Author: Grubdog

Bravely Default 2 – Demo Impressions

Surprise! A meaty demo for a hotly anticipated JRPG just stealth-dropped during the mini Nintendo Direct while you were playing Animal Crossing. The Bravely Default 2 demo is free, and appears in the New Release section of the eShop as its own thing, since there’s no page for the main game yet. The demo is a 2.3GB download, and claims to have a different story to the main game with harder battles, in order to encourage everyone to experiment with the job system and get used to being Brave and Default.

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Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Welcoming Wisp

It’s been a busy few days. I’ve just turned my tent into a house, and after heavy construction the island of Straya already has its own Museum. We all gathered outside for a big celebration, with lots of clapping, laughing and party poppers. It was a wild two minutes and everyone had a great time, including all the other island residents. Both of them had gone to bed, but I was too full of adrenaline to sleep after all that hype. There wasn’t much in the Museum yet, but it was just going to be the start of a huge attraction that would bring people to the island from all around the world. It was just the first of many projects I’ve been discussing with Nook, and after a successful Museum opening we can move on to the next thing.

With today’s work done, I was winding down with some fishing. It’s a good activity to calm the senses. A cool ocean breeze washed over my face, while the soft splashes of waves soothed my ears. I was walking along the shore looking for my next fish, when something else caught my eye.

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Yoku’s Island Express – Pinball Platforming

Don’t mind me, I’m just a dung beetle doing my best. It’s a little hard to see with this big ball of poop in front of me, but I just roll with it. Life is all about perspective, and I take things with a side-on view. Getting from one place to another can be difficult, but life is all about the journey itself and I’m having a lot of fun.

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A Plague Tale: Innocence – Life Before Toilet Paper

The year is 1343 AD, in a small village in medieval-era France. You’re having a nice day when a messenger runs into town screaming. There’s been an outbreak!

The Black Death! It’s coming! The plague is coming!

What do you do? Do you believe it? Do you assume the worst, or shrug it off? This could be a lie to force people out of town. It could be true. It could have taken weeks for this news to get here. Some people hid in their homes. Some people traveled to find more information. Some took to alchemy. Some descended into madness and violence. A Plague Tale: Innocence tells this story from the very vulnerable perspective of young children. They are separated from their parents, and forced to face a mass outbreak of disease on their own, dealing with all the best and worst aspects of human behavior on the way.

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Resident Evil Revelations 2 – Vacation Isle

Barry Burton is back in all his low-budget glory, with more greys than ever. The identity of this game is subject to a bit of confusion, which makes it a great game to write about. What is it? Let’s backtrack to the original game first. Resident Evil Revelations started as a spinoff title on the 3DS, with the idea of making a traditional Resident Evil game on a handheld. It kept the 3D gameplay style of RE4 and RE5, and introduced a brand new story on a spooky cruise ship. It was very exciting at the time and an impressive accomplishment on a handheld. It was so successful they made a digital-only episodic sequel for home consoles. It’s a semi-sequel to Revelations that also ties into the main series. It started with just one episode, then they slowly added three more until it was finished. Now, after every episode of Revelations 2 has been released, it’s available as a full package on Nintendo Switch and finally feels like a normal game.

You wot m8? Innit Resident Evil or not?

Yes. It’s an awesome and legit Resident Evil game.

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Pietriots Radio – Episode 6 (Snack World, Coronavirus, Resident Evil 3 and Platinum Games)

We’re back! Straight from the freshly cleaned Pie Studio comes a brand new episode. Join Grubdog, Akai (Bill), Deguello, RABicle, Pro Daisy and Matto as we talk about current games we’re playing, the impact of coronavirus on gaming, the future of new game consoles, and upcoming games like Animal Crossing, Resident Evil 3make and Platinum Games developments.

download link

02:30 to 37:00 – Games we’re playing (Snack World, Rune Factory 4, Pokemon, Plague Inc, Hollow Knight)

36:00 to 57:00 – Coronavirus impact

57:00 to end – Resident Evil 3 and Platinum Games

Brain Training World Championships – The Next Esports Frontier

The next big esport of our generation has emerged. There will be no fighting, shooting or platforming in this championship. Just pure brain power, concentration, focus… and maybe a few scratched screens.

Today was the day. I had prepared my whole life for this. Writing answers on the chalkboard in Maths class was just practice for the 25x calculations time trial. I knew something like this was coming, even before the technology existed. After dropping Maths in Year 10, I still continued to hone my skills in Brain Training on my DS, dominating the leaderboards in my household (good effort though, Mum). After such extensive experience, how could I not enter the Brain Training World Championships? This was my calling.

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Yooka Laylee & the Impossible Lair – Kong & Tonic

Impossible, huh? Pffftt, I’m a skilled gamer! Just a bit of platforming? No problem. Hey, these platforms are moving pretty fast. That’s a lot of spikes. Okay, there’s nowhere to land. Guess I’ll die. No more lives? … I’ll be back later.

Imagine a spiritual successor to Donkey Kong Country came out without anyone noticing? That’s what we have here. After years of hype for Playtonic’s debut 3D platforming game Yooka-Laylee, it received quite a bit of backlash for not being the best game ever made. It was pretty much what people asked for, a Banjo successor that revived open 3D platforming, but unreasonable expectations developed over the years. Playtonic took a completely different approach to Impossible Lair, announcing it and launching it very quickly in the same year. All they really needed to sell this game was a trailer with new David Wise music, roll-jumps and barrels.

Instead of purely catering to kickstarter backers demands, Impossible Lair is a passion project that takes advantage of the 2D platforming genre to fix all the problems the original game had. The “empty” and “unfocused” level design of a 3D wasteland becomes very focused and tight when you can only move left and right. I recently finished all 40 levels and the Impossible Lair itself, and I really have to commend this game. I’m a huge fan of Donkey Kong Country and especially Tropical Freeze, and I’m bursting to talk about this. Impossible Lair is the real deal.

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Pokemon HOME – Making the Journey from 3DS to Switch

What year is it? 2020? Good. Don’t mind me, I’m just a little bit dizzy from traveling through time and space. That means I’ve just gone through the process of transferring my Pokemon from my old 3DS games to Pokemon Shield. A few things surprised me so I thought it was worth doing a writeup to clear things up and explain the process. The most important thing to say first is that this requires the Premium Plan of Pokemon HOME. That means, unfortunately, you have to pay for this transfer. The Basic version you get for free on Switch is very barebones. You can only store 30 Pokemon, and Let’s Go and Pokemon Sword & Shield are the only compatible games. All you can really do with that is get a free Pikachu, some starters, and Mewtwo.

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Crackdown 3 – New World Chaos

Welcome to the island of dreams. Blackouts have destroyed many major cities and millions of refugees have found this one place that was previously off the radar, “Terranova”. By some miracle, it’s the only major city that wasn’t attacked. Must be great! Everyone get in line.

This place reeks of filthy propaganda and corruption to the point where it is literally projected in the air. What a wonderful direction technology has gone. Join us for a wonderful future! Sure, what could possibly go wrong? What could possibly be fishy about one organization deciding all the information you will hear? Good thing this is just a videogame. That would never happen in our world.

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The Evil Within 2 – The Art of a Good Sequel

It’s been 3 years since the incident at Beacon Mental Hospital. Coincidentally, there’s also a 3 year gap between the release of The Evil Within 1 and 2. Is this real life? That’s a question Sebastian asks himself again too. Free from the evils of the STEM mindscape, he’s found himself in a brand new horrific situation. With questions unanswered and a shattered sense of self dwindling into alcoholic indulgence, a new adventure might be exactly what he needs.

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Squidlit – Squishy Platforming

Hello. My name’s Plip and I’m a Squidlit. I’m no magic Squizard, but I can jump, shoot ink downwards, and move my little squidlit body left and right. That’s all you need to get through life really. Oh, and a healthy supply of muffins.

Thanks Cheflit, now I’m all set. A catapult shoots dozens of muffins into the distance, as they scatter across the upcoming levels. It’s nice to finally see some valid lore for health pickups.

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The Evil Within – Season Pass of Horrors

After taking control of the evil within myself, I sought out more forms of evil to overcome outside. I found the perfect challenge that comes in the form of a “Season Pass”, full of broken dreams and empty promises. The Evil Within has 3 single player DLC campaigns made after the launch of the game, and they are quite unique. I played through all three of them and thought I’d offer my thoughts. Was it worth it? Allow me to summarise my experience with each one. Continue reading “The Evil Within – Season Pass of Horrors” →

Rush Rally 3 – Rookie Developer Defeats Champion

5 right, into 3 left. Hairpin right. 6 left. Over crest. 22 dollars. Available on the eShop now. *thud*

Oops, I was meant to be giving directions. Welcome to Rush Rally 3! A rally driving game on Switch made by a single person Indie team called Brownmonster Limited. This is not the official rally game but who needs that, when you can race against Sebastien Lube and Marcus Groanholm instead?

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