Mechs are awesome. That’s one of the indisputable facts of the universe. And now the universe will get a little more awesome on December 12, 2012 when Adhesive Games’ Hawken blasts into action.

Read on for more info about this indie game you won’t want to miss.

Hawken is an online mech shooter that’s going to be free-to-play and will be published by Adhesive Games’ new publishing division, Meteor. The game was showed off at PAX in 2011, and it sported impressive visuals and fast, mech-based shooting action. While some mech games are plodding and slow, it looks like Hawken will try to capture more of that frantic Call of Duty-style feel.

According to an interview with VentureBeat, Khang Le–co-founder and Adhesive’s chief executive–said that “those with good PCs and decent broadband connections will be able to play the game at 60 frames per second. But [others] may experience the game at around 30 [fps].”

Beta sign-ups are also available. If you refer enough people to the beta, your spot is guaranteed. I imagine the site is receiving lots of traffic, so don’t get discouraged if you have to try multiple times to get it to load.

[Source: VentureBeat]

As a game reviewer, I occasionally comes across an indie game that just strikes a chord with me. Either the art style captures something from the past, the story resonates with me on some level, or the gameplay is a refreshing take on an old genre. I have to say that I was extremely lucky to find a game that has all three of these, in this case the game is Gemini Rue.

Gemini Rue is a little indie game made by Wadjet Eye Games that combines the retro art style of games like Flashback and Out of this World with the great gameplay from classic Lucas Arts adventure games. To make it even better, the story comes across like a Phillip K. Dick novel with it’s neo-noir elements and mind bending discussion of identity. Long story short, if you’re a fan of science fiction or adventure games, you need to check out Gemini Rue.

The game follows Azriel Odin, a former assassin turned cop who is looking for his brother who has been captured by the corrupt Orwellian government and sent to a hidden prison colony. This prison colony take political prisoners, erases their memory and then reprograms them to do the government’s bidding. As you’d expect from a Phillip K. Dick inspired story, the world of Gemini Rue is heavily intrenched in all the classic hard-boiled detective elements: perpetual rain, slums, back alley shootouts, etc. I don’t mean to make it sound like Blade Runner is the only inspiration for Gemini Rue, there are a wide variety of science fiction based Easter Eggs, references and shout outs. In fact,  at one point I got a little stuck so I just started exploring as much as I could. I was surprised to find Ed and Ein from Cowboy Bebop hiding on the top floor of an apartment. They didn’t have any bearing on the gameplay or story, but it was a nice way to put a smile on my face during a slightly frustrating moment.

The game plays like any classic adventure game. You click on the screen to move your character around, to interact with objects and with people. You’ll need to combine objects and utilize your environment to solve puzzles. For example, at one point in the game you’ll need to break into an apartment to gather some evidence. The doors are locked with an electronic card reader, so picking it is out of the question. Luckily the neighbor isn’t so concerned with security, so you can pick his lock, go out onto the back balcony, jump across to the next apartment, and break in the glass door with a metal pipe. Before you get upset about spoilers, please realize that this is just one small example from the dozens of puzzles you’ll need to solve.

As I mentioned above I did get stuck a few times, however you should understand that I rarely play adventure game. Asking me to play an adventure game where I don’t get stuck is like putting someone completely new to StarCraft in a game versus Jaedong or Flash. I don’t have the finely honed instincts and nose for trial and error that adventure game veterans have.

On top of the adventure game mechanics, there is also a shooting mini-game. Throughout the game you’ll find you character in shootouts. The game handles this by putting your character in cover and presenting you a new set of controls. ‘A’ and ‘D’ will make your character peek out of cover while ‘Space Bar’ fires your gun. Sure you can just peek out and spray bullets hoping to hit your target, however the more efficient way to score kills is with the aiming mechanic. While in cover you can hit ‘Control’ to bring up a little breath meter. Time your shots with when you’re holding your breath to score a one-hit kill. While this shooting mechanic may not be as thrilling as getting tons of killstreaks in Call of Duty, it’s a satisfying way to reward  patient and skillful gamers.

One thing that makes Gemini Rue so interesting is that you not only play as Azriel but also his brother,  known as Delta-Six, in the prison. As almost any point in the game you can switch between the two characters and work on their own objectives, a nice way to keep players busy if they hit a dead end on one character.

Overall Gemini Rue is an amazing game that deserves a look from anyone who likes science fiction stories, adventure games, or is feeling slightly nostalgic for games like Flashback and Out of this World. Gemini Rue should take you anywhere from five to eight hours to complete depending on how quickly you can solve the puzzles. That said, I have to admit that there’s little replay value in the game. The only incentive for a second play though is to listen to the developers commentary, which is very interesting and a great little addition, although it may only be for people who were really into the Gemini Rue world. Also note that Gemini Rue is an independent title that can be purchased on Steam for $9.99, so it’s not like you’re spending $59.99 on a game with little replay value. If you find yourself sitting around looking for something interesting to play, pick up Gemini Rue; its by far one of the most interesting, engaging games of this year.

My last week steeped in gore, I offer up to you Project Zomboid. It is an isometric zombie survival RPG. These last words may not whet your appetite, especially with last month’s release of Dead Island and the (re)release of Resident Evil CODE: Veronica X. You can say the world is pretty much zombie’d out.

There are just so many things to love about this title, however; and considering that it’s still in alpha development gives cause for excitement. Not only for zombie aficionados, but also for fans of well crafted games in general, PZ is already a polished gem that is bound to have an uncanny luster by the time it’s considered a full fledged game.

For all the aficionados who are sold by the mere mention of zombies and a single lead image, you don’t have to wait biting your nails for an official release date. The alpha complete with ongoing updates is already available for the low price of $7.99 on Desura or Google Checkout (Steam is intended for the official release). So feel free to take on the zombie horde immediately. On the other hand, for those of you who are on the fence, here’s where my most recent hours went.

Standing Out Amongst The Horde

Project Zomboid is not trying to be unique. If you remember the original X-COM titles in the early nineties, you’ll see where PZ gets a good bit of gameplay inspiration. And, obviously, zombies have been done to (un)death. Traditional RPG elements like quests, crafting and good ‘ol role playing make the entire experience feel like a pair of shoe pulled out years after being stored in the closet. Yet, one cannot stress enough that these shoes are clean, they’re superbly comfortable and they have timeless style.

Note I say PZ is not trying to be unique. Uniqueness is just inherent to their approach. Developer Chris Simpson describes what can be the main element that sets this title apart, “you are inside the confines of a quarantine, squeezed in with a million zombies, and there’s no getting out. You’re fucked, if you pardon the language” (sic). Deconstruct any zombie game, movie, book and this is truly the end result — the inhabitants of this apocalypic world are indeed fucked.

While tellers of zombie stories like to focus on that epic moment when the main character(s) escape the city, save the endangered children and so on, fastforward for an undefined amount of time and those same heroes are always zombie fodder. (Recall the home style video during the credits of the most recent Dawn of the Dead film). PZ elegantly shifts focus from that epic win to that messy loss. The effect, even in alpha, is rather refreshing.

This essentially changes the way you engage the RPG.  You’re no longer striving to beat the game in a traditional sense, nor complete the game in the more modern achievement/badge happy sense. Instead, players will interact with the world as they really see fit, getting the most out of one life, truly striving. “The goal here is purely to have the most unique and remarkable adventure leading up to your eventual and inevitable demise,” Simpson says.

The Story, The Sandbox

Project Zomboid does not mince words. From the beginning, you know what’s going to happen, “[t]his is how you died” the game says amidst an otherwise blank screen, before you take control of Mr. Smith. The game then opens on Smith’s wife, Kate, injured with a broken and bleeding leg. There are hints of an epic escape, but, that’s in the past.

Instead, the beginning of the alpha preview offers a few tutorial type quests meant to acquaint you with rest of your life: craft bandages out of bedsheets for Kate, find a hammer, wood and nails to barricade the bottom story of the house, for instance. The game opens up in short order, however, and you’re literally left to your own devices within the expansive quarantine zone. This is where the sandbox comes in.

PZ is bound to be a survivalist’s dream. From jump, there are many factors that are critical to making it in this expansive, zombie infested land; and they all compound upon each other for one grueling bout of survival. Things like hunger and fatigue will dictate the more basic interactions with the world. Couple that with the game’s internal clock and the propensity for more zombies to roam the streets at night, and the player can find her/himself following a strict schedule of  exploration, foraging and retreating to shelter as predictable as night and day.

Albeit, you and Kate are not the only survivors of this nightmare. After the first foraging quest, a shotgun toting NPC shows up with not-so-nice intentions. One misstep and Mr. Smith’s brains can wind up on the walls. There will be many more NPC’s to experience in the game, both benign and evil, that will throw you off. Other things can muck up your plans, such as fires sparked from a neglected oven, unexpected illness and of course sudden zombie hordes.

For those who like to play within a more structured environment, there will be a story that you can choose to follow. “We have some exciting ideas on how to provide a strong but optional narrative that the player can choose to follow, for as long as they survive, that will help a lot to tie together an otherwise completely sand boxy and story-less game,” says Simpson. While this story isn’t fully fleshed yet, it involves an ineffective government and a sudden, significant power outage. “No longer are you raiding fridges for fresh food, or using ovens to cook it. Plunged into darkness at night means torches and batteries become a prized commodity, and the value of different items suddenly change.”

For The Love Of Zombies

With how limited the gameplay was, I am truly surprised by how much Project Zomboid has going for it. I don’t label myself as a zombie aficionado. Although, it doesn’t take an aficionado to appreciate that in its essence, the zombie is representative of all which threatens to wholly consume us in real life, to a point where we’re facing insurmountable odds. (Let’s face it, we all die in the end because of this world). PZ captures that essence, just as well as any other medium, if not better, and is bound to be a fun and in-depth experience.

The game has great momentum and hopefully it gains. At the time of this writing, PZ has a high 9.6/10 on Desura from all those who’ve downloaded the alpha. There is a robust fan made wiki . Additionally, The Indie Stone enjoys a rather active forum.

Note, quotes taken from Chris Simpson’s blog.

I’d love to discuss Hero’s Adventure further, but I’m afraid I’ve already said too much — I don’t want to spoil the experience for you. So why not just play it already?

Chris Hecker (Spore, Quake) announced Thursday the price for early beta access to his latest espionage game, SpyParty, will be $15. This gets you access to the early beta, access to the forums and discussions, as well as the complete game once its released. Players who sign up through the game’s site will also have a chance to lay down $50 or more for their name to be included in the credits once the full title is released.

$15 dollars is a justified price, Hecker says, as it “has become the de facto price point for AAA Indie Games.” Is SpyParty a AAA indie game and is it worth $15 dollars? A good number of people certainly think so. Last time Hecker checked in on the numbers, there were more than 700 gamers already signed up and ready to go. That’s only a few months after he opened the sign up. Not convinced?

For those who are not familiar with the game, SpyParty‘s main mode pits two players against each other. One plays the spy who navigates through a dinner party trying to blend in. The other plays a sniper posted outside, scoping the various attendees under the auspices of eliminating this person with a bullet.

Instead of the action, blood and explosions one would expect from other spy games, this title focuses on subtleties of human behavior. So expect sophisticated AI acting like, well, humans. In its application at various expos, one has never seen a more tense session with two players gripping their controllers anxiously, eyes wide in stern concentration staring at a virtual dinner party.

While no official announcements have been made, Hecker wishes the game to be on all platforms, including the Wii U.

[source SpyParty]

Supergiant Games’ brand new XBLA title Bastion has a lot of things in its favor. Fantastic visual style, great music, and what many will consider its greatest strength, its narrator. Logan Cunningham’s performance as Bastion’s narrator is pitch-perfect.

Cunningham augments the style and tone of the game, and really helps Bastion set itself apart from its peers. But I can’t help but feel that Bastion’s greatest strength also contributes to one of its biggest weaknesses.

Bastion (and technically Cunningham too) tells the story of the Kid as he wakes up one morning to find out that his world and the city of Caelondia has been destroyed by something called the Calamity. As the Kid wakes up, the first thing we hear is the narrator telling us that this story “ain’t so simple.”

Throughout the game the narrator reacts to what the player does as the Kid. However, many of these lines are all tightly scripted, so it’s not so much a reactive narrator as a tightly scripted one – one that somewhat offers the illusion of true interactivity.

Because Cunningham’s performance is so strong, I have a feeling that this will cause many to overlook certain narrative flaws. For example, the nature of a narrator is to tell a story, but video games are an interactive medium. If anything, they are much better prepared to show a story, and at their best, they allow players to do a story.

Let’s look at a more specific example. If in a book it’s considered better to show something to the reader through character action and dialogue, then in a game it’s usually better to have a player experience something through gameplay rather than watching it in a CGI scene.

When it comes to Bastion you have the narrator telling you what’s happening on screen – which is fine because the player is already responsible for those actions - and what’s going on in the characters’ minds. Rather than letting the player make their own assumptions, the game tells them things that, in my opinion, would be better off making part of the gameplay.

In an interview on Bitmob, Bastion’s creative director Greg Kasavin says that they wanted to create an “empathetic main character.” But how empathetic is the Kid? To me he was just an empty avatar. I never really cared about his feelings or how he reacted to the Calamity. And really you only learn about his story when you play in the optional arenas.

While the arenas may work from a gameplay standpoint – they give you an opportunity to hone your skills and earn experience – they are a terrible vehicle for storytelling. You’re trying to survive against waves of increasingly difficult enemies in a confined space while the narrator reveals probably some of the most interesting bits about Caelondia’s and the Bastion’s history.

The gameplay during these sections doesn’t mirror the narration. You’re trying to fight twenty waves of enemies while the narrator is talking about the Kid’s parents and what he did before the Calamity struck. Not only is the dissonance between player action and narrator hard to wrap your head around, it’s also just plain hard to pay close attention to what the narrator’s saying while you’re in the fight of your life.

In another interview on The Daily DL, Kasavin says he wrote roughly 60,000 words for Bastion. For clarification, that’s roughly the length of a short novel. However, “a large slice of this is all back story content mostly for my [his] reference to inform the rest of the writing.” And in all honesty that kind of shows during gameplay. In fiction writing, back story tends to be exposition or the “telling” category from my examples up above. While even though some of Cunningham’s narration doesn’t technically qualify as exposition, because of the nature of a narrator, it all becomes exposition.

Bastion becomes a game of contradictions. On the one hand, its gameplay is more than solid and the art and music are both fantastic. But on the other hand, its coolest feature both helps and hinders it at the same time. The narrator undeniably adds to the overall “flavor” of the game if you will, while at the same time subtracting from the narrative’s impact. I wanted to hear more of Cunningham’s lines because they were so well delivered, but at the same time I also wanted to experience some of what he was telling me for myself.

I honestly can’t decide what to make of the inclusion of a narrator in Bastion. It both works and doesn’t. I simultaneously want more and I want none. No matter how you might feel about the narrator and how he functions, Supergiant Games needs to be commended for taking such a stylistic risk with their first game.

Bastion is an upcoming action RPG by Supergiant Games that hits XBLA this Wednesday, July 20. And it looks gorgeous. Seriously, you must’ve been living under a rock or without internet access if you haven’t heard of Bastion’s hand-painted art style and reactive narrator by now.

So give your ears and eyeballs a treat and watch the brand new launch trailer. Then read our review which will go live tomorrow morning.

Team Meat may be working on its follow-up to the absolutely outstanding Super Meat Boy, but it looks as though one of the developers has something else on the back burner. We may be salivating for our next helping of meat, Edmund McMillen has been slaving over a hot stove. For the past two years he’s had a side project in the works called The Binding of Isaac and here are the first details on the title.

This time around McMillen is working with programmer Florian Himsl (Coil, Triachnid, and the C word) and composer Danny Baranowsky (Canabalt, Super Meat Boy, and Cave Story 3D). While McMillen says he’s going to stay tight-lipped about the deails, but thinks the The Binding of Isaac should be finished within the month and will have more news for us next week. We’ll keep you posted when he breaks his silence.

[McMillen's Blog via Joystiq]

The PAX 10 highlights ten of the hottest new indie games on the market. They’re also some of the best games to check out on the PAX showfloor. Some of last year’s winners included Bastion, Super Meat Boy, and Retro City Rampage. Out of hundreds of submissions, this year’s winners have been chosen.

Which games made the final cut? Hit the jump to find out.

A Flipping Good Time (PC) – Digipen Institute of Technology – Players will have a flipping good time in this fast-paced free-flowing 2D platformer as they flip and fly through an expansive underground world using the fluid nature of gravity to avoid hazardous terrain.

Antichamber (PC) – Alexander Bruce -  Journey through the depths within a non-Euclidean labyrinth where geometry and space follow unfamiliar rules, and many obstacles are a matter of perception.  Players must create, destroy and manipulate matter in this mind-bending psychological exploration game.

Atom Zombie Smasher (PC, Mac, Linux) – Blendo Games - The zombie apocalypse is upon us! Take strategic command of mercenary forces to conduct massive rescue operations using military forces such as snipers, artillery crews, and orbital bombardments to hold back the undead while the civilians escape.

Fez (XBLA) – Polytron – Guide Gomez, a 2D creature, on a voyage of discovery into the mysterious 3rd dimension. Change his perspective and look at the world in a different way.

Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony (PC) – Final Form Games – A neo-classical top-down shooter for up to 4 players set on 17th-century British Colonial Mars with a new twist on the genre. There are no shared pools of health or lives; so long as any player survives, the team can be brought back from death.

Snapshot (PC) – Retro Affect – Pic, a robot camera, can actually absorb objects into photographs, removing them from existence! By pasting pictures back into the world, captured objects – everything from doors, light, even copies of yourself – can be used to solve puzzles.

Solar 2 (PC) – Murudai – In this open-world, sandbox game set in an infinite abstract universe, players are the planets. Play constructively: grow your system, nurture life and attack enemy life in huge battles. Play destructively: crash into objects and cause chaos, use orbiting objects like wrecking balls and steal planets.

Splatters (PC) – SpikySnail – You play as a group of semi-suicidal, liquid filled Splatters that get their kicks by igniting in colorful confetti bombs of liquid. Crash into spikes, ride the slides, Air-Strike into bombs or do just any stunt-combo you can think of. With every new maneuver learned, each show becomes more spectacular.

Vanessa Saint-Pierre Delacroix & Her Nightmare (PC) – Bad Pilcrow – Standing between Vanessa and freedom are platforming mechanics. The twist? Her two-dimensional world lies on the surface of a three-dimensional cube, and players must rotate each face to find clever solutions to a wide variety of problems.

Word Fighter (iOS & Android) – Feel Every Yummy – A one-on-one word battling game that mixes rules from popular word games like Boggle and Scrabble and wraps them around a competitive fighting environment. Think “Street Fighter” meets “Words with Friends”, or word games mashed together with “Super Puzzle Fighter”.

I’m excited to tell you all that Limbo will soon be coming to the PlayStation 3. The title was previously an Xbox Live Arcade exclusive, being a part of Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade 2010. The good word comes from the Korean ratings board, informing us that a multiplatform release is in the works.

When Gamer Limit reviewed the game last year, Sean Carey awarded Limbo a perfect 10 saying that it “it made [him] think, it made [him] feel, and it was incredibly fun to play.”  I, like many PlayStation 3 owners, had to sit back and watch everyone  gush about this game a year ago. This PlayStation Network release is really great news. Hopefully, Playdead’s premiere title will see similar success on PSN as it did on XBLA.

Jonathan Blow (Super Meat Boy, Braid), Chris Hecker (Spy Party, Spore) and Alex Neuse (Bit. Trip Beat, Bit. Trip Runner) touch down May 26 in the UC Santa Cruz Media Theater. The three indie designers will hold an open panel discussion for the college’s Foundations of Interactive Game Design course, or in college speak, CMPS 80K.

The special thing about this panel is that it’s open to the public and free. Aspiring designers and general gamers alike, if you ever wanted to attend a GDC panel but don’t have $200+ to spend, now is your chance to learn the nuts and bolts of meaningful and entertaining game design from tried and true designers.

“We’re excited to have Chris, Alex and Jonathan come and talk with our students about what it’s like to be an independent game designer. This class is many students’ first exposure to what it takes to make a video game and having three such original thinkers come and talk about life beyond the mainstream brings depth to their newly found knowledge” says Jennifer Mahal of UCSC’s Center for Games and Playable Media (G+PM).

The panel will be hosted Noah Wardrip-Fruin, associate professor and director of the G+PM group, UCSC’s proving ground for aspiring designers. The first of its kind in the UC system, G+PM delivers hands on experience to students; while the course in particular founds their game making skills with “technical, play-oriented, narrative, and artistic underpinnings”. In other words if this panel so inspires you, and you find your day trip to Santa Cruz extended for four years, you’ll be making the most of it by developing a game of your own.

Rotastic swings  its way into Xbox LIVE Arcade, Playstation Network and PC Tuesday. The latest from developer Dancing Dots and Focus Home Interactive, the game promises high flying puzzle action on a foundation of simple controls and acrobatics. You play as powerful viking Fraghar, come to loot a medieval kingdom of its riches. Naturally, the game focuses on collecting gems, but there’s a twist — it’s all done while swinging through the air as for some reason or another, Fraghar cannot walk. That means falling off the screen means certain death.

Sound like fun?

The recent 2011 IGF entrant boasts approximately 70 levels and several modes of play including Puzzle, Survivor, Brickbreaker and Versus. It also encourages a little strategy as the more gems you collect in a row, the higher your score. To ratchet up the challenge, the game will also throw environmental obstacles and enemies your way. According to Rotastic‘s website,

Your foes run the gamut from silly (errant chickens, baby bats encased in wooden crates…), to menacing (grown-up and not-encased bats, burning beams, knight-shooting cannons…), and to plain deadly (buzzing buzz saws, enormous flying piranhas, bloody battering rams, giant human-controlled cast metal robotic ghosts).

If you plan on picking up this game, or if you have already, let Gamer Limit know your impressions in the comments below. In the meantime, here are a few screenshots.