The last time in recent memory that a game created as much controversy as No Man’s Sky. If you’re interested in what I think of the hypetrain and all those broken promises, well just go look up totalbiscuit. The idea that the devs were less than responsible with their hype train pretty much sums it up for me. I think that if this were...
It’s been a long time since I’ve written anything here on TheGeniusInc. In fact, I stopped writing around the time I got my Vive and those two facts are not unrelated. From the borders of the gaming sphere I’ve returned with my thoughts on a few of the offerings people can enjoy on their head mounted holodecks! Audioshield Audioshield is from the creator...
In 2007 Valve released the Orange Box for PC and consoles. Containing Portal, Half-Life 2 (and expansions) and a game that many had almost forgot was in development: Team Fortress 2. The 50’s americana aesthetic was quite appealing and the fine balance of nine classes was highly successful. Over time, Valve made many decisions that split the community, namely going Free to Play and...
I’ve enjoyed many a game that were short and linear. Portal, Papo and Yo and Grandpa’s Leftovers were all great experiences with each one crafted around a very solid core mechanic. With Portal, we had the eponymous portals. With Papo and Yo, the giant monster switching between rage and peace. With Gandpa’s Leftovers we had the delightful ‘geometry slicing’. Add to that list one...
When Netflix announced that they struck a deal with Marvel I was super excited. Then I heard that they were bringing street level heroes out and I was even more excited as it was the perfect place to show these heroes because they don’t carry the cinematic weight like Spider-Man or Thor. Their fans are passionate but a much smaller audience and that’s rarely...
We’ve all done it, as DMs. The players come into town with a sense that things aren’t quite what they seem. There’s some simmering evil lurking just under the skin, and it’s up to the players to stop them before it achieves its goal. The Dragon Queen is rising, and if the players don’t stop her cultists, the world is doomed. The Giants are marching across...
Last night I was discussing with a friend the various ‘enemy’ races. These are the guys that everyone ‘knows’ is a bad guy. Orcs, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Kobolds, Gnolls and the like. Now of course, each of these are different but if the players are thinking they’re so similar then obviously something needs to be done to differentiate them. The answer to “why bother” falls...
I’ve admitted before that I’m often behind the times, reviewing games. The Forest is not some new game that just hit or even just got added to Early Access. It’s been almost two years since launching into Early Access and most people I should think are familiar with it. And yet, I hadn’t played it and I figured when I did, it wouldn’t be...
While I owned one of the platforms capable of playing Dragon’s Dogma when it was first released, somehow I never got around to playing the game. It has everything I could want, the mechanical skill of Dark Souls with the climbing mechanics of Shadow of the Colossus added to a bright interesting world like Monster Hunter and mixed into the traditional classic RPG trappings...
About a year ago, the game Elite Dangerous (from Frontier Developments) was released. As an early backer, I had already been playing the game for a while. It’s a fantastic space simulation, where you’re allowed to head out into the black and do whatever it is that you find fun. Fancy yourself a smuggler, trader, bounty hunter or political mover and you’ll find something...
Having only played the first game in the series, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Final Cut. While I didn’t dislike the game it was pretty threadbare for a game trying to be Diablo. Short story, empty multiplayer servers and middling graphics, none of these things impressed me. When they announced a sequel, I didn’t really think much about it and the fact...
Note: When I originally wrote this article it was in a quick rush for a local newspaper. While I stand by the things I stated in it, it’s more of a musing than a review. I think the biggest thing anyone needs to know about this iteration of Fallout, and the thing I should have gotten across in the review, is that Fallout 4...
In 2000, I had six CD’s shoved into my hands. Each one marked with black marker, scrawled with ‘Baldur’s Gate 2: Shadows of Amn’ on them. I had no idea what I was getting into at the time, even though I was familiar with Dungeons and Dragons. The scope and size of the game, the sweeping story and memorable characters. Then, a few years...
Doodle God is a mobile game, brought over to PC. I’ve never had the chance to play the original game, but I’ve always liked the concept. It’s a puzzle game where you mix the various elements available to you (starting with hellenistic ones and moving on towards ‘elements’ like birds or people) to achieve your goals. Since I’ve never reviewed the mobile versions I...
When I was a kid, I had an NES. When the SNES and Genesis rolled around, I was not privileged enough to get one. That was fine, I had our spanking new Pentium 75 PC! But the PC was lacking in several areas, most notably platform games. While my friends enjoyed Mario World, Sonic or Rystar (try it, it’s a great game), I managed...
Having gone a while without writing a review (I’ve been writing for a local paper, so my free time was taken up by a variety of projects), I’ve been itching to get back to playing some games. This year, we’ve had a plethora of great games to pick from ranging from epic RPGs (Witcher 3) to mindless beat-em-ups (Arkham Knight) and even some surprises...
Over the last three weeks I’ve developed a tool to help Dungeon Masters make monsters. The tools provided in the DMG are useful, but after seeing the awesome stat block template created by Valloric, I knew I needed to make a tool to generate those templates. My tool can be found here: https://thegeniusinc.com/dd-monster-maker-download/ ...
Art, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder. Incredible works of art have been attained in almost every medium but video games are more often seen as entertainment rather than art. This is ok, because a lot of games ARE just entertainment and while arguments can be made for games as art, it’s not accurate to say all games could be...
It’s no secret I love dinosaurs and it seems in the last few years we have had more and more games include dinosaurs even if they aren’t centered around it. While I hope that it doesn’t overstay its welcome, the dinosaur fad is one I hope that never really goes away. Today, a new game was announced for PC/PS4/Xbox One. It’s a survival game...
I don’t get to play many mobile games, and those that I do are highly replayable and more often than not are paid apps. Free to play games on mobile devices have me in a ‘alright, let’s see how greedy this game is’ mentality when I play them. That’s why when I come across excellent free to play games like Marvel’s Spider-Man Unlimited I...
Image from Google Search Something many look at going forward in life is becoming a parent. It’s not for everyone, but for those who DO want to (or find themselves falling into the lifestyle) many things take a backseat. Mostly hobbies. But as gamers, this isn’t an end to our habits, instead it simply changes them. We begin with these little bundles that...
It’s the Fourth, and for most geeks that means Star Wars day. A franchise of movies, books, comics and games embedded deep into our nerdy dna we celebrate the universe created so long ago by throwing our money at anything even tangentially related. Yes, little figures of the most obscure characters are still highly prized with collectors and cosplayers love to build or buy...
Steam announcement: https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/aboutpaidcontent Steam announced today that they now support mod authors charging for content. They can set the price to whatever they want, including free and ‘pay what you want’ and I’m absolutely for this. The idea that mods should be free is a strong one, as a lot of games continue for years down the line. Strong communities for good games thrive...
When people throw around comparisons like “will be the new Baldur’s Gate”, it perks my ears up. Of course, being a long time gamer, BG was a fundamental part of training my young gamer mind. Pillars of Eternity does not disappoint, although I really hesitate to even try to compare it to BG or any of the other Infinity Engine games other than Planescape:...
As a lifelong pen and paper RPG player, there is no genre closer to my heart in computer games as that of the Roleplaying Game. There was recently a post on Reddit where someone was asking about games like Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale. I was going to post and then I thought, why not make it one big blog post instead? So here...
While my thoughts are in the lengthy paragraphs below, you’ll find lots of information at the following two links. Brawlhalla on Steam : https://store.steampowered.com/app/291550/ Brawlhalla Wiki : https://brawlhalla.gamepedia.com/Brawlhalla_Wiki My video review can be found over here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw7yA118uyQ What is Brawlhalla? It’s a competitive 2d fighting game in the vein of “Smash Brothers” (more specifically Melee). Featuring a colourful cast, excellent speed and control and a...
I’m a sucker for games that are culturally diverse. I don’t mean high fantasy games with a Tolkien-esqe tapestry of races but rather games that focus on specific times, places and real world cultures. Bioshock (the entire series), Contrast, Papo and Yo as well as everything made by Team ACE. These unique takes on the video game landscape doesn’t give insight into the nature...
I’d recently been looking into ‘The Crew’, because a co-worker of mine has been enjoying it and I’ve stumbled across a Youtuber who has been doing Steam Giveaways alongside his videos of ‘The Crew’, ‘GTA5’ and ‘Hardline’. He even featured in one of the ‘Highlight Reel’ videos from Kotaku which I really like. With only a few thousand subscribers, unlike some Steam Giveaways...
When I first got my Wii (the original one, not the WiiU) I was excited about the prospect of many new games and ways to play them. Downloadable games, particularly original ones and not virtual console games, were these cool bundles of bite-sized gaming fun. One of those games was “Final Fantasy: My Life as the King” and it was amazing! You got to...
Today Valve had posted on the official Workshop page (https://steamcommunity.com/games/SteamWorkshop/announcements/detail/154581565731694927) that they are opening up the ‘monetization’ portion of the workshop. So far, only Valve has allowed content creators to make money from their hard work. In Dota2, TF2 and CS:GO you’ll find many items that get voted upon and added to the game. Then Valve splits the money made with the content creator....
I love dinosaurs. If your game has dinosaurs, I’m pretty much going to play it. Trespasser? One of my favourite games ever (especially with all the flaws). When ‘Primal Carnage’ (the original game) was added to Steam I picked it up sight unseen and while it was ok, I sort of regretted it. The levels weren’t large, playing a dinosaur was way more fun...
Defense Grid 1 was a highly tuned tower defense type game. If you’re unfamiliar with the genre, you essentially have a ‘base’ and for each enemy that reaches it you lose a life from your total. DG1 had a much more interesting mechanic where the aliens that touched your base ‘stole’ a life, and if you could kill them it would slowly drift back...
Last week, Blackwell Legacy. This week, Unbound. This series is really good and I don’t have much to add to my last review that is different from this one other than I wish all three games came in a single package. They would seem more like, a complete game rather than three short stories. This time, rather than solving the case of one ghost,...
Point and Click adventures were sort of a big deal when I was growing up. Sierra had their various ‘Quest’ lines (Space Quest, Police Quest and so on), Lucasarts was king with their Day of the Tentacle and Sam and Max games. Lots of companies I don’t remember the name of had games that I’ve long forgotten. These days, only Telltale games manages to...
Whenever the chance comes up to try a new game before anyone else (except MMORPGs which disinterest me from the outstart, usually), I jump at the chance. With Rollers of the Realm, I ended up with an amazing game experience and so far, from what I’ve played, Shadow Puppeteer seems like it’ll be another pleasant experience. The game plays out like a 2.5d...
So in the last few days, there’s this ultra “2edgy4me” type game called Hatred that’s been getting a lot of attention. Now I wouldn’t play this game, it looks like something I wouldn’t enjoy. And I hold nothing against Valve for removing it (from Greenlight, my position would be different if it were removed from Steam proper). However the community (redditors and forums goers...
Gamers love a game with choice. RPGs are obviously famous for their branching stories but even adventure and action games get in on this addictive mechanic by offering paths that eventually converge upon one point. Linear games allow for better story telling, but there is a reason games like Skyrim and Grand Theft Auto are on the top of ‘must play’ lists. Dishonored brings...
Following the steps of Valve, Telltale Interactive and (few) other developers, episodic gaming comes to the BBC in the form of the Doctor Who Adventure Games. Planned for multiple seasons (and only getting 1 plus the first episode of season 2), the series was actually well received however the BBC felt the need to instead focus on console games (I’ve played them, they’re rubbish)....
I wasn’t sure what to expect when starting Anodyne. Most descriptions paint it as a Zelda clone and while they’re right, the game is so much more than just a clone. Mechanically, it’s a clone but from a narrative standpoint the game is the sort of thing that would happen if you asked Jim Henson to make a video game. It has this dreamlike...
Rollers of the Realm, which is the fourth blog post I’ve made regarding the game, is great. I gave it rave reviews, really good preview and it’s just all around fantastic with one little exception: The Final Boss. In most games, a Final Boss fight is one of two things: a disappointing end or a tough challenge. Few and far between are the...
Having done early views and interviews for Rollers, it would be horrible for me not to review the final copy. First, if you’re just here for the should you get it or not then consider the following: Does the idea of a fantasy world role playing game with pinball-action based mechanics sound interesting? Then you want to play Rollers of the Realm. Firstly,...
In an attempt to break out of the platform/rpg habits I have, I decided to give Lucius a try. I love old horror films (Hammer horror, not like, 90’s slashers although I like those for different reasons) and I figured if I like ‘The Omen’ why not play the game that basically follows the story for it. What most people expected of Lucius was...
Because this is a challenge, and meant to be tough, there’s lots of times when I need to evaluate carefully beforehand what games I’m picking. If I choose an endless free to play game, chances are it doesn’t really fit the bill for content. Typically I’ll pick a shorter game (using How Long To Beat as a metric for average time to beat the...
For a while there, I had gotten lax in sticking to my resolution. Lots of games came up without endings (Warframe, I love you) and live always finds a way to pop up when you least expect it. I was ahead by weeks and I figured it would be ok to not worry about it. That’s how I got three weeks behind in October....
So far, I’ve played quite the wide array of games when it comes to genre, in this 52 week challenge. One genre I’ve purposefully avoided is RPGs due to the length of time they can sometimes take. That hasn’t stopped me from playing a few RPG or RPG inspired games. Where these were loving tributes to RPGs of old (South Park and the Stick...
Rogue-Like games are divisive and have recently enjoyed a resurgence. While traditionalists will dictate that the term ‘roguelike’ has to basically be a variation of the old game ‘Rogue’ (or ‘Nethack’ or ‘uMoria’) I like to think the genre can extend to many more games. The most recently that I’ve played is Deep Dungeons of Doom. Originally a mobile game (complete with horrid...
When I started the 52 week challenge, I knew I probably wouldn’t get to any pure rpgs. Sure, Deus Ex is an RPG/Shooter, but it’s not an epic 80+ hour RPG. While not a dye in the wool hardcore RPG, Faery reminds me of “Costume Quest”. It’s a pure RPG, but pared down to a digestible experience. While character creation and improvement isn’t...
I’m a big fan of Ghibli films. I can watch them over and over, from Spirited Away to Mononoke Hime to Howl’s Moving Castle. But one movie I can’t enjoy is Kiki’s Delivery Service and I recognize that’s because I’m not the target audience for that film. In the same way, I wasn’t the target audience for Oozi: Earth Adventure. A platformer made...
It’s been a while since I’ve beaten a game, but I still have *some* time left so rather than go weeks and weeks without a blog post, I decided to talk about one of my favourite games. Before I do, I want to point out that my personality usually has me shifting from game to game. I’m not competitive, so MOBAs and the like...
I don’t often get the chance to play mobile games too often. A combination of an aversion to free to play games which more often are filled with annoying roadblocks that can be paid to removed and a desire to keep my battery life high. That’s why, when I say that I’ve beaten all available chapters for Spider-Man Unlimited and I’m only 10 hours...
There have been many games in my challenge so far that have lineage. They often didn’t live up to that lineage, even if they were a good game. This happens when companies want to reuse these names to bring recognition to them. A good example recently is Thief. It’s a fine game, but it’s not a Thief game. On the other hand, few games...
Shmups are one of those niche markets where there isn’t much play: you have mostly your dedicated fans that love the genre and then there are a few passers by who need to climb steep skill levels to start. Generally, those people either love or hate the games, and fall in or out of the niche and that’s because there aren’t a huge number...
The Grand Theft Auto series was one of the games I loved in my childhood. Not these, 3d open world sandbox blockbusters but GTA1 and 2, were amazing top down shooters that gave you a really great arcade feel. Now, that doesn’t mean the new games aren’t a whole other level of amazing, but it gives me the warm fuzzies to think of those...
The Source engine, by Valve, was by all accounts to be the next solid generation-spanning engine that PC gamers were excited for. There were even a few non-Valve games that were going to launch on the engine, the moment Half-Life 2 came out. Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines and SiN: Emergence both were excitedly shown before Half-Life 2 was even out of the gate...
This week, I beat two games. The first was Dungeons and Dragons : Daggerdale and the second was Sacred Citadel. Daggerdale I described as being a mediocre game with a great ending. Sacred Citadel is the other way around: a really neat game with a mediocre ending. Having a deep love for old arcade games, the title “Golden Axe” isn’t unfamiliar. Three heroes,...
It’s no surprise I love Dungeons and Dragons. When I first got an XBox360, I went through demos looking for something fun to play, and came across Daggerdale. I loved most D&D games, even the worst of them, so what could I lose? Well any demo will lose me when it has horrid graphics, terrible controls and nagging ads (on a console none the...
It’s rare that I enjoy an MMO. I love the social aspect of playing with my friends, I love living worlds. I cut my teeth on FF11 way back in the day, worked my way up to Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online and finally Guild Wars 2. When I heard about the ‘Sandbox’ gameplay of Archeage (and Black...
Ticket to Ride is one of my rare guilty pleasures: a board game with a very simple premise but remains very replayable. Earlier, I had completed Small World and so I decided to do the same with Ticket To Ride. If you’re unfamiliar, Ticket To Ride plays like this: Everyone gets 3 tickets with 2 destinations on each card. These cards have points...
Following up Magic: The Gathering 2015 is another CCG this time one that isn’t on Steam! I picked up Hearthstone because I wanted to make sure that if I ever wanted to play it in the future, I had the expansion pack. It’s free for only a month, and then you have to pay for it. Accidentally, I found myself really enjoying the...
Each iteration of the “Defense of the Planeswalkers” games from Stainless Steel Interactive has been fun. Each features their own, unique gameplay features while delivering a balanced “Magic: The Gathering” experience. As a long time fan with no drive to continue spending money expanding my cardboard collection, these games have been a great way to scratch that itch. The current iteration, 2015, has...
In 1997, or so the story goes, I had gotten a Nintendo 64 for Christmas, specifically the Pod Racer bundle. I loved this game and played it pretty much until I had 100%’d the game (which isn’t something I usually do). One other gift I remember getting was Weird Al’s “Running With Scissors”. Although my parents had his album with “Jurassic Park” (Allapalooza) and...
I’m not great at games. I love playing them, but perhaps my love for single player games stems more from a recognition that I have a skill cap I just can’t seem to break. Lots of games conjure up in your mind when one says “Difficult”. There’s the old school (TMNT 1 for the NES, Contra and so on) and the new school. Games...
Recently I’ve been helping a friend play more Visual Novels, because he’s wanting to write his own game and try new game types. One of the problems with this is that he wants to avoid games with huge amounts of sexual content (as is common to the genre). After looking in the visual novel database, we found a whole bunch of such games so...
The Banner Saga (not to be confused with Candy Crush Saga, because anyone could confuse the two /s) is a beautifully animated game that hinges successfully on being several things. First, it’s an excellent Visual Novel type game. Your decisions have meaningful impact and that is really important in a game roughly 50% filled with talking. It’s also a solid tactics game, although lacking...
The last Scribblenauts game I played was the first one on the DS and it was quite the neat little game. This week, I figured I’d try something a little slower paced and threw Scribblenauts Unlimited into the queue. The game itself is pretty simple: you write words to create objects to solve puzzles. The thing I love is that there are a number...
Postal 2 was one of the first games I purchased when I bought my then new laptop (we’re talking way back in 2003 here). It was beautiful, crass and funny. Everything an almost 20-something would ask for in a game. The humor that’s non-referential (so basically everything outside “Taliban” and “ATF Siege of Waco” references) still hits the mark. The aging Unreal 1.5/2.0 engine,...
I’m sort of a fan of Visual Novels. I’ve not gotten to play many (and fewer still, I’d mention in public) but the idea of playing a game entirely driven by narrative, it’s interesting. The notable Katawa Shoujo from members of 4Chan, was a particularly excellent (and surprisingly mature) entry into the genre but because such games are usually skewed more towards the perverted,...
I’ll admit that when I chose Thomas Was Alone for my challenge, that it was more due to the fact that “How Long To Beat” said it was only going to be 3 hours (1.15 for a speed run). I wanted to catch my list up a bit, before diving into some weighter games. But, while playing, I came to love these little rectangles...
I love old school sci-fi films. Flash Gordon and other serials of the 30’s and 40’s are fantastic bits of how we viewed what the future can be and the last real vestige of that was probably “The Jetsons”. Unstoppable Gorg fits nicely into that niche, and for a huge geek like myself, it’s heaven. Old style cutscenes (filmed with real footage) and the...
In my 52 week challenge, I’ve come across some very unique games. Contrast, Grandpa’s Leftovers… these are small indie titles with a surprising emotional punch. Initially I thought that Papo & Yo was going to be a wondrous child like care free world with sharp visuals. Denoting the graffiti was painted by professionals was one of those little touches that I loved seeing in...
Marvel Heroes is a curious beast. When I play a superhero game (like Champions Online), I want to BE the hero. I want the game to feel like I’m playing a comic book. Heroes does neither of those things, you feel like you’re playing a reskinned Diablo and with a million other heroes (all copies of the same 20 or so playables) you don’t...
Contrast was one of those unique games that never overstays its welcome. It’s too short to do so, but not so short you are left wishing it never ended. A simple platformer with a wicked concept, I really found myself unable to put it down and beat in a single sitting. The ability to become a shadow and move along the other shadows around...
I’m a bit of an oddball in that I don’t watch South Park and yet I love the show. When I do happen to catch an episode here or there, I think they’re brilliant and yet I don’t think I’ve watched it on air since season 2 or 3. That’s why when I heard they were making an RPG based on it, I didn’t...
After beating Shadow Warrior, I really looked forward to beating Hard Reset. And then I did. Old school shooter with new school graphics, it certainly shows that it came from the same devs. The inability to jump while sprinting is oddly present in both games, and while the story telling is better in Shadow Warrior this game was a blast. It’s short, sweet...
I was born and raised on Comic Books at the worst possible time: the 90’s. Over masculine males posing with belts, pouches and weapons from every possible point you could attach them (even if it didn’t make sense), gritty storylines and grittier teeth and gimmicks galore. I probably have a dozen or so comics with ‘holographic’ or ‘foil’ covers with ‘collectors!’ emblazoned on...
I’ve always wanted to join one of the illustrious “Game Jams”. For those who aren’t aware, a game jam is where people have a limited time and limited resources to cobble together a game based on a theme. The Insanity Jam is designed around the theme “Use an idea from a random idea generator”, which has been interesting. I was given “An RPG where...
In the heyday of my youth, nothing was more immersive than the fast growing genre of the first person shooter. Names like John Romero, Carmack, Silverman were being thrown around as we all discussed “Wolfenstein”, “Doom”, “Quake” and “Duke Nukem 3d”. It was Duke which introduced most of us to the “Build” engine (although at the time no one realized how important an engine...
It’s been a trip, and so far that trip hasn’t been an unpleasant one. I’m starting to get a bit nervous what with the two weeks not spent beating games recently, but I’m somewhere mid April as far as the games go and have Shadow Warrior 2013 and Hard Reset (Go Flying Hog Games for getting both games at once!) about to be beat...
World of Goo is another one of those games that I purchased forever ago, and never got around to beating. Oh, I beat the first ‘world’ but I sort of ended it there. It’s a puzzle game and a very tough one at that. Nothing that will melt your skull but some puzzles will certainly take more than one attempt. The big problem with...
One may disagree with the inclusion of a multiplayer exclusive game in this listing. And that’s fine, it’s my challenge not theirs. But more importantly it’s to complete games. DOTA 2 has an enormous skill curve, but the majority of that lies within playing game after game. Experience shows in a game like this. The nice thing about DOTA 2 is that Valve...
Tiny and Big: Grandpa’s Leftovers is an indie game I grabbed in some long-forgotten Humble Bundle pack of games. I do that a lot, buy a humble bundle for a single game and end up with a slew. It’s a common problem with gamers, especially ones who love deals. The best part of that sweet deal is this game. So far, for the 52...
I like Unity3d, as an engine. It allows fast prototyping and with skill, very polished games. Because of that I’ll often browse to see what other people are using Unity3d and the games they’re making. Naval Action got me excited, because as much as I love Pirates! or Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, they’re not realistic portrayals of boats or boat combat. Still a...
Orcs Must Die was one of my favorite games last year. A spin on the Tower Defense genre, it was immediately likable with a good art design, high sense of humor, and fantastic gameplay. Orcs Must Die 2 delivers the same, spot on execution while being able to stand out as opposed to looking like a cheap clone. This part of the 52...
Viscera Cleanup Detail is a game where you are, essentially, a space janitor. The new Shadow Warrior game (which is freaking awesome) came out and as a bonus pack in, included a VCD specific to the Shadow Warrior world. So you’re cleaning up the aftermath of Lo Wang. I realize that I’m essentially trying to convince my readers that mopping, throwing away contaminants...
Two days, two games! The only difference (besides Genre, Story, Gameplay, Graphics, Sound and nation of Origin) is that this game was MUCH longer and much more fun. Clocking in around 10 hours, Paper Sorcerer was very much a love letter to RPG classics, although mixed with modern FPS elements for exploration (as opposed to ‘step based’ systems like Eye of the Beholder). Trapped...
A quickie this time (much faster than Octodad) is eXceed – Gun Bullet Children. It’s a vertical shmup, and there’s not much more to say. Standard, straight from Japan type of game. In fact, it wasn’t even in english. That’s fine, it feels like a Cave game and I’ve played many of those without knowing what the story is. Anyway, if Vertical Shmups...
The next game I had decided to try my hand at for the 52 week challenge seemed fine. A vertical SHMUP called Jamestown. I liked the art style, music and presentation until I beat level 3. There are (at least from what I can tell visually) six levels in the game. Upon reaching level 3, I was told I MUST use the next highest...
Octodad: Dadliest Catch developers stated that their game is highly inspired by those difficult to control games such as QWOP or Surgeon Simulator 2013 and it really shows. A short (2-3 hours, 5 with total completion) game, but one which encapsulates all the best qualities of a great game. Excellent story, charming graphics and a pace that draws you through the game. Certainly a...
For those old school fans of the classic platformers (essentially, anything from the 16-bit generation that rhymes with Fawnic or Fario), Sonic Generations is a pleasant surprise. Instead of just cashing in, the developers have spent their time building something worth playing and their love for the game shows. From cameos, to musical remixes and familiar levels, there is very little that...
I like board games. I like them a lot. I try to get together with my friends and play them whenever we can. Because I love board games, digital versions allow me to play them whenever my friends can’t get together. Ticket To Ride, Elder Sign, Catan, Neuroshima Hex and, of course, Small World. Small Worlds 2, released recently on Steam and other digital...
Week 7 is now complete. Small little indie racing game called Pressure. It reminds me a lot of the old NES game Micro Machines but with combat and upgrades and what not. I can’t really say much about it, beyond it has a cute method of story delivery reminiscent of the ‘mad science’ type scenes from Despicable Me (complete with...
Whew. What a month. So when I started this whole, 52 week challenge, it was the second week of January putting me already a week behind. By the months end, I had completed six games (Poker Night 2, Costume Quest, Dark Messiah, Surgeon Simulator 2013, Hydrophobia and now Blades of Time). Exhausting and exciting all at once! So this week (which I’m adjusting...
Costume Quest I’m a huge fan of Tim Schafer and all his games. What I think is really interesting is how they handle business, between the fortnight bundle, the trilogy of budget games and AAA games to rock your socks off, I can’t stop loving their games. Costume Quest (part of the trilogy along with Trenched aka Iron Brigade and Stacking) is a 6-8...
After a grueling (read: easy) first week, I set about beating another game for this week. Sadly, I was a day over, but it was all responsibility stuff so I’m counting these next two games anyway. To put this into perspective so far, I’ve beaten four games in two weeks, something that took TWO MONTHS back when I was beating games often. Dark...
Week one, because I had decided to do the 52 week challenge in the second week of January, was a light one. I managed to unlock all the items from ‘Poker Night at the Inventory 2’ and Surgeon Simulator (but just the base content, not the TF2 stuff). These games were each much easier, shorter games (the ephemeral poker game doesn’t really even...
Firstly, updates. The Steam Badge thing was fun, but there was no way to compete with the likes of other sites that provide greater functionality. I wanted to have a service that was really useful but the manual updating of it meant I was days behind on everything, and most sites also provided additional services like trading bots and what not. It makes me...
So it’s been a while. See while I love working on this blog, thinking up new ways of providing interesting or informative content, these silly Steam Badges have been getting the better of me. Taking the time to get them, trade for others and so on, well it’s very consuming. Then updating the blog with the relevant information and so on, well it can...
Steam Voice Driver Presenting Version 1.0 of the Steam Voice Driver. Features: o Works without being in focus: Load a game and it still functions in the background. o Voice Commands: Control Steam using your voice. Open friends, check downloads and more. o Game Commands: Install, uninstall or even check system requirements! o Voice Keys: System wide keys at your beck and call....
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