#86: Code Vein Reviews Land

Top Story

EA Sports’ FIFA 20 Career Mode gets red card from fans over persistent bugs

Complaints about FIFA 20’s career mode is reaching a fever pitch, with bugs ranging from simple typos to broken headline features.

A post on Reddit highlighting the most egregious career mode problems is gaining traction, complete with accusations that EA’s official forums might be engaging in ‘creative moderation’ to downplay bug reports and community outrage. An EA community manager claims the original post was not intentionally removed, but fell victim to an over-eager spam filter.

’Editing glitches, typos, unbalanced stats, bad AI team selections, broken table realism’

Regardless of forum politics, the career mode does sound like it’s in dire need of some TLC: Press conferences and player conversations are both repetitive and inconsistent, while the new morale system is reportedly not working – players are always happy no matter what.

The full and growing bug list is the trending topic on the r/FifaCareers subreddit, on the very same day the game launched for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Switch.

Time For A Quick Daily Quiz?

Who directed the movie based on lightgun classic House of the Dead?

• Uwe Boll (Postal, Alone in the Dark)
• Paul WS Anderson (Resident Evil, Mortal Kombat)
• Steven E. de Souza (Street Fighter, Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life)
• Mike Newell (Prince of Persia)

The answer will be revealed at the end of this issue!

News Bits

House of The Dead remakes coming

Forever Entertainment is reviving House of the Dead with remakes of the original two games. They’ll be actual lightgun games rather than typing games like in the Typing of the Dead spin-offs, featuring new graphics and updated gameplay, but stick close to the classic lightgun experience.

Sherlock Holmes developer Frogwares’ games delisted by publisher Focus

Frogwares titles like Sherlock Holmes: Crime & Punishments and Magrunner: Dark Pulse are being removed from storefronts due to an expired publishing agreement with Focus Home Interactive, and allege that Focus is refusing to hand back “content ID or title ID” to studios no longer working with Focus, despite ‘no such clause in the contract’.

Frogwares wants help from anyone who knows how to solve the problem – if it can even be solved, considering IDs are non-transferable and the publisher is legally obligated to stop selling the games after the expiry of the publishing agreement.

Daily Fact

Pokémon GO was actually an April Fools gag by Google Maps

The idea of Pokémon lurking out in the real world waiting to be discovered actually started out as a Google Maps joke showing people where to battle and capture themselves some pocket monsters. Sound familiar? It eventually turned into Pokémon GO, with Google teaming up with The Pokémon Company and developer Niantic to turn the gag into a game.

A man from Brooklyn became the first Pokémon Go player to actually achieve the series’ lofty goal of catching them all, capturing all the 142 Pokémon available in the US. Did he manage to capture the remaining 4 ones only available outside the US? Travel site Expedia actually sponsored a trip around the world so he could complete his collection!

What about the last 5 ones? Well, they hadn’t been released yet.

Game Spotlight - Tropico 6

El Prez Returns!

(Limbic Entertainment – PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One)
Release: September 27th 2019 (PS4, Xbox One)

Tropico 6 is finally arriving to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One after being released for PC earlier this year. El Presidente is back, along with new features and tools to help build the perfect banana republic.

The biggest change is that your banana republic can span an entire archipelago now, meaning you’ll have to manage several islands at once. This introduces new infrastructural as well as political challenges, and Tropico 6 introduces bridges, ports and docks to deal with them, allowing your island paradises to co-exist harmoniously.

Other notable features include the new Broker adviser, who can help you build funds and invest money; raids that allow you to unlock new world wonders and take superpowers down a bpeg as well as acquire new citizens – plus new palace customization options, for the generallisimo with interior design aspirations.

Politics is all about control

Management simulations are pretty rare on consoles, but Tropico 6 has translated very well to game pad input, thanks in part to the PC community’s input since launch. Tropico also sports another unusual feature: Quality settings! On first-generation PS4 or Xbox One, the game is locked to 30FPS, but on a PlayStation 4 Pro or an Xbox One X, you can pick between performance mode (1080p@60Hz) or quality mode (4k@30Hz).

Just like in the PC version, Tropico 6 features a multiplayer mode for up to 4 players. You can play cooperatively and collaborate to create the finest island republic known to man, or you can set different victory conditions and compete to see who’s the greatest leader. You can even save multiplayer games.

Tropico 6 is out for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One today, and is available for PC, Mac and Linux on Steam. The El Prez digital edition includes a flamingo pond palace decoration, as well as tourist outfits. The retail version includes 4 post cards, a digital calendar and a digital soundtrack.

Daily News

Code Vein review round-up

Bandai Namco’s blood-thirsty, action-packed post-apocalyptic open-world RPG Code Vein launched this week for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. What does the critics have to say about the vampiric adventure?

PlayStation 4

• GameRevolution (Score 4.5/5) – ”I had very few issues with this game, and it was a great experience playing through it. There’s some hype behind it, but I think it’ll end up being one of the sleeper hits of 2019. It blends the right amounts of Souls-like gameplay, anime cheesiness, and excellent design to result in a satisfying package that should please just about anyone.”
• Twinfinite (Score 4.5/5) – ”The story goes some surprisingly emotional places, and the sheer variety of gameplay styles is a huge strength. Code Vein is easily one of the sleeper hits of the year, and it’s an experience that’s a joy to sink your teeth into.”
• CGMagazine (Score 8.5/10) – ”Code Vein is some fun anime nonsense is a slickly designed package with some minor failings.”
• God is a Geek (Score 8/10) – ”Despite a number of performance issues and combat that feels just a little too loose and mashy compared to its genre-mates, Code Vein presents a unique take on the Soulslike formula.”
• PlayStation LifeStyle (Score 8/10) – ”Code Vein feels like it wants to take the idea of community and important AIs and marry it with the gameplay and ideas prevalent in Soulslikes. It is a story-heavy affair that wants you to care about its characters, while also helping you find your way in a demanding world with thoughtful combat. There are some technical hitches along the way, such as frame rate drops, but they’re the sort of problems that could very well be eventually fixed with patches. For now, it’s a largely successful experiment into some new ideas.”
• EGM (Score 4/5) – ”There was a lot of potential for Code Vein to end up little more than a mediocre Dark Souls clone dressed in anime clothing, and yet, it’s actually kinda, sorta, pretty good. The game mixes some long-established gameplay qualities with a totally engrossing class system and a story that’s more enjoyable than it has any right to be. Code Vein won’t be for everyone, even if you’re a Souls fan, but if the overall idea sounds appealing, the execution might surprise you.”
• IGN (Score 7/10) – ”Despite building itself on well-tread ground, Code Vein definitely moves to the beat of its own drummer, but that beat can lose its rhythm when you need it to be steady. Some changes like being able to easily switch around and experiment with classes on the fly are great, while others like its inconsistent AI partner could be more trouble than they were worth at times. But in both the good and the bad, I appreciated its enthusiasm for mixing things up and getting a little weird. If you’re looking for a unique take on a familiar type of challenge, and are open to loving and hating a game for its many mechanical quirks in the same breath, Code Vein is worth sinking your teeth into.”
• TheSixthAxis (Score 7/10) – ”Code Vein is addictive, yet frustrating. It’s promising, yet unpolished. There are a lot of interesting ideas here that come together to craft a unique and engaging experience. I just wish that the flaws here weren’t so glaring, because they keep Code Vein from being a great game instead of just a good one.”
• DualShockers (Score 7/10) – ”Code Vein features anime vampires and fast combat, but it’s too reliant on the exact Soulslike formula to stand out on its own.”
• Game Informer (Score 6.5/10) – ”Code Vein has some cool things to enjoy along the way and some nice ideas that shake up the core formula, but they are all incidental details. The heart of Code Vein remains overburdened by stale scenery, boring bosses, and tiresome trudging, and all of that is beyond what some nice touches can redeem.”

PC

• PCGamesN (Score 7/10) – ”An unholy union of anime, Dark Souls, and My Chemical Romance, Code Vein is as much about style as substance. If that sounds good to you, then you’re in for a treat, even if it lacks some of the polish of the genre’s best.”
• GamesRadar+ (Score 3/5) – ”Code Vein’s lackluster combat is held up by great character customization, and its boring world is driven by a memorable story. It’s clunky and uneven, but fun.”
• Gamespot (Score 6/10) – ”Code Vein adopts the Souls-like formula in its structure, presenting a familiar cycle of progression and basic combat similarities, and there are some interesting ideas here, too, built around the use of various Blood Codes and their distinct Gifts. You can see the fragments of a fantastic game hidden within these systems and its meaty combat feedback, but the mundanity of its enemies and the effect they have on nullifying the combat’s enjoyment prevent Code Vein from ever realizing its potential.”

Crowd-funding platform Fig ditching campaign deadlines for ‘Open Access’

The ‘Kickstarter model’ isn’t working out for game developers, according to Fig CEO Justin Bailey, which is why Fig is going to remove time limits from their campaigns and transition to an ‘Open Access’ approach.

This means crowd-funding remains open for the duration of development, as Bailey believes time limits don’t fit the development process, which inevitably features changes – sometimes drastic ones – which may leave backers feeling betrayed.

Fig gives accredited investors access to projects

“If you define crowdfunding as that Kickstarter format, then Shenmue 3 would be one of the most successful ones,” said Bailey. “But before Shenmue came along, you had things like Prison Architect. Prison Architect actually generated more money through crowdfunding that Shenmue 3 if you’re looking at how they did it. They basically put it up on their websites and started selling early builds of the game.”

Kickstarter’s approach is great for things like board games or electronics, which tend to be ready for manufacturing at the time of their crowdfunding campaign – but not videogames. Fig’s Open Access allows investors to fund projects via milestones, which should help build trust through transparency and expectation management.

News Bits

Team17 signs up to publish Hammerting, a vertical Dwarven mining colony sim

Do you like ant colonies? Well, lucky you, because Warpzone Studios is working on a colony simulator called Hammerting, a vertical Dwarven mining game where you build a subterranean kingdom fit for a Dwarven king. Dig, mine, craft, build and expand your underground empire while fighting off hostile armies and nasty surprises that lurk in the deep. Hammerting also features a physics engine that simulates liquids that will surely flush the careless out to sea.

Conan Exiles to get mounts this December in ‘Free Mounts Update’

The huddled masses yearning to breathe free have been crying out for mounts in Conan Exiles, and Funcom is finally sending those homeless, tempest-lost some, uh, pets. The free mounts update is scheduled for December, and will not just offer faster travel but also mounted combat. Exiles will be able to capture, tame and even level up their mounts with the new pets system.

Quiz Answer - Did You Get It Right?

Who directed the movie based on lightgun classic House of the Dead?

Answer: Uwe Boll!

Yes, that most terrifying scourge of the videogame movie industry was responsible for the House of the Dead movie. It was his very first videogame adaptation – a critical and commercial failure generally agreed to be one of the worst movies ever made. But it was only the beginning of a strangely lucrative career for the German director.

After House of the Dead, Boll made movies based on Postal, Far Cry, Bloodrayne (twice), Alone in the Dark (also twice) and Dungeon Siege (you guessed it – twice). None of them really stood out except for being cheap and awful, which doesn’t really bode well for his upcoming House of Evil, which uh … sounds strangely familiar? Wonder what it’s about! No, actually, on second thought, we don’t.

Weekly Giveaway

Cat Quest II on PC

This week’s DailyBits giveaway features a purrfect combination: Cats and RPGs! We are giving away 5 Steam keys for Cat Quest 2, the sequel to the acclaimed epic fantasy RPG by PQubeGames and @TheGentlebros, where you defend the cat kingdom against the dog hordes. We’re sold!

All you have to do to enter the sweepstakes is to be a Dailybits subscriber. We will choose five random subscribers over the course of the week, and each will receive a Steam code for Cat Quest II on PC! It couldn’t be any easier.

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