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


 

GraalSeeker_Lugludum_72_t_RVBAnd 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.

Lugludum_GraalSeeker_early_ingame_screenshot_title Lugludum_GraalSeeker_early_ingame_screenshot_map Lugludum_GraalSeeker_early_ingame_screenshot_combat

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…


 
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.

Alien Isolation #HowWillYouSurvive Update: Two More Reasons To Jump Out Of Your Seat


 

#AINope will be trending if I have my way, but I’ll very likely be far too busy ducking and weaving in my chair while playing Alien Isolation to do much social network socializing. Nope, I won’t be Twitching unless it’s involuntary and from the game creeping me out from playing past a certain point. No tweeting unless I’ve a police whistle around my neck and I’m calling for help before I throw a shoe at my TV screen. And definitely no facebooking at all, because that’s actually more frightening than any game ever made. Yaaaaaah!


 

Alien Isolation lands in stores and digital delivery systems on October 7, 2014 for PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/Xbox One and PC. Back with more ways to die horribly in this soon to be modern sci-fi horror game classic in a bit…

Gauntlet is BACK. Just Buy It And Bring Some Friends Along For The Ride!

Nice. Arrowhead Game Studios has done classic and current gamers a solid by making their Gauntlet reboot a more than worthy nod to the original arcade classic. I sure hope to heck this sells REALLY well and someone has had the foresight to get the developer some console dev kits, as this game is PERFECT for some solo or offline/online couch or not co-op play sessions. That and some of us old fogies like playing the game with some sort of joystick and not a keyboard/mouse setup. Also, it would be excellent to have the ability to take this one on the road as a Vita or (if it’s not too much trouble to do a new version down the road) 3DS game. Eh, we’ll see what sales figures and company heads say, I suppose. The game was made for the masses back in the day and there’s NO reason it shouldn’t be available on anything else that can handle it, I say…

Call of Duty Advanced Warfare “Power Changes Everything” Trailer: Let’s You And Him Fight! Again.


 

Ah, if only real world conflicts could be solved by some simple gaming away for a few hours until one side “loses.” Yeah, I’d be ALL for that instead of this stop and start unsteady war footing we keep finding ourselves mixed up in. Sure, the real world is indeed a complicated place, but you’d THINK that after centuries of either getting it all wrong or not learning from past mistakes, we’d figure out an easier (or at least more efficient) means of dealing with people we don’t like who do things we really don’t like. Of course, the more recent Call of Duty games have been a bit timely in asking a few of these questions in between bullets and bomb blasts, but I’d gather that the bulk of the millions who buy and play these games year after year might not care much about hot geopolitical topics interrupting their online gunplay and kill streaks galore. Granted, the games do get better and better from a production standpoint and it’s clear that Sledgehammer Games is doing this year’s installment up right for PS4 and Xbox One owners expecting the best visual quality.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare hits retail outlets and digital delivery systems for PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/Xbox One and PC on October 3, 2014.

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

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:

Every Monday Bundle 9222014 

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

Endless Legend Is Out: Buy It & Just Toss Out Every Clock In The House…

You won’t need them because once you start playing this game, the concept of time is rendered meaningless. Well, that’s what a friend said to me over the weekend when he got the game. He’d been an Early Access guy and had been poking around with a pre-release version and letting me know how this new fantasy-themed 4X game was coming along (quite nicely, from what I heard). Over the weekend, he’d done nothing but get up in the morning, hop in the shower, pop out to the store for provisions and after that, he was pretty much glued to his monitor. Normally he doesn’t do this, but he’s got a big work week ahead of him and wanted to get in enough gameplay to tide him over until this coming weekend.

Of course, he gets to bed around 2:30am Monday (today!), but pops up at 6am only to find he doesn’t need to zoom out of the door at all because the big Monday conference had been pushed up a day thanks to a few surprise births among a few wives or women in his office being a few days to a week early. Guess who still popped out of bed, put a pot of coffee on and went back to Endless Legend? That guyyyyyyy! Yeah, that’s dedication, folks. It must also mean the game is worth a buy if you like the 4X strategy genre and need a new fix. I’ll need to knock a hole in my schedule AND toss out all the clock in order to even think about playing this game, but let’s see what I can do with a few things this week before I decide to dive in and forget about everything else for a spell…

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

Space Hack Free Steam 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

Alien Isolation #HowWillYouSurvive Trailers 2-4: #JustBarelyIfAtAll (If You Need To Know)…


 
Nope…


 
and Nope…


 
annnnnnnnd, make mine a triple, bartender. Or, “No more for me, thanks, I’m dyin’!”

Yeah, it looks as if there are quite a few ways to expire in Alien Isolation and I’m betting some of you won’t need a rocket to ride through space when this game launches on October 7, 2014 for PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/Xbox One and PC. Hopefully Sega and developer The Creative Assembly have been shutting out the trolls and paying attention to those of us who want to experience the game on any platform to see if it’s a worthy follow up to the 1979 film as intended and those expecting some run of the mill FPS with the license stamped on realize it’s not all about what they want and all about what the CA is bringing to the table in the horror/sci-fi genre. Respect is a simple enough word for this one and I’m in for the long haul as far as spreading the word if this one’s a winner.

Falling Skies: The Game Enemies Trailer: Tactical Advice (Or A Good Look At What’s Going To Do You In)…

fs_fam_x360_ps3_noa_bs_3dAnother Falling Skies: The Game update? Sure, I’ll take it. I really like the strong X-Com vibe the game gives off, the straightforward visual style and what looks to be solid and challenging gameplay in this latest video.

As I get what’s here and intend to play this one from beginning to end, there’s really not much else to say about this save for it’s coming to PS3 and Xbox 360 at retail or download, Wii U via the eShop and PC via Steam on September 30, 2014. If it’s as solid as the games it’s based on, Little Orbit will have a surefire sleeper hit that just needs a proper and appreciative audience playing it from day one.