Monster Hunter World Iceborne Preview Video

By Logan Manfredi on PS4 Pro

Please enjoy our first ever video!

My Friend Pedro Preview

By: Logan Manfredi on Nintendo Switch

Overview

        My friend Pedro is a new game out today published by the always reliable Devolver Digital and developed by solo dev Dead Toast Entertainment. Using a Genre to label this game would be reductive. Stylistically it's that of a dark comedy you'd find on Adult Swim. From a gameplay perspective, Pedro feels more like a highly polished bullet hell or arcade classic. The controls are easy to grasp but offer a level of mastery that I can see being all over Twitch and social media. Mission ranks at the end of each level provide an easy way to challenge friends and leader boards for high scores. 

Aiming two guns simultaneously while flipping through the air has never felt this precise. Every time you start to feel comfortable with the controls, a new unique mechanic is added. Items such as kick-able balls or gas cans add yet another layer to the intricate dance that is gameplay. Something that Pedro does excellently is keeping the player on their toes. What I mean by that is, every time a new mechanic gets added, there's a certain level of uncertainty and adrenaline the player feels as they try to complete the level as fluidly as possible. The stages are shorter than I imagined but work perfectly with the design of the game. Each level focuses on typically one new mechanic to learn and then master over a few obstacles. The subsequent levels then add to those concepts in a delicately beautiful snowballing fashion. After each significant chunk of levels, there are gorgeous set pieces that feel like an entirely new game. Things like motorcycles or sky diving replace the normal side-scrolling action and propel the eccentric story forward with each one. The story itself, which I won't spoil is worth experiencing and is consistently surprising me with new and exciting ideas. 

The first few levels
        The beginning of the game will see you the player learn all the basic mechanics of the game such as Focus, Split shooting, and dodging. Focus is the game's version of a bullet time effect in which time slows down so the player can plan and score higher combos.  Personally, I've been using this to clear certain jumps or if I know there a specific path I need to follow to get an impressive looking kill sequence. Split shooting is the act of dual wielding guns and aiming them at two different targets. This is handled the best I've seen in any game in Pedro and feels incredibly natural. Using Focus to slow time and aim your split shot, you can score some crazy combos and pull off some real John Wick style moves. Dodging is simple in design but combined with the other core mechanics adds a sense of flair to the gameplay. In order to dodge the player holds a button and spins. This is interesting because the player can still shoot when spinning or even reload and the animation itself makes everything you do look that much cooler. The start of the game is a great time to explore combining each of these mechanics and find precisely how you like to play without being punished by some of the more advanced features like intense platforming sections later on. 

**Mild Spoiler alert**

Sizzle reel

Mechanics to watch out for
        I'm enjoying My Friend Pedro just as much as I thought I would and will probably finish it tonight or tomorrow. That being said, it's not without some hiccups. There were a few small things that I found not necessarily bad, but they didn't fit the way they should with the rest of the game and some caused pauses in an otherwise action-packed game.  The skateboard functions like all the other kick-able objects except for the fact that you can ride and jump with it. 

The problem is that the jump with skateboard mechanic always seems to lose the skateboard and cause me to lose my momentum. The level design where skateboards are present clearly show paths for the entire level to be done in a swift kickflipping combo of death, but the skateboard itself is just too slippery to clear most obstacles. Instead, I found myself walking around them intentionally, so I could do more badass ninja flips, and 360 wall jumps in slow motion. I worry that the rest of the game feels so incredibly good to play that skateboards may be ignored so you can continue with your bullet ninja flow. I found a few other little things that were not game breaking but kept consistently killing me until I figured out exactly what was happening. Typically, the gameplay is quite fast-paced, and bodies are flying everywhere. I kept dying and not knowing why that was until I saw that enemies would sometimes get stuck behind other dead enemies and bullets in Pedro do not pass through bodies. This would result in me pouring clips into enemies never actually hitting them. This was easy enough to address by slowing down and using Focus to get a new angle on the corpse shield using jerks. 

Overall it took nothing away from my gameplay experience, but it seemed unintentional in design. The only other thing I found to be a nuisance was that the button control for Focus is to push down the left stick and that causes my heavy fingers to unintentionally trigger Focus more often than I would like to admit.

Tips and tricks

• You can kick enemies for a melee attack that helps extend combos when reloading.
• The larger the combo, the bigger your score. You can extend combos by killing enemies.
• Switch guns often, certain situations are much more suited for a specific weapon.
• You can dodge bullets and reload at the same time.
• Levels are short if you're playing for a high score restart the whole level when you die to get the no death bonus.
• Pay attention to your score screen at the end for ways that you can increase your high score. 

If you like it
        My Friend Pedro is a blast to play, and for the current discounted price of $16.99 until July 9th on Steam, it's completely worth picking up. There are hours of intense adrenaline filled gunplay to be had, and the Banana named Pedro is simply the man. The wacky story filled with comedy lends perfectly to the hectic yet rewarding gameplay, and I can see perfectionists getting tons of replay value from competing for high scores on individual levels. Frequent new mechanics and wildly varying level design pull the player in and make it an incredibly hard game to put down. As far as fun is concerned the game is an 11/10 and I can't think of any game quite like it. I highly recommend giving it a try and look forward to anything more from the developer.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/557340/My_Friend_Pedro/

Fallout 76 Nuclear Winter Preview

By Logan Manfredi on PS4 Pro

Overview
        Nuclear Winter is a new update for Fallout 76 that brings along with it a new and exciting battle royal mode or BR. Unlike the rest of the game, this mode focuses on PVP and has a separate progression system more akin to Call of Duty than Fallout. Nuclear Winter or NW for short revolves around the citizens of Vault 51 and the mystery of what happened to them. One of the more unique things being that this story is told entirely through the new game mode. Before each match, there is about a two-and-a-half-minute period where players can explore and interact with many things inside of vault 51. As players level up, they will unlock access to different parts of the Vault and be able to piece together what exactly happened to its citizens or jam out on what we call the Chuckie Cheese stage.

Gameplay in NW is like that of most Battle Royal games, but with some signature Fallout twists. Focusing more on scavenging and preparation than direct gunplay, it adds a refreshing new take on the genre. Players start with nothing, but with Fallouts massive RPG stock of items that quickly changes. There are countless variations of load outs, all with their own pros and cons to explore. There are not as many cosmetic items available as in the free BR games, but in the first week, there have already been numerous free and paid cosmetic items added to the Atomic shop. Experience is not shared between the game modes, but both caps and experience points can be earned by doing well in NW. When the match ends, there will be a screen displayed that shows everything you did that round and what rewards your performance has earned you. There's no punishment for dying in this game mode so for new players it's great to get the feel of the games core mechanics and see some items that may remain hidden till later in the regular game.

The first five minutes
        Before the round begins, a small bit of planning is needed. Unlike other battle royal games, you don't "drop" onto the map. Instead in Nuclear Winter players pick their spawn point on a map overview before the round starts.

My favorite part of this being that after you choose your spawn area, the game shows you the spawn locations of all 50 other players. Which leads to some intense starting minutes.  At the beginning of a round, you and your teammates will be invisible for approximately 27 secs. (we timed it, patch notes say "some time"). That invisibility will end the second you interact with or pick up an item, and everyone can see you. Our best advice would be to find some sort of armor before engaging in a fight. There are three tiers of armor present in NW wood, scout, and Marine. (Pictures below) Each is stronger than the last. Just having Wood armor puts you at a steep advantage over a player with none. Beyond finding armor, your first step should be determining where you are headed. Wondering aimlessly looking for loot might work in some battle royals, but in NW where movement is more limited getting caught in a firefight without cover is a death sentence. Instead, pick a point on the map be it a small town or outpost and do your best to fortify that location to attack. This is also a great time to kill any NPC's present as they hold valuable loot such as Nuclear launch codes. The crossbow is best for taking out NPC's because it is silent and doesn't reveal your location to enemies. VATS doesn't work on enemy players but is still the ideal way to deal with an NPC. As you get to the mid-game focus on stocking Chems and Stimpacks for the inevitable massive battle at the end of the round.

Wood armor

Scout armor

Marine armor (The Best one)

Mechanics to Watch out for
        Power armor is excellent in Fallout 99% of the time. The one time it's not great is in Nuclear Winter. The problem is that the ratio of armor value to the volume of footsteps is severely disproportionate. For example, if two players with the same gun were the final two but one had power armor, and one had marine armor. The player with power armor would be heard long before he was seen giving the advantage to the player with the Marine armor. Also, in the current state, there is a bug where players in power armor may become stuck in the armor unable to attack or take damage making the player just waste time until they are killed by the storm. My advice is to avoid power armor for now.
        Sniper rifles and scoped weapons have zero bullet drop, rather all guns have a pre-determined range at which they can hit. So, if you're aiming at an enemy and wondering why you're not hitting, it's most likely the range, not your aim. This leads to another mechanic to watch out for which is weapon stats. This is the first time in a Fallout game that we have had true PVP, so the weapons we know and have used for years might not have the same effect as we are used too. For example, the hunting rifle is one of my favorite weapons in all Fallouts, but in NW its range combined with damage output is far less effective than say the Lever rifle or any of the scoped laser weapons. An excellent way to see what weapons to prioritize is to check in your Pip-boy when you have cover. Just like in any Fallout all the weapons stats will be listed there so you can see exactly which items you prefer. 

Click to zoom weapon stats.

Tips and tricks

• Zooming in when deploying will allow for much more precise spawns and even spawning inside buildings.
• ADS (aim down sights) can be used to show hard to spot or not yet rendered enemies. When your cursor is over a target even if obstructed their health and name will be displayed.
• Use the foliage to your advantage. You won't be completely invisible in a bush, buts its much harder to see than out in the open.
• If your opponent is using the bush technique, you can use ADS, and his health bar will display when you aim where he is hiding. 
• Marine Armor > Power armor
• Watch out for cars, they blow up very quickly and are a one-shot KO if you're next to it.
• The time you have to revive a downed teammate is less than 10 seconds. Hopefully, this will get patched soon because it's nearly impossible to do unless you're touching each other. 
• Use those Chems! Chems have zero negative impact in NW.
• Rad X and Buffout are essential for surviving if you get caught in the firestorm and make a massive difference in any fight. 

If you like it
        The Nuclear Winter update has done an excellent job a revitalizing a game that has not had the best beginnings. Along with the battle royal game mode, the patch has fixed several bugs that honestly made me stop playing about six months ago. New items and quests fill the already vast game world, and soon raids will allow for an entirely new type of endgame content. That combined with the developers' plans for free regular updates makes for many more enjoyable hours of Fallout ahead. Adventure mode has tons of lore and is one of the most fun and immersive co-op experiences on this generation of consoles. Nuclear Winter is looking very promising in its first week and offers a much less demanding way to play Fallout 76 that doesn't require any of the time-consuming mechanics such as thirst and hunger. Overall Nuclear Winter has been great for 76, and I would recommend it to any fan of the franchise or anyone who's bored with their current battle royal. 

Here are some bonus pics of our Fallout shenanigans. 

Conan Exiles Preview

By: Logan Manfredi on Ps4

***NSFW DISCLAIMER***
        Conan Exiles is a VERY adult game. There are themes far beyond violence or nudity present in it. If you are offended by things like cannibalism, necrophilia, and having slavery present in the game world, then this is NOT the game for you. This game is about surviving as a barbarian, and it's as brutal as possible in that regard. 

Overview:        
        Conan Exiles is a beast of a game. A beast in ferocity and mechanics, Exiles spends zero time holding the player's hand. From the get-go, the player starts in the desert, Naked if the server allows it, hungry and thirsty. It took me a good five minutes to realize that I could interact with anything near me because the level design of the desert is barren, but not empty. Once I realized that I can press square to interact with almost anything in the environment, I was hooked. Instantly I was flashing back to those first moments in Breath of the Wild when I could climb or eat anything. As a player, I appreciate it when developers remove the "invisible wall" or things like doors that don't open, or areas being time gated. Exiles bulldozed that invisible wall. Any surface you can touch is climbable, including the ceiling. The gathering is tedious, but the intuitive design in the crafting system combats that perfectly and makes it work. The building on console is a delicate dance of radial wheels and inventory management that makes me think this game is best on PC. That being said it's not unbearable and the large variety of shapes and depth of the building system allow for the creation of mind-boggling player made cities.

        At its core Exiles is a survival game, and for the first few hours, that's most likely what the player will experience. Once the core mechanics feel comfortable, and you can establish a starter base the game busts wide open. Inventory management and armor weight become crucial factors of how you build your character. Exploring outward farther into the map reveals dungeons and areas lush with other players to meet or wage war against. The middle or leveling portion of the game will see players crafting gradually stronger items and learning exactly how to use the world around them. This is when bases grow to ridiculous sizes, and some of the more unique features like taking thralls or capturing pets are possible. In and towards the endgame, PVP (if you're on a PVP server) picks up, it is at this time that I found myself raiding other players' structures and causing general havoc across the map.  

(Here's a picture of me stealing a players inventory and replacing it with dung)

        Conan Exiles is tough and has one of the steepest learning curves I've seen in recent years. Personally, I found the first few hours pushing me to my limits, but as I survived longer in the world and began to master the detailed mechanics, I felt a sense of accomplishment that few games provide. I would recommend it to anyone who's up for a challenge or appreciates detailed mechanic driven games they can get lost in with numerous friends. 

 The First 5 minutes:

        Immediately after the cut scene, the player starts in the desert with an empty inventory. This first thing you should do is find a Waterskin and note somewhere in your immediate vicinity. The Waterskin will make maintaining thirst in the early game much more manageable, and the note will provide essential XP for leveling up. XP is granted numerous ways, killing animals harvesting resources or even just surviving a certain amount of time. The fastest way to gain XP is by completing "Journey steps" these steps are sometimes listed sometimes unknown but share a common concept in that accomplishing each one helps the player to better understand and play the game. That's why I highly recommend keeping track of these and doing them as often as possible. You can grab bugs from bushes that will help fend off your hunger, but to do any substantial healing, you're going to need meat. The easiest way to get meat is to kill an animal and carve it from its body. Full disclosure this took me WAY longer than I expected to figure out. Just killing an animal will not give you meat. You must first craft a hatchet (with sticks and stone) and then use it to carve the meat from the animal. When you craft an item you can equip it will not go in your inventory, but instead, automatically assign it to the radial menu. Hopefully, this will save you some time, and no more turtles have to get punched to death for no reason, I'm sorry. Once you've found the Waterskin and have some meat, it's time to pick a direction and just go. The biggest mistake beginning players make is setting up camp too close to the starting area. What this does is it limits the resources you can gather to the starter resources, and that stops the player from progressing and enjoying the game. So that's why I say when you think you've found a home, go just a little farther. Once you have reliable location deep enough into the map that's when the game opens up, and you can explore crafting recipes and the incredible depth this game has to offer.

Mechanics to watch out for:

        Some mechanics that hide from you are your attributes and feats. Attributes being your typical RPG skill tree, with areas for combat, survival, and so on. Feats, on the other hand, are a little more complicated, in all reality, they're just recipes for crafting. Unlocking feats will help to unlock subsequent recipes resulting in more powerful weapons, armor, and items in general. Not all the recipes will go to your default crafting screen, but rather to the blacksmith bench, or whichever station the recipe is crafted at. 

Armor and weapons alike will have varying weights and rates at which they drain stamina. This is important to consider as you go on more extended harvesting missions and want to maximize how much you can carry back. Something I did was invest in multiple sets of armor and weapons that catered to specific tasks I was trying to accomplish, such as a light armor set for harvesting, and a damage heavy defense set for excessive combat excursions.


Notable Tips and Tricks: 
*You can eat insects to regain small amounts of health and fight off hunger.
*To more greatly heal and fend off hunger for longer you can cook meat from animals at campfires. 
*To get meat from animals you need to attack the corpse with a hatchet.
*Different meats will heal you at different rates.
*You can drink water from a lake or small body of water without penalty.
*Use any source of water to fill a Waterskin.
*Tools for harvesting are different from weapons, so even though your hatchet looks cool, you better make a dedicated weapon fast.
*You learn new crafting recipes through leveling up and the "Feats" page of your character sheet.
*Not all NPC will attack on-site, just most of them.
*Add friends to a Clan to be able to always see their location on the map and share buildings.
*When you're offline, other players can see your unconscious body and access your inventory so make sure you log off in a safe place.
*If you're having a hard time with online servers, you can be the admin of your own solo or coop server and have full control over all aspects of the game. This is what I did for a few hours to feel more comfortable before real people tried to murder and enslave me. NOTE* if you play solo/co-op whoever starts the game will control the save and need to be online to use the server.

If you like it:
        If you find yourself enjoying Exiles as I did, then there is a vast mechanical survival game full of secrets to explore and fascinating PVP waiting for you. Some of my favorite features later in the game are the Thrall and pet system. Players can find baby animals of just about any species in the game and with the use of the animal pen and the proper food you can raise a loyal beast to guard your base or follow you into battle. My faithful companion is Steve the hyena.  

The thralls work similarly, first, you need the Cudgel to knock them out safely and some rope to drag them back to camp. Then like with your animals you merely put the thrall into a wheel of pain (a structure like the animal pen for humans) and add some food. After some time, you'll have your very own Thrall. Captured NPC's can be set to follow or guard just like your pets, but they can also be assigned to specific crafting stations to speed up the crafting process significantly. Not any thrall can work a job efficiently, it takes a carpenter to woodwork or a blacksmith to smelt faster, so you should keep a lookout for these specific types of NPC's out in the world. Beyond thralls, there is still a ton of late-game content in Exiles. There are numerous dungeons around the map filled with epic bosses that drop legendary loot, along with world bosses on the map that will require cooperation and teamwork to take down. A recent patch added a large jungle section to the game, and future updates are imminent making me quite excited to see what comes next. If you have a PS4, it would be a shame not to get this game while it's free with PS plus. There is a hundred hours of content at least, and the community is more active than ever. 
                                                                                                                   

What is a No Rush preview?

        A No Rush News preview is not your typical preview. Rather than focus on things that have not come out yet, or new game announcements, a majority of our previews will focus on games with steep barriers to entry. For example, a game like Path of Exile or Overwatch that requires a deeper understanding of the mechanics before players can enjoy the game. These games are not necessarily more difficult than others, but new players face a daunting amount of information at the start. That's where we come in! Without going into spoiler territory or overloading your brain with too much information, our previews will get you where you need to be to enjoy playing. Essential information like what items to keep or how skill trees function will help new players not to make those simple mistakes we are all too familiar with. Explaining the different mechanics in each game mode will eliminate those first few brutal games of costing your team the match and apologizing to your TV without a mic on. Now that being said, you still might see the occasional preview of something yet to come out, that is if its something that's been requested or a title one of our writers is passionate about. 
        Our previews are like everything on our site, meaning the whole point is to help you, the player, enjoy the games you want to play. The last thing a new player to a game should feel is discouraged. So if there ever is a specific title that you need help with or want more info on just email us at Norushnews@gmail.com. If you do find the game is for you, then head on over to our deep dive section and get your fix! Still not sure if you want to commit to the price of entry? No problem! There's a review for that. No matter what's your gaming craving, we aim to help. Take your time and find games to play that you'll love, no rush. 

P.S. If you're a smaller developer working on a game, or even have something your working on as a hobby, please email us, we'd love to see your game!