Wow, I am really off my game this week. I nearly missed another day of post and now it's going to show up as the next day's. Anyways, Magicka had 4 DLC releases two days ago for about $2-$4 each.
Source: Youtube Channel warpedrooster
I really like Magicka, and the extra add-on DLCs are cool, but I feel they have fallen to the evil scheming of big name publishers by releasing little by little with a price tag on each one. There's enough DLCs for the game now to pay for the game 1.5x more than the original with it still lacking as much content as the game itself. Instead of making one larger DLCs for a reasonable price, they want to get that little bit extra by selling them individually. I've been against the idea of DLCs since the beginning and have only bought it for 3 games so far on a whim, but it didn't really entirely satisfy me. The 4 new DLCs are:
-Final Frontier
-Frozen Lake
-Party Robes
-Watchtower
I'll consider getting them if it has a discount, but maybe I'll get to a point where I stop caring about Magicka because of how increasingly expensive the DLCs will amount to.
Showing posts with label Magicka. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Magicka. Show all posts
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
GameLight Review - Magicka
Buy it now: http://www.magickagame.com/
Developer: Arrowhead Game Studios
Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Platform: PC (Digital Download Only)
Release Date: January 25, 2011
Genre: Action Adventure
For a mere $10, an absurd story of satire and cliché is unfolded to the players with a unique spell system that has fans of magic, wizards and mages laughing the whole way through. The solo campaign is interesting enough to provide the player with enough entertainment and humor to make the $10 worthwhile; however, the game truly shines when multiplayer is put into play. Despite the faulty connections, crashes, and bugs involved in multiplayer, the developers' ingenious spell combination system works so well that it will keep you coming back to see what other strategies work with your friends helping/killing you along the way.
Source: Youtube Channel Games
Story
A powerful wizard who had an insatiable thirst for knowledge is locked away for his ambitions as it's considered to be too dangerous. Based off of Norse mythology, Magicka follows a typical western RPG sort of story and makes all sorts of jokes and references that pokes fun at itself. The main story is told in multiplayer as it is in single-player. This allows those in multiplayer to experience the same cutscenes and dialogues as those who played solo. Honestly, the whole story can be taken out and it'd still be a great game to play. The journey is separated by 13 chapters stays consistent story wise with Vlad guiding the heroes. But no story is greater in Magicka than those told between friends after playing multiplayer with alongside each other or with others online in adventure or challenge mode. I've heard stories where players try to heal another and instead blow them up. Others where someone summons a lightning storm and ends up killing everyone on their team. One of my stories within the game was a friend was trying to heal us and dropped health mines around him and it exploded and another friend and I flew off the screen and died from it (at least we got healed). The ridiculous antics made by doing crazy experiments using the spell systems is far more interesting to tell than the actual story which I find is much more difficult to create for players, and so I must applaud the developers for providing that even if they did not intend to. Story: 8/10 (C'mon, it's pretty hilarious when someone tries to heal themselves and ends up dropping a chunk of ice and ends up killing themselves).
Graphics
Hmm, I might have to be a bit more harsh on this category for certain problems this game had. The biggest problem I ran into when I first started the game was the amount of graphics lag that persisted for simple graphics on the screen. The environment and models were drawn wonderfully, but they shouldn't demand so much resource and processing power to run. So there's the problem with optimization that made the game lag graphically a lot of the time and eventually made certain games crash (I've gotten the blue screen of death 3-4 times already from playing the game). Certain enemy colors sometime meld with the environment a little too well and causes problems when the game doesn't progress and the enemy is glitched somewhere that matches its color. There are camera focus problems in multiplayer where one player might fly off screen and the camera would focus off screen for a while away from the other players for quite a duration. Luckily, these are all minor problems that the developers have been working hard on fixing. The character design for the players are unique enough for know which character for which player. The lighting effects are pretty impressive as well since they add a lot of depth into the spells. Considering that this game consisted of a team of four people and started out as a student project make this a remarkable feat to achieve. Until the graphic problems and addressed and solved, I'm going to have to mark it down a little. Graphics: 8/10
Audio
The jibber-jabber voice acting has always been pretty annoying in gaming to gives life to characters as dialogue; however, Arrowhead Game Studios took the time to use specific words that have meaning of its own while still have relatively similar meaning to the text. It really does add to the humor factor in the game. Maybe they really are speaking a language and I just don't know it. The music is typical, but sets the mood pretty well. My favorite track has been the one for the title screen/main menu. It's not entirely memorable or catchy, but it's really nice to listen to and creates a certain mode that's appropriate for the game. The sound effects are dead on and work well with the spells and characters of the game. I find the most useful sound to hear is the sound of a player dying (especially in challenge mode) because you know it's time to revive a team mate. There isn't anything I could really ask for more from the audio section of the game. Audio: 9/10
Gameplay
I don't remember the last time I played a game that had such an intricate combination system and have such a nice flow to the game. It is definitely a refreshing break from RPGs where spells relied a lot on mana, stats, and cooldowns. Since Magicka is an action adventure game, the spell casting and gameplay relied heavily upon skill, memorization, creativity, and improvisation. In multiplayer, team work can really help but is not always necessary. Playing multiplayer is really where the game shows off how fun it can really be when pitted against hordes of monsters with 2-4 players combining their smarts together to fight them off. Friendly fire is bound to happen, but my friend and I agreed that it's part of the humor and fun to the game. Things you wouldn't normally believe to happen might happen and surprise you. Though it's possible for all players to use all the abilities that are available, groups of players have devised game plans that has each member of their team take a role like in a RPG in order to fulfill a goal. One player supresses attacks, one slows or freezes the enemies, another charges up for heavy damaging spells while the last one might decide to be the healer and keep everyone's HP up. My friends and I played however we liked and took cues from each other on what to do. It's really exciting to experiment or accidentally create a spell you may not have done before and unleash it for the first time. It might kill your buddy and perhaps yourself, but you get the feeling of "oh, that's what it does, haha." I have waited a long time for a game where creating spells and casting them were fast, diversified and fun to do. Not that I don't like RPG style magic users and cooldowns, but it's fun to be able to cast a wide range of spells in a short amount of time. The developers had their vision set on this game and stuck with it through the end and made sometime amazing. I hope to get at least 50 hours of gameplay out of this. Gameplay: 10/10
Overall
I was planning on buying the game when it had a sale of $5 because of all the games I have already bought over the holiday steam sale in December; however, I got tempted when I saw that the DLCs were going to be included into the game. It looked interesting and had that Diablo-ish look to it that I love so much in RPGs (even though it's an action adventure), but I resisted and added it to my want list. The next day, I saw news over the internet that it already sold 30K, one of my friends bought it, it had a demo and I tried it out, and I heard good reviews from fellow game developers that they played it a lot in their studios and enjoyed it. I am very satisfied with my purchase and continue to play with my friends whenever we get the chance. The game crashes, connection issues, and getting dropped mid-game has been the bane of our experience within the game; however, we're doing our best to ignore it and hope for the developers to fix it soon. If you haven't bought the game and don't feel sure, download and play the demo on Steam. If you like magic-based systems in games or looking for something entertaining and affordable, I highly recommend Magicka for its $9.99 price tag (it's worth it). Overall: 8.75
Developer: Arrowhead Game Studios
Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Platform: PC (Digital Download Only)
Release Date: January 25, 2011
Genre: Action Adventure
For a mere $10, an absurd story of satire and cliché is unfolded to the players with a unique spell system that has fans of magic, wizards and mages laughing the whole way through. The solo campaign is interesting enough to provide the player with enough entertainment and humor to make the $10 worthwhile; however, the game truly shines when multiplayer is put into play. Despite the faulty connections, crashes, and bugs involved in multiplayer, the developers' ingenious spell combination system works so well that it will keep you coming back to see what other strategies work with your friends helping/killing you along the way.
Source: Youtube Channel Games
Story
A powerful wizard who had an insatiable thirst for knowledge is locked away for his ambitions as it's considered to be too dangerous. Based off of Norse mythology, Magicka follows a typical western RPG sort of story and makes all sorts of jokes and references that pokes fun at itself. The main story is told in multiplayer as it is in single-player. This allows those in multiplayer to experience the same cutscenes and dialogues as those who played solo. Honestly, the whole story can be taken out and it'd still be a great game to play. The journey is separated by 13 chapters stays consistent story wise with Vlad guiding the heroes. But no story is greater in Magicka than those told between friends after playing multiplayer with alongside each other or with others online in adventure or challenge mode. I've heard stories where players try to heal another and instead blow them up. Others where someone summons a lightning storm and ends up killing everyone on their team. One of my stories within the game was a friend was trying to heal us and dropped health mines around him and it exploded and another friend and I flew off the screen and died from it (at least we got healed). The ridiculous antics made by doing crazy experiments using the spell systems is far more interesting to tell than the actual story which I find is much more difficult to create for players, and so I must applaud the developers for providing that even if they did not intend to. Story: 8/10 (C'mon, it's pretty hilarious when someone tries to heal themselves and ends up dropping a chunk of ice and ends up killing themselves).
Graphics
Hmm, I might have to be a bit more harsh on this category for certain problems this game had. The biggest problem I ran into when I first started the game was the amount of graphics lag that persisted for simple graphics on the screen. The environment and models were drawn wonderfully, but they shouldn't demand so much resource and processing power to run. So there's the problem with optimization that made the game lag graphically a lot of the time and eventually made certain games crash (I've gotten the blue screen of death 3-4 times already from playing the game). Certain enemy colors sometime meld with the environment a little too well and causes problems when the game doesn't progress and the enemy is glitched somewhere that matches its color. There are camera focus problems in multiplayer where one player might fly off screen and the camera would focus off screen for a while away from the other players for quite a duration. Luckily, these are all minor problems that the developers have been working hard on fixing. The character design for the players are unique enough for know which character for which player. The lighting effects are pretty impressive as well since they add a lot of depth into the spells. Considering that this game consisted of a team of four people and started out as a student project make this a remarkable feat to achieve. Until the graphic problems and addressed and solved, I'm going to have to mark it down a little. Graphics: 8/10
Audio
The jibber-jabber voice acting has always been pretty annoying in gaming to gives life to characters as dialogue; however, Arrowhead Game Studios took the time to use specific words that have meaning of its own while still have relatively similar meaning to the text. It really does add to the humor factor in the game. Maybe they really are speaking a language and I just don't know it. The music is typical, but sets the mood pretty well. My favorite track has been the one for the title screen/main menu. It's not entirely memorable or catchy, but it's really nice to listen to and creates a certain mode that's appropriate for the game. The sound effects are dead on and work well with the spells and characters of the game. I find the most useful sound to hear is the sound of a player dying (especially in challenge mode) because you know it's time to revive a team mate. There isn't anything I could really ask for more from the audio section of the game. Audio: 9/10
Gameplay
I don't remember the last time I played a game that had such an intricate combination system and have such a nice flow to the game. It is definitely a refreshing break from RPGs where spells relied a lot on mana, stats, and cooldowns. Since Magicka is an action adventure game, the spell casting and gameplay relied heavily upon skill, memorization, creativity, and improvisation. In multiplayer, team work can really help but is not always necessary. Playing multiplayer is really where the game shows off how fun it can really be when pitted against hordes of monsters with 2-4 players combining their smarts together to fight them off. Friendly fire is bound to happen, but my friend and I agreed that it's part of the humor and fun to the game. Things you wouldn't normally believe to happen might happen and surprise you. Though it's possible for all players to use all the abilities that are available, groups of players have devised game plans that has each member of their team take a role like in a RPG in order to fulfill a goal. One player supresses attacks, one slows or freezes the enemies, another charges up for heavy damaging spells while the last one might decide to be the healer and keep everyone's HP up. My friends and I played however we liked and took cues from each other on what to do. It's really exciting to experiment or accidentally create a spell you may not have done before and unleash it for the first time. It might kill your buddy and perhaps yourself, but you get the feeling of "oh, that's what it does, haha." I have waited a long time for a game where creating spells and casting them were fast, diversified and fun to do. Not that I don't like RPG style magic users and cooldowns, but it's fun to be able to cast a wide range of spells in a short amount of time. The developers had their vision set on this game and stuck with it through the end and made sometime amazing. I hope to get at least 50 hours of gameplay out of this. Gameplay: 10/10
Overall
I was planning on buying the game when it had a sale of $5 because of all the games I have already bought over the holiday steam sale in December; however, I got tempted when I saw that the DLCs were going to be included into the game. It looked interesting and had that Diablo-ish look to it that I love so much in RPGs (even though it's an action adventure), but I resisted and added it to my want list. The next day, I saw news over the internet that it already sold 30K, one of my friends bought it, it had a demo and I tried it out, and I heard good reviews from fellow game developers that they played it a lot in their studios and enjoyed it. I am very satisfied with my purchase and continue to play with my friends whenever we get the chance. The game crashes, connection issues, and getting dropped mid-game has been the bane of our experience within the game; however, we're doing our best to ignore it and hope for the developers to fix it soon. If you haven't bought the game and don't feel sure, download and play the demo on Steam. If you like magic-based systems in games or looking for something entertaining and affordable, I highly recommend Magicka for its $9.99 price tag (it's worth it). Overall: 8.75
Friday, January 28, 2011
NewNews - Hand Cannon in Dead Space 2
So I planned on doing a review on newly released FPS "Breach" today but ended up playing a lot of Magicka last night instead and was going to do a review on that first. Well, work took up practically the whole day and now I'm too tired to write a review so I thought I'd share a little something I found on Kotaku instead until next when I'll do some reviews.
Article Source: Kotaku - Beat Dead Space 2 And It Will Give You The Finger
Source: Youtube Channel hayabusaDGO
So I got through half way of Dead Space 1 and it crashed on me for some odd reason and it would crash every time I tried to run it. Because of it, I gave up and didn't want to play through it all over again. I found the game to be hilarious actually (along with some parts where it startled me). Being able to individually break limbs off the enemies and pick up objects to throw at them is pretty amusing and lots of fun. Despite that, I didn't have much interest in playing Dead Space 2 even though it looks pretty amazing. When I saw the video for the Hand Cannon, it totally reminded me of Phantasy Star Universe when I got "The Real Handgun":
Source: Youtube Channel DJBigz1988
Even though Dead Space 2 is supposed to be a horror game with things popping out you with gory deaths and all, the developers rewarded those who played through Hardcore mode to give them something to laugh about and let the player ease up a bit since they probably already seen most of the horrors of the game by the time they get it. It's fun to see these looney antics happen in games. Last night when I was playing Magicka with some friends, one of them picked up a M60 Machine Gun. "A Machine Gun in a magic game?" one of my friends asked.
Source: Youtube Channel Afoxi
Well that's it for now, have a good weekend all~
Article Source: Kotaku - Beat Dead Space 2 And It Will Give You The Finger
Source: Youtube Channel hayabusaDGO
So I got through half way of Dead Space 1 and it crashed on me for some odd reason and it would crash every time I tried to run it. Because of it, I gave up and didn't want to play through it all over again. I found the game to be hilarious actually (along with some parts where it startled me). Being able to individually break limbs off the enemies and pick up objects to throw at them is pretty amusing and lots of fun. Despite that, I didn't have much interest in playing Dead Space 2 even though it looks pretty amazing. When I saw the video for the Hand Cannon, it totally reminded me of Phantasy Star Universe when I got "The Real Handgun":
Source: Youtube Channel DJBigz1988
Even though Dead Space 2 is supposed to be a horror game with things popping out you with gory deaths and all, the developers rewarded those who played through Hardcore mode to give them something to laugh about and let the player ease up a bit since they probably already seen most of the horrors of the game by the time they get it. It's fun to see these looney antics happen in games. Last night when I was playing Magicka with some friends, one of them picked up a M60 Machine Gun. "A Machine Gun in a magic game?" one of my friends asked.
Source: Youtube Channel Afoxi
Well that's it for now, have a good weekend all~
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
NewNews - Magicka sells 30,000 yesterday on first day!
Article News Sources:
Gamasutra - Arrowhead's Debut Magicka Sells 30K PC Digital Copies Day-One
Joystiq - Magicka sells 30,000 on first day, being patched 'as often as possible'
Whoaaaa, randomly talked about seeing it yesterday and seeing posts on how it sold 30k already is so weird. I think it's telling me to buy it, despite it being $10 instead of $5. So I got too busy last night and couldn't try out the demo (although I got to try out 007 Goldeneye on Wii finally, awesome game), but I'm more convinced now that I should buy the game. I should probably try out the demo really quick and make the decision to buy it or not so I can get the 3 DLC it comes with if bought before Jan. 31st.
Source: Youtube Channel GamerSpawn
So I heard there were bugs in the game, especially in multiplayer; however, it was unexpectedly counter-acted by the intentional whacky gameplay it was designed to be. The game has the player taking the role of a mage/wizard that utilizes eight elements (fire, water, ice, earth, lightning, arcane, healing and shield) to combine in order to summon a spell forth to be casted on one's self, an enemy, imbue onto a weapon, or to heal/hurt an ally. I personally love the idea of magic and elements but rarely ever play the spell casters in RPGs because of how fragile they are and how slow they attack. But this game seems to be designed on fast paced action and crazy antics. I am wondering if 13 level is enough for this game to have good replay value. Thinking about it, maybe I shouldn't worry about that since it's $10. I spent $5 on games like Trine and Torchlight, and I was satisfied with it. Oh well, I'll get the demo and see what I think. Congratulations to Arrowhead Game Studios for a job well done and in selling 30,000 in the first day. I hope the game continues to have more sales throughout the following months.
Gamasutra - Arrowhead's Debut Magicka Sells 30K PC Digital Copies Day-One
Joystiq - Magicka sells 30,000 on first day, being patched 'as often as possible'
Whoaaaa, randomly talked about seeing it yesterday and seeing posts on how it sold 30k already is so weird. I think it's telling me to buy it, despite it being $10 instead of $5. So I got too busy last night and couldn't try out the demo (although I got to try out 007 Goldeneye on Wii finally, awesome game), but I'm more convinced now that I should buy the game. I should probably try out the demo really quick and make the decision to buy it or not so I can get the 3 DLC it comes with if bought before Jan. 31st.
Source: Youtube Channel GamerSpawn
So I heard there were bugs in the game, especially in multiplayer; however, it was unexpectedly counter-acted by the intentional whacky gameplay it was designed to be. The game has the player taking the role of a mage/wizard that utilizes eight elements (fire, water, ice, earth, lightning, arcane, healing and shield) to combine in order to summon a spell forth to be casted on one's self, an enemy, imbue onto a weapon, or to heal/hurt an ally. I personally love the idea of magic and elements but rarely ever play the spell casters in RPGs because of how fragile they are and how slow they attack. But this game seems to be designed on fast paced action and crazy antics. I am wondering if 13 level is enough for this game to have good replay value. Thinking about it, maybe I shouldn't worry about that since it's $10. I spent $5 on games like Trine and Torchlight, and I was satisfied with it. Oh well, I'll get the demo and see what I think. Congratulations to Arrowhead Game Studios for a job well done and in selling 30,000 in the first day. I hope the game continues to have more sales throughout the following months.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
NewNews - Kongregate back on Android, MNC/TF2 Crossover, and Magicka on Steam
Article Source: Gamasutra - Kongregate Android App Modified Slightly, Back On Marketplace
Last week, Kongregate had an application that acted as a portal to its 300+ free games for android phones and was taken off by google for violating rules of selling an app store in their app store. After a little bit of modifying and clarification that it was a portal and not an app store, the app is back on the android market and 300+ free flash games are available to play. Too bad I don't have an android phone:
Source: Youtube Channel Flashuploads
I found out about Kongregate through business and work and didn't try any of the games. After hearing about Kongregate on the Gamestop channel in one of their shops, I went back home and tried it out. It's actually pretty interesting having so many quality flash games in one area, and it's mainly due to the games being created by indie game developers. On browsers on computer, there's over 1000+ games. If you're bored and looking for some short term (or long term, depends on which game) entertainment, look no farther than Kongregate.
Article Source: Joystiq - Monday Night Combat PC launched; includes TF2 crossover, 'Juice Bot'
Source: Youtube Channel UberEntChannel
Heh, I get all three references since I bought Team Fortress 2 a year ago, Monday Night Combat the day it was released on Steam PC, and I read Penny Arcade's comics. I'm still not sure how strong the community for Monday Night Combat is since I barely see anyone playing Multiplayer, but hopefully this little update will bring some interest from the TF2 community. I found this video and update to be awesome and humorous at the same time since a lot people ridiculed MNC for looking and playing too much like TF2 ever since its launch on Xbox Live Arcade. This is obviously not true for those who watched gameplay videos and read descriptions on how it plays like DotA in a 3rd-person shooter format. I honestly find it very interested and a good break from all the First-Person shooters I've been playing. I only regret that I don't find the time to play it more often. With the inclusion of these crossover items, it'll probably suck me back into playing some more TF2 (I never get sick of that game for some reason) and hopefully encourage me to take the time to play MNC more. Good luck to Uber Entertainment and thank you for constantly updating the game.
Game Source: Magicka on Steampowered Store
So I did my usual check on Steam to see what the Mid-week madness sale was and saw that it was just Greed Corp. I want to try it, but not really buy it and play it long term. When I went back to the main screen, I saw a game called Magicka released today. If it weren't for Steam, I don't think I would have heard a lot of these games that aren't talked about all that often.
Source: Youtube Channel GrowuPGaming
It looks interesting, and it even has a demo! I'll probably check it out when I get the chance, but I'm not sure if I want to buy it right away. If I buy it before Jan. 31st, there will be 3 DLC with it. Is it worth it? I was hoping to just wait for a $5 sale. I guess I'll try out the demo first and decide then. I did spend over $200 on steam last year, and it was all after I graduated from college too, haha. So if you have a Steam account and have interest in magic, RPGs, and parody, go download the demo and check it out.
Last week, Kongregate had an application that acted as a portal to its 300+ free games for android phones and was taken off by google for violating rules of selling an app store in their app store. After a little bit of modifying and clarification that it was a portal and not an app store, the app is back on the android market and 300+ free flash games are available to play. Too bad I don't have an android phone:
Source: Youtube Channel Flashuploads
I found out about Kongregate through business and work and didn't try any of the games. After hearing about Kongregate on the Gamestop channel in one of their shops, I went back home and tried it out. It's actually pretty interesting having so many quality flash games in one area, and it's mainly due to the games being created by indie game developers. On browsers on computer, there's over 1000+ games. If you're bored and looking for some short term (or long term, depends on which game) entertainment, look no farther than Kongregate.
Article Source: Joystiq - Monday Night Combat PC launched; includes TF2 crossover, 'Juice Bot'
Source: Youtube Channel UberEntChannel
Heh, I get all three references since I bought Team Fortress 2 a year ago, Monday Night Combat the day it was released on Steam PC, and I read Penny Arcade's comics. I'm still not sure how strong the community for Monday Night Combat is since I barely see anyone playing Multiplayer, but hopefully this little update will bring some interest from the TF2 community. I found this video and update to be awesome and humorous at the same time since a lot people ridiculed MNC for looking and playing too much like TF2 ever since its launch on Xbox Live Arcade. This is obviously not true for those who watched gameplay videos and read descriptions on how it plays like DotA in a 3rd-person shooter format. I honestly find it very interested and a good break from all the First-Person shooters I've been playing. I only regret that I don't find the time to play it more often. With the inclusion of these crossover items, it'll probably suck me back into playing some more TF2 (I never get sick of that game for some reason) and hopefully encourage me to take the time to play MNC more. Good luck to Uber Entertainment and thank you for constantly updating the game.
Game Source: Magicka on Steampowered Store
So I did my usual check on Steam to see what the Mid-week madness sale was and saw that it was just Greed Corp. I want to try it, but not really buy it and play it long term. When I went back to the main screen, I saw a game called Magicka released today. If it weren't for Steam, I don't think I would have heard a lot of these games that aren't talked about all that often.
Source: Youtube Channel GrowuPGaming
It looks interesting, and it even has a demo! I'll probably check it out when I get the chance, but I'm not sure if I want to buy it right away. If I buy it before Jan. 31st, there will be 3 DLC with it. Is it worth it? I was hoping to just wait for a $5 sale. I guess I'll try out the demo first and decide then. I did spend over $200 on steam last year, and it was all after I graduated from college too, haha. So if you have a Steam account and have interest in magic, RPGs, and parody, go download the demo and check it out.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)