Voxatron - Spiffy looking arena style shooter.
I haven’t seen a game quite like this in a while. The destruction in the video looks awesome and I can’t wait to play me some of this. Here’s from the site :
Voxatron is an arena shooter that takes place in a world made of voxels (little cubes, kind of). Everything in the game is displayed in a virtual 128x128x64 voxel display, including the menus and player inventory. If you look closely, you can sometimes see the inventory (score/life/ammo) casting a shadow on some of the objects on the ground.
I've been working on voxel rendering and modeling tools for a long time now, with the ultimate goal of making a large explorey adventure game. About half a year ago it fused with work I was doing on arena shooters for Conflux, and this is the result.
It's quite a simple game at heart -- mostly just Robotron set in a 3d destructible world with goofy creatures. I'm unsure how major the implications of destructibility will be for gameplay, but it sure is fun to blast away pieces of wall. I've also added an experimental wall-building pickup you can use to construct barriers to hide from scary monsters.
The game takes place in a small set of arenas. Some of them feature rooms with set action pieces, somewhere between Knightlore and Smash TV. This is some of the original adventure based design sneaking back in, and an excuse to create thematic environments.
Features:
- Custom software rendering with soft shadows.
- Built-in sound and music synthesizer (also used to make the trailer music).
- Playback & post game recording.Voxatron will be ready later this year, but I'll create a single-arena preview version too.
Hit the jump for a spiffy video. Thanks to Flare over on the GameGavel forums. One of these days I shall have the patience to do the type of games I want to do. Text based versions of shit I don’t play in the first place. That’s the master plan.
Going back to Need for Speed Underground
We all probably know of the “Fast and the Furious” movies. Some people love them, other people hate them. I’m of neither camp in the fact that I just kind of see it a date movie or popcorn movie. Just something to sit back, watch and have fun.
But the movie did inspire a whole slew of video games, the highest on the list that initially hit (for me anyway) was original Need for Speed Underground from 2003. And I picked it up again recently on the Playstation 2. When I first played it in either 2003 or 2004, I didn’t have any of the then current generation consoles, so I played it on the PC. Which, in reality, is the way it’s meant to be played. Of course, when I first started playing it I was running it on a system that couldn’t quite handle it at full detail. But I didn’t care. I still had a blast with it.
Bio Menace for DOS
Yet another one of those old shareware games that I never got to play the full version of until recently. Bio Menace. Honestly, I don’t know a whole lot about this game other than the fact it (obviously. Something that I noticed even back in the day) uses the Commander Keen engine. But it’s also the first game I played at home with any sort of blood and guts in it. Bodies are strewn about the blasted landscape, when the aliens die they blow up into little meaty bits and eyeballs and the like. When you think about it, this is a rather violent and disturbing game. But you can learn a lot more than I could ever tell you about this on the Wikipedia page. But great graphics (for the time), great music by Bobby Prince, decent sidescrolling run and gun gameplay. While it’s not perfect, and is actually pretty hard it’s definitely worth trying. And the main character’s name is Snake and he has a mullet. You can’t get much cheesier than that. I’m going through it again now because I never got the chance to back in the day. Back then I don’t even remember passing the first level to be perfectly honest. :) As usual, all the screenshots are courtesy of MobyGames and you can find the full version download at the bottom.
Major Stryker for DOS
This is one of those games that I never played the full version of until recently. In all honesty I had almost completely forgotten about it. I snagged this off of a bulletin board back in 1993 and I remembered LOVING it. Now, granted, a lot of these old PC games don’t fare too well nowadays. But this is one of those games that definitely stands the test of time. Another thing that made this game special to me back in the day and really helped turn me on to PC gaming was the fact that I had a PC that could run this … and a Nintendo. I didn’t have a Sega Genesis or SNES, it was the PC and the Nintendo … and the Atari 2600. And it was games like this and the original Duke Nukem games that showed me that the Nintendo wasn’t all there was out there in my little world.
While there isn’t anything particularly SPECIAL about it, it’s a fully playable and damned impressive vertically scrolling shmup with sharp, detailed 16 color EGA graphics (with parallax scrolling. Trust me, it was a big deal back in the day.) and some GREAT music by Bobby Prince that I unfortunately never got to experience until today because the PC I had to play this game at the time didn’t have a sound card. Hell, the music alone is worth the download, and I wish I had it to stick on my iPod, it’s that good with a monstrous 20 song soundtrack (granted, a few of them are the typical short “You’re dead.” tunes that I tend to hear a lot) … and there are a grand total of 30 sound effects in the entire game. With one voice sample that says “Game over, man!”
Gameplay isn’t anything you haven’t played before, you move around and shoot straight up. There are powerups in the game that give you different types of shots (including the ability to shoot behind yourself). But even on the beginner level this is one hell of a hard game. At least it is to me. I’ve never had this many problems with a shmup, not even the bullet hell style games. :)
Great game with some even better music. And is well worth the price of free because it was released as such at one point. If you like shmups or good video game music, it’s definitely worth a try. It may look dated, but fun games are fun games. All screenshots courtesy of MobyGames. Hit the jump to see them and download the game.
Double Dragon for the the PC
Back in the day, this was my introduction to the Double Dragon series. Not the arcade version (though I knew it was an arcade port), and not the NES version. THIS particular port. And I remember having such HORRID memories of the game. Maybe I just couldn’t stand the constant gangups (if you’ve got enemies on either side of you, prepare for a beating). Maybe I just wasn’t that much into beat ‘em ups at the time. I don’t know. Or maybe it was the keyboard control scheme for it. Unlike the more popular NES version, this one actually supports two player cooperative play, which was a big draw for the day. And that made it slightly more arcade like in it’s experience.
Super C for DOS
Why the DOS version? Why not the arcade version. Or the NES version. Because back in those days I didn’t get to a lot of arcades and I mostly had an old PC to work with, so this is the version of it I would have played if I didn’t have an NES. Don’t judge it by the piss poor EGA graphics though, it plays great and is just as balls hard as any other version of the game. I tried to play it earlier and didn’t even make it past the first level, gonna have to try again once I have a little more patience and can remember where everything is. Considering what PCs were back in 1990, and the fact that they couldn’t force people to buy a 386 for this when most people were still running either an 8088 or a 286, this isn’t a half bad port and is at least worth trying for those of you who are curious about what we had to deal with as far as arcade ports back in the day. I was going to put the original Contra for DOS on here as well, but that’s an unplayable atrocity of a game. Thankfully I never played it back in the day and stuck with the NES version. PCs of the day just weren’t set up to handle a game like that. You just use the arrow keys to move around and aim and use the 0/Insert key on your numerical pad to jump and ./Del to fire.
The sound is pretty good, the graphics, despite the fact that they’re EGA are pretty well detailed. The game manages to keep track of the hectic nature of the overall game great and the music is good. And, above all else, the control is solid. Even the 4 color CGA graphics look halfway decent, though nowadays there’s no reason to even play it that way unless you just want to see it like that for some reason.
Kinda makes me when I had a 286 layin’ around somewhere so I could play this game on it.
If you let it sit for a little bit, it even has the arcade’s corny opening (minus the voices) and is definitely worth a watch. All images via Mobygames beacuse I can’t get far enough in the game to take good screenshots. :)
Get your Sol Survivor fix on the PC through Steam.
Soul Surviror made a splash on Xbox Live Indie Games a little bit back, bringing us a tower defense game with some neat twists to the formula and, in my opinion, beating out the XBLA release Defense Grid by a large margin. And what added to that intense level of polish was the fact that it didn’t skimp on features like a lot of indie games on Microsoft’s service did having full Xbox Live multiplayer support. And now it’s out for the PC through Steam for $9.99.
Jump in to intense turret defense action with Sol Survivor! Build turrets to defend your colony and the innocent colonists within. Smash enemies with volleys of actively-controlled orbital support. Play with friends in co-operative and competitive multiplayer matches or test your mettle against our new Survival mode!
- Support abilities, allowing more direct influence in the battle.
- Select from one of 10 load-outs to fit your play style.
- Up to 8 player multiplayer with 4 different modes, featuring both competitive and co-operative play.
- Immersive control and camera design, giving a better view of the battle.
- Survival mode, testing even the most well constructed defenses.
- In-game encyclopedia, providing deep statistics and strategies.
- Achievements, Leaderboards and Steam Cloud support.
And judging from that last bullet point, it didn’t skimp all that much on features for the PC release either. Having Steam Cloud support is beyond awesome and something that every game on the service should have that can support it. And, in this humble blogger’s opinion, it’s all set up to kick Defense Grid’s ass on the PC front. Honestly, where a game like this belongs.
Duality ZF Insanity
Now, I don’t normally curse a lot in these types of posts, but this is different. All I’ve got to say is holy fucking bloody Jesus in a handbasket. I have a serious feeling this is gonna be one of those games where I lose a controller. If this sucker plays anywhere near as good as it looks we’re going to have one HELL of a shmup on our hands. And from the looks of it they paid attention to the hitboxes as well, which is good because a lot of these Xbox indie games that come out like this, they don’t pay attention to that. And it really kills the game.
Fuck man … I’m having trouble just keeping track of ONE of the ships let alone everything on screen. I wanna play this. Right fucking now.
Left 4 Dead 2 DLC – The Passing
I believe it’s set to come out Spring of 2010, and it will feature the original 4 survivors we all know and love along with the new ones. So that means … Rochelle AND Zoey in the same game. And that’s too much awesome to pass up. There isn’t any word on pricing yet, but if it’s anything like the last Left 4 Dead campaign that hit the consoles, it’ll probably cost 7 bucks. Again. And be free on the PC. Blame Microsoft for that one.
Granted, I didn’t care. I snagged Crash Course on the PC and happily shelled out my Microsoft Space Bucks for it on the 360 just because it’s great stuff.
But going back to “The Passing” it’ll be a whole new campaign bringing back the old survivors, as well as new arenas for Survival, Versus and Scavange modes. New firearms, new melee weapons. A new “uncommon” zombie (uncommon zombies … a good example is that damn clown). As well as a new co-operative challenge mode. And even if they charge for it on both platforms, I’ll still get it.
So this isn’t going to be a light one. And I can’t wait for it. Left 4 Dead 2 for the win. Down with Modern Warfare 2.
Like I said. Can’t wait.
via GayGamer
Demo Impression of RIP 3
Lately I’ve been downloading demos on Steam of what I think will run on a netbook (and no, I don’t want to hear about running such a crappy computer. I have a perfectly serviceable desktop). One of them was Torchlight. And while it’s an excellent game, the performance on my little Acer Aspire One … even in Netbook Mode was pretty pathetic. It’s not going to keep me from buying it though.
But this isn’t about Torchlight. This is about the demo for RIP 3. The entire trilogy is available on Steam for $4.99, but when you go to download the demo, they give you the demo for the newest game. Which makes sense, especially since the trilogy is so cheap.