Table Top Racing Gets A Nice, Necessary Update For Us Fat-Fingered Speed Freaks…

TableTopRacing IconExcellent. While I loved the Vita version of Table Top Racing, my big complaint (and it seems the main issue a bunch of other users had) was the rear touchscreen being automatically used for a rear view angle with no means to turn it off. This made holding the Vita comfortably something of a challenge, as the merest brush of a finger on that rear screen meant you’d be looking back for a split second. Or worse if you had no idea about that screen being used, you’d start a race and be looking at the FRONT of your car until you moved your fingers into a more claw-like grip. Ouch.

Well, THAT’S no longer an issue as Playrise Digital has whipped out a patch that sets the rear view to off (you can toggle it on if you like), shows the control layout (the original download didn’t, and while the game is easy to play, some people didn’t figure out the left trigger is used for certain functions) and tweaks a few other things. The update has been out for a little while, but I just hopped back into the game last night and saw the fix was in. Anyway, go grab TTR, as it’s only $7.99, a ton of fun and if you’ve been avoiding it because you have larger hands, it’s now even more of a no-brainer buy…

IndieGala Back 2 School Bundle: Call It “Homework”, As There’s Stuff To Be Learned Here!

Back 2 School Bundle IndieGala 

You do the math: $3.99 for EIGHT games, including an arcade shooter where math is key to success? Awesome! Anyway, I’ll keep this short because you have homework to do (*snicker!*), so while you’re doing that, you can BUY these games and get your rainy weekend plans in all at once. Hey, don’t say I’ve never done anything nice for you! And yeah, do your homework FIRST, of course!

Catequesis: Your Word of the Day & Retro Survival Horror Game of the…

SH Catequesis 


 
Hey, I didn’t PLAN on running three horror-related posts in a row! I just go through my inbox and start typing away about stuff I see that piques my interest. Anyway, Survival Horror Story: Catequesis has been in development for over two years and has a nicely nostalgic look to it while absolutely not being for the squeamish types out there. Developers Baroque Decay and Curved Cat games are looking to wrap this up and get it out on PC, Mac and Linux sometime in 2015, so if you like your horror games somewhat pixelated and “cute”, yet unsettling enough to make you maybe want to keep that security blankie on your lap as you play, well… here you go. If that three minutes of gameplay didn’t get your spine all chilly, this teaser might work on cooling you down some:

More on this one when my inbox gets another pointy news arrow from the dev team (ouch!)- stay tuned.

Bundles of Joy For Your Monday Will Make Your Backlog Ache!


 
Humble Flash Sale, Meet IndieGala Every Monday Bundle! You two play nice, now. Well, I’d betting they’ll each be too busy with themselves to notice each other in that sandbox, but hey – I tried. Anyway, this weeks Humble Flash Sale bundle is So Cute! No, seriously, that’s the name of the bundle. Whaddaya mean you don’t believe me? That’s what that link is for, silly! Click it and watch your wallet flit out of your pocket or purse and fly around the room before your credit card goes zipping into your hand and you end up with the five games and three soundtracks in this bundle. Cute stuff does that to some people, I hear.

Every Monday 982014
 
As for that Every Monday Bundle, this week’s a DOOZY. $1.89 nets you six games including the deep retro greatness of Eschalon Book I & II, the incredibly creepy Five Nights at Freddy’s, and three other indie games: Stonerid, Memories of a Vagabond and the oddly titled Me & Postapocalypse 2: Scraping. I’m grabbing this because of the Eschalon games and hell, I keep hearing how scary Five Nights at Freddy’s is, so I’m hoping it lives up to the hype and this video (Ha! How SCARY can it be?):

 
Oh. well, then. Carry on. I think I’ll need to have a defibrillator handy. And a nurse. Eh, we’ll see. Anyway, go check out one or both of these bundles, support charity and get some gaming in while you’re at it!

Today’s IndieGala Bundle is Quite Grotesque! Which Means You’ll Want It Anyway…

Grotesque Bundle
 
Nice. Ten games, two bucks, 24 hours. Should you? Well, in a word… YES. If you like isometric action RPGs, Space Hack will get you at least 50 hours (it’s actually MORE, as I’ve played this one a few times through) of alien blasting goodness with a pretty compelling story as the game progresses. Greed: Black Border is another space-centric blast-fest that’s quite good for what it is. The two games this bundle gets its name from in the Grotesque Tactics series are fun fantasy romps with a turn-based battle system familiar to fans of Final Fantasy Tactics and other games of that sort.

Avencast is an unconventional adventure/RPG with a magic-based combat system and Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood mixes in a sort of tactical combat/puzzle solving/adventure game blend with its older school visuals for a nice and challenging time. You’ll also get a couple of post-apocalyptic car combat games, an open world highway/street chase game based off a cheesy German TV show and a surprisingly engrossing game about trading in space all for what a cup of coffee costs (or two, if you’re REALLY cheap and get someone else to pay the tax, you cheapskate!).

So yeah, shut up and do what you need to do, already. I’ll be here in the back cackling madly when you’re trying to chase me around the room for “making” you buy all those games for so little money and realizing you need to now make time to play all those games. Hey, welcome to MY world, folks!

Tiny Troopers Joint Ops PS4/PS3/Vita: Simple, Hard to Pass Up Fun For Casual To Core Players


 
I really liked the PC version of Kukouri Mobile’s former mobile-only game Tiny Troopers enough to give it a 90% rating, so as soon as I saw this upcoming PS3/PS4/Vita game that combines all the content from the first AND second games, is a cross-buy title and definitely a must-buy if you’re into fast-paced arcade-like games that start off simple and get more challenging as the levels zip by. I’m gathering this PSN game will be inexpensive enough to nudge some skeptics who’ve never played either of the games to give it a shot, but I guess we’ll see. Heck, if it’s as fun as the PC version was and contains that zombie add-on content, I think I may have to score it higher than I did the older game. Well, that’s how it SHOULD work if fairness is the name of the game (which it is here, folks)…

Bundle Fest Deals 4 & 5 Offer Up Pains, Trains, & More Awesome Deals…


 
Ha! See what I did there? No? Oh well. I’ll let you off the hook this time because I just KNOW you were distracted by one of both of these awesome Bundle Stars deals. Go let of some Steam with the Trainz Bundle, which gives you Trainz Simulator 12 and eight DLC packs for a mere $3.99 (try getting a real train ticket for that price!). This surprisingly addictive set of train simulations and construction tools allow anyone to run their own railroad and even hop online to share content with other users anywhere in the world.


 
If, on the other hand you’re in the mood for a lot less train travel and a great deal more fantasy and horror coming your way, well… the Night Dive Bundle has your name stamped all over it. Classic RPGs Wizardry VI, VII and VII are here, as is the scary sci-fi masterpiece, System Shock 2 (looking better than the trailer shows thanks to some great patches that come with the game install). You’ll also get the gory adventure chiller, Harvester, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (the great Harlan Ellison story that was turned into quite a memorably bleak adventure game experience), More horror with Shadowman, The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour, and finally, the intentionally “buggy” tale of a very unique cockroach in Bad Mojo: Redux $3.49 nets you these nine titles and you’ll get a few weeks or longer out of the Wizardry games alone.

Summer may be coming to a close, but these two deals will make your backlog GROW like it’s spring inside your computer’s hard drive, I say! That goodness can be all yours in a couple of clicks and I don’t want to stop you at all from getting what needs to be done DONE. So, get to it already!

Rollers of the Realm Priced (YES!) and Dated (Sort Of): Get Ready To Roll This November!


 
ROTR battleA mere penny under ten bucks for this Pinball/RPG hybrid AND it’s cross-buy/cross-save on the Vita and PS4? Yep, I’m in day one and you should be too. I’m all over this one and have been since I heard about it early in development because I’m a pinball maniac with no room for an actual machine in my place (boo!) and a love for developers who keep the silver ball flame going by every means necessary. I also love RPGs, so developer Phantom Compass had me from day one. Atlus picking this up to publish also made me grin a wee bit too much because this means it’s going to get that extra push and pedigree their best games get and hopefully score some point among the fans who’d normally avoid a western-produced game for some oddball reason.

Anyway, I’m betting on Rollers of the Realm being a total no-brainer buy when it finally hits PSN in November. Heck, even if you avoid digital games like the plague, I’d day lift your “nope” restrictions, drop the ten bucks on this PSN download and play a game that will surprise your socks off at how good and FUN it is.

Pathologic Reborn: Ice-Pick Lodge Remakes Its Flawed Classic As A Crowd-Funded Next-Gen Game


 

Pathologic BirdWhile it had its share of problems, 2005’s first-person adventure/role-playing hybrid Pathologic was one of those “creep under your skin” game experiences that made quite an impression. Sure the graphics weren’t exactly “state of the art” for the time, but the surreal nature of the art style, interesting map layouts and unique character designs helped carry developer Ice-Pick Lodge’s vision of a strange world in the grasp of a deadly plague. While the game didn’t do all that well outside its native Russia, enough of a loyal fan base picked it up over the years to gain it a cult following and of course, these days that means there HAS to be a remake or sequel. Thankfully, I-PL has decided to reboot their original game idea and expand greatly upon it to include content planned for the original that was scrapped as well as create all-new content that’s guaranteed to get the game a second life as a more richly rewarding experience… Continue reading

Double Your Bundles, Double Your Fun (And Double Your Backlog!)…

bundle fest logoOkay, I missed yesterday’s Bundle Stars deal in this five days of bundles (or Bundle Fest, as they call it), but that’s not bad news at all as each bundle doesn’t expire for about a week. So today you get two (*smooch!*), TWO times the bundles! First up, it’s The Arctic Bundle, where $2.49 nets you SEVEN complete adventure games including classics like Benoit Sokal’s Syberia and Syberia 2, both Still Life games, Post Mortem and the gorgeous, bizarre Enki Bilal/Benoit Sokal game Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals. If you love your games packed with puzzles and memorable female characters, this bundle’s for YOU.

Today’s other deal is the Reboot 7.0 Bundle, six Steam games (and a DLC pack for one of those games) that are a nice mix of genres and hybrids. I’m LOUSY at poker, but I see that Runespell: Overture is batting its eyelashes at me and I may groove on over to see what’s up with this oddball RPG that uses poker hand-based combat.

This cool bundle will set you back a measly $1.49 and has a nice set of other action-based games for you to dive into. Okay, now that I’ve hit you over the noggin with too many games, GO GET SOME! I’ll wait here and rest for a bit while you log a few hours of playtime. I could use the vacation…