Hmmm... More Treasury Adventuring?

So, over the past few days on Twitter Stephan Orlando of Robit Studios - responsible for the excellent, and very much free, Treasure Adventure Game - has been teasing an announcement coming this week. I sometimes wonder why these people can't just tell us without having to stretch these things out but in this case I'm becoming just a bit excited.

Proteus to be released 30th Jan

It says it all in the title really, but it's great news! Ed Key and David Kanaga's game Proteus will be available on Steam and through the game's website. Priced at $7.50, which makes it around £5, its a smashing deal as well! From what I've played of the game it's beautiful and very exciting [read my thoughts about it here] and I can't wait to play it as a finished piece. Proteus ahoy!

My name is Guybrush Threepwood...

Ah! Someone, somewhere has seen fit to turn the the The Secret of Monkey Island's sword fighting/insult throwing into a playable browser game. It's just as enjoyable/torturous as I remember. Perfect. Now you can remember all the correct answers before you're able to use them!

Horrible Murdery Game Out Tomorrow

Sooo.... Hotline Miami is out tomorrow and, though there's loads of other important, life maintaining work to be done, I'm really looking forward to spending the evening bludgeoning and being bludgeoned within a sleazy 80s neon malaise (bloody remains apparently spewed over a post-modern hotel interior).

Cures for the Gaming Blues - Some forthcoming releases

With the recent nonsense surrounding Mass Effect 3 and the series' indomitable 'fans', my cynicism for big budget games has started to reach dangerous levels. The blame for this rubbish without doubt falls across the board as the self-righteous ME fan's disillusionment is surely only encouraged by the growing incomprehensibility of the games publishing industry. Crippling DRM and unashamedly flagrant DLC have naturally worn down gamers and their response seems to have come in the form of miscalculated rage, which is, I guess, understandable. But with all these issues now clouding the general excitement and fantasy which game releases once inspired, it's worth turning to smaller games which, not without grand ambition, have managed to exist without all the marketing politics which now plague the colossal budgeted 'AAA' games.

Here are four forthcoming games which are looking pretty inspiring:

Dragon's Dogma OXM preview video

From Software's recent forays into the RPG showed that a little Japanese hardcore-ness can do wonders for the traditionally Western open-world fantasy RPG. This video from OXM shows that Capcom's upcoming open-worlder could be similarly invigorating. Seemingly lacking a fast travel option (this of course doesn't discount the obligatory mechanic showing up later in the game), there is an overall sense of danger and atmosphere which, if the Souls games taught us anything, can do wonders when becoming immersed in a game. The presenter's promise of depth to the 'pawn' mechanic also sounds great (if the game manages to deliver). I love the idea that the player will essentially be able to build their own party - if anything this reminds me more of Balders Gate than Elder Scrolls. 

Unlike the Dark Souls, whose open-world was almost wholly inhabited by baddies, Dragon's Dogma looks a tad more human. However I am excited by the idea of a truly challenging world to explore - the woods, while the video shows us little actual exploration, look both inviting and terrifying. Weirdly I'm most excited by the prospect of being caught short and having to run through the pitch black night with zombies on my tracks! Its an exciting propsect for what originally looked like a pretty standard RPG. 

Put simply Dragon's Dogma looks pretty great! Heres the video courtesy of OXM

2 RPGs available to Download

A very quick blog:

I've just found out that two classic RPGs (both with suitably silly names) are available to download on PC so I thought I'd let everyone know!

First, which was released yesterday, is Ys: The Oath Felghana. It's a remake of Ys III in 3D and looked amazing on the PSP version released a couple of years ago. It's got a pretty standard plot but the gameplay is brilliant. It's much more action packed then many JRPGs and involves much platforming and button mashing. Great fun. I think that I'm going to wait for it either to come down in price - as things tend to do on Steam - or buy it next month. I'm really looking forward to replaying this game.

The second game, available on GOG, is the under-rated West meets East turn-based RPG, Anachronox. The turn-based combat was an unlikely model for an RPG developed by Ion Storm but it works perfectly well. The characters and story are incredible, the setting is bizarre and epic, and the dialogue is amazing! This is a game which I actually kind of forgot about until today, but I'm really looking forward to re-playing what I remember to be an incredibly fun RPG.  

Freeware Love: Treasure Adventure Game

They say nothing in life is free. Nothing, that is, except freeware! Over the years I've downloaded my fair share of free games with often little to no expectation for satisfying or memorable game play. Once in a while though you find a game which, whilst developed with a nonexistent budget and released for free, is in fact as good as any retail game. Games such as Spelunky and Digital: A Love Story proved that freeware games can be deep, immersive experiences in which production values have no rightful place and where personal creativity is king. I recently came across a freeware game called Treasure Adventure Game which proved to be just such a game.

Viktor Antonov - Half-Life 2 and Dishonoured

The Citadel wall

Half-Life 2 is an excellent game on many fronts. One of most interesting (though not the only) aspects is the design for the game’s environments. Set in a dystopian future where humans are ruled by an oppressive alien force, the game does not simply present a world on the edge of destruction due to alien invasion, but rather creates locations which are uncanny in their familiarity. The designs are reminiscent of cities and sites which we may all know. The central locale of City 17 was reportedly designed with Eastern European, Soviet Bloc countries in mind. The city echoes the insipid kind of repression associated with modern oppressive regimes; its streets are empty a part from clusters of military police or slow moving civilians, their heads down often murmuring nervously. The alien-ness of the outerspace, or inter-dimensional, invasion is felt by the constant presence of the Citadel - like a monument to the faceless industrialism at the heart of the game’s enemies. City 17’s design creates an amazing sense of an organised invasion – not one of utter destruction – in which human dwellings and spaces are no longer pleasant; more spaces of necessity rather than for living.