Thursday, March 27, 2014

Couch Gaming Night!

Last night I finally got three friends over for some local multiplayer fun. The idea was just to play some games, battle for highscores and play a competitive game of some type - especially something that we all learn together so that no one person is too good.

First up was Luftrausers, which wasn't really on my list of games to play that night but since we were waiting for player 4 to show up I popped it on to show the boys. It is my newest game after all. Soon we were all into it, trying different builds and vying for a highscore. Soon my previous highscore was beat and we finally got to see the feared (with good reason) blimp. I did finally get my highscore back before we switched to...

Zombie Estate II! I think that this game was a at first a hard sell but since two of us has played the first Zombie Estate and really loved it the others just had to trust us. They were glad they did: bots, turrets, bubble guns, laser shotguns, swords, this co-op defender is the best thing on Xbox Live for a buck! I am sure we will play it again because of all the upgrades in game (and now 4 levels!). We first put the game on HARD and got totally destroyed, it was much more difficult than the first game. Then we went back and played it on casual with hats this time and made it much further. After battling our way deep into the game, there were a few yawns (not because of the game, but because we are all adults that lead busy tiring lives....) but we still had to play....


Samurai Gunn! We had only a few rounds of 4-player before the other two players yielded and retreated home but they were hilarious. Afterwards myself and player 2 dove into the survival mode and found it quite the challenge and then we went back to versus mode for some 1 v. 1 showdown action. To wind down we checked out Hammerwatch quickly at the end, I think that might be something we will have to take on another night.

A night like this with some food and beers and friends crammed in front of a TV brings back all the feelings of how things were before online gaming the yelling and trash talk and the energy right in front of the television instead of over a headset or a leaderboard. I can't wait to do it again (I've aleady got the next line-up planned).


Monday, March 24, 2014

Gentlemen! (Ouya) & Folders (Browser)


Gentlemen! provided a much needed distraction during my work-at-home lunchbreak today. I've started organizing some couch-multiplayer tournaments and this one is definitely going on the list. I am glad I didn't pick it up on the iPad when I first heard about it because it first perfectly to the Ouya and couch-gaming. It's by Lucky Frame who you might have heard of from Bad Hotel or Wave Trip on iOS. Anyways, I'm not going to write more about Gentlemen just yet - but this quote from edge.com sums it up nicely :

"The result skilfully combines the arcade immediacy of Super Crate Box with the weaponised chaos of Super Smash Bros, and VVVVVV’s instant gravity-switching..." 



Folders, a simple and challenging browser game was also a good easy distraction all day and you should play it right now here.


Sunday, March 23, 2014

Luftrausers (PC)


I wasn't alone eagerly awaiting Vlambeer's Luftrausers. Published by Devolver Digitial, the game apparently didn't take long at all to turn a profit (3 days according to Polygon) and people have been storming the initial flash build just to get their Rauser-fill.

Now that its been released I jumped on the chance to get in early. I've played over 5 hours, I'm level 8, launched 127 missions and only have 11155 points to show for it. I'm finding it pretty challenging. I'm not disappointed but I was hoping for more in the way of story (in the same vein as Ridiculous Fishing) - although it's pretty full with unlockables and plane parts to customize the plane and make different combos.




Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Bullet Soul Hacker (Freeware) & Limbs Repair Station (Browser)

Another night, another two games from the Cyberpunk Jam. This time 'Bullet Soul Hacker' and  'Limbs Repair Station' - the latter a game, at least in gameplay, that resembles 'Papers, Please' though it seems (unfortunately) to lack any politics or story. But we are talking about Jam games here, so we shouldn't be too picky, and it's pretty darn good actually and nails the cyberpunk theme.




Being a big fan of Papers, Please - I played Limbs Repair Station for a while. I could imagine this being fleshed out and being more of a game. Although I dont know what Lucas Pope would have to say about the whole thing.


And then there was Bullet Soul Hacker....




Starts out as a real good looking game - cyberpunk (check) moody film noir overtones (check) .... scanlines (check) narrator musing about other peoples memories and other peoples bodies etc....good stuff.


Still looks really good.... 


But the colour scheme totally changes, and there are all these bars and numbers, and you don't have time to really understand whats going on....


And as you shoot people you take over their bodies, which I am guessing is a good thing - it gives you their weapons and then you look for the next one to shoot....but honestly I didn't play that much. Firstly because I found the colours and design after the beginning just unappealing (sorry) and secondly because when you lose there is a really long cutscene that comes before you can start again. Too bad. I doubt that I will go back to this one, but I really liked the idea.

Oquonie (iOS)

What a great looking puzzler game - so strange and wonderful - now if I only knew what the heck I was doing...





There are no menus and no words at all so far, no explanation what my goal is it what my controls are - its a completely alien experience but somehow exactly that is what makes it work. I'm going to see how long I last in this otherworldly wonderland...




Tuesday, March 18, 2014

The Tallest Building & Renegade (Browser)





I decided to play a couple of the entries for the Cyberpunk GameJam which with almost 300 games is turning out some real gems. The Tallest Building is a challenging little shooter that puts you on a rising platform as you battle off beamed in baddies in waves... 

I really like the aesthetic and the colour scheme and the overall simplicity in the design - I just wish I was better at it!



Renegade is another good looking game. I was hoping that it played more like Savant Ascent but for a Jam entry its definitely great. It's more about planning and executing your moves perfectly. The signs and colours channel Blade Runner and the little bots reminded me of Batman: Digital Justice. The light bending was a nice touch too...very good looking game.

I love GameJam games, especially to unwind after the kids are in bed - each time you choose a new game you don't know how good its going to be but before long you find something worthy of your time. More often you find little games with something new and exciting...





Wednesday, March 5, 2014

The Walking Dead Season 2 (PC)





















I wanted to restrain myself a little longer from buying Telltale's sequel to The Walking Dead for different reasons. One was that I wasn't too happy about how quickly the first Season came on sale, and some people got it at a steal in comparison to what I paid. Another was that I needed time to recover from what was for me, as a father of two, a very hard-hitting story and I could use the break.

Instead I opted for The Wolf Among Us - which is also great and not nearly so heavy (yet).

But after reading tons of great blurb about the 2nd episode of Season 2 (and then it came slightly on sale on Steam) I couldn't resist and I am glad I didn't: few games are this brutal and jarring. It's like someone punched your heart in the stomach.

Seeing Clementine again was already difficult for me there are so many memories tied to her - and then straight away without giving the player much time to even get over the very basic "tutorial" bit, Telltale comes out and makes it very clear that they aren't going to shy away from anything.... and I mean ANYTHING. If the first 20 minutes are a foreshadowing of what's to come, I might once again need another year to recover from this season....