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.
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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.
As a loyal “Left 4 Dead” fan, I was immediately intrigued by the premise behind “PAYDAY: The Heist” and its successor upon their release, even though I hate clowns with a passion. They offered a four player cooperative experience…though instead of fighting off zombies and wiping off boomer bile, you were robbing banks and the like. With that being said, I was a bit turned off by the rumors regarding their single player modes…enough so that I convinced myself to wait until a price drop before picking them up. With the recent Steam holiday sale slashing “PAYDAY: The Heist” by ninety percent and “PAYDAY 2” by fifty-five percent, I managed to grab both for just under fifteen bucks…not a bad haul (pardon the pun) if I may say so. It’s important to note that I started playing “PAYDAY 2” first and thus will be reviewing it first (because I can)…though time permitting, I’ll cook a review up for “PAYDAY: The Heist” as well.
I’ve been playing “Cities XL 2011” off and on for the past few years, having first acquired it through “Impulse” (which now sports the “GameStop App”). I wasn’t sure what to make of “Cities XL 2011” at first, though my first impressions of it at the time was that it bore an uncanny resemblance to “City Life” released back in 2006. Having done a little research for this article, I wasn’t surprised to learn that Monte Cristo was the publisher behind both games. At any rate, I decided to dive back into this title, namely due to the unsatisfied taste that the most recent “SimCity” left in my mouth. The question remains: “Is ‘Cities XL 2011’ better than EA’s most recent and controversial “SimCity” release?”
With Christmas being right around the corner, I admittedly don’t have the time to write a full-blown review of “Zoo Tycoon 2”. To be fair, this game was released in 2004 and chances are if you haven’t played it by now, you’re not going to. Still, I do want to give some credit where it’s due, as I’ve spent countless hours constructing and tearing down zoo parks like the Tasmanian Devil. In its day, it was indeed a fantastic game and holds up surprisingly well despite its age. It doesn’t have a widescreen option, for example, but what it lacks in functionality it makes up for in content. For the record, I own both the core game and two of the four expansions (Marina Mania and African Adventures).
“Dungeon of the Endless”, in its current state (as of 12/21/13), isn’t so endless. The game is currently in an Alpha state and available via Steam’s Early Access page, featuring a total of three levels in which to get your feet wet. Crossing a tower defense and a dungeon exploration game, I must admit, is a pretty neat idea. You’ll start with two heroes and your crystal, which you must protect at all costs. While you can move your heroes from room to room, time actually doesn’t progress until you explore a brand new room. In effect, you have both a real-time strategy and turn based mechanic working at the same time.
So, I finally buckled down and purchased “Starbound”, a game more like “Terraria” than I originally thought. My son even mistook the game for “Terraria” as he was walking by and didn’t believe me when I told him that no, I wasn’t playing “Terraria”. While “Starbound” looks and feels like “Terraria”, there’s a bit of “Darkout” in there too in the form of an in-game crafting menu. To sum up “Starbound”, you’ll find yourself on a ship without fuel and must beam down to an alien planet to find more. Like “Terraria”, you’ll discover trees, ore, aliens, and other things on a two-dimensional plane. Unlike “Terraria”, you’ll be able to travel to different worlds and decorate your starship & your home planet to your liking, and more.