Review: Desktop Dungeons

Posted on January 4, 2011 by geelw

Platform: PC

Developer: QCF Design

Publisher: QCF Design

# of Players: 1

ESRB Rating: N/A

Official Site

Score: A+

I made a rather interesting “mistake” a few months back and I don't think I'll recover anytime soon, nor do I want to. I'd stopped playing Fallout: New Vegas while waiting for a patch to be released and one thing I did during that downtime was check out QCF Design's Desktop Dungeon, a free rogue-like RPG that condenses hours of gameplay into quick ten minute (or less) sessions. The “mistake” was downloading, then playing the game, thinking it would be yet another well-intentioned indie with a few too many charming flaws. Oops. That ten minute session (which was actually twelve, according to my PC clock) hooked me in and I've ended up finding a few minutes every other day or so to dive into DD for a quick session or eight. Best mistake I've ever made, but definitely very lousy for productivity, laundry and a few other non-Desktop Dungeons related things.

Hudson’s Lost In Shadow Drifts Into Stores

Posted on January 4, 2011 by geelw

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/rhHrVrx5Pe0?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0

Hudson’s innovative adventure/platform/puzzle/action game (it does everything!) is in stores NOW. Go buy a copy if you have a Wii (you can thank me later). While I’m waiting for my reviewable to show up, you can keep yourselves busy reading some of my previous coverage on this gem.

Now Playing (Catch Up Version)

Posted on January 3, 2011 by geelw

It might be a slow week for you folks dragging back to work or school after the holidays, but I’ve been busy working on a bunch of stuff, including polishing up and posting a few old reviews I mentioned a little while ago. In the meantime, I’m also getting around to a few (sort of) current releases such as Disney Epic Mickey, Namco Museum Megamix and a few other games I had queued up near the TV during the holiday crunch. I was thinking about making some Game of Last Year picks (a little in-joke there), but I’m still mixed on the idea of “best-of” lists, as they tend to ignore too many otherwsie excellent games in favor of being popularity contests.

For instance: how many of you guys and gals have played Din’s Curse, Avernum 6, Plane Weaver, Amnesia: the Dark Descent, Alice in Wonderland (DS), Deadly Premonition, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, Dementium II, or Y’s Seven? Now, those aren’t all the games I’d add to my own “best of” list (which would have at least 50 titles on it, in case you’re wondering), but it’s just why most GOTY lists that ignore offbeat, well-made games such as these stink. Anyway, back to the salt mines… I’ve got games to finish playing!

Anime Review: DURARARA!! Volume 1 (Episodes 1 – 5)

Posted on January 2, 2011 by geelw

As I'm finally back into the hobby after a bit of time away, I love diving into and enjoying new anime cold with either little to no knowledge of the source material or knowing that what I'm watching will most likely be slightly to significantly different than what's on the printed page. Ryoghyo Narita's lively cast of normal (and not so normal) residents of Ikebukuro, Tokyo are so far, quite an interesting bunch to watch (and amusingly enough, had me borrow the light novel set from a friend). Having just screened the first five episodes of Brains Base' DURARARA!!, I'm definitely wanting to see more.

Happy New Year! Er, Wait… Where The Heck Did LAST Year Go?

Posted on January 1, 2011 by geelw

Yikes, last year went by FAST. Well, given that I was out of action for a good part of early to mid 2010, the second half of the year was pretty busy and mostly productive on a few fronts. I’m still planning to catch up on/complete and post some old reviews just to have them in the database here (which will be updated with its own search function at some point) along with some other cool stuff.

Amusingly enough, all I did most of yesterday was finally finish up two games I’d started a while ago and happened to find saves for while clearing some stuff off my hard drive. That’s a screen from The Chosen: Well of Souls to the left, a single-player action RPG that’s not quite the Diablo rip-off you’d think. Awful voice acting aside (except for the guy doing the final boss), it’s a pretty long and tricky bit of hack ‘n slash with some nicely varied stylized environments and some interesting tweaks to the usual formula. Not “Game of the Year” material, mind you, but developer Rebelmind sure knows how to make a decent chase & chop. Anyway, here’s to a wildly amazing 2011 packed FULL of great games, new tech to play with and yup, more stuff to give away when I can swing it. Hang on and keep us bookmarked, folks – it’s going to be a really interesting year…