Besiege

I like building games. I do not like minecraft, but I like software like Medieval Engineers or their abstract base games like "Incredible Machine".



So in Medieval Engineers it is too much focused on world building and medieval buildings.

I think thats what the guys from Spiderling Games thought. And right they were.

So I bought Besiege in the steam sale for five euros. And damn, its worth more, but since it is Early Access, I actually see myself more as a beta tester, to be honest. And I found some bugs allready, which should not occur in a finished product.

The software is amazing. I give you two youtube Videos, cause its early in the morning and I actually want to go back construction machines.

Tutorial How To Construct a Helicopter

20 for 0.19 - Part 1

I bought 20 games on steam sale for 0.19 cent each, provided they were rated good or better on Steam. This is a post in progress.

1.) Well. The first one, BEEP,  I could play for 2 minutes. Some unpleasing but solid vector graphics, some robot default story, you play the robots in a frowning but surly having its fans jump and run.

Well the whole thing is not working for me, the design is unstructured. But the music is quite good !
The first time my robot dropped into an abyss, I quit the game.

2.) Defy Gravity Extended. Actually, this one has a good idea I never saw before. You can make gravity and anti-gravity balls with your gun. You combine these two to master the laser traps and big gaps in this platformer. That's, after dying a lot, actually makes fun a few minutes.

But, yes but, the graphic is minimalistic and not very nice, the music is too heavy and too much artificial orchestra synthetic, yet composed well. Just not for that game or setting, imho.
But really interesting idea.


3.) Out there somewhere

That one, also a platformer, is well done. It is pure pixelart . You start in side scroller, but eventually your ship gets shot down, and you have to find the parts on the planet you crashed to fix your ship to fight the guy who shot you down in a platformer on the ground.

The pixel art of the levels is well done and works, the teleport gun is a nice way of opening new kinds of puzzles beyond simple timing of jumps.

The music is perfectly adequate. This one I surly will play again.

4.) Then I started a game called "The Albino Hunter", and its obviously some 2D tile birds perspektive rpg-maker game. After 30 seconds I had to quit cause it was too dazzling.

This is it for today.

Free Steam Weekend ARK : Survival Evolved

Well, I thought its free, it looks nice AND IT HAS DINOS !

I downloaded the 6.5 GB on friday and remembered it just an hour ago.

It is early access, and it costs 30 bugs. Hmm. The first time I ran it it crashed with an OpenGL error.

The next time it worked when I joined an official server and I had fun making an absurd looking character, actually, I can not remember a game where you can misuse the body parameters like that.

Actually here I was first annoyed by the cheap looking user interface.

Then I joined the world and had a FPS of five while the resolution was 1600:900 and it looked bad.
I managed to put it on native resolution and put it on medium. Still it was unsharp, ugly and not 16:9 !

Ok, I thought and started to walk around. Some wood structures were placed by someone on a beach.
Then I saw my first dinosaurs. It was a friendly one so I punched it with my bare hands. It attacked me. Well. It tried. It rotated itself on the place and then started to walk into a tree where it got stucked.

I walked around, got some green jelly into my eyes from some small jumpy thing, yes, the one out of Jurassic Park that killed the traitor.

Then I tried to get smart of the user interface, but it looked so ugly and unstructured I lost my interest fast.

Well. It is early access. It was free. Perhaps they can fix all these things, cause it certainly is a nice idea and the graphics as far as I can say it are really nice, I at least imagine.

Couldnt resist : Humble BANDAI NAMCO Bundelö

So, Japan, ey ?

Well. I recently tried to find out more about the chinese game market, but actually, that was much more effort than I thought ! Language, structure, design...everything is different and strange than in western game university.

So I bought this Japan Bundle from BANDAI NAMCO,  mainly cause I am curious and I want that 10$ game.

So, let me play. :D

1.Platformines

This is a retro block 2D platform game. Do not get me wrong, it is well made, but at the same time looks and feels like someone just started and then went on for some time without really having a concept.

The music is ok, the graphics ok, the gameplay I HAVE NO CLUE. Perhaps some other time, but the first 15 minutes were like a big WTF that ended in boredom.




2. Dead Core

No clue what the f*ck this is. It looks like someone did a mediocre 3D jump and run platformer and was forced to watch Tron 100.000 times before that. Seriously. The UI is uninspired, the atmosphere is boring and the story non existing. I jumped around five minutes, then I quit.





3. Ace Combat Assault Horizon - Enhanced Edition

First I was thrilled, finally a good air craft shooter sim with decent looking wide open terrain.
Then I played this game from 2011. I did not even make a screenshot. The menus look ugly.
The music is boring. The graphics are 2011, but not even that bad. But the gameplay.
What the F*CK.

The intro mission is unclear, you autopilot, at least I think it was flying from itself, behind some other aircraft, I think, for no clear reason, which seem to be part of a nightmare the pilot has. Then after trying to do anything, it told me to press C. I pressed C. Then it told me to use the arrow key to turn right. I did that. Nothing really happen
d though. And then I crashed. For no real reason. On the floor.

Then I closed the game and deleted it from my harddrive. wtf.

4. Dark Souls™: Prepare To Die™ Edition

I was looking forward to this, and well. It is a console port. BUT it really looks good. The lighting is perfect, the whole feeling is glitchy and dark and wet and yikes. You start in a dungeon.

And this, yes, this is a dungeon. Then you come to a first big room and a big, big ugly daemon is blocking your way. Well. Here I actually quit, cause well, you have a freaking small knife and all the doors are looked. And a hit of my knife did actually 1/128 of damage to the enemy.

It looks really good. I think one of these days I will get one of my controllers and play this baby as it were a console, despite my dislike of direct console-2-pc games.

What's a bundle worth $2.000 dollars ? Right, a game making bundle

Since I bought the Humble Bundle Game Making Bundle just for the full version of Spriter, I thought, while doing the "serious" things with Unity3D, I could try these "cheesy" looking game making tools that were bundled with the Game Making Bundle.

And I could actually look at the Artwork & Stuff, since I have a license for it, perhaps there is something useful in it.

So this Article is WIP, since I will test them more deeply when I find the time.

Actually, I found this Post on this blog, which basically did what I wanted to do, and since I do not have the time right now, you can here find some good info about the bundle !

How to waste a sunday ! #1

Oh, it is Sunday !? Time to read deep philosophical material, learn some new javascript shit, meet friends or learn to survive with only two meters of nylon ? NO !

Let me rather waste some precious time on those games that are buried deep inside my steam games library vault, ok ?

Halfway through ?

First I found Halfway, a game published by the makers of Starbound, which I rather enjoyed, before I found the third high security prison planet in a row, Chucklefish.

It is from 2014, nice pixel art, and it is a tactical based RPG using the good old isometric view. Good looking interface, atmospheric music.





Could it have something to do with that SOS call ?

Story ? Ah yeah, it's a generic "Hey, big corporations are ruling, send out big ships to colonize the galaxy, but suddenly, ops, the ships are not coming back and vanish without a trace." story line. And of course, you play on of the guys on that first vanishing ship. So much for pathos, but ok !

Well done. But hey.

It seems to be very well done. It is clearly a child of the retro pixel art hype, but seems to be a very solid of its kind. When I want to play a Iso-Tactical-RPG I still want to finish Shadowrun and some other first. If you are into retro pixel art and this genre, this might be interesting, I am a bit bored by the story, though. But it will stay in my library, for sure.

Borderlands 2

Long time no read, fellow game-players.

But : I played a bit but did not find the time to write it down here. And besides, I am actually starting to play games more and more analytic, since after a year of intense catching up I think I am mostly up-to-date.

So I will try to get into that what actually amazes me about games : their mechanics, their rules and most of all, the additional level a game gets when multiplayer comes into play.

I bought Borderlands 2 in a steam sale, and I must say, besides being a dumb FPS, it actually is a very suitable game to study. So I hope I can remember and read all my thoughts and notes while playing it, cause you can see most of the concepts of newer and older (FPS) games coming together here in a funny yet absurd brutal way.

Stay tuned.

Lemons, Shadowruns and Transistors

Since life is giving me lemons and forces me to drink it, but I am allergic to lemon juice...well...you get the drill.

I had time to check out Shadowrun Returns.

I am a big cyberpunk fan (also the pen und paper RPG), but I always had a strange feeling about mixing fantasy and cyberpunk.

And that's what Shadowrun is. Well, the crowd funded game is actually quite interesting. If you like stylish hand drawn tile iso graphic and a lot of good written text, then Shadow Run returns is something you will enjoy.

The fighting system is a bit too similar to XCOM, but hey, you can not do everything original. Or so they say.

Also I checked out Transistor. I mention that here cause the design is somewhat similar to the design of Shadowrun Returns, at least in my perception.

What I like about Transistor is the somewhat innovative mixing of real time and round-base fighting.

The music, praised by so many, is ok, but the female singer can't pronounce the th correctly. It is a minor detail, but it really confused me. Perhaps this is even wanted ?

You killed KimDotKom !

So, I am doing stuff so I can not do this stuff regularly. :(

But here is some quick stuff, and I will try to keep this on. I mean hey having a blog is also only a weired version of a enhanced steam comment, one could think. But no.Do not think so, please.

"Kill the bad guy" from Exkee, released in 2014, rated mostly positive on Steeeeeem, is more like a concept than a game, at least I felt that when I tried it.

It is a simple combination game where you drop things on generic looking bad guys within a 3D ISO scenario of houses and trees. Like a piano.

It is promising, but it is too simple and then suddenly too much of trying out. And sometimes you can not see what this or that item really is. I love finding out stuff on my own, but it feels not good designed. The music works but the composition and the menu music turns me off, because it comes too often, too much contrast to the level music and there is no fading that would make it more pleasant.

It is not bad, but nothing special, but I will try it sometimes to get to later levels and look if it gets better.

Old ones. Testing. Why not.

If you got nothing to do at *all*, check these games in my new series, or at least this one post : archive.org's mystical 2400 old games.

But beware : I go after the screenshot and take those looking unique and strange at the same time. So be prepared or something.

1. A.J.'s World of Discovery by Coktel Vision (1992)

Actually, for some reason its like the game kyles little brother would have played in 2001.

Wired animations, little easy puzzle games and really amazingly strange GUI elements, so you think you are stupid, I like that.

I have recorded some video for the sake of it, perhaps I put it on YouTube.,

This is funny trashy 10 minutes flash fun stuff.

PLAY IT

2. Ishar - Legend of the Fortress by Silmarils (1992)

What can I say : It is a role playing game. So much is sure. But reduce the elements to a minimum and the action to a "ATTACK" button and use the minimum on good looking pixel art you can and you have this game. I managed to find a bridge to a village, and found a tavern, a magic school and a trader.
All other houses were closed and all the houses look alike.

Very confusing. But very interesting for 10 minutes.

PLAY IT

Arma 3 Marksmenship DLC

Ok, first Bohemia brought this Gokart DLC, and I thought : Oh my, wtf.
Then the Helicopter DLC. Hmm. Another WTF.

And now you can pay 12 Euros for several new weapons and some missions.

Well. If you look at BF4 or similar, that is actually a fair price, I assume.

But since I am no big fan of my once so beloved merchandise anymore, I will have a look at it now, with fresh eyes, cause they really did a lot of updates.

If they finally fix the AI so that it uses its AT, I may even try to get into the fictional weapons. (Juk)

The Dream Machine

Clay. A whole freaking click-and-point adventure out of clay.

The Dream Machine is very relaxing. That was my first impression.

Starting you do on an island, there you dig some worms and make some tasty fish.

Then the bell rings, and you're a guy moved with your pregnant girl friend in some
apartment in a new town.

It is well made, very relaxing atmosphere, I played it until the point where the first "Do I have to search everything again" moment arrived. But I surly will play this on, cause not only the optic, but also the atmosphere promises something different.

Full Mojo Rampage - Full what de whaaaaat ?

When the game in my steam library "Full Mojo Rampage" updated itself today, I thought, hey funny name what the fuck is that ?

It is a 2014 isometric diablo-like game with neat-da-sweat vector graphics which reminded me totally of  this game whose name I forgot but who is looking exactly more or less like this and has two parts and was very successful.

Full Mojo Rampage has a mild-dark humor that reminds me of Secret of Monkey Island, well, also because it has a neat voodoo theme.

As far as the game play goes its default, shooting with mouse, some special attacks that need reload time, looting and exploring all that stuff.

What really impressed me was the music actually, real neat tunes somehow not fitting therefore enhancing the mood of this game. Interesting technique !

Well I died in the forth level and had to start from the start. Really, from ALL the way back like four levels. That actually broke my play motivation, but I will try again !

Just a few tryouts while I have a really bad cold

I couldnt resist, since I found the Steam Cards at my fuel station I can actually buy steam games without my CC or freaking paypal.

So I bought some of them got Apotheon, Darkest Dungeon and still had some funds left.

So I did what I love most : Buying games I dont know for less than 2 euros who have a good review score on Steam.

Lets go. Still working on my Apotheon and Darkest Dungeon reviews, these are going to get bigger for a change.

Stardrive

This is some kind of colonisation space game, where you have ships and then colonize planets.
It has all the normal elements of that genre, plus it looks quite good, decent music, nice user interface.

The tutorial is weired, and you would have to invest a lot more attention than I am able right now, but heads up, this game could actually be some fun.

Imagine Me

Ehm. Well. Trashy unity jump and run. Well the start design is interessting, but the level design sucks from the start and the graphic looks very strange.

War Game : Red Dragon and then Darkest Dungeon

Ok. I have Darkest Dungeon and some absolut amazing looking Jump'n'Run where you play an old greek vase scenario, but I misspressed in my steam library and started WarGame:Red Dragon which is laying around untouched since a few month.

I just played it for 30 minutes. I loved the first part in the triology, and well Red Dragon looks good, is complex, has the same amazing interface and I have absolutly no clue how to play it.

European Escalation was quite inuitive, but Red Dragon is like 10times more complex, at least that was my first impression.

Another thing is I can not find good information about for example the chinese war gear from 1979 like the ZBD-86.

I play these kind of games cause I like reading up on the real world equivalents.

Well, hopefully I will find sometime some time to get deeper into Red Dragon. Would be a waste.

But now to Darkest Dungeon and ehm Apotheon !

Alive ?

Well, right now I am still working on this new blog of mine, but RL keeps me from my duty, I am sorry.

Right now I want just quickly propagate two games I tried out from my insanely vast but on lock-down Steam library :

8bit Boy

This is an actually worthy Super Mario Clone. Clumsy 8bit graphics, but very nice level design, a decent yet good shuffled difficulty level and nice music.
Definitely worth it. Done by one man and  his love to the waste of time in his youth. Get it !

Freaking Meatbags

Well, done in Unity, it is really a cute fast and nice combination of exploration, resource management and structure building and tower defense. You play a robot and you manage workers and then from time to time on the planet you're attacked by drones that gone rouge.

Besides its amazing micro scifi criticism, it is really done well, nice elements, highly addictive done with minimal element combination.

Really well done.

Funny. The game that brought me back to active gaming was Spore

I stopped active gaming and looking at new stuff (execpt Arma and Arma2 which I played always CoOp in good clans) for years but the game that enlighten the flame again was ... Spore.

It was so perfectly staggered, from microorganism to an interstellar race that has to deal with
other life-forms. I loved the user interface, the sounds, the humor.

But the fact that the decision you made at the start always were visible and important was mind blowing for me.

The additional packs were well unnecessary but funny.

So I hail to Spore and EA here.  Just a reminder.

Freebie On Origin, Hurry, Theme Hospital

My life is keeping me from testing the many steam games I bought at the winter sale, and besides RL I am working hard on my "art" game in Unity.

BUT head over to Origin and get Theme Hospital.

It is sooo 1997 and the humor is actually getting "modern" again.
When you see Darth Vader and the main boss from this dungeon management game in the reception of a hospital...I forgot the name you think, OK, wtf.

Ballpoint Universe : Infinite

Yes. It is a hand-drawn shooter with some jump'n'run intermezzos.

The shooter sequences are a bit boring. I like the style of it, so if you are an shumps (?) fan with an affection for hand drawn animations then this might entertain you.

Quick'n'Dorty #2

Hello fellow mouse-movers,

since I am currently getting better at Assault Squad 2 I use the breaks from developing and studying to clear out my steam library further.

So. What have we hear today :

1. Tiny Brains
2. Viscera Cleanup Detail: Shadow Warrior
3.Type:Rider

Quick'n'Dorty #1

In the Quick'n'Dorty Series I will really fast go through games and write whatever comes to my mind.

The following games are being "reviewed"

1. Deus Ex - Human Revolution (Pseudo-SciFi FPS)
2. Daikatana (Oldschool FPS)
3. Spelunky (Indie-Vector 2D Platformer)

4. Spirits  (Leminesk-Indie Remake)

Click to Read the reviews 

Deadnaut - Abstract yet real ?!

(Before I forget it : Happy new good 2015 and may your hardrive be with you !!!)


I am too tired to make a full analysis right now, buuut :

Have a look at Deadnaut. Besides it's marvelous design it is the claustrophobic experiences of a crew of astronauts who go onto dead ships in space and havoc them.

Actually you are their captain, sitting in your chair in the exploration ship and you control and oversee them.

After a few minutes I had a strange feeling. This game utilizes some techniques I did not see so clearly extrapolated in other games.

I have to examine this one further !!