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

Posted on November 3, 2014 by geelw

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.

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…

Review: Kromaia

Posted on October 24, 2014 by geelw

Platform: PC

Developer: Kraken Empire

Publisher: Rising Star Games

# of Players: 1

ESRB Rating: N/A

Official Site

Score: A (90%)

Now, here’s a crazy paradox for you: Kromaia is an arcade-style shooter that’s currently PC-only, yet it bridges that gap between old and new tech and ideas past the point of reinvigorating a genre that might seem a better fit for consoles or yes, arcades. Yeah, yeah – you PC die-hards will be rolling your eyeballs and shaking your fists in my general direction right about now. But I counter that stuff by saying this is exactly the sort of game that needs to be on more platforms and not just exclusive to PC, no matter how large the potential player base is. It’s that good, that fun and that challenging and nope, you 3D-hating shmup fans aren’t getting off easy by skipping this because it’s not got a sprite in sight. The game is new-school looking, old school hard as nails and while “short” (Note: Arcade 101, Class 1: it’s not the length, but how much you go back to the game that counts), packs quite a memorable punch…
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Project CARS Halloween Trailer: A Few Scary Things Going On Here Drive Me Batty…

Posted on October 24, 2014 by geelw

You may have noticed that this is the European PEGI-rated trailer for the game and not the North American ESRB one, but that’s because at my current download speed, it will take (looks at timer)… seven hours to download that US trailer (Yaaaah!) We can’t have that, now, can we? The other scary thing? How amazing this game looks, as this is all in-game footage put together by a really talented video editor/player. I guess the third (and perhaps most frightening) thing is I’m now wondering how good the Wii U version of the game will look and how fast it will be. Not that the system can’t do an excellent racing game with real cars, mind you (Need for Speed U is still the pinnacle of realism on the console in terms of visuals). It’s more of a correcting of perception thing among the die-hard skeptics that have been hating on the console before it was launched who still haven’t been convinced even after some recent and great software releases.

Oh well, those folk may never be convinced (and it’s their loss), but as someone who owns and likes his Wii U quite a lot, I’m holding my breath that Slightly Mad Studios blows all those haters out of the muddy water they’re trolling in with a stellar version that wipes the smirks right off their faces.

On Rusty Trails: Black Pants Game Studio is At it Again With the Indie Winner-ness!

Posted on October 22, 2014 by geelw

Well, those five creative guys from Germany (no, not Kraftwerk!) are in the game kitchen cooking up what looks like another awesome game. Yes, Black Pants Game Studio (Tiny & Big in Grandpa’s Leftovers) is hard at work making their new game, On Rusty Trails (Guy Elvis in His Search for a Comfy Place to Stay), which has nothing to do with Jack Kerouac (maybe) and everything to do with fine and dandy platforming and comic art come to life in game for. And stuff.

Oh, and you play as a guy named Elvis. Not the Elvis, mind you, as a lot of people share that name. Or perhaps it IS Elvis in a triangular metal machine suit? I didn’t bother to ask, so Black Pants isn’t telling. That would be absurd, mind you, but hey – I didn’t ask, remember? Anyway, as you can more than clearly see here, the art style is once again amazing and although this one’s a “2D” style platformer, the team’s quirky style seeps in here and makes this one more than worth a look.

Oh, wait – you want screenshots? Okay, here you go. Get ready to study them up close and personal-like, as they’re fairly MASSIVE once clicked on:

Currently in early alpha stage and set for a release sometime in 2015, here’s what to expect in the final version (plus more on the way, I’m betting):

Features
Slip into the Shifty Suit™! Wear these arcane but fine threads to change your appearance whenever there‘s a need to fit in. Avoid confrontation and do not leave your comfort zone!

Still Stepping on the Floor? Get your feet on the walls! Why, even on the ceiling! And then: Go walk there!

A Tale Told in Finest Comic Art. Stimulate your eyes and brains with a story about the loss of a low-rent flat, complicated misunderstandings and a looming war.

Saucy Soundtrack Guarantee! Another great selection of handpicked indie bands to discover!

A true Black Pants Studio experience!

How about some more screenshots? You did look kinda starved there…:

Well, that’s it for now for this gallery, but I’m expecting more from Black Pants soon. Or later. Or whenever they provide updates. This one looks like it’ll be a ton of fun once it’s all done. Hey, that rhymes! Okay, let me stop here before something else falls out of my head. Good games make me giddy.

SAVAGE: The Sword of Goshen Update: Another Indie Retro Action/Platformer Shaping Up as a Nice Surprise…

Posted on October 18, 2014 by geelw

Matt Fitzgerald of Planet Tobor is making what’s shaping up to be a fun retro action platformer you 8 and 16-bit fanatics may want to keep an eyeball peeled for. SAVAGE: The Sword of Goshen is looking pretty cool, and although it’s still deep in development, you can download and try out the alpha and maybe let him know what you think or just hold out for a later build that’s less buggy. But even in the state it’s in in that video above, you can tell it’s a labor of love that’s coming along quite nicely. Anyway, it’s already been funded through Kickstarter, so for me, all that’s left to do is wait for the game to drop onto a download service so I can pay for all this hard work going on…

Dragon Age Inquisition Hands-On: All is As it Needs to Be (Which Means You’ll Be Very Busy Soon)…

Posted on October 10, 2014 by geelw

A half hour may be a long time if you’re sitting through a really bad TV show, being tortured, have a terrible toothache or are waiting for some test results, but it’s clearly not a good deal of time to sit down with a build of Dragon Age Inquisition. For me ( a fan of the series and BioWare’s RPGs in general for quite some time), the game is one that doesn’t need a huge amount of hyperbolic posts from editor-types or even PR gurus because it’s a series that’s pretty much sold itself to a fan base who wanted to see a western-developers RPG do more with the genre (and it’s succeeded for the most part despite a few bumps along the road it’s traveled). My half hour at EA’s media event a few days back was spent ogling the beautiful visuals, running around with my party picking plants for crafting and looting assorted caches while getting the hang of the deeper combat system that now adds some very welcome tweaks to the mix of real-time and “turn-based” format.

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New Rollers of the Realm Trailer: Some Puzzles With Your Pinball/RPG? Sure, Why Not?

Posted on October 3, 2014 by geelw

Rollers of the Realm is getting better and better, isn’t it? Phantom Compass’ upcoming hybrid game set to be published by Atlus in November is certainly looking even more polished (like a gigantic shiny new pinball) in this new trailer and I’m betting PS4 and Vita owners will be more than pleased with the plot, puzzles and play in this game when they finally get their hands on it. I’m still going back to that super aged preview build I have for PC just to get a whiff of what to expect and it’s so clear that the game’s going to exceed expectations on a few key fronts. I’m not sure Atlus needs to run another trailer until the November release, but I won’t complain at all if they do. That’s just one more opportunity to reach out and get a few more sales from potential pinballers who might not have gotten the good word already.

Back with more if more is on the way, as usual…

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Kickstarter: Senscape Making This One for the Love of Craft…

Posted on October 3, 2014 by geelw

Ha and ha-ha. I had to get in ONE cheap pun because H.P. Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward hasn’t got very much at all in the way of “amusing” content in it. It’s a nice and unsettling short novel and a neat read that sinks into your bones as its mysteries unravel. Anyway, veteran adventure game developer Senscape is making a PC game based on the book and like a lot of cool game ideas in progress, they’re reaching out via crowdfunding and hope people like you and I will kindly spare some coin (or more than a few coins) to get their project on the way to digital and physical life. Senscape has done a few successful PC adventure games in the past (Scratches, Serena, Asylum), so it’s quite clear they know what they’re doing with Lovecraft’s work and are certain to make this one a memorable and unsettling experience.

Anyway, enough rambling from me. Run, don’t walk like mister Dexter is doing above over to the game’s Kickstarter page, read up and pledge! Be lucky it’s not a Cthulhu game, as I’d imagine cash wouldn’t be accepted at all, but blood and souls and stuff like that? Yeah, they’d come for you even if you clicked on that page and didn’t contribute. ESPECIALLY if you didn’t contribute. *Gulp!*

Hmmm. Now, I won’t sleep at all tonight… Yaaaaah.

Kromaia Hands-On: Blasting Cool Looking Stuff Four Ways ’til Sunday (Well, Any Day of the Week)…

Posted on October 1, 2014 by geelw

Kraken Empire’s upcoming space shooter Kromaia is going to be one of those games genre fans will be more than pleased to see thanks to the stellar visuals and intuitive control scheme (provided you use a keyboard/mouse or decent game controller). Rising Star Games has wisely snapped this one up for a Q4 2014 release and I recently got my paws on some preview code to take for a spin. And spin I did, as the ships in the game are all kinds of maneuverable thanks to the six degrees of movement through the game’s enemy and obstacle-packed levels..

The preview build had four different levels and four types of ships to play around with, each linked to one of the stages. While I could sit here and make comparisons to Star Fox, Panzer Dragoon, Rez and other excellent sci-fi or fantasy shooters where you’re set on a path without much deviation, Kromaia outdoes those games by allowing you to go anywhere you point that ship you’re flying. There are clear goals in each map, but you can choose to go off what you thought was a predetermined path and zip around at your leisure while trying not to get blown into plenty of pixels by the nicely aggressive enemy AI…

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Call of Duty Advanced Warfare “Power Changes Everything” Trailer: Let’s You And Him Fight! Again.

Posted on September 24, 2014 by geelw

Ah, if only real world conflicts could be solved by some simple gaming away for a few hours until one side “loses.” Yeah, I’d be ALL for that instead of this stop and start unsteady war footing we keep finding ourselves mixed up in. Sure, the real world is indeed a complicated place, but you’d THINK that after centuries of either getting it all wrong or not learning from past mistakes, we’d figure out an easier (or at least more efficient) means of dealing with people we don’t like who do things we really don’t like. Of course, the more recent Call of Duty games have been a bit timely in asking a few of these questions in between bullets and bomb blasts, but I’d gather that the bulk of the millions who buy and play these games year after year might not care much about hot geopolitical topics interrupting their online gunplay and kill streaks galore. Granted, the games do get better and better from a production standpoint and it’s clear that Sledgehammer Games is doing this year’s installment up right for PS4 and Xbox One owners expecting the best visual quality.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare hits retail outlets and digital delivery systems for PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/Xbox One and PC on October 3, 2014.