Review: Johnny Turbo’s Arcade: Two Crude Dudes (Switch eShop)
The bombs fell in New York back in 2010 and turned the once prosperous metropolis into a nightmarish radioactive junkyard. It is now the year 2030 and the U.S government has decided to take back the city from the criminal ‘Big Valley’ gang of freakish mutants. But with the Bad Dudes now well into their 60s and Snake Plissken out of copyright reach, who are you gonna call? A couple of guys who would not look out of place in a WWF ring in the ’80s, of course: enter Johnny Turbo’s Arcade: Two Crude Dudes.
Despite never having reached the popularity of Bad Dudes, this game is the closest we ever got to a proper sequel. It’s also incredible that both games were just two years apart when you consider their graphics; Two Crude features big, detailed and colourful sprites along with some intricate scenarios (and even a few neat graphical effects as seen in the snow and tornado levels). Quite a decent amount of sampled speech helps to flesh out the zany humour further. It completely nails the ’90s arcade salon vibe in a single package.
Gameplay is very similar to Bad Dudes; one button is used to bash people/mutants into submission (now allowing you to hit straight up as well) while a second button allows you to jump, switch from the upper or lower plane and even do a handy dodge roll along the floor by hitting it while aiming diagonally down. But it’s the magical third button that sets this one apart from not only Bad Dudes but the entire genre: the grab button!
Pretty much anything you see in the levels that isn’t nailed down to the ground can be grabbed and used as a melee or impromptu throwing weapon. Enemies are also there to be grabbed and can be unwillingly thrown back at their colleagues. It’s hard not to be impressed when your dude lifts up a whole tank and sends it smashing back to the ground for explosive consequences. If you’re playing with a friend and there is nothing else to grab, you can just grab them and use them as a ranged weapon. Just make sure you apologise afterwards and ensure it was just an accident despite being the twentieth or so time it happens.
The game throws six levels at you, longer and more feature packed than Bad Dudes along with outrageous mutated bosses. It’s an enjoyable romp alone, but it shines brightest with a friend along for the ride. As previously mentioned, the graphics are nicely detailed, the soundtrack offers some memorable tunes, sound effects are appropriately meaty and the speech samples wrap things up nicely. Both your characters and the Big Valley gang crew designs could have lifted straight from Fist of the North Star and no one would bat an eye.
Johnny Turbo’s emulation wrapper once again falls sadly short of the competition’s offerings by having just a few graphics filters and aspect ratio options, once again keeping the all-important DIP switch settings locked away from the player. Bilinear filtering is also always on, so those looking for a sharp, pixelated experience will not find one here.
Conclusion
Two Crude is one of the funniest grab-’em-ups ever made and 27 years later nothing has diluted the insane ’90s colourful vibe in this package. Data East once more succeeded in adapting popular culture into a video game that ends up being more than the mere sum of its parts. Grab a friend and have no fear plunging into a fun-filled half an hour of pure arcade entertainment. Just make sure it looks like an accident every time you toss your partner around.
The Steam Intergalactic Summer Sale continues! For the next five days, take advantage of huge savings throughout our store on over ten thousand games. You can also help unlock free games by playing our Summer Saliens Game.
Today’s Featured Deals include:
Hunt: Showdown – 20% off Middle-earth: Shadow of War – 66% off Europa Universalis IV – 75% off Jackbox Franchise – Up to 60% off The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series – Up to 70% off Tales of Berseria – 70% off Inside – 55% off and many more
Along with the sale is the Summer Saliens Game. Team up with other Saliens to fight The Duldrumz on different planets and free the abducted games. Gain XP as you battle, level up, unlock new abilities, and win cosmetic items to deck out your Salien. Plus, get Summer Sale Trading Cards just for playing.
Choose to battle on a planet that piques your interest and you’ll automatically be entered for a chance to win one of its rewards when it’s conquered. The longer your Salien spends on a planet the higher your chances of winning! The groups with the most tiles when a planet is taken will get to plant their flag as conquerors, undoubtedly gaining Saliverse-wide fame in the process.
The Steam Intergalactic Summer Sale will run until 10 AM Pacific, July 5th. Complete information can be found HERE.
Another one for the library: Hardback is out now on mobile
By Ian Boudreau06 Jul 2018
What do we have here? It’s a prequel – a ‘pre-quill,’ as the promotional material puts it – to Paperback, the deck-building word game about becoming a famous novelist. Hardback is now out for Android and iOS devices, and it adds a few new twists on the original formula.
As Penelope Quill, great-grandmother to Paperback’s Paige Turner, you’re once again racing to achieve fame as a novelist. This time, however, you’ll be able to use any card as a wild by playing it face down. That means you’ll lose the benefit from playing the letter on its face, but it gives you extra flexibility when forming words. Another new mechanic is four literary ‘genres’ for cards, each with its own additional traits that provide additional strategic options.
Created by Fowers Games, Hardback’s art (again done by Ryan Goldsberry) is lovely and nails the 19th century aesthetic with charm. It’s going for £4.50 or $4.99 on the App Store and Google Play.
Netflix Announces New Anime Series, Release Dates, And More
During its Anime Expo 2018 panel, Netflix made several big anime announcements for the months and year ahead. The streaming site revealed two new anime series, gave details about new seasons of its popular shows, and more. Panelists included LeSean Thomas (The Boondocks), Adi Shankar (Netflix's Castlevania), and acclaimed storyboard artist and special effects supervisor Shinji Higuchi.
The two new series announced during the panel are Ultraman, coming Spring 2019, and Kengan Ashura, coming some time in 2019. Ultraman is based on the classic Japanese sci-fi series and stars a man with the spirit and DNA of the legendary hero Ultraman. Kengan Ashura is about a normal 56-year-old man who is summoned to be a gladiator and must fight on behalf of his corporation.
We also got details on upcoming anime. Dragon Pilot, directed by Higuchi, is launching September 21. Like the name implies, it is about pilots and dragons. The film Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battlewill come to Netflix on July 18; it is a sequel to Netflix's Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters, which first released in Japan in 2017.
Finally, director and animator LeSean Thomas showed off his upcoming series Cannon Busters. The show follows S.A.M, a high-end friendship robot, who is looking for her best friend, a prince. It arrives on Netflix on April 1, 2019.
Robolinux Lets You Easily Run Linux and Windows Without Dual Booting
The number of Linux distributions available just keeps getting bigger. In fact, in the time it took me to write this sentence, another one may have appeared on the market. Many Linux flavors have trouble standing out in this crowd, and some are just a different combination of puzzle pieces joined to form something new: An Ubuntu base with a KDE desktop environment. A Debian base with an Xfce desktop. The combinations go on and on.
Robolinux, however, does something unique. It’s the only distro, to my knowledge, that makes working with Windows alongside Linux a little easier for the typical user. With just a few clicks, it lets you create a Windows virtual machine (by way of VirtualBox) that can run side by side with Linux. No more dual booting. With this process, you can have Windows XP, Windows 7, or Windows 10 up and running with ease.
And, you get all this on top of an operating system that’s pretty fantastic on its own. Robolinux not only makes short work of having Windows along for the ride, it simplifies using Linux itself. Installation is easy, and the installed collection of software means anyone can be productive right away.
Let’s install Robolinux and see what there is to see.
Installation
As I mentioned earlier, installing Robolinux is easy. Obviously, you must first download an ISO image of the operating system. You have the choice of installing a Cinnamon, Mate, LXDE, or xfce desktop (I opted to go the Mate route). I will warn you, the developers do make a pretty heavy-handed plea for donations. I don’t fault them for this. Developing an operating system takes a great deal of time. So if you have the means, do make a donation. Once you’ve downloaded the file, burn it to a CD/DVD or flash drive. Boot your system with the media and then, once the desktop loads, click the Install icon on the desktop. As soon as the installer opens (Figure 1), you should be immediately familiar with the layout of the tool.
Once you’ve walked through the installer, reboot, remove the installation media, and login when prompted. I will say that I installed Robolinux as a VirtualBox VM and it installed to perfection. This however, isn’t a method you should use, if you’re going to take advantage of the Stealth VM option. After logging in, the first thing I did was install the Guest Additions and everything was working smoothly.
Default applications
The collection of default applications is impressive, but not overwhelming. You’ll find all the standard tools to get your work done, including:
LibreOffice
Atril Document Viewer
Backups
GNOME Disks
Medit text editor
Seahorse
GIMP
Shotwell
Simple Scan
Firefox
Pidgen
Thunderbird
Transmission
Brasero
Cheese
Kazam
Rhythmbox
VLC
VirtualBox
And more
With that list of software, you shouldn’t want for much. However, should you find a app not installed, click on the desktop menu button and then click Package Manager, which will open Synaptic Package Manager, where you can install any of the Linux software you need.
If that’s not enough, it’s time to take a look at the Windows side of things.
Installing Windows
This is what sets Robolinux apart from other Linux distributions. If you click on the desktop menu button, you see a Stealth VM entry. Within that sub-menu, a listing of the different Windows VMs that can be installed appears (Figure 2).
Before you can install one of the VMs, you must first download the Stealth VM file. To do that, double-click on the desktop icon that includes an image of the developer’s face (labeled Robo’s FREE Stealth VM). You must save that file to the ~/Downloads directory. Don’t save it anywhere else, don’t extract it, and don’t rename it. With that file in place, click the start menu and then click Stealth VM. From the listing, click the top entry, Robolinx Stealth VM Installer. When prompted, type your sudo password. You will then be prompted that the Stealth VM is ready to be used. Go back to the start menu and click Stealth VM and select the version of Windows you want to install. A new window will appear (Figure 3). Click Yes and the installation will continue.
Next you will be prompted to type your sudo password again (so your user can be added to the vboxusers group). Once you’ve taken care of that, you’ll be prompted to configure the RAM you want to dedicate to the VM. After that, a browser window will appear (once again asking for a donation). At this point everything is (almost) done. Close the browser and the terminal window.
You’re not finished.
Next you must insert the Windows installer media that matches the type of Windows VM you installed. You then must start VirtualBox by click start menu > System Tools > Oracle VM VirtualBox. When VirtualBox opens, an entry will already be created for your Windows VM (Figure 4).
You can now click the Start button (in VirtualBox) to finish up the installation. When the Windows installation completes, you’re ready to work with Linux and Windows side-by-side.
Making VMs a bit more user-friendly
You may be thinking to yourself, “Creating a virtual machine for Windows is actually easier than that!”. Although you are correct with that sentiment, not everyone knows how to create a new VM with VirtualBox. In the time it took me to figure out how to work with the Robolinux Stealth VM, I could have had numerous VMs created in VirtualBox. Additionally, this approach doesn’t happen free of charge. You do still have to have a licensed copy of Windows (as well as the installation media). But anything developers can do to make using Linux easier is a plus. That’s how I see this—a Linux distribution doing something just slightly different that could remove a possible barrier to entry for the open source platform. From my perspective, that’s a win-win. And, you’re getting a pretty solid Linux distribution to boot.
If you already know the ins and outs of VirtualBox, Robolinux might not be your cuppa. But, if you don’t like technology getting in the way of getting your work done and you want to have a Linux distribution that includes all the necessary tools to help make you productive, Robolinux is definitely worth a look.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 07-07-2018, 05:32 AM - Forum: Lounge
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EA Shares Details On Its New IP From Motive
EA Motive has its hands full. The studio is currently juggling various unrelated projects, according to general manager Jade Raymond, including one high-profile Star Wars game it inherited from the defunct Visceral. Raymond opened up about the current status of the Star Wars project, and while she was at it, shared more details on the other games currently under development.
Raymond acknowledged that sci-fi is a point of interest for her, and hinted that this game is no exception. She also suggested that the new game may have a live element that will keep it updating well into the future, which may mean it won't be regularly updated with sequels.
"We're trying to reinvent action-adventure games for the future, an action-adventure game that lives on and the world is dynamic, living, and breathing," Raymond told Game Informer. "I think that's a great problem to solve because we make these amazing worlds and then you play through them and they are gone. What does a dynamic one look like?
"We're working on a construct where even if you might not say, 'Okay, like Assassin's Creed it's got to support a box so it's different every year,'" Raymond said. "It won't be that; we're building it so that it can support major changes that keep the experience fresh more within the construct of still staying live."
Raymond also said she made a point of pushing the team to explore game concepts outside of killing, and to focus on ideas like exploration and discovery. She's also focused on removing barriers to entry, implying it could be flexible enough to appear on traditional consoles as well as mobile, similar to Fortnite. And like Fortnite, she wants the game to be best experienced socially.
"One of the big fundamental needs is sharing experiences with friends," Raymond said. "Video games are a widely enjoyed pastime of people now. It's not just, oh, I'm a gamer. I'm a nerd. I play on my own in the basement. Everyone is gamer. Everyone plays, and it's something we do with friends. It's a pastime now. So how do you deliver something that is an incredibly enjoyable way to spend time with friends? I think that's been answered in some categories, but not the category of action-adventure."
Finally, Raymond cautioned that the new action-adventure game is still very early. She says she hopes to be able to talk about it sometime next year. Another unnamed project is in the works as well, said to be a passion project from three members of the Montreal studio.
"In Montreal, we have a big IP and then we have a second project, and the thing that I'm really excited about is that project was totally born from three passionate people who just worked on a pitch in their spare time," Raymond said. "They were super passionate, saying 'let us prototype it, let us do it,' and we managed to give them some space to get it done because it was exciting. People saw what was going on and more people wanted to join their team. Now it's a fully-fledged project, so we were able to get that going within Motive, which I think is one of the benefits of having a smaller studio."
Join Forces Against Natural Disasters with the Call for Code
The Call for Code initiative aims to harness the collective power of the global open source developer community against the growing threat of natural disasters. According to IBM, “the goal is to develop technology solutions that significantly improve disaster preparedness, provide relief from devastation caused by fires, floods, hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes, and benefit Call for Code’s charitable partners — the United Nations Human Rights Office and the American Red Cross.”
In a recent webcast — How 22M Developers Take on Disaster Preparedness — Mary Glackin, SVP of Science & Forecast at The Weather Company and IBM Business, spoke with representatives from participating organizations about the initiative and some of the specific goals it aims to achieve.
The Call for Code is “encouraging the global community of developers to stand up for the rights of others,” said Laurent Sauveur, Chief of External Relations, UN Human Rights.
We invite you to amplify the initiative and join the call. You can learn more about the Call for Code and watch the complete webcast here: http://ibm.biz/BdYxHZ.
Assassin's Creed Liberation HD is a home console port of the formerly Vita-exclusive title. A spin-off of Assassin's Creed III, Liberation is set in Louisiana and casts players in the role of Aveline de Grandpre, the series' first female protagonist. The HD version boasts upgraded visuals and audio, but it otherwise features the same content as the Vita release. You can read more about it in GameSpot's Assassin's Creed Liberation HD review.
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, meanwhile, is one of Xbox 360's earliest shooters, first launching for the console in 2006. It received widespread acclaim on its release, earning a 9.2/10 in GameSpot's Advanced Warfighter review for its tactical gameplay and (at the time) stunning visuals. "Even those who don't necessarily like shooters may want to at least try the game out, as GRAW represents the best of what a tactical shooter can offer and can serve as a useful graphical benchmark to judge other games on the console by," we wrote.
If you still own a physical copy of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, you can pop its disc into your Xbox One and begin playing. Likewise, if you already own a digital copy of Liberation HD or GRAW, you'll find it waiting automatically in the Ready to Download section of Xbox One's My Games and Apps area. You can also buy either of the new BC games digitally from the Microsoft Store.
Xbox One's BC library has grown steadily ever since Microsoft first introduced the feature back in 2015. It now features more than 400 Xbox 360 titles and more than 30 original Xbox games. You can see everything that's available in our full list of backwards compatibility games, and for recommendations on what to play, check out our gallery of the best Xbox One backwards compatible games.
Welcome to the Weekender, your weekly look at the best new games, sales, and updates. It’s a holiday week in the U.S. but that doesn’t mean we don’t have some good gaming options for you to peruse as you head into the weekend.
Excellent solo card game One Deck Dungeon keeps getting additional content. A recent update added a new hero, Witch, to the mix. The Witch is equally skilled mixing it up with weapons or magic and has an awesome heroic feat and starting skill to let you roll extra dice. This is on top of Caliana, a maxed-out-on-magic fairy, and Fanatic, an angelic smiter of all things evil, introduced in a prior update. We’ve also got access to a brand new dungeon, the Cinder Plains, where the Hellhound awaits. All three new characters are $1 via in-app purchase. New content or not, if you haven’t tried One Deck Dungeon and enjoy dungeon-delving, roguelike-style games I highly recommend it.
Tim Fowers, maker of great tabletop games that eventually become great digital games, is at it again. This time Hardback has reached the digital world. Hardback is a prequel to his popular word game Paperback and features similar gameplay. You’re a 19th century writer trying to pay the bills. You do this by playing words from letter cards in your deck. Successfully doing so earns you coins with which you can purchase new cards to improve your deck, build better words, and earn even more coins so you can…well, you get the idea. There are special abilities to mix things up and you can draw more cards to press your luck. There’s single player, pass-and-play, and online asynchronous multiplayer. Hardback is largely the same game as Paperback, though there are several changes sprinkled in to make it feel a little more unique. Rather than buying victory points it’s a race to a set score and the ability to make any card wild could significantly alter your strategy. If you enjoyed the original, or word games in general, you can safely assume you’ll enjoy having Hardback on your mobile device.
A combination puzzle/exploration game, Minaurs has you explore the galaxy to discover new worlds, gain new knowledge, acquire rare materials, and rescue other minaurs who proceeded you and became trapped. Your ultimate goal is to reunite all of the lost souls of the Minaur Nation, though there’s quite a bit of paths to lead to that end. There’s a wide variety of expeditions to undertake, quests to fulfill, challenges to best, advantages to obtain, failures to avoid, animals to find, stuff to loot, abilities to learn, and knowledge to acquire. Expeditions are all about coaxing your minaur to go where you want it to by sculpting the ground to limit options. You have to avoid hazards and accidentally trapping it in a very small area. It plays out a lot like an action puzzle. Success opens more options, including the discovery of new planets to explore. Minaurs may actually have too much going on, at least at first, and it’s kind of difficult to sort it all out, but there are definitely some cool ideas at work if you have patience for a learning curve.
Demon’s Rise 2 by Wave Light Games was our RPG of the year back in 2016 and you can check out why in my four-star review. The original game is very nearly as good given all the love and updates it has gotten over the years. Both are on sale for a buck at the App Store and you should grab them if you’re a fan of tactical RPGs.
A tactical RPG in the same vein as the great Templar Battleforce, Heroes of Steel is also by the Terese Brothers and well worth checking out if you’re a fan of the genre.
Infinity Blade Series (iOS Universal): $.99
Well before Fortnite, Epic Games had the Infinity Blade games on the App Store. Now, the old-school battlers are each just a buck.
Rebuild 3 might be the best colony management and zombie survival game on mobile. You recruit, manage, and level up a team of survivors who must to do all the things needed to survive: grow food, scavenge supplies, kill zombies, and construct shelter. It’s normally $5.99 and is currently three bucks off. Get it.
Siege of Dragonspear (iOS Universal and Android): $5.99 iOS and $5.49 on Android
The missing link Baldur’s Gate game, Siege of Dragonspear, takes place between Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate II and just came out back in March. It features a 30-hour campaign that explores new regions of the Sword Coast, within the long running Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms campaign setting. It’s normally $10 and is on sale for its lowest price yet on iOS.
World-building sandbox Pocket Build has a huge quality-of-life improvement this week, cloud saves so you can work on your creations on any iOS device. There are also a bevy of performance and graphical improvements along with some nice lighting changes.
The 2.5 update for Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition has arrived and it includes over 500 changes thanks to the 2.5 Infinity Engine update. You can check out all of the updates here.
