GOG.com Brings You Too Much (Again): A Weekend Interplay Sale Of Epic Proportions!

Posted on April 12, 2013 by geelw

Nice! 33 Interplay games, most of them awesome all go up for a super sale this weekend over at gog.com, so if it’s going to be rainy and messy like it here right now, you’ve done all your spring cleaning (lucky you!) and need some fun stuff to melt the hours away, here you go. There’s too much stuff to recommend, but may I suggest a little Descent or Freespace, (airsickness bags not included – hope you like flying!) perhaps a side of Shattered Steel (BioWare’s first game), a side order of Stonekeep (for you dungeon crawlers out there) and absolutely try the Earthworm Jim 1 & 2 pack (EWJ 3 is an acquired taste, but interestingly weird and wacky). OK, get whatever YOU want or get them all. Hey, you’re buying, so it’s all your choice, right?

GOG.com Gets Slender…Wake Me When It’s Over…

Posted on April 10, 2013 by geelw

Oh, look… another Slender game. OK, this is supposed to be the best… or at least the one from the guy who cooked up this modern campfire tale that seems to primarily scare people younger than I who are still freaked out in the dark or something. Well, gog.com IS also an indie showcase these days as well as a place where you can score much more in the way of DRM-free classics to current PC, Mac and Linux games, so it was only a matter of time before one or more of these Slender games popped up. They do nothing for me and the mythos is a bit dopey. Basically the guy popping up and not quite chasing you in these short scare-fests is Freddy Krueger in a snazzy suit or something. There’s a nice atmosphere going on here and some jump scares galore, if that’s your thing. And then you make a mistake and die. Not my idea of horror, but if that floats your boat – go on ahead.

GOG.com’s Dungeons & Dragons Dynamo Will Steal Your Time (But Not Eat Your Wallet)…

Posted on April 5, 2013 by geelw

Holy Cats 1: Want about a thousand or so plus hours of DRM-FREE games for a measly US $21.10? Love a bit of Dungeons & Dragons (or want to start loving it)? Well, boogie on over to gog.com and take advantage of their D & D Dynamo Sale that gives you up to 80% off (!) the more games you buy. If you happen to have any of these classics on your gog.com account, guess what? Order the ones you don’t and you STILL get that discount! While I break out the smelling salts for those in the back row, the rest of you can do that clicky-clicky thing and get some great games to keep you indoors and a healthy pale tone instead of sucking sunblock loaded with chemicals through your skin. If I didn’t have all of these (well, except one) already, I’d be joining you in the sunless shadows for a while…

The Cat Lady GOG.com Trailer: Go “Crazy” With This Point & Click Horror Game…

Posted on April 4, 2013 by geelw

OK, I’m not a fan of home invasion horror flicks (as noted a few posts down), but super-stylish brain invasion psychological horror games? Count me in, especially if they’re this odd and yep, creepy. GOG.com has this one up for 25% off, so check out that trailer above and check out the game proper if your skin has suitably crawled somewhere away from your bones. Remember, folks – a good game is like a good book. You’ll go through it once, it goes back into the library and you whip it out again every so often for a fresh read. Of course, the first time through this one will put some of you under the couch, so make sure there’s room for you (and perhaps the cat{s}?)…

Best April Fool’s Game Gags: One Almost Works, Two Are Too Good to Be True…

Posted on April 1, 2013 by geelw

Look, PR people: I’ve been around since 1972 as a gamer, so no game-related April Fool’s joke can pass by me without my eyebrow sailing up into the air over a vaporware or other intentionally hokey product/project announcement. THAT said, this year three jokes really made me crack up and all were from indie publishers:

banana_WM

The first was Watermelon Team’s Magical Game Factory’s name and focus change to a SOCIAL games developer called Banana Games (Yikes!), which actually ALMOST got me for about a minute until I reread the press release and realized that the line “Forget about retro consoles, they’re too old (and complicated to program to, so freaking time consuming! Yuck!), and enjoy a universe of magic and fun for ONLY $19.99/month!” was a total stab in the eyeball at Facebook and other social/digital only sites that glom onto your wallet with their “free” to play products (that really aren’t).

The second was so unbelievable I laughed for a good minute because the idea is spectacular, but the proposed console? Yeah, OK. Iceberg Interactive and Amplitude Studios’ fan-favorite 4X space sim, Endless Space, called Endless Space: Wings of Freedom, coming to the NEOGEO X Gold as an arcade shooter? Well, those screenshots below SURE look real, and it’s an idea that would make X owners like me run around the room squeeealing like a chased pig. But it’s not gonna happen (too bad!). THAT said, doing something like this for the Vita and 3DS? Get on it, Amplitude! Seriously.

retromator4K

The third thing? well, GOG.com didn’t get me at all, but I just KNOW people on that awesome site full of DRM-free gaming goodness of the classic to current variety would LOVE to have a RetroMator 4000 running in their PC’s or Macs (or ha ha, Linuxes). This one was pretty cool because I don’t think ANYONE on the site was fooled for one bit, but there have been some amusing screenshots cooked up by some users…

Better luck next year, folks. I’ll be waiting…

Pathologic: GOG.com Gets A(nother) Unique Indie Horror Game…

Posted on March 28, 2013 by geelw

With a name like Ice-Pick Lodge for the development team behind this Russian PC game from 2005, Pathologic was guaranteed at least some notoriety from gamers who pay attention to such things. However, this horror-themed adventure/RPG hybrid seems to have been forgotten over the years until the folks at gog.com dug it up, got it working and available as the latest game in their growing library. The surreal visual style is a bit dated (I like it a lot), so the graphics whores will get all pissy that it doesn’t look as if were made last week. Nevertheless, the game still has that odd overall charm familiar to games such as Deadly Premonition, D2, Silent Hill and a bit of Call of Cthulu: Dark Corners of the Earth (among other quirky horror games). Anyway, three playable characters, an intriguing game world and story, plenty of unsettling imagery and yep, death comes a-calling looking quite strange here. Even better – this one’s only $9.99, so definitely check it out if you’re in the mood for something weird and wild…

Divinity: Original Sin Goes the Kickstarter Route (And You Should, Too!)

Posted on March 27, 2013 by geelw

DIV II ART

DIV_II_WIP NO, no – don’t go and post a Kickstarter for your beer collection or shoe fetish, silly! Go support Larian Studios and THEIR Kickstarter in their push to trick out their upcoming RPG in some really cool ways. The game is coming along really well as you’ll see – the team is offering up the chance to add fan-created content and some cool bonuses into the mix for those of you with some extra disposable income lying around. Personally, I want to see this or some other Divine Divinity-themed game make it to consoles (again, as Divinity II was outstanding on the Xbox 360, but could have used a PS3 port so more could play it). Anyway, poke around that link above and if you like what you see and hear (that video is quite helpful if you turn the audio up), well… drop a few dimes on this one, tell a few friends, sit back and wait for that inbox to ring when the game’s all done. This one looks as if it’ll be well worth the wait…

Anachronox Is $2.39 On GOG.com…(!) Yes, You Should Give It A Try.

Posted on March 18, 2013 by geelw

anachronox cover To some gamers, Ion Storm’s excellent 2001 role-playing game, Anachronox hasn’t aged so well in terms of visuals (the 3D character models in particular can be quite ugly thanks to the aging, but heavily modified Quake II engine), but the story, writing, art direction and turn-based combat are all prime reasons for checking this out. As usual, GOG.com comes to the rescue with a temporary price drop on this gem that makes it well worth a test drive. The game is often very funny, there are some interesting quests and NPC’s to meet, nice nods to eastern and western RPGs and film noir in all that sci-fi shininess and yeah, it’s pretty darn long. The ending is the weakest link as the game was so huge and seemed ripe for a follow-up that never got made. Nevertheless, at the end of the day there’s a lot to love about this not quite forgotten slice of gaming history, so yes indeed… I say you should set aside time to check this out…

(*whispers* It’s kind of hard to pass up a value like this, is all I’m saying…)

More gog.com Bliss? OK, Omikron: The Nomad Soul Is Now Available

Posted on March 14, 2013 by geelw

Quantic Dream’s ahead of its time PC game (which also came out on the Sega Dreamcast) is finally now out on gog.com for $9.99. It’s one of those open world sci-fi experiences that’s unique on a few fronts thanks to the ability to hop from body to body as you play, which makes the game a very flexible experience for players. Yep, it’s the game with a heavily retouched artwork of David Bowie on the cover in the weird alien makeup. He appears in the game and even did some music (all of which I’m not sure is In this version game, but that’s modern rights clearances for you). Anyway, if you’ve a bit of time and patience, this one will grow on you. Check it out if you’re in the mood for something old but new and unique.

Gog.com’s SUPER ‘Pick 5’ Sale is ON: Grab Some PC Games For RIDICULOUS Prices!

Posted on March 14, 2013 by geelw

OK, even a total cheapasskate like me couldn’t pass this sale up. I just snagged five games for a paltry $15 and saved $45 in the process. What did I get? The Witcher: Enhanced Edition, Inquisitor, Tiny & Big in Grandpa’s Leftovers, King’s Bounty: Crossworlds Game of the Year Edition and Legend of Grimrock. That’s a few hundred hours of gameplay on the 4 RPGs alone and Tiny & Big is a modern classic full of innovative gameplay super-fun stylized visuals and all-out goofy but non in a slapstick manner humor. Anyway, stop reading this post NOW, click here (er, STOP reading after you read this post or you’ll have no clue what I’m raving about) and get your five of 20 games for a song you’ll be singing as your eyes pop over the deals here. You’ve only got until March 19, 2013 to grab your own five, by the way…

Of course, now I need to find time to PLAY all of these, but so it goes, I guess. Hey, SCIENCE?! Get with the time machine inventing and stuff, grrrr!