Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/253980/
Source: Youtube Channel TopWare Interactive
I have never heard of Enclave and don't remember its name when it released over 10 years ago on Xbox. I saw it pop up on Steam 3 days ago alongside a whole slew of other old games and for some reason Enclave caught my attention. On steam, it's listed as an RPG and it worried me because I was thinking it might be filled with long dialogues, traversing long empty roads, and incomprehensible skill systems (some RPGs are still like that today). Looking up some gameplay videos, I realized that it wasn't an RPG at all! Enclave is a Hack-n-Slash, Action-Adventure with progression on a per stage basis.
I'm gonna go ahead and get the bad aspects out of the way first. Attacks do not connect to the enemies a lot of the times because of the awkward animations for sword swings. Sometimes enemies are shorter than the player, but the player can't aim downwards. Level design is pretty open which allows for some non-linear routing, but it's also confusing and causes the player to often get lost. If the player is killed, they either start the level over again or respawn at the last check point. The problem is that it just happens when you lose all your health and it just happens, you don't really see your character die which feels weird and makes you think it's a cutscene happening. There are 12 characters to choose from, but a lot of them feel clunky and useless. The sword swings are just so inaccurate and unreliable that I end up using the huntress because the bow and crossbow is significantly more accurate.
With that out of the way, let me point out some of the aspects that made this game fun. Levels are short and pretty straight-forward except when the levels are confusing. This makes it really easy to pick up and play and not have to endure long winded dialogues and cutscenes (there are some and they're pretty boring, but I think they can be skipped). The game boasts itself for being atmospheric, and it kind of is. The game has that medieval fantasy theme going and it feels nice as part of the experience. Once I got the hang of how the game worked, combat can be kind of fun in a dumb way. Combat doesn't have too much depth to it, but it's straight-forward and relaxing. Overall, I think it's a mildly entertaining game to play and it's not particularly long. I can see why it didn't have much exposure or popularity when it came out though as the quality of the game isn't entirely high. But for the price of $2.49, it's worth getting to change up the pace of my gaming. Enclave will be 50% off for $2.49 for another 4 days.
Monday, October 7, 2013
Friday, October 4, 2013
NewNews - Treasure puts up Ikaruga on Steam
Greenlight: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=183195387
Source: Youtube Channel TREASURE Channel
I might have mentioned this before, as I tell the story often, but one of my biggest regrets in gaming was not picking up Ikaruga when I saw it for $20 new for the Nintendo Gamecube at a wholesale store. I would have not guessed that a shoot-em-up would become so rare on the Gamecube and so sought out. I searched for years after that for a used copy and never found one. A few years back, I was with a friend at a Gamestop and he grabbed a game and looked and me saying "look what I found". I was excited and ready to buy it right then and there, and then he said he was going to buy it...But of course he invited me over to play with him as it supports 2-player cooperative play. Still, I never got to go through the whole game and I'm not close by my friend's place no more. So it was only natural that I was very happy and excited to see Ikaruga show up on Steam Greenlight front page.
If you've never heard of the game and wondering why so many people are getting excited over it, it's one of the most finely crafted and challenging vertical shoot-em-ups that featured a polarity system where players were encouraged to run into bullets of the affinity they are switched to. It also didn't have that many prints go out for consoles which is why it became so rare. From what it says on the Steam Greenlight page, the steam version of Ikaruga will be an updated version of the Xbox Live Arcade version which was already updated from previous versions. Besides its simple but innovative polarity game mechanic and its challenging nature, the game was often praised for its beautiful visuals as well. The Steam version will have vertical screen mode (Do you have a wide-screen monitor that can be switched sideways? It's perfect for shoot-em-ups!), 2-player cooperative mode, Xbox 360 controller compatibility (WHY? I'm okay if it's that AND other controllers, but it's ALWAYS only Xbox 360 controller!), and Double Play mode for the most extreme shoot-em-up players where you play two ships on one controller (yes, at the same time). Besides possibly only being compatible with a Xbox 360 controller, I'm pretty excited about getting Ikaruga on Steam.
Source: Youtube Channel TREASURE Channel
I might have mentioned this before, as I tell the story often, but one of my biggest regrets in gaming was not picking up Ikaruga when I saw it for $20 new for the Nintendo Gamecube at a wholesale store. I would have not guessed that a shoot-em-up would become so rare on the Gamecube and so sought out. I searched for years after that for a used copy and never found one. A few years back, I was with a friend at a Gamestop and he grabbed a game and looked and me saying "look what I found". I was excited and ready to buy it right then and there, and then he said he was going to buy it...But of course he invited me over to play with him as it supports 2-player cooperative play. Still, I never got to go through the whole game and I'm not close by my friend's place no more. So it was only natural that I was very happy and excited to see Ikaruga show up on Steam Greenlight front page.
If you've never heard of the game and wondering why so many people are getting excited over it, it's one of the most finely crafted and challenging vertical shoot-em-ups that featured a polarity system where players were encouraged to run into bullets of the affinity they are switched to. It also didn't have that many prints go out for consoles which is why it became so rare. From what it says on the Steam Greenlight page, the steam version of Ikaruga will be an updated version of the Xbox Live Arcade version which was already updated from previous versions. Besides its simple but innovative polarity game mechanic and its challenging nature, the game was often praised for its beautiful visuals as well. The Steam version will have vertical screen mode (Do you have a wide-screen monitor that can be switched sideways? It's perfect for shoot-em-ups!), 2-player cooperative mode, Xbox 360 controller compatibility (WHY? I'm okay if it's that AND other controllers, but it's ALWAYS only Xbox 360 controller!), and Double Play mode for the most extreme shoot-em-up players where you play two ships on one controller (yes, at the same time). Besides possibly only being compatible with a Xbox 360 controller, I'm pretty excited about getting Ikaruga on Steam.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
VGCulture - Garen Does The Monkey
Official Site: http://beta.na.leagueoflegends.com/
Source: Youtube Channel League of Legends
Garen was the 2nd champion I bought when I first started playing League of Legends and he was one of my favorite characters. He was incredibly strong with high damage, high resilience, his spin skill (Judgment) allowed him to be invulnerable to all spells, and it was a time where Fire Cape stacked. After numerous nerfs and changes to his skills, I didn't play him as much and I saw the same from the community. It seems Riot realized this and decided to spruce Garen up a bit with new visuals, some refining in his skills, and adding a new dance!
Garen originally did the dance from N*Sync's "Bye Bye Bye" Music Video. But watching the spotlight, I realized he did "The Monkey". But where did the inspiration come from? What is riot referencing when they added it in? I looked what other people thought it might be and one mentioned Johnny Bravo. I still remember that dance being in the intro of that cartoon (Dance at 0:22):
Source: Youtube Channel Chankis39
Then I saw one other possibility from an Animé I've never heard of called Overman King Gainer. Dance at 0:46
Source: Youtube Channel ntyun
I am now addicted to the theme song and can't stop listening to it. There's also the theory that Riot is referencing "Bird is the Word" from Family Guy. Dance starts at 0:28.
Source: Youtube Channel FOX
It could be anything! The dance is a bit goofy for Garen, I kinda liked his N*Sync dance. Still, his visual upgrade looks pretty cool and I'm planning to check it out myself in-game sometime soon.
Source: Youtube Channel League of Legends
Garen was the 2nd champion I bought when I first started playing League of Legends and he was one of my favorite characters. He was incredibly strong with high damage, high resilience, his spin skill (Judgment) allowed him to be invulnerable to all spells, and it was a time where Fire Cape stacked. After numerous nerfs and changes to his skills, I didn't play him as much and I saw the same from the community. It seems Riot realized this and decided to spruce Garen up a bit with new visuals, some refining in his skills, and adding a new dance!
Garen originally did the dance from N*Sync's "Bye Bye Bye" Music Video. But watching the spotlight, I realized he did "The Monkey". But where did the inspiration come from? What is riot referencing when they added it in? I looked what other people thought it might be and one mentioned Johnny Bravo. I still remember that dance being in the intro of that cartoon (Dance at 0:22):
Source: Youtube Channel Chankis39
Then I saw one other possibility from an Animé I've never heard of called Overman King Gainer. Dance at 0:46
Source: Youtube Channel ntyun
I am now addicted to the theme song and can't stop listening to it. There's also the theory that Riot is referencing "Bird is the Word" from Family Guy. Dance starts at 0:28.
Source: Youtube Channel FOX
It could be anything! The dance is a bit goofy for Garen, I kinda liked his N*Sync dance. Still, his visual upgrade looks pretty cool and I'm planning to check it out myself in-game sometime soon.
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
NewNews - October 2, 2013
There is a LOT of news today to share and I pretty much saw them all on Joystiq.
Source: Youtube Channel The Hamster Alliance
[Tom Clancy passes away at 66]
First and foremost, unexpected news that Tom Clancy has passed away at 66 just last night in a Baltimore hospital. Cause of death is not known yet, but it is still sad. He was only 66! He has established himself as a best-selling author, is a well known name in the Videogame industry for starting up Red Storm and for working with the industry on creating various military and espionage games such as the Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell series. Condolences to his family and may he rest in peace.
[Next batch of Steam Greenlit games]
So here are the next 31 games to be greenlit on Steam. Games like the first-person, Rogue-like, Action game "Eldritch" and open-world Action-Adventure RPG "Vox" are among the games greenlit. I see a few MMOs in there as well such Age of Wushu and Cabal Online.
[Not on Steam Sale - Kinda like Indie Game Stand]
Similar to Indie Game Stand, Not on Steam Sale has a bunch of indie developed games that are available but not on Steam yet. Not only are they selling the games for a discount, they are also raising awareness of these games and asking for support on Steam Greenlight. Near the bottom, you'll see one game for $.99 and one that's free. If you want to be ahead of Steam Greenlight and play these indie games, you can get it now for these awesome discounts.
[Audiosurf 2 on Steam Early Access]
Audiosurf was a fun game, but I was wondering what the developer could possibly do to make a sequel different besides making it look nicer. Well if you watch the video up top, you can see that it's pretty crazy. From what I understand, the game is pretty much playable now. What the developer wants to work and focus on is user-created content and finer details of the game such as more modes.
[Mighty No. 9 Kickstarter campaign ends with over $4 Million]
Wow, now that's what I call a successful campaign! It's clear that fans of the Megaman series, or of Keiji Inafune, or of Videogames in general want to see this concept materialize. I'm very happy to see this level of support for a project such as this one. I'm just kind of sad that we won't get to play the game until 2015...But it'll be incredible when it finally comes out.
Source Joystiq:
-Steam Greenlights 31 games: Race the Sun, Mousecraft, Eldritch, Vox
-Not on Steam Sale: 35 indie games that aren't on Steam, are on sale
-Tom Clancy passes away at 66
-Audiosurf 2 glides onto Steam Early Access today
-Mighty No. 9 concludes funding with over $4 million
Source: Youtube Channel The Hamster Alliance
[Tom Clancy passes away at 66]
First and foremost, unexpected news that Tom Clancy has passed away at 66 just last night in a Baltimore hospital. Cause of death is not known yet, but it is still sad. He was only 66! He has established himself as a best-selling author, is a well known name in the Videogame industry for starting up Red Storm and for working with the industry on creating various military and espionage games such as the Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell series. Condolences to his family and may he rest in peace.
[Next batch of Steam Greenlit games]
So here are the next 31 games to be greenlit on Steam. Games like the first-person, Rogue-like, Action game "Eldritch" and open-world Action-Adventure RPG "Vox" are among the games greenlit. I see a few MMOs in there as well such Age of Wushu and Cabal Online.
[Not on Steam Sale - Kinda like Indie Game Stand]
Similar to Indie Game Stand, Not on Steam Sale has a bunch of indie developed games that are available but not on Steam yet. Not only are they selling the games for a discount, they are also raising awareness of these games and asking for support on Steam Greenlight. Near the bottom, you'll see one game for $.99 and one that's free. If you want to be ahead of Steam Greenlight and play these indie games, you can get it now for these awesome discounts.
[Audiosurf 2 on Steam Early Access]
Audiosurf was a fun game, but I was wondering what the developer could possibly do to make a sequel different besides making it look nicer. Well if you watch the video up top, you can see that it's pretty crazy. From what I understand, the game is pretty much playable now. What the developer wants to work and focus on is user-created content and finer details of the game such as more modes.
[Mighty No. 9 Kickstarter campaign ends with over $4 Million]
Wow, now that's what I call a successful campaign! It's clear that fans of the Megaman series, or of Keiji Inafune, or of Videogames in general want to see this concept materialize. I'm very happy to see this level of support for a project such as this one. I'm just kind of sad that we won't get to play the game until 2015...But it'll be incredible when it finally comes out.
Source Joystiq:
-Steam Greenlights 31 games: Race the Sun, Mousecraft, Eldritch, Vox
-Not on Steam Sale: 35 indie games that aren't on Steam, are on sale
-Tom Clancy passes away at 66
-Audiosurf 2 glides onto Steam Early Access today
-Mighty No. 9 concludes funding with over $4 million
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
GameLight - Terraria 1.2 Update
Official Site: http://www.terraria.org/index2.html
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/105600/
Source: Youtube Channel demilogic
After 100+ hours, everything that could be done seemed to have been done. And then a huge update was talked about all year long and people got excited. I wasn't going to be excited until it was downloaded onto my computer and I was already playing it. I would have never guessed how much time I was going to spend playing Terraria or how much fun I was going to have when I first bought it. Along with all the free updates that the developers keep giving to the players, it's perhaps one of the best purchases I have ever made on Steam. With the new 1.2 update launching last night at 12AM EST, many players got to re-experience Terraria in a totally new way. Besides having new weapons, biomes, enemies, items, bosses, etc., there also has been changes in game mechanics and world creation details that improves the game even further. Backgrounds have been redone to look nicer but have been optimized so that it doesn't lag the game anymore. There's seriously a LOT of new changes and improvements. It's no wonder so many people were excited about this. I barely scratched the surface of what has been changed and added from the 3 hours I played last night.
Terraria is an open-world Action-Adventure game that can be played online with friends if someone creates a server for it. There is no particular goal, but there is plenty to explore and a lot to do. It's $9.99 on Steam and a really good deal for what is offered.
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/105600/
Source: Youtube Channel demilogic
After 100+ hours, everything that could be done seemed to have been done. And then a huge update was talked about all year long and people got excited. I wasn't going to be excited until it was downloaded onto my computer and I was already playing it. I would have never guessed how much time I was going to spend playing Terraria or how much fun I was going to have when I first bought it. Along with all the free updates that the developers keep giving to the players, it's perhaps one of the best purchases I have ever made on Steam. With the new 1.2 update launching last night at 12AM EST, many players got to re-experience Terraria in a totally new way. Besides having new weapons, biomes, enemies, items, bosses, etc., there also has been changes in game mechanics and world creation details that improves the game even further. Backgrounds have been redone to look nicer but have been optimized so that it doesn't lag the game anymore. There's seriously a LOT of new changes and improvements. It's no wonder so many people were excited about this. I barely scratched the surface of what has been changed and added from the 3 hours I played last night.
Terraria is an open-world Action-Adventure game that can be played online with friends if someone creates a server for it. There is no particular goal, but there is plenty to explore and a lot to do. It's $9.99 on Steam and a really good deal for what is offered.
Monday, September 30, 2013
VGCulture - Music - PAC-STEPS
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/236450/
Source: Youtube Channel Laurent Bosch
PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+ had 8 DLCs announced for it before the game released which was offered for free for those who pre-order the game. If you had pre-ordered the game, you would have 4 extra courses, 3 skins, and 2 BGMs. I pre-ordered the game for $2 less on Green Man Gaming thinking that even if the game got a discount with the DLCs, it'd still cost around the same price so I might as well get it now while it still offered the DLCs. One of the 2 BGMs offered is Pac-Steps. When I first saw the name, I was thinking it'd be a Dub-Step iteration with sampling of the classic jingle from the original. The thought was both interesting and frightening at the same time. Thankfully, the track turned out to be Drum 'n Bass/Jungle (I guess it's referring to variations of DnB like Hardstep/Trancestep). The song isn't too heavy so it has a bit of a laid back feel to it while still sounding fast and urgent which matches the hectic speed of the game. It starts off sounding a bit more organic with real sounding instruments as it transitions to faster beats with a more synthesized drum kit. The courses are great additions to the game and the skins are fun little aesthetic changes, but the addition of this song made it really worth it.
Sadly, I can't say the same for the other BGM DLC "Re-entrance". It's essentially a remix of the Main Menu theme used in-game which I didn't really like. The game is a lot of fun and I'm very glad they brought it to PC, but there are some problems with it that I'll probably address when I do a review. If you already have the game on consoles, it should have upgraded to the new stuff for free while those who have the main game on Steam but not the DLCs can get Pac-Steps for $.99.
Source: Youtube Channel Laurent Bosch
PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+ had 8 DLCs announced for it before the game released which was offered for free for those who pre-order the game. If you had pre-ordered the game, you would have 4 extra courses, 3 skins, and 2 BGMs. I pre-ordered the game for $2 less on Green Man Gaming thinking that even if the game got a discount with the DLCs, it'd still cost around the same price so I might as well get it now while it still offered the DLCs. One of the 2 BGMs offered is Pac-Steps. When I first saw the name, I was thinking it'd be a Dub-Step iteration with sampling of the classic jingle from the original. The thought was both interesting and frightening at the same time. Thankfully, the track turned out to be Drum 'n Bass/Jungle (I guess it's referring to variations of DnB like Hardstep/Trancestep). The song isn't too heavy so it has a bit of a laid back feel to it while still sounding fast and urgent which matches the hectic speed of the game. It starts off sounding a bit more organic with real sounding instruments as it transitions to faster beats with a more synthesized drum kit. The courses are great additions to the game and the skins are fun little aesthetic changes, but the addition of this song made it really worth it.
Sadly, I can't say the same for the other BGM DLC "Re-entrance". It's essentially a remix of the Main Menu theme used in-game which I didn't really like. The game is a lot of fun and I'm very glad they brought it to PC, but there are some problems with it that I'll probably address when I do a review. If you already have the game on consoles, it should have upgraded to the new stuff for free while those who have the main game on Steam but not the DLCs can get Pac-Steps for $.99.
Friday, September 27, 2013
NewNews - Mighty No.9 Documentary Episode 0
Kickstarter Page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mightyno9/mighty-no-9
Source: Youtube Channel 2PlayerProductions
It was already mentioned that 2 Player Productions was going to document the development of Mighty No. 9 and keep the supports, fans, and followers of the game up to date with its progress. This particular episode was recorded before the game was announced and before the Kickstarter was launched. Speaking of which, there are 4 days left to back Mighty No.9. Also, the development team has reached out to the public to choose, out of 9 designs, which concept should be finalized as the Heroine "Call" for the Mighty No. 9 game.
Mighty No. 9 is an Action-Platformer led by Keiji Inafune, who has worked on titles such as the Megaman series, with his pool of talented, veteran game developers. The game is set to launch in 2015 and was announced earlier this month which has reached out to over 45,000 backers to support this project.
Source:
-Kotaku - One Of These With Be Mighty No. 9's Heroine. You Decide.
(I think most of us know Mr. Fahey meant to say "Will" and not "With").
Source: Youtube Channel 2PlayerProductions
It was already mentioned that 2 Player Productions was going to document the development of Mighty No. 9 and keep the supports, fans, and followers of the game up to date with its progress. This particular episode was recorded before the game was announced and before the Kickstarter was launched. Speaking of which, there are 4 days left to back Mighty No.9. Also, the development team has reached out to the public to choose, out of 9 designs, which concept should be finalized as the Heroine "Call" for the Mighty No. 9 game.
Mighty No. 9 is an Action-Platformer led by Keiji Inafune, who has worked on titles such as the Megaman series, with his pool of talented, veteran game developers. The game is set to launch in 2015 and was announced earlier this month which has reached out to over 45,000 backers to support this project.
Source:
-Kotaku - One Of These With Be Mighty No. 9's Heroine. You Decide.
(I think most of us know Mr. Fahey meant to say "Will" and not "With").
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