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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Let’s See Now. It’s Monday… So That Means BUNDLES!

Posted on September 29, 2014 by geelw

Another short day for posts? Yeah, well. Pepcom calls and I just HAVE to answer. That trip downtown to tech-land will reveal some goodies to scribble about for my holiday gift guide, so getting all dolled up for that event been taking up my time today. Anyway, you want cheap games, you got ’em! That IndieGala Every Monday Bundle above features six indie games for $1.99 and yes, all are worth much more than that. I particular like Pretentious for its simple story and visuals along with the wordplay:

Meanwhile, this week’s Humble Flash Sale is all about 11Bit Studios and some of their cool titles. Get $50 worth of games and game soundtracks for between $6 and $10 or pick less games and pay what you want. Of course, more is always better, right? Some of you will want this set of games for all that Anomaly: Warzone content, but I say get this deal for the non-stop hilarity that is Funky Smugglers:

As usual, you’re supporting charity when you make a purchase of either deal, so go knock yourselves out and knock a hole in your calendar while you’re at it…

FUND THIS! Graal Seeker: The Battle of Britain For A Shiny Cup o’ Miracles, Indie Style!

Posted on September 27, 2014 by geelw

And who doesn’t want a retro-inspired turn-based strategy RPG with procedurally generated maps set in medieval Britain and thereabouts or as it’s noted by the developer, “a 2D narrative RPG with roguelike elements & tactical battles”? Welcome to Graal Seeker, a work in progress and Indiegogo campaign from Lugludum Game Studio. 26 days to go, about 1200 of 10,000 Euros raised and it’s also on Steam Greenlight for those who want to vote it in.

I’m liking the mix of stylized 2D art and 3D animated characters in those battles, the modding possible (you can create and share your own adventures!) and the fact that the dev team is showing this off in quite well in an early but polished enough state to get noticed by little guys like me who love promoting games they see and like (like being the imperative word here – I don’t write much if at all about stuff that doesn’t float my boat). That permadeath means the game should also appeal to fans of Nintendo’s Fire Emblem series or other games were dead characters don’t pop back up after they expire on the battlefield.

Of course, whether or not this one makes its target is all up to YOU, so I guess now that you’re feeling guilty, you HAVE to go check this out and maybe make a pledge. Hey, the rewards are sure worth it. Spend as little as five euros to get your name in the credit or go all out and spend 1000 Euro and become a Knight of the Round Table (round table not included, but you’ll be a quite the hero to Lugludum Game Studios!). Now, I wonder who’s the first modder to do a Monty Python and the Holy Grail expansion or total conversion. You just KNOW one is coming and yep, that killer rabbit better be pretty much unbeatable.

Back in a bit with an update once the campaign is a few more weeks in…

Neverending Nightmares Out Now For Steam & OUYA (!): Welcome to a True Horror Game, Folks…

Posted on September 26, 2014 by geelw

Sometimes, I’ll see a comment about a horror game or film where someone states that the creator(s) must be “mentally ill” or words to that effect for coming up with such visions that put audiences under or behind their seats (or both). Well, Infinitap Games’ President and creator of Neverending Nightmares, Matt Gilgenbach has struggled with OCD and depression for years and made this honest and outright frightening game in order to share the wealth in terms of showing how powerful battling an invisible enemy can be. From the game description:

Neverending Nightmares is a psychological horror game inspired by the developer’s actual battle with mental illness. In the game, you take on the role of Thomas who awakens from a terrible nightmare only to find that he is still dreaming. As he descends deeper through the layers of hellish dreamscapes, he must hide from horrifying apparitions and outrun his inner demons. He must discover which of the horrors he encounters are a manifestation of his own psychological state and figure out what reality will be when he finally wakes up.

As hellish as this looks, I absolutely have to give props to Gilgenbach for showing that people dealing with these conditions can actually be creative and necessary to this industry while creating content that’s deeper than it seems. Okay, for some of you the REALLY scary thing is this game is also on the OUYA because you most likely thought that micro console was DEAD and it’s clearly not going away just yet. Mua-ha-ha-haaaaa! Hmmm… perhaps Matt should have done a Wii U version as well just to cover the other console some people think is both feet in the grave. Anyway, get this game NOW for PC via Steam or if you have an OUYA, yeah, it’s a buy for that as well.

Monday Means Bundles of Joy All Over (And An Aching Backlog Again)!

Posted on September 22, 2014 by geelw

Let’s see now, the mailbox is bursting at the seams today, so I guess it’s Bundle time! Here are a few deals to pore over at your leisure, although you kind of want to hurry on those 24-hour deals, folks:

The IndieGala Every Monday Bundle this week is $1.89 and consists of three indie adventure games and three quirky kind of retro-style games. It’s a nice mix of randomness that should keep you entertained in short spurts or for a particularly boring weekend. The nice thing about all of these games is you’re not forced to play them all within a particular time span. Unless of course you’re trying to buy and play games in a specific order or knock them off your backlog as you buy each bundle. Hey! I;m not done yet – two more to go… Continue reading →

FREE STUFF: 250,000 Space Hack Steam Codes From Bundle Stars? GET!

Posted on September 20, 2014 by geelw

For the record, the ONLY reason Mr. Hack up there looks like a cross between Elvis and Captain Morgan in that art above is he’s been digitally tricked out for International Talk Like A Pirate Day (which was yesterday, but that didn’t stop the next post from happening. You’ll see soon enough), but he’s not decked out like that at all in this cool freebie from Meridian 4 and Bundle Stars. Anyway, click HERE (or on Hack’s scowling mug above) and get Space Hack for free on Steam and yes, go PLAY IT. It’s a fun “old school” isometric sci-fi action RPG in the Diablo vein that’s quite lengthy (well over 60 hours if you want to see everything) is pretty simple to play but nicely challenging as the aliens increase in number and strength… Continue reading →

Pathologic Update: 17 Days To Go. Getting To Its Goal, Body By Body…

Posted on September 19, 2014 by geelw

Slowly but surely, this remake of the 2005 sleeper PC game Pathologic is getting funded via Kickstarter, so hop in and splash around those plague-riddled ponds if you want to see this come to fruition. I love the unsettling vibe this gives off, that slow-loading pistol (and if you didn’t squeak a tiny bit when the camera dipped up and that bird-suited thing was standing there, you’re a better person than I am) and the overall air of gloom that makes this one special. Then again, if this real life ebola thing gets into the country, we’ll all be doing that dance those quirky rejects from Mummenschanz are soon enough. Man, I hate it when reality intrudes on my gaming life. Hopefully this gets funded and finished before the planet goes all 12 Monkeys, ha and ha… *gulp!*

HTR+: The Vita Gets A Fun-Looking Slot Car Racer (But Try Convincing The Trolls)…

Posted on September 19, 2014 by geelw

Sure, if you were or are silly enough to ONLY buy a home or portable game system purely for visuals and how many AAA titles you can stuff in your shorts to show off to friends, a game like this enhanced port of HTR+ may look as if it’s not up your alley at all. On the other hand, if you’re like me and grew up with HO-scale racing sets (I was an AFX kid), this game is something that NEEDS to be played on the Vita. If you’re coming from a simulation or arcade racer background and have never tried any sort of slot car game (or actual slot car racing), you’ll need to get used to the controls and how they differ from what you’re more accustomed to.

“But those cars and tracks look like plastic toys!” Yeah, so what? They’re SUPPOSED to. “Oh nooooo! Another mobile game!” Which means you never played the mobile version to see if it was any good and didn’t realize that the Vita version isn’t a straight lazy port job. “I bought a Vita for THIS?” Obviously not, as you’re not getting a gun pointed at your head and forced to buy anything you dump on without playing it. And so forth and so on come the usual internet trollers who bash stuff when they should be expanding their horizons. That stuff got old and started collecting a pension five years ago and I’m gathering there’s no developer who wants to hear unsolicited comments from folks who seem to play LESS games and spend MORE time complaining about them. Anyway, I’ll look into getting a review code and seeing how this one plays, as that trailer set my nostalgia meter off big time…

D4: Access Games + Swery 65 + Xbox One = Hmmm, Commitment Time!

Posted on September 19, 2014 by geelw

Grrrrr… Access Games’ new adventure game D4 is out and earlier than I thought because until a few days ago when I saw that facebook post by game director Hidetaka Suehiro, I thought this one wasn’t coming until the holidays or early next year. Well, I suppose I can hold my breath for a bit and hope to hell this doesn’t stay as an Microsoft exclusive, but if in case it is, D4 (Dark Dreams Don’t Die) will give me another reason to pick up an Xbox One. I’m actually more thrilled by this quirky episodic title than bigger releases getting more ad dollars, but I’m also smart and plan to hold out that Micrsoft is smart enough to release a retail disc that has all the episodes on it and any extra content if the game gets any DLC just so those folks who can’t download large game files can give this one a shot.

Monday Means… No, Not That, It Means BUNDLES!

Posted on September 15, 2014 by geelw

It’s pretty much a given that when Monday rolls around, some of you head back under the covers, some of you think about heading for the nearest window (on a low floor or the basement, of course – you don’t REALLY want to do yourselves in, right? It’s ONLY a Monday!) and some of you just look in your inbox to see what sort of game bundles have popped up from the usual suspects. Above, this week’s Every Monday Bundle from IndieGala. Six games for under two bucks in this mostly RPG pack with a side of strategy and adventure? That’s a BUY, folks… Continue reading →