Point-and-click adventure games have historically found their audience on PC, especially in the heyday of the early-to-mid ’90s with series such as Broken Sword and Monkey Island. While there has always been a core fanbase for this style of game on mouse-driven systems, the genre has been brought into both the console with recent remasters of classics such as Grim Fandango and Day of the Tentacle. This expansion has resulted in a handful of modern takes on the formula, ranging from episodic, story-driven titles such as Broken Age and the dialogue-focused Telltale games, to this year’s Wwitch releases Violett and Thimbleweed Park – the latter being a throwback (and spiritual successor) to Lucasrts’ fan-favourite Maniac Mansion.
Not to be left behind, the Syberia trilogy, created by Benoit Sokai, makes its way to the Switch after a fifteen year stint as not only one of the most well-received PC genre titles, but also as one which has seen release on several other systems, including a rather sub-par DS version in 2008. While the quality of these ports have varied thus far, the Switch’s ample hardware specs – combined with its portability – means that there is potential for this to be the best iteration.
Syberia at its core is initially a pretty standard point-and-click affair. During your adventure, you will explore various environments, talk to different characters and find inanimate objects in order to solve puzzles and progress through the story. Influenced by the work of early 20th century pioneering French film maker Georges Méliès, the game mixes mild fantasy and science fiction elements, but starts out as a somber tale explaining the decline of a family business. You play the role of young American attorney Kate Walker, sent to the quaint and secluded French village of Valadilène on behalf of her law firm to finalise the takeover of a mechanical toy (automaton) factory after the death of destitute owner Anna Voralberg and the disappearance of its sole heir and genius inventor, Hans. The company Kate represents has the monopoly on the toy business and tracking down Mr. Voralberg is imperative as the business can not be taken over without his approval. Kate delves deeper in to the village’s – and the factory’s – history by meeting various residents and explores the increasingly desolate and remote landscapes of the European and Russian wilderness in search of clues as to Voralberg’s whereabouts.
The unraveling of the plot and the depth of characters are highlights of Syberia. The protagonist has the difficult task of balancing her increasing intrigue for the Voralberg family with her professional obligations and personal relationships. There’s an interesting exploration of many different contrasts, including technology and the conflict between urban and rural life. As the game progresses, you’ll come across an increasingly mysterious and enchanting locations in search of Hans, as well as more abstract and mystical scenarios. Granted, the point-and-click genre might not suit everyone’s taste in terms of mechanics or pacing, but the overall experience is rich and engaging, while the puzzles – despite being a little obtuse – are more accessible than other similar titles.
From the get go, the art direction, string-based theme music and voice work are all great, but the game’s mechanics expose its age. Despite the story being in a contemporary time period (circa 2002), there’s a distinct Dickensian feel to the world. The antiquated newspaper clippings and the mechanisms of the robot toys (although don’t ever call them that) have a rusted aesthetic consisting of springs, cogs and the sounds of creaking old metal. While the art nouveau, industrial architecture and steam punk-like automatons – along with rich colour palates – give the village and other areas a sheltered and intriguing atmosphere, the game’s technical presentation does let it down in places. The backgrounds alternate from being crisp and sharp to blurry and ugly. The character models are, on the whole, pretty good but the lip syncing from the PC version is absent.
Particularly jarring examples of this uneven presentation come early on; a completely static background of a bridge over a river or a stone fountain are both accompanied by the sound of running water despite the lack of movement, for example. You’ll be moving around interior and exterior environments set to fixed camera angles, while controlling Kate with full 360 degree movement as opposed to ‘tank controls’ feels natural and reasonably responsive, including the option to run (by holding down a trigger) that adds welcome pace. However, looking around and using objects or performing actions can be cumbersome, as you are moving the character around as well as looking for the right direction. The inclusion of a touch-based option for item management (brought up with Y or the bottom right hand icon on screen) is oddly patchy. Tapping ‘R’ brings up your trusty mobile telephone, but you can only scroll through contacts with the touch screen, not input numbers.
Furthermore, the game is not optimised to fit the Switch in either TV or handheld mode. The 4:3 aspect ratio option is dealt with by having translucent extensions of the scenery or black vertical boarders, and in both configurations the resolution differences are obvious – the FMVs in particular look very blurry. The other option is full screen, where everything is stretched. It’s an unfortunate catch 22.
Conclusion
Syberia on the Nintendo Switch is a reasonable yet inconsistent port of an enchanting genre classic. This is an absorbing, intricate story filled with melancholy, eccentric characters and mystery demands and deserves attention, even if the game shows its age technically in some places and demonstrates a lack of care in the porting process in others. For fans of the genre, or those willing to dive in and forgive some inconsistencies, there’s an endearing and worthwhile adventure here.
Get Ready To Slam Dunk With The Next Neo Geo Game For Switch, Street Hoop
We all love a bit of basketball action here at Nintendo Life, so we were delighted to hear that the Data East’s classic Neo Geo game Street Hoop is heading it’s way to the Switch tomorrow courtesy of Hamster.
We reviewed this back in 2010 when it landed on the Wii Virtual Console it netted an impressive 8/10. Here’s what we had to say:
There’s no denying the heavy Double Dribble and NBA Jam influences that abound in Street Hoop, but given how well those arcade hoops classic played, that’s certainly not a bad thing. The game’s unique hip hop musical score and over-the-top Super Shots give it something to stand out from the crowd, but what ultimately makes the game so much fun to play will inevitably be its familiar controls that will give fans of popular arcade hoops games something new with which to play. At the very least it proves that the Neo Geo system was capable of producing quality titles that were actually not fighting games.
Let us know if you plan to pick up this classic sports game tomorrow with a comment below.
Hand of Fate 2 is Now Available on Steam and is 10% off!*
A new hero rises to challenge the Dealer in Hand of Fate 2! Master a living boardgame of infinitely replayable quests – unlock new cards, build your adventure, then defeat your foes in brutal real-time combat!
Draw your cards, play your hand and discover your fate!
HP, Intel Sign on for Multiyear Sponsorship of the Overwatch League™
IRVINE, Calif.—November 2, 2017—Tech leaders HP Inc. and Intel today joined forces with Blizzard Entertainment in major Overwatch League™ sponsorship deals that represent an extended investment in the groundbreaking professional league. As part of the multiyear agreements, Intel will sponsor future Overwatch® competitive events in addition to the Overwatch League.
Players taking part in these events will be equipped with cutting-edge gaming hardware from both HP and Intel. HP, and more specifically, its OMEN by HP gaming PCs and displays will be used exclusively for Overwatch League games, with PCs powered by Intel® Core™ i7 processors.
“We’re thrilled to be joining forces with HP and Intel to ensure that the teams competing professionally in Overwatch are equipped with top-end technology,” said Pete Vlastelica, president & CEO of Blizzard Entertainment’s Major League Gaming division. “Multiyear collaborations such as this illustrate the momentum behind the Overwatch League as well as a long-term commitment by us and our partners in what we see as the future of esports.”
“Working with Blizzard Entertainment as a global technology partner of the Overwatch League is the perfect way to celebrate esports talent and showcase our hardware within the competitive gaming arena,” said Alex Craddock, global head of marketing, personal systems at HP Inc. “OMEN hardware has been widely adopted by many of the world’s top esports professionals, and we’re thrilled to help power the gameplay for the Overwatch League.”
“For more than 12 years Intel has consistently supported the esports community and we’re always looking for ways to help improve how they play, watch, and compete. We’re proud to sponsor the Overwatch League and equip all competition PCs with Intel® Core™ i7 processors to contribute to a great experience for fans and competitors,” said John Bonini, VP and general manager of the VR, gaming, and esports group, Intel. “The Overwatch League will be a great showcase for esports, and we’re excited to be a part of it with Blizzard.”
The Overwatch League represents a unique opportunity for sponsors, with a city-based structure that supports engagement and a deeper connection to local fan bases around the world. Esports have already captured the attention of more than 280 million people[1] worldwide—a community that includes some of the hardest-to-reach and most sought-after demographics, including a share of millennials two to three times higher than any of the “Big Four” US sports.[2] The Overwatch League is based around Blizzard Entertainment’s blockbuster hit Overwatch, which quickly became the company’s fastest-growing game following its release last year and recently reached a new milestone of 35 million players.
The inaugural season of the Overwatch League begins with the first regular season match on January 10, 2018, and runs until June, with playoffs and finals scheduled for July. Preseason play will begin next month, on December 6, with a series of exhibition matches featuring the inaugural 12 teams. All Overwatch League preseason and regular-season games for 2018 will take place at Blizzard Arena Los Angeles, a state-of-the-art live-event venue in Burbank, California, custom-renovated for Blizzard Entertainment esports events. Information on Overwatch League ticket sales will be announced in the coming weeks.
About the Overwatch League™
The Overwatch League™ is the first major global professional esports league with city-based teams across Asia, Europe, and North America. Overwatch® was created by globally acclaimed publisher Blizzard Entertainment (a division of Activision Blizzard—Nasdaq: ATVI), whose iconic franchises have helped lay the foundations and push the boundaries of professional esports over the last 15 years. The latest addition to Blizzard’s stable of twenty-one #1 games,[3] Overwatch was built from the ground up for online competition, with memorable characters and fast-paced action designed for the most engaging gameplay and spectator experiences. To learn more about the Overwatch League, visit www.overwatchleague.com.
About HP®
HP Inc. creates technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere. Through our portfolio of printers, PCs, mobile devices, solutions, and services, we engineer experiences that amaze. More information about HP Inc. is available at http://www.hp.com.
About Intel
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) expands the boundaries of technology to make the most amazing experiences possible. Information about Intel can be found at newsroom.intel.com and intel.com.
[2] Esports audience demographic from Blizzard Consumer Insights survey of 5,000 global esports viewers, 2016; US professional sports demographics from Barclays ‘Future of Sports: Aggregator of Platforms’, September 2016
[3] Sales and/or downloads, based on internal company records and reports from key distribution partners
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this press release that involves Blizzard Entertainment’s expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future, including statements about the dates and features of the Overwatch League and the sponsorship arrangements with HP and Intel for Overwatch esports, are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause Blizzard Entertainment’s actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this release include unanticipated product delays and other factors identified in the risk factors sections of Activision Blizzard’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to Blizzard Entertainment and Activision Blizzard as of the date of this release, and neither Blizzard Entertainment nor Activision Blizzard assumes any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements believed to be true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of the future performance of Blizzard Entertainment or Activision Blizzard and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond its control and may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.
Our focus this week is a crafty individual. No, not that Kraftyy! This Guardian is crafty in an artistic way. We’ve had many creative people as the focus of our community, but this is our first artist whose preferred medium is cross-stitching. CraftingGeek wields a needle as her favorite weapon outside the game to create Destiny arts and crafts. This is not your grandma’s needlepoint.
Please meet CraftingGeek, a.k.a. Jess.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your role in the Destiny community.
CraftingGeek: My name is Jess, and my little corner of the Destiny community is making crafts, usually something to do with cross-stitching. When it comes to making Destiny crafts, I have a basic philosophy of “Saw it. Liked it. Had to cross-stitch it.” Apparently it works, because I’ve made thirty projects or so.
That is a lot of projects. Where can we see them?
CraftingGeek: I’m always posting my works in progress and finished projects on Instagram and Twitter.
What are your favorite subclass and weapon?
CraftingGeek: Well, I’m a Warlock through and through, and I’m partial to the Stormcaller subclass. As for my favorite weapon, that would be my fist, because, uh, I tend to run into a place just like my hero Leeroy Jenkins to find a mess of trouble. I just try punching everything. (It usually doesn’t work.) If I manage to control my impulsiveness, then you’ll find me with my Nameless Midnight.
Leeroy Jenkins, the hero we deserve. What are some of your favorite Destiny-related creations?
CraftingGeek: There are a few projects that have remained my favorites over the years. The Sparrow Racing League banner is near the top of that list, because I just adore the color scheme. Some of the most fun ones I have stitched are recreations of pixel art created by Christopher Barrett and a great artist named Spykles. And I loved working on the three class crests this summer—it helped pass the time before Destiny 2 was released, and I just love how they turned out.
Sparrow Racing League banner
Guardian Pixel Art
Cayde Pixel Art
Titan Crest
Those all look great! Do you have any works in progress or future plans you want to tease out?
CraftingGeek: Currently, I’m running a yearlong craft-along project based around the Destiny 2 emblems. By the end, there will be forty-eight emblems, which will be my biggest Destiny-themed project to date. Outside of the emblems, making something to celebrate the release of the Curse of Osiris is a given. And I’m absolutely going to be stitching some snowflakes to celebrate the return of the Dawning this year.
Destiny 2 Emblems
We can’t wait to see how those turn out. What has been your favorite thing about Destiny 2 so far?
CraftingGeek: While the amazing artwork is so influential to my crafts, the soundtrack is my favorite part of Destiny 2. It captures the magic of the world of Destiny so well, and anyone who knows me knows I love a great video game soundtrack. “Holliday” and “Riptide” are a couple of my favorite tracks, but really, the entire score is awesome. Plus, as an added bonus, I can listen to the music while making Destiny crafts.
Many will agree with you on the quality of the soundtrack and how much it improves gameplay. Anything else you want to say while you’re here?
CraftingGeek: I just want to say thank you to this wonderful community. Over the years, so many people have shown their enthusiasm for the projects I have made, and I am so grateful for their support and kindness. Thank you to all the artists over at Bungie who create such awesomeness, which helps fuel the fires of creativity. And last but not least, thanks to you and DeeJ for always being fantastic and never minding when I drop the occasional request for some random hi-res image so I can make some new project from it.
If you are willing to spend the time to cross-stitch them, we’ll make sure you have the images!
Big thanks to CraftingGeek for sharing her projects with us. Make sure you follow her on Twitter and Instagram to keep up with what she is working on.
We are always taking suggestions about whom you would like to see us focus on here. You can post on our Community forum with the #CommunityFocus tag for a chance at seeing your suggestion picked.
Sucker Punch Productions is looking for focused, collaborative, professional engineers to implement gameplay features for our upcoming project. We’re looking for bright, energetic, and talented individuals who share our love of video games and our passion for creating innovative and fun experiences.
Work for this position will be done primarily in C++, with some work done in our proprietary Scheme-based scripting language. This is a highly collaborative position. You’ll be working closely with our game design team during iteration on gameplay features.
Job requirements:
3+ years commercial programming experience is a plus. Game industry experience is not strictly required, but is strongly preferred.
Must be fluent in C++. Experience with Lisp or Scheme is a plus.
BS or higher in Computer Science or a related discipline.
Must be legally able to work in the United States.
Whether you’re just starting out, looking for something new, or just seeing what’s out there, the Gamasutra Job Board is the place where game developers move ahead in their careers.
Gamasutra’s Job Board is the most diverse, most active, and most established board of its kind in the video game industry, serving companies of all sizes, from indie to triple-A.
[Gamasutra interviews Bethesda’s Emil Pagliarulo and 2K Marin’s Jordan Thomas to discuss the importance of building challenging, satisfying ethical gameplay — both in games the duo created such as Oblivion, Fallout 3 and BioShock 2, and in the work of others.]
To a certain degree, all games are about choice. The player chooses how and when to react to a given situation, whether that situation is as simple as fight or flight or as complex as determining the future of an entire species. Given the role that choice holds in gameplay, it’s no surprise that morality systems have become more and more common as games have increased in complexity.
Oftentimes these morality systems offer up only basic black and white choices: should I help this character or harm them? Should I defeat the evil wizard or accept his offer of power? Various types of moral choice systems appear in complex RPGs like Mass Effect 2, adventure games like Heavy Rain, and even straightforward action titles like Dante’s Inferno.
Compelling moral choices can encourage players to experiment with different ethical stances over multiple playthroughs, while underdeveloped morality systems can seem like little more than an additional bullet point on the back of the box.
To examine how to make in-game moral choices that are both intellectually engaging and stimulating from a gameplay perspective, we spoke with key developers from two studios with very different specialties: Bethesda’s Emil Pagliarulo explained how he and the rest of the team approached morality in RPGS like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Fallout 3, while 2K Marin’s Jordan Thomas discussed branching moral outcomes in the shooter BioShock 2.
The results of the conversations with the developers pointed to two aspects that need to be present in order to make in-game moral choices compelling: a virtual world that somehow connects with the player, and a set of choices that offer outcomes of significant moral weight.
The two required elements may seem obvious, but more often than not a game with a moral choice system is missing one or the other. Choosing to punish or absolve tormented souls in Dante’s Inferno carries no weight because it has no connection to the narrative — it’s all about maximizing what kind of experience points you want to earn. InFAMOUS features a likeable protagonist and a recognizable world, but the choice to give food to hungry citizens or keep it for yourself is no choice at all in a game that doesn’t require you to eat.
So how do developers tackle the issue? The first step is to create some element that players can create an emotional bond with. “It all comes back to the characters you’ve created,” says Bethesda’s Pagliarulo. “I think Heavy Rain has proven this better than any game in recent memory. In order for a developer to provide moral choices that matter, the player has to be convinced that those choices are going to have some kind of effect on the characters in the game, and the more believable those characters, the stronger the emotional impact.
“At the end of Heavy Rain, if there’s one thing you feel it’s that Ethan loves his son and is completely invested in finding him, and this really challenges the player’s willingness to go as far as it takes.
“As it turns out, when I played Heavy Rain, I wasn’t willing to do carry out one of the sequences, and I actually sat there yelling at my TV, saying, ‘No! I won’t do it! This isn’t my fault! I will not be made the bad guy! You stole my son — it’s your fault! Not mine!’ I was pissed off. Not at the developers, but at the Origami Killer. And you know what? The game didn’t exactly have a happy ending.”
Few games have managed to create the same kind of believable characters as Heavy Rain, but fortunately there are other ways to draw a player into a game. One of the strongest elements of the original BioShock was the city of Rapture, a game world that was so solidly drawn that it felt real. It had a history, a set of rules that it adhered to, and an internal ecosystem that made it feel like a real place.
BioShock 2
“A lot of people told us that in their version of the world, they decided not to kill Big Daddies,” says 2K Marin’s Thomas. “This is not an outcome we support with any special content. This is a simulated moral decision that they chose to make based on their own level of empathy for these enslaved former humans.”
The world of Rapture in both BioShock games is a place founded on debatable concepts, and both games use a clash of ideals as the basis for the narratives. Rapture is both physically and ethically murky, and as such clear-cut “good and evil” choices seem out of place. In Rapture, the choices should be every bit as unclear as the rest of the world, something which Thomas believes the original game failed to achieve:
“It chose a very binary set out outputs at the far end,” he says. “The players who enjoyed that were those who kind of were those who felt that they were embodying a moral extreme anyway — there was a sort of cogency between what they chose and the outcomes they received. The ones who were less satisfied felt that they were morally more grey, or granular, and as such neither of the endings of that game reflected them well.”
In other words, the players who felt as if they were playing a purely good or purely evil character were satisfied with the two possible outcomes, but those players (arguably the majority) who viewed the BioShock experience as more morally ambiguous were less than satisfied with the simple either/or choices.
Starting at 6 p.m. PT today, members of the Xbox One Preview Update Alpha ring will begin receiving the latest Xbox One system update (1711.171031-1906). This update, which includes enhancements to Home and Guide, will be mandatory for all Alpha users by tomorrow, Nov. 4, at 1 a.m. PT. Read on for a list of features, fixes and known issues in the latest system update.
New Features:
Home
In addition to games and friends, you can now add club blocks to Home. You can add them from both the Guide and from the club itself. We’ve also made it easier to explore additional types of blocks at the bottom of Home by adding a new section under “Add More.”
Mini Game Hub in Guide
We’ve added miniature Game Hubs for your most recently used games to the Guide. You can now access some of the great content from game hubs without having to leave the action.
Fixes:
Blu-Ray Player
Resolved an issue which sometimes caused the Blu-Ray Player to freeze when playing 3D Blu-Ray content.
Resolved an issue which sometimes caused corrupted graphics when playing 3D Blu-Ray content.
Resolved an issue which sometimes caused a black screen when playing 3D Blu-Ray content.
Miscellaneous fixes and improvements for Blu-Ray Player.
Minecraft
Fixed an issue which sometimes prevented players from converting worlds.
Known Issues:
Avatars on Home
Users can now represent themselves as an Avatar on Home by changing their settings. To do so, simply navigate to My profile > Customize profile > Show my avatar.
Tournaments
The left and right navigation for selecting date and time during Tournament creation is currently reversed when the console language is set to Arabic or Hebrew.
Left and right navigation in Tournament twists is reversed when the console language is set to Arabic or Hebrew.
Left and right navigation in the bracket view of Tournaments is reversed when the console language is set to Arabic or Hebrew.
Out Today: Sonic Leads New Switch eShop Arrivals to Get the Week Started
As is now the norm the Switch eShop’s release slate for each week typically comes in a couple of batches. Beyond the usual Thursday update we also get retail and download-only titles earlier in the week, and as we’ve done in recent times we’re giving you a reminder of what’s out today. After all, we all need to budget and plan our purchases on the eShop.
This Tuesday brings four new arrivals, with a couple of download games making their presence felt along with retail titles. They’re all live now or due by the end of the day depending on your region, so let’s get to it.
The long-awaited next entry in the 3D Sonic series, drawing ideas from the likes of Generations and Colors. In this one there are wisp powers once again, and in addition you also create and control your own avatar characters in some stages. Reviews have been relatively thin online, which tells you how distribution of press copies went down, but we’re reviewing right now and will bring you our thoughts on it as soon as possible.
This one picks up the style of old-school first-person dungeon crawlers, with a mix of classes, enemies, puzzles and plenty of combat to tackle. This is no doubt tempting for fans of the seminal Dungeon Master, and despite its modest appearance does a good job with the throwback gameplay; we gave it a recommendation in our Heroes of the Monkey Tavern review.
No, that’s not a typo, it is a Ubisoft game, and considering the fact that the company’s version of Monopoly costs a slightly ludicrous $39.99USD / £29.99 on the Switch, this is at least reasonably priced. This spin on the card game includes online play and various customisation options to switch things up.
Those are the latest Switch eShop arrivals – will you be buying any of these?
