I was just putting my copy of Catherine on the shelf with the rest of my Xbox360 retail games, and I noticed something.
I appear to have a problem with paying more than $5 for any Xbox game after the letter D.
We already gave the Indie Games Summer Uprising title Doom & Destiny a thorough review. We thought the game was already pretty special, with a considerable level of polish and work put into the game. It seems, however, that Benjamin Ficus and HeartBit had a different opinion on the state of the game as they just revealed that an update is already in the works. Here’s what we know so far:
And now about the update, as we have been discussing on the forumhttp://bit.ly/pB6d9m : there will be some minor fixes, a rebalance of weapons and armors, an improved inventory with an additional filter for Utilities,Body Armors,Rings and Accessories. And more, the ability to save your game on a memory card or USB stick, a screenshot function, an increase to the level cap and a lot of new mid and endgame content. Be sure to keep your advanced savegames !
via: Matteo Nicolotti
I feel like the old fashioned point and click adventure is a dangerously under-represented breed of game these days. There are precious few developers even attempting the genre, and those that do, even while producing a fun, quality game, seem to lack the resources to keep their narrative full of puzzles for any significant length of time. Originally released in 2009, Total Eclipse Games this month brought their take on the tried and true point and click to the Steam platform, and thus The Clockwork Man tosses its mechanized chapeau in the ring.
What originally started as a two man show, Playdead eventually found that they needed to bring in some outside bucks to keep their game Limbo afloat during the development process. Now that their game has released and was a big success on the Xbox Live Arcade and PC platforms, the original duo has managed to reacquire the shares of the company that were sold off for the additional funding. Obviously we don’t know any of the particulars regarding the deal, whether it was always the agreement between the investors and the creators or if head chefs Arnt Jensen and Dino Patti were tired of shareholders sticking their fingers in Playdead’s pies. Either way, congratulations to them and their new found creative and financial freedom.
via: gamasutra
The story driven RPG genre has always been in short supply on the XBLIG. And it’s really no wonder why that’s the case when you look at games like Breath of Death and Cthulhu Saves the World, there’s an awful lot of development work that goes into them. Not to mention you’ve got to compete against those great Zeboyd games for mind share which is no small feat. Enter Doom & Destiny, a JRPG loaded with satire, parody, and nerds, but can its seemingly identical formula succeed?
What can I say, it’s a JRPG built on the RPG Maker framework. If you’ve ever played any of the original style JRPG’s you know exactly what you’re doing in this game. In fact, you’re probably so damn familiar with it you’re already rummaging through peoples clocks and underpants drawers for “magic elixirs” as we speak.
Well you can’t live forever, you can live for a bit in style though. That’s all thanks to AbbyShot Clothies who’s line of nerd apparel has been updated to include a forthcoming designer Jack Harkness coat. So while the rest of you may look like pants, your coat will be the dogs bollocks. The Face of Bo’s jacket will only run you $299.99, and while that may seem like a lot, that’s because your cheap ass hasn’t bought a descent coat before.
I was quietly playing through my current game Doom & Destiny when Brooks demanded we get to work on this weeks XBLIG Update. You can imagine my reluctance as I was exploring the final bosses mansion at the time. Alas, it is after all our job to make sure you don’t flush those Microsoft Banana Peels down the drain on some stupid shit screen saver ‘game.’ We will likely be doing a two parter this week, and possibly going forward, depending on the volume of games releasing at any given time. Just like always these aren’t reviews, they are simply demo impressions, so devs if you don’t think you got a fair shake consult our email box. Listed below are the games we demo’d ones that we thought may have some substance to them are in bold. Those games that are in italics are ones we were not agreed on. Oh and of course favorite our channel if you like the show.
We recently reviewed Milkstone Studios’ Raventhorne and the truth is it didn’f fair too well. It ended up being deemed an adequate value only by virtue of its outstanding art and little else. Fortunately, Milkstone Studios is one of those companies that likes to release updates for its games in a fairly timely manner. Todays update toRaventhorne seems to just twiddle the dials a bit, and a lot of them at that. My gut is that the changes probably make a pretty big difference in the experience, but it will be hard to say without a solid play through. Check out the full list of the changes below.
Raventhorne 1.1 was released this Saturday. The changes featured in this patch are:
- Reduced enemy health to 75% of their previous value
- Reduced enemy shock resistance (damage they can take before they are knocked off) to 60% of their previous value
- Magic bar increases 200% faster
- Tweaked many game variables to make the game easier
- Added a difficulty setting (previously saved games are treated as normal difficulty).
- Stamina replenishes faster
- Enemies move slightly less (so connecting combos is easier)
- Added enemy life bars (can be disabled on settings)
I’ve been looking forward to playing the latest game from Super Meat Boy mastermind Edmund McMillen from the moment it was announced. The combination of original Zelda style level structure, twin stick shootery and roguelike progression, coupled with Edmund’s trademark aesthetics and sense of humor just makes me think this will be another winner. The fact we didn’t have to wait long for its upcoming early September birth is just a sweet, sweet bonus.
And now, we have the first official look at game play in motion with a trailer, created by James Id. Enjoy your nightmares.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the winners of the 2011 Dream Build Play competition are in! Taking home the grand prize this year is the little block devouring robot that looks like a front load washing machine from Blocks That Matter. I have actually had the pleasure of playing this game, just like many people out there have, since it’s been available on the XBLIG and Steam for some time now. I would have to say I am fairly surprised by its winning. Having not actually finished the game yet I hesitate to say it is undeserving or that I find it to be somewhat tedious drudgery to play. What can I say, I thought rewinding time was mandatory in puzzle games these days.
The first prize winner Solar 2 is pretty awesome looking and may have some innovative aspects to it. I haven’t played it or any of the other winners so I don’t really know. I am, without a doubt, more willing to give it the benefit of the doubt than I am the absolutely hanous looking third prize winner, Sequence, which suffers so badly from terribe voice acting that I hesitated to include the trailer below. Not to mention its abundantly vanilla looking rhythm game gameplay.And as far as the second place winner TIC: Part 1, well I can’t wait to find a way to shoe horn it into my play schedule, I can’t get enough of those gorgeous environments.
And in closing, I’d also like to pose an open question to Microsoft. At what point in dollars does a competition become worthy of getting the actual correct developer names ‘right’ in the winners announcement? Yes, yes, I know that’s how it looked on the submission forms. Seriously, just hire someone to do this for you full time, you have gajillions of dollars. But I digress, hit the jump below to check out the games, their descriptions, their corrected studio names, and trailers.