Busload of Horror: Or, Way Too Many Scary Games This Month, Part 1

Posted on October 17, 2016 by geelw

Ha. You should see my inbox and backlog. You’d scream. A lot. Especially at all the scary games that try to elbow each other in the eyeballs for attention. Some of these end up beign great, some not so great, a few even end up like broken dolls you want to keep because they have promise but need to be taken to the toymaker and fixed up a bit. Anyway, here are (well, three at a time in this series) some quick looks at a bunch of games I liked that you may want to try… if you’re brave enough.

A Room Beyond: Currently up to its second of five chapters (the first one is free), René Bühling‘s excellent, distinctly smart psychological horror game does its frights up right, using a superb, intentionally crude yet perfect and gorgeous “2.5D” pixelated visual style that actually amps up the chill factor considerably. The experience is pure classic adventure/exploration game with a Lovecraftian vibe creeping throughout its narrative, but combat against creatures is a necessary and well-implemented evil in the second chapter.

From the opening moments when your character wakes up trapped in a cave and makes his way down that winding hill to a foggy village with some very strange residents, there’s a sense of uneasy dread that something terrible not only will happen, but has happened. Your character is tied into all this somehow, of course. But despite his hardiness and good intentions to help out while trying to solve his own mystery, in a way he seems not quite prepared for what’s coming. In other words, I’m hooked in for the long haul.

The official site notes A Room Beyond is “A novel story of crime, mystery and life-philosophy is told in five episodes which finally reveal into a complete story line,” which sold me right away. You can try out the FREE demo on Steam (highly recommended), but if you’re already a big horror game fan, I say just pay the $6.99 for the current build and play this at night with the lights out and a pair of headphones on for best results.

Continue reading →

PSN Flash Sale: Some October Surprises Abound

Posted on October 15, 2016 by geelw

Nice. Here I am, trying NOT to spend any more money this month and here comes Sony, kicking my door in and nicely trying to rob me blind with another Flash Sale. “Oh, hey, sorry! We’ll replace the door we kicked in… if you BUY SOMETHING! Heh.” FINE. Well, maybe. I kinda like that cross ventilation thing happening now. Then again, nosy neighbor factor increases by 100% plus there goes my game and movie collection while I try to sleep, sooooo… blast you Sony! *Sigh* I may as well pick up one thing just so my door goes back up today.

-GW

PLANTERA: Weeding Out One Very Cool Clicker

Posted on October 14, 2016 by geelw

Let’s get this out of the way: I am NOT a big fan of clicker/tapper games, mobile-based or not. There’s a huge and happy market for them, sure. But my attention span tends to wander elsewhere once my brain realizes it’s been trapped into what amounts to Lucy and Ethel wrapping chocolates on a too-fast moving assembly line. Yep, that’s hilarious to watch, but DOING it? Madness, on a cosmic horror scale. Ninth level of hell meets Sisyphus cloned by Caligula, but with roller skates, a greasy hill and square boulders. Nope, not for me.

Of course, I then get a random code for VaragtP‘s super-cute endless clicker PLANTERA in my inbox and well… foo. Yeah, it got me sucked in for a while, grinning like a kid as soon as it started up until I forced myself to shut it down, STILL smiling. My reputation as a curmudgeon, shattered by a planting game? Great. grrr. Ah well, one more bias kicked in the teeth, right? For the record, I plant and grow peppers on a windowsill here, so yeah. The game had me at PLANTERA.

Continue reading →

Retro-Bit Generations Update: Getting Closer As Stiff Competition (And Then Some)

Posted on October 14, 2016 by geelw

I’ve said this before, but after seeing this (too) brief teaser for the upcoming Retro-Bit Generations game console, I’ll say it again. While Nintendo clearly has brand recognition, a years longer and extremely loyal fan base, and an instant smash hit with its upcoming NES Classic Mini, the Retro-Bit may be a better fit for gamers looking to play more classic games, period.

Pre-orders are open and for that same MSRP, you get a more flexible system and over 60 more games including arcade, 8 and 16-bit classics. If the build quality and controllers on this are tight, I’ll be grabbing one of these first and going for that Mini once the frenzy over nostalgia beating sheer value dies down. These days, it just makes sense to go with value first. Well, at least in my book.

-GW

Just Feel: A Little Indie Action on Hump Day

Posted on October 12, 2016 by geelw

Let’s talk about s-e-x for a hot minute. Most popular videogames act like it doesn’t exist or it’s made essential to a story as a “relationship” deal where it’s mishandled like a giraffe trying to juggle watermelons while playing the bongos. Boo to most of the AAA game industry and it’s primarily clumsy pawing of a subject that should be gently approached and touched in just the right places.

Meanwhile, over in France (where the heck else?), seven first-year students at Le Cnam-Enjmin took three months to make Just Feel, a very short, FREE, and let’s just say “educational” game about…

Well, let’s just see what the game page says:

The goal of this project is to mention sensuality and the pleasure in a poetic and subtle way.

The idea is to show a form of sensual relation without taboo and vulgarity.

In this experience the player personifies a caress metaphor.

This project is focus on the flow feeling.

Relaxation and surprise.

This is a 10 minutes experience.

While this one’s a bit too easy to describe how to play and the overall goal, you still kind of need to play it and see…er, feel for yourself what the deal is. In fact, BEFORE you play, watch the let’s play video for a bit of hilarity as the guy playing can’t quite figure out where he’s at on the figure. Some girls and guys will get a chuckle and “It figures…” head shake while watching. Hey, some of us need a lot of practice. Yeah, me included.

Anyway, you may blush a little before the game times out, but it’s tastefully done (quiet back there!) and abstract enough to indeed be called art. So, um. Go give it a try, I say.

I guess I should score this, right? Okay, 1 point a minute makes this a perfect 10.

-GW

Save

Lost Ember: Kickstart This Gorgeous Game, Please

Posted on October 11, 2016 by geelw

While I’m not the biggest fan of crowdfunding, I’ve participated in a few projects this year that jumped out and bit me because the promise of greatness was more than a pipe dream and a dedicated person or team was at the wheel guiding that vision to completion.

Lost Ember is one of those projects, I’ll more than likely help back because it’s absolutely gorgeous and it looks as if the developer, Hamburg, Germany-based Mooneye Studios is on the right track in creating an indie game for the ages. You can see (and hear) the hard work and passion for the project in every area and hopefully, the game will make its goal with time to spare (and yes, a well-optimized console port down the road, as this one’s too good to be limited to one platform)

But enough babbling from me. Take a look at this trailer from the developer:

And this gallery of screens and art I put together a few weeks back on YouTube with fingers crossed that the Kickstarter would indeed launch and get going to a fast, steady start:

You’re grinning and reaching for your wallet, right? Well, my work here is done.

-GW

HUNTDOWN Gallery: Enter the Three the Hard Way Blade Running Mad Warriors to the Max

Posted on October 11, 2016 by geelw

Well, well. What do we have here? A game called HUNTDOWN by a studio with a temporary name ‘Huntdown HB (Handelsbolag)’ initially set for a mobile only release (where it would have no doubt blown gamers away who think ALL mobile games are awful tapper timesinks or cutesy kid games), now headed to mobile, PC and (hopefully) console? Let’s take a look and some screens, art and even a few GIFs now shall we?

There’s a nice, striking image, no? Oh, just wait until you see what’s below the jump…

Continue reading →

(A Bit Late, But) FILM THREAT Lives!

Posted on October 10, 2016 by geelw

(Thanks, Chris Gore!)

Whee! FILM THREAT lives on. Here’s a very happy and tired Chris Gore reading off a list of contributors to the Kickstarter campaign, which I’m pleased to say I was part of. Now, to hang back and wait for more news on that documentary!

Review: BREACHED

Posted on October 10, 2016 by geelw

Sly sci-fi adventure/puzzle game will work your brain quite well, although it’s got a few issues. Still, if you want something uniquely replayable, this has got your name and number all over it.

Platform: PC
Developer: Drama Drifters
Publisher: Nkidu Games
# of Players: 1
Release Date: 6/22/2016
MSRP: $6.99
ESRB Rating: T (Teen)
Official Site
Score: B- (75%) BUY IT!

Have you ever lost your keys in your own home, had a devil of a time searching for them, only to discover yourself in bed, waking from a dream that was all too real… until you get ready to walk out the door but end up having to look for your keys? But then… you REALLY wake up and you’re just staring up at the ceiling, but wanting to pinch yourself hard because you want to be 100% sure you’re NOT dreaming this time? That’s BREACHED in a nutshell.

Indie developer Drama Drifters has cooked up a beautiful-looking sci-fi/mystery adventure game with a simple yet complex manner about it. Simple in that it’s relatively short, but complex in that it needs to be replayed a few times in order to see everything it has to offer. So, that short length ends up being initially perplexing if you go in expecting anything other than what the game has to offer and you’re back in the think of things doing it all over again.

Waking up from suspended animation on a strange planet, Corus Valott finds his life support and a few other important systems down for the count. A bit of memory loss thanks to that damage has left him a bit fuzzy on certain things, but Valott knows that without stuff getting back online, he’s not going to survive. All he has is a flying drone that can gather random materials and a few days to sort things out before he’s doomed and forgotten.

That, dear reader is where you come in, of course. All you need to do is use that drone’s limited daily power to collect data and materials, get them back to the base and combine them carefully. An easy enough task… but poor Corus isn’t his best thanks to his debilitating condition. As noted above, it’s quite like that lost key dream within a dream within a dream thing to some extent.

Continue reading →

Blu-Ray Review: The Bloodstained Butterfly

Posted on October 10, 2016 by geelw

Duccio Tessari’s 1971 thriller The Bloodstained Butterfly is a great entry point to the genre for those squeamish viewers curious about gialli but not willing to commit to the more violent entries known to more ardent fans. The film is part murder mystery, part courtroom drama and part revenge flick, all stylishly shot and scored to excellent effect.

It’s also a bit of a slow fuse to its conclusion, but that’s not a bad thing at all. The film’s structure where a murder is committed and witnessed, a suspect is caught, tried and jailed, but more murders take place is yes, pure TV drama stuff you’ll see on way too many episodes of whatever Law & Order series you’ve been hooked on for who knows how long. But, Tessari’s confident style comes through in every shot, making for a highly watchable viewing experience.

Continue reading →