I recently was let into the beta for Nekro and I am excited to finally be able to write about it. Nekro is a pretty dark game where you take the role of an evil Necromancer hell bent on usurping the sitting king in favor of replacing him with a dark lord of the undead. In the first few missions you learn the ropes of the game and spend in game "sins" to upgrade your Necromancers abilities. I really enjoy playing as the brawler Nekro and sunk most of my points into the bats as my summons. One aspect of Nekro is that your summons automagically target bad guys leaving you free to kite around taking shots at the games antagonists. Whereas you can use your Nekro to attack the game really wants you to lean on your summons as your bread a butter method for attack.

I felt at home with the games graphic style as it is well suited to the games very dark premise. The style reminds of Warcraft III at times and since Warcraft III has a special place in my heart, that isn't a bad thing.

To be able to use your Nekro's special abilities you need to kill living creatures to harvest blood. At first this is a bit creepy as when you acquire the blood the in game sound effect is of someone drinking. That said, Nekro doesn't seem to apologize for it's tone and content, which is something I respect about it. Plus if you have ever wanted to kill farmers, chickens, pigs or cows and have the game reward you, Nekro is your jam.

I recorded a video above that came out WAY darker than the game actually is. I link it above because I had fun making it, but don't take the quality as a reflection of the game, it looks way better than that. The guys at Yogscast did a video that is a bit longer than the one I did and doesn't suffer from any technical issues. I recommend you check it out for a better idea of what the game looks like.

http://youtu.be/GGlYey0TQeQ

Nekro will drop sometime this year on Mac, Linux and PC.

"To whet your auditory appetite, we've put together an exclusive preview track featuring just a small sample of new melodies you'll hear as you adventure through this haunting environment."

I really enjoyed the Diablo III score and appreciate the direction they took with this music for Reaper of Souls. The music shown in the clip above seems to have an airy choral quality to it. The songs are also layered such that the individual instruments really stand out in a way I didn't hear in the Diablo III score.

Blizzard also did a Q&A with the Diablo III music director Derek Duke. I cut a snippet from the interview for your viewing pleasure.

""Q. The world of Sanctuary is so diverse. When creating tracks for specific areas, how do you make sure you're creating a unique identity while also providing a cohesive sound across the game?

Derek: It's certainly a challenge, and hopefully one we've done well in Reaper of Souls.

One of the ways we've tried to bring musical cohesion into the Diablo franchise this time around was to filter all the music through a single person and process. The Diablo series was originally scored by a single composer and, while the other Blizzard franchises have benefited so much from having all of Blizzard's unique musical personalities contribute to a project, it really felt like Diablo—and Reaper of Souls in particular—wanted a single voice.

While writing a majority of the music myself, I was also able to leverage themes written by Russell Brower, Jason Hayes, Joseph Lawrence, and Glenn Stafford. Those themes were then built upon, arranged, stretched, and orchestrated to sound as though originating from a singular musical voice.

In addition, all our music was recorded with the same orchestra in the same decommissioned church with the same team over two years."

You can read the entire interview on the Diablo III blog:

http://us.battle.net//d3/en/blog/13154927

Previous titled "PixelJunk Inc" Q-Games will release Nom Nom Galaxy! on March 13th to Steam's early access. I was interested in this game after seeing it in person at PAX Prime last year. Q-Games released a pretty interesting video showcasing how they came to some of the Nom Nom Galaxies game mechanics. Unsure how much of this is real or just for fun but either way, the video shows the team having fun with the project.

As building and crafting games become a popular new genre it's nice seeing different takes on it in the Indie scene.

Are you going to pickup Nom Nom Galaxy on March 13th?

Co-op alone could well be worth the price of admission.

I played Hotline Miami after I picked it up in a Humble Bundle and really enjoyed it. The story was interesting and vague and after playing the game I had a sense the main character was schizophrenic. The game was both violent and also self reflective about it. Oh and the music was top notch too.

Hotline Miami 2 should be out sometime this year and I can't wait to head back in and stomp some faces Drive style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SVfEuUTufU (warning, this is a pretty intense clip from Drive)

In this episode of The Cheerful Ghost Roundtable we are talking all about BioShock Infinite. This episode is special in that it features the guys from Sleep Ninja Games making the upcoming Indie awesomery, Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake. We talk a little about what we've been playing, what we are drinking and I do a quick Q&A about how Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake development is going.

We then tear into a rabid discussion about the amazingness that is BioShock Infinite. I warn you as with things we love, we have some critiques of it. Put your nerd-fi hats on, this episode clocks in at a whopping 2+ hours. And really, did you want it any other way?

What We are Playing & Drinking

• 1.00m alex: Dark Souls 2


• 1.25m scrypt: BioShock Infinite & Angvick


• 2.50m justin: Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze & Papers Please

Monsters Ate my Birthday Cake

• 4.20m How is development of the game going?


• 5:15 What they are working on with the game right now?

BioShock Infinite [Spoiler Free]

• 8.30m What is BioShock Infinite?


• 9.20m A quick overview of our thoughts on the game.


• 18.00m Should people play the original BioShock first?


• 20.30m Our thoughts on the game mechanics and Elizabeth.


• 29.05m How does BioShock Infinite work as a shooter?


• 43.23m How did the length of the game feel to us?

BioShock Infinite Story[!!SPOILERS!!]

• 51.10m The game brought up issues of racism, classism and religion


• 105.50m Something really spoilery about Elizabeth and Booker


• 120.20m Something really spoilerrific about Booker


• 132.40m The Songbird was a pretty big part of the story


• 153.00m The ending of the game

Want to know more about Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake?

http://sleepninjagames.com/mambc/

Read our interview(s) with them while you are at it:

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1887
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/919

If you are still a bit hazy as to what the new Diablo III 2.0.2 patch contains, Blizzard made a pretty cool video explaining the big points. Diablo III 2.0.2 is pretty much a new game and if you have Diablo III and haven't checked it out, I seriously recommend you do.

You can read about the entire set of Diablo III 2.0.2 changes here:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/12671560/

After hearing that Crawl hit Steam Greenlight today I decided to watch the trailer. The Indie scene is packed with current and upcoming pixel based hack-n-slashes but the Crawl trailer really got me interested. Crawl seems to focus on multiplayer and part of that is you taking your turn being the bad guy. Looks like you can use whatever is at your disposal to take down the "good guy" and then after you kill them take your turn as the good guy while everyone else tries to kill you. Seems like a really unique take on some FPS modes like "Last Man Standing" or "Mutant."

Take a minute to watch the trailer and if you like what you see, give it an upvote on Greenlight.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=230002412

I am pretty excited to be part of the Escape Goat 2 beta. If you haven't played the original Escape Goat, I recommend you head to Steam and check it out. I have only played the first few levels of Escape Goat 2 and so far it already exceeds my expectations for a sequel. I really liked the pixel art quality of the original but find the hand drawn nature of Escape Goat 2 to be more to my liking. In fact, every element of Escape Goat 2 seems way more polished from the original. The play control, levels and game pacing all seem to be much tighter this time around.

If you are curious how the new game looks and plays, I made a quick video above showing off the first few levels. So far my testing has only been of the Mac version as they are ironing out some kinks on the Linux version. The game plays very well with keyboard and mouse and shines with the XBox 360 controller.

I am not sure when Escape Goat 2 will launch but when it does, I'll let you know.

If you are curious to read our interview with the creator of Escape Goat and Escape Goat 2:

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1687

"It’s been another massive month, with several major successes. This month we tackled one of our big end game features : prisoner reform. You can now run prisoner reform programs which aim to train, educate and reform your inmates. Reform programs are expensive to run, take a long time to complete, and the success rates are often very low unless your prisoners are very well taken care of. Some bring substantial benefits to your prison and the inmates that take part, others are a longer term investment in your prisoners that may provide little short term benefit.

We have continued to expand the armoury originally introduced in alpha 17. You can now unlock tazers for your armed guards, and eventually issue them to all the guards and dog handlers in your prison. These are non lethal weapons that instantly incapacitate a prisoner without causing any damage, however they can only be fired once before needing a full hour to recharge. Perfect when a prisoner is smashing up his cell, not so great when outnumbered in a riot. We have also added new stab vests to the armoury, which give your guards extra protection in a fight, but slow down their movement as well."

Prison Architect is trimming up to be one of the more elaborate and fun sim games i've played in quite some time. I really enjoy how they add to the feature pool of the game for very specific reasons that don't detract from the overall game itself.

http://forums.introversion.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=47478

"NPCs (non-playable characters) are a massively important part of the gaming experience, so we thought we'd show our love and appreciation. Though they're fictional computer-generated characters, we often develop real feelings for these beings. Sure, they serve functional roles, guiding you through the game. But their presence and personality can allow us to form strong bonds and real emotions, leading us to truly care about their wellbeing. So which NPCs are our favorites?"

What NPC's have stuck with you over time?