Sunday 18 September 2016

Niche TV: Go 8 Bit

This month is about to get crazy for geeky TV; Marvel has Agents of SHIELD Season 4 on TV and Luke Cage for Netflix, Red Dwarf comes back to Dave, the new season of Star Wars: Rebels hits Disney XD and The Walking Dead is on the horizon (technically next month)... and I'm sure I'm missing some. You may not have noticed that a new video game gameshow (?) has been airing on Dave. Hosted by Dara O'Briain the 3rd episode aired Monday 19th September. Having got caught up I've realised this is something I want to share.

Photo: UKTV


Two resident team captains are joined by (possible) celebrities, as they go head to head playing some of their favourite games. Each contestant gets their own 8 bit style avatar complete with 3 letter nameplate. The audience vote on who they think will win each challenge and this also determines the amount of points up for grabs.
The nostalgia factor is strong with this one, the first episode featured Tetris, Chucky Egg, and a particularly tense match of Tekken... things got more modern with a round of Star Wars: Battlefront and then ended with a very unique take on Bust-a-Move.

I have to commend the way the show handles gaming, treating it as a legitimate hobby rather than the domain of “lonely nerds”. However I worry this may rely on the quali.... attitude of the celebrity guests, but overall there's a respectful and positive attitude.

The humour won't be to everyone's taste, although it is reminiscent of a few gaming nights I've shared with friends, there is some adult humour such as a tangent regarding chicken bumginas... I said “adult” humour, not “grown up”.

The whole thing is refreshing and entertaining. I haven't seen a gaming show on TV in an age, and Go 8 Bit feels like a spiritual successor to classic GamesMaster. If that isn't reason enough to give it a try I don't know what is.

For an extra challenge, see how many gaming references you can spot in the intro!


If you've missed the first few episodes try UKTV PLAY for on demand content from Dave.

Saturday 17 September 2016

Full Review: Hatsune Miku Diva X



It’s here! I’ve been waiting for more rhythm based fun for my Vita. You may have seen my rather excited preview based on the demo?
Well now I can sink hours and hours into the full game and let you know if I think it’s worth it.

For a rundown on how the game plays, who Miku is and what exactly Vocaloid music is when it's at home (or anywhere else for that matter), see our handy primer....HERE or get up to speed with our review of Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f and f 2nd in issue 9 of Niche: Treat Your Geek (special free preview HERE).


Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X is a rhythm action game and if you’ve been reading Niche for a while now then you know how this works already but the linked Primer goes into more detail. Not much has changed for the core gameplay; chained combos have gone, rush notes look a bit different and there’s a new score multiplier feature, there are plenty of other changes to cover though.


It’s evident that the developers have made an effort to improve the experience as a hole, refreshed graphics, streamlined menus and much shorter load times all become apparent pretty quickly. The game isn't simply recycled from last year and none of the new features feel gimmicky, although I feel like the new story mode could have used a bit more fleshing out.




The first mode you’ll be able to play is this new story mode, songs are separated into clouds and it’s your job to help Miku and Co sing well enough to restore the cloud and unlock the next one. On your first run through there’ll be regular breaks for visual novel style conversations, I like that they’re bringing more focus on the characters and while there’s some funny or cute moments it is a little underwhelming, I’d have preferred full blown cutscenes similar to the intro movie for each game. I was worried that splitting the songs into clouds to be unlocked in any order might cause problems for new players with massive difficulty spikes, although helpfully playing through once on easy is enough to unlock every cloud, every song (almost) and progress to the next phase of the story, no difficulty spikes in sight. Once you have restored each cloud you’re then free to pick which song, difficulty or challenge you want to do, and you’ll also have the songs unlocked in the more traditional free play mode.


Story also has a few bells and whistles over freeplay so it might be worth sticking around. For instance, equipping accessories will boost your score multiplier, if they match the theme of the cloud, making it easier to pass challenges and recharge the cloud. You can also equip new costumes called modules that add to this multiplier but also have special bonuses, such as extra points for long combos or a greater chance of a rare loot drop... Yes I said loot drop, story mode is the only mode where you have a chance of unlocking new modules (appropriately during chance time) and if you score high enough you’ll receive random accessories or gifts for your idols. I think this is a great addition, it removes the early grind for points of previous games, no more exiting the game to the shop menu, purchasing and going back into the game and with the attached bonuses there’s more reason to switch up gear and try new things. These small instant rewards are something we see more of in modern games, and that’s because they’re so effective at encouraging prolonged play... as if I wasn‘t addicted to these games already! One issue I have had with this customisation though is that during story songs the game wont automatically set the correct performer so at one point I had Miku playing all the male parts... rather confusing. There is a little symbol to match up while picking your module though so the game doesn't leave you completely clueless.

Pick up a few of the gift items an you’ll be able to give them to your favourite singer, this time around you don't need to go into separate menus. The last character you performed as will live on the main menu and even occasionally comment on your progress, at times they’ll make a vague request for an item and you’ll have to pick which item you have that would make them happiest, this can be tricky now that you can't select exactly which gifts you want to buy but it’s a nice way to integrate the gift giving, plus get it right and eventually your relationship will level up, granting you a bonus to the way you build your multiplier. Streamlining of the process does mean we lose some of the gift giving scenes and room customisation but that isn't something I did much of given that it was separated from the main game, plus the results are still the same; your relationship goes up or down and items appear on shelves in the background.



We do lose out on a few features through this streamlining but they tend to be lesser used features, edit mode has gone but you can still produce performances to existing tracks, load screen art has gone but there are some stills to unlock and the buff/handicap items are now built into challenges or free to use in freeplay mode. There are two features that I’m sad to lose though; gadgets seem to have been taken out, meaning you cant set up playlists to just watch or listen to... this is how Miku invaded my life before, I could take the songs anywhere, but I guess it was one of the less popular features. The other change I can see fans disagreeing with is that we no longer get full music videos for the tracks, the new stage performance style suits the themes of the game but aren't quite as engaging or impressive, on the plus side this means there’s less to distract you mid song and everyone has a chance to show off their mad dance skillz.


This time I even managed to put down my precious vita and go try the PS4 demo, it’s the same game but the graphics really pop on a big screen and it suits the game’s concert vibe. I didn't have any problem calibrating for display lag this time either. PS4 also has the promise of VR content once the PSVR is released... although I can‘t justify buying in to VR just for the sake of Virtual Miku concerts... or can I?






Project Diva X, advances the series with several improvements that make it more accessible and get you into the game quicker. Two of my favourite features have gone, and I'm not too happy about that, until I pick up the game again and realise I still love the music and the gameplay. If you're looking for rhythm game you can't do much better... provided you're open to vocaloid music. The loss of the background music video style means I'm reluctant to refer to this as the definitive Hatsune Miku game, but that doesn't stop it being one of my gaming highlights this year.




Thursday 15 September 2016

Hatsune Miku: Primer

With the run up to Niche X, it's all been a little quiet here on the blog, but we do have some content coming!

In preparation, here's a beginners guide to Hatsune Miku and the Project Diva games, you may need it.


The main gameplay involves targets appearing across the screen, usually in a pattern that helps discern the rhythm, and then button prompts fly in and you have to hit the corresponding button as it passes the target in time with the music. There’s also a few star-shaped notes that you need to swipe either with touch or thumbsticks. Songs also feature two special sections; Technical sections require you to hit every note for a hefty score bonus, Chance Time sections require you to hit enough prompts to charge a star shaped gauge, hit the final star target in the sequence with a full gauge and in most games you trigger an event and some extra points. It's pretty engaging and well designed rhythm gameplay and the difficulty scales nicely so that on Easy you only have to worry about one button (not nearly as boring as it sounds) but on extreme symbols fly thick and fast in all four varieties plus some requiring hitting two buttons at once.



Each and every song is performed by Vocaloids, a kind of Virtual Japanese Idol built around some fancy voice synth technology that can create whole words from a bank of recorded phonetic sounds and turn that into singing. It's then up to some very talented producers to create professional quality songs using these tools. It’s very Niche, very Japanese and I find it fascinating. It helps that these virtual voices are attached to actual characters. Miku herself is the quintessential Japanese Idol, a manufactured super cute diva. In the games you'll see her star alongside other vocaloids; KAITO, MEIKO, Rin, Len and Luka


With the rising popularity of vocaloid popstars (Miku in particular) several games have already been released under Project Diva for PlayStation platforms and Project Mirai for Nintendo 3DS. You might also spot collectable Nendroid and Pop figures of these "Piapro“ characters – created by Crypton Future Media, the developer of the voice tech. If you’ve ever seen a cosplayer with long green hair and not been able to place the character, chances are it’s Miku in one of her many costumes (referred to as modules in game). It's clear a lot of effort has been put into giving these characters personality and style.




Intrigued? Feel free to ask any questions and get involved in the conversation or check out our other Miku content.


Monday 5 September 2016

Sunday 4 September 2016

No Man's Sky X Space Dandy: Home of the Tentacles, Baby!

 For those not familiar with Space Dandy the anime was review in issue of Niche: Treat Your Geek and is available on Netflix. Anyhoo, Dandy is the perfect guest writer to bring you misadventures in No Man's Sky, the space exploration game from Hello Games.

Stories from No Man's Sky featuring Space Dandy: he's a dandy guy, in space. He combs the galaxy, like his pompadour, on the hunt for aliens. Planet after planet he searches, discovering bizarre new creatures, both friendly and not. These are the spectacular adventures of Space Dandy and (without) his brave space crew... in space.


--------- Transmission Incoming --------------

LAST TIME WE SAW DANDY HE WAS ABOUT TO BLAST OFF FOR THE NEXT STAGE OF HIS QUEST FOR BooBies... HE APPARENTLY STOPPED FOR ICE CREAM... HEY IT'S A LONG JOURNEY OK?


"That hit the spot... right, hyperjump, here goes-it, one last glance back at the station... Dandy approves of the architecture, baby!


Hyperdrive up and a runnin'... first jump and no hair loss... score.

Kay so, new planet...


 Good thing I found that Ice Cream truck, no way i'm touchin' half eaten floor doughnuts...
                                                                                                                                                                
Somethin' tells me these ain't real pumpkins either...
                                                                                                                                                        
The local grub's not gonna fly but the wildlife... it's somethin' else man.

It's good to see this little guy made it into space though....

Found a new planet, registered some rare aliens, not so hard without that freeloadin' crew.


Night time, planet lights up like it's under a black light, damn plant life is freaky, great bulbous shafts and tentacles.... tentacles everywhere…



I'm headin' back to the ship before any of these plants get any ideas.




I'm outta here. Turns out those little robot guys have starships... and they're shooting at me, baby!

Ok, ok, so i may have "dinged" a freighter... or err, accidentally blown a hole in the side of one while I was busy... researching. 

Things quieten down in orbit and I can rename entire planets? This place is no longer Ceetzu Apomanon, it will forever be “Home of the Tentacles, Baby!”




------ Transmission Complete -----------

As this Dandy travels the cosmos you might see his discoveries within the game, follow him on PS4 real_space_dandy and while you're there, check out the Niche: Treat Your Geek PS4 Community (search for us under the community tab of the PS4 menu)




Please note Space Dandy and No Man's Sky are properties of their respective owners and not owned by Niche. Article intended for entertainment purposes only.

No Man's Sky: Explorers Guide Part 2

Welcome back for a few more tips and advanced tricks for No Man's Sky.

Warping


Read up on my Greek letters hint? Good. It happens that rarer, more exotic planets show up around the coloured stars on the galaxy map but you can only get to specific colours with a specific warp drive upgrade. Sigma for red stars, Tau for green stars and Theta for blue stars. I have seen an Omega level weapon upgrade so maybe one day that will make an appearance as a warp drive, but it's not there yet, so don't look for it!



Atlas Path (SPOILERS)


As you track Atlas across the cosmos you’ll run into its different form inside special space stations known as Atlas Interfaces. Inside these you’ll see orb-like lights on the floor, run over these and some will teach you new alien words, walk along the path and you usually get a new tech too. Walk up and talk to the Atlas itself and it will grant you an Atlas stone, these sell for a pretty penny but (SPOILER) you might want to hold on to them ( 10 by the time you reach the center of the galaxy should do it). I sold about 3 of mine early on and I’m still on track to have plenty left. One last thing before you leave the atlas, there’s a chance two little statues will be up near Atlas’ altar, they’re easy to miss, examine them for a free warp cell!



Upgrading and Scrapping


You’ll have chances to swap to a new ship or multitool, but there’s a few things to consider. Firstly you’ll usually only be offered a ship/tool with one more slot than you currently have, buying a ship is one way to speed this up but that will likely cost you millions. When swapping to a ship you must remember to transfer your ship inventory to the new vessel first! It also takes some planning but as you cant take your upgrades with you, scrap everything you can! If you have enough inventory space in your ship (or your suit if you’re preparing ahead of time) then you’ll probably have enough materials to repair the crucial parts of your ship, (you can limp by with a launch booster and pulse engine, although the shields down alarm can grate) just enough to let you hunt down the rest of the resources you need on that planet. You can take a similar approach with your multitool, scrap your upgrades, pocket the resources and then switch to the new model. As a bonus if you are having to pay for the new tool the price can actually go down, I've tried this a few times and it might reroll the upgrades on the new tool, but if you're short of cash and just need the slots it's still worth a shot.




Evading Pirates/Sentinels


On planet, you can just run (see the jetpack tip), hiding in buildings or your ship also works. In space, if you find you’re outgunned you better hope you are close to a planet or station, landing on either will lost the pirates but your sentinel “wanted level” will remain on planets. If you’re not within range of either you might need to make a stand and fight a hold full of titanium to recharge shields can buy you extra time and flying through asteroids might give you some cover but mostly just looks cool.



Titanium for Days


I wouldn’t call this a spoiler but it did feel cool to figure this out myself. When stuck on an extreme planet you’ll need an oxide to top up your hazard protection. Zinc plants are hard to find, deposits of titanium even more so. But if you alert the sentinels on the planet you’ll find a steady source of titanium comes straight for you. If you can keep it on the first two levels of alert then they shouldn’t be too hard to fend off, be sure to check the canisters they drop for bonus tech or valuables. [Update: sentinels no longer drop Titanium... back to the drawing board on this one]


You Have a Torch


I think I saw one in-game hint about this and forgot about it, you can activate a torch by pressing up on the D-pad, it’s not much use at nigh but can be helpful in caves.



Slotting Upgrades


Another hint I haven’t seen mentioned in-game, the only clue I’ve seen is that sometimes upgrades have coloured boxes linking them… Turns out this means that if you place similar systems next to each other they can give you a percentage bonus to their base effect. So once you think you have maxed out your ship and multitool, maybe go looking for one that lets you arrange all your systems in the most efficient pattern?



Galaxy Map

The galactic map is a little hard to use, and you might be more comfortable with following the preset routes to the centre or following Atlas. Selecting the next stop one of these results involves holding the right stick in that direction until the line fills and the view switches. You can move the camera to make it a little easier to line up your right stick. Hiting L1 or R1 on this screen cycles between Atlas, the Centre and a free exploration mode, you can also add waypoints and cycle through to them too. Just a note: once you have an upgraded hyperdrive you’ll be able to travel to the coloured stars, but these wont appear on any of the preprogrammed routes, you’ll have to fly through the map in free mode and select it or tag it with a waypoint.



Hunting for Species




Last alien evading you? Think you’ve looked everywhere? Make sure to check any oceans, look up to the skies and check out a few caves, it can also be worth checking at night time. It’s easy to assume you’ve found all aerial species after finding one, but with a relatively populous planet there’s a good chance of a second.

 I’d also like to add that there are butterflies! And I thought birds were hard to catch! I spent the first hour assuming it was a glitch! If you find creatures won’t stay still you can actually scan dead ones, you may need the homing shot for your weapon but you can finally feel superior to those more evasive creatures.







Preview: Hatsune Miku Project Diva X


Did you think I wouldn't notice? Vocaloid rhythm game,Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X, is out now in the UK for PS4 and PSVita. I don't have my hands on the full game yet but I couldn't contain myself so I'm writing up a preview based on the demo. (It's free,go try it.)


Core gameplay is pretty much the same as previous games but feels a little more polished, hit the button prompts as they fly in towards their targets. Buying the full game will net you around 30 new songs and that might be your biggest reason to purchase, but improvements have been made elsewhere that could be worth your attention and make for some nice additions. Songs are split into themed "clouds" and the Diva Room feature appears to be integrated into the game in a way you'll be spending more time with the idols than usual, without having to go in to separate menus. It's also easier to collect items and modules (costumes)  as they operate on a loot type system, with
items dropping during and after a song. This streamlines the collection side of the game (removing the need for Diva Points) but I wonder how you would go about unlocking a specific item? The more frequent and direct rewards are appreciated though.



Talking of loot; modules and accessories almost act like armour and accessories in an RPG, you get a
boost for equipping the correct outfit for the song style plus a special ability such as an increase in the number of special notes or extra points when you hit a 100 note streak.



The demo also includes one festival event, which lets you string together three songs in an epic
stadium setting. With only 2 difficulties and 3 songs, I am still finding the demo very addictive thanks to the new improvements and the addition of loot and rare drops and I can't wait to experience the full game. I'm expecting more modes, a range of specials quests, a use for my items and gifts, all the other Piapro characters and a bunch of great songs.



Oh and I forgot to mention, the PS4 version is the first game I've seen listed as a PSVR game...

so if you're picking up PSVR in October you'll be able to hold your own virtual concert! Noice!


Check out the "Hatsune Miku" tag below for more related content!

Saturday 3 September 2016

Heat up the Summer with a Marvel Swimsuit Special!

You may already know I'm a fan of Thwip!: The Big Marvel Show on YouTube.
I just had to share this episode, featuring some weirdly awkward swimsuit pullouts from the 90s... the world was a different place.

Thursday 1 September 2016