Daily PC Game Reviews

News - Magicka: Dungeons and Daemons DLC

2012-10-12T23:54:00.000+08:00

Game Category: Action - RPG, Fantasy
Developer / Distributor: Pieces Interactive / Paradox Interactive
Release Date: 15 Feb 2011
Rating: ESRB - Teen, PEGI - 16

Click image to shop online

Just when we thought there were already enough DLCs in the Magicka: Complete Collection (the big pack that we reviewed about 8 months ago), Paradox Interactive have sneaked in and doubled the number of DLCs to a shocking 18. To add even further joy for us avid Magicka fans, today marks the release of the 19th DLC for Magicka.

Under Castle Aldhreim

Subtitled "Dungeons and Daemons", this DLC brings you deep under Castle Aldhreim where something sinister stirs. A long slumbering evil has been awoken by the demented ancestors of the Aldhreim Order and it's up to you (and a couple of wonderful friends) to stop it. The DLC additionally features a major patch that corrects bugs and added stability improvements.

I was wowed by the screenshots and trailer movie and am pretty confident that the Dungeons and Daemons DLC will live up to the great name of Magicka. Prepare to venture deep into the dungeons beneath Castle Aldhreim and discover untold horrors in this huge D&D DLC bash.

Here, feast your eyes:

Alea Jacta Est

2012-10-10T13:09:00.000+08:00

Game Category: Strategy - Turn Based, History
Developer / Distributor: AGEOD / Matrix Games and Slitherine Ltd.
Release Date: 27 Sep 2010
Rating: ESRB - Not Rated

Click image to shop online

Introduction
I had almost mistaken Alea Jacta Est to be a board game from Rio Grande Games when I first heard about it. There may be just one letter different in the title of the board game - "Alea Iacta Est", but there's no mistaking the same subject matter that both games are focusing on: that of Julius Caesar and the Roman Civil Wars, a period that has not been covered well enough.

That is, until now...

Alea Jacta Est is a good turn-based strategy game from AGEOD that is going to keep you occupied for quite awhile. It is published by Matrix Games in the USA and Slitherine Ltd. in the UK. The game was designed using the AGE Engine, so if you are a ardent fan then you will definitely cherish what this new release has to offer.

Latin for "The die is cast"

The AGE Engine is like fine wine, becoming better with each new release. There have been a number of released games that employ the engine, they are - Birth of America, AGEOD's American Civil War, Napolean's Campaign, Birth of America 2 - Wars in America, Rise of Prussia, Pride of Nations, Revolution Under Siege, and now Alea Jacta Est. I have had the opportunity to try all but two of them (NC and RUS).

As you can probably gauge from the titles of the 8 games, this is AGEOD's first foray into ancient military history. To be more exact, Alea Jacta Est covers the Roman Civil Wars from 87 BC to 197 AD in five scenarios, ranging from a simple 25 turn scenario to a hefty 121 turn civil war between Caesar and Pompey - in some of the most savage internecine warfare ever to grace that region.

For one to three players via PBEM

What you Get
As always, there's a tutorial to help you grasp the important concepts of the AGE Engine. You get to learn about the message system and moving armies about a large map that covers most of Europe - up to the Ural mountains in the East and as far South as Egypt.

You will also be introduced to merging and splitting armies, participating in blockades and sieges, learning about postures and rules of engagement, understanding fortifications and garrisoning, scrutinizing a combat report, landing troops after a long sea journey, and mastering supply and rest. Construction of new units and issuing special orders is however only briefly covered, you will need to consult the manual for a better understanding of these subjects.

It's best you also read the 98 page PDF manual

As in any war game, you must first plan how you would like to attack your enemies. There are many factors to consider in an AGE Engine game - like leaders with special abilities, Roman legions having an edge in automatically constructing siege engines, morale and cohesiveness, naval units, and so on. It's definitely not easy being a Roman leader; luckily, a handy ledger with eight different screens will help you sort things out.

There's Exercitus which lists out all available leaders, garrisons, and forces. Dilectus presents in a neat dialog window what you are building and where they are being built. Imperatus (Military), SPQR (Government), and Varius (Diplomacy) are various option screens that allow you to decide how you want to spend your Denarii (money) and EP (engagement points) on available tasks to improve your National Morale (NM). Not all tasks are available as it all depends on the scenario you are playing.

Check the Consilium page in your Ledger when starting out

The next screen in the Ledger - Imperium, is just a huge strategic map which provides another very useful way of looking at the war. The second to last screen - Consilium, contains your game objectives as well as your current score, while the last screen in the ledger - Scaena, gives you a more lengthy description of the scenario you are playing.

After you've completed executing your orders (which is mostly a matter of dragging and dropping stacks representing armies), you will be ready to end your turn. Each turn in Alea Jacta Est lasts just 30 days. During this time, all stacks will execute their orders in a simultaneous manner (just like in other AGE Engine games). Any battles will be fought and shown in an abstract manner with a window popping up later to present you the combat report. You can drill down even further to see a highly detailed blow-by-blow breakdown of what happened in combat.

Setting myself up for a Pyrrhic victory

Let's take a quick look at the five scenarios provided in the game. Two of these - Marius vs Sulla (87 BC, 59 turns) and the Roman Civil War - the highlight of the game featuring Caesar vs Pompey (50 BC, 121 turns), feature only two players. You could theoretically send your save game to a friend with a copy of Alea Jacta Est to start a Play By E-Mail game.

The last three covering the Mithridatic War (75 BC, 67 turns), the Year of the Four Emperors (68 AD, 25 turns) and Septimus Severus (193 AD, 49 turns) are all three player scenarios.

[Editor: You get a sixth scenario known as Spartacus Revolt (73 BC) if you had placed a pre-order for Alea Jacta Est. This scenario is 43 turns in length and features only two sides.]

Listen up: "You came, you saw, you conquered me"

Graphics and Audio
The graphics in Alea Jacta Est is rather decent. I especially loved the map which looks slightly more sharper than the one I was used to in Pride of Nations. You can zoom in to a good enough level and zoom out to see even more of the map. There are also subtle changes made to the map as winter arrives plus there is the addition of overlaid graphics, like roads and the Hadrian Wall. Unit portraits look great as usual, with a huge range available, including exotic elephants and huge triremes for transporting your armies over the Mediterranean Sea. Slight tweaks have been made to the user interface, but otherwise it looks as good as any other game employing the AGE Engine.

The music soundtrack in the game starts off with a riveting militaristic piece, and continues with another 6 similarly themed pieces while you are playing scenarios. There is one short romantic piece (AJE_Ambience_08) that I feel does not get enough play time. The sound effects featured in the game have been consistently good, and it is by Michael Huang of FilmNoise.com.

All manner of units in Alea Jacta Est

Pros:

Alea Jacta Est signals AGEOD's long awaited (and triumphant) return to developing games with the AGE Engine, shedding their previous link to Paradox France SARL.

This is wargaming on a grand scale; and you can get to play Julius Caesar, what more can a strategy fan ask for?
Even more accessible than previous AGE Engine games thanks to the slight drop in complexity due to the subject matter - ancient military history.
Alea Jacta Est does a great job covering the niche area of the Roman Civil Wars. A lot of research work has been done and it really shows.
Look out for special scripted events in each of the scenarios; they can be quite an interesting surprise.

Decision mode features even more choices for the strategist

Purchase interesting Options for your empire to give yourself the added advantage.
Get yourself "local benefits" by planting Decisions on desired map regions in Decision mode.
Plus, there are lots of different units you could build in the game.
The graphics in Alea Jacta Est looks as good as ever.
This game is highly moddable; all you need is a text editor to edit the game data files.
A handful of future DLCs promises even more scenarios in the near future; look out for the Birth of Rome Expansion pack in Spring 2013.
If you are familiar with AGE Engine games, then it will be easy to get into Alea Jacta Est.

Genesis of the Ancient Olympic Games?

Cons:
Here's another niche game that will take you some effort to get into, but the end result is in my opinion worth it. Veni, Vedi, Vici!

Alea Jacta Est is quite a complex game; you are going to have to put in quite some effort to get past the steep learning curve.
The tutorial only touches the "tip of the iceberg".
I kind of preferred the main menu design in Pride of Nations and was a bit disappointed by the step backward to the Rise of Prussia style main menu.
With only 5 scenarios in this release, it makes you wish for the good old days when Birth of America and AGEOD's American Civil War were both released with 15 scenarios each and Birth of America 2 with 21 scenarios. Let's hope the DLC expansion packs will do the game some justice.

Reenact the Siege of Mas'ada

Daily PC Game Review Score: 8 / 10
Review Date: 10 Oct 2012

Mystery Legends: The Phantom of the Opera (Collector's Edition)

2012-10-06T23:59:00.000+08:00

Game Category: Casual - Adventure, Hidden Object, Puzzle, Horror
Developer / Distributor: pixelStorm Entertainment Studio / Play Pond
Release Date: 22 Oct 2010
Rating: ESRB - Teen

[Editor: Here's our second Horror review for the month of October. The last one was Weird Park: Broken Tunes (Collector's Edition).]

Ever since watching Sarah Brightman and Emmy Rossum portray the role of Christine in Andrew Lloyd Webber's adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera in both the musical and film versions, I have always wondered what others really think of who would make the better leading lady. What's your take - hit the comment button below.

My personal take - Sarah's the better singer whereas Emmy's the better actress. And as for the better leading lady... it's neither. Evelina is the leading lady.

Evelina who? Eveline de Chagny, of course.

Think of me

Well, just almost two years ago, the guys at pixelStorm Entertainment Studios and PlayPond decided to give us a different "Christine". The first thing you must know about Mystery Legends: The Phantom of the Opera is that you won't get to hear any actual singing in this game. More importantly, you actually get a shock twist to the story's plot right from the beginning - it isn't really Christine that the Phantom is after this time, it's Christine and Viscount Raoul de Chagny's daughter - Evelina.

Only second in the Mystery Legends series (preceding Beauty and the Beast and the successor to Sleepy Hollow), The Phantom of the Opera is perhaps the best game of the entire franchise. Here's why...

Sweet Evelina - I'm your Angel of Music

You get introduced to Evelina in a series of non-animated cutscenes that feature crisp beautiful artwork with a warm sepia tone. Very soon, our heroine gets whisked away mysteriously from her parents and winds up in the ruins of the opera house. Taunting and beguiling Evelina to find black roses for him is none other than the Phantom of the Opera.

A short introductory segment guides you through a simple tutorial where you get to perform rudimentary adventure style exploration of a few rooms. Learn to pick up objects, look through your inventory, use objects from your inventory, solve a simple puzzle, complete your very first hidden object scene, investigate an area for clues, and peruse your journal and map.

What in the world is a Barbute Helmet?

Each hidden object scene requires you to find twelve objects from a highly detailed background littered with all sorts of objects. You will find quite a diversified range of objects to find in The Phantom of the Opera, so don't be surprised if you have no idea what an item is. Fortunately, the game allows you to place your cursor on any item in the list and you will be shown the silhouette of the object immediately. If you give up, just click on the hint mirror to reveal the location of an object.

Puzzles in The Phantom of the Opera are actually well designed logic conundrums that range from simple to sophisticated mini-games. Luckily, none of these are tedious, and answers are usually at your fingertips, that is if you are good in your sleuthing skills. Remember that you can click on the hint mirror to read the instructions to the puzzle.

Puzzles using urns

Every time you discover something noteworthy, the knowledge winds up in your journal. You will find yourself often returning to your journal as some of the pages contain hints to the tougher puzzles; some careful reading will be required if you are to solve these puzzles. And if you are ever stumped by a tough one, there's always the Skip button; clicking on that however gives you a penalty of 30 minutes to your time.

The more important feature included with your journal is the map - it shows the layout of the entire opera house. You will find yourself referring to the map frequently because you have no further leads and don't know what to do next; the red exclamation marks on the map are clear giveaways of where you have to visit next. Unfortunately, you cannot click on a red exclamation mark and expect to teleport there, that feature is purposely missing from the game.

The dilapidated Opera House is huge

The Phantom of the Opera includes several interludes that has you searching for musical symbols, usually after any major encounters with the Phantom. These challenges can be quite tough as the symbols are often small or have a subtle change in hue. You may find clefs easily, but wait till you hunt for that elusive semibreve or minim that's just a shade darker than it's surrounding (and expertly hidden too).

For those who have purchased the Collector's Edition, you will find the strategy guide has been integrated with the game. You can click on the Guide at any time and see a list of Frequently Asked Questions of where you have played up to; click on any to read the answer for it. If you complete the main game, you get access to a bonus chapter that continues the story from where it left off.

Music of the Night

You have to see the opera house to witness the outstanding lavish detail that has gone into the game; I am sure you will enjoy admiring every scene you find in the game (including the outdoor ones that feature swirling snow). The hidden object scenes are also excellent in quality especially in the area of object variety and detail. Finally, I felt the main characters of the game - Evelina and the Phantom, have truly been both brought to life by the game's artists.

Music in this game is definitely tense, brooding and ominous; it surely helps to elevate the suspense and horror found in the game. The sound effects also assist in maintaining a sense of uneasiness - from the footsteps you hear Evelina makes, to the sudden unexplained creaks in the floorboards. The voice acting is not too bad, especially with the Phantom sounding more deranged than ever.

All I ask of you

Pros:
Relive The Phantom of the Opera in this magnificent follow-up to the original story by Gaston Leroux.

You will love the stunningly lavish artwork.
The hidden object scenes in this game are very well done.
The game features a great selection of puzzles that challenge you every step of the way.
At last, a game with a truly wondrous Journal that you will enjoy using; it even comes with a map featuring all the game areas.

Even the outdoor scenes look lovely

The object lists are completely randomized which is excellent for the replayability value.
The continuation of the storyline in The Phantom of the Opera has been marvellously inventive and Evelina is one gutsy heroine whom you will come to love.
Here's one for the bookworms: The Collector's Edition contains the original novel of Phantom of the Opera written by Gaston Leroux.

Another great hidden object scene

Cons:

It's a pity the game's map doesn't bring you to a location directly, because there's quite a lot of backtracking to be done.
The Collector's Edition comes with a very short bonus chapter... I finished it in about half an hour. Plus, you get a bummer ending that might just allude to a sequel.
If you want to be top in the high score list, don't forget that skipping puzzles will punish you with a hefty 30 minute penalty.
There are a small handful of objects and areas that may not go well with more pious players.

A hidden object scene from the Bonus Chapter

Daily PC Game Review Score: 9 / 10
Review Date: 6 Oct 2012

[Interview] - Thomas Konkol of Imminent Games

2012-10-04T09:34:00.000+08:00

DPCGR: Hi and welcome to Daily PC Game Reviews, let's start off with an introduction of yourself and your company.

Thomas: My name is Thomas Konkol and I am the Founder/Owner of Imminent Games. All of my life I have been interested in art, animation, and video games. So after receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts in graphic design and studying 2D animation I decided to pursue a career in making video games.

DPCGR: How did you get into the gaming business?

Thomas: I started off as an animator creating 2D arcade games and then switched over to 3D animation for PC and console games. Over the last seventeen years I have worked on 12 games and have held positions as an Animator, Game Designer, Lead Artist, and Art Director. I decided to take all of the knowledge I had learned over the years and apply it to creating my own games, with Drip Drip being the first, so in 2009 I formed Imminent Games.

The basis of Drip Drip

DPCGR: Where did the inspiration for Drip Drip come from? How was it conceived?

Thomas: I got the idea when I was driving across country from Chicago to Southern California to relocate for a new job. While going through Texas it started to rain and I was watching the drops hit the windshield. I then started to wonder if there was a way to make a game out of water dropping.

The idea stuck with me for the rest of the trip as I went over many game possibilities in my mind while driving down the expressways. The falling of the rain turned into the idea of dripping water, which then lead to water leaking from ceilings in buildings and the damage that could be done to such buildings. From there it evolved to ways the water could be collected and deposited outside of the buildings so the basements wouldn't get flooded and the floors wouldn't collapse. And since I was on a cross country trip when I got the idea it inspired me to make the game so it takes place across many cities in the USA.

Inspired by rain while on a cross-country trip

DPCGR: How long did it take to develop Drip Drip?

Thomas: Drip Drip has been in development for almost three years now. During that time we have created the PC and Mac versions of the game and have been preparing for the iOS development.

DPCGR: Three years... that's quite a long time. What were the main difficulties and how did you overcome them?

Thomas: I guess the main difficulty was being a two-person company with so much work to do. Other difficulties would be when we thought we had a great idea and then when it got implemented into the game we found out that it didn’t work like we expected and had to be removed. But it was all a learning process and game development involves trial and error. So with those failures we have learned a lot about game development and will use that knowledge to make better games in the future.

Oops!

DPCGR: Who did what on Drip Drip?

Thomas: My role in the development of Drip Drip was a big one since there are only two people working on the game. I was responsible for all of the art, animation, game design, level design, sounds, play testing, quality assurance, advertising, and taking care of all the business aspects (it's a huge list when you are a small indie developer and have to wear just about every hat in the industry). Blake Drolson, the other half of Imminent Games, was responsible for all of the programming along with helping out with the design aspect of the game production.

DPCGR: So do you plan to release any new downloadable content (DLC) for Drip Drip?

Thomas: For us to create new DLC material it will depend on how successful Drip Drip is. If we feel there is a large enough market for it then we will put some DLC together. Although, I would like to add that over the course of production on Drip Drip we have come up with many possible ideas for future DLC.

I'd recognize the Gateway Arch even on a rainy day

DPCGR: Now that Drip Drip is done, what's next?

Thomas: What’s next is probably the next big step in game development, and that is promoting Drip Drip. We now have the huge job of contacting sites for reviews, letting people know about Drip Drip in as many ways as possible, and getting it on more digital distribution sites. Along with that, I am in the process of developing ideas for the next game to be created by Imminent Games.

DPCGR: Do you have any advice for budding indie developers?

Thomas: Here is a list of what I would suggest for up-and-coming developers:

Plan ahead and prototype your game early on so you can find out what works and what doesn’t before spending too much valuable time (and possibly funding) on it.
Do lots of research to ensure you will be moving down the right track in your development.
Play as many games as possible and know what works and what doesn’t for game play.
Stick with it and try to keep yourself motivated throughout the development.
Enjoy what you are doing and have as much fun with your project as possible. Even though there hasn’t been any monetary reward during the development of Drip Drip and there may never be that much in the future, Drip Drip has been the most fun we have had working on a video game.

Got myself a five star rating in Miami

Remember there is the first 90% of a game’s development, and then the second 90% of a game’s development. Leave lots of time for polish!
Make sure you play test your game as much as possible and try to get unbiased player feedback.
If you are an indie, try not to take on too large of a project at first. Be realistic in your abilities and start with a smaller game that can be finished and provide a foundation to launch your next, larger game project.

DPCGR: That was a real handy list of pointers there Thomas, thanks for sharing it with our readers. Anything else you'd like to add?

Thomas: Thank you so much for giving Imminent Games the opportunity to have an interview with Daily PC Game Reviews. I hope people who check out Drip Drip will enjoy the experience they have with it. And I would like to point out that there is a playable demo for download at ImminentGames.com.

Download the demo today!

Shad'O

2012-10-03T23:59:00.000+08:00

Game Category: Tower Defense
Developer / Distributor: Okugi Studio
Release Date: 5 Sep 2012
Rating: PEGI - Not Rated

Click image to shop online

Introduction
If you are an experienced player who has been curious about what the Tower Defense genre has to offer and have so far looked upon it only from the sidelines, then here's a game that you might want to consider trying out.

Or, you could be shopping around for that unique gift for Halloween - well, Shad'O is in my opinion a good choice... this game has a dark theme based around shadows that's sure to please.

Be afraid of dark places

Background
Shad'O is a game from Okugi Studio, an independent developer based in Nîmes in the southern part of France. The game features a unique story and wildly imaginative setting that will surely pique your curiosity right from the start.

It presents a single player only experience that has you travelling through the mind of William - a boy who for some reason is in a catatonic dreamlike state. It is up to you to help drive away the dark shadows and help William out.

Help drive away dark shadows in Shad'O

Gameplay
In the game's opening scene, you see William about to be swallowed up by the encroaching shadows. Luckily, he is woken by his one true friend - Teddy. It is a dark and mysterious world that William finds himself in and it's thanks to this little bear who encourages the boy to push the shadows back.

Your first tutorial level is a cinch, all you have to do is follow Teddy's orders and you will be able to survive it without any problems. The key objective you will be defending in every level of Shad'O is a beam of light that represents one of William's memories. Shadows, representing William's deepest fears, will be doing their utmost best to enter this beam of light (even though the brightness sears them like red hot fire). Fortunately, the shadows follow prescribed pathways which makes it easy for you to take them out by placing tower defenses.

You will be depending on companions in the game to defend William's memories; which is just a fancy word for a "tower". The first two companions you will be introduced to in the tutorial are the Collector and Shooter.

Collectors can only be placed on circles surrounding a luminous well; every level will contain a luminous well that gives you light as a resource. Once you have placed the Collectors, your light resource (the number at bottom left in the screenshot below) will start increasing automatically.

A luminous well with Collectors

Very soon, shadows will come pouring out from a angry red shadow vortex. To stop them, you must place Shooters along the pathway leading to William's memory. Companions are not for free, they cost light; you will often have to wait for your light resource to go up before you can place another companion.

Incidentally, you can only place companions on areas with light; these are spots where a little luminous plant grows. Luckily your companions emit light, and placing them will help chase away the roiling shadows. This gives you even more space to place companions - a novel game mechanic in Shad'O.

What? Teddy can speak!

After the tutorial, you can start exploring a map of islands floating in the Sea of Forgetfulness. Each island contains at least one to three fragments of memory waiting to be unlocked, and each fragment takes you to a new level where you must defend that memory from the shadows.

To complicate matters, later levels will have multiple paths and multiple shadow vortexes (starting points for the shadows).

Which memory shall I unlock?

Complete an island and you will be brought before William's drawing book. Within the book, you can pick to either upgrade your companions or learn a new spell.

Companions can be upgraded during game play three times, but to do so you will first have to enable their upgrade from the drawing book. If you choose not to upgrade companions, your next choice is to learn a new spell. These spells - there are 10 of them - give you useful abilities that will help you out a lot during game play.

Pick a spell, any spell

Other than the Collector and Shooter, you will meet 2 other companions after the tutorial - the Projector who shoots a continuous beam of light, and the Puncher whose punch will help slow down the pretty fast moving shadows. Other companions like the Rainbow, Mole, Doc, Sonar, Pulsor, and Greedy will only be available to you in the later stages, usually after a mighty battle with one of the game's three boss shadows.

With ten different companions, you can destroy monsters in as many ways. Oh yes, there's one other thing you have to do: Make sure you pick up the orange little globes the shadows drop, they are used to power your spells.

Somewhere over the Rainbow

Let's cover the bosses. These are mighty shadow beasts that are the stuff of nightmares; and believe me - they will make life really tough for you. You will need to destroy them with whatever companions and spells you already have unlocked in the game, and in case you cannot, it's best you backtrack to unlock memories a second time round in nightmare mode.

Nightmare mode is only slightly more difficult, so hang in there because you will earn yourself a much needed visit to the drawing book. There are also special levels that either give you more starting resources or some other benefit, make sure you also attempt these.

The bosses are the stuff of nightmares.

Graphics and Audio
The graphics in Shad'O looks to be highly detailed although I did notice jagginess thanks to poor (or lack of) anti-aliasing. You will want to admire the panoramic backdrops rendered with Unity's 3D engine but are confined to a top down isomeric view that doesn't allow you to pitch your camera angle at all.

A lot of graphic shaders have been used in Shad'O, like the smoke-like effect you see on the main menu, and the roiling shadows you see on every level. The video cutscenes and images look vibrant and bright; they represent the lost memories of William and tell a compelling story that cannot be missed.

Send chills down your spine...

The sound effects in Shad'O contains a couple of scary sounding clips that represent the shadows emerging from their vortexes. You will learn to recognize everyone of them as it pays to know what you are up against.

The music soundtrack evokes a sense of unsettling anticipation that makes you wonder what has caused William to have such a blackout of memories. The cutscenes feature some reasonably decent voice-over work, however the script sometimes feels a bit stilted - guess the translation from French needs a little more work.

Listen carefully for specific shadows

Pros:

Shad'O combines good story and game play into a spellbinding mix that in the end makes it a good tower defense candidate to recommend.

There are more than 20 beautiful and surreal levels to visit in Shad'O. Pay attention to the fully animated backdrops as well.
Look out for the fog of war effect that roils like a troubled nightmare.

There are two modes of play for typical levels - normal mode, and on subsequent attempts, nightmare mode.
Look out for special levels that reward you with a bonus.

Special battles have different rules

Your ten companions present an interesting array of weapons and abilities; they can each be upgraded three levels.
You have ten varied spells that can be learned and cast to help you in a time of need.
There are many challenging shadow monsters to fight; remember to pick up the orange globes from defeated monsters to help power your spells.
The nightmarish looking boss fights are quite memorable.
Shad'O comes with a great story and some really nice cutscenes and images.

Some really large levels to challenge you

Cons:

The difficulty in Shad'O may be quite punishing if you pick a poor combination of companions to upgrade and spells to learn.
Other than the great artsy feel and look, Shad'O may feel like an overly challenging experience to casual players.
Levels with multiple pathways can be very challenging.
You will find that moving around with the mouse and placing companions down on a pre-defined grid is not as refined as it can be.
With no scoring system in the game, the only thing driving you forward in Shad'O is the story and the challenge in winning a new level.
Some minor quirks in translating from French.
Reliance on Apple Quicktime may not go down well with some players.

Be wary of large shadows

Daily PC Game Review Score: 7 / 10
Review Date: 3 Oct 2012

Drip Drip

2012-10-01T23:59:00.000+08:00

Game Category: Casual - Strategy, Time Management
Developer / Distributor: Imminent Games
Release Date: 30 Sep 2012
Rating: Not Rated

Click image to shop online

[Editor: Don't forget to read our interview with Thomas Konkol from Imminent Games.]

With the weather going awry thanks to global warming, you can't help but notice that there's more inclement weather nowadays. Guess the weathermen are all happy since there's so much more to report. Every time you hear the weather segment though, you can't help but shake your head at the mention of sweltering summer heat, frigid winter nights, and blustery rain showers.

Rain rain go away

Now, what if you could play a game based around the last three words from the paragraph above - "blustery rain showers"?

Well, Imminent Games are here to grant your wish with their new game - Drip Drip!

One thing's for sure, you can't help but be curious about a game that has a singular word repeated twice in its title...

Help save buildings from the rain

Drip Drip, as the developers call it, is a casual strategy game that has you trying to stop serious flooding in an array of buildings across twenty four US cities with a handful of containers and tools. Buildings you find in the game include farmhouses, residences, mansions, unfinished buildings, hotels, and even an office tower or two.

Take a look at the official trailer below to have a feel for the game.

After activating the New Game button and creating for yourself a profile, you can get your hands wet [Ed: pun intended] by playing the detailed tutorial. The key game play mechanic has you issuing commands to containers and tools (a la Mickey Mouse in The Sorceror's Apprentice) to collect water or to repair collapsed floors in the building. It is game over if your basement flooding becomes too severe or if the building is damaged beyond repair.

You have a predetermined arsenal of containers and tools to help you battle the perfect storm on every level; deploying any of these is however going to cost you money. You have some money to start with in every level and can earn even more by collecting water and then disposing the water outside the building.

You'll master the basics in no time at all

Containers range from cheap pans that cannot hold much water to expensive garbage cans that hold a ton of water. Grab any of your containers and send them to spots where water is dripping from the ceiling. If you fail to do this, water will pool on the floor below. As pools get larger, they seep into the wooden floor. If a soaked area gets too big, the entire floor section turns red and is in danger of collapse; any containers or tools nearby will be destroyed, so move them out of the way as soon as possible.

Besides containers, you will also need to employ tools. The most important tools are the hammer and broom - the former can help to repair a collapsed floor or fix a leak, while the latter is useful for sweeping away the debris caused by a collapse. You will also get access to a very useful sponge for soaking up puddles, a pump to help you empty the basement of a couple hundred gallons of water, and even some magic spells that reward you with some special boon.

Containers and tools

Containers and tools move very slowly in the game at first, but as you employ them more often in the game, they will earn experience points. Once a yellow experience bar is filled up (see bottom center in the screenshot above), the said item gains a new level and will now be able to move a little bit faster. If you level up a certain item to the max, you will be rewarded with a special power. For example, a garbage can with super power status is safe from lightning.

The reference to lightning leads to an interesting feature of Drip Drip - threats. Threats include the aforementioned floor collapses, wall or ceiling holes that suddenly spring up and let lots of water in, lightning that will target and destroy a container or tool, UFOs and ghosts that love robbing your containers and tools, and a witch doctor who will summon a major lightning storm.

This ghost wants to steal my garbage can

Drip Drip starts you off on the West Coast of USA; by the end of the game you would have essentially traveled across to the East Coast visiting cities such as Seattle, San Diego, Topeka, Augusta, and Miami, along your journey. Buildings start off small at first, but by the time you complete your journey, you will need to constantly use your mouse to scroll up and down towers. Luckily you have a handy mini-map at the bottom left corner to help you identify and zoom-in on any troubled spots.

Graphics wise, Drip Drip looks splendid for a casual game coming from an indie developer. Containers and tools all look alive thanks to their cartoon-like eyes and the UFO, ghost, and witch doctor are animated beautifully. I personally thought that the buildings were the best of the lot in terms of artwork; there is a lot of detail to look at and the different building styles lend a special character to each level.

Raining cats and dogs everywhere

There is no soundtrack or voice overs in Drip Drip. Instead. the game relies heavily on sound effects, which features some very authentic rain and thunder audio clips.

Pros:
Drip Drip is a great indie title that takes a cool idea and transforms it into a unique and fun little casual game.

Stop flooding, prevent building damage, and make lots of money.
Drip Drip comes with twenty four levels that takes you through the entire USA.
There are three difficulty levels for you to try out - easy is for wimps, medium is great for the average player, while hard is for those seeking the ultimate challenge.

Watch out! This castle is haunted!

There's an assortment of containers and tools to play with.
Drip Drip allows you to level up containers and tools; the more you use a specific type, the faster you unlock the super power for it.
You can earn yourself up to 5 stars for each level; useful for gauging your performace.
There are more than forty fun achievements waiting to be unlocked.
For once, your main opponent is Mother Nature instead of some clichéd monstrous creature from Hell or some beast from outer space.
There's a demo to try out; it would be foolish for you not to at least try it.

UFOs! No wonder, we're near Area 51.

Cons:

The game play can be repetitive.
Game play in Drip Drip is divided into three distinct phases - the short setup period where you purchase all the necessary containers and tools, the long haul where you survive the onslaught from mother nature, and a final short period to make sure all your containers have been emptied of water. Of the three, I disliked the last phase - it's tricky trying to empty all containers (plus the sponge tool) of water; this will frequently result in the unfair loss of a star for that level.
You only get 24 cities in the game; here's hoping for a DLC that adds even more cities and new features.

Emptying all containers at the end of a level is tricky

Daily PC Game Review Score: 7.5 / 10
Review Date: 1 Oct 2012

October 2012 Release-O-Meter

2012-09-28T13:40:00.000+08:00

007 Legends by Eurocom / Activision - 16 Oct 2012 (Labels: Action, FPS, Movie Tie-in)
A Game of Dwarves by Zeal Game Studio / Paradox Interactive - 23 Oct 2012 (Labels: Simulation, Strategy, Fantasy)
Blood Knights by Studio Deck 13 / dtp entertainment - 26 Oct 2012 (Labels: RPG, Action)
Chivalry: Medieval Warfare by Torn Banner Studios - 16 Oct 2012 (Labels: Action, First Person)

A Game of Dwarves

Dishonored by Bethesda - 10 Oct 2012 (Labels: Action, Adventure)
Doom 3 BFG Edition by Bethesda - 19 Oct 2012 (Labels: Action, FPS, Horror, Science Fiction)
Drip Drip by Imminent Games - 2 Oct 2012 (Labels: Casual, Strategy)
Elemental: Fallen Enchantress by Stardock Entertainment - (Labels: Turn Based Strategy, RPG)

Drip Drip

Farming Giant by UIG Entertainment - 19 Oct 2012 (Labels: Simulation)
Farming Simulator 2013 by Giants Software / Focus Home Interactive - 25 Oct 2012 (Labels: Simulation)
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams by Black Forest Games - 23 Oct 2012 (Labels: Platformer)
Guns of Icarus Online by Muse Games - 29 Oct 2012 (Labels: Team Based, Multiplayer Online, Steampunk)

Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams

Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit by Arkedo / SEGA - 4 Oct 2012 (Labels: Platformer)
Lucius by ShiverGames / Lace Mamba Global - 26 Oct 2012 (Labels: Adventure, Horror)
Medal of Honor: Warfighter by Danger Close / EA - 23 Oct 2012 (Labels: Action, FPS, Military)
Natural Selection 2 by Unknown Worlds Entertainment - Oct 2012 (Labels: Action, Shooter, Real Time Strategy, Multiplayer)

Lucius

NBA 2K13 by 2K Sports - 2 Oct 2012 (Labels: Sports)
Of Orcs and Men by Cyanide Studios and Spiders / Focus Home Interactive - 12 Oct 2012 (Labels: Action , RPG, Fantasy)
Painkiller Hell & Damnation by The Farm 51 / Nordic Games - 31 Oct 2012 (Labels: Action, FPS, Horror)
R.A.W. Realms of Ancient War by Wizarbox / Focus Home Interactive - 4 Oct 2012 (Labels: Action, RPG, Fantasy)

Of Orcs and Men

Ravaged by 2 Dawn Games / Reverb Publishing - 18 Oct 2012 (Labels: FPS, Multiplayer)
Rocksmith: Authentic Guitar Games by Ubisoft - 16 Oct 2012 (Labels: Music)
War of Roses by Fatshark / Paradox Entertainment - 2 Oct 2012 (Labels: Action, Third Person)
Worms Revolution by Team 17 - 11 Oct 2012 (Labels: Strategy, Humor)

Ravaged

WRC3: FIA World Rally Championship by Milestone S.r.l - 12 Oct 2012 (Labels: Racing, Rally)
XCOM: Enemy Unknown by 2K Games - 11 Oct 2012 (Labels: Strategy, Science Fiction)
Zombie Driver: HD by EXOR Studios - 17 Oct 2012 (Labels: Action, Racing)

XCOM: Enemy Unknown

We do our best to ensure accuracy of this list of game releases for the PC platform, however dates may not always be met due to unforeseen circumstances. All images are Copyright of their respective owners. If you have any queries or would like to add on to the list, please write to editor@dailypcgamereviews.com.

Weird Park: Broken Tune (Collector's Edition)

2012-09-27T23:59:00.000+08:00

Game Category: Casual - Adventure, Hidden Object, Puzzles, Horror
Developer / Distributor: Diesel Puppet / Alawar Entertainment
Release Date: 10 Nov 2011
Rating: ESRB - Everyone 10+

Click image to shop online

Editor: With Halloween just around the corner, we here at Daily PC Game Reviews shall be starting a review series of Horror themed games - at a rate of one game per week.

This week's entry is Weird Park: Broken Tune (Collector's Edition), a great casual hidden object game from Alawar Entertainment that sports a creepy clown as your main antagonist.

Come one, come all and step into this twisted Barnum and Bailey's world today!

Background
"We really need your help Detective, our reporter John Flatter has gone missing for two weeks already. He was last seen entering Fairy Gate Park, you know the abandoned amusement park located near Highway 17. Yes, it's the one where mysterious accidents started happening after the clown Louis Gauche fell to his death two years ago.

"What's he doing there? Why, John was supposed to be picking up some leads for a story that would help put a link to the spate of unfortunate accidents that the Park was suffering from. We'd contacted the police a week ago and they dispatched a car to investigate, but they couldn't find John anywhere. All they could find was John's car parked outside that scary place. Please, you must help us find him!"

Eerily weird

Alawar Entertainment may have given us Weird Park a year ago, but it's still an enchanting game to recommend. The story in Weird Park features a fat clown who does an equally great job of conjuring horror, just like Pennywise the clown did in the town of Derry.

[Editor: For those of you who don't recognize the name, Pennywise is the evil clown featured in Stephen King's novel "It"; incredibly portrayed by Tim Curry in the 1990 televised miniseries.]

The Collector's Edition for Weird Park includes a Strategy Guide, an additional (and rather lengthy) Bonus Chapter, and a set of Extras that features a worthy bundle of concept artwork and wallpapers.

Death by laughter? Wow!

As in all other Hidden Object casual games, you have a standard tutorial that teaches you all the basic concepts about playing such a game. Learn to interact with objects, manage your inventory, search for hidden objects from a scene cluttered with an assortment of objects, get hints by clicking on a mechanical monkey toy, solve (or skip) puzzles, and read your detailed journal for tips in solving some of the puzzles.

There are at least 50 locations to explore in Weird Park and the game does not come with a map unlike the more recent ones released by Alawar Entertainment. Hidden object scenes sport a typical list of twelve items that you must find amidst a clutter of seemingly random objects. Too many mis-clicks and the game disables your mouse for the next few seconds; a group of spindly branches also reach out (like in the scene from Poltergeist) to obscure your vision.

Great production qualities in the graphics department

The 17 hidden object scenes in this game will usually require multiple visits, but at least you will be getting a different list of objects to play with each time. There are also 23 mini-games in Weird Park; but I rather call them as puzzles. You will be greeted by mazes, matching games, and even tile laying / swapping / flipping / rotating puzzles. One thing is for sure though, some of the puzzles in this game are very challenging and quite tedious to solve, and you will likely be tempted to resort to skipping a puzzle often.

I was a bit perturbed by the amount of backtracking in Weird Park at first, but once I arrived at the mid-point of the main game, an interesting twist to the story was revealed - this turned out to be a refreshing and rewarding surprise. I won't spoil it too much for you, but suffice to say, you get to visit a totally new environment after that. Furthermore, the game's difficulty also rose a notch.

Mere moments before the surprise jumps out at you

The Collector's Edition strategy guide presented a very comprehensive breakdown of each area of the main game. The Bonus Chapter which you unlock at the end of the main game is also featured in the strategy guide. I thought that the bonuses found here were well worth the extra dough.

The graphics in Weird Park is clearly a true labor of love. A lot of effort has gone into bringing Weird Park to life. Suspense and gloom seems to permeate every scene in the first half of the game, while surprise and awe will see you through the second half. There are a small handful of narrated cutscenes in the game that help put you in the right frame of mind for this fun horror game.

It feels like I have been drinking too much in this place

Keeping with the horror theme, you will find that the music is rather eerie in Weird Park. The sound effects can also sometimes be rather suspenseful - you never know what is going to spring out at you. You will see frequent clips of a mischievous midget jester as well as Louis Gauche, your main protagonist. He is possibly the fattest and meanest looking clown you have ever laid eyes on; and a really unpleasant chap.

Pros:
Weird Park will surely set you up for a splendid Halloween. If you were brought up scared by the Stephen King's evil clown, then you will love the evil one you find in this strongly recommended casual game.

The story in Weird Park is one of the main draws in this fine game.
Best of all though, is you get an unexpected surprise twist about halfway through the game.
A lot of effort has gone into the artwork, and it truly shows.
The hidden object scenes are simple in the first half of the game, but slightly more challenging in the second half.

The hidden object scenes are beautiful

There are many interesting puzzles to try out in Weird Park; it's almost like a mini gallery of fun amusement park games.
The Bonus Chapter included in the Collector's Edition is lengthy and the extras are definitely worth a look.
The handy hint button actually directs you towards your next task.
The Strategy Guide is very detailed, with many labeled screenshots to help you out; it's a real life-saver for those who have trouble with the adventuring aspect of the game.

Quit clowning around and solve this puzzle already

Cons:
Every game comes with a few boo-boos; here's the list for Weird Park.

There's a bit too much wandering around trying to find out what you should do next. I suggest you use the Hint button religiously if you feel lost. Backtracking is key in Weird Park.
The selection of puzzles in Weird Park are slightly more difficult and tedious than what you would find in other casual games. Luckily, there's a standard Skip button waiting to be used after a long charge up period.
There's a lot of page flipping to do when reading the Strategy Guide.

The so-called "Broken Tune"

There was an instance when I got confused over the word "Club". Instead of a golf club, I was supposed to be searching for a club symbol (the kind you find on playing cards).
The Bonus Chapter had a hidden object scene with a "Comb" object that was rather difficult to click on.
There was no clear indication as to how the Bonus Chapter was related to the main game.
There is no map feature available in Weird Park.

What's the deal with this Airship?

Daily PC Game Review Score: 8.5 / 10
Review Date: 27 Sep 2012

Simcity - Evolution of a virtual city simulator (Part 4)

2012-09-26T23:59:00.000+08:00

[Editor: Surprise! Just when you thought it was the last of the Simcity series, along comes another installment. After covering Simcity, Simcity 2000, Simcity 3000, Simcity 4, and Simcity Societies, here’s the final entry for the series - Simcity Social. That is, until we see the light of Simcity 5 next year.]

Simcity Social
Game Category: Simulation, Social
Developer / Distributor: Maxis and Playfish / EA
Release Date: 25 Jun 2012
Rating: Not Rated

After the lukewarm reception of Simcity Societies and the Destinations Expansion pack, Electronic Arts decided it was finally time to return to Simcity’s roots with a social version of the endearing and enduring franchise.

EA had done some "shopping" three years ago and acquired Playfish - a leading social online game developer. What happens when you marry Playfish with Maxis?

Why, you get Simcity Social!

Don't forget to check out Simcity Social's Facebook page

In development for the past two years, Simcity Social was a collaboration between Maxis and Playfish. Launched only three months ago, Simcity Social already sees around 9.7 million MAU - that’s online speak for Monthly Active Users.

[Editor: For those who are interested, the statistics were taken off AppData.]

The number may seem impressive but there are other heavyweights having scores higher than that - take for example, their direct competitor - Zynga’s Cityville. And besides, experts will argue that it's the DAU (Daily Active Users), or some other statistic, that matters more than MAU.

A real friendly tutorial

Statistics aside, once you've gotten yourself access to Simcity Social on Facebook, you will first get to learn how to build roads and place buildings. To simplify the game for a wider audience, the developers have elected to remove the need for laying power lines and an underground network of water pipes. You also have no need to zone areas like what you would see in earlier versions of the franchise. Instead, what you get is the ability to place homes as either 2x2, 1x2, 2x1, or 1x1 square areas.

Other buildings are now divided into several categories; there are Businesses, Farms, Factories, Attractions, Decorations, Facilities, Landmarks, and Friend & Foe. Again, there's no need to zone the,; buildings found in these categories are fixed in size - ranging from a lowly 1x1 to a large 5x5 square area.

It's important you understand the Upgrading system

Your city will only start to grow if you place buildings that can help to expand the population. Most of these kind of buildings are found under the Attractions, Decorations, Landmarks, and Friend & Foe categories. You can check how much a home will grow and the extent of influence that such a building has before you purchase them from the Build menu.

Your production buildings (from the Businesses, Farms, Factories, and Facilities categories) should be upgraded to earn yourself rewards and resources. You must however meet the resource requirements before you can upgrade them. There are two kinds of tangible resources in the game - Simoleans and Materials. Businesses amd Farms produce Simoleans (money) while Factories manufacture Materials. You will need these resources to purchase buildings for your city.

There's a lot of cool stuff you can build in Simcity Social

A third resource known as Diamonds is required to build premium buildings; you need real cash to purchase these glittering stones. Like most other social games, you also have a limited amount of Energy. Performing actions, an activity central to game play in Simcity Social, will deplete your Energy. You must wait for your Energy to be refilled to continue playing; Energy recharges at a slow rate of one Energy pip for every three minutes. Luckily, you will get an extra energy pip plus a single Diamond when you level up.

To perform actions, you click on buildings to display a radial menu and then choose the task you wish to perform there. Each action nabs you at least one experience and a number of Simoleans, Materials, and/or Energy. At the same time, you also hope to get for yourself a collectible; these are special requirements you need to upgrade your more advanced production buildings.

Time to perform an action at my farm

There are quests you can perform in Simcity Social; these serve as useful milestones so you can share with friends your progress in the game. Talking about friends, if you invite them to play the game with you, you can visit their cities and perform "naughty" or "nice" actions there.

Being "naughty" or "nice" here only helps you find even more collectibles to help upgrade advanced buildings. At the same time, your friends are able to see where you visited in their city. They will also receive rewards because of the actions you performed during your visit. Finally, you get Fame points for visiting your friends regularly; these can be used to buy special buildings found in the Friend & Foe building category.

Visiting the AI "friend"

The graphics in Simcity Social reminds me of an earlier version of Simcity - in a good way of course. Gone are the 3D terrains, although you do get an ocean, river system, with large tracts of forests. There are also special landmarks on land plots that you can buy to expand your city. The more you expand however, the more costly it will be in terms of Simoleans and Diamonds.

The many varied buildings of Simcity Social are the star of the game. They have been drawn with loving detail. If you zoom in to the closest level, you can see pedestrians, vehicles, and the occasional police car, fire engine, or ambulance speeding off to a disaster area from the Facilities you build. So far, there have been a couple of interesting themed buildings like those based on the Olympics, and even Fantasy themed architecture. We will have to wait to see what Playfish have up their sleeves next...

A beautiful castle in my city

The music soundtrack in Simcity Social is quite sparse, but at least there are lots of bell and whistles when it comes to sound design.

Pros:
Simcity Social has injected much needed life into the franchise. It brings back many fond memories of the earlier games in the series. It also introduces many impressive looking buildings as well as concepts that streamline play for an excellent social experience.

There are lots of different building categories in this game to try out.
Plus, there are tons of tasks you can perform to mine resources and collectibles.
Production buildings can be upgraded three levels while homes can be upgraded up to ten levels.

Another interesting quest

Social interactivity features include offering you the choice of being either "naughty" or "nice" to your friends.
The game has a fair share of interesting quests that keep things moving along at an even pace.
There's actually a tool that allows you to convert between Simoleans and Materials - a very handy feature indeed.
Lots of game hints makes Simcity Social quite friendly to the casual crowd.
The graphics look great at all three zoom levels.
Frequent new updates signal the release of themed buildings that help to keep players interested for the long haul.

Highly coveted diamonds

Cons:
Here are a couple of grouses I had with Simcity Social:

Not all buildings are available from the start. You need to keep on growing your population to unlock more building options.
There are a couple of buildings that need friends to assist before they can be built. If you don't have enough friends playing, then you will have to buy your way through.
A couple of rare collectibles are a pain to collect - you will either be reliant on friends or Diamonds to get them.
Simcity Social can only be played on Facebook.
Your friends may not like Simcity Social spamming them on Facebook. Make sure you don't get them angry with you because of this.
Only fires, armed robberies, outbreaks, and UFOs appear in the game? Where are the rest of the disasters? Well, let's wait and see...

Collecting ultra-rares are a chore!

Daily PC Game Review Score: 8.5 / 10
Review Date: 26 Sep 2012

Snapshot

2012-09-25T23:53:00.001+08:00

Game Category: Platformer, Puzzle
Developer / Distributor: Retro Affect
Release Date: 31 Aug 2012
Rating: Not Rated

Picture this - a game that possesses a very special camera mechanic. No, it's not another casual game featuring beautiful models... instead Snapshot is a game where you control a robot whose name is "Pic".

Snapshot is looking really good!

In Snapshot, a game from New Hampshire developer Retro Affect, you must take pictures of objects as you guide Pic around a level. The objects you capture with your camera will disappear from the game world only to be "stored" in memory. With a simple click of a button, you can reverse the procedure; placing the captured object back into the game world at a different location. If you plan ahead, objects returned to the game world will help Pic navigate through the obstacle laden puzzle platforming levels.

It is precisely creative ideas like the kind you find in Snapshot that makes games more than just mere entertainment - they are worth playing for that uniquely fun and interactive experience that no other music song, TV show, or movie can ever give you.

Snapshot comes with four environments waiting to be explored. There's a forested area, a cold mountainous volcano, a sanctuary high up in the clouds, and some kind of indoor area which I will leave you to discover. Each environment sports 9 areas and each area contains 3 themed levels waiting to challenge you. That works out to a whopping 108 levels in Snapshot - more than enough to last you a couple of hours.

The first few levels contain simple instructions that introduce you to controlling Pic and his camera. Pic moves like any typical platforming character via keyboard controls; he's able to walk, jump and squeeze through small tunnels. Don't expect to find any weapons on Pic, apparently this robot from the future lacks defenses of any sort. Instead you have Pic's marvelous camera.

Dangerous looking spikes ahead

Pic's camera is represented by a white rectangular frame - this represents the area you will capture with the camera. Camera control is achieved with the help of the mouse. You will find you can pan your view around with the help of the camera. This is an important feature since you may be required to take snapshots of objects that are lying off-screen, some distance away from Pic.

The three circles below the camera frame means you can only take a maximum of three snapshots; you must therefore make a conscious decision of which objects you wish to take with the camera. A simple left click takes a picture.

Right click and place objects back into the world

Objects you snap with your camera will disappear from the game world. To place it back, all you have to do is position the camera frame and right click with your mouse. The scenery taken with the snapshot disappears, but the object becomes a tool for you to use.

The objects you can capture in Snapshot are quite an impressive lot - there are crates that are useful for stepping up to higher places, plants and elephants that catapult you in the air, a pair of doors that you can use for teleportation, keys for unlocking doors, and even telekinetic monkeys [Ed: We ain't making this up... you will find them in this highly creative game].

Time to push that key into the slot

The best part though is rotating an object before depositing them back into the real world. This feature is useful for turning a platform that has spikes on one side around so that Pic can step on it safely, or when you have to rely on either momentum or gravity.

Say you take a snapshot of a huge snowball rolling downhill, or of a crate dropped from a height, or of a spiky projectile being shot from a monster: When you place the object back into the real world, you first rotate your camera frame and voilà, you got yourself an instant projectile - useful for activating switches, dislodging objects, or anything else creative you can think of.

One of those "Aha!" moments in gaming

Every area of Snapshot can be won in four ways:

The first is the standard reach-all-exits-to-win medal.
Next, you must pick up all the stars found in all three levels - not too difficult a task except for some levels that will have you scratching your head in puzzlement.
Third, is a time trial that cannot be completed if you are aiming for the second objective. To win this medal, you will surely have to replay them all and concentrate on just reaching the exit as quickly as possible.
Last, there is a secret object hidden in every level that you must capture with your camera. Bring three of them the exit to collect this medal for an area. For a hint, you can refer to the silhouette of an object in the game's lobby before you embark on an area.

Notice the silhouettes... search for these hidden objects

When it comes to graphics, I must say that a lot of love has gone into crafting the beautiful sprites you see in Snapshot. Pic himself is done very well; his movement looks real smooth and cute. The cute aspect certainly holds true when Pic goes pulling on his antennae to squat himself to half his height. The environments are pretty well done with some of the areas retaining a certain retro feel and quality.

The photo taking mechanic is put to exceptional use in Snapshot. I especially liked the fluffy cotton candy looking clouds that could be photographed and pasted back into the game, as well as objects that could be duplicated in later "luminous" areas - just like a regular photocopier.

Time to "photocopy"

The music soundtrack in Snapshot features an interesting mix by Wil Whitlark. Each environment has a distinctive theme to them and helps to bring life to the uninhabited science fiction world that Pic lives in. Sound design is by Jordan Fehr, whose excellent work has graced other games like Super Meat Boy and Jamestown. These two have done a masterful job for Snapshot, and it shows from the very first screen load to the final "photo" finishing cutscene.

Pros:
Snapshot is a smart puzzle platformer game (with an emphasis on the word "puzzle") that brings a new photo taking gimmick to the PC gaming table.

You will learn to relish taking pictures in Snapshot just to get ahead in the game.
You must really need to think out of the box in Snapshot; the level designs are exceptional.
The game is made even more challenging with small enclosed partitions where your camera will simply not work. You must activate switches just to get access to objects lying in these partitions.

The plant and door are in no-camera partitions

There are more than 100 levels to explore in Snapshot.
Each area of the game introduces new elements to the game; the creativity is very good.
You get a chance to win up to four medals for each area in the game.
Uncovering the secret hidden object and taking a picture of it for every level is great fun.
Pic is a cute and well-animated robot.
Several areas are unlocked for each one you complete; at least you won't have to attempt levels sequentially in Snapshot.

Elephants even help you push crates around

Cons:
Not for players who are daunted by challenging brain teasers or players jaded by the lack of action.

If you are looking for platforming fun where monsters chase you around, then this is unfortunately not that game.
The puzzles in Snapshot get very challenging at a later stage - you might even argue that some are impossible to solve.
You may not like the idea of having to perform very quick "double jumps" using the camera.
There are ample chances for instant death - like falling onto spikes and falling through the clouds.
The combination of keyboard and mouse game play may be difficult for some players. I recommend a controller instead.
Time trials are really difficult to win; you will need many hours of gameplay to hone your skills to perfection before attempting them.

Time trials are tricky

Daily PC Game Review Score: 7.5 / 10
Review Date: 25 Sep 2012

FTL: Faster Than Light

2012-09-22T04:42:00.000+08:00

Game Category: Strategy, Simulation, Roguelike, Science Fiction
Developer / Distributor: Subset Games
Release Date: 14 Sep 2012
Rating: ESRB - Not Rated

Click image to shop online

With the recent spate of great indie games, I see no reason why gamers would want to shovel out their hard-earned cash for AAA games. Take for example, the near pile of scrap that is Legends of Pegasus; I felt so appalled by my encounter with that 4X science fiction game that I am still reeling from the experience.

Featuring randomized maps for infinite replayability

Speaking about "scrap", I firmly believe you will be much better off with FTL: Faster Than Light - an excellent indie science fiction game that is already the talk of the town.

FTL is not your conventional style of game. According to the developers, its more a mix of strategy, simulation and rougelike elements that pays homage to the Firefly and Battlestar Galactica TV franchises, the Battlestations and Star Frontiers role-playing games, and Strange Adventures in Infinite Space - a free explore-the-universe PC game from Shrapnel Games.

In FTL, you will be charting a course for a Federation starship that is on a desperate mission. Apparently, your starship is carrying important data - the kind that can save the day. You see, the Federation is being torn asunder by vicious rebels, and it is vital you bring the data safely back home. You will have to quickly move from sector to sector, sometimes travelling through nebulae or enemy sectors, always staying one step ahead of the pursuing rebels. Don't dally, or the rebel fleet will catch up and you will have a tough time surviving an onslaught of attacks.

You can either choose to start a new game, run the tutorial, or admire your progress from the Stats screen. The tutorial will help you grasp the many intricate gameplay details in FTL and it is highly advisable you don't skip it at all. Either the tutorial or a new game will start you off with the same starship - a standard Federation cruiser christened the Kestrel. If you play FTL long enough, you will be able to unlock even more starship designs, with each giving you a different experience.

The Kestrel

The game is divided into two distinct phases - a turn-based exploratory phase and a real-time battle phase. It may in theory sound very simple, but there's a lot of involved in FTL that will take you a lifetime to master.

You can consider the exploratory phase to be equivalent to a randomly generated dungeon, with star lanes marking the dungeon passageways you can take. The real-time battle phase is synonymous to you fighting against monsters in a dungeon... in this case, the so-called monsters may be space pirates or something even worse. Whatever the case, events may net you "scrap" - the currency in FTL that is used to upgrade or repair your ship.

Let's cover the two phases in a little more detail.

Quickly reach the "Exit" beacon to move to the next sector

Exploratory phase
To start exploring your immediate surroundings, you must engage the Jump button (at top center). This opens up a beacon map that contains at least a dozen locations in the sector. One of these beacons will be marked clearly with the words "Exit"; you must reach it before the rebels catch up with you. The bad guys - the rebel scum - are represented by a red circle that encroaches towards the right side of the beacon map. You are given a head start of a few turns before the rebels begin their inexorable march to the right side of the beacon map.

Once you reach the "Exit", you will start up your "Faster Than Light" engine to jump to the next sector. You will be presented with a galaxy map where you choose the next sector you wish to explore. There are altogether 8 layers of sectors in the game, with the last layer hiding a surprise.

Travel 8 layers before you escape the clutches of the rebels

Each beacon on a map represents a star system that your starship can jump to. Visit a new beacon and FTL randomly chooses a event that you will face there. The location you appear in could be a barren star system, an asteroid cluster or an unstable red supergiant that threatens your ship, or maybe just a star system with a number of inhabitants. The inhabitants could be on a space station, trading outpost, be waylaying pirates, or something else.

If you happen to meet an unfriendly starship (and you most often will), you will enter the real-time battle phase of FTL. It will take you some skill to micro-manage your starship systems and crew, so make sure you practice.

The medbay and shield systems are on fire!

Real-time battle phase
The typical appearance of FTL sports a top down view of your starship. From here, you can admire the design of your starship or (more interestingly) interact with your on-board crew to send them scurrying back and forth between rooms. Rooms with specific purposes are clearly marked with a system icon. Crew are usually sent to specific rooms in the heat of battle to either repair starship systems, seal up depressurized rooms, fight off intruders, help extinguish a fire, or some other futuristic reason.

These are the standard systems you will find in the Kestrel - Shields, Engines, Oxygen, Medbay, Weapons, Piloting, Sensors, and Doors. There are a couple more interesting systems which I will leave you to discover by yourself.

Target their Piloting and Shields stations

An enemy is shown to your right in a battle. To attack them, you must make sure your Weapons system is powered up. You can see your remaining power in the bar at the bottom left corner. Usually, the bar is empty, since all the green bars of "power" should have been distributed to all required systems. Certain systems have been classified as subsystems; these do not need "power" and they are found at the bottom right.

To attack your enemy, you must first make sure you have enough power to supply a selected weapon (bottom center). Click on the weapon to activate it; you must then wait for it to charge up. To target a specific system, you must click a second time on a specific room of the enemy starship. Once the weapon has charged up, it will automatically fire. If you are lucky, you will get to see some fireworks in outer space.

The rebels are firing at my new cool-looking ship

Your hull, shield, fuel, and other status appear at the top left, with the health of your crew indicated below that on the left. Depending on the extent of a battle, you may have to effect repairs with your brave crew. Racial bonuses may also aid in your repair effort.

After every battle, you will discover how much scrap you can salvage as well as any other pluses like additional fuel, missiles, and new weapons. Hit the Ship button (top center) to access the Ship Info Screen. From here, you can either choose to upgrade starship systems/subsystems, equip new weapons, and check out your crew's stats.

No Doubt about it... this is looks like a nasty spider

Let's take a few simple examples:

if you decide to upgrade the Sensors subsystem, you will be to see the interior of your enemy's starship and thus be able to target enemy crew members, or
if you stop at a trading store, you might decide to purchase a new Drone Control system.

As you can see, there's a lot of choices available to you in FTL.

Audio wise, there's a lot of charm to the retro science fiction chiptunes that you'll hear in FTL. The sound effects are also quite good in this game - there is all manners of bleeps, bloops, and buzzes; although there is a marked absence of any voiceover acting.

I could do with an improved Shield system

Pros:
FTL: Faster Than Light is proving itself to be an extremely fun game employing many original never-seen-before concepts. It is a great mix of strategy, simulation, and roguelike elements that will thrill players who love any of these genres.

This game employs strategy - you must decide how you wish to take out enemies who only want to blow your starship to smithereens.
FTL is a feel-good starship simulator that does things very well. Relive the sense of fulfillment that James Tiberius Kirk must have had as Captain of the starship Enterprise.
The roguelike elements generates fun-tastic infinite replayability.

Fighting off intruders on my starship

Discoverability is the order of the day in FTL - learn as you play, and be surprised that your next attempt is suddenly way simpler than before.
Order your crew members to repair your starship systems, defend against intruders, and many more tasks that will boggle your mind the first time you experience the game.
There are nine starships available in the game, each with two different deck designs; you therefore get a total of 18 to choose from. If you compare it to a fantasy roguelike game, it's like having 18 character races to pick from.
The upgrade possibilities for your starship and crew is pretty large indeed.
The graphical user interface is neat without feeling too overly complex.
The graphics and soundtrack for FTL has a definite retro appeal and vibe to it.

Meet all kinds of aliens on your journey

Cons:
FTL is not without its little faults. Here they are:

FTL is an unforgiving game - it features permadeath! Once your starship is destroyed, you have to start from the beginning all over again. This however is what makes FTL so attractive; you cannot help but beam with pride when you finally do complete the game for the very first time.
Luck might be playing too strong a factor in FTL.

I was lucky to have gone this far!

There are a number of quests that can only be completed if very specific condition are met. Unless you know what these conditions are, it is going to take a while before you see them all.
A full game is quite short; requiring about two hours plus to complete.
This game can be quite repetitive once you have seen all the random events the game has to offer. Hopefully, more unique events can be added as a DLC for further game play variety.

FTL FTW

Daily PC Game Review Score: 8.5 / 10
Review Date: 22 Sep 2012

Sticky Linky

2012-09-19T11:50:00.002+08:00

Game Category: Casual - Match Three
Developer / Distributor: Arello Mobile / Alawar Entertainment
Release Date: 14 Sep 2012

If you're looking for a delightful casual match three game that boasts some rather interesting game play ideas, then it's a no brainer for me to recommend Sticky Linky.

With a name like Sticky Linky, I won't blame you for guessing wrongly what this game from Arello Mobile is all about. Released simultaneously on PC and iOS platforms by Alawar Entertainment, you'll find there's no other game out there on the market that currently plays like it.

If there is one sentence to sum up the gaming experience, it would be this: Sticky Linky is a combination of ideas taken from World of Goo and Bejeweled, resulting in a unique one-of-a-kind game play experience that will leave you speechless when you first see it in action.

Stick around... this game is fun!

With no background story for the 54-level Play mode, Sticky Linky's unique game play style is the only selling point to hook you into staying for the long haul. If you complete Play mode (and you will probably take about two hours if you're a good player), then you can try your hand at the Zen mode for endless game play; you have 6 levels to pick from in Zen mode.

At it's core, Sticky Linky is a casual match three game that has you trying to match up at least 5 similar colored globs. Your globs need not be in a row to match them, they only need to be interconnected in the tessellated triangular grid that is formed by the globs being flung in from outside the level.

Match up the creatures to win a level

Once 5 or more globs match up, they will be collected together and evolve into a creature having the same color as the globs. You collect creatures by matching these creatures with similar colored globs or other similar colored creatures. To win a level, collect enough of these creatures; any color will do. You need to keep your eyes on the upper right bar to see how many creatures you'll need in every level.

As you play the game, you get introduced to subtle changes that make the main game play even more challenging. The most significant of these is the mana bar. You will be given a number of mana points (100 at first) at the start of a level; your mana will keep decreasing for every click you make. Reach zero mana and it's game over for you. To restore much needed mana, you will have to match creatures.

Match the batch of interconnected blue globs for a blue creature

Besides the matching game play, you will also chance upon special icons overlaid on globs or special pieces:

lightning icon - clicking on a glob with the lightning icon will destroy a random number of globs or creatures nearby. Lightning icons will only appear if you have amassed enough coins. Coins are obtained from all the globs and creatures you match up.
bubble icon - bubbles causes globs to float upwards. If you're not careful, a group of globs enclosed by bubbles (and any creatures attached to them) will float up and out of the game play area if you happen to de-link them from a main group of anchored pieces.
ice cube icon - these frozen globs can only be removed if you perform matches with them.
anchor pieces - these pieces can only be removed with lightning.

Eliminating fishes will also cost you mana

You'll find four styles of game play in Sticky Linky. The first takes place during the day time - this is the standard game play mode. The second is when you play a level that takes place at night; new monsters will not evolve here, instead you must match up whatever creatures you find at the start of the level. The third style of game play brings you underwater, watch out for big fishes that will gobble creatures and globs indiscriminately. The last style takes place in the clouds with globs anchored to floating rocks; expect lots of "bubble trouble" in this style of game.

The video below gives you a good idea of the game play you'll expect from Sticky Linky:

The graphics in Sticky Linky feature a sunny, night time or underwater scene. The stars of the game are the five cute animated creatures you evolve from the globs. That's about it for the graphics side of the house. Other than that, you'll love the wacky physics that cause the grid of globs and creatures to pivot around anchor points or to quiver and disappear when they touch the edge of the screen or hit the water. Don't forget the effect of gravity on the game - free-floating bubble-enclosed globs float up, otherwise globs and creatures will just simply splash into the water.

The music is delightfully fun in nature and the sound effects are of a cute nature, catering more towards a younger age group. But you can't doubt that Sticky Linky is fun for all ages.

The game play feels slightly different when night comes

Pros:
Sticky Linky will have you matching up globs and creatures in no time at all. It features a pleasing kid friendly theme and will surprise you with its promise of great fun and madcap physics driven game play.

Prepare yourself for 60 levels of great matching physics driven fun.
The four styles of game play (day, night, underwater, and sky themes) keeps the game refreshingly fun.
The tessellated triangular grids you form look simply wonderful and are as unstable as a pile of Goo.
There are 32 fun achievements waiting to be claimed; make sure you check them out.
Sticky Linky should be simple enough for kids to play. That's possibly because the minimum required for a match is only two pieces. Plus there's only a small handful of power-ups to grapple with.

You can tell I was easily charmed by Sticky Linky

Cons:
Here are a few areas that is room for improvement in the PC version (some of which also applies to the online and iOS versions).

There's no story to the game... that is if you don't mind pure mind-numbing matching fun that will occasionally require you to think before you make your next move.
You can't tell exactly how many creatures you need at the start of a level to win it.
There are only 6 levels in Zen mode.
Some of the levels will have the tessellated triangular structure gyrating like a crazy windmill... prepare to get real dizzy; this is intentional in the level design.
Both the PC and iOS versions are lacking some nice animations seen in the online version.

A sky of bubbles

Daily PC Game Review Score: 7 / 10
Review Date: 19 Sep 2012

Spirits

2012-09-14T15:06:00.001+08:00

Game Category: Puzzle
Developer / Distributor: Spaces of Play
Release Date: 15 Feb 2012
Rating: Not Rated

Since time immemorial, humans have been fascinated by the supernatural; you know, spirits and other things that go bump in the night. Humanity celebrates Halloween, the Day of the Dead, and more than a dozen other festivals that is related to the dearly departed. Incidentally, according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar the months of July to September is typically when the month long Hungry Ghost Festival takes place.

"All that spirits desire, spirits attain"

The Spirits found in the game of the same name by Berlin based game developer Spaces of Play are nothing at all like what we might imagine from Halloween, the Day of the Dead or even the Hungry Ghost Festival. The beings rendered in this indie puzzler may take on a ghostly sheet of white, but if you take a closer look, you realize they are actually cute renditions of tiny guys complete with little feet, over-sized heads in the shape of a leaf, and pin-sized black eyes.

What can these spirits be? Are they lost souls? Well, kind off... these are the spirits of fallen leaves. Now with autumn just around the corner, it is your task to guide them back home to spinning swirls of bright light - your end objective in every one of the levels found in the game.

There are three things that makes Spirits stand out: first, the artistic beauty of the game; second, the unique hazards and wind mechanics found in every level, and third (but most important of them all), you have the noble objective of rescuing as many Spirits as possible while attempting to inject life into all the seedlings that you may find in a level.

Things would be so much simpler if the Spirits had the free will to help you solve a level. Unfortunately, after spawning into a level, Spirits will only inexorably march until they either hit an obstacle and turn around, or they fall prey to nasty looking spikes. That is, until you assign them a skill to help the rest out.

Rescue the Spirits

There are up to four skills available in every level that can be assigned to any Spirit. They are:

Grow - the selected spirit stops walking and is sacrificed to grow into a leafy plant that either slants forty five degrees to the left or to the right. This skill is useful for bridging gaps.
Dig - upon assigning the dig skill, a spirit will start digging in your chosen direction for a short time before disappearing. You can only dig left, right, directly downwards, or sloping downwards to the left or to the right.
Blow - the assigned spirit sacrifices itself by turning into a cloud and starts blowing either to the left, right, directly upwards, to the upper right or to the upper left.
Block - to stop the wind from blowing your spirits towards spike hazards, assign a spirit the block skill and make it roll to the left or right to plug the irksome blowing wind.

Click on a Spirit to see what skills are available in a level

The levels all resemble a natural cavern style environment. You can scroll around the larger levels by moving your mouse to the screen's edge. Your spirits can walk on level ground but gets blocked by walls and other obstacles (like mushrooms). There are large land masses or ledges that you can "blow" your spirits to, however you'll have to look out for chasms and spikes. It's the latter that will kill your Spirits outright, so stay away from them at all costs.

Beyond these hazards, you will notice little particles moving around in the empty open spaces. These simulate the direction of air currents in a level. The more particles there are, the stronger will be the current. You must make use of the "wind" in each level (or even "make" your own wind with the Blow skill) to get your Spirits to the swirling spiral that marks the exit of the level.

The spikes at the right side of this level looks ghastly

Every level has a minimum number of Spirits that must survive for you to continue to the next level. You will also notice that most levels have little seedlings - these are the game's secondary objectives. You must touch these seedlings with a Spirit to claim them. You can also claim seedlings by dropping pollen onto them by clicking on a Spirit that's floating high above it.

If you complete both the primary objective of saving as many Spirits as possible plus the secondary objective of claiming all seedlings, then you've attained the perfect solution for that level. Your results are totaled and checked against the online scoring system to tell you your World Rank at the main menu.

Oops... Looks like the pollen missed the seedling

The game's graphics is almost an art form - the backgrounds look surreal and uses colors that represent the encroaching evening skies of a wooded forest in autumn. Even the foregrounds look sharp with hand-drawn outlines of leaves, mushrooms, red thorny spikes and more. The rendering of the Spirits are well done; although they may appear to be simple in nature, they truly look lovely as they go floating around on the air currents.

The music in Spirits is calm and almost induces a perfect Zen-like atmosphere. The sound effects do a good job of providing feedback and you likely not forget the heart-rending sound of a Spirit dying.

Use the Block function to stop rogue gusts of wind

Tips:

There are undocumented shortcuts in Spirits: P key (or B key - "Boss") accesses the pause menu, followed by the R key for reset, the W key to wake up all Spirits, and the M key for exiting back to the main menu.

Pros:
Spirits is a Zen-like visual treat that features interesting wind mechanics as well as some of the coolest looking spirits you've ever laid your eyes on.

The wind mechanics are very well done with thousands of particles practically flowing in the level. This gives rise to a feeling that the game is very much alive.
I fully agree with the developers: the world of Spirits is a truly "poetic game world". The artwork is divinely sublime.

Pick a level to play again and better your ranking

The game comes with 46 levels to master.
To save time, you can use the Space bar to speed up a game.
The game offers downright simplicity - only four skills to assign.
The music is serene and almost Zen-like in nature.
Spirits reminds me of a blast from the past - Lemmings. Published by Psygnosis back in the early 90's, Lemmings had you trying to rescue a bunch of creatures who march on relentlessly oblivious to any obstacles or hazards in their path. It was up to you to bestow eight skills on selected creatures to help the rest reach the exit. Spirits is more than a worthy successor to the ideas first seen in Lemmings; it's an evolution!

A leap of faith

Cons:
Not too many significant issues here.

The rate at which Spirits emerge from their leafy starting points cannot be controlled.
Some levels have multiple starting points... unfortunately you can't tell how many Spirits will be emerging from each exit.
The game's difficulty ramps up significantly after the first ten or so levels. There are unfortunately no hints in-game.
You'll need to be ultra-precise to get a perfect solution for some of the levels. Once you've obtained the perfect solution for a level, there's no reason to return to it.
There's no level editor to extend the life of the game.

Spot on

Daily PC Game Review Score: 8.5 / 10
Review Date: 14 Sep 2012

[News] Torque Engine to go Open Source

2012-09-12T10:22:00.000+08:00

This could very well be the best news I've heard in a long time - The flagship engine from GarageGames, Torque 3D (or T3D for short), will be going Open Source. That means you will be able to develop just about any kind of game with this engine; let your imagination go wild and dream up games that other people would want to play.

Who knows, writing something with this engine may one day net you a full-fledged career. However, you will need to be able to code in TorqueScript, which is kind of a proprietary programming language that resembles a simplified version of the C language.

Use your imagination

Excited? Alright... I'll give you time for that news to sink in.

Anyway, in case you were wondering what games were written using the Torque 3D engine, take a look at our reviews of games using a Torque engine (do inform us if we missed any):

Tower Wars (T3D)
Monster Minis Extreme Off-Road (TGE - uses an older version of T3D)
Atomic City Adventures - The Case of the Black Dragon (T3D)
Restoring Rhonda (T2D - a 2D version of the Torque 3D engine)
Super Cell (T2D)
Turtix (T2D)

For a complete list of games created using the engines from GarageGames, you can refer to this page.

Tower Wars in action

Expect to find the Open Source version of the Torque Engine (version 1.2) on Github soon, and stamped with an MIT free software license to boot.

For the unaware, Wikipedia states that the MIT free software license typically comes with the following text: "Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions..."

Vehicular combat fun!

If you are interested in developing games and can't afford the steep price point of the Unity Game Engine, then I suggest you keep your eyes on GarageGames's website starting from today!

[News] - The Indiefort Championship

2012-09-11T00:28:00.000+08:00

It's the hard knock life indeed - being an indie developer, that is.

You may have heard that Steam recently launched Greenlight on their portal... unfortunately, their system of discoverability is more like a system for gamers to make a big fuss over the quality of indie games; with too much highbrowing at times, in my opinion.

Alas for the poor indie developers, most of them are still not closer to getting their product released to the general public.

The guys at Gamersgate on the other hand, continue to forge ahead with supporting the indie scene. In what is possibly their largest indie bundle ever, Gamersgate is proud to announce The Indiefort Championship - a mega-bundle of 24 games (available until 1st October 2012). The price of all 24 games is not out yet, so please hold your breath... In the meantime, you can choose to purchase either a gold pack offering 9 games @ $8.99, a silver pack that includes 6 games @ $6.99, or a bronze pack containing only 3 games @ $3.99.

An ongoing competition will also be hosted via GamersGate’s official Facebook page where those who have “liked” the page will be able to vote for their favorite indie games. The top games after a week of voting will then be bundled in their own special package – made by and for the fans.

Here's the full list of games in the bundle:

Star Prospector (Tag: Real Time Strategy, Science Fiction)
Blue Libra (Tag: Real Time Strategy, Science Fiction)
Tiny and Big: Grandpa’s Leftovers (Tag: Action, Sandbox)
Cardinal Quest (Tag: RPG, Fantasy)
Devil Whiskey (Tag: RPG, Fantasy)
Sentinel 3: Homeworld (Tag: Tower Defense, Science Fiction)
Three Dead Zed (Tag: Action, Platformer, Puzzle)
Orbitron: Revolution (Tag: Arcade, Shooter, Science Fiction)
Hacker Evolution Duality (Tag: Simulation, Action)
Influence (Tag: Real Time Strategy)
Zombie Football Carnage (Tag: Shooter)
Girl with a Heart of (Tag: Adventure)
A Sirius Game (Tag: Adventure, RPG)
Will Fight for Food (Tag: RPG, Fighting)
Dark Scavenger (Tag: Adventure, RPG)
Telepath RPG: Servants of God (Tag: RPG, Strategy)
AirBuccaneers HD (Alpha: Loot & Booty Pack) (Tag: Simulation, FPS, Fantasy)
DEMISE: Ascension (Tag: RPG, Fantasy)
Survivors of Ragnarok (Tag: RPG, Simulator, Sandbox)
Shepherd Slaughter (Tag: RPG, Action)
Black Market (Tag: Simulator, RPG, Science Fiction)
3079 (Tag: RPG, Sandbox, Science Fiction)
Project Black Sun (Tag: Platformer, Action, Adventure)
Cell Emergence (Tag: Simulation, Action)

Read more about the Indiefort Championship here. But most importantly, help support the indie scene today!

They Bleed Pixels

2012-09-10T11:52:00.001+08:00

Game Category: Platformer, Fighting
Developer / Distributor: Spooky Squid Games
Release Date: 30 Aug 2012
Rating: Not Rated

Click image to shop online

For a game that oozes more than just pints of blood and piles of pixels, you'd be surprised that They Bleed Pixels is a great but brutally challenging platformer - one that's actually dripping with a macabre sense of humor.

Like some surreal scene out of a horror movie, They Bleed Pixels (abbreviated to TBP) starts off with a girl being dropped outside the Lafcadio Academy for Troubled Young Ladies in the middle of the night. She walks past stone cold statues depicting her worst nightmares and reaches the front door. You then realize there is something sinister going on as you see a mysterious somebody slashing himself to drip blood on a book bearing a cruel two-pronged sigil.

And, that is precisely how TBP sets the mood for you.

This latest offering from Spooky Squid Games, an indie developer based in Toronto, is inspired by the late American author H. P. Lovecraft. It features horror themed cutscenes, Cthulhu inspired gothic artwork, and excruciatingly difficult platformer sequences.

Yet, the game is also an enormously satisfying retro romp that is well worth your time!

If you prick us, do we not bleed?

TBP is a lengthy game that takes you through eleven large levels. Lengthy in the sense that you will probably have to live through a bazillion deaths before you unlock and complete the final level of the game. For all your hard work, you also get to unlock additional levels created by guest developers - a unique feature that I feel should appear more often; there are currently two such levels as of this writing, with a third one to come soon as a free DLC.

Before rushing off to play the game, it would be best you master the controls - it seems that TBP plays quite differently from other platformer games. The main reason being: TBP has fighting elements in it. Every enemy in TBP has a certain amount of health and you must perform various attack moves to eliminate them; blatant button mashing is discouraged.

The game's difficulty will ramp up real soon

The tutorial teaches you several attack moves:

There is the basic Stabbing ability that does a decent job of killing enemies via a single key press. This form of attack however is considered button mashing and hence will earn you the least points.
The Side Kick has you kicking and flinging a blocking enemy out of the way.
The Up Kick has you kicking an enemy up into the sky; this is great for when there are spikes or other hazards above you. You'll learn to love the squishing sound as an enemy gets skewered on it.
You'll need to learn the Aerial Stabbing technique well to net points. It's a combination of an up kick, a jump followed by a series of fast stabs.

There are of course a couple more attack styles, but these few should be enough to whet your appetite and give you a feel for TBP. The tutorial does a great job of teaching you these moves.

You'll learn to love to juggle

What sets TBP apart from other platformers are two interesting features: the save sigil and the brutal difficulty of the game.

Save Sigil: By either collecting pints of blood (seen as little red globules) or executing stylish combo kills, you will start to fill up the two-pronged sigil found at the top left of the screen. Once the sigil is filled up, you will start glowing purple. Stop at any safe surface away from enemies and hazards like buzz saws and you'll automatically create a save checkpoint.
Brutal Difficulty: You'll need the excellence of execution to really move on up in TBP. Expect to get killed many times while playing through a level. Thanks to the placement of the monsters and the design of the levels, you'll be encountering death after death after death.

Let's cover a bit more about the monsters and level design.

Kill enemies stylishly and collect pints of blood

There are at least six types of monsters that you will encounter in TBP. You will meet shamblers, bomber imps, stabbies, knife imps, squid face, and more.

Shamblers are your basic blockers; watch out for their hands as they reach out to you from a distance. Bomber imps are pesky little varmints who activate the bombs they are carrying when you venture near them. Stabbies are little mounds that shoot out a nasty looking spike from below you; nasty. Knife imps are tricky enemies to take down, watch out for these. Squid face is a Cthulhu inspired monster - a disembodied squid head floats towards you and then tries to spear you by flying at you at great speed.

There's a shambler below me and a ghost to my right

Level design in TBP is meant to challenge you to the extreme. There are usually huge chasms that sport rows of mean-looking spikes and spears; a fall usually leads to instant death. Luckily, you will be able to cling to walls thanks to the overgrown spikes on your character's hands. This however is not always enough - you will likely need to memorize the layout as the level design gets fiendishly difficult to navigate. That's because you will also have to watch out for slippery ground and walls, blade doors, moving platforms, stationary and moving buzz saws and other obstacle designs.

The objective of a level may be very nearby, but thanks to the limited health you have (only three hearts), you will making countless attempts to get the platforming sequence right to avoid getting killed. In later levels, you don't even get much chance to activate the save sigil thanks to the lack of solid ground and the presence of many nearby hazards.

Activating the save sigil replenishes your hearts

The artwork in TBP features beautiful backgrounds and nasty looking foreground levels littered with spikes, spears, and all sorts of hazards. Our heroine is smoothly animated, from the way she wields her accursed spiked hands to the way she attacks and jumps and of course to how she gets killed, leaving behind a skewered corpse or just melting into pools of bloody pixels.

The enemies are a good mix, there are walking, running, jumping and even flying types to contend with. Their animation looks fluid and are well done. You will also love the macabre humor seen in the cutscenes as the young girl attempts to bury an evil book that craves for blood. There's however an ultimate bad guy and he is hiding in the wings, that is until you reach the final level where all is revealed.

Must bury the book...

As a bonus, you also get additional goodies waiting to be unlocked in the game. These works are contributed by fellow developers who have graciously donated lovely artwork as well as the aforementioned levels.

If you love chiptunes then you're in for a treat in TBP. The game is powered by music from DJ Finish Him (aka Shaun Hatton). You can try a sampling of his music over here. The sound effects are courtesy of DARC Productions, and I fully agree with what the developers said about the work by Troy Morrisey and his team: “Just listened to some of They Bleed Pixels cinematic mixes…and holy *#%! they’re awesome! They really bring out the visuals, I am extremely extremely pleased.”

A guest level... the game play is just as great!

Pros:
They Bleed Pixels is a truly hardcore platformer game that will really test your skills at jumping and fighting. If you love difficult games, then prepare for this truckload of hard-hitting fun.

If you're a platformer genius who survived games like Super Meat Boy and Bloody Trapland, then by all means dive into They Bleed Pixels. This game is hardcore. Period.
Great fighting platforming game play that is bound to keep you coming back for more.
And the game is so addictive... maybe the next time round you'll master how to take out the enemies stylishly and to avoid falling on the spikes and spears once again.
You get a dynamic save-anywhere-you-please checkpoint system; but you'll have to collect enough pints of blood or do combo kills first.
The game comes with many well thought out level designs meant to challenge your skills to the limit.

Collect hard-to-reach pages for a bonus

A comprehensive level completion screen greets you at the end of a game. It tells you your overall rating and even counts how many times you got yourself killed. Give yourself a big pat on your back if that number is zero and another pat if you completed the level in under 10 minutes.
You get cool sprite work and beautiful background parallax effects. There's also copious amounts of pixelated blood and gore.
Two levels (created by fellow developers) are waiting to be unlocked, with more to come in the future.
There are tons of achievements waiting to be unlocked.
The inclusion of beautiful guest artwork sets up the possibility of game developers collaborating at an entirely different level; I'd love to see more of this.

Slip and slide...

Cons:
If you're the type whose patience easily wears thin, then you should know what to do... avoid the game like poison or either risk trashing your keyboard on the monitor in abject frustration or risking grievous hurt by hurling your laptop at the next person you see.

They Bleed Pixels is a really difficult game... but that's precisely why the game is so addictive. That is unless you're the kind who hates mean challenges and have no patience (or skill) to see this game all the way through to the end.
There are certain spots in the game where you simply can't save... and that I believe is an intentional level design feature.
You will encounter even more stress at the higher levels; you'll learn to hate the walls of buzz saws bearing down on you.

Dead... again! You can even see silhouettes of past deaths

Daily PC Game Review Score: 8.5 / 10
Review Date: 10 Sep 2012

Lost Head

2012-09-08T01:36:00.004+08:00

Game Category: Puzzle, Casual
Developer / Distributor: Diesel Puppet / Alawar Entertainment
Release Date: 6 Sep 2012
Rating: Not Rated

Click image to shop online

Heads shall roll as you embark on this brand new physics based puzzler from Diesel Puppet and Alawar Entertainment. It's called Lost Head and it has you helping a poorly stitched doll known simply as Franken-Stitch.

Every one of its 72 levels will have you trying to reunite Franken-Stitch's head with that of his body. The solutions to these puzzles are however nothing but straightforward. You'll definitely need to stir your brain juices as you ponder over every one of its mind-numbingly challenging puzzles.

It seems there are many physics puzzlers out there nowadays, with some of them cashing in on the iOS scene; Lost Head happens to be one of them. It was released for the iPhone and iPad on 23 August with the PC version only released just two days ago. Lost Head does not have as many complicated features unlike other offerings (for example - The Incredible Machine). I therefore feel it justified to classify the game as a casual puzzler.

Oops... I'm getting ahead of myself

Lost Head comes with four regular worlds featuring 15 levels each. The worlds are named Start, Load, Propeller, and Resistance - each word is chosen to represent the theme for that particular world. Start is the easiest world in Lost Head, with the most difficult being the levels found in Resistance. There's also a special fifth world known as Collections - this contains only 12 levels.

As you play the game, you will encounter the in-game tutorial. These levels contain arrows pointing to new features and text to explain what they do and how interacting with them will influence the puzzle. For obvious reasons, tutorial levels are generally much easier to solve.

One of the most innovative feature in Lost Head

Here's what to expect in the early levels: each puzzle has you trying to reunite the head of Franken-Stitch with his body. The head must stay within the screen, plus you must not let it get trapped without reuniting with the body. If the former takes place, the puzzle will automatically restart. The latter will require that you press the reset button found at the top right corner of the screen.

Being a physics puzzler, you will need to rely on gravity to bring the head closer to the body. There are unmovable straight and angled wooden pieces (denoted by screws holding down both ends), as well as movable pieces - either in the form of a hinge (held down by a screw at one end) or free-moving pieces of wood. Watch out friction as well... you don't want to be stopped dead in your tracks.

You'll need to burst the bubbles to start things rolling

You can interact with the level by clicking on certain objects. There are three of these:

Bubbles - click on bubbles and whatever it is supporting will fall straight down.
Sponges - alternately clicking on them will cause them to grow and shrink. Sponges come in all shapes and sizes, and when they grow, they typically expand at most 50%. Clicking on them at the right moment will often send the head rolling off in the direction you wish. I felt that this is the most innovative feature found in Lost Head.
Fans - turn them off and on to blow Franken-Stitch's head around.

There are other non-interactive objects as well - you can't click on them to get them to work; you must instead guide the head to them. There's trampolines (that bounce the head off it), pulleys with dead weights, buttons that activate pistons, and even spinning wheels made from Meccano style pieces.

It gets trickier

You may have noticed that in the last two screenshots, there were collectible objects waiting to be picked up by Franken-Stitch. The earlier one showed a green-colored radio, while the screenshot above has a purple-colored box with something yellow inside. It is imperative that you collect these hard to acquire items in the game; you need them to unlock levels in the last world - Collections. Do note that you will need a total of three different collectible items to unlock a particular level.

Once you manage to help Franken-Stitch get his head over to the body, the level ends and you will be awarded stars based on how fast you took to complete it, and whether you successfully picked up a collectible item in the level. Collect as many stars as you can; you need them to unlock the last two worlds - Propeller and Resistance.

Collectibles help unlock levels in Collections

The graphics in Lost Head is quite plain and basic. You can tell just by a glance at the backdrops - they look like low-end wallpaper. The objects found in the levels are simple in nature, and I felt that there wasn't enough variety. The collectibles at least feature neat looking artwork, although they don't look to scale on the display shelves. I particularly adored the charming and comical antics of Franken-Stitch, especially when his body beckons for the head to come over.

The music is typical casual fare with only a small handful of pieces. Sound effects are of average to good quality - for example, you will either cringe at or applaud the crackling sound of the sponges.

The level designs are excellent

Pros:
Lost Head is quite a good puzzler game that will keep you engrossed for a couple of short hours.

There's a total of 72 ingeniously designed puzzles waiting for you in this game.
Wait till you try out the gameplay - it's quite fun having to time your mouse clicks at the correct moment on the right objects to get Franken-Stitch all stitched up together.
The interplay of all the game play elements make for a refreshing appeal to players who have been looking for something unique.
There's 30 collectibles waiting to be collected... it'd be quite a feat if you can retrieve every single one of them.
Franken-Stitch is one cool looking doll.
The game's localized for seven languages - English, Russian, German, Spanish, French, Italian, and Dutch.

Turn on the fan to get that collectible

Cons:
I have a couple of pointers here that you should know about. I can't say that they are all cons, but you should at least be aware of some of the downsides to Lost Head.

Depending on your mileage, you'll either whizz through the game in no time at all, or you'll be frustrated by the game's uncanny difficulty.
You can't possibly click as fast with a mouse (or worse - touch pad, or even worse - pointing stick)... nothing beats playing Lost Head on an iOS device where you can just tap away like the best finger tap dancer ever.

I can't remember but was there a collectible in level 8?

Once you start a level, the clock starts ticking; so if you want to collect the maximum reward of three stars, you can't afford to dawdle at all. At the very most, you'll be pressing the reset button like crazy to retry the level - again and again.
You can't tell where the collectibles are hiding without entering to play a level.
To reduce the game's difficulty, you will find that you can actually skip levels of an unlocked world with impunity. I would have preferred a limited number of level unlocks.
Puzzles of this kind tend to have poor replayability (unlike say Tetris or Puzzle Bobble); once you complete a level, you won't likely go back to replay it.
There's no level editor to expand the game on your own.

There's going to be some resistance here

Daily PC Game Review Score: 7 / 10
Review Date: 8 Sep 2012

Tower Wars

2012-09-05T22:18:00.000+08:00

Game Category: Strategy - Tower Defense, Real Time
Developer / Distributor: Supervillain Studios
Release Date: 15 Aug 2012
Rating: Not Rated

Tower Wars is a fun and well-balanced competitive style multiplayer game that features tower offense and defense mechanics on a handful of beautiful 3D hex-based game maps.

Ever been jaded by lackluster AI in a tower defense game? Fancy going one on one, two on two, or even three on three in competitive multiplayer games against other players? Prefer to purchase readily available technologies instead of waiting for them to be handed to you on a silver platter in some boring single player campaign? Crazy over hex-based maps?

Get ready for Tower Wars!

Well, it seems Supervillain Sudios has the answers to address all of the above. Their latest game - Tower Wars released a few scant weeks ago is already the talk of the forums as players rush to play ranked matches to place themselves higher on the global leaderboards.

Come join in the fun today! Here's why...

Quickplay is the fastest way to get into an online match

Tower Wars is a game that focuses on multiplayer team play competitive matches. Games are played on a hexagon map and the game play is based on real-time tower offense and defense - that is to say you decide the makeup of your units marching towards the enemy castle while simultaneously strategizing how you defend your base against units deployed by your enemy.

Tower Wars may focus on competitive multiplayer, but there's a playable tutorial as well as the inclusion of a single player classic tower defense mode - good for days when you can't connect to the Internet.

The tutorial takes you through much territory. You start on a battlefield where you can see a red and blue castle; you control red in the tutorial. You can navigate the battlefield with your keyboard and start building your first few towers to take down a couple of enemy troops heading your way. You can clearly see the path that troops will take, so start planning where you want to place your towers.

Building a tower simply involves clicking on a hexagon and then choosing the type of tower you wish to build via a radial menu. There are 8 types of towers ranging from light and heavy projectile towers, to shield removers, and more. Tower Wars has a speed build function: with a touch of the Shift key and a click of the mouse, you can erect the same type of tower you last built - a nifty little feature indeed.

Placing my very first tower

What good is a tower defense game if you can't take to the offense? Well, with Tower Wars, all you have to do is make use of the interface at the center bottom of the screen, pick the units you want to deploy, and then click on the launch button to see your troops go marching along the path of your color. It would do you well to find the best mix of troops to send against your enemies, especially when you go up against a meandering path specially prepared by your enemy.

You can't exactly launch your troops any time you wish; there's a cooldown timer to consider, plus you need enough gold to pay for the costs of building these troops. Luckily, there are mines found on the map where you can purchase and deploy miners to nab you even more of the yellow ore.

There are 3 miners here digging up gold for me

Tower Wars features an upgrade and tech tree research system. Upgrading towers and units requires gold; there is however a catch with units - you don't have access to all units from the start. For that, you'll need Battle Points (BP). BP is used (together with gold) to unlock new units and to introduce unit enhancements; BP can also be used to upgrade mines. You earn BP by sending out troops - the longer they survive their trek, the more BP you'll get.

Unlocking new units and introducing unit enhancements is performed by clicking on the top two grey buttons (Units and Barracks Tech Trees) found next to the Launch button (see bottom right of screenshot). Both options bring up unique tech trees where you can pick the items you wish to unlock. Units include typical cannon fodder, fast units, healing units, special transporters, and huge hulking behemoths. Unit enhancements allow your troops to move faster, and can also award them with more health, armor, shields, and more.

The Unit Tech Tree

Game play between players can be quite frantic as both sides rush to build a complicated maze lined with defense towers. Early units deployed by players are usually equipped with armor, while more advanced ones are equipped with shields. You will find it necessary to include towers that can whittle down the shields of your enemy's troops.

More importantly, you must strive to balance between upgrading your towers, units, and mines. Don't forget to research unit enhancements via the Barracks Tech Tree, you'll need to have every possible advantage to defeat experienced players.

Game over for the blue player... I win!

If you fail to put up a solid defense, then enemies will eventually arrive at your castle. Your castle is equipped with gun turrets that will do their best to take down the force laying siege to it. Don't forget to upgrade your castle defenses as well, as this literally forms the last line of defense before it's game over for you.

One other nice feature added to Tower Wars is this - if your castle accumulates enough damage, you can give your next round of troops a stat boost via the A.R.G. (Agitated Retaliation Gauge) button. Boy, will the enemy be in for a surprise!

I actually got myself whupped on my very first attempt

Tower Wars really looks beautiful for a tower defense game. The game can be zoomed in if you want to take a front row seat as you follow troops down their path. You will notice the 3D models used feature quite a good amount of detail and are animated very smoothly. The towers also look very lively as they pivot about to follow their enemies, and you can't help but admire how lovely some of the upgraded towers look. Even though there are a ton of objects on the screen, the Torque 3D engine does a pretty good job of keeping everything in check.

The soundtrack to Tower Wars features quite upbeat battle pieces that will help put you in the mood for a frantic battle. The sound effects are specially tailored for each tower and unit type so that you can easily identify them over the din of battle.

The user interface looks very well organized

Pros:
Tower Wars is a game that exemplifies the qualities of an excellent tower defense game. Truth be told, I am glad that Supervillain Studios had taken the bold step to focus on the competitive multiplayer aspect; nothing beats playing against another player (or team of players).

The tutorial does a thorough job of explaining the main concepts in the game.
The game is well balanced with several approaches you can take to win a battle.
Tower Wars features lots of interesting towers that can be upgraded.
There's lots of fun traversing the two tech trees in the game as you uncover new units and enhancements waiting to be unlocked.
You can try your hand at getting a good placing on the global leaderboards.

Tower-opolis

You have the choice of playing unranked matches for practice games.
The game features many neat features like the A.R.G (described above), a mega-tower (six hexagons in size) that belches lava, and a castle that can be upgraded with ammunition and defenses. The game even throws in a method of reducing the possibility of ping-ponging troops along a path; the affected units get a temporary incentive boost.
The graphical detail is simply gorgeous in Tower Wars; you should love how every unit and structure looks lively and animated.
All this is supplemented by the good sound effects and soundtrack.

Pay attention to the tutorial

Cons:
Seems like there's only a bit for me to nitpick here.

You only get 3 map themes and a small handful of levels in Tower Wars; I am hoping this will be rectified shortly by a DLC (or perhaps a free patch).
Slightly long load time on the first startup.
A typical ranked or unranked match lasts at least two to three hours [Edit: ~~an hour~~], so you have to make sure you can commit to a lengthy game.
The single player tower defense mode is an endless game mode that offers little depth beyond the basic game play.

Single player classic TD mode - so what's next?

Daily PC Game Review Score: 8.5 / 10
Review Date: 5 Sep 2012

[iOS] Deep Sea Catch

2012-09-04T00:30:00.001+08:00

Click image to shop online

[Editor - I recently caught up with Mr. Alvin Yap, founder and CEO of Nexgen Studios, a game company born and bred here in tropical Singapore. He took the time to demonstrate his company's latest iOS game to me - Deep Sea Catch. I was duly impressed by what I saw and would love to introduce it to our readers.]

Game Category: Action
Developer / Distributor: Nexgen Studios
Release Date: 17 Jun 2012
Rating: Apple - 12+

Fancy a free game from the Apple Store that doubles as both a single and multiplayer game as well as a great looking aquarium? Well then, Deep Sea Catch is just what you will need on your iOS device today.

A good catch indeed

Deep Sea Catch delivers a great deal of fun as an underwater action game, plus it also looks superb at the same time. You see, the game was designed with the iPad 3 in mind so it's no wonder you'll gawk at the enhanced graphics. Take for example, the many different types of sea creatures found living at the bottom of the deep blue ocean - they all look so alive swimming lazily across your screen.

The game has you exploring the sea bed in your submarine. You'll be manning a harpoon via a steampunk style interface found at the center bottom of the screen. To fire your weapon, you must tap within the marked semi-circle displayed in front of your harpoon turret. Doing so launches your weapon and will cost you some gold coins.

Look at all them fishies

If your shot hits, a net will deploy to catch the sea creature. All captured sea creatures nets you gold coins in return, so nab as many as you can. You will be earning experience points as you play; higher levels will give you the ability to catch bigger fish. If you capture enough of a type of sea creature, you will also unlock random bonuses.

Another feature in the game is the presence of a treasure chest. To find the chest, you must tilt your iOS device to pan the map. Once you see the chest, you launch your diver to retrieve it for even more treasure. If you feel like you're running short of gold coins, you can always proceed to make an in-game App purchase to aid you in your quest.

Four-player mayhem

While exploring the sea floor, you may chance upon special areas of the game. There's a whale breeding ground and shark infested waters to look out for. And when you're done playing, there's an Aquarium mode - this area is meant for you to de-stress yourself; while admiring the fish of course!

Deep Sea Catch allows up to 4 players to participate in some incredible multiplayer fishing fun; watch out as friends seek to snatch away your prey. I found this party game element to be tremendous fun, although you will have to watch out for overzealous players who tap your iOS device a bit too hard.

Me and my aquarium

Pros:

Simple and fun gameplay that even a kid can master; just tap and shoot.
Straightfoward tutorial.
Enhanced colorful graphics and slick animation of fishes.
A number of surprising goodies and hidden areas to uncover.
Excellent multiplayer party game fun!
Not forgetting, you get a mighty cool looking aquarium mode.

Cons:

Panning is a bit too slow for my tastes.
Game gets repetitive after a while.
I would have preferred paying for Deep Sea Catch up front instead of relying on making in-game App purchases to fuel my fun.

Fuel your fun with more gold coins!

Daily PC Game Review Score: 8 / 10
Review Date: 28 Aug 2012

September 2012 Release-O-Meter

2012-09-01T22:42:00.003+08:00

Here's the Release-O-Meter for the month of September arranged in alphabetical order. We do our best to ensure accuracy of this list, however release dates may not always be met due to unforeseen circumstances. If you have any queries or would like to add to the list, please write to editor@dailypcgamereviews.com.

Sep 2012 Release-O-Meter

AirMech by Carbon Games (Labels: Free to Play, Action, Strategy)
Blood Knights by Studio Deck 13 / dtp entertainment (Labels: RPG, Action)
Borderlands 2 by 2K Games (Labels: Action, RPG) - 18 Sep 2012
Carrier Command: Gaea Mission by Bohemia Interactive (Labels: Action, Strategy) - 27 Sep 2012

AirMech

Color Bind by Finn Morgan / Puppy Punch Productions (Labels: Platformer, Action) - 25 Sep 2012
Dogfight 1942 by City Interactive (Labels: Action, Simulation) - 5 Sep 2012
District 187: Sin Streets by Netmarble / CJ E&M Corp. (Labels: FPS, Online) - 18 Sep 2012
Dungeon Gate by Wild Games Studio (Labels: RPG, Action) - 14 Sep 2012

Color Bind

F1 2012 by Codemasters Studio Birmingham / Codemasters (Labels: Racing) - 18 Sep 2012
FIFA Soccer 13 by EA (Labels: Sports, Action, Simulation) - 25 Sep 2012
Frost Wars: The Rise of Fatty Sparkles by Lantern (Labels: Strategy, Turn Based)
Full Ace Tennis Simulator by Galactic Gaming Guild / Lace Mamba Global (Labels: Sports, Simulation) - 7 Sep 2012

F1 2012

Holy Avatar vs Maidens of the Dead by Silent Dreams / Headup Games (Labels: RPG, Strategy)
Home by Benjamin Rivers (Labels: Adventure, Horror) - 1 Sep 2012
Miner Wars 2081 by Keen Software House (Labels: FPS, Simulation, Sci Fi) - 17 Sep 2012
Path of Exile by Grinding Gear Games (Labels: Free to Play, Online, Action, RPG, Fantasy)

Path of Exile

Secret Files 3 by Deep Silver (Labels: Adventure) - 14 Sep 2012
Shad'O by Okugi Studios (Labels: Action, Strategy) - 4 Sep 2012
Stained by Realaxis Software (Labels: Platformer, Action) - 13 Sep 2012
The Testament of Sherlock Holmes by Frogwares / Focus Home Interactive (Labels: Adventure, Investigation) - 20 Sep 2012
Train Simulator 2013 by RailSimulator.com (Labels: Simulation) - 20 Sep 2012

Shad'O

Tryst by BlueGiant Interactive (Labels: Action, Strategy) - 15 Sep 2012
Vampires! by CBE Software (Labels: Puzzle)
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria by Blizzard Entertainment (Labels: MMORPG) - 25 Sep 2012
WSF Squash 2012 by Team 6 / Lace Mamba Global (Labels: Sports)
WWE WrestleFest by Seed Studio / THQ (Labels: Action, Casual, Sports)

Vampires!

Scania Truck Driving Simulator - The Game

2012-09-01T13:32:00.001+08:00

Game Category: Simulation
Developer / Distributor: SCS Software / Rondomedia
Release Date: 12 Jun 2012
Rating: PEGI 3

Click image to shop online

This is possibly one of the most ultra-realistic truck simulators that I've ever had the chance to play, and the refreshing experience is unabashedly backed by no other than the Scania Group themselves.

It looks like Czechoslovakian developers SCS Software have come a long way after their many years of developing truck simulation games. In case you are not familiar with them, then perhaps this review of 18 Wheels of Steel: Pedal to the Metal will jog your memory.

Yes, the developers of Bus Driver, the Hunting Unlimited series, the 18 Wheels of Steel series, and the Euro Truck Simulator series, are back with Scania Truck Driving Simulator - The Game, one of their most impressive games to date. For convenience, I shall be abbreviating the game as "Scania TDS" for the remainder of the review.

There's one thing I have to say before moving on: Boy, do the trucks in Scania TDS look powerful, sexy, and ultra-sleek. This is a truck driving simulation dream game come true!

Enough talking, let's start driving already!

If you checked the website for Scania TDS, you will find that there are currently two demo versions of the game - a Full and an Extended version. The former is the complete game while the latter adds a bonus media gallery that contains some great Scania 18-wheeler eye candy to ogle at. Do note that the Extended version clocks in at 1.5 GB, but I feel that it is definitely worth your time.

You should also not forget to apply the latest update as new content has been added to Scania TDS; in fact, this review is taking reference from version 1.4.0. Before you being, you have to create a profile: choose an image to represent yourself, decide the appearance of your truck, and pick whether you prefer your steering wheel on your left or right.

Pay attention here and get your Driving License

After creating your profile, you can choose to play from six interactive modes: Driving License, Driver Competition, Dangerous Drives, Freeform Driving, Time Reaction Test, and the aforementioned Gallery and Media. The first five modes will feature a challenge list, while the last option is a series of special videos and slideshows that is very educational, exciting, and at times nail-biting.

Driving License is the first game mode you should attempt when you first start off with Scania TDS. It contains 10 challenges that cover simple tasks like a brake test, straight line reversing, to more sophisticated maneuvers like the stress inducing backward serpentine. The biggest challenge for first time truck drivers will undoubtedly be the offset reverse challenges; once you master that, you'll be on your way to passing this challenge series with flying colors.

Inch by careful inch

Driver Competition takes you through a series of events that are inspired by the annual Young European Truck Driver (YETD) Competition. Precision is not only important in the 13 challenges lined up for you, but you'll also need to be swift and resolute in your driving skills. The entire series culminates with a reenactment of the actual finale from the YETD - can you step up to the challenge of dropping the red poles with just the use of your truck?

Dangerous Drives changes the pace by taking you on scenic driving routes that are not only perilous, you'll need nerves of steel to maneuver through some of them. There are 15 challenges that will bring you to narrow and curvaceous mountain roads, surviving sticky short cut situations, and trying your hand at completing nerve wracking bridge crossings.

All too real!

Freeform Driving brings you 2 challenges. The first takes you to a fictitious industrial city and its rural environs. The second challenge brings you to a virtual version of the Scania Demo Centre located in Södertälje, Sweden. Keep on the lookout for Scania logos scattered on the map; it's like a mini treasure hunt for those who like this kind of game play.

You have a handy map that will help you navigate; use it to visit marked green circles where simple jobs await you or pick the red circles if you want to try your hand at trickier delivery parking situations. Once at a job, you only need attach the trailer and then find your way to the delivery point. If you do your job perfectly without damaging the goods and complete it in good time, you will be awarded points.

Deliver the trailer over at the marked spot

Time Reaction Test features 4 challenges that finds out how fast you react to a hazard that suddenly springs out in front of your truck.

As you can see, there's a lot of activities for you to see and do. Whereas the game's predecessor - Euro Truck Driver relied a lot on freeform driving, it seems Scania TDS is happy to supply you with challenge after challenge to test your mettle (and throw in a little freeform driving at the same time). Now that is a really good thing!

But this leads to the next question: How's the driving experience like with Scania TDS?

The top down view

Driving a truck in Scania TDS is an incredible experience. I'm no trucker, but the things you can do with this game can put some so-called aircraft simulators to shame!

You have a fully functional dashboard and the extra option to display a tachometer in greater detail. The wing mirrors are really big and do an excellent job of raising your situational awareness. You can even use your mouse to pan your view around the cabin. There's a complete set of steering controls (via keyboard, mouse, or controller) including automatic and sequential transmission. You also get a working set of indicators, lights, wipers, and cruise control. Finally, there are 8 camera views to play with: there's cabin view, bumper view, and top view; just to name a few.

But most importantly - operating a Scania 18-wheeler feels very very real in Scania TDS.

Keep to your lane or suffer a penalty

Scania TDS is a game that excels in its graphics. The interior of a Scania R-series truck looks nicely reproduced, right down to the dashboard. I would have loved to have seen more gadgets (like an in-built GPS) as well as the beds in the truck, but will have to make do with the current truck model view provided for. The exterior landscape is accurately detailed - a lot of effort has gone into making them and you can tell by all the little details that have gone into the cities, rural areas, and competition grounds.

The driving experience is reinforced by the powerful and authentic sound effects - hear the low engine sounds and bask in all the wonderful resonance as you put your truck into gear; the sound team have truly done an incredible job here (as you will see in the bonus video found in the gallery). At the same time, you'll also love the music that powers the main interface and the game. You have the guys over at Silentnoise Audio Productions to thank for their hard work here.

Care for a spin in the wee hours of the morning?

Pros:
Scania Truck Driving Simulator - The Game is an impressive simulation game that should get more attention than it currently deserves. A lot of quality, detail, and hard work has gone into the making of this niche simulation game, and it comes highly recommended!

There's a whole lot of challenging game modes to play through in Scania TDS. From driving school, to the challenging YETD mock-up, to the impressive vistas in a series of dangerous drives, and to the freeform driving where you seek to accumulate as many points as possible.
The freeform driving mode even simulates traffic and pedestrians.

The hustle and bustle of city driving

There's unparalleled beauty in Scania TDS in terms of graphics; you'll even love the occasional rain as it splatters on your window.
You'll fall in love with the accurate sound recordings taken from an actual Scania truck.
There's an online leaderboard for every challenge; check out how your truck driving skill compares with players from all over the world.
The gallery and media found in the Extended Version is worth the download, so go for it.
There's enough material here fit for serious truck driving simulation lovers and everyone else who loves a high quality game. Don't expect a racing game from Scania TDS, because it's not!

Cons:
Just a few minor points to raise here in this advertising vehicle for the Scania Group.

Except for the first two challenges in each mode, the remainder are locked.
You may score terribly in a non-competitive challenge, but if you cross the finish line you'll still get to unlock the next challenge. The Driving Competition segment is dependent on you not triggering a fail condition.
Although there is a lot of variety in terms of challenges, there is a dearth of choices in the number of available rides and cargo. That means you'll only get to drive the Scania R-type truck and can't get to choose the cargo you wish to haul without travelling to another location in freeform driving mode.

Are we there yet? I can't bear to look...

Daily PC Game Review Score: 8.5 / 10
Review Date: 1 Sep 2012

Strategic War in Europe

2012-08-29T12:12:00.001+08:00

Game Category: Strategy - Turn Based, Military, History
Developer / Distributor: Wasteland Interactive / Matrix Games and Slitherine
Release Date: 8 Jun 2012

Rating: Not Rated

Strategic War in Europe takes you through some mighty fun scenarios that took place in World War II. The game is also easy to get into and serves as a good introduction to wargaming.

The last time I reviewed a game from Wasteland Interactive was in February this year. Back then I was exploring World War II - Time of Wrath, a game released in 2009 which was in my opinion a rather decent war game.

Since the release of Time of Wrath, the developers have released other military wargames; they did Air Aces: Pacific (which is actually an aircraft simulator game), Storm over the Pacific, and Time of Fury. Now, that's quite a lot of great stuff released by them, so it's no surprise that I am keeping my eyes on Wasteland Interactive. And you should too.

Today's focus is however on their latest release - Strategic War in Europe (or SWiE for short). After playing SWiE, I must say that Wasteland Interactive seems to have made a game that is very accessible to players new to wargaming. So, if you're looking to try your hand at board gaming on your PC, then read on...

"So wie wir kämpfen. Arbeite dú für den Sieg"

SWiE is a turn-based strategy game that takes you through six tense scenarios that took place in World War II during the period of 1939 to 1944. You will get to play through from the start of the war in a grand campaign lasting 70 turns, or try your hand at the shorter campaigns.

The game covers the period of the Phoney War which culminated in the invasion of Denmark and Norway, Operation Barbarossa and Operation Fall Blau (or also known as Case Blue) - both periods cover Germany's attempt at taking over large swaths of Russia. Then, there's the Battle for Stalingrad and the closing days of World War II to try out.

The Battle for Stalingrad

SWiE comes with an eight scenario tutorial that introduces to you the concepts of the game one feature at a time. The first scenario covers the game and the user interface - something which you should pay attention to. This is followed closely by a quick lesson on how to navigate the map.

Equally important are tutorial scenarios that cover managing and deploying units, attacking with land units, learning the finer points about launching a multi-direction attack, controlling your air and naval units, and transporting your units. With version 1.03, I encountered problems completing the last two tutorial scenarios, but I doubt if I missed much. You can learn these concepts just by playing the game alone.

You'll need Production Points (PP) to purchase units

To start playing a scenario, you can either choose Quick Start or Custom Game modes. The former places you in the role of either the Axis, the Allies, or USSR. From here, you will control several countries belonging to one of these factions. For example, playing as the Allies in the grand campaign allowed me to move troops for Great Britain, France, Poland, Iraq, and Canada in turn.

Alternatively, the latter option allows you to choose to play as any one of the 25 available countries in the game; you can also select from five difficulty settings here. One thing unique about Custom Game mode is that you may choose to start a PBEM (play-by-email) campaign here; assigning up to a maximum of 4 players to play in a scenario.

Setting up a two player PBEM battle

Game play in SWiE is simple and the action comes at you thick and fast. On top of the tutorial, you also have a Getting Started PDF document installed to your game folder. This handy little document will handhold you through setting up the default scenario and running through your first turn of the game in 15 easy steps. If that's not enough, there is also a 68 page PDF game manual waiting for you.

The User interface is designed so that all the information you need is displayed before you. The General Information Bar at the top center tells you the most important data you need - like how many production points and strategic movement points you have. The mini-map at top left allows you to zoom in/out to several levels as well as toggle special display modes.

Buttons and information are arranged neatly around the screen

Below your country flag are buttons to cycle through all your units, and to the left of it are four buttons that access several useful little popup panels. From left to right they are, Hex: shows information about a hexagon on the map, Battle: views the odds ("battle ratio") for an upcoming battle, Unit: displays information about a unit, and Diplomacy: allows you to check up on diplomatic relations for a selected country.

Your main menu lies along the right side of the screen. You will be accessing these buttons frequently to call up windows to purchase and deploy new units, choose a research option (for access to bigger and better weapons of war), and to view a comprehensive list of reports.

Viewing a report on the USSR

Your units comprise a large range of land, sea, and air troops. You start a battle via a two step click procedure; click on your unit and then click on the enemy. You can launch multi-directional attacks very easily, just select the supporting units after clicking on the primary unit. Movement is rather straightforward, and land units can even be transported on rail networks to far flung places.

Air units can perform reconnaissance, tactical bombing, or strategic bombing (the latter is used against enemy cities to deprive them of Production Points). To perform some of these special moves (such as re-deploying a land unit via the rail network), you will need to access a range of icons found at the bottom of the screen; these icons change depending on the type of unit selected.

Naval unit movement is not hex based, they move via sea zones and sea battles can even be auto-resolved if you so desire.

Blockade sea lines of communication

The entire SWiE campaign is fought on a beautiful map that covers as far south as North Africa; the map is 68 hexes wide and 47 hexes high which is more than enough to reenact some serious World War II history. Terrain details look rather abstract, with strange looking icons used to represent hills and mountains; I have seen much better artwork on actual board games. The unit artwork looks pretty nice, but do note they are not animated in any way.

The selection of game music is militaristic and boisterous, which suits the game just fine. The sound effects also do a modest job of evoking the sense of a raging battle.

USA and Canada are kind of relegated to one side of the map

Pros:
Considering the ease with which you can get into the game and the competitive price point, Strategic War in Europe comes across as a good recommendation for those who love military wargames but are afraid of the complexity associated with it.

An investment in SWiE would be a good choice for players wanting to delve into wargaming. It is not as overly complex as compared with other releases from Wasteland Interactive. Take a look at the game play trailer below.
Campaigns are of a reasonable length (only 70 turns max) and not like the 300 turn mega-campaigns that you might find elsewhere.
My favorite part of the game is the ease with which I can launch multi-directional attacks. Groovy!

You get to choose to play as any of the 25 countries available in the game.
There are five difficulty levels that either give you a bonus or penalty to your Production Points. The AI is also quite capable, so don't think you will go walking away with a victory every time.
The soundtrack and sound effects are pretty riveting stuff.
There's a PBEM mode built into the game.
Wasteland Interactive has even released a game editor for Strategic War in Europe.

Editing an existing scenario

Cons:
There's not too much to complain here, but you must know that I had some minor technical problems with the game. And if you are looking for something more complicated, please look away.

The scenarios all look very similar since there is only one map available.
To simplify matters, some areas of the game has been dumbed down, most notably Research and Diplomacy.
The stability of Strategic War in Europe needs to be further improved; I encountered minor technical issues during game play, so expect a few more patches to resolve them.
There is actually some depth to game play in the naval side of the house; remember to change your preferences to enable convoys and to not auto-resolve naval battles for a more complete wargaming experience.

When diplomacy ends, War begins!

Daily PC Game Review Score: 7 / 10
Review Date: 29 Aug 2012

Dual Custody

2012-08-26T23:59:00.000+08:00

Game Category: Platformer - Arcade, Online, Free-to-play
Developer / Distributor: Badger Games
Release Date: 4 Aug 2012
Rating: ESRB - Not rated

Click image to shop online

Dual Custody is an HTML 5 game that will surprise you with its original gameplay and retro appeal. Programmed using Scirra's Construct 2, Badger Games (based in Seattle) have come up with a game that is surely a crowd pleaser. After all, there's an innocent and cute little baby involved in the game.

Welcome to Dual Custody

You will be controlling Robot 8, an indestructible robot who has the responsibility of carrying endearing baby Sammy through an underground base laden with traps. The robot may be invincible against the traps blocking its way, but not sweet Sammy. To disarm the traps, the robot must put the baby down, but this will cause baby's Happy meter to start depleting. The game is over if the meter reaches zero.

Don't cry, Sammy

You will surely ask - now why is Robot 8 bringing Sammy to the surface? Was Sammy kidnapped?

No, of course not.

There is a reason after all for the game to sport a title like Dual Custody. You see, a brilliant criminal scientist and his megalomaniac wife have dual custody of Sammy. And it just so happens that both of them had been living at the bottom of a well-defended secret underground base built by the doctor. That is, until they got divorced.

Just starting out on Level 1

It just so happens that today Mom has custody of Sammy. So, it's up to Robot 8 to bring him to the surface to hand over Sammy before she starts filing a complaint for Dad's poor sense of punctuality.

After reading the amusing back story, you can get acquainted with the game mechanics and then start off on the first level. Helping Robot 8 along the journey will be the mainframe computer known as Robaba, you can talk to it by accessing hulking interface consoles you find along the way. You will sometimes get subtle hints from Robaba, so pay attention.

Find the elevator that brings you to the next level

If a trap ever hits Robot 8 while it's carrying Sammy, the robot's defenses are activated and the poor little baby is going to cry his heart out. You also lose some points from the Happy meter shown at the top left. The trick to playing Dual Custody is to know when to put Sammy down and to use Robot 8 to destroy any pesky traps that is currently preventing you from moving ahead. The minute you place Sammy on the ground however, he's going to start bawling and the happy meter will also start to deplete; rush back to Sammy as soon as you can.

One thing you have to do often in Dual Custody is to double jump. There are many hard-to-reach places in almost every level, so make sure you practice this skill. A lot.

Objectionable? I thought I did pretty well for a first timer

There is only one way to raise the level of the Happy meter - pick up toys scattered throughout the game's levels - every single one of these toys will help put a smile on Sammy's face.

To complete a level, you must find the elevator. It's usually located at the opposite end of the level and can only be reached after surviving blade traps on the ceiling, circular saws emerging from the floor or ceiling, standard and homing gun turrets, pits filled with green goo, and more. Once at the elevator, you will be assessed on your performance in several categories.

Life gets much harder on level 4

Pros:

Dual Custody features an original game play mechanic that has you transporting a baby from level to level.
Drop the baby and take out traps with your invincible robot, but don't leave Sammy alone for too long.
The game comes with an interesting story and the illustrations are actually well done.
The sprite animation and level graphics presents a good retro appeal to the sense. Baby looks especially cute when he's crying his heart out.
The music and sound effects help to elevate the gaming experience up several notches.

Watch out for those nasty gun turrets

Cons:

The Happy meter is not reset when moving on to the next level; this raises the difficulty bar to an obscene level... prepare to get frustrated.
There's just too much precision required for the double jump in some areas.
Dual Custody is a very short game; you can probably finish it in under an hour; more levels would have been appreciated. Here's hoping that Badger Games can flesh out the game even further.

Don't give up

Daily PC Game Review Score: 7.5 / 10
Review Date: 26 Aug 2012

Legends of Pegasus

2012-08-25T22:22:00.001+08:00

Game Category: Strategy - 4X, Science Fiction, Turn Based, Real-Time
Developer / Distributor: Novacore Studios / Kalypso Media
Release Date: 10 Aug 2012
Rating: PEGI 12 (provisional)

Click image to shop online

"Kalypso Media, the publisher who brought you critically acclaimed games such as Tropico 4, Sins of a Solar Empire, and Dungeons, will be bringing to you their largest and boldest release to date: Legends of Pegasus - a 4X simulation strategy science fiction game from Novacore Studios. After taking a look at the official videos, we can safely say that this year is going to get very hot for the 4X science fiction genre."

Was I crazy?

But those were the very prophetic words I used when I wrote the preview for the game a few weeks back. And guess what, it's getting very hot... but not in the way you'd think.

The hidden Morse code in the title should have been "S.O.S."

There have been many reports of several raging e-mobs taking on the tanks that have been deployed by Kalypso to shield Novacore Studios - the people responsible for Legends of Pegasus (LoP). And, the comments over at their forums are really heating up as player after player demand for a refund. You see, LoP stands as the game with the rockiest release that I've ever encountered.

I'm not going to bother with a proper breakdown of the game. There are so many problems plaguing LoP that it would be an injustice for me to tell you more about a game that's probably still in its alpha release state. It's a shame that this had to transpire and I feel bad for everyone caught up in the maelstrom.

You actually get real-time space battles in LoP

If you haven't yet bought the game, then please read the pros below followed with a close scrutiny of the cons.

Pros:
Legends of Pegasus looks really nice in some parts of the game, however don't be fooled by the length of this list. This is a game plagued by many problems, so don't forget to read the Cons below - that section happens to be much more interesting than this one.

Ship designs are impressive looking and the concept of modules add a nice touch to customization.
There's actually some nifty looking real-time space battles in Legends of Pegasus.
The cutscene artwork looks really nice.
You get three different user interface designs for each of the alien races in the game.
The game's epic space opera back story that comprise 12 missions (spanning 3 campaigns) is quite an interesting one.

The battleship simply looks incredible!

The voiceover is typically well done. For example, in a zoomed-in view a character's speech sounds normal, however when the same view zooms out to show the same person sitting at the head of a meeting room, you can hear the voice has a mild echo effect added to it.
The main theme sounds really well suited for a 4X game.
The race editor in skirmish mode seems to be quite complete.
The game seems to be quite easy to modify with a text editor; the core data files are in XML format.
There's actually a lot to do and see in the game (if only it was all working properly.)
The best part of the game was trying to complete each mission when presented with the (unfortunate set of technical) challenges placed before you.

If you can get this far, then you're one really patient player

Cons:
Get ready to read a really long list of cons; when a game's review is as long as the cons list, you'd best turn away from it in abject fear. This is one game that doesn't belong in your treasured game collection - not in its current state. For now, the game probably belongs under your favorite coffee cup as a nice shiny coaster (or if you don't have a physical copy, try the Recycle Bin) - and that's me being real nice about the entire debacle.

After installing LoP on day one of its release... I found I couldn't even log into the game.
Legends of Pegasus is still an unstable game that crashes; even though I voluntarily placed myself on a two week sabbatical to give the game a chance to get patched. Looks like that didn't work at all. I guess I shouldn't have given it two weeks, two months perhaps?

You probably won't get this far into LoP without
encountering a couple of its game shattering bugs

Saving your game seems to work, but loading your game - well that's another story altogether.
The AI appears to still be in its infancy.
You have to contend with a convoluted user interface.
The tutorial (if you could call it that) is in my opinion poorly executed.
Good luck trying to figure out how to build your very first ship. I found out, the hard way - through experimentation.
The planet interface screen with it's diamond layout for building structures feels too small and is troublesome to navigate.
Text that appears on the screen is clipped, making you guess what it actually means. It doesn't help when you have to guess your next objective.
User interface text uses the tiniest of fonts ever.

You need to design a ship first before it appears here

There is no research tech tree available for players as a handy reference. You will wind up guessing what you will find next.
The diplomacy interface seems to be a sham. Is it even working as advertised?
The real-time strategy segments offer no fun other than that it's just pure tonnage that wins the battle. What's the point of all that research when you can do nothing spectacular with all that gadgetry?
There's appears to be no way to retreat from a heated RTS space battle. Even when it's down to a swarm of enemy ships against your straggling survivors, you have to wait for your ships to be taken out before you can return to the turn-based aspect of the game. If not, it's time to hit the ALT-F4 button... again.
The game comes with one of the worst fleet management systems ever conceived; fancy dragging and dropping text in a sub-panel till you form several groups in your fleet? I don't think so...

If only the developers had done more research on Research

There is no detailed in-built encyclopedia or handy tool tips system.
Systems have only a few planets that remain static throughout the game.
Don't even think of attempting a planetary invasion; I got a consistent CTD every time.
You only get three races to choose from.
Although you can play against 7 enemies in skirmish mode, you can select only one AI opponent. Now, if only you can find that workaround hiding somewhere in the forums.
There are way too many other minor bugs to mention.
There's even a thread on Kalypso's forum addressing refunds. If you ask me, this probably looks better belonging in the list of pros... at least you get a couple of great Kalypso games for free.

Radar like emanations around habitable planets,
asteroid clusters, jumpgates, that's about it... Bare!

Conclusion

As your writer has a software engineering background, I must profess that if there ever was a post mortem to this game, I'd gladly dissect every word of it. This stands as one of the worst releases ever in a high profile AAA game, and every developer can learn from it.

[Editor: If there ever was a list for top IT gaming disasters like this list, then Legends of Pegasus deserves a place there.]

But, as it stands, this sorry mess should be avoided until Novacore Studios has done enough to redeem themselves; and that's probably after a dozen more patches. In truth, there is a 4X game hiding under the entire mess that is Legends of Pegasus, but I don't recommend you stick around to watch what happens - for at least the next few months.

What? Only one AI opponent in Skirmish mode

Daily PC Game Review Score: 3 / 10
Review Date: 25 Aug 2012

Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack

2012-08-23T23:59:00.000+08:00

Game Category: Action - Platformer, Puzzle
Developer / Distributor: Drinkbox Studios
Release Date: 15 Aug 2012
Rating: ESRB - Everyone (10+)

Click image to shop online

Summary
Take control of a mutant blob who escapes from a science lab and is unleashed upon an unsuspecting world. Gobble your way in "Tales from Space: Mutant Blob Attacks", a game that is loaded with interesting action style puzzles and many light-hearted comical scenes.

Introduction
Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack (TfS:MBA) is actually the second game in the series from DrinkBox Studios; the first game titled Tales from Space: About a Blob was a PlayStation Network only release. Both games feature an alien blob like creature from outer space who has come to Earth to gobble, gobble and GOBBLE!

Mutant Blobs... and lots of them!

In TfS:MBA, the story starts off with a little mutant blob captured in the Humane Blob Torture Research Center together with the rest of his friends. As our little blob thinks back on all the torture he has endured, he transforms into something more sinister. The next time a scientist reaches out to grab him, the blob attacks and manages to escape from his cell. He frees all other blob specimens in the research center and then quietly finds a way out of the building.

The game's level selection screen is where you get to play through (in a linear fashion) twenty four fun levels. These levels are further divided into 6 areas - namely College, Town, Moon, Badlands, Army Base, and Metropolis. You will also encounter 5 secret mini-game levels waiting for you on your journey.

Six distinct themes to explore

The game's premise is real simple - reach the exit point in a level. Each level in the game is divided into several different parts. To go to a new part of the level, you must absorb a cork that acts as an obstacle. You take on the role of the mutant blob who can absorb anything that is smaller than it. Once it absorbs an object, the blob will start to grow in size. Keep at it until the blob is bigger than the obstacle blocking you, and you will be able to advance to a different part of the level.

Most of the time you be running and jumping in the game, however you will encounter a set of green panels that will magically zap the mutant blob and change it into a floating circular balloon that moves by spewing out a contrail from its rear (like a jet fighter does). In this mode, you can fly all over the level and reach places that you could not reach before.

Keep on gobbling until you reach the required size

Most often, you will encounter puzzles where you will either need to put on your thinking cap or engage in a series of action sequences that will test your dexterity. You may find yourself getting the mutant blob to activate switches, slam and break through fragile flooring, jet around at high speed, use your mouse pointer to move platforms along pre-defined axes, rotate platforms anchored to a pivot point with your mouse, or activate a magnetize ability to either be attracted to or repelled from metal.

Your mutant blob has a health bar at the upper left corner. Watch out for spikes, fire, and other hazards that will harm your blob. If your health bar reaches zero, the blob will respawn at the last checkpoint (represented by a glowing yellow circle). Fortunately, your health bar is replenished whenever you reach a checkpoint.

You'll love the magnetic attraction and repulsion feature

TfS:MBA does a great job of giving you different tasks to perform in each part of the level; at least all this variety will keep you on your toes as to what to expect next. And whenever the blob has to transit from one part of the level to another, it will wind up whizzing around through pipes at such dizzying speeds that you will marvel at how fast it can move in the game.

You will uncover 5 secret mini-game levels as you play the game. These are cool little reward style levels that will bring back memories of retro action games. You will thrill at seeing your blob grow in size just like what you might have experienced before in games like LocoRoco and Katamari Damacy. You will also get to play a tilt maze mini-game that has you guiding your blob through a labyrinth.

Tilt Maze time

The graphics in TfS:MBA feature great looking sprites and slick looking animation. Although the mutant blob itself reminds me of the way Gish moves, you will be delighted to know that the mutant blob will additionally show the contents of what it is currently digesting undeniably gross but absolutely gratifying.

The level designs are truly ingenious, with some devilishly tricky action sequences in the later levels. Watch out for the funny sign boards (often depicting other games) appearing in the background; you can find them plastered all over the levels.

Didn't I just review Awesomenuts... I mean Awesomenauts?

The cutscenes for completing every area is a great fun to watch, thanks to the two ugly reporters who speak in utter gibberish. The sound track definitely has a science fiction feel to it; it is not only lively, it also features catchy tunes. At the same time, you'll also enjoy the sound effects of your blob gobbling everything in sight, and you'll likely grow to love the sound of hapless citizens cowering in fear when you reach the later levels.

Pros:
You won't go wrong picking up Tales from Space: Mutant Blob Attacks - it's got character, action sequences, puzzles, and comedy all rolled into one fine package of gelatinous fun.

Watch out... a black hole

The game comes with 24 regular levels and 5 mini-game levels.
You will follow a story that tells of how the mutant blob grows from a tennis ball into a blob of gargantuan proportions.
You can aim for a good score to be awarded medals. Additionally, try and find the mutant blob's friends who are hidden throughout the levels.
The mutant blob has two forms of movement which makes for some interesting level designs.

Hit the plunger with the ball and out drop the crates

You will face many interesting puzzles that will need just a wee bit of thinking to solve them.
A level is usually divided into several parts with each part presenting to you different challenges. This keeps the game interesting and you - a happy gamer!
The background artwork hides many surprises, so keep your eyes peeled.
You can always check out the leaderboards to see if you qualify for first place on any of the levels.

Stuck in a level? No worries, look out for tips

Cons:
Check out the couple of cons raised below - nothing too distracting or debilitating?.

Players may find it difficult getting used to employing both the keyboard and mouse at the same time.
The action sequences requiring some dexterity can be tricky for casual players.
The sequel is supposed to feature blobs; too bad the extra blobs are relegated to bystander roles.
There's no multiplayer or co-op mode.
Can four hours of gameplay possibly be too short? Opinions differ greatly, but I thought I'd bring this up. If you are a perfectionist, then it's going to take you a lot longer to earn all the game's achievements.

This is how the world ends in 2012

Daily PC Game Review Score: 8 / 10
Review Date: 23 Aug 2012