Posts Tagged ‘robot entertainment’

RPS Feature Double competitive tower defence

Orcs Must Die! Unchained Closed Beta Impressions

Welcome!

I’m glaring at the Orcs Must Die! Unchained deck-building screen trying to work out which combination of minions, equipment and traps will be the most lethal. It’s the latest outing in the Orcs Must Die! series and has dropped the campaign mode in favour of expanding the co-operative element introduced in Orcs Must Die 2. You’re now playing competitive aggressive tower defence with four teammates against an enemy team. Yes okay fine it is a free-to-play MOBA.

The objective of these games is to prevent waves of enemy minions from reaching a Rift deep within your base. To do so you lay traps, equip weapons, use your hero abilities and so forth. The game’s in closed beta at the moment but I’ve been playing matches and chatting with GameForge’s Dominik Nagel – a game designer on the project – to get a feel for how it works.

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En-sob-le: Age Of Empires Online Goes Offline

Microsoft may be claiming that it’s redoubled its efforts on PC, but it hasn’t had much to show for it yet, Games For Windows Live is dying at an agonizing pace, and now Age of Empires Online is naught but ash and memories. Servers are now offline, never to be seen again. It’s a shame because AOEO had potential despite a litany of flaws, and also look at that acronym. Say it out loud. Ayy-ohhh-eeee-ohhh. Fantastic. Teary eyed goodbye from the game’s last dev team below.

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Orcs Must Go F2P – Orcs Must Die! Unchained

Not pictured: orcs, dying.

I feel like life has dealt orcs a pretty unfair hand. I’m not just referring to the insidious, discriminatory presumption that they must be villains of the lowest caliber, either. It’s all “musts” with the poor green giants. Orcs must fight, orcs must die, orcs must be back from the school dance by 11 or so help me they are grounded from here to kingdom come.

And now, thanks to Orcs Must Die! Unchained, orcs must also go free-to-play. Robot Entertainment’s latest entry in the popular trap-laying, fortress-defending actioner adds MOBA elements to the series’ (perhaps too) tried-and-true formula and dresses it up in shiny new F2P pantaloons. It’s certainly uncharted territory for the series, but is it any good? You can find out right now, surprisingly enough.

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Now In Session: Hero Academy Lands On Steam

Everyone's so excited and happy! Well, except the old man. He's totally harshing their grooves or something.

According to the folklore of our culture – relayed by minstrels sweetly crooning out their dulcet tones in the backs of taverns and also, like, every Hollywood movie ever – heroes always arrive just in the nick of time. So it shouldn’t be a problem for an academy‘s worth of medieval-themed do-gooders, right? You’d think so, but then Hero Academy‘s planned release date of August 8th came and went with nary a peep – even from Heavy weapons guy. Thousands of lives were lost. Better (slightly) late than never, though, and Robot’s provided a TF2-tinged launch trailer to make it official. Because things aren’t real until they have trailers.

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RPS Feature Oh No More Orcs

Wot I Think: Orcs Must Die 2

Perhaps the pack-leader of the recent ‘do x to fantasy/sci-fi staple y’ game name trend, Robot Entertainment’s Orcs Must Die was a giddy, gory carnival of greenskin slaughter in a tower defence meets Diablo kind of way. A mere nine months later, we get the sequel. Can such cheekiness be justified? You have two ways of potentially finding out before you buy it. A) play this here free demo. B) Read the collection of typed symbols below.

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Hero Academy Opening On Steam, August 8th

Meet the Plato

This is the most splendid of news. If you don’t know Hero Academy, it’s a turn-based, two-player tactical game from the chaps behind Orcs Must Die and if you are now wondering why you haven’t heard of it, it’s because it’s an iOS game. Except on August 8th it’ll also be a PC game, as it’s coming to Steam and allowing cross-platform play. Opponents are played asynchronously, so you take your turn, inform your opponent and wait for a response. This means you can play loads of games at the same time and with its chessy appeal, you’ll probably want to. I shall welcome it to my PC with a smile and, oh look, Valve have provided an exclusive team. Trailer below.

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Orcs Will Die On July 30, For They Must

Witnesses reported that this is roughly how the orcs died. Because they were killing them.

A trench-coat-clad detective emerges from a thick late night fog. He spots his partner – a smaller, more plainly dressed man – standing near a small bridge between two rocky cliffs. And also a pile of dead orc bodies. “What was the official time of death?” the detective asks grimly, not even bothering to greet his protege. “Midnight or somewhere thereabouts. July 30,” the young man replies. Both then briefly survey the carnage. It’s not pretty. Spikes and arrows protrude from torn green flesh, while others are singed, and still others seem as though they’ve gone careening through the air until… splat.

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