Heroes of Loot: Budget Bitty Dungeon Crawling Hits The Vita

Posted on September 23, 2015 by geelw

It’s a darn good thing I pay ZERO attention to what internet comment sections on game and video sites say. Absolution Games’ budget twin-stick dungeon crawler Heroes of Loot is actually pretty fun to play and dirt cheap at $2.99 on the Vita. The bite-sized dungeons, fast-paced gameplay and simple retro looks aren’t getting a lot of love from the usual suspects, but the game is great fun so far. You’re basically getting a Gauntlet homage with a bit more humor and difficulty that ramps up as you clear special optional side quests.

yeah, yeah, it was/is a tablet game, but so what? If you like your dungeon crawlers and teeny sprite characters zipping about laying waste to hordes of monsters, collecting loot and trying to stay alive, this one’s right up your alley. Or right down your dark dungeon hallway. Now, if you’ll excuse me… I have a LOT more monsters to kill. In the cutest possible manner, of course.

Van Helsing Final Cut Slips Into October (But This Is A Good Thing)

Posted on September 23, 2015 by geelw

While game delays are always bad news, in this case it’s a case where the developer is trying to make a one-size fits all release work across multiple digital delivery systems in order to get the game in question into the hands of as many people as possible. Go read the very informative blog post on the official site for details. In a nutshell, NeoCore is working hard on getting Steam and GOG.com buyers the same deal where buying the trilogy nets those folks The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing Final Cut for free even if they buy one of the original games at a later date or buy the trilogy across the two different digital stores.

That’s hard enough to rig, but Final Cut is also going to be doing some additional testing and polishing of the game to insure it’s their best and most polished game to date. Hey, I don’t mind the wait if it means the end result makes me not want to stop playing it.

One More Bundle Is Calling Your Name

Posted on September 22, 2015 by geelw

Do you really need One More Bundle of indie games to dive into? Polish indie game studio One More Level certainly thinks so and for under two bucks (or more if you like), you can grab six digital game codes and dive into them at your leisure. The variety is certainly there, with a WWII flight sim, colorful puzzler, zombie mangling fun and even a strategy game set in the Call of Cthulhu universe. My own backlog is broken and screaming at me to not add another game to it, but I just may do so with this mix.

The offer expires September 29, 2015, so act fast, troops and don’t forget to tell a friend or three if you like what you’re playing. One More Level has a lot more in the works for their new platform and it’s always a good thing to get behind something like this early. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to flip a coin and see what’s next. Given that I got my coin from Two-Face and it’s unmarked, I have the feeling that my backlog is going to grow by six titles sooner than later.

Have A Horror-ble Week Thanks To This IndieGala Monday Bundle

Posted on September 21, 2015 by geelw

More Monday bundle madness for you, this time from the fine folks at IndieGala. This Eerie Monday Bundle provides 100% of a day’s frights for less than a bowl of sugar-bomb laden cereal. Well, okay. Too many bowls of that sugary crap will kill you dead, while the best a decent horror game will ever do is make you pee yourself a little. Hey, I’m NOT speaking from experience at all. I have heard of it happening, though. Anyway, here’s a test for you in the form of a video of one of the games in the bundle.

Are you the tiniest bit freaked out now? Maybe? Not at all? Hey, I tried. Space is pretty scary in general if you think about it, and being stuck on the moon with something unsettling and no easy way off isn’t exactly a situation made for happy times. Okay, get going with the clicking and buying stuff. This eight Steam codes for $1.89 is only good for the next 24 hours.

Go Get Too Many Indie RPGs Thanks To Bundle Stars

Posted on September 21, 2015 by geelw

The bundle-fest continues over at Bundle Stars, who seems to want you to spend an inordinate amount of time stuck in front of your PC or laptop with a goofy grin or grimace on your face as you play a new batch of RPGs they have up for grabs. The RPG Champions 2 Bundle gets you eight Steam games for the ridiculously low price of $2.49 – all you need to do is find the time to play them all.

I can’t help you there with the timey-wimey stuff, but you’ve got two weeks to snap up this deal before it vanishes. Or at least bug one of your buddies who has oodles of free time to go do something with that time and stop popping over randomly to bend your ear with his or her crazy ideas. A decent game or eight is enough distraction to keep them out of your hair. Unless they get stuck in some dungeon and keep calling you for help.

Retro Pop Box Turns Your Mailbox Into A Time Machine

Posted on September 20, 2015 by geelw

If you’re a child of the 1960’s, 70’s or 80’s, or know someone of a certain age craving some random nostalgia, Retro Pop Box is going to be right up your/their alley. The just-launched subscription-only service delivers the goods in the form of monthly boxes of themed swag, all of it fun and guaranteed to get the memory banks kicking in as you’re transported back to your childhood.

A sampler box containing a few items from all three eras popped up in my mailbox a few days back (thanks, Chris!) and it made a rather bland Wednesday end on a rainbow-colored rocket with a paisley disco ball painted on it. Or something close to that.

Continue reading →

Time For A Few Classics, Cheaply: Bundles And Sales Galore This Weekend

Posted on September 19, 2015 by geelw

Yeah, yeah. I’ve been a bit busy with some oddball real world occurrences recently, so I’ve been a bit behind in these bundle posts. Of course, that means there are a LOT of new-ish bundles and sales out there begging for your attention. Here are a few must-buys that have popped into my inbox over the last week:

Retro Legends Bundle ($2.49): Bundle Stars does it again with this excellent mix of a whopping 17 titles for under three bucks. There’s SO much classic gaming in this instant backlog that you’ll need to invent a time machine so you can play everything and then rewind the date back to before you got into everything here. There’s a megaton of Duke Nukem content, two classic Wizardry titles, the FPS/RPG hybrid Strife and many more games that should get fans of the old school grinning. You may also want to peek at the other bundles on the site as this past week there have been some incredible daily bundle and single game deals listed.

Continue reading →

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing Final Cut: A Triple Threat All In One Package For ARPG Fans

Posted on September 17, 2015 by geelw

Warts and all, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing has been quite a fun trilogy to play through. Taking the addictive chase and chop-fest of the Diablo series, adding humorous touches like a sassy AI ally and a fun “tower defense” mini-game that’s nicely implemented into the main story, NeoCore Games has crafted a great time chomper of a game. Coming September 23, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing Final Cut will give new players the entire trilogy with loads of fixes and new content. Over 50 hours of gameplay, six classes to choose from, new cut-scenes, and an all-new new ENDLESS endgame that can be played in a number of possible ways.

Yes, you can still get an actual ending to the big Borgovian bang trilogy. But NeoCore knows its fans love what they’re doing and the endless endgame is a way to keep them glued to their screens with saucer-sized eyeballs. The game is coming to Steam and gog.com on September 23, 2015 for $44.99, but gamers who own all three games in the trilogy (on Steam at least) will get Final Cut for free when the game launches. I’d say that’s going to surprise some who don’t know this and own all three games when they log into Steam next week and see something huge creeping onto their hard drives.

That said, this game NEEDS to come to consoles at some point down the road. There aren’t enough of this style of ARPG on the PS4, Xbox One or Wii U and that’s a sad thing indeed. We’ll have to see if NeoCore has those plans in the works, but if not, the PC game is one that doesn’t require a super-killer rig to run.

Some Fallout 4 Stuff To Fall Out Over

Posted on September 17, 2015 by geelw

Bethesda Softworks ~~thinks~~ knows it’s clever, getting all these amazing Fallout 4 goodies out there in the wild for all us collector types to collect as if we’re in one of their games collecting stuff. Well, without the being attacked by mutants and other irradiated deviants in the Wasteland. Here’s a quick peek at some of the nifty (and somewhat safe) stuff to be found in your travels. If you happen to be a lazy Vault-dweller too frightened to leave and explore the outside world, guess what? The internet is your friend (mostly). You can get your F4 goodies delivered just about anywhere in the U. S. of A. with a few clicks of a mouse. Well, provided that mouse isn’t alive, about a foot or so long (d’aww! it’s just a baby!) and and trying to bite off one or more of your toes as you roll around on the floor with it fighting for your life.

Continue reading →

READS: Game Art Shows Off Some Great Reasons To Play Even Games You Won’t Like

Posted on September 16, 2015 by geelw

Matt Sainsbury’s Game Art ($39.95) presents an excellent way for anyone whether they’re a gamer or not, to appreciate the assorted art styles used in different videogames. One of the big (but somewhat meaningless) debates that has been ongoing for ages is what constitutes “good” art when in actuality, learning to love the different looks games have from “retro” to realistic is the more appropriate manner of seeing things.

Game Art tackles this subject with a wide range of art styles and some great interviews with the people who’ve created the wondrous art in this 250 page tome.

While the art is uniformly lovely throughout, the more interesting things here are the interviews with assorted creators. A passion for the medium seems to be the uniting factor, but you’ll also see some games are made in response to world events, as a means of teaching history or even personal issues some artists have had in the past. Of course, there are a few tales of games made at the wishes of a corporation, but it’s also in these cases where the overall art style was left to the artists, which is always a good thing.

While the book has a number of recognizable mainstream titles from major publishers, Sainsbury is smart enough to add a bunch of PC/console indie games well worth checking out as well as a few niche games that generally only do well with a certain crowd (the Atelier series of games by Gust). It’s also of note that there’s a great interview about Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn that directly addresses the game’s revival from its initial failure to it’s rebirth as a far (FAR) better and more enjoyable game experience (with some truly lovely art).

One of the more amusing things personally learned from this collection is there are a handful of games here I didn’t care much at all for when I played them (Monster Monpiece, Hyperdimension Neptunia) that I now appreciate a bit more after reading the interviews. Sainsbury clearly has a deep respect for the works of Goichi Suda (Suda51) and Hidetaka Suehiro (SWERY65), as they get some nice coverage. Tale of Tales’ Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn have a nice set of images and a fine interview that’s a bit sad because since the book has come out, the company has stopped making commercial games thanks to the failure of SUNSET, their excellent and innovative adventure game that failed to capture a wide enough audience.

Overall, Game Art should make a more than excellent gift for anyone looking to gain insight into the pre-production and even the development process behind the scenes. Hell, you can even buy this one if you just want to look at the pictures and that’ll be all right because it’s part of enjoying a good or not so good game at the end of the day. Hopefully this one will get a follow up with even more creators as Sainsbury’s interviewing style of smarter than the average questions and allowing his subjects to have enough room to reply has made for quite the compelling read.