SRINAGAR: The Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, Manesar hosted a two-day workshop on March 1-2 that was presided over by the Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
The performance of all ROCs and Regional Directors was assessed during the workshop by the Additional Secretary and DG of Corporate Affairs, according to the statement, and a review of the “Court Cases” and “Prosecution issues” was performed.
The focus was put on bringing all Inquiry, Inspection, and Investigation matters to a logical conclusion. These lawsuits involve violations of several provisions of the Companies Act of 1956 and the Companies Act of 2013. If a prosecution is brought for an offence, the outcome of such conclusive exercise is either a punishment imposed by ROC through the adjudication procedure or a conviction by the lower court.
The Northern Region was represented by ROC NCT of Delhi & Haryana’s Pranay Chaturvedi as the evaluation of the prosecution issues started there. Haamid Bukhari, who represented ROC Jammu Kashmir, informed the senior administrators of the status of the various cases for which the prosecution had been brought either in the courts of CJMs or in the specialised courts of Additional Sessions Judges, Anti Corruption.
Most of these concerns pertain to cases that have already been the subject of an investigation or inquiry. All the offices and regions were reviewed after the Northern Region, one by one.
It is worth noting that lately, ROCs have begun acting quickly to punish white-collar criminals and defaulting businesses for breaking the law. The fine issued against certain large corporations by the ROC Offices in Jammu and Srinagar, which totals more than Rs 50–60 lakh for violations of secretarial compliances, is deserving of note in this procedure.
Boasberg’s ruling is the latest ripple caused by McCarthy’s decision to widen access to 44,000 hours of Capitol security footage from Jan. 6. The Capitol Police had previously turned over about 14,000 hours of the day’s footage that leaders said encompassed crucial time periods of the riot, as well as the relevant camera angles.
It’s unclear whether the additional footage includes evidence that will influence any of the 950-plus Jan. 6 criminal cases. But several defendants have said they intend to access the materials, which House Republicans have agreed to facilitate. The Justice Department has yet to indicate whether it, too, will attempt to obtain and review the footage.
At Friday’s hearing, prosecutors opposed Carpenter’s request, saying they had pieced together the “overwhelming” amount of her movements using CCTV footage, leaving only “a matter of seconds” unaccounted for. Carpenter already has access to a “massive” trove of CCTV footage, they noted, and defendants have the ability to request specific camera angles they would like to focus on if they believe they need additional material.
Prosecutors also suggested that they remain largely in the dark about what the cache of footage newly unearthed by McCarthy might include.
“We don’t have what the speaker has,” said assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Cook, adding, “In any case, there’s always the possibility some information may be out there.”
Prosecutors are required to disclose to defendants any potentially exculpatory evidence they possess — a particularly thorny challenge in Jan. 6 cases as a result of the massive amounts of video evidence captured by Capitol security cameras, policy bodycams, journalists and rioters themselves, who recorded hundreds of hours worth of footage.
But that requirement isn’t limitless, particularly when it comes to evidence that is in the possession of another agency — like the Capitol Police, an arm of Congress — and if courts determine the government has made good-faith efforts to provide as much material as possible to defendants.
Carpenter’s attorneys argued in court Friday that McCarthy’s batch might help fill “gaps” in the footage that would provide context to the actions Carpenter took inside the Capitol. They contended that it might help contextualize some of the actions she took that resulted in the felony charges DOJ lodged, including for obstructing Congress’ proceedings and for participating in a civil disorder. She sought a 60-day delay in her trial, which is set to begin Monday, in order to determine whether any of the new footage might be relevant.
Boasberg agreed that the request was legitimate. Any attorney would want to see a new batch of potentially exculpatory evidence, he said.
“It’s certainly not a frivolous request by any means,” he said.
But Boasberg agreed that the gaps Carpenter’s attorneys described were “minimal” and that the defense lawyers didn’t explain specifically why any additional footage might help Carpenter’s case.
Prosecutors trying the seditious conspiracy case of several leaders of the Proud Boys also recently confronted the issue, when a defense attorney asked the Justice Department whether it would help organize access to the additional footage. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason McCullough called it a “serious question” and a “serious issue,” but said it was too soon to say how DOJ would be handling the matter.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
New Delhi: The Supreme Court is likely to consider on Thursday as many as five petitions seeking review of its verdict acquitting three death row convicts in the gangrape and murder case of a 19-year-old girl in Chhawla area here in 2012.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Bela M Trivedi will decide by circulation in chambers the fate of the five review petitions at 1.50 PM on March 2.
According to the list of business uploaded on the apex court website, the review pleas are listed for consideration on Thursday.
The top court, on February 8, had agreed to constitute a three-judge bench to consider pleas for a review of its verdict acquitting the three death row convicts in the sensational case.
Besides the Delhi government, father of the victim, Uttrakhand Bachao Movement and Uttarakhand Lok Manch have sought the review of the judgement.
In 2012, the three accused had allegedly gangraped the girl, murdered her and mutilated her body with a screwdriver and other weapons. The trial court had awarded them death sentence and the high court upheld it in August 2014.
The apex court set aside the high court order and acquitted them of the offences in November last year, sparking a debate on the verdict.
Except the plea seeking review of a judgement awarding death penalty to a convict, such petitions are considered and decided in chambers.
New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah will hold a review meeting on Tuesday to chalk out poll strategies for the upcoming Telangana assembly elections with state leaders at his residence in the national capital, a top BJP source said.
According to the source, Telangana BJP president Sanjay Bandi, state in-charge Tarun Chug and other Telangana BJP leaders will be present in the meeting.
As the Telangana assembly elections are scheduled to be held this year, the party has geared up its preparations.
The party is running several programmes to connect the people and increase its reach to the grassroots such as Praja Gosha BJP Bharosa and Praja Sangram yatra and through these campaigns, the party is getting massive positive response from the public and as per the source, the party will discuss how to strengthen the party on booth level.
BJP has successfully done 11000 public meeting outreach programmes in the state under Bandi Sanjay.
According to the sources, a state presidential election will be held soon as the BJP president Sanjay Bandi’s term is going to end in the first week of March, but another source from the party speculated that his term as the party President would be extended.
Earlier in the national executive meeting, Sanjay was the centre of attraction as Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the Praja Sangram Yatra and asked all the states to learn from his journey and appreciated his struggle and hard work.
Hi-Fi Rush it was a real bolt from the blue, which in its small way shook significantly the beginning of 2023 of the gaming sector. A very particular action title based on the concept of musical rhythm, seemingly able to charm anyone who gets their hands on it. Let’s not delay any longer and let’s start with the review!
An over the top and enjoyable story
Hi-Fi Rush immediately makes it clear, thanks to its narrative sector, that taking himself seriously is the least of his goals! Not being the real strong point of the production (title already reserved by the gameplay) the narration chosen for Hi-Fi Rush is a very caricature themwith light-hearted tones and above all easy to follow. The comedy reigns supreme hey personages I am one more absurd than the otherwhich helps a lot in making them immediately recognizable, outlining their personality without necessarily having to deepen it too much.
Chai, hero of Hi-Fi Rush, is an aspiring rock star who lives in a world with marked cyberpunk hues. Our hero pays a visit to the Vandelay conglomerate for prosthetic implants, for replace his left armand that’s where it occurs the accident. During the operation his iPods he comes incorporated by mistake in his chest and that’s how Chai becomes one with the beat, in fact with soundtracks that will start right from his playlists present in the iPod. Because of this incident he is identified as defective from safety and, during the escapegets acquainted with Pepperminta girl intent on fight the corporate power of the Vandelayto which we allied ourselves to join his battle: a battle that will go precisely fought to the rhythm of music!
Practically perfect gameplay
Hi-Fi Rush it is successful from many points of view, but it is even more so when it comes to the pure gameplayabsolutely his diamond tip. In fact, the gimmick of the title is to combine the classic mechanics of the hack’n slashthe same kind of Devil May Cry or Bayonetta to be clear, with the concept of rhythm game. In order for one’s actions to be more effective, it is indeed necessary perform them to the rhythm of the music to amplify its effects, both when attacking and when avoiding enemy blows. The whole game world will move in turn in time, which is very useful for not making mistakes and for getting the rhythm with the various actions. However it is also possible bring up a hud that displays the pace to followby pressing the Select key on the Xbox controller or its equivalent on other pads. We strongly advise you to do this if you are new to rhythm games, because without it you may have difficulty.
The mechanical Of combat and movement of Hi-Fi Rush are enclosed in move, jump (also performing a double jump), dodge and perform three different types of attacks: light, heavy and special. Each type of attack will be placed in a different way in the “imaginary score” of the fight, so for example, going in rhythm with the light or heavy one will inevitably require some different execution times. The special attack, which is practically a sort of Ultimate, can only be performed after filling the appropriate loading bar (located above the Life Points one) by fighting against enemies. During the game it is also possible to unlock real ones combosbased not simply on chaining the attack keys in a certain order but, and this is the beauty, on chaining the attacks sometimes even with breaksjust like in one actual score (all of course trying to keep time with the music). It is a very creative way to avoid what, in the jargon, is called button mashingi.e. compulsively and randomly pressing the action keys while praying that something useful will happen. After the initial stages it will also be possible call up Peppermint with the RT key or equivalent, to make her attack an enemy while we continue to fight. This action is also can be incorporated into combos base to maximize damage! Peppermint can also be used in exploratory stages, which we will talk about shortly.
Your own performance in each confrontation they come next evaluate at its end, with a ranks from D to S where D is the minimum and S is obviously the maximum, too recurring feature in most of games of this kind. Hi-Fi Rush from a wonderful feeling with the controls, which combined with the concept of going to the tempo gave us a lot of fun while playing it, making us enjoy each session. Note of merit also for the boss fightwhich they offer well-thought-out and well-executed game situations, also because they are not limited to being larger versions of the base enemies. Each has its own gameplay different ways to attack And different timings to allow the player to react. We will talk more about them in the technical sector but we are already mentioning it now, they are also a flagship as for the animationsespecially for their special moves and actions.
The double progression of Hi-Fi Rush
Usually in video games For progression means game progress or character upgrades that we control, but the one relating to game situations is often forgotten. A basic game it doesn’t start as it endsstarts with situations that are easy to approach (almost like a tutorial) and obviously ends with much higher hostilities to the initial ones in terms of difficulty. We feel like saying this specific type of progression in Hi-Fi Rush is really well doneone always has the clear sensation of doing things more difficult than before but that, thanks to the way in which the game has previously prepared us, we manage to face as we have improved even before who we control (Chai in this case) .
We’re not just talking about combat but also and above all of explorationwhich is often based on platforming phases increasingly complex and which in turn require, from time to time, having to go to music time. These platforming and exploration phases, in addition to serving to advance through the levels and being useful for making the game less monotonous, are a part essential for the collection of gears. They can be used for improve Chai, such as by unlocking new combos or obtaining passive power-ups. Finally, chips can also be equipped to further enhance our Chai, going to build in some ways some builds for the protagonist, depending on your preferences! You can also unlock new Ultimates, which can be used in various different conditions (such as filling the appropriate bar more than once).
Not always then every area of the level will be which can be visited by simply continuing, it will also be necessary to know how to look around and find every point of it to obtain all the materials and care we need. Exploring is possible too collect files of text that they delve into the lore of the gameof the places we visit and of some characters, a detail that we liked a lot as they open up a somewhat unexpected depthconsidering the very light-hearted and caricatured tones of the narration.
The technical sector of Hi-Fi Rush
Hi-Fi Rush it’s a game that flaunts great quality also from the point of view technicianoffering a cartoonish graphic compartmentbeautifully animated and very nice to see, with even a care in the not indifferent character design! Although it is nothing that makes you cry out for a miracle, we are still talking about very well done graphics, even and especially in the cutscenes and in some very fitting stylistic choices for the mood of the game.
The music are themselves very solid, all very catchy and with even actual songs in particular situations (such as boss fights). There are perhaps not really memorable ones, that’s true, but they are both very catchy and be it of course functionalsince in this case they also had to be understood as a basis for gameplay! Therefore, taking into account the whole technical sector, it is promoted without ifs and buts, even if without particular praise.
Definitely
Hi-Fi Rush it’s a really great game to playwell done in practically every respect, but we are not talking about a perfect or great game as one might think. As successful as it may be never leaves you speechless, never has brilliant flashes of game design and all in all that’s fine. It is limited to being a very good hack’n slash with the intuition of merging it with rhythm games, but woe to underestimate it! Not all video games have to aim for the GOTY race after all, video games like Hi-Fi Rush are welcome, which they are indeed increasingly rare commodity nowadays. There is nothing wrong with being an excellent game and nothing more, capable of entertaining the player without particular efforts in terms of depth, and basically we are talking about a title that it’s not even sold at full price (besides being included with Xbox Game Pass), Therefore in its membership range it is in no uncertain terms a must buy!
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( With inputs from : pledgetimes.com )
SRINAGAR: ADGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar on Monday visited district Pulwama where he held a detailed security review meeting in which officers of Police and other security forces participated.
In the security meeting officers including Army’s Sector Commander, DIG Police, DIG CRPF, SSP Pulwama, Army’s CO and CRPF’s Commandants and other officers were present. ADGP Kashmir was briefed about the overall security measures put in place by the participating officers.
During the meeting, ADGP Kashmir imparted upon them to implement additional security measures in order to prevent such terror incidents. While instructing the officers present in the meeting, the ADGP Kashmir stressed to enhance counter-terror operations in Pulwama District. He also directed police officers present in the meeting to generate more humint & techint and further launch counter-terrorist operations along with security forces.
Srinagar, February 27: Additional Director General of Police Kashmir Vijay Kumar on monday visited district Pulwama inwake of minority killing, where he held a detailed security review meeting in which officers of Police and other security forces participated.
In a handout to GNS, the police said that in the security meeting officers including Army’s Sector Commander, DIG Police, DIG CRPF, SSP Pulwama, Army’s CO and CRPF’s Commandants and other officers were present. ADGP Kashmir was briefed about the overall security measures put in place by the participating officers.
During the meeting, ADGP Kashmir imparted upon them to implement additional security measures in order to prevent such militan incidents. While instructing the officers present in the meeting, the ADGP Kashmir stressed to enhance counter-militancy operations in Pulwama District. He also directed police officers present in the meeting to generate more humint & techint and further launch counter-militwncy operations along with security forces. Besides, the process for identifying hybrid militants and taking appropriate actions were also discussed in the meeting, reads the statement.(GNS)
All stakeholders to work towards the common goal of road safety & reducing road fatalities: LG to officers
JAMMU, FEBRUARY 25: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha today chaired a high-level meeting to review the Road Safety measures in J&K, at the Civil Secretariat.
The meeting was attended by Sh Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Advisor to Lt Governor; Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary; Sh RK Goyal, Additional Chief Secretary, Home Department; Sh Dilbag Singh, DGP; Sh H. Rajesh Prasad, Principal Secretary, H&UDD; Sh Shailendra Kumar, Principal Secretary, Public Works (R&B) Department; Divisional Commissioners, Deputy Commissioners, besides senior officers from Traffic Police and UT administration in person and through virtual mode.
During the meeting, the Lt Governor took an appraisal of the implementation of directions issued with regard to improving the Road Safety in the UT and steps taken since the previous meeting.
Sh G. Prasanna Ramaswamy, Administrative Secretary, Transport Department presented the detailed Action-taken report on the status of major infrastructure projects (IDTR Kot Bhalwal & ICC, Samba); enforcement activities by Traffic & Motor Vehicle Department; working of District Road Safety Councils, action taken by road owning agencies for improving the safety of the roads, Installation of CCTVs along roads by NHAI and Police; status of Intelligent Traffic Management System in JMC and SMC, streamlining of Integrated Road Accident Database (IRDA).
While reviewing the enforcement activities being undertaken by the Traffic and Motor Vehicle Department, the Lt Governor directed for taking strict action against the violators who temper with speed limit devices installed in their Vehicles.
The Lt Governor also enquired about the completion of works related to identifying black spots along highways and utilisation of the road safety fund.
The chair was informed that 100 unauthorized cuts have been plugged, besides crash barriers along 98.65 Kms and 3104 speed limit signages have also been erected since April 2022.
Appreciating the efforts of all stakeholders for their commendable efforts towards improving road safety in UT, the Lt Governor asked them to develop a robust mechanism to check the health status of drivers.
The Lt Governor further asked the concerned departments to conduct causative analysis of road accidents for multi-pronged road safety strategy. He also issued directions to complete the works of crash barriers installation at the identified spots.
“All stakeholders to work towards the common goal of road safety & reducing road fatalities,” the Lt Governor said.
Reviewing the process of installation of CCTVs along roads on National Highways, the Lt Governor asked the concerned agencies to complete the work well within the stipulated timeframe.
He further stressed on addressing the issues of old vehicles, if any, running on roads, checking overloading and unauthorised hoardings.
Directions were also issued for completing Inspection and Certification Centre (ICC), Samba, Institute of Driving, Training and Research (IDTR), Kot Bhalwal, Jammu and Intelligent Traffic Management Systems at JMC & SMC and making them functional at the earliest. The Lt Governor stressed upon active cooperation of all the stakeholders and effective measures for road safety and appropriate interventions to reduce road accidents.
It is nine years since Sonny Moore – AKA Skrillex – last released an album. His 2014 debut, Recess, opened with a track called All Is Fair in Love and Brostep – a knowing nod to the derogatory term for the dubstep-derived sound that made him famous. More importantly the track featured a guest appearance from the Ragga Twins, east London authors of the early 90s singles Spliffhead, Hooligan 69 and Wipe the Needle – much-prized examples of their fellow Hackney natives Shut Up and Dance’s idiosyncratic, copyright-busting approach to old-school hardcore rave. The combination of title and collaborators was clearly aimed at Skrillex’s detractors, who viewed him as the godfather of a subtlety-free, Las Vegas-friendly, confetti-cannon-heavy subgenre that finally broke dance music to a mainstream US audience and seemed to bear as much of a relationship to house music as hair metal did to the blues. It felt designed to send a message regarding his bona fides: Don’t confuse me with my cake-throwing, trumpet-playing EDM peers – I know more than you think I do.
The artwork for Quest for Fire. Photograph: PR handout
In the near-decade since Recess’s release, said message seems to have been taken on board. Skrillex is unique among big EDM names. His services as a producer have been courted not only by mainstream stars – Justin Bieber and Ed Sheeran included – but by hip pop figures renowned for their epicurean tastes in collaborators, such as Beyoncé, the Weeknd, PinkPantheress and FKA twigs.
Fittingly, Quest for Fire’s guest list ticks every box in terms of big-name dance album collaborators. There are rappers, including Missy Elliott and Rae Sremmurd’s Swae Lee. There are pop vocalists, among them Aluna Francis, of British duo AlunaGeorge. There are exponents of global music, such as Palestinian singer Nai Barghouti, who sings in Arabic on Xena, and figures from the world of alt-rock, including angsty singer-songwriter Siiickbrain and Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz, the latter admittedly only appearing in a clip from a joint TV interview with Skrillex taped backstage at a festival. But Quest for Fire also boasts appearances by stridently independent electronic auteur Four Tet and Flowdan, the grime MC/producer best known for his work with the Bug. Both are avatars of no-commercial-considerations underground cool; neither, you suspect, would be in any great hurry to collaborate with Deadmau5 or Timmy Trumpet.
But if Skrillex has managed to shift perceptions of himself, Quest for Fire still seems less interested in underlining his dancefloor bona fides than acting as a shopfront for his skills as a pop producer. Almost everything on it comes at you in two-to-three-minute bursts: its 15 tracks are done and dusted in three-quarters of an hour. The music is marked by a fidgety impatience, its author’s restlessness expressed not just in the array of styles on offer – you get a bit of everything, from house and dubstep to two-step garage and Chicago juke – but in the tracks’ attention-deficit construction. Atmospheric passages suddenly erupt into brief bursts of pounding four-to-the-floor beats, as on Tears, which then throws the kind of epic icy synth stabs found on Faithless’s 90s pop-house hits into the mix. Tracks are interrupted by jarring samples of MCs imploring crowds to make some noise, robot voices announcing the producer’s name, the sound of guns reloading and cries of “smoke ’em!”.
With a singer onboard, he’s seldom able to resist the temptation to break out the Auto-Tune, speed them to helium squeakiness or apply the old Fatboy Slim trick of chopping their vocals into an insistent loop over a hands-in-the-air drum roll. You do find yourself wishing he’d calm down a bit and stop pressing buttons every time the urge takes him, not least because when he does, the results are really good: the relatively streamlined Flowdan collab Rumble builds up an impressive air of menace, and if big-room pop-house is your thing then Leave Me Like This is a very accomplished example.
Skrillex’s desire to apply a pop sheen to everything yields mixed dividends. Authentically grabby hooks and sharp melodies on the drum’n’bass-influenced Good Space and A Street I Know vie for space with tracks such as Ratatata, on which the melding of a sample from Missy Elliott’s Work It and a needling synth stumbles along the line that separates insistent from annoying. It’s fascinating to hear Four Tet’s twinkling aesthetic shifted into more obviously commercial waters on Butterflies. But the attempt on Too Bizarre to turn Chicago juke into something chart-bound flounders: somehow its conjugation of warp-speed beats and neon-hued melodies ends up recalling early-90s Eurohouse, which can’t have been the aim.
You’re left with something that feels more like a crammed mood-board than an album; an eclectic grab-bag of ideas that achieve varying degrees of success. When it hits the mark, you can understand why pop stars and left-field figures alike have been drawn into Skrillex’s orbit. But taken in one dose, it’s alternately exhilarating, frustrating and a little exhausting.
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This week Alexis listened to
Kelela – On the Run Inventive but sultry: a highlight from the R&B singer’s welcome comeback album Raven.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
There’s something undeniably cool about Capcom’s ongoing creature-hunter series Monster Hunter: in our world of mundane capitalism, it offers a return to violent, heroic days of yore, where it’s just you, monsters and a great big sword. Yet try as I might to heed the call of the hunt, my heroic ambitions are consistently foiled by walls of text and hours of slaying the same embarrassingly tiny lizards. I thought Monster Hunter and its ilk just weren’t for me – but then I played EA and Omega Force’s wonderfully weird Wild Hearts.
An eyebrow-raising collaboration between the publisher of Fifa and the creators of Dynasty Warriors, set in the land of Azuma (inspired by feudal Japan), it’s like a fever dream. This realm is ruled by giant mythical beasts known as Kemono, coated in moss and flowers, and these once-peaceful creatures have inexplicably become enraged. The hapless Azumians aren’t having a great time with these skyscraper-sized rapscallions, and it falls to you to sort things out.
Unlike the game it’s unashamedly influenced by, Wild Hearts makes its world feel both mysterious and approachable. Where Monster Hunter bombards you with menus, EA’s take is happy to let its world do the talking, throwing you headfirst into its fantastical setting. As you climb and slash your way through lavish locales, its sprawling and overgrown world hints at life within a wider civilisation, inviting curiosity in a way that the closed-off hubs of Monster Hunter don’t. It’s a fun-filled onboarding that immediately lets you get to the good stuff – and then things take a turn for the weird.
Giving the hunter-gathering of Monster Hunter the middle finger, Wild Hearts imbues you with the powers of construction; branded as the mystical art of “Karakuri”, collecting magical thread allows players to build Fortnite-esque structures mid-battle. With everything from wooden walls that block gigantic tail lashings, to a hurriedly botched-together trebuchet hammer at your disposal, it’s a fun and extremely silly mechanic.
It gets more farcical: while townsfolk rebuild a hubworld midway through the game, NPCs insist that they are now unable to harness Karakuri, despite heaps of construction going on behind them. Who knew you could be gaslighted by an entire video game? These odd contradictions are the first of many narrative missteps in Wild Hearts, but when it comes to the core creature combat, its designers get a lot right.
Macabre Pokémon? A scene from Wild Hearts. Photograph: EA/Koei Tecmo/Omega Force
Unlike the more mythical-feeling monsters in Capcom’s caper, Wild Hearts’ combatants look more like macabre recreations of legendary Pokémon. From demonic six-eyed boars to spore-coated rodents, each ferry-sized foe is memorably unhinged – including a giant flying squirrel that shoots water and shrieks like a dolphin.
Like Destiny before it, more important than the tedious narrative are the player-led stories; while you won’t remember a single NPC’s name, you will remember you and your mate finally toppling the fearsome Amaterasu on your fourth attempt. Or that time you somehow built a ridiculous tower mid-attack and glitched your way back into a battle that seemed all but lost. And really, you’ll need to call on a friend, because solo play quickly loses its charm. Thankfully, matchmaking here is a world away from the abstruse Monster Hunter, allowing players to quest with friends and strangers alike at the press of a button.
When you’ve upgraded its array of alluring weapons – standouts include bear claws and a transforming stick – Wild Hearts’ wacky ways click satisfyingly into place. As you grow stronger, encounters become predictably big, with developer Omega Force’s Dynasty Warriors experience translating into suitably loud and flashy on-screen showdowns.
Where Monster Hunter chucks system after system at you, almost willing newcomers to rage-quit, Wild Hearts drip feeds its glorious nonsense in a refreshingly patient way. The only caveat: it’s patience that you’ll need to repay in kind. While the battles shine, Wild Hearts drags you out of the fun at every other opportunity. As your wounded quarry limps away toward the next battleground, a lack of mounts make the journey tracking them a pace-killing slog. Downtime between fights is even worse: players must engage in an endless series of excruciating conversations before being sent back into the wilderness.
Never boar-ing… Wild Hearts. Photograph: EA/Koei Tecmo/Omega Force
While there’s a lot to like about this world, its characters certainly aren’t one of them – all the proper-noun-filled nattering will have you skipping more than a triple jumper – and the game’s camera is pulled in bafflingly close. Its claustrophobic view can make tackling these titans exasperating, especially in tight-knit environments.
These aren’t small quibbles, yet despite its flaws, I’m still having a great time with Wild Hearts. Thirty hours in, and I’m patiently slaying beast after beast, pining after that next enticing weapon upgrade and shiny armour set.
EA and Omega Force’s unlikely venture succeeds by being the perfect entry point to the hunter genre. This is the accessible radio single to Monster Hunter’s prog album odyssey: it’s silly, flawed and probably not destined to be an all-timer, but if you’re in the right mood, my god is it fun. Whether it’ll continue to dig its talons into me remains to be seen, but after years of frustration, I finally feel ready to dive further into this once-impenetrable genre.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
