In 2017, NBA Playgrounds came out of nowhere and slam dunked its way onto the PlayStation 4, giving basketball fans a solid alternative to the ultra-realistic simulation the NBA 2K series offers. It was something we hadn’t seen since NBA Jam’s last entry in 2010, and while it wasn’t perfect it did provide a lot of fun. It seems that Saber Interactive got set to working on a sequel almost immediately, however a major delay of the release coupled with publishing being taken over by 2K Sports showed signs of trouble. Could NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 suffer from the dreaded sophomore slump?
The original gameplay loop of playing matches to earn in-game currency and buy card packs to unlock new players is still here and has been majorly beefed up this time around. The player roster has increased significantly, and practically any player you could ever want to see in cartoon form is here, from Michael Jordan to World B. Free. With the first game there was a serious lack of players, and we found that once we had played through the entire single player mode we had unlocked most of the best cards. Here that isn’t the case and players who enjoy the loop of unlocking new players will have a lot of fun. For those that are impatient or just can’t seem to find the players they want, there is an option to buy a special card pack that unlocks the game’s entire roster, and you can buy individual players too if you’re just after one specific guy.
Battlefield V is set to arrive in just under a month’s time on 20th November, and EA has mapped out some of the updates coming to the game post launch. Interestingly, this includes Firestorm, the WW2 shooter’s equivalent of the wildly popular Battle Royale. The mode, which is largely being developed by Criterion, won’t be present when the game is released, but will arrive a few months later, in March of next year.
“During spring, DICE and Criterion start the fire with Battlefield V’s battle royale experience,” EA states. “Firestorm elevates the mode by bringing in the best of what Battlefield is known for. Mix a shrinking playing field with trademark Battlefield elements such as team play, powerful vehicles, and destruction, and you get many unique Battlefield moments coming your way.”
There was concern about Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age, as the anticipated JRPG didn’t exactly release at an ideal time. Launching just three days prior to PlayStation 4 juggernaut Marvel’s Spider-Man with next to no marketing at all, fans expected the worst for the latest entry in Square Enix’s iconic franchise.
To be frank, this is probably for the best. Sony is renowned for its unwillingness to support the portable console – which saw a lack of exclusive games, ridiculously expensive proprietary memory cards and a failure to adapt to mobile gaming trends. With the advent of the Nintendo Switch, Sony also has no plans to succeed its best backwards-compatible console, which seems a huge shame.
In the wake of this decision, Sony also announced the incoming release of the pocket-sized PlayStation Classic, a mini console in the same vein as the Nintendo NES Classic & SNES Classic Mini, for December 3 – and just in time for Christmas.
It’s a clever fiscal decision from Sony, but a non-committal solution to a pressing problem. The controller for the PlayStation Classic lacks analogue sticks, there is no online functionality and the console will come with a mostly-undisclosed (at this point at least) 20 games all for the not inconsiderable price of £89 / $149 / AU$149.
PlayStation Classic will be launching globally on December 3
Great if you’re looking for a nostalgic paperweight, but for that price, you could buy a Vita in pretty good condition and open yourself up to a catalogue that boasts hundreds of classic titles, as well as games that you can also (quite crucially) take with you on the go.
Of course, buying a pre-owned console is not for everyone. It’s natural to be worried, especially if you’re picking up one of the original Vita models that came out six years ago – though the LCD screen of its PS Vita Slim successor wasn’t a patch on the earlier model’s superior OLED screen. You’re also definitely not going to be receiving any new games on it anytime soon, beyond a precious few indies.
But besides the Sony PS3, there is nothing comparable for veteran PlayStation gamers looking for a nostalgic fix.
I picked up a Vita in 2018 for this exact reason, in order to play gems from my childhood on my daily commute. I was pleasantly surprised by the entire package, down to the satisfying page-peeling user interface and, most importantly, its catalogue of classics.
From critically acclaimed titles like Spyro the Dragon and Resident Evil 2 to the more obscure but still memorable Disney’s Hercules and 40 Winks, the Vita’s online store is jam-packed with PlayStation games, including the ones you hold fondly for no particular reason. Even if you don’t want the games that are set to get remasters of their own within the year – like the aforementioned Spyro and Resi – there’s still something here for you.
Spyro Reignited Trilogy launches on PS4 and Xbox One on November 13
Better than a curated list of 20 crowd-pleasers, you can enjoy the games that will most likely make it on to the Classic and still have room to spare for lesser-known gems.
Trawling through the listings I found countless titles I’d forgotten about since I was a child: instinctive nostalgia purchases like Mickey’s Wild Adventure that don’t boast critical acclaim but certainly have a special place in my heart. I imagine there is something for everyone in that regard, and the lack of a set menu means you can pick and choose whatever games you fancy.
If you’re a gamer looking to catch up with the highlights of a bygone era, many bucket list classics are also present, which you may have missed and want to catch up on. Games like Silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VII provide a perfect entry point to some of gaming’s most revered series, and they’re all readily available on this forgotten misfit console.
Remappable controls improve the accessibility of old-school gems too, meaning you’re not stuck with a pre-Dualshock dinosaur of a controller and a short wire, something nobody is really used to nowadays. The Vita’s touchpad back panel easily remedies archaic control schemes, breathing life into tank controls, among other unfortunate realities of early PlayStation games.
Persona 4 kicks back for some nostalgic Vita play
If you can brave it, you also open yourself up to a few landlocked exclusives that are well worth the price of admission. Atlus dropped a much-loved port of 2009’s Persona 4 on the platform, and Golden is still thought of as one of the finest JRPG’s ever made, with the Vita being the best way to experience it in its finest form.
So even if you are picking it up for nostalgia, that won’t prevent you enjoying forgotten titles like Tearaway and Gravity Rush, as well as indie darlings Spelunky, The Binding of Isaac and Grim Fandango Remastered – all charming titles that don’t suffer from any noticeable downgrades on the handheld console.
To the PS Plus subscribers who instinctively download every free offering each month, I have more good news: you may be surprised at just how many Vita games you own already.
Beyond platform exclusives, many of the titles Sony has offered in its monthly packages are crossplay, meaning you can pick up where you left off from your main system on the go.
This extends to AAA PS4 games too. The immense fidelity of Marvel’s Spider-Man doesn’t exactly go one for one in your hands, but Remote Play has been going from strength to strength in recent years, meaning you’re certainly able to finish off side quests in a tidy fashion as long as you leave your main system running at home.
Ultimately it’s a question of comfort. It’s probably a little easier to wait out the Classic console and get a pristine experience without needing to scratch the surface a little. But if you have the courage and know-how to do so, the PS Vita can still be a worthwhile pickup, even in 2018 with the console going out of production.
Sony’s lacklustre approach to backwards-compatibility means that the value proposition of the console still stands, and it doesn’t look like they’re going to provide an answer for this problem anytime soon. Until they do, long live the classics – and long live the PS Vita.
No Man’s Sky is about to launch another titled update for its high-profile space exploration sim – one that seems to be inspired by the spooky Halloween season.
No Man’s Sky: The Abyss was announced in a blog post by Hello Games founder Sean Murray, and promises to bring out some of the “eerier elements” of the game.
It comes three months after the widely publicized ‘Next’ update, which was largely credited with turning No Man’s Sky into the game players had expected at launch – adding new aliens, character customization, and the long-awaited inclusion of online multiplayer.
Release of The Abyss update is expected “next week”, presumably the day of or just in time for Halloween on Wednesday 31 October.
While there’s as yet no details on what The Abyss might include, the title may hint at some sort of underground (or underwater) exploration, or even the likes of a wormhole or another dimension.
The font in the publicized image seems to echo that of the supernatural Netflix thriller Stranger Things, hinting at ominous forces beyond the alien creatures and enemies we’ve seen already.
No Man’s Sky has built its world – and its reputation – on its ability to procedurally generate environments for players to explore. The choice to possibly curate more of that content in seasonal events and updates in the vein of Fortnite, could do much to attract players and turn No Man’s Sky into a game worth extending your stay in.
Death should be permanent. When games emerged in the early eighties, they opted for a certain count of lives. Usually three, though in many cases, this could be increased to five, or seven, or nine. Mario plunged into bottomless pits, Sonic brushed against one too many spikes and we’d wait for a jingle to finish before being reborn on screen for another attempt. This is how life played out when we sat cross-legged in front of large televisions; impressionable minds seeing second chances.
Once that handful of lives was used up, we’d be offered the chance to continue. Jabbing the start button would track us back to the beginning of the level, a set-back, but revitalized with more life. There was always a lifeline, a safety net, if you will. We could play with abandon, attacking levels because we knew that should death take us, there would be another go around.
Coming back from the dead lingered as a central trope of gaming for many years. So many offered a counter along the edge of the screen, ticking off attempts in a steady stumble towards game over or eventual success. If it wasn’t life counts, this safety net could be seen in steady checkpoints, numerical passwords in the 16-bit era or later, as save files. We were lulled into a sense of security, knowing that no matter how fast we move or how ferociously we attack enemies, we could come back, utilising the same skillset as before. If you struggled to land a jump in Tomb Raider, it wasn’t a problem, Lara respawned a few paces away from the edge to try, try again.
It didn’t take long for games to begin emulating life, offering just one attempt to reach a goal. Perhaps the most notable example of this is Spelunky.
Sure, while an intrepid explorer venturing into cave systems seeking elusive treasure wasn’t exactly groundbreaking, the mechanics were. Given just a whip, some bombs and a handful of ropes, the idea was to reach Olmec and relieve the God of their treasure. Exploration was integral, emphasizing the explorer archetype. Levels were laden with traps hiding inside walls to fire arrows and there are often blind drops, with spikes waiting at the bottom. The change here was that you only had one attempt, and should you die, it would be straight back to the beginning of the game, losing everything you collected along the way.
Safety nets now came as items; a parachute for those long drops or if you had collected enough money, the Ankh inside the hidden Black Market would save your life just once. Spelunky tested patience, forcing players to slow down, evaluate the layout of mines, ice caves and temples. From here, games were relying less on instinct and reaction and more on choice. Weighing up the pros and cons of venturing further to reach the crate that might hold the key to success. Roguelikes or Roguelites, as they were dubbed, suddenly moved from a more niche slice of games into the mainstream. Developers noted how Spelunky dealt with several mechanics, establishing them as tenets of the genre; death, knowledge and randomization.
Dungeon-crawling and risky brawling
For a small handful of pioneering titles, death was now permanent … for that iteration of your character at least. Life became precious and players became wary, knowing that each action could very well be their last. Rogue Legacy, The Binding of Isaac, even Dark Souls all consider the balance of risk and reward. Progression was now a gamble; do you take the new item, not knowing how it will affect your journey? Or do you leave it behind?
Of course, some players love the risk, not caring if they lose an hour of progress for the chance to see something new. Others play closer to caution, teasing outcomes with baby steps. Maybe the item will subvert death anyway? “Progression in any form is a primal desire in humans, and most Roguelikes are progression systems on steroids,” says Teddy Lee of Cellar Door Games, creator of Rogue Legacy.
Progression in any form is a primal desire in humans, and most Roguelikes are progression systems on steroids.
Teddy Lee
To progress in life, we make decisions and choices. Sometimes we turn down that new job because the change to life isn’t worth the chance. What if we had taken a stand against that bully when we were younger? Often games don’t offer this sense of decision making, at least not with such finality.
Away from TellTale adventures, these game-altering choices are less seen, action titles are often more linear, affording the player risk only in difficulty of set pieces or number of obstacles. The ability to save games on a whim can lead to reloading a file if we didn’t enjoy the outcome of a decision.
With Rogue games, that function is rarely an option. Take the item ‘Plan C’ in The Binding of Isaac, an active item used at will. It’s an innocuous looking red pill, whose name only vaguely hints at the outcome of its use. Upon using the item, the character will kill everything in sight, dealing out massive damage to even the hardiest of bosses, but the protagonist will also die. Plan C is an abortion drug in America, now you know. The player must then react and adapt, knowing that this item can only be used if they’ve picked up a way to resurrect after the act.
“The Roguelike genre is a lot like real life, sometimes crazy shit happens and you win the lotto, or sometimes you get your face torn off by that monkey from the Old Navy commercial,” Isaac creator Edmund McMillen expresses. “You are gambling with your life, basically.”
This idea grew over time and the gap between games and life shrunk, with developers not only intent on asking you to go all in on your character, but to also do so with those around you. Indie games were perhaps the first to implement the mechanic of ‘perma-death’, with larger studios following suit to bring it to audiences at large. Creators allowed for teammates or party members to improve over time, unlocking new skills, encouraging the player to rename them and form a bond. Faster Than Light, X-Com and Fire Emblem forced players to care for those around them, knowing that if a key member of the team died, there was no coming back. Our choices began to hold weight – do you send your ace pilot into the fight knowing if they die, your progress will take a step back as you train someone new?
While the indie scene often gives these new ideas because of the freedom within creation, the tropes eventually bleed through to triple-A titles. Minit designer Jan Nijman reflects on the indie scene for its freedom of mechanics: “Small teams are flexible. If you’re a solo developer with loads of free time, you can make whatever you want. On the other hand, if you’re responsible for 200+ employees and their mortgages, it’s super dangerous to take risks”.
The theme of perma-death is perhaps best displayed in ‘triple-A’ titles such as Until Dawn, where you control a group of protagonists in a horror movie setting, trying to keep each of them alive. Once they die, there’s no reloading a save to try again as the game constantly backs up your progress, making the choice of exploring the sound outside the cabin all the more dangerous. Lending a new style of excitement and fear to proceedings. Death should be consequence, not inevitability.
Carrot and the stick
Venturing into the unknown allows for risk and reward gameplay, developers dangle opportunities like carrots on a stick. Consequence means a lot more in the Rogue genre because the decision can be catastrophic, do you take the money or see what’s behind the door? Opening a strange pod in F.T.L can unleash an alien who savages a member of the crew. Dealing with the devil in The Binding of Isaac directly asks the player to make a sacrifice for potential growth. If you play well over a floor of Isaac, not losing any integral red heart health, the devil will appear with a selection of items, most of which will increase damage or offer a lifeline upon death. To accept these, you must sacrifice your health. As Edmund McMillen notes, “the risk of a heart or two for higher damage is one you will always take, but devil items cost life and ask you whether or not give into temptation”.
It’s “only a heart or two”, but that damage buff might be key to winning.
There’s still a hint of the old way of life. Each death gives us time to reflect, we can analyse each choice we made along the way, using that information in the next attempt, or the next life. “In a good Roguelike, the players’ eventual failure should always be a moment they can understand, learn from, and try again,” explains Rami Ismail, creator of Nuclear Throne. This is the central tenet for the genre. Knowledge comes from death and death is used as a tool. Sometimes a ‘run’ will inevitably end in failure, even sacrifice, as we seek out information or try new things. In Nuclear Throne, one of the weapons is a screwdriver, which if used on the right car opens a secret level. Use it on the wrong car, or even the wrong enemy and it will explode, ending your progress abruptly. Experimentation is key, death is inevitable and growing as a player through mortality is a must. Think of it as being born again, or as Edmund McMillen subtitled The Binding of Isaac HD release, Rebirth.
One game to implement the idea of handing down skills and knowledge, passing on traits and riches, is Rogue Legacy. Rather than asking us to choose a template character each time, the team utilise a lineage system. Starting a new ‘run’ meant receiving some of the money from a past life, along with any upgrades made to that character. “We had to upfront the player change as early as possible,” says creator Teddy Lee. “This led to classes, which led to sub-weapons, which eventually led to genetic traits and the lineage system.”
Learning the mechanics of a Rogue game subverts how we usually learn about games. We know Mario can run faster holding down the ‘B button’ furthering his jump, this is a skill given to us by developers, without which many levels would be impossible to finish. “I enjoy Roguelikes because they encourage players to learn the underlying systems as opposed to ‘routes’ of designer intentions,” explains Lee.
However, Lee doesn’t agree that sacrifice is needed within the genre to learn: “weeding out false paths is artificial complexity at its worst.”
Along with reinventing mortality and urging players to adapt to new design structure, players take another step closer to life with the random element of Roguelikes and lites. It’s not often that the words Rogue and procedural generation aren’t hand in hand, as teams endeavour to emulate the randomness of life within our games. This can come from items, where you’ll never know what lies inside a chest or, most notably, level generation. Videogames are often an escape from life, but Rogue games offer the risks of real life with little to lose. “Failure does not have any real-life results – beyond your run getting cut short,” notes Rami Ismail. This genre and its quirks offer players a new way of controlling the random things we meet in real life – danger, risk, choice – without the inherent idea of failing or regret.
Rogue reincarnation
I enjoy Roguelikes because they encourage players to learn the underlying systems as opposed to ‘routes’ of designer intentions.
Teddy Lee
Looking back to rebirth, there’s an air of Eastern religion about Roguelikes, each of these new playthroughs or ‘lives’ can be seen as a form of reincarnation. Buddhist teaching describes reincarnation as a process of being born over and again, improving upon previous incarnations in order to reach Nirvana, or enlightenment. This is the key similarity between the two; they each hold a certain goal in mind, though with games, it’s usually to reach the end credits or in some cases, the perfect run.
Oddly, for a game that kills its central character every 60 seconds, Minit’s designer Jan feels that the game isn’t about death, but rather life. “‘Minit has never been about the death part: It’s a representation of leading a very rushed life while everybody else seems comfortable where they are, and the idea that you always need to be productive,” she explains. “Minit is about how that’s not always the case, and how sometimes it’s fine to just stop and look at the world, to explore, and to interact with the people around you.”
No other genre leans so closely to the real life we live away from our computers and consoles. As the genre grows and infiltrates so many titles, we as players are given the chance to make weighty choices that have a real sense of outcome.
Rogue games don’t offer only black and white decisions of choice like so many adventure games, there’s a kaleidoscope of shades built from random chance and risk. Some of those will take us down a dark road tinged with loss and grief and others will lead to enlightenment.
Every year Steam holds several big sales which see the prices of hundreds of games hugely discounted for a limited period of time – and now we know when the next two will be.
According to Kotaku, the Steam Autumn Sale will run for on week from November 21 to November 27. Meanwhile, the Steam Winter Sale will run for two weeks, from December 20 to January 3.
The Autumn Sale will run throughout and after Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so make sure to compare the Steam Store game prices with those of large scale retailers before making a purchase.
The Steam Autumn Sale will go live on November 21 at 9:55am BST / 1:55am PST / 4:55 EST / 8:55pm AEDT.
The Steam Winter Sale will go live on December 20 at 9:55am BST / 1:55am PST / 4:55 EST / 8:55pm AEDT.
Those fine folks at Steam love a sale, and fortunately for us, they come around pretty regularly too, giving you a chance to pick up everything from indie darlings to AAA tentpoles at cheaper prices.
Most recently we saw the Steam Summer Sale come and go, but it shouldn’t be too long before another one arrives, if you missed out on that occasion. Besides the season sales, there’s a continuing selection of weekly sales to pick from too.
In this guide we’ll keep you up right to date with the best deals and discounts currently available on the platform, and how to get the best out of the sales.
[Update: The Steam Autumn and Winter Sale 2018 dates have been revealed (via Kotaku).]
The Steam Autumn Sale will go live on November 21 at 9:55am BST / 1:55am PST / 4:55 EST / 8:55pm AEDT and will run until November 27 at 10:05am BST / 2:05am PST/ 5:55am EST / 9:05pm AEDT.
Steam Winter Sale 2018
The Steam Winter Sale will go live on December 20 at 9:55am BST / 1:55am PST / 4:55 EST / 8:55pm AEDT and will run until January 3 at 10:05am BST / 2:05am PST/ 5:55am EST / 9:05pm AEDT.
How to get the best deals in the Steam Sales
Whichever way you approach a particular Steam Sale, you’re guaranteed to have the chance to pick up some top gaming titles at great prices.
Finding bargains isn’t too difficult, but there are a few techniques and tricks that are worth using if you want to get the most out of the sales.
Use your Steam Wishlist: Fill it up with all the games you’re interested in picking up, and you’ll be alerted the moment they go on sale, and by how much.
Bundles are great: Publishers often pull their titles together in sale mega-packs, ramping up the savings to even greater heights. If there’s a suite of titles from a publisher like Square Enix or Activision that you’ve never played before, this is the best – and cheapest – way to bag them all at once. As you’d imagine, the value diminishes if you’ve already got a few bundled titles in your library.
Highlighted deals are where the real savings are: The majority of the Steam store back-catalogue will get some sort of price cut, but it’s the ‘Highlighted’ deals (the ones promoted on the Steam front splash page) that tend to be more heavily discounted. These are the ones where you may fall into impulse-buy territory. Which leads us on to our next tip…
Only buy what you’ll actually play right away: Once those 75% off signs start floating around, you’re going to want to break open the piggy-bank. But the Steam Sales of yesteryear have proved that our desire for overflowing game libraries leaves us with more titles than we could ever humanly play. Save some cash, and only grab the ones you’re really going to play – keep in mind that if you wait a while, the games will almost certainly get cheaper as they get older.
Use this browser extension: Want to make sure you’re getting a good deal? Use the Enhanced Steam browser extension. This gives you a historical look at the price of all Steam games, letting you see just how many pennies have been saved.
The best Steam Sale deals of days gone by
Gone but not forgotten, here’s our collection of all the best deals we’ve seen up until this point. Use them as a point of reference for what you should be expecting – or, you know, lament the ones that got away.
Tomb Raider franchise: The iconic explorer has seen a huge transformation since her debut outing in ’96, moving from polygonal poster-girl to complex, conflicted heroine. And with 70-90% discounts across the entire platforming series, this was the perfect time to join her on that journey…
Left 4 Dead 2: Valve’s cooperative zombie shooter Left 4 Dead 2 pits four survivors against the undead horde, and has an absolute blast doing it. With procedurally-altered campaigns, too, the game is smart enough to vary the challenge depending on how (and how well) you play. And at 90% off RRP, it was basically free…
Shadow of Mordor bundle: Perhaps the definitive Lord of the Rings video game, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor was lauded on release for its stellar combat, open-world action, and an intelligent Nemesis system that. If 50 Game of the Year awards weren’t enough to convince you, a hefty 70% discount on the Shadow of Mordor/Shadow of War bundle certainly should have been.
The Witcher 3: Inarguably the game of 2015, The Witcher 3 is also now widely considered the best RPG of all time. A sprawling dark fantasy epic, it’s a beautiful game, and one that’s a great showpiece for your souped-up gaming PC too.
And, with the Game of the Year Edition being heavily discounted in the Steam Summer Sale, it was a fantastic way to jump into this monumental game, and get all of its DLC at a discount too.
What games are going to be in the Steam Sales?
First off, you shouldn’t expect brand-new games to get the really steep discounts that have become synonymous with the Steam sales. You may see a 5%, or even 10% discount on games that have been recent big hits, but if they’re still new enough to be spinning money without needing a price cut, don’t expect that to change now that the sale is here.
But, with the exception of the newer titles, pretty much the entire store receives a 25% discount, if not higher, with a select few seeing a massive 90% off the list price. While the store now highlights what Valve considers the best deals, it’s worth noting that flash and community sales are no longer in the mix, so feel free to pick a title on sale when you like – its discounted price will stand for the duration of the sale.
Of course, Other Gaming Stores Do Exist™, and it’s worth checking their wares too, to see if you can’t bag an even bigger bargain elsewhere. GOG.com is a great place to start, and if you’re platform-agnostic and looking for multi-platform titles, keep an eye on the PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Deals with Gold offers, too.
Or… spend no money at all on the best free games to play right now!
If you’ve been keeping up with the Pokémon movies, you’ll know the next one is out this November in both the US and UK. After a name change from Pokémon: Everyone’s Story to Pokémon The Movie: The Power of Us, the focus has been on the initial trailer and plot.
The Pokémon Company has now released the full theatrical trailer highlighting the importance of the legendary creature Lugia in this upcoming story. In case you missed the synopsis the first time around, this is a sequel to the reboot of Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You! – where Ash and Pikachu visit the seaside location of Frau City (known for its annual wind festival). Chaos erupts when the wind dies down, sending the citizens into a state of panic and requiring Ash along with some familiar faces to fend off a procession of threating Pokémon.
Colin Thiele’s beloved 1964 children’s book Storm Boy is currently in the process of being adapted to cinema for the second time and is also being turned into a video game. We first found out about it coming to multiple game platforms including the Switch in August, and now the Australian-based developer Blowfish Studios has revealed Storm Boy: The Game will arrive on 20th November.
As previously described, the title is an interactive retelling of the novel. You take on the role of a young boy located on the beaches of South Australia, near the mouth of the Murray River. The protagonist rescues pelican chicks and goes on to raise one of them known as Mr. Percival. The video game adaptation recreates many moments from the novel while also including relaxing mini-games such as sailing, bird feeding, sand surfing, drawing and more.
