Monthly Archives: November 2014

29 Nov

I Feel the Earth Move

Sorry this post is a few days late. I was busy enjoying Thanksgiving!

From Dust had a little under an hour of game time on it already when I booted it up this past week to take another look at it. I remembered just a little from the last time I’d ventured into its world: that I would be able to move around balls of water and earth, that the time pressure felt limiting, and that it was a candidate for most-hated-game-due-to-DRM way back when.

Dust People

So here we go. Let’s hit that Play button once more, and let Steam boot up uPlay, so we can try to save these villagers once more. Will this game make me truly feel like a god? Will it frustrate me with control issues? Will I be forced to see the screen above over and over again because the same cutscene inexplicably forcibly plays after every single level? Yes, yes, and yes!  Read More →

21 Nov

Going Commando

Commando Jack? What is that? Did I buy that? These thoughts bounced around in my head last week when the unfamiliar name popped up as my next game. I remembered getting it in some bundle recently and that it promised tower defense with a dash of action.

Tutorial!I started the puppy up and two things immediately jumped out at me. First, I was right! This was a tower defense game. Second, this was clearly a mobile game ported to PC. The overly large UI, the multitude of fat-finger buttons that were excessively large, and – oh, hm – what’s this, it looks like it was maybe free-to-play in a past life. I tepidly clicked Continue. Could Commando Jack rise above the rapidly falling expectations I had for it? Let’s find out. (Spoiler: no, it can’t.) Read More →

14 Nov

The Art of the Possible

Let’s take a vacation to an island paradise where everybody has a name and I get to make all the rules. Let’s go to Tropico, a simulationy city/island-builder with dictatorial overtones!

Tropico 2Steam actually doesn’t even recognize Tropico, its expansion, and Tropico 2 as separate titles. Instead, they are purchased wholesale as Tropico Reloaded, which is what I rolled this week. So I ended up spending a few hours with Tropico before dipping my toes into Tropico 2 for a little under an hour. I, sadly, did not try a new game with Tropico’s expansion content, nor do I think I ever will. What’s that? Why’s that? Let’s dictate! Read More →

07 Nov

I’m Batman

I’ll admit that I was a little nervous when I hit that button for the first time last Friday. As the games flashed onscreen, I wondered: what would my fate be? Would the game I was to play be a AAA title I’d neglected? An indie darling that I’d played for half an hour only to get distracted by something shinier?

I'm Batman

It was Batman: Arkham Asylum – a game that I had beaten on console when it released. Not only had I beaten it, I had actually spent more than a few hours after finishing the campaign in the numerous challenge rooms, trying to outscore one of my friends who was playing it at the same time. This was a game I had given more than the time of day oh-so-long ago. What would it be like to be Batman again, especially after a two-sequel interlude? I installed the bugger and proceeded to find out.  Read More →