Yearly Archives: 2018

Black Future ’88

Black Future ’88 is a 2D action shooter encouraging co-op play and features a dark cyberpunk theme. Rise to the challenge and persistently climb a tower filled with deadly traps in an effort to slay the big boss at the top.

Business Model: Buy to Play

Microtransactions: None

Key Features:

Classes: Discover you’re preferred method of play from 5 unique builds.

One Floor at a Time: Adapt to the procedurally generated spire floor by floor.

Lasers, Spikes, and Pitfalls, Oh My!: Deftly avoid the numerous dangers including suffocating fog and encroaching countdown.

Killing Giants: Fight indomitable wardens with everything you’ve got.

Fully Armed: Use bullets, blades, and other weapons to fight homicidal foes.

Min Maxer: Take on upgrades, manage curses, and maximize the potentials of your characters.

Misery Loves Company: Bring a friend to the cursed skyscraper or absorb the challenge on your own.

Mad Machines

Welcome to the world of Mad Machines, a brutal sportsball game that puts you, the player, in control of magnetic robot contestants trying to score points with the spikey-ball of doom. Smash through your opponents to score goals with your team and take sweet sweet victory.

Business Model: Unknown

Microtransactions: Unknown

Key Features:

Panzers:
Panzers are the name of the robotic contestants in this virtual sport, and they come in three types:

The speedy “Choppers” who move about the battlefield on the attack.

The hourglass like “Ship” who acts as midfielder and can take a beating.

And the robust “Viking” that will leave a mark if you get within reach, but is more toirtose than hare.

True Madness: Mad Machines supports up to 100 players in a single match

Tactical Play: Manipulate the ball in a variety of ways, from magnetizing it to forcing it to extend its spikes as you hurl it into an opponent.

Fractured Lands’ Season 2 Launches Today

Fractured Lands Season 2 Announcement

The second season of Fractured Lands goes live today and is available on Steam. With it, Unbroken Studios shakes the game up by putting a new spin on several features. As vehicles are the most important and powerful weapon in the game, a new vehicle is being added: The semi-truck, “JUGGERNAUT”. A new Battle Royale mode also comes in this update, as well as 100+ new vanity items. Additionally, Fractured Lands is available on The Humble Store for $18.75 (a 30% discount) and Green Man Gaming for $18.75 (a 30% discount). As a bonus, Fractured Lands Season 2 will include two custom tattoo pieces created by notable Los Angeles artists, Marina Major of DARK HORSE TATTOO and “The Witchdoctor” Miryam Lumpini.

World of Final Fantasy MAXIMA Launches Today

The adorable world of Grymoire is back, with World of Final Fantasy Maxima. Now available on the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Playstation 4 and Steam, this is an upgraded, enhanced version of the game. Reynn and Lann journey again to rediscover their past and save the future. The definitive World of Final Fantasy experience, the new Avatar Change system lets players add fan-favorite Final Fantasy characters to their stacks. This includes Cloud (FFVII), Yuna (FFX), Noctis (FFXV) and more. New legendary characters and Mirages, side-quests, boss battles, and mini-games are also here, as well as a new Nightmare difficulty.

The full version of WORLD OF FINAL FANTASY MAXIMA is now available as a complete experience physically and digitally for Xbox One, and digitally for the Nintendo Switch system for $39.99. Additionally, the new content in WORLD OF FINAL FANTASY MAXIMA is available on the PlayStation®4 system or STEAM as downloadable content for $15.99.

GRIP: Combat Racing Launch Trailer

Wired Productions is proud to announce that the global launch of their high-octane combat racer, GRIP has hit today. Available on Playstation 4, Xbox One, Steam, and Windows PC, this combat racer brings blindingly fast arcade action to home consoles. Honoring the commitment to bring further tracks to the game free of charge, and in celebration of today’s launch, the first bonus track has been released. Joining the 22 unique and gravity-defying tracks already announced, the new course called SAAT Coast will challenge aspiring racers to employ super-human reflexes as they traverse a perilous jungle.

GRIP was made in Unreal Engine 4, taking full advantage of the power of the engine to create racing action that breaks 700 mph, making it the fastest racing game on offer. Wired is calling on racers around the world to ensure that the game is on shelves “the right way up” by turning boxes upside down at retail. Prizes and rewards will be available via GRIP’s social media throughout launch week. Check out the game’s Twitter and Facebook channels for full details.

“Creating GRIP has taken us on a twisting, flipping, rollercoaster of a ride,” said Chris Mallinson, Game Director on GRIP: Combat Racing. “Going from prototype, through early access, and now an all-platforms launch, we’re incredibly grateful to all the people who have helped make our vision a reality. We look forward to bringing even more content to the game after launch, and excited to see how the game is received.”

The Colonists Review: Finding Familiar Ground

By Terris Harned (NWOrpheus)

There’s definitely something to be said about the familiar. We seek out those things which are familiar because they are comforting. In fact we even call it our “comfort zone”. The entire concept of genres is built around familiarity. It can be something of a mixed blessing, though. When we ascribe the title of “clone” to something, at least in a gaming context, we’re often suggesting that it’s too familiar or similar to something else.

If you’ve ever played any of The Settlers games by German developers Blue Byte, you’re likely to find more than a little bit of familiarity in Codebyfire’s The Colonists. Like The Settlers, gameplay in The Colonists revolves largely around expanding territory using Watchtowers and gathering resources. You’ll need to build roads, rails, or harbors to connect your buildings so that resources can travel from one point to another.

The games aren’t exact clones, however. Not by a long shot. The basic premise in The Colonists, in fact, is that you’re guiding a group of self replicating robots as they attempt to build a civilization for themselves after escaping Earth, where they were treated like slaves. The robots themselves are adorable in my opinion, looking something like what you might expect of the babies if Wall-E and EVE procreated somehow.

The Colonists Screenshot

Much like in any sort of colony building simulation, which at its core is what The Colonists really is, your citizens have needs. This is, unfortunately, where the game has some problems for me. For no reason that is readily explained in game, your robots require food and water in order to produce energy. In houses. This definitely detracts from the game and feels sort of cheaply done in my opinion. I’m not sure I can necessarily suggest better mechanics, but I’m not the designer. Just having robots that require food, water, and alcohol in order to function bugs me on some level, at least without decent justification in the story.

That one irritation notwithstanding, I still enjoy the game. It’s a pretty basic supply chain type system. The food and water are used to create energy. Energy is used at mines which provide stone, coal, or iron. Energy is also used to the lumberjack’s hut, and the foresters, which chop and plant trees respectively. Trees become logs, and logs can become plank for higher tiered buildings. Standard fare for games, and nothing that really stands out of the ordinary.

Advancement also requires and is gated by research. Once again, nothing unfamiliar with a game. To get to Tier 2 buildings you have to research the Tier 1 upgrades and so on. Researching military technologies quickly can be vital in the missions which require combat with another ‘tribe’ of robotic colonists.

The Colonists Screenshot

On that note, the campaign is split into separate chains. One requires combat, the other does not. All in all there are a total of 9 missions to complete. The first is a basic tutorial, and each additional mission introduces more requirements to complete. Again, one of the campaign lines requiring greater combat advancement, the other requires more basic technologies, such as boats or railroads.

The music and sounds of the game are, in my opinion, highly appealing. They’re relatively understated, but very upbeat and positive. The Colonists isn’t the type of game you’re going to clock 900 hours on Steam playing. In fact, after the 20-25 hours playing through the campaign you may be interested enough to go back and get gold medal finishes for the games (IE for finishing in under a certain amount of time) or you might not.

Ultimately, I found The Colonists to be a pleasing if unoriginal experience. If you’re a variety streamer, like myself, you might find it a worthy pickup for playing through for a week or so. You can even change the name of the bots, which my viewers found charming. If you change a worker’s name, their place of business changes too, such as “Ragachak’s Guard Tower” or “Missy Shade’s workshop”. I think anyone can appreciate the simple but endearing game play of The Colonists really, and I recommend you give it a shot if you’ve got a few extra dollars laying around.

Final Rating: Good (3/5)

Note: A game key was provided for review purposes.