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.
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.
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.
Assassins Creed II Sale
Assassins Creed II does not even release for another week, but already you can get the game for $50.99. Sounds like Ubisoft is a little worried people are not going to buy it. Coming out just a week after Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 would probably be some cause for concern. If that makes for cheaper game purchases that is fine with me. I hope more games release at lower prices instead of pushing back their release dates.
Not only can you get the game for $51, but if you pre-order it on Amazon you get an additional $10 credit that applies to any future gaming purchase. Just be sure to use coupon code AMZNACII during checkout to receive $5 off your Assassin's Creed II Pre-order bring the price down to $50.99.
Link to the Assassins Creed II Sale on Amazon
Diablo is not an RPG
Diablo is many things. One of the greatest games of all time? Check. Addictive as hell? Check. A great dungeon crawler experience? Check. An RPG? No. It’s been called an Action RPG and I won’t even give it that. Mostly because, you don’t give a shit about your dude in Diablo. You pick from your given choices of characters, and head down into the randomly generated dungeons on a massive clickfest that will test the integrity of any mouse imaginable, a pixel hunting expedition where you collect various items that will either help or hinder you, some fucking cool weapons, armor and spells and hardly talk to anyone except for shop keeps and Cain the Elder who will identify items for you.
In an RPG, there’s character development. And I’m not talking about upgrading skills and whatnot. I’m talking you learn about the character you’re playing. Intricate storylines (which, yes, Diablo has one but it’s immensely thin), various NPCs you really care about. Diablo has none of that. You go down into the dungeon, and go deeper and deeper.
I used to play this religiously when I was younger on my old 486. Yes, regardless of the fact it says it needs a Pentium 90, it ran on my old 486DX2/66 with 24MB of RAM. It ran slowly, and you could literally go and make coffee during the load times. But it ran. And that’s how I played it for the longest time. Sure, there was the Playstation version, but lets not kid ourselves. That game was TERRIBLE on the Playstation.
Is it an RPG? Hell no. Neither was the old classic Rogue. Nor Fatal Labyrinth on the Sega Genesis. But they definitely were great games that still hold up today. If they released Diablo or Diablo II on XBLA with Live support, I would be IN. Though I doubt that will ever happen.
And from what I’ve heard of Borderlands … it’s pretty much Diablo as a first person shooter. I haven’t heard ONE damn thing about any kind of character development or anything of the sort. You go on quests, kill things and loot like crazy. Which makes me really not give a shit about the game because if I wanted that, I would just play the Diablo game I already own. Maybe when Borderlands drops in price or is given to me, sure. Until then, I’m gonna skip it.
I originally heard the “Diablo isn’t an RPG” thing on Evil Avatar’s Shotgun Podcast, and that’s what prompted me to write this. That and I was bored. I’m gonna go kill some shit in Diablo now.
PopCap and Square Enix … odd mix.
I like me some Bejeweled, don’t get me wrong. Even though Puzzle Quest was insanely overhyped and … quite honestly wasn’t all THAT good. But here we are with Gyromancer. Made by an odd mix of PopCap Games and Square Enix.
But what’s even more odd about it is that it’s only coming out on the PC via Steam and Xbox Live Arcade. Sorry PS3 … better luck next time. But it’ll be interesting to give this a try when it comes out.