Review: The Red Strings Club – A Brilliantly Told Cyberpunk Tale
The all-wise, all-knowing barkeeper has become something of a narrative archetype. There are countless stories out there that feature an improbably wise drinks server who can get even the most uptight customer to relax and talk about their troubles.
Donovan, the suave barkeeper and owner of The Red Strings Club, takes his persuasive art to nigh-on mystical levels. The cocktails he serves in his retro-tinged establishment aren’t just darned tasty – they’re fine-tuned to accentuate a specific emotion in the drinker. It’s this unique skill that forms the meat of The Red Strings Club‘s gameplay. This deft physics puzzler mechanic requires a steady hand on the player’s part, as you carefully tip measures of spirits into a mixer.
Each of these ingredients shifts a target in one of the four cardinal directions. Others rotate that target, while ice reduces its size. The idea is to mix a drink that will position the target precisely over the desired emotional trigger, which is superimposed over a representation of the customer.
If mixing drinks forms the grinding gears and squeaky joints of The Red Strings Club, then story forms its surprisingly human heart. This is a narrative adventure that tells a beautifully constructed cyberpunk tale of manipulative tech companies, AWOL androids, ghostly information traders, and world-changing conspiracies. It’s also a story that you can directly influence at multiple junctures, forging a unique path through the game that’s literally mapped out for you.
Few games show their narrative workings as clearly as The Red Strings Club, yet the transitions never feel clunky or arbitrary. Even though you’re in the middle of a cohesive story, you can clearly spot the moments where your decisions made a difference – and the ability to backtrack is granted in an ingenious (and strictly limited) fashion as yet another drinks ingredient.
We won’t spoil the ins and outs of the story itself, but it tackles some pretty weighty stuff. Your quest for information centres on Supercontinent Ltd, a massive human augmentation company that appears to be planning to eradicate all negative emotion from humanity. Obviously, this sounds thoroughly nefarious, but The Red Strings Club does a good job arguing for the other side, often playing devil’s advocate on this and a number of related issues.
Besides a series of executive types who aren’t necessarily as shallow or evil as they initially seem, the game largely does so through the character of Akara, a supremely perceptive (yet simultaneously naive) Android whose escape from an implant factory kicks off the whole adventure. At numerous points throughout the game, Akara will question Donovan on his actions and motives, cutting through his ostensibly right-on motivations in coolly incisive fashion.
The fact that Donovan’s responses are essentially your own makes Akara’s unadorned comments and puzzling pop quizzes all the more affecting. Sure, you might well argue that artificially eradicating sadness and anger from the human race would be deeply wrong. But is it then hypocritical of you to say that you’d forcefully cut out the impulse to kill, self-harm or oppress? Where do you draw the line?
All of which could easily have played out as crass or wearisomely didactic in many developers’ hands. But thankfully, the writing in The Red Strings Club is excellent, full of heart and humour. Indeed, we’d argue that the narrative side of The Red Strings Club is much better than the actual game parts. Each of the gameplay sections – including that main drink-mixing bit – plays out like a fairly entertaining but rather awkward and slightly shallow minigame.
Mixing drinks and carving out augmentations on a futuristic lathe, in particular, have a certain clunkiness to them. In some ways, the drink-mixing bits are easier to play using the Switch touchscreen – particularly when it comes to dragging the ingredients about the screen. But in other ways, it proves to be worse than with a controller, such as when you have to introduce a second finger and twist to pour.
We also found that each gameplay section tends to outstay its welcome somewhat. Once you’ve run through them a few times, you might find yourself greeting yet another request with impatience.
Fortunately, that sharp writing and those memorable characters are always there to distract you and pull you through your funk. Rather like a kindly yet suspiciously well-informed barkeeper, you might say.
Conclusion
The Red Strings Club tells a brilliant cyberpunk tale that’s full of big ideas and tough moral questions. Its gameplay sections are a little too flimsy and repetitive to keep pace, but you’ll want to play through this memorable adventure nonetheless.
Random: PlatinumGames’ Hideki Kamiya Can’t Stop Tweeting About Tetris 99
Tetris 99 is an addictive little game, and one that has gone down incredibly well with Nintendo Switch Online subscribers since its launch around a month ago. Interest in the game saw another boost last weekend thanks to the online competitions being held, and even high profile game developers have been getting in on the action, including PlatinumGames’ Hideki Kamiya.
When we say ‘getting in on the action’, we actually mean ‘potentially becoming as obsessed as we are’. Ever since the game launched, Kamiya’s Twitter timeline has been absolutely flooded with screenshots of his placements on a near-daily occurrence, starting on 16th February where he shared the results of his first match.
Like most of us, things got off to a shaky start. But he was soon climbing the leaderboards and even managed a second place finish just a couple of days later.
The first win came a couple of days later still, on 20th February. If you can’t work it out for yourself, his status essentially equates to “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” – something we can all relate to.
And from that date, he hasn’t looked back (and he still gets just as excited over his victory royales now as he did a month ago). His most recent victory was shared just a few hours ago in a screenshot he saved specifically from the night before.
We’re almost ashamed to say that the majority of the Nintendo Life team members haven’t been able to claim a victory yet, but we’re having a blast with the game anyway. If you’re reading, Kamiya-san, feel free to send any tips our way!
Have you been enjoying your time with the game? Let us know how you’ve been getting on in the comments.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 03-16-2019, 12:21 PM - Forum: Windows
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‘Minecraft’ coming soon to Xbox Game Pass
Excitement is building! Soon, Xbox Game Pass members will be able to build, create, and explore infinite worlds with Minecraft.
Beginning April 4, Xbox Game Pass members can join the Minecraft community of millions of players from around the world. Discover limitless ways to play and create anything you can imagine. Try to survive the night alone or share your adventure with friends in both split-screen or online multiplayer*. Build anything you can think of, explore your own unique overworld, discover mobs (both creepy and cute!) and play your Minecraft adventure your way!
Since its launch in 2009, the Minecraft community has remained one of the most active and passionate in gaming, attracting over 91 million players of all ages from virtually every country in the world. Those joining through Xbox Game Pass will enter a vibrant, global community that plays across 20 unique platforms like Windows 10, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and mobile. Xbox Game Pass players will also gain access to an ever-expanding array of content for purchase via the in-game Minecraft Marketplace, which contains over 1,000 pieces of content from 60 distinct creators.
Plus, with Minecraft´s free content updates, you´ll always find new environments to explore, tools to create, and mobs to meet. Last summer, the Update Aquatic filled Minecraft´s oceans with new items, blocks, and mobs like Turtles and Dolphins, and the upcoming Village & Pillage update will expand the game even further later this spring. There´s no better time to bring Minecraft to Xbox Game Pass!
Join Xbox Game Pass Today
Xbox Game Pass is the new way for you to discover your next favorite game. Enjoy Minecraft and over 100 other great games for one low monthly price. Plus, even more games are added all the time, including highly-anticipated Xbox One exclusives the day they’re released. If you haven’t tried Xbox Game Pass, join today and get your first month for $1.
For more information on Minecraft, stay tuned to Xbox Wire and Minecraft.net. To stay up to date on all the gaming goodness constantly coming at you from Xbox Game Pass, be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram. And don’t sleep on the Game Pass mobile app, where you can seamlessly discover and download your next favorite game to your home console, so it’s ready to play when you are.
*Online multiplayer on Xbox requires Xbox Live Gold, sold separately.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 03-16-2019, 05:41 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Pokemon Go Rayquaza Raid Event Returns
If you don't yet have Rayquaza in Pokemon Go, you're in luck. Players who missed their chance to catch the Legendary Sky High Pokemon will be able to catch one right now. Niantic has brought the Pokemon back for a special Raid event that runs through the weekend, giving you a limited amount of time to get your hands on one.
From March 15-18, Rayquaza will make an encore appearance in Raid Battles around the world. Before you can capture the Legendary Pokemon, you'll first need to team up with other players in-person and battle it. If your group manages to defeat it, you'll receive a handful of Premier Balls along with an opportunity to catch it.
Rayquaza is a dual Dragon/Flying-type, which makes it particularly susceptible to Ice-type attacks, so you'll want to bring along Pokemon such as Mamoswine and Lapras to battle it. Dragon is also one of the few Pokemon types that is vulnerable to itself, so other Dragon Pokemon such as Giratina and Salamence should prove to be effective as well.
Niantic periodically brings back previous Legendary Pokemon for special Raid Weekend events such as this one. Last month, the Eon Pokemon Latias returned for a limited time, and Niantic has teased that its twin, Latios, will also come back for a Raid event in the near future. Specific details on that have not yet been shared, though we do some of the other upcoming events that fans can look forward to.
The game's next Community Day event takes place on Saturday, March 23. The featured Pokemon this time will be Treecko. The Legendary Pokemon Dialga is also set to show up in Raid Battles until March 28. Meanwhile, developer Niantic recently shared new details about Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, its upcoming Go-style game based on the Harry Potter franchise. And the next generation of Pokemon games, the Gen 8 Pokemon Sword and Shield, were revealed for Pokemon Day just last month.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 03-16-2019, 05:41 AM - Forum: Windows
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The evolution of Microsoft Threat Protection, RSA edition
Last week, the Microsoft Security team attended the RSA conference in San Francisco, California. We made several key announcements about Microsoft Threat Protection, the solution which provides end users optimal security from the moment they log in, use email, work on documents, or utilize cloud applications and offers security professionals the benefit of minimal complexity while staying ahead of threats to their organization. As we previously alluded to, Microsoft Threat Protection is on a journey to provide organizations seamless, integrated, and comprehensive security across multiple attack vectors. In this RSA edition, we want to share where we are in this journey, the most recent new capabilities launched, and the vision of where we’re going as we continue executing toward our goal of offering best-in-class security for modern organizations.
The journey taken
Microsoft Threat Protection is supported by tremendous investment and focus across multiple engineering teams. Each month, we report discrete enhancements to the solution, but Figure 1 shows the many years of strategic investments and designed capabilities which helped create the solution we offer today. As the timeline demonstrates, each discrete enhancement is tied to the larger vision of Microsoft Threat Protection and our effort to ensure customers are offered the best and most secure threat protection available on the market. The roots of Microsoft Threat Protection stretch back to 2014, with the launch of advanced identity protection capabilities offered in Azure Active Directory Premium. Development of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Graph, which weaves our security services together, began shortly thereafter. Building on these strong foundations in identity protection (including security for on-premises identities) and intelligence, we then launched services securing email and documents, cloud apps, endpoints, and infrastructure. Over the last few years, we have leveraged the connectivity of the Intelligent Security Graph to integrate and seamlessly correlate signals across all our services, to help provide an optimized security experience with minimal complexity for customers.
Figure 1. The development timeline of Microsoft Threat Protection.
The journey is continuing, as we further enhance and develop capabilities which secure customers with Microsoft Threat Protection. Next, we look at announcements made at RSA this year, which are significant strides on our evolution toward the full potential Microsoft Threat Protection.
Tomorrow’s SIEM, available today
Many organizations leverage Security Information and Events Management (SIEM) products to support their digital transformation. As the value of digital information continues to increase, so does the volume and sophistication of attacks. Several customers have told us their existing SIEM products are unable to keep pace.
To address this need, at RSA we announced the launch of Microsoft Azure Sentinel, which adds the benefits of a next-gen SIEM to the Microsoft Threat Protection solution. Azure Sentinel is a cloud-native solution, providing intelligent security analytics for the entire organization. With Azure Sentinel (Figure 2), collection of security data across the entire hybrid organization from devices, to users, to apps, to servers on any cloud is easy. It includes built-in artificial intelligence (AI) to help ensure threats are identified quickly and significantly reduces the burden of traditional SIEMs by eliminating the need to spend time setting up, maintaining, and scaling infrastructure. Since it is built on Azure, it offers nearly limitless cloud scale and speed to address your security needs. Traditional SIEMs are also expensive to own and operate, often requiring high upfront costs and continued high costs for infrastructure maintenance and data ingestion. With Azure Sentinel there are no upfront costs as you pay for what you use. Additionally, organizations can bring their Office 365 activity data to Azure Sentinel for free. It takes just a few clicks to retain your Office 365 data within the Microsoft cloud. Learn more about Azure Sentinel and opt in for a trial today.
Figure 2. The Azure Sentinel – Overview portal.
Combining artificial intelligence with human expertise for unparalleled security
Human expertise will always be pivotal for strong security. However, by 2021, there will be an estimated shortage of 3.5 million security professionals. To help organizations benefit from the knowledge of seasoned security analysts, we announced Microsoft Threat Experts at RSA adding another significant capability to Microsoft Threat Protection to augment customers Security Operation Centers (SOCs). Microsoft Threat Experts is currently offered as part of our endpoint security service, Windows Defender ATP and blends the benefits of human analysts with our industry leading endpoint security service. Soon, Threat Experts will extend to cover more components of Microsoft Threat Protection. It is a new managed threat hunting service providing proactive hunting, prioritization, and additional context and data-driven insights, further helping SOCs identify and respond to threats quickly and accurately. Microsoft Threat Experts enables SOCs to jump-start threat investigations by providing context-rich intelligence. The feature offers:
Targeted attack notifications: Offers monitoring by Microsoft’s threat experts and provides notifications to customers in case a breach is identified. In cases where a full incident response becomes necessary, seamless transition to Microsoft incident response (IR) services is available.
Experts on demand (Figure 3): Security experts provide technical consultation on relevant detections and adversaries.
Figure 3. Microsoft Threat Experts “Ask a Threat Expert” button.
Experience the evolution of Microsoft Threat Protection
Take a moment to learn more about Microsoft Threat Protection, read our previous monthly updates, and visit Integrated and automated security. Organizations have already transitioned to Microsoft Threat Protection and partners are leveraging its powerful capabilities. Begin a trial of Microsoft Threat Protection services today to experience the benefits of the most comprehensive, integrated, and secure threat protection solution for the modern workplace. And check out part 2 of this blog, where we discuss a new unified SecOps experience, powerful new features to strengthen your cloud app security, unique automation capabilities launching in Office 365, and an early look at the full vision and scope of Microsoft Threat Protection.
Plus, Play Two Point Hospital for FREE starting now through Monday at 10am Pacific Time. Two Point Hospital will also be releasing new content for the game throughout the weekend!
If you already have Steam installed, click here to install or play. If you don’t have Steam, you can download it here.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 03-16-2019, 01:05 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Blind Squirrel lands $5M in funding to self-publish its first game, Drifters
Blind Squirrel Games announced today that it has raised $5 million in funding for its first game, Drifters.
This is pretty notable, given that Blind Squirrel is best known for helping other studios get off the ground, and the funding goes towards self-publishing its first internally developed game.
Drifters is a free-to-play 5v5 hero action shooter, slated to release on PS4, Xbox One, and PC later in 2019.
As reported by Gamesindustry.biz, the $5 million comes from an unnamed external source, with Blind Squirrel CEO Brad Hendricks saying that the investment was comprised of “various members with differing strategies, who felt that they needed to start getting involved in the game industry.”
“I was lucky to find investors who were willing to take a bet on our studio to not only fund the game, but to give us enough money to work with various outside companies to market this game,” Hendricks continues.
“This is giving us the maximum freedom that we needed as a studio to create and market the game we wanted to build.”
Any additional funds will be used to finish up remaining development (if necessary).
Inside Xbox is back on Tuesday, March 12, at 2 p.m. PT / 5 p.m. ET with even more exclusive news, content, interviews and footage you won’t see anywhere else!
We’ll have some exciting news involving Halo: The Master Chief Collection! The hourlong episode will also feature DayZ, One Piece World Seeker and of course, Xbox Game Pass! Of course, there’s much more that we can’t reveal just yet, so be sure to tune in live on Mixer, Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter on Tuesday, March 12th at 2 p.m PT / 5 p.m. ET.
Combining seamless gameplay, FINAL FANTASY characters and breathtaking worlds from the past 30 years of the franchise, DISSIDIA® FINAL FANTASY® NT welcomes all gamers to the online battle arena with a new style of competitive gaming!
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 03-16-2019, 01:05 AM - Forum: Minecraft
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Minecraft 1.14 Snapshot 19W11A
It’s wednesday, my dudes! Todays snapshot marks The Village & Pillage update as, for the most part, feature complete. We’re still planning to do a big polish pass, there may be some small features snuck in here or there, but ultimately it’s bug fixing from here on out and we’re
hoping for a release quite soon!
A full summary of the content available in this snapshot can be found in the changelog on Minecraft.net.
Lots of accessibility improvements!
Added a new “Globe” banner pattern and item (Currently only accessible from commands or the creative inventory)
Trading changes
Added recipe for smithing and fletching table
TNT and TNT minecart explosions now have 100% drop rate
There’s a new Accessibility menu which provides a useful place for all of our accessibility features to be toggled
When the narrator is turned on, buttons will be narrated on focus
Most screens allow tab and shift+tab navigation through buttons, edit boxes and other UI elements
Most lists allow up/down arrow keys to navigate through them
We’ve added a new option for turning up the background of all transparent text elements, which should help make them more readable for some people
Smithing table is crafted with 4 planks + 2 iron ingots
Fletching table is crafted with 4 planks + 2 flint
Villagers use them as a work site
We’ve decided not to add the functionality for these blocks for this update as we want to make sure that they’re useful for the overall gameplay. We have a great idea for them for the next major themed update…
Lots of new trades have been added
Villagers now level up in a new way
The trading UI is updated (WIP)
The trading prices now depend on your reputation and on demand
The villagers will restock up to two times per day (if they can work at their work station!)
Added visual trading; villagers will display the item they want to trade for your in-hand item
Villagers now have a daily schedule. They will for example go to work and meet up at the village bell
Each villager will try to find their own bed and work station
Each profession has a specific block that works as a work station for them (e.g. lectern for the librarian and cauldron for the leatherworker)
Village detection is now based on beds, job sites and meeting points instead of doors
Iron golems will spawn when enough villagers meet
To get snapshots, open your launcher and go to the “launch options” tab. Check the box saying “Enable snapshots” and save. To switch between the snapshot and normal version, you can find a new dropdown menu next to the “Play” button. Back up your world first or run the game on in a different folder (In the “launch options” page).
Please report any and all bugs you find in Minecraft to bugs.mojang.com.
Snapshots can corrupt your world, please backup and/or run them in a different folder from your main worlds.
Share your thoughts on how 1.14 is shaping up in the comments below!
