Triple B Titles is proud to announce that its Kickstarter project for Popup Dungeon is nearing its funding goal.
The studio has also announced two new additions to the project: the completion of a new Haunted House Tileset, and the addition of well-known YouTuber Cryaotic as the voice of The Wizard.
Aspiring artists are also encouraged to submit their work to be included in the game. Information about that is available here.
Independent games developer ‘DragonJam Studios’ is proud to announce the kickoff of a crowdfunding campaign to secure funds towards the development of their ambitious online PC multiplayer arcade racer, ‘Formula Wincars’.
The crowdfunding campaign now running is off to a great start and offers some fantastic digital and tangible rewards to its supporters, including an amazing life-size ‘Formula Wincars’ themed arcade machine, complete with steering wheel, pedals, and the game preinstalled.
Scheduled for release by the end of 2014, ‘Formula Wincars’ will be available as a free-to-play experience with optional add-ons. A key-feature of the game is its multiplayer synchronized mode, where players from all of the world can compete to win prizes, and even team up with other players and share special skills and common strategy. The game will also include a host of unlockable cars and playable characters, each having their own unique strengths and abilities. Tactics is essential to win races on each of the games many circuits, where each has its own type of terrain and difficult obstacles to overcome. Featuring addictive online gameplay, superb graphics, cool special effects, a plethora of unique gameplay modes, and a host of detailed circuits, what more could anyone wish for? How about massive (up to 4000 players) tournaments with real-life prizes to winners, innovative 4 vs 4 Teams mode, 80’s and 90’s racing arcade touch, and an almost unlimited number of options for customizations.
Today Ubisoft is boasting about the successful launch of Ghost Recon Phantoms in April with a new infographic. The game has also released a new map redesign.
Ghost Recon Phantoms has become the third most played F2P title on Steam with over half a million visitors to the website daily and over 200,000 daily active users. To recognize the achievements, the team has released an infographic looking at some basic game statistics.
The game has also released its second redesigned map since launch, The Subpen, along with new smoke grenades available in the store. The new Subpen redesign (previously Balaklava Sub-Pen) is summarized in the video below.
UK’s best loved racing circuit Brands Hatch is the latest reveal from My.com for their beautifully designed upcoming action-racing game, World of Speed. Brands Hatch is one of the most iconic sporting venues across the globe and the UK’s favourite racing track will be featuring in World of Speed, providing long straights allowing players to put the metal to the pedal, as well as competing in daring overtakes around curves and bends.
Global game publisher Reality Squared Games (R2Games) proudly announced today that the first month of the Monkey King Online Open Beta has been one of rapid growth and enthusiasm. The first Open Beta server, Havoc in Heaven, is now joined by 8 more servers across the US West, US East, European, and Oceanic regions. As players from across the world discover this free-to-play browser MMORPG’s mythic setting, unique battle system, and PvP modes, Monkey King Online continues to evolve with new content, systems, and accessory updates.
Since the launch of the Open Beta, R2Games has released two powerful Primordial Immortals, The Earthshaker and The Watcher. Players that unlock these Immortals – through the PvP Pagoda honor shop in the case of The Earthshaker, and through the free Login Rewards screen in the case of The Watcher – will wield five unique combat skills. More Immortals are set for release in the coming months, ensuring that the PvP battlefield will never be the same.
The May 8th update introduced The Watcher, as well as a host of free content. Monkey King Online veterans can advance to level 85 with fresh quests and a brand new map, “Thunder Temple”. After 3 days of cumulative play time, players will gain the title “Buddha’s Blessing”, the first of what promises to be an extensive Title system. After 5 days, players can permanently unlock The Watcher Immortal. Upgradeable Wings, which provide stat bonuses and cosmetic value, become available after 6 days of play time. As MKO grows, R2Games will continue to release features for new users and experts alike, bringing an evolving experience to a global audience.
It is always a great pleasure to see the ways games of the past generation have influenced modern development in ways you never would have imagined. We have all had our own game that we treasure, one that gives us the nostalgic feeling when we think of the word game. Many of us grew up with Mega Man. A character that we have seen change a lot over his 20+ year run, once just a tiny pixelated man shooting laser beams, to a fully grown character we’ve seen rendered in full 3D complete with cut-scenes and customizable powers. Echoes of Eridu is a game made by fans, reimagining the world of Mega Man to their ideal setting with new characters to enjoy. With this past weekend resulting in a narrow but successful Kickstarter funding success, we decided to give their alpha run a spin to offer some constructive criticism before real development of this multi-player Mega title begins.
When a game heavily inspired by an iconic character is set before us, it’s difficult to not view it through our fanboi goggles. Echoes of Eridu tries to capitalize on this by matching the same skillful platforming and twitch reaction challenges of the original titles, but with a massive graphical update. Parallels don’t take long to spot as you begin your gauntlet testing your speed, skill, and reflexes in varying platforming challenges that scale quite far both vertically and horizontally. Currently there are two available characters: Nina, a female equivalent with striking resemblance to MegaMan, and Ace, a mysterious ninja type wielding sabers that may remind X series players of Zero. The first feature that pulled me out of the old rhythm was the dynamic map creation though. Rather than memorizing and speeding through maps in one go, each play through I experienced set me down a different track that kept me guessing (and dying often).
That said, the alpha demo’s permadeath style system was quite frustrating. If you slip up once, not only are you sent back to start, but start is in an entirely new map with plenty of traps waiting to punish you once more. As such careful slow and steady play is rewarded, which may or may not appeal to gamers of this genre. Taking damage is nearly unavoidable and thus spotting and destroying crates to collect precious energy boosts, health boosts, and other power ups are vital to fight your way further into each level.
After spending a couple frustrating hours with the keyboard controls, I plugged in my gaming pad and discovered a superior experience. The keyboard in comparison was clunky and you don’t have time to be fiddling across your hotkeys when the action gets hot and heavy. Every second counts and the responsive control scheme on my gaming pad felt well designed for meeting the challenge. Still even though the alpha version is representative of only a fifth of the game, I was unable to reach the end after a full day of playing. The challenge these levels offer is intense at the best of times and absurd at the worst.
Echoes of Eridu really tries to get the most of you, and the game is absolutely unforgiving. Occasionally speed is required to advance, and any type of sprinting action can lead to a swift death with one mistake. Oddly enough I found the Ace character, who doesn’t resemble Mega Man, the easier character to pick up and learn the game with. His sabers just pack that extra punch in close corridors you need to burst your way out of some tight situations. The lack of many flat horizontal landscapes where blasters excel is probably the other reason why Nina is so challenging. Instead you’re almost always jumping across a series of platforms, each doing tricky things to throw your rhythm off. Add in a splash of agile and aggressive monsters and missing a key jump becomes common place.
The basic resource system doesn’t have much to it. You get hit you lose a point, you use a special attack you lose energy. Even though you can find both of these commonly throughout the level, the feat of finishing a level with full health is quite rare (and should have some kind of massive reward in the finished game!). I don’t think in my day session of playing this game that I ever finished a map with more than half of my original health. The game is brutal, and unforgiving, and it will definitely induce some nerd rage in even the most zen of gamers. Monsters are sometimes just out of reach, and the jump you thought you would make ends with you falling down and losing more health. When you finally have managed to plow your way (sometimes jumping through monsters to suck up damage on purpose just to progress), and make it to the zone end with a sliver of health, one intense challenge will be ready with an evil robotic grin. The bosses will easily hit you at least once and often pummel you if you slip up at all. Patience, precision, and practice are needed in excess to actually succeed.
Echoes of Eridu is far from being done, currently they are still heavily in the development stage of the game but it is still great that we were able to give a look so early on. I myself have enjoyed playing the game, despite the many bugs that I had faced and the game itself being more brutal than even an experienced platformer like myself cared for.
State of the Alpha: Good.
I have said it a few times, but Echoes of Eridu is unforgiving in its gameplay. The game is a real challenge, and after many hours of playing I can’t say that I have gotten very far. My best guess is that the demo is balanced for 2 players working together to fight through the level, and without backup you’re simply outgunned. In terms of living up to the Mega Man legacy, it has all the key elements present to do so. Fast and frantic gameplay? Check. Character diversity and zany bosses? Also check. Item and skill upgrades that open up new elements and styles of gameplay? Double check. Now if they can just add a life system and some more forgiving checkpoints in mid-level, I might just have a new addiction.
What happens when you mix voodoo summoning, rum, and the undead together? A fun time for all! Welcome to Full Mojo Rampage, a new roguelike indie co-op title.