Magic And Whimsy With A Bunny

Very rarely do games get released with an air of enchantment and charm. However, sometimes one will simply cross your path and transport you to a world you'll never wish to escape. Brace yourselves for a spectacular adventure that will seduce you with wit, simplicity and a fantasy realm that may as well rival Lewis Caroll's imagination. I courteously ask you to follow along as we hop through the looking glass that is The Night of the Rabbit.

I am overjoyed to get a chance to write even a slither about The Night of the Rabbit. This point and click adventure is a first for me. Never have I ever found myself enticed by the genre as much as I was with this game. Upon viewing several screenshots, you may find yourself swept away by the colorful and creative artwork used in this 2D realm. The colors alone will leap out from your screen and bind you to your seat, unable to gaze away. Simply put, the game is a work of art.

The plot delivers with a hint of nostalgia when games aimed to be simple and yet peppers itself with quite a few layers. At first glance, The Night of the Rabbit seems too simple be about a young boy named Jeremy Hazelnut who strikes out into the world in hopes of being a magician. He then comes across Marquis De Hoto, an anthropomorphic white rabbit who just so happens to be a magician. Your whimsical tale then begins as you shrink down and complete chores for the woodland villagers of Mousewood. It proves to be a pretty straightforward trek into the woods. However, it is quickly revealed that there are some seriously dark undertones that seep through your fantastic journey. Mysterious masked figures begin to appear in and around Mousewood. These unveiled shadows preach some encroaching darkness. They're not pleasant at the very least and will send a shiver down your spine filled with nothing but distrust. The fairytale world that has enveloped you with a carefree sense of playfulness has suddenly beckoned your aid in defending it from would-be antagonists. It's a wonderful sense of purpose that is jolted within you and truly drives you to continue through the narrative.

Additionally, the voice acting compliments the artistic style superbly. All the natives of the vast (yet actually mouse sized) world deliver their lines with top-notch quality and an appropriate array of emotions. The creepy folk sound deluded and sinister, while the happier denizens have you reminisce of the days you watched Arthur on PBS. The selling point is the characterization of the cast. Jeremy is a curious young lad and charming enough that you won't mind playing a twelve year-old. The star however is Marquis De Hoto. He is an excellent character, be it because of aesthetic design, voice casting or his role as a mentor. I find myself anxiously awaiting my next encounter with him when I had just finished the previous one. Kudos to the designer(s) of this beautifully realized character.

The game is solid gold in terms of appearance and the gameplay is what you would expect from a member of the point and click genre. I must say that some of the puzzles are pretty taxing. Perhaps it's the fact that this is my first venture into a game of this nature but I definitely had to pull out a walkthrough here and there. There's a plethora of items in the game to find and combine and some of these combinations are far from obvious. This all adds to the enjoyment of course. There's nothing that will truly impede your journey as you become the greatest magician that ever lived.

The only statement I could possibly add is that you should simply spend the couple bucks to get The Night of the Rabbit and allow yourself to get lost in its lore. It's a beautiful, enchanting experience that will take your breath away at times and, have you seek the layers of dark secrets at any other given moment. This game was brought to my attention by a dear friend and now I pass that gift on to you. Do not miss out on this wonderful little gem.

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Play Outlast This Halloween

Campeau had it right last weekwhen we talked about Killing Floor: It is Halloween week pretty much. All the stores are filled with candy and decorations that will all go on sale November 1st, so why not talk about something scary? Before we started this blog, the PS4 had come out and I had gotten into a habit of streaming pretty much anything I played. I didn't have a huge following, but it was growing. One of the games that helped me the most in this cause was Outlast; for some reason, people like to laugh at people shitting their pants on a live stream.

When I was a kid I couldn't handle anything scary; not movies, nor TV shows, and especially not games. I would avoid that stuff at all costs. Nowadays I'm not so bad. Inherently I'm a fairly jumpy person with this sort of thing, so jump scares are the bane of my existence, but I can get through a scary movie or game no problem.

I still do have reservations with scary games over movies though. Games are just so much worse, with the entire ambiance the developers put in. You're usually more scared when nothing is happening then when some crazy naked asylum freaks are hunting you down. That part is scary too, but only for so long.

Outlast was a fun game and it was pretty scary too. It's not overly long (you can beat it within 2-4 hours if you know what you are doing) but the first time I beat it, it probably took around 6-8 hours. It has a problem with repetition after a while though. Basically you explore, get a bit of story and then get stuck in an area. The only way continue is by finding 3-4 objects around the area (usually filled with crazed lunatics) and then using these objects to fix or move whatever is blocking your progression. Rinse and repeat. It doesn't take too much away from the game since the formula does work, but a little variety never hurt anyone if you know what I mean.

The thing with scary games is that they aren't really scary forever. Sure the jump scares might get you every time, but after a while (normally after you die at least a few times) you start just getting used to it, because there just isn't a severe penalty for dying. You run and run and run away from an enemy with no way to defend yourself, get stuck in a corner and die...then you just reappear at the check point and try it again, while making sure you don't get stuck in the same corner this time. After that happens a few times, all the anxiety and fear the game has instilled in you at this point starts to dissipate.

I'm not exactly sure what the fix would be. Outlast has a mode in it where if you die, you have to restart from the very beginning. If you were to play this mode on your first play through, I'm sure the anxiety would stay with you the entire time, but it wouldn't be the right kind of anxiety. I feel as though you would be more frustrated than scared if you kept dying and having to restart. The mode is cool, but only if you've beaten the game before and know what you are doing.

In any case, if you are looking for something to play over Halloween, look no further than Outlast. It is a fun, scary-ass game that will get you to jump out of your seat no problem. I beat it three times but have yet to try the expansion. I hear good things though. Also it's from a Canadian developer, so win for the Canucks!

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Rejoice And Own Spelunky, Now Available On PS4

Rejoice and own Spelunky. Impose ownership on it using your money, because this is the only way that you will triumph over it. Spelunky will lull you into thinking that it will offer you a casual play session with an unassuming, endearing hero: His soulless coal eyes, indifferent eyebrows, and mesmerizingly bulbous nose suggest that he wants you to help him find some Mario coins in a cave. But in truth, he is meant to die a million deaths, each traumatic. You will develop fears of pots, of snakes, of yeti, of water, of the dark. Maybe one day you’ll even conquer the first level. When this happens take note, because the rest of your life is an agonizing downhill plummet from this monumental achievement.

So rejoice at Spelunky, because it is now available on PS4 in 1080p.  And remember the days when you thought you were good at video games. Because those days are illusions.

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Mark Of The Ninja: A Tattooed Love Letter To Tenchu

I’ve long adored stealth games. Much of this admiration is rooted in my early memories playing Tenchu Stealth Assassins for the PS1.  I recall being young and immensely captivated by the level design and choice of tools, which I felt were inventive and allowed me to approach situations in a wide variety of ways. Many stealth games that I play are held to a standard set by Tenchu.

Klei Entertainment’s Mark of the Ninja (Ninja) comes across as a contemporary Tenchu in many ways. Its levels are well-realized, its choice of tools is vast, and its stealth is straightforward. But Ninja takes its gameplay a step further, incorporating sound and light mechanics, without teetering too far into earlier Splinter Cell territory. It’s handled quite well.

Still, I find myself unfairly comparing my time to Tenchu, which was a marvellously ugly gem. Which I suppose is sort of strange. Beyond its core design being rather similar, much of Ninja is actually quite different from the Tenchu series. For one, Klei’s background in crafting beautiful side-scrolling action games (Shank and Shank 2 come to mind) really shines through. The game’s art direction is pitch-perfect, and blends a complex contemporary cityscape with ninja. Also, the game’s pace is punchy, instead of overly plodding like Tenchu.

Actually, the anachronistic feeling of utilizing stealth and melee to handle armed enemies is slightly reminiscent of Batman Arkham City. Except, the stealth in Ninja is actually good instead being a shallow and ugly mess which makes you wish that Batman didn’t know how to utilize stealth at all in any of his previous incarnations so that Rocksteady didn’t have to feel compelled to make what I feel is the stealth equivalent of water with some of your vomit in it.

I tend to enjoy inventive and challenging stealth games. Or really, anything that isn’t Batman Arkham City: The Stealth Game. Ninja can safely rest its weary head on my soft and gentle compliment. And Klei should pat themselves on the back for developing a stealth game which high-fives smart game design. Perhaps when they make a sequel, they could call it Tenchu.

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Legend Of Dungeon: Booming In Name But Whimpering In Execution

It’s refreshing to spend some time away from Breathof Fire: Dragon Quarter. Not that the game itself is bad. It’s just a touch laborious, a sentiment I’m not always inclined to spend my free time involved with.

Enter Legend of Dungeon, a game booming in name but whimpering in execution.

  

Much of Legend of Dungeon is spent aimlessly exploring its endless, drab corridors, fighting internet memes and monsters you’ve seen in other games. You play as a randomly generated pixelated being who must conquer a dungeon 26 floors deep. Armed with a sword, you navigate the game’s world with up to three other friends.

And that’s it. Interspersed between when you start playing the game, and when you decide you’ve had enough are numerous weapons, potions and hats, all of which appear to provide you with some sort of benefit, though none of this is apparent or clear.

I assume what makes Legend of Dungeon worthwhile—the developers’ light-hearted approach to crafting a roguelike—is lost on me because at its core, the game is far too simple. You enter a room, engage any enemies by repeatedly mashing the attack button, then claim whatever prizes are littered on the floor following their demise.

Sure, other dungeon crawlers can be explained in the exact same manner. But Legend of Dungeon lacks the tactical qualities of better games in this subgenre. There are no combos; there is no flash to gameplay; and there isn’t any variety to how you attack enemies. You essentially press the same button continuously, watch as your being flails its arm, watch the enemy bump against you and take damage, and then die. It’s a boring game that tries hard to pretend that its randomness and kookiness can excuse poor game design.  

The music is great, at least. The chiptunes are catchy, and the game’s 2D pixel graphics are pleasant. It’s just too bad the game wasn’t a 2 minute song with a catchy music video to accompany it.

Final thoughts

Legend of Dungeon is an inside joke which I don’t care enough to be a part of. Superficially, much of what makes the joke funny is lost on me. The time and effort put into making sure that I fight the occasional plant or zombie from Plants vs. Zombies can’t hide the stench of mundane gameplay.

What I’m left with is a jumble of nonsense that appears to be little more than human language overlaid by a cryptic semantic password; the game is a husk, clothed in game-like qualities but lacking the enjoyable gameplay which should accompany hip graphics and phat tunes. A great dungeon crawler brims with smart and difficult gameplay. If this game is any indication, a legend of a dungeon crawler brims with internet memes and glosses over everything else.

  

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Bring Me Home

After playing Fright Night at Freddy’s I was still in the mood for another horror game and it reminded me of Home, a game that I loved when it was released two years ago, so I decided to play it again. To give you a little context, I got this game upon its release on a whim and shortly after beating it, I was recommending it to everyone I knew because the game was so interesting and intricate, it blew me away.

Home is a kind of a Choose Your Own Adventure-style horror game and the atmosphere is insane; the game itself is an experience. You play as a man who wakes up on a stormy night in a home that's not his and, as far as you can tell, no one is around. Your goal is to make your way home and figure out what the hell has happened along the way. But the real meat and bones of the game is the journey: all the decisions you make along the way affect the outcome and arch of the story and if there's one thing this game has, its tons of replay value.

The controls are super simple and as you progress through the different areas all you can do is interact with different objects and landmarks—it’s almost like a point and click adventure game, but without the point and click.The fun part is using different items to solve different puzzles. You rarely get stuck and have to needlessly backtrack, but you do have to use problem solving and think about what you have to get past any roadblocks you might encounter.

Now if there's one recommendation I can make for your play-through it's this: play it in the dark, but mostly, you need to use headphones. It’s pretty much a requirement. The music and atmosphere really set the tone for the game and without it the game loses its eerie / unnerving qualities and it takes away from the overall experience.

Home is driven primarily by its story and how you choose to interact with the world around you. Using different objects drives the story in different directions. The game itself is worth visiting a few times to see how you react to situations and problems differently and trying to achieve the various outcomes. Now the game is fairly spoiler intensive so I can’t get too far into detail but it’s definitely a game I’d recommend trying out and at $2.99 there's almost no reason not to. Factoring in the replay value alone and you’re guaranteed your money’s worth. So if you’re looking for something to sink a few hours into and have a unique experience with, Home is the game for you.

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Travel Back In Time With Conflicks

Being the resident dev on the blog, I might as well share a little bit of what Artifice Studio—The Company I work for—has in store for everyone in the near-ish future.

One of the main goals at our studio is to create games that have unique Universes. This is something you could definitely see with Sang-Froid: Tales of Werewolves. While the game was grounded in Canadian/Quebec history, the way it blended with our native folktales was distinct and I can confidently say there is no other game quite as Canadian as our own.

Now in comes Conflicks: Revolutionary Space Battles, yet again based in our history—the French Revolution— Instead of just taking this time period for face value, we added a little twist to the history. With our ancestors thrust into the depths of space, waging war amongst each other, who in their right mind wouldn't want to help King Henry the 8th expand his space empire? I know I do! Of course Greater Britain isn't the only faction in Conflicks, have a look at our story trailer for a better idea.

Along with creating unique Universes, we also like to blend game genres and create hybrids. For Sang-Froid we blended action-RPGs with a tower defense style game. We weren't the first to the party with this type of gameplay—Dungeon Defends and Orcs Must Die! both beat us to the punch—but if you go by what they say on the forums, we brought way more strategy to the mix in comparison to the other games in the genre.

With Conflicks, the goal is to blend a top-down real-time strategy with a physics based game. Picture a galactic game of marbles which sees the player flick (get it? Con-FLICKS) his/her units across space to do battle. You colonize planets and slam into other ships like bumper cars while hop-scotching across space shooting lasers everywhere. It's a ton of fun! Unlike in our first endeavor, Conflicks will include a multiplayer component (like every RTS needs to have) on top of what you can expect to be a very entertaining single player.

For more information on Conflicks, you can visit Artifice Studio's website where we've been keeping a dev blog. There you can learn more about the different factions and characters you will see in the game. Also don't forget to follow us on twitter either @artificestudioand while you're at it, show a little love to our own Twitter account @gamerbasement.

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Freddy Is Freaky

Have you ever wanted to be a Chucky Cheese night time security guard? Well with Five Nights at Freddy’s you can realize that dream while also being horribly murdered by animatronic animals. The point of the game is survival and it’s not easy.

You play as the new night time security guard and you sit in your office monitoring the security cameras,  keeping an eye on Freddy and his friends as they walk around the restaurant at night—which seems simple enough, except if they do find you, you die a horrible, awful death. As you flip from camera to camera you use electricity and because the Freddy Corporation is cheap, you only have a finite amount of electricity each night. You have to make sure to manage your power efficiently because the only way to protect yourself is to seal the doors of your office, which is a major drain on the power and only should be used when they're about to kill you, so most of your power should really be invested into the cameras. The gameplay itself is fairly simple: between monitoring the cameras and shutting the doors there aren't many intricacies but the game is still very difficult, for one reason, and that's fear.

This game is probably one of the scariest games I've played and it’s all thanks to the characters and atmosphere. It preys on innate fears we have with the way the enemies are designed as well as the overall look and feel of the environments, which brings back creepy childhood memories of weird people in animal suits and jerky animatronics. The music is also really well done; it's really subdued and almost hidden in the background but it does a good job of scoring and setting the overall mood and feel of the game and really adds an ominous creepy feeling throughout.

Now as I was saying before, the gameplay itself is fairly simple but the difficulty increase from night to night but that's not what makes the game hard. The difficulty really comes from how scared you are and the game can really use your own fears against you. The more and more you play the more and more jumpy, anxious and generally scared you become and that's what makes you more likely to waste power from either over checking the cameras, closing doors when you don't need to or just generally being panicky. The game itself is a lot simpler if you can keep a clear and level head but the game puts you in these situations where you really can’t keep a level head and that's one of the challenges you need to deal with if you plan on beating this game.

In my opinion this is definitely a solid horror game that was really well put together. The gameplay and scare elements are well made and implemented and there's not really any jump scares so it's not like the game is using cheap tricks to freak you out. Now like most horror games there's really not a ton of replay value unless you just want to try and beat the nights more efficiently but other than that it's pretty much one and done. That being said, it's not an expensive game at a five dollar price tag, it's definitely worth it and if you still think it's too expensive, just throw it on your steam wishlist and wait for the next steam sale and pick it up.

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Bastion: An immediately fun, compact experience

I recently purchased a new Asus laptop, and have since found myself suddenly capable of playing PC games, which both excites and scares me. As a personal anecdote, I take no pleasure in hoarding video games, and a strong, negative pit wells up in my stomach whenever I add to it. That said, certain games are either only available on PC, or have been graciously given to me for free by friends during one of their Steam sale spending sprees.

Bastionis one such title, having been given to me several months back. Now in a capable Asus carapace, Bastion's software soul can bring with it a certain giddy feeling of finally being able to play something which had only previously been a pipe dream.

An Isometric Kid

A dynamic narrator recounts to us what the player performs, while the Kid does so on-screen. This active narrative style, layered over an equally impressive score by Darren Korb, rolls around in my head as I smash and roll through the game’s shaping environment.

Bastion is decidedly simple, though it’s also immediately fun. While playing through the game’s opening hour, I couldn’t help but think back to SaGa Frontier 2, whose convoluted game design provides a nice contrast to Bastion.

Calamity in Caelondia

The game’s story, at least in its opening hour, feels largely inconsequential. As I explore the game’s intimate surroundings, I find myself coming across petrified townsfolk and charms of various sorts, each hinting at there being some important meaning to the calamity which has affected the Kid’s world and home.

Most of my time so far has been spent collecting new weapons, exploring their merits against various ghoulish enemies, and rolling through fragile fences, piles of stone and dragon-like statues. The entire experience is all very ho-hum. Yet to the game’s credit, I feel its designers intelligently put just enough game into this game to make it feel compact, straightforward and focused. And in the end, I feel Bastion is better for it.

The End

My thoughts surrounding Bastion at this point in time seem to focus near exclusively on how well understood the game is as, well, a game. DeveloperSupergiant Games have managed to hook me with a vibrant art direction, an impressive score, a dynamic narrator; but they managed to infuse these ancillary qualities with hellishly addictive combat. It is its gameplay that I feel is the true merit of Bastion.

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Cliffhorse

Have you ever played Skyrim and ran up mountains on your horse and thought to yourself, "I wish this was a game?" Well Notch, the creator of minecraft did and he made it and called it Cliffhorse. Cliffhorse is a game but in definition only. It's more of a world sim in which you control the mighty and majestic Cliffhorse and you run around in your scenic sky island exploring and climbing cliffs. But beware: venture beyond the walls of Cliff Island and you will fall into the endless blue abyss that surrounds it.

The game, if you want to call it that, is incredibly simple: you run around and explore, climbing and descending the mountainous terrain. It may be simple but there's something innately fun about the way the game controls. For example, after the slow climb your horse gains momentum on its way down, allowing you to pick up a ton of speed...it’s hard to describe what exactly makes the game so fun it’s almost the ridiculousness of the premise that keeps you interested and playing.

Although you aren’t the only one in this world, there’s also a giant ball you can push around, which may or may not have been a horse at one point in time...the horse texture stretched across it possibly hints at something more sinister. The game is currently in “early access” and is free to play but if you do want to pay into it you can use Dogecoins, an online currency similar to Bitcoin.

Notch also made a point of mentioning there will be no guaranteed updates for this indie title. The game itself is more of a joke by Notch, who released it a few days before E3 2014, calling it “the future of gaming” but for what really just amounts to an April Fool's day joke, it actually has an interesting fan following and grossed 280 000 dogecoins (100 USD) in just one day.

I’d say the game itself is worth a shot just to experience it. Cliffhorse is a tiny download and barely a game but there's a charm about it that definitely makes it worth playing and I recommend giving it a try. It’s not the kind of game you're gonna pump 70+ hours into but it’s worth the time you're gonna take to mess around in it.

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Local Multiplayer: Having Friends Has Never Been Better - Part II

Where Were We?

This is the 2nd article of a 2-part piece on couch competitive and co-op games. If you haven’t read part 1 yet you may do so here. If you have then let’s jump back into it!

Gang Beasts!

Gang Beasts! is a 4-player competitive beat ‘em up. It is in pre-alpha and hasn’t even hit Early Access on Steam yet but looks very promising indeed. It is a hilarious competitive game where you play as a humanesque thing that resembles Playdough. The control scheme is awkward and the object of the game is to kill or throw your opponents out of the game.

Everyone shares the same screen as it zooms in and out to fit everyone inside. You can move around, jump, collapse to the ground and raise your arms. Using an Xbox controller, the left and right bumpers control your left and right arms respectively. Tap a bumper button to throw a punch, hold it to grab. You can combine grabs with the X button to lift your opponent above your head which allows you to carry them around to dispose of them. The different ways in which you can kill another player include: dumping them in a fire pit, dropping them in some sort of mulching machine, tossing them into an ocean, throwing them off a moving truck, leaving them in front of a train, etc.

This is a game where the controls are manageable but not fantastically responsive. This is OK though as it really is one of the things that makes this game amusing and exciting. It also puts the rookies and experienced players on a relatively even playing field; Most of the time you will try to do something to be left thinking “This wasn’t exactly what I wanted to happen, but it will do”.

GangBeasts is currently a 4 player competitive game but it looks as though the final release is slated to have a co-op mode as well.

The GangBeasts! pre-alpha is free and available on Desura, it is soon to be an Early Access title on Steam.

Hidden inPlain Sight

Another offline only couch co-op/competitive game which is incredibly simple and pretty fun is Hidden in Plain Sight. It’s a basic isometric 2D game with very basic sprites and gameplay. There are 5 different game modes so I’ll explain the general flow of the game and then go into how each mode differs.

Each game starts with a room full of characters, the majority are NPC’s and some are playable characters. Everyone looks similar and there is no indication of who’s who on the screen. The first thing to do in all of the game modes is to find which sprite you are controlling.

A few of the game modes put hidden players against snipers. The hidden players must walk within the crowd of NPC’s, either collecting coins or killing NPC players. Now it would be obvious if you could see a player kill someone in plain sight, so the game cleverly hides each player’s activity with something similar to a fog of war. If a player kills someone or picks up a coin, a noise is triggered to indicate the event, but visually everything will go on as normal. Coins will only disappear and death animations will only trigger once a sniper pans over the coin collected or the NPC that was assassinated. Each sniper has only 3 bullets to find the target but may mark players who they believe to be innocent.

The game is 4 players and can be all vs. all, or 1 team against another where team sizes are irrelevant.

Hidden in Plain Sight is available on Steam as an Early Access title for $4.99.

Final Thoughts

All the games in this article and the one that preceded it are phenomenal. They provide laughs and cries and create gaming experiences that I haven’t had since the days of my PS1 and PS2 in regards to couch co-op and couch competitiveness. These games invoke some of the best gaming experiences I have had with friends in a really long time. They are not deep and they are easy to pick up and play. They provide hours of entertainment when played in moderation. You may or may not be able to sink hours and hours into each of these games alone but it's simple enough to jump from one to another. I’m incredibly happy that couch gaming is coming back and we are seeing titles being released for pure enjoyment with friends rather than in depth, story-driven, slow-paced games. I’m also glad that the Triple-A titles have bored me to the extent that I went looking for other genres to satisfy my need for fun in video games. If you want a fun time with friends look no further than this list. And if you want to know which title kept me up for hours and hours, it’s SpeedRunners: that game is fantastic and has a ranked online component too.

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Local Multiplayer: Having Friends Has Never Been Better - Part I

What’s Up

This article is a 2-part piece that primarily focuses on my favorite couch competitive and couch co-op games at the moment.

I’ve always loved competitive gaming. First Person Shooter’s were my entry point, starting with Counterstrike just over 10 years ago along with Unreal Tournament 2004 and Battlefield 2. I played each during a period when these games were introducing new concepts, had large communities and they came packed with content. Nowadays, gaming companies are releasing reiterations of their franchises every year and it’s just tiring—I get bored and can’t actually afford to spend $100 for a full game when I know it’s so similar to last year’s version. Since I’ve found myself losing interest in FPSs and the player bases for my favorites are long gone, I went out on a quest of discovery to find a genre to fill the void at an affordable price point. This fix is indie couch co-op and competitive gaming.

Why You Should Care

Indie couch co-op and competitive games are simple, addictive and, most importantly, fun. They usually are under $15 and provide hours of entertainment. For example, the last few nights I have been playing one of these titles and saying to myself “just one more game...” That started around midnight. The next thing I knew it was 2AM. These games are pick up and play, easy to learn and difficult to master.

SpeedRunners

SpeedRunnersis a 4-player, fast-paced racing game where you control a character racing around a 2D platforming environment. You can jump off walls, grapple on ceilings and shoot your opponents, all whilst avoiding the stage’s obstacles. Everybody shares the same screen, and the screen follows the player that is in the lead. As soon as someone falls behind and leaves the screen, they are eliminated. Once a player is eliminated, the screen size begins to shrink, making it increasingly difficult for the remaining players to stay alive. All this is going on while you shoot rockets at one another, drop mines and grapple your way to victory.

The game naturally becomes harder when you are the leader because you can’t see what lies ahead, this means the players behind have a chance to catch up while the leader trips and stumbles into objects. This is why it is difficult to master, if you want to be great at SpeedRunners, you have to be incredibly familiar with each level.

Not only does the game have 9 awesome levels, it has Steam Workshop support so that the list of maps is ever-increasing.

SpeedRunners is 4 players and can be played locally or online. It’s currently in early access on Steam and costs $10 but is often going on various sales on the bundle sites.

Nidhogg

Oh Nidhogg, the 2-player game which combines fencing, tug-of-war and Tremors, the movie about a giant underground worm.

Each game starts with you and your foe sharing the same screen facing one another with a sword in hand. The object of the game is to get past your opponent and keep on running. The catch: your opponent has to die in order for the screen to move in the direction you are headed. So if you kill your buddy, you can advance and they will respawn in your way further down the road. The game switches frantically between offensive, defensive and evasive gameplay. It creates many chaotic encounters, laughs and backstabbings.

To top it all off, if you do win, you end up being devoured by a giant worm known as Nidhogg.

Nidhogg is available on Steam and PS4 for $14.99 and is a 2 player competitive game with both online and offline play.

TowerFall: Ascension

TowerFall is a fast paced 4 player couch competitive game. You play within a 2D arena that loops around on itself, meaning that if you leave the screen on one side you will appear on the other. The object of the game is to kill everything on the screen whilst avoiding death yourself. Your weapon is a bow that can shoot various arrow types. You can also find items inside chests which provide you with different arrow types, defensive items or abilities. Your only defence against another player’s arrows (or your own), is a dashing ability. If you are going to be hit, you can intercept the arrow with a dash and you will pick up that arrow and cheat death.

The looping screen is a huge part of the gameplay as players aren’t the only thing that loop, arrows do too, meaning you can shoot an arrow off one edge of the screen and it can nail your opponent on the other.

There is both a 4-player PVP competitive mode and also a 2-player co-op mode where you fight against various monsters and minions. The co-op is fun but the game really shines when battling your friends.

TowerFall: Ascension is available on Steam and PS4 at $14.99. It’s only available for offline play sadly.

Final Thoughts

These 3 games are tremendous amounts of fun and I cannot recommend them enough. If you have friends to play with, pick them up now.

My personal favorite out of the 3 games above is definitely SpeedRunners because of it’s online match making and fast paced gameplay. It’s not a game with a real end to it so the pleasure comes from becoming a master at each level and destroying your friends.

Nidhogg is something I can pick up and play for short periods of time but is far more enjoyable if you play it alongside other similar games. I find that I get bored of it quite quickly and like to jump from Nidhogg to other games back to Nidhogg fairly frequently but I do know people that could play it for hours on end.

TowerFall is another favorite of mine as every game is completely different and unpredictable making it always fresh and fun to play, unless you are getting wrecked by someone that is far better than you. It is possible to combat the difference in player skill level by adding mutators which completely changes the dynamic of each game. These mutators force even the most experienced players to relearn how to deal with each levels environment.     

To Be Continued…

Come back for part 2 of this multi-segment article that will include a few other games that I have had ample amounts of fun with.

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Little Love for Limbo

Limbo is visually attractive, and probably pretty good. I say probably rather than definitely in the hopes that my reservations about recommending this game come through effectively. You see, Limbo starts off brilliantly but by game’s end, feels tedious and unenjoyable (although, maybe that’s the point).

“Oh, it’s a good game”

Echoing what Brandon had mentioned several weeks back, I too feel as though Limbo is incredibly atmospheric. Likely, if you know nothing else about the game, you’ll still be familiar with the game’s rich, detailed environments, its monochromatically saturated world, and the piercingly bright eyes of the game’s main character. Limbo is quite successful at subterfuge, and manages quite convincingly to wear a moustache and hat of atmosphere over its rotting core...

“Oh, it’s good...for an indie game”

...And what a stench. The first third of the game allows its creepy and desolate world to draw you in. You are chased by a giant spider. You scamper, climb, push and pull. The world is understandable in its horrors.

Gradually the game’s world changes, with the early wooded sections giving way to a crumbling industrial section. It is here where the game loses much of what I enjoyed about it: instead of remaining simple and understandable in its puzzles, developers Playdead begin to pile on increasingly obtuse physics-based environmental puzzles which, while inventive, punch the game’s pace in the gut, laughing while pacing stumbles onto the floor, curls up, and dies.

Limbo never recovers from this tonal shift, and only progresses into even more complicated puzzles involving gravity and repetitive machinery. It’s about as much fun as you would expect either to be.

Final Thoughts

The only thing that should matter about the time you spend when playing a video game is whether it was intellectually, artistically or immediately enjoyable to you. If I were to take my own advice and employ this pragmatic point of view, then I would tepidly recommend Limbo to you.

Sadly, I feel that the game misses the mark as much as it nails it. Its atmosphere and simplicity early game feel like a fleeting memory by game’s end. Guess it might be best to simply wash away the hurt, and remember that Limbo sports a strapping monochromatic moustache and hat. 

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The Calm Before The Storm

I'm in a sort of a lull at the moment, which was bound to happen sooner or later. Being an early adopter of the PS4, there eventually just isn't any games to play, Brandon even talked about it a couple of weeks ago...on the bright side at least I've actually beaten the games I bought, which is a little unprecedented for me.

If you want to compare launch window games (the window being the first 6 months within a console’s release) of the PS4 with the PS3, well the considerable edge goes right to the PS4. I can't even remember what I played on the PS3 outside of Virtua Fighter 5, Resistance: Fall of Man and Motorstorm...oh and Gundam: Cross Fire (haha, gotta get one of those Gundam games in there). Meanwhile on the PS4 I've already beaten games like: Knack, Thief, Assassin's Creed IV, inFamous and Tomb Raider. On top of those games, there were indie titles like Outlast, Resogun—which reminds me, I played a ton of Super Stardust on the PS3—and Don't Starve. That isn't all though. Games I didn't beat yet include the likes of Killzone and Battlefield 4.

Suffice to say the launch of the PS4 was pretty satisfying for me. The only problem now is that it's May and nothing gets released around now. I was looking at the upcoming releases for the next month or so and its slim pickings.

MayWe Have Games?

Here are a few of the more notable games releasing in the coming weeks:

A new Wolfenstein game is releasing on the 20th of May, and it does actually look pretty fun, but then I noticed it has no multiplayer...who in their right mind releases an arcade first person shooter(FPS) with no multiplayer? I don't care so much when 3rd person shooters come out with no multiplayer (they tend to be more story-driven then FPS's anyway), but Tomb Raider still had multiplayer, even if it was a load of crap. Some may argue that removing the multiplayer and focusing on the single player is the way to go, and in some cases yes, but I just can't see it in an FPS. Maybe developers have hard wired it out of me, but unless this game is like 15-20 hours, I can't really justify paying $60-70 for it when I don't have the added luxury of a multiplayer mode to extend my stay—even if it was crap, I could still sink 5-10 hours into it. I'll probably pick it up cheap next year sometime.

Also releasing on the 20th, Transistor is probably the most note worthy game coming out in this dismal time period. Developed by Supergiant Games, who are of Bastion fame, Transistor is easily the most buzz-worthy indie title to be coming to the PS4 since the console’s release, at least in my opinion. Simply put, Transistor is an action-RPG, with 2D graphics that look fantastic. And if the soundtrack follows what was heard in the launch trailer, it's going to be a hit. At the moment, Supergiant Games has a proven track record (I'm sure they can continue it).

Watch Dogs is actually releasing on the 27th of May, which easily has the biggest budget this month, but I feel as though the hype train has left the station with this one. I can't really put my finger on it, but last year this game had tons of momentum. Then it got delayed as a launch title and poof, haven't really heard much. I'll still pick it up, but I'm not really sure what to expect.

Last up, Square-Enix is publishing this really weird/interesting action-adventure mystery game on June 3rd. It's called Murdered: Soul Suspect. In it, you control Detective Ronan O'Connor who gets brutally killed right off the bat. Ronan then returns as a ghost and now you must help him try to solve his own murder so he may continue his journey to the afterlife. To be honest, I'm going off a gut feeling here. I've looked at a trailer or two, not sure what the gameplay is like either, but it sounds interesting and is different to say the least. I'll probably pick it up barring it gets horrendous reviews—it very well could considering the people behind Dark Void are developing it.

In E3 We Trust

The only real saving grace about this time period is that E3 is just around the corner! In a mere three weeks time, we will be like kids in a candy store...or at least the fat kids salivating on the windows outside.

I can't wait to see what the press conferences bring this year. Sony and Microsoft always go toe to toe and it's pretty entertaining to see how the internet reacts to it all. If either of them can get Rockstar to divulge something on stage, everyone will go nuts. Nintendo doesn't really join in on E3 anymore; at least not over the last few years. Instead what they opt to do is host their own little event where they pretty much do the same thing...apparently E3 was too expensive and loud for them. Whatever, as long as we get to hear about some new games, who cares how they do it! They just better actually bring something to the table *cough* Pokemon RPG on the Wii U, or at least something interesting for that damn console. I hate having to feign interest in it all the time, just give me something to care about!

I won't really make any predictions per say, but what I really want is to hear about the new Kingdom Hearts game, and Final Fantasy XV from Square-Enix. I've always been a huge fan of Square's games, and both of these games are being made by the same development team, which I love, so I have high hopes!

Outside of that, there are still an excess of games I want to get some news on: Star Wars Battlefront 3, Tom Clancy's The Divison, that Sci Fi Call of Duty game, Destiny, Halo 5 and Sony even has that new virtual reality head set to show off. The build up to E3 is usually unbearably long and I don't see it being any shorter this year.

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Dysentery For All

Oregon Trail was a classic game played by countless youths all over the world and was even the first video game many people experienced. Too bad it's absolute crap when you compare it to Organ Trail!

Organ Trail is a zombie survival game that came out as a mobile game in 2012 and was eventually greenlit by Steam users and released in 2013. I picked it up for cheap during one of the countless steam sales that have plagued my wallet and when I finally got around to playing it, I was surprised at how much fun it was and how much depth was in the game.

If you have played Oregon Trail before, there are a lot of similarities and the game is basically a homage to it; that and the Walking Dead series (take your pick: comic or show). When you start the game it gives you the option to name your party members—I usually named them after my friends to see how long me and my buddies could last in a theoretical zombie apocalypse—but if it's taught me anything they're all a bunch of filthy liars. I can't even remember how many times Adam has killed someone because he would get bitten and lie about it right to my digital face and then later on he'd turn and take someone down with him.

The game revolves around you and your fellow survivors piling into a station wagon and traveling across the U.S, collecting food, fuel, and other various supplies you need to survive in a hostile zombie wasteland. The game reminds me a lot of FTL because, as in FTL, random encounters will happen as you travel and give you the option to swap supplies with traders, or fight bandits/other survivors... Which brings me to the combat.

The combat is really fun. It uses a cover based system, so you spend a lot of time learning your opponent's movement patterns and then pick them off one by one.It really has a survival feel and with limited ammunition you really have to pick your battles and shots.

Every so often you'll reach a settlement. Settlements have merchants and bounty boards. You can fulfill bounties for cash and other necessary items as you pass through. They all vary in difficulty, so be sure you're ready, because you only have one life and when you die it's game over and you have to start right back at the beginning.

Overall, the game itself is solid. It's addictive as hell, has a ton of replay value and once you get the hang of it, you really start wanting to keep taking cracks at it, seeing the various outcomes and routs the game can take. The random encounters along the way really add depth to the game whether someone "turns" or dies from some disease or dysentery or is taken hostage by bandits and left to die.

This game is entirely worth your time and with a five dollar price tag it's worth every penny. Whether you're a fan of zombies or just survival games in general (the graphics make it literally playable on any pc out there). All in all, this is definitely a game any and every Steam gamer should have in his or her library.

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