Author: dpugh007

Bandai Namco has revealed the newest character for Jump Force, the Shonen Jump-based arena fighter bringing in characters from the magazine’s long history. This time, both Himura Kenshin and Makoto Shishio from the 1994 manga Ruroni Kenshin are joining in for the crossover fighting game.

In Rurouni Kenshin, protagonist Kenshin was a former soldier/assassin renown for his swordsmanship, but was used by the military primarily to kill. As a consequence, a more adult Kenshin created a special blade with a blunt side facing forward so that he could defeat opponents without murdering them. Shishio is the primary villain from the manga’s Kyoto arc, covered head-to-toe in bandages after being burned by the government.

While there is no video yet, presumably both characters will play with sword styles hewing close to their anime adaptations.

The manga Rurouni Kenshin is actually still running in a different form, as creator Nobuhiro Watsuki approached Shonen Jump in the mid-2000s with the intention to remake Kenshin with a modern modern sensibility. In 2017, Watsuki was arrested for possession of child pornography with a number of underage DVDs so large that prosecutors assumed he had an intent to distribute, but eventually ruled that he was collecting it for himself. Watsuki himself admitted an attraction to elementary school girls in a deposition. He was fined the equivalent of $1900 and continues to work on Rurouni Kenshin at Shonen Jump today.

Powered by WPeMatico

Insomniac’s Spider-Man is being talked about as game of the year for many, so any excuse to play more is a good one. Fortunately, Insomniac has given us plenty of reasons to keep playing, with a series of DLC packs spaced only a month apart.

The second set of DLC, Turf Wars, picks up right where The Heist left off. When Hammerhead – an old fashioned gangster with a metal head – makes a play to become the city’s new crime boss, Spider-Man swings into action to save the day.

Fortunately, this DLC is full of good moments and interesting twists. The dialogue and the narrative maintain the level of quality on par with the base game, and I like how Insomniac plays with the power dynamics between Spider-Man and police captain Yuri Watanabe, as Yuri wrestled with how far she’s willing to go to take down New York’s dastardly villains. Oddly enough, much of the story feels standalone, so you don’t need to play The Heist (or even finish the main game) to play this, but I’d still recommend doing so.

Spider-Man’s action will also be familiar to anyone who’s already played the base game. While Insomniac added a few new suits to unlock, there are no new powers or equipment to mess around with. One new enemy type is thrown into the mix – a shield grunt who dashes forward leaving behind a trail of fire. This new enemy is incredibly deadly, but I liked how he kept me on my toes and added something new to the mix.

Much like The Heist, Turf Wars features a high level of polish and a good mix of mission objectives. I loved using Spider-Man’s spiderbot to sneak through a bar and eavesdrop on conversations just as much as I enjoyed the high-flying aerial battles and breakneck car chases. The only thing missing from this DLC pack is the explosive set-piece action sequences that made the main game so bombastic. In their place, Insomniac seems to have ratcheted up the difficulty, so every gang battle has a white-knuckled sense of danger. Fortunately, I love the combat system so much that I didn’t mind the extra challenge, but it does seem unnecessary.

In addition to the story missions, Turf Wars adds more random crimes and Screwball challenges, which no one was really asking for. Sadly, the new crimes aren’t much different from the standard street fights we’ve had a million times already. The Screwball challenges are another mix of races and stealth sequences (similar to the Taskmaster challenges from the base game), but they were the weakest part of the original game, so I was a little disappointed to see more of them.

Overall, Turf Wars maintains the level of quality that we come to expect from Insomniac, and provides Spider-Nuts with a good excuse to play more Spider-Man. I look forward to seeing how Insomniac finishes off this trilogy of DLC packs almost as much as I look forward to a proper sequel.

Powered by WPeMatico

Way back in 2015, Valve announced a multi-pronged initiative to make it easier to get PC games on a user’s TV or in another room in the house. One way to do this was through the Steam Link, a streaming box that uses a Steam account to take inputs and stream back video of a game so players who didn’t like sitting at a computer could still engage with their Steam library. Now, after several years on the market, Valve is quietly discontinuing the product and depleting its remaining stock.

The news comes from a concise post on the Steam forums by senior software engineer Sam Lantinga, stating that the hardware is almost completely gone from Europe and North America and not explicitly announcing intentions to replenish it. He finishes the three-sentence post by talking about the company’s intention to support the Steam Link app, a software-based alternative to the Steam Link that is not supported on Apple mobile devices.

If you have been waffling on whether to get a Steam Link, you better make a final decision quickly, as it does not seem like there will be any way to get a brand new one after this. Valve has had the hardware on firesale fairly often, occasionally selling it for a single dollar and shipping when bought with other games that were also not particularly expensive. Those that have a Steam Link can still expect Valve to support it in the future, but who knows for how long that will remain true.

Powered by WPeMatico

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part is coming to theaters in February, but Warner Bros. Picture released a trailer today that gives us a glimpse of what to expect. The fasted-paced trailer proves that there are plenty of laughs to be had in a post-apocalyptic Lego world.

Chris Pratt, reprising his role as Emmet Brickowski, jets off to recover Lucy after she is kidnapped by aliens. In one of the best moments in the trailer, Emmet meets Rex Dangervest, a galaxy-defending archaeologist cowboy who trains raptors. Check out Chris Pratt as the hilarious amalgamation of all of his best roles, with some Indiana Jones and Master Chief thrown in for good measure, in the trailer below.

Alongside Chris Pratt as Emmet, Elizabeth Banks as Lucy (aka Wyldstyle), Will Arnett as LEGO Batman, Nick Offerman as Metal Beard, and Alison Brie as Unikitty are all coming back for the sequel. New characters Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi, Sweet Mayhem, and Ice Cream Cone will be played by Tiffany Haddish, Stephanie Beatriz, and Arturo Castro, respectively.

Catch The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part in theaters Feb 8, 2019.

[Source: Youtube]

Powered by WPeMatico