Geekscape Games Reviews: ‘Styx: Master of Shadows’

by MoreLikeAndyOctober 8, 2014

Video games that incorporate stealth as the core mechanic usually fall into one of two camps. Either you will fail for alerting someone immediately or the option to fight off enemies with ease makes stealth out of place. A few games can find the right balance between the two extremes. Styx: Master of Shadows tends to teeter in finding its balance but never falls over.

The story in Styx: Master of Shadows won’t get many invested to learn too much past the intro. Styx wakes up with no memory other than he needs to steal the heart of the World Tree, which is the source of the magical goo, Amber. Since the World Tree is deep within the Tower of Akenash, you’ll have to traverse your way through the tower to achieve your goal. With the story a little shallow, Styx himself was my focus of interest. I fell in love with the little goblin as a character. The personality alongside the voice acting pushed me towards the next cutscene. I enjoyed the take-no-shit attitude Styx carried himself with while being able to show a little compassion. Some of the crass language was fitting for a goblin. A couple of times I felt the writers leaned a little heavy on the crassness which soured the wonderful character they built up in Styx.

When I wasn’t enamored with learning more about Styx, I was putting his assassin and thief skills to the test. Sand balls for extinguishing torches, throwing daggers, health, amber, and acid vials. Sure seems like all the tools are here for striking fear from the shadows. You can upgrade Styx’s abilities with five sets of skill trees that each include four upgrades. The more objectives you complete in each mission, the more points you will have to spend on skills. I went for upgrading the stealth, equipment, and combat trees first due to some of the issues when leaving the safety of the shadows. Creating clones with amber is a unique feature that I rarely used outside of when it was mandatory. Switching between your clone and back felt clunky and unintuitive. It would have been better if instead of taking direct control over your clones, you could issue orders to them.

Styx: Master of Shadows gives you the opportunity to escape or fight back when cornered. The problem with fighting back is the combat is horrendous. Attacking is nothing more than tapping a button to parry the blow before killing the attacker. The fact that Styx ends up locked in combat and cannot run away only makes me dislike the combat more. When many foes are targeting you at once, you might as well load your last save. While playing the rhythm game when parrying one attack, the others will throw daggers until you die. Dying may seem terrible with unforgiving checkpoints, but you can make your own checkpoints by saving at any time. This negates having to sit through pot shots from guards you cannot dodge.

Sticking to the shadows or high above all the action would be smart to avoid the messy combat in Styx: Master of Shadows. Unfortunately, there are issues when it comes to traversal throughout the game. You can never be sure if the ledge within range is a place Styx can grapple or not. Many deaths involved falling to my doom or landing in the middle of a group of guards. All because a ledge I jumped for was not something my stubby fingers could grab. Even with the surfaces you can grip tight, Styx will come down with a case of the butterfingers as you watch his face hit the floor. This didn’t happen all too often, but it was enough to stress me out every time I made a jump from high above to reach the safety of a ledge. A little more distinction on what surfaces you can interact with would have saved countless deaths and lots of stress.

When not running into issues with butterfingers or poor combat, the huge scope of the areas in Styx: Master of Shadows made me giddy. With the many tools at Styx’s disposal finite until all four parts of each mission were complete, my inner strategist lit up. Knowing when and where to use them is vital to your survival. Using invisibility to pass a guard might seem worth it at first. As time goes on, you might find it more useful to save it for escaping. These limitations lead to me discovering that the environment itself was the best tool in Styx’s arsenal. Chairs, vases, brooms, and buckets make for perfect diversions when exploring the many paths in the tower.

Being little in stature helps by offering up places that are not sought after when looking for a safe hiding spot. Tables, vases, and small crawl spaces are viable options for safety among the usual closets and chests to hide in. Although these monster closets are perfect for Styx to pounce his enemies, peeking to see when the coast is clear is the only option.

Styx: Master of Shadows does a fantastic job making Styx interesting enough to endure glaring issues. Poor combat, buggy traversal, and a shallow story might be too much to spend more than 17 hours to see the end. I was proud that I walked in Styx’s shadow and was worth the suffering if only to hang with the goblin a little while longer.

Score: 4/5

Geekscape Games Reviews: ‘Gamdias Ares Essential Gaming Gear Combo’

by MoreLikeAndySeptember 22, 2014

Searching for a keyboard and mouse is a long process with lots of endless hours comparing features and prices. What if you could get a bundle of the two that was good enough for your needs that cut out the tediousness of all that research? Gamdias tries to deliver by bringing together their Ares gaming keyboard and Ourea optical gaming mouse into the Ares Essential Gaming Gear Combo.

The Ourea mouse has a small form factor and would make it great for LAN parties or anywhere else you would need a mouse. Having just one thumb button is a bummer for people like me who are used to two on most gaming mice. The mouse is useable for lefty and righty’s with the thumb buttons mirrored on each side. This design leads to some unfortunate accidental button presses that won’t cause anything more than the color profile to change on the mouse wheel. However, it did make holding the mouse a little awkward. The bright Gamdias logo cannot be turned off or change colors, which doesn’t matter when your palm is covering the light. If your PC is in the same room where you sleep, you’ll have a nice nightlight at least. The left and right mouse buttons are very firm and seem to need a little more pressure before registering that audible click which bodes well for long term durability. Weights are included in the mouse for those who want more stability when trying to get that crucial headshot from across the map. You can lighten the load by removing the five gram weights if you prefer to glide your mouse with barely a touch.

At first glance, the Ares keyboard looks slick with its matte black finish. The keyboard has some good heft to it feeling solid enough to withstand anything you can throw at it. The backlight colors are limited to green, yellow, and red which saddens me that more colors are not available like the non-bundled version of the Ares keyboard. Another limiting factor in color choices is the inability to change them for the Gamdias logo and macro keys at the bottom of the keyboard. My OCD has issues with this. The closest I can get to match the gold color of the Logo is choosing yellow for the backlights. For those of us that are accident-prone, there are drainage holes on the bottom to easily funnel out coffee, tea or whatever you were drinking at the time the crime of spilling liquid all over the keyboard happened.

With the Ares keyboard, typing took some getting used to since the keys felt a little mushy. After a week spent pecking away, the keys felt less mushy due to the springiness of the keys, which is surprising since most membrane keys don’t have that kind of responsiveness that fans of mechanical keys are fond of.

Since this is a gaming keyboard, there are some extras built into the Ares that might enhance your gaming sessions. First off, extra macro keys are located at the bottom of the keyboard which is a great location for your thumb to easily reach. I found it rather odd that the macro keys replicated the function keys at the top of the keyboard. Dedicated macro keys would be more useful so the function keys can still be used for their default actions. Swapping the WASD keys with the arrow keys is possible with a press of a button. I can’t think of a time where I would ever use this function but it’s nice to have this customization for people that would make use of it. Locking that pesky Windows key is also available though I never seem to have an issue accidentally hitting that key during intense gaming sessions since the key on the Ares has a very small footprint.

There are two strange keys I do have to point out since I feel like they are something I never came across before. One key is dubbed the “Consecutive Attack Mode” that when turned on, will act as an auto-fire mode for whatever key is held down. With no way of setting a specific key for this function to work, every key ends up on auto-fire mode. The other strange key on the Ares keyboard has a picture that I can only describe as a Capri-Sun with the straw already in. Nothing in the included manual explains what this key actually is. Pressing the Capri-Sun key pops up the same menu the right-click on a mouse would. With the revelation that the picture is actually a mouse, I’m not sure why Gamdias dedicated a key for simulating the right mouse button. At least it’s unique for a gaming keyboard even though it feels useless to me.

The Hera software that is used to bring out the full functionality of both the keyboard and mouse is cluttered and very hard to navigate. With options to setup macros for multiple keys, on-the-fly macro recordings, and even setting up sound files to play with certain key presses, I couldn’t begin to tell you how to do any of this. Conveying how to use these seemingly dizzying array of options would be better than just random guessing. I got intimidated and frustrated so I left these options alone. I did try some basic macro settings but beyond that, I stayed frightened of diving into the rest of the options.

You could go out and purchase a keyboard and mouse separate that won’t have some of the issues I have with the Ares Essential Gaming Gear Combo. The whole point of this bundle is not to be the best thing out there, it’s made to be a more than adequate choice that not only saves time from research, it saves cash for more important things like more games.

Geekscape Games Reviews ‘Gamdias Eros V2’

by MoreLikeAndySeptember 9, 2014

Tritton, Logitech, Astro, Turtle Beach, Corsair. These are the names prominently rolled of the tongues of people when asked what gaming headset they recommend. With Gamdias being relatively new to the scene, having their name to be among the list of recommendations would be great. With their latest headset, the Eros V2 just might make the list.

The Eros V2 gives a false first impression. When I first unboxed the headset, it had that cheap plastic shine, which is amplified by how light the headset was in my hands. After fondling the headset a little more, I found the construction solid with any worries of breaking it erased from my mind. Against my better judgement, I even threw the headset as if I was in a rage from losing a game. I am happy to say that the Eros V2 survived my indiscretion.

With the Eros V2 being a virtual 7.1 gaming headset, my ears enjoyed the tunes pumping from the speakers. Since the surround sound is virtual, software is needed to put the headset to its full potential. The Gamdias EOS software mirrors most of what you see with Realtek onboard soundcards. Options for selecting stereo, 5.1, or 7.1 for the speaker setup are present with Dolby sound settings as well. There is an equalizer that if you leave on default, everything will sound a little flat and lifeless. You could tweak the equalizer to get that perfect sound but I found the presets to be good enough. After some experimentation, the soft rock preset was what I settled with. This preset gave the right amount of fullness to make anything from music to video games sound great.

In-line volume controls are serviceable with buttons for muting the mic and sound altogether. The convenience of a notification light for the mute buttons are missing. When playing Dota 2, I would panic if no one would respond to me after calling out to my teammates. Also, there is no clip to keep the volume controls nearby for easy access. Having to reach for the controls on the floor to adjust the sound or mute is a distraction that I didn’t need.

Since the Eros V2 can unplug from the in-line controls to reveal a 3.5mm plug, there is flexibility in its uses. Gamdias boasts that this headset will work on a PlayStation 4 if you plug it in to a DualShock 4. The sound quality is not as good as it is on the PC but leaps and bounds better than the included earpiece that Sony packages in the the system. The mic works, which is great, but there is noticeable background noise present. It’s not the best but it’s clear enough for people to make out what you’re saying. The quality of the mic on PC is a little better with some of that background eliminated but not quite as good as I would want it to be.

The one major thing that holds back the Eros V2 from being an amazing headset for me is the tightness of the ear cups. The pressure that this tightness puts on my ears is painful. Since I wear glasses, this amplifies the pain more when wearing the headset for more than an hour at a time. To save my precious ears from crying out for help, adjusting the headset every hour alleviated the oncoming pain. Although this is a solution, it forced me to pay more attention to the headset than the media I was consuming.

Despite the tightness of the ear cups, I feel the Eros V2 is a pretty good headset. Sure, the mic is average and there’s no indicator light for the mute button, but the Eros V2 has enough quality for the price. Gamdias is well on its way from being the new kid on the block, to rubbing elbows with the popular crowd.

35 Glorious Minutes Of ‘The Witcher 3’ Gameplay

by MoreLikeAndyAugust 19, 2014

Gamescom 2014 is now over but the folks over at CD Projekt RED still have one more thing to show everyone. Check out this 35 minute gameplay trailer for The Witcher 3.

After watching that, I am even more disappointed that we have to wait until February 24, 2015 to actually play The Witcher 3. At least it gives everyone time to consider what platform they want to play on. I am still teetering between PC and PS4.

Reddit Upvotes To Land On The Xbox One With ReddX App

by MoreLikeAndyAugust 19, 2014

If you’re in the middle of a game on the Xbox One and have a idea for a Reddit post, you no longer have to reach for that tablet/phone/laptop to create said post. With the announcement of ReddX, everyone’s favorite place to have discussions and share media is now an app for the Xbox One.

You might think ReddX would limit you to only browsing r/gaming since. You will be happy to know that the entirety of Reddit will be available to peruse. Of course posting, commenting and upvoting will be possible whether you choose to use the Xbox One controller or actually reach for that SmartGlass device if you prefer to type with your fingers.

ReddX wouldn’t be complete if it didn’t have achievements like all the other Xbox One apps tend to have. Microsoft community manager Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb decided to have a little fun with the achievement images with posing as popular internet memes like Scumbag Steve, All The Things, and Futurama Fry. You can see the all the images for these achievements on SgtFrankieBoy’s Imgur page.

To all you fellow Xbox One owners, what will be your first post using ReddX? Mine will probably end up being a clip of me failing at video games, as usual.

Source: Xbox Wire

Bundles Ahoy! 3 New Xbox One Bundles Announced

by MoreLikeAndyAugust 12, 2014

With Xbox One sales not quite what Microsoft wants, maybe offering enticing bundles will help. Announced at Gamescom 2014, three new bundles will be released this year for the Xbox One. First up is for all our European friends. The Fifa 15 bundle arrives Sept. 25 and will include the Xbox One, a controller, and a digital copy of the game for £349.99/€399.99.

Next, we have the Sunset Overdrive bundle releasing Oct. 28 for $399.99. This bundle is special in that the famed white version of the Xbox One will be offered in this bundle. Alongside the white Xbox One, a matching white controller as well as a digital version of the game with “day one” items included.

Lastly, Call of Duty, not surprisingly, gets the Xbox One bundle treatment. If you want a little more color with your Xbox One, this is the bundle for you. Sporting the black and gunmetal gray colors with logos stamped on the casing, the Call of Duty: Advance Warfare bundle also includes a custom Xbox One controller to match said console, a 1 TB hard drive (500 GB standard on normal Xbox One), and a digital copy of the “Day Zero Edition” of the game. The bundle will $499.99 when it comes out on Nov. 3.

Does any of these Xbox One bundles look enticing enough to make the plunge if you haven’t already? If I didn’t buy one at launch, the Sunset Overdrive white Xbox One bundle would be very hard to resist.

‘Rise Of The Tomb Raider’ Is Shackled To Xbox UPDATE!

by MoreLikeAndyAugust 12, 2014

UPDATE: In an interview with Eurogamer, Microsoft’s Phil Spencer explains that the exclusivity of Rise of the Tomb Raider is, in fact, a timed exclusive. No details on how long the duration will be but at least we can expect it on other platforms in the future.

Along with a release window of Holiday 2015, Rise of the Tomb Raider was just announced to be a Xbox exclusive at Gamescom 2014 today. From what Crystal Dynamics Head of Studios Darrell Gallagher says in a Tumblr post, this is not a timed exclusive either.

Dear Tomb Raider Community,

As you may have seen, we’ve just announced that Rise of the Tomb Raider, coming Holiday 2015, is exclusively on Xbox. We consider all of you to be the lifeblood of Tomb Raider and the work we do at Crystal. I’d like to give you some insight into this decision, and why we feel this is the very best thing for the Tomb Raider sequel we’re creating at the studio.

Tomb Raider in 2013 was a success due in large part to your continued support. Our goal has always been to deliver something truly special with Rise of the Tomb Raider. Today’s announcement with Microsoft is one step to help us put Tomb Raider on top of action adventure gaming. Our friends at Microsoft have always seen huge potential in Tomb Raider and have believed in our vision since our first unveil with them on their stage at E3 2011. We know they will get behind this game more than any support we have had from them in the past – we believe this will be a step to really forging the Tomb Raider brand as one of the biggest in gaming, with the help, belief and backing of a major partner like Microsoft.

This doesn’t mean that we’re walking away from our fans who only play on PlayStation or on PC. Those are great systems, with great partners, and amazing communities. We have Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris coming to those platforms this December, and Tomb Raider: The Definitive Edition is available on PS4.

We know that there are probably many more questions and concerns. Please do send them to us, and we’ll answer to the best of our ability. Meanwhile we’re going all out to try and make something truly special – the most ambitious Tomb Raider game ever built.

Thanks,

Darrell Gallagher
Crystal Dynamics Head of Studio

After publisher Square Enix reported that Tomb Raider underperformed by not reaching the five million sales number they were expecting, going platform exclusive is confusing to me. With Tomb Raider: Definitive Editon selling a great deal more on Sony’s PS4 versus the Xbox One, this seems like a bad business deal for Rise of the Tomb Raider as well as fans everywhere.

‘Broforce’ Gets More Brosome With ‘The Expendabros’

by MoreLikeAndyAugust 5, 2014

With The Expendables 3 releasing to theaters on August 15, it is only fitting to see the team of bros in a game custom made for them. The Expendabros is a expansion just released for Devolver Digital’s fantastic side-scrolling shooter, Broforce. Not only is this expansion free, it’s also a stand-alone game meaning that you don’t need Broforce to play it.

All of your favorite Expendables get ‘bro-ified’ to romp around doing what they do best, killing. In addition to the new bros, The Expendabros has ten missions that could very well be mistaken as actual scenes for The Expendables 3 plot. Check out the launch trailer with Dolph Lundgren dropping some knowledge at the end.

The Expendabros remain free and available until December 31, 2015. After that, the bros will head back to the bar to tell tales of their brotastic adventures. Although you have a few months to get The Expendabros, you might as well download it right away since you know you’ll forget to do so until it’s too late.

‘Nosgoth’ Open Beta To Launch This Winter

by MoreLikeAndyAugust 5, 2014

Square Enix announced that their free-to-play, team-based human versus vampire competitive multiplayer game Nosgoth, will launch an open beta sometime this winter. Nosgoth is based off the Legacy of Kain universe.

If patience is not one of your stronger qualities, you can purchase one of the Founder’s Packs to gain immediate access to the closed beta right now. In addition to the open beta announcement, players will have a chance to experience Nosgoth with a upcoming free weekend on Steam starting August 7 and ending on August 11. Of course you will need a Steam account in order to participate in the free weekend but looking at the FAQ for Nosgoth, it seems a Square Enix Membership account will be required as well.

Anyone who plays in the free weekend of Nosgoth will receive double experience points as well as an in-game badge to show off to other players once the open beta starts.

Return To The Manor, ‘Resident Evil’ Coming To Xbox One And PS4

by MoreLikeAndyAugust 5, 2014

Capcom has just announced that the original Resident Evil will be coming to Xbox One and PS4, as well as the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC sometime in early 2015. If you remember back in 2002, Resident Evil was remade with better visuals with some new gameplay elements thrown in. This is the version of Resident Evil that will get the HD treatment to make it presentable for the people that might play the game for the first time.

Of course, the Xbox One and PS4 will benefit the most from this HD version of Resident Evil with things like 1080p resolution and fully remastered sound to support 5.1 surround sound. There will also be options to change the aspect ratio between 4:3 and 16:9. Not sure I would want to go back to the dark days of 4:3 though having that option will please someone out there. If you hated the tank controls of Resident Evil, you’re in luck. There will be an alternative control scheme for those of us who never want to go back to those frustrating controls ever again.

Although no trailer was release to announce this Resident Evil HD remake, there are plenty of screenshots for you to gawk at below.

Geekscape Mobile: 2K Games Welcomes iOS Devices To Rapture With ‘Bioshock’

by MoreLikeAndyAugust 4, 2014

Just announced today, 2K Games are bringing Bioshock to iOS devices sometime this year. Even with the game being scaled down for mobile devices, you will still need to have a fairly recent iOS device in order to experience Rapture again. There is also support for third-party controllers via bluetooth if using virtual analog sticks are not your thing.

The team behind this port is also the same team that brought us XCom: Enemy Unknown for iOS devices. Even though 2K China did an excellent job with the XCom port, I can’t see Bioshock doing as well in terms of sales. Touch controls are fine with turn-based strategy games but are rarely adequate for first-person shooters. Although you can use a bluetooth controller, it is less than ideal to carry a extra device with your phone or tablet just to play one game.

Source: Polygon.com

‘Quantum Break’ Goes Forward In Time To 2015

by MoreLikeAndyMay 29, 2014

You can go ahead and add another game to the 2015 release schedule. Remedy announced today that the Xbox One exclusive, Quantum Break, is pushed back until next year. To try and satisfy people dismayed by the delay, Remedy released a trailer teasing the footage that will be shown for the first time at GamesCom this August.

Although most of the trailer is creative director Sam Lake introducing the game and when Remedy will show more of Quantum Break, you still get a little sense of what amazing things you will manipulate with time. If you have forgotten already, Quantum Break plot is based on a time-travel experiment gone horribly wrong that enables the protagonist Jack Joyce to manipulate time. With these new powers, you’ll end up trying to keep time from destroying the universe by repairing it somehow. There is also a TV show that will live alongside the game which will have some influence over what happens in Quantum Break.

If Remedy needs more time to pull of this miracle feat, then let them have it. I think we can all wait until 2015, right?

Deal Alert: ‘Battlefield 3’ Free On Origin For A Limited Time

by MoreLikeAndyMay 29, 2014

Briefly: EA has put Battlefield 3 up for grabs, free on Origin until June 3, 2014. With their “On the House ” program, EA is trying to get in on the action that Sony and Microsoft already have with their free games programs already.

With Plants Vs. Zombies the only other free game in EA’s program right now, they have a lot of catching up to do if they want to seem like a good deal as the competitors are right now. Since there is no set schedule as to when these free games will come, it’s anyone’s guess how frequent they will be. Still, you really can’t complain about free games.

Site: Origin

‘Watch Dogs’ Gives One Last Peek With Launch Trailer

by MoreLikeAndyMay 22, 2014

Watch Dogs is nearly here. With only 5 more days to go before we jump into the shoes of Aiden Pearce and hack all the things, Ubisoft gives us one last look with the launch trailer released today.

Besides the quotes from some websites I never heard of, the trailer has that movie-esque vibe with some decent backing music. Let’s hope that all the hype Ubisoft has been dishing out all these months is worth the wait when Watch Dogs is released on May 27, 2014 for pretty much everything except the WiiU. Nintendo will have to wait until later on in 2014 for their version.

‘Diablo III’ Keeps Legendary Status After Birthday Celebration

by MoreLikeAndyMay 22, 2014

Usually, birthday parties involve giving a gift to the one having said birthday. The hassle of finding the right gift early enough is stressful enough without having someone else get the exact same thing. Well, Blizzard finally wrapped up the festivities for Diablo III’s 2 year celebration but not without giving out a parting gift. The Legendary item drop bonuses will remain in effect for the foreseeable future.

Like we mentioned previously, the Legendary items get a 100% boost to their drop rate. We can only assume that this bonus item drop rate will come to an end around the time Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition releases on consoles August 19, 2014. If Blizzard really wants to be even more generous, extending the bonus for stretch after console release would be more than welcomed by all.

Site: Battle.net

Geekscape Games Reviews: ‘Life Goes On’

by MoreLikeAndyMay 19, 2014

Death has always been a form a punishment in video games. The lingering fear of starting an area over again from a poorly placed checkpoint after spending hours getting to end of a level is frustrating to endure. What if death was not a form of punishment but instead, required in order to proceed. Well, Life Goes On does just that with hilarious results.

Life Goes On is a 2D puzzle platformer that has endless streams of loyal knights carrying out the king’s request; acquiring the Cup of Life at the end of each level. Putting these unlimited lives to use will be essential to solve puzzling challenges that lie ahead. While the first handful of levels get you acclimated to the controls and concepts of how to use the sacrificial lambs, things start to ramp up as you progress. There are timers and a death count tally set in place to compete against to see how efficient you can complete each challenge. Unfortunately, there is no penalty for failing the time limit or death count as you can move on to the next level regardless of how long you spent sending knights to their doom.

Having no limitations on progression is actually a liberating thing in Life Goes On. This leaves everyone to experiment with their own extravagant notions on creative ways to complete each puzzle. Or, you can be like me and see how many bodies you can pile up in one area. With all sorts of contraptions littered among the levels, a lot of silly fun can be had. Conveyor belts with spikes, plumes of fire, electrical conduits and cold air blasts that freeze on contact are just some of the wonderful hazards to play with. Piling up bodies on a spiked conveyor belt so I can walk with ease across my fallen brothers is much more satisfying than precariously leaping on one single husk to the other side.

If you think the challenge not being present ruins any point of playing Life Goes On, you are sorely mistaken. Just figuring out how to get past some of the later levels are more than challenging enough. One level has multiple checkpoints where you will respawn after death. In order to retrieve the chalice, you must manipulate multiple switches in the right order as well as activating the right checkpoints. If that sounds like childs play to you, well there are other levels that will test your dexterity at traversing platforms. Freezing a body, respawning at a checkpoint, hustling over to the moving ice block and jumping off said ice block in mere seconds is just some of the difficult things needed to accomplish success over each puzzle.

Life Goes On is a simple yet challenging puzzle-solving platformer that is a blast to play in short bursts. Having no repercussions for lollygagging around while flinging countless bodies to their doom may hinder any sense of reward for some. For the rest though, finding out what other elaborate contraptions Infinite Monkeys has designed for us all is a reward all in its own.

Score: 3/5

Celebrate The Birthday Of ‘Diablo III’ With Special Bonuses

by MoreLikeAndyMay 15, 2014

Thinking of taking a break this weekend from farming gear in Diablo III? If so, Blizzard would like to remind you that today is the birthday of your favorite action role-playing game. Even though you forgot all about El Diablo’s birthday and you didn’t even get him a funny card, he still loves you. To show it, starting today and finishing on May 22, special in-game bonuses will be active for all players in Diablo III.

First off, rift fragments will be doubled. This will be handy since rift runs are how most people farm for the legendary item drops post game. On top of the double fragments, a boost of 100% to your chance of finding those treasured legendary drops you spend countless hours a day grinding to obtain. I guess the break you might have wanted to take will be postponed for a little, huh?

Site: Battle.net

A SuperHot Kickstarter You Need To Check Out

by MoreLikeAndyMay 14, 2014

Part of the 7DFPS game jam in 2013, SuperHot stood out from the rest of the games created. With the mixture of interesting art design and controlling time a big gameplay mechanic, turning a first-person shooter into a real-time strategy game as well is something special indeed. Since time moves when you do, carefully planning out each step in hopes of evading bullets while setting up your limited shots is a challenge. Just have a look at some of the latest gameplay footage below for SuperHot and tell me that isn’t intriguing as hell.

Wanting to fully flesh out this amazing idea past the 7 day prototype built in 2013, SuperHot is looking towards Kickstarter to get it done. With a goal of $100,000 to complete this project, it may seem a little ambitious for what we have seen so far. After seeing some of the things the developers want to do in SuperHot, the amount seems more than fine. From the Kickstarter page, some of the goals are:

Story driven single-player campaign. SUPERHOT is more than just a shooter with a gimmick. We want to deliver a solid, interesting campaign built around a carefully constructed, not overly in-your-face story.

Improved visuals. We are keeping the original game’s minimalistic artstyle while making everything look a lot better. SUPERHOT is all about style.

Infinite mode. A lot of people have asked us for an endless, arena-style mode that will allow them to play SUPERHOT for as long as they want. Master the game’s mechanics and get ready for the ultimate time-bending challenges.

More weapons – shotguns, machineguns, grenades that change the way you play around with the time-bending mechanics.

More enemy types – thanks to improved AI the foes will use tactics and be able to work together to hunt you down.

More levels – imagine fighting in the middle of a motorway during rush hour, or close combat in an elevator – and other amazing, movie-like scenarios.

Slow-motion explosions!

Oculus Rift support. Dodge bullets flying right in front of your face and lean behind corners for increased immersion!

It’s about time we see some new innovations in FPS games. If you would like put some cash down to support SuperHot, $15 will get you Steam key as well as a DRM-free downloadable copy when the game releases. To see more pledge tiers, head on over to their Kickstarter page and have a gander.

Humble Bundle Going Daily For 2 Weeks

by MoreLikeAndyMay 14, 2014

Humble Bundle has always been a great collection of little games that might have gone unnoticed in the past. For what would cost you a large latte and a bagel at the local coffee shop, you could get a handful of games to enjoy. Not only that, but you can determine how much of the money you want to spend goes to the publishers, the Humble Bundle site or to charity. Usually there is a weekly refresh on what bundles are offered. Starting May 13 and ending May 27, every day will have a new bundle of joy full of delightful games to play.

Starting off the daily bundles, publisher Deep Silver has a remix of a bundle previously offered back in July 2013. Since that deal is up in about 2 hours, you might want to hurry if you already don’t own such titles as Saints Row The Third, Risen 2, Dead Island GOTY or Metro 2033.

Site: Humble Bundle

Geekscape Games Reviews: ‘Bound by Flame’

by MoreLikeAndyMay 9, 2014

Bound by Flame would make for an amazing heavy metal band name. Picturing long flowing hair flailing around as the metallic strings of a Gibson guitar are strummed furiously amidst choke-inducing smoke from pyrotechnics is quite easy. This elaborate fantasy cobbled together in my head pleases me with hopes that it was actually real. Instead, we get the reality that Bound by Flame is nothing more than a sub-par role-playing game.

As far as fantasy stories go, Bound by Flame seems of the standard fare. With the world on the way to extinction from the Ice Lords with an army of undead, humanity’s last bastion of hope lies in the hands of the Red Scribes. You play Vulcan, a member of the ruthless group of mercenaries known as the Freeborn Blades. While guarding the Red Scribes during their ritual to end the war, things go awry and a powerful demon now inhabits Vulcan. With this demon sharing your body, you must decide if embracing the demon inside is wise or retain your humanity while saving the world. The whole good versus evil turmoil inside of Vulcan starts off great, yet falters more and more as the story progresses.

To help make the decisions to push you to either side of the moral scale are dialogue trees in Bound by Flame. With the abundance of dialogue present in the game, it can almost feel like you are playing a point-and-click adventure. The sheer amount of words I had to read could be bounded together in a three part book series. It’s a good thing that for the most part, the voice acting is adequate. Some may have an issue with the amount of cursing the characters spill out. I felt that this added to the believability of being part of a bad ass mercenary group. If action war movies have taught me anything, it’s that soldiers love to curse, a lot. The delivery of some of the dialogue can be all over the place. One moment you have perfect tone and emotion conveyed from a character. Then not a minute later, everything seems to go lifeless. Still, there is some sort of charm in how bad the voice acting can get.

Bound by Flame can look pretty fantastic at times. Everything has a cel-shaded look that pleases the eye. Views overlooking a chasm with the sun high in the sky is a stunning view. As you make your way through different areas and hub towns, the shine starts to wear off a little but manages to not degrade into something terrible or grungy looking. The same cannot be said about the character models. Everyone ends up looking too plain. The detail that went into creating the world didn’t seem to carry over to the characters. It makes believing the emotions of someone speaking difficult to relate with when the expressions and body language is wooden. The one standout thing about character models can be attributed to the transformation of Vulcan to full-on demon if you choose that path. As you let the demon take control little by little, your outward appearance starts to change into something inhuman. Horns start jutting out of your forehead, the color of your skin turns black as charred coal, eyes as red as the blood spilt by the entity inside you and flames dancing on your shoulder in delight. With these mutations, helmets can no longer grace your head and the armor worn will show damage from the scorching flames emanating from your body. Even the voice pitch of Vulcan will change to mimic what would sound like a demon possessing you.

Calling Bound by Flame an action role-playing game is sort of misleading. When I think of an action role-playing game, I think of fast movements, being able to react to enemies at a moments notice or use items instantly. Going into battle with these notions will get you killed. Even as I write this, I have a love/hate relationship with the combat in Bound by Flame. On one hand, I enjoy the slower pace of combat when I engage an enemy. Not being able to just mash attack to win, makes you think before you leap into battle. Getting the timing down to block or dodge right as a gigantic axe is falling towards your head, thus pulling off a counterattack can be very satisfying. What is not satisfying, however, is the cheap tactics deployed by the enemy AI. When enemies attack faster than Vulcan can react while ranged enemies snipe away at my meager health, all the fun is sucked out of the game. Even if you equip the best armor you can find, it seems to do little in terms of mitigating damage. However, this seems to be no issue with the enemies, being the damage sponges that they are.

Making things even worse are the two stances Vulcan can switch to on the fly. Warrior stance allows blocking, knock-backs and more powerful attacks. The Ranger stance provides a dodge mechanic, fast attacks and stealth attacks. The problem with this system is you cannot possibly switch fast enough to block or dodge when the time calls for either. Having either mechanic tied to a stance is frustrating in regards to the cheapness of enemy AI. Whether you attack, switch stances or use spells, be prepared to get interrupted and possibly knocked to the ground. As you stumble back up from the ground, it seems as though Vulcan had too much ale consumed the night before. In what seems like forever, Vulcan will finally stand up. All this would be ok, if it weren’t for the lumbering General of the Ice Lords charging your exposed guard.

Skill trees offer to make Vulcan more powerful by enhancing abilities or granting new ones. Upgrading the Warrior stance to have the ability to block from all sides, more resistant to knock-back and greater health regeneration seems great on paper. When put to use though, blocking from all sides in a group of enemies will trap you in endless attacks with no way of escaping the precious few hits Vulcan can endure. The upgrades to the dodge mechanic for the Ranger stance is also not too helpful. Even though you will get a sliver of a chance more to react, being restricted to only moving backwards is a big hindrance and negates the extra time to react. Since you will find yourself surrounded in the majority of fights, dodging a death blow only to ram your backside into the embrace of another blade is the opposite of what I want in the ability to dodge. Since a flame demon resides inside you, the magic of pyromancy ends up being the third fighting stance that you don’t need to switch to. Sadly, the demon’s flame wielding spells given to you are just as useless as most of the other skills. The only skill worth a damn was augmenting weapons with fire magic, thus increasing damage output with a chance to set a burn status with the touch of your weapon. The extra damage is nice, but with the enemies treating each hit like a tickle, it ends up being nothing more than cosmetic effect.

Having companions should help in your fight against the Ice Lords. Instead, you get the most incompetent partners I have ever seen. I would go into detail about the different characters at your choosing but it won’t matter none. From getting stuck on geometry to outright leaving you to go do whatever the hell is more important than surviving an encounter, the companions are utterly useless. Since they seem to die easier than you with no way to revive them without defeating all enemies in the vicinity, I would be better off venturing on my on.

Crafting is available, though not useful enough due to the lack of material found in Bound by Flame. In fact, the lack of loot found throughout my time with the game was disappointing. At least with what loot you can find, it enabled me to tell the shopkeepers to piss off. The weapons and armor you find are always better than the ones sold in shops. Which is great since the economy is non-existent. No matter how much you save in your piggy bank, it will never be enough to purchase that shimmering item in the shopkeeper’s window. Since crafting material is also hard to come by, recycling unused items will serve your needs better than haggling sale prices. Most of your equipment can have additional stats added to them by crafting upgrades for them. Choosing things like resistance from status effects or boosting attack speed are just some of the choices given to you. I never felt like these upgrades did much at all. Near the end, I spent what little scrap I had left to craft healing potions since those are the one thing you will use the most.

Bound by Flame wants to burn bright with the fiery passion of a great action role-playing game. It almost accomplishes this feat with mostly interesting dialogue told by the many characters you meet and combat that has a more strategical component instead of mashing your way through the battles. What turns that flame into a fizzle, however, is hard to ignore. Voice acting quality all over the place, stiff character animations, utterly useless companions, cheap enemy AI and lack of meaningful loot ends up charring any hopes of enjoyment to be had.

Score: 2/5

Geekscape Games First Impressions: ‘Grim Dawn’

by MoreLikeAndyMay 8, 2014

The folks over at Blizzard have become masters of time. When the Reaper of Souls expansion was released for Diablo 3 back in March, there was an abundance of time that just dissipated into thin air. Every waking moment was put into what felt like the Diablo 3 players wanted in the first place. Now that some of us have a stronger grip on our time that Blizzard usurped months ago, someone else is trying to control those precious ticks on the clock: Grim Dawn.

Being developed by Crate Entertainment and in early access on Steam, Grim Dawn has players doing the same clickity-clicks looking for that next great item drop, which is typical to most isometric action role-playing games. Though, in this world, everything seems more grimy and rundown with a lack of a broader color palette. The story is also not something I found too intriguing beyond the quests certain townsfolk were all to eager to encourage me to do. I was more than happy to oblige and take on the fools errands just to explore every crevice of the world. I was cackling with anticipated delight to uncover tasty loot cowering away in some dusty old crate or shelf.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that I would be the one cowering, not the loot. Unlike some action role-playing games, combat is a bit more challenging. Enemies will swarm you in hopes of barricading all exits as precious health ticks away from your character. Simply trying to click-to-win won’t cut it with mobs. Crucial use of skills, items and gear as well as spacial awareness is required to survive. What could be somewhat of a deal breaker for most is the way health is handled in Grim Dawn. When out of combat for more than five seconds, health rapidly refills until the meter is full again. This makes for a lot of hit-and-run style of combat that could last more than a handful of minutes each encounter. The challenge is still there even with this health system in place, though not as challenging as it was made to seem at first.

Although there are different classes to suit multiple play styles, none of them seemed to feel diverse enough from one another in the beginning. Soldier is your standard sword and shield class, Demolitionist excels in range attacks and explosions, the Occultist wields magic and bringing up the rear is the Nightblade class as the sneaky rogue. That lack of diversity is offset when reaching level ten, which unlocks the dual class specialty. Being able to mix and match two different classes gives birth to a whole plethora of possibilities. With two classes and their skill sets available to cherry pick from, mixing and matching skills ended up being a lot of fun. Resetting skills at next-to-nothing prices greatly enhances experimentation when testing what works and what fails horribly.

Adding to the experimentation aspect of Grim Dawn is the loot, specifically the properties of said loot. Usually, stat boosts are attached to some items and gear found in the world. Having spells or skills alongside the stat boosts something new to me. From elemental spells to physical skills, having even more options besides what is set for each classes skill trees is almost overwhelming. There’s also crafting that was just added in the latest update that sadly doesn’t seem to be beneficial to players, yet.

What keeps me coming back for more in Grim Dawn is still a mystery to me after eight hours of playing. Could it be that the power of finding a brand new shiny item allures me to keep pressing on? Maybe it’s the experimentation of skills to find some sort of combination that brings the pain to all who oppose me. Whatever Grim Dawn has over me, I’m excited for its future. With new classes, more quests, more acts in the main story and bug fixes/tweaks, El Diablo will have to look upon the dawn coming with grim chances of surviving.

Geekscape Games Reviews: ‘Daylight’

by MoreLikeAndyApril 29, 2014

Cause in the daylight we’ll be on our own, but tonight I need to hold you so close. Oh Adam Levine, you have no idea how true your lyrics are. In Zombie Studios’ survival horror Daylight, you’ll want to hold someone so close not because of love but because you can hide behind them when the horror show starts.

Daylight gets right to the point with its survival horror story. You are Sarah and with no idea of anything else, you’re left with trying to navigate the ominous hallways of the derelict hospital with just your cellphone to guide your way. Most of the story is told through various letters or notes spread throughout the multiple areas for the player to find. What little of the story is left, the mysterious man communicating with Sarah over her cellphone fills in. It’s not like you will pay too much attention to the story the first time through. I mean, you do have deadly apparitions chasing after you. Still, having more of a story conveyed outside reading a lot of text would benefit immersing players into the world to maximize the scare factor.

Though combat is non-existent in Daylight, it doesn’t mean you still don’t acquire tools to protect yourself. Glow sticks can be used to light up your surroundings better than that dinky cellphone light, but is mainly used to find items of interest. When a glow stick is lit, certain objects will highlight with maze-like patterns indicating that something important may lie inside. Sometimes, these things will yield nothing but dust. Other times, if you’re lucky, you end up with replenishing your glow sticks or the only true weapon you have against the ghosts, flares. It’s been a long time since I have used flares but I would have thought they projected more light than a glow stick. As long as it keeps away the terrors of the darkness away from me, I can’t complain.

The most important thing you will find other than supplies are remnants. Remnants are nothing more than specific notes about the area you’re in currently. These remnants are the only way to escape whatever hell unceremoniously placed upon you. When all the remnants are discovered, a sigil appears and is needed to unlock the spiritually sealed door to the next area. This is also when you are most vulnerable to the ghastly beings. When holding a sigil, none of your sticks of light can be used. Since the more remnants you collect will attract the unwanted, this is where the run button comes in handy. It may be hard at first to decipher the small map displayed on the cellphone, especially while running. I ended up getting just good enough to know what symbol on the map was me in order to make my way to the exit without my legs ever stopping.

Zombie Studios does a great job with the ambiance of Daylight. I feel in any good horror experience, game or otherwise, the audio is what makes the scares even better. Echos of footsteps, creaky or slamming doors, whispers coming from behind you and even complete silence sends chills up your spine the entire game. The ghost that’s chasing you down the whole game has an audio warning that builds tension the first couple of times. Once you get used to the distinct noise, it is a little easy to cheese the mechanics in order to not look at the ghost. Since that is technically the only way you can die in Daylight, I was disappointed it was too easy to bypass. Anytime I heard the noise of the imminent appearance of the ghost, I just turned my back towards the direction I needed to go and walked.

Not to say you can beat the scare factory meticulously designed by Zombie Studios. There were times where I used my back walk technique and the game seemed to adapt by reappearing in my face, negating my well laid plans. It also seemed that if I was progressing too fast through an area, more obstacles would be placed to slow me down. I really wanted more of these instances to happen. To have the game adapt to your style, keeping you on your toes would maximize the horror. One of the main components of horror is, after all, surprise.

What is also a surprise is how I didn’t notice the art design in Daylight. Being the first game using the Unreal 4 engine, you would think I would take note of how amazing things looked all around me. This could be a testament on how well Zombie Studios designed the gameplay. I was too worried about getting the hell out of each area that I never took the time to look around and examine the details. The fact that lighting was in limited supply also made wandering around a bit of a pain to do just to get a closer look. I did notice that there was a slight haze or blur while playing. I thought it was the depth of field option in the PC settings, yet turning it off didn’t seem to change anything.

After reaching the climax of the story, Daylight may seem short. Two or three hours is a brief period in time but in order to get the entire story, you will need to make multiple journeys through the game. In one playthrough, I managed to collect 27 remnants, out of 104. So as you see, there are plenty of notes to fill in all of the backstory. All this attention to the backstory, it makes me wish the actual current story had more setup going for it. There is also the fact that every new story has new layouts to navigate. Having procedurally generated areas helps in that regard. At first, things may look and feel the same as the last time. It only takes a couple of minutes to realize that everything is, in fact, changed. Rooms being laid out differently to scare cues happening in areas not in the previous session will become apparent real quick. The disappointing aspect of this randomization to keep things fresh is the scares are still the same. Oh, they will still get you to shriek back in horror being as though they happen in different locations. For each time you venture through the story though, the impact of these scares will become watered down even if they happen in random locations. For a game designed to be played multiple of times, having a more varied bag of scares would’ve been welcomed.

Then there’s the Twitch streaming functionality built into Daylight. Similar to how Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition implements Twitch, Daylight lets viewers type in commands to the chat and causing certain things to happen to the person streaming in-game. Since Zombie Studios wants people to figure out these magical keywords to activate actions in Daylight, be prepared for dictionary dump of words scrolling at insane speeds. That is, if you have a lot of viewers. For those of us not a known entity in the Twitch community, this feature is pretty much a waste of time to set up. Besides, most people want to see webcams with faces ready to contort to a misshapen form of horror when encountering the terror that could be around the next corner.

Although a short-lived experience, Daylight manages to pack just enough scary into making those couple of hours seem like an eternity. The frights, jump scares, skin crawling sounds from the dark will test anyone’s ability to keep calm and composed. More attention to filling out the main story would have helped wash that demo feeling I got at times. Even more variety in the ways the game scares you would have worked. Still, that first experience through Daylight will be an enjoyable one if you like jump scares.

Score: 3/5

Geekscape Games Reviews: ‘Infested Planet’

by MoreLikeAndyApril 24, 2014

Real-time strategy games tend to have the focus on micromanaging the battlefield in order to succeed. Learning all the hot keys, build orders, manage squads while attacking different parts of the map are just some of the things you need to split your attention between to survive. For those of us who love real-time strategy games but don’t have the mental dexterity to play them well, Rocket Bear Games’ Infested Planet takes away some of the micromanaging and adds a little tower defense that makes for a surprisingly fun mix.

Infested Planet is a real-time strategy game that has players controlling a bad ass group of five marines that are tasked with cleaning out the alien bugs that are running rampant. There is a story buried in the depths here yet it ends up being a little shallow. All of this is inconsequential in the long run once you start the campaign. You will have far more pressing matters to worry about than story progression. If you want, you can do what I did. I treated each battle as a test to see who will move on to the final round to become the most bad ass, bug squashing magnificent killing machine of the human race.

Controlling these five elite marines may seem easy at first. Travel in a group, overpowering the resistance at each of the bases as you claim them for your own. The real challenge comes when you have to split your team up. I haven’t found an easy way to break my marines into smaller teams while having the ability to quickly swap between them. There are plenty of times where you have to hold the line at different sides of the map and not being able to hot swap to another group is more difficult than it should be. This gets even worse as you gain the ability to increase your soldier limit for battle points. Gaining these battle points come from either capturing bases or little crates you can drag back to a base you control. Some of the other frustrations come from the constant zooming in and out of the map to get a more precise click on something. There is a sweet spot with the zooming which lies in the middle of the slider. Even then, you will occasionally run into wrong clicks or commands.

A good mixture of soldier types help in Infested Planet. Once unlocked by complete missions, these upgrades to your basic soldiers will be critical in survival. Snipers are great for taking out enemy towers from afar that would otherwise tear through your whole squad before they even get in firing range. Flamethrowers are your best bet for holding down a base. It takes just one flamethrower to spit hot fire to hold back early swarms. Scouts are your scavengers being the fastest of the soldiers. They are very fragile but amazing against enemy hives. You’ll want to pair them up with flamethrower to clear a path to hives. Shotgun-totting soldiers are stronger against groups with very little range reduction from the rifle they start with. The officer class boosts everyone around him to shoot and move faster. My favorite class by far is the mini-gun soldier. Made for complete devastation, you’ll want to upgrade to this class as soon as possible. The mini-gun is whatever you want to be. Holding a base down? No sweat. Clearing a path for your soldiers by turning the bugs into shredded wheat? Too easy. The best use for the mini-gun is demolishing enemy hives. With being so versatile, the mini-gun will be your best friend in this war.

To balance things out, Infested Planet makes every mission procedural generated. Maps are never the same and neither are the alien bug mutations. The mutations can be anything from exploding bugs that spawn eggs near your bases, spore mines and armored bugs that take more damage to eliminate. With 33 mutations in all, Rocket Bear Games made sure to keep things fresh. With each enemy base you take over, the alien bugs will adapt with a certain mutation. Depending on what you’re doing, the alien bugs will mutate to combat your progression. This push and pull mechanic is great for keeping players on their toes as to not get comfortable with the same strategy over and over again.

Learning the hot keys for building defenses is not too difficult, though end up a little cumbersome in the heat of battle. Memorizing the hot keys to build such things as turrets, air strike bases, shield generators are essential for survival. You will need everything given to you in order to keep a foothold on all the bases you claim from the alien bugs. If you’re in need of more money to buy one-time soldiers for hire or more upgrades before missions, Infested Planet has bonus missions outside the main story path. Most of these missions have players try to survive for set period of time or to capture all the enemy bases. If you’re tired of banging your head on the later story missions that tend to spike in difficulty a little sharply, take out your frustrations in the skirmish mode. Change the settings to make everything in your favor and take the boot to those disgusting bugs. If you get tired of stomping on the AI, you could also try out multitudes of strategies to figure out ways past missions you’re stuck on.

Despite the late-game difficulty curve, Infested Planet takes you on a exciting tour of duty squashing alien bugs with your elite group of soldiers. Although this is a real-time strategy game at heart, I found myself comparing it to a intense game of chess. The constant change in strategy to adapt when mutations would happen at a rapid pace made my brain work overtime. If only I could use a shotgun to blast the opponents king piece and exclaim, “CHECKMATE!”

Score: 4/5

Geekscape Games First Impressions: ‘Race To Mars’

by MoreLikeAndyApril 8, 2014

When some of us hear the words, “Space Race”, we expect to see some highly tuned mechanical beasts that cut through the darkness of space at blinding speeds. What Intermarum has in mind is the race to be the first to colonize humankind on other planets besides this big blue circular mass we call Earth with their new game, Race to Mars.

Race to Mars is more about the month to month operations in making a company that can bring human kind to finally build expensive condos near the craters. Micromanaging things like who to hire, what kinds of technology you want your research team to look into, even dealing with those pesky little journalists trying to poke holes in your well crafted public statements. Although the option to select the company name as well as its location in the world is great for customization, don’t think you can blame any wrong answers you give to the press on your translator.

There will be times where Race to Mars will have you sit and wait while the months simulate by. This can dissuade some continuing on with fostering a successful company and becoming the first to colonize foreign territory. Slow and steady wins the race, in this case, to Mars. Still early in development, we are still not certain if managing spreadsheets, accounting and employees will be the only thing for players to do. One can still be a simulation style game yet still provide a variety of things other than reading names and numbers.

There are some nice visuals to take in while waiting a month or two of in-game time. As day turns into night, the twinkle of office lights spring to life. Buildings that have been scheduled to be built start shaping into the structures shown in the purchasing menus. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see the stressed out CEO sweating bullets when the monthly reports come in showing just how good or bad things are. The musical tracks are limited at the moment but what is currently in Race to Mars is pretty dramatic in scope. It seems to be set to use the visuals to create the scene for the player to become pioneers in the next step of the human race.

Only the brave and very curious should check in on Race to Mars this early in its life. For those willing to be with Intermarum every step of the way, $19.99 on Steam Early Access will be your entry fee to the show. If you are worried about Intermarum releasing updates, no need to worry. The first major update was released recently with a lot of fixes and new additions which you can read over here. I, for one, will be keeping an eye out for Race to Mars to cross the finish line.

Geekscape Games Previews ‘Age of Wonders III’

by MoreLikeAndyMarch 20, 2014

Age of Wonders III somehow takes a fantasy turn-based strategy game, mixes in some role-playing game elements and lets players engaged in battles that feels more like a challenging game of chess. All while making it easy for first-timers to the series and comfortable to the those more familiar with it all.

Being one of these first-timers, I was happy to see that in the different modes offered in Age of Wonders III, one of them was a tutorial disguised as one of the two campaigns available. Taking control of the High Elf princess Sundren, I began the tutorial campaign on a rampage to exact revenge on that dastardly orc, Gamblag. Even though this campaign is an introduction to those new to the series, going in with the notion that Age of Wonders III will take it easy on you will have you hitting restart, a lot. Pacing and planning carefully will be the difference from getting revenge or utter defeat.

If jumping straight into the action without any story is more your thing, you can go right ahead and test your luck with the random map mode. The amount of settings that you can set for the random map mode is staggering. Just clicking on the advanced tab brings up a plethora of choices. Difficulty, map size, map type, player count and whether or not everything takes place above ground or in the deepest of caverns is just the tip of the iceberg. Once you look over to the right and see that you can access settings for the actual game flow, you’ll finally realize just how much control you have. From what starting towns types everyone gets to treasure structures is modifiable in Age of Wonders III. If you thought getting lost in time when engaging the role-playing game elements of the campaign mode was daunting, the random map mode puts all that to shame.

Sometimes, you just want to play a quick skirmish without the story or spending endless hours trying to create the perfect map. Thankfully, Triumph Studios put in a pre-made scenario mode saving the tinkerers from themselves. A multitude of scenarios will be laid out for players to choose from. Yes, they have a little story for each scenario, but nothing too deep if you just want to show your prowess on the battlefield. If human players are what you desire to battle against, an online mode is present as well to suit those needs to show a stranger how well your strategic mind is at Age of Wonders III.

Age of Wonders III provides players with a ton of options to lead your army to victory. The role-playing game elements comes into play with your main character. Stats, skills and spells are just some of the things you will have to manage with your hero. I sat for what seemed an eternity just trying to figure our what abilities to research or what spells to master. Deciding on if I want to acquire the ability to summon crows to fight by my side or to start my domination on the rough seas by building a dock for my warships had me at odds with myself. Also trying to settle on if health points were more important than skills for Sundren to use in battle set me back some time just staring, trying to commit to one or the other.

Equipment is also something that you’ll have to deal with as you make your way throughout the world. These items can be found from battles or exploring a cave or building scattered across the map. Nothing like getting a new pair of boots for all the walking ahead or a shiny new ring of fire protection just in case. There are slots to equip pretty much everything to your hero so exploring and looting everything you can would be a be a huge benefit if you want to have all slots equipped with items. To say that Age of Wonders III is a deep game would be selling it short. With so many things to ponder over, one could spend hours and make only a handful of moves. The great thing about this is that you never feel like you’re wasting time since every action makes a difference in your success.

Speaking of success, you can’t have a successful army without a flourishing empire. Similar to games like Civilization, building cities to become powerhouses that scare any challenging army to run in the other direction is a big part of Age of Wonders III. You could just pump out warriors endlessly to overwhelm your advisories into submission but where’s the fun in that? Taking a small town and creating a vast city that envelopes everything in sight is much more frighting in my mind. Alternating between growing the town with new housing, shrines and store houses with constructing a war hall, shooting gallery and watch towers will help you maintain your illustrious city from anyone who dares walk up to the gates.

Once you’re ready to march your massive army towards the enemies main town, you might want to figure out how each unit fits best with each other. In Age of Wonders III, you can combine up to six units into one bad ass battalion comprised of whatever unit you want cobbled with one another. Having an all archer battalion is possible or having a mix of unicorns, pikemen, mages and battering rams if you want more diversity. Flanking is also a strategy you will learn to love as you play Age of Wonders III. Since the maps are essentially separated hexagons, placing other units in an adjacent hexagon behind the enemy army while you throw the majority of your army straight at the enemy will ensure that there is no place for the enemy to hide.

Once the battles take place, you can play out the battles automatically. In doing this, what could have been an epic battle is over in mere seconds with a confirmation unveiling if success or failure is the fate of your warriors. Taking control of how the battles play out is also an option with manual combat. Zooming into the battlefield, Age of Wonders III lets players command their armies in turn-based combat. Having my archers pelting the enemy’s front lines with arrows while my swordsmen provide cover all while my assassins sneak into a flanking position has a more satisfying emotion than letting the A.I. roll the dice. Having the option for auto combat or having complete control gratifying to see.

Whatever way you decide to play Age of Wonders III when it releases on March 31, 2014, Triumph Studios has made sure that you have the options to fulfill those decisions and then some.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Postpones Witching Hours To 2015

by MoreLikeAndyMarch 12, 2014

Jumping back into Geralt’s boots will have to wait another year as CD Projekt RED has announced that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be delayed until February 2015. It was originally going to be released at the end of 2014, but that obviously isn’t happening.

CD Projekt RED says that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt could have been released by the end of 2014, but the team was not satisfied as a whole in what was finished up to now. Adding an extra couple of months would be a great benefit to ensure the game meets the standards CD Projekt RED is known for. I’m sure we can all agree that more time to polish up a highly anticipated RPG like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is more than okay. Just as long as that extra couple of months in development don’t turn into more months that delay it any further.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is being developed and will be released for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Source [TheWitcher.com]

PlayStation Home Update Brings Trophy Support

by MoreLikeAndyMarch 12, 2014

Home is where the heart is, be it PlayStation Home or your real one. PlayStation Home is now also the residence of shiny new trophies as Sony announced that trophy support has been added to the virtual wonderland. Spotted in a tweet by the PlayStation Europe community manager Chris Owen, version 1.86 will bring trophy support to everyone once the new version is up for everyone to install. If you are one of the many that spend a lot of time actually doing things in PlayStation Home, you will be happy to know that trophies will be gained retroactively if you have already met the requirements for said trophies. The list of trophies for the new PlayStation Home update are as follows:

Gold

There’s No Place Like Home – Visit PlayStation Home on 50 different days.

Silver

Wherever I Lay My Hat – Own 3 purchased or rewarded apartments or clubhouses

Brand New Toy – Own 3 purchased or rewarded portable items

Nice Gadget! – Own 15 purchased or rewarded furniture or active items

Bronze

Welcome Home – Log in to PlayStation Home

A Place to Call My Own – Visit your Harbor Studio apartment

Interior Designer – Use 15 unique, purchased or rewarded furniture items in an apartment

Fresh Threads – Own 15 purchased or rewarded clothing items

A New You – Change each item of clothing individually on a male or female avatar

A Documentary – Take a photo on 10 different days

Welcome Guest – Visit a friend’s apartment

Grand Explorer – Visit 20 unique spaces

Born to Dance – Perform 5 of the default dances

As you can see from the list above, there is no Platinum trophies. Not that big of a deal since only the major trophy chasers care to get them. Even though PlayStation Home has no plans to come to the PS4, Sony is still committed to pushing out new content on a weekly basis on the PS3 to the unforeseeable future. Looks like a lot of trophy junkies are set to rush to their PS3’s and download PlayStation Home starting today. Let’s hope that the network can take the beating.

Source [Chris Owen’s Twitter]

Hearthstone Leaves Beta, Brings Some Goodies Along To Celebrate

by MoreLikeAndyMarch 12, 2014

It was just a couple of days ago on the official forums for Hearthstone that a community manager brought word that the beta would soon be ending for their new free-to-play collectible card game. Who knew it would be this soon? Hearthstone is officially shakes off that beta tag and with its debut, brings along a new patch with plenty of new goodies for all.

In this new patch (1.0.0.4944), the usual bug fixes are applied that alleviated cards floating off the screen or the occasional dancing cards whenever you attacked. Also in this patch, players can now connect to other regions to challenge people worldwide. Just remember that account progress as well as card collections are saved separately per region. World of Warcraft players can now receive a new mount called the Hearthsteed just for winning three matches in either Play or Arena mode. Look at the video below to see how majestic this mount is. You know you want it.

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Certain cards have more effects and pizazz when played which makes those cards much more special. Nothing like having a Ragnaros spew forth from the flames of hell onto the field. Not to be outdone, the heroes that you play as get the golden treatment. Once you hit 500 wins with a hero, the portrait with turn gold and animate just like golden version of cards do already. The catch is that those 500 wins has to come by way of Ranked matches. No stomping on the A.I. to get these I’m afraid. You’ll have to earn it the hard way, as you should.

To read more in depth about everything that has changed or been added to Hearthstone, head on over to the blog post on the official site.

SPOILER: Leaked Censored Image Shows What European Gamers Get In ‘South Park: The Stick of Truth’

by MoreLikeAndyMarch 3, 2014

While gamers in North America get to enjoy all the uncensored glory of the new South Park game, The Stick of Truth, the European market gets to stare at an image of Michaelangelo’s David statue with some colorful flavor text describing the scene.

Australia is not to be left out of the censorship follies for South Park: The Stick of Truth either. Instead of Michaelangelo’s David statue, Aussies will gaze upon an image of a crying koala. I’m sure our foreign friends will find it easy to view the scene in question with the amount of streams of South Park: The Stick of Truth that will flood Twitch.tv this week.

Source [Reddit]