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Welcome to Autocar’s extended coverage of the Tokyo motor show, one of Japan’s biggest automotive events and the first chance to see many of the cars Japanese manufacturers will be bringing to Europe in the next few years. The 46th edition of the biennial show has opened its doors and one of this year's big themes is electrification. Most of the production and concept cars scheduled to break cover during the event will incorporate some degree of electrification, whether it's mild hybrid technology or a battery-powered drivetrain. Autocar is on the ground in Tokyo to bring you full coverage of the opening press day. Tokyo motor show live blog 12:00 GMT Wednesday 23 October The convention centre has emptied after a busy first day, but there's still plenty of Tokyo motor show news to digest for those of you not running on Japanese time. Subaru was among the last manufacturers to reveal a new model, unveiling the Levorg prototype as a 'grand touring' estate car that uses the company's global platform and a newly-developed 1.8-litre turbocharged petrol engine. Nissan was primarily focused on its new concepts at this year's show, but product planning boss Ivan Espinosa still had some words for fans of the brand's Z car line-up. Although he didn't share specifics, we can apparently "expect something soon" on replacements for both the 370Z and GT-R. Yamaha, meanwhile, ruled out further developments with its car programme, instead choosing to focus its efforts elsewhere. Toyota was hoping to make self-driving cars fun with its e-racer concept, a two-seater that could be experienced on a race track at Toyota's stand - albeit in virtual reality. 11:00 GMT Wednesday 23 October Don't get your hopes up about the gas turbine range extender technology Mitsubishi has today revealed ever making it into production. Engineering boss Hiroshi Nagoka said that the technology had only been in development at Mitsubishi for a short time, and it was a long way from proving itself in areas including heat management and control, and suitable materials for durability. That said, it is now the subject of an "advanced development" programme. "Love this old-school approach," says Rachel Burgess: a journalist note-taking on a clipboard at the Alpine press conference. All the better for the amazing neatness of the Japanese language. Could kei cars provide the answer to the death of the city car in Europe? Perhaps, says Mitsubishi's Hiroshi Nagoka. However, while the cars could be engineered to meet the stricter safety and emissions, doing so would reduce the wafer-thin margins on the cars even more, making it a complete non starter. 10:30 GMT Wednesday 23 October An unusual sight for a press conference of a Japanese car company: a female executive on stage. Takeuchi-san is the project manager for the new MX-30 and also happens to be one of the best test drivers at Mazda, an insider tells me. Takeuchi-san remained coy on the firm's broader EV strategy, saying: "The first thing for us to do is to deliver the MX-30 to Europe." We do, however, know that all Mazda models will have an electrified variant by 2030. That's later than plenty of its rivals, but Mazda is going against the grain by continuing to develop petrol and diesel engines alongside electrification. Only last week, the European R&D boss told me that a next-generation diesel powertrain will launch next year.

A US drug company says it has created the first therapy that could slow Alzheimer's disease, and it is now ready to bring it to market. Currently, there are no drugs that can do this - existing ones only help with symptoms. Biogen says it will soon seek regulatory approval in the US for the "groundbreaking" drug, called aducanumab. It plans to file the paperwork in early 2020 and has its sights on Europe too. Approval processes could take a year or two. If successful, the company aims to initially offer the drug to patients previously enrolled in clinical studies of the drug. The announcement is somewhat surprising because the company had discontinued work on the drug in March 2019, after disappointing trial results. But the company says a new analysis of a larger dataset of the same studies shows that higher doses of aducanumab can provide a significant benefit to patients with early Alzheimer's, slowing their clinical decline so they preserve more of their memory and every day living skills - things that the disease usually robs. Big hope Aducanumab targets a protein called amyloid that forms abnormal deposits the brains of people with Alzheimer's. Scientists think these plaques are toxic to brain cells and that clearing them using drugs would be a massive advance in dementia treatment, although not a cure. There haven't been any new dementia drugs in over a decade. Dementia: The greatest health challenge of our time New type of dementia identified Biogen's chief executive Michel Vounatsos said: "We are hopeful about the prospect of offering patients the first therapy to reduce the clinical decline of Alzheimer's disease." Hilary Evans from Alzheimer's Research UK said: "People affected by Alzheimer's have waited a long time for a life-changing new treatment and this exciting announcement offers new hope that one could be in sight. "Taking another look at aducanumab is a positive step for all those who took part in the clinical trials and the worldwide dementia research community. As more data emerges, we hope it will spark global discussions about the next steps for delivering much-needed treatments into people's hands." Prof Bart De Strooper, Director of the UK Dementia Research Institute at University College London, said: "It is fantastic to hear of these new positive results emerging from the aducanumab trials. We currently have no effective treatments to slow or halt the progression of Alzheimer's disease and I hope this signifies a turning point." What is Alzheimer's? Dementia is not a single disease, but is the name for a group of symptoms that include problems with memory and thinking. There are lots of different types of dementia and Alzheimer's is said to be the most common and most researched. There are currently 850,000 people with dementia in the UK. It's been a long and tortuous journey to find new drugs for the disease and recent attempts have ended in failure. Experts hope a treatment is in sight, but they are cautious and will need to closely scrutinise these aducanumab trial findings. Related Topics

The bodies of 39 people have been found in a lorry container in Essex. The vehicle was found shortly before 01:40 BST at Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays, police said. Essex Police said the trailer has been moved to a secure location where the bodies of those inside - a teenager and 38 adults - can be recovered. The driver, named locally as Mo Robinson, 25, from Portadown, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Essex Police said the trailer arrived via ferry from Zeebrugge, Belgium, into Purfleet on the River Thames. The ship docked in the Thurrock area shortly after 00:30, the force said. It is believed the container and lorry then left the port together about 35 minutes later. Deputy Chief Constable Pippa Mills said identifying the victims remained a "number one priority", but was expected to be a "lengthy process". The National Crime Agency said it had sent officers to assist and identify any "organised crime groups who may have played a part". Essex lorry deaths: Latest updates Why do people risk their lives to get to the UK? Richard Burnett, chief executive of the Road Haulage Association, said the container appeared to be a refrigerated unit, where temperatures could be as low as -25C. He described conditions for anyone inside as "absolutely horrendous". A spokesman for the Bulgarian foreign affairs ministry confirmed the truck was registered in the country. "The Scania truck was registered in Varna (on the east coast) under the name of a company owned by an Irish citizen," he said. "Police said that it is highly unlikely that they are Bulgarians," he added. Police have appealed for witnesses and anyone with information about the lorry's route to contact them. The force said it believed the tractor unit - or front part - of the lorry had come from Northern Ireland. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was an "unimaginable tragedy and truly heartbreaking". Speaking at Prime Minister's Questions, he said: "I know that the thoughts and prayers of all members will be with those who lost their lives and their loved ones. "I'm receiving regular updates. The Home Office will work closely with Essex Police as we establish exactly what has happened." 'Contempt for life' Home Secretary Priti Patel said she was "shocked and saddened", while Thurrock MP Jackie Doyle-Price said it was "sickening news". During PMQs, Ms Doyle-Price said: "To put 39 people into a locked metal container shows a contempt for human life that is evil. The best thing we can do in memory of those victims is to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice." Mr Johnson responded saying "all such traders in human beings should be hunted down and brought to justice".

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INFORMATION Judgment: Apocalypse Survival Simulation is a colony simulation game with tactical combat and survival elements, developed by the Israeli indie company Suncrash.[1] The game was initially released as alpha software on Steam Early Access on April 11, 2016, for Microsoft Windows.[2] In Judgment: Apocalypse Survival Simulation the player controls a colony of survivors in an ongoing Apocalypse. After surviving an encounter with a demon, three survivors build a base in an isolated valley in order to resist the invasion and survive. GAMEPLAY Judgment: Apocalypse Survival Simulation puts the player in control of a group of survivors with the ultimate goal to stop an ongoing Apocalypse. First, survivors need to eat, drink and sleep, and for that they build a sustainable base and defend it against demon attacks. The economy of the base is one of the most important parts of the game: survivors have to farm, mine, plant or scavenge different basic resources – and use them to build facilities, craft equipment, and research for technologies and magic. Survivors have different professions, making them more efficient in some tasks than others; they can also gain experience and level up to improve their skills. There are also different random events that serve as a sort of side missions, such as having to gather some resources in order to perform a ritual to remove a curse. In the end, victory can only be achieved by researching for a way to close the Hellgate that the demons are using to enter the world. Apart from the colony management and economy simulation mechanics, Judgment: Apocalypse Survival Simulation features tactical combat, both going to combat missions to the outside world and defending the base against demon attacks. In the combat missions, the player sends a group of survivors to different locations in a randomly generated world map. The group of survivors can be equipped with melee and ranged weapons, armors and other items (such as Molotov cocktail or spells). In all the combat missions, the squad faces different types of demons, each with different combat styles, weaknesses, and strengths. Combat missions can be won by achieving their goals (for instance, rescuing a trapped survivor) or killing all enemies in the map. As is common in survival games, death is permanent. If all the survivors in a mission party die, the mission is lost. Conception and design Judgment: Apocalypse Survival Simulation is being developed by Suncrash, an Israeli-based independent video game developer. Their core team worked in different fields before founding Suncrash; Judgment is the studio’s first game. Suncrash quote the X-COM franchise (original and new) as one of the main inspirations for the game along with Rimworld. Its final release date is still to be announced. Releases and updates Judgment’s first public alpha version (alpha 5) was released on April 11, 2016 on Steam Early Access. Since then Suncrash has released 6 major updates for the game, featuring new game mechanics such as character professions and new combat missions. Reception Judgment: Apocalypse Survival Simulation has received generally favorable reviews so far, praising its "exciting blend of gameplay" between "turn based strategy, role-playing and resource management". Critics have appraised its base management mechanics as "well thought-out", stating that "this aspect alone more than makes up for any shortcomings". Its setting has also been lauded as "interesting and original". There are mixed opinions on its art style; while some talk about the game retaining "an indie charm while also appearing very polished" and it having "a fair amount of detail", others were unconvinced by its art style or said that it won't "blow you away initially". TRAILER

INFORMATION Mafia II is an open world action-adventure video game developed by 2K Czech and published by 2K Games. It was released in August 2010 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows;[1][2] Mafia II: Director's Cut was released by Feral Interactive in December 2011.[3] The game is the sequel to 2002's Mafia[4] and the second game in the Mafia series. Set within the fictional Empire Bay (based on New York City), the story follows a gangster and his efforts to climb through the ranks of the Mafia crime families. The game is played from a third-person perspective and its world is navigated on-foot or by vehicle. Players control Vito Scaletta, a war veteran who becomes caught up with the Mafia when trying to pay back his father's debts. The player character's criminal activities may incite a response from law enforcement agencies, measured by a "wanted" system that governs the aggression of their response. Development began in 2003, soon after the release of the first Mafia game. At release, Mafia II received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise particularly directed at the story, though the linear open world design was criticized. GAMEPLAY Vito Scaletta, Mafia II's conflicted leading man, does not lead an easy life. War, murder, and betrayal are common themes in his complex existence--the prices paid for booze, money, status, and sex. Like most aspiring made men, Vito knows the risks of his lifestyle, but the lure of earthly pleasures is too great to ignore. Mafia II, the game he stars in, is also an earthly pleasure, as well as a cerebral delight that any fan of great storytelling will revel in. The twisting narrative is almost certain to draw you in, and superb dialogue spoken by a talented voice cast brings the characters they portray to life. It's easy to get engrossed in this world of tenuous allegiances and pompous personalities, though there are a few oddities scattered about that may occasionally yank you back to reality. Most notably, Mafia II's detailed open city is curiously underutilized, giving you few reasons to explore it and providing precious little to do outside of the main story. Yet while Mafia II is not the fully featured open-world game it seems to be at a glance, the tremendous story, the fantastic action, and the lovely city overflowing with striking visual touches make for an exciting mob drama. The story kicks off in 1945, and you meet Vito Scaletta, the son of Italian immigrants who, along with his smart-mouthed best friend Joe, seeks out the fastest ticket to a big fortune. The duo starts small: a jewelry store heist, black-market sales of gas coupons, working over some uncooperative dockworkers, and so on. Eventually, the stakes are raised, and Vito and Joe prove they've got the guts to whack a guy just because a mafioso with the moola tells them to. Vito's occasionally stoic, occasionally fiery demeanor makes him an excellent leading man. He and his cohorts are not Italian caricatures, but are thoughtful and (yes) moral men who adhere to principles that may seem barbaric to most people but provide a strict ethical framework within "the family." Mafia II never holds back when depicting this world's everyday violence. Whether the murder is a cold-blooded, no-questions-asked assignment or a vicious execution driven by Vito's seething rage, the killing is typically accompanied by copious spurts of blood and profane deathbed curses. Vito and Joe are showered with hedonistic rewards--alcohol, women, even houses--and never delude themselves with a greater purpose. At one point, Vito reminds Joe why they do what they do: to have stuff. And you have to appreciate his honesty. But of course, a life of crime has consequences, and a few plot twists ensure that Vito is intimately aware of them. Allegiances change, underhanded intentions are exposed, and eventually, the macho duo find themselves in over their heads. Vito asks his associate Henry if he has ever considered getting out of the business, and Henry responds that this life is a part of who he is. This excellent dialogue expresses Vito's dilemma in a nutshell; his moral compass demands he rise above his reckless behavior before it's too late to turn back, yet mob life is increasingly irresistible. Every line of dialogue sounds authentic while still always driving story and character, and there are even subtle and satisfying winks to the audience. (Joe's remark about how Vito's diet must help him heal so quickly is one such delightful reference.) The pressure builds in the final chapter, only for a somewhat unfulfilling conclusion to turn down the heat. The ending is thematically consistent in a game that depicts a difficult lifestyle that comes with cruel consequences. Yet too many story threads and emotional strands go unresolved for the finale to feel particularly satisfying. Empire City plays a supporting role in Mafia II, rather than taking center stage. That isn't to say it isn't a beautiful place to roam, however. The game's initial chapters take place in the winter of 1945, when the streets are coated with snow, and ladies in overcoats stroll with gentlemen sporting fedoras and chain-smoking cigarettes. This first act seems as if it were lifted from a Norman Rockwell painting and represents an idealistic wartime America. The radio spouts gasoline conservation propaganda declaring that "when you ride alone, you ride with Hitler," while black-market ration coupons provide organized crime syndicates yet another source of income. As you drive a variety of old-timey vehicles about the town, it's hard not to notice all sorts of pitch-perfect visual details--the couple struggling to get their dead car started, the way the snow that accumulated on your vehicle's trunk slips away in the wind, the lamps hanging above the street in Chinatown. It's a United States as imagined through old Life magazine photos: a memory you don't have, but one that you wish you did. The clock eventually ticks forward to 1951, and the visual touches transform but are no less impressive. Pink flamingos now bedazzle your pal Joe's apartment, and the bulbous vehicles get a little more streamlined. The radio announcers aren't concerned with carpooling but rather with recent scientific studies suggesting that smoking might be hazardous to your health. The music you hear on car radios changes as well, from Frank Loesser standards to hits from The Monotones and Rusty Draper. The music is evocative, but much of it is anachronistic; many of the tunes you hear didn't exist until six or seven years after the time period portrayed in the game, which is an odd blemish in a game so concerned with meticulous period detail. But Mafia II nevertheless layers on the fine points. Rain showers cast a gloomy pall over the later, more violent missions. Screeching to a halt in a speeding convertible produces a cloud of dark smoke. The creaking of bedsprings betrays a nearby couple's intimacy. There are some minor differences here and there, but the game looks and sounds fantastic regardless of which version you buy. If you aren't driving to and fro, you may instead be loading some crates, selling contraband smokes, cleaning a men's room urinal, or mopping up a puddle. The story offers good reasons for these tasks, but they're as thrilling as they sound. Yet while some undertakings might have you longing for Mafia II to deliver more action, the context granted by the story gives some of these mundane jobs an intriguing sense of urgency. A drive to the doctor's house may not seem all that interesting, but it is when you believe someone's life is on the line. Cleaning a window with a squeegee isn't all that electrifying, but it feels a lot more tense when you know an explosive turn of events is imminent. A few car chases with Joe hanging out the window taking shots at your target help speed up the pace. You might run into some weird annoyances during these vehicle-focused sections, however; the cops could arrest the driver you're discreetly following if he collides with a police car, for example, which ends the mission through no fault of your own. Mafia II is an excellent return of a franchise with great promise. Vito and his associates are memorable characters in a city bursting with subtle visual details and violent undertones. The story pulls no punches, neither glorifying nor demeaning the difficult lives its protagonists lead--just presenting them with brutal honesty and letting you reach your own conclusions. After the 15-or-so hours it might take you to gun through Vito's story, it's hard not to come away with the sense that there should have been more to do in this beautiful city. Yet while you might be disappointed with what Mafia II doesn't do, it's hard to be disappointed by what this excellent game does do: deliver fun shoot-outs and pockets of shocking brutality in a world you're delighted to be a part of. TRAILER

INFO Rising Storm 2: Vietnam is a tactical first-person shooter video game developed by Antimatter Games and Tripwire Interactive and is co-published by Tripwire Interactive and Iceberg Interactive. It is a direct sequel to 2013's Rising Storm and is set during the Vietnam War, placing emphasis on asymmetric gameplay. The game was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows through digital distribution platform Steam on May 30, 2017. GAMEPLAY Like its predecessors in the series, Rising Storm 2: Vietnam is a tactical first-person shooter that emphasizes large-scale teamwork with realistic mechanics and combat. The game is set in the period of the Vietnam War conflict and many of the locations are based on historic battles. Players can make use of era-specific weapons, including automatic and semi-automatic rifles, artillery, flamethrowers and machine guns. For the first time in the franchise, players are able to take control of airborne vehicles, including attack, reconnaissance and transport helicopters. Weapon and character customization mark their debuts in Rising Storm 2: Vietnam, allowing a wide array of weapon and munition varieties and a large amount of head, upper and lower body and skin customization. A retooled squad system allows a player to create and customize a squad. Rewards towards working closer with your squad are meant to ensure better team cohesion. Multiplayer maps are larger than before and have a greater vertical dynamic. The maps are based on real locations in Vietnam during the war and come in three themes; jungle, rural and urban. The game launched with eight maps and three modes, which include Territories, Supremacy and Skirmish. Rising Storm 2: Vietnam's multiplayer pits up to 64 players against one another from either the South or the North in the Vietnam War conflict. Each faction features unique abilities and options to reflect upon the asymmetrical nature of the game. Players can choose between the National Liberation Front (NLF/VC) and the North Vietnamese Army (PAVN/NVA), against the United States Army, United States Marine Corps the Australian Army and the ARVN. Multiplayer modes At launch, Rising Storm 2: Vietnam offers the franchise's classic Territories mode, as well as two new modes; Territories: One of the standard two-round game modes in the series. In order to win, the attacking team must capture all of the objectives on the map before the round ends. The defenders win a round if they can hold on to their besieged objectives long enough to break the assault and successfully enter lockdown. Additionally, one or both teams can enter sudden death if their reinforcement tickets have been depleted which disables respawning. The last team standing wins. A team can win the game by tie breaker if they have a higher overall score. Supremacy: A new mode featured in the franchise. Teams capture objectives across the map, earning points based on the number of objectives they hold. A team wins the game if they achieve a greater score. Sudden death and tie breaker are also applied. Skirmish: A different take on Supremacy with up to five rounds and featuring smaller maps for official 8 versus 8 player teams. Players must seize all objectives on the map and deplete the enemy's spawn tickets within the timer. Taking over an objective will replenish spawns. Classes Rising Storm 2: Vietnam's multiplayer offers a total of thirteen classes known as Roles. The majority of these have essentially similar purposes for both the Northern and Southern sides but may vary in name and loadout. All Roles come equipped with handguns with the exceptions being the Grunt/Rifleman/Guerilla, Combat Engineer/Sapper, Radiomen and RPG troops. However, this can be negated if the player is additionally a Squad Leader. Pilots are exclusive to the South. Grunt: The basic infantry class, they come equipped with assault rifles, battle rifles, bolt-action rifles and hand grenades and are the mainstay of any faction, allowing themselves to be flexible and versatile. It is the only role without a player limit that can be simultaneously occupied by an entire team. The PAVN and NLF variants are called Rifleman and Guerilla respectively and carry a single punji trap kit. Pointman: Acting as a team's frontal assault unit, their main task is to provide advancing cover and to spot and disarm enemy traps. They come equipped with smoke grenades, shotguns and submachine guns. More experienced players can use the Pointman as an infiltrator to root out enemy tunnels and ambush squads using Claymore mines. The NLF and PAVN variant is called the Scout and carries tripwire kits instead of Claymore mines. Machine Gunner: This infantry support class makes use of light and general-purpose machine guns and hand grenades. They use their heavy weaponry to provide the team with a barrage of bullets. Other Roles can resupply the Machine Gunner with ammunition if needed. Machine Gunners need to be mindful of their weapon as excessive fire may overheat them. Marksman: The quintessential sniper uses semi-automatic and bolt action sniper rifles to take out crucial targets. This class excels at long range engagements and is used most effectively if the player stays on the move. Also known as the Sniper for the PAVN and NLF factions, they can fortify their positions with the use of tripwires whereas the Southern Marksman can use Claymore mines. Users were able to pre-purchase the Digital Deluxe edition of the game from April 27 to May 30, 2017. The Digital Deluxe comes with two exclusive camouflage boonie hats and the official soundtrack. On September 2, 2017 Tripwire announced that a DLC adding Australian forces was in the works, with an anticipated release date at the end of the year. On November 27, 2017 The "Pulling Rank" Cosmetic DLC was added to the game, Adding new cosmetic items only available to purchasers, and an early unlock. Two new uniforms, 2 hats and 1 facial decoration were added. TRAILER

Name Game: Arma 3 Price: 29.99 to 10.19 The Discount Rate: 66% Link Store: Steam Offer Ends Up After : IDK

INFO The Flame in the Flood is a roguelike survival adventure video game developed by The Molasses Flood. The game was developed for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Xbox One. A PlayStation 4 version was released on January 17, 2017. A Nintendo Switch version was released on October 12, 2017. GAMEPLAY Survival games challenge you to gain control of treacherous worlds. You typically start with very little, and need to scavenge for supplies and resources in order to craft the tools needed to help you avoid death. Success usually means having enough power to establish yourself in a higher place on the food chain, or hunkering down and building a fortified space strong enough to keep the rest of the food chain out. The Flame in the Flood doesn’t allow you to achieve either of those goals and is a consistently gripping experience as a result. Set in a rural post-societal America, The Flame in the Flood is a procedurally-generated survival game that focuses on constant movement and improvisation. The entirety of the game’s world consists of a large, overflowing river that has engulfed the countryside, destroyed man-made infrastructure, and isolated parts of the geography, turning them into islands. The Flame in the Flood’s audiovisual presentation is integral to establishing its strong sense of place. The art direction invokes the aesthetic of a gothic storybook. The atmospheric sound design is ever-present. The rush of the flowing river is refreshing, and the heaviness of the thunderstorms is frightening. The musical score is an excellent array of Americana, ranging from mournful blues harmonica, cheerful acoustic guitar fingerpicking, wistful mandolins, and rough alt-country vocals. Together, they give The Flame in the Flood an aura of both despair and quiet beauty. Your protagonists are a seemingly immortal dog and a survivor whose main concerns are keeping her hunger, thirst, body temperature, exhaustion, and any major injuries under control. Because the survivor can die from neglecting any of these concerns, players must keep them at bay by either scavenging or by crafting a variety of items using resources obtained from the land. But because of the game’s narrative conceit, you’re only able to scavenge on small islands with severely limited offerings. Finding the right components to create items you need often means exploring multiple islands as you traverse the river on your makeshift raft. There are two major constraints that make this task both interesting and difficult. The protagonist can initially carry only a dozen items in her backpack, and you’ll only be able to dock at one or two islands in a cluster of many before the current pulls you further downriver. This design is frustrating at first--the impulse to grab every item and explore every area will cause you to waste far too much time and energy rearranging your backpack and paddling against the current. But once you embrace the idea of “going with the flow” so to speak, The Flame in the Flood becomes an engaging exercise of short-term prioritization and impulsive decision-making. Though it will take a number of failures to understand the ecosystem, learning which items are universally useful and avoiding long-term hoarding are the key to staying alive. For example, keeping uncommon fire-starting materials in order to have a method of staying warm, dry, and being able to build a safe place to sleep is more vital than hoarding food--food eventually spoils, and edible flora is common enough in certain ecosystems to snack on as you come across it. Working out your priorities and having the courage to leave valuable things behind is a stimulating challenge. The Flame in the Flood keeps you on your back foot at all times. This feels like true survival. Unfortunately, the user interface can prove to be a source of frustration. Essential tasks, like sorting your inventory and getting a broad idea of your current crafting options feel unnecessarily taxing because of the number of steps required. All pertinent information is kept within multiple subcategories accessed from a single screen. Inventory management and crafting existing in separate subcategories, and the recipes for different kinds of craftable items are separated into subcategories under that. Finding out what components are missing for a particular tool can be tedious because of the need to flip between menus and scroll through multiple entries to reach the information. Even after hours of play, I was still wrestling with the menu system, especially when using a controller. In fact, I began switching to mouse and keyboard exclusively for menus to make navigation a little easier. But switching to mouse and keyboard is not something I want to do because movement, especially piloting your raft, is far more precise and satisfying with a controller. Travelling to new locations via raft requires deft avoidance of rock formations, remnants of human infrastructure and floating debris. Lightly flowing waters regularly turn into violent rapids, which are as treacherous as they are fun to navigate--impacts are devastating on both your raft’s integrity and your own vitals. Using the last of your stamina bar to push your raft just shy of a large, jagged outcrop is consistently thrilling, and when things quiet down, gently steering your raft through the remains of drowned towns at sunset while a haunting lap-steel melody plays is a sublime experience. The Flame in the Flood encourages you to put long-term goals aside and live in the moment, to make choices and overcome short-term problems with risky but satisfying spontaneity. Despite the awkward menu system, it’s an absorbing game that lets you experience a journey in the present, and fully appreciate the sights, sounds, and joys of floating down the river in its alluring world. Update: The Flame In The Flood’s arrival on Nintendo Switch as a “Complete Edition” comes with the mechanical refinements and feature upgrades that have been added since the game’s initial release. These include quality-of-life tweaks to crafting, an insightful developer’s commentary, and more importantly, an alternate dog companion to choose from. While the visual fidelity noticeably lower on the Switch and there are some minor hiccups in performance that aren’t present on other platforms, The Flame In The Flood still remains a unique and absorbing survival game. We have updated the score to reflect our experience with the Switch version. - Edmond Tran, Fri. October 13, 2017, 9:00 AM AEST TRAILER

INFO Gris is an indie platform-adventure game by Spanish indie developer Nomada Studio and published by Devolver Digital for Nintendo Switch, macOS and Microsoft Windows. The game was released on 13 December 2018, with an iOS port following on 21 August 2019 GAMEPLAY Painting Gris as a beautiful adventure is almost too obvious. Even amid the crumbling ruins that hint at better days, every element of this platformer emphasizes its undeniable loveliness. From the wide-angle shots and the ethereal music to the delicate way in which you glide gracefully to a far-off platform, Gris is enrapturing in ways that make it hard to walk away from. Though it takes a mere four hours to reach the ending credits, the time spent with Gris is so captivating that it would have felt greedy to stay with it any longer. In Gris, a young woman finds herself alone in a desolate world. Ruined buildings and broken pillars dominate the landscape, remnants from a lost civilization. Without saying a word, the woman exudes loneliness, moving forward only to fulfill the aching sense of longing that is now her only companion. The feeling of loss is palpable. You wander through a palace that could tumble with one strong gust of wind. Cracked statues lay before you, all of women. Some stand in poses of power, others of thoughtfulness, but all are only relics of what used to be. Savor the sight because the statues, the buildings, the pillars could all be turned to dust when you return. Your goal is to obtain fragments of light that complete constellations, allowing you to reach other areas. But the dreamy flow through locations is so subtle that it rarely feels as if you’re completing specific tasks. Rather, you guide the young woman down slopes, across balconies, and through ruins because the call to see what wonders await is impossible to resist. For much of the game, I felt lost as I glided across the serene landscapes, unaware of where I was going but curious to see what lay just outside of my vision. Being lost in Gris is different from other games, though. Whenever I wondered if I was going in the right direction, I wandered into a new location just as beautiful as where I had been, and I set off to wherever it felt like I was being led. As I drifted through Gris’ world, I collected the odd light fragment, but it never felt like the point of my movement--I just wanted to see where the path led me, and I solved puzzles to reach the fragments along the way. These puzzles are not mind-teasers that demand careful concentration or daring trial-and-error obstacles. Rather, you need only figure out how your given abilities work in a specific area to continue onward undeterred. In the beginning, for instance, I had to learn that I could walk up staircases I thought were only in the background. A little puzzle, yes, but one that brings joy when you realize how simple and delightful the solution is. Later sections have blocks that appear when a light shines upon them or a wintery wind that casts statues of ice in your image, but none of the puzzles are presented in such a way as to stymie a player. Gris is a game in which its lack of challenge is a positive quality because any frustrating section would have derailed the feeling of peace and serenity that it builds so wondrously as you progress. There’s no combat or death to break you from this trance, just pure pleasure throughout. I wanted to explore this world, to see breathtaking sights and soak in the melancholic score, and Gris welcomed this feeling instead of hiding its charms behind tests of skill. Despite the ease of the puzzles, there are genuine surprises in how you navigate the world. I gasped when I realized a rippling block wasn’t as solid as I had assumed and there’s a perspective-flipping section that made me laugh with joy. The magic of Gris is that it encompasses the varied move set you’d expect in a more demanding platformer, without expecting impressive feats of dexterity to progress. Instead, it introduces all those navigational twists to draw you ever deeper into this fascinating world. Because of its many surprises, it’s the rare game where I wish I could have my memory erased, to play it once more from the beginning, because few games contain surprises that were so affected. Gris is joyful and sad, a beautiful ruin, contradictions that make these experiences so exciting. The surprises that lay hidden are not plot twists or unlockable goodies but rather moments when the mechanics perfectly complement the aesthetics. Every element is used to engage your sense of awe. Gris is beautiful, yes, but it uses that beauty like a surgical knife. As you climb to the top of a pyramid, with the sun growing ever brighter and the stars beckoning, it knows to pull back the camera, to show how small you stand against the majesty of the universe. Don’t dismiss Gris as a game so caught up in its artistic splendor that it forgets what medium it's a part of, though. Strip away the resplendent visual design and enchanting score and Gris would still be enticing because of its sense of movement. The young woman moves with graceful purpose. She’s light on her feet but sure-headed, giving her a weightiness that makes it feel like you’re trying to break free of gravity but can never quite do so. There were sections when I would purposely repeat a series of jumps because it felt so good to skirt against the dreamy sky. New powers are unlocked as you get deeper into the adventure, and all of them add another layer of interactivity that not only expands your horizons but feels good to enact. Gris understands intrinsically how magical video games can be and continually pushes your imagination until you’re almost bursting with joy. The ways in which it reinvents itself as you gain powers and dive ever deeper into this world is truly special, and just as it knows exactly when to pull back the camera or introduce a new song, it’s keenly aware of when it's time to say goodbye. Like a comet streaking across the sky, Gris is full of wonder and beauty and leaves you with a warm glow in your heart TRAILER

Name Game: DYNASTY WARRIORS 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition Price: 49.99 to 14.99 The Discount Rate: 70% Link Store: Steam Offer Ends Up After : IDK

New outfits in Epic's battle royale game are rarely short of creativity, and the Fortnite Chapter 2 skins are no different. After an unprecedented spell of inactivity, where the entire game got sucked into a black hole in the Fortnite season X event, players all over the world are itching to dive back into Battle Royale, earn more Victory Royales and, most importantly, get some plush new Fortnite Chapter 2 skins. Before the game went live, some of the game's determined leakers dug into the pre-load files to give us a sneak peak at the new skins we can expect, but now we know the ones available with the new Fortnite Chapter 2 Battle Pass, and the others that have to be purchased on the item shop. So, let's not waste any more time, here's your first look at the new Fortnite Chapter 2 skins you can expect. New Fortnite Chapter 2 skins You can get your first look at the new Fortnite season 11 skins from the images above. All of the outfits above are the ones you can get in the new Battle Pass. Also pictured is the new addition to the Fortnite item shop: Zero. This is a legendary skin, so it'll set you back 2000 V-Bucks. As ever these Fortnite Chapter 2 skins won't have any affect on gameplay, they're purely an aesthetic choice you can show off to your friends. Once the game I'll be updating this page with all the new Fortnite skins news we find out as we get it.

Vauxhall’s revival of the VXR performance sub-brand will be as an all-electric line, with a variety of bodystyles planned, according to boss Stephen Norman. As well as a hot version of the Corsa-e, arriving first next year, there will be a VXR version of the Vivaro-e electric van in 2020. It’s expected that the VXR branding will be used on the upcoming second-generation Mokka in electric form, too. Autocar understands the focus of the changes will initially be more on cosmetic upgrades, but handling and performance revisions could feature on some models. The decision to go all-electric for the Corsa VXR may have ramifications for sibling firm Peugeot, which was weighing up the two powertrain choices for a GTI version of its closely linked 208 supermini. Norman also told Autocar that he believes his company’s recent emphasis on Britishness in advertising may pay dividends if the government decides to go for a ‘hard Brexit’ at the end of the month. He described the current UK car market as “incredibly difficult” and “not just overheated but absolutely scalding” as manufacturers struggle to clear large stocks, over-ordered at the beginning of the year. OUR VERDICT Vauxhall Corsa Vauxhall Corsa cornering All-new Vauxhall Corsa raises its game with the end result being a classy supermini that’s decent to drive, but still short of the benchmark set by the Ford Fiesta I believe September will be the last month of normal trading as we head into Brexit,” said Norman, “and after that, things could get really hard.” However, as he sees an opportunity to capitalise on strengthened feelings of patriotism, there is an evolution of the ‘British brand since 1903’ advertising line to reinforce the brand’s roots.

Fatty tissue has been found in the lungs of overweight and obese people for the first time. Australian researchers analysed lung samples from 52 people and found the amount of fat increased in line with body mass index. They said their findings could explain why being overweight or obese increased asthma risk. Lung experts said it would be interesting to see if the effect could be reversed by weight loss. Increased risk In the study, published in the European Respiratory Journal, scientists looked at post-mortem samples of lung donated for research. Fifteen had had no reported asthma, 21 had asthma but died of other causes and 16 died of the condition. The scientists used dyes to carry out detailed analyses of almost 1,400 airways from the lung samples under the microscope. The researchers found adipose (fatty) tissue in the walls of airways, with more present in people with a higher body mass index, And they say the increase in fat appears to alter the normal structure of the airways and cause inflammation in the lungs - which could explain the increased risk of asthma in overweight or obese people. Direct pressure Dr Peter Noble, an associate professor at the University of Western Australia, in Perth who worked on the study, said: "Being overweight or obese has already been linked to having asthma or having worse asthma symptoms. "Researchers have suggested that the link might be explained by the direct pressure of excess weight on the lungs or by a general increase in inflammation created by excess weight." But, he said, their study suggested "another mechanism is also at play". "We've found that excess fat accumulates in the airway walls, where it takes up space and seems to increase inflammation within the lungs," Dr Noble said. "We think this is causing a thickening of the airways that limits the flow of air in and out of the lungs and that could at least partly explain an increase in asthma symptoms." 'Major importance' Prof Thierry Troosters, president of the European Respiratory Society, said: "This is an important finding on the relationship between body weight and respiratory disease because it shows how being overweight or obese might be making symptoms worse for people with asthma. "This goes beyond the simple observation that patients with obesity need to breathe more with activity and exercise. "The observation points at true airway changes that are associated with obesity." He said more research was needed to find out if this build-up of fatty tissue could be reversed through weight loss but asthma patients should be helped to achieve a healthy weight. Dr Elizabeth Sapey, reader in respiratory medicine from the British Thoracic Society, said this was the first time body weight had been shown to impact the structure of the airways in the lungs. "Given the increasing incidence of obesity nationally and across the globe, the study could be of major importance in helping us understand why asthma remains a major health issue and identify new ways to improve asthma treatment," she said. "It is only a small study though, and we need to assess this in larger groups of patients and in other lung diseases," Dr Sapey added.

There has been heavy fighting in northern Mexico between the security forces and members of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel after one of the group's leaders was discovered. Ovidio Guzmán López was found during a routine patrol in Culiacán. He is the son of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán, who was sentenced in the US to life in prison plus 30 years. Guzmán, 62, was found guilty in New York of 10 charges, including drug trafficking and money laundering. He escaped a Mexican jail through a tunnel in 2015, but was later arrested. He was extradited to the United States in 2017. How Mexico's drug kingpin fell victim to his own legend El Chapo: Five things to know Shocking allegations in 'El Chapo' trial Guzmán is a former head of the Sinaloa cartel, which officials say was the biggest supplier of drugs to the US. What happened in Culiacán? The state government said Ovidio Guzmán was found in a house by a police patrol on a routine search. It said cartel members subsequently launched the huge attack in an attempt to seize him back from the authorities. Ovidio Guzmán, said to be in his 20s, is believed to have played a key role in the Sinaloa cartel, following the arrest of his father. He is wanted in the US on several drug-related charges, Mexican media report. He was briefly detained before being released by the police. There have been no official reports of fatalities, but pictures have emerged apparently showing dead bodies on the streets of the city. The Sinaloa state government said it was "working to restore calm and order in the face of the high-impact incidents that have occurred in recent hours in various points around Culiacán", AFP news agency reports. 'City under siege' By BBC Mexico correspondent Will Grant The commercial district of Culiacán resembled a battlefield with cars and jeeps set on fire and a large deployment of military vehicles. Panic spread in the city as sustained fighting took place between scores of cartel gunmen - in pick-up trucks with machine guns mounted on them - and a large deployment of police and the military. In the middle of the chaos, a jail break involving a number of prisoners also apparently took place in the city as the cartel tried to sow greater confusion in the effort to recover their leader. What was El Chapo's role in Mexico's drug trade? "El Chapo" (or "Shorty") ran the Sinaloa cartel across northern Mexico. Over time, it became one of the biggest traffickers of drugs to the US. In 2009, Guzmán entered Forbes' list of the world's richest men at number 701, with an estimated worth of $1bn (£775m). He was accused of having helped export hundreds of tonnes of cocaine into the US and of conspiring to manufacture and distribute heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana. Who is 'El Chapo' Guzmán? Mexico's most-wanted: A guide to the drug cartels Shocking allegations in 'El Chapo' trial He was also said to have used hitmen to carry out "hundreds" of murders, assaults, kidnappings and acts of torture on rivals. Key associates, including one former lieutenant, testified against Guzmán.

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INFO Dead Space 3 is a survival horror action-adventure video game developed by Visceral Games and published by Electronic Arts. Announced at E3 2012 and released internationally in February 2013,it is the sequel to Dead Space 2 and the third main entry in the Dead Space series. In Dead Space 3, Isaac Clarke teams up with EarthGov Sergeant John Carver as they travel to Tau Volantis, an ice-covered planet, to end the Marker and Necromorph threat for good. Development of the game began after the completion of Dead Space 2. It is the only game in the Dead Space series to feature online co-op. The game received positive reviews from game critics upon release; reviewers praised the game's rewarding action gameplay, although criticism was directed at the focus on action over horror, as well as a weak and unfocused story compared to its predecessors. Despite poor sales, EA and Visceral expressed interest in a sequel. However, Visceral Games was shut down in 2017, and no confirmation that a new installment in the series is being developed by another studio. GAMEPLAY Dead Space 3 doesn't want to take sides in the debate over what constitutes a true survival horror game. It would rather leave the choice up to you. This is a game rife with options and flexibility, building on the strengths of the franchise with clever new ideas that let you tailor the experience to your liking. It hits a few sour notes in its story and struggles at times when it steps away from the core combat, but Dead Space 3 is a thrilling and worthwhile sequel. Dead Space 3's story follows closely in the footsteps of its predecessors. That is to say, it's nearly incomprehensible. Isaac Clarke, now caught in a confusing love triangle, has been sent off to the frozen ice planet of Tau Volantis, believed to be the marker homeworld. You remember every last scattered detail having to do with markers and their sundry effects on humanity, right? If not, you're out of luck: aside from a brief "previously on Dead Space" video buried in an extras menu, the game makes precious little effort to explain anything of remote importance. It's an issue compounded by a dearth of interesting characters, and this ultimately makes it difficult to feel attached to anything that occurs in the haphazard, quickly moving narrative. But no matter: while Isaac's latest journey may not unfurl with the deftest of storytelling, it fully succeeds in ushering you from one incredible locale to the next. Whether floating in the starry abyss amid the vast wreckage of destroyed spacecraft or attempting to stay alive in a suffocating blizzard, Dead Space 3 keeps you on your toes with one expertly crafted environment after the other. The game's opening chapters tend to favor loud and boisterous set pieces, but once you start digging deeper into the frozen hellscape that is Tau Volantis, a feeling of subdued terror gradually builds. Where atmospherics are concerned, developer Visceral is once again at the top of its game. Interior spaces are a terrifying stage show of light and shadows, and even some of the planetside vistas are capable of making a glowing sunset look deeply unsettling. Just as creepy is the game's sound design, which marries subtle audio effects with a restrained score to further build the tension. Yet Dead Space 3 doesn't simply mimic what the series has already done well. With its introduction of a robust weapon crafting system, it takes a significant step forward in terms of depth and flexibility. Every classic weapon, from the plasma cutter to the ripper, has been broken down to its basic components, spare parts you can cobble together at a workbench to create the most surgical or bombastic weapon you can conceive. Scavenging for parts often feels like collecting loot in Diablo: a virtually endless stream of rewards you're constantly picking up from lockers and fallen enemies. You start with a basic frame and then slot in tools that determine the primary and alternate fire--say, a plasma cutter coupled with a flamethrower, or a telemetry spike augmented with an underslung grenade launcher. You then add attachments that can further modify the weapon fire--goodbye vanilla grenades, hello acid grenades--and finally, plug in upgrade circuits to modify basic stats such as rate of fire and reload time. The only thing more staggering than the number of modular parts is the number of theoretical combinations. All of this weapon crafting takes a little while to fully comprehend, but this new feature adds a deeply satisfying amount of depth and strategy to the game's core combat. This is primarily due to the fact that your creations are never set in stone. You're always combining new parts to meet the demands of the game's increasingly terrifying onslaught of necromorphs, a mutated collection of zombified somethings operating in collusion to ensure you never get too comfortable behind your current weapon of choice. As in previous titles, Dead Space 3's combat is a methodical take on the third-person shooter that encourages aiming at the limbs of necromorphs as the most effective means of taking them down. But that roster of enemies is a wildly varied bunch, and their mutations require different approaches to combat. The basic plasma cutter works well early on against slashers and wasters, humanoid enemies who simply charge at you upon sight. But you need to modify your approach as the game mixes in different types of foes, like the chaotic swarms of feeders, those weak but agile necromorphs who attack you in massive numbers. For these, slotting in a powerful melee attachment like the hydraulic engine works well by smashing them down in wide, sweeping arcs of devastation. But later, you encounter immensely powerful foes like the snow beast, a four-legged necromorph roughly the size of a truck. This is when being able to slap a secondary grenade launcher onto your primary weapon suddenly comes in very handy. No matter which enemies you're up against, Dead Space 3's combat is a brutally satisfying experience. It achieves the difficult task of equipping you with a powerful assortment of weapon parts that you can tailor to your own liking, while still making you feel tense and anxious about what sort of mutated beasts lie in wait around the next corner. The rate at which you find new upgrades for your weapons grows at an equal pace with the game's introduction of more and more twisted enemies, leading to a smooth difficulty curve that lets you enjoy each fight while rarely feeling any sort of frustration. Yet at the same time, shredding your way through hordes of necromorphs with a buddy is great fun. The action here works quite well in a cooperative setting, like in those instances where one player is about to get pounced on by a necromorph and his buddy freezes that would-be killer at the last second with a well-timed stasis shot. On top of that, working with your partner to ensure you've assembled complementary weaponry is immensely satisfying from a strategic standpoint. So while co-op feels very different, it's by no means worse than a solo playthrough. It's simply a matter of taste. That Dead Space 3 lets you choose between these different experiences is a theme echoed by the broad selection of optional side missions. These are treks into some of the most ravaged depths of each level--often feeling like a dungeon run in a role-playing game--where you can learn more about the people who inhabited these places before everything went to hell. (And collect some pretty sweet weapon parts to boot.) Some of these missions are unique to co-op, but most are available to solo players as well. Altogether, this side content can take a campaign that's roughly 15 hours long and extend it well north of 20 hours. Dead Space 3 is a big, generous game, but it sometimes reaches too far for its own good. Peppered throughout the campaign are various gameplay sequences intended to give you a little break from the core combat. Some of these are fun palate cleansers, like a scene where you're piloting a rapidly failing spaceship through a minefield of debris. Others are simply tedious, like the clumsy ice-climbing sequences on Tau Volantis. These adventures in scaling sheer cliff faces aren't that fun to begin with thanks to the awkward and unresponsive way you maneuver around on your rope, and become exponentially less fun when the game starts throwing ever larger hazards at you. TRAILER

INFO Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a puzzle adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montpellier and published by Ubisoft. The game is inspired by letters written during World War I and has four characters on the battlefield who help a young German soldier find his love in this story about survival, sacrifice and friendship. Valiant Hearts utilises UbiArt Framework. The game was released for the Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One in June 2014, followed by ports to Android and iOS later the same year, and a Nintendo Switch port in November 2018. GAMEPLAY Valiant Hearts: The Great War is one of the most human and sensitive games about war ever released. Set during World War I, the game is more about the personal struggles of its characters than it is about the larger historical details and political realities of the devastating conflict. It takes a few small missteps, but the game successfully couches grim truths in a story with endearing characters, gorgeous art, and moments of jubilance and adventure, making its tale about how war destroys lives accessible and appealing to players of all ages while still giving the war's tremendous human cost the acknowledgment it deserves. The game begins by making it clear that this isn't a simple tale of good vs. evil. Karl is a German citizen living in France with his wife and newborn son, but as the war breaks out, Karl is forcibly separated from his family and sent back to Germany, where he must join the war effort. Meanwhile, his father-in-law, Emile, is conscripted into the French forces. Neither of them are motivated to enlist or fight; rather, as is so often the case in war, they are ordinary people who are swept up in conflicts beyond their control. Over the course of the game, you play as both Emile and Karl, as well as a Belgian nurse named Anna and an American named Freddie who enlists with the French forces. These characters aren't traditional action heroes; the older Emile, for instance, has to scramble and struggle a bit to hoist himself over obstacles, and instead of running and gunning their way through the game's side-scrolling stages, characters solve a series of environmental puzzles to proceed. These puzzles cleverly find many different ways to combine simple elements like tossing objects to distract enemies, pulling levers to activate machinery, and issuing commands to your devoted canine companion, Walt, and they're just challenging enough to be engaging and satisfying, without being so difficult as to interfere with the story's momentum. And throughout the stages, you can find collectibles that shed light on the historical realities of the war, illuminating the miserable conditions soldiers engaging in trench warfare had to live with, for instance, or the ways that the war affected the rights and workplace responsibilities of women. Over the course of the game, you play as both Emile and Karl, as well as a Belgian nurse named Anna and an American named Freddie who enlists with the French forces. These characters aren't traditional action heroes; the older Emile, for instance, has to scramble and struggle a bit to hoist himself over obstacles, and instead of running and gunning their way through the game's side-scrolling stages, characters solve a series of environmental puzzles to proceed. These puzzles cleverly find many different ways to combine simple elements like tossing objects to distract enemies, pulling levers to activate machinery, and issuing commands to your devoted canine companion, Walt, and they're just challenging enough to be engaging and satisfying, without being so difficult as to interfere with the story's momentum. And throughout the stages, you can find collectibles that shed light on the historical realities of the war, illuminating the miserable conditions soldiers engaging in trench warfare had to live with, for instance, or the ways that the war affected the rights and workplace responsibilities of women. There's a lot of death in Valiant Hearts, but very little direct violence. You do occasionally have to clobber an unsuspecting enemy soldier from behind, and you may blast a few planes out of the sky in one sequence, but most of your time is spent helping people rather than attacking them. You provide first aid to the wounded, rescue people trapped in buildings, and give a soldier a nice, clean pair of socks. In this game, you are not a killing machine. The war itself is. There's an appropriate feeling of futility that comes from charging into battle again and again and seeing soldiers on both sides fall in droves to artillery blasts and machine-gun fire. Things become increasingly grim as the game and the war progress, and a late-game stage set during the hopeless Nivelle Offensive is particularly hellish. It's not all grimness and death, thankfully. There are scenes of beauty, too, like a sequence that takes place on a starry night in Paris just as the war is beginning. Here, you play as the headstrong and capable Anna, a wonderful character who is determined to do whatever she can to help people during the war. After performing some quick automotive repairs, you drive down the city's bustling streets in a joyous scene during which you avoid cars and other obstacles in keeping with the music. Though the mechanics are simple, Valiant Hearts admirably puts you in a wonderful variety of situations, having you do everything from cooking a meal for a high-ranking officer to fighting a boss battle against a zeppelin using a pipe organ as your weapon. No matter what you're doing, the game's art style pulls you in. There are always wonderful details in the background to give the scenarios life. In one scene set in a POW camp, for instance, you see a prisoner being intensely interrogated in the window of one building, while in a nearby structure, French soldiers carouse and listen to music as their prisoners suffer. Through it all, the endearing designs of the characters, with their eyes charmingly obscured by their hair, make it easy to care about them and their struggles. The game's storytelling isn't always as cohesive as it should be. There's a jarring disconnect between the French-accented voice we hear Emile use during gameplay and the British-accented voice that speaks for him during between-level cutscenes. Freddie's storyline fits too neatly into the familiar narrative trope of a man out for revenge against the person responsible for the death of the woman he loved, making his arc feel more like something out of a generic action movie than a proper tale of war. And on multiple occasions, the game leads you to think a dire fate has befallen one or more characters, only to reveal, like the bad resolution of a TV cliff-hanger, that this wasn't the case. But these are minor blemishes on a visually beautiful game that deftly moves between moments of joy and moments of tragedy, and ultimately doesn't shy away from the fact that "great" is just about the last thing any war should be called. TRAILER

INFO Apotheon is an action platformer video game developed and published by Alientrap for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, and PlayStation 4. The game was released on Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4 on February 3, 2015 and on OS X and Linux on February 10, 2015. Apotheon is Alientrap's second commercial game and utilizes a unique art style based on ancient Greek pottery, particularly in the black-figure pottery style. GAMEPLAY Playing Apotheon is like being an archaeologist exploring and unearthing the mysteries of an unknown world. You find your hands stretching thousands of years back in time to discover a story you didn’t know had unfolded. The art is immediately distinctive. While the same could be said for a fair number of independent games, this time it’s more than just a pretty background. Like the ochre-stained walls of an Athenian temple circa 500 BC, Apotheon’s characters are little more than black silhouettes. The environments are elaborate, sprawling, two-dimensional cutaways. They beg you to imagine this wondrous world in its full glory, but they resist conventional beauty. These paintings are all we have left. Beneath that veneer is a run-of-the-mill action platformer. You make a few jumps here, and fight a few baddies there. Throughout, the minute-to-minute play stays simple. You grab weapons and shields lying around, using one button to attack, one to block, one to jump, and the two sticks to move about and aim your strikes with added precision. There's a basic crafting system as well, but it's a straightforward one. Instead, Apotheon expounds on these basic ideas with a string of apropos twists. When venturing into the underworld, for example, you often have to give up the use of a shield to navigate by torchlight, unless you've found a shield kept by the servants of the sun god, Apollo, that can light your path. Each area has something unique to uncover that make some parts of your journey harder, others easier. Such flourishes greatly add to Apotheon’s character, and support the game's mythological inspirations. Our hero in this neo-Classical myth is Nikandreos. While not a member of the traditional Greek pantheon, his epic sticks to the conventions of Classical tragedy. In the prelude, his hometown, Dion, is out of favor with the gods. The forests have no game, the fields yield no crops, and the sky is stuck in perpetual twilight. Nikandreos, seeking to restore the mantle of humanity, journeys to Mt. Olympus, the realm of the deities. There he learns that Zeus, king of the gods, has grown to hate people and will not rest until they are destroyed. If that sounds clichéd, that’s because, from a modern lens, it is. Apotheon eschews modern expectations, reflecting a far older brand of storytelling. Greek tragedy, and Greek heroes in particular, are far different from the super-powered defenders of good we see today. Greek heroes were flawed, difficult people who accomplished great things, though were often cruel and awful as well. Classical tragedy is even more unusual. These stories draw on themes such as the conflict between men and gods, and depict arrogant heroes that unravel themselves with acts of great hubris. The ancients were a scared, superstitious people. We frequently forget their struggles, remembering them instead as creators of grand, monolithic civilizations. We forget these people believed not only in divine providence, but also in retribution. We forget the limits of their understanding, and that for these classic civilizations catastrophe was evidence of the wrath of the gods. From that perspective, Apotheon is hauntingly poignant. In his quest for salvation, Nikandreos partners with Hera, queen of the gods. She’s been brewing over her husband’s many affairs and now lusts for justice. She guides Nikandreos, pointing out to him the weaknesses of the mighty Olympians. At every turn, figures from Greek myth appear--each with their own grudges, their own motives--to help Nikandreos. As he gathers power, he leaves nothing but death and destruction in his wake. Between each act, he sees that his people are suffering and dying--punished for his own arrogance. However, he, or rather we, never once waver. On we march to claim our prize, and to topple the gods. This drama works because it’s relatable. At some point, every person who has ever lived has experienced pain. Suffering is a fundamental human experience. When we’re at our worst, we seek relief, no matter how destructive it may prove to be. The gods aren’t much different. Hera is driven by her lust for revenge, Zeus by his disappointment in his people. The other gods and goddesses you meet have their own motives, their own goals, and a slew of victims that want you to succeed. You become the vessel for hope, relief, and peace, your only failure being that you’re so damned foolhardy that you can’t see the consequences of your actions. Apotheon shares many of its narrative threads with God of War, but the differences pile up quickly. Where God of War sticks to video game tropes, Apotheon is content to ground itself in myth. This is a fantastical world where gods and goddesses roam the earth, but beyond that, there’s no need for the suspension of disbelief. Where God of War is flashy and bombastic, Apotheon is soft and personal. Every battle is slow and careful. Each hit is quite damaging, so you hold your shield up and bide your time for a perfect strike. Your weapons and shields also have limited durability. At best, a spear lasts you a few small battles. There are no flaming chain blades here. Instead, you have a small assortment of conventional blades, axes, and pikes. Shields can cover only a limited part of your body so you also have to predict the direction of incoming strikes. It’s similar to a two-dimensional Dark Souls in that respect. Unfortunately, that lack of depth is one of the few knocks against Apotheon. Repeating the block-wait-attack tactic for ten hours gets thin. The only respite is the bouts with the gods themselves. Each deity has an individual domain with its own rules and challenges. Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, for example, transmutes you into a deer and try to lay traps to kill you. To best Athena, goddess of wisdom, you must navigate three concentric, rotating labyrinths. These contests serve two purposes. They reinforce your smallness and their godhood, and add variety to an otherwise monotonous trek. My time with Apotheon reminded me of a conversation from the film Prometheus. David, an android, discusses with Charlie, a human, the relationship of creators and creation. David asks Charlie why people created robots. The response, “We made you because we could,” upsets David. “Can you imagine how disappointing it would be for you to hear the same thing from your creator?” Apotheon asks these same kinds of questions. Zeus, consumed with regret for how petty mankind has become, wants to unmake us. Nikandreos, having observed the same pettiness in other Olympian gods, conquers them and creates a new world where he is god. The names Apotheon and Nikandreos both allude to this chain of events, meaning “one who is elevated to godhood” and “victorious man,” respectively. Victory, and even deification then, are fated from the beginning. You will win. You are the hero, after all, but I can only wonder if in time his creation will bring him relief or despair. TRAILER