door, but me as a designer, I don't know, right? I didn't go in and play and set up the scripting and all those stuff, it's generated."

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/11/six-days-in-fallujah-announcement-trailer"]

This tech is meant to give players a way to feel "just a little bit of what it must've been like" to be in this battle. While Griesemer acknowledges Six Days in Fallujah doesn't even come close to the experience of actual war, he hopes it will offer players context when they go into one of the included testimonials and hear a Marine talking about how he was afraid every time he opened a door.

Another big challenge for Highwire Games was making it "as easy for you to order your team to do something as it is to fire your weapon." Teamwork and coordination are essential for survival in hostile situations, and the team wanted to make sure they made this an integral and accessible part of the game.

"How do you create enemies that are actually using tactics that require a coordinated team to overwhelm them? And number two, how do we make it as easy for you to order your team to do something as it is to fire your weapon? Fundamentally, if we can make it as easy to direct your team as it is to fire a weapon, then that becomes as powerful a tool for the player as the weapon. And so that's where we get the Go command, and that's Jaime's, that's some brilliant thinking on how to do that," Tamte explained.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=six-days-in-fallujah-screenshots&captions=true"]

Hand signals are meant to be contextual so as to not confuse players, and seem to be of similar function to the ping system in games like Apex Legends. If you point at a location, your team will know to go there, if you point at an enemy, your team will know to target them or lay down suppression fire, etc.

"And if you're pointing at a door, when you say go, it means stack up on that door because we're going through it," Griesemer said. "And if you're pointing at a corner, it means secure that corner, watch that corner because I'm going to go this way, but I need somebody watching, it's a 360 battlefield, I need somebody watching that way. You can't do elaborate three-part plans with your AI, but it's very responsive, it's happening constantly, as you're going through a house, you're able to just manage your team as you're also trying to focus on a bunch of other things. And then that extends to the co-op experience too, right? If we're playing together, I don't have to just describe an elaborate plan. I can just give you the appropriate go command and you see it on your screen. You're like, okay, I understand what we're doing."

Six Days in Fallujah is set to be released in 2021 on PC and consoles, and pulls from the real-life events of the Second Iraq War – it's been a controversial project ever since it was originally announced in 2009. The game was subsequently resurrected by Victura and Highwire.

We recently spoke to a number of Arab and Iraqi game developers, members of the video game community, and a US military veteran about how Six Days in Fallujah is both complicated and painful for those who are connected to the real events the game is attempting to depict.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/16/ex-bungie-devs-new-old-fps-is-controversial-unlocked-482"]

[poilib element="accentDivider"]

"That is not the experience that these guys had, right? They got one shot. And how are we going to recreate that in a game? So we spent literally months bordering on years developing this technology that allows us to recreate entire sections of the city dynamically. So, not only do you not know what's going to happen when you kick open the door, but me as a designer, I don't know, right? I didn't go in and play and set up the scripting and all those stuff, it's generated."

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/11/six-days-in-fallujah-announcement-trailer"]

This tech is meant to give players a way to feel "just a little bit of what it must've been like" to be in this battle. While Griesemer acknowledges Six Days in Fallujah doesn't even come close to the experience of actual war, he hopes it will offer players context when they go into one of the included testimonials and hear a Marine talking about how he was afraid every time he opened a door.

Another big challenge for Highwire Games was making it "as easy for you to order your team to do something as it is to fire your weapon." Teamwork and coordination are essential for survival in hostile situations, and the team wanted to make sure they made this an integral and accessible part of the game.

"How do you create enemies that are actually using tactics that require a coordinated team to overwhelm them? And number two, how do we make it as easy for you to order your team to do something as it is to fire your weapon? Fundamentally, if we can make it as easy to direct your team as it is to fire a weapon, then that becomes as powerful a tool for the player as the weapon. And so that's where we get the Go command, and that's Jaime's, that's some brilliant thinking on how to do that," Tamte explained.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=six-days-in-fallujah-screenshots&captions=true"]

Hand signals are meant to be contextual so as to not confuse players, and seem to be of similar function to the ping system in games like Apex Legends. If you point at a location, your team will know to go there, if you point at an enemy, your team will know to target them or lay down suppression fire, etc.

"And if you're pointing at a door, when you say go, it means stack up on that door because we're going through it," Griesemer said. "And if you're pointing at a corner, it means secure that corner, watch that corner because I'm going to go this way, but I need somebody watching, it's a 360 battlefield, I need somebody watching that way. You can't do elaborate three-part plans with your AI, but it's very responsive, it's happening constantly, as you're going through a house, you're able to just manage your team as you're also trying to focus on a bunch of other things. And then that extends to the co-op experience too, right? If we're playing together, I don't have to just describe an elaborate plan. I can just give you the appropriate go command and you see it on your screen. You're like, okay, I understand what we're doing."

Six Days in Fallujah is set to be released in 2021 on PC and consoles, and pulls from the real-life events of the Second Iraq War – it's been a controversial project ever since it was originally announced in 2009. The game was subsequently resurrected by Victura and Highwire.

We recently spoke to a number of Arab and Iraqi game developers, members of the video game community, and a US military veteran about how Six Days in Fallujah is both complicated and painful for those who are connected to the real events the game is attempting to depict.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/16/ex-bungie-devs-new-old-fps-is-controversial-unlocked-482"]

[poilib element="accentDivider"]