You’re fourteen years old, and you’ve just inherited the throne after the unfortunate passing of your mother. Your skills are lacking, your moods are all over the place, and you have no ruling experience to speak of. To put it bluntly, you’re in a lot of trouble. “Long Live The Queen” tasks the player in molding this new ruler any way they’d like in the hopes of one day becoming a positive footnote in the history books. Before we start ruling the kingdom with a tempered demeanour or an iron fist, I’d like to thank Georgina Bensley from Hanako Games for providing me with a free review copy.
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I have some pretty painful boxing memories as a kid, though no matter how much abuse Little Mac took, I was mashing on those “A” and “B” buttons to have another chance at the dreaded “Dream Fight” (play your “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out”, kids). I dabbled in the Fight Night series here and there, but nothing sticks out in my mind more than Bald Bull’s “Bull Charge” and Great Tiger’s “Magic Punch.” Needless to say, I was surprised (in a good way) to see this particular game hit Desura’s “New Games” tab. It looks and feels like a modern-day “Punch-Out” on speed, but with some interesting mechanics thrown in for good measure. Before we start wrapping tape around our hands, I’d like to thank Gordon Luk from Goodhustle Studios, Inc. for sending me a free review copy.
Despite popular belief, games don’t necessarily have to be about gunning some hapless chap down before he does the same to you. Some games involve music, some games involve adventure, and some games simply serve to make you stop and take in your surroundings. “Proteus” is a mix all of three of these things and is designed to send the player on a unique adventure that they soon won’t forget. Before we don our hiking boots and zip up our backpacks, I’d like to thank Ed Key (the designer and programmer of “Proteus”) for providing me with a free review copy.
“World of Goo” was the last puzzle game to weird me out and as a parent, that’s pretty hard to do. “Puddle”, while similar, isn’t so much as weird as it is unique in that it offers gameplay mechanics that I don’t often see in my travels as a games journalist. Instead of ferrying lemmings or balls of goo from start to finish, you’ll be manipulating the camera to manuever a puddle of fluid (hence the title) around the environment. Before we get started, I’d like to thank Sébastien Chipot-Delys from Neko Entertainment for providing me with a free review copy.
Hey folks, I just wanted to take a time out to pass along this press release from Imminent Games, the folks who made “Drip Drip”. To sum up the below, Imminent Games will donate 20% of all PC and Mac “Drip Drip” game sales made through the Imminent Games site for the month of February to the Robin Hood Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund. Help spread the word for a good cause!
My fondness of the “Tropico” series should be well-known by now, especially by those who have been eagerly reading everything I’ve had to say about “Tropico 4.” Those who have know how deep, how complex, and how involved it can all be. While “Tropico”, “Tropico 3”, and “Tropico 4” all have similar play mechanics and are based around the same theme, “Tropico 2” dared to be different. Instead of ruling over a Banana Republic, “Tropico 2” tasks you with overseeing a pirate-themed empire. Granted, the game was released in 2003, but I believe it warrants a quick look especially now that “Tropico” product bundles exist. Does this game stand up well on its own, or is it the black sheep that no one cares to bring up during a family reunion?
Ugh. I found this free game on Desura, developed by the same people who made “Insert Title Here” which I thought was pretty good. It goes to show however that free things aren’t always a blessing in disguise. The walk speed is terribly slow and the platforming is broken. To sum things up, I reiterate my earlier sentence: “Ugh.”
I’d hesitate to call this a game, more like an exercise in futility. You’ll be using the mouse to move a hand around the environment, along with A, W, E, R, and Space Bar to move the hand’s fingers. The goal is to take out the heart and put in the replacement…trust me, it’s harder than it sounds. It took me almost a minute to get used to moving the hand around and about five minutes to actually pick up my first surgical tool. Still, it was hilarious to watch tools and internal body parts flying all over the place. You can check out my reaction to the game and/or download the game yourself for free via the links below. Don’t forget to scrub!
So, you’re a bear and it’s almost time to hibernate. The logical thing to do would be to jump in your car, drive around and run over lakes and bushes to spawn food, and dodge bears driving other cars. I came across this free PC game (99 cents on iOS products) and decided to give it a go, mainly because of how ridiculous it all sounded. The goal is to eat enough food and drive into a cave before the time limit expires. It’s fairly difficult, seeing as how you’ll be driving with one hand, erm…paw. You can check out my reaction to it, or download the game yourself, via the links below. Don’t drive angry!
As human beings, we often take a lot of things for granted. Every now and again, something comes along that challenges our perceptions and the way we look at things. “Antichamber” would certainly fall into one such category. While there are other games on the market that task the player with completing puzzles in a first person view, this particular game does it in a way that is both unique and refreshing. Before we start bending reality as we know it, I’d like to thank Alexander Bruce for providing me with a free review copy.
If I had to name my favorite arcade game from the 1980’s, it would definitely have to be “Gauntlet.” You picked a character class and waded through hordes of enemies alone or with friends, endeavouring to find your way to the exit. “Dungeonland” reminds me a bit of “Gauntlet: Dark Legacy” (an evolved form of “Gauntlet” for the PS2), mainly because it encourages cooperative play while keeping with the theme we all know and love. Before we don our wizard’s caps and sharpen our swords, I’d like to thank Veronica Gunlycke from Paradox Interactive for providing me with a free review copy.
There’s something to be said for strategy games that are simplified in nature. In my youth, I was all about playing games that were as complicated as possible to satisfy my mind’s need to escape from reality for a while. Now that I’m older, I’ve come to appreciate simpler strategy games because they allow me to unwind without overloading my brain, something that parenthood and working full-time already do in abundance. “Auralux” happens to be the latter, being similar to games like “Eufloria” and “Oil Rush” in that you’ll be managing an army of “X” without the complications of base building and resource collection. Before we get started, I’d like to thank E. McNeill for providing me with a free review copy.
I came across another free game on Desura that I thought I’d try out. Free stuff is always a good thing, especially if they keep the player entertained. “Baby Blues” puts you in the shoes of a five-year old, tasked with wandering through a creepy house to collect nine teddy bears. The main menu lets you start a new game or continue an existing one, and there is no options menu that I saw. It would have been nice to know what keys do what and to be able to lower the volume for recording purposes, but I’m not going to critique a free game too harshly. It’s eerie and lasts roughly twenty minutes, depending on how long it takes you to find all nine teddy bears. Definitely worth a look. You can check out my gameplay video (link below) if you’d like to see the game in action.
Working in a call center is an interesting experience, especially if you happen to be working in some sort of escalation department that takes disgruntled customer calls. Finding that balance between, “the customer is always right” and “the customer is just being an idiot” can be difficult to do. Luckily, I came across a game that puts you in the manager’s office this time around and tasks you with building a call center from the ground up. Gone are the days where customers call you vulgar names…that’s what your staff is for (but at least you can fire them). Before we jump headfirst into the “chaos”, I’d like to thank Andreas Heydeck from Heydeck Games for providing me with a free review copy.
I used to be heavily invested in the “Metal Gear” series and enjoyed the heck out of it, mainly because I liked sneaking around and coming at enemy troops from different angles. “Deus Ex: Human Revolution” reminds me a lot of said game, as I have the ability to be as sneaky or as destructive as I want to be. The player will take on the role of Adam Jensen, who works as a security specialist for a very popular biotechnology corporation. Things seem normal at the start, but like in most games with a plotline, everything isn’t what it seems.
I’ve seen a lot of talk about violent video games in the media lately and usually I’m able to ignore it, but there are some comments that eventually send me off the deep end because of the ignorance and stupidity involved. For example, Ralph Nader recently called video games, “electronic child molesters.” This is obviously an exaggerated view-point hyped up for the benefit of the media, but it begs the question: “Is there really any truth to the idea that violent video games can cause an individual to exhibit violent behavior?”