Dark Shadows: Army of Evil Or: With Some Games, Sometimes, You Get What You Pay For (Or Less!)…

Posted on May 13, 2014 by geelw

Note: Some of you MAY need Dramamine or something in order to continue to enjoy reading this post.

Now, I didn’t buy Dark Shadows: Army of Evil on sale at the IndieGala Store… but I almost did until I decided to poke around the game’s website (yikes!) and later, watch this way too awesome and very outstanding, hilarious “review” by Jim Sterling. Oh,before you click away, it’s kind of NSFW because Jim curses up a storm (for very good reason, as you’ll see) AND the game may make you a bit motion sick if you’re easily affected by that sort of thing. Anyway, I like some awful games, but this is one that I’d probably have regretted (even at $2.39). Now, if YOU want to buy this, I certainly won’t stop you at all. Hey, I’ll even lend you my bucket so you can toss your cookies into it if that field of view starts making you queasy. Uncle Jim gets it right in his long take on this one, is all I’ll say. Wow.

IndieGala Every Monday Sale? You’re Trying To Seduce Me!

Posted on May 12, 2014 by geelw

Yes, I’ve been watching The Graduate (again!), this time for an upcoming blogathon, but that doesn’t means this week’s Indiegala Monday sale isn’t batting its eyelashes and hiking its skirt up to show some ankle. Trying to tempt me to drop a mere $1.49 on a set of indie Steam titles including the recent Greenlight candidate Ocean City Racing (made by three people using Epic’s Unreal tech and zero budget):

Okay, I already bought that game on Desura a while back, but everything else I’d not heard of or want to take for a spin. At under two bucks, it’s tough to pass up and as that sale only lasts for under 24 hours until the price jumps up tomorrow. Bat and flash away, you tease! I’ll do the usual nonsense of flipping an invisible coin and deciding based on where it lands. Given that it’s a two-headed coin, I think I know what I’ll be doing later…

This IndieGala Bundle Will Drive You Around And Up A Wall. This Is Actually A Good Thing.

Posted on May 5, 2014 by geelw

It’s time to hit the road with this week’s Every Monday Bundle from IndieGala. Every game here has some sort of vehicle as your means of locomotion, so expect some realistic racing at its finest, some future flying taxi action, kart racing with allegedly cute characters and even a bit of blowing up stuff in a tank. You know the drill here: pay a LOW price for the first day, then the price jumps up a bit to a STILL affordable (but higher) point. Two bucks for six games is insane, especially as the aforementioned realistic racer (Race Injection) gives you three games and three expansions worth a heck of a LOT more than two bucks and is a pretty decent simulation racer if you happen to swing that way. Okay, let me shut up and let you get to the buying and playing and worrying about when you’ll get to playing everything you just bought. “Everything in moderation, nothing in excess” doesn’t exactly work with a big backlog, that’s for sure…

Indiegala’s Tiny Mix Bundle: Not So Tiny (Just The Price!), But Oh, It’s Quite a Mix…

Posted on May 3, 2014 by geelw

Yet another great IndieGala sale for charity? Cool! This time up, it’s a mix of JRPG-inspired goodness, a crazy (not for the kiddies!) shooter some will find oddly… comforting if they have lousy jobs and twisted revenge on their minds but aren’t the violent type, some puzzle games to keep you playing ’til the wee, wee hours and even a few tough as nails (or “old-school”) style action platformers. As usual, the price is a total STEAL (well, in a “I took your stuff, but left you what I thought was cool kind of way), you need a working Steam account and probably a time machine once you grab this deal so you can actually PLAY all these games at some point. Yeah, you know you want it, so go get it!

GOG.com’s Weekend Sale: Ubisoft Wants You To Get Busy Going Through Their Library…

Posted on May 2, 2014 by geelw

(thanks, AlexWhite525!)
Back on sale at gog.com in case you missed them the last time are a bunch of great Ubisoft published titles, so get your fill and then some at 60% off. I have a bunch of these already in the backlog, but I’m sorely tempted to pick up the heroic, mighty and magical Heroes of Might and Magic II Gold Edition just because it’s called by some folks the greatest fantasy strategy game ever made. Well, also because I played some of the original back in the day, but lost all my files when my computer blew up and never actually completed the game. That was probably a very good thing, as it was consuming a GREAT deal of my free time and I was getting maybe an hour or two of sleep per night and yep, even pulled a few all-nighters and was out and about working on nothing but caffeine and adrenaline fumes. Ah, those were the days (I think)…

Anyway, you know what to do, right? I’ll leave you to it, then!

Axiom Verge: Kicking It Old School. Punching Your TV And Throwing Your Controller Or Vita? Optional.

Posted on April 30, 2014 by geelw

Some of what it says on the PlayStation YouTube page:

inspired by such classics as Rygar, Contra, Bionic Commando, Blaster Master, and, of course, Metroid. But it also gives you power over glitches like those found in classic games, allowing you to scramble enemies, corrupt environments, and enter hidden areas.

Hmmmm… Okay, I’m IN. PC, PlayStation 4 and Vita bound soon, Axiom Verge may look like yet another of those endless numbers of retro homage games that crowd the indie space these days, but everything I just saw about in in that trailer above set my nostalgia meter into the red zone where it’ll be stuck until I finally play the game proper.

To me, it looks spectacular, capturing that old-school 8-bit vibe through its sprite and tile-based visuals while adding a few wicked visual effects you probably didn’t see back then on home consoles. Even better, it’s being made by ONE guy, Tom Happ, who has worked on a number of “triple-A” games for both PC and consoles (End of Nations, Tiger Woods, and NFL Street, to name a few), meaning he knows what he’s doing (but I’ll bet his wife thinks he’s crazy sometimes for tacking such a killer project like this!).

Even more awesome, in addition to the screenshots above featuring his great pixel art, Happ has also made some excellent GIFs of the game in motion so you can see all that hard work he’s doing. The screens are above and the GIFs below the jump because they’re of varying sizes. Enjoy! Expect updates as more news comes in and if you’re a fan of this style of game, you KNOW you need to get this on something its coming to. I’m all over this one, but I know the folks who hate having their butts handed to them by digitized alien scum will be pooh-poohing this before they even pick up a controller. It’s their loss, of course… Continue reading →

Silent Hill Returns to PSP Via PSN: Time To Scare Yourself Silly On The Small Screen…

Posted on April 30, 2014 by geelw

Konami has finally gotten digital versions of the two Silent Hill PSP games, Silent Hill Origins and Silent Hill Shattered Memories up on PSN and both come highly recommended to horror fans looking to take some portable scares on the go. As you can also see, there’s a cry for fans to submit videos to that little gathering the company is planning so they can show off everyone basically saying the same things, ha ha. Okay, I’m joking, but there are a number of KEY moments in the original Silent Hill through Silent Hill 4: The Room that everyone who’s played them has jumped out of their seat over. Granted, that clip seen in the video above (that cuts off before the scare, thankfully) is probably THE moment I recall people talking about the most when I was working in an indie game shop (and yeah, it got me good the first time I experienced it).

My other favorite scare was late in the first game when you’re in those sewers and that radio you’d been relying on to screech out static when a monster was nearby… STOPS WORKING. This moment is a freak out because you get no warning the radio is ineffective and the stage starts off with something moving slowly towards you out of the darkness. Is it harmless? Nope, not at all and worse, you have to make it though the entire are with ZERO warning as to what’s coming your way. I recall I had a review to write and only a dozen hours to finish the game, so this section was tough, but I pushed through it and survived without poor Harry Mason dying (but I think I had a few gray hairs afterwards). Anyway, enough reminiscing on such a wet and cold evening- I’m starting to give myself the creeps!

Child of Light Out Is Out Today (So You’re NOT Reading This Post, Right?)

Posted on April 30, 2014 by geelw

Nope, I wasn’t lucky enough to grab a Child of Light review code from whomever handles this stuff over at Ubisoft, but I don’t mind paying the $15 to play this game at all. My platform of choice will be the Wii U, as it’s a system that needs more love and it’s great that Ubisoft decided to bring this game to the console, although it’s no surprise given their support for it since its launch.

As you can see, reviews are indeed in from those who DID get codes early and yes, the game comes highly recommended. I’ll probably get to playing this early next week, as I’m working on a few things and my poor backlog is indeed killing me these days. I guess I can train a monkey or goat to play games and write about them, but that would cut into my budget something fierce (and the food? Yikes, I’d go broke with a pet here in NYC)…

Child of Light Making of Part 3: Same As It Ever Was, No Matter What You Play It On…

Posted on April 24, 2014 by geelw

Ubisoft is really pushing these making of videos to show that Child of Light will be the same gorgeous visual experience across every platform. Given that all the consoles it runs on support HD resolution (and of course, PC as a given run at higher resolutions anyway), it’s clear that the game will be a feast for the eyes no matter what it’s played on. I’m now leaning towards the Wii U version as noted before just because it’s the easiest console for me to update from a wi-fi spot and get games for as well. Decision made! Now, it’s just less than a week of waiting to go…

Bundle Stars’ Latest Deal Is The Conquest Of Your Free Time!

Posted on April 22, 2014 by geelw

Conquest Bundle Banner
Holy cats. AGAIN. A dozen Steam digital games in a bunch of genres for a mere five bucks with part of the proceeds going to charity? Crazy! My own backlog and need to clear out some hard drive space means I’m eyeballing a few games in my backlog and considering deleting them temporarily just to snap up this set of titles. Granted, I’m not a big RTS fan, so those historical sims may not be touched unless I have a LOT of free time and want to do some supplemental reading. On the other hand, most everything else here floats my boat to some extent and saving $110 is always a good thing. Hmmm… time for a coin flip (again!)…

Anyway, if your own eyeballs have grown to saucer size when you clicked on that link above you know what to do, right? Also check out the other bundles on the site PLUS those awesome store deals for up to 80% off a really nice bunch of games in a few genres. I may have a nice surprise for two lucky readers later this week, so stick around for an update…