STACK #203 Sep 2021

GAMING REVIEWS

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FI 2021

RACING MULTIPLAYER

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F1 2021 makes some notable improvements to the annual franchise. They’re not all immediately apparent, but they’ll change the way that you race. There’s slick general presentation, which is familiar yet also more beautiful and functional. In-game menus work better, upgrade options in career modes require one less step, and things just click. But this streamlined experience is the tip of the iceberg, as some of F1 2021 ’s best changes sit below the surface. Let’s talk about the selectable choice of random faults. You could

GET A GRIP! Tyre wear is more apparent in F1 2021 and will really impact lap times as rubber starts to degrade. Eventually your slicks lose almost all grip and your car becomes as loose as an uncle at a wedding reception.

here as well, provided you leave the majority of your power until you’re safely back on the tarmac. Braking Point , the new, dramatised story mode of F1

2021 is excellent, playing like a season of Drive to Survive . You get the drama and tension of a daytime soap opera mixed with the prima donna attitudes of overstimulated racing drivers living on the sharp edge of high-performance sport. Co-op multiplayer is a superb new feature. Compete against each other, or take on the world together. There are all the MyTeam career mode options, but you get to play alongside someone that you used to call “friend”. F1 2021 as a franchise shows that gradual changes every year can make a big difference, and once again produces a standout gateway game into the obsessively fun world of sim racing. DN

randomly lose power, have DRS go haywire, pick up a flat, or radio comms could go down. It adds a new level of immersion that makes races much more memorable and personalised. Likewise, it’s incredibly easy to find yourself spinning wildly if you dare accelerate on an uneven surface. Using rumble strips is a classic way for drivers to maximise cornering speeds, and it works

CRIS TALES

RPG MULTIPLAYER

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Combining classic JRPG game design with sublime hand-drawn graphics and animation, Cris Tales is going to push all the right nostalgia buttons for many. It’s described by its Colombian development studio, Dreams Uncorporated, as a love letter to both classic Japanese RPGs and the more

modern variations on them. This isn’t surprising, as JRPGs have a huge, devoted following. In Cris Tales you play Crisbell, an orphan girl sent on a quest to collect a rose for her orphanage’s overseer. On her travels she encounters well-

IT’S FLAT, FLAT - REALLY, REALLY FLAT! Everything in Cris Tales is in classic 2D – characters, backgrounds and objects – to the point where it almost feels like you’re playing a gorgeous interactive storybook rather than a video game.

beyond, this feels like a refreshing new experience, even though it’s obviously referencing the earlier days of JRPGs. As you progress through the inventive, often amusing story, you’ll encounter turn-based fights where Crisbell and her allies can leverage their many abilities (and sometimes change the future in the process!). The overarching time-influencing mechanic is brilliant, represented by the screen literally being divided into multiple zones, So, as Crisbell walks through a town you can see, in real time, completely different art and characters onscreen. It’s the time-jumping elements that give Cris Tales a unique personality, with those mechanics woven cleverly into the story. If a turn-based JRPG with tons of heart and gorgeous hand-drawn graphics sounds like what you’ve been looking for, Cris Tales is well worth picking up. AH

spoken talking frog Matias, who introduces her to time mage Willhelm, and Crisbell learns of her ability to see through time – past, present and future. This nicely done tutorial sets up both the tone and the mechanics. Generally, this isn’t a dark delve through worlds of evil and doom – instead, the tone is kept as light as the beautifully drawn animation. In a world where 3D animation and environments are being pushed to the limit and

42 SEPTEMBER 2021

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