Unmechanical: Extended Edition flies on to next-gen consoles (and PS3) January 30th

Unmechanical, originally created by Talawa Games and Teotl Studios for PC, is a puzzle game which won several awards for it’s art design. Grip Games announced that they will be bringing “Unmechanical: Extended Edition” to the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita & PlayStation 3. The game follows a flying robot’s journey who’s quest is to escape an underground complex. Rectify Gaming will have a review of this soon – I have been playing it and will be streaming it before launch (to keep up to date with that, make sure to keep an eye on @CameronMines and @RectifyGaming) You can view the announce and gameplay trailers below.  

Riptide GP 2 – Xbox One Review

Riptide GP 2 is Vector Unit’s first Xbox One game developed through the ID@Xbox program. Some may already be familiar with the game as it’s also available on Windows RT/8.1 and Windows Phone devices, but if not, there’s a good chance you are aware of their 2010 hit boat/jet racing game on Xbox 360 and Windows PC called ‘Hydro Thunder Hurricane‘ which was one of the best Xbox Live Arcade games released to date. This time, Vector Unit are back with another boat racing game on Xbox One but costing only €4.99/$4.99/£3.99! That pricing is very tempting for a game that offers a the full thousand Gamerscore, even before knowing what the game is about. Hydro-jet racing was never more affordable on the big screen. However, Riptide GP 2 feels much more than a simple $5 game, this feels like a complete (local) jet-racing experience. Let’s take a deeper look. The main menu features three main selections; Career, VR Challenge and Split Screen. Options to view Vector Unit news, upgrade/paint or buy new hydro jets (what the boats are called) in the garage, view help, change settings and your profile card are also on the menu. I do believe the boat upgrades/purchases option is a bit too hidden in the top right corner as it only displays your current hydro jet name and doesn’t give any indication that it’s clickable. I do believe that moving it to where the main three selections would make access to this feature much easier. The ‘Paint Shop’ within the ‘Garage’ allows you to paint your hydro jet and rider’s outfit using an up/down colour slider with three columns used to select specific colours for different areas of the hydro jet. It also allows you to change your riders gender and choose a random selection of colours for your hydro jet and rider. The game’s Career mode features nine series ranging from “Beginners Luck” all the way to the “All-Star Cup”. Each series requires to have earned a certain amount of stars in previous series to unlock it and a total of 150 stars are required to unlock the final series. The amount of stars you earn are based on how well you do in each of the races or hot laps. From what I’ve unlocked, there seems to be five events in each series, each having three stars to unlock available. However, earning stars isn’t that easy as races feel unnecessarily difficult and times required by hot laps aren’t the easiest to achieve. I find upgrading your hydro jet or buying better ones seems to be the key to success. The game has an in-game currency to pay for upgrades and new hydro jets, however, they aren’t too cheap meaning some grinding may be needed at times but thankfully not a whole amount. Upgrades include improvements made to acceleration, top speed, handling and your boost. I could definitely find myself being more competitive in races when I had my hydro jet upgraded. Boost in game really improves your speed for a short period of time and you get some automatically at the start. It’s activated by holding ‘A’ but once it’s gone, the only way to get an additional boost if by performing these skills/stunts when jumping off ramps. These can be tricky to accomplish and I often find myself hitting the ground in the middle of one meaning I have to “respawn” causing me to add a few seconds in my lap time and fall behind in the race. The amount of boost you get per jump also seems to be very little and no boost is added by just racing, there is also no boost advancements on the track which I think would be a good system to use. Another type of event in the Career mode is ‘Elimination’ where every 15 seconds, the person in last place is removed from the race. It’s a fun mode, but again difficult to earn a star you must place in the top three. The amount of stars you earn in a race go by one for finishing third place, two for finishing second and all three for finishing first. It’s a fair rewards system as you also get in-game currency for each race meaning if you can’t get the stars on your first go, you can upgrade and try again. This is where it can feel like grinding because you have to play, get new upgrades, replay in order to progress in the game and earn more stars. VR Challenges are another mode in the game where you compete with your friend’s ghost rivals to beat their times in various races. There’s a total of 13 VR Challenges and if your friends haven’t played on a certain course then you’re given the opportunity to set a time for them to beat. This is the only online functionality in the game as there is no online multiplayer component in the game. Split-screen is present for local multiplayer though which allows you to race with up to five others on one Xbox One taking almost full advantage of the amount of controllers the console can support at a time (which is a total of eight). However, no online multiplayer is a loss as I could see this becoming a really fun game to play with your mates and it’s a game a lot of people could easily pick up due to how affordable it is. All in all, Riptide GP 2 is a great game for the price. The game features fantastic visuals for a game that only requires 181.1MB of storage! However, I always enjoy using the right stick in games to look around me at the scenery like in racing games, however, this game doesn’t include that function. The lack of multiplayer and the grinding feeling does mean you may get bored after an hour or so of gameplay, but it is a fun game to come back to every so often. If

Kalimba (formerly Project Totem) review

Mind-bending thinking (and frustration) Co-op is always something fun to enjoy in a game – I’ve had endless fun with friends, whether it’s blowing up random cars in GTA Online, or using weird and wonderful weapons in Saints Row, each moment is hilarious and action-packed. Usually me and puzzle games don’t mix, but Kalimba is different. A stylish (exclusive to the Xbox One) puzzle-platformer created by the excellent minds behind Max: The Curse of Brotherhood, Kalimba falls under the category of angering but incredible. Kalimba offers a co-op campaign as well as it’s vibrant, colourful and somewhat frustrating (in a good way, if that’s a thing) single-player campaign. In the co-op mode, teamwork is key, and you must work together to even pass the level. It’s a show of what co-op campaigns should be, where you’ll learn who your true friends are if they haven’t thrown an Xbox One controller at you 45 minutes into your game session. Although Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is created by Press Play, the same people who created Kalimba, they’re two very different games – Max being more narrative-driven where as Kalimba is about fun and frustration, and straight-forward gameplay, where your aim is to reach the end of the level by surpassing various different obstacles – and although the levels may seem short at first, as you get further and further into the game, levels feel like a lifetime as you attempt to get past incredibly hard puzzles, which have your brain thinking for a while until you can eventually understand it completely. In the single-player campaign (titled “Spiritual Journey”), you control both characters, with the “X” button on your controller swapping your characters around to pass the colour-coded puzzles. Aside from that, the controls are quite basic, with the left analogue stick being to move, and “A” being to jump. Every time you complete a level in the single-player campaign, you get a “totem” with the idea being that you need to build a large totem pole to be able to get to the next area. The better you do in the level, such as collecting all the coins and/or not dying, the better totem you will get, with Log Totems being the worst and Golden Totems being the best. (I bet you can guess which totems I get all the time.) Controlling both characters is sometimes tricky, as Kalimba requires you to complete some platforming puzzles simultaneously and triggering mechanisms so you can pass to the next level segment. In addition to this, the stacking mechanic also adds a lot of depth to the game and will be required many times throughout the wide variety of distinct levels Kalimba has to offer. This means that whenever the two totems are stacked on one another, it allows for your partner to make another leap after you have completed yours, essentially a double jump. Some parts in a level require the totems to be stacked in a specific way, such as the bottom totem (being green, for example) being able to walk through a green colour-coded puzzle while the purple totem is still on, protected.

Game of Thrones Episode 2 “The Lost Lords” releasing early February

Telltale announced, in the form of a YouTube video, that Game of Thrones: A Telltale Game Series Episode 2 “The Lost Lords” was going to be released early February. The release dates for each corresponding platform are as follows: 3rd February: PS3, PS4, PC/Mac, Steam 4th February: Xbox 360, Xbox One 5th February: Android, IOS I livestreamed the Xbox One version of Episode One (in one sitting) a day early, and my overall opinions were that it was one of the finest things Telltale have ever created. I personally can’t wait for Episode Two – let me know what you think in the comments or tweet us @RectifyGaming! You can view the trailer for Game of Thrones: Episode 2 – The Lost Lords below.  

D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die gets 1 million downloads

Swery (Hidetaka Suehiro) announced on Twitter that detective thriller D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die had surpassed one million downloads on the Xbox Store. D4 is currently free on Xbox One if you are a gold member as part of the Games with Gold program – make sure you get it if you haven’t already – it was featured in Rectify Gaming’s Top 10 Xbox One Games of 2014! To celebrate D4 hitting 1 million downloads, Swery released a live video of the VGO Taiwan concert, which you can view below. Hey Guys!Thank you for 1 million downloads!To celebrate we released a live video of VGO Taiwan concert ;-Dhttps://t.co/G0KXEKMS1I — Hidetaka SWERY SueHERO (@Swery65) January 23, 2015