Gyaaah. Here I am, JUST writing about a fine and dandy new(ish) RPG I’m in love with (see previous post) and what happens? The folks at Humble Bundle read my mind and come up with an EVIL PLAN to take more money from me, grrr. And for a six buck minimum, I’m going to let them. As my backlog is so stupidly massive, I’ve only played a few demos of some of these and wanted to pick them up when I had the time (and yes, when there was an appropriate sale or something). Well, I guess the time is ripe for me to go ba-na-nas on this deal and add MORE games to the digital warehouse of stuff I need to get to as I free up time. Wah! Anyway, six games and five complete soundtracks all for the taking.
Oh well. Such is the life I lead. Click. Buy. BOUGHT. *Sob*, oh, my poor backlog…
The ONLY reason I didn’t slap down that fifteen bucks for Heroes of a Broken Land right away after I saw that trailer the other day was there was a demo to try out and I love demos. Needless to say, it got downloaded and played for a bit and yes indeed, the game is quite fantastic on a few levels. For starters, it looks and plays exactly like a hybrid of Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder and one of those great Dreamforge RPGs with dashes of Wizardry and even a little Heroes of Might and Magic tossed into the pot for good measure. If all those names and titles baffle you and you’re looking at that trailer and thinking “But it’s so ugly!”, feel free to turn right around and point your body towards the door (a little more to the left… Okay!), then lean forward slightly so my foot lands in the right spot. *Boot!*
Everyone else, there’s a fresh kettle on and tea cups a plenty in the kitchen. Oh, and some cookies are on the counter… Continue reading →
And the people have spoken! Paper Sorcerer is now on Steam! Yes, it’s still five bucks and yes, it’s been tweaked up a bit since my review. You can play using your keyboard and mouse or if you like configure a USB controller (a wired Xbox 360 one is recommended) if you’re more used to that means of playing games. Finally, new to the Steam version are 39 Achievements, which means I’ll need to play this version at some point just to see what they are.
Yeah it’s a short post, but hey – it’s FREEZING in here today and as noted earlier, my poor brain isn’t working as well as it needs to. Brrrr. I need to get the heck home soon and curl up with a good book, methinks…
Hey, Winged Pixel? You just made my too-snowy Tuesday a great deal more tolerable. Heroes of a Broken Land is a classic style role playing game with a lovely Dungeon Master/Eye of the Beholder/Wizardry vibe (and a few other classics), procedurally generated maps, a hex-based over world map just to get me tingly and even some simulation aspects as you restore fragmented landscapes to their original forms.
That demo is calling me even as we speak, so it’s off to download and give this one a try. The full version of the game is also available for a mere $14.99 from the Winged Pixel site, Desura, or Gamersgate and if it gets voted in through the Greenlight program, expect this to also land on Steam at some point. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some dungeons to delve into…
These charity game bundles are driving me nuts, but it’s all good. Paying a mere three dollars for all these games is a super steal (if bought individually elsewhere you’d pay $65) , but as always the drawback is finding time to PLAY them. My own newly adjusted backlog of completing all the games I’ve paid so little for from Steam, gog.com, Desura, Indie Gala, Humble Indie Bundle and yes, Bundle Stars is currently hovering somewhere around 2015, but that doesn’t include other games, movies and important stuff like breathing, so methinks I’ll need to re-crunch those numbers at some point soon.
Anyway, the latest BS deal (The Kingdoms Bundle) is no BS at all, offering you 95% off of six games with four of those six being deep historical and military simulations and the other pair a fantasy action/RPG hybrid and a streamlined yet complex space strategy game. Not everyone’s cup of tea, I’ll admit. But for those with the time and patience or those who want to try something different, these come recommended.
Ha! ANY chance to write more about one of my favorite games is a good thing, so here you go. Over at the Indie Gala site, their January bundle just got even more interesting, going from a must buy pack to “If you DON’T buy this bundle, you’re nuts!” deal. $5.19 got you seven games up until today when Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut was added to the deal and three more Steam games are coming soon. Nice.
The Steam version of DPTDC adds a ton of bonus content, Steam-specific achievements and (Xbox 360) controller support (sure you CAN play with a mouse and keyboard, but this is ONLY recommended if you already do so and are GREAT at it). As for the game proper, it’s a surprising throwback that won’t win any awards for visuals, but has a story that’s quite interesting on a few emotional layers. In addition, the game is a homage to all sorts of cool stuff and packs in movie trivia like a boss (just drive around and listen to the banter for some fun knowledge dropping). Sure, it won’t look amazing at all on that 50″ or three screen monitor setup and the game isn’t going to task your overclocked gaming rig at all. But good, quirky games like this don’t need fancy system defying visuals to be awesome, I say.
That, and the rest of the games in the bundle are all pretty unique in their own right. You’ll see soon enough. Now go spend a few spare bucks (part of it will be going to charity, so it’s okay!) and have a great(er) weekend!
Oh, Puuba Games… You intrigue me so. Your first game, Concursion looks pretty darn cool with all that genre switching on the fly, colorful mix of visual styles and and promise of many hours of play and replay value. That said, I tend to be cautiously optimistic about stuff like this because no game is “perfect” and in fact, it’s often the case that a game’s flaws can actually make the overall experience better for some players who can exploit them to the fullest. Granted, the only flaws I see is that dance the main character does at the end of that trailer above (it’s so… 1991!) and some generic-looking sprites. But I know this isn’t the final product at all and I’m not some internet troll with an already dull as hell axe to grind.
Anyway, I’ve got my eyeball on you kids. Get this one polished up and DONE and don’t screw it up. I want people to fall over themselves to get this one when it’s finally done and I also want to see it pop up on consoles at some point down the road because I’m a multi-platform kinda guy…
Dark Souls II is going to be the toughest thing many gamers will touch all this year and love. And hate, as the game’s relentless enemies and crushing difficulty will chew up and spit out all comers from seasoned veterans to new players who THINK they can survive unscathed. Nah, not gonna happen, people. You will die (well, your character will die) and you’ll be glaring at your controller with malicious intent when you should be holding up a mirror and heavy breathing into your fogged up reflection. Hey, what did you expect from a game with the tagline “Prepare to Die”, hmmmmm? On the other hand, to the victor go the spoils… but most of those spoils happen to be of the “Holy crap, I survived THIS long before I got stepped on/skewered/roasted/run over, et cetera…”
This one’s going to be a killer, people. Watch the skies for flying controllers and keep an ear out for banshee-like howls from above, I say…
Hey, last week I heard some loud ladies on the street say that “Men are useless!” and while I do indeed agree we are on some fronts, sometimes we knock it out of the park big time. Er, at least as far as making cool as hell stuff goes. Well, cool stuff that doesn’t involve actual explosives, booze or some sort of automatic magazine pin-up dispenser as an all-in-one solution to multiple non-problems.
I don’t even know who Travis Reynolds is, but he’s my *new* best friend because he has created the (ta-dah!) Briefcase Arcade or Businesscade or Briefcade. Some call it the “Arcase”, but that sounds kinda lame (to me at least). Oh, it’s not built completely from scratch, mind you – that would be TOO genius and make him automatic King of the Known Universe… Continue reading →
Yes, it’s ONLY a teaser trailer and yes, it’s a bit on the “too much grey” for my tastes, but considering I was a bit of a pesky Land Snark a few days earlier when I saw screenshots of the up until then title-less game being worked on by developer The Farm 51, it’s gone and made me cut a small slice of crow pie and heat it up for later tonight. Now, this doesn’t mean I’m giving this upcoming PC shooter a hook-less release at all. Those graffiti-covered walls do indeed look fantastic and all, and the premise and promise of solo and multiplayer action being intertwined is intriguing. Hopefully this can be pulled off and done up right so that I can start a review out with a “Finally, someone gets this FPS thing RIGHT.” or something similarly pompous-sounding. Oh wait, that would most likely require me to buy a new PC, as both the desktop and laptop I use are still rockin’ Windows XP (hey, my hundreds of older games LOVE it and my experiences with Windows 8 and 8.1 have been… how do you say, “eeeeennnnteresting”.
Eh, we’ll get to something more modern soon enough. This game’s still in the oven for a while yet and I’m gathering some hands-on time at a press event will help make me more of a decision maker. Of course, that’s usually a bad idea, me making decisions. Last week, I decided to print my own currency and no one would take any G-Bucks. Crap. That’s what I get for NOT deciding to invest in that Bitcoin deal some guy hit me over the head with out of the blue in a Starbucks. “It’s a SCAM!” I thought. “A fool and his money and all that rot” Yeah, a good hundred buck investment to a total stranger (friendly and chatty as he was) seemed like a REALLY lousy idea (He said, crying on his keyboard)… Ah well. Perhaps I’ll get lucky and find I have a skill people will pay real money to utilize… what-ever could that be, I imagine?
"DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!" 