Six For Your Pocket Change in Today’s IndieGala Monday Bundle

IndieGala EMB 3022015
 

It’s March already? Yikes. Well, no matter how fast the year moves, IndieGala is there like clockwork with its Every Monday Bundle. This week, get six Steam games for $1.99, including the cool, creepy first-person sci-fi adventure Master Reboot:


 

I’ve yet to play it, but I’ve heard some nice things about it from a few friends who have. At the price of about 33 1/6 cents, it’s probably worth picking this deal up. I do have Depths of Peril on disc already, but it’s been loaned out and isn’t currently installed on any of the hard drives here. Hmmmm… what to do? Yeah, like it’s that much of a deep though coin toss. SOLD.

Get Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut for FREE From IndieGala!*

DP_TDC Free at IndieGala

 

*Well, you have to spend ten measly bucks in the IndieGala store to get Access Games’ sleeper hit gratis. But that’s probably going to be the easiest ten measly bucks you’ll ever spend, I’d bet. Heck, buy ME a game or two and keep Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut (a $24.99 value) all for yourself. My coin flip says you’re buying me Ziggurat. Well? I’m waaaaaaiiiiting…

Okay, okay. You really don’t need to get me anything at all, actually. But passing up on the chance to score a quirky horror game that bends and breaks a few rules while getting a few fine games in the process? That’s not going to do you any good at all.

 

DP_TDC FREE with ten buck purchase at IndieGala

And nope, buying that awesome Dragon Bundle or any other bundles don’t count towards that ten bucks. Hit up the IndieGala Store and see what you can score, as a load of stuff is on sale and you can probably grab three or more games for under a ten-spot and get Francis York Morgan (and friends) in a murder mystery mash-up for the digital ages. Okay, less talking, MORE buying and playing, I say! Get going, people!

Star Wars Humble Bundle: You Won’t Need Force To Be Sold This One!

Star Wars Humble Bundle 

Nope, not at all. In fact, there’s a very good chance you’re jumping on this link and slapping down the twelve dollars to unlock all nine titles as well as the surprise bonus games coming next week. The two Knights of the Old Republic games are worth that price and Republic Commando was and is very underrated gem that’s a solid FPS as well as fairly amusing in spots thanks to a snappy scripting job. The rest of the lot (so far) is an interesting selection of genres from straight up action to real-time strategy without the resource gathering and makes for an excellent deal for the money.

Star Wars KOTOR

Star Wars KOTOR II

Star Wars Republic Commando 

As for what those upcoming additions to the bundle are, it’s tough to say. It would be nice to see more Jedi Knight games make it into the bundle, as both Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II with the Mysteries of the Sith expansion and Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast were pretty impressive for their respective times. Jedi Academy is okay and fun to play, but those two other game were sweet spot central, bumping up the visual quality and gameplay to nice heights.

Given that it looks as if whatever games Disney comes up with in the future will be meant to replace these mostly classic Star Wars experiences, this bundle comes not only recommended, but also comes with the recommendation that you give it as a gift to anyone tho know who’s a fan of the films (and has a decent gaming PC). That, and a portion of those Republic Credits you spend on this deal will go to two charities: Star Wars: Force for Change and Unicef’s US Fund. Already, over 191,000 of this bundle have flown out of the Humble Bundle site, meaning a lot of people out there know a fantastic deal when they see it. Anyway, you know what to do, Padawans, so I’ll let you get to it.

Bundle Stars Reminds You That You Don’t Know (And Should Buy) Jack!

BS YDKJCoverI should write a snappy holiday-themed poem here for you to chuckle at. However, as I’ve been up since just before 6am and it’s an icky rainy day that’s not getting any better, I’ll have to save my brainpower for this latest Bundle Stars deal. $3.99 for NINE You Don’t Know Jack games and expansions is more than a steal, it’s a trivial trivia fanatic’s dream plus tax!

In case you’ve been living under a rock, are that antisocial guy or gal with zero friends, or heck, just don’t play PC or board games but happen to love trivia, here’s what’s up, Jack!

Get it? Got it? GOOD. Now go get it so you slap it on a laptop and distract the family during that usually disastrous holiday dinner. Uncle Charlie won’t be getting gassed to the gills if he’s busy answering trivia questions only he knows the answer to because he’s been watching too many reruns on TV Land, correct?

Review: The Marvellous Miss Take (PC)

The Marvellous Miss Take PosterPlatform: PC/Mac

Developer: Wonderstruck Games

Publisher: Rising Star Games

# of Players: 1

ESRB Rating: N/A

Official Site

Score: A- (90%)

Miss Take 1 The fun thing about having such a huge backlog of games to go through is it’s genuinely surprising to finally stumble across stuff in the digital stack that’s worth taking time to fully explore. Granted, this sometimes means later than usual reviews. But hey, at least they get done. Wonderstruck’s fantastic sneak and steal game, The Marvellous Miss Take is one of those excellent indie surprises you can’t gauge solely from ogling screenshots and movies at all. It’s a game that needs to be played even if you’re a stealth game veteran who thinks you’ve seen it all. Quirky visuals, snappy writing and mostly tight gameplay are all here for your enjoyment and the game excels at making you smile as you stylishly sneak back your stolen inheritance… Continue reading

Suikoden II on PSN: Millions Rejoice They Don’t Need to Spend Millions…

Suikoden IIWell, okay. A copy of Suikoden II doesn’t cost “millions” these days, but it’s not cheap at all. Some have paid close to $100 for the game disc alone, while mint condition to sealed copies can cost many times more. Of course, Konami hasn’t made a patina coated penny in profits from those sales. But starting tomorrow, all that changes when the game finally arrives on PSN as a PSOne Classic. It won’t cost much (hopefully under $20) and is still one of those deeper than it looks on the surface games that’s been generating desire since it went out of print.

Granted, it seems that it only got a single production run and until this point in time never got a western re-release. Now, (well, tomorrow) it’ll be in the hands of PS Vita and PS3/PS4 owners who can finally play what’s been called one of the greatest JRPGs ever made. Hmmmm… of course, now the BIG question remains will saves from this game also work with the Suikoden III, the PlayStation 2 follow-up that used the previous game’s files to grant players bonus content. Methinks Sony will need to tweak that Content Manager software the PS3, PS4 and Vita use to share that data when the time comes. I still have my physical copy of the third game, but I sold off my SII earlier this year because I needed the money. I bet the farm on Sony and Konami finally making things right and thankfully, that’s seemed to have paid off. Whee.

Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom Saves My Sanity This Week…

Okay, between the kitchen ceiling and walls here STILL not being repaired (oh, it’s a comedy of errors on the whys and hows of that nonsense – worth a post in of itself, but I’ll do that tomorrow or Thursday) and me pulling what’s left of my hair out at other things, I’m glad to have one nice diversion today: Little Orbit’s Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom. WayForward Technologies has cooked up a very inspired top-down adventure with gameplay and aesthetics that are going to be VERY familiar to fans of a certain marquee mascot character. Okay, the game is a shameless homage to the sprite-based Legend of Zelda games, but I’d say that Link HAS to be jealous. Why? Well, he’s only in a big deal fighting game and a nice non-canon beat-’em-up this year on two platforms while Finn is in a game that’s actually a solid Zelda adventure with Adventure Time humor packed into it.

Okay, let me get back to it. Tomorrow, another wall gets partially knocked in and I hope to heck there’s not anything leaky behind it, grrrr… Oh yeah, a bunch of AAA titles arrived today, but I’m not playing any of them (yet).

The Marvellous Miss Take Trailer: Consider Your Heart Stolen!

Miss Sophia Take“Wits not Fists” is the name of the game in The Marvellous Miss Take, the upcoming game from indie developer Wonderstruck, a small team of ex-Lionhead Studios developers and other industry veterans. It’s not the only non-violent stealth game on the way (Mike Bithell’s intriguing Volume springs to mind as an upcoming contemporary worth a look), but it’s looking like a more (and most likely the most amusing) one I’ve seen.

Rising Star Games is on quite the roll with these fun indie titles, but I hope this slick lady thief and her two friends show up on a few other platforms and isn’t stuck on PC forever. This is exactly the type of game I’d love to play on the road on a Vita or some mobile whatever and not seeing it there would be a (wait for it) Miss Take. Ba-dum-bum! Yeah, yeah – corny as hell, but it’s raining cats, dogs, squirrels and frogs outside and I need to make myself chuckle on this dreary Monday…

Miss Take characters 

Anyway, The Marvellous Miss Take is out on Steam November 20. We’ll need to take a peek at this one soon once the backlog has been cleared up a bit.

Far Cry 4 Also Gets The Soundtrack Treatment…

Far Cry 4 OSTCliff Martinez, formerly a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and composer of some fine film scores (“Traffic,” “Drive, ” “Spring Breakers”) is also the main man behind the tunes to Ubisoft’s upcoming FPS, Far Cry 4. Working with Ubisoft Montreal’s Music Designer for the game, Jerome Angelot, Music Supervisor Simon Landry and Audio Director Tony Gronick, Martinez has created an original score meant to flow flawlessly with the game’s action and cinematic sequences. While the game’s soundtrack won’t be getting the big deluxe box treatment Rockstar is giving Grand Theft Auto V, it’s a more than solid enough set of tunes to add to your own music library (especially if you’re a soundtrack collector).

Of his collaboration on the soundtrack with Ubisoft, Martinez says:

“It was an honor to be asked to write the music for the Far Cry 4 game as my first full-length video game soundtrack,” said Cliff Martinez. “It was exciting for me to be asked to take my usual minimalistic cinematic approach to the immersive game world. Any game where you can ride on a rampaging elephant is a project you can’t turn down!”

Well, I’m listening to the music as I type this post and really feel as if I’m in some very dangerous foreign land about to go on some rather wild adventure. Granted, I’m typing this post in a public place, so the worst that can happen is some old guy bumbles by and drops a hot cup of coffee on my shoe. But hey, I’ll settle for that tiny bit of excitement over dodging digital bullets and rampaging elephants any day of the week. Anyway, the Far Cry 4 Original Game Soundtrack digital edition will release worldwide on November 4, the limited 2-CD edition will release on December 2 in North America and on December 9 in Europe, and the limited 3-LP edition will release in January 2015. Far Cry 4 will be available November 18 worldwide for PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and Windows PC.

Convoy: Top-Down Tactical Vehicle Combat? Yes, You NEED This Game!

Sometimes stuff lands in one of the inboxes here that makes me laugh for a few reasons from good to bad to “Ruh-Roh!”. Convoy Games’ Kickstarter project, Convoy falls squarely in the former hearty chuckle category. That was thanks to playing a demo build linked with that email that made me laugh because the gameplay was something I’d not seen previously and everything clicked right away. I happen to love when developers decide to tackle familiar genres in unique ways and Convoy does just that. Sure, it’s basically the space combat from games like FTL and other sci-fi classics translated to top-down rogue-like road action out of the Mad Max movies. But so far, it all feels just right and while in need of more tweaking, it’s clear the dev team is on the right path.

Convoy GIF 

Anyway, go check out the project video above, click on over to that KS page and whip out that wallet. A mere $13 gets you the final version of the game when it’s all done and ready to go in February 2015. Currently, the game is just under a third funded with 25 days to go, but it needs to get more love. Um, financial love, people. Don’t go proposing to Convoy or anything silly like that, now. I’m not sure the dev team wants to let go of their game before they’re all done with it. It’s a great Monday when you see an indie game that’s more exciting than a bunch of AAA titles screaming for your attention, that’s for sure…