Would I Hammerflight in the morning? Well uh, probably not. Like me you've probably seen this on special offer on the steam store for quite some time, until March the 2nd in fact so if you fancy trying this out there's a couple of days left to get it for the tiny sum of £2.50.
Except the question is: should anyone bother? I thought I'd give this a go and was immediately confronted with the "Unique Combat System" which indeed is unique, but also fairly unpredictable! It took me several adjustments of the mouse sensitivity before I felt it was anywhere near controlable.
The idea is that you have these flying machines that you control by dragging the mouse around the screen. Your flying machine is usually dragging around either a solid hammer/blade type weapon directly attatched to the ship, or some kind of rock on a chain. Either of which you can get to swing around your ship by moving the mouse in a fairly quick circular motion. In the real world that much mouse pushing causes quite a bit of racket and therefore much complaining from my fiance who kept shouting asking "what the hell I was doing up there?!!"
So while you're swinging your weapon around you then need to move your flying machine towards an enemy so that the swinging blade strikes their flying machine and hopefully damaging it significantly. This in itself is fine however aside from the fact that this is fairly difficult to get the hang of there are a couple of game design points that make this quite annoying.
Firstly the arenas, especially the earlier ones, are quite small and I often found myself having to wait for enemies to rush back into the area after I'd given them a good kicking. This left me swinging my weapon around with no specific purpose and no way of knowing exactly when I'd be next attacked. It's annoying because you can't time the rotational speed of your weapon as well to guard against their rush attacks.
Next are the supremely annoying character dialogue boxes that appear during a fight. If you hit an enemy hard enough sometimes a box will appear with their face and a caption going "Oh, my head!" But that dialogue box nearly always covers up the action that's happening behind it so you've no idea if you're accidently get tangled up with their weapon or if it's about to gently swing around and cause more damage than it probably should.
Aside from this I quite like the concept, swinging the weapons around is good fun once you get used to it and some battles can get quite tactical. It's usually the ones where you have no idea how you're going to be attacked which are frustrating, such as when you get attacked by many worm creatures. They just fly in randomly and tactical play just goes out of the window. However against one or more always-in-the-arena enemies it's a bit more fun and you can do a bit of clever dodging and attacking to win the round.
I quite liked the setting, a kind of Persian like society based around different houses ruling the known world. The story wasn't anything too special but at least it's there, providing a reason to keep going. The characters just didn't have much unique about them to make me care enough about what was happening and I almost completely tired of the game until the option to load up your own choice of weapons came along!
If I'm totally honest I don't think Hammerflight is for me. Like I said, the concept is good but there's quite a lot of annoying aspects to the gameplay that are frustrating. I should have tried the demo first but the small price tag lured me in. That's not to say that anyone else wouldn't like it just don't make my mistake, try before you buy!
Spotted a few good deals this weekend so thought I should share:
Firstly and the best offer I've spotted so far is Majesty 2, the kingdom simulation game which I reviewed a few months ago. Gamersgate are currently selling this for a wonderfully cheap price of £6.23 (which is probably about $10 or so.) If you've not picked this up yet that's a bargain for such a great game. Click here to take a look
Next Impulse are running an offer on Project Aftermath the indepedently made Arcade RPG-RTS game. I've only played the demo of this myself but was quite impressed at the time. If I remember correctly it's mostly about outfitting your hero and squad with the right weapons to deal with the enemies that are currently attacking. Anyway, you can check this out here (or if you're feeling super nice, by getting the impulse client from here first)
Finally Direct2Drive have a Strategy Game Sale on which also includes Majesty2 (but for 30 pence more the brigands!) as well as Tropico 3, Hearts Of Iron 2 & 3, CitiesXL (isnt't that a simulation game rather than strategy?), and Supreme Commander for under a fiver! Check it out here
Gearbox have released their 3rd and, aparantly largest DLC release for Borderlands to date. From what I've read about this it's actually a continuation of the story (although I can't remember where I read that so don't blame me if I've just made that up, I'm still feeling bad!)
This pack is named The Secret Armory Of General Knoxx and features some much tougher enemies and new areas to explore, although quite how many new areas to explore is not specified by the description. What is specified by the description is the level cap increase: previously capped at 50 it has been raised to 61. So it's been turned up to 11 - as the description on the steam store exclaims:
Borderlands goes to ELEVEN! You may have seen some games raise their level cap by 5, or maybe even 10, but with The Crimson Lance Assassination Squads wreaking havoc and Crawmerax the Invincible being all invulnerable and stuff we knew you'd need more than just 10. And that's why Borderlands goes to ELEVEN! The Secret Armory of General Knoxx adds new guns, new Class Mods, new vehicles, new missions, and increases the level cap by ELEVEN.
Which I thought was quite fun, although I'm not sure I see a resemblence between the pictured General Knoxx and any of the Spinal tap band members?
Presuming this actually is General Knoxx of course, I'm just assuming from the screenshots available! Anyway I've not even started the first zombie-based dlc they released months ago yet so it's unlikely I'll be getting this straight away but it certainly sounds more like what I expected their dlc releases to be like.
One of the reasons I love independent gaming so much is you get to see new concepts tested out. Puzzle RPGs are a result of this experiementation, giving us games such as Puzzle Quest.
Incubator Games are currently working on their latest title: Tribes Of Mexica which makes use of the match-3 mechanic but in circular arena rather than a grid. The idea still appears to be getting 3 in a row by rotating one of the circles of shapes (or in this case tribes-people) and when this happens you'll attack the enemy.
Here's a video of what they've got so far:
So far I'm liking the look of it. It seems like something I'd want to play - for how long depends on what the story is like or at least what drives the role playing elements.
Will tribes people get experience? Will you be able to pick spells from a list (ala Puzzle Quest)? Will it be a branching story, or is it tailored for the more casual audience?
It's been keeping me up all night every night and I haven't felt able to play many games recently - I think that Bob Came In Pieces Guide wiped me out!
So while not sleeping I needed something not too taxing but distracting enough so I didn't have to think too hard but also not notice that I'm still poorly. So I visited Big Fish Games who are usually good for those kind of games and picked up the new Fix-It-Up game, the original I reviewed last year
Basically you have to manage a garage, buying low, fixing up and finally selling at a higher price to turn a profit. With my own car currently in the garage being repaired (it's as poorly as I am!) this seemed quite apt.
They've made a series of good improvements in this sequel, the most noticeable is that it's a longer game Also because it's set all over the world the locations are far more varied and there's a larger number of cars to repair and sell on.
There's also an attempt to tell a story of sorts which explains the location hoping from the USA to Australia then South Africa. A story with love, greed and betrayal no less, centred around a rival garage trying to sabotage your endeavours. They even go so far as to start cutting break lines on pickup trucks, which if you ask me just isn't in the entrepreneurial spirit of things!
A bunch of other new stuff has been thrown in too, the kind of features which are standard in todays casual gaming world such as a trophy room disguised as a mansion that you build up. Kind of like the civilisation series when you chose new sections for your castle...
Overall it's good for when you don't really want a game that's too taxing or stressful, as are most of the games on the Big Fish Games Site. If you're feeling as bad as I am right now maybe it will help you too!
It's finally done, the Bob Came In Pieces walkthrough guide, showing you the complete solution plus the location of all of the ship modules that are littered throughout the game.
I enjoyed reviewing this at the time, it's certainly something a bit different to the norm. Some of the puzzles are great and they get even more interesting near the end of the game! As you may already know :)
So if you've played it and ever thought: where was that last ship part on level 9, then why not have a read and find out!
No matter how many zombies we kill, they just keep coming back. The baseball bat and chainsaw market must be thriving off all this.
Dead Frontier then is a zombie shooter MMO, set in the top down persepctive and you run around in gaultnet style shooting anything that looks like a zombie. Obviously as it's an MMO you can get to do this as part of a team too, and it's all browser based which means no long downloads or huge waits for this - a huge plus!
It kind of reminded me of a lower res version of Zombie Shooter, but having other real people there really is a good thing (for a change.) The best thing of all though is that this is completely free to play!
But you can exchange real life cash for in-game cast and pay for added benefits to boost your armour and weapons and so on. This is usually the point where I turn a game off - monthly subscriptions just don't fit into how I play games and micro transactions are not my friend.
On the other hand, this is an independent title from a UK based chap, so I felt like I needed to plow on (without paying of course) and see what the gameplay had to offer. Running around and shooting zombies is fun enough, most of the undead were tricky enough to kill off and I did come across a really mean green zombie who just wouldn't go down! The city had a map and missions to perform to get more cash, items and experience points. RPG elements are all there, such as strength, accuracy and such implemented in a fairly bog standard way - not that it's bad, just nothing new.
Completing some of the missions was actually quite thrilling, when the music gets more upbeat you know somethings up and when you're on your way back to the outpost but are already injured it becomes a far more intense experience!
Here's a tip if you start playing: Choose your weapon (type) of choice early on so you can build your proficiency up with it quickly. Many of the better weapons require quite high skill levels in that type to be able to use so if you want to use mainly shotguns, build that up early from the start!
Playing with actual people was completely nuts! Rather than the usual one or two zombies at a time (near the beginning of the city where it's usually quiet) a hoard approached me and the group and it was real fight-for-your-life stuff. I didn't stay in that for long because it made it tricky to complete any of my missions, but it was good for experience building! The other thing that's quite strange, and since I don't play many MMOs this probably isn't strange for everyone, was how quickly my stuff sold at the local market. I'd always try to very slightly undercut the competition and in most cases it was snapped up within minutes!
The outpost also has other facilities available such as a bank so you can keep your cash safe while exploring the city (dying out in the field causes you to loose a percentage of the money you have on you) and a storage area with 5 slots (you can buy more later) as well as a few other things.
What's really surprised me is how much this has dragged me in so far. It's wonderfully simple and complex as well. The multiplayer side wasn't as good as I'd hoped, there didn't seem to be any group-based missions to pull everyone together. But personally I've enjoyed this more than L4D!
Wow, that's almost a review length post on this game - I didn't write a review because this is still in beta and will aparantely be upgraded to full 3D soon!
Just read about this on http://www.gameproducer.net/ : Here's some good value for money - 6 great independent titles (well I've played 4 of them, not sure about the other two but they sound good) You get "And Yet It Moves", Eufloria, Machinarium, Osmos, Auditorium and Aztaka all for the low low price of $20 - which is a bargain for all of these in one bundle.
What's interesting is this is a deal created by the indpendents themselves and not part of some deal from D2D or Steam. It's really nice to see developers come together to offer these kinds of deals, I hope we see more of it in the future!
It's only until this Friday (19th) so get in there while you can! Personally I'll probably be getting this for Eufloria and Mechinarium which had great demos but I had other things to play at the time.
In a rarely seen move (or at least I've not seen it happen very often) speedrungames are offering their puzzle action game Grappling Hook free for every tenth customer!
Grappling Hook put me very much in mind of Portal when I reviewed it a few months ago. Strangely enough it uses a similar game mechanic to the alien grapple arm from Opposing Force, the HalfLife add on by Gearbox software. Basically you can grapple onto any green surface but keep in mind that momentum and friction are both very important!
It's good fun, and there's not another game like it out there right now. There's a free demo available as usual so check it out! Remember, every 10th copy is free and also comes with a 50% off voucher for a friend.
However as the story unfolds it appears that it's only because the lad in question was making remarks about some killing spree he was going to go on while on voice chat. Someone else who was playing called the police and the lad was arrested.
There's no mention of it they found any other kind of proof that this was really going to happen. Nor was there any specific quote of what he was saying over voice chat.
Anything where computer games and violence are linked, even in this way is always so sketchily reported on it can be quite frustrating. Of course I long ago made my feelings clear on these matters.
Personally If I was locked up everytime I made horrible threats online about people I worked with I'd be in jail...Zero percent of the time, they're all upstanding fellows who I wouldn't say a bad word about! However they'd have to be very strong remarks from someone else for me to take them seriously.
Personally with a headline saying that "xbox thrawts highschool shooting" I would have hoped for a more comical story where the gunman tripped over a stray console in the street and injured himself in the process. It should also be in the style of Steve Carell in Get Smart. Of course these incidents are certainly nothing to laugh about...
I've found SBI (the service I'm currently using) to be really great, it's taught me a shed load of stuff about how to make websites but it's a bit like wearing stabalisers or someone holding your saddle as you're riding. Soon you just want to go faster!
There are plenty of additions to the site I really want to add, such as searchable review listings, independent advertising schemes (so that I'm showing you ads about stuff that really matters for a change) and comments on review pages - something that has been seriously missing.
The contact form will be down for a short while but I'll get it back up as soon as possible so everyone can keep telling me their gaming news.
So if the site dissapears tomorrow for a few hours you know why. When it comes back it will look a bit scrappy for a while (certain things need re-writing in the code) but before the end of next week all will be well again - if not better!
Yes it's time for a new review and this week it's Backyard Ninja's "The Great White Destroyer" which is all about a shark doing what sharks do best: eating stuff in a violent manner.
I mean, how can that not be fun? Well as it happens..you'll have to read the review to find out!
Nitrome are probably the best creators of flash games out there at the moment. Certainly the most prolific!
And I've spent far longer than I'm willing to share on their latest creation: Skywire VIP - which is simply a procession of celebrity-sprite lookalikes that are zip-lined onto a stage and you have to try and guess who they are supposed to be!
It's enormous fun somehow, I'm not quite sure how it stole a large portion of my evening, but there we go. Oh, and it has fantastic retro Genesis-like music too!
DLC has been with us for a while now - it's not going to go away quickly and everyone has their own view on whether DLC is good or bad for gaming.
Personally I think of DLC as expansion packs and as long as the price reflects the content I'm all for it.
The soon to be released Dragon Age DLC for instance is priced at £20 (UK) which is how much you could potentially get Bioshock 2 for (if you have 3 other mates who want it) or the new Aliens Vs Predatory game (if you get it from play.com or amazon.) That doesn't mean it's not good value, if you read the feature list which includes 5 new allies and a whole playable campaign (by the look of things anyway).
What I wouldn't want to see is "weapon packs" or multiplayer "map packs" sold for that type of cost. I just don't see that as value for money.
Using Bioware as an example again, I'll probably be getting any Mass Effect 2 based DLC because I'm just so into it. This is why, for the most part, I can understand why people buy DLC for the games they really love.
But there's one game that I don't understand the DLC strategy for, a game I shall probably never play because it makes as much sense to me as football.
Railworks is a train simulator game, and is described like so:
RailWorks: a new concept in train and rail simulation. Drive 13 different locomotives along 8 different routes in the UK, North America and Europe. Download new routes, locomotives and rolling stock or create your own design and share it with friends
It currently has 28 "pieces" of downloadable content, all priced between £2.49 for a scenario pack and £19.99 for new areas to explore. If you bought Railworks and all of the available DLC, it would currently cost just over £300!
I'm curious to whether anyone owns the full set, or if they're targeting specific sub-sets of locomotive enthusiasts. Perhaps some only buy the British trains, and they are the target market for the Isle of Wright set?
On the other hand, I don't understand MMORPGs and their costs. Anyone who plays WoW spends £300 in just over 2.5 years in subscriptions, so perhaps this isn't so unusual.
As usual it feels like it's geared towards what some people will pay rather than what it's actually worth. And I have to admit, if a £20 DLC comes out for Mass Effect 2 I'd probably have a hard time resisting it! Emotional responses are a bugger.
Luckily it's all been free DLC so far! The best kind...
Usually I don't review music - my tastes seem to differ quite wildly from the rest of society eg: I like good music (eg, from independent computer-based artists) and the general populus likes bad music (randomly generated pop chords) with a few exceptions.
So I feel that sometimes it is my duty to wave my virtual arms around and point at something I think is worth listening to. If not just for the calibre of the artists involved but for the calibre of the games these people have worked on in the past.
If you're not interested in my opinions, which as usual is fair nuff, then you can listen to it using this neat little object thing here:
Most of the album is written and produced by Alexander Brandon, composer on Deus Ex, Neverwinter nights 2, Unreal Tournament and Jazz Jackrabbit. The final song is co-created with Andy Sega, composer on Freelancer, Wing Commander: Prophecy and the Crusader games (awesome).
As usual with both of these chaps there is a generous amount of synth-pad layering throughout and energetic bass lines that can be, very occasionally, distracting. However there is definitely an effort to do some different things here. Track 5, "Funky Rustic" for instance has an interesting change in nature fairly early on that really works for me. It introduces some african-ish drum lines that mix strangely well with the guitar.
The first track "Severn City" has an amazing ability early on to keep sounding like it's going out of tune when it's not. For a while I couldn't make up my mind if I liked it or not but after a few more listens I decided that I did.
Generally the disapointing thing for me in this album was the lack of a constant melody. Many tracks fell back into accompany-mode a lot of the time and would be great for games but possibly not for an album.
What made up for this was track 9: Square Mile - I absolutely loved the all-harmony singing parts. And while the verses are great for this they are followed by a fantastically uplifting chorus. Some more of the guitar solo heard near the beginning would have been good though?
I'll stop there because, well as I said I don't usually review stuff like this. All I can say is: It's free to listen to and only a $10 to buy and support these chaps.
Firstly I didn't seem to have any control over who I played as during matches, so I was stuck with the least favourite of the 3 - the predator.
Then I realised, after frantic pressing of the 1 to 4 number keys that my lovely pred weapons had to be *found* around the map. A map full of people who'd appeared to have played all day from how quick I died when I spawned.
My only saving grace was the cloak, which some alien players seemed to just ignore somehow. And cloak is a bit pointless if your footsteps sound like someone hitting a gong with a hammer. I had to stand stock still to have any hope of stealth.
When I did pick up a weapon it became a bit more fun, once I'd realised how to fire the thing anyway. The shoulder cannon wotsit was fun but it wasn't exactly outstanding. Comparing this to what I've just been playing the last week (ME2) there really isn't much attracting me to this...
And I sort of came to a conclusion whilst playing the demo: because I'd only want the game for the Marine campaign I'd be paying for a third of a game. And unless one gets thrown my way I doubt I'll be playing any more of it. On reflection I think a multiplayer demo wasn't the best example for someone like me who prefers story and characters and stuff like that. This video certainly makes it look better than it felt in game.
So, if you're a die-hard fan you can get this dirt cheap for a new game over at Amazon or Play.com - unless you'd rather pay an extra £6 for it on steam?
And can we please, please, please remove that horrible Blur-Turning effect that game devs seem to think is so cool these days? It really isn't...
I managed to drag myself away from Mass Effect 2 for just long enough to piece a review together.
This really was something special. I could easily have rambled on for thousands of words with this but I made sure to restrict myself to a couple of pages!
And yes, I know I said a few weeks ago I wouldn't bother with it because it was slightly more than I usually pay for a game, but I'm glad I went for it anyway. Mass Effect 1 was good, I probably would have given that something like...82% or such, however with this sequel...
As I crawl out of my hole, my home for days while playing MassEffect 2, I'm greeted with news of many new games on the horrizon. And while it's hard for me not to think of other games as time spent not playing MassEffect, one in particular caught my eye thanks to it's mega enthusiastic creator! And the game itself of course...
You're a shark who is the chosen shark, possessed by the god of sharks and you have a hunger for all things fishy...and avian...and, well, everything really!
There's a demo available on their website as usual, but it's always nice to see in advance what it involves so here's a vid too:
I'll be doing a full review over the next couple of weeks, so look out for that.
I like cake.
Hey, tell me about your game, or your friend's game. Or your friend's, friend's game. Or any game you think I've missed!
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