I’m not a big shmup fan, but Final Form Games’ Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony broke down my barriers. With it’s unique setting (17th Century Mars?!) memorable sprite-based artwork, and killer gameplay it became my favorite shmup.

Well, now I have a reason to play it again. Final Form Games have released the Gunpowder, Treason, and Plot DLC today! Hit the jump for more details. Read more… »

The world doesn’t end in 2012, at least that is not the check out date according to Fate of the World: Tipping Point. Also, there is no fugitive asteroid coming to claim us all. According to the game, the world will most likely suffer a slow, agonizing death full of drought, famine and civil unrest a century or two from now. This is good news for us, bad news for future generations and careless time travelers.

Despite the dark and sardonic outlook, this turn based card game manages to instill hope in an otherwise crumbling world. This is because in Fate of the World: Tipping Point, or FotW:TP for short, you’re placed in the mantle of power, with the chance to turn things around through real world solutions. This is no walk in the park, however, as with this power players must balance resources and public perception or they will wind up on the wrong end of a revolution. Are you up to the challenge?

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The tower defense genre has always been one of my favorite ways to kill time when gaming. There’s something that is just so satisfying about building the perfect line of defense and watching your maze of death take care of everything. While this genre has previously been relegated to modifications and other derivative works (WarCraft III custom maps, etc.), now digital distribution services like Steam allow game developers to create fleshed out, full fledged titles. Orcs Must Die is one of these full fledged tower defense titles.

As the name implies, Orcs Must Die involves building a series of traps so that wave after wave of oncoming Orcs meet a grisly end. This sounds entertaining on paper but, as gamers know better than anyone, the proof is in the play. To see if Orcs Must Die is worth your money, hit the jump. Read more… »

This review of Dungeon Defenders must begin with a short study of M. Night Shyamalan’s film, Lady In The Water. It’s a worthy comparison in its own way. Both game and film feature casts of characters who must defend their precious jewels from evil (in the film it’s a lady and in the game it’s an actual jewel).

One character in Shyamalan’s film also serves as a metaphor for the game as a whole. It’s Reggie the Guardian, that guy with one super buff arm and one regular arm. Translate that into Dungeon Defenders; from one side it seems to have true strength as a co-op RPG. Take a look from another angle, and it’s a rather bland tower defense title.

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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.

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You’re on Banoi, an island paradise off the coast of Papua New Guinea. You’re on the job so you can’t enjoy the beaches, the tropical climate and whatever else this pacific island promises. So you don’t want to be here, not like this, going through one loathsome motion after another. Then, like an unsuspected monsoon, a zombie outbreak quickly turns loathsome into terrifying.

While that’s the general situation for all of Dead Island‘s playable characters, those who pick up the sticks for this title must sample similar loathing for some of its mechanics. There is so much promise and beauty. Yet, you can’t avoid the biting flaws threatening to tear this game down. After all the hype, Dead Island mostly teeters between the extremes of awesome immersion and near rage inducing frustration, creating what can best be described as a love-hate relationship with the player.

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As a series, Dungeon Siege has always had an odd position in games industry.  Dungeon Siege III‘s predecessors were adequate PC dungeon crawling romps that stood in the colossal shadow of Blizzard’s incredibly popular Diablo games. While it proved to be a moderate success, the franchise seemed to fade away into obscurity shortly after release of the sequel.

Now, Square-Enix has acquired publishing rights to the series . This time around Dungeon Siege has the jump on Diablo III, and is on both consoles and the PC.  Dungeon Siege III set out with ambitious promises to deliver a revamped, reworked Dungeon Siege experience. In practice it’s one that often falls short, leaving us with a mildly entertaining, linear hack-and-slash game.

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Last year, Cipher Prime followed up their auricular puzzle game, Auditorium, with yet another puzzler, Fractal for the PC. Long story short, we enjoyed it. Short story long, the game featured simple yet challenging puzzles set to a mellow soundtrack. It stole the hours from under your oblivious feet.

The game is back and this time it’s for the iPad in the form of Fractal: Make Blooms Not War. After getting caught nearly numb pushing hexagons to an fro for who know how long, one must say that it’s as much a match made in heaven as a game and platform can get.

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A new champion is on the horizon and her name is Riven. Riot Games recently announced that a sword-master with a mysterious past will be joining the cast, and the community is all abuzz about what her abilities could be, and her general role in the meta. The top predictions seem to be gunning for a Mage Tank or melee push dps, but of course, we won’t know until she actually drops.

A lot of “fans” are complaining that it looks too “Final Fantasy“, but I for one welcome the design – having a diversified design palette can only mean good things for gamers who are interested in joining the community. One of my favorite things about League of Legends is playing as champions that are appealing to me aesthetically – if I don’t like a champion’s look, I won’t play as him – it’s pretty simple!

Hit the jump for a full look at Riven’s storyline, in picture teasing format. Read more… »

Today Riot Games announced that the Mac version of their extremely popular free-to-play MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) game League of Legends has been put on the back burner indefinitely.

According to Riot, the reason the project was put on hiatus was due to inconsistencies in the frequent updates and patches. These issues all stem for the fact that, while Riot handles all development on the PC, the Mac version of LoL is being developed externally by TransGaming. While Riot is able to keep up with all the patches and new content, TransGaming seems to be a bit slower, often leaving LoL outdated and unavailable to Mac gamers. Read more… »

Back when the Gundemonium Collection landed on the PlayStation Network last year, we gave it high marks for providing three great games at a value price. Now, the Rockin’ Android is bringing this collection of Japanese indie shooters to Steam. GundeadliGne (my personal favorite of the bunch) will be receiving support for online co-operative play. Hopefully that will make that game’s “Demonic” difficulty setting more manageable.

In addition to that, all three titles will be receiving Steam achievements and remixed soundtracks. The Gundemonium Collection will be landing on steam on September 27th for $9.99. Alternatively, you can pick up each title individually for $3.99.

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Riot Games went all out at PAX Prime this past week, providing a ton of coverage on their increasingly popular MOBA style game, League of Legends, and specifically showing some footage of the upcoming gametype, Dominion. Hundreds of players flocked to Riot’s booth to play in tons of all out battles, and pick up some PAX exclusive skins. As Riot has promised, Dominion looks like it’s incredibly fast paced, which is good news for hardcore PVP fans who are bored of hour long stalemates in Summoner’s Rift.

There’s even a bit of cosplaying to be found, so even if you’re not interested in the genre, you’re bound to at least get some enjoyment out of it.