Gunpowder Games
Yearly Archives: 2018
Gardenscapes
GardenScapes is a free-to-play casual strategy game developed by Playrix available on iOS, Android, and compatible Internet browsers. In Gardenscapes players are tasked with restoring their garden alongside a cast of fun characters that will help you on your journey. Complete puzzles to pass levels and restore more garden sections until you’re left with a stunning plot filled with the most exquisite features.
Features:
Matching Puzzles: Match 3 or more of a kind to remove those elements from the row or column in the puzzle, dropping more elements in their place for you to match up in other ways.
Various Goals: Don’t think you’re just going to be matching elements until the puzzle is gone. You’re going to have to collect certain types of elements along the way, free gnomes, and more if you want to complete some of these puzzles.
Garden Restoration: Restore your garden with gorgeous flowerbeds, fountains, mazes and more so the community can realize once again just how great gardening is!
Playrix
Playrix
Last Day on Earth: Survival
Last Day on Earth: Survival is a free-to-play zombie apocalypse survival game available on iOS, Android, and Facebook. In Last Day on Earth: Survival your only goal is to stay alive as long as possible during a zombie apocalypse, using your crafting and gathering skills to collect and create useful items. See just how long you can survive for and if you can outlast other survivors around you!
Features:
Hunger and Thirst: Hunger and Thirst levels are the two levels you’ll have to manage. Keep them up with food and liquids otherwise you might find your health quickly depleting.
Base Building: Create your own base from the materials you collect. Build walls, floors, gardens, furnaces and more that will keep you safe from harm and provide you with more opportunities.
Combat: Take down zombies with the weapons you craft or find. If you happen to run into another player be careful because they could attack you at any moment as well and try to steal your stuff.
Andrey Pryakhin
Andrey Pryakhin
Atlant Games
Atlant Games
Nintendo Switch News – Week of 4/20
by Jason Parker (Ragachak)
If you are reading this, then I am gone; and I guess you might be pretty bummed. However don’t worry, it’s only for the weekend! I’m taking in the sights in Las Vegas and checking out the H1PL (H1Z1 Pro League), for which you can count on coverage over on MMOHuts. However, we do have some news for the Switch for you guys! However, I do want to start with some somber, unfortunate news. Initially, Dark Souls: Remastered was slated to come out on May 25th on the Switch, but it was moved out towards later this summer. This will give the dev team to make sure the Nintendo Switch version will be the Dark Souls experience the fans deserve and can play anytime/anywhere, with the unique nature of the portable Switch console. The other versions will still be on May 25th, but Switch fans will have to wait.
SEGA AGES is coming to the Switch also! SEGA is reviving this series that brought some of their classics to a modern console is coming back in Summer 2018. This is going to be a wild summer for the Switch! The first five titles coming to this system have been announced: The SEGA Master System versions of Phantasy Star and Alex Kidd in Miracle World, and the Sega Genesis versions of Thunder Force IV and Sonic the Hedgehog. In addition, we’ll be seeing the original arcade version of Gain Ground. This will mark the first time that several of these SEGA titles have had official Western releases, and when we have more information, we’ll certainly pass it along to you.
BAFL (Brakes Are For Losers) (4/19): You know what all Nintendo consoles need? A crazy, fast, multi-player racing title. BAFL is just that. 8 player arcade racing action comes to the Switch today! Insane tracks that allow up to 8 people to play in local co-op for some serious top-down racing. Previously released on Steam, Switch fans are now invited to the party! You can upgrade your car, use sneaky tricks to win races, and challenge the strength of your friendship – a tried and true trademark of the Nintendo consoles. There is also a single-player experience, with championship races against AI, Time Attack, and Perfect Race mode. Delightful maps from the 80s/90s pop culture can be experienced, with some truly interesting details, if you’re paying attention. And the title isn’t just for show: There. Are. No. Brakes. Go fast, go hard, win games. I’m excited for BAFL. (4.99)
Neo ATLAS 1469 (4/19): ARC System Works never fails to surprise me with their range of video games. Sure you could say “Stay in your lane, make great fighting games”, but that’s boring! Though this was “published” by ARCSys, developed by ARTDINK. In Neo ATLAS 1469, you play as the Master of a Trading Company, and your aim is to complete the World Map. It’s time to show the world what the World truly is, and you do this through hiring various admirals to sail for you. You Approve or Disapprove of their decisions, and shape the world in your own image. This takes place right at the start of the Age of Exploration and depending on how you play, the World may end up very different than our actual world. Definitely a niche’ title, but I can see this being very enjoyable to be able to sit on the couch and relax with a good drink, and make some decisions. (29.99)
Nintendo Labo (4/20 in NA, 4/27 in EU): I’m truthfully still skeptical of the Nintendo Labo kit, but it seems like people testing it truly loved it. Maybe it’s because it’s aimed at family/group interaction, and I don’t really get a lot of that out in the wilderness. I see the appeal though. You don’t have to worry about cutting yourself making these, the cardboard bits pop right out and are ready to set up. It’s a toy-constructing system developed by Nintendo, and the user makes what are called “Toy-Cons”, that interact with game software, and vice versa. It’s a fun way to teach kids and adults the principles of engineering, physics, and programming. So in that, I think it’s wonderful. I don’t know if I’d have fun messing with, unless I had a lot of time, but I do have to say, it’s a very cool concept, and I can see parents buying it for their kids and learning together. That’s what makes it so special. There are two kits, the Variety Kit (69.99) and the Robo Kit (79.99) and if I’m honest, I’d probably use the Robo Kit more.
Ark Park Review (Oculus Rift)
Written by Remko Molenaar (Proxzor)
When I was a kid I used to love dinosaurs. These mystical creatures that once used to roam the planet fascinated me, and I always was a bit sad we would never be able to experience what they’re like in real life. But thanks to technology, Virtual Reality is now a great tool to experience what these fascinating creatures were like in person. While you aren’t physically right next to them, I must say that standing next to a huge carnivore did scare me a little: Especially when a tower explodes, and the civilization on the Park changes forever.
Ark Park is a bit cheesy when it comes to the story. From the moment you jump into the tutorial or the introduction of Ark Park as a whole, you feel like you have jumped into a new Jurassic Park movie and you are the lead actor playing an important role in restoring the park into the museum it was before. As you are slowly driven towards the park over the ocean in a train made out of glass, you will be met by a swimming dinosaur and you just feel like you are playing in the intro for this incredible movie, only to be let down on arrival.
Since Virtual Reality is still in its infant years, a lot of games use a teleporting system that allows you to travel through the levels. Instead of walking which feels more natural, you have to keep pointing where you want to go and use the little joysticks on your controllers to navigate through the park and move from one level to the other. Unfortunately every area you’ll find is one separate level from the other, and after doing your initial tour through the very small park, you’ll find that teleporting straight to a zone for exploring or battle is just the easier way of doing things and you’ll forget about the hub as a whole. While the initial hub is very interesting to get familiar with some of the dinosaurs, and you can pick them up and even feed them, after ten minutes of playing around you’ll never really go back there anymore.
While Ark Park gives you the initial impression of being this very in-depth game with a rich story, it quickly falls apart and you’ll notice how simple and short the game really is. The story itself, as I said earlier, is very basic and comes straight out of the set of a Jurassic Park movie. You’ll visit the park as a visitor, and for some reason a tower explodes and suddenly all the dinosaur aren’t as friendly as they used to be. Before you know it you have made yourself a gun and are firing at dinosaur as if it were the wild west.
While the battles are fun, there aren’t that many of them to do. Each mission is very straight forward: You have to defend yourself against waves of different dinosaurs, gradually becoming harder with each wave, before you have to face an end boss. Let me tell you, these bosses can be quite frustrating. Especially the Ape in the first level, which got me to almost give up on the game twice. I must’ve put over several hours in the Ape alone, just to get an idea of what to do in the fight, but eventually meet the very same fate as in the previous twenty tries. In the end I just gave up, and I went exploring instead.
Exploring in Ark Park is a bit of a separate thing to do. It doesn’t really help you unlock more missions to fight the dinosaurs in, but it does allow you to unlock more exploration zones. There you will find objects and dinosaurs to scan with your tool, and gain information and resources on them that you can then craft into weapons or other useful items to help you in the missions. You can even find dinosaur eggs that you can then breed yourself, and put in your own small imprisonment for your entertainment. You can even ride on them as if they are horses. If you are feeling fabulous you can even spray paint them with this interesting, only half-the-time working spraypaint gun.
When it comes to the graphics and audio, I must say that Ark Park definitely looks very good, and tries it best just to throw eye candy at your screen with whatever you’re doing. Even on my quickly aging video card that can barely run Virtual Reality right, I had no issues whatsoever playing on the highest quality and even recording at the same time. As for the audio, well that’s where you will see the lack of effort. The sounds aren’t necessarily that bad, but they’re very simple, and are also extremely buggy. Many times the audio just pops in and out, and when it does properly work, you sometimes wonder why there isn’t just more to it. Unfortunately I am not alone with all of these worries. Looking at the reactions in the community, it is mostly negative and everyone was hoping for this special experience, but is letdown with a game that feels like an “Overpriced Tech Demo”, as someone put well in their review.
Conclusion: 2/5 (Fair)
Ark Park looks and sounds like a very promising game, but when you put some time into it you will see the holes in the basket. The game looks stunning in Virtual Reality, and it uses the technology somewhat well to its advantage. They kick things off like you are in the typical Jurassic Park movie, but letdown with anything else they have to show for it afterward. While shooting at Dinosaur could be fun for an hour, as a gamer that doesn’t work out a lot, I already felt my muscles hurting from keeping my gun up for long periods of time. Exploring is a nice addition to the game, but it doesn’t really fill the gaps that are missing.
I can not see this game work in its current state. While it is somewhat fun for a few hours, the game is definitely not finished and it needs some serious content to justify its price.
Note: A game key was provided for review purposes.
ARK PARK Screenshots
Graywalkers: Purgatory Strategy RPG is in Development
Dreamlords Digital is hard at work for a Steam Early Access release for their video game, Graywalkers: Purgatory for 2018. It is the first in a series of Strategy Turn-based RPGs set in a post-apocalyptic world, where portions of Heaven and Hell merged with Earth, during an event called “The Rupture”. Inspired by Fallout & Wasteland, it was successfully funded on Kickstarter and is presently in the Alpha stage of development. The first step is to release on PC, then a port for console at a later date (PS4/XB1). Graywalkers: Purgatory takes place on the island of Purgatory, a fictional series of land masses from across the world that have somehow merged together. As the leader of prophecy for the Graywalkers, your goal is to unite the supernatural forces that have dominated the world.
Key Features for Graywalkers: Purgatory:
- Game Modes – will have 3 game modes: Campaign, Skirmish (Mission Based), and Multiplayer will be added through a free update. Early Access will be released with the Skirmish mode first.
- Strategic Management – Manage your resources, personnel, influence, technology, magic, and equipment
- Race – choose from 6 races (human, dhampir, Nephilim, cambion, wolfkin & hunterborne). More races will also be added through DLCs
- Character Paths – choose from 10 initial paths(classes) for your character to follow
- Characters – in addition to your custom character, you will be able to recruit from over 40+ playable NPCs, each with his own abilities, background and personality. Level them up and customize them as they improve
- Table-Top Experience – game utilizes a new table-top RPG system
- Enemies – encounter creatures like vampires, demons, angels, werewolves, ghosts, witches, zombies, and many other supernatural enemies
- Resources – Scavenge for resources, rebuild lost technology, recover ancient relics, research new technologies, and craft objects from ordinary items that you find.
- Factions – choose your alliances from among various factions, with each having their own agendas.
Escape from Tarkov – 0.8 Patch trailer
A new update is on the way to Escape from Tarkov in 0.8. It features a new map (Interchange), new weapons and more. Get a peek at it right here.


