Early Access | Geekscape

PAX West 2018: ‘Aground’ Early Access Won’t Leave You High And Dry

by Courtney DossettSeptember 10, 2018

I’ve been really drawn to pixel-art style games lately; pretty much anything with sprite avatars catches my interest. The problem is a lot of the games with that art style aren’t super interesting. ‘Aground’ managed to catch my eye and keep my interest. It’s a side scroller survival game, but it has a lot of different mechanics that make the game stand out from other similar games.

I got to play the demo for 10-15 minutes. You play a person who has been shipwrecked on an island and has to collect resources, build shelter, gather and store food etc. to survive. First thing off the bat – you get to customize your character from gender, hair skin and eye colors, and clothes. I guess, you can customize it to an extent since they are pixel-sprites BUT it’s a hell of a lot more satisfying than character selection in ‘Sea of Thieves’.

I promise character customization is the key to the best game — Look it’s me!

You are then shown a quick reprise of your shipwrecking before you do a short tutorial of how to collect wood and food and progress through the story line. You meet different NPCs who help you along with quests (Let’s build a storage room!) but the cool thing about the NPCs on this island is that they don’t just sit there and deliver the same one-liners outside their designated area, they actually help you gather resources while you’re off doing different things around the island.

I didn’t progress very far through the story during my short time with the demo, but I definitely got hooked. I am a major fan of survival games like this, and was charmed with the art style. The game also has cool features like MOVING LEFT (I had to get a hint on that one), mining, and eventually, dragons!

I think the best part of this game is its conception. After the release and huge disappointment of ‘No Man’s Sky’, David Maletz, the designer said “I can build a better game than that!” which eventually lead to the creation of Aground, which, while admittedly is very different from NMS, is a much much better game.

‘Aground’ is currently in Early Access on Steam and available for $10.

Early Access: ‘Man ‘O War’ Introduces Magic, Beards, and Birds!

by NecroscourgeSeptember 1, 2016

Within the last year it seems every single specialty Warhammer game has been licensed to become some sort of videogame. Space Hulk has been and will continue to be spun into various strategy and action titles, Blood Bowl received a sequel last year, and Man ‘O War: Corsair was just patched this morning. Among the patch notes are the inclusion of the Skaven and Dwarves, flying units, and magic. All of which are critical to the setting, and so it’s good they made it in.

MoW: Corsair is an adaptation to the titular specialty tabletop wargame that of course dealt with naval engagements between the early Warhammer fantasy races, and like the other specialty titles was cut rather quickly. Players built their fleet around singular ships (Powerful Man of War class ships or other singles) and Ships of the Line deployed in three’s. Among your fleet was a magician and of course your leader.

Right now in build .4 the game can be thought of as a Warhammer themed pirate game, with a lot of inspiration coming from Assassins Creed: Black Flag. You sail from port to port, must keep the ever shifting winds in mind, must now keep in mind the ever flowing winds of magic as well, and organize broadside and boarding attacks against enemies. You are also able to switch between characters like the Sharpshooter and now the Wizard; right now there is no automation but the developers have assured users that they are considering some degree of automation.

New Skaven and Dwarven ships have been itnroduced to the game world. The Skaven Ratmen relies on superior numbers and dark plague magics to overwhelm their foes. The ironclad Dwarf fleet packs rows of high caliber assault cannons and arms it’s crews with powerful firearms. Both pose new and exciting threats to aspiring captains.

A major thing about MoW is that it was written before some of the major races were introduced like the Ogre Kingdoms and the Lizardmen, and I couldn’t quite coax an answer out of the devs as to whether these factions will be in Corsair. The result of the sources age is that the game itself looks and plays like a ten year old game, and with most people being obsessed with graphics over game-play than this might not float for everybody. For instance, unless you are standing directly in-front of the megalodon (Big Damn Shark) then it looks like a gigantic shiny bathtub toy gnawing on your ship. Ork ships similarly look like they are built out of Lincoln Logs; this is partly due to their tabletop appearance, but it feels like more could of been done to make the ships and sharks more appealing.

If you ever found yourself thinking “I really like pirate games, but I want a game where I can really attack anything I want” then you will find a safe port in Corsair; it almost immediately reminds you that the rule of law is absent and if they can’t catch you, they can’t hang you. This is a title that is worth keeping an eye on.

We Are Ready To Test Our Might At Early Access ‘Pokken Tournament’ Competitions!

by Matt RodriguezFebruary 23, 2016

In what seems to be a never-ending stream of Pokémon news for the month of February, early access competitions for Pokken Tournament have been announced nationwide! Initially, the only tournaments available were at the Pokémon Championship Series and EVO, but now various Gamestop stores across the country will be holding tournaments as well!

The winners of these Gamestop tournaments will advance to the Early Access Finals, which will be held at the Nintendo NY store on March 17th. The winner of the Early Access Finals will then be invited to the National Finals in Ohio. The competitions will also be divided up into age brackets, one for those born in 2001 or later, and one for those that are born in 2000 or earlier.

The tournaments will be taking place on February 27th, with registration beginning at 10am. The full list of Gamestops holding competitions are as follows:

2201 Preston Road, Plano, TX
1841 Chamblee Tucker Road, Chamblee, GA
3972 Barranca Parkway, Irvine, CA
8115 S. John Young Parkway, Orlando, FL
6451 W. Diversey Ave., Chicago, IL
242 Bellevue Square, Bellevue, WA
32 E. 14th St. – Union Square, New York, NY
3914 Rivermark Plaza, Santa Clara, CA

For those of us California, this is the second major event being held in the same state, with a later event being the Pokemon Boutique held in JapanLA (starting 6PM). February 27th has been announced to be “Pokémon Day” and it is sure to be a stacked day! I’ll definitely be making my best effort to attend both!

Pokken Tournament is a tournament style 3D fighting game featuring Pokémon, and is being developed by Bandai Namco. It is currently only available in arcades across Japan, but will be seeing a Wii U console release on March 18, 2016.

Source: Business Wire, via Always Nintendo

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 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.