There is a new Dragon Age game in development by EA that looks interesting. The trailer features Morrigan, one of the characters in Dragon Age: Origins. Dragon Age 2 was reviewed poorly and because of this I wonder how EA will handle this latest incarnation.
Are you interested in the upcoming Dragon Age: Inquisition?
There is a new Dragon Age game in development by EA that looks interesting. The trailer features Morrigan, one of the characters in Dragon Age: Origins. Dragon Age 2 was reviewed poorly and because of this I wonder how EA will handle this latest incarnation.
Are you interested in the upcoming Dragon Age: Inquisition?
Dragon Age 2 got a bad rap, I think, because most people wanted a more polished Dragon Age: Origins. The combat in DA:O was frustrating, and the AI not as intelligent as you'd like it to be, but the character building and varied story arcs made it rich and inviting. The fans seemed to take offense that this richness was left behind in favor of a more action-oriented, linear game. DA 2 actually reviewed well with the media, probably because, objectively, it's a pretty good game. The fact that it feels nothing like DA:O, and shows little association with the original characters, makes it feel like less of a sequel, and more like a smaller sub-story, like Dark Fury in the Riddick series, or Halo 3:ODST. Bioware/EA set the fans up by putting that number "2" in the name, which everyone hopes will mean "more of the same, and better." In this case it meant "This is not the sequel you were looking for, but it's still a good game on it's own merit. We probably should have named it something else." It might not have sold as well, but the expectation would have been more realistic. Regarding DA: Inquisition, until we see gameplay, the best I can say is that it's really cool to see Morrigan again. Her story is a big part of what I loved about the first game, so my hope is for some resolution there. The title seems to imply a dark conflict elicited by some schism between the Chantry, or the Templar Order, and the Circle of Magi. I just hope it brings back that richness from Origins. At the very least, with Frostbite 3, it should be gorgeous to look at.
jdodson Admin Post Author
wrote on 07/01/2013 at 04:15am
I you bring up a good point about peoples expectations of Dragon Age 2. I enjoyed the first game but the didn't love the fighting and walked away from it because of how that all worked. With smaller battles it worked well, but they slammed more guys into them and it became really hard to work out a plan to win.
I loved the story and Morrigan was part of what I really liked. Perhaps I should pick it back up and turn down the difficulty to just enjoy the story elements that were so fantastic.
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Nintendo's Wii brought me back to serious gaming. The Wii wasn't a system aimed at the serious gamer but at the time it acted as a gateway for me to the PS3 and then later back to the PC. I look at the Wii fondly and still have it under my TV and don't imagine it will be displaced for quite some time. I was thinking about my history with the Wii and have been thinking about how it has impacted gaming.
The upcoming months to the Wii's release were interesting as many people I knew that were lapsed gamers were interested in gaming again. At the time the only games I played were those I could get to run in Wine or had a native Linux port. Because of this I wasn't a... Read All
Nintendo's Wii brought me back to serious gaming. The Wii wasn't a system aimed at the serious gamer but at the time it acted as a gateway for me to the PS3 and then later back to the PC. I look at the Wii fondly and still have it under my TV and don't imagine it will be displaced for quite some time. I was thinking about my history with the Wii and have been thinking about how it has impacted gaming.
The upcoming months to the Wii's release were interesting as many people I knew that were lapsed gamers were interested in gaming again. At the time the only games I played were those I could get to run in Wine or had a native Linux port. Because of this I wasn't a serious gamer as playing games this way was difficult. The Wii seemed interesting to me as I hadn't played a new Mario or Zelda game in years and the motion controls were something pretty unique. Wii Sports looked really interesting and it was a console my wife seemed interested in. To that point Nintendo interested me in ways Sony or Microsoft couldn't with the PS2 and Xbox. Those systems were popular with many, but I wasn't terribly interested in them at the time.
After the Wii was released it was immediately being sold on EBay and Craigslist for crazily marked up prices. I skipped the initial Wii craze and bought one when it was reasonably easy to get from a store. When my wife and I decided we wanted to buy one we would call local stores in the morning to see if they had it in stock. One morning on a Sunday I found a store that had it in stock and I immediately headed over to buy it. I took pictures of the whole event and unboxing of the system. This was well before unboxing videos were popular on YouTube and I still have the pictures in my digital collection. It was a really exciting day and we were very happy to finally play it.
We bought the Wii and Wii Play. At the time Wii Play came with the game and an extra controller. Combined with Wii Sports and Wii Play we were pretty enveloped in the Wii for quite a few months. When friends came over, we would play the games and it was a great system to have at a party.
One the reasons I got the Wii was its backwards compatibility with the Game Cube, a system I wanted but never had. I nabbed The Sonic Mega Collection, Wind Waker, The Metal Slug Anthology and Metroid Prime.
The main games I played the most on my Wii were Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart Wii and Twilight Princess. All good games and I was happy with them all.
When Netflix came to the Wii via the Netflix DVD the Wii became more popular than our DVD player. Being able to stream movies and shows to the Wii was incredible and when the Wii app was launched it changed how we watched TV and Movies. To this day using Netflix is the thing we do on our consoles more than playing games. Netflix has given them a much longer lease on life than they otherwise would as well and I imagine for many this is true.
The games that we have played on the Wii in the last few years have been Just Dance 2, 3 and 4. While they are far from hardcore they are fun at parties where there is beer involved. In fact, for a few years, they were a staple for many of the parties I attended with friends. If you haven't tried them, I recommend you give them a shot. I don't listen to pop radio so many of the songs I heard for the first time in Just Dance.
I recently picked up Tetris Party Deluxe which is a fantastic 4 player Tetris game that gave the Wii a new lease on gaming life. Currently the Wii serves as a backup Netflix device for when the PS3 isn't able to connect. Its a great system and still has a spot under the TV for the foreseeable future. Some gamers look back at the Wii with a bit of hostility due to its non-hardcore nature but as I wanted gaming experiences it couldn't provide I looked elsewhere happily. For that the Wii came to do it did it well and for that I think it was a great system.
Azurephile Super Member
wrote on 01/25/2014 at 05:54am
The Wii is probably the only system I got at launch. I enjoyed it! Sadly, it probably hasn't seen enough gameplay. I did get some of the Mario games, and definitely the Zelda games. I enjoyed that it was backwards compatible in various ways. I do have the SNES-like controller accessory. Actually, it was using this that I first played Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. I later bought the After Years for the PSP, but I know I spent more time playing that game on my Wii. I loved the Zelda games created for the Wii, although in hindsight, I felt like the graphics for Twilight Princess were disappointing, but I still enjoyed the game. I did get Skyward Sword and am glad that it came with a Wii MotionPlus controller, which I still use as my primary controller. I have since "hacked" my Wii and have Homebrew on it, but I haven't spent much time with that application.
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ConcernedApe the one man development whirlwind bringing us Stardew Valley has posted another development update. The post covers the addition of flowers and the updated art for tools and player animations.
The game is looking very polished and I can't wait to try this when it ships. As always, when a launch date is announced I will let you know.
http://stardewvalley.net/mini-dev-update-7/
ConcernedApe the one man development whirlwind bringing us Stardew Valley has posted another development update. The post covers the addition of flowers and the updated art for tools and player animations.
The game is looking very polished and I can't wait to try this when it ships. As always, when a launch date is announced I will let you know.
Our friends over at Night Dive Studios created a great infographic showing really noteworthy games on DOS. It features classics such as Doom, Warcraft 2, Starcontrol, Full Throttle, Out of This World, Scorched Earth and others.
https://www.facebook.com/NightDiveStudios
Our friends over at Night Dive Studios created a great infographic showing really noteworthy games on DOS. It features classics such as Doom, Warcraft 2, Starcontrol, Full Throttle, Out of This World, Scorched Earth and others.
jdodson Admin Post Author
wrote on 06/28/2013 at 09:16pm
I played many of them, but some I haven't. Terra Nova being one.
jdodson Admin Post Author
wrote on 06/28/2013 at 09:17pm
Still want to pickup Theme Park... checking GOG...
Nope, not on GOG yet.
beansmyname Supporter
wrote on 07/22/2013 at 12:17am
I LOVE IT!
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream made the list. The adventure is nowhere near as good as the short story that inspired it but no game could have been.
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"Broforce is a hyperviolent action platform game. It features 90′s blockbuster movie action heroes making up the Broforce team- an under-funded vigilante paramilitary organisation – saving the world from satanic alien terrorist investment banker businessmen in non-stop, fast paced co-operative strategic mayhem filled with more action and explosions than anything else, ever."
After watching the Broforce trailer I was intrigued. Being able to play as Brommando, Rambro, BA Broacus, Bro Hard, Brodel Walker, Brade, Bro Dredd, MacBrover, Snake Broskin, Indiana Brones, The Brominator, Bro in Black & Brobocop is like my 80's childhood dream come true.
Do your soul a favor... Read All
"Broforce is a hyperviolent action platform game. It features 90′s blockbuster movie action heroes making up the Broforce team- an under-funded vigilante paramilitary organisation – saving the world from satanic alien terrorist investment banker businessmen in non-stop, fast paced co-operative strategic mayhem filled with more action and explosions than anything else, ever."
After watching the Broforce trailer I was intrigued. Being able to play as Brommando, Rambro, BA Broacus, Bro Hard, Brodel Walker, Brade, Bro Dredd, MacBrover, Snake Broskin, Indiana Brones, The Brominator, Bro in Black & Brobocop is like my 80's childhood dream come true.
Do your soul a favor and vote for Broforce on Steam Greenlight and if you are feeling the adventure call to you, checkout the Alpha demo.
Robot Loves Kitty, the amazing awesome factory that created Legend of Dungeon and other Indie hits is organizing the The Greenlight Supershow. This all day Twitch stream will feature a ton of awesome indie games currently on Steam Greenlight. Featuring such radery as Chasm, Ray's The Dead, Castaway, Broforce, McPixel, Delvers Drop & More this event is a must watch.
You can join the Cheerful Ghost event and add it to your calendar for a helpful reminder of when it happens and where to go.
http://robotloveskitty.com/supershow/ http://www.twitch.tv/robotloveskitty/
Robot Loves Kitty, the amazing awesome factory that created Legend of Dungeon and other Indie hits is organizing the The Greenlight Supershow. This all day Twitch stream will feature a ton of awesome indie games currently on Steam Greenlight. Featuring such radery as Chasm, Ray's The Dead, Castaway, Broforce, McPixel, Delvers Drop & More this event is a must watch.
You can join the Cheerful Ghost event and add it to your calendar for a helpful reminder of when it happens and where to go.
Hello folks! We're back with another giveaway. This time we are excited to hand out System Shock 2 the classic horror shooter by legendary developer Ken Levine. If you are looking to pick this game up to add it to your Steam collection or are curious about checking out this classic after playing Bioshock we are here to help you out!
For another chance to win the game, simply comment below. We will choose 9 comments purely at random, assigning a numerical value to each entry... Read All
Hello folks! We're back with another giveaway. This time we are excited to hand out System Shock 2 the classic horror shooter by legendary developer Ken Levine. If you are looking to pick this game up to add it to your Steam collection or are curious about checking out this classic after playing Bioshock we are here to help you out!
For another chance to win the game, simply comment below. We will choose 9 comments purely at random, assigning a numerical value to each entry and using random.org to determine the winners.
We are doing this contest alongside the awesome people at Night Dive Studios that brought the game to Steam. Please head over and give their Facebook page some love for being so awesome.
They've killed my men... and now they've killed me... I'm holding my guts inside of me with both hands. This is bigger than my little life, the lives of my men, and the lives of the people I was forced to kill. Resist! Humanity demands it! Resist!
Look at you, hacker: a pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?
I heard much of this game but never had the chance to play it, as I got my Pc with age of 20 I already missed many classic games like System Shock 2! So I would be really happy to win a copy here! :3 Thank you for the chance to win such an awesome gem of the past. :3
There we go, I loved system shock back in the day, spent ages combing over the demo and loved having a full copy, it sadly got damaged a few years ago though and would love this as a replacement.
I've heard nothing but good things about SS2, so I'm thinking I ought to play it. I can hardly call myself a true gamer without going through the classics first :)
Awesome game. Throw back to the older PC gaming days. Awesome thing you guys are doing and very generous! Don't know much about you guys (your site) but with this giveaway I'm very intrigued and will show you guys the love and respect your giving the community :)
Ohhh I sooo want to play this one *__* already heard of it maaaany times! Really good thing, guys, giving away such a lovely (and terrifying?) game. Tbh, I found out this site because of the giveaway, but this might make me want to check more about you guys. (well, I already made an account.. so why not give it a chance? :0 ) Keep it up! :)
I hate to admit it, but I do not own a single copy of this great game. =( I mean, I have played it, but never the whole way through.. So, it would be pretty nice to win one of these. =P
Was really surprised when this was re-released on Steam. In a positive way, of course, since this is a genuine classic; one of the best games of all time. Thanks a lot for the chance!
Thank you very much for the chance, guys! I've only ever played the first one for a short time, but I've always read System Shock reviews and tales with GREAT interest!
If any of you have memories, fond or otherwise, of games like Mega Man or Ghosts 'n Goblins, you'll feel right at home in Tiny Barbarian DX.
You are a Conan-esque barbarian, muscling through dungeons and temples, and an amazing amount of snakes, to rescue the girl from a quite powerful wizard (who seriously has a thing for snakes…). Gold coins are collected and enemies slain to increase your high score, while a timer haunts from the top right of the screen, measuring your progress, or mocking it, as the case may be. There is no leveling, no gained abilities, no upgrades, none of that RPG nonsense here. No, its just your phalangeal dexterity, a trusty sword, and a mean... Read All
If any of you have memories, fond or otherwise, of games like Mega Man or Ghosts 'n Goblins, you'll feel right at home in Tiny Barbarian DX.
You are a Conan-esque barbarian, muscling through dungeons and temples, and an amazing amount of snakes, to rescue the girl from a quite powerful wizard (who seriously has a thing for snakes…). Gold coins are collected and enemies slain to increase your high score, while a timer haunts from the top right of the screen, measuring your progress, or mocking it, as the case may be. There is no leveling, no gained abilities, no upgrades, none of that RPG nonsense here. No, its just your phalangeal dexterity, a trusty sword, and a mean elbow drop.
The thing that I love to hate about these types of murder platformers, I mean games, is that I get this feeling like they really do know me. They know that I secretly love to fail a lot in my interactive experiences. Like, A LOT. Try to jump from that chain to the ledge, and there's an incoming snake ball. Dodge the snake ball next time, then there's the flying spear. In one area where I had already spent way too much time memorizing patterns of flying death, and changing strategies in some vain hope of moving forward, I had managed to make it to the checkpoint. With one block of health left, a short sigh of relief turned bitter when I hadn't gauged that final leap, and I landed right into a pit of spikes, the exit a mere few blocks away. Now that's the childhood agony I remember! My successful play through netted a total of 73 deaths. I think I started swearing out loud at around 46, unless it was death by snake which usually triggered it's own set of expletives. Thankfully, Michael Stearns knows how to make it all worthwhile. Even in my many deaths I couldn't wait to see what was coming next.
I played through with a gamepad, and while support for that is a recent feature, the controls were tight, which is essential in any platformer, but more so in one that punishes players who lack precision in their execution. There were one or two instances where I thought there was an issue with not being able to move or attack how I intended to, but I don't know how much of that is bugs, or just my rusty hand eye coordination. I noticed it most in the brief animal riding sequences, which I didn't much care for anyway.
I need to say a quick word about the soundtrack, and really the sound design of the whole game. Good, good stuff here. Jeff Ball is working some serious magic, and I totally dig it.
There is a lot of fun to be had with this first chapter of Tiny Barbarian DX. It's beautiful to look at, and fun to play, with a good amount of challenge. While it is a short ride, there's a king-of-the-hill style Horde Mode to keep us busy until the next chapter comes (how long can you survive?). Three more chapters are planned, part of the game purchase bundle and downloadable when available. They have a great foundation here, and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the experience. One request for the future: Please go easy on the snakes.
Check out the interview that jdodson had with designer Michael Stearns, if you haven't already.
Kind of wanting to get some super insane Horde Mode time. But all that comes with... practice :D
scrypt Supporter Post Author
wrote on 06/27/2013 at 01:31am
Yeah, I didn't attack Horde Mode until after I finished the adventure, and at that point my fingers couldn't take it. I did find good strategy with the elbow drop. Found it to be essential in certain situations. I'm not the best at those types of challenges, so I tend to struggle a bit.
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Recently vgleaks dropped the news that Sony's Playstation 4 dev kits run a version of FreeBSD 9 called Orbis. In the included screenshots on vgleaks they show the GRUB bootloader offering a few boot choices with Orbis included.
For all of you that are not the most geekily inclined, FreeBSD is a Open Source version of Unix that is an ancestor of Mac OSX. What that means is that Sony's Orbis, Mac OSX and Linux share a very similar Unix core. Since they all rely on OpenGL and the like it could mean an easier time for games to be ported across these three platforms.
I know that just because a company brings a game to the PS4 that doesn't mean they care about Linux or MacOS.... Read All
Recently vgleaks dropped the news that Sony's Playstation 4 dev kits run a version of FreeBSD 9 called Orbis. In the included screenshots on vgleaks they show the GRUB bootloader offering a few boot choices with Orbis included.
For all of you that are not the most geekily inclined, FreeBSD is a Open Source version of Unix that is an ancestor of Mac OSX. What that means is that Sony's Orbis, Mac OSX and Linux share a very similar Unix core. Since they all rely on OpenGL and the like it could mean an easier time for games to be ported across these three platforms.
I know that just because a company brings a game to the PS4 that doesn't mean they care about Linux or MacOS. But the fact that the PS4 has a OS core similar would make it easier to port games to other similar Unix platforms.
This is even more interesting when you realize that Valve has talked about using Linux as the core to its Steam console.
Monsters Invade Oz is a brand new iOS free to play mobile game from LittleBox Apps. This Pokemon influenced game allows you to play as Dorthy making your way through Oz all in the pursuit of Pokemon influenced Monster collection.
The game features a very detailed hand drawn ascetic that I really came to enjoy. Dorthy, Toto and the Monsters are all drawn well to the credit to the games artists. I found the visual makeup of Oz to not be on the same par and found it a little cold. Occasionally the land features a little Gnome or apparent NPC and at first I figured this was something I could interact with but it was just scenery. In fact, most of the Oz backdrop is this... Read All
Monsters Invade Oz is a brand new iOS free to play mobile game from LittleBox Apps. This Pokemon influenced game allows you to play as Dorthy making your way through Oz all in the pursuit of Pokemon influenced Monster collection.
The game features a very detailed hand drawn ascetic that I really came to enjoy. Dorthy, Toto and the Monsters are all drawn well to the credit to the games artists. I found the visual makeup of Oz to not be on the same par and found it a little cold. Occasionally the land features a little Gnome or apparent NPC and at first I figured this was something I could interact with but it was just scenery. In fact, most of the Oz backdrop is this way and I found myself mostly ignoring it because it had little impact on the game, story or tone.
So far I have played the game for a few days now and have collected about 8 monsters and gotten each one up to level 5. I had to do this by going back and fighting in earlier parts of the game because my Monsters were lower levels that the monsters at the furthest part of the map I had explored. I was having fun progressing in the game and collecting things to advance in quests but my Monsters and I got our asses kicked because I wasn't a high enough level to proceed.
The game is free to play and it makes its money by selling you in game items. I think free to play is a cool way to make a game but find this one to be more overtly annoying than most I have played. The game asks you so often it seems really out of place compared with Candy Crush or Farmville.
When you open the game they ask you if you want to try another app.
Before every fight they ask you if you want powerups for gold.
If you run away too much you are charged gold. This means if you stay your Monster will be killed.
When you leave Monster fights you get an app ad sometimes.
The game has a store to upgrade Toto's boosts for gold.
The game has another store to buy upgrades for your monsters for gold.
The game has another store to purchase life to heal your Monsters for gold.
The game has another store to buy gold.
The game has another store to buy monster pages to collect monsters for gold.
In some places the game doesn't pop up a message to confirm if you want to buy something with gold. Since there is no confirmation screen, I bought things I had no idea I bought and thought I lost gold by accident. I realized later I accidentally touched to buy something but found that even though I tried my hardest, would occasionally buy things on accident. If I accidentally spend gold on things I don't intend, I am not sure why I would want to spend real money.
When I originally saw the previews for the game I liked the idea of a game that was in Oz featuring Dubstep as the score. As I played the game more I realized this worked well for the trailer, but not the game. The music doesn't feel right with the game somehow and I think a more classical or ambient score would have done better. That said, the games music got a bit too hard to take and at one point I wanted to mute it in game but there is no option to do that.
The Monster battles offer an interesting mechanic in that you have a slider that goes up and down in battle and when you tap at the right moment three times in a row you get a chance to do extra damage. This is a really fun mechanic and I enjoy tapping at the right times to pull this off. The Monsters are visually different from one another but offer nothing different in terms of attack or strategy. I expected to have some different in Monsters in terms of attack but nothing like that was available in what I played.
In the end, Monsters Invade: Oz is a interesting mix of Pokemon, Oz and Dubstep that doesn't quite fit together in a way that I love. Do I want an awesome Pokemon influenced game on iOS? Yes. Do I love games with hand drawn art style? Hell yes. But the way in which the game couples these together didn't amaze me. That said, I believe this game will find its audience and if you are looking for a free to play Pokemon styled adventure game through Oz, you should check this out.
Dragon Age 2 got a bad rap, I think, because most people wanted a more polished Dragon Age: Origins. The combat in DA:O was frustrating, and the AI not as intelligent as you'd like it to be, but the character building and varied story arcs made it rich and inviting. The fans seemed to take offense that this richness was left behind in favor of a more action-oriented, linear game. DA 2 actually reviewed well with the media, probably because, objectively, it's a pretty good game. The fact that it feels nothing like DA:O, and shows little association with the original characters, makes it feel like less of a sequel, and more like a smaller sub-story, like Dark Fury in the Riddick series, or Halo 3:ODST. Bioware/EA set the fans up by putting that number "2" in the name, which everyone hopes will mean "more of the same, and better." In this case it meant "This is not the sequel you were looking for, but it's still a good game on it's own merit. We probably should have named it something else." It might not have sold as well, but the expectation would have been more realistic. Regarding DA: Inquisition, until we see gameplay, the best I can say is that it's really cool to see Morrigan again. Her story is a big part of what I loved about the first game, so my hope is for some resolution there. The title seems to imply a dark conflict elicited by some schism between the Chantry, or the Templar Order, and the Circle of Magi. I just hope it brings back that richness from Origins. At the very least, with Frostbite 3, it should be gorgeous to look at.
I you bring up a good point about peoples expectations of Dragon Age 2. I enjoyed the first game but the didn't love the fighting and walked away from it because of how that all worked. With smaller battles it worked well, but they slammed more guys into them and it became really hard to work out a plan to win.
I loved the story and Morrigan was part of what I really liked. Perhaps I should pick it back up and turn down the difficulty to just enjoy the story elements that were so fantastic.