Shadowgate on iOS: Castle of Doom Goes All Touchy-Feely

Posted on October 26, 2015 by geelw

Oh joy! Or should I say Zo-Joi! Shadowgate is now available on the iPad. $4.99 gets you this revamped classic that was a PC exclusive now on your tap and slide tablet of choice (well,if your tap and slide tablet of choice happens to be an iPad 3 or better). While not a “horror” game per se, exploring the gloomy deathtrap that is Castle Shadowgate can be a bit frightening at times. Hey, when you walk into a room filled with treasure and see that rather pissed off dragon eyeballing you, you’ll either get smart and get lost or get greedy and roasted up but good. Unless you have a certain item that can withstand a blast of fire or two. Yes, that was a free game tip.

The beautiful artwork in this remake alone is worth the five bucks you’ll spend. Fortunately, Zojoi has made the new version of their 1987 classic every bit as devious and challenging as the original with even more to do and some super-challenging difficulty options for you adventure game masters out there. As if this wasn’t a good enough deal, Zojoi has also gone and made iOS versions of its four original MacVenture Series games. For $1.99 each you can play the classic Shadowgate, The Uninvited, Deju Vu and Deja Vu II.

And yes indeed, The Uninvited IS a horror game (and a good one at that):

I shall leave you with the lovely lady in red above (that’s blood, by the way… YOUR blood!)- go get some yourself cheap classics today and have yourself an adventure (or four).

One More Bundle Is Calling Your Name

Posted on September 22, 2015 by geelw

Do you really need One More Bundle of indie games to dive into? Polish indie game studio One More Level certainly thinks so and for under two bucks (or more if you like), you can grab six digital game codes and dive into them at your leisure. The variety is certainly there, with a WWII flight sim, colorful puzzler, zombie mangling fun and even a strategy game set in the Call of Cthulhu universe. My own backlog is broken and screaming at me to not add another game to it, but I just may do so with this mix.

The offer expires September 29, 2015, so act fast, troops and don’t forget to tell a friend or three if you like what you’re playing. One More Level has a lot more in the works for their new platform and it’s always a good thing to get behind something like this early. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to flip a coin and see what’s next. Given that I got my coin from Two-Face and it’s unmarked, I have the feeling that my backlog is going to grow by six titles sooner than later.

Whispering Willows: A Haunting You Will Go (On Even More Platforms)

Posted on August 15, 2015 by geelw

Abstraction Games and Night Light Interactive have a nice and spooky surprise coming soon for Xbox One, Wii U, iOS and Android owners. Although the game is already out for a few platforms (PC, PS4, Vita and OUYA), I’d actually never heard of Whispering Willows until an email about the latest version popped up in my inbox. Initially set for an August 12 launch at $9.99, Xbox One owners will be seeing the game as part of Microsoft’s Deals With Gold promotion starting Friday, August 28th at 30% off ($6.99) for two weeks only (through Friday, September 11).

iOS and Android versions will also be available on the 28th with the Wii U version following shortly thereafter. The horror-themed puzzle adventure has you playing as Elena, a young girl with the ability to use astral projection. The talent comes to good use thanks to her father going missing in a creepy mansion and yes, Elena heads into that haunted palace set on finding out just where he is and what’s happened to him. I’d say more, but I’ll need to play the game and get back to you on how it turned out. I’d gather all those plaudits on the official site mean the game is worth the price and more. A half dozen screens to ogle are below.

Skyhill: Elevator Inaction In A Descent Through High-Rise Hell

Posted on July 18, 2015 by geelw

Skyhill intrigues me greatly because I missed out on the Indiegogo hype train for it last year when it was a rougher project that showed some major promise and got a lot of attention thanks to a few folks writing it up as a must-play experience. Naturally, Steam came a-calling and after going through the Greenlight process, that old build has since been scrapped and completely redone in Unity with the results seen above. Russian developers Mandragora have made their game a nicer-looking and more polished experience that’s destined to gain even more fans once it’s completed. To me, this looks like the arcade classic Elevator Action meets Silent Hill and Fallout… um, without the elevators, of course.

“What’s it all about?”, you ask. Well, let the official site tell you a bit (with a little rewrite assistance from yours truly):

Three months have passed since the end of World War III. Three months from the end of the world. One of the survivors, hiding in the penthouse in most expensive hotel of the city from from the scourge of biological weapons outside needs to find his way down to salvation. He must search for food and water to survive; find and use better weapons to fight mad mutants and more in the randomly generated world of Skyhill, where each walk-through is unique.

Yep, that sounds like a fine old time to me. In real life, of course. I’d just eat a big meal of whatever is left from that last room service trip, roll over and take a long nap. In Skyhill, you’re in survival mode as soon as you step outside that pricey penthouse. Anyway, this one’s going to be watched here until it’s ready for prime time. In the meantime, I guess it’s a lot of Knitted Deer while I’m waiting. That game needs to come to Steam as well.

Star Wars: Uprising: Shoot First In Kabam’s Upcoming Co-Op Game

Posted on July 7, 2015 by geelw

(thanks, Kabam RPG!)

Hey, Kabam! You just made me want to play a Star Wars game. Reading up on Uncle George trying to rewrite movie history has of late almost put me off wanting to go near anything new owner Disney intends to do with the franchise. Any SW fan worth his salt knows Han shot first, grrrr! That said, I’m still not a 100 percent tablet, mobile or broswer-based MMO convert just yet…
Continue reading →

Divide By Sheep: It’s The New Math, Kids!

Posted on July 2, 2015 by geelw

(thanks, tinyBuildGAMES!)

If they taught math this way back when I was in grade school I’d bet a heck of a lot of kids would probably be a lot smarter. And probably vegetarian or vegan not to mention not afraid of death at all. Anyway, great and prolific indie developer tinyBuildGAMES does it again with another hilarious slice of pure fun with a twist. Divide By Sheep is a math puzzle game that combines Death, loneliness, sacrifice and too cute to chop up sheep in a game where every move counts. Okay, it’s nowhere as grim as that last sentence sounds at all although a sense of humor is going to be needed in order to get full enjoyment from this one.

If you feel like counting sheep now and getting Death some new wooly pals to play chess with, the game is available on Steam and iOS NOW. Even better (well, if you’re an iOS user), you can get tinyBuild’s Spoiler Alert for FREE and Fearless Fantasy for a mere 99 cents. Those are both hard to pass up deals, I’d say.

Bethesda @E3 2015: Lots Of DOOM-Saying Dishonored Fallout Scrolls

Posted on June 15, 2015 by geelw

Nothing much to say here other than Bethesda Softworks’ E3 lineup is small but spectacular even though I’m not completely sold on the mobile and free to play titles (because I’m old school stubborn like that but still respect them in the morning). Pull up a seat and something to eat as this is a nice lonng look at what’s coming this year and a bit beyond. I’ll run individual game trailers later this week. Okay, back to grinding my teeth and making pissed off faces at no one in particular. There’s still some work being done on the roof (which was supposed to end on the 5th of this month) and an inspector is coming to look at a wall that’s become a bit of a mess in the home office, grrrrr.

Guitar Hero Is Back. Plastic Guitar Gods, Rise!

Posted on April 14, 2015 by geelw

Out with the old…

…in with the new!

1. The new Guitar Hero Live logo looks a wee bit like the original Star Trek TV show logo. That made me laugh a bit because it’s not intentional at all. I’m just really old.

2. Plastic guitars are back after a five year hiatus.It’s hard to say how those who bought the rock games that required real guitars will feel about this. However, it’s entirely possible that both camps will find something to like or not about GHL.

3. There are no colored buttons this time and instead of five colored buttons, you get three buttons set into two rows. This is because testing showed most people play GH using three fingers and never got past the harder modes. The game’s easier modes use only three buttons while the harder modes use all six.

4. There’s an autoplay button on the controller for people who just want to practice the songs or look good cheating. Longtime GH players seem to hate the new controller already, but EVERYONE will need to get used to the new controller should they pick up the game. It shouldn’t take long, though.

Yes, this is ALL actual gameplay.

5. Or: If you owned a PC, Sega CD, 3DO, PlayStation or Saturn back in the 90’s, you’ll be pleased to know FMV games are back (but much better looking). Yeah, that’s right. Gone are the cartoon-like players and now it’s you onstage playing that plastic guitar in front of an actual audience in first person mode. But this time, it’s for PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Wii U and mobile devices. Yes, the crystal-clear FMV can run on any current console out there, so you’ll see all looking exactly the same (like it or not).

6. There’s a music video channel-like online play mode. You can choose from hundreds of videos to battle someone against, there will be a MASSIVE library of songs from classics to indies and overall, this mode may be the bigger deal for some players who love their social sharing stuff.

Guitar Hero Live is coming this fall for those systems noted above. So many changes after five years off, right? Will it be a house band in millions of homes, or is the new look and focus on both simplifying and complicating things be too bumpy a ride for the loyal fan base? As usual, we shall see.

DomiNations: Big Huge Games, Back With A Big Huge Game You Need To Play

Posted on March 31, 2015 by geelw

If you do this writing about games stuff long enough, you tend to go into media events with low to no expectations. Not because you’re jaded, mind you. It’s more because going in blind works better at getting one’s surprise meter better tuned when something actually does blow one’s mind. That said, I knew as soon as I heard the names Big Huge Games and Tim Train, I knew I had to prepare to be surprised and thrilled at what they were going to show. DomiNations (published by Nexon) is the name of the company’s new game and it’s a free to play mobile game that just so happens to be a real-time strategy game with a light world history theme. Sure, there are plenty of mobile RTS titles out there from Clash of Clans to Game of War and so forth and so on with fantasy themes. DomiNations adds some familiar bits of PC classics Train and Brian Reynolds have worked on such as Civilization II and Rise of Nations while making sure to be entertaining enough that anyone can hop in and play within a few seconds. Continue reading →

Marvel Mighty Heroes: DeNA’s Latest F2P Soon To Be Smash

Posted on March 31, 2015 by geelw

Excelsior, True Believers! here comes DeNA with yet another addictive F2P game guaranteed to kill your free time deader than Deadpool with a sack full of grenades and too much coffee in his system. Marvel Mighty Heroes is a fun-looking isometric co-op brawler for iOS and Android devices that’s a step up for action fans who want more action than some of the hugely popular card battle games on the mobile market. The kid-friendly art style and fast-paced play are sure to draw in the younger crowd. But expect this to also be a big hit among Marvel fans of any age who try it out and get drawn in by the fast-paced gameplay.

While some criticize most free to play games for their monetizing shenanigans, there’s an EASY way to avoid paying money for most of these games if you spread out how often you play them. You don’t NEED to spend hours every day “grinding” for good stuff at all. Just play until you’re prompted for a payment option and quit for the day. Rinse and repeat for about two weeks or so and if the game has daily rewards for continued play, you end up raking in digital coins or whatever currency the game offers up frequent players and you’ll be shocked to find you haven’t spent a dime and have credits to buy stuff in the online shop.

Or you could just go half to full super-fan and pay up front for a bunch of goodies or whatever starter packs you like. The beauty of GOOD free to play is having that option in the games you play and knowing it’s up to YOU to be in charge of what you spend if anything. That and you can always go read a book or step out for fresh air when that payment option pops up. There’s much more to life than gaming, you know. But when you DO get some game time in, make sure you enjoy 100 percent of that time.