Replaced: Fantastic pixel art graphics in the E3 trailer

Replaced: Fantastic pixel art graphics in the E3 trailer

Replaced

With Replaced, Microsoft managed a little E3 surprise during its Xbox Showcase: The gloomy, retro-futuristic action game inspires in the first trailer with a fabulous pixel art look, tough battle scenes and a dark sci-fi scenario. If you missed the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase 2021, you can watch the video snippets right here:

Recommended editorial content Here you can find external content from [PLATFORM]. To protect your personal data, external integrations are only displayed if you confirm this by clicking on "Load all external content": Load all external content I agree that external content can be displayed to me. This means that personal data is transmitted to third-party platforms. Read more about our privacy policy . External content More on this in our data protection declaration. Replaced is a pure single player title and aims to tell a deep, dystopian story. The 2.5D action game is set in an alternative America of the 80s, in which society has been thrown out of joint after a nuclear disaster. Corruption, greed and chaos rule the streets of Phoenix City, a run-down metropolis where an unscrupulous company is in charge. Her specialty: illegal organ trafficking, for which the poorest residents of the city are gradually harvested to meet the demand of the super-rich. A brutal business that an AI named R.E.A.C.H. which should regulate and optimize the market in the future. But something goes wrong and R.E.A.C.H. involuntarily ends up in a human body - namely that of your character.

Replaced surprises in the trailer with a great graphic style. Source: Sad Cat Studios As an AI in human form, you explore the gloomy world from the side, complete jumping and climbing positions and plunge into lavishly animated fights, which, according to the developers, should rely on a fluid freeflow system. The developers also promise a tough, multi-layered cyberpunk world, a story full of surprises and a cinematic staging that was inspired by films such as Blade Runner 2049 and Alien. How well this will play can only be guessed at the moment, but optically the game makes a fantastic impression: The developers rely on characters and objects in an old-fashioned pixel look, combined with modern rendering tricks, smooth animations and atmospheric 3D environments.

Replaced surprises in the trailer with a great graphic style. Source: Sad Cat Studios At first glance it is reminiscent of The Last Night, which also relies on a dark cyberpunk world with a modern pixel art style. Since the acclaimed announcement four years ago it has been suspiciously quiet about the project.

Replaced is the debut title of Sad Cat Studios, a still unknown team based in Minsk, Belarus. The release should take place next year, so far the developers have specified PC, Xbox One and Series S / X as platforms. At launch, Replaced will also be included in the Xbox Game Pass. You can already add the game to your wish list on Steam.

Sources: Steam, developer





Need an American flag replaced? This Delaware man, with the help of Comcast, will do it for you

David Pinder, a Delawarean who works at Comcast, started a program to replace old American flags. The program has since expanded to several states. 6/14/21 Delaware News Journal

One of the first times David Pinder knocked on the door of an unsuspecting resident, he was met with an angry greeter. He had bypassed the 'No Trespassing or Soliciting' sign after parking his Comcast truck.

Pinder wasn't at this New Castle County residence – later learned to be a Verizon customer – to solicit, rather he was there to give.

The American flag flying at the property was tattered and worn. And Pinder, a veteran of the Navy, took inventory of some visual cues that told him the person living there likely didn't have the means to replace it.

Pinder, he explained to the initially-angry man, was there to replace the flag and retire the old one, free of charge. So he did.

David Pinder replaces a flag in the Iron Hill area. Pinder started the Veterans Network Flag Replacement Program at Comcast which replaces worn, faded or tattered flags.

 (Photo: Damian Giletto/Delaware News Journal)

That flag is one of the more than 400 Pinder and others, through Comcast's Veterans Network, has replaced for free in New Castle County and one of the around 600 replaced in the Delaware Valley over the last four years. 

Pinder, a Bear native and Comcast maintenance supervisor, got the idea for the VetNet Flag Program while replacing a flag at his office. 

'By nature I’m patriotic and I was looking to respect and take care of our flag,' he said.

He ran the idea up the chain of command and got the go-ahead. In just a few days, 75 flags were in his office.

'What seemed like a great idea on paper, all of the sudden it was kind of like, ‘here we go,' Pinder said.

At first, Pinder would notice worn and tattered flags while out in the field or would ask others working to take notice and let him know if there was a replacement opportunity. 

'I suspected when I saw tattered flags, I always tried to assume the best of people,' Pinder said. 'I assumed that there was a reason that it wasn’t replaced and there was a good reason. What we’ve found often is maybe people didn’t have the means to replace them or another thing that we see a lot of times is once it starts to tatter, they’ll just go overnight.

'We’re there because you chose to fly a flag and we choose to give you a new one. And not only a new one but a high-quality one.'

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The old flags, Pinder said, get folded up and collected in a sealed box. Then, on or around Veterans Day, they are retired with an honor guard at VFW Post 475 in Newark.

More than 200 flags were retired in the three years the program existed before the coronavirus pandemic, which forced the program to halt operations for a while. But then Pinder figured he and his various flag ambassadors could keep doing things safely.

They 'looked like surgeons' walking up to people's doors with gloves and masks on.

'We were a little worried that people were going to be concerned by our presence, but we found the opposite,' he said. 'People not only wanted to talk, but they wanted to keep talking.'

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Now, many of the replacements come by way of referrals or people reaching out to Pinder or the other area ambassadors. The program is now running from Maine down to Virginia, and Pinder said he has even trained Comcast employees in California and Chicago, too.

David Pinder raises the American Flag in the Iron Hill area. Pinder started a program at Comcast that replaces worn, faded or tattered flags.

 (Photo: Damian Giletto/Delaware News Journal)

One of the families who reached out to Pinder were the Levines, a military family who live in Newark near the Maryland state line. Momo Levine got in contact with Pinder after seeing something on a local Facebook page.

Pinder was out in November to replace their flag.

'I was a little skeptical,' Momo said. 'I was happy about it because we had a very old, tattered flag.'

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'As a veteran, the flag means a lot,' her husband, Joe, said. 'What he’s doing means a lot to veterans, especially the older ones who can’t get out, as they get older, and replace it themselves.'

That was the case for the man who lived at the house with the signs forbidding trespassers. He was living off a fixed income, Pinder said, and had trouble getting around. After first showing little interest ('I'm a Verizon customer,' he said), the man let Pinder do the replacing.

Pinder, out of the corner of his eye, could see the man watching through a window as he put a brand new flag up.

'You could tell he was kind of getting emotional,' Pinder said. 'I waved to him and he actually waved back as I was leaving.'

Contact reporter Jeff Neiburg at jneiburg@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jeff_Neiburg.


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