Injustice 2 comes tomorrow, and the gripping tale of betrayal and superhero action is going to explode onto your screens! #StillwaitingonBoosterGold
Monthly Archives: May 2017
XField Paintball Studio Trailer
XField Paintball Studio offers… well, Paintball on PC! Want to know what their goals and aims are for this title? Just watch and see! For those of us who don’t have time to play real Paintball, this should be a nice substitute.
Retro Games: Randomizers and Other Nonsense
I love retro games. When I was a lad, they weren’t retro, they were just “games”. Specifically, some of the best games of all time happened when I was a young man. I’m fortunate to have grown up in a time when Chrono Trigger, EarthBound, Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy IV and VI [because we didn’t get V on time, thanks a lot, Japan] and other hits were in the stores. Nowadays, you have to spend a fortune on them or acquire them in other manners which we won’t go into. However, these are games that I’ve played to death and know basically by heart. For the most part I know everything there is to know about them, other than Speedrunning info. I have zero interest in doing that, but that’s another rant for another day. So what to do once you’ve played Final Fantasy VI a hundred times, but want to enjoy it like when you were young and new to the world? That’s where modders/hackers have come in. There are a variety of fun ways to play some of these games. These are mostly in the form of Randomizers, or mods that make the games more difficult in some way or another. These are pretty much only played on PC unless you have another way to do so [Retro Pie, a modded handheld, on your mobile device, et cetera]. But these are wonderful. There are so many different ones, and I, in fact, found a website that highlights so many of them. You can find that website right here! There are a few sites that highlight them, but this is a favorite of mine.
What are some of my favorites though? Right now I’m actually playing through one for Bottom Tier, and that’s Dragon Quest III Randomizer. What makes it so interesting though? It’s a normal playthrough of Dragon Quest III as far as the story goes [most of them keep the same story, but some do some really weird stuff…] but you make your party, but what they can equip, what spells they have access to, their stat bonuses at level up, these are all randomized! Oh yes, it’s hilarious. My fireball spell affects whole groups of enemy-types and hits for about 200 damage, and that was at level 3. However, many enemies are immune to it apparently. The items in shops and in chests are also randomized, but their stats are also. I’ve found end-game weapons and armor for about 10-50 gp, but they’re worse than some of the stuff my characters started with. My “Club” is better than some end-game swords. Way to go. It really changes how you approach the game, how you level, and how quickly you can/can not go through the game. This one’s been a lot of fun so far.
One of the ones I’ve completed was a Final Fantasy VI Randomizer. This one randomized sprite, color palettes, what they can/can not equip. VI provides each character with a unique skillset: Locke has Steal, Edgar has Tools, et cetera. However, Edgar might wind up with Umaro’s “Rage” skillset, so he can no longer be controlled and just attacks relentlessly. Chests are random, as are what each store and each Esper teaches [as well as the speed at which they are learned]. To make it a bit harder, most of the glitches and bugs that made the game easy-mode [vanish-doom anyone?] are fixed, and Espers no longer offer stat bonuses at a level-up. This was immeasurably hard and required me to start over a few times for various reasons. I went through the entire game with almost no useful attack spells or heals. Lots of duplicates on my Espers. It was challenging but insanely fun. I like doing these, because they force me to look at the game in a new lens, to play the game in a different way than what normally works for me.
However, some games just have Roguelike/Dungeon Crawls. There are some for Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy IV, for example. You go through a dungeon with a picked party, you can randomize their skills/equipment they can use, et cetera. These aren’t quite as fun to me, but are still challenging in their own way. I haven’t tried many of them, but I know there are some for Lufia 2, FFIV, Secret of Mana, as I said. There are way more than that though! Then.. there are the comedy changes. There’s a version of Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals that turns almost every character into the comedic badass, Dekar. Even towns are named for him, like “Sundeldkar” or something like that. It’s hilarious and wonderful. That and Final Fantasy X that has all of the BGMs replaced with Tidus’ Laugh. “Tidus Fantasy X”. Some of these are just challenging and interesting, some are going to make you laugh until you pee.
Do you have a favorite rework/fangame/randomizer? Let me know!
Decksplash
Decksplash is a 3D skateboard turf-war game developed by Bossa Studios for PC and is available for download on Steam Early Access. In Decksplash players can engage in a turf-war like none other by spinning, grinding, and splashing their deck as they battle against opponents to cover the arena in their paint. The more paint you get on the arena, the more turf you own! When the need for turf becomes too great sometimes you just need to take matters into your own hands with your trusty deck and can of paint.
Features:
Paint Splashes: Slam your deck down in the arena to splash paint out, claiming the turf for your team.
Combos: Execute trick combos and draw them out as long as possible to make even larger splashes!
3 Versus 3: Teams of 3 players go head-to-head in the arena to coat as much of it in their team’s color of paint as possible. The team with the most area covered in their paint at the end wins!
New World Empires
New World Empires is a free-to-play browser-based strategy game developed by Bytro Labs. In New World Empires players can control their own realm at the start of the 19th Century. The world is full of conflict, but only because of the opportunity the new world offers. Every nation is looking to colonize their own slice of this new land, and you are no different!
Features:
Resource Management: Collect resources to research new technologies and improve your provinces with new structures.
Lengthy Decisions: Putting thought into the decisions you make will pay off since some decisions can take days or even a week!
Expand Your Way: Become an isolationist and trust nobody with your resources or join an Alliance to work with other players, but just make sure they don’t stab you in the back!
DC Legends
DC Legends is a free-to-play mobile RPG developed by Warner Bros. or iOS and Android. In DC Legends the shadow of the Blackest Night prophecy has fallen on all worlds, shattering the DC Universe. Sheer will alone won’t be able to overcome the prophecy and DC’s greatest heroes needs someone to help lead them to victory, but not just anyone will be able to help them. Only the most strategically minded person will be able to make the right choices that will keep the universe safe!
Features:
Villains and Heroes: Form a team of iconic superheroes and supervillains who can bring out each other’s potential in new ways!
PvP Battles: When you’re not busy saving the world you can fight against other players’ teams of heroes to climb your way through online leaderboards and acquire amazing rewards.
Special Moves: The world is at stake and that means using every ability in your team’s repertoire like Superman’s Heat Vision, Bizarro’s Flame Breath, or Flash’s Speed Force Vortex.
Awesomenauts Free to Play Beta Key Giveaway
OnRPG has partnered with Ronimo Games to celebrate the coming free to play relaunch of Awesomenauts on May 24th with keys to get you access to the game for free, right now!
Awesomenauts is a head-to-head game where two teams of three intergalactic mercenaries try to destroy each others’ base. Take on the role of one of these mercenaries and jump into this awesome blend of classic platforming gameplay and modern battle arena games!
To Redeem your Key:
- Since the game is played through Steam, you must have the Steam client installed. If you do not, go here to install Steam.
- Launch the Steam client software and log into your Steam account.
- Click the Games menu.
- Choose Activate a Product on Steam.
- Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the process.
Note: Unfortunately ad blockers are breaking functionality of our site. if you experience any issues, please disable them.
Blackwake Early Access Impressions
by Andrew Skelton (Outfoxed)
Do you love pirates? Fancy being a sailor in the Golden Age of sailing? Perhaps take up arms for king and crown? Well, even if those days are long past, there are several methods to relive those sordid times. Blackwake, by Mastfire Studios, seeks to capture that feeling in a way not often expressed: team based naval combat. Except unlike most games that put you in control of your ship, Blackwake, instead, thrusts you into the role of a crew member. The name of the game is teamwork here, but how, exactly, does it fair?
Facing the Grim Truth
Let me establish one thing real quick: Blackwake is more akin to Master and Commander than Pirates of the Caribbean. If you don’t understand that reference, well, I am ashamed of you. There are some aspects of Blackwake that are simplified, however, don’t expect to fire a cannon just by walking up to it and pressing fire. Similar to how you’d actually fire a cannon, you’ll need to powder, load, ram, push it forward, then ignite it. Each of these steps take some time, too.
“All of that to fire a cannon?” I hear you ask. “How can that be fun?” you might lament. Keep in mind, Blackwake focuses on a realistic crew dynamic aboard a ship. You’ll have a captain calling out orders and the rest of the crew scurrying about to fulfill them. Brush up on your nautical terms for this one, guys; you’re going to need them. A good captain will ensure his crew is working quickly, efficiently, and smoothly. To wit, don’t try and be the captain when you’re just starting out. It’s a quick way for a mutiny to break out (literally, the vote to remove your captain position is a mutiny — a nice touch).
On that note, at times I wish the mutiny option was more readily used. When you get two green captains going head to head, and neither side understands the power of the hook shot to wreck the enemy’s respawn time, you will end up in ship duels that go on for 20+ minutes until one side simply runs out of the respawn tokens and is forced to surrender before their ship sinks. The game is fun… but when you go into a 20 minute all out brutal war with no real tactics involved, it can become exhausting.
A Full Broadside
The obvious objective here is to sink enemy ships. There’s also those pesky enemy crew members to deal with too, so you’re going to have to rely on guns and swords to get the job done further. A lot of the guns in the game have various advantages and disadvantages in crew combat, and everyone will have a different feel for which is good or not. That’s one of the nice things I’ve found about Blackwake: taking away the reliance on having certain classes allows more balance to be made with the guns and swords instead.
Everyone also has access to a repair hammer, which is essential in keeping your ship afloat. You see, cannons have this nasty habit of blowing holes through wooden hulls, so it’s up to you and your crew to repair them in the very likely event you’re facing off against a fleet of enemy ships. Also, holes in ships tend to have a nasty habit of letting water below deck. Taking on water is the number one cause of ships sinking, so man the pumps once you’ve repaired your ship! Repair is one of the more simplified actions you can take, too, so don’t be ashamed to toil away. Chances are when you’re starting out, you’re flat wasting your time shooting cannons. So make yourself useful and repair a hole or pump some water to let the crew that know what they’re doing make themselves more useful.
Keelhauling Them Softly
At the time of this article, there are only two game modes in Blackwake: Team Deathmatch, and Capture the Booty. The developers do promise more will be coming as the game goes further in development. Even in the TDM format, they have quite a bit of options though. You can have a full fleet, or just a couple of ships facing off against each other. I’ll be curious to see how they handle additional modes in a similar fashion.
Capture the Booty is a capture-the-flag style mode, except instead of each team having a flag, a central island houses a treasure for either side to claim. While this mode retains the ship to ship combat system Team Deathmatch poses, there’s also an additional element of when to have your crew disembark to fetch the treasure. Keep in mind, a ship without a crew is incredibly vulnerable! The first team to grab that booty and bring it home wins the match.
State of the Alpha: Good
If you’re looking for a fanciful, easy-going naval combat game, you’re definitely going to want to look somewhere else. Marketing wise, the game currently shows itself in the light of spectacular plays and amazing comebacks. The meat of the game is much more challenging, and much more difficult if all you’ve watched are those clips. Getting a bunch of people together without a strong leader to guide them can be an exercise in futility. Exacerbating the problem are any number of problem players whose sole purpose is to make everyone’s lives more challenging. That was one of the biggest pitfalls for me while I was checking the game out.
It is also incredibly new player unfriendly. You’re not going to be able to walk into the game and know what to do in your first match, because you’re literally thrown in without any tutorial of any sort. I’m not advocating the use of tutorials in everything, but it’s definitely helpful to check out a couple discussion threads on what to do in the game first. Blackwake is currently in Alpha testing, and updates semi-frequently. Keep an eye out for more news and information as the game develops.
Runescape: The Road to Menaphos Episode #3 – Slayer
Planet of Heroes: Hellraiser Sky’Lee
A new skin is coming for Sky’Lee in Planet of Heroes: Hellraise Sky’Lee!








