The ambitious tactical space combat simulator Dreadnought has been quietly in beta since early 2016, but now at least on PlayStation 4, all systems are go for the official launch. The development team at Yager will of course continue to work on the game to maintain balance and provide new content, but they’re also working to deliver the first post-launch update for PS4 by January. PC should leave beta sometime early next year.

The tactical space game first opened its beta in August 2017 following a positively received closed beta. The Free-To-Play game takes a strategic bend to a class based game like Overwatch, meaning it’s not just the heavy damage dealing, titular ships that are important, but their whole support network too. It’s basically the Star Trek game we’ve always asked for.

There’s still a few bugs to squash, such as the PS4 having the tendency to crash in a few cases, but the developers have already send out a hot fix. Will you be trying your hand at piloting in Dreadnought? Let us know in the comments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ums77uAN7XE

Rime originally launched earlier this year, but just this week makes its way to the Nintendo Switch as promised. However, previews of this version of the game have raised many concerns among would be Switch players who noticed a choppy frame-rate and long loading times in previews.

During an AMA on Reddit last night, developer Tequila Works detailed the technical challenges it faced when condensing the game to Nintendo’s hybrid system, and the choices it had to make to have it work. While Gamingbolt loved the game back in May, technical issues also cropped up on the reviewed PS4 version as well.

“The open nature of Rime in many of the in game locations turned out to be the biggest problem, and the developers when faced with the choice of adding loading screens through the stages, rebuilding the game completely to be more closed in and undermining the original vision, or just optimizing the best they could and living with small hiccups to show the game as intended, they went with just dealing with the technical issues,” the developer stated.

“RiME runs at 30 FPS in 720p throughout most of the game while docked. This is a considerable improvement from where the game was at earlier this year when we announced the first delay. While we have done an excellent job at bringing the standard frame rate up, the one problem we were unable to address completely were loading hitches. RiME uses a technique called streaming which allows us to have portions of the level loaded and unloaded in order to save on memory utilization.”

“With RiME being very open in many locations, it’s incredibly difficult to get these level segments small enough to not cause a hiccup in performance. We were faced with the choice of adding loading screens throughout the stages, rebuilding the game completely to be more closed in (undermining the product vision in the process), or living with these small hiccups to preserve what the game was intended to be. We chose the latter,” the developer further added.

It’s worth noting that these hiccups do occur on the other platforms as well, though slightly less irritating.

RIME is finally out- the gorgeous puzzle platforming adventure game has been a long time coming, but now that it is finally here, players can, at last, play the game and experience for themselves a game that has been long in the making.

Of course, unlike so many other games today, RIME is not afraid to challenge the player, or to let the player get lost, or to let the player discover things for themselves. In fact, that is one of the best parts of the game, the sense of discovery, and the ensuing personal journey. So it is highly advisable that, should you feel stuck, lost, or frustrated in RIME, you take your time to figure things out for yourself. However, should you find yourself unable to progress, and it comes down to either playing the game with help, or not playing it at all, you’ll want a walkthrough.

That’s where we come in here. Just… remember to only use this as a last resort, okay?

RIME is an entirely visual game- everything that it does, from storytelling to characterization to even its primary gameplay, relies entirely on what it shows the player. You glean about the story from the island you find yourself on, and observation of said island. Characterization is primarily through interaction of your character with other things around him, which hint at his personality. And gameplay relies on the player seeing things. You need to see where you see beacons of light. You need to see where you might not have gone already. You need to shift perspective to be able to open pathways on. You need to see if there is anything pulsating that catches your attention. You need to see where your adorably lovely fox companion is going. You need to see if there is something in the environment that hints at how you may be able to move ahead. And most of all, you need to see where a mysterious figure, garbed in red, never speaking in red, is- because whoever they are, they appear to be leading you to the conclusion of your quest.

It’s just as well that RIME looks as thoroughly gorgeous as it does, then. And it really is a beautiful game. Its gorgeous, striking art evokes flattering comparisons to games such as ICO, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and Shadow of the Colossus, as does its almost bleak atmosphere- for you are the only person, apart from that mysterious other entity, on this island, the best that you can see, for the better part of the game. As colorful as RIME looks, and as happy as Enu, the boy you are controlling, is, happily humming and singing along, ecstatic at the company of the fox who is his lone companion on this island, there is no question that there is a melancholy that pervades the very texture and fibre of RIME.

"RIME is an entirely visual game- everything that it does, from storytelling to characterization to even its primary gameplay, relies entirely on what it shows the player."

However, it is not an oppressive melancholy, and it cedes and gives way to your sense of curiosity, which is what Tequila is relying on with this game. You are shown just enough, and encouraged to figure things out for yourself- and deviously, for this is actually a rather linear game. It gives the illusion of openness and freedom, but you are always being led down one very obvious path. The game is just great at masking that, like the Zelda games of old.

The actual gameplay part is, as mentioned before, fairly basic, relying mostly on your visual acuity. You’ll be platforming, climbing walls, jumping, walking, running, and solving some very basic puzzles. Most of them don’t require much thought, but then again, this is not a puzzle game, and they are never the point. The point of RIME is the story that the game is telling you, very slowly. The puzzles are just a part of the language the game uses to tell you that story. That story, and the way the game uses its interactive elements to tell it, will definitely, however, leave an impact on you.

As gorgeous and wonderful as this game is, however, there are definitely some problems that hold RIME back. The biggest one that I encountered while playing on a standard PS4 was the framerate- there are severe drops, and maybe owing to a narrower FoV, they can induce motion sickness (much like The Witness, which was another game about the player waking up on an island without explanation, and having to figure their way through it).

There is also something to be said for the game’s simplicity- minimalism is a virtue, especially the way RIME uses it, but some times, that minimalism can hurt the game. RIME certainly suffers from its almost too basic puzzles, which fail to hold your attention a lot of times (and which can lead to the player losing interest in the game altogether, if wanderlust is not their thing).

"There is also something to be said for the game’s simplicity- minimalism is a virtue, especially the way RIME uses it."

On the other hand, a masterful exercise in minimalism is the game’s soundtrack. Sparingly used, it is nevertheless impactful, and is wonderfully utilized for maximum effect in the game, much like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, another game from earlier this year that held back from using too much of its soundtrack at any given time. The result is that when its stirring, soulful melodies do play, RIME feels that much more impactful.

It is a flawed game, and there is certainly much that could have used some improvement- notably, the gameplay loop could have been kept more engaging, and the technical issues could have been ironed out. But even with all of that said, RIME leaves such an impression, that it is hard to hold those failings against it too much. It manages to live up to the years of hype and expectation, and it delivers an unforgettable experience along the way.

This game was reviewed on PS4.

The long awaited RIME will launch this May at last- today, Tequila Softworks confirmed that the game will be made available on May 26 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The game will be available digitally and at retail, and will cost $29.99 / €34.99 / £29.99.

But wait, I hear you all say- what about the Switch version? After all, the game was announced for Nintendo’s new system too, wasn’t it? It was even showcased and highlighted in Nintendo’s indie showcase for the Switch. So what about that Switch version?

It’s coming- but a little later. The Switch version of the game will be launching later in the summer (‘shortly afterwards’, it sounds like), and will cost $39.99 / €44.99 / £39.99. It, too, will be available physically and digitally- but why it will be more expensive is not yet known.

Will you be picking RIME up? Which version are you looking at getting? Make sure to let us know in the comments section below.

The game, which is running on the powerful Unreal Engine 4, is currently set to be published by Grey Box Games. While there is no specific release window for the title, it has been slated for release at some time in early 2015, possibly in the form of a public beta, where it will be made available via digital download.

• 1. Development
• 2. Story
• 3. Gameplay
• 4. Classes

Development

At the time of writing, the amount of information available regarding Dreadnought is very limited indeed, this may change once the game has been released but thus far what we do know is that the game was first announced in June of 2014.

Following the announcement of the game, the co founder of Yager Games Mathias Wiese, who also happens to be the game’s art director, said “Dreadnought harkens back to the PC space combat game we developed when we first started out. In the years since, we’ve been developing and testing some incredible ideas that now perfectly come together in Dreadnought. Grey Box has been an amazing partner and we’re incredibly thankful they share our vision for what Dreadnought will become.”

Also speaking about the game’s origins, Tony Medrano, the Creative Director of Grey Box said “We all have that dream of sitting in the Captain’s Chair. It’s an awesome feeling to control something so huge and powerful, and that feeling is present in Dreadnought.”

Given the games predominantly online and free yo play nature which focuses on multiplayer combat, justifiable concerns were voiced. Some gamers looking forward to the game were worried that Dreadnought would, like so many other games, have a pay to win game model. Since then the developers have come out and said, “Balance, fun and fairness are extremely important to us. We plan to do something really new and unique with regards to monetization. With Spec Ops: The Line we had taken the narrative action game genre to a new level, and with Dreadnought we will do the same concerning the current free-to-play business models. We choose a games-as-a-service-model as this gives us the possibility to truly expand the universe constantly, to build something big and truly magnificent together with the community.”

Story

At the time of writing, it’s not yet known if the game will feature any plot elements.

Gameplay

Dreadnought is a multiplayer game that will give the player captaincy of a number of large spacecraft, likely referencing the games title. “Dreadnought” is a class of warship that borders on the medium to large size, most modern battleships are of the dreadnought class due to the size to power ratio.

Once again similar to their real world counterparts, the player can choose between different classes of dreadnoughts that come in different sizes and each comes with its own advantages, speed and manoeuvrability, and its own disadvantages, lacking firepower or thick armour.

A preview of the game stated that the ships feel as big and heavy as their onscreen versions, but that the pace of the game is far from slow. This helped enforce the feeling of being the ships commanded and not simply controlling a ship. The knock on effect of the ships being as large and heavy as they are results in the game being heavily dependent on strategy and the positioning of ships.

A further element of the game’s strategy comes from the allocation of power within the ship. This means that the captain can allocate more energy to the engines for increased speed, increases in energy to the weapons will make your salvoes more powerful and increases in the shields will increase your defensive capabilities. Forcing more energy to one location of the ship will leave other areas lacking, so forcing power to the shields and weapons is good for stationary bombardment but it you would be unable to manoeuvre your ship.

The elements of strategy carry over to the core multiplayer portion of the game where players will find it advantageous to work as a team and coordinate their team towards objectives accordingly. When attacking the enemy, targeting specific areas of the enemy will likely result in system damage allowing players to disable the engines, weapons or shields of the opponent. This makes targeted and coordinated fire the best way to win.
When a player dies, they can swap the ship class they were using before they respawn.

Classes

The game sports five classes at this time:

The Corvette – A large but nimble ship with light armour.

Dreadnought Class – The largest ship class in the game, the Dreadnought can employ small fighters and makes use of huge broadside cannons.

The Destroyer – A mix of Dreadnought and Corvette class ship.

Tactical Cruiser – A support ship that can heal friendlies and attack foes.

The Artillery Crusier – a long range ship with a slow firing but hugely powerful rail gun.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.