Wednesday 30 December 2015

Matterfall

Matterfall

How very Outlandish…

Of all the developers we expected to announce a game with a pre-rendered cinematic trailer, Housemarque was the among the last. For a studio that’s repeatedly made ripples in the industry for its visually impressive arcade shooters, and consistently innovative 2D-plane mechanics, a CGI trailer feels… at odds with the developer’s typical gameplay-centric approach.

Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom

Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom

We’ll go to very distant lands

NI NO KUNI is back! Are you excited? Once again, it looks as though we’ll be playing as a little boy going through some tough times, though instead of fish-out-of-water Oliver dealing with grief and thrown into a fantasy land, we’ll be focusing on Evan. Actually, King Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum, dealing with a coup, trying to regain the throne of a fantasy land. And it’s here that our excitement wanes a little – we’re not sure that’s as relatable an initial premise, to be honest. The hero’s journey template is the standard for a reason; we’re not convinced that a story about a rich, powerful child trying to regain his riches and power is going to resonate so well in our current times. It’s tricky to be on the side of a king regaining his power when you’re not entirely sure that a democracy wouldn’t be a better idea. Also, we’re hoping that for the game proper, King Evan won’t sound quite so whiny. Still, Ni No Kuni was one of our favourite RPGs of recent years, so we’re hoping Level-5 can deliver another gem.

10 things you need to know about Final Fantasy XV

10 things you need to know about Final Fantasy XV

The road trip RPG rumbles ever closer

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There’s yet another version of the Duscae demo on the way apparently, hopefully giving us a chance to play around with the magic system that was sadly missing from the previous versions. As long as these constant demo updates aren’t eating into the progress of the core game, we’re all kinds of fine with this – more public exposure to games during development can only be a good thing and the team has made it clear that it is reacting to feedback.

Best file-transfer services

Best file-transfer services

Pushbullet is a popular tool for transferring files between devices but changes to the free version have left users unimpressed. Edward Munn compares it to other services that transfer files wirelessly, even when your devices are in different locations

Our guide to Li-Fi

Our guide to Li-Fi

Lightbulbs delivering internet access 100 times faster than Wi-Fi sounds like science fiction but, as David Crookes explains, Li-Fi is about to become a reality

What is it?


Li-Fi is short for Light Fidelity and is a way of transmitting data at high speed using the visible light spectrum rather than radio waves. The bi-directional technology is built to work with LED lightbulbs, which means it’s very easy to set up and the potential reach is huge.