Archive for the ‘ reviews ’ Category

I wasn’t really active gaming wise in 2015, having a kids take a bit of a toll on everything. But I manage to play some new games, most of them came out before 2015 but I want to showcase them for you anyway.

Galactic civilization II

Galactic civilization II

GC II is a space strategy game set in the 23rd century, when multiple alien civilizations, including Terrans, scramble to conquer the galaxy, planet by planet, by force, diplomacy, influence (culture), or technology.

GC2 is an old game from 2006 but I bought it for next to nothing in a steam sale in 2014 when Galactic civilization 3 came out. I love those kind of simulate the world kind of game like Civilization, Romance of three kingdoms (the SNES one), Master of Orion.

This game looked like a good knock off master of Orion, a game I played awhile ago that really liked.

The game is notable for its artificial intelligence, which is challenging without being given resources and abilities not available to the player, as is common in the majority of strategy games. The game like civ and other game of that genre, you build your galactic civilization from the instant it’s got the engine to do interstellar travel and you build it from there. There 4 primary axis to build around, military, economic, science and culture.

From there you try to create alliance and exchange resources, technologies with other civ or threaten them with your mighty military power. They are multiple way to win the game like a military victory is when all other nations are wiped out, a science victory is when you got to a specific tech that makes you win the game. A cultural victory is when your influence in the galaxy is more than 75% for a certain time, there are other mean that you can win to like by ascending to be a divine being (not sure) or by a diplomatic victory. 

With 35 hours played, which is about 2-3 play through depending of the size of the map and the difficulty. I did all the most of the way to win, It’s pretty cool when you’re building huge ship to attack other planet.

Hearthstone

That game need no presentation but allow me to tell my how I jumped in the bandwagon. I joined late on this one, but some of my old friends I used to play magic with convinced me to give it a try. And I was actually quite surprised by it. It’s seem well balanced enough if you have enough cards, it seems well designed enough that old card from the first editions are still playable.

The quest mechanic allows players to gain gold and buy pack or adventure even if they don’t have money, making it possible to rise even if you don’t spend a dime. In the Arena you just need to pay 100 gold or 1.99 and from there only luck and your deck building skill will allow you to progress since you build the card from what they give you and not all card are equal.

The brawl is another great way to get card, they sometime give you a deck and you play on equal terms against other players. The first win in brawl will give you a free pack.

However it’s get frustrating quickly if you don’t have all the card or at least not a lot of rare one. You get hit the face by the god damns $%*@ Dr.Boom every time, talk about op or you get one shot by a rogue because they got that rare card that cost 0 and reduce the cost of another spell.

And like on all ladder once you rank high enough it seem that you only win 50% of your game.

Ironclad Tactic

Ironclad Tactic

The game takes place in an alternate history at the onset of the American Civil War where robot-like "ironclad" machines are used alongside human troops by both sides in the war. The game incorporates elements of collectible card games, whereby the player constructs a deck of cards earned from previous matches for the deployment, outfitting, and tactics of human and ironclad tropes to achieve specific victory conditions. The game features single player and co-operative multiplayer campaign modes as well as skirmishes between two players.

Another steam sale with my money well spent, I haven’t played that much this one but I really like the concept. The alternate history where you have mech in the civil war it’s actually pretty neat. The collectible part is well balance has well. The way the story is told is through a comic style between each battle. This game is definitely worth a try.



And my favorite game I’ve played in 2015 was … see the answer in next post.

                                                                 FINAL FANTASY Record Keeper

. . . there was a kingdom. Its glory was measured in magic and art,and above all else, stories.

The records of the Great Chronicle are the foundation of all order and balance.

To preserve these stories, the record keepers used powerful magic to bind them in paintings of great beauty.

The Opera House, Midgar, Zanarkand . . .

All these records of stories past were kept safe within the Royal Archives.

Until one day a dark force clouds the magical tapestries and you are tasked with entering the tapestries to reenact historical events from the various Final Fantasy games.

Final Fantasy Record Keeper is an iOS/Android game where you must replay the event of the game (only the battle actually) with characters from old final fantasy games. You build your team from all the characters you recruited and  equip them to either venture in the dungeon of each Final Fantasy or do the daily event (ginding) to get extra exp, gold, orbs and sometime your can do special event, that give big reward like new characters, lv break, rare equipment and ability.

The combat system is the old school ATB where your character can attack when the ATB gauge is filled.

Your Team

Screenshot_2016-01-01-14-17-10

Building your team is the fun part, You get to create a party of your liking from your favorite characters and have them fight against enemies from different games. However getting equipment and abilities can be tedious at best.

Equipment is found either in dungeon (cheap equipment) or in relic draw, where your spend your precious mithril to get the real stuff.  Abilities are created and honed via the orbs you find while doing battle and event. Less frustrating than equipment to get but higher level orb are so rare and you need so much that it seems to take forever to have a decent 4 time level 5 ability.

Each character have different level of ability they can use, character from actual Final Fantasy game tend to be better than generic class. For example, my Lulu at level 36 at more magic power than a level 50 black mage.

Grinding in dungeons and event with your precious stamina

Screenshot_2016-01-01-14-20-16

The game use the same social game gimmicky stamina systems, where you need to come back later when your stamina is empty. You can increase stamina by doing regular and elite dungeons. On the other hand, Event will get you character, equipment, orbs and material.

FINAL FANTASY Record Keeper battle

My personal impression

I’m actually hook because of the nostalgia, but the game get really tedious quickly. Honestly if it’s wasn’t Final Fantasy I would have drop it awhile ago. It’s require so much grinding, and the only way to obtain go items is by using the relic draw with mithril or gem (paid currency). I actually was able to have a decent character by getting Red XII ultimate weapon with the trine soul break. He was in every team until I manage to build other characters.

Verdict

For FF fanboy/girl: Play it

Others: Stay away…

FINAL FANTASY Record Keeper almost dead

Link

FFRK Wiki

title

The kickstarter success Hunnie pop, is an adult game in which the objective is for your character to date and eventually bed up to ten (not counting hidden characters, Momo, Celest and the godly hot Venus) female anime-style women. There is some nudity and NSFW part (even in the steam version). If you have issue with that style of game or NSFW stuff, you should probably avoid it.

Ok so lets get to it ! Hunnie pop is a what happen when a puzzle game meet a dating sim with a pinch of RPG & NSFW element.

puzzle-date

The plot yeah, they’re not much but here it is.

Your character start in a hotel bar during the night, when suddenly you are interrupted by Kyu "The love fairy". In short she explains that you’re pretty useless at picking up chicks and offers to help. The game has two part to it, the dating part, where you go out and meet girl, ask question about themselves, give them gif,  buy them food & drink. The other part happens when you ask the girls to go on a date, you are taken to a new scenery where how well you perform on your date is determine how you play a Candy crush/bejeweled style puzzle game.

meeting

It’s a typical match 3 where you to make rows of 3 or more "tokens" each of these have a different value depending on what girl you "out on a date" with. You can get special item that you use during the date to help you. Each successful date will increase the difficulty of the next puzzle that you are given. As you complete more and more dates the "Females" will send you random pictures of their daily routine, pretty normal stuff at first but those picture wills get more steamy after each successful date. Enjoy cute pictures with imaginative pose of them to picture of in the shower doing "naughty" things.

pic

Your enjoyment of this game will ultimately boil down to how much you like games like Bejeweled since that’s really the main thrust of the game (no pun intended). The dating sim aspects are somewhat weak and mostly there to string together the various game levels for each girl and give you power ups. The story is probably the weakest part of the game, you don’t go much into knowing the girl except than filling a category in their profile. They are hidden character and yes you can bang the fairy.

Note that this game is one of the  "first game" that was funded via Kickstarter (It was Kickstarted back in November 2013) .  I was happily surprise of this game, and liked it’s adorable part, great art, and fantastic soundtrack and voice acting was worth the $10 I paid for it. Give it a try.

My dear readers, you all know my love for the rogue like space game FTL. I have to tell you, I’ve fallen in love with a other roguelike game. This time is a fantasy game free on Android and on PC called Pixel Dungeon.

Pixel Dungeon is a traditional roguelike game with pixel-art graphics and a simple interface. This game make me think of a very similar game (almost a clone of) Hack, slash, loot. Hack, slash, loot is a roguelike game like Pixel dungeon, however instead of just one dungeon you have a selection of adventure you can chose from, completing quest and dying will help you unlock characters (10 vs the 4 of pixel dungeon). Hack slash loot was released on steam and now it’s a paid app on the play store. 

The game is easy to play but very hard to win, it’s so random that it’s basically take more luck that skill. However the experience is enjoyable.

You can get a more in-dept review at indieretronews.com.

Space game are a hot commodity so I though bringing some space title

Cosmonautica

I’ve talked awhile ago about Cosmonautica, Pewpewchewchew made a nice video to show you the game play.

Related:

Let’s play Cosmonautica

Battlefront Mars

You want to feel like Elon Musk but don’t have the time nor the money to build spaceship to get to mars and colonize it. You’re in luck Battlefront Mars on Facebook let you build a Mars colony and harvest the planet resources. You need to defend your colonist from invaders and pirates to so you cannot just harvest the planet. Gameplay in Battlefront Mars focuses on the collection of to resources iron and water because you know that the only thing you need in a space colony. Harvesters gather water and iron continuously over time and with these resources are used to accomplish most tasks within the game. This includes everything from recruiting new military units to upgrading and building additional structures on the base. You can receive extra water and iron by finishing mission or destroying enemies base.

New unit can be build by building certain building (like in Starcraft) like the academy. Your military unit will help you defend against the invaders or attack and destroy their base. Has player level up the game unlock more mission and allow multiplayer (PvP) combat. The PvP look a bit likes clash of clan, spy the village then if you attack it you are warp there.

These facebook game are not my cup of tea, you have to wait to stuff to complete or use the premium currency (gold) there in app purchase, the units are hard to move but at least they can move automatically. With 10k monthly user you should be able to get some decent PvP action.

Battlefront Mars is available to play for free on Facebook.

Related:

Battlefront Mars: Build a Base and Command an Army on Facebook

Buzz Aldrin’s Space Program Manager

The game is coming out soon on iPad and Android tablets on October 31st. I didn’t had any luck with a early access but the folk at Pocket gamer gave a excellent review so you can get the full review there.

The game come with a Space Race plot set in the cold war you got to go to the moon before the Russian. There also a sandbox mode where you just play without the political pressure.

Related:

Official site

Buzz Aldrin’s Space Program Manager (Pocketgamer)

Pier Solar

if you miss those old school 16-bit era RPG, Lufia and the one alike, well Pier Solar is a game for you.
The game is available on Playstation 3 & 4, steam and the ouya. If PC is your thing the game is available on Linux, window or Mac too. If you want to get an idea of the games visual and music check out this promotional trailer:

Related:

Pier Solar and the great Architects (indiegames)

 

8 Bits Fun

Oh 8 bit is more of your thing. Fear not the recent NES JAM gave birth to a dozen of nice 8-bit gem (and other not that much of a gem)

Super Cell Dungeon

One of the notable entry is Super Cell Dungeon, Super Cell Dungeon developed by a multi-talented team and a recent #NESJAM entry, is a NES inspired clone of Super Crate Box that can be played in a two player team.

Lognes Island

A actually really nice teaser of a game a developer is thinking about doing. You play a mega man like character lost on an island. You have to search the island for power up like a blaster and double jump. Once you found the boss for the first level the teaser is done. Check the dev on twitter and ask him to do more.

Gracie & Mike – Interstellar Mercenary Exterminators

A Co-op Contra but in split screen is probably the best way to describe this game. You can only play 2 players or 1 player control 2 players. The game can be played on xbox and ps3 controllers or with the keyboard.

Ouragan

This one is kind of weird there a bunch of guy hitting you but you don’t seem to lose health. You can hit them with Z and they get thrown into the sky with a single punch.

Related

NESJAM – Lots of great games in a NES flavour

Nes Jam (http://itch.io/jam/nesjam)

Archeomania  – A Tetris look alike where you save the princess

Another nice puzzle game in 8-bit greatly inspired by Tetris. You get the bloc similar to Tetris but instead of pilling them to make more point when you clear them out, you need to clear the line to save the green girl. Once you clear all the line under her you save her, they’re spike that slowly move toward you, if they manage to hit the princess before you clear all the block under her, she done and it’s game over for you.

Archeomania Tetris

Related

Brilliant Tetris Plus inspired ZX Spectrum remake (indieretronews)

Final Fantasy VI

FF6

Final Fantasy VI as probably some of the best music of the series (Final Fantasy VII is pretty Rad too) and has given countless beautiful interpretation. The opera scene sure come to mind has one of the iconic scene and music of the series.

Back in June, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra performed a symphonic poem arranged from the game’s music, entitled Born With The Gift Of Magic. It’s pretty amazing and the performance is available on their website.

Related:

Born With The Gift Of Magic by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra

Watch Final Fantasy VI: Symphonic Poem Now!

 

Dragon quest I & Dragon quest II

Yes both of these originals games are out, while not has carefully done like Dragon Quest VIII . They stand has the beginning of the series, DQI is probably the first major RPG out on NES (in Japan) and DQII was the first with multi-member party, not just a lone hero try to find is way.

Dragon quest I

Dragon quest I

Contrary to popular lore, Dragon Quest was not the actual first JRPG. But it certainly the first major one. Yuji Horii wanted to simplify the complex systems found in RPG to make it easier and more playable on the NES limited input compare to PC RPG likeWizardry and Ultima. However, he wanted to still offer the player the satisfying feeling of following the narrative of a character who take on a journey to make the world a better place and becomes stronger in the process.

If you don’t know Dragon quest I what is you might be a little surprise with all the hype it gets for what it is compare to modern game you can get today. However, it you want to nostalgic feeling of the NES and educate yourself about a game that started a whole genre itself 25 year ago (yeah it’s that old) you should definitely give it a try.

Dragon quest II

Dragon quest II

Dragon Quest II is probably the game I had a hard time with when I was young. I’ve played it after DQI and Final fantasy so I was not stranger to RPG, but my god that game have too much stuff that you have to just guess and search everywhere for no (insert swear word here) reason. Don’t get me wrong I loved and still love the game but if I replay it, it will be with the walkthrough besides it. Most of my frustration come from finding the mirror of Ra (it’s hidden in a (more swearing)swamp) and find the crest which usually you have not much clue about where they were. However, Dragon quest should be look at what it is, a game perfect for your nostalgic or to get a sense from where all the game come from, it’s definitely a game worth playing (with the walkthrough).

Related :

Dragon Quest I Review

Dragon Quest II Review

Coming tonight Dragon Quest I

Coming tonight Dragon Quest II

Is Twitchshop a good thing ?

 

It seem that when a service or social network rise service that sell fake user appear too. Twitch is no exception and the site to grab some follower and viewer for a fee is Twitchshop.

Like service where you can buy Twitter follower or Facebook fan, this might seem like a good deal at first (it’s not), but if twitch find out you might have some penalty or even lose your account.

Here the message twitch user received recently promoting this service

I despise seeing people use this in attempt to get ahead of hard working streamers. Hopefully Twitch will track them and ban those fake account.

Related Link

Reddit discussion

Twitch Shop

I’ve tried to get a theme, it about some heroes in medieval time or something…

Heroes of Sokoban

This one really caught my eyes, not because of the graphic because honestly they’re almost Atari like. But Heroes of Sokoban is a really interesting puzzle game. You control three thieves and each have theirs own unique skill, is strong has hell and can push stuff around. The other can only pull log and dragon, the last can teleport itself where there a obstacle (log, dragon, gobelin, etc)

Each make the puzzle different because you need to think differently depending on which thief you’re playing.

hos

Related News:

Browser Pick: Heroes of Sokoban (indiegames.com)

Play it: Heroes of Sokoban

Doomed’n Damned

If you ever played Ghosts’n Goblins and liked it you will definitely love this game, it a 2d plate former.

It’s not out yet, but latest review said out in the beginning of 2014.

 

Related News:

Doomed Damned (indiegames.com)

Official site : http://www.doomedndamned.com/

Kingdom

A Kingdom where troll face actually actack you

While the name is not really SEO friendly this game definitely deserve some love. I would define it has a side-scrolling strategy-defense game where you use your coin to build your defense, enlist peasants, give them weapons and tools.

Beware during the night, creep (who seem to be troll more than creep) will attack your peasants, destroy what you built and they will flee with your money. If they touch you, you lose your crown and the game…

image

I’ve noticed that the peasants are quite fearless, even sometime stupid, they face the army of troll without retreating even though there a barricade right behind them.

Related news:

Kingdom (Indiegames.com)

Play kingdom

I’ve talked about game company copying unscrupulously other games, I’ve recently stumbled upon a Plants & Zombies clone rebranded with one of my favorite comic book character Asterix.

I’ve talked a lot about the new “Plants vs Zombies” game but it’s actually the first time I found out that it’s copied/cloned. Social seem to be with these kind of clone, some developer copy from another in a different setting and release it in hope to get the traction from the previous copied game.

About Asterix

Fo those who don’t know who Asterix his check out the Wikipedia entry:

“Asterix is a series of French comics written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo. The series follows the exploits of a village of indomitable Gauls as they resist Roman occupation. They do so by means of a magic potion, brewed by their druid, which gives the recipient superhuman strength. “

How come it’s a clone?

While the setting is definitely different, the gameplay is practically the same between the 2 games. Replace plant with Gallic warrior from Asterix village and zombie with roman “Et Voilà” you get Asterix: Total Retaliation.
You can go read pocket game take on the game and comparison of both game.

Is Asterix: Total Retaliation a clone or a cool game that took some inspiration from Plants vs Zombies ?

Let us know what you think in the comment below!

Related News:

Is Asterix: Total Retaliation a clone of Plants vs. Zombies – and should you care?

Our plants vs Zombies news 

Plants vs Zombies 2 release on Android