Sunday, December 21, 2014

Carcassonne (iOS)


I love that you just KNOW there's going to be an expansions released for Carcassonne around Christmas. This is an evergreen for us and a new expansion is great to keep us coming back. It took me a while to buy it because at the time it was the most expensive app I had (that's changed now...) but it was totally worth it and I wish I had bought it sooner! It lead to me getting my wife and our neighbors switching to ios so we could all play; now that's a successful app conversion! 

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Torchlight II (PC)


Dropped in for a little Torchlight II tonight with the boys. It's always starts a little rough - figuring out all the shortcut keys and strategies that I was using, plus sorting though all the inventory crap - not remembering what equipment I was building towards.


Connection problems always seem to be a problem but once we figured out which mission we were going to complete things were a little better. I am always impressed by the diversity of the art work in Torchlight - good stuff always.


Wasn't a great session or anything but it's always a good vehicle to catch up with the boys, maybe if we do it more often they'll get better - until then, I'm back on Neuroshima Hex and Heavy Metal Thunder and there's always Geometry Wars 3....

Friday, November 28, 2014

Geometry Wars 3 (PC)



In my opinion "Geometry Wars 2: Retro Evolved" is (was?) the best arcade shooter in the last 10 years. After the closing of the studio responsible for the challenging and balanced Xbox Live Arcade game, I gave up all hopes of ever having a PC port or a sequel. 


Now "Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions" is out, under the resurrected Sierra label and made by some of the people of the original Bizarre Creations team and even using some of the original code from Retro Evolved.

So far, I can't find anything to complain about....let me repeat that because I don't say this often : I can't find anything to complain about!


It borrows a lot of ideas and mechanics that have been used in arcade shooters since Retro Evolved - games that were trying to fill the void: Radiangames' Ballistic and Inferno (upgrading abilities, special fire modes and drones).




The biggest influence must have been Vertex Blaster (iOS), a cool Retro Evolved-homage that used the idea of playing on a sphere instead of a 2D plane.



I'm loving the new modes and boss fights and challenges that playing on a 3D shape bring and fighting over highscores and leaderboard standings in the Classic mode which is almost all of Retro Evolved rebuilt and rereleased. This game is bound to become a benchmark classic.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Transistor (PC)


I feel like I haven't been able to play "real" games lately, but that's not really true. I have played Rogue Legacy and OlliOlli and I finished up with Secrets of Raetikon. I just haven't really had something to sink my teeth into and I have been playing too much Spider-Man Ultimate on my iphone and the odd game of MTG 2015 takes up time too.


Transistor is something that I have had on my radar for a while, being from the guys that gave us Bastion (Supergiant Games) although I never understood or informed myself what it actually was. It turns out it's a mix of a turn-based and a hack-and-slash. You can activate the turn-based fighting style, which definitely gives you an edge but it far more fluent than in other games and you can always just play a more straight forward action style if you want to.


As you level up each new ability you acquire can be used as either a main role, an assisting role, or in a passive role, this allows the player to customize their play style and their "spells" in a pretty neat way. As you unlock more "slots" of passive and assisting roles you really begin to feel the power of the customization. To me, this way of using spells and skills has been more interesting than Diablo 3.


When you level up you are given different choices for a new abilities furthering the customization of gameplay and strategy. No need for classes or races here, you can make a very different character just based on your personal play style. 


The game, like Bastion, is gorgeous. Everything is glowing and detailed and looks like a painting. There are so many different types of architecture mashed up into what becomes a very original style or the world of Transistor and it couldn't be more fitting. The music is great too; eclectic and haunting and again perfect seeing as the protagonist is a musician herself.


Later you find "Process Limiters" with which you can adjust the difficulty of the game by giving baddies an advantage the payoff being a bonus to your XP: a pretty good trade off.


Once again, did I mention that this game is beautiful? I spend so much time taking screenshots and messing around with the environment - I just love it.

Transistor has my vote. Definitely recommended. 

Check out the trailer below - and watch for the environment designs and characters....HOW IS THIS NOT AN ANIME?!




Tuesday, October 21, 2014

AltecApollyon : This Week's Gaming

I've actually been able to slow things down lately. Mostly because of  a very busy month so far : baseball playoffs and the NHL season starting, concerts and thanksgiving, a mini-construction side at home, trying to use the last warm days of autumn wisely with my children. I've had to focus on a select few games. My 'Zombieweek' that went much longer than that has ended, in spirit too, and I think I have had just about enough of Dead Island.

First up this week (and probably this list goes for last week as well) : Magic 2015 on the iPad. I've said this before - they've made some good changes over the 2014 version, its a good challenge, has good unlocks and can be played a round at a time and then the iPad can just be turned off. Easy.


Ecipse : New Dawn for the Galaxy, is something I have been trying out lately. I found the tutorial long and detailed (in a good way) but then when I started playing I felt like perhaps I hadn't learned anything at all. I've been playing (and losing) off and on - today I came within 1 point of winning. Crap.


My son is Spider-Man crazy right now (he's two and a half) and he's also a real screen fanatic - so he was watching over my shoulder one evening while I was scrolling though the appstore and he saw this free to play Spider-Man game - I thought I would just get it to play for him as a reward or distraction now and again - I didn't see myself getting addicted. At the moment I am playing this daily...everywhere.


Rogue Legacy has been something that has been sitting in my Steam account for a long time - waiting for me to just finally play it. I feel really bad about how long I left it collecting virtual dust. I booted it up this week and found it to be clunky and difficult - it had me wishing I had just started up Guacamelee again or Mark of the Ninja. I stuck with it, again because my children were watching and they got a kick out of it and now I am beginning to like it - I have unlocked more abilities and upgraded my equipment and skills so I can go spelunkying (oops, wrong game) loot-gathering all the longer. I still think it's clunky and kinda strange at some parts and I hope they are working on Rogue Legacy II.


Another thing that happen this week is that I actually was able to ignore Devolver Digital's humble store sale - I had almost all the games I wanted anyways, except for OlliOlli - but I was strong and told myself I have enough games lying in wait that I don't need to add to the pile with another. On a similar note I bought #SuperHyper for iOS from Sets and Settings - haven't played much but the little I did allowed me to notice how difficult it really is....




Monday, October 13, 2014

Youtube Reviews of Destiny




You might think that I have a preoccupation with Destiny - and I am beginning to think so myself - for a guy that doesn't have the game I have really spent a lot of time reading and watching stuff on the game. Maybe it's because I feel the same burn that I felt due to the hype of other games I got bured on ie. Goldeneye Rogue Agent....Diablo 3....

I also just really wanted to believe in Bungie...

Well, here are some Youtubers that have the game and have some entertaining and informative reviews.



Now please excuse me I'm going to continue watching True Detective.


Thursday, October 2, 2014

Lesbian Spider Queens of Mars (Browser)


I'm at a point now that I will play pretty much anything that Adult Swim Games finds and puts in front of me.  I loved all of Volgarr, Jazzpunk, Castle Doombad, Super Monsters Ate My Condo, Giant Boulder of Death (although minus the IAP on that last one). When a title like "Lesbian Spider Queens of Mars" pops-up on your twitter feed its hard not to take notice.


The game itself is a little take on a PAC MAN idea : run around a maze and avoid / eat your enemies. The added trick here is the constant shooting line of "webbing" that will render your slaves immobile and allows you to pull them slowly towards you....to their deaths!


The game isn't great but it's worth playing to see the funny expressions on your slaves faces when you wrap them up and pull them in for the kill.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Warlocks (PC / Kickstarter)


'Warlocks' is still being funded on Kickstarter as we speak - made by a small enthusiastic team in Poland it looks like it could be a good dungeon platformer - at least it's going to look great.

Check out their kickstarter page for some great artwork and the pitch video.

You can play a demo here by means of a Unity plugin.

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Jazzpunk (PC) - Screenshots (Spoilers)

I put the "spoilers" warning up there because I think that seeing Jazzpunk's madness is half the fun, but I also had to share them because I think most of the gamers I know wont play this game...

I finished Jazzpunk; not an amazing feat, it is quite short. If you have been following these posts you will know that I prefer shorter games at the moment. It's a comedy trippy adventure game; like crashing your car, while listening to acid jazz, after taking LSD, eating bad sushi and reading a crime novel... to be clear : Jazzpunk is insane and it's great. Jazz is freestyle, punk is not caring...Jazzpunk is plain bonkers.

It's also got a filled with meta games and references to other games, movies, tv and music. It makes The Stanley Parable look tame and logical and don't forget Jazzpunk has Teledildonics by Sandra Bullock.

Once again Adult Swim has found something and now has some really good games in their catalog - they are definitely a proper and solid indie games developer in my opinion and I have enjoyed a bunch of their releases.*

I don't know how to review Jazzpunk - nor would I want to. Read this instead.

Or just let your eyeballs enjoy this madhouse :
























I will also just tag these trailers on here for your enjoyment :