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

Posted on September 4, 2014 by geelw

A 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.

Go Wish Happy Birthday to Rogue Trooper (And Blow $#!t Up While You’re At It)!

Posted on September 4, 2014 by geelw

It’s been a long 33 years since Rogue Trooper appeared in comics form and to celebrate, veteran game developer Rebellion is offering up the PC version of their 2006 action game at the great low price of $2.49 (or £1.49 if you’re in the UK). I own this on console and PC and it’s quite fun for a third-person shooter and actually has a decent story behind all the stuff blowing up.

While the game isn’t incredibly long, it’s well made and quite a bit of fun to play, funny when it needs to be and don’t be surprised if you find yourself liking the lead character and his fellow troopers as you play through their story. Now, isn’t THAT cool? A birthday where YOU get to spend money (and not a lot of it at all) on a gift for yourself!

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

Posted on September 4, 2014 by geelw

While 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!)…

Posted on September 3, 2014 by geelw

Okay, 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…

Bundle Stars’ Bundle Fest: Five Days of BUY ME! Digital Deals…

Posted on September 1, 2014 by geelw

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to your backlog… Bundle Stars gives you FIVE good reasons to make it BIGGER. Yaaaah! FIVE days of bundle deals, starting today with the hot (OW!) INFERNO BUNDLE that features TEN Steam (OW!) games for only $3.99! Yikes! The call this the Bundle Fest… but I call it the Bundle FEAST because your wallet will be feeding assorted charities and your growing backlog of games won’t be starving for quite some time! Hey, I could do this pun thing all night long you know. But I won’t, as it would keep you here and not over at Bundle Stars racking up some incredible savings on digital games. Okay, get going – I know you’re in the mood for some fun indies, all for a song…

Resident Evil HD & Resident Evil Revelations 2: Capcom Serves Up Two Dishes To The Ungrateful Masses…

Posted on September 1, 2014 by geelw

Wow. If I was working in Capcom PR and had a thin skin (which, by the way is a LOUSY thing for anyone working in PR to have), I’d be chugging Pepto all day and taking an aspirin ever four hours for my heart. You’d think that the company was out running a steamroller over baskets of puppies or something if you read some of the many inane comments on YouTube and plenty of websites about both the HD remaster of the former GameCube-only Resident Evil remake from 2002 and the concept video for (as in too EARLY to have actual gameplay footage from) Resident Evil Revelations 2. I, for one will be getting both games upon their respective releases because I know that the former hasn’t been on any other console platform to date and it’s a truly great game. As for RER 2, I liked the first one quite a bit, so this one’s going to be added to the “watch and BUY!’ list.

It’s THAT simple for me. I’m not silly enough to yell and scream about unrelated games, DLC from unrelated games, and so forth and so on. These announcements are about the games in question and Capcom just wants to show them off and know what you think about them, not listen to bitch-fest central about Monster Hunter, Mega Man, Street Fighter or worse, INCORRECT comments about this HD version Resident Evil being the same as the 1996 original or just a straightforward “port” of the GameCube game.

Eh, I shouldn’t be surprised at all at this reaction, as the company seems to attract some of the more passionate but woefully ignorant fans in gaming. Sure, they’ve made mistakes over the years, but some people need to just grow up and not continue to slam them on EVERY call they make these days.

IndieGala NEVER Sleeps! $1.89 For Six Great Games, 24 Hours Only!

Posted on September 1, 2014 by geelw

Yikes. Here I am, feeling wonderfully dopey for not being able to get any work don on this holiday and BAM! IndieGala gives me something to write home about. Okay, a few other things happened in my inbox to jar me out of my funk, but I’d forgotten that rain or shine, every Monday IS an IndieGala Monday! Anyway, six games for a measly $1.89 is a STEAL, so go break into the IG bank while net breaking YOUR own bank (or a sweat, unless you’re in a hot place already with no working fan or cold beverages). Speaking of, I need to go turn on MY fan and get a cold something from the fridge (no wonder it’s so HOT in here!) – you go and buy yourself these games and I’ll see you in a bit, mmmm’kay? Good!

The Great Backlog Dupe Giveaway 4: Two Alien Invasions For You To Halt!

Posted on August 30, 2014 by geelw

Yeah, you COULD go out like one of these not too bright chumps in the “classic” low-budget 1980 sci-fi flick (It Came) Without Warning, OR you could dive into the TWO Steam games I’m giving away to ONE lucky winner and learn some actual alien invasion survival tactics that will come in VERY handy! That’s right, folks! Today’s giveaway consists of Altar Studios’ UFO: Aftermath and UFO: Aftershock, two tactical strategy games inspired by the classic X-Com franchise:

All you need to do is be the first one to respond and both codes are YOURS. Yes, you need a Steam account and a valid email address (which you don’t need to post – I’ll find you, don’t worry). It will take me a bit longer to respond today, as I’m actually not at the home office and will be back there in a few hours to respond to the lucky winner, so don’t fret if you post first and don’t hear back right away.

Okay, enough reading – you’ve got some games to win and play! GOOD LUCK!

Lords of the Fallen “World” Trailer: Not Quite 100 Places To See Before You Die (In Them)…

Posted on August 28, 2014 by geelw

My own hands-on time with a build of Lords of the Fallen reveals it’s a pretty damn hard game in the Dark Souls vein and developers CI Games and Deck 13 have cooked up a nasty little next-gen gem that’s going to test the best players to defeat some pretty crafty creatures. Like the Souls series, monsters lurk in both plain sight as well as in choice hidden spots, they’ll hunt you down once they spot you and are pretty relentless overall. Of course, you can use the environments to your advantage, knocking away some boards to create a death drop pit you can lure what was chasing you into or using magic for ranged attacks as a wee or over-sized beastie is closing in for the kill. And yes, blocking and dodging are skills you need to master, as these monsters aren’t playing at all.

The game is coming to PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on October 28, 2014 and looks to be the first next-gen (or is it now current-gen?) chase & chop of the more cerebral kind. I only saw ONE person get close to defeating the demo Bandai Namco had on display and that guy was using every once of skill he had. Looks as if this one’s going to be one of those sleeper keepers for those who can play it. I predict a few broken controllers among those who may have missed out on FromSoftware’s series and have CI to blame (and their own lack of skills) for those formerly functioning chunks of plastic and components. be brave and fight onward, I say. You only have the fate of some fantasy world on your chosen customizable character’s shoulders…

Review: Shadowgate

Posted on August 28, 2014 by geelw

Platform: PC (via Steam)
Developer: Zojoi Studios
Publisher: Reverb Triple XP
# of Players: 1
ESRB Rating: N/A
Official Site
Score: A- 90%

A few years back, I was at a media event talking to a PR person who told me that some sites let her know that they didn’t like covering adventure games and that too me aback because that attitude is pure biased lunacy. The adventure genre didn’t necessarily “die” a while back, folks – it was just neglected and left by the side of the road by jaded critics who didn’t bother giving too many great games the time of day. Anyway, those days of dreary dread have turned around in recent years and thankfully, one of the more influential and important games of the late 80’s is back and better than ever. Zojoi Studios’ brilliantly re-imagined Shadowgate takes the old story out for a stroll in a new coat of absolutely lovely visuals, a superb new soundtrack and even options to change that and a few other things (save the visuals) back to the classic NES game many of us oldsters spent too much time trying to beat and eventually beating but good a few times.

What this reboot doesn’t do is simply template that original game into a more casual form or make it an action-heavy experience that would cater to the more caffeinated modern gamer. From the interface to the brain-bending puzzles, everything you loved about the old game is back and in full force. Granted, some of these things WILL lead to frustration for some gamers used to hand-holding or self-solving puzzles in their entertainment experiences. That said, exercising the mind with a good and highly challenging game such as this one will be the best thing some of you can do for so little money… Continue reading →