Sorry for not posting in a while readers but I’ve been sick with pneumonia. I’ve had little energy and haven’t really felt well enough to do much of anything. However, I’m on some heavy duty antibiotics, so hopefully I’ll have the energy and desire to get back to gaming and posting again soon.
Hope everyone else is well during this flu and cold season. Happy Thanksgiving (Canada & the US). And Happy gaming to everyone.
Hope to be back soon.
Humble Indie Bundle buyers rejoice! Yet another Humble Bundle is live. This time the bundle includes one game: Frozen Synapse. For those that haven’t heard of or seen Frozen Synapse yet, it’s a simultaneous turn-based strategy game with a single player campaign and a large online multiplayer component. The online portion has no shortage of players either, which is always important, especially for an indie game with online play. Normally Frozen Synapse sells for $24.99 by itself, but buying it through The Humble Bundle offer you can pay what you want! Best of all, you get a second key for the game which you can give to a friend or a family member. That’s 2 copies of the game for whatever price you wish! Keep reading to learn about the big bonus with this bundle.
However, if you beat the average price (which is currently just under $5.00 US) you’ll also receive The Humble FrozenByte Bundle, which includes Trine, Shadowgrounds, Shadowgrounds: Survivor, Splot (Pre-Order Bonus), and Jack Claw (A Prototype game bonus). That’s a lot of gaming goodness for a low, low price.
Remember that you money can be dispersed in any way you like between developers and charity. It’s for a good cause so be kind and give what you can.
You can check out this latest Bundle by heading on over to The Humble Frozen Synapse Bundle site.
developed by Octane Games & Meridian4
Here’s a tasty little recipe for a cool action / shooter game.
- First – get out your blender.
- Add some Robotron, Smash TV, Vigilante 8, and Twisted Metal
- Now add a dash of Defender
- Next pour in the post apocalyptic setting of Mad Max
- Finally – mix thoroughly
And Voila! You have yourself Wasteland Angel, a top-down arena based shooter with fast and fun arcade style gameplay. Developed by Octane Games and Meridian 4, Wasteland Angel feels like the kind of game that has been developed by Action / Arcade game players and fans of the genre. That’s a good thing because Wasteland Angel will will mostly appeal to fans of the action / arcade genre specifically for it’s frantic gameplay, destructive weaponry, boss battles, and entertaining bonus levels.
The story and setting in Wasteland Angel is entertaining and enjoyable. There are a lot of comic book style vignettes that progress the plot between stages with fully voiced dialogue and narration. You play a spunky heroine named “Angel” who journeys across the wastelands in a fully loaded, totally modified, and heavily armored muscle car. Her life is comprised of surviving and driving. Along the way she helps those in need and protects those who aren’t able to protect themselves.
Having a story for this type of action game isn’t really necessary, but it’s a welcome addition because the story is fun and it seems like the developers put that extra bit of effort into the story so the players would enjoy themselves in-between playing the game and watching the cutscenes unfold. If nothing else, these cutscenes give a break to the player every few stages since some levels can become pretty intense, especially during the latter half of the game.
The gameplay is actually quite simple. Drive your car around the various levels defending yourself while picking off wastelanders and raiders while protecting innocent townfolk who are simply trying to survive the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. On paper the story sounds much more serious than it actually is because the gameplay is actually quite simple. Wasteland Angel at it’s heart is a fun action game with arcade style gameplay and point scoring.
The objective of the game sounds simple: Defend towns from the wastelanders which are comprised of gangers, renegades, and mutants. Every stage is made up of waves of enemies, much like a tower defense game, where you must defend yourself and the different towns from the relentless enemies. Each new level becomes more and more challenging. These enemies approach in waves and every stage is comprised of several waves of enemies who want nothing more than to destroy you and to capture and enslave the innocent townsfolk. There are tough boss battles and interesting bonus stages as well. For these reasons the gameplay feels very much like a classic arcade experience at times.
Much like any good arcade style action game, Wasteland Angel is very easy to get into but tough to master. I’d say that I did a pretty good job of defending townsfolk and blasting wastelanders, but I still need practice if I want to get my name higher on the scoreboards. There are a lot of levels to play through and quite a bit of replay value if you enjoy competing for a high score and climbing your way to the top of the leaderboards. Either way, the fast paced destruction will keep action game fans occupied for quite a few hours if not a few days.
The controls for Wasteland Angel are intuitive and easy to come to grips with. Driving, shooting, and utilizing the various secondary weapons are as simple as pressing a few buttons on your keyboard or gamepad. The simple controls make playing through the game a smooth and entertaining affair. This makes it easy to enjoy Wasteland Angel as an arcade game as well. The real challenges in gameplay revolve around defending townsfolk while quickly destroying the onslaught of enemies and protecting yourself. You’ll do a lot of multitasking if you want to save every last civilian while racking up a high score. Speaking of scoring, you’ll need to destroy enemy vehicles in rapid succession and pick up the bonuses they drop if you want to rack up higher point multipliers or upgrade your weapons and loadout.
Graphically, Wasteland Angel looks like your average top down isometric action game, but when you start blowing up enemies with your guns and secondary weapons that’s when the game starts looking great. The in-game graphics aren’t cutting edge but they’re well animated and sharp enough to distinguish what’s what when blowing up bad guys and rescuing the good guys. The bonus levels are interesting because it does change up the gameplay a little by switching to a first-person perspective. I think it might have been nice to be able to switch to a first person view during the regular levels as well, but having it in bonus levels is a fun addition nonetheless. The cutscenes and art design are great and they do add to the experience, especially if you appreciate the story that goes along with them.
The music and sound fx are forgettable but they get the job done. The memorable feature in audio design here is the fully voiced dialogue. Voice-overs accompany each cutscene but there is also dialogue that will open up during the middle of a level between Angel and the townsfolk she’s protecting. This really adds to the gameplay and it increases the intensity while trying to protect each town and the folks that live in them.
Conclusion:
Wasteland Angel is a must buy for any action game fan. It’s a fast and fun action game that provides an arcade-like experience. There are a ton of weapons and weapon upgrades, simple objectives, and challenging levels, especially during the later stages of the game. Thankfully there are multiple difficulty levels to choose from including Easy all the way up to the brutal Nightmare mode. The gameplay is very smooth and the story might seem like filler at first but it actually creates and adds to the atmosphere while increasing that sense of urgency when defending a town and it’s people. If you enjoy your games with lots of action, explosions, and mayhem, then you’ll definitely enjoy Wasteland Angel.
Wasteland Angel can be purchased through any of these popular portals: Steam, GamersGate, Direct2Drive, and Impulse
Here’s an interesting game that was recently released. The multiplayer version of Mebas, a browser based social multiplayer real-time strategy game (try saying that five times fast), is live and up and running.
Though it’s a Real-Time strategy, the experience is a much more casual one, allowing gamers of any skill level to enjoy the gameplay. I haven’t had very much time to experiment with the game yet but from what I’ve played so far I can definitely say that it’s different. It reminds me a little bit of another indie game called Osmos, though the gameplay mechanics are much different. I’m mostly reminded of the atmosphere of it.
For a real-time strategy the gameplay is much more relaxed and casual than it’s contemporaries. It’s quite unique actually.
More info from the website:
How do i play?
You gain experience levels by reaching larger population of mebas.
You increase your population by a combination of 3 things:
- Design mebas with mutations that extend their life expectancy. Like make them live longer
- Between each level there is a period of time you have to wait, to increase the population limit required for the next level
- Produce enough food! Mebas can only divide if they eat enough.
You can’t jump into Mebas expecting your typical strategy game, but the great thing about Mebas is that anyone can learn it and play it. To play Mebas or for more information about the game head over to the games website.
developed by Final Form Games for PC
I’ve played many, many, many shmups or “shoot’em ups” in my time. Yes, they were a dime-a-dozen in the old days when arcade cabinets were still profitable and popular. And yes, the genre has probably spawned more clones than any other genre (perhaps more than the casual Match 3 puzzle games genre). There’s a reason why people keep coming back to shmups though. They’re easy to learn, tough to master, fast paced, fun in short bursts, and challenging if you’re the type of gamer who strives for the top of the scoreboard. For these reasons these types of games have always had a lasting appeal among gamers, otherwise developers wouldn’t keep making them.
Enter Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony, a shmup that takes place on… wait for it… 17th Century British Colonial Mars! If that setting isn’t trippy enough for a shmup fan then I don’t know what else could possibly please a sci-fi shmup fan. Is it weird for a shmup to take place in this sort of setting? Hell yeah! But it’s also a tremendous amount of fun. Developed by Final Form Games, Jamestown is by far one of the best, if not THE BEST, 90′s-style neo-retro vertical shmup I’ve played to date! Everything from controls, to gameplay mechanics, to graphics and sound work amazingly well together. It reminds me of those classic arcade style shmups made by Taito, Psikyo, Cave, Raizing/8ing, and Visco Games, to name a few. If you even recognize any of those names of the mid 90′s from your favorite vertical shmup arcade cabinet then you can stop reading this now and go buy Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony, you won’t regret it!
First off, the game is 1 – 4 players (local co-op only). It’s a blast to play through the levels with a few friends or on your own. The multiplayer can get a little hectic but it never gets old. Thankfully the controls are tight. Your ship moves with precision and accuracy. Weapons, while limited in the beginning, have different shooting patterns and each weapon has a unique secondary fire that can drastically change the way you play through the games levels. These weapons can also be upgraded for a short period of time, doubling the amount of points you get per kill while also increasing the strength of your weapon.
To power up your weapons you’ll need to destroy enemies and collect the gold that drops from them. As you collect this gold your vaunt meter fills up. Once the vaunt meter is full you can utilize your weapons power-up and you’ll even be surrounded by a large shield that will block and destroy any enemy bullets that the shield comes into contact with. The shield lasts only for a brief period, but your vaunt meter will deplete more slowly and can be replenished by destroying more enemies and capturing any of the gold that they drop. The longer you’re in this powered-up state, the stronger your weapons will be and the more points you’ll rack up. It makes for some fast paced action with some strategy mixed in for good measure. The strategic use of using your vaunt meter and keeping it full becomes a very important aspect throughout the levels of Jamestown, especially when you want to achieve a high score.
Jamestown‘s 5 Arcade style campaign levels take place in a 17th century Mars setting. There’s a very elaborate, very fictional, story that accompanies the main campaign mode. The story is an added bonus though it’s not absolutely necessary to pay attention to the story in order to enjoy the game or it’s shooter mechanics. You can simply skip each of the cutscenes, but I think some gamers will appreciate the amount of work that’s actually gone into this atypical setting and story. Beyond the campaign mode, there are an additional 20 bonus levels to test your shmup skills at and a Gauntlet mode that allows players to play through each arcade level consecutively, with only 2 credits to continue your game however. Besides the multiple game modes, you’ll also earn money by playing any and all of these modes which can be spent on new ships, bonus challenges, and other goodies that adds to the games immensely impressive replay value.
The graphics are wonderfully reminiscent of the mid 90′s arcade games. The sprites are big and colorful while the levels, enemies, and bosses, make for some great eye candy. If you’ve played any of the classic vertical shmups from that era such as Don Pachi, Vasara, and Battle Bakraid, you’ll know exactly what to expect graphically. Jamestown sits among the best looking vertical shooters.
The audio is very good as well. Everything from the intense arcade style music to the sci-fi sound fx blend with the gameplay perfectly. The most important thing is that for a game that requires twitch reflexes music and sound shouldn’t be annoying, and thankfully the music and sound only adds to that classic arcade feeling of Jamestown.
Conclusion:
You’d be hard pressed to find another vertical shmup that sets the bar for vertical shooters in the way that Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony does. The gameplay is easy to get into, the mechanics require practice to master, the theme and setting is extraordinary, and the graphics and audio are top-notch! The overall story is nonsensical but fun, much like those crazy Japanese shmups of the 90′s. Shmup fans cannot pass this title up because Jamestown is what arcade style shmups are all about. It’s fast, fun, has a tremendous amount of replay value and is extremely addictive. Aquiring a highscore will require practice but Jamestown is so good that you won’t want to stop playing until you’ve reached a comfortable spot among the leaderboards. Even if you don’t compete for a high score, you’ll have a blast playing through the different levels with up to 4 players, destroying enemies and battling huge bosses with intense bullet patterns.
You can head over to the Jamestown official website for more info. You’ll find it available for purchase through popular download portals such as Steam, Direct2Drive, and GamersGate.
Wadjet Eye Games should be a familiar name to indie and adventure game players. They’re the ones behind those great retro style point-and-click adventures such as The Shivah, The Blackwell Series, Puzzle Bots, and Gemini Rue.
The fourth installment of their ghost-themed Blackwell adventure series, Blackwell Deception, will be released for PC on October 12, 2011. However, you don’t have to wait that long to try the game out. Simply go to Wadjet Eye Games or download the demo right here, right now!
The game looks and sounds great so far. You’ll be able to purchase and play Blackwell Deception on October 12, or you can Pre-order the game between now and launch day for some limited edition exclusive bonuses. Here’s what you get:
Personally, I can’t wait to play this latest installment in the Blackwell series. I’ve always been impressed with the quality of Wadjet Eye Games. This latest title looks like it will be equally as entertaining and impressive. Adventure gamers make sure to mark October 12 on your calendar!
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