I’ve wrote about it awhile ago but now I’ve found how use the counter against each Power plays / Penalty killing tactic, thanks to generous soul on the ppm forum.

First remember that you want to at least get a decent % for your team for each or it might not matter if your are using a counter (a 100% passive box vs a 0% shooting from point might will probably be ok anyway)

Has a quick remember here the description  of all tactic (description from the guide):

Shooting from the point: This power play variant has two players at the blue line and their task is to shoot often with the player in front of the net trying to deflect the shots or pounce on the rebounds.

Umbrella: This power play has only one player on the point who works as the quarterback for the power play. His task is to deal passes to the players at the boards who may then shoot or pass the puck.

Overload: The purpose of this power play is to focus the attention of penalty killers on one side. This opens up room for one player on the weak side who can shoot the puck after it is fed to him.

Diamond: When you play diamond on the penalty kill, your players form a diamond shape. One player guards the area in front of the net and one player is closer to the blue line.

Passive box: Passive box means that penalty killers are keeping relatively close to each other to guard the area in front of the net and in the slot. This gives more room to the power play along the boards.

Active box: This option means that your penalty killers quickly close down on the players with the puck who then have less time to set up a power play combination. The disadvantage is, that this can open up the slot for the opponent.

Power Play table :

Penalty kill table:

FreeCol

FreeCol is a 2d open source remake of the original Sid Meier game Colonization on dos. You manage the colonist in the name of the Crown of your country of choice (England, France, The Netherlands, or Spain). Your goal is  to colonize the new world, America or a randomly generated landmass. You home country send you colonist when you amass enough religious support (cross production), you can get Indian to join your colony has well and recruit colonist in your motherland with cold hard cash. The main aspect of the game is managing your colonist inside the various cities of your colonies to establish relations or war with other colony and native.

The graphic are inspired by the second installment of the series civilization.

They recently Released a new version if you want to give it a try. 

Related : FreeCol 0.11 (Indieretronews)

Developer ektomarch started a Kickstarter campaign for Metroidvania style game called Aerannis.

In Aerannis, the protagonist a female assassin that lives in the last city on earth. The game will be set in an open ended world that you can explore freely, you advance by doing mission. Also the game has a stealth element where you hide to either take hostage, run behind a guard etc.

They managed to hit the initial goal but there still are some stretch goals that are left and there is currently only 13 days left to the campaign.

If you want to support this game and get some of the rewards go to the kickstarter page.

Related:

Kickstarter pick metroidvania Aerannis (Indiesgames)

The Ruins of Old Earth

If you liked the initial Metroid you will like this dark, moody pixelated atmosphere that will makes you remember the first Metroid game. The ruins of old earth take place well we don’t know yet, it seems that you are in an undiscovered region of Earth and you have to explore that harsh & wild region of the underground of Earth. Our hero can have a jetpack (not sure if he actually start with it), and three type of gun (beam, pulse, lazer) .

The ruin of old earth is a ongoing project, you can check where there at in theirs forum:

Progress : Forum Thread

Related :

The ruin of old earth (Indie games)

Advanced Mastery

Have Hacking, Mind Control and the Battery active at once.

The easiest achievement of the three, you need to have hacking, mind control and the battery installed on your ship and active. By active it’s mean that you need more than just having the 3 system, you need to use them all at the same time. That not really a problem, just don’t be surprise that you don’t get the achievement when you buy the last missing one.

This achievement can only be miss if you’ve already installed all other systems and you don’t have room for the missing system.  It’s kind of hard to miss since both layout start with at least one of them (Kruos starts with Hacking &  The Shrike starts with Mind Control) and the battery is a subsystem so you should always have room for it.

Scrap Hoarder

Have at least 600 scrap in your ship storage.

Lanius are known for their love of scrap and this achievement show for it. You simply need to have only 600 of scrap in total. It must be unused scrap so it’s not has easy has it sound. The best way to achieve this achievement is on the easy difficulty because you get more scrap. Another nice augment you can add to increase your scrap receives it’s the Scrap Recovery Arm. Try boarding ship and clear the crew instead of destroying them since it’s give better reward.

If you are near the amount needed, you can liquefy your entire inventory until you have enough to reach the 600 scrap for the achievement. You can sell weapon, drone and augment to try to get to the magical amount.

Once you got this achievement, there is no valid reason to hold onto your scrap excepts maybe have the hell of a challenge for the later stage, so you could use your scrap with no consequence.

Loss of Cabin Pressure

Get to sector 8 without your ship’s net oxygen levels exceeding 20 percent (starts after the first jump).

To achieve this you need to shoot down your oxygen to 20% or lower right at the beginning. If you have more than 20% after the first jump, you won’t get the achievement.

The probably easiest way to do this achievement is to shut down the O2 system and let the non Lanius crew die or respawn indefinitely with the clone bay. The other way is to open all the door and leave the air un the pilot cabin. The risk with this strategy is that if a ship hack one of your room it will close the door and let the air in again, potentially raising in over 20% or even worst a hacking drone can hack your door system and very quickly bring your oxygen level above 20%.

The game is winnable with 2 Lanius just stay away of event that might kill off your crew and the clone bay can’t resurrect them.

Note that there is currently a bug and this achievement cannot be achieve if you save the game and come back to it.

The Lanius cruiser is a ship only available in the advanced edition, it’s actually really simple to unlock compare to most ship. You receive it once you unlock 4 ships other than The Kestrel. 

Layout A

Unlock

Unlock 4 ships (Excluding The Kestrel) to unlock this ship.

• Default name: Kruos
• Starting Crew: 1 Human, 2 Lanius
• Starting Augmentation:
  • Emergency Respirators
• Starting Weapons:
  • Chain Burst Laser
  • Ion Stunner
• Starting Resources:
  • 16 Fuel
  • 3 Missiles
  • 9 Drone parts
• Slots: 4 Weapon, 2 Drone (requires system)
• Clone Bay
• Hacking

With 2 Lanius crew and one human, you can basically vent all air from the ship except where you human crew is and set yourself for one of the Lanius achievement. The starting weapon are the chain burst laser and the ion stunner, try to fire them together for maximum efficiency. It has hacking too but in the early sector you should use it in case where you know it’s going to be a hard fights like against those pesky anti-ship drone with ion.
Getting better weapon and teleportation is key, the starting weapon will have a hard time against ship with more shield. Teleportation is a great had to any ship with a Lanius crew member, with hacking you can hack O2 and then warp your 2 lanius there to finish the job. Hacking will protect the room giving your Lanius enough time to drain all O2 and to destroy the system. After that, since the O2 system is down, each time your lanius will step into a room it’s will quickly run out of oxygen making the other crew more vulnerable.

Try to avoid Abandoned sectors as they detract from your major advantage: not needing oxygen, but the blue options can often be worth it.

Layout B

Unlock

Earning two of the three Lanius Cruiser achievements will unlock Layout B.

Its name is a reference the real-life bird known for impaling its prey on thorns, the which is also the namesake of the Lanius themselves.

• Default name: The Shrike
• Starting Crew: 1 Engi, 2 Lanius
• Starting Augmentation:
  • Emergency Respirators
• Starting Weapons:
  • Advanced Flak (special upgraded version, uses 1 less power, has a 2 second cooldown reduction)
• Slots: 4 Weapon, 2 Drone (requires system)
• Two Man Teleporter
• Clone Bay
• Mind Control

Your starting crew is similar to the previous layout, 2 Lanius and 1 Engi, the Engi will do the same work the human was doing in the previous layout. However this layout got mind control and a teleport which make it the perfect boarding ship. With mind control you can control an annoying enemy crew and let your Lanius finish the job. Use your advanced flask to clear out weapon or prevent the ship from running by taking out the piloting system. The only problem with that tactic is that after most fight your Lanius will be injured and you don’t start in many ways to heal them except waiting a few jumps or letting them die. The Reconstructive Teleportation augment is a must have in that case or get the healing bomb weapon. You can always change the clone bay for a med bay too. Focus on getting 2 Shield Layers early and hire additional crew members to man your other systems. Picking up a cloaking device is also a good Idea. You don’t need a lot of weapons to use effectively this ship but to beat the Rebel Flagship you either need bombs and missiles to disable their medbay or enough lasers to pierce their shields and attack the medbay once the medbay is down, and all the crew (except the one manning the laser) is dead Its easy going from there.

Zelda & Link caught my attention this week. Remember Zelda: Adventure of Link in 3d, this time it’s someone who made a fan game base on the style of play of second installment of Zelda instead of having a different take on the same game. The other article is an unlikely crossover that will probably interest you, keep on reading you’ll understand .

Legend Of Zelda: The Last Oracle

Zelda is know for it’s distinct style either the 3D third person format from Ocarina or the top down perspective 2D format from the initial game. But that leave Zelda II: Adventure of Link as the odd ball of the series that tried to bring Zelda has a platformer in a time where platformer was the thing. A fan decided to revive that era by creating a game inspired by that style and gave birth to Legend of Zelda: the last oracle.

The game is in development but you can see it’s really have a nice polish to hit bringing the old style with more modern artwork.

Related

Legend Of Zelda: The Last Oracle – A fan made tribute game in progress. (indieretronews)

Epona USA : Daytona USA +Link = unusual marriage of awesome

For those who played Daytona USA on the Saturn you probably remember the famous Horse mode, Link and Epona taking to the track for a day at the races. Oh, and Link is not going after other racer he’s going against stock cars. You can shoot the stock cars in front of you. Check the video you’ll get a good idea of what I’m talking about.

Related:

It’s a crossover you never knew you wanted (retrogamer)