Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/218130/
Source: Youtube Channel RatingTheGames
Dungeonland released earlier this year and it wasn't that expensive. At one point, it was $2.49 for a sale. Yet it somehow went free-to-play and re-launched today. From what I understand, content has been ripped out of it and presented as additional content for Free-to-Play owners while those who previously bought the game has everything. I think publisher and developers are abusing the term "Free-to-Play" and not really understanding the difference from a "Demo" or "Trial Version". This "Free-to-Play" version is essentially a "demo" for players to see what the game is like as additional maps, weapons and such are available after paying for the "All Access Pass". A "Free-to-Play" game should be a fully playable game with additional boosters or aesthetic enhancements. I know that not all Free-to-Play games are like that, but they should. Still, it doesn't make too much of a difference as the All Access Pass is still the same price as the game before and is at 50% off for $4.99.
OKAY, so enough ranting by me. Dungeonland is a Multiplayer, cooperative, top-down, hack-n-slash action game where three players fight through dungeons that randomly generate enemy spawn, loot, and traps. A fourth player can join and be the Dungeon Maestro to control the monster spawns and such to screw over the players. The biggest complaint I hear about the game is how incredibly difficult it is. Difficulty as a challenge is fine, but I heard it's so difficult that it's hard to enjoy. Perhaps having the label "Free-to-Play" might attract more players to try out the game to keep the online community active. In any case, I guess I'll give the game a try myself.
Showing posts with label Paradox Interactive. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paradox Interactive. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
GameLight - Teleglitch Guns and Tunes DLC
Official Site: http://diemore.teleglitch.com/buy
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/234390/
Source: Youtube Channel gamespot
I mentioned "Teleglitch Die More Edition" two months ago and pointed out that one of the problems people had with the game was the lack of music. I guess it's okay to play your own music while playing a game, but it'd be nice to have original music for a game that's set appropriately to the game's theme. Well, the developers decided to come out with a DLC which adds the option for weapon randomization from the get go, 8 new weapons and items, and "5 standalone music tracks that will enhance your Teleglitch experience". That one line threw a lot of people off, including me. At first glance, it seems like there will be music in the game now. In reality, 5 MP3 tracks are downloaded to the game's folder for the player to play and loop in the background while they're playing the game. I guess that's fine since people were doing that with their own music anyways? With the 5 tracks, the player gets 23 minutes of...sounds...running on 2-3 tracks (think of them as layers). They're not very interesting, they're mostly looped sounds from freesound.org, and they don't feel very appropriate to the game's atmosphere. The best thing about the DLC is essentially the weapon randomization at the beginning of the game; however, mechanics like these should have been in the game in the first place. If you had pre-purchased the game before it came out, you get the DLC automatically. But if you didn't, it's $1.99. Whether the DLC was worth the purchase isn't the issue as I'm not certain if the game itself is exactly worth it. It's mildly entertaining and I got it for a very low discount price, but I think I have to play it a bit longer or at least try to clear through it once before I can give any recommendations or not. Teleglitch: Die More Edition is 75% off from its usual $12.99 for $3.25 until October 14th and the Guns and Tunes DLC is $1.99 on steam right now.
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/234390/
Source: Youtube Channel gamespot
I mentioned "Teleglitch Die More Edition" two months ago and pointed out that one of the problems people had with the game was the lack of music. I guess it's okay to play your own music while playing a game, but it'd be nice to have original music for a game that's set appropriately to the game's theme. Well, the developers decided to come out with a DLC which adds the option for weapon randomization from the get go, 8 new weapons and items, and "5 standalone music tracks that will enhance your Teleglitch experience". That one line threw a lot of people off, including me. At first glance, it seems like there will be music in the game now. In reality, 5 MP3 tracks are downloaded to the game's folder for the player to play and loop in the background while they're playing the game. I guess that's fine since people were doing that with their own music anyways? With the 5 tracks, the player gets 23 minutes of...sounds...running on 2-3 tracks (think of them as layers). They're not very interesting, they're mostly looped sounds from freesound.org, and they don't feel very appropriate to the game's atmosphere. The best thing about the DLC is essentially the weapon randomization at the beginning of the game; however, mechanics like these should have been in the game in the first place. If you had pre-purchased the game before it came out, you get the DLC automatically. But if you didn't, it's $1.99. Whether the DLC was worth the purchase isn't the issue as I'm not certain if the game itself is exactly worth it. It's mildly entertaining and I got it for a very low discount price, but I think I have to play it a bit longer or at least try to clear through it once before I can give any recommendations or not. Teleglitch: Die More Edition is 75% off from its usual $12.99 for $3.25 until October 14th and the Guns and Tunes DLC is $1.99 on steam right now.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
GameLight - Teleglitch: Die More Edition
Official Site: http://diemore.teleglitch.com/buy
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/234390/ Source: Youtube Channel gamespot
I've seen this game on the front page of GreenManGaming for the longest time and I just never had interest in looking into it after looking at a few screenshots. When it was officially launched and showed up on Steam, I read the description and realized that it was a top-down shooter with Rogue-like elements. These were two genres I enjoy playing that I don't see too many of in the current day market. So I decided to do more research about it and find out if it's a game worth buy/playing. The first two things I immediately take note of is that the graphics are minimalistic, but not pixel-based which has this blotchy ugly look to it and the fact that there's no music throughout the game. I suppose I can look past the graphics style and I guess I can play my own music while playing this game. There are times where the screen has this crazy color blur effect such as when the player is shooting. It's a cool aesthetic in coordination to feedback within the game, but I can also see it being annoying when fighting a whole horde of enemies. What does interest me is the amount of weapons there are and the randomization of levels, as most rogue-like games utilize, to deliver a new experience every time you play. The game doesn't seem too complicated: survive, kill enemies and progress to the next level. The game, as a whole, does seem to be lacking depth; however, it does have an interesting concept and one that I'd definitely be willing to try out. You can grab Teleglitch: Die More Edition on Steam for $12.99 or from one of the many distributors listed on their official site.
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/234390/ Source: Youtube Channel gamespot
I've seen this game on the front page of GreenManGaming for the longest time and I just never had interest in looking into it after looking at a few screenshots. When it was officially launched and showed up on Steam, I read the description and realized that it was a top-down shooter with Rogue-like elements. These were two genres I enjoy playing that I don't see too many of in the current day market. So I decided to do more research about it and find out if it's a game worth buy/playing. The first two things I immediately take note of is that the graphics are minimalistic, but not pixel-based which has this blotchy ugly look to it and the fact that there's no music throughout the game. I suppose I can look past the graphics style and I guess I can play my own music while playing this game. There are times where the screen has this crazy color blur effect such as when the player is shooting. It's a cool aesthetic in coordination to feedback within the game, but I can also see it being annoying when fighting a whole horde of enemies. What does interest me is the amount of weapons there are and the randomization of levels, as most rogue-like games utilize, to deliver a new experience every time you play. The game doesn't seem too complicated: survive, kill enemies and progress to the next level. The game, as a whole, does seem to be lacking depth; however, it does have an interesting concept and one that I'd definitely be willing to try out. You can grab Teleglitch: Die More Edition on Steam for $12.99 or from one of the many distributors listed on their official site.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
GameLight - The Showdown Effect
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/204080/
Source: Youtube Channel VirTualGamers
This game was released back in March and was one I had somewhat of an interest in. I had thought it was a game similar to Shoot Many Robots where it was a single-player run 'n gun platformer. I had planned to get it when it went on sale, and it did today for $4.99. That's when I realized that the game was entirely multiplayer. The game is closer to games like Soldat or Gunster: Rain of Bullets where players run around to kill each other in a 2D platformer style gameplay. Developed by the same team who made Magicka, The Showdown Effect takes references and influences from 80's and 90's movies for a whacky multiplayer experience. The game does seem pretty fun with running up walls, sliding while shooting, flipping around the level and cutting each other with a katana; however, the fact that it's a multiplayer only game worries me. Unless there's a strong community behind a multiplayer game, the game's practically pointless no matter how fun the game is. Judging from the weak responses from forums to data collection, there doesn't seem to be that many people playing the game. I could be wrong though and many people are playing it despite it not being talked about that much (much like MAG on the PS3, a strong community with very little mention in the media). The game also has a new patch released today that adds 2 new levels and 2 new characters for free (which is surprising to me considering how many DLCs were made for Magicka). With that, there's a chance that a community might have been re-established (Awesomenauts went through that and has a decent amount of players on now). So if you're interested, click on the top link and grab "The Showdown Effect" for $5 and start shooting, flipping and slicing away.
Source: Youtube Channel VirTualGamers
This game was released back in March and was one I had somewhat of an interest in. I had thought it was a game similar to Shoot Many Robots where it was a single-player run 'n gun platformer. I had planned to get it when it went on sale, and it did today for $4.99. That's when I realized that the game was entirely multiplayer. The game is closer to games like Soldat or Gunster: Rain of Bullets where players run around to kill each other in a 2D platformer style gameplay. Developed by the same team who made Magicka, The Showdown Effect takes references and influences from 80's and 90's movies for a whacky multiplayer experience. The game does seem pretty fun with running up walls, sliding while shooting, flipping around the level and cutting each other with a katana; however, the fact that it's a multiplayer only game worries me. Unless there's a strong community behind a multiplayer game, the game's practically pointless no matter how fun the game is. Judging from the weak responses from forums to data collection, there doesn't seem to be that many people playing the game. I could be wrong though and many people are playing it despite it not being talked about that much (much like MAG on the PS3, a strong community with very little mention in the media). The game also has a new patch released today that adds 2 new levels and 2 new characters for free (which is surprising to me considering how many DLCs were made for Magicka). With that, there's a chance that a community might have been re-established (Awesomenauts went through that and has a decent amount of players on now). So if you're interested, click on the top link and grab "The Showdown Effect" for $5 and start shooting, flipping and slicing away.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
GameLight - Gettysburg: Armored Warfare
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/200630/
Source: Youtube Channel gameboyuk
A new game released on the Steam platform today called "Gettysburg Armored Warfare". It's a mix of third-person shooters with real-time strategy. Here are some fun facts about the game:
-The game is based back in the 1860's with futuristic technology (supposedly)
-The entire game was developed by one guy (Danny Green, the guy in the video)
-It's out with an initial price of $10
-A server can support up to 64 players (that's nuts when each player controls like 100 soldiers each)
-Each individual unit can be manually controlled by the player for third-person action
There are only 4 maps to play on, but they're rather large. The game does strike a bit of interest out of me, but I still don't know enough about the game to really say if it's good or not. Honestly, I see some problems with the game just from looking at some of the gameplay shown in the video. Quite a few FPS/RTS or TPS/RTS games have been made in the past as online games and have worked since 1-2 players commanded the units from an RTS point of view while everyone else controlled a unit. With the concept here, it seems that the player will have the major role of an RTS strategist while taking control over a unit seems more like a novelty than a game changing mechanic. Wouldn't the units do a better job of auto-aiming and firing at enemies than a player trying to take over? Then there's the realization that there's only 4 maps and 3 modes. I believe the game is purely custom made skirmishes and online play and will lack any sense of story, campaign, or fulfilling single-player mode. What I do have hope for in this game is that Steam Workshop customization will be available for the game sometime in spring and players will be able to play with community created mods. If there's a strong following and creative community behind the mods for this game, I think it will create a lot of fun scenarios as a sandbox-like game for a lot of players. Perhaps players can get a kick out of their own customized matches in the game's original settings, but that's something I'm not willing to try out just yet. I will probably get this game when a sale hits as I am still neck deep into my backlog of games. This game can easily be the next Garry's Mod and I think it'll be more fun than playing it vanilla.
Source: Youtube Channel gameboyuk
A new game released on the Steam platform today called "Gettysburg Armored Warfare". It's a mix of third-person shooters with real-time strategy. Here are some fun facts about the game:
-The game is based back in the 1860's with futuristic technology (supposedly)
-The entire game was developed by one guy (Danny Green, the guy in the video)
-It's out with an initial price of $10
-A server can support up to 64 players (that's nuts when each player controls like 100 soldiers each)
-Each individual unit can be manually controlled by the player for third-person action
There are only 4 maps to play on, but they're rather large. The game does strike a bit of interest out of me, but I still don't know enough about the game to really say if it's good or not. Honestly, I see some problems with the game just from looking at some of the gameplay shown in the video. Quite a few FPS/RTS or TPS/RTS games have been made in the past as online games and have worked since 1-2 players commanded the units from an RTS point of view while everyone else controlled a unit. With the concept here, it seems that the player will have the major role of an RTS strategist while taking control over a unit seems more like a novelty than a game changing mechanic. Wouldn't the units do a better job of auto-aiming and firing at enemies than a player trying to take over? Then there's the realization that there's only 4 maps and 3 modes. I believe the game is purely custom made skirmishes and online play and will lack any sense of story, campaign, or fulfilling single-player mode. What I do have hope for in this game is that Steam Workshop customization will be available for the game sometime in spring and players will be able to play with community created mods. If there's a strong following and creative community behind the mods for this game, I think it will create a lot of fun scenarios as a sandbox-like game for a lot of players. Perhaps players can get a kick out of their own customized matches in the game's original settings, but that's something I'm not willing to try out just yet. I will probably get this game when a sale hits as I am still neck deep into my backlog of games. This game can easily be the next Garry's Mod and I think it'll be more fun than playing it vanilla.
Friday, March 16, 2012
GameLight - War of the Roses
Official Site: http://www.paradoxplaza.com/games/war-of-the-roses
Source: Youtube Channel machinima
Out of the announcements from GDC, I didn't really see any game announcements except for this one. War of the Roses is based on historical 15th century England where a series of civil wars broke out to claim the throne. The game looks a lot like Mount & Blade (also published by Paradox Interactive) but is being developed by Fatshark (who developed Lead & Gold: Gangs of the Wild West and Bionic Commando Rearmed 2) rather than TaleWorlds. The focus on gameplay seems to be dynamic combat mechanics as those who have played Mount & Blade would know that the animations and fighting are very stiff and rigid. War of the Roses seems to be a lot smoother and offers brutal finishing moves. How the rest of the game plays is still uncertain as the developer has yet to reveal much about the game. Much like Mount & Blade, the game will feature massive multiplayer battles and an extensive persistence system in their single-player campaign. I'm not even sure if there was an end to any of the Mount & Blade games as one can play hundreds of hours out of it while free roaming the map. War of the Roses is looking great from the videos so far and I'm prepared to get it if I can get as great a deal as I did out of the Mount & Blade series (I bought all 3).
Source: Youtube Channel machinima
Out of the announcements from GDC, I didn't really see any game announcements except for this one. War of the Roses is based on historical 15th century England where a series of civil wars broke out to claim the throne. The game looks a lot like Mount & Blade (also published by Paradox Interactive) but is being developed by Fatshark (who developed Lead & Gold: Gangs of the Wild West and Bionic Commando Rearmed 2) rather than TaleWorlds. The focus on gameplay seems to be dynamic combat mechanics as those who have played Mount & Blade would know that the animations and fighting are very stiff and rigid. War of the Roses seems to be a lot smoother and offers brutal finishing moves. How the rest of the game plays is still uncertain as the developer has yet to reveal much about the game. Much like Mount & Blade, the game will feature massive multiplayer battles and an extensive persistence system in their single-player campaign. I'm not even sure if there was an end to any of the Mount & Blade games as one can play hundreds of hours out of it while free roaming the map. War of the Roses is looking great from the videos so far and I'm prepared to get it if I can get as great a deal as I did out of the Mount & Blade series (I bought all 3).
Thursday, June 23, 2011
GameLight - Magicka DLCs
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.
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.
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.
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