RPS Feature Time To Think
Quantum Break [official site] has finally received a proper PC release via Steam (although sadly only Steam so far), rather than the ridiculous Windows Store. (A store that hides where it installs games on your PC, which isn’t something you’ll want with a 70GB game!) I’ve played it through for the very first time this week, and can tell you wot I think of this time travelling multimedia caper.
Where fellow action-RPGs Diablo III and Torchlight exulted in bright colors and a brazen use of particle effects, the free-to-play Path of Exile [official site] took a darker turn, wearing its grime like a king’s crown. And it did well that way, honestly. Our very own Adam called it a “smart and content-rich RPG.” And said smart and content-rich RPG will see its newest expansion, titled The Awakening, come July 10th.
Playing Deadbolt, the latest 2D arcade shooting thing by Risk of Rain developers Hopoo, allowed me – for the very first time in my life – to picture an indie version of the Grim Reaper breaking into a zombie infested mansion via its plumbing and emerging, armed and deadly, from the toilet. Now, I may not know art, but I know what I like: death by toilet. And stylized, hyper-violent action gaming.
It’s the jaggy, shaded, colourfully filled polygons that make SEAQUEST1992 look like an obscure Japanese oddity for the N64, and in practice it feels like the Sonic/Nights Into Dreams crossover the Saturn never got. Add in a touch of traditional trinket collecting and Ecco’s underwater adventuring and you should have a pretty solid idea of what this beautifully weird free game is all about.
Equipping you with everything from a jetpack and a stealth field to bionic legs and a pair of cool rocket boots, Condor tasks you with navigating the tricky rooftops of the sprawling metropolis of NeoQusqo in order to reach the Spire. Acts of cyber-terrorism will ensure that you don’t encounter any resistance. The heights will be your only enemy and your payment will be more than generous.
It’s called Vectagon and it’s a fast paced, procedurally generated, psychedelic runner that has, according to its developer, been inspired by Rez, Dyad and F-Zero. That makes Vectagon a jaw-dropping, infinite avoid-’em-up where lasting for a minute should be considered a huge accomplishment. A game with glorious neon visuals and a purely arcade heart.
Silly puns. Got to love them, really. Even more so when they come dressed up in detailed and lovely isometric graphics straight from the revered tradition of Cadaver, When Time Stood Still and the recent Shadowrun Returns. Yes, Cat-Ana really does look this good.
No such thing as too many zombie games, right? Robotoki’s upcoming Human Element is a fast-paced shooter-slash-base-management chimera that takes place 35 years after the end of an undead uprising. Humanity has broken into gun-loving factions, and is now clamoring over what few resource-rich outposts remain.
Battle Cube is neither the latest game by Knytt creator Nifflas, nor his latest freeware offering — that would be lovely platformer Saira. It is a little non-platforming experiment instead and a game he released roughly a year ago and has himself categorized as a miscellaneous creation.
Also, it’s a brilliant little thing I totally randomly bumped into and instantly loved.
I had to play through a hundred or so Ludum Dare vignettes to discover This (particular) Little Piggy, but it was a little piggy worth caring for. A gorgeous first-person game in which you, a space hermit, must make a potato salad — though gathering that tasty, tasty bacon may be harder than it first appears.
Red Entity is a game about a bunny girl, her giant mech and a couple thousand baddies out to get them and yet it makes sense. Or, well, not. Truth be said, this is all about shooting everything that comes your way, dodging stuff and surviving long enough to make it to the next wave.
Freeware Garden searches the corners of the internet to highlight one free game every day.
I take it hets isn’t a reference to the Argentinean Querandí mountain tribe of the Pampas. It probably isn’t even aware of Bergman’s 1944 short movie either, though there’s definitely something sadistic to it. I mean, teasing a “very evil final boss” really isn’t such a nice thing to do, especially considering I’ll never get to meet the thing. So, yeah, sadism and thus also a unique kind of pleasure.
hets is unashamedly, brutally and in a way wisely hard. Or, at the very least, it does feel so to me.
Freeware Garden searches the corners of the internet to highlight one free game every day.
Itto and Diagoro Ogami, a heavily pixelated father-son team, can’t handle grief particularly well and have set out to avenge Ms. Ogami’s unfair death in the most brutal way imaginable: by sticking their katanas in as many men as possible. Evidently, they simply cannot understand that indiscriminant violence solves nothing and only serves in providing us with games like Shogun Assassin.
When is a launch trailer not a launch trailer? That’s right, kids, when the game isn’t due out for another couple of weeks. That’s the awkward situation Renegops has thrust us into: It has just came out on the consoles, but isn’t going to be gracing the PC with it’s presence until later on this month. Still, we’ve got pretty moving pictures to keep ourselves entertained in the meantime: Read the rest of this entry »
Did you play Darksiders? THQ’s hack-n-slashing action-them-to-bits had a nine month delay before its release on PC, which always subdues the reaction somewhat. When Jim got hold of it last September he was having a lovely time, right up until a dumb boss fight at the end of a long walk and unskippable cutscene kept splatting him with cars. But until that point it was offering lots of fighty-fun. So perhaps a sequel will provide a more refined pathway to an ending?
It was not unreasonable to see the early footage of Red Faction: Armageddon and worry. After Guerilla’s open-air festival of smashing stuff it seemed so counter-intuitive to be claustrophobically wedged underground. What are we supposed to smash?! And then we found out about the Magnet Gun. Well, even more recent footage shows more good news. There’s still buildings down there for you to spectacularly knock down, and walls to break through like a Vic Mackey tribute band. That’s what’s important. Except now there’s aliens to fight too. Such recent footage exists below.
Coo, at last, the completely excellent Lara Croft & The Guardian Of Light has online co-op. Quite how it didn’t ship with this feature – something pretty essential to its core design – is a mystery. But it’s finally there now, and since you’ll have bought it via Steam it’ll automagically update the next time you load the grey gaming window. This’ll let you play the game with a chum, which I’d rather like to do now please. There’s also a few other tweaks, including graphical and audible improvements, refining of both mouse/keyboard and controller input, and general stability. So good!
…but the PC version is delayed! I know! That never happens, right? Ubisoft has just dropped the bomb about the no-longer-November release, claiming it’s so they can “deliver the best quality game”.
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