I’ve played a TON of tycoon-esque games in my day. “Roller Coaster Tycoon”, “Hotel Giant”, “High School Tycoon”, “Prison Architect”, “Prison Tycoon”, “Hot Dog King”…the list goes on. Never before have I managed my very own mail distribution business, however. “Post Master”, the latest of simulators published by Excalibur Publishing LTD, promises exactly that and is due to hit virtual shelves on March 7, 2014. While this review predates the launch date by a few weeks, I’m told that my press copy is representative of the final version. To that end, I’d like to thank Richard Barclay from Excalibur Publishing LTD for providing me with an early review copy.
Video Games
What was your first NES game? “Super Mario Bros. & Duck Hunt”? “Excitebike”? “Gyromite”? Would you believe that mine was “Double-friggin-Dragon”? No, seriously, it was. I woke up one Easter morning and found an NES all hooked up and sitting on my desk. I guess my parents saw me play the arcade game one too many times at the roller skating rink. Looking back now, I have to question my taste in games as I found “Double Dragon” to be both awesome and addicting. In retrospect, it was frustratingly unfair. You couldn’t even perform certain moves (jump kicks, hair pulls, uppercuts, etc.) until you earned enough hearts (the game’s version of XP). I eventually beat the game, presumably because my NES controller was tired of being spiked into the ground.
Steam Early Access games seem to be the theme on my website as of late, but I’m not going to complain. “Pixel Piracy” is the latest acquisition, thanks to game developer Vitali Kirpu (“Solidust” on Desura). It plays a bit like “FTL” and is defined as a “side-scrolling 2D, pirate roguelike-like game”. You’ll be trying to improve your ship all the while dealing with events as they present themselves. The game is still in development so I won’t comment on this too much, but I will share my first impressions and gameplay videos via the below to give you a taste of what you’d be in for should you buy into it.
After finding this game on sale through Steam for four bucks, the decision to pick it up (along with two free gift copies) was a no-brainer. It’s a bit like “Clue” in that the mysterious Mr. X has invited a bunch of people to embark on a cruise…but things get ugly when you learn that cash is rewarded to people who manage to murder their targets. Guards and cameras exist to keep people from going homicidal, as well as a full-fledged jail for anyone caught breaking the rules. On top of being sneaky, you’ll have needs to meet like in “The Sims”…thirst, social, that kind of thing.
I’m doing my best to resist the urge, I swear. Every fiber in my being wants me to bellow “who you gonna call” even though this isn’t officially a “Ghostbusters” game. While the latest “Ghostbusters” video game satisfied my ghostbusting itch, I have to admit that I missed the ability to actually run my very own ghostbusting business. That leads me to “GhostControl Inc.”, a game that admittedly looks and feels like the pop culture icons we all know and love. I’ve thought long and hard about how to describe this game, but the best I could do is to say that it is a cross between “Ghostbusters” for the Atari 2600 and “XCOM: Enemy Unknown”. The former may not be recognizable to the lot of you, but the idea that both “Ghostbusters” and “GhostControl Inc.” conveys is generally the same. Before I go any further, I’d like to thank the folks at Application Systems Heidelberg for providing me with a free press copy.
No, your eyes are not deceiving you. No, I didn’t accidentally fall asleep at my keyboard resulting in a random spew of letters. “rymdkapsel” is actually the name of the game, which is Swedish for “space capsule”. The name honestly doesn’t do this game justice for as soon as I booted it up, I found that I had actually hours trying to master it. Either I was the victim of some type of time paradox or I had simply lost track of time…needless to say my first impressions were great. Before we head off into the review, I want to quickly thank Martin Jonasson from Grapefrukt Games for providing me with a free press copy.
Words cannot explain how both fun and frustrating this game is. I’ve only played for a few hours thus far and holy hell, what a learning curve. It doesn’t help that the manual is eighty pages long, nor does the fact that some of the tutorials are in German. I pretty much just winged it and hoped for the best. Did I succeed? You be the judge.
Cats can be a$$hats, there’s no question about it. I own two, for the record. The constant throwing up, the mysterious pile of rubble I’d find on the floor when I come home…I honestly believe that they do it because they find it funny to see me blow a gasket. Being an animal lover myself, I can forgive such behavior (almost)…though finding this game on Steam’s Greenlight page certainly helped me to understand why my cats are such &*%$heads. Apparently, it’s fun to trash stuff that isn’t yours. “Catlateral Damage” puts players in the role of the cat and tasks you with creating as much havoc as possible in order to score points…you have to see it to believe it.
“Next Car Game” is honestly one of the most fun wreck-em-up games I’ve played in a while. The physics are amazingly realistic, even for an Alpha. For those of you who have never heard of this particular gem, “Next Car Game” is a demolition derby themed racing game that features both racing tracks and derby arenas. At present, the game includes just one arena, two racing tracks, and two cars, but I’m finding it a blast to play. Multiplayer is unfortunately absent, but there are plans to introduce it down the line.
Show of hands…how many of you used to build castles as a kid using Legos or the equivalent? Okay, how many of you used to pretend that your little Lego men would have to defend said castle from G.I. Joe, The Ghostbusters, or whatever action figures you happened to have out at the time? If you did in fact raise your hand, then you may enjoy “Castle Story”. In a nutshell, it’s a voxel-based strategy game that tasks you with building a castle for your army of bricktrons.
Two player stealth games are very appealing in my book. They not only offer a bit of strategic depth, but feature a hide-and-seek element that gets the adrenaline pumping. “No Photos, Please!” is one such item, putting two players in the role of either a security guard or photographer who have their own agendas. The photographer must take pictures of his targets (exhibits in a museum) before the security guard can apprehend him. With the museum bustling with activity, the security guard will have his hands full just finding the photographer in the first place. Special thanks to Andreas Grech from The Basement Studios for providing me with a press copy of the Alpha build.
What happens when you take elements from games like “Dungeon Keeper”, “Terraria”, and “Dwarf Fortress” and roll them into one neat little package? Why, “Craft The World”, of course! I discovered this game on Steam’s Early Access today and after reading the description, I knew I’d have to give it a whirl. Thanks to Denis Shishkin from Dekovir Entertainment, I was able to do exactly that. It’s an interesting mix of different genres, but I found it to be the most reminiscent of “A Game of Dwarves”, even though “Craft The World” has a “Terraria” look and feel about it. There’s crafting, exploring, minion (Dwarf) management, tower defense…for $14.99 (as of 1/10/14), there’s a lot to love, even with the game still being in an Alpha state.
When I saw this game hit Steam’s Early Access page today (January 10th, 2014), I knew that I had to reach out to the developer and inquire about a press copy (a big thank you to Jani Kahrama from Secret Exit Ltd. for accommodating). I am a big fan of games that feature realistic physics and so far, “Turbo Dismount” isn’t disappointing. Just to give you a bit of perspective, “Turbo Dismount” was inspired by “Stair Dismount”, a personal impact simulator, released back in 2002. In “Turbo Dismount”, you’ll be doing your darndest to cause bodily harm to Mr. Dismount in order to maximize the number of points you receive. To add insult to injury, you can crop photos of your friends’ faces onto Mr. Dismount…there’s no better “thinking of you” card out on the market. For obvious reasons, this game assumes that you have a sense of humor…if you don’t, you may not want to read any further.
I made a vow that I’d never play this game. I don’t even like most candy, especially now that I’m watching my weight. Yet, mostly everyone I know on Facebook is playing that blasted game as if their life depended on it. What is the appeal? It’s just a match-three game like “Bejeweled”, and there’s absolutely no shortage of match-three games on the market. If you were to look up “overkill” or “redundant” in the dictionary, you should find the words, “see match-three” right after the definition. As a games journalist, I had to know why this game was all the rave…it’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it. *Grumble* *Expletive* “Candy Crush Saga” *Incomprehensible Muttering*
I’m dead. This honestly doesn’t surprise me anymore, as I’ve done so at least ten times within the past hour. To be fair, “Spelunky” is a fairly challenging platformer, one that I’ve discovered takes time to learn and play. As such, I’m reserving my right to review the game at a later date…namely so that I can spend some time getting better at it first. If you’re curious (or simply morbid enough) to watch me fail spectacularly as I learn the ropes, you can do by watching the gameplay videos below. Enjoy!
You wouldn’t think it, but flying is actually pretty complicated. I found that out the hard way after crashing twice during the same takeoff. It was clear to me that after the first ten minutes, a review would be a long ways off…namely due to the fact that the learning curve is a bit on the steep side. You have no need to fear though, for I have opted to share my experiences for entertainment purposes…namely because most people enjoy watching me rage while playing a game. You’re welcome.