The Total War series continues to go strong after nearly 20 years, but it didn’t start out as a no-brainer success story. The debut title, Shogun: Total War, was released in 2000 by Creative Assembly, a developer that was not exactly known for its experience with the strategy genre.
Prior to Shogun’s release, many of the studio’s previous titles had been based on rugby and cricket. And while the past two decades have seen it try its hands at some different types of games–it developed 2014 horror game Alien: Isolation, for instance–it has almost exclusively focused on strategy games with Total War in the title.
In the video above, we dive into the history of the Total War series, which now consists of more than a dozen games. We look primarily at the core entries in the series, which have often been based on historical settings–although recent years have also brought Warhammer-inspired entries, which we also explore. Although the games share a familiar underpinning, Creative Assembly has managed to introduce wrinkles to keep the series fresh across so many titles, thanks in part to shifting between radically different settings.
Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, Arc System Works has been a mainstay of the fighting game community since the release of the original Guilty Gear. After its recent success with Dragon Ball FighterZ, the developers are looking to their immediate future with BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, with grander plans to expand their audience. In BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, launching June 5 in North America, characters from Persona 4 Arena, RWBY, Under Night: In-Birth–and of course BlazBlue–will face off in fast-paced tag battles. Launching with 20 characters, along with another 20 set for post-launch DLC, Cross Tag Battle, pulls from a number of games from Arc’s past while also bringing in some first-timers to the fray.
Using a more accessible gameplay setup designed around a traditional controller, Cross Tag Battle incorporates many of the characters from their respective games into a fighting game that’s easy to pick up, but challenging to master. We had the opportunity to chat with president and founder of Arc System Works Minoru Kidooka, BlazBlue creator Toshimichi Mori, and Guilty Gear director Daisuke Ishiwatari, they spoke about their plans to expand in the future, and how they want to dominate the Evo fighting game tournament in the years to come.
Arc System Works has been around for sometime, celebrating 30 years in 2018. Can you talk about how it was like seeing the developer grow over the years, and how things are looking at the moment?
Minoru Kidooka: Being the 30th anniversary for us, it’s all really thanks to our fans. The fans recognize us for our fighting games, but there are a lot of other games we’ve made in the past as well. But their passion for our games have kept us going for many years. This game is one of the pinnacles of our 30 years, but we’ve also opened a new North American office, along with the success of Dragon Ball FighterZ. We didn’t expect to do this all at once, but we want to move forward in big ways. We’re always thinking about how we’re going to survive for the next ten to 30 years–so in a way, this anniversary for us a new start for us to continue growing.
Toshimichi Mori: Thank you for recognizing the 30th anniversary, and we’d also like to add that it’s the tenth anniversary for BlazBlue, and the twentieth anniversary for Guilty Gear. So it’s really a great time for these characters in the game. But at the same time, this game isn’t necessarily the end-product of our years making fighting games, more of like the first step of something more.
Can you talk about how you went about incorporating all these characters into Cross Tag Battle? Especially considering that they all come from different titles with their own unique combat mechanics.
Mori: There was originally a controller set-up called the Stylish Mode for earlier Arc System works games; that was the basis for the Persona games. The Stylish Mode is the basis for the combat mechanics in BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle as well. But for this, we feature characters from other games and we had to completely redo the controls. It took time to design how to bring in RWBY [characters], the first time these in a game, but we were able to get it to work after some time. Under Night characters were a bit of a challenge, as their mechanics were set and had to be redesigned to fit our game.
That’s not to say that the game is easy, far from it. While you can do a number of moves pretty quickly, the number of ways to execute them in combos and tag mechanics is quite complex. It should be quite fun to see how players take advantage of the mechanics.
In addition to the anniversary, Arc System Works will have three unique titles present during the Evo 2018 fighting game tournament, which is a rare honor as most developers have just one game. Do you have comments about that?
Kidooka: Yes, we’ve got three titles at EVO, and that’s exciting. Guilty Gear Xrd, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, and Dragon Ball FighterZ–which we developed with Bandai Namco. That’s all exciting, but we want to dominate EVO entirely. Maybe in 10 years. [Laughs] Last year, we had a booth at EVO for everyone to come visit, and it was a big success for us.
Daisuke Ishiwatari: As you know, Arc System Works’ titles over the years have been mostly fighting games, and with big titles like Street Fighter and Tekken on the market, we’ve been mostly focused on offering more niche titles that offer a bit more originality. While we have a dedicated following, they’re still niche games. So moving forward, we want to bring in more fans to understand the Arc System Style.
Kidooka: This year, we’ll be trying to figure out how to make our games more user-friendly and how we can become closer to the fans. It’s really an honor to have three games at EVO. But oftentimes, we find that it’s mostly Japanese players making it to the finals. With the new American office, we want to expand our user base. We want to someday see Western players make it to the finals with our games. That will show that we’ve made the games more approachable. We want a more global user base, and we’ll be working hard to make that happen.
Looking back, are there any games that stand out over the years as your favorites? Whether you simply liked working on them or because they represent something greater for you.
Kidooka: I have two answers, because I’m currently president, but I also started out as a programmer. The foundation of this company is Guilty Gear, and that came out for the PlayStation. That took three years to make, and there was a big discussion to figure out whether or not to make it 2D or 3D. We settled on 2D and there were comments from other developers asking why we were making it 2D instead of 3D. 20 years later, and the franchise is still alive and well with many fans all over the world. As president, releasing the original Guilty Gear was very important for me.
But as a programmer, there were a lot of nightmares I don’t want to revisit. But I will say that the first project for Arc System Works was the Master System port for Double Dragon, and now today, we own the IP. In the future, Double Dragon is definitely an IP we’d love to use.
Pokemon Go’s second Community Day is here. The real-world event takes place today, February 24, and will give players around the world another opportunity to earn in-game bonuses and obtain a rare Pokemon with a special move.
Unlike past real-world events for Pokemon Go, Community Day isn’t localized at a specific venue; rather, the event takes place during a set window of time, which will differ depending upon your region. In the US, the Community Day kicks off at 11 AM PT / 2 PM ET and runs until 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET, while Europe’s event begins at 10 AM GMT and concludes at 1 PM GMT.
During the event hours, players will earn triple the normal amount of Stardust for any Pokemon they capture, while Lure Modules will last for three hours. Additionally, each Community Day features a particular rare Pokemon, which will spawn in greater numbers and is capable of learning an exclusive move that it can’t normally use in Pokemon Go. This time around, the featured Pokemon is the Dragon-type Dratini.
For the duration of the Community Day, players will encounter increased swarms of Dratini. If you manage to evolve its evolution, Dragonair, into a Dragonite during the event, the Pokemon will learn the powerful Dragon-type attack Draco Meteor. This applies to any Dragonair you own, even ones that were obtained prior to this month’s Community Day. However, the Pokemon will only learn Draco Meteor if it evolves during the event hours.
In addition to this month’s Community Day, players still have an opportunity to capture Pokemon Go’s latest Legendary Pokemon, Rayquaza. The powerful Gen 3 Dragon-type will appear in Raid Battles at Gyms until March 16. Rayquaza arrived earlier this month alongside a new batch of Gen 3 Pokemon, which also included Salamence, Metagross, and Altaria. In addition to Rayquaza, players also have another chance to catch Kyogre and Groudon as part of Pokemon Go Legendary Week, which is underway now.
“Cinema lies. Sport does not.” That’s the quote, from Godard, that bookends this film and it encapsulates the entire concept of this marvelous documentary. In the Realm of Perfection is a worth-discovering film made by French filmmaker Julien Faraut, and is made up entirely of footage filmed in the 1980s by Gil De Kermadec. Faraut explores the connection between cinema and tennis by examining the reels of footage that were shot in the 1980s by this die-hard French tennis lover, who was filming John McEnroe to make at-the-time modern instructional / educational cinema focused on sports. It’s an entrancing film, that lulls you into its rhythm and discussion about sport and the unique mind of John McEnroe and the art of tennis. ›››
“No amount of money could replace our homes.” Korchula Productions has released an official trailer for a based-on-a-true story film titled Little Pink House, starring Catherine Keener as a woman who fights a defining legal battle against the government and corporations trying to take her home away. Keener plays Susette Kelo, a small-town EMT who buys a tiny rundown cottage in New London, Connecticut, refurbishes it with her bare hands, paints it pink, meets a new guy after a bad marriage. Then she discovers powerful politicians are bent on bulldozing her blue-collar neighborhood to make way for condos and offices designed to benefit the new corporate headquarters of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. So she resists and ends up going all the way to the Supreme Court. The film’s cast includes Jeanne Tripplehorn, Callum Keith Rennie, Giacomo Baessato, Aaron Douglas, Colin Cunningham, and Miranda Frigon. Take a look below. ›››
“You want to fire me? Try it.” HBO has released an official trailer for the real-world film Paterno, telling the story of football coach Joe Paterno, played by Al Pacino. While this will be airing directly on HBO, it is still a feature film, and it is the latest feature made by talented filmmaker Barry Levinson (who last made The Wizard of Lies also for HBO). Paterno centers on Penn State’s Joe Paterno in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal. After becoming the winningest coach in college football history, his legacy is challenged and he is forced to face questions of institutional failure. The full cast includes Riley Keough, Annie Parisse, Kathy Baker, Greg Grunberg, Peter Jacobson, Tess Frazer, Faith Logan, Darren Goldstein, Midori Francis, and Benjamin Cook. Pacino looks fully deep into this role, should be good. ›››
“No one’s made this style of wine for centrues.” Wine lovers, this is for you! Music Box Films has debuted an official trailer for a documentary titled Our Blood Is Wine, which just premiered this month at the Berlin Film Festival. Our Blood Is Wine is about families in the Republic of Georgia who revive 8,000 year old winemaking traditions that were almost lost during the era of Soviet domination. “By using unobtrusive iPhone technology, Railsback brings the voices and ancestral legacies of modern Georgians directly to the viewer, revealing an intricate and resilient society that has survived regular foreign invasion and repeated attempts to erase Georgian culture.” They make their wine a bit differently, letting it ferment in clay vessels stored underground. This looks like the perfect doc film to enjoy with a big glass of fine wine, of course. ›››
There’s nothing like an entertaining romantic comedy to instill some warmth and hope in the hearts of all those hopeless romantics out there. In the Aisles, also titled In den Gängen, is a German romantic comedy that was one of the final films to premiere at the 2018 Berlin Film Festival. Set mostly at one of those big box, bulk items stores like Costco, the film is about a quiet, hard-working new employee who falls for one of the other employees. It’s a simple romance, but oh so sweet, as sweet as a bar of delicious dark chocolate – meaning there’s a tiny bit of bitterness to it, but it’s still satisfying. I kind of loved this film, it wanders a bit, but there’s something nice about it that made me feel enticed and entranced by its awkward German charm. ›››
There’s only one week to go until the Academy Awards ceremony. One of the nominated Best Documentary Short Films is this one, Knife Skills, from veteran filmmaker/producer Thomas Lennon. Knife Skills is a 40-minute short film profiling the hectic launch of Edwins (visit their official site), a world-class French restaurant in Cleveland, Ohio, where most of the staff are just out of prison. Lennon explains his intentions to The New Yorker: “Can I make you think about an issue and care about an issue? Think about the people and care about those people?” It’s not just a film about chefs, or prison, or running a restaurant, it’s about all of those things and more. If you want to watch the short, it’s available below for free only for US viewers. ›››
Kingdom Come: Deliverance has frequently drawn comparisons to Elder Scrolls games like Skyrim, and while that’s apt to some degree–they are expansive, open-world games that present you with a great deal of freedom–there are other areas where they greatly differ. There’s of course the complete absence of anything magical in Kingdom Come, which seeks to deliver a world based more in history than fantasy, but combat is also quite different.
Put simply, there’s a lot more to account for during a fight in Kingdom Come. There’s much more going on than simply hacking away with your weapon–you have to bear in mind the type of armor your enemy is wearing, the type of damage your weapon deals, and more if you hope to be truly effective.
In the video above, we walk you through some tips on how to excel at combat in Kingdom Come. We look at the different weapon types, leveraging combos to deal extra damage, pulling off perfect blocks and master strikes, and some other useful tidbits. One thing you’ll want to always do is stay on the move, both to keep your opponents off-balance and to ensure you’re in proper position to attack. Unlike many games, you’ll be unable to swing your weapon if doing so would cause it to go through a nearby wall.
Kingdom Come launched recently on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. It’s an experience not without its faults, but those don’t necessarily mean it’s worth overlooking. As our Kingdom Come review states, “It’s an impressive and unflinching look at the medieval era that transports you inside the compelling story of a real person caught in the middle of a civil war. As such, this is one of those rare, memorable games that stays with you long after you stop playing. While quirks and bugs can certainly be frustrating, none of these issues interfere much with the unique and captivating nature of the overall experience.”
