Spring*

f there's one lesson to be learned from Sega's The Incredible Hulk movie-based game, it's that Hulk is a big bully. When tasked with containing a radioactive outbreak that could potentially eliminate all life within his city, he is just as likely to take a detour to destroy the Empire State Building or bat pedestrians into the Hudson River. It's far more enticing to see how many taxicabs you can blow up with one swing from a lamppost than to protect your pal Rick from a swarm of angry robots. The Incredible Hulk is at its best when you unleash the full destructive power of this terrifying giant to fulfill your own twisted desires. Ultimately, though, the repetition of mission structures, severe graphical glitches, and game-halting bugs wrestle this 1,000-pound monster to the ground. The sheer destructive joy of rampaging through New York is hard to ignore, but it's even harder to ignore the problems plaguing your every step. The Incredible Hulk plays in much the same way as Radical's The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, released three years ago. You are set loose in a re-creation of New York City--complete with landmarks from both real life and the Marvel universe--and you can choose exactly how you want to level this fine city you’re supposed to protect. You can turn any object you see lying around into a weapon of mass destruction, or unleash an array of charge-based super moves by metabolizing your rage. Though there isn't a lot of variety in either your combat moves or techniques to cause general chaos, being the biggest jerk in all of New York provides simple, though brutal fun. The Incredible Hulk does a good job of making you feel like a very angry monstrosity and, more importantly, it's quite satisfying to imitate Hulk on a very bad day. The graphics are startlingly incomplete. The character models outside of cutscenes are properly detailed, but the city itself is overflowing with texture pop-in and severe draw-in. You can see only a little way in front of you before buildings become hazy and dark blue. When you climb to the top of the Chrysler Building, you are treated with a foggy view more reminiscent of a posteruption Pompeii than modern-day New York City. This may be a clever homage to an unknown issue of Hulk in which he visited the eye doctor, but it makes for a suffocating video game. Even the lighting effects suffer from draw-in.

When you think of the supplies a soldier might need in a war, a gun would probably be the first thing that pops into your head. But if you're already infused with super serum, such a pedestrian trinket serves little purpose. In Captain America: Super Soldier, you rush headlong into battle carrying only your handy shield, though that's more than enough to get the job done. Of course, your versatile armament is no ordinary shield. Like an indestructible boomerang, it returns to your hands after it smashes someone in the face from 20 yards away, and those pesky bullets that vanilla commandos attempt to kill you with are effortlessly deflected by it. And it's in this fast-paced combat that Super Soldier thrives. Unfortunately, the other aspects are not nearly as well defined. Bland storytelling, drab visual design, and a dearth of thrilling moments extinguish the magic of your heroic forays. But Captain America: Super Soldier manages to rise above its problems to deliver an enjoyable though thoroughly predictable adventure. Your feet and fists both make quick work of the baddies that surround you, but it's the dynamic shield that brings much-needed diversity into the mix. Long-range attackers have no qualms peppering you with bullets while their melee-focused comrades close in around you, though their puny assassination attempts are laughable when you're holding your trusty shield. Easy-to-grasp visual cues clue you in on an imminent strike, and tapping block right before it pierces your flesh sends wayward bullets careening right back to the dastardly sniper. Outside of combat, there are paint-by-numbers platforming sections, which convey that you are, in fact, a super hero, though the fun Captain America must be having is far from contagious. These jumping challenges pay homage to the Uncharted series, replacing the skill of successful leaping with gravity-defying spectacle. You can only jump at specified points, and every subsequent leap ensures you grab directly onto the next hold without any fear of falling. The final pillar holding this adventure aloft is the exploration. Levels comprise interconnected corridors that form one giant whole. It's not quite an open world because you need to continue on a preset path most of the time, but there are opportunities to backtrack. Although the freedom of being able to explore is satisfying, it's too easy to get lost. You can call up a map at any time, but it's poorly detailed, which means you often have to rely on guesswork to get to your next objective. Along the way, there are plenty of collectibles to sniff out.

Have you ever been playing Splinter Cell or some other stealth game and wished that instead of snapping someone's fool neck after sneaking up behind him, you could give him a hot meal? OK, probably not, but hey, that's Sneak King. This game is one of three Xbox 360 games that have been made available by the po[CENSORED]r quick-service chain, Burger King, as part of a temporary offer. While this ingrained level of product placement might sound immediately disgusting to some, at least they're being totally up front about it. Going in, you know that this is one big ad for hamburgers...and various breakfast foods. It's a dumb game, but it's also $4 (provided you also purchase some food) and seems like the sort of thing that will be a collectable down the road. Sneak King comes from Blitz Games, the developer of Fuzion Frenzy on the Xbox, and it puts you in the role of the Burger King himself, from the tights to the creepy, smiling mask. The graphics are very simple, and that probably has a lot to do with the game's dual compatibility. The disc will run in either a 360 or an Xbox, but regardless of which system you put the disc in, you still get a barebones-looking world with limited animation at best. It's a $4 game, which makes you want to say "you get what you pay for." But if you consider there are some Xbox Live Arcade games that are better in every way and available for a dollar more, this game's especially filthy. To make a creepy character even creepier, you're practically playing a stalker in Sneak King. There are different missions and different locations to visit, but the goal remains the same: finding hungry people in desperate need of a "Whoppertunity," sneaking up on them, and surprising them with a fancy little dance and the presentation of Whoppers, hash browns, coffee, or some other Burger King menu item. There are also hiding spots around each one of the levels; if you jump out of a hiding spot and immediately present someone with food, you'll get bonus points. Plus, a rapidly rising meter appears whenever you attempt to present food. Each notch on the meter is a higher level of flourish. Stopping the golf-style meter on the level three flourish is the grandest of them all, resulting in much dancing and shuffling, and, of course, more points. Your enemy in Sneak King is the clock and the evil vision cones of the people in each level. You want to be fast, but you need to be quiet. And you need to stay out of sight, or else your bonus multiplier will be reset. This risk versus reward, "hide in a hurry" gameplay is extremely fun and rewarding; thus, Sneak King is one of the greatest games ever made.

Dead or Alive: Dimensions' cast of impossibly proportioned females makes it all too easy to dismiss it as a form of mere titillation, rather than a serious fighting game. Yet underneath its busty exterior lie fast-paced 3D battles that eschew complex button combinations in favour of agile reversals and counterattacks. It's a battle system that's easy to pick up, and offers plenty of depth. There are a host of exciting new modes to play through too, all of which are wrapped up in great-looking visuals that take advantage of the 3DS's powerful hardware. While Dimensions is sullied by a story mode that’s more difficult to penetrate than a copy of War and Peace, and online play that's mired in lag, there's fun to be had in this slick and exciting fighting game. More tactical options are available by making use of Dimensions' many multilevel arenas, which are set across a range of beautiful-looking environments. Whether you're fighting in a blossom-filled garden, on a snowy mountaintop, or in the fiery depths of hell, you're treated to some impressively detailed visuals. Towards the edges of most arenas you can knock your opponents off using a well-timed combo, causing them to fall gracelessly to another beautiful area of the level and lose health. This, coupled with Dimensions' swift combos, reversals, and the ability to juggle your opponents in the air, results in a refined battle system that's fast and fluid and has tactical depth. 3D or not, Dimensions is a great-looking fighting game with heaps of content to explore. Its fighting system offers a unique and more accessible alternative to that of Super Street Fighter IV, while still giving advanced players plenty to dig into. Its limited online play and impenetrable story might deter those after a more complete fighting experience, but executing well-timed combos and knocking opponents off ledges to their doom is so much fun in Dead or Alive: Dimensions that you'll be too busy throwing punches to care.. Once you've completed Chronicle mode, there's still lots of content to play. Arcade mode is split into six different courses, starting on the easiest difficulty and moving up to the most challenging. Your goal is to complete them in the fastest time possible, setting an offline record for others to beat. Survival mode is similarly split up into rounds of increasing difficulty, along with an increasing number of fights to play through. These start at 10 fights moving all the way up to an epic 100 fights on True Fighter difficulty, which is a real test of your endurance and skill..

It was hard not to be completely impressed when the first images and videos of Crysis appeared about 18 months ago. Scenes of lush jungles and towering alien war machines looked light-years beyond what seemed possible. Of course, the two questions that revolved around Crysis since its announcement were whether it would deliver on those visuals and whether it would deliver a game worthy of those fancy graphics. It turns out that the answer to both those questions is a resounding yes, as Germany's Crytek has proven that its 2004 hit Far Cry was no fluke. In fact, it was just the beginning from this studio. With its sophomore effort, Crytek has managed to deliver an incredibly advanced and exciting first-person shooter that practically rewrites the rules for the entire genre. It helps that the game features a high degree of advanced physics and destructibility in a highly dynamic world. Getting caught in a firefight in the jungle is a cinematic treat, thanks to the way the bullets will chop down trees, while branches sway from impacts. This isn't just a visual effect, either, as falling timber can kill if it lands on someone. There's all sorts of emergent behavior like that throughout the game, events that spring up completely unintended or unforeseen. In one instance, the flaming wreckage of a chopper landed on a hut, crushing it and killing all those inside. Crysis gives you all of these toys and ratchets the action higher and higher the deeper you get into it. The first level of the game introduces you to the sandbox combat and the nanosuit. From then on, the battles become larger and more intense as the action escalates. You'll storm North Korean-held villages and bases; encounter their counter to your nanosuit; take part in a chaotic assault on a North Korean harbor; and from there the game accelerates. The one criticism that can be leveled on the story is that it leaves you screaming for more. While there's an adrenaline-packed finale, you still don't want the game to end on the note that it does. The single-player campaign is around eight to 10 hours long, which is a healthy amount for a shooter. There's a lot of replay here, too, as you can experiment with a multitude of different approaches. Plus, it's fun to go back and try out the large, set-piece battles again and again, since they can unfold in different ways thanks to the dynamic nature of the combat and the artificial intelligence.

In XCOM: Enemy Unknown, victory is sweet--but it's so much sweeter when it arrives after a heart-wrenching standoff. With each turn, the newest entry in this beloved strategy series heightens the sense of tension, and each defeat of a hovering alien craft thus becomes cause for celebration. But don't get too intoxicated by the faint scent of triumph: nothing is certain until you've ripped your last enemy to shreds. Getting cocky and rushing ahead is a fool's strategy, and until the alien threat is eliminated, your guard must remain up. The basic concept is simple: get squad members behind cover where damage is minimized, and then take aim. Each squad member gets two actions per turn, though some of your soldiers will earn ways of extending this basic number. When possible, you want to move from cover to cover, diminishing the enemies' chances of landing shots while flanking them to lessen the benefit of their own cover spots. In the early hours, your options are few. But the soldiers that survive the mission level up and gain access to new abilities that you assign back at base. Additionally, you spend funds on better weapons, upgraded armor, and other enhancements. Simple grunts become trustworthy killing machines--and when your killing machines are fully leveled and decked out in your finest equipment, you'd best keep them alive. If they do intrude, however, you might still have the tools you need to survive. Soldiers of different classes have different roles in battle, and depending on their loadouts, you have a number of ways of approaching the enemy. Close-range weapons like shotguns and alloy cannons are super effective, but getting in close can be a big risk. Meanwhile, having a sniper move too close to a quick-witted floater can dramatically reduce your chances of landing the shot. You need to know your soldiers, and develop strategies that make sense. A quartet of mutons looks threatening, but you have ways of whittling down their numbers if you play your cards right. A SHIV's suppressive fire and a soldier's flush skill can be used in tandem to bring down stubborn foes. Alien grenades, shredder rockets, and other doodads can be more than helpful as well. Just as a seemingly simple situation can turn deadlier than you imagined, a difficult encounter can be tamed with a few smart moves. The glamorous camera angles that dramatize the successes and failures often contribute to the excitement, but the glam-cam occasionally glitches out, as do other aspects of Enemy Unknown's presentation. Along with close-ups of mean mutons beating their chests and thin men looking as if you caught them in the middle of something insidious, you get close-ups of plasma rifles clipping through walls, laser fire shooting through vehicles, and leafy bushes obscuring the entire screen in all their leafiness. A soldier might lean out from behind a wall and bug out, pointing her empty hands in one direction while her still-holstered weapon fires somewhere else. These seem like small considerations, but the game goes out of its way to look cinematic, so the visual problems really stand out.

If Blade Runner is the most cyberpunk movie, then Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the most cyberpunk video game. It has all the hallmarks of the subgenre of sci-fi; megacorporations, hackers, and that particular Philip K. Dick question of the line between human and robot. On the gameplay front, its mix of role-playing game, first-person shooter, and stealth elements created a unique experience that brought players into its engrossing if archetypal world. The story of Adam Jensen and its themes of transhumanism rang true in our increasingly digital world. The visual design does a great job of setting the stage for those tensions. Human Revolution's color palette makes frequent use of gold and black, which results in eye-catching visual contrasts. Take, for example, a nightclub in Shanghai called The Hive. The honeycomb design stretching across its neon yellow exterior is not only striking, but also similar to interface elements associated with augmentations. This kind of thematic and visual consistency is common and makes for a cohesive atmosphere even when trotting across the globe. Human Revolution takes great pains to be believable and immerse you in its world, which makes its technical deficiencies all the more noticeable. The city districts you explore are good sized but not enormous, which makes the extended loading times between them seem drastic. You spend minutes at a time in lengthy conversations, staring at the dated, mechanical facial animations. On the Xbox 360 in particular, the frame rate can take a hit as you pan the camera around--a distraction in any case and a greater annoyance during firefights. On consoles, it feels like developer Eidos Montreal tried to squeeze a bit more out of its graphics engine than it could handle. On the PC, the game performs adequately but still looks slightly dated. But this is a case in which good art design overcomes the technology that renders it. The game is as much about places as it is about people, and it does an excellent job of giving its environments character and grit. The shooting mechanics are fine but not outstanding. The cover system works well, but even with dermal upgrades, you are still fragile enough to feel in danger when you engage the enemy. And ammo is scarce enough (though not frustratingly so) that you'll want to make every shot count. Unfortunately, the none-too-smart AI frequently diminishes that sense of danger. It isn't uncommon for enemies to empty clip after clip shooting at the wall you are hiding behind, refuse to shoot back even when you're pumping bullets into them, or jump en masse into a grenade rather than away from it. Actually, it isn't just enemies that act in unconvincing ways. In many cases, you can tap away at people's computers right in front of them, saunter into a shopkeeper's storeroom to steal credit chips and ammo, and emerge from air ducts right in front of fellow Sarif employees. For what it's worth, the previous Deus Ex games also featured such illusion-breaking details. And like before, those details stand out because the game otherwise works so hard to create a believable cyberpunk world.

STAFF (Profile Emblem) Administrator of the Year ➤ @Ares Global Moderator of the Year ➤ @NANO @#DeXteR Moderator of the Year ➤ @Mark-x PROJECT NOMINATIONS (Profile Emblem + 1500 CSBD Points) GFX Designer of the Year ➤ @W A L K E R ™ GFX Helper of the Year ➤ @βհටටͲհ! Gambler of the Year ➤ @Ntgthegamer Uploader of the Year ➤ @YaKoMoS Overwatcher of the Year ➤ Journalist of the Year ➤ @Mark-x @#DeXteR MANAGERS NOMINATIONS (Profile Emblem + 2000 CSBD Points) Manager CS 1.6 of the Year ➤ @JaEgArN @[MC]Ronin[MC] Manager CS:GO of the Year ➤ SPECIAL GROUPS NOMINATIONS (Profile Emblem+ 2500 CSBD Points) The oldest Ex-Staff ➤ @- hNk Best V.I.P. ➤ TEAMSPEAK 3 NOMINATIONS (Special TS3 Icon + 50.000 TS3 Coins) TS3 Helper of the Year ➤ The most active TS3 user ➤ The user who asked the most for rank ➤ The best TS3 DJ ➤ The most AFK user ➤ SERVERS NOMINATIONS (Special Signature with the server's name) Server of the Year ➤ ThunderZm The most active (32/32) server ➤ThunderZm The best Zombie server ➤ThunderZm The best Classic server ➤ The best Respawn server ➤ MEMBERS NOMINATIONS (2000 CSBD Points) The most active membru CsBlackDevil (+1000 CSBD Points) ➤ @[MC]Ronin[MC] Banned of the year ➤ Loser of the year ➤ The member who dreams about ranks ➤ Spammer of the Year ➤ The most social member ➤ The most beautiful member ➤ The most appreciated member ➤ The most annoying member ➤ The most beloved member ➤ The richest member ➤ The member who helped the most ➤ The member with the best topics/posts ➤ The friendliest member ➤ @JaEgArN @[MC]Ronin[MC] @Mark-x @Ares

Cruel, disciplined and dedicated to creating a flawless katana fighting form, Kazan is a twisted samurai with misplaced values whose insecurities fuel his insatiable need to hunt down and humiliate farmers posing as samurai. Trained by his father, a legendary samurai, Kazan sought to surpass his reputation as a warrior by embarking on a dark, warrior pilgrimage. His morbid cruelty, insatiable bloodlust and his heartless rage earned him the name ‘Oni-Yamaoka’ and attracted the attention of The Entity that fed into his narcissism and stoked his insecurities.One night, after butchering a beloved lord, the entire town turned against him with farming tools repurposed as weapons. Before long the farmers trapped Kazan in an old mill, took turns torturing him, then left him to die a slow, agonizing death. When they returned his body and kanabo were nowhere to be found. The desire to destroy weaker bloodlines shaped into a literal force. Absorb Blood Orbs left by your injured foes. When your power gauge is full, press and hold the Power button to initiate Blood Fury.While Blood Fury is active, The Oni becomes lethal and gains access to additional abilities: Demon Dash and Demon Strike.SPECIAL ABILITY: Demon Dash Press and hold the Active Ability button while Blood Fury is active, to perform a Demon Dash. This ability allows The Oni to cover large distances rapidly.SPECIAL ATTACK: Demon Strike Press and hold the Attack button while Blood Fury is active, to perform a Demon Strike. Demon Strike has an extended range and immediately puts any successfully hit Survivors into the dying state. NEW MAP SANCTUM OF WRATH Once opulent and well-tended by priests, the shrine was abandoned for reasons unknown. Season after season, the harsh and unforgiving weather corroded its grandeur. Paths that welcomed weary travelers, were now thick with vegetation growing damp and unrestrained. The sculptures were a haven for moss and lichen, concealing a scratched and brittle stone.Kazan shuddered with rage as he stepped into the area. Unable to restrain himself, he unleashed his might on a statue atop the shrine, clubbing its arms and head to pieces. Even after he left, a rot seemed to pervade the air. The chimes of bells played softly on the wind, as everything around them crumbled. Torn from Kazan's memories, the shrine now stood on the estate of his childhood home—a trick by The Entity that infuriated him more.

Gathering mushrooms. Mining ore. Fishing. Slaying giant dragons made of rock. Whether or not this sounds familiar depends heavily on your experience with the Monster Hunter series thus far. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is an HD port of 2010's excellent Monster Hunter Tri, which refines that game's structure, and adds a bunch of new content and a far more robust online component. Thwacking huge beasts with a greatsworindeed the ultimate Monster Hunter experience.d or picking them off from afar with a bow has never been so entertaining, satisfying, and, thankfully, accessible. Throw in a stream of free downloadable content, and Ultimate is indeed the ultimate Monster Hunter experience. A wyvern patrols, wonderfully animated, tossing its head back and forth as it snaps lazily at a nearby herd of grazing aptanoth. You sneak up, weapon sheathed, waiting for the right time to strike. Suddenly, the hulking beast turns. It notices you. Quickly, you draw your blade as the beast charges. You roll, but not quickly enough. A blow catches you, sending you flying to one side as your sidekick, Cha-Cha, screams in alarm. Quick as a flash, you Spring to your feet, up and into the fray, taking a swing that connects satisfyingly with the creature's head. It roars, stamps its feet, and charges again. The vast scope of weapon types and armor provides plenty of content, as well. Mastering one single weapon feels like a game in itself, and the difference between using, say, greatswords or dual blades results in a huge variety in how you approach combat. The larger melee weapons require careful planning; they're heavy, slower to attack, and require you to keep a close eye on your opponent and look for an opening. Faster weapons let you rush in, chipping away at a beast, but doing less damage. It's all about finding a weapon type that suits your style of play, and eventually mastering each one so that you have the skills best suited to each monster. And of course, as well as a number of melee weapons, there's a bunch of different ranged weapons to master as well. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate isn't an entirely new game. Players who sank hundreds of hours into Tri are going to find the majority of the content familiar, but given the nature of Monster Hunter, this isn't necessarily a problem. You make progress fast, so tackling the same beasts you've already fought in the same locations a few years ago isn't really a deterrent, and the extra quests, maps, collectibles and better online functionality more than compensate for any familiar moments. It's easily the best Monster Hunter game so far, and while it would be nice to see a console sequel with more up-to-date visuals and all-new locations, Ultimate is an great entry into the Wii U catalog.

Cricket Revolution Game is a Cricket, Indie, Simulation, Sports video game for Xbox 360 Microsoft Windows, MacOS, Pocket Pc. This game developed and published by Mindstorm Studios. This game was Release On 29 Oct 2009. This Post specially made for computer download, go to footer download link and Download to your Pc. We provide a Cricket Revolution Game with an account of Google Drive without ads, direct link, and fully compressed game. Cricket Revolution PC Game is interesting cricket gameplay developed and published by Mindstorm Studios. This is a unique and challenging game on its own where cricket lovers can experience a revolutionary game which includes batting, bowling, and fielding. This can be played both as single player and multiplayer, a single player can enjoy this game with system users. Whereas a multiplayer can organize tournaments, matches and much more by an opponent as his friends. A comprehensive score tracking system is available where the person can track the statistics and performance of the match. Graphics of in Cricket Revolution PC Game are really impressive. Where the player can choose the shot selection and hit the ball by proper action and angle. The player can experience a powerful bowling attack as well he can do balling while the other team does batting. Balling with all action and power makes it more enjoyable. With beautiful AI techniques, they can get proper prizes and awards. The player can also customize the team, country, players, their faces, skills and much more with fully dynamic and customizable gameplay. The player can also see different expressions on the faces of character, different voices of each character which make the game more interesting. You Can Also Download Cricket Captain 2018 Game

The dichotomy of beauty and violence has always been a driving theme in The Witcher series. The Northern Realms' gorgeous vistas are dotted with war-torn battlefields, kindness--no matter how fleeting it may be--is often juxtaposed with savagery, and even the warmest characters have a cold and calculated side to them. That neverending tug-of-war is ever-present in The Witcher 3, even when its stripped-down visuals may obscure some of that beauty. Everything is here in the Nintendo Switch version--The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, its two expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, and all of its DLC. The main game alone offers dozens of superb quests filled with interesting characters, fantastic twists, and rewarding combat encounters. As Kevin VanOrd said in GameSpot's original review, "Excellence abounds at every turn in this open-world role-playing game." The same is mostly true for the Nintendo Switch version. As you'd expect, the visuals have been pared down significantly. The textures are muddied, the draw-distances are reined in, and the resolution has taken a hit. These issues are exacerbated during docked play. While it technically runs at a higher frame rate and resolution docked, these visual issues are all the more noticeable when projected onto a larger screen. The standard Nintendo Switch's 6.2-inch screen does a great job of hiding the blemishes. Even though it's running at a lower resolution, the smaller screen gives it a much crisper look, so the poor textures and pop-in are less apparent. If you do plan on playing it in handheld mode, you can, thankfully, adjust the size of the HUD to make things easier to read. The vast web of decisions and consequences is just as impressive as it was in 2015. While it may not be apparent on your first playthrough, your actions--both big and small--can have serious repercussions, even if you were trying to do the right thing. What's more impressive is how well fleshed-out each of these paths are and how they ebb and flow through main quests and side quests. While many outcomes are bittersweet by design, none feel underdeveloped.Where The Witcher 3 continues to shine is in its many deeply human stories. While the political aspects of the main story give context to the world and the characters that inhabit it, it's the interactions Geralt has with its denizens that gives weight to the experience. There are no good guys or bad guys. There are just people fighting to find hope in an oppressive world. Many of the quests provoke questions like: Would you hurt others for those you love? Can even the most vile of men be forgiven? How far can fear drive someone? The superb storytelling continues in the game's two expansions. Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. While not necessary to the main narrative, these two expansions are thoughtful addendums to Geralt's story. Blood and Wine in particular is a heartfelt send-off for the storied series. If you're jumping back into the game and just want to experience these, you can skip to them right when you load it up for the first time.Although the Nintendo Switch might not be the best platform to play The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, it's still a fantastic experience that shouldn't be missed. If you are looking to replay The Witcher 3 and bask in its detail and beauty, the Switch port may not quite scratch that itch. However, what makes this game excellent isn't its graphics, but the powerful stories it tells, and those are as vivid as ever on Switch.

First-time RTS developer Daedelic Entertainment, best known for its point-and-click adventure games, has set itself a bit of a challenge with A Year of Rain. It's a co-op RTS where players control hero-led armies across a campaign and skirmishes, and it's already gunning for a slice of the esports pie. Three factions are fighting over a pretty miserable-looking realm, clashing in battles that promise to mix traditional RTS shenanigans like gathering resources, building and upgrading a base, and recruiting an army with a focus on legendary heroes and teamwork. It will be "esports-ready" at launch, says Daedelic, with a league system, leaderboards, competitive seasons, replays and an observer mode. A 2v2 skirmish mode is being designed specifically for competitive matches, too. Games designed with esports in mind are often the least successful when it comes to their focus, and RTS games continue to be largely played for their singleplayer campaigns. Even StarCraft 2, the most po[CENSORED]r RTS for almost a decade, relies on its exceptional trio of solo campaigns. A multiplayer-focused esports RTS, then, seems like quite a risk, especially when it's the studio's very first game in the genre. A Year of Rain's co-op campaign can be played solo, however, so it's not entirely dependent on you finding some mates or randos to play with. Every mission is designed for two players, but Player 2 doesn't need to be human. The AI can take control of the second hero, though hopefully we'll still have some way to give orders and work together. As well as the campaign and the 2v2 skirmish, there's also an asymmetric co-op mode, with two heroes taking on two whole armies, full of units and buildings. I assume the heroes will get a bit of a buff to take on this particular challenge. They each come with unique, powerful abilities and skills both magical and martial in all the modes. I'm cautiously intrigued! I'm staunchly solo when it comes to all but a few strategy games, but I do love the occasional co-op comp stomp, which this promises to have in spades. We've got a dearth of good RTS games, and I've got a big itch that needs scratching. Keep an eye out for A Year of Rain's Early Access launch this year. In the meantime, there's a Steam page with more details.