Knights of the Chalice

Take a good look at that screenshot, really lean in there and soak up the 90s aesthetics. Knights of the Chalice plays like a mix of Ultima 6 and Pools of Darkness, both classic games from the <brief internet investigation> very early 90s (1990 and 1991 respectively).

Ultima 6 (via Wikimedia)

Pools of Darkness (via MobyGames)

KotC is a relatively simple game on the surface, a veneer of simplicity layered over a fairly complex implementation of the DnD 3.5 ruleset. On the downside, there are only a handful of classes you can choose from and the party size is limited to 4. The array of weapons, armours, and spells (especially the spells) make up for any lack of classes though.

I imagine the visuals turn a lot of people away when they come to consider purchasing. Personally, I love way the it looks and feels, though perhaps that's me reveling in nostalgia, The pixel art, isometric viewpoint is a style I really love, so delightfully retro, harking back to Amiga games I owned in the 1990s. The UI is serviceable though clunky (I'll get back to that in a moment). None of this is a problem for me as I've never been one to worry too much about visual or UI, so long as the core game is a cracker. To answer that unstated question, let's consider the real meat and potatoes of the game - combat.

Combat is triggered whenever your party wanders close enough to a trigger-able area or a group of bad guys. Most encounters are tied to a particular area and wandering monsters are few and far between. Once triggered, the game shifts from real-time movement to turn-based. There are a heap of combat options from the ruleset and careful tactical thought must be given to the placement of heroes and the use of their abilities as these do not refresh until the party reaches a camp to rest. Having a spell-less wizard at the end of a dungeon when facing up to the big bad boss guy pretty much forces you to reload an older save. There are a few encounters I had to run through a dozen of times to get right, even with spelled up wizards and healthy fighters. Wands, wands are your friends. Craft them. (I'm not going into weapon, wand, scroll etc crafting, just know that it exists). So you move your heroes around one at a time, using up movement and actions to accomplish something - it's a tried and true system that works here as well as it works in something like Divinity: Original Sin. You'll chop, cast, run, heal, and cackle with glee as your ice storm devastates an entire room of gnolls. One nice touch is loot after battles. If the enemy carried or wore it, it drops for you to collect. Sorting through the cheap junk to choose only the best to keep (or more regularly, sell) is both fun and a bit of chore due to limited inventory sizes.

Quick note about the ruleset, it's all very well documented in-game and easily accessed per item. By this I mean it's only a single click to look up info on a weapon, how a spell works, what an effect or attribute is and how it affects your overall build. This makes a potentially complex and obtuse game very accessible (though you'll spend the first couple of hours reading a lot of info, or perhaps this was just me).

What about the parts that don't work so well? To begin, with let's hit on the mechanic that gets more knickers in a knot than a wave pool set on maximum - camps. I understand the hate, they frustrate me too, but I also get their function. You can only rest and regain spells and hitpoints when you're at a designated camp spot (a little fireplace), and they're few and far between sometimes. Thing is, camps force you to plan ahead and fight smart rather than barreling in, spells a-blazing, letting your tanks take the hits and not giving a shit. They make you think several battles ahead. In the early game they make things REALLY difficult, sure. With just four heroes and a handful of hit points between them, you're going to get pummeled on the regular. Just be liberal with your use of the save option and don't lose heart, things get (slightly) easier. I grew to admire how camps actually enhanced my gameplay rather than limited it, forcing me to re-consider that fireball in case I needed it later, and making me plan ahead with wands and scrolls rather than just the spells I might have memorised.

Back to the UI then. The interface is workable but clunky. You'll go back and forth between various screens to achieve even the simplest tasks. If I'm being honest, the UI is probably the only part of the game I'd scrap and rework. I can't think of any other part of the game that frustrated me as much as having to re-organise inventories. I know I'm doing negatives here, but the breadth of shortcut keys is a real win. The game is completely playable with just a keyboard (I think, I can't recall any part that relied on a mouse to work). For commands. each is nicely highlighted with the key letter being a different colour, and the excellent in-game help provides a nice run-down of some of the more obscure but useful keys.

Finally, quests are generic fantasy stuff. Slavers are bad, go here and fight orcs, kill a dragon, stab your way to glory through an entire army. If you're looking for a compelling story arc, look elsewhere. KotC boils down to choosing a location, going there, killing everything in satisfying ways, looting the place to hell, heading back to the castle to pawn your loot, resting, and talking shit with the wizard. If that gameplay loop sounds like fun, I happen to agree with you. If you're still not convinced, try the demo and make up your own mind.

VERDICT: An excellent turn based fantasy RPG. Light on the story and characters, but heavy on the underlying ruleset, tactical combat, and retro feels.

Final Word: An excellent turn based RPG, well worth the money. Don't let the retro looks or UI put you off.

(game link) (original website)

Original XBox - Project Resurrection

One of the great thing about having worked with computers for longer than I can remember is owning a lot of old hardware. One of the sad things is looking back, with the benefit of hindsight, and realising how many great things I sold or gave away. On the great side is everything of note I've owned since around 2001. All the consoles and handhelds and phones and various bits of technology worth keeping (including the titular Xbox, which I'll get to in a second).

On the sad side lie my Commodore 64, Amiga 500, and the first PC I ever owned. I wish I still had them but they were given away, sold or scrapped for parts long long ago. Most likely they lie at the bottom of a landfill somewhere.

On the weekend I came across my old Xbox while looking for something totally unrelated and decided to resurrect it. The idea was to back up some of my old games to the hard drive and run them from there - many many years back I had this box chipped and installed a much larger hard drive from which I ran XBMC and an Amiga emulator. Everything went well to begin with, I browsed through media I hadn't watched for over a decade, I played Hunter on the Amiga emulator. Everything was looking cool. Until just now.

After a considerable amount of planning and set up (I needed cables, a router, a laptop) I could FTP back into my Xbox again. It was quite the nostalgia trip, I hadn't done this for...I have no no idea how long. I guess I was in my 30s, if not my late 20s! I had a back-up of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance still knocking about so I started copying it and went back to my day job. About 5 minutes later, I heard it. The sound of death.

Click. Silence. Click.

Over and over.

The hard drive stepper was dying. Some frantic scrambling and I had the core files for Evolution and XMBC backed up. Phew. Next I started backing up the other content but it was laborious, I would copy a couple of hundred meg then the HDD would go back to clicking so I'd shut down and wait a few minutes then kick it off again. Eventually though...

So yeah. It died. Thing is, it all happened between starting the article a few hours ago and right now, when the red ring of death showed up. What a disappointment. On the upside I found a bunch of RAM while searching for stuff to use with this XBox project, and some of it fit my game server. At least I had some kind of win.

Where to next? I just ordered an IDE->SATA converter from Amazon which, according to the internet, works with my original Xbox. There are a few old SATA drives lying around the house, SSD and spinning, and I managed to back-up the most important files before the drive failed. I have a way forward. Project postponed until the converter arrives.

Battle of the Indie Spaceship Simulators - Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator vs Pulsar: Lost Colony

Flying somewhere important to do important things with important people! (Artemis)

Adrift, in the deepest reaches of space, there is only you, your ship, and a third rate crew who spend the game swearing at each other, running in circles, pressing all the wrong buttons and, ultimately, exploding and/or freezing in vacuum. This is Artemis. It is also Pulsar: Lost Colony (Pulsar from now on). Two games with the same core premise, but very different ways of expressing them.

Set phasers to...actually just wait a minute while I carefully adjust these sliders for 10 minutes (Pulsar)

 

In brief, both games are about flying off into space to meet the challenges of an uncaring galaxy. You'll move from place to place, operate various systems to stay alive, meet and kill various generic enemies, and try to make a difference in this big ol' universe of ours (or at the least the tiny corner the games are set in.) At this point, the two games part ways. Artemis achieves it's premise by giving each player control over a console (navigation, power, weapons etc) and therefore a role to play. Pulsar takes different approach. Each player chooses a role, but the game is played as an avatar - walking around on the ship to interact with things. Any player can control any system, along with other side duties like fire fighting or away team combat, however each system is better controlled by the relevant role. Leftover roles can be taken care of by AI bots.

Did someone order more sliding controls for careful adjustment of things? (Artemis)

Artemis takes a minimalist approach to visuals. Apart from the "main screen", which acts like a bridge viewport into the wider world, a game is played in 2D on consoles and maps. The captain gives orders and the various crew carry them out via their controls, hopefully combining to take out the bad guys, dock for repairs or zip across the map to explore. The main play loop is pretty much; going somewhere on the map, fighting something, going back to the space dock to repair and rearm. It's pretty tight and to the point, and offers a fun bridge crew simulation experience.

Haha! I adjusted my controls more carefully than you did! (Pulsar)

Pulsar in contrast is mostly played as a 3D avatar inside the ship, on an enemy ship, or on a station or planet. Controls are interacted with in the 3D world. Screens have buttons, there are levers and dials to manipulate, and other screens provide feedback and information. The main play loop is a little more complex but boils down to warping into an area and interacting with whatever is there. It might be an enemy ship, a friendly ship in need of help, a merchant prepared to trade, a planet or station to explore, or some other random situation dependent on the areas alignment. It's all very serviceable, though not particularly polished, and there is a lot of empty space everywhere. It's looser than Artemis and you can find yourself wandering around aimlessly.

Navigating the map in Artemis. No pithy remark here.

At the end of the day, both games set out to accomplish something and they do it well. I played Artemis several times with four people and we had a good time. I played Pulsar with one other person and the gameplay was generally free-form and a bit wacky - we never knew what was about to happen to us. Ultimately, regardless of their base ideals, they end up being totally different games. Artemis is the more serious simulation, while Pulsar doesn't take itself so seriously. They may both appeal to you (as I found); Artemis' focus on bridge command might be your thing, or Pulsar's more flexible and open ended paradigm of galactic exploration could float your boat.

A bizarre bazaar in Pulsar (not a slider, knob or button in sight!) 

VERDICT: Two excellent spaceship command simulators. Artemis nails the feel of being a captain or crew member in a dangerous sector, while Pulsar allows you to free-form explore a bunch of different areas and environments while also trying to juggle multiple systems on-board.


Final Word: RECOMMENDED. Wait for a sale and get both if you have enough friends interested. You can generally buy multi-game packs and gift them if you're feeling generous.

(game link - Artemis)

(game link - Pulsar: Lost Colony)

ConCentric 2019

Spring in Adelaide means several things; hay-fever, sun, swearing at last seasons shorts for suddenly becoming a size or two smaller, and ConCentric.

To describe what ConCentric is I was going to head over to the website (http://con-centric.com.au/), steal their blurb, and paste it here. Instead, in a fit of inspiration, I decided to describe what ConCentric means to me, in my own words.

ConCentric is a two day game-fest spanning a weekend in early-mid September. There are five major components of the convention: playing board games, playing RPGs, buying from the Bring and Buy table, checking out the major sponsors display (Board Game Master), and catching up with various players in the local gaming scene to remind them you exist.

The board gaming room

On the board gaming front it's a simple proposition. Roll up solo or with friends, find a game to play (from a large selection generously loaned by various attendees), elbow yourself some space at a table and give it a crack. In years gone by I've attended with three other people and we've tackled some heavy games (Scythe, Dominant Species etc) and slogged through the manual in an attempt to get a game off the ground. This year it was harder to procure a ticket and only two of us made it, perfect for digging into something lighter. After some deliberation, and arguing (I suck at picking smaller games), we emerged with a hit list. 5 Minute Dungeon was popular and probably suited our situation best. We came back to it at the end of the day, determined to knock over a second boss monster (which we did). This might be something I pick up in the future. Forbidden Desert was fun but super lightweight and we knocked it over in about 40 minutes (including reading and setup). The third game we tried was about picking mushrooms and cooking them, not my favorite setting and the game-play was only "okay". I've also forgotten what it was called. Overall, the gaming portion of our day was a complete success.

5 Minute Dungeon

This game was more difficult than it looked on the box

The RPGs had a room of their own (as befits their generally more boisterous nature) and for a third year running I didn't have time to join in. To get on-board with an RPG you pre-register (this year via Warhorn) and then roll up to your allotted game time. On the day, a group may be short on players so you can squeeze in (totally unprepared), but I wouldn't count on it. I'm planning to a get in on an RPG next year, looks like a lot of fun.

The bring and buy table was out of control. I would say partly due to the smaller venue, but mostly because every attendee had packed between one and several hundred games to offload - this included me (but unluckily no-one wanted my cast-outs which meant less buying power this year). There was a LOT of desirable stuff on offer but, due to the afore mentioned lack of funds, I only picked up two books (a Traveller book and something from Palladium). On one of the tables sat an entire box of Battletech books I would have grabbed if only I had the means.

Forbidden Desert (I'd just like to note that this is not me in any of these pics)

This years major sponsor was Board Game Master, and they came along with a great selection of games from their library. As above however, I didn't have the money to buy anything, ah well - bring on 2020.

On the socialising front I chatted with a few people I've not had the time to catch up with much in 2019. Matthew Lee (numero uno at The Campaigner Magazine, and organiser of local game testing days) was a busy man and I only caught him briefly to chat about The Campaigner Magazine (and my desire to contribute if possible). Ben Nelson, the man in charge of ConCentric, made me a coffee and found a minute or two to chat about the future of ConCentric (tickets for 2020 may be on sale much sooner than you think, and there was a hint of other surprises to be announced). Thanks for the drinkable coffee, Ben. Last but not least, it was great to catch up with with Heath again - champion of the local gaming scene, lover of all things Lone Wolf, maker (or orderer) of cool knick-knacks, and all round nice guy. Check out his Facebook page, The Antipodean D20, for much discussion on all of the above and more.

So that was a wrap for ConCentric 2019, so glad I could make it after the initial panic of missing out on a ticket. If it wasn't for a slight case of "being under the weather" on Sunday, I would have backed up this year with a second visit. Possibly next year.

The face of a winner

Humble Monthly - September 2019 - Bonus giveaway!

A quick and dirty round-up of the Humble Monthly games for September 2019.

I'm giving away Distance, Guacamelee 2 and Shady Knight. If anyone wants them, leave a comment below and I'll get you the key. Odds are I won't get to the other games for a while, so if you want them let me know.

Distance

Distance is an atmospheric racing platformer. Fusing futuristic arcade racing with parkour, survive a deadly, mysterious, neon-drenched city by jumping, rotating, and flying.

Belligerent, uninformed opinion: It's Wipeout with fancy graphics

Guacamelee! 2

Uppercut your way to victory across stunning new hand-crafted levels. Featuring a dense and colorful world, new luchador moves, sassy new bosses, twice the enemies, and 300% more chickens!

Belligerent, uninformed opinion: Punch things. Enjoy "humour". Listen to jangly music. Get bored.

MOTHERGUNSHIP

MOTHERGUNSHIP is a bullet-hell FPS where you craft your own guns, fight gigantic bosses, and defeat a robotic alien armada that conquered Earth.

Belligerent, uninformed opinion: Traverse generic levels while shooting the shit out out of things with ridiculous weapons.

State of Mind

State of Mind is a futuristic thriller game delving into transhumanism. The game explores themes of separation, disjuncture and reunification, in a world that is torn between a dystopian material reality and a utopian virtual future.

Belligerent, uninformed opinion: Most likely pretentious "high-minded" clap-trap that impresses 14 year olds with it's pop-culture take on various philosophical ideas. I'll still play it.

God's Trigger

Slay enemies with speed and precision in an over-the-top show of blood and explosions. Play solo or with others, make split-second decisions, dodge bullets, and use weapons and abilities to inflict violence in the most graphic way possible.

Belligerent, uninformed opinion: Looks interesting. Sounds tiresome. The second half of the blurb transformed into "blah blah blah" before my eyes.

Shady Knight

Shady Knight is a fun little one-hit-one-kill first person sword fighting game where you use timing and precision to battle your way through a knight filled dungeon

Belligerent, uninformed opinion: A super indie stab-a-roo that may or may not be an evolved prototype from a game jam.

Ghost Recon: Breakpoint - beta test thoughts

Ghost Recon Breakpoint is the latest upcoming game from Ubisoft and they recently conducted a closed beta test. I'm one mission away from completing Ghost Recon Wildlands, so being involved in the beta was timely and...interesting.

Without going into too much detail, Breakpoint is pretty much the same game as Wildlands. Gun and character customisation had been extended a little, but felt overall the same as before. The class system meant more of a focus on one skill tree or another, but again, overall it felt very similar to Wildlands. There was a plethora of gear, like pants, hats and gloves, to switch in and out, with a constant stream being dropped by dead enemies. Some of this gear gave you a bonus for various stats, but most simply pumped up the gear level (an arbitrary number that the game used to measure you against various enemies). The gear system felt like unnecessary busy-work, but at least it wasn't too obtrusive. To confuse things a little, the character clothing customisation was separate to the gear. You could display your ever changing hodge-podge of gear, or override that and show the character get-up you configured at the start of the game (obviously update-able).

Chillin'

On the topic of guns, an obviously important one, there were a lot of them. Unfortunately they all felt and sounded very similar (within their classes) and the bonus I got from being one class or another didn't really seem to translate into real-life results. As an assault guy I was apparently better with assault rifles and shotguns, yet there wasn't any downside to carrying an LMG and sniper rifle instead. What I did enjoy was the consumables; grenades, intel devices, rocket launchers, sync shot drones etc. I particularly enjoyed the sync shot drone, it sort of worked like sync shot in Wildlands - you selected it a target then fired on a second target and it would eliminate the first target at the same time. Handy. Even though each gun felt very similar, the shooting was fun still and worked well.

Guns, guns, guns. Also pictured, gear. Oh lord, so much gear.

Quick note: gone, thank god, is the all seeing drone from Wildlands, You'll need to do a lot of the scouting yourself and that was far more realistic.

Movement felt clunkier than Wildlands, I've never been a fan of the third person perspective but in Wildlands it only occasionally got in the way. In Breakpoint, I forever seemed to be standing in the wrong spot or facing the wrong way or struggling to get into cover due to the inertia being applied to all my moves. I felt ungainly and only partially in control, and I didn't like it.

Last two things, one good and one bad. The AI was good - mostly. It flanked (or tried to) regularly, they moved in numbers, they seemed to notice more anomalous things and investigate them, and they pursued quickly. When I messed things up it was a lot harder to reset and try again, the persistent little buggers would chase me all over, throw grenades, EMP my vehicle and fire mortars. Good stuff.

Skill selection

On the other hand, no matter what I did it looked and ran pretty averagely. I started on High visuals and found everything to be slightly jaggy and fuzzy. It ran decently, though only in the 35-45fps range (I have a mid-spec PC). I swapped this to Very High later on but barely noticed an improvement. To see what I might be missing I cranked it up to Ultra on the last day of the beta, and though the textures were a little crisper and the effects more abundant, it still looked worse and performer more poorly than Wildlands. If there was one real disappointment from the entire experience, that was it.

Stupid helo

Overall, given this was a beta, I enjoyed the experience and can forgive the bugs and general average looks and performance, hoping that these will be addressed in the final release. In terms of game play it continued the open world, play as you like, mechanic that I love, and did it well. Looking forward to finding it cheap and jumping back in.

Alien Isolation

Stay in there mate, it's far more entertaining

I remember the first hour or so of this game vividly, it looked and felt like classic Alien. From the old-school technology, to the aesthetics of the corridors, and the mood setting sound, perfect. I berated a couple of friends into watching a (choppy) stream of me playing, and they both agreed it looked and felt like the original movie. So it's a shame about how the game plays out.

Don't get me wrong. Technically it works well, and the first few hours are genuinely entertaining. When the androids came along I loved it, at first, then I was a little frustrated. My atmospheric exploration game had become a sneaky game of crouching under tables and hiding in lockers for REALLY long periods. The punishment for mucking it up was pretty much instant death, Alien Isolation is not a forgiving game.

The fixed save positions suck, I mean really suck, I'm not a man with infinite time to replay whole chunks of game just because I didn't know there was an alien up that vent. It's a cheap, dated game mechanic that belonged on the consoles of the 90s and needs to fuck right off.

So anyway, an alien up a vent dropped on me and I was insta-gibbed, losing all my progress to that point. There was little warning, apparently I needed to know about the alien goo dripping from the roof, though this was never communicated to me in-game. Great, lesson learned. Realistically, this is probably not the end of the world and I could have worked through it had it not been for the fixed save points. I hate repeating myself, but we're not all 15 year olds with infinite time and patience to replay the same part of the game over and again. I want to see new content, not the same room/corridor/underneath of a table for an hour.

So then the titular alien showed up properly and the cat v mouse gameplay it introduced was fun - for about thirty minutes. Thirty minutes was the time it took for me to be killed several times because I failed to get things just right. The alien moved in unpredictable patterns, used vents and pipes and could hear and see you from really far away. It was fast, omniscient at times, and hard to track when it got into the ceiling. If it sighted you, you died. If you moved to fast, you died. If you wanted to get on and keep enjoying the game, too bad - dead.

Let's break out into a little aside here and get a few things straight. I like sneaking mechanics, I often choose to play sneaky characters in RPGs and first person games and whatnot. I like sniping, and sneaking, and backstabbing, and hiding. I played through SOMA (so I don't mind being helpless) and it only caused some mild anger at various stages. It was fair (and excellent). I also like choice, I like to choose my approach. Another game that does this well (and fairly) is Dishonored. If I feel like sneaking, I can. If I mess it up, I have avenues to escape and try again without being killed (unless I'm trapped or incompetent). I'm not forced to hide in a cabinet for several minutes while the alien wanders around aimlessly only to have it suddenly find me in a very unwelcome game of hide and seek.

You get to do a lot of this. Enjoy.

This is what Alien Isolation became for me, and at one point I tried over and over to progress, reloading and reloading, swearing and banging my mouse (gently) on the desk. I looked up a walkthrough, yep, I was doing it right, you just had to time it perfectly. There was no clever solution, just be lucky and time it right. Even if you did time it perfectly, you still had to be lucky. I got past that part through sheer determination, but that was pretty much the end for me. The magic was gone.

Verdict: Technically great. Atmospherically excellent. Mechanically interesting. Gameplay, terrible. I don't play games to be angry and frustrated, that's why I have a job. And on a really specific point, seriously, it's not 1995 anymore, ditch the fixed save points. If anyone wants to call me a savescummer, fine, I'm over 40 years old and don't have any qualms saving as I progress, WHEN AND HOW I WANT TO. If I have to leave the game running because life intercedes, that's BAD. If I have to make up all of my progress again because I forget where I was at and died, you  fail at being a good game. Your game sucks if it leans on this outdated crutch to extend play time. Alien Isolation is a missed opportunity, though it probably appeals to lovers of games like Dark Souls.

Final Word: Get it for five bucks and play it for the first few hours, otherwise - NOT RECOMMENDED

(game link)

3030 Deathwar Redux - A Space Odyssey

3030 Deathwar Redux - A  Space Odyssey, known from here on in as Deathwar, is a game of many parts. Some of these parts are good, like the jam in a sponge cake. Some of these parts are bad, like the rest of a sponge cake. Let's run through what makes Deathwar tick (and I'll ditch the cake analogy - for now).

First up, flying around in space. Here you'll pilot a 2D ship through 2D space, beautifully rendered in 24 caret sci-fi themed pixel art. There's combat, junk busting, cargo collecting, exploring, missions, and possibly a few other things I've forgotten. It works well, runs smoothly and has a few quirks and perks along the way to keep things fresh (pilots randomly offering to help, or to sell you illicit goods).

Then there's the on-station portion of the game. When you need to stop off and stretch your legs, you dock with a space station and get around in a side scrolling, adventure style UI. Pretty much all stations look and play the same (with art changes on the bar area and different styles of background, but fundamentally it's the same makeup every time). You can go to the bar and talk to the patrons; interesting for the first few dozen times but after that you'll start ignoring all but those required to fulfill your current mission. There's also a mission computer and a market/ship/parts computer. Pretty run of the mill, you take various kinds of missions to make money and sometimes advance the story. Ships get bigger, faster, better, have more storage etc, depending on how you want to play. You can play the market and be a trader, but I found the mission route was far more lucrative and only went to the market for fuel and to sell the crap I found on salvage missions (more in a second). Very occasionally you have to fight someone with your pistol while on the station. The shooting part worked about as well as pasting head-shots of your new girlfriend over the face of your old girlfriend on the pics you have hanging over your fireplace. Actually I'm not sure that analogy works, but I spent five minutes dreaming it up so it stays. Stations play a valuable role in the theme and feel of the game, while the shooting part felt shoehorned in, slapped over the top for the hell of it. It was just one more thing they tried to jam into an already crowded game - one thing too far. I mean, now I read that statement and compare it with my girlfriend analogy, it's painfully clear how crap that analogy is. Moving on.

Salvage. When encountering a hulk you have the option of conducting a salvage run. This was pretty cool the first 10 times, zipping about in your space suit, zapping aliens, collecting cool stuff and looting the dead meat popsicles. After that magical 10th time it kind of waned in entertainment value, which is a shame. You weren't forced to salvage but it could be a lucrative income stream. I'm not sure what the developer could do anything to improve things without an overhaul; the mould was cast and each salvage mission played out like like the previous ones. Float, dodge, shoot, grab, escape. Never once did I feel particularly threatened.

Now take these parts, smoosh them into a single game, and what do you have? Is it coherent? Like the proverbial sponge cake, you have some good parts (the jam center), some okay bits you can tolerate (the cake), and some parts you sort of ignore or flick off onto your plate (cream, half priced fruit the baker added in a failed and misguided attempt to jazz things up). I loved the first ten hours of Deathwar. Zipping here and there, zapping this and that, getting into the game loop of making money, exploring a bit more, getting a new ship, upgrading that ship, taking on new missions. Repeat. The story was ok. I could ignore the dull bits and it just sort of progressed on its own time-frame. Then, once more akin to the majestic sponge cake, it all stopped being fun and became a chore. The words "rinse, repeat" spring to mind.

If Deathwar was the only game I owned, I may have persisted. I mean, it's not bad - in fact, it's quite a good game - I just don't love this sort of game enough to persist and push through. Like every gamer these days, my collection is frighteningly large and half of them remain unplayed, or with a play time still shy of the single digit hour mark. Therefore, I dropped it. Right or wrong, fair or not, I felt I'd played though all the cool content, seen what there was to see, and future content was all going to be variations on the same themes. However, I can definitely see that if you do like this sort of game, or love the art style, then that'll be enough for you to plow on and see the end credits.

With all of that said and all of the caveats and the hand wringing and the fact I dropped it after 13 hours, it is with only a tiny amount of hesitation that I recommend 3030 Deathwar. It was a game I loved, then played casually, then dropped like an old sponge cake I just found at the back of the fridge in an orange Tupperware container.

VERDICT: Layered like a sponge cake, no wait...damn it I should have used layer cake as an analogy. Anyway, like a dessert option with more than one component, Deathwar is greater than the sum of its parts and can be enjoyed as one big, messy whole. Definitely worth playing on the cheap, or worth playing anytime if you love this kind of game (Space Pirates and Zombies comes to mind as something similar).

Final Word: It's a decent game with lots of parts. RECOMMENDED

(game link)

(shit, I forgot to say the music was cool. Hey, the music is cool!)

Angels Fall First

 

What an excellent game. It's like the original Star Wars Battlefront 2, you know (if you're over 25), the one where you could fight on a ship then get in some kind of space craft, assault the opposition ships, board them, and blow them to hell. That one. The good one.

Angels Fall First allows all this PLUS you can command the capital ships, PLUS it has mechs, PLUS it has ground combat missions with lots of vehicles and classes and whatnot. Sure, it looks a little clunky at time, but it plays so well.

Unfortunately, you'll have to play with bots, because next to no-one got on the AFF-train to fun-town. Even with bots I had a lot of fun (ok, only 5 hours of fun, but it was enough of a taste to know what I was missing). If only the words of an angry old gamer could change the world...

VERDICT: An excellent online FPS with serviceable bots, awesome gameplay, and no population on the servers. A real tragedy.


Final Word: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (in my dream world where all the good games have great online populations)

(game link)

Deponia Doomsday

Is this a good point and click adventure game? Should you spend your hard earned money here? Are you wasting your answer reading this review? Short answers; I don't know, I don't know, and yes.

I haven't enjoyed a point and click since finishing Maniac Mansion on the C64 - they just don't do it for me. I think, and this is guesswork based on an hour of play, but I think Deponia is a good game if you're into adventure games.  It looked nice, it did adventure things and the interface worked well. Additional points for a seamless uninstall.

VERDICT: For me, like watching paint dry. I'd rather read a book. If I want to participate in the story, I'd pick up a Fighting Fantasy book.

Final Word: HARD PASS FOR ME. TENTATIVE RECOMMEND FOR POINT AND CLICK FANS

(game link)

Adventure Pals

A bright, bouncy platformer that's supposed to be good, and by that I mean, other reviews said it was fun, reviews by people who like platform games. I don't like platform games (I'm not 13 anymore) so I gave it 15 minutes, as a courtesy, then uninstalled. Hated it, every second.

VERDICT: I'm not the target audience. If you like jumping from platform to platform while dodging colored blobs, and the idea of having a giraffe for a sidekick gets you excited...maybe have a look.

Final Word: MAKE UP YOU OWN MIND

(game link)