Remnants of Isolation Review
If you chip away at Remnants of Isolation's outer shell--its piano-heavy soundtrack, turn-based combat, and vibrant color palette--you're left with a lifeless love story. This dyadic core leaks into each subsequent layer, from the party system that never expands beyond a twosome to the title screen overpowered by two tightly clutched hands superimposed over a gang of silhouetted fiends unmoved by the romance. The narrative drives the experience, but the ride is neither touching nor inspiring. The bond between hero and heroine is hampered by the female character's lack of a voice, and the inconsistent writing makes it difficult to care when the male lead fumbles his way through conversations. The surrounding elements have their charm, but Remnants of Isolation falls far short of making a believable or memorable emotional connection.
The stage is set with a scene of isolation. Stowed away in a castle is a lilac-skinned girl with eyes of mismatched colors, absent a voice but masterful with an acoustic instrument that she can summon from thin air. She's alone and seems to have been that way for some time, but that changes once she's mysteriously freed from her prison and runs into a brash, out-of-sorts mage, quick to make friends. Unfortunately, the girl cannot speak to the nature of the castle (or speak at all, for that matter), so the couple must explore its many corridors to discover their purpose for being there and, more importantly, how to escape.
Learning both characters' connections to the castle can be interesting, but Remnants of Isolation runs just shy of three hours. That gives these two strangers a remarkably short window to get to know each other, let alone foster any sort of tender relationship. Additionally--and I'll continue to press this issue--the female lead is mute. Maybe it's her prolonged confinement that's kept her silent, but robbing such a substantial character of opinions, personality, and any opportunity to connect with the player at a deeper level is a missed opportunity. The text boxes are dominated by the hero, Melchior, who alternates between exposition-heavy blurbs and uncomfortable romantic gestures that he often retracts in embarrassment. The scattered notes that provide context for your environment tend to be well-written and mostly interesting, but the dialogue leads to more eyes rolled than hearts warmed.
The link that the duo shares during battle is much more substantive. Along with a standard physical attack, each character can launch either an "innate" ability or a spell. Using your fire, ice, or lightning magic on its own doles out significant damage, but leading with one character's innate ability and following with the other's spell produces a combination attack that might do double damage, hit multiple targets, or cause myriad status effects. As you gain levels and acquire new abilities, your arsenal of offensive and defensive maneuvers expands, and you often need to experiment mid-battle to come up with combos that hit the hardest.
For a two-character, turn-based system, there's plenty of strategy here. Both players start each battle with just three MP--gaining two additional points per turn--so it's critical to balance your attacks and not lean too heavily on a single spell or character, lest you run your MP dry. The enemies you run into don't go down easy, either, and the creatures you encounter don't often respawn after being defeated. Grinding out levels and currency isn't a viable option, so Remnants of Isolation trusts you to fight the fights presented and choose well-timed techniques over brute force.
Creating new gear and optimizing your characters is rewarding, but the game's linearity and brief runtime don't allow for much variability in how you outfit your party. You earn souls from each battle, and this currency is used to create weapons, armor, and items. If there were a deeper weapons cache--multiple status effects tied to specific items or armor that heavily favored magic defense over physical defense--this system might be more interesting. There's an optimal permutation for each character, and as long as you engage in most battles and smartly spend your souls, you'll easily maximize your gear before the final encounter.
The most emotionally resonant aspect of Remnants of Isolation might just be its sound design. The sweet, soft soundtrack is expertly accented by the satisfying pings and hums associated with even the most ordinary actions. Opening chests and surfing through menus just sounds good, but the visual counterpart does little to complement the sound. Remnants of Isolation was crafted in RPG Maker, so its familiar assets and a run-of-the-mill fantasy aesthetic make for an uneven visual package, and being forced to play in windowed mode doesn't exactly benefit the experience, either.
It just doesn't strike as many chords or hit as many notes as it should. Remnants of Isolation is a truncated RPG that never allows its story or progression system to properly develop, and while the focus on a pair instead of a full party pays off in combat, the woefully undercooked bond between the protagonists never does enough to make you care about any of the three possible endings. It can be sweet, but Remnants of Isolation has far too many potholes to be worth its notably short ride.
Ghostbusters Reboot Starts Filming Soon
Director Paul Feig's female-led Ghostbusters reboot begins shooting in Boston soon.
The Boston Herald reports that the movie "is scheduled to get underway in the coming days," while The Boston Globe reports that "preproduction has already begun."
Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones star in the Sony project. McCarthy and Feig previously filmed in Boston for The Heat.
Kentucky Company Makes KFC Double Down-Scented Candle
If you want your home to smell like one of the most famous fast food sandwiches around, you're in luck.
Kentucky for Kentucky has revealed its new "Scents of the Commonwealth" candle line, which includes scents like Hot Brown, Mint Julep, and yes, the Double Down -- which, if you've forgotten, is a bacon and cheese sandwich that replaces bread with fried chicken.
iZombie Renewed for Season 2
The CW have renewed iZombie for Season 2. The decision is hardly a surprise, as the DC Comics/Vertigo adaptation has been a nice success story for the network this spring, doing a notably strong job of maintaining its ratings - most impressively, even on weeks its great lead-in, The Flash, was in reruns.
Executive producer Rob Thomas (Veronica Mars) tweeted about the renewal.
#iZOMBIE officially renewed for a second season!
— Rob Thomas (@RobThomas) May 6, 2015The Hamburglar Returns, Creepier Than Ever
McDonald's has teased the return of its impish sandwich thief, the Hamburglar.
Except now, he's not the rosy-cheeked costumed character you might remember. Instead, a new teaser portrays the Hamburglar as a suburban dad, apparently tempted back to a life of crime by a new set of sirloin burgers.
The new ads are set to start premiering today, alongside a social media campaign which will have Hamburglar popping up in unexpected places--presumably when burgers are nearby.
"We felt it was time to debut a new look for the Hamburglar after he’s been out of the public eye all these years," McDonald's VP of U.S. marketing Joel Yashinsky told Mashable. "He’s had some time to grow up a bit and has been busy raising a family in the suburbs and his look has evolved over time."
House of Cards Intro Recreated in GTA 5
Using the Rockstar Editor, a YouTuber named El Serpe recreated House of Cards' iconic opening credits in Grand Theft Auto 5.
Like the show's intro, the video includes a montage of time-lapse shots overlooking the city. Of course, instead of the chilly streets of D.C., we get a series of buildings and landmarks from all around Los Santos.
Even so, the mock opening comes complete with moody, fast-moving shadows and clouds, cars speeding through roadways and underpasses, and even a shot of the "White House."
Rockstar Editor is a feature included only in Grand Theft Auto 5 on PC.
If you have the game on PC, you can learn the basics of making your own Grand Theft Auto movies with our Rockstar Editor wiki.
AMD’s New GPU Coming This Quarter
New information coming from AMD's financial analyst day confirms a Q2 2015 release date for its latest line of desktop GPUs, along with more conclusive spec details.
The upcoming AMD Radeon graphics cards will be the first to utilize high-bandwidth memory, which allows for performance rates three times that of the currently used GDDR5.
This memory standard also offers a 50% boost in power saving over GDDR5.
You can find images from AMD's presentation below, but note that the GPU depicted on the last slide is a placeholder. AMD isn't showing off the new card yet.
According to AMD CEO Lisa Su, HBM-supported GPUs featuring memory on-die instead of on-card could also allow for some "interesting form factors." Su did not clarify beyond this.
Arrow Photo Preview
Oliver Queen is one step closer to no longer Oliver Queen. He's finished his training as Al Sah-him and only has to complete a couple more tasks to become the next Ra's al Ghul. Photos from Season 3's penultimate episode, "This Is Your Sword," remind us that one of those tasks is marrying Nyssa.
But Team Arrow still isn't giving up on Oliver. Everyone from Atom to Black Canary to Merlyn is present in Nanda Parbat, and they look ready for a fight.
We've seen this episode of Arrow and can tell you a lot happens by the end of the hour - including some events that will make the wait for next week's season finale all the more difficult. Oh, and yes, seeing Katana (Rila Fukushima) in her full comic book-based costume is awesome, as quite a few characters get to team up this week.
Supergirl TV Show Officially Ordered
While it was generally considered a lock to move forward among the new crop of pilots in contention at the network, CBS has now picked up the Supergirl TV series. Multiple sources, including The Wrap are reporting the news that the new DC Comics-based show will be a part of the 2015-2016 season.
Supergirl is the latest DC series from executive producer Greg Berlanti (Arrow, The Flash), who's joined on the project by fellow EPs Ali Adler (Chuck) and Sarah Schechter (The Flash). Berlanti, Adler and Andrew Kreisberg (Arrow, The Flash) co-wrote the pilot, starring Melissa Benoist (Glee, Whiplash) as the title character, which was directed by Glen Winter (Smallville, Arrow, The Flash).
Guitar Hero Live’s New Instrument Can Be Used in Future GH Games
During today's Activision Blizzard investor call, CEO Bobby Kotick shared some good news for future owners of Guitar Hero Live.
Guitar Hero Live's controller will be forward compatible with future games in the series. Kotick didn't confirm or elaborate on sequel details, but if/when one comes around, Guitar Hero Live players will be ready.
Kotick added that the guitar itself will be even easier for casual players to use, but more challenging than ever for advanced players.
Guitar Hero Live is coming in Fall 2015 for $99 USD. Confirmed artists include The Black Keys, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Gary Clark, Jr., Green Day, Ed Sheeran, The War on Drugs, The Killers, Skrillex, The Rolling Stones, The Lumineers, Pierce the Veil and Blitz Kids.