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The GodFather

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  1. Key Specifications: Publisher: Stadia Developer: Tequila Works Availability: Out now ------------------------------------------------------- "You can trust me," it says, as I tip-toe as swiftly as I dare into a dark corner, concealing myself - I hope - against a pile of damp, forgotten boxes. It lurches drunkenly from side to side, eyes glowing in the inky blackness of the room, head spinning at unnatural angles as it scans the space, primed for the slightest flicker of movement. "Come here," it adds in its sweet, musical voice. "Don't hide." I risk peering over the top and instantly regret it: I've been spotted. Screeching with delight, it launches itself at me, face splitting in two to reveal a horrifying, pulsing void as it scurries after me, trying to suck me in. I grab my flashlight and wave it vaguely in its direction - I say vaguely because it's leaping about a lot and I'm panicking here - but it's ineffectual. Nothing's happening. I realise there's nowhere else to go, and the panic intensifies. Not for the first time, I realise I'm not entirely sure what's going on. This world may look sweet and innocent with its Play-Doh colours and cartoonish aesthetics, but - as I'm belatedly realising - it's anything but. I'm ashamed to say I came into Gylt a little smug. I'd glanced over the game's bumf and screenshots with curiosity but met its Teen rating with a derisory chuckle. The trailers had us thinking the game, which is exclusive to Google's Stadia streaming service, was a horror-lite title, something for kids and the easily spooked. But developer Tequila Works has done a number on me. The cutesy design and uncomplicated mechanics lulled me into a false sense of security. Even the enemies seemed a little unremarkable to start with. You're not ever going to mistake Gylt for P.T., but don't let that mislead you. Boasting a tense atmosphere, a striking style and a sublime score that recalls Danny Elfman's work with Tim Burton, Gylt has the power to be deeply unsettling. You'll see echoes of the seminal psychological horror Silent Hill flickering throughout much of the game, from the splintered dead-end roads to the main character Sally's surname, Kauffman. You'll spend a lot of time creeping through Bachman School - a nod to Stephen King, Silent Hill, or both, perhaps? - its walls scratched and clawed with spiteful insults and childish name-calling. Occasionally, you'll stumble upon a mannequin or two, some posed, some not, assembling in classrooms and corridors and toilet stalls. The more you play, the more you'll encounter. Eventually, they're everywhere. Gylt's surprisingly light on story, though. You follow Sally, a young girl trying to locate her missing cousin, Emily. After plastering posters around the place to keep Emily's name in the town's consciousness, Sally is pursued by school bullies, forcing her bike off the road and into a ravine. With their taunts echoing around her, she grabs the posters, leaves her mangled bike where it fell and heads for home - only she never gets there. Sally's nightmare is focused chiefly on a twisted facsimile of the school both she and Emily attended, although you'll sometimes venture outdoors towards other kid-centric places such as an arcade or local arts centre. There's not much variation in the gameplay at all. There's a lot of: find this key, get that valve, reach this vent, in between combat or stealth sequences. There's a handy detection meter that's fab for when you're attempting to scrabble through without daring to look back. And there are plenty of vents which Sally can duck into, usually leaving a silhouette - the enemy's last betraying sighting of her - in her wake. Ostensibly, you can play according to whichever impulse drives you strongest: fight or flight. But it's hard to be offensive for long given your weapon - a flashlight initially, although you'll later acquire a dual-purpose fire extinguisher - is battery-operated. There are usually enough replacement batteries and health top-ups (discarded asthma inhalers) to keep you going, so progress is never punishing, but a couple of stingy respawn points frustrate. In my notes, I wrote that Gylt is a horror game with light puzzling, light combat and light scares - but I had to cross that final bit out. While not stuffed with them, Gylt has a handful of delicious jumpscares that should get your heart racing, particularly when the game masterfully subverts what it's taught you. Safe areas might not always be safe; an empty room might not always remain empty. There isn't much subtlety about Sally's nightmare world, though. It's stuffed with the hard-to-miss symbolism of childhood bullying as well as diary entries and scribbled notes that speak, convincingly, of a life tormented by bullies. Hang in there long enough, however, and the tone shifts. A diary author talks of monsters that "reek of blood and gunpowder", perhaps intimating a different sur-reality to the one Sally inhabits. Another tells the heartbreaking account of a child embracing the recommendation of a well-meaning adult by trying to look friendly in order to attract friends: "I ran to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. I think I have a nice smile... but it doesn't work because I can't stop crying." Oof. Whilst the bullying theme is trowelled on, other issues - such as the mysterious stone people, or some of the game's more curious collectables - are not expanded upon at all. And while the title Gylt suggests a particular outcome, the game's conclusion feels both rushed and anticlimactic. The final boss encounter - a lazy, frustrating affair that's squeezed of all impact by peculiar camera angles and a lack of proper instruction - is, sadly, as linear and predictable as the rest of the tale. As for how it runs on Stadia? I admit it: I'm surprised. With an unwired but half-decent connection (35-ish mbps on a good day) I experienced a couple of stutters, but nothing too distressing save one hard crash. It did feel as though there was lag between triggering silent takedowns and the cinematic that shows them taking place, however, and it was often difficult to get the "A" button prompt to pop up when desired. The inventory was a curious beast, too; whilst there is, technically, a highlighter, it's barely discernible against the cream-coloured items in your backpack, so you're never entirely sure what you're selecting. While playing it safe and a tad predictable, Tequila Works carefully layers on new gimmicks and mechanics as you progress through Gylt, allowing you to organically build on your knowledge and start experimenting. It's these flashes of inspiration that can make Gylt's gentle puzzling such a joy, so it's frustrating we don't see more of them. And while there's not much here for the hardcore horror fan, don't be deceived into thinking the eerie, tense Gylt is just for kids: it's really not. It is, however, a little expensive for such a brief, if atmospheric, experience. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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  2. Rabat – The Moroccan Lawyers Club has slammed two French doctors, who appeared on a televised show suggesting a treatment for COVID-19 should be tested on Africans. The LCI television channel aired a conversation between the president of the French Intensive Care Society, Jean-Paul Mira, and a research director at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM), Camille Locht. During the discussion, Mira suggested testing for a potential treatment should be carried out on Africans. f I can be provocative, shouldn’t we do this study in Africa where there are no masks, no treatment, no intensive care? A bit like we did in some studies on AIDS. We tried things on prostitutes because they are highly exposed and do not protect themselves,” said Mira. Locht agreed with Mira’s suggestion, saying: “You are right. We are actually thinking about leading a study in Africa… We have already launched a call for bids, and we are seriously considering the idea.” The statement stirred backlash not only in Africa but across the world. Read Also: Colonialist French Doctors Suggest Testing COVID-19 Vaccine on Africans The Moroccan Lawyers Club issued a press release and launched a campaign, lashing out at the two “colonialist” doctors. The club described the comments as “hateful and racist.” The statement announced the club’s decision to file a complaint for defamation and racism with the public prosecutor. “The complaint will be filed by Mr. Mourad Elajouti and Mr. Said Maach, lawyers at the Casablanca Bar.” The lawyers club also launched a campaign, “We are not laboratory rats,” to denounce the comments. Ordinary people and public figures have voiced frustration over the statements across the world. International football player Samuel Eto’o said on his Facebook: “Africa is not your playground.” Amnesty International’s media manager for Europe and Turkey, Stefan Simanowitz, described the comments as “disgusting” in a tweet. Ghanaian football player Christian Atsu also condemned the statement, using “angry face” emojis all over a post about the French doctors’ controversial statements. Some Twitter users also shared a poster reading “Africans are not laboratory rats” to slam the two French doctors. Fight racism, not just COVID-19 The United Nations recently addressed the scourge of violence and racism, stating that the world should be united in its fight against racial profiling. “Racism violates everything we stand for and everything we do,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet wrote on March 13. The UN Human Rights urged the world to tackle all racial profiling and “structural racial discrimination in health, employment, education and housing.” During the Human Rights Council’s 43rd session, Bachelet recalled how the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action in 2001 acknowledged how Africans continue to be “victimised by the legacies of trade in enslaved Africans and colonialism.” The UN official said: “Like covid-19, racism and xenophobia are contagious killers,” calling for unity to work for the common good with “conviction and determination.”
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  3. Rabat – Morocco’s Royal Armed Forces (FAR) completed today, April 2, the construction of the first military field hospital in Benslimane, near Casablanca. The hospital was built in a record duration of only six days, revealed a news report by Medi1TV. The military hospital, built to host COVID-19 patients, aims to alleviate the pressure on existing health facilities by providing additional healthcare capacity. Members from the FAR’s social services and other departments are also available at the hospital to provide support. “The whole staff are aware of their responsibilities and are fully prepared to fulfill their national duty,” said the hospital’s chief physician. The FAR are ready to build more field hospitals across the country if needed, he added. The military selected Benslimane as a priority location because of its proximity to Casablanca, the city with the most cases in Morocco. Casablanca has recorded 174 COVID-19 cases as of 6 p.m. on April 1. The construction of the military hospital comes after King Mohammed VI called on Morocco’s military to assist civilians during the coronavirus crisis. “Military medicine [should] take part jointly with its civilian counterpart in the delicate mission of fighting the pandemic,” said a statement from the royal office on March 22. The King also called upon civil and military doctors to work “in harmony and intelligence, as they have always done, because what is at stake is the health of Moroccans and foreigners in Morocco.” As of April 2 at 1 p.m., Morocco has confirmed 676 COVID-19 cases, including 29 recoveries and 40 fatalities. #StayHome??
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  4. Key Specifications: Game Price: 39.99$ Developer: Eko Software Genre: Simulation,Sports Platforms: PS4/XBOX ONE/PC ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No sport is tougher to translate into a videogame than rugby union, and the welcome news is that Rugby 20 is able to string a few passes together even if it ultimately gets stuck in a ruck. Two teams of 15 players on the field, all of whom have bespoke roles, slinging around a funny-shaped ball, with the nuances of rucks, mauls and line-outs to consider: little wonder even EA’s megabucks haven’t gone anywhere near the sport for 13 years. As such, you have to credit developer Eko Software for even chancing its arm at such a complex pastime. Sadly, games aren’t purchased on effort alone. Those who open their wallets in exchange for Rugby 20 receive a true oddity in return. Because, well, it’s a little bit crap – yet also kind of unputdownable. A bit like sour sweets: with every bite you wince, and yet still you find yourself reaching for another, time after time. It's certainly better than the utterly woeful Rugby 2018 that we previously awarded 1 out of 5 stars in our review. In Rugby 2020, however, a stubborn battle with the game’s mechanics is one of the things that keeps you coming back for more. Clunky passing means that it’s often difficult to whip the ball along your line, from fly-half through the centres and out to the wing, without being chased down by an opponent, or conceding a knock-on. Yet that means the occasions where it does work, and you score after getting the ball out wide before dancing around the last man, feel truly joyous. It’s a similar story with rucks: every match centres on you moving downfield by getting tackled, swamping the ball and recycling possession. It’s laborious. Yet every so often, when you whip the ball out early and nip through a gap in the defence, or overload one side of the line in order to score a try, the triumphant reward just about justifies the painful build-up. Maybe it’s an attempt to mimic the real-life battering and bruising that players go through on a Saturday afternoon? Hmm, likely not. It sort of works, though. OPINION: Here's why Rugby games fail (and how to fix them) Nigh-on every match, regardless of team and individual abilities, plays out as described earlier. Ruck, pass, tackle. Ruck, pass, tackle. Ruck, pass, tackle. It’s a shame because scrums and mauls feature some neat mechanics, such as thrusting both sticks upwards to push, and it’s not as through there’s a shortage of sides to choose between. Four domestic competitions featuring 56 squads are included alongside 20 national teams. England, Australia and New Zealand feature fake names and kits, but again the lack of discernible differentiation in abilities mean that their genericness is of little consequence. Most fun – and nonsensical – is the kicking game. In the real sport, a perfectly placed punt downfield can flip defence into attack, while a niftily timed grubber on the run, especially when one-on-one with an opposition full-back, can be the difference between scoring a try and being held up outside the 22. Rugby 20’s kicking mechanics turn a game that wants to be a serious simulator into a playground frenzy. Hold down A for half a second to unleash a humdinger of a punt downfield, with minimal backlift, or B to trigger a grubber with barely a change in the running animation. On both occasions everything goes a bit Benny Hill, with players haring in all directions, and zero way of tracking which of your team-mates are onside. Then watch the AI return in kind, triggering the same maddening issues on defence. It’s all a hilarious pantomime, and bears little resemblance to the actual sport. Get used to Rugby 20’s foibles and longevity comes in the form of a full league season – at least in theory. Various tactics and set plays can be tinkered with between matches, and there’s a degree of pleasure in rotating your squad to keep players fresh for each fixture. But the lack of stat tracking quickly eliminates any sense of individual achievement, and there’s no transfer market or contract negotiations to add a layer of depth. Finish the season, and that’s your lot. Game over. Again rendering the entire experience futile. The other option for long-term commitment is My Squad mode, where you build up to four fantasy sides for online or offline play. It’s clearly influenced by FIFA’s hugely successful Ultimate Team mode, with all in-game actions scoring currency which can then be dropped on booster packs or player cards. The team-building aspect makes for a pleasant way to pass a couple of hours – we’re delighted with our back row of Manoa Vosawai, Jarrad Butler and Paul Boyle – but again, attributes mean so little in Rugby 20 that after a handful of games the lure of finding new players is lost. It’s a tidy idea, but it’s just half-heartedly implemented. That last sentence is a potted summary of the entire game: other than an overabundance of rucks there’s nothing here to hate, yet everything feels half-baked. Perhaps that’s inevitable when you have a small-scale game studio trying to develop a complex sports simulator. But it means there’s no way to recommend this as more than an egg-shaped curiosity. Trying times, by both name and nature. --------------------------------------------------------------- SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: MINIMUM: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 7 64-bit Processor: Intel Core i5-750 or AMD Phenom II X4 965 Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 or AMD Radeon HD 7790 DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 15 GB available space RECOMMENDED: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 10 64-bit Processor: Intel Core i5-4570 or AMD FX-8350 Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 or AMD Radeon R9 290X DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 15 GB available space
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  5. Rabat – Morocco’s Ministry of Health has confirmed 12 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 654 as of April 1 at 9:30 p.m. The health ministry has also recorded three new recoveries and two more deaths. The total number of recoveries currently stands at 29, while the number of fatalities is 39. Since the start of the outbreak on March 2, health authorities have performed 2,691 tests on suspected COVID-19 carriers that came back negative. Morocco is currently in the second phase of its fight against the pandemic after confirming 500 cases of the virus on March 30. The main objective during the current phase is to keep the COVID-19 spread in the country under control. To do so, the Moroccan government is restricting the movement of citizens, while health officials are intensifying their medical tests on suspected cases. Earlier today, Director of the Epidemiology Department at the Ministry of Health Mohamed Lyoubi said that the next few days are decisive in the fight against COVID-19. As long as citizens respect containment measures, there is a strong chance that Morocco’s COVID-19 curve will flatten. “We expect a flattening of the curve of the evolution of cases. We hope so provided that the confinement measures are scrupulously respected by citizens, even inside their homes,” Lyoubi told the press. The situation in Morocco will not reach the same severity as some European countries, such as Spain or Italy, Lyoubi insisted. “There will certainly be a progressive pace of the epidemic [in Morocco], but the curve will not reach a peak similar to many other countries,” he said. “The number of cases is likely to increase, but on a smaller scale compared to other countries,” Lyoubi reiterated. #StayHomeSaveLives ??
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  6. Key Specifications : Game Price : 29.99$ Developer : Pathea Games Genre : Adventure, Casual, Indie, RPG, Simulation Platforms : PS4 / PC / XONE / NS --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My Time at Portia starts off predictably when you disembark into its expanse of rolling hills and curious ruins. Like the Marvelous Interactive titles it clearly draws inspiration from (namely Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons), it sets you up with the holy trinity of prologues: a father, a child, and a ripe plot of land. No time passes at all until you're welcomed by a well-meaning public servant who tells you that your absent parent left a legacy of building and being a Home Depot whiz before disappearing like the evening tide. Now, fresh off the boat, you're tasked with taking over for your old man and making yourself invaluable to the people whose lives he enriched, which suggests My Time at Portia will be a more fulfilling adventure than it actually ends up being. Portia has a distinctly post-apocalyptic feel, which lends a sense of intrigue to what would otherwise have been a familiar traversal of yet another sleepy town to be spiced up by the voiceless city-slicker of a player-character. The game paints a tidy, watercolor-inspired picture that wouldn't be out of place on a postcard; a "wish you were here" would fit nicely against the giant, scraped-out husks of metal that loom over lush fields and quaint cottages like relics from a bygone age. In fact, they are: Humanity in My Time at Portia is said to have gotten too ambitious in the past by exploiting technology and science to reach lofty heights that it was struck down for. Now, it's back to the Agrarian Age for the foreseeable future, and you're the closest they've got to Noah and the Ark. These monolithic reminders dot the various landscapes of My Time at Portia, and they're an effective and unintrusive way to ensure you're clued into the broader message around hubris leading to the apocalypse. It makes for an interesting plot device, which would be well-utilized if it went beyond making the world more visually interesting, or even beyond the inclusion of one faction of NPCs dedicated to keeping the town of Portia back in the comparative Dark Ages. But that's about as far as it goes: aesthetic as opposed to substance. No storylines really pursue it, nor do the townsfolk seem to care. You're not provided with the opportunity to engage meaningfully with the setpiece of the world's past, which is a shame given how interesting it seems. Instead, the majority of the experience remains relatively familiar and unbroken by a loop of crafting, fighting, and gathering missions. The crafting system is the game's real treat, though. As the child of a master-builder, you're given access very early on to plans created by your father. These plans function like crafting blueprints; they stay on your person as you romp around the world in search of materials, and you can easily refer to them and check exactly how much tin ore you need to convert into whatever arbitrary amount of bronze bars you need to prop a bridge up. You're also given the ability to use a crafting station back at your house which tells you exactly what you're missing to build a particular item. There's no need for guesswork, and you also get to visually appreciate the nitty-gritty of what you're building as completing various parts of items sees them come to life before your eyes on the workbench. This wonderfully intuitive approach ties neatly into what you're told is the protagonist's innate skill as a crafter, which means that you spend less time wondering how many rocks you have to crack open and more time thinking about the next great creation taking shape in your backyard. Crafting is also the only aspect of the game that feels integral to actually getting anywhere with the story--everything is expensive, and the most effective way to make money is to grind out crafting items to sell. But while the reliance on grinding isn't a surprise if you're a genre fan, the combination of quick day-night cycles in the game, timed quests, and the time commitment needed to actually get anything crafted is a recipe for dissatisfaction. Time feels like it crawls by unless you're occupying yourself with busywork, which unfortunately ends up detracting from the charm of the lively hustle and bustle of the town of Portia. However, while the crafting is robust and an essential part of your experience with My Time at Portia, the other integrated systems--relationship management, dungeoneering, animal husbandry, and farming--aren't as engaging, fleshed out, or vital by comparison. Being able to gift your way to a perfect marriage does a disservice to some of the unique personalities that you can court, and you feel discouraged from spending time on farming because of how time-consuming and expensive it is to acquire enough land to turn those parsnips into a profit. The main story forces you to invest heavily in crafting and once you’ve tried your hand at the carpentry trade, it can be hard to look elsewhere when the demands of time and money limit your ability to engage in the other systems. Among the cacophony of mechanics, there's a wistfulness for depth. An upgrade system has you picking various skills, ranging from increased experience gain to a higher chance of getting more items, each time you level up. But it's hard to actually feel the effect of these perks, and there isn't one clear build which gives you a significantly better performance over the rest. Min-maxing attributes is rarely the point of lifestyle sims, so it makes sense that rewards seem more like a little bit of gas in the tank rather than a whole new engine. But failing to actually use your skill points on anything is unlikely to disadvantage you at all, which cheapens the purpose behind giving you a mountain of options in the first place. Being a little bit more efficient at carrying out objectives in a game that's all about repetitive grinding isn't a bad thing, but you find yourself wishing that the improvements afforded to you were more significant for the time invested. Your time at Portia is likely going to be an idyllic one, interspersed with chores and chatter and putting household items together for your neighbors. You'll spend your time idly dangling your legs off the edge of the pier, participating in fishing tourneys, ushering in holidays with your partner, and fending off local wildlife. However, the ruins of a time long forgotten will always darken the horizon, and there'll be a part of you that wonders what more there could have been before you find yourself shunted to the next life goal in a long series of life goals. That feeling is unfortunately hard to shake, and it's a shame that there's not as much to the world of Portia as first appears. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: MINIMUM: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 7+ / 8.1 / 10 64 bit Processor: Intel i3 Processor Memory: 6 GB RAM Graphics: ATI 7770, Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 2GB DirectX: Version 10 Storage: 6 GB available space RECOMMENDED: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 10 64 bit Processor: Intel i7 Processor Memory: 16 GB RAM Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX960+ DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 10 GB available space
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  7. Key Specifications: Game Price: 77.99$ Developer: P-Studios Genre: Dungeon crawler, role-playing game Platform: Nintendo 3DS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ It looks like the 3DS's time in the spotlight is over. We've seen 3DS support dwindle over the past few years, but there's at least one more show to see on the long-lived portable before it takes a bow. Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth brings the familiar casts of Persona 3, Persona 4, and Persona 5 together for a meaty RPG adventure that lives up to the reputation of its big-screen counterparts. If Persona Q2 winds up being the last big event on the 3DS, it's a fine way to end the handheld's run. Persona Q2 begins with Persona 5's Phantom Thieves on a routine mission when they find themselves in a movie theater with a creepy projectionist and two avid filmgoers. With seemingly no way out of this strange miniplex, the team find themselves engaging with film on a whole new level: exploring the elaborate, first-person dungeons contained within the projections. These twisted takes on superhero, disaster, and sci-fi films aren't just dramatizations; they feature familiar faces and scenarios with potentially deadly consequences for the Phantom Thieves. It also appears that a few other folks may have stumbled into the cinema world, so it's up to you to find the others, help them all band together, and reveal the mystery behind this strange theatre as one big Persona-using team. Much like the previous 3DS game, Persona Q, Q2 eschews many of the concepts seen in the primary Persona games, instead going with systems derived from Atlus's Etrian Odyssey series of first-person dungeon-crawlers. You conduct careful, step-by-step mapping of themed labyrinths, but rather than explore with your party and enemies visible on a map, you face random encounters. While Persona proper has you exploiting enemy weaknesses for extra turns in combat, in Persona Q2 critical hits and enemy weaknesses boost your combatants for their next strike. Limited-inventory item management, side-questing, and team composition are all crucial, and Q2's stand-in for Etrian Odyssey's freeform character-building--the ability for all characters to equip power- and skill-augmenting sub-Personas--allows you to assemble a team of formidable fighters provided you make good calls with Persona fusion and skill inheritance. It feels like Atlus took the best elements of both game series--Etrian’s sense of adventure, exploration, and danger, and Persona’s elaborate collection/fusion systems and character interactions--and worked to make them meld together as best they could. The stark differences in gameplay might throw Persona fans who aren't familiar with Etrian Odyssey's quirks for a bit of a loop, but Persona Q2 has some nice quality-of-life enhancements to make things a bit easier to adjust to. For starters, you can set the game to auto-map a good chunk of the dungeon on its own, saving you time you'd normally spend drawing squares and walls for your map on the bottom screen--though you'll still need to fill in some other details on your own. Helpful indicators aid you with planning for battle; an icon indicates how close you are to a random encounter happening, while dots on the map indicating the fearsome roaming FOE sub-bosses change color based on how much of a threat they are to the party at their current level. Enemy weaknesses in battle will be highlighted once they have been discovered, and should you ever find combat a bit too much to handle, you can freely change the difficulty via the in-game options to make things a bit easier. And if things go south, you'll be automatically healed to max the moment you step outside of the dungeon. This helps make things more inviting to new players who might not be used to the Etrian Odyssey style of play, and are good quality-of-life improvements in their own right. But while the gameplay needle swings further to the Etrian Odyssey side of things, the presentation of the story, character interactions, visual flair, and music are pure Persona through and through. From the moment the bite-sized Persona 5 cast first appears on the screen, you know you're in for a game full of cute, fun character interactions. There's plenty of story and dialogue both in and out of the dungeons, and while there are some serious moments, it tends to be more on the humorous side overall. (It's several hours of game time before most of the Persona 3 and 4 cast show up, so if you're a purist fan of either of those two titles, you might be waiting a while before your favorites join.) There are even character-bonding “Special Screening” side-quests that are somewhat similar to Persona’s much-beloved Social Links, but with a lot more dungeon exploration and fighting. These are a smart way to bring Persona’s social-development gameplay into the mix while giving the player more gameplay meat to chew on. Finishing these quests can yield extra Unison Attack skills between characters (with a supremely adorable associated animation) that provide varied beneficial effects. Visually, the game makes the most of the 3DS' limited hardware. The characters' tiny renditions are charming and faithful to their original designs, the environments are distinct and memorable, and many of the game's cinematics are rendered in-engine, adding to a strong overall sense of visual coherency. The only real knock here is the recycled enemy designs, many of which are still leftover from the days of Persona 3 on the PS2. The music is also top-notch, featuring many new and familiar compositions that are as earworm-y as you'd expect from a series known for catchy tunes. There are a few minor irritations, but they don’t steal the show. Having a big crossover cast from Persona 3, 4, and 5 is great for story and character vignettes, but there's so much overlap between character combat archetypes and specialties that you'll probably wind up sidelining most of them. That might not sound so bad, but there's no passive EXP gain, and sometimes you'll encounter lucrative Special Screenings where you're asked to use a specific character or a difficult battle where one character archetype works particularly well -- and those members lagging in levels will be a pain to level up unless they’re “motivated.” (There are items and quests that expedite this somewhat, but many of the items are paid DLC.) Combat can also feel wildly unbalanced at times. In an effort to add Persona-style elements to Etrian Odyssey's combat, Persona Q2 incentivizes you to knock enemies down and boost your fighters by targeting enemy weaknesses or landing critical hits, somewhat similarly to Shin Megami Tensei IV. However, fighting sometimes feels so skewed towards weakness exploitation that it can make the difference between a quick, momentary encounter and a drawn-out, messy slog. If you don't have access to whatever skill an enemy's weak to, you're generally forced into less effective physical combat in an effort to conserve valuable skill points, and your ability to lock them down goes out the window. It's frustrating to wander into a new area, fight a new enemy, and then watch them mop the floor with your team because you don't have the one thing they're weak to on your current squad. Not being able to swap Personas mid-battle, as you can in mainline Persona games, makes this issue worse. Thankfully, once you do know and prepare in advance for enemy weaknesses, it’s much easier - but the trial-and-error part can be somewhat irritating. But a few annoyances don't drag down Persona Q2 significantly. As a dungeon crawler, it's challenging and engaging, but doesn’t drag or feel overwhelming. As a piece of Persona fan service, it delivers the goods with delightful crossover character antics and an enjoyable theme. It all combines into a solid little RPG that can keep you hooked for its entire runtime. The curtains may be closing on the 3DS, but Persona Q2 is a terrific way to end the show. -------------------------------------------------------------------
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  8. Key specifications : Game Price : 14.99$ GENRE: Action, Indie DEVELOPER: Flight School Studio, MWM Platforms : PC --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Creature has laid out a dozen traps, all of which can only be deactivated by the glowing ball carefully balanced on the tip of my sword. At a glance, I can tell it's going to take an impressive display of geometry to bounce the ball into every target before an approaching laser cuts me in half. The Creature threatens that a worthless piece of trash like me has no place in its mountain before it disappears back into the shadows with a haughty growl, convinced that at least one of its pinball death machines will stop me. Unfortunately for me, this time around, it's right, and the Creature smugly returns to pick my limp body off the floor and throw it out of its well. After muttering a few curses under my breath, I pick myself up, restructure my loadout, and head back into the monster's home. In Creature in the Well, you play as BOT-C, a robotic engineer tasked with maintaining a weather machine that's built into a mountain and designed to dispel the constant sandstorms that blanket the town of Mirage. Angry at the townsfolk for encroaching on its home and "worshiping" a machine for protection against the storms, the Creature that lives in the town well breaks the contraption. You set out to undo the damage only to learn that the Creature has filled the caverns of its home with deadly traps to stop you. Developer Flight School Studio refers to Creature in the Well as a "pinbrawler," a term coined by the studio to describe a top-down hack-and-slash dungeon crawler that utilizes pinball-inspired mechanics. It just so happens that the Creature's traps transform every room in the mountain into a giant pinball machine, allowing you to siphon energy from the bumper-like nodes that power the Creature's inventions by flipping balls into them. The energy you absorb can be used to unlock doors that lead further into the mountain. This fairly straightforward concept of hitting balls into bumpers evolves into more difficult puzzles as you delve into the areas beyond the first dungeon. Additional concepts are introduced at a steady pace, building new types of enjoyable challenges on what the game has already established so you're not blindsided by whatever you're up against next. Early on, the game only really tasks you with learning how to bank your shot, presenting puzzles where you need to angle the ball off of walls to hit nodes in a certain order. But then Creature in the Well starts adding cannons that shoot at you, lasers that disintegrate you, and other types of threats that need to be deactivated or dodged while you're also trying to position for your next shot. Few of the challenges in Creature in the Well are an equal combination of pinball and hack-and-slash. Instead, they fluctuate between the two to curate welcome variety in its dungeon-crawler gameplay. One room may not have a ball for you to use so you'll need to time your attack and use a shot from an enemy cannon as your ball, for instance, while another may task you with figuring out how it's possible to hit every node in a room within a specific time limit. Most of these challenges lean into the hack-and-slash inspirations and are more enjoyable as a result--largely because the flurry of frantically dashing between enemy traps as you try to calculate the trajectory of all the balls bouncing around the room produces the same thrill as battling your way through a difficult mob in a typical dungeon crawler. The pinball-focused rooms are designed to be a test of your intellect, but none of them are overly difficult. As a result, they mostly just stand out in stark contrast to the more plentiful hack-and-slash rooms as the handful of moments in Creature in the Well when the action slows down. They're still good, but Creature in the Well is just better as a pinball-inspired action game than a geometry-focused puzzle one, as its hack-and-slash mechanics better lend themselves to quickly overcoming obstacles through good reaction and precision instead of repeated trial-and-error. Though Creature in the Well does occasionally repeat puzzles, these duplicates rarely show up and they're typically only after the game has given you a chance to expand your arsenal or encouraged you to learn a new strategy. Tackling these recurrent puzzles with newfound efficiency each time helps reinforce that you are getting better (plus, it's really fun). Creature in the Well doesn't have much in the way of tutorials, but the game is fairly well-structured and teaches you most of what you need to know without exposition. The game never tells you that each room is optional, for example, but it provides enough opportunities at the start of the first dungeon to earn a surplus of energy so that you can try opening a few doors in the early areas without completing every puzzle. Likewise, almost as if it assumes most players will try, regardless, to complete every room at the start of the game anyway, Creature in the Well hides its first secret area relatively early in its campaign so that you learn hidden doors are only revealed by fully completing puzzles in certain rooms. In this way, you absorb enough of the basics to beat the campaign, but a few of the game's aspects that help alleviate some of its tougher challenges could have used additional explanation. The game doesn't tell you how to heal in the hub area after dying, for instance, and it doesn't explicitly reveal what BOT-C's core upgrades actually do. Without this knowledge, moments of Creature in the Well can, at times, feel frustratingly stacked against you, though it thankfully never gets to the point where the disadvantage feels impossibly unfair. And it's likely you'll eventually stumble into these mechanics and features before Creature in the Well's story is through. However, these things--that there's a pool of water in the hub you can bathe in to replenish your health and that core upgrades allow you to pull off more powerful strikes that siphon off extra node energy--feel like crucial information. Learning the purpose of the core upgrades, specifically, helped alleviate most of the struggle I was having with the late-game dungeons. There's an excellent diversity to each tool's effect--most of which seem inspired by traditional dungeon crawler powers and weapons--allowing for various playstyles. These dungeons are each structured around certain thematic challenges. To help you better respond to a dungeon's specific test, every one contains a tool designed to handle its threats. For example, the Lockdown Systems mostly contains rooms with nodes that move or require you to strike balls through a tiny opening. This area hides the Dual Blades, twin swords that help you make precision and long-distance shots by revealing a ball's travel path, allowing you to course correct before you even swing. Every tool is fun to experiment with, and it's exciting to discover how you might use a new one. And though each tool is designed for its specific dungeon, their special abilities can be reapplied in different ways to overcome the challenges found in other areas. You're thus encouraged to return to dungeons you didn't fully complete to see if the new tools you've acquired can help you solve any lingering optional puzzles you previously couldn't get past. Every tool is divided into one of two categories, charge and strike, and you can equip one of each to combine their special effects and build different loadouts for BOT-C. I most enjoyed pairing the aforementioned Dual Blades with the Focus Hammer, a strike tool that allows you to slow down time, to transform BOT-C into a sniper-like fighter. There's an excellent diversity to each tool's effect--most of which seem inspired by traditional dungeon crawler powers and weapons--allowing for various playstyles. The best moments to test out these different playstyles are in Creature in the Well's boss battles--each located at the end of a dungeon and all of which see you go up against the titular Creature. Each battle sees the Creature throw several waves of challenges at you that you must complete in a single run, with each consisting of a culmination of more difficult variations of the puzzles seen in that particular dungeon--further encouraging you to fully explore every area and experiment with multiple tool loadouts in each one. The boss battles are fast-paced and demand a higher level of tactical awareness than the rest of the game, as the Creature will also just randomly outright attack you as you're trying to hit the nodes scattered throughout the arena. Whereas most of the dungeons allow you the time to dissect how a problem can be solved, the boss battles force you into piecing together the solution on the fly. Though the abrupt change in pace between the slower dungeon puzzles and faster boss battles can be a little flustering, learning the different patterns of the Creature and overcoming them are gratifying challenges that require both careful aim and situational cognizance. Beating each boss rewards you with more dungeons to explore--and thus new challenges to tackle and tools to find--as well as lore-focused texts that further flesh out Creature in the Well's history. Though most of this lore isn't compelling enough to regularly be a fulfilling reward, the promise of more dungeons and new weapons eases away that disappointment. Both Creature in the Well's dungeons and boss battles are also improved via the portrayal of its antagonist. The Creature is terrifying, largely because you never actually see the entirety of it or learn its motivations. From start to finish, the Creature is a pair of glowing eyes and skeletal arms, most of its body covered in shadow. It growls, taunts, and even threatens you, but it never reveals what it is, remaining this demonic-like enigma that refuses to be understood or stopped. The Creature appears at seemingly random points in every dungeon, watching you from just out of your reach and cultivating this paranoia that it doesn't even have a physical form for you to fight. So when you do actually win and manage to push the Creature back a little further into the mountain, the battle feels hard-won, a boss fight on par with one in a traditional dungeon crawler. Creature in the Well manages to inject the geometry-focused experience of pinball into the frenzied gameplay loop of a dungeon crawler to craft a unique puzzle action game. On occasion, the game's hands-off approach to conveying information is a hindrance, but the well-structured dungeons and monstrous antagonist more than make up for it--producing an engaging hack-and-slash experience that allows for satisfying experimentation. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS MINIMUM: OS: Windows 7 Processor: Intel Core i3-530 Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470 / ATI Radeon HD 6870 DirectX: Version 10 Storage: 5 GB available space Sound Card: DirectX Compatible RECOMMENDED: OS: Windows 10 Processor: Intel Core i5 Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA Geforce GTX 760 / ATI Radeon HD 7970 DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 10 GB available space Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
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  9. Name: The GodFather Date&time: 30/03/2020 - 05:00 AM Screenshoot: P.S : I was just talking to an old friend & i found myself at the top of the list...
  10. Rabat – The Moroccan Ministry of Health has confirmed 16 new more COVID-19 cases bringing the total of cases to 479 as of 9 p.m. on Sunday March 29. The 16 news cases add to the 13 new cases announced by the Ministry of Health during its daily press briefing at 6 p.m local time. The number of deaths so far stands at 26 cases, while that of people who recovered is 13. In addition, the total number of cases excluded after negative laboratory results is 1,794, according to the same source. The local contamination accounts for 59%, compared to 41% of imported cases. Earlier today, Meziane Belfkih, head of division at the Directorate of epidemiology at the Ministry of Health gave an update about the clinical situation of people infected with the coronavirus. The Moroccan official stressed that 14% of the confirmed cases do not have any symptoms, 71% of the cases are mild, 9% are serious and 6% are critical cases. The distribution of confirmed cases by region shows, according to the same source, that Casablanca-Settat has 139 cases, ahead of Fez-Meknes (87 cases), Rabat-Salé-Kénitra (84), Marrakech-Safi (82), Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima (36). In addition, the Eastern region (16), Souss-Massa (14), Béni Mellal-Khénifra (12), Draa-Tafilalet (8) and Guelmim-Oued Noun (1), while the regions of Laayoune-Sakia Hamra and Dakhla-Oued Eddahab remain unharmed. On the other hand, Agadir-Ida Outanane and Oujda-Angad have 9 each, Khouribga (7), Taza (6), Berkane, Errachidia and Khémisset (4 each), Chichaoua, Fqih Bensalah, Ifrane and Larache (3 each), Essaouira, Inzegane-Ait Melloul, Medieq-Fnideq and Settat (2 each) and Al-Hoceima, Chtouka-Ait Baha, El Jadida, Fahs-Anjra, Figuig, Guelmim, Nador, Sefrou, Sidi Slimane, Taourirt, Taroudant, Tinghir and Zagora (1 each). #StayHome ??
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  11. Key Specifications: Game Price : 19.99$ GENRE: Indie, Simulation DEVELOPER: Monkey Moon, BlackMuffin ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The taxi cab is refitted as a confession booth in Night Call, a noir-styled visual novel that interweaves a series of murder mysteries through the tales of dozens of ordinary Parisians, the threads of their lives intermingling as you crisscross the streets of the city. Everyone's a little frail or fragile, much like the fabric of the game's core investigation, and it's the insights into people's everyday hopes, fears, and secrets that linger long after the end credits have rolled. You play as Houssine, an Algerian immigrant living in Paris. Much of his background is elided, or only revealed in suggestion over the course of the game, but he is Muslim, sports a thick, dark beard, and works as a cab driver on the night shift. Houssine is recently back behind the wheel after an assault that saw him hospitalized and, because of who he is, a suspect in the very crime of which he was a victim. Houssine understands what it means to feel like an outsider. There's been a terrorist attack recently, the details of which remain unspecified, but Arab men like Houssine are singled out for suspicion, their mere presence a cause for concern. His assault also resulted in the death of another person, the latest in a series of deaths that the police are keen to pin on him. One detective, however, disagrees and offers Houssine a deal: Help her investigation into the murders and he'll walk free. It feels right that Houssine would be of interest to the police given the political climate (both current and echoed in-game) and the hints at his troubled past. And it feels authentic that someone would pressure him to essentially become an informant, the kind of blackmail that insinuates that inside the moral grey area of society lies a corrupt, black core. These themes--of feeling like you don’t belong, of a rotten system operating to exclude all but the privileged few--infuse not just Houssine’s personal experience but of many of the people he encounters, and work well in linking together an otherwise disparate collection of stories. At one point a young black man from Chicago (he’s in Paris studying to become a mime, hilariously) gets into Houssine’s cab after a humiliating run-in with the police, and they bond over their shared experiences. “I’d say the police have a problem with black people,” Houssine says, then grins, “... and Arabs.” Each night, Houssine hits the streets to track down clues and follow up leads, all while performing his regular job. From a map of the city, you select a fare to take and watch a yellow arrow navigate to its destination, the scene then overlaying an interior shot of the cab with Houssine front right and his passenger(s) in the back seat behind. At this point, the only thing to do is talk. Conversations are entirely text-based, with you selecting dialogue options on Houssine's behalf interspersed with his internal observations. Despite being minimally animated, with a handful of poses and expressions each, each character conveys a remarkable range of emotion and succeeds in bringing to vivid life each new person you encounter. It's a wonderfully diverse cast of characters, too. In total there are 75 passengers to meet over the course of the game, drawn from a broad range of ages, social classes, ethnicities, sexualities and, in one or possibly two cases, dimensions. They each have their own stories to tell, and Houssine seems to be the man chosen to hear them all. That's because while he's an outsider, as a cab driver, Houssine's difference is camouflaged. Many of the people he picks up are oblivious to him, at least at first. Couples discuss private matters as if he is not there. Lone passengers mutter to themselves, seemingly unaware of the possibility there's a real human being sharing the vehicle with them. When they do notice him, one passenger scoffs at the idea that a lowly cab driver could have any useful advice. Another passenger assumes Houssine has certain political sympathies because he's a brown, working-class man. "According to the people of this country, you don't count," one character tells him, with weary resignation. Houssine is both othered and unseen, tagged as different and yet simultaneously erased. However, some passengers are immediately warm towards Houssine, while others, if distant or cautious to begin with, soon find themselves disarmed. Regardless of their disposition, however, they're all willing to reveal the most intimate details of their inner lives with often only the slightest bit of delicate prodding. There's the politician who is at the end of his tether over endemic corruption and pleads with Houssine to help him leak confidential documents. There's the lesbian couple who are loudly debating the merits of the prospective sperm donor with whom they have just concluded a "date." There's the former porn actress who is eager to talk all about her new pro-union production company making gender-positive porn movies. These tales are often funny, moving, and sweet--but moreover, they're always fascinating and exceptionally well-written. In between these fares, Houssine can visit various locations to further his investigation. He knows someone who works somewhere who might have some information, that sort of thing. But these scenes don't feel as fleshed out as the cab ride conversations. It's not made clear how Houssine knows to go to these places or why many of these contacts are able to help him. Indeed, much of the casework he's pursuing is obscured, as if key details have been intentionally, frustratingly, left out of reach. When Houssine returns to his apartment each morning and assesses the clues he’s uncovered--presented as hand-written notes pinned to a board--I found it difficult to interpret what much of it meant. By the time Houssine was called upon to accuse a suspect, I made an unconvincing guess that just happened to be correct. The structure of this series of murder mysteries is strange. There are three cases to choose from when you begin a new game, and each is framed the same way: Houssine finds himself the inadvertent victim of a serial killer and strong-armed by a detective to assist the investigation. Recurring characters po[CENSORED]te each case, though if you meet someone in one case, that relationship won't carry over into the next one. It was very odd to give a ride in the second case to the very same person I'd revealed as the killer in the first. I did learn some more things about him that complicated my feelings about how the first case was resolved, but I couldn’t help but wish I’d encountered this conversation while pursuing that first case. Houssine can't just focus on his detective work. He needs to earn a living, too. Fuel for your cab, daily car maintenance, and repayments on your cab license are all a drain on your bank account that can only be plugged by picking up new fares. Your boss says you're like a son to him, but if you don't make enough money from your shift and can't afford to pay his cut, the car maintenance, and the license fee, he fires you on the spot and it's game over. I like the theory behind this slight economic sim layer. It's there to ensure you feel the precariousness of Houssine's existence while also nudging you towards interacting with all the characters who don't really have anything to do with the core mystery. But my experience of the normal difficulty setting was that it felt too punitive. On my first case, I entered an all-too-real downward spiral where I simply couldn't pull Houssine out of the red and had to abandon the game. On the easy difficulty, Houssine still loses money each night, but he starts with a buffer sufficient to see the story through. If you're going to play Night Call, then play it on the "Story" setting. The normal difficulty claims it is "the way Night Call is meant to be played." I disagree. Night Call is at its best when you're behind the wheel, gliding through the rain-kissed boulevards, lost in conversation with whichever lost soul just happened to appear in the back seat of your cab. It presents itself as a noir mystery, but the murders you’re investigating are the least interesting narrative element. Night Call’s real strength is in the stories it tells about Paris, about the people who live there and the meaningful connections you can have with them no matter how brief or unexpected. It's these people you'll remember once you've solved each case, not the fares you charged them. --------------------------------------------------------------------- SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: OS: Windows 7 Processor: Intel Core i3-7100, AMD FX-8100 or equivalent Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: Intel UHD 630, Geforce GTX 275, Quadro 2000D or equivalent Storage: 2 GB available space
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  12. Key specifications : Review Price : 14.99$ Developer : Chance Agency Genre : Adventure,Indie,RPG Platforms : PC You spend almost all your time in Neo Cab sat behind the wheel of a cab, but as a player, you never get to steer it. Instead of choosing routes and getting to destinations quickly, you're deciding which passengers to pick up and how you're going to talk to them. It's the near future, and the game's protagonist, Lina, has just moved to the "automated city" of Los Ojos, California, a glittering, impersonal metropolis surrounded by desert. Lina, who is planning to move in with her best friend Savy, is one of the few drivers in a town that now runs mostly on self-driving cars owned and operated by Capra, a monolithic tech giant (and clear Tesla/Apple analogue) that has fundamentally changed American life. These are Neo Cab's best features--its examination of what it means to live in futuristic cities and the value of the human connections Lina manages to forge makes for a compelling experience. Neo Cab has the framework of a mystery, and its initial hook is that you're solving the case of your best friend's sudden disappearance. But ultimately, the search for Savy takes a back seat to, well, the people in your back seat. This is a game about the susceptibility of people working within a gig economy, what happens when a single company is given too much power, and how humanity can and will adapt to the changes that seem to be on the horizon. It's a clever examination of the world we live in today and the world we could find ourselves in 10 years from now. Neo Cab is well-written and enjoyable, and it's consistently engaging despite some presentation issues. For each night that Lina works, you're given a few choices that dictate how the story unfolds. You get to choose which passengers you're going to pick up from your map, and once they're in your car, you get to make choices during your conversations with them. Those choices will affect how the conversations go, what state of mind Lina will find herself in afterwards, and--crucially--what rating your customers will give you at the end of the ride. A few passengers are "Prime" members who will only ride with you if you have a five-star average, and the average is seemingly calculated based on the last few rides rather than your lifetime performance, so a single unhappy customer can tank it and impede your search for Savy. It's a familiar gameplay model, but thanks to strong writing, interesting characters, and the script's willingness to dive into the complexities of the technology and social issues it explores, Neo Cab's choices consistently feel significant. Neo Cab's greatest success is in how it feels simultaneously futuristic and of its time. Although Neo Cab has some fun with its world (there's talk of infinite timelines and giant worms that roam below the city), it's also depicting a world you can easily imagine living in, one that is more convenient but also less personal, where privacy has eroded and the job market demands intensely specific specialization. Lina's outsider perspective in the city makes her a perfect player surrogate, meaning that I found myself wondering how I would respond to the questions my passengers posed, not just how Lina might feel. The conversational options you can choose from are dictated by Lina's mood. Early on, Lina is gifted a "Feelgrid" wrist strap, which glows different colors depending on how she's feeling. The Feelgrid can indicate if certain options are going to be opened up or closed off; if Lina's in a good mood, the green glowing light on her wrist will prevent her from being able to choose aggressive or angry responses, or if she's got a blue light to indicate that she's sad, it might allow you to pick a downbeat dialogue option. It's not the deepest system, but it's an interesting approach that gives you a clear sense of how Lina is reacting at any given moment, and the in-game discussions around the ramifications of openly sharing your feelings at all times are interesting, too. You might expect a game set predominantly inside a car would eventually grow tedious or samey, but the stream of characters that step into the Neo Cab keeps the game interesting. The way each passenger is animated tells you something about their lives; some won't crack a smile, while others will immerse themselves in screens the moment they step into the car, while a few more outlandish figures are used to build up Neo Cab's increasingly strange world. There's the young girl who has spent her life locked into a horrifying suit of armor for her own "protection"; the gold-hearted ex-con with a secret; the German pals who are convinced that Lina is a robot. The passengers not only help to flesh out the politics of the game world, but often offer discussions that will force you to confront numerous life philosophies. Some characters worship technology, while others go so far as to condemn cars entirely; many relish human interaction, while others prefer to be driven by a machine. The most consistent feeling is isolation, and Neo Cab does a great job of examining the straightforward benefits of simply talking to others without putting too fine a point on it. Like the passengers in the back of Lina's car, every player is going to have their own thoughts and feelings on automation, capitalism, and the way technology can and will alter our lives. As such, the game presents multiple perspectives while also suggesting that we should be wary of any company that aims to build a monopoly, and it gives players the options to explore the grey areas in their conversation options whenever possible (which isn't to say the game is impartial; by the ending, it has taken a clear stance on the dangers posed by Capra). Some passengers can become friends with Lina, or at least begrudging acquaintances, and developing these relationships and learning the ins and outs of how these characters operate--and how living in an automated city has shaped them--is a pleasure that builds over time. Neo Cab is, ultimately, a hopeful game; it's about the importance of human connections in a world that has made it easier to stick to yourself. Neo Cab's conversations provide a rich tapestry of lives that show how inescapable Capra's influence is, but while you can build a picture of the city in your mind easily enough, the focus on the cab means that Los Ojos feels visually underdeveloped. Whenever the camera cuts to outside your car for a moment, assets will pop in from nowhere on the side of the road as you drive past, and the streets you see are all functionally identical and empty, meaning that sometimes characters will describe an area in a way that does not match up with what you see. The dissonance between how the city is described and how it's visualized can be isolating, and I found myself having to actively ignore any imagery I saw of the city itself, focusing on the game's words over its visuals. There are a few additional technical issues in Neo Cab that can take away from the experience. Animations don't always match up to text; during one conversation, the dialogue told me that a character had fallen asleep, but their avatar was visibly awake, their open eyes darting around. The driving animation is canned, too, which means that Lina might reference taking a left during conversation, but you won't see her make the turn. Neo Cab often requires you to fill in the blanks, but these stumbles often make the game world and characters, which are fleshed out so well in text, feel more artificial. There are other issues with the game's presentation that are inconvenient, or take away from the experience. There's no conversation log, which means that if you skip something accidentally or miss a piece of conversation, you can't go back to see what it was--a real possibility, especially since there's no voice acting. There are also very few music tracks in the game, and hearing them loop became tiresome by the game's ending. The autosaves are weird, too; after the game ended I wanted to jump back to a specific point to check out a passenger I hadn't collected the first time, but found that the game had saved frequently up until the halfway point and then stopped, so aside from my most recent save right near the game's ending, everything else was from hours earlier. These are not game-breaking by any means, but the game is lacking a few basic gaming creature comforts. Neo Cab's interactions still manage to be interesting and feel important despite these issues. While I didn't feel like the decisions I made had a tremendous impact on how the game ended, the experiences I had through the six in-game days that led up to the conclusion felt personalized to how I played. Certain characters that were name-checked never appeared within my game, or plotlines that started up were never finished, but I always had some idea of what I could have done differently to see these things through. The overarching mystery plot isn't so great, and once the credits rolled it felt like certain things I'd done, and the strict budgeting of my limited income, were far less important than the game had made me think they were. But Neo Cab's main appeal is in the side-stories presented by your passengers, and in the relationships that form between them and Lina. Most passengers can be collected multiple times, and stories will play out across several trips. I jumped back into Neo Cab after the credits rolled not to see if I could change the ending, but because I wanted to delve deeper into the lives of the people I had met and try to follow up on the storylines I hadn't seen all the way through in a single playthrough. Neo Cab might suffer from inconsistencies and presentation issues in some places, but as a depiction of a near-future society corrupted by tech fetishization, and an exploration of how humans are adapting to automation and the rise of the gig economy, it's got plenty to say about how important it is that we all look out for one another. This is a forward-thinking game, but the issues it explores are extremely relevant in 2019, which makes for an engaging, stimulating narrative experience, even if the central mystery of your friend's disappearance is not particularly interesting. MINIMUM: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 10 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- RECOMMENDED: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
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  13. Rabat – Morocco’s Ministry of Health confirmed 13 new COVID-19 cases overnight, bringing the total to 358 cases as of Saturday morning, March 28. The number of recovered patients remains at 11, while the death toll stands at 23 fatalities. The region of Casablanca-Settat continues to have the most cases of all regions in Morocco, with 107 cases, followed by Fez-Meknes and Rabat-Sale-Kenitra (63 each), and Marrakech-Safi (62). Twenty-three COVID-19 cases appeared in the Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region, while 11 appeared in Souss-Massa and 10 in Beni Mellal-Khenifra. The Draa-Tafilalet region is one of the least-severely hit in the country, with only five cases, followed by Guelmim-Oued Noun with only one case. The southern regions of Laayoune-Sakia El Hamra and Dakhla-Oued Ed Dahab remain safe from the virus with no confirmed cases. Since the detection of the first COVID-19 case in Morocco, on March 2, health authorities have performed 1,455 tests on suspected cases that yielded negative results. Worldwide, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has grown to more than 600,000. Over 27,000 people have died of the virus. With 104,000 cases, the US has recorded the highest number of COVID-19 cases globally. In Africa, countries in the North Africa have been the hardest hit, with the exception of South Africa. On Friday, South Africa recorded its first death from the virus, although the country has as many as 1,170 confirmed cases. #StayHome ??
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  14. Key Specifications: Review Price: £49.99 Developer: People Can Fly Genre: Shooter Platforms, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PC ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It pitches itself as an experience with none of the live-service trappings to which we’ve become so accustomed. It will have a beginning, middle and end at launch, refusing to hold back content. Despite this, it’s frighteningly similar to its contemporaries on the surface. It has the loot system of Destiny, luscious planet of Anthem and colourful, rebellious colour palette of Rage 2. The comparisons are hard to ignore, and aside from its excellent combat, Outriders doesn’t do a huge amount to stand out beyond the pack. Outriders follows humanity’s search for a new home on the planet of Enoch. The Earth is too far gone, depleted of resources and a natural environment capable of sustaining life. So the human race abandons it, constructing a ship in orbit, forcing themselves to find a new planet to colonise. As expected, this new venture doesn’t go exactly to plan. The opening moments of Outriders feel surprisingly rushed, failing to convey a sense of attachment to its world before you’re thrown into a wild conspiracy of paranormal abilities and warring factions that you really aren’t given a reason to care for. Your wise-cracking avatar walks through a small encampment talking to fellow settlers, all of which feel laughably positive about the situation. After deciding to expand, you’re immediately attacked by a hostile storm known as “The Anomaly”, which either absorbs people into nothing or curses them with dangerous, unusual powers. It’s basically weather that eats people, with random storms emerging across the landscape that humanity must learn to tackle. If I’m being brutally honest, it’s a striking yet achingly predictable opening. In a state of panic, you’re hurled back into cryosleep, remaining there for 15 years. The world you emerge to is drastically different, having transformed into a dark, hostile place where different factions of humanity fight for survival. Seconds after emerging it’s straight into the fight, as hidden powers surface, as does the hugely impressive combat system. Outriders feels like a novel combination of People Can Fly’s previous efforts, Bulletstorm and Gears of War: Judgment. The cover-based, third-person shooting of Gears is combined with Bulletstorm’s fast, gory and satisfying focus towards aggressive tactics. Despite convenient cover locations being plastered across every battlefield, I seldom found myself using them. It’s far more enjoyable to incapacitate enemies before rushing out from cover and blowing them into nothing with your myriad powers. Outriders will launch with four distinct classes, three of which have been revealed in the form of Pyromancer, Trickster and Devastator. I spent some time with all three, finding my personal favourite with the Trickster’s absurdly satisfying use of time mani[CENSORED]tion. By pressing both shoulder buttons you can expel a spherical field that slows down anyone and anything trapped within it. Bullets whizz hypnotically through the air, while severed limbs float towards the sky before crashing down the second your field disappears. The Trickster can also zip through the world to ambush enemies and slice them with a long, ethereal sword – it’s brilliant for taking out multiple foes. Pyromancy is similar, albeit with a focus on flames with a bunch of ranged and localised effects. You can light enemies ablaze, zapping health from them as they burn alive. It looks incredibly cool, albeit a bit grim. Devastator is the final class, placing a focus on the earth’s physical properties to craft elemental armour and slam those around you into the ground with a pulp. Each occupation has a vast, uncompromising skill tree filled with unlockable skills and abilities, only a slither of which I saw during my playthrough. I imagine this is where the true depth of Outriders will rear its head, since firefights veer into the realm of repetition far quicker than I’d like. You follow the same rhythmic sequence of attacks to get the job done, filling rival mercenaries with bullets until they crumble. It’s working alongside other players that brings each firefight to life. Watching as the abilities from each class combine to create a flurry of bloody fireworks is borderline euphoric, presenting a sense of dynamism you rarely see in the genre. Gone is the necessity for cowering behind cover, waiting to take potshots. Firearms almost feel like an afterthought, but are varied enough that picking up new ones is a meaningful part of progression. Outrider’s loot system is solid, rewarding you with more armour components and equipment after each major conflict – although collecting them could be refined, since it’s currently difficult to determine the difference between ammunition and valuable drops on the field. People Can Fly was quick to stress Outriders isn’t open-world; it will split missions across a variety of large, distinct areas. You’ll find checkpoints scattered throughout into which you can slam a flag, claiming the territory as a fast travel point for future adventures. I played through the same handful of missions with each class, having learned the opening area like the back of my hand. In the full game you’ll likely do the same, recycling levels in the hope of landing better gear. This cycle has defined live-service games this generation, with each scenario being designed in a way that remains enthralling over multiple playthroughs. You’ll find yourself ploughing through them again and again in search of experience, loot and class upgrades. But remember, this isn’t a live service. Between missions you’ll return to a hub area, but during the opening hours it feels lifeless. There aren’t many characters with whom you can converse, and shopkeepers are devoid of personality, feeling little more than lifeless husks hurling upgrades at you in exchange for spare parts. It doesn’t feel like The Tower in Destiny or Anthem’s Fort Tarsis. While they aren’t without flaws, its inhabitants reacted to your existence, engaging in conversations and pushing the narrative forward in unexpected ways. From my experience, Outriders has none of this. Ensuring its world and personality can capture the attention of players in a matter of minutes will be key to its success. The medium is packed with novel, engrossing shooters in which it’s well worth investing, and penetrating that arena shouldn’t be taken lightly. LawBreakers and Battleborn are just a few casualties of such ambition, glancing up at giants and biting desperately at their knees. It takes something special to enter this fight and stay standing, and time will tell whether Outriders has what it takes. Outriders has an excellent grasp on what makes combat satisfying, giving players an endless array of tools to play with across increasingly chaotic firefights. It feels wonderful in motion, and bodes well for a rewarding shooter experience. Sadly, everything outside of it is underbaked and lacking in creativity. Its world, characters and overall tone have been done elsewhere multiple times, and from what I’ve seen so far, People Can Fly has failed to imbue the game with anything new. I zoned out of cutscenes, dismissed dialogue and waited impatiently before I was hurled into the next battle, since that’s all that really matters here. But this mindset shouldn’t be the case, and I hope that changes with the full game.
      • 1
      • I love it
  15. @Luanhyx @[Paul] Experience in cs1.6
  16. Key Specifications: Review Price: £22.00 --------------------------------------------------------------- A Way Out does some truly incredible things with co-operative game design. Taking splitscreen play and injecting it with fresh ideas, wonderful cinematic camera work and creating something that’s truly built with two players in mind, it’s incredibly intuitive. Unfortunately, an unconvincing narrative, poor voice acting and inconsistent visuals don’t quite live up to these foundations. A Way Out’s mechanical concepts will live far longer in the memory than its artistic choices. A Way Out tells the story of Leo and Vincent, two men who meet via unfortunate circumstances in prison. They connect over a shared vendetta against the same criminal mastermind. The plot follows their Tango and Cash-style prison escape and subsequent revenge quest. Buy A Way Out from Amazon UK | Amazon.com Leo is the braun to Vincent’s brains. Gameplay-wise, this has little impact outside of a sprinkling of crossroad choices, where problems can be solved via Vincent’s more conservative approach or Leo’s aggressive one. Unfortunately, these traits never offer much depth to the characters, and neither does the supporting cast. This isn’t helped by voice acting that flutters between cheesy and awful. There were so many moments of cringey dialogue, or a line so poorly delivered it removed all gravitas from the scene. While A Way Out has a nice aesthetic overall, delivering a colour palette matching its 1970s setting, facial detail is lacking, making it hard to connect with these already vocally stunted characters. This inconsistency means the connection Hazelight so desperately wants us to feel very rarely reaches. Combine this with a reliance on certain tropes – the pregnant wife waiting on the outside, the clichéd plot and cheesy one-liners to name but a few – and an awful soundtrack that simply doesn’t align with the events on-screen, the story just doesn’t have the weight intended. With all that said, you’d think A Way Out is a bad game – but it isn’t. In fact, it’s very enjoyable because it’s so well designed for two players, and that shared experience is a core part of its appeal. While other co-op titles often deliver the same experience for both parties, this is unlike anything you’ve ever played. Leo and Vincent will go off and have an entirely separate experience. They’ll complete separate objectives while also co-ordinating their efforts in a way that simply hasn’t been seen in a game before. This is in large part thanks to the wonderful cinematics. Walking around the prison yard in splitscreen, you’ll both engaged in conversations that are completely separate from each other. You’ll learn about other inmates, or just take part in menial tasks, before a fight breaks out and fate brings you two together into the same action. This leads to great QTE sequences. There are also some superb chase sequences, where you’ll split up to catch someone or flee from the cops – it’s excellent. The way the camera keeps up with two separate players and what they do, dividing the screen before bringing it together as Leo and Vincent come together in the same room is so wonderful that there were times I simply sat back and admired the achievement. At certain moments in the game, one character’s actions will be more important than the other, and therefore you’ll both need to pay attention to, say, Vincent. Hazelight draws attention to this by subtly moving the divide left or right, making one character’s screen bigger than the other. For example, when the guards are doing a shakedown of Vincent’s cell, Leo’s screen becomes smaller as the camera zooms in on the guards in Vincent’s room. This ensures both players pay the utmost attention to the events taking place there. At other times, one character’s screen will fade away completely for a cut-scene focused on one character. It’s done in such a discreet manner that it’s never jarring, and this is the shining star of A Way Out. The actual design and implementation of its cooperative mechanics have never before been seen in gaming, and I hope this is something that’s replicated in games going forward. The camera-work is superb and borrows heavily from movies, but in a way that gels brilliantly with the way the game plays. There are, however, a couple of drawbacks. When Leo and Vincent are off exploring an environment in which there are people to talk to, there’s no elegant way to decide which conversation goes first. The result is that you’ll have two chats going on at once, with one significantly louder than the other. You’ll simply have to read the subtitles of whichever side you’re playing and try to block out the garbled noise during those moments. There’s also a minor quibble over exploration and puzzle sequences. At times, Vincent and Leo will need to overcome a problem to move onto the next sequence – stealing a wrench from the workshop and getting it back to their cell, for example. The trouble is, there’s no real creative problem-solving in order to complete these tasks. There was no pressing need to communicate between players in order to know what to do; it was obvious and linear, with only one solution for every problem. It became very much a case of ‘monkey see, monkey do’. Then once you come to understand the solution to the problem, often within a few seconds, sequences lasted far too long and start to become tiresome. Breaking out of the cell, for instance, requires one player being lookout for guards while the other works away in their cell. The sequence involves a series of controller mini-games, and each one lasts just that bit too long and becomes tedious, especially when both Leo and Vincent need to complete the same task in order to escape. Convenience, too, will be an issue for some players. While A Way Out does brilliant things with co-op, and Hazelight is generous enough to let two people experience the game with only one player having bought it, you have to keep in mind that if you invite a pal using the Friend Pass, they must first download the free trial of the game. So if you’re planning to play through the game with someone, you’ll have to book in some time to get downloading first. Then there’s the fact that this game can only be played in player-and-player co-op. There’s no AI companion should you want to tackle it solo. Finding free time for both you and another person to sit down and spend several hours with the game – in my experience as a father to a young son and friends with jobs and lives to live – proved very tricky. Also, I found it best to enjoy the entire experience with the same player. My initial plan was to play with different players throughout to get their thoughts, but after starting with a friend at work, I realised I wanted us to see the whole thing through together. The connection not only lays between Leo and Vincent’s journey, but also the journey of the two players enjoying and watching A Way Out together. Co-ordinating their escape, gasping at a shock moment, laughing at the cringey dialogue – this built a rapport that, should I begin playing the game with someone new, will be lost. This all serves to reinforce how well crafted A Way Out’s co-op is. While in other multiplayer experiences I can easily jump between matches with strangers, this very much felt like a game through which you’d sit down with a friend and enjoy together. A Way Out has some fantastic ideas that deliver a very unique co-op experience. It’s certainly worthy of your time, should you and a friend have it spare to commit to the game’s eight or so hours. Mechanically, this is a very rewarding experience that deserves plenty of praise. There are some minor quibbles about some of its mechanics, but these stand in the shade of its achievements.
      • 1
      • I love it
  17. in the case if u didn't sell it, I Offer you 5 euro. G/L
  18. #StayHome #ProtectYourFamily
  19. Key Specifications : Review Price: £44.99 Developer: Atlus Release Date: March 31, 2020 Genre: JRPG Platforms: PS4 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Following the recent tradition in the series, in Persona 5 Royal you’re tasked to live an entire year at high school going through each calendar day forming friendships, attending classes, and fighting against all sorts of creatures in the so-called metaverse, an alternate reality from our own where people’s distorted desires come to life. Your named protagonist has been sued for charges he did not commit, forced to relocate to Tokyo, Japan where he has to live a normal student life until probation ends, forever targeted and shamed by society as he attempts to start anew. As expected, this isn’t the only conflict he encounters. There’s also The Metaverse. This strange place manifests itself as a mobile app which, after inserting a couple of keywords, can change reality to present the perspective of crooked adults with nothing but bad intentions: an abusive gym teacher, a mafia boss, an artist who profits on his pupils’ work, and so on. These perspectives take place in certain parts of the world, leading to the presence of a palace, the game’s main dungeons that are always tied to a specific date for completion. But for every enemy in Persona 5 Royal, a new person will show up in your life, with whom you will create a bond that will evolve over time. This is where Persona 5 really shines. Along with getting to know more of their backstories, each rank you gain will also increase the power your Personas will gain when creating them, which are basically your main companions in battle performing magic and special abilities. Under a Pokémon of sorts fashion, you can “capture” and make use of them during battles, and your real-life bonds will make for greater results when combining them. If you’re a newcomer to the series, this all might sound like a lot to swallow. Frankly, after going through the original Persona 5 (taking me 111 hours) shortly after release, and now revisiting this story with substantially more content and dozens of rather small but welcome changes, it all still feels like a lot. It’s funny since it’s one of the most approachable JRPGs to date, and it’s even better with the Royal treatment, but the investment it requires is no small undertaking. The main story remains the same, although there are new characters, interactions, places to visit, and activities to take part in that weren’t in the original release. Mysterious gymnast Kasumi Yoshizawa is a new playable character that not only brings a new confidant to meet and level up over time, but she also introduces herself as a new member of the Phantom Thieves. Other confidants such as a school counsellor also appear, and his presence is equally fantastic. Both of these characters introduce new story moments to the original game’s narrative, all of which feel perfectly balanced. Nothing is forced feels forced, and pretty much all unique aspects of Persona 5 Royal feel like they were at some point planned for the initial release but just didn’t make the cut. Gameplay is intact on the surface, following one day at a time divided into mornings, afternoons, and evenings. These are usually fragmented into attending classes during the mornings, and then using the rest of your time to level up in a dungeon, continue progressing the main story forward, or just hang out with friends. Part-time jobs, movies, exercising, and many other activities are back. You now have some new additions such as the aquarium, a monk temple, and an entirely new district featuring billiards and playable darts (making use of your DualShock’s motion sensor to aim and throw) where you can invite the entire group at once. Most of the new additions regarding the every-day aspect of the game enhance the pace and use of time immensely, which wasn’t the case in Persona 5. There are now more shops with tons of helpful items, including one that will take your unwashed clothes (pieces of gear that haven’t been “identified”) for money and redeemable points to exchange for rewards. If you went through the original game and thought that most of what you did or didn’t do wasn’t of importance, there’s probably a new element addressing those caveats now. Combat is, by far, the most improved element in Persona 5 Royal. I had always enjoyed fighting shadows in the original, seldom getting tired of the exquisite soundtrack as I exploited enemies’ weaknesses to continue chaining attacks. Now, some enemies can explode and deal proportional damage to their companions, depending on how much you hurt them. Fail to exploit their weakness, though, and they will retaliate immediately, but they are otherwise a great way of wiping out an enemy group quickly. The baton pass, which occurs when you switch between teammates after these moments, are now much more encouraged. Playing darts with one of your friends in the outside world, for example, will enhance this skill so each pass can grant health, skill points, and boost attacks. If you ask me for my favourite addition, it has to be the new Showdown attacks, which happen randomly between specific characters and can grant a huge advantage in battle if you decide to use them, being showcased in hilarious short cutscenes. Navigating palaces is a tad better now, too. The addition of the grappling hook allows you to traverse through some new puzzles, but it can also be used to skip certain sections entirely. It doesn’t carry as much protagonism as I was expecting it to. Still, there are some exciting new nuggets later on, such as the ability to attack shadows from afar during exploration to gain an advantage in combat without having to sneak up on them. There’s also secondary and often hidden rooms now that host Will Seeds, skull-shaped objects that grant different rewards if you find all three inside each palace, along with boosting a few your skill points before moving on. Mementos still involve procedurally generated floors with different and stronger enemies the further you venture, a new character known as Jose is also there this time around. The droid-looking child serves as a random merchant driving a car (which reminds me of Emil’s shop in NieR: Automata) who will give you powerful items in exchange for flowers, which can be found across floors as floating items. What’s more intriguing is that Jose can change the properties of Mementos, increasing how much experience, money or items you’ll obtain, which can be purchased using star emblems, usually found at the end of each floor. Persona 5 Royal is as extensive as it could ever be, and in some way, that’s what I enjoyed the most. Hanging out with my friends in the past game was always a joy, and the in-game routine ties everything together in a way that no other title has accomplished yet. All the sweet, sad, and joyous moments I’ve spent with them hold a special place in my heart and reliving their stories while also taking part in new memories to treasure is by far the most significant appeal of this long adventure. Oh, and Morgana isn’t as persistent with going to bed early now, so you will often have plenty of time to study or watch a movie during the evenings, even after going to a palace. However, it would have been good to see some dialogue and story bits that were sexist and somewhat disturbing to also get the Royal treatment. These aren’t funny, nor do they evoke any resemblance of romanticism, making them tonally out of place with the characters’ attitudes and backstories, while ignoring dramatic events that the player witnessed firsthand only to sound like a creep. At best, they can be ignored, and you can choose a different dialogue option, at worst, some of these answers are rewarded with a smile or a laugh, along with gaining extra points towards a relationship that can evolve into a full romance. The same can’t be said for homosexual interactions, mind, which seems to have been more on their minds this time around with overly flirting conversations, especially around the extended confidant storyline with Goro Akechi, but lead to nowhere. All women end up, in some way or another, expressing their attraction to the protagonist. There are no boundaries to whom you can date, whether it is one of your school teachers, a journalist who continually brings up the fact that you’re underage and you shouldn’t be in a bar late at night, or Futaba, who looks up to you as an older brother. Aside from a couple of localization efforts involving three moments in the story – in which two men had a predatory attitude towards Ryuji – nothing else has changed. As much as I enjoyed my time with everyone in the game, the tone still feels targeted against a particular audience at times, and character arcs such as Ann’s are the living proof that the next entry in the series should learn and do better. Despite all of this, I fell in love with the daily loop of Persona 5 Royal immediately. The task of playing through over a hundred hours again never felt like a chore. I was just happy to hang out with some of the most wonderful characters I’ve ever met in a video game once more, going for ramen or just chilling in the attic. The new faces, locations, and songs are all welcome additions, and the whole experience can be remembered and in some way honoured in the Thieve’s Den, a hub that hosts songs, concept art pieces, and much more. It all feels like the proper closure and rendition to Persona 5, and the best way to experience the game if you have at least 130 hours to spare. I assure you it’s worth the time.
      • 2
      • I love it
  20. The Journey is a new story-based mode centering on Alex Hunter, a young player breaking into professional football. It’s built from a mix of gameplay, dialogue, and cutscenes, which depict Alex’s evolving relationships with his family and teammates and, ultimately, whether his talent is enough to kickstart a dream career. It is, in other words, a football Cinderella story--and, as such, it marks a pleasant change from the relentless capitalism of FIFA’s monstrously successful Ultimate Team. FIFA already contains at least three modes life-consuming enough to take up 12 months of your spare time, and aside from an annual release schedule that demands a constant supply of newness, recapturing some of the hope and romance of football seems the only logical reason for The Journey to exist. As for the mode itself, hope and romance are what it does best--convincing dramatics and RPG gameplay, not so much. Choice within The Journey is, in practice, pretty limited, outside of the initial opportunity to choose which Premier League side Hunter joins. Certain fixed plot points underpin the story. They happen no matter how you’re performing on the pitch or behaving off it--things like being sent out on loan, or Hunter’s childhood friend and teammate Gareth Walker being inexplicably awful to him the whole time. Once you start leveling up, you can directly apply upgrade points to specific skills, enabling you to make Hunter exactly the sort of player you'd like him to be. But there's less flexibility in the dialogue choices offered during certain cutscenes and post-match interviews. These are clearly labeled--"fiery," "cool," "balanced"--and rather than leading individually to different opportunities or outcomes, these decisions are aggregated into a binary temperament gauge showing whether Hunter is hot-headed or sensible. This, in turn, has an effect on cosmetic things like how pleased your manager is with you or how many fans you have, but it doesn’t unlock any significant changes in events. While lead actor Adetomiwa Edun (Merlin, Bates Motel) shines through the performance capture process to offer a vulnerable, determined Alex Hunter, The Journey still sounds the occasional awkward dramatic note. Interactions between characters can seem forced, like Alex’s dad storming away from an early game or your rivalry with Gareth. And sometimes the locations themselves (especially exteriors) are quiet and empty, giving the scenes an unreal, disconnected feel. Speaking of unrealistic, sometimes the cost of mistakes seems unfeasibly high. At one point, Hunter was established in the first team at Tottenham Hotspur, and a red card led directly to him getting released from his contract despite the fact that he'd scored in the previous three games (requiring a return to the latest save). A talking-to or even a transfer listing might’ve worked here; to suggest a player scoring goals in the Premier League could find his contract canceled and career over because of a sending-off is bizarre. And yet, for all that, The Journey captures something that the existing parts of FIFA never have. Despite its rough edges, there are moments here that deliver a kind of brute emotional force: the opening scene of Sunday morning boys’ football, which puts the cliched tale in a delicate context; a pitch-side camera’s view of Hunter’s first goal for the senior side, with his own delirious shout audible above the crowd; various quiet moments of triumph and failure with family. It lacks sophistication, but The Journey has something, and it succeeds in attaching an added emotional weight to your actions on the pitch. As for the rest of this year's update, FIFA 17 feels like a round of unglamorous but welcome housekeeping after the relatively thorough gameplay changes of last year. EA has touted the switch to the Frostbite engine, a change that will presumably pay off increasingly in future years. Right now, wide shots of stadiums look very pretty, especially at night and with mist hanging in the air. But elsewhere, you'd be hard pressed to spot the difference, and some locations in The Journey--offices, bedrooms, changing rooms--look a little flat and characterless. The gameplay improvements this year are typified by much-needed tweaks but also feel like the kind of changes you only get around to when there's nothing really pressing to address. So now throw-ins can be dummied much like a faked shot, giving players a way to move defenders around and get a better chance of keeping possession. Free kicks and penalties have been freed up, so you can choose your angle of approach and charge your cross or shot much more like you would in regular play.
      • 3
      • I love it
  21. i think the contain of the report about Marvel not Me, + i dare you to tag any Other Moroccan member on this foum and see if i insult. P.S : If Some1 insul he must receive a gag then a ban if he retry, So you are totally Wrong. Greetings
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