Thumper, an indie game on the PlayStation 4, is one such game I played that made a stealthy appearance into Sony’s booth at E3.

“A rhythm violence game,” as it’s described on PlayStation’s website, Thumper has you assuming control of a space beetle traversing through a trippy, but vividly bleak and absolutely stunning world described as a “hellish void” on the game’s website.

The only buttons I needed to concern myself with during the 16-stage demo were X and left and right on the joystick. Primarily following the beat of a timpani — also known as those big drums with a powerful sound you see/hear in orchestras — I simply had to follow the rhythm of the music to slide my way from stage to stage using precise timing.

Its controls and the end goal are simple on paper, but making it through corners and barriers is a greater challenge. I admittedly died a fair number of times — probably to the point to where the patient gentlemen behind me in line hated my guts — but with each death came a better understanding on how to overcome each obstacle with satisfaction.

Thumper also has boss battles in the form of a “maniacal giant head” named Crakhed, whom I had to fight in the demo. It wasn’t any different from getting through the stages the normal way. You merely had to survive more difficult obstacles to dole damage.

There isn’t much else to talk about with Thumper. It has an overt concept that anyone can crash on the couch and learn, but making it from point A to point B is a different story that people looking for a challenge should be excited for, and the eye-candy visuals during the entire ride are a treat.

Thumper is expected to hit the beat on Oct. 13 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation VR and Steam.

LEGO® STAR WARS™: The Force Awakens, PlayStation 4

If you got the chance to play the Demo for TFA, you would have experienced a small sampling of melee combat, the multi-build system, cover-based shooting and flight mechanics all set in Episode VII. It was a pleasant surprise for me to find that in the Prologue, which places you at the very end of Episode VI Return of the Jedi, to finish the fight against the Emperor, take out the generator on Endor, and blow up the Death Star.

It is these moments specifically that shine brightest in this universe. Fighting alongside Darth Vader as Luke Skywalker, against the Emperor, brought back so many nostalgic nerd feels that I think I spent more time smiling at the cut scenes, and taking a few moments to reminisce, than actually playing. But where the Lego series does a great job of taking real audio, blended with new audio, to craft a new and fun story to fill in the gaps of the movie property in question, it also fails to nail down a lot of the necessary mechanics for it to be the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy.

The Power of Flight

Arguably, the best feature in the game is the flight mechanic. So far I’ve piloted both the Millennium Falcon and the black Tie Fighter, and those are some of my favorite moments. They’re fast, responsive, intuitive, chaotic, and everything I want from a dog fight both in a planets atmosphere or in deep space. If anything, I haven’t had enough time to spend in the air and patiently await my next opportunity to take flight.

If you build it…

The multi-build mechanic also serves well for some fun puzzle solving. Rarely have I built the correct Lego set on the first go. But fortunately all I need to do is break it a part,and try one of the other versions to figure out which one works best or needs to be built first. I’ve encountered several of these on various plants and have yet to feel irritated by it.

Fist to Face Style

Melee combat is back and pretty straight forward. Lego has introduced this special “finisher” style move for the characters that have the option to use it. The combat overall is pretty repetitive, but the switching to different characters and using different finishers feels pretty satisfying throughout.

Gun Control

My main concern after playing the Demo, was how wonky I felt the controls were. Since the game was just a vertical slice, I knew there wouldn’t be any time to retool the mechanics, so the same issues in the demo are present in the full game. The aim seems sluggish and off, and I was hoping after spending a lot of time behind the barrel of a blaster, it would get better. It hasn’t. Figuring out how to use the controls doesn’t mean the controls are good, it just means you’re making the most of them so you don’t die .

The other issue is you can only use the cover-base shooter system when the game wants you too. Granted, the game is light and quick and doesn’t necessarily warrant you taking cover fire, as jumping in and mixing things up works easily enough. It just seemed strange to me to only allow certain styles of game play whenever the game wanted you to use it, as opposed to just building the cover system throughout the entire game.

The Journey Ahead

As I said in the beginning, I am only 10 hours into the game. Game mechanics are pretty consistent, so what you experience in the beginning, generally echos throughout the remainder of the game. There is definitely a lot of room for improvement to make this game become one of the best games in the galaxy, but I’m looking forward to the fun journey centered around some of my favorite intellectual property to prove me wrong. Yes, this is a Lego game. But it’s also built around one of the biggest franchises in pop culture, and warrants a certain amount of polish.

Analog Addiction’s full review of Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be up as soon as possible.

The demo of ReCore put me in the dashing boots of Joule, a girl who leads a ragtag team of robots with different abilities. Much of my time was spent going through different corridors fighting onslaughts of robots along with a pinch of puzzles.

I didn’t get too much in the way of solving puzzles, but there was plenty of chaotic action. The combat involved using an automatic weapon and the two robots I had with me, Seth and Mack featured in the gameplay reveal trailer. I also had to keep track of the color I was using on my gun among red, blue and yellow if I wanted to eradicate the enemies. For example, if I was fighting a robot with yellow lights, I needed to switch to yellow on my weapon, and it was beneficial to use Seth, who was also colored yellow.

ReCore Joule and Mack Interacting

But I’m hoping the demo does not paint a perfect picture of ReCore’s combat in its entirety. Even when using the right colors and the help of robots, it took a bit too much time to take down most of the enemies, which made things a bit dull — not to mention some of fights seemed to last longer than they should have. And because of everything happening in the middle of a fight, it was sometimes difficult to tell what was going on, though it did have a thrilling sense of intensity.

It was also enthralling to boost and avoid attacks. When factoring in the choas, using Joule’s acrobatic maneuvers to dash around weaponry firing at me from every direction and avoiding a blast in the nick of time felt satisfying.

ReCore Joule and Mack Ready for Action

Even though the combat was a bit questionable, and I ponder how long it will keep me entertained, I am still looking forward to ReCore. Its universe has a crypticness about it I wanted to explore further and learn why Joule and her team are fighting robots. And though I did not make it to much puzzles, using Seth to wall climb or a green plug robot to power up obstacles has me curious for what the team at Armature Studios and Comcept has in store for players.

ReCore is slated to release Sept. 13 on Xbox One and PC.

At its core, The Technomancer is a sci-fi role-playing game, but apart from the electric powers, it hasn’t done much to stand out so far. The game feels like a mash-up between Mass Effect, Batman Arkham and The Witcher. It’s a game set on Mars with companions that are influenced by your actions. Combat utilises a mix of primary and secondary attacks, a contextual attack depending on which of the three weapon stances you are in, and a dodge. The relation to Batman Arkham is that your secondary attack (and some of your electric attacks) has a chance to disrupt enemies, but the system is closer to The Witcher because disrupting is not a definite counter and you cannot immediately cancel an animation to use one.

At times, when you’re beating on a group of enemies with your electrified staff and then switching to your dagger to deal more damage to a single foe, combat feels fast and fun. However, when you don’t hear the sound of a gun firing from an enemy off-screen, get momentarily stunned and then wailed on by three enemies attacking simultaneously and killing you, The Technomancer can be extremely frustrating. Regular occurrences like this feel unfair. My companions are also pretty poor fighters, often getting knocked out very early into a fight making the room of eight enemies flock to me.

Combat feels extremely repetitive so far because you’re given a lot at the start of the game. You start with your three weapon stances (staff, dagger and gun, and mace and shield), and a couple of Technomancer powers. If you want to add variety to combat you have to invest skill points into the Technomancer tree rather than the other weapons to unlock new electric abilities. I still don’t have a final verdict on the combat, but that should change by the final review.

The big area where The Technomancer falls down is the graphics and technical department. The Technomancer is not a bad looking game, but it doesn’t feel like a 2016 game. The textures are very dull and nothing stands out. Mars is so hot that inhabitants have to live inside these big metal structures so they don’t get fried; otherwise they end up like the socially downtrodden mutants living in poverty. As a result, there’s very little natural light radiating off structures. It all looks very dark and boring with greys and browns taking up a large amount of the colour scheme. And you’ll only notice this once the textures actually load-in. Enter some areas and the frame rate dips to a stutter as the world loads in front of your eyes. Sometimes characters faces or hair refuse to load and I’m left starting at a black shell with a pair of eyes, or a character who has suddenly gone bald. It’s extremely off-putting and detracts from the experience because of how consistently it occurs. I’m playing through the game on PC so I can’t speak for the quality of the console versions in this regard, but I’m hoping there’s a day one patch to fix the issues which have been persistent since the start of my play-through.

I’m hoping The Technomancer‘s second half is much better than its first half because what I’ve played so far has blown me away.

Analog Addiction’s full review of The Technomancer will be up as soon as possible.

It’s a normal day within the haven known as Wall Rose. Humans, or what remains of their race, are going about their normal day, but everyone is suddenly greeted by a swarm of Titans, giant humanoid beings made of people’s nightmares. It’s up to the Survey Corp. — or Scout Regiment, as it’s known to others — to defend humanity from any Titan threats.

Enter Mikasa, one of the primary and badass characters in Attack on Titan, the character I assumed the role of during my demo. After watching a cinematic of Mikasa taking down a Titan eyeing a crowd of people for its dinner, which nearly mirrored an epic moment in the anime, I proceeded to use my 3D maneuvering gear, the device that gives the Survey Corp. a Spider-Man-like ability to traverse through environments, and blades to defend the city.

All of my time was spent slashing my way through Titans as different threats popped up throughout the city. For the most part, combat and slinging my way through buildings with the 3D gear was much more fluid than I was expecting. People, understandably, think of Spider-Man with the 3D gear, and the game replicates that feeling well. Finding the right angle and timing my use of the gear followed by a midair boost was thrilling. The game even had you sharpening your blades and replacing the gas canisters in your 3D gear, which was a nice touch.

The controls take a bit to get used to. Playing on Xbox One at Microsoft’s E3 booth, X was used for 3D maneuvering gear, Y was used to attack and RB was used to switch between traversal and locking on to Titans. You also have different body parts to target, so you can slice off an arm or two if someone is about to be eaten. And a well-timed strike just before you reach your targeted limb is not only key to taking down an enemy, but immensely satisfying.

While the combat and traversal elements complemented each other well, I didn’t feel the one thing Attack on Titan’s show drills into viewers: fear. Every Titan, even a small one by itself, is a threat in the world of Attack on Titan — and never mind the unique ones with intelligence and abilities. Remember when Eren and his squad was wiped out by the fifth episode, and perhaps more importantly, how the Titans did it? That’s a moment in my entertainment history I will never forget because it showed no one was safe in this world — before you learned Eren could transform into a Titan of course — and why these creatures were truly frightening.

These feelings were not instilled in me during the demo, not even once as I was getting a feel for the controls. Every Titan felt like a purposefully dumbed down, dawdling target for the sake of giving me a cool takedown moment. Sure, Titans in general aren’t the most intelligent monsters out there, but they sure wouldn’t have given me as many chances to let me slice them limb by limb as they did. And further diminishing the immersion were noticeable stutters in the Titans’ animations.

Ultimately, I’m my interest has been piqued in Attack on Titan after my 15 to 20 minutes with it. It does a great job of making the player feel like they are a part of the brave men and women who comprise the Survey Corp., but I also hope developer Omega Force can remedy issues such as unintelligent AI and sluggish animations before it hits North America and Europe on Aug. 30. and Aug. 26 respectively.

And as a warning, I was also told the game goes into plot territory beyond the first season. So, if, like me, you are only keeping up with the anime, you might want to use your 3D maneuvering gear and launch yourself far away from spoilers.

And yes, the trailer is every bit as insane as it makes the game out to be.

With 10 minutes to spare in the demo I played at Capcom’s E3 booth, I was given one simple objective: kill as many zombies as I could with insane weapons.

Within a minute of the demo, I could tell Dead Rising 4 isn’t much different from its predecessors, especially Dead Rising 3, but it’s far from a bad thing. You will spend much of your time clearing scores of zombies with the most ludicrous arsenal. I mainly used a crossbow with projectiles that shot firework rounds, which would then explode with a sizable blast radius, but I had other items such as a huge ax with electrifying results — literally — and a traditional Molotov cocktail.

‘Cause baby you’re a …

Switching weapons is now a breezier process. Instead of having a limited inventory space and switching through each weapon one at a time, there are now three categories of weaponry used via three buttons: melee, shooting and throwing items. Pressing X will swing whichever melee weapon you have equipped; right trigger will shoot projectiles such as rifles, or the bow I used — though the left trigger can still be used to bring up a targeting reticle and shoot the traditional way; and throw-able items like a plunger with explosives strapped around it are tossed into crowds with the left bumper.

Each weapon type can host up to eight objects, meaning Frank’s maximum inventory can reach up to 24 items once the player has leveled up enough. While I never found switching weapons to be a nuisance in Dead Rising, this implementation certainly makes things more streamlined in combat.

I drove one vehicle, a dune buggy of sorts with, basically, military weaponry mounted on the top. It had machine guns and missile launchers that easily destroyed clusters of zombies. The most interesting component of this over-the-top vehicle was the machine gun that fired its rounds while spinning 360 degrees.

I also discovered the exo suit — clearly used by yet another new pernicious military branch — featured in the trailer, and while I couldn’t find abilities other than punching zombies, it was still a knockout item. While it is powerful, it can only be used for a limited time. The lights on the suit indicate its power level, and mine started running low within a mere few minutes, though I’m positive it can be upgraded to some capacity in the final game.

The photography elements found in the original game also make a return. Using Frank’s camera, players can attempt to capture insane pictures to gain extra experience points, or PP.

Outside the demo, an Xbox representative shared further details about the game. The story takes place 16 years after the events from the first game. Like Dead Rising 3’s aptly named Super Ultra Dead Rising 3′ Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX + α content, Dead Rising 4 will feature four-player co-op, but it will also feature a separate story from the single-player component. The rep couldn’t comment on whether or not the co-op would be lengthier than solo play, but it’s nice to see it will be available from the start rather than via extra content.

Dead Rising 4 is exactly what I expected: the kind of dumb fun and zaniness you would find in a B-movie. Fans of the series will feel right at home at Willamette Mall and beyond when the game releases on Dec. 6, and those looking for a simply entertaining title — despite it being 42, 176th zombie game on the market — need to look no further than Dead Rising 4.

The Halo Wars 2 multiplayer open beta currently running on Xbox One features a domination game mode on a sandy map called Ricochet. Two teams of two build armies in order to capture five points around the map. Holding points depletes the other team’s tickets, with the first team to reach zero losing. Matches in this mode tended to last 15 to 20 minutes. At times it felt too short. Just when you start building up a threatening army, the game ends. Additionally, the team behind at the ten minute mark often does not have time to build up their army again and fight back. I played 10 games of Halo Wars 2 before writing this, and about 8 out of the 10 ended up being a whitewash. Domination is an attacking focused game, you have to have a bigger army to win and losing a fight, even early in the game, puts you at an often unrecoverable disadvantage.

Keep in mind that the real-time strategy genre is not a common console genre, and many players jumping in to the beta, including myself, are just learning the game’s mechanics. In its current state, Halo Wars 2’s tutorial does not do a good enough job of explaining how certain aspects of the game work, but this is only a beta eight months away from release.

On the other hand, Halo Wars 2‘s intuitive control scheme could act as an example for other studios thinking of bringing real-time strategy to a game-pad. The left stick moves the cursor around the screen, and the right stick controls the camera. You can hold down LB to move your cursor faster. Creative Assembly is making the most out of the limited functions of the controller by adding different actions based on tapping or holding buttons. The A button selects individual units, or you can hold it down to select a group of units. Tapping RB selects all units on the screen, or holding it selects all of your units. X commands selected units to move or attack. The d-pad is used to move quickly between your bases and your units, as well as set a point for newly spawned units to automatically gather at. Being able to quickly move between bases and units made micro-management more accessible because I could quickly survey what was happening with each unit and base and move back to whatever my key focus was.

The view/back button pulls up your command tree which you can use to unlock special abilities such as dropping airstrikes on enemies. These abilities are very important in tight fights. In one match my massive grunt army came up against another grunt army of roughly the same size. I quickly used one of my commander abilities to launch a Covenant laser beam from the sky, destroying some of his army and turning the fight to my side. Losing such a big fight put my opponent on the back foot for the rest of the game, and I went on to win the match. During that fight the frame-rate dropped dramatically, but this is a beta build early in development.

My favourite part about Halo Wars 2 so far has been the variety of upgrades and units available. In each of the three unit categories (infantry, land and air), there are about four units each with different uses. Vehicles like the Warthog are great in the early game for moving around the map and taking out the basic soldiers, while Scorpion tanks are slower, but carry more firepower in the later game. They also cost more. I found myself constantly agonising over which units to build and which upgrades to unlock, each game tweaking my plan to find the perfect strategy (I haven’t found it yet). Should I take the risk and overwhelm my opponent with numbers early on, or take the time to build stronger units for the end game? You’ve got to decide on a strategy early in Halo Wars 2, but also be willing to alter it should your opponent counter it.

Being in charge of a UNSC or Covenant army is fun, especially when you see a huge collection of grunts and brutes racing across the battlefield in a cloud of dust. It captures the giant scale of war that is somewhat contained in the traditional games because putting that many enemies up against the player would be cruel.

Overall, I’ve enjoyed my time with Halo Wars 2. It is fun taking control of and building an army from the beloved gaming franchise, with enough variety to encourage experimenting without overwhelming. Considering the real-time strategy genre’s mouse and keyboard roots, Creative Assembly has found intelligent game-pad compromises for the controls. I do worry that resource gain and army building times are too long for the shorter multiplayer game modes to really creative the feeling of all out war, but there’s plenty of time to make tweaks.

The Good

Devon McCarty (PlayStation 4): I had a lot of fun playing Overwatch. The game had been marketed enough to where I liked and was looking forward to taking each character for a spin, and I was pleased to know that in the tutorial, and each game mode (barring one or two), you are encouraged to fill your team and swap characters as often as possible. I found my main character pretty quickly, but made a point to try as many characters as possible to see the differences. While every character is essentially a FPS style, there are enough class variations to make sure you aren’t filling your team with just tanks or just snipers. At the character select screen before a match, an easy to read alert system notifies the team of what they’re missing or too heavy on, which as a relative MOBA noob, was very helpful to me. If I had to break my time down into three words, they would be; Quick, fun, and funny.

Nathan Manning (PC): From the weekend I spent playing it, Overwatch feels like a fresh shooter experience. My colleagues throw around the word MOBA when talking about Overwatch, but it most definitely is not. It’s a team-based shooter, and the mechanics reflect that. Overwatch just felt so smooth and responsive. On first impression it doesn’t look like it does much different to other shooters, apart from the unique characters, but it does everything so well. Each character has its own strengths and weaknesses, and most of them are fun to use. In team-based games with many characters I always find myself sticking to one character that I like to use, but with Overwatch I wanted to use all of them.

Eric Pepper (Xbox One): There are a healthy variety of characters to choose from, each with very unique skills and weaponry, allowing every style of FPS and MOBA player to find something which will allow them to feel at home. As Nathan also mentioned, the stark contrasts between each hero compels you to test out each one at least as a trial just to find out what they can do.

The practice arena was also a very welcome addition to the beta as it allowed newcomers to get a feel for every individual character and their abilities before heading off into battle against human enemies who have spent more time familiarizing themselves with the different abilities and play styles.

The Bad

Devon McCarty (PlayStation 4): While “loot” chests are opened constantly to give your character more variations in phrases, poses, and skins, there is absolutely no levelling system in this game. You “rank” up your character, garnering experience points and such. But there isn’t any way to enhance your damage per second or strengthen your armour. I am the same at level nine as you are at level one, and that is a huge problem for me. I think it may be possible for the development team to get away from wanting people to level up to new abilities…except aren’t these the people that made World of Warcraft? It just seemed like there wasn’t a reward system in place to keep me playing. I want better gear, weapons, specials, than what the beta offered.

Nathan Manning (PC): A couple of the heroes felt a bit overpowered in their current state. In particular Bastion, the walking tank robot, and Reinhardt, a shield and hammer wielding knight. The best thing about Overwatch is that every hero has a counter, but these two heroes are the hardest to counter currently. Bastion can set himself up behind his team and use his gatling gun to mow down advancing players. He can be countered by sniper characters, but they are often killed by the time they land up a shot. Meanwhile, Reinhardt feels overpowered on the attacking side because his barrier shield ability blocks all bullets for his team and has a lot of health. This allows the attacking team to apply pressure on the defending team without much resistance. Team mates can shoot through Reinhardt’s shield, but enemies cannot. Reducing the size of the shield could help to balance the hero.

Eric Pepper (Xbox One): Unfortunately, I found myself taking issue with a great number of things from the beta. While people may spend hours arguing over whether Overwatch classifies as a MOBA or FPS title, regardless of classification, there were still very key elements missing. The complete lack of minimap, even if it only shows enemy blips in a general direction if they have started firing, is a huge aspect to remove from any competitive game.

Secondly, the fact that any number of team-mates can play the same character renders games horribly unbalanced. Normally in MOBAs, only one player per team may select a certain hero, but in Overwatch‘s beta, you could have an entire team comprised solely of one character. In the case of certain overpowered characters (eg. Bastion), a team can simply sit around the single objective on a map and blow their opponents away with relative ease.

Thirdly, the ability to swap out characters at your leisure while in your home base is absolutely absurd if you are playing a game in which your individual hero has specific abilities. This ties in with the fact that there is no cap on the number of team-mates using one hero, but swapping out abilities at any time means that once you capture the objective, a team can simply swap out their choices for something far more defensive and tank-like, making it infinitely more difficult to steal. This no longer promotes a competitive and balanced game, instead suggesting that whichever team captures the zone first will reign supreme.

The Memorable

Devon McCarty (PlayStation 4): *Mild spoiler on Hanso’s Special attack*

Hanso was instantly picked as my main. He was quick, could climb walls, had awesome range, and a heck of a special. I had the hardest time switching to different characters once I started playing as him. He could mark targets, take down multiples at one time, and that special though… Overwatch will highlight a key moment in each game that a player created. For me, it was a moment during a “king of the hill” style game mode where we had to hold down an objective until we took it over. My team was doing just that when the opposing team came all rushing together. My team was able to draw them to this cluster and weaken them, and I finished their entire team with my special attack. Which became the highlight reel of that match. That moment of sheer joy, watching all of their time get eaten by twin dragons (yep!) Tickled all of my competitive nerd feels and I never wanted to quit playing.

Nathan Manning (PC): My most memorable moment in the open beta was playing as the attacking hero Pharah. My team was holding an objective in a capture the hill game mode, and the opposing team was in the process of pushing onto the point. While my tank team mate was engaging the enemy, I rushed in and launched my rockets at the three enemies that were on the point. I score a triple kill, and then used my ultimate to fire a barrage of missiles at the fourth enemy who was coming in for a last ditch effort. It’s common to score multi-kills in Overwatch, and it’s even more satisfying when your great play gets seen by everyone at the end of the game if it is deemed to be the play of the game.

Eric Pepper (Xbox One): There was a single moment while watching a friend play as D.Va which sticks out as the sole shining moment from the beta. He walked into a room with the entire team already engaged in a massive fire-fight with his opponents and proceeded to mow down two enemies with the mech’s machine guns. At this point he ejected from the suit, shoved it towards the remaining enemies, killed two more of them in the explosion, took out one of the last opponents with the pistol, and managed to call his mech suit back in time to shoot down the final enemy. It was glorious to see that 20 seconds of gameplay come together in such a way, but every game, regardless of genre, will inevitably have some epic moments.

So there you have it, that’s what the Analog Addiction editors thought of the Overwatch Open Beta. Now we want to know what you thought of the Open Beta, tell us in the comments below, or with social media.

Overwatch will be available on May 24 on PC, PlayStation 4 and PC.

Considering myself a veteran hero shooter and MOBA player, I decided to grab fellow editor and MOBA noob Devon McCarty to see what his experience with the Battleborn Open Beta was like compared to mine.

Story Missions

Nathan (the veteran): I’m not sure if there’s going to be much of a story joining Battleborn‘s story missions, but they are definitely fun to play. A group of up to five players jump in, choose their characters and run through a linear environment killing everything in their path. I loved that the environments in both missions looked very different to each other. One was set on an icy planet, while the other was set mainly inside a metallic structure. The mission structures were fairly similar for both missions, with a mini boss fight about halfway through, and then a final boss fight at the end. They were a lot of fun, and took roughly 30 minutes on the normal difficulty. There aren’t really any MOBA elements in the story missions, apart from levelling up your hero from level one each session, so I believe they will be perfect for newcomers to test out the different playable characters and their abilities.

You can tell that Battleborn is being developed by the minds behind Borderlands, with the same witty humor peeking its head up in the dialogue.

Devon (the noob): For my first foray into the game, a lot of the people that joined in on my campaign were just running around and blasting the hell out of everything. Everyone joined in easy enough and we all followed whatever path was available for us to take. For the Beta, there were only a handful of missions available, and obviously it was limited and left me wanting to see what else was in store. Saying that, the last few beta’s I’ve played left me with the same feeling, and when the game came out, far exceeded my expectations.

5v5 Multiplayer Game Modes

Nathan: This was the first time I’d played Battleborn‘s multiplayer modes, and I was interested to see how much they drew from MOBA games like League of Legends, DOTA 2 and SMITE. There were two game modes in Battleborn‘s open beta, Incursion and Meltdown (a third will be available at launch called capture).

Incursion sees each team moving minions along a single lane to try and destroy two enemy spider tanks. The spider tanks are essentially turrets from the MOBA genre. It keeps the action centered as each team meets in the middle of the map and participates in a tug of war. I’d say this is MOBA newcomer friendly, with novices not having to worry about protecting three lanes. There appears to be enough strategy for veteran MOBA players with three neutral camps to fight over which spawn powerful allied mercenaries that help push the lane. There are also turrets and health stations to purchase around the map with the game’s currency, shards, that players can collect from crystals on the map and from minion deaths. It’s very fast paced, and the 30 minute time limit kept games from dragging on.

It should be said that at first Incursion can be a little daunting, even for a veteran player like myself, because of how focused the action is. Battleborn is a very pretty game with lots of colourful explosions and attacks flying across the screen, and it can be confusing telling what’s what until you become more familiar.

Devon: Meltdown was my instant favourite. It was the only time where I knew exactly what was going on and had a blast with it. The goal was simply to escort your minions (little robot dudes) into the giant robot face of your opponent. The little dudes would run into their robot face and destroy it.

I know it sounds simplistic, but I had a blast defending my guys, and destroying the other teams. Of all the game modes available on the Beta, Meltdown was easily my favorite.

Nathan: Likewise, my favourite game mode was also Meltdown. Like Devon said, Meltdown is played on a smaller two-lane map and has teams pushing minions into an incinerator to score points, with the first to 500, or the most points after 30 minutes, winning. This map required more strategy because if one lane was left open, the other team could gain the advantage by pushing its minions into its incinerators. Like Incursion, there are turrets and health stations to purchase around the map to provide advantages for your team.

I like that Battleborn has taken MOBA elements, and changed the formula a bit to create game modes that are accessible for veterans and newcomers alike, but also have room for strategy. The 30 minute timer is a great edition, with most games over by the 20 minute mark anyway.

The Heroes

Devon: I’m still pretty new to MOBA style games. So I kept picking Oscar Mike, which turned my game into a first person shooter. There are so many different character classes to pick from, each with their own level tree to follow, that I would have probably been even more confused by picking something I didn’t understand. At least with Oscar Mike, I had a solid foundation to work from because a dude with a rifle is the same all over.

Nathan: Battleborn‘s hero selection appears to be quite impressive. There’s a nice variety of heroes to fit each playstyle, and most of them were fun to play as. Not every hero will be playable from the get-go, with players unlocking heroes by levelling up or by completing a challenge associated with the hero. Some are even unlocked by playing the main story missions.

Class wise, there are long range snipers, damage absorbing tanks, support characters that heal and shield, assassins with skills that hit hard and fast, and mages that deal steady damage. Each class has a different playstyle and they were all fun to use. My favourites were Rath, a melee based swordsman who’s attacks give him lifesteal, Orendi, a ranged mage who throws down an area of effect spell that is great for clearing minions, and Reyna, a ranged character who can apply an overshield to herself and an ally while launching homing missiles at enemies. With 25 playable characters, it will be interesting to see how balanced all of the characters are when the game launches, especially the characters unlocked at later levels.

The most important topic: Gameplay

Devon: Playing “Meltdown” was the only time I ever fully understood my objective. I played through the campaign with some people and we couldn’t figure out what was going on. We had already killed everything to kill, and then we couldn’t find a path or objective to pursue. It was frustrating because all of the sudden, a gate that was up dropped and we could continue. No one had done anything, it just decided to do so. I’m hoping little things like that are fixed for the full release of the game.

Nathan: Battleborn‘s gameplay was so much fun; I couldn’t stop playing. It’s a first person shooter at its core, and almost feels similar to Borderlands in this regard too. Each character gets a primary attack, a secondary attack, a couple of skills and an ultimate attack. The skills all run on a cooldown system, so you don’t have to worry about mana consumption which keeps the action fast paced.

I must admit that at first it was all very overwhelming because of how colourful Battleborn is, but, like most MOBAs and team-based shooters, once I worked out what each heroes’ skills looked like, it was easy to keep track of what was going on. Gearbox has made several great shooters, and Battleborn‘s Open Beta suggests Gearbox’s next venture could be no different.

Overall thoughts on the Battleborn Open Beta

Devon: Battleborn has a heck of a lot going for it. It’s fun, lighthearted, and easy to pick up and run around in even if you’re not exactly sure what to do. The most fun I had (like any game) was playing with some friends and having them coach me through our objectives. My main concern would be the connectivity issues with doing big parties. That’s the concern with any online heavy game and I always try to be a little easier on a Beta since it is just that. However, if I pick the game up and start having the same connectivity issues I had with the beta, I will be very disappointed. Overall I am looking forward to this title and look forward to hearing more about it.

Nathan: Unlike Devon, I had no connectivity issues during the Open Beta, playing across both Xbox One and PC. I’m extremely excited for Battleborn, and I’m glad it’s not too far away. From my brief weekend with the game, it appears to be shaping up to be a solid first person shooter with interesting re-imaginings of staple MOBA elements. The hero selection can make or break games like this, but it looks like Battleborn is on the right track. I was worried about Battleborn‘s multiplayer modes and thought they might be dumbing down the MOBA genre for shooter fans, but I actually really like the direction Gearbox Software is taking with the multiplayer.

Battleborn will be available worldwide next Tuesday, May 3rd.

Humorously billed as “a release title for the (fictional) Atari Jaguar back in ’92”, OmniBus is actually a game for the PC and Mac, due to release in Spring 2016.  Now, thanks to the handy work of “two of the biggest minds in gaming development” (AKA Jeremy Crockett and Amir Badri; a two man indie company called Buddy Cops), OmniBus is back on its feet from production limbo and ready to dazzle players across the globe. Calling back to the prominent-polygon days of yesteryear in gaming, Omnibus invites its players to strap in, hold tight and crack open a Pepsi Crystal, because this is one bus ride they won’t easily forget.

OmniBus’ simplistic initial set-up is one that is essential to understanding its overall loony feel. You play as a bus with only one setting: go. Whereas most developers in driving games provide players with the option for a brake, the Omnibus simply increases in speed the longer that player runs across the map, increasing in difficulty. With a physics engine that would make any next-gen developer openly weep and a design style that belongs back on the PSone, the overall insanity of OmniBus provides hilarious context for an enjoyable game title.

In the game you are given several modes of play: Story Mode, Multiplayer Derby Mode and Freeplay, giving players ample amounts of replay and (ridiculous) value. Of particular note is the Story Mode, in which you enter the “deep emotional narrative” of the story of our hero: Omnibus. As the “noble bus hero we’ve always wanted but didn’t know we needed,” you traverse through levels in worlds such as the sky, the moon, or even the exotic vacation spot of “City Land, USA.” Within each world are several levels, posing a “simple” driving challenge. These challenges are pretty standard for those of us familiar with your basic bus use: busting open ancient tombs to collect remains, transporting astronauts to a wedding, or island-hoping via trampolines and speed up ramps. Like I said, pretty standard…

Of particular note is the driving design of the OmniBus. As previously mentioned above, the guys at Buddy Cops weren’t concerned with providing players with a hyper-realistic driving game. In fact, I’m fairly certain they’ve neglected that thought altogether. It is within this choice that the fun truly begins. Once you start moving at the start of each level, there’s no stopping until you encounter a building or a physical obstacle. Either you bounce off in all directions, or you smash through entire structures, without so much as a scratch. The basic objectives for each level then boils down to “smash into this thing” or “don’t smash into this thing”, with a stupid sense of humor about itself that keeps players coming back for more.

Overall, If you’re looking for a game that’s incredibly aware of its design choices as a means of nostalgia and able to make you laugh and cringe all in the same go, OmniBus is the next indie game for you. The wacky controls, strange set-up and 90’s arcade style design are part of what make this game a hit, and have this writer eagerly anticipating its release date announce.

While there isn’t an official release date on the title, the steam page boasts a Spring 2016 release, so check back for further updates! In the meantime, check out the hilarious Story Trailer below that originally caught our eye. As always, check back with Analog Addiction for all of your gaming news, previews and reviews!