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.
Isagolas – an upcoming XBLIG SHMUP
Checked my email when I got home, and behold, a game that sits within one of my favorite genres : the SHMUP. I have no idea where they keep getting these bizarre titles, but oh well. It seems to fit the genre. Of course, I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume there isn’t going to be Xbox Live support because these games NEVER seem to support it. Which is an unfortunate shame, because games like this would be PERFECT over Xbox Live. BUT … here’s a little bit of info behind the game :
The human race is in danger! The Solar System will be your battlefield, only you can stop the alien forces that are trying to exterminate our species.
Join the Humanity Defense Force as Crow, the pilot of the new starship prototypeIsagoras-001 together with captain Crozier and lead the battle for survival.
Red Circle Studio presents Isagoras, a 2.5D shoot’em up that brings new ideas to the classic arcade gameplay and next-gen graphics.
- Use the energy cannons, the high-density laser cannon and the slow-time generator of the Isagoras to destroy the alien army.
- 2 player mode: join forces together with another friend at any time while you are playing and fuse your Isagoras ships to obtain extra power and finish the final bosses.
- 5 levels spanning across the Solar System, from planet Earth to Jupiter’s moons…
- 2D gameplay, 3D graphics.
- Help the HDF to save the remains of the human species.
Now I’ll be perfectly honest in this … purely going by the video having not played it ... I’m not that impressed with the graphics and the music is irritating as hell. BUT if the gameplay holds up those are minor problems. I mean, hell, look at Decimation X. The graphics in that are pure crap (though the music is wicked) but it’s the gameplay that holds that game together and puts it up there as one of the best games of it’s type on the marketplace PERIOD.
But hit the jump to see some screenshots and a gameplay video of Isagora in action and make your own first impressions.
Snailien Invasion for the Xbox 360
I woke up today and saw the weirdest press release for a game … mostly stemming from the title.
Snailien Invasion is a 2D platform shooter similar to Liero and Soldat. Taking the battlefield to the Xbox 360, the game features full HD support, eight player network games and split screen support for up to four players. Expect fast-paced action, grappling-hook swinging fun and tons of weapons to research and try out!
- Play against your friends in the classic modes (deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag).
- Play solo/coop against never-ending waves of drones in the survival mode.
- Research over 30 weapons, all with varying degrees of weirdness, yet useful in their own way.
- Terrain hardness: Some weapons produce concrete, which is much harder to dig though than normal terrain. Gratification for all you fort-builders out there!
- A fun and quirky/weird sci-fi theme, complete with theremins in the intro music :)
It should be out in August according to the developers. Judging from the games it’s inspired by, it’ll probably play something like a real time Worms. You can check out the official site right here and hit the jump for some screenshots.
A small trial impression for Kong 360 : Gorilla Warfare
My gaming time has been somewhat limited lately in the sense that I’ve had to do a LOT of running around lately with very little sleep. But I did give this a shot. When I first saw it I figured it was going to be some sort of knock off of the old QBasic Gorillas game that came with DOS back in the day. Thankfully, I was totally wrong after trying it.
This is a weird mix of a top down shooter with Unreal Tournament … with gorillas. It sounds weird, I know. But damned if it ever works for what little I’ve played so far. Great, detailed graphics, you and your opponents don’t die in half a second like one does in a Call of Duty game. The control works beautifully, and isn’t like your typical dual stick shooter that seems to have invaded the marketplace with an annoyance level that can barely be hidden. You use the sticks like you would normally, but now there’s a REASON for pulling that damn trigger because not only does the right stick point you where to shoot, but it also aims. If you want to aim right in front of yourself, you direct the crosshairs there. Further away … blah blah blah you get the idea. You’re intelligent.
You would think it would hamper the game and slow it down, but it doesn’t at all. It works great. I’m going to be giving this more time indefinitely within the next couple of days to do a proper review, but yeah. In the very LEAST try this out, because not only does it boast 4 player local, but there is also system link and online support for up to 8 players. And I’m probably going to be talking about my experiences with it on the Wasted Seconds Podcast sometime as well. It’s about damn time something DIFFERENT showed up in the way of dual stick shooters.
XBLIG Review – Zombie Estate
God this is so cool. It’s not perfect, and it has it’s problems … but it’s just so damn cool. You’ve played Left 4 Dead right? Sure you have. This is along the same lines at that … though it’s a bit closer to the game Killing Floor to me since the zombies come in waves and you have the chance to buy weapons and whatnot in between the waves.
In it’s most basic sense, it’s another dual stick shooter. And it’s one of those irritating ones that make you hold down a trigger to shoot. I never saw the point with that … yes I’m aware it makes sense to hold a trigger down to shoot. But come on. This is a video game.
But it’s still damned well worth snagging, and I’ll let you read on to find out why … in my humble opinion anyway.
Xbox Live Indie Game Review – Zombie Hunter
Imagine this. Someone played Wolfenstein 3D then played Call of Duty : World at War Nazi Zombies or Left 4 Dead. Now imagine a mix of those two games (in fact, a custom level for Wolfenstein 3D that was as much of a remake of Nazi Zombies as possible would actually be kinda neat) that is no where NEAR as interesting as either one.
That’s what you’ve got here. It’s a VERY basic first person shooter where you run around killing zombies and saving survivors. Occasionally you’ll pick up a scope that let’s you snipe from across the screen … which is kind of odd to me how the guy would lose it in between each level. But whatever, nobody said this game had to make any sense.
You pick up extra guns from time to time, but they all feel the EXACT same, so there’s no real point to it as far as I can tell.
XBLIG Review - meds
This one actually took me a bit to get into because I didn't know quite what to make of it. Hell, I've played a little more of it and I STILL don't quite know what to make of it. It's both terrible and oddly good. So I'll let the developer's description do it :
Meds is a terrifying reimaging of classic oldschool breakout...on drugs. The goal is simple: break all the bricks on screen to clear a level and advance. However, a new ingredient to the old mix is our 'Withdrawal Bar'! As it depletes, the player experiences extreme hallucinations..anything from the screen shaking to seeing astronauts and unicorns! All the while, these effects are randomly generated, so no 2 levels will ever be the same! The game features 50 unique levels, local multiplayer, and 10 different pill powerups!
Xbox Live Indie Game Trial Impression – Project Zero
I’m not going to get in depth with the trial impressions anymore, because I don’t see trial impressions as actual reviews. I see them as a first impression of the game since they only last 8 minutes.
On that note, this game surprised me. I downloaded it expecting it to be utterly HORRIBLE based solely on the screenshots. It just looked like another dual stick shooter to me (which, in it’s most basic sense, it is) and I’m getting bloody sick of dual stick shooters.
The cover art for this game obviously isn’t all that great. It does not represent the game at all. It looks like it was just slapped together at the last minute to get the thing out there.
But I’m not one to completely judge a game by it’s cover art. In fact, I’m the total opposite because the crappier the cover art the more likely I am to try the game just to see how horrible it really is.
Xbox Live Indie Game Review – Avatar Racedrome
Yet another avatar game. But this time it’s a racing game that’s surprisingly good. Avatar Racedrome is a little 80 point game that, while a little limited, provides a great casual racing experience in a small package.
You get 16 reversible tracks, 2 player split screen play, up to 8 players over Xbox Live and your choice between a single race or a Championship mode.
Now, other than a practice mode, that’s really all you get, and don’t be expected a Forza here. It doesn’t even try to be like that thankfully. If it was trying to be like Forza, being that it has the avatars it would fail miserably.
Let’s get into this sucker though and try to pretend you really care what I think.
Save the Scribbles!!!
Okay, I honestly don’t know ANYTHING about this game other than the fact it’s a tower defense game. As of this moment, I couldn’t care less about the scribbles, but tower defense games are interesting to me. I play them on my iPod Touch to kill time, and there is an obvious love for NextWar : The Quest for Earth. But for the most part, I’m a VERY casual tower defense gamer. I play what it comfortable for me and where I can have fun. All I know about this game is that fact … it’s a tower defense game. With a pretty friggin’ cool art style judging from the video. But it has some other things going for it as well, from the press release.
- The player can re-position enemy waypoints to their advantage
- Dynamic waypoints make the game challenging by constantly shifting their position thus changing the path of the enemies
- Puzzle elements have been infused with the map design, making players think beyond just placing towers by making the playing field more dynamic with pre-placed towers, and interesting tower powers
- Players are encouraged to move around the battlefield to collect money and power up their towers with their presence
This is definitely one I will at least try when it comes out though … it has some interesting looking gameplay elements to it. And who knows, it could be the game that turns the typical tower defense game on it’s head. Tower defense games aren’t exactly the best way to go on a console like the 360 or the PS3 just because those analog sticks don’t replace a mouse by any stretch. But those analog sticks also potentially add a gameplay element that hasn’t REALLY been explored before … maybe … just maybe this game either hits it or starts an idea.
We’ll just have to see.