Tales of Arise
Verdict: An awesome throwback RPG
What is it?
Tales of Arise is an action role-playing game developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The seventeenth main entry in the Tales series, the game follows two people from the opposing worlds of Dahna and Rena. Rena’s superior technological and magical advancement cause it to hold power over Dahna, taking its resources and treating its people as slaves. The protagonists are a young man, Alphen, native to Dahna, and a young woman, Shionne, from Rena, who end up travelling together.
Gameplay
Like previous games in the series, the game retains the basic Tales battle system, dubbed the Linear Motion Battle System, which this time has a big focus on evading and countering. Unlike many of the previous titles in the series, the game will not feature multiplayer, with development team deciding to focus on various interactions between characters in combat, including the addition of the “Boost Strike” feature, allowing multiple party members to perform destructive attacks together under certain conditions.
Graphics
Tales of Arise is an incredibly pretty game, both in its main character models and its often amazing environmental design. Some of the locations are stunning in their artistry, presenting the kind of situation where you start panning the camera around in an attempt to breathe it all in. Simply put, this game’s begging for a photo mode.
Deathloop
Deathloop is a next-gen first person shooter from Arkane Lyon, the award-winning studio behind Dishonoured. In DEATHLOOP, two rival assassins are trapped in a mysterious time loop on the island of Blackreef, doomed to repeat the same day for eternity. As Colt, the only chance for escape is to end the cycle by assassinating eight key targets before the day resets. Learn from each cycle – try new paths, gather intel and find new weapons and abilities. Do whatever it takes to break the loop.
Life Is Strange: True Colours
Alex Chen, a young Asian-American woman who has grown up in a foster family and has had a troubled childhood, reunites with her brother Gabe eight years later when he encourages her to return. After Gabe is killed in a mysterious accident, Alex investigates the truth behind the accident by using her empathy powers. Along the way, Alex meets many citizens of Colorado’s picturesque mountain town of Haven Springs, including two potential love interests, Ryan and Steph, the latter of whom appeared in Life Is Strange: Before the Storm.
WRC 10
Although 2021 officially marks the 49th season of the World Rally Championship, WRC 10 packs in a ton of 50th anniversary content. It arrives armed with the most retro content to grace developer KT Racing’s series so far, with a new mode featuring cars and stages representing five decades of rally racing history. Combined with a deep career mode, the result is the strongest official WRC game to date.