When Bombshell was released as a spiritual successor to Duke Nukem, critics and fans alike were left wanting. Instead of a return to form in the gameplay department, fans of the classic Build Engine FPS Duke Nukem 3D were instead subjected to a disappointing top-down shooter with lacking level design. 3D Realms, Bombshell’s developers, also announced a side-game: a brand-new FPS in the style of Duke using the actual Build Engine. Ion Fury is that game, and instead of being a strange supplement to a bad game, it steals the show and shines as a wonderful new entry in the Build Engine pantheon. 

Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison, both Bombshell and Ion Fury’s star, is a Global Defense Force Colonel and wise-cracking badass. Shelly’s goal is to stop the evil Dr. Heskel from, well, being evil. Thin storylines are par for the course in this genre, but hey, it’s more than “aliens shot down my ride” this time. It’s pretty easy to compare Shelly to Duke Nukem, as she quips just like him and their games both run on eDuke, an updated version of Build for Duke Nukem games specifically. 

Shelly isn’t as dad-jokey as her predecessor, for better and for worse. Probably the worst line she drops is a reference to The Offspring song “Come Out and Play”, but nothing comes close to Duke’s cheesy one-liners. Other parts of her personality shine through and make her more human than Duke, however, such as her penchant for soda, which heals her a small amount with each sip. She’s not just a simple action movie pastiche, she’s a fun character that has legs beyond her quips.

Ion Fury’s maps flow. Many modern FPS games hold your hand and actively point you where you need to go, but Fury’s strength is that there’s no need for that. Once you start moving, guns blazing and enemies dropping, there’s often a sense of unbridled movement and smart pathmaking that makes exploring every nook and cranny in each map a blast. There’s no need for arrows pointing you where to go, as experiencing the levels will wordlessly guide you towards your next destination.

There are a few hiccups here and there, where a button will unlock a door that isn’t exactly obvious, leading to moments where I ran around aimlessly trying to find the level’s exit, walking by the door multiple times. These instances are few and far between, though, and almost any other time it feels natural to just move in Ion Fury. Levels are laid out in such a way that you’re constantly running into new firefights or puzzles, and there are dozens of secrets strewn throughout the world. They’re a real challenge, too, I found under ten in my playthrough, but that was without any real, focused searching. 

Similarly, Ion Fury’s weapons stand out. I’ll admit, its shotgun isn’t my favorite. It’s missing that punch Duke 3D or Doom’s shotguns have, but it’s still a fine tool in a well-rounded arsenal. Our heroine uses a standard arsenal of weapons, including a grenade launcher, SMGs, chaingun, and mines. She also uses bowling bombs that can be rolled explode on contact after homing, or lit bombs that explode on a timer. My personal favorite gun is the crossbow, which acts almost like a sniper rifle without any zoom. If you point it at a far-away enemy, it shoots them in the head automatically—and I respect that. 

FPS games demand something to shoot at, so enemy variety is key, lest you get bored mowing down similar mooks. Starting off with cloaked robots that sometimes use spread-guns, Ion Fury eases the player into new, interesting foe types, such as leaping behemoths and flying rocket-launching skulls. Each encounter has impeccable pacing, as the level layout perfectly compliments enemy placement so you both never feel overwhelmed or without a target to kill. When a new foe is introduced, they’re usually by themselves, and are then integrated into the mobs you meet as you progress, ramping difficulty without overwhelming and allowing each new foe a chance to shine.

Ion Fury’s weakest point, however, is its boss fights. All of them are completely braindead bullet sponges that are easily defeated by strafing and unloading all your ammo into them. A large hovercraft is an outlier, however for far more negative reasons, as since it’s up in the air, weapons that fire in an arc cannot hit its weak point on its back. Explosives and grenades that make short work of other bosses just miss entirely, and while the chaingun helps some, once you run out of ammo you’re stuck taking pot shots at the ship, whittling its health away. It’s not fun in the slightest, nor is it hard, just bland and frustrating. I spent over twenty minutes dodging its missiles and shaving off 1% of its health bar at a time, feeling like I was shooting the ship with a squirt gun.

Perhaps the most shocking aspect of Ion Fury is how good it looks. 3D Realms killed it visually, with high quality, colorful textures that look great, even though it’s using outdated technology. Character sprites are expressive and lively, Shelly’s animations are slick, and the maps have fun details strewn about that make the world feel lived in, even with Build’s limitations. Ion Fury is living proof that art made with real limitations will always look and feel better than emulation of those limits.

Ion Fury has a lot of history backing it up, but it delivers on its pedigree. Its strengths lie in its foundation, building on Build to produce a worthwhile experience that emulates how it felt to play something like Blood back in the 90’s. Its successes and problems all stem from its ancestors, but Ion Fury’s family tree is full of absolute classics, and Shelly should be discussed in the same breath as Duke Nukem, Blood, and hell, even Doom.

The post Ion Fury (PC) Review appeared first on Gamesline.

As always you can support us on our patreon, follow us on twitter @VGChooChoo , @solonface, @YourPalNiall, and @John_Michonski.

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on iTunes, and tell a friend about the show! If you want to send in questions send them to podcast@videogamechoochoo.com, or into our ask box at videogamechoochoo.tumblr.com/ask

You can also join our discord channel at thegamezone.zone !

Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

Subscribe via iTunes, Hipcast, Direct Download or listen below!

The post VGCC Episode 251: Left Mouse Does Hurties appeared first on Gamesline.

Onward and upwards. Day three launches into the sky with the confidence of John, Ryan, Rose, and Niall soaring high only to be brought down by a hidden saboteur. On this day we discuss and determine winners for Best Multiplayer, Best Robot, Best Character, Worst Character, and Best Performance.

Best Multiplayer: Overwatch

Runners-up: Monster Hunter: Generations, Titanfall 2

Too often multiplayer is just a stand in for “wannabe eSport.” Even games solely focused on delivering a multiplayer experience resemble complicated ballets of cooperation instead of fun and competitive. Overwatch stepped out into a crowded space and declared their intent to take over. Overwatch delivered colorful characters that ooze personality, balanced gameplay, and a loot system that rewards your time with ridiculous skins, sprays, and emotes. It allows every kind of player to jump in a contribute to their team. If you rush in too often, maybe you’ll prefer the damage dealing tank Roadhog. If you like to hang back and snipe, Widowmaker or Hanzo would fit you well. Or maybe you just wanna help out, Lucio or Mercy would match up. Overwatch just melts together in a way only Blizzard could, with wonderful designs and deep mechanics that means new and veteran players keep coming back for more.

Best Robot: Dorothy Haze (VA-11 HALL-A)

Runners-up: Shitbot (Dreamfall Chapters), BT-7274 (Titanfall 2)

Surprisingly, 2016 delivered again on the robot front, offering up no less than eight exceptional examples of erudite electronics. However, the most interesting and charismatic has to be VA-11 HALL-A’s Dorothy Haze, a robot sex worker and close companion of protagonist Jill. In addition to injecting humor into the narrative, Dorothy commands an unforgettable presence and magnetic personality. She also transcends her potentially two-dimensional and dodgy character premise, becoming a real individual with a real heart and real motivations. Beneath her genuine enthusiasm for her job are deep anxieties over how she is perceived by her former foster mother, over what would happen if she is “replaced,” and over her existence as a robot in general. Dorothy’s position in life is a unique angle on questions of artificial intelligence rarely broached with any seriousness by futuristic narratives, and VA-11 HALL-A delivers the concept with aplomb. 34 years after Blade Runner posited the question of whether robots could be “more human than human,” Dorothy is proof that such inquiries are still worth discussing,- and that they can be addressed with both humor and pathos alike.

Best Character: Jill (VA-11 HALL-A)

Runners-up: Nanu (Pokemon Sun/Moon), Alex (Oxenfree)

From the first customer you serve, it’s immediately apparent that Jill is her own character with her own personal opinions, regardless of how well thought out they are. As the story goes on, and the world around her changes, Jill isn’t left behind. A person is the sum of their experiences, and seeing Jill warm up to the boisterous Dorothy, freeze up at bad memories, and continuously hate Rad Shiba all help piece together what kind of person she is. As you conversationally probe through the bar regulars’ lives, you’re also probing through Jill’s, and figuring out what kind of person she was or is becomes just as intriguing in itself. Whether she’s behind the bar or in front of it, Jill feels less like a character, and more like a person, and that’s exactly the type of person you’d want mixing your drinks, long into the night.

Worst Character: Jesse/Patton Oswalt (Minecraft: Story Mode)

Runners-up: Thomas Burke (Mafia 3), Ren (Oxenfree)

I’m not sure anyone expected Telltale’s take on a Minecraft story to be any good, but I’m also not sure anyone expected its main character to be just so vitriolically sinful. From the very first episode, even if you’re playing them as a “good” character, you can see what kind of shitbag Jesse is to everyone around them. Each subsequent episode only serves as a trail marker in the life of serial abuser Jesse, who continues to egregiously hurt friend and foe alike, all while wearing the moniker of “hero.” Even worse, Jesse’s lifelong companion, Reuben the pig, ends up being forced to give their life for Jesse’s sake, after hours of being beaten and berated, for no reason at all. The cherry on-top of this terrible terrible sundae is that the male version of Jesse is voiced by one of the smarmiest assholes of all time, Patton Oswalt, who really makes it clear this all had to be Telltale’s intention.

Fuck you Jesse. Fuck you Patton. Rest in Peace Reuben.

Best Performance: Rich Sommer as Henry (Firewatch)

Runners-up: Alex Hernandez as Lincoln Clay (Mafia 3), Jon St. Jon as Duke Nukem (Duke Nukem 3D: World Tour)

The measure of a truly great acting performance comes in its subtlety, the vague nuances of human behavior that make a good performance great, and there was inarguably no more nuanced and human a performances as Rich Sommer’s portrayal of Henry. The role of the every-man is a common one across media, but it’s the little things Sommer communicates in Firewatch that put him over the edge. He runs the gamut of emotions from depression to contentment, from anxiety and fear to genuine, real compassion and imbues the otherwise faceless Henry with personality above and beyond what an already excellent script calls for. Sommer helps makes Firewatch what it is, and deserves a fitting reward.

The post Game of the Year Awards 2016: Day Three appeared first on Gamesline.

This is not a drill. The time for jokes is over. The blood moon has passed across the dark sun, and I have awoken in the middle of the night with the words “balls of steel” lingering on my cracked lips. Following an alleged leak on the official Duke Nukem website, assets that seem to represent a Duke Nukem 3D title called World Tour have surfaced. That’s right. 20 years post release, Duke Nukem 3D may be receiving new content.

The leaks are shaky and vague at best, but visiting the official Duke Nukem website at http://dukenukem.com/wp-content/uploads/ displays the phrase “World Tour” in the header. This corresponds an apparent 4chan leak (yes, I know) of screenshots and a logo that feature the title Duke Nukem 3D: World Tour, touted as relating to the game’s 20th anniversary- this year.

What this could indicate or if it’s even legitimate is anyone’s guess, but if World Tour is real, it’s likely to be a beefed-up, re-release of Duke Nukem 3D packed with new content in the wake of Megaton Edition’s removal from Steam and other virtual storefronts. Hail to the king, baby.

Come get some and check out the alleged materials below:

(via duke3dmaps.tumblr.com)

The post Rumor: New Duke Nukem 3D Content Planned For Anniversary appeared first on Gamesline.

John joins Ryan and Duke Nukem himself as they travel to a time when Duke wasn’t terrible and he was in a decent game or two.

Be sure to check out the Chooch Youtube channel, subscribe, and come back for more editions of Ride The Rails.

The post Ride The Rails: Duke Nukem 3D appeared first on Gamesline.