I just finished my playthrough and holy heck, this game is wonderful. It's so heartbreaking, but also hopeful, and intense and stressful. Honestly 10/10.
We probably checked when it was published three times to make sure we didn't read the wrong thing. Goodness gracious. Definitely hits hard today. I'm loving it.
An absolutely incredible game, and I'm planning on replaying it a few times, but a quick warning for anyone considering checking it out: be aware that this game can get very very dark near the end (or at least it did in my first runthrough).
There is also one event in particular, that as far as I'm aware happens in every playthrough, that could use a very strong trigger warning. I'm going to put it under the "view rest" thing so anyone who wants to avoid spoilers can, but I feel the need to let people know if they want to know, because it genuinely shook me.
Trigger warning: sometime during the first week, there is a public six-person suicide. Six people are standing on the roof of a building near Rudy's shop, and then deliberately fall in unison; a few seconds later, they are then shown in bodybags. There is no gore imagery, but it's very clear what has happened and the characters in the game will reference it that day and the next.
I'm not sure why but the game randomly crashes for me sometimes. I really like this game and want to keep playing it, but it's been crashing more and more. I can't even make it through one day now without it crashing, so I have to constantly reply the same day. I have the Mac version and any help/advice on how to fix the issue would be greatly appreciated!
Same... also it often crashes for me when I speak to a specific character or on a given day of the story (depending on which storyline im not sure) I have a mac too so maybe this is a mac issue
I expected a Papers Please style bureaucratic news article simulator and instead got a story based adventure game with quite a few friends and stories I get to explore along the way while I steer the public opinion into a certain direction with my chosen news articles. The game does a great job of showing how different choices can all lead to positive and negative outcomes in some way or another, while it wraps itself in its core message of how media coverage and the news we consume can ultimately shape an entire nation. Endearing character art, great replay value if you want to see how this game ticks and an important game to play in 2020. 4,5/5
I tried the experimental Linux build, and the screen only showed flashing colors. It's a old Unity error on Linux, solved by changing Resolution Width and Resolution Height on prefs file (1920x1080 in my case), located at /home/$USER/.config/unity3d/Unbound Creations/Headliner_ NoviNews/
After doing that fix the game works fine and i could finish it without any other problem.
Great game btw, makes you think twice about decision making in RL, ;)
Slight spoilers for the first HEADLINER game (this is just me putting my review in the comments as i dont think you can view whats written in reviews
Novinews is a noticeable improvement over the original HEADLINER i don't have much to say but I recommend picking this up, I'm definitely going to play this again since there's some bonus content that unlocks after you beat the game, ill update my review if I have any complaints but this game is noticeably better, with it not heavily punishing you and only punishing you for pushing for what you believe in.
the score i put for this game is 5 stars, i might go back and edit my review to explain more, but there are probably others that can do a better job and i dont feel like i have a different enough of a opinion to go super into detail, unless i feel like explaining why this game is better than the first game in the series "HEADLINER"
As far as the "be in a position of power/influence" genre goes this is definitely my favorite next to titles like Papers Please or Orwell.
The human element is the strongpoint of the game. Characters offer a wide range of opinions and personalities yet they always remain endearing on some level.
Which articles you publish often has immediate and devestating impacts on said characters.
There's a lot of attention to detail in the world building, it makes you care about the society you're a part of and the changes you bring.
I also greatly appreciated the artstyle, it's square and minimalist enough to portray an entire city without feeling overwhelming, meanwhile the detailed character portraits have plenty of personality.
If i had to give a suggestion it'd be that should you waste all your money early on there's not really a way to come back from that (that I found). Some sort of devil's bargain for quick cash would put the player in an interesting position.
I figured out a fix for opening the game on Mac Catalina! Instead of letting Safari automatically unzip the game upon downloading, go into Safari and click the 'Safari' button on the top left. Click 'Preferences', and in the 'General' tab there should be an option at the bottom called 'Open 'safe' files after downloading'. Uncheck that box. Download the game, then manually right click and unzip it. I used The Unarchiver. After that, right click on the game and choose open. Hope it works for others!
I tried this game with the experimental Linux version, but at launch only a white screen was shown, music and sound worked. Looked at prefs file in config folder and saw Resolution Width and Height were set to 1. Changed them to 1920 and 1080 respectively and now it works fine.
It's a nice evolution compared to the first one. Thanks and keep up the good work.
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I just finished my playthrough and holy heck, this game is wonderful. It's so heartbreaking, but also hopeful, and intense and stressful. Honestly 10/10.
I'm playing this with a friend and we were shocked that it was made pre-pandemic. Absolutely prescient.
Tell me about it. I replayed it recently myself and forgot some of the dialogues I wrote and, oh boy....
We probably checked when it was published three times to make sure we didn't read the wrong thing. Goodness gracious. Definitely hits hard today. I'm loving it.
An absolutely incredible game, and I'm planning on replaying it a few times, but a quick warning for anyone considering checking it out: be aware that this game can get very very dark near the end (or at least it did in my first runthrough).
There is also one event in particular, that as far as I'm aware happens in every playthrough, that could use a very strong trigger warning. I'm going to put it under the "view rest" thing so anyone who wants to avoid spoilers can, but I feel the need to let people know if they want to know, because it genuinely shook me.
Trigger warning: sometime during the first week, there is a public six-person suicide. Six people are standing on the roof of a building near Rudy's shop, and then deliberately fall in unison; a few seconds later, they are then shown in bodybags. There is no gore imagery, but it's very clear what has happened and the characters in the game will reference it that day and the next.
Hey I really appreciate this!
this game is really good but boy is it stressful lmao
Yeaaa it did not age well.... or rather, it aged too well :/
How do I get this game, I brought the racial bundle however I can not add this game?
Hmm you should just be able to download it like any other game you already purchased. If it's not letting you, please contact Itch support!
Thanks for your help!
I'm not sure why but the game randomly crashes for me sometimes. I really like this game and want to keep playing it, but it's been crashing more and more. I can't even make it through one day now without it crashing, so I have to constantly reply the same day. I have the Mac version and any help/advice on how to fix the issue would be greatly appreciated!
Try disabling Post-processing and if that doesn't help, lowering the graphical settings :)
Same... also it often crashes for me when I speak to a specific character or on a given day of the story (depending on which storyline im not sure) I have a mac too so maybe this is a mac issue
I expected a Papers Please style bureaucratic news article simulator and instead got a story based adventure game with quite a few friends and stories I get to explore along the way while I steer the public opinion into a certain direction with my chosen news articles. The game does a great job of showing how different choices can all lead to positive and negative outcomes in some way or another, while it wraps itself in its core message of how media coverage and the news we consume can ultimately shape an entire nation. Endearing character art, great replay value if you want to see how this game ticks and an important game to play in 2020. 4,5/5
More Racial Justice bundle impressions and ranking:
https://itch.io/c/915453/quick-impressions-bundle-for-racial-justice
I tried the experimental Linux build, and the screen only showed flashing colors. It's a old Unity error on Linux, solved by changing Resolution Width and Resolution Height on prefs file (1920x1080 in my case), located at /home/$USER/.config/unity3d/Unbound Creations/Headliner_ NoviNews/
After doing that fix the game works fine and i could finish it without any other problem.
Great game btw, makes you think twice about decision making in RL, ;)
Thanks yea I think that's the solution that worked for others. Thanks for chiming in and glad you enjoyed it :)
Slight spoilers for the first HEADLINER game (this is just me putting my review in the comments as i dont think you can view whats written in reviews
Novinews is a noticeable improvement over the original HEADLINER i don't have much to say but I recommend picking this up, I'm definitely going to play this again since there's some bonus content that unlocks after you beat the game, ill update my review if I have any complaints but this game is noticeably better, with it not heavily punishing you and only punishing you for pushing for what you believe in.
the score i put for this game is 5 stars, i might go back and edit my review to explain more, but there are probably others that can do a better job and i dont feel like i have a different enough of a opinion to go super into detail, unless i feel like explaining why this game is better than the first game in the series "HEADLINER"
Crazy that this game is two years old. Feels more relevant now than ever.
Absolutely Fantastic.
As far as the "be in a position of power/influence" genre goes this is definitely my favorite next to titles like Papers Please or Orwell.
The human element is the strongpoint of the game. Characters offer a wide range of opinions and personalities yet they always remain endearing on some level.
Which articles you publish often has immediate and devestating impacts on said characters.
There's a lot of attention to detail in the world building, it makes you care about the society you're a part of and the changes you bring.
I also greatly appreciated the artstyle, it's square and minimalist enough to portray an entire city without feeling overwhelming, meanwhile the detailed character portraits have plenty of personality.
If i had to give a suggestion it'd be that should you waste all your money early on there's not really a way to come back from that (that I found). Some sort of devil's bargain for quick cash would put the player in an interesting position.
To make it work on Mac:
* move app to Applications
* run this command in the terminal:
chmod +x "/Applications/HeadlinerNoviNews.app/Contents/MacOS/Mac"
* Click on the app, it will throw an error
* Open Security Preferences pane and click "open anyway"
keeps crashing on mac
I figured out a fix for opening the game on Mac Catalina! Instead of letting Safari automatically unzip the game upon downloading, go into Safari and click the 'Safari' button on the top left. Click 'Preferences', and in the 'General' tab there should be an option at the bottom called 'Open 'safe' files after downloading'. Uncheck that box. Download the game, then manually right click and unzip it. I used The Unarchiver. After that, right click on the game and choose open. Hope it works for others!
can't play on Mac.
Playing on Mac. Game has crashed several times in the 20 minutes I have played.
yeah, it has happened to me too. Only during the 3rd day, tho
I tried this game with the experimental Linux version, but at launch only a white screen was shown, music and sound worked. Looked at prefs file in config folder and saw Resolution Width and Height were set to 1. Changed them to 1920 and 1080 respectively and now it works fine.
It's a nice evolution compared to the first one. Thanks and keep up the good work.