Arcade Survival Racer BlazeRush Is Smashing Its Way To Switch Next Week
Targem Games has revealed that it will be bringing its arcade racer BlazeRush to Nintendo Switch, the first of its games to arrive on the console.
The game is described as a “dynamic arcade racing survival game” with no health, no levelling up and, terrifyingly, no brakes. There’s quite an emphasis on local and online multiplayer here – the developer notes that setting up multiplayer games is “easy” – and players can team up to enjoy wreckless, explosive mayhem.
Targem Games has shared a little more info in a comment on its YouTube trailer upload, and we’ve tracked down a list of the game’s key features for you below.
“Another interesting feature of the game: there is no health and damage from weapons — only physical interaction. No matter how many shells hit you, as long as you can stay on the road — you’re in the race. This creates unpredictable situations on the track between the players, you can really feel the physics of the game. Intense, insane, yet intuitive”
Key features:
Simple multiplayer. Up to 4 players locally and up to 8 players over the Internet;
Couch vs. couch. Start races with local players;
Connect to the game at any time;
Dozens of fun tracks on three planets, 16 cars and a variety of cool guns;
Lots of medals for various tricks and antics.
The game is scheduled to arrive on Switch on 19th February, so just one week from today, although no pricing has been confirmed just yet. It originally launched on Steam back in 2014 receiving “very positive” user reviews.
Do you like the look of this one? Will you pick it up if the price is right? Let us know with a comment.
Rad Rodgers Radical Edition Gets Switch Release Date And Gameplay Trailer
Rad Rodgers Radical Edition will be locking and loading on Nintendo Switch very soon indeed, with a brand new trailer (up above) confirming that the game will be available from 26th February.
As had already been revealed towards the end of last year, the Switch version will boast all-new content in the form of local co-op support, a versus mode, and several new playable characters. The Radical Edition adds ‘90s gaming stars Duke Nukem, Lo Wang from Shadow Warrior, and Cosmo from Cosmo’s Cosmic Adventure, as well as 3D Realms’ Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison from Bombshell and the upcoming Ion Maiden.
Other new features include new levels, abilities, mini-games, a new overworld, and “tons of new secrets, collectables and unlockables”. Frederik Schreiber, co-owner of publisher 3D Realms, has shared the following in a press release today:
“We love Rad, and we thought he deserved some awesome new friends to play with. With new levels, weapons, couch co-op and a versus mode, I think our fans may have a hard time putting this game down.”
As noted above, the game arrives on Switch on 26th February; the new content will also be added to the game on other platforms as a free update on the same day.
Is this cheeky adventure going on your Switch wishlist? Let us know down below.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 02-12-2019, 11:22 PM - Forum: Windows
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Spark a love for literacy with February’s #MSFTEduChat TweetMeet
In celebration of World Read Aloud Day and February Literacy Month, we’re making literacy the guiding star for this month’s TweetMeet. With the help of our global education experts – and our invitation to you – we’ll discuss a range of aspects of literacy: How have you incorporated literacy in your lessons, and how do you spark the love for reading and writing in your students? What strategies work best to overcome daily challenges in the classroom?
We’re also getting some help this time around from Skype in the Classroom Literacy partners like Little Brown (@lbschool), Penguin Young Readers (@PenguinClass), LitWorld (@LitWorldSays) and others. Thank you for joining us!
We offer 5 simultaneous language tracks this month: English, French, Polish, Romanian and Serbian. Here’s a quick look at all language tracks and their corresponding Twitter hashtags for the February TweetMeet:
For each language track, we have one or more hosts to post the translated questions and respond to educators. As always, we’re super grateful to all current and former hosts who are collaborating closely to provide this service.
The #TweetMeetXX hashtags for non-English languages are to be used together with #MSFTEduChat so that everyone can find the conversations back in their own language. For example: Polish-speaking people use the combination #TweetMeetPL #MSFTEduChat. English-speaking educators may all use #MSFTEduChat on its own.
TweetMeet fan? Show it off on your Twitter profile
Every month more and more people discover the unique flow and characteristics of the TweetMeet events and become passionate about them. Show your passion for the TweetMeets right from your own Twitter page by uploading this month’s #MSFTEduChat Twitter Header Photo to the top of your own Twitter profile. Besides English, this same Twitter Header Photo is also available in each of this month’s additional language tracks.
Looking back on the January TweetMeet on Transforming Classroom Time
Last month’s #MSFTEduChat TweetMeet generated fascinating and practical conversations and insights from educators around the world. We captured some highlights from this broad discussion in this @MicrosoftEDU Twitter Moment.
Why join the #MSFTEduChat TweetMeets?
TweetMeets are monthly recurring Twitter conversations about themes relevant to educators, facilitated by Microsoft Education. The purpose of these events is to help professionals in education to learn from each other and inspire their students while they are preparing for their future. The TweetMeets also nurture personal learning networks among educators from across the globe.
We’re grateful to have a support group made up exclusively of former TweetMeet hosts, who volunteer to translate communication and check the quality of our questions and promotional materials. They also help identify the best candidates for future events, provide relevant resources, promote the events among their networks, and, in general, cheer everybody on.
When and how can I join?
Join us Tuesday, February 19 from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. PST on Twitter using the hashtags #MSFTEduChat, #Literacyand#MicrosoftEDU (which you can always use to stay in touch with us). To find the event time for your specific location, use this time zone announcer.
From our monthly surveys we know that you may be in class at event time, busy doing other things or maybe even asleep – well, no problem! All educators are most welcome to join after the event. Simply take a look at the questions below and respond to these at a day and time that suit you best. You can also schedule your tweets in advance. In that case, be sure to quote the entire question and mention the hashtag #MSFTEduChat, so that everyone knows the right question and conversation to which you are responding. Mark the exact timings – they are different this month.
How can I best prepare?
We also have a special Minecraft: Education Edition resource from two of this month’s hosts:
Explore this Minecraft: Education Edition world made by hosts Ben Spieldenner and Simon Baddeley. Take your students through an argumentative writing adventure set against the background of the classic story of Romeo and Juliet, staged in the city of Verona.
We are partnering Little Brown Young Readers and will be wrapping up our celebrations with a free broadcast event and live Q&A. Classrooms and families are invited to join us on March 6th to meet Cressida Cowell, author and illustrator of the hugely popular “How to Train Your Dragon” series. Cressida will inspire students to tap into their boundless imagination and will show how using character development and details in stories make them more believable and fun.
TweetMeet questions
In response to your feedback, we’ve reduced the number of discussion questions to just 4. This will give everyone more time to engage with one another.
Hosts
We’re excited to introduce the 13 hosts for this month’s TweetMeet. They’re all passionate about literacy and thrilled to talk to you and offer their insights. You can see them all and follow them with a click on our TweetMeet list.
Ben Spieldenner @BenSpieldenner (MIE Expert, Minecraft Global Mentor, Co-Director Cross Pond Collaborations, High School English Teacher & Educational Technologist – Ashland OH, USA)
Bushra Anis Naqvi @banaqvi (Teacher, trainer, researcher, speaker, futurist and active enthusiast working to prove how technologies can change educators and education – Lahore, Pakistan)
Claudia Daniels @ClaudiaRDaniels (Aspiring for Better – making a difference in the life of a child through reading, writing, poetry, Flipgrid, ClassDojo, MIE Expert – Cobb County GA, USA)
Dyane Smokorowski @Mrs_Smoke (2013 KS Teacher of the Year, 2009 NSBA Top 20 to Watch, Google Certified, Skype MT, ECET2KS, Inst Tech Coach, EdCampKS, Speaker, Global Collaboration Evangelist – Andover KS, USA)
Hammed Abdulazeez @hammedabdulaz (MIE Expert, MIE Master Trainer, Skype Master Teacher, EduTech Expert, Member British Council Liberary of Experience for Diversity and Inclusion – Lagos, Nigeria)
Holly Holland @HollandEdTech (Reading Coach, MIE Expert, Skype Master Teacher, OneNote Avenger, Seesaw Ambassador, Flipgrid Ambassador – Tampa FL, USA)
Jacek Zablocki @JacekZablocki (Primary school teacher of English and ICT, MIE Expert passionate about Mystery Skype – Wasilkow, Poland)
Linda Edwards @LindaEdwardsi (Special Needs Educator, TDSB, Seesaw Ambassador, Buncee Ambassador, Class Dojo Mentor, Flipgrid GridGuide & Ambassador, MIE, Go Bubble Ambassador, Wakelet Member – Toronto, Canada)
Martha Bongiorno @Mrs_Bongi (MIE Expert passionate about future-ready libraries, embedding technology within literacy campaigns, and student voice in the library – Atlanta GA, USA)
Milena Vojinović @voj_milena (Elementary/Middle School ESL Teacher from Serbia, MIE Expert – quite passionate about using ICT tools in class – Leskovac, Serbia)
Mirela Tanc @MirelaTanc (Secondary School teacher, TEDx Speaker, Let’s do it Ambassador, MIE Expert & Trainer, member of Harvard Learning Community, TeachSDGs Ambassador, Skype Master Teacher – Oradea, Romania)
Natacha Camus @litteratum1 (College and High School Literature Teacher, MIE Expert, passionate about art and its transmission through digital technology – Dijon, France)
Simon Baddeley @SimBadd64 (Director of Cross Pond Collaborations, Minecraft Global Mentor, Minecraft Certified Trainer, Content Creator, Innovator, English Teacher – Castleford England, UK)
What are #MSFTEduChat TweetMeets?
Every month Microsoft Education organizes social events on Twitter targeted at educators globally. The hashtag we use is #MSFTEduChat. A team of topic specialists and international MIE Expert teachers prepare and host these TweetMeets together. Our team of educator hosts first crafts several questions around a certain topic. Then, before the event, they share these questions on social media. Combined with a range of resources, a blog post and background information about the events, this allows all participants to prepare themselves to the full. Afterwards we make an archive available of the most notable tweets and resources shared during the event.
Charles Darwin claimed, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” Now you have the opportunity to put this theory to test in this adaptation of the popular board game, Evolution.
In Evolution, players adapt their species to compete against their opponents in a world where food is scarce and predators are on the hunt for a tasty snack. The board game has been featured in Nature magazines and used as a learning aid within universities. Don’t be too intimidated because you don’t need a PhD to understand the rules, and the tutorial does an excellent job of teaching you the game as you play. This is also a very excellent digital adaptation of a game.
Each player begins the game with a single species and a hand of cards. The cards have multiple uses and deciding how and when to use them is a key element to success. At the beginning of each round, all players will secretly place a card in the watering hole. Cards have different values and the total of all the cards played will determine how much plant-based food will be available. You are then free to use the rest of your cards as you wish. Cards can be discarded to increase the population or the physical size of an established species. You can also use a card to start developing a new creature. These will initially be weak but if it manages to survive then your diversity will increase, which means that in future turns you will be able to draw extra cards.
The real fun starts when you use cards to add traits to a species. Each species has the potential to evolve three of these and you can even replace traits with new ones. One of the key traits is carnivorous, which will turn a peace-loving herbivore into a slavering ball of fangs and teeth. To combat this there are traits that will help prevent your animals from becoming fast food. An animal with the altruistic warning call trait will protect those to its left and right unless the predator has the ambush trait. Adding a hard shell to an animal adds a bonus of four to its body size. This is a great form of protection since carnivores can only attack creatures with a smaller body size than their own. Other traits will enhance an animal’s ability to gather food; a species with the cooperation trait will share its food with a neighbour, foraging enables an animal to take extra food, whilst having a long neck allows them to grab food before any other species gets a chance. In total, there are seventeen different traits, which means that players can create over 25,000 different species. The interplay between the traits is balanced, thought-provoking and makes perfect thematic sense.
Once all of the players have finished using their cards then it’s time to ring the dinner gong. The food cards placed in the watering hole at the beginning of the turn are revealed; their total represents the amount of plant-based food available. Each animal’s food requirement depends upon its population size. Obviously, carnivores aren’t interested in waiting in line at the salad bar. Instead, they can attack any other unprotected species that are of a smaller size. Doing so will reduce the population size of the unwitting meal and may even completely decimate the species. Be careful though; if you have a hungry carnivore that is short of meat it is possible that it will chow down on your own animals.
The game ends when the deck of cards runs out. Points are scored for the amount of food gathered throughout the game. Extra points are awarded for the population size and remaining traits of each of your surviving species. The watercolour style graphics are nicely done. The card illustrations are distinctive and colourful and even the cartoon characters are likable. I love the way that the environment blooms into life whenever feeding time arrives. The primal backing music, complete with additional ambient sounds makes a fine accompaniment. My only real niggle is that there appears to be a lot of dead space on the screen. The watering hole takes up a large chunk of space, maybe at the expense of larger, easier to read cards.
The best feature of the digital version is the introduction of a terrific campaign mode. This pits you against a range of challenges like surviving in a harsh desert environment. This mode introduces new traits at a gradual rate and is the perfect place to refine your skills. With twenty-four challenges and two levels of difficulty, it should keep you entertained for quite some time. You can also set up a local game against AI opponents, but sadly there is no pass-and-play option at the moment. The asynchronous online mode is also still being worked on, but the simultaneous online mode works well, and with games only taking ten minutes it will not tie up too much of your time.
Evolution is all about the constant battle for food and competing for survival against the opposition. You need to not only focus on your own cards but also keep a constant eye on what your opponents are up to. It is no use developing a huge and fearsome killing machine if your perspective dinner has the ability to escape by climbing trees. Since some cards are played in secret whilst others are public knowledge, which results in the mind games growing in complexity. The current start player gets to visit the watering hole first so may not have to donate a high value food card. However, a player pursuing a carnivore strategy may not be interested in visiting the watering hole at all. They may even play a negative value food card, further increasing the food scarcity.
It may sound deceptively simple, but start playing and you will soon realise just how clever the design is. The multiuse cards lead to many tantalising decisions. Do I sacrifice a valuable trait to the watering hole in order to ensure a good supply of food? Shall I be greedy and rapidly increase the population size of a species in order to gobble-up more valuable food points? Or, should I play it safe and introduce traits that will enhance a creature’s chance of survival?
Evolution is a game in a state of constant flux. Some years there will be food aplenty, enabling your animals to develop and prosper. At other times, food will be in short supply and all but the best-adapted creatures will dwindle and die, becoming just another footnote in the fossil timeline. Fortunately, the game never feels too harsh. Players are never eliminated, when a player loses a species, they get to draw extra cards and if they have no species left then they will get a new one for free. Whatever the situation, Evolution invariably reaches a satisfying climax as the players add more species and the deck begins to thin at an alarming rate.
Let us finish with a final observation from Mr Darwin: “An American monkey, after getting drunk on brandy, would never touch it again, and thus is much wiser than most men.”
A note on pricing: The game is free to download on both app stores, and after the tutorial players are free to play up to one multiplayer game a day, and then up to level 7 of the campaign. The full game is unlocked via an IAP that costs $10/£10 (currently running a launch discount). At the time of writing, there were some slight issues with the paywall that might be causing some confusion.
The Division 2 will have an open beta, apparently. The Division's official Twitter account made a casual reference to an "Open Beta" when talking to a fan about rewards. [Update: Sure enough, Ubisoft has officially confirmed that a Division 2 open beta is on the way. It will take place in early March and apparently consist of the same content (and rewards in the full game) as the previous private beta.]
Players can earn the Capitol Hill Arm Patch for completing the Invaded mission in the previous, pre-order exclusive Private beta, or the upcoming and unannounced Open Beta, the tweet said. Players who simply participate in either beta will earn the DC Patriot Weapon Skin.
There are 2 rewards available for playing the Beta: Earn the Capitol Hill Arm Patch by completing the Invaded Mission in the Private or Open Beta Earn the DC Patriot Weapon Skin by participating in any of the The Division 2 Betas
Headlines about an open beta for The Division 2 made the rounds today after a community developer mentioned an "open beta" during a livestream.
As mentioned, you had to pre-order The Division 2 to get access to the Private beta that ran earlier this month. The open beta will presumably be ... open for everyone to play. It's not clear at this stage if the content will differ from the Private beta to the Open beta, but keep checking back with GameSpot for more.
The Division 2 launches on March 15 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. For more, check out all of GameSpot's written and video content for the game here.
Review: The King’s Bird – A Crafty Quest For True Challenge-Seekers
Some video games gently pull you through a narrative experience, offering the player everything they need along the way without any barriers or fuss. Movement is unrestricted, the environment is an ally, and there are no pressures of failure or time in sight. And then there is The King’s Bird.
Developer Serenity Forge has thrown their hat into the precision-platformer ring with a game that poses no lack of challenge nor demand of skill. Those who live by the “git gud” mantra may feel right at home here, although there are a few noteworthy wrinkles that keep The King’s Bird from being too derivative of similar indie outings.
The adventure begins when a feminine figure awakens and makes her way toward a brief, heated confrontation with a royal father figure; or at least, presumably so, since “dialogue” is delivered via musical sound effects, and no text accompanies the exchange. Further clues to the underlying story can be found in background murals, and perhaps in considering the general no-longer-pristine state of the world.
Our titular bird gains a flowy white scarf, along with the power of flight (or gliding, more accurately), and thus embarks on her journey. The tutorial intro offers sections to practice her platforming abilities, along with background art depicting button-presses and her position to match. She can scamper onto ledges, she can wall-jump, she can slide down inclines, she can zip down slanted ceilings. This is a game of momentum – building it, keeping it, mastering it.
The protagonist can dash with RZ and glide in midair with LZ. It is from these two moves that her repertoire unfolds and the player will form chains of button commands to traverse the dozens of stages to come. The gliding feels great, something akin to the cape from Super Mario World, and forms the highlight of The King’s Bird – building speed and launching into the skies, carefully steering over and under the features of the landscape, offers a real thrill.
The King’s Bird is trying to set itself apart from other platformers with this gliding mechanic, but what might be more interesting is another, more subtle movement: not only can the protagonist wall-jump, but when she uses a dash on contact with a wall, she will dash upward against the wall somewhat. This is used constantly for traversal throughout the levels, and by gaining altitude is combined with the gliding to unlock new vertical possibilities. The design philosophy is to tie double-jumping to wall contact, rather than have it freely available, and this distinction allows for some very tight, twitchy little spots of intense challenge.
The player’s mastery of these movements is put to the test across four worlds, or Kingdoms rather: Forest, Lake, Sky, and Fallen. Each of these worlds has a hub area, where doorways can be unlocked to access smaller groupings of four levels each. Beating a foursome unlocks a new doorway, until the player has earned access to a Shrine, which adds a wrinkle to the story and transitions to the next area. In each individual level, the aim is simple: reach the goal at the end.
Although the Kingdoms vary slightly in theme, this game takes a minimalist approach to graphical detail and narrative weight. The limited-palette, high-contrast visuals are just the table setting for a steady diet of every possible permutation of Dash and Glide and Jump trajectories. The design is very tight, with very little room for error – some areas especially so – and even more especially so toward the endgame.
The player’s only foe is their self, in a sense, because there are no enemy characters. Death comes at the hand of bottomless pits, or water, or ever-presents thorns that dot and blot and cover this world. Fortunately, checkpoints are plentiful, and respawns are near-instant to the last one attained. An outside observer may think some of these lamppost checkpoints are comically close together; although, upon actually playing the thing, you will be grateful for each and every one.
One other gameplay aspect is optionable collectables called Spirit Birds that populate each stage. Touching them enables them to follow you for the rest of the level, which becomes a pretty sight when you have several. The problem is that they are small, compared to an already-small protagonist, and easy to lose sight of against some of the lighter backgrounds. Ultimately, this does not mean much, since they do not affect progress, but collecting them all in order to unlock a little more story flavour is likely too much of a pain for most to bother dealing with.
The King’s Bird sports an enjoyable soundtrack, gracious in how its melancholy melodies never overpower what’s happening on-screen, but accompany them with a consistent, pleasant sensation from rich arrangements. Between that and the unobtrusive plot, along with the somewhat minimalist graphics, at least Bird makes its intentions clear. This is a precision platformer through and through, head to tail, and the player will need to accept this wholeheartedly if they wish to succeed.
Later sections will ask the player to not only defy gravity, but slap its mother and call it nasty names. Some portions have near-zero room for failure, and may take many, many attempts to conquer. We imagine many players will swear under their breath at this game, but learning to laugh at the sudden inexplicable deaths might be key to improving. The vast majority of the spaces in this game only have one way out, and it is up to the player to figure out the methodology through good ol’ trial and error. This can be an irritating headache, for sure.
The King’s Bird is a game built for speedrunners and high-skill players. If there was any doubt, it should be noted that the majority of the in-game text takes the form of showing the player their best time per any stage. The message here, even in completing it, is to try again and improve.
However, there is one saving grace that must be mentioned, one addition to The King’s Bird that truly adds a valuable dimension: Assist Mode. For those who want an easier playthrough, or are stuck at a particularly difficult passage and need a little help, Assist Mode can be activated and change some game parameters. You can opt for longer glides, or to no longer be harmed by the spiky surfaces, or even skip to the next checkpoint altogether. There are several different options to toggle on or off in any combination the player would like, in order to craft an experience more tailored to their taste for challenge. The Assist Mode is the refreshing cherry on top of what would otherwise feel more like a torturous slog throughout, though even with all its assistance the player will still probably have problems with the final area of the game when the entire formula suddenly changes.
Although The King’s Bird definitely reaches heights of difficulty at times, at least it does to transparently, and presents prospective gliders with a simple question: can you train yourself to beat this challenge? Ultimately the answer is ‘yes’, but whether or not you’ll want to devote the time is up to how much you enjoy the genre.
Disclosure note: During our playthrough, we encountered a couple different progress-affecting bugs in the lategame. We got in touch with Serenity Forge, and they were able to help navigate these spots. It is our understanding that they have a patch ready to go, and it should “fix all later-game crashing issues across the board.”
Nintendo Direct To Air Tomorrow, Wednesday 13th February
Nintendo has revealed that a brand new Nintendo Direct will air tomorrow, and the internet can finally calm down for a few days.
The show will be approximately 35 minutes long and will focus on upcoming Nintendo Switch games, including Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Fire Emblem is currently slated for a spring 2019 release, so hopefully we’ll get a proper release date.
The Direct will be streamed live at 11pm CET tomorrow (so that’s 10pm GMT / 2pm PST / 5pm EST).
As always, we’ll be covering the entire thing right here on Nintendo Life, so make sure to get your excited selves back here at that time.
Right, go on then… What do you expect to see? Comment away!
Whether you’re a contributor or committer building the platform, or you’re using the platform to attain your business goals, Cloud Foundry North America Summit is where developers, operators, CIOs and other IT professionals go to share best practices and innovate together.
Hyper Jam is a neon-soaked arena brawler with a dynamic perk drafting system that makes each match different from the last. The fusion of lethal weapons, stackable perks, furious combat, and a killer synthwave soundtrack will keep you coming back for more.
