Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Confession time! I have never played a game by mad-brained indie wunderkind Jonathan ‘Catcus’ Söderström before. No idea why – despite Jim regularly giving his games an approving nod, in that stern, stoic Jim Rossignol way of his, I’ve managed to miss every single one. Dungeon, his collaboration with one Arthur ‘Mr. podunkian’ Lee (what is it with these names? I’ve gotta get me one. Call me Alec ‘Windows Sound Recorder’ Meer from now on, if you will), rather confirms my opinions from afar – that the chap is making splendid but oddball independent videogames that will please anyone who doesn’t scream “pretentious!” the second they’re faced with something even slightly artistically-minded. Not that Dungeon is necessarily artistically-minded – it has another agenda…
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A single-mission demo for Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising has been released, and it can apparently be played single player and online with chums. Codies explain: “As part of a Special Forces squad inserting behind Chinese PLA lines, players must eliminate a strategically critical radar station and missile sites to allow the USS Iwo Jima, carrying the main USMC battalion, to safely approach the island of Skira.” The full details for the demo including mirrors and systems specs can be found here. My thoughts about the game on release can be read here.

Picked up from the relentless, irresistible, magnificent Juggernaut of indie-gaming coverage TIGsource, Harmony is a clear labour of love. It’s a stand-alone game based on the ZDoom code which is – apparently – 8 years in the making. Crikey. My favourite feature is that the enemies are all based on actual creatures moulded from clay. More of that sort of thing, game designers. I want a retro-Trap Door shooter, pronto. BERK! FEED ME! FEED ME BULLETS! Anyway, you can get it from here and the video follows…
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Mr Smee provided the heads up for Devil’s Tuning Fork. Which is… well, striking, to say the least. It’s an Echo-based first-person indie puzzle game. Get it from here or watch it beneath the cut. When your main influences are the optical illusions of Escher and Dolphin’s echolocation, you know you’re onto something. From a team from DePaul University, this is probably the most striking conceptual indie 3D-puzzle game I’ve seen since… ooh, Narbacular Drop. It’s also profoundly atmospheric and a genuinely unique aesthetic. It’s got “Must play” written all over it. Or, at least, it’s got “Must play” written in a blog-post about it.
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Yeah, I ruin the Zombie theme of the day by posting this. OR DO I? It’s a castle defence game – which, of course, are normally zombie-themed – from the creator of full-on-mentalist Rogue-game Elona. It’s called Elona Shooter and it’s proper full-on-mentalist. The idea is basically an Operation Wolf (Or, really, Walker) clone mixed with a party-based RPG mixed with the aforementioned full-on mentalism. And… oh, watch these videos in a compare and contrast…
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With the conscious recklessness of talking about another game on Left 4 Dead 2 launch day, here’s something else you could play. It’s the demo of the game of big Jim Cameron’s film. Y’know, the film that’s supposed to be make everyone believe 3D is the future of cinema and, to steal Kieron’s line, looks like Braveheart with furries. The film and the game (which is akin to a slightly more open world third-person Halo if you play the humans, or rather more platformy if you play the elves Na’vi) both aren’t due out until December, but a demo has mysteriously appeared on the German Coke Zero site. English Demo, German website, American sugarfree fizzy beverage. Huh. Oh, and it’s only available until November 30. The 1.6Gb demo’s still downloading here, but I’ll update this post once I’ve given it a whirl.

Effseven pointed me at this. I haven’t played it. It’s a proof-of-concept demo-release of the full game which the mod team will be playing. It could be terrible. It… actually, I refuse to believe it could be terrible. The world wouldn’t be that cruel. It’s a single player FPS mod about Hitler getting dinosaurs with the inevitable consequences. From the moment when watching the trailer the newspaper headline “DINOSAURS! They Are Real And The Nazis Have Them” appeared, there was no way I wasn’t posting this. Good luck in finishing it, Sez I.
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I’m not one to leap with joy at news of a new racing game, but when I see a trailer like the one below the joy-leaping muscles begin to clench. Proun, which is a splendid word, is a 3D obstacle-avoiding puzzly racing game set in a bizarre world of geometric shapes. You rotate around a cable, rather than steering, in a gorgeous looking environment. The project by Joost van Dongen is due to be released early next year, and will be freeware, according to IndieGames.

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Big Fish Games, they of the casual gaming world who aren’t PopCap, have released a new game rather beautifully called Fauna Sphere. I love the name, I’m terrified by the game. It’s one of them-there free cutesy MMO things, with an animal of your creation – a Fauna – and tasks to complete. It seems rather competently done, but it keeps asking me to socialise with other players, which sounds simply awful. But you know, perhaps you’re not me and this is your sort of thing. Have a look at the trailer below to help make up your mind (although it’s hard to believe too many people will be swayed by the opening gambit, “BECOME A CARETAKER”), or play it for free via the magical clicking of this link.

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Man, I pick my moments. If I’d have waited just one more day, just one more measly day, I could have ended my post about King’s Bounty: Armored Princess yesterday with a link to the just-released English demo. I didn’t. I got too excited. I have failed you. I’m sorry. You won’t ever hear from me again.

…At least not until my Armored Princess diaries, starting next week. (There will be a conclusion to the Risen ones at some point during the coming weeks, by the way – I’ve just been waylaid by Too Many Games.) Meantime, try the 470MB demo and see what you make of it. Too similar? Too cute? Too wordy? Too wonderful? I’ll admit I’m approaching it with some trepidation – you can have too much of a good thing, especially when it comes to games – but I’ll be very surprised if I don’t enjoy myself.