Time to check in and check out what we’ve been playing recently!
Brawlout
For some reason it feels like there has always been a slight lack of games like Smash Bros on other platforms, maybe I’m just not remembering them, but I can’t recall any!? Well now that market is getting filled on PC with Brawlout. The competitive platform fighter hit Steam last week and over the weekend I got to have a little dabble in what the game offered. Both me and Murr did actually play the game at EGX and whilst I’m not usually the best at these kinds of games I still enjoyed it quite a lot.
So far I’ve only played against the computer, mainly to get the hang of the controls and characters. I’m pleased that I did, because I found the controls a little odd to get used to. I was playing with a controller and found that the jump button was bound to X and Y (XB1 controller), and with me being so used to A being jump in almost every game ever I found this confusing to get used to.
The game has launched with 6 fighters to choose from and all feel pretty unique and different to use and you can play with them across a number of maps that all have a very different style to them. With up to 4 players being involved in battles you can imagine that the gameplay gets pretty fun and frantic.
The moveset feels fairly basic to me at the moment, with just two attack buttons, one for normal and one for special, obviously changing the direction of attacks can change to the move you perform, but it still feels a little basic, but that could just be that I still need to learn more moves or combos.
The game is in early access at the moment so some areas feel a little rough around the edges, but for the most part it all seems good. The only major thing I’ve noticed is that the controls at times feel a little unresponsive, as an example I may be attacking to my left, but want to switch to the right and at times it can feel a little sluggish in doing this and you carry on attacking left for a few punches. This might just be me doing something wrong, or maybe I’m just mashing buttons a little too much I’m not sure, it was just something that I noticed.
Keep your eye out for a more in-depth look at Brawlout once I’ve got my claws stuck in to it!
Forts
Forts is a little bit of Worms mixed with Angry Birds, you build bases and launch bombs and bullets at your enemies base. Each level has a star rating for you to achieve – out of three, and the more stars you get the more levels you unlock. It’s a pretty simple concept and it’s done well. I’m working my way through the main campaign at the moment and each level sees you trying to complete a number of objectives in order for you to try and get the maximum number of stars available. Across the levels you will be using mortars, sniper nest, machine guns, missiles and a whole lot more that I’m still yet to see. But that also means you enemy will probably have access to these weapons too, so you’ll need to try and fortify you base, or place turrets in strategic locations to counter the enemy offense.
I’m not entirely sure how many levels I’ve played at the moment, but I’d guess at around 10-15 and they’ve been good casual fun, the only problem I have with it is it’s getting to the point where I will probably need to replay older levels to mop up collecting some stars in order to unlock the next lot of levels. Whilst the levels aren’t particularly hard, it can become a bit of an annoyance to have to keep playing the same ones over to try and get the last piece complete. Again, keep your eye out for a full review of Forts soon!
Vamtor
Something a little different. Whilst we were at EGX we met James, who’s starting a Kickstarter campaign for his product Vamtor LD10. It’s essentially a piece of equipment that lets you mount your steering wheel and flight sticks to a portable surface that you can then use whilst sitting on your sofa and easily store away after use.
It’s a really neat idea and would be great for those racing and flight sim enthusiasts, so we thought we’d get the word out there a little bit.
You can check out the Kickstarter page that has now gone live, here.
Overwatch
Overwatch is back on the scene with it’s latest update now out – Uprising. Journey 7 years in to the past to replay Tracers first mission as part of Overwatch to stop an Omnic uprising taking place in King’s Row.
Uprising is the latest PVE content for Overwatch that sees you group up with 3 other players and head to King’s Row to complete multiple objectives in an effort to stop the Omnics.
As usual there are new skins etc… to unlock – which is generally why I play these modes (I’ve only unlocked the new Torb skin so far). Although I have to say that it’s actually a really fun mode. I’ve only completed it on normal, but I think I will try out some of the more difficult modes too. I like the mixture of control and escort objectives and I like the new enemy types too. It’s great to see PVE content getting added to the game and I really hope they do some more of it in the future, maybe eve some kind of short campaign mode?
-Will