The videos give us an insight into the stories that players will enjoy when the two games arrive next month. You can check them both out below:
TAIKO NO TATSUJIN RHYTHM ADVENTURE 1 embarks the players in a space & time mystery adventure having them play as DON-chan in a quest to save history from enemies willing to destroy it. DON-chan will ally with Ticky and Tocky to go through various moments in time, meet historical figures from the past, and face your foes in up to 4vs4 rhythmic battles.
In TAIKO NO TATSUJIN RHYTHM ADVENTURE 2 players will join Tia and Popo Kaka, in a race to retrieve the stolen necklace of the Lion’s fang from the Sorcery Society Hexaglia, in evil organization who stole in order to erase history. In this second game, you can get into up to 8 vs 8 performance battles and create teams with multiple specialties in order to face the many challenges met along the way.
Both games feature more than 250 enemies and 130 songs, and you’ll be able to play them with your old drum set from Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum ‘n’ Fun! if you managed to get your hands on one. The pack launches physically and digitally on 3rd December, and both titles will also be sold separately on the eShop.
Looking forward to this one? It’s always nice to see Japan-only games finally make it over to the west, right?
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 11-13-2020, 06:08 AM - Forum: Lounge
- No Replies
Sega Is Considering More Atlus Ports, Remasters, And Remakes
Sega may be out of the Japanese arcade business, but it still has plans to expand its audience around the world by dipping further into the library of Atlus games. After Persona 4 Goldenexceeded the publisher's expectations when it was ported to PC this year, more Atlus game ports, remakes, and remasters are being considered, according to Sega Sammy president and CEO Haruki Satomi.
"As for Steam, while we haven't been actively releasing Atlus titles on PC, we felt that there was much potential there and put out a direct port of Persona 4 Golden for PC, and the user response was far beyond our expectations," Satomi said during a financial results briefing that was translated by Gematsu. "That being said, we hope to release Atlus catalog titles across various platforms, whether as direct ports or in the form of remasters or remakes."
Persona 4 Golden was a popular release on Steam due to the perfect storm of it having a cult-classic status, positive reviews, and a low price of admission. The last main game in the series, Persona 5 on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, was another well-received entry in the franchise when it arrived in 2017 and was expanded on further in 2019's Persona 5 Royal on the PS4.
The latest Nintendo Download update for North America has arrived, and it’s bringing new games galore to the eShop in your region. As always, be sure to drop a vote in our poll and comment down below with your potential picks for the week. Enjoy!
Switch eShop – Highlights
Just Dance 2021(Ubisoft, 12th Nov, $49.99) – The ultimate dance game returns with 40 hot new tracks, including chart-topping hits like “Don’t Start Now” by Dua Lipa, “Feel Special” by TWICE and “Señorita” by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello. Share the fun with co-op mode, and enjoy eight new kid-friendly songs and choreographies for a family-fun experience. Just Dance 2021 invites you to dance the way you like by creating your own personalized custom playlists. Start a dance party your friends and family can enjoy!
KINGDOM HEARTS Melody of Memory(SQUARE ENIX, 13th Nov, $59.99) – Dive into rhythm-action gameplay with memorable tunes in this can’t-miss musical journey! Play as familiar faces from the KINGDOM HEARTS series, including Disney guest characters who will appear to lend you a hand. Enjoy a massive variety of music from both Disney and the KINGDOM HEARTS series, with a collection of more than 140 songs. Match the rhythm of the songs and cast powerful magic spells to attack enemies. A variety of modes are available in the game, including Memory Drive, which involves matching past scenes from memory, and Boss Battle, in which players square off against fearsome bosses with special attacks.
Switch eShop – New Releases
Apparition(No Gravity Games, 13th Nov, $9.99) – Apparition is a first-person survival horror with ghosts, demons and the infamous Spirit Board, used to communicate with the dead. Set in the fictional and mysterious haunted forest of Green Creek, full of apparitions waiting to be discovered. Use your camera and audio recorder to prove the existence of the supernatural, putting yourself in grave danger. STAY ALIVE!
Arcade Archives Pettan Pyuu(HAMSTER, 5th Nov, $7.99) – “Pettan Pyuu” is an action game released by SUNSOFT in 1984. Take control of the character, “Pettan” and make use of the plates to wipe out bugs and solve the interdimensional maze. You will need to master 4 different types of plates, all with their own characteristics.
Beat Me!(Red Limb Studio, 13th Nov, $12.99) – Beat Me! is a physics-based multiplayer game with comical fantasy characters and a wide variety of fun and surprising environments. Fight against other players, but be aware of your surroundings!
BrainZ(Polygon Art, 12th Nov, $6.99) – A colorfull Zombie shooter in a post apocalyptic US City. Your only goal is to survive while waves of Zombies attack you. Search for loot, call in resupplys and manage your resources and find a way to leave the city.
Bus Driver Simulator(Ultimate Games, 13th Nov, $29.99) – Complete journeys around the city and its suburbs, strictly following the schedule. Earn money by successfully delivering passengers and following the traffic laws. Complete various scenarios with pre-set conditions or build your own career in Free Mode. You have a unique chance to drive buses from different eras and countries. You can drive both old Soviet city buses and European long-distance giants. We took photos of a big part of these cities and their suburbs to recreate buildings and streets as close to real objects as possible.
Five Dates(Wales Interactive, 17th Nov, $12.99) – Five Dates is an interactive rom-com about the unpredictable world of digital dating. With five potential female matches, Vinny explores whether compatibility, chemistry and connection is still possible in a world where physical touch is no longer an option. Throughout the game, your choices and your interactions will either strengthen or weaken your relationship with your date. The relationship scores are calculated from the start right through to the very end and will affect certain scenarios as well as having consequences in the concluding scenes.
Forest Guardian(Top Hat Studios, 12th Nov, $10.99) – What would you do if you met a fox girl in a forest? After collapsing in a forest while trying to make it to the local port before winter sets in, a lone merchant, Anna, wakes up in a pristine shrine. It doesn’t appear as though anybody else is there, with the exception of the caretaker, a kitsune who introduces herself as Mayu. Anna wants to help Mayu bring visitors back to her shrine, but what she learns in the meantime may end up making her change her mind. Confronted with Mayu’s past, what will Anna do?
Grim Legends 3: The Dark City(Artifex Mundi, 13th Nov, $14.99) – Sylvia, the acolyte of the mysterious monster hunting Order, loses her memory. One year later, the Incarceri Stone – a powerful artifact that binds Koshmaar, a horrifying creature from another world – is stolen! Sylvia and her master, Solomon, embark on an adventure that will lead them into the city of Lichtenheim, where they will face the thief whose identity will come as no less a shock than the actual disappearance of the artifact. Will Silvia succeed in recovering the Incarceri and prevent the Koshmaar from breaking free? Will she muster the courage to save Lichtenheim and its inhabitants?
Guitar(Sabec, 13th Nov, $9.99) – Turn your Nintendo Switch into mini guitar Guitar and learn to play anywhere, anytime. Guitar is a simple and fun game for kids and adults of all age, that will let you learn and play your favourite songs with the touch screen and the Joy-Con controllers. Choose from one of the three modes of play, novice, learn or compose. You will be surprised how easy it is to play something that sounds so amazing so quick.
Let’s Sing 2021(Ravenscourt, 13th Nov, $39.99) – Let the music take control and become the star of your party or sing your heart out solo! The next chapter of the Let’s Sing series offers hits right off the Billboard charts as well as classic hits such as: Billie Eilish with “Bad Guy”, TONES AND I with “Dance Monkey”, Jonas Brothers with “Sucker”, Panic! at the Disco with “High Hopes” or Genesis with “I Can’t Dance” or Seal with “Kiss From A Rose”.
Life of Boris: Super Slav(SneakyBox, 12th Nov, $4.99) – Crazy adventures of YouTube legend Boris await! Jump into the hilarious world of YouTube personality Boris the Slav King in the official game of Life of Boris! In Super Slav you will learn about the life of the Slav phenomenon Boris and his adventures. Meet his unique family such as cousin Anatoli and babushka, or his neighbour Vadim, and find out what it means to be Cheeki Breeki!
Linelight(Plug In Digital, 12th Nov, $9.99) – Linelight is an elegant, minimalist puzzle game set in a universe of lines. Its puzzles will awake your mind as the music flows through your body, gifting you a soft, relaxing euphoria. Linelight is for players of any age or level of experience.
Mars Horizon(The Irregular Corporation, 17th Nov, $19.99) – In Mars Horizon, you take control of a major space agency, leading it from the dawn of the space age through to landing astronauts on Mars. Guide your agency through the space race and write your alternate history of space travel – any of the agencies can be the first to land on The Moon if you make the right choices. Manage the numerous challenges faced then and now.
Metaverse Keeper(CIRCLE Entertainment, 12th Nov, $14.99) – In Metaverse Keeper you explore randomly-generated worlds, customize your weapons and fight crazy monsters – in solo or co-op mode! Five unique heroes, each with their own special skills, have been called upon by the mysterious government of the Metaverse.
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered(Electronic Arts, 13th Nov, $39.99) – Unleash a savage sense of speed both as an outlaw and a cop in the world’s hottest high-performance cars. Outsmart the heat or take down lawbreakers with the tactical weaponry at your disposal in a heart-pumping, socially competitive racing experience. Updated with enhanced visuals, cross-platform multiplayer – including the asynchronous competition powered by Autolog – plus all additional DLC content, this is the ultimate edition of Criterion Games’ critically acclaimed Need for Speed debut. It’s time to reignite the pursuit.
Pure Pool(Ripstone, 17th Nov, $14.99) – Enjoy the most realistic and immersive simulation of cue sports on Nintendo Switch, with stunning 1080p visuals and more ways than ever to play pool and snooker!
Santa’s Xmas Adventure(12th Nov, $8.99) – Santa had an accident! He lost his way, and all the gifts. Help him get to his goal by sliding tiles to form a path. A classic puzzle game which is harder than it looks! 720 levels across three modes to master. Test your skills and join Santa’s adventure! When you’re stuck, use a hint. The game is accessible to players of all ages and abilities through the Hints system. Are you up for the challenge?
Serious Sam Collection(Devolver Digital, 17th Nov, $29.99) – Experience one of the most explosive shooter game series of all time as you save the world from a merciless alien invasion. Visit the ruins of ancient Egypt and roam through the vivid arenas of South America fighting seemingly never-ending hordes of enemies using an extremely destructive arsenal including shotguns, heavy lasers, rocket launchers, a huge cannon and an iconic minigun.
Slide Stars(Orange One, 10th Nov, $39.99) – Are you ready for the world’s most extreme water slide adventure? Play as one of 20 world-famous influencers and blast into an adventure of a lifetime! Choose your favorite star, jump onto the ride of your choice and race head-first down some of the most crazy water slides! Slide, jump and balance your way through insane tracks packed with race-platforming dangers and extraordinary enemies.
Sniper Elite 4(RebellionInteract, 17th Nov, $39.99) – Experience tactical third-person combat, gameplay choice and epic sharpshooting across gigantic levels as you liberate World War 2 Italy from the grip of fascism. Unrivalled sniping freedom. Complete the campaign your way Epic longshots with bone-crushing X-ray kill cam Team-up or go head-to-head with local & online multiplayer Feel every shot with HD rumble & pan the battlefield with gyroscopic controls
Suguru Nature(Hook Games, 13th Nov, $9.99) – Suguru Nature is a great logic puzzle with two simple rules. The cells in each puzzle grid are divided into groups, and each group contains the numbers from 1 to N, where N is the number of cells in the group. Thus, a group containing 5 cells will contain numbers from 1 to 5. The second rule is that no two adjacent cells, including diagonal, can contain the same number.
Super Star Panda(Ultimate Games, 13th Nov, $9.99) – evil rockets – evil meteors – evil satellites – evil spacecrafts – evil UFOs – evil (not really) power-ups – non-evil, ultra great and helpful SHIELD – supersonic space-time breakdown SLO-MO.
Unhatched(SONKA, 13th Nov, $4.99) – Unhatched is a story driven card game with a unique mechanic where every card has different effects depending on how you swipe it. You’ll play as a dragon trainer reclaiming their freedom through a pact with a mysterious rescuer. What starts innocently with opening a jar of pickles, will end up testing the limits of your wit and bond you create with your dragon! Build your deck on the fly, pick and choose from over 200 cards (such as Dragon Breath, Grappling Hook and Pickle), each one with different mechanics, and experience an intriguing story that unfolds based on your choices!
Vera Blanc: Full Moon(Ratalaika Games, 13th Nov, $4.99) – Vera Blanc is a mystery / detective game. Take on the role of Vera Blanc, a young and beautiful woman with an extraordinary power: the ability to read other people’s minds! The game plays like a visual novel / adventure game with two endings for the mystery and a collection of challenging minigames. In this episode, our heroine travels to a mysterious town in Germany deep in the Black Forest. A serial killer is on the loose, and all leads point to a werewolf as the culprit!
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?(Microids, 17th Nov, $29.99) – I do! With 15 questions to answer, it will become harder and harder to increase the prize fund: over 3,000 themed questions waiting to be answered (geographic, science, history, but also entertainment or arts), a growing difficulty and the pressure from the audience and the host… All the ingredients are here to put the player under pressure!
Zombie Blast Crew(QubicGames, 13th Nov, $9.99) – It has been 11 months since the infection started. Everyone fled the cities, mass panic in the streets. The zombies took over our towns, our buildings, our houses. Now we sleep outside while they roam our streets. We waited for the army, and the army didn’t come, so we picked up guns. We waited for a hero, and noone came, so we were left to survive on our own. Now we’re done waiting. Will you lead us in the face of a certain doom?
Zombie’s Cool(GAME MUSEUM, 12th Nov, $3.99) – Zombie’s Cool is a growth-type shooting action game in which you have to mop up zombies that frequently pop up in town while searching for the root of the zombie virus.
So that’s your lot for this week’s North American Nintendo Download. Go on, be a sport and drop a vote in the poll above, and comment below with your hot picks!
The latest Nintendo Download update for Europe has arrived, and it’s bringing new games galore to the eShop in your region.As always, be sure to drop a vote in our poll and comment down below with your potential picks for the week. Enjoy!
Switch Retail eShop – New Releases
Cooking Star Restaurant(Microids, 10th Nov, £35.99 / €39.99) – Enter the world of elite gastronomy and manage your own restaurant from A to Z: hospitality, cooking, waiting, you do it all! Learn from the best chefs in the world, prepare the most delicious meals to make your customers happy and become a true cooking star. Experience a complete culinary adventure Take care of your customers every step of the way: give them a warm welcome, take their orders and complete mini-games to prepare their favourite dishes. Every satisfied customer helps to improve your reputation and giving you access to additional space for your restaurant and new cooking styles!
Family Feud®(Ubisoft, 12th Nov, £15.99) – Experience the exciting classic gameplay of one of America’s hottest gameshows at home now! Customize your character, then challenge your friends, family, and even other players online for a chance to bring the big prize home. Featuring four exciting game modes: Classic mode features the authentic Family Feud experience. Choose a difficulty and take on an AI team just as determined as you are! Party Battle lets you get into teams with your family and friends as you battle each other in local multiplayer. Couch vs. Couch brings the experience online! Play against others across the world. The Live Show feature allows you to broadcast your game and play with your viewers!
Just Dance® 2021(Ubisoft, 12th Nov, £49.99 / €59.99) – Just Dance® 2021 is the ultimate dance game, with 40 hot new tracks from chart-topping hits like “Don’t Start Now” by Dua Lipa, “Feel Special” by TWICE, and “Señorita” by Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello. Start a dance party your friends and family can enjoy! Just Dance Unlimited subscription streaming service lets you dance to over 550 songs! One month FREE included with the game.
KINGDOM HEARTS Melody of Memory(Disney, £49.99 / €59.99) – Play as familiar faces from the KINGDOM HEARTS series, including Disney guest characters who will appear to lend you a hand. Enjoy a massive variety of music from both the KINGDOM HEARTS series and Disney, with a collection of over 140 songs. Dive into rhythm-action gameplay with memorable tunes in this can’t-miss musical journey!
Let’s Sing 2021(Koch, £32.98) – Let the music take control and become the star of your party or sing your heart out solo! The next chapter of the Let’s Sing series offers hits right off the Billboard charts as well as classic hits such as: Billie Eilish with “Bad Guy”, TONES AND I with “Dance Monkey”, Jonas Brothers with “Sucker”, Panic! at the Disco with “High Hopes” or Genesis with “I Can’t Dance” or Seal with “Kiss From A Rose”. Whether you’re training your voice on your own or hosting the next karaoke party for friends and family – fun is guaranteed with Let’s Sing 2021.
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered(£34.99 / €39.99) – Feel the thrill of the chase and the rush of escape in Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered on Nintendo Switch. Unleash a savage sense of speed both as an outlaw and a cop in the world’s hottest high-performance cars. Outsmart the heat or take down lawbreakers with the tactical weaponry at your disposal in a heart-pumping, socially competitive racing experience. Updated with enhanced visuals, cross-platform multiplayer – including the asynchronous competition powered by Autolog – plus all additional DLC content, this is the ultimate edition of Criterion Games’ critically acclaimed Need for Speed debut. It’s time to reignite the pursuit.
Professor Rubik’s Brain Fitness(Microids, 12th Nov, £35.99 / €39.99) – Good old Rubik’s is back in a brand new shape! With professor Rubik’s, get your brain back on track in a new brain fitness game. He is ready to test you with fast and ludic mini-games daily and see how much brainpower you have! Stimulate your brain! Train the different areas of your brain such as your memory, concentration or your 3D visualization with colourful challenges. Play with a wide range of mini-games, with four different play modes, alone or with your friends!
Santa’s Xmas Adventure(Funbox Media, 20th Nov, £7.19 / €7.99) – Santa had an accident! He lost his way, and all the gifts. Help him get to his goal by sliding tiles to form a path. A classic puzzle game which is harder than it looks! 720 levels across three modes to master. Test your skills and join Santa’s adventure! When you’re stuck, use a hint. The game is accessible to players of all ages and abilities through the Hints system. Are you up for the challenge?
Slide Stars(Orange One, 11th Nov, £35.99 / €39.99) – Are you ready for the world’s most extreme water slide adventure? Play as Brent Rivera, Holly H, Doctor Mike or one of the other 20 world-famous influencers and blast into an adventure of a lifetime! Choose your favourite star, jump onto the ride of your choice and race head-first down some of the craziest water slides! Slide, jump and balance your way through insane tracks packed with race-platforming dangers and extraordinary enemies. Overcome insane challenges like rolling boulders, wobbly constructions, banana bomb-throwing monkeys, and even a colossal kraken! Nothing goes too far for these stars! Will you make it to the finish line?
Speed 3: Grand Prix(Orange One, 10th Nov, £26.99 / €29.99) – Get on the circuit and show that you’re the best driver of all time! Pick your favourite formula racing car and make your way to the first spot in all seasons to claim the championship title. Drive recklessly to take down the competition and let them all bite your dust! Make them all know you’re the one leading the pack. Fuel the rivalry as you take it up against others to conquer the world of circuit racing. Race through the American wastelands, tear up the asphalt of the German circuit, compete in the British countryside and drift through the neon-filled streets of Tokyo! It’s up to you to become a true motorsport legend!
Switch eShop – New Releases
Apparition(£8.99 / €9.99) – Apparition is a first-person survival horror with ghosts, demons and the infamous Spirit Board, used to communicate with the dead. Set in the fictional and mysterious haunted forest of Green Creek, full of apparitions waiting to be discovered. Use your camera and audio recorder to prove the existence of the supernatural, putting yourself in grave danger. Camping in the haunted forest of Green Creek during the night was never a good idea. However, it’s the only way to prove the existence of the supernatural. Are you brave enough to face ghosts, demons, and other inhabitants of Green Creek?
Area 86(SimDevs, 11th Nov, £8.99 / €9.99) – You are a fast-moving robot that can also do some stylish parkour tricks. Use the laws of physics to literally push your way through the station! Pick up items, activate switches, destroy the environment around you to escape. If you are looking for an extra challenge – you can also find secret items and clues to what happened. But there is more! The space station AI has trapped other robots. Save them and form an all-powerful robot squad!
Beat Me!(£10.79 / €11.99) – Beat Me! is a physics-based multiplayer game with comical fantasy characters and a wide variety of fun and surprising environments. Fight against other players, but be aware of your surroundings! Enjoy the game together, with up to 6 players in total. Challenge your friends to try to beat you locally through shared-screen or over the internet. Experience a special physics-based combat system. Choose from many fantasy characters with unique abilities and fighting styles. Enjoy over 100 highly interactive and fun levels. Pick from a number of different game modes, including deathmatch.
BrainZ(Polygon Art, 12th Nov, £6.29 / €6.99) – A colourful Zombie shooter in a post-apocalyptic US city. Your only goal is to survive while waves of Zombies attack you. Search for loot, call in resupplies and manage your resources and find a way to leave the city.
Bus Driver Simulator(£24.99 / €29.99) – Complete journeys around the city and its suburbs, strictly following the schedule. Earn money by successfully delivering passengers and following the traffic laws. Complete various scenarios with pre-set conditions or build your own career in Free Mode. You have a unique chance to drive buses from different eras and countries. You can drive both old Soviet city buses and European long-distance giants.
Duck Life Adventure(Wix Games, 9th Nov, £5.99 / €6.99) – Explore an enormous new area to find training dojos, shops and ducks to race and battle. Play 16 new training games to level up your duck in 8 skills and become the greatest duck adventurer ever! Design your duck to look exactly how you want, from its hair down to its eye colour. There have never been so many customisation options to choose from!
Forest Guardian(Top Hat Studios, 12th Nov, £8.09 / €8.99) – What would you do if you met a fox girl in a forest? After collapsing in a forest while trying to make it to the local port before winter sets in, a lone merchant, Anna, wakes up in a pristine shrine. It doesn’t appear as though anybody else is there, with the exception of the caretaker, a kitsune who introduces herself as Mayu.
FUSER(NCSOFT, 10th Nov, £59.99 / €69.99) – From the creators of Rock Band & Dance Central comes FUSER – a nonstop virtual music festival where you control the music! Combine elements of the world’s most popular songs to create your own sound or partner with friends on epic collaborations, then share your amazing mixes and headlining performances with the world!
Grim Legends 3: The Dark City(£13.49 / €14.99) – Sylvia, the acolyte of the mysterious monster hunting Order, loses her memory. One year later, the Incarceri Stone – a powerful artefact that binds Koshmaar, a horrifying creature from another world – is stolen! Sylvia and her master, Solomon, embark on an adventure that will lead them into the city of Lichtenheim, where they will face the thief whose identity will come as no less a shock than the actual disappearance of the artefact. The heroin and her mentor will need to put on their detective hats and face not only the evil forces within the gothic walls of the grim city, but also dark secrets from the past.
Guitar(£8.09 / €8.99) – Turn your Nintendo Switch into mini guitar and learn to play anywhere, anytime. Guitar is a simple and fun game for kids and adults of all age, that will let you learn and play your favourite songs with the touch screen and the Joy-Con controllers. Choose from one of the three modes of play, novice, learn or compose. You will be surprised how easy it is to play something that sounds so amazing so quick. As bonus Guitar also comes with an acoustic, classic and electric guitar so you can amaze your family and friends with your new learnt musical talent.
Life of Boris: Super Slav(SneakyBox, 12th Nov, £4.49 / €4.99) – Crazy adventures of YouTube legend Boris await! Jump into the hilarious world of YouTube personality Boris the Slav King in the official game of Life of Boris! In Super Slav you will learn about the life of the Slav phenomenon Boris and his adventures. Meet his unique family such as cousin Anatoli and babushka, or his neighbour Vadim, and find out what it means to be Cheeki Breeki!
Linelight(Plug In Digital, 12th Nov, £8.99 / €9.99) – Linelight is an elegant, minimalist puzzle game set in a universe of lines. Its puzzles will awake your mind as the music flows through your body, gifting you a soft, relaxing euphoria. Linelight is for players of any age or level of experience. Movement is your only interaction. Whether you’ve played hundreds of games or this is your first, Linelight will provide you with an intuitive and rewarding experience.
Metaverse Keeper(CIRCLE Ent., 12th Nov, £12.14 / €13.49) – In Metaverse Keeper you explore randomly-generated worlds, customize your weapons and fight crazy monsters – in solo or co-op mode! Five unique heroes, each with their own special skills, have been called upon by the mysterious government of the Metaverse. Long ago, a great cataclysm shook reality and created the Metaverse and its Bastion – a vast and mysterious ship drifting across space-time. Our heroes will board the Bastion with one goal in mind: uncover the secrets behind the cataclysm, stop the Boss, and bring balance back to the Metaverse.
Re:Turn – One Way Trip(GMG Publishing, 9th Nov, £9.99 / €9.99) – Re:Turn – One Way Trip tells the terrifying story of five college friends on a post-graduation vacation. This might be their last trip together before adulthood swallows them whole. Unfortunately for them, a far more sinister force has found them and hungers for their souls. When Saki awakens in the middle of the night to find that her friends have disappeared from their campsite, she is soon lured to an abandoned train. It stands silent, as if it has been waiting for its final passenger to board. Waiting for her.
Suguru Nature(£0.89 / €0.99) – Suguru Nature is a great logic puzzle with two simple rules. The cells in each puzzle grid are divided into groups, and each group contains the numbers from 1 to N, where N is the number of cells in the group. Thus, a group containing 5 cells will contain numbers from 1 to 5. The second rule is that no two adjacent cells, including diagonal, can contain the same number.
Super Star Panda(£8.99 / €9.99) – Evil rockets, evil meteors, evil satellites, evil spacecraft, evil UFOs, evil (not really) power-ups, non-evil, ultra great and helpful SHIELD – supersonic space-time breakdown slo-mo.
Unhatched(£4.49 / €4.99) – Unhatched is a story-driven card game with a unique mechanic where every card has different effects depending on how you swipe it. You’ll play as a dragon trainer reclaiming their freedom through a pact with a mysterious rescuer. What starts innocently with opening a jar of pickles, will end up testing the limits of your wit and bond you create with your dragon! Build your deck on the fly, pick and choose from over 200 cards (such as Dragon Breath, Grappling Hook and Pickle), each one with different mechanics, and experience an intriguing story that unfolds based on your choices!
Vera Blanc: Full Moon(£4.99 / €4.99) – Vera Blanc is a mystery / detective game. Take on the role of Vera Blanc, a young and beautiful woman with an extraordinary power: the ability to read other people’s minds! The game plays like a visual novel / adventure game with two endings for the mystery and a collection of challenging minigames. In this episode, our heroine travels to a mysterious town in Germany deep in the Black Forest. A serial killer is on the loose, and all leads point to a werewolf as the culprit!
Zombie’s Cool(Game Museum, 12th Nov, £3.6 / €2.99) – Zombie’s Cool is a growth-type shooting action game in which you have to mop up zombies that frequently pop up in town while searching for the root of the zombie virus. Weapon System Single Shot Pistol: You can use it limitlessly, but its firepower is weak. Machine Gun: The damage dealt per bullet is low, but since its per-second firing speed is high, you can deal a lot of damage within a short time. Shotgun: It has a short range, but it deals a lot of damage to multiple enemies.
Switch eShop – Demos
DLC / Add-On Content
Nintendo Switch games with new DLC this week:
So that’s your lot for this week’s Nintendo Download. Go on, be a sport and drop a vote in the poll above, and comment below with your hot picks!
Gamasutra: Ruben Torres Bonet’s Blog – The Bright Side of Ray-Traced Global Illumination
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Global illumination (GI). To be more specific, indirect illumination.
Let’s quickly explain how GI works.
What’s Unity Global Illumination?
Like I said, light rays bounce off surfaces and lose energy in the process (e.g. brightness, a change in color, etc.). Eventually, light will reach your eyes from different surfaces.
In graphics, we distinguish between:
Direct lighting: the sun light hits the floor and reflects into your eyes. That lets you see that specific fragment on the floor.
Indirect lighting: the sun light hits the floor, bounces to your hand watch and then bounces towards someone’s eyes. That person becomes temporarily stunned.
The difference is that GI takes more bounces into account. Not just one.
Direct lighting is easy and cheap to calculate. Indirect lighting, not so much.
So, how do you do indirect lighting* in Unity?
Here are your options.
* I use the words indirect lighting and global illumination interchangeably. In theory, they’re not the same. But in practice, we treat them as if they were.
Your Options for Global Illumination in Unity
Let’s build an ultra-simple scene to see and compare the different methods you have in Unity to do global illumination.
Here’s the scene we are building:
Light Bounces Global Illumination Diagram
First, take a deep breath and enjoy my drawing skills.
Now, let’s explain it.
A wall is covering/occluding another wall, which in real-life would prevent light from reaching it.
However, there’s a small gap below.
This bottom gap will allow some sun rays to “escape” the big wall and reach the wall behind after these rays bounce off the floor.
The diagram is clear, right?
Here’s how our baseline (just direct lighting + shadows) looks in Unity.
Global Illumination Scenario
We won’t use that angle. It’s hard to see the effect of indirect lighting later on.
Here’s a better angle.
Global Illumination Baseline (No GI)
The wall behind is quite dark.
No global illumination means light is not bouncing. Our black shadow on that wall remains untouched with no secondary light rays coming in.
Not what you want in your game. Nope.
So let’s improve this scenario and add some GI with our first method: baked global illumination(Unity Lightmapper).
Unity Baked Global Illumination
Baking global illumination is the cheapest way to do global illumination.
We do all these expensive calculations offline (in the editor). That process produces textures that we later “paint on top” of our scene.
It takes some effort to get the results you want with this method, as there are many settings to play with. And baking takes time.
But once you get it right, it looks great.
In fact, it’s probably the best-looking method out there to do (static) global illumination.
The downsides?
Well, it only works with static geometry.
I mean, you can use light probes to add some indirect illumination to dynamic (moving) elements. But that also goes with many downsides.
Anyway, let’s see how it looks.
Use the slider to see the evolution from no GI to baked GI.
Just like I promised you, it looks more… correct*.
* You know what I mean. Not the simplified scene per se, but the indirect lighting.
However, did you ever play an interactive game with just static elements?
No, you say?
That’s why we need more options.
One is to use light probes together with baked GI. The issue with light probes is that you need many of them to have smooth indirect lighting transitions. And guess what? That’s going to break batching for good.
Let’s consider instead something else: Screen-space (Raster) Global Illumination.
Unity Screen-Space Global Illumination (SSGI)
The idea with SSGI is simple. It’s execution is not.
We analyze the rendered frame (G-buffer) and guesstimate the way light should bounce between surfaces that are within that frame.
Again, we don’t do that for the whole scene. Just for the current rendered image.
Doing this effect in screen-space makes this option affordable in terms of performance.
Use the slider below to find out what SSGI paints on top of our baseline.
Screen-Space Global Illumination (SSGI)
A small tint of red.
Not much else.
Here is in detail the indirect lighting that we are adding to our baseline:
Unity Global Illumination: Screen-Space Effect
That’s a very shy effect. Quite different from baked GI, isn’t it?
That’s one of the limitations of SSGI: accuracy. Two reasons for this:
We have incomplete information (the G Buffer, information about our lights and that’s about it).
We have a low performance budget: we need to keep this effect cheap.
But hey, it works with dynamic elements. And in real-time
Can we do better?
Yes!
What if we used ray-tracing for global illumination?
After all, with ray-tracing we have access to off-screen data. And that removes a limitation of this method.
Let’s check out ray-traced SSGI.
Ray-Traced Global Illumination in Unity
This is getting exciting.
If your project is ray-tracing-ready, you just need to click a checkbox in your screen-space global illumination effect: enable ray-tracing.
Here’s the singled-out effect that ray-tracing GI is adding to our baseline:
Unity Global Illumination: Ray Traced Effect
Indeed, ray-tracing gets you good-looking indirect lighting. And it works with dynamic elements… in real-time.
Huge deal.
The question is, can you really afford ray-traced global illumination in Unity?
Let’s analyze the performance cost of these effects.
The Performance Cost of Ray-Traced Global Illumination in Unity
Here are some quick tests I ran with:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 2700X
GPU: TITAN RTX beefy edition
Dataset: 3000 frames taken on the editor
Scene: HDRP template
Versions: Unity 2020.2.0b7 + HDRP 10.0.1
Here are the average frame times at full-HD resolution:
Baked GI: 27.64ms
Baked GI + SSGI (low quality): 28.19 ms
Baked GI + SSGI (medium quality): 30.36 ms
Baked GI + SSGI (high quality): 32.96 ms
Baked GI + Ray-Traced SSGI (performance mode — low quality): 32.07 ms
Baked GI + Ray-Traced SSGI (performance mode — medium quality): 32.88 ms
Baked GI + Ray-Traced SSGI (performance mode — high quality): 34.81 ms
Baked GI + Ray-Traced SSGI (quality mode): 107.91 ms (ouch)
And here are some of these numbers at 4K resolution:
Baked GI: 106.21ms
Baked GI + SSGI (medium quality): 114.56
Baked GI + Ray-Traced SSGI (performance mode — medium quality): 119.77 ms
Baked GI + Ray-Traced SSGI (quality mode): 421 ms (OUCH)
Why did I take them all with baked GI, you might ask? Well, I removed the baked lightmaps and the entire scene broke for good. Like visually, all was pure white.
Don’t take these times as absolute figures.
After all, it’s a specific scene, a specific software/hardware setup and within the editor.
But you can compare the relative frame times and see how performance scales on this high-fidelity scene.
You get the idea.
Two interesting questions arise (and two subjective answers):
Are we ready for 4K real-time ray-traced GI? Nope.
Ok, and are we ready for 1080p real-time ray-traced GI? Yeah, maybe.
It depends on your game.
But if you put enough optimization effort into it, you can get real-time ray-tracing global illumination in. It’s feasible.
Just run it on performance mode at 1080p and you’ll be fine on most NVIDIA 2000+ cards (and maybe even on the NVIDIA 1000 series).
And the importance of performance brings me to…
Next Steps
How much did you like real-time ray-traced global illumination?
Narrative designers in games are often tasked with designing games with “multiple endings.” But what if instead they built a process around designing “multiple middles?”
In this 2020 GDC Virtual Talk, Die Gute Fabrik’s Hannah Nicklin talks about the narrative design choices and motivations for her ‘multiple middles’ as opposed to ‘multiple endings’ approach to player agency in Mutazione.
For narrative designers looking for other helpful talks, you can watch them for free over on the GDC YouTube channel.
In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.
Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.
The new generation has arrived, with the Xbox Series X and Series S having launched earlier this week, and the PlayStation 5 launching today. Microsoft and Sony are professional rivals, but both companies have given each other a friendly message of solidarity upon the launch of their new consoles. Today was Xbox's turn to give kudos to PlayStation.
In a series of two threaded messages on Twitter, the official Xbox social media account said congratulations to PlayStation. It went a little more heartfelt with a second message, saying "Generation after generation, it's been a pleasure to game alongside you."
For the Xbox launch on November 10, Sony similarly congratulated Microsoft, with a cheeky message using a Friendship finisher from Mortal Kombat 11.
Python TypeError: Object is Not Subscriptable (How to Fix This Stupid Bug)
Do you encounter this stupid error?
You’re not alone—thousands of coders like you generate this error in thousands of projects every single month. This short tutorial will show you exactly why this error occurs, how to fix it, and how to never make the same mistake again. So, let’s get started!
Python throws the TypeError object is not subscriptable if you use indexing with the square bracket notation on an object that is not indexable. This is the case if the object doesn’t define the __getitem__() method. You can fix it by removing the indexing call or defining the __getitem__ method.
The following code snippet shows the minimal example that leads to the error:
variable = None
print(variable[0])
# TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not subscriptable
You set the variable to the value None. The value None is not a container object, it doesn’t contain other objects. So, the code really doesn’t make any sense—which result do you expect from the indexing operation?
Exercise: Before I show you how to fix it, try to resolve the error yourself in the following interactive shell:
If you struggle with indexing in Python, have a look at the following articles on the Finxter blog—especially the third!
Note that a similar problem arises if you set the variable to the integer value 42 instead of the None value. The only difference is that the error message now is "TypeError: 'int' object is not subscriptable".
You can fix the non-subscriptable TypeError by wrapping the non-indexable values into a container data type such as a list in Python:
variable = [None]
print(variable[0])
# None
The output now is the value None and the script doesn’t throw an error anymore.
An alternative is to define the __getitem__ method in your code:
class X: def __getitem__(self, i): return f"Value {i}" variable = X()
print(variable[0])
# Value 0
You overwrite the __getitem__ method that takes one (index) argument i (in addition to the obligatory self argument) and returns the i-th value of the “container”. In our case, we just return a string "Value 0" for the element variable[0] and "Value 10" for the element variable[10]. It doesn’t make a lot of sense here but is the minimal example that shows how it works.
I hope you’d be able to fix the bug in your code! Before you go, check out our free Python cheat sheets that’ll teach you the basics in Python in minimal time:
The game is free to keep until Nov 19th, 2020 - 16:00 UTC.
We are welcoming everyone to join our discord[discord.gg]. We are more active there on finding giveaways, small or large, and there are daily raffles you can participate.
