Grotesque Tactics and a new game

This has been overdue, but work has got me running all over the place and working late for the last week, so I haven't had a lot of time to sit down and really finish this game, so apologies.

Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes $9.99
Time played before: 0 Hours
Time played upon Completion: 8 Hours

Review

Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes (GT:EH) is a good game for what it is, a satire on the RPG genre, but it fails to execute in necessary areas at times. While it gets a good many things right, the simplistic nature of combat with very little tactics involved, contrary to its name, make playing it stale very quickly.

To start with the good, the story and dialog are good. GT:EH takes from RPGs the most cliche and predictable elements, and gives them a twist. You have the brooding, emo hero, who near the beginning of the story is going to off himself via some carnivorous mushrooms. That is until the greatest hero the world has known, Holy Avatar, stops him to fight against the Dark Church and their leader, the Mother of God. You go along, getting new party members, from scantily clad maidens pining for the Avatar to a goblin thief and goth vampire. There are some witty humor in the dialog by some characters, but others seem to grate on you a bit. Predictable plot twists are made abundant to make sure to drive home the fact of parody.

As for the gameplay, I really enjoyed it for the first hour or two. After that, the repetitive nature of the game began to drive down the playability. You're sent to different areas from a central hub town, with a book full of quests to do usually, and wipe out enemies and finding loot along the way. The problem doesn't lie here, it is really with the combat and progression of characters. When you come close enough to an enemy, the battle begins. You move along squares and attack enemies in turn based style, and that is it. Each character only has their regular attack and two special skills, which unlock at 4 and 8. There are really no tactics involved in this game. Keep the archer maidens and your healing angel back from the fray, and move your melee fighters in for the kills. Sure there are bushes that give you more defense, but it seems like these areas are abundant enough everybody is always sitting in one. I suppose the simplistic design may have been the point, but really, it just ruined it for me.

Each item of loot gained is usually an upgrade unless you managed to purchase something better, but the options are limited to weapon, armor and helmet. Potions grant boons and can heal you, and that is as far as the inventory system goes.

The only tactical thing about GT:EH is the obsession meter. Each hero has a bar that when you attack or receive damage fills. After full, a type of limit break occurs. But instead of being useful, usually they tend to hinder you. The only one who is useful all the time is the main character's, who increases the attack power of allies around him. Others need to be watched carefully, or death from your own characters may come quickly. The Holy Avatar puts everybody, including allies, around him to sleep with his tales of adventure. The 3 maidens, in a rage, shoot anybody, including your own forces, that are near the Holy Avatar. The angel Angelica will beat up on any teammate because they aren't protecting the healer, the goblin blinds everybody near him and teleports away, West the barbarian goes berserk and attacks with increased AP anybody near him (seemed like it was always an ally), and the vampire predictably sucks your blood. Making sure only enemies are near the Avatar when a maiden fills her meter or the goblin is surrounded by enemies, is the only tactical decisions I ever made.

The controls are terrible to say the least. Panning the camera around the battlefield is slow and not the fluid thing I would expect. You can move either by clicking tiles or moving via wsad, but most of the time didn't go where I wanted them to. Good news is you're not stuck with your movement, if you didn't go where you intended to, or changed your mind, you're free to continue moving within your area until an attack.

Graphics are underwhelming, not surprising. The character models are squares of polygons, and enemies frequently switch out different palette to show new ones. One good feature is new equipment is actually shown on your characters, but its little improvement. Sound is the same, nothing stood out. Music is atmospheric but nothing special, and as for battles, the grunts of attacks and swiping of swords is all to be heard.

Final Verdict

Gameplay: 6/10
Graphics: 4/10
Sound: 4/10
Story: 8/10
Replay: 2/10

Overall: 6/10

GT:EH gets the story right, which is really what matters in a satire and parody. But its lackluster gameplay and poor camera and controls stop it from shining. The combat is just too simplistic for a tactics title for my taste, but I'm sure some will greatly enjoy it. If you want to enjoy a funny story and some non tactical SRPG combat, load up GT:EH, otherwise, wait until you're bored with nothing else to do.

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The next game to wipe off the backlog will be..
The Void $9.99
An interesting looking game, apparently all in game actions are done through drawing your actions and way using your own blood. Weird, but good to see something different.

2013 is going to be good to Wii U

I'm about done with Grotesque Tactics, review should be up tomorrow at the latest.

While I don't actually own a Wii U at this moment, the news that Nintendo dropped yesterday may actually have me go pick one up.

During Nintendo's Direct broadcast, they have just made up for the last bit of lack luster start that the Wii U has endured, and will be making this coming up E3 one to watch for Nintendo fans. They have come out in 2013 swinging, dropping names like Zelda, Mario and Smash Bros. Here is an actual list of the games that Nintendo officially has announced.

A new, HD Zelda game. While it's still very early in its production stage, they made it clear they are rethinking the way Zelda is played. There will be no more dungeon order and, I'm a bit afraid about this, possibly having a multiplayer aspect to a game that has been exclusively single player for its history.

An old Zelda remake, in HD. That's right, Wind Waker is coming back. The gamecube hit will include Wii U gamepad functionality and features. Nintendo stated it would be out in August of this year. Basically created to hold us over until the above HD Zelda would be released. Upgraded graphics, lighting, and functionality with the Miiverse will be included.

New Super Smash Bros. This one is a double whammy. Both the Wii U and the 3DS will be receiving the great brawler. No word on release yet, but can't wait.

Wii U Mario Kart. Again, not much information on this one, but it has been officially confirmed.

New 3D Mario game. By the same makers of the Galaxy series and Super Mario 3D land. If you're lucky enough to be visiting E3 this June, Nintendo has said that all 3 games above would be playable at it.

New Fire Emblem game, though it is a crossover with Shin Megami Tensei franchise. I've never played the latter, but the Fire Emblem series are great strategy RPG titles, and can't wait.

Yoshi's Land, with the art style of the great Kirby's Epic Yarn, is being developed for the Wii U. Going to be a 2D platformer most likely and is looking good.

The Virtual Console will be up and running this April. Both NES and SNES games will be the start, and can be purchased for around $5. If you previously bought the games on the Wii, you can unlock them for use with the game pad for about $1. Though if you have a huge library and don't feel like paying all those dollars, you can still play them in Wii mode without the features of Wii U.

The same developer that created the Xeno series, including Xenoblade Chronicles, is creating a new RPG for the Wii U. Not a lot of information can be gathered from the bit shown, but it looks pretty in HD.

Wii U Party, essentially a mini game collection. Nintendo stated that it is built to show the functionality of the Wii U gamepad, but I'm sure some of the mini games should be fun too.

Along with some Miiverse upgrades, this is the list of things to come to Nintendo. Just writing all that makes me want to go buy one, at least before Wind Waker hits. I have fond memories of that game, and playing it in beautiful HD should be great.

ESO Beta Signup

The play through for Grotesque Tactics is going well, but another bit of gaming news that I just stumbled upon for those interested:

Elder Scrolls Online, an MMO set in the universe of games like Morrowind and Skyrim, has just started closed beta signups for anybody to submit. The website is:

http://signup.elderscrollsonline.com/

Fill out everything that you can, as the more you fill it, the more it raises your chances to be included in the beta, at least that is what it says, who knows really.

This is the trailer that was also released.

I assume each of the 3 groups is one of the factions, facing off against monsters in some CGI bliss, and then at the end eying each other down. Below though is the actual game play footage released a bit ago.

It doesn't actually say when the beta will start up, but considering there is a release of 2013, can't imagine it could be too far off.

I for one will be playing with the Ebonheart Pact, just because it includes Argonians, which is easily my favorite race in the Elder Scrolls series. If you plan on playing, what faction do you plan to align yourself with?

Spinning the Roulette Wheel

The next game to tick off the backlog will be..
Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes - $9.99
An title that is essentially a satire of the entire RPG genre. As my game of choice most of the time, should be a fun little romp.

So in other gaming news, that I'm behind on as usual, Dragonborn is finally coming to the PC on February 5th. As for PS3,  no release date has been specifically placed, but apparently all 3 DLC will be coming sometime in February. Even better for PS3 users, if there can be any after this long of a delay, is each is being discounted for the first week. Though I doubt us PC users will get any for the delay of Dragonborn, but oh well.

I'm thinking I may need to level a new character, as I don't even remember where most my characters are at. Not sure as to what I should make though. Never went through really as a pure stealthy thief character, so it might be nice for a change of pace.

I've been waiting patiently for this expansion since it released on Xbox almost 2 months ago, hopefully this is the last one with a exclusivity agreement attached. It's quite a pain to keep away from all the spoilers of the game for that long while we wait.

Also, as I said, I get behind most gaming news, but this is just too cool to pass up talking about. The Oculus Rift is possibly the coolest thing I've seen in a while. I'm a little late to the party, but for those who have less time for games than I do, it's basically a device you strap over your eyes and it creates a VR display. It completely tracks your head movements, allowing you to look 360 degrees and up and down the world you're looking at.

You can order a dev kit with the unit for $300, which will be sent out in April. But if you don't plan to develop games with it, they say wait because it will essentially be a prototype of the consumer version. Currently, they plan to only release for the PC (another point for us PC gamers), but want to eventually expand it to consoles.

The following is a video that shows reporters reactions to the OR at CES. I for one, can't wait if it works this well with games.

Far Cry

Far Cry : $9.99
Time Played Before: 0 Hours
Time Played After: 10 Hours

Review

Remember when games didn't rely on magical health regen and body armor was a luxury found in the obscure corners of levels? Well, welcome to nostalgia with Far Cry. A run and gun adventure through a jungle, facing both human and non human enemies, on a mission to save the world from an evil genius. Sounds like the plot for a B-list movie, which, I suppose would be a appropriate for Far Cry.

The game starts by showing you on a boat, as a woman speeds off on a jet ski, and then your boat is promptly blown up by an RPG. You're then dropped into the island surrounded by mercenaries. Not much of a start, but at least it gets you to the action right away. You find a device that has an insider on the island willing to help you. He leads you into secret bases, blowing up targets, along boat rides through rivers swarming  with mercs, and generally just gets you into trouble. All of this ultimately leads to a story that is bigger than just escaping the island, and has to do with the mystery woman at the beginning, but I won't spoil it.

The mechanics of the game don't work as well as you'd want them to. Stealth seems to be impossible to accomplish. Staying crouched or prone in the grass and moving along silently seem to do nothing, and it doesn't help that there is only one suppressed weapon in the entire game, and it's terrible. The AI seems to instantly know where you are should you take down one of their own, making it really annoying trying to get the jump on them. I gave up trying to be a ninja about 5 minutes in, because it's far easier to run in with guns blazing and shred the opposition with bullets. Granted, I was playing on the normal difficulty, so if you're playing on "realistic", more stealth and the use of cover will be needed I'm sure.

I for one really wish games hadn't gone to the health regen of today. Having to hide behind a box for 4 seconds while my health recovers makes the game far too easy. That is what Far Cry does well. You have a health bar, it gets low, the only way to get it back is to find a med pack. Body armor is lying around as well, and as your mystery friend over the radio tells you, it'll cover up your red Hawaiian shirt your wearing as well. Med packs are still plentiful enough to make the game not frustrating, until some of the later levels with rockets spamming past you.

Gun play is what it's all about, and that is satisfying for the most part. I enjoyed most of the guns, but tended to stick with only a few. You can carry 4 at a time, and most of the time I kept a shotgun, sniper, M4 assault rifle, and a P90 Sub-machine gun. New guns are introduced by enemies  as you get later in the game, but most didn't have the accuracy or range to make them any good in ranged combat, but tear through enemies when you get close. There are no iron sights, which surprised me. All that happens is the reticule zooms in a bit, allowing better accuracy.

Both cars and boats are available for you to commandeer to make your way through the level even easier. As some of the missions are quite expansive, these make the trip through them a bit less tiresome. They're surprisingly weak though, and can be ready to explode in a matter of seconds with enough guns pointed at you.

About a quarter of the way through the game, new enemies suddenly appear in the form of "Trigen". Basically mutated monkey things. They're ugly, they jump long distances at you, and take your health down in an instant. I wasn't really expecting mutant monkeys when I set out on this adventure. The story kind of took a 180 almost instantly, from shooting mercs to shooting monkey creatures. Theses Trigen have no loyalties, and can do your work for you with mercenaries wandering about, but will quickly turn toward you when they run out of targets. Eventually, you get Trigen with guns and rockets. And can cloak. Joy. Really reminds me of the random changes of the Uncharted series, except this happens far sooner.


Graphics are alright for an older game. I remember the big thing with this, which runs on the Crytek engine and was made by the same crew that currently makes the Crysis series, was the draw distance. Really, by now, the distance is comparable to average games, but at the time, being able to zoom in using a sniper or your binoculars, and see or shoot distant enemies was a big deal. Everything else just looks like the typical older game. Textures pop in when you near them, not that they're great. You shouldn't go into the game expecting gorgeous graphics, but remember, the game is quite old at this point, and does hold up well enough to not be painful.


Sound is actually decent, apart from the voice acting. If you do try to stealth, mercs foot steps can be heard along corridors allowing for surprise. Gun fire is booming. Guards actually discuss random things among themselves, usually the bashing of either their leader or you. As for the voice acting of the 5 people that speak the most, it's awful. I'm not sure if they were going for as corny and played out as possible, but they nailed it. The player sounds quite a bit like Duke Nukem, minus the fun. It's just bad. He makes jokes that nobody would laugh at. I really wanted to skip cut scenes more than once because of it.

Story is weird. At the beginning, there really isn't much of one. As you explore, you learn more, things like the woman was with CIA, and chose you to transport her because you have spec ops training. It really all comes down to an evil genius wanting to better man kind, by wiping them out with a jump in evolution. It's utterly ridiculous, but it still made me want to see the ending.

Final Verdict

Gameplay: 7/10
Graphics: 6/10
Sound: 6/10
Story: 4/10
Replay: 2/10

Overall: 5/10

There's really nothing wrong with Far Cry, it just doesn't stand out with today's bloated market of FPS. I really enjoyed the old school way of health and armor, but that doesn't justify its mediocrity elsewhere. The story is absolutely as weird as it gets, and it told with some of the worst voice acting I've heard in a while. If you enjoy older style FPS games, try it out, otherwise, just stick to the newer games in the series.

Next Spin will occur later tonight.

Next Spin..

For some reason, I forgot to spin for a  new game in the last post. Probably was suffering some kind of PTSD from Ironclads. Anyways, here it is..

Far Cry 2: $9.99

But..never played through the first one.
I know they don't have a continuous story, but rule 5 must be enacted, so..
Far Cry : $9.99 it is.

Post incoming in the next couple days.

Ironclads: Schleswig War 1864

Ironclads: Schleswig War 1864 - $9.99
Time Played Before: 0 hours
Time Played After: 8 minutes

Review

Yes, you read it correctly. I played this for 8 minutes. 8 minutes I'll never get back. This isn't' going to be so much of a review as it is going to be a warning. A warning for those who haven't been exposed to the game that is Ironclad.

It started simple enough, loaded into the config menu that is outside the game. I'm informed by the screen that my video card, a Nvidia GTX 670 4gb Superclock, doesn't support "good" water. Ok, my GPU is quite beefy, but apparently, I can't have good water. Fine, no big deal. Set the rest of the options, run the game.

Okay, no tutorial. Or help. Or any direction. Okay..well, I guess new game. Choose a side. Okay, well, at least I know which flags are which, I do have a BA in History. Problem is, most people don't. No caption as to who you'll be playing as. This is starting well. Ok, I suppose the Danes it is. Now choose a mode: Arcade, Normal, Simulation. I guess normal? I understand the differences..kind of..but no text as to what they are for those who don't? Who made this? Oh well.

Okay..now it seems I have a certain amount of cash, what are these buttons..okay..I can buy ships..good...4 ship designs..okay, not enough money to get the top two..not sure how I get new money as there are no missions..but alright, guess I'll get a mix of the bottom two. Oh, I can buy 2 of the bottom and one mid bottom..or 4 bottom ones..I guess the latter? There are stats for each, but most of them mean nothing to me..seeing as I'm not a nineteenth century sailor..

Okay, I'm finally looking at boats. And some buttons.. and most do nothing it seems. Good god this needs a tutorial. Okay, I see a throttle, and what appears to be steering. Guess guns shoot on their own, or you can stop them..alright..okay, so there seems to be 6 enemy ships across this sea. Good thing I had the funds to purchase a decent navy..oh wait..I have 4 shitty ships that are probably going to be destroyed easily. So full speed ahead!

And...nothing. Why aren't I moving? Throttle is full, no movement. Looks like the enemy is sailing right at me. Good, I'll just sit here and wait to die. Then suddenly, there we go! So theres like a 20 second delay on the throttle, that's not annoying at all. Okay, here we go..slowly. My god this is slow. Even using the fast forward button. I mean, I know ships in the nineteenth century didn't move all that fast, but this is a game..or a new form of torture..not sure which.

Okay, couple minutes later, I'm nearing the enemies..so turn the broad side so I can fire my cannons at them..and 2 shots before I'm out of range. 2. and one falls harmlessly in the water. Okay, and my lead ship has now been riddled with cannon fire. Attempts to manuever to evade fire and try to counter attack fail miserably, as my ships seem to be run by monkeys and can't follow simple requests. And the decision that I can't take it comes fore front. Good bye Ironclads..I hope to never see you again.

Final Verdict

Gameplay: 2/10
Graphics: 5/10
Sound: 4/10

Overall: 2/10

This iteration of Ironclads is terrible. I'm not going to judge the others based upon this, but the fact of the matter is, when I spin onto those other ones, I'm definitely not going to be thrilled by it. Just stay away from this. If you absolutely love nineteenth century ship battles, and love to figure out things without any form of instruction, Ironclads: Schleswig War 1864 is for you. If you don't enjoy terrible and slow strategy games, stay as far away as possible.

Next spin coming up in the next couple days.

Thief Gold

Thief Gold - $9.99
Time Played Before: 0 Hours
Time Played Upon Completion: 12 Hours

Review

I'd always heard good things about the Thief series. And finally getting around to playing it, I see why. It's a classic stealth game, with some twists and turns along the way. I had a little difficulty getting the 15 year old game to run on my system, but a fan made patch quickly resolved the problem. Anybody playing it should install this patch, as it not only makes it run flawlessly, it addresses bugs that are apparently in it.

You're essentially a thief stealing artifacts in each of the missions. The missions are varied, some traveling through jails, others through haunted crypts, and some are just plundering mansions. Using your trusty toolkit of gadgets and weapons, you make your way through the missions that are littered with guards, the undead, and other creatures toward your goal. Each mission has certain objectives, with higher difficulties adding more. At the beginning of the mission, you view these objectives, buy new gear (with the gold you've made by looting other missions), and get a little overview of the story and mission.

It's a fun game, considering it's quite old. Though the controls were incredibly wonky to begin with, I changed them with no problem to suit my needs. The AI isn't terrible, considering the age. They patrol along, and if they get a glimpse, get suspicious or attack. Some enemies are far more annoying than others, such as zombies, who will never die unless you use fire or holy water arrows to destroy them, but overall, they're each suited to the mission you're playing.

Graphics are what you would expect of a game this age. Blocky, limited texture, stiff animations. Sound is alright, nothing to be excited about. You can usually tell where enemies are by their voices and footsteps, giving you a little edge.

It's really the game play that makes Thief shine though. I stressed trying to be as stealthy as possible, to take out my enemies with my blackjack silently. Moving the bodies to shadowy corners so they wouldn't be discovered. And I had fun with it. The maps you're given are purposely vague, as to promote exploration and finding treasure, which added to the value of each mission. Getting completely turned around is usually frustrating, but with Thief, there's usually something of value at that dead end. If you play on the harder difficulties, all the added objectives, which I'd read each time, would make each level a fight until you memorize it.

The story twists and turns, going from a story about money, to a tale of assassination and of power. I can see why this game garners so much attention, the tale of Garrett, our thief, is one of subterfuge and trickery. It's also set up perfectly for the second installment, Metal Age.

Final Verdict

Gameplay: 8/10
Graphics: 2/10
Sound: 5/10
Story: 9/10
Replay: 7/10

Overall: 8/10

Thief hasn't aged well. The graphics are ugly, the sound isn't great, and the controls are clunky and weird. But that all pales in comparison to the game play and story.  It may take a little effort to really get into and enjoy, but once you do, you'll be glad you did. If you enjoy a good stealth title, load up Thief Gold and let Garrett take you on this thieving romp.

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And time for a new spin...it'll be...
Ironclads: Schleswig War 1864 - $9.99
Hm, sea faring strategy title eh? I actually have the Ironclad collection, but I don't really think there is a necessary order, as each one just has a different time period. Here's hoping it's good, as I really enjoy strategy games. Updates to follow.

Gratuitous Space Battles

Gratuitous Space Battles - $14.99
Time Played Before: 0 Hours
Time Played Upon Completion: 2.8 Hours

Review

Gratuitous Space Battles takes a mix of strategy and RTS games and mashes them together, making a game that you can quickly pick up and play, but to really excel at, it takes time and careful thought. Battles in GSB usually take no more than 5 minutes, if you put it on the fastest speed, making the game accessible to players that don't have a lot of time. It's a fun little game, but I'm glad I got it for cheaper than the list price.

Essentially, in GSB, you build an army of ships, either fighters, frigates, or cruisers, equip them with armor, shields, and weapons, place them on a grid across from the enemy, and hit fight. They do everything, making the fights more about your builds than your skill. I got roughed up quite a few times before I really understood some of the finer points of building ships. And I'm sure my designs would be destroyed instantly by a veteran of the game. When you decide to build a ship, you first pick out a hull design. Each hull has strengths and weaknesses, and more or less slots to equip the items you want. Each object you place, adds weight, a higher power consumption, and needs crew members to operate. By placing Power generators and Crew Quarters, you increase the latter two. As for weight, it obviously just slows you down, which is countered by the engines you place.

There are many choices to say the least. I found myself moving toward slow moving cruisers that packed a huge punch, surrounded by smaller ships to defend against fighter ships. But using fast and agile frigates with beam weapons can take down cruisers in no time flat, as well as avoiding damage. You get to choose your way of playing, if it doesn't work, you tweak it until it will.

Each battle earns you honor, which you can spend to unlock new weapons, defense, shields, tools, or new ship designs. Defeating the enemy using the least ships possible will earn you more honor than using the max. Earn enough and you can even unlock 3 different races. Apart from ship hull designs, which have vast differences, the races all play the same. You play the same levels, use the same unlocks, only building new ships. Each race hulls seem to favor one aspect, whether it's speed or power or shielding, using the race that benefits your style greatly benefits you.

Upon the deployment, you can give ships certain orders. You can order them to focus on certain ship types, say fighters dog-fighting other fighters. Other orders allow you to use fighters or frigates as escorts to the cruisers, telling ships to never stop while fighting, or protecting ships that are damaged. I never found myself using much more than the escort once I found the way I played, though as I said, I doubt my strategy was very good. You also have the option to control your ships manually, making the game more of an RTS minus the resources.

The levels are varied, making you face off against different races with different ship builds and formations. Some levels are heavy with fighters, some cruisers, some a mix of everything. Also each level has challenges, adding a bit to the replay. But overall, after I finished the 12 levels, including the tutorial, I really had no desire to go back and play through each challenge mode. The game is a fun strategy title, but it's too much of the same over and over again. While people seeking real strategy will happily configure their ships for a long while I'm sure, it just couldn't draw me in once I  had unlocked all the races and the hulls and objects I needed to dominate the levels. It just is too short to really make me want to continue to refine my ships.

Graphics are good for this style game. Missiles fly across the screen and exploding ships light up the space sky. The backdrops, usually consisting of nebula or planets, look good. Sound is also decent. Ships explode and with my sub woofer, a deep bass came out. The firing of lasers and beams could be heard over the heat of battle.

Final Verdict

Gameplay: 7/10
Graphics: 6/10
Sound: 7/10
Replay: 5/10

Overall: 6/10

Gratuitous Space Battles is a fun little strategy game. The problems arise in it's length and lack of story. I know as an indie title, a story may have been too much to handle, but having a reason beyond hull design to explore each race would have made the game far better. I can only sit and watch my designed ships battle for so long. Even a minimal effort story would have helped here. But I digress. If you enjoy strategy and building ships to your specs sounds fun, pick it up. If you want to try it but aren't dying to, wait for sale, as the price seems a bit high for the game.

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Next Spin is...

Thief: Deadly Shadows - $9.99
Hm, a whole series I've never played. This apparently is the 3rd one. No idea if there is an overarching story to the series, but I suppose it's time to create a new rule.

5. If a sequel to a game I've never played is selected, I'll play the first in the series instead.

So, instead of Thief: DS, I'll be playing Thief Gold - $9.99 , which is a re-release of the original, Thief: The Dark Project

Pretty old game, 15 years old, so I'm sure it'll take some finagling to make run, but I'll try my best. Updates to follow.

Overlord

Overlord - $4.99
Time Played Before: 0 Hours
Time Played After Completion: 10 Hours

Review

Overlord really doesn't do anything new, but that's not really a bad thing. Anybody who has ever played Pikmin will instantly understand.  You are awakened by goblin like creatures, your minions, and told the previous overlord has been defeated by heroes, and that you must take up his wraith of terror. First by restoring your tower and then by doing deeds of good or evil across the land. The story is nothing special, especially when there is no direct one until near the end.

When I compared it to Pikmin, I wasn't exaggerating. You control the central character and move your 4 types of minions around the screen. They fight, move objects, solve puzzles for you. The overlord can engage in combat, but he doesn't do much until late in the game. Without your minions you are nothing. While it's not a new idea, it does do it right, the same way Pikmin did.

The minions you control are browns, reds, greens, and blues. Each has a strength and weakness to them. Browns are your main tanks. Reds dish out fireballs from afar and can also remove burning wreckage from your path. Greens use a back stab ability on enemies and can eliminate poison plants in the way. And Blues can traverse water and resurrect fallen minions, but have little combat prowess. Exploring the world unlocks the latter 3, allowing you to solve puzzles in the different zones.

 It's never overly difficult, as you usually have plenty of minions to re summon should you need them. To re summon them, you must first find a pit of theirs with their corresponding color. You then spend colored life force taken from fallen enemies to summon. Each color represents the respective minion. If minions die you are rarely in a bind. You can maneuver them to avoid attacks, but in the end, I usually just swarmed my enemies with numbers. Minions equip themselves with armor and weapons found in the field. And by armor and weapons, I mean anything they can find. I frequently saw my minions wearing rats on their heads and using zombie arms as their weapons. I'm not sure how much it improves them, but it was enough to notice.

You can also forge new items for your overlord. A choice of 3 weapons and the forging of chest and head armor are available. Upgrading your current items is possible as well. As you progress in the world, you find new smelters, allowing you to forge new items. Also, with the expansion pack: Raising Hell, you also find molds to create unique weapons. To forge items or upgrade items, you must  have both gold and enough minions to sacrifice. They happily jump into the liquid metal for you, killing themselves to better your life, as minions should.

 The game allows you to be a good or evil overlord. Depending on your route, from one extreme to the middle to the other extreme, different endings are available, giving some replay value. For mine, I went as evil as I could, though I'm sure I missed opportunities since I wasn't maxed out.

 Graphics are ok, I mean, the game was made 6 years ago. It's funny to see how far we've come with facial software when you play a game like this.

The controls took me a while to get used to, but once I did I had no problem. Seeing as how most 3rd person cameras now a days are controlled by the right stick, I was surprised when I had limited control of the camera, only allowed to center it. This is because the right stick is to control your minions. The camera does an ok job, sometimes getting annoying, but I don't really remember damning it anytime after I got the hang of it.

The game's dialog is occasionally humorous, but nothing too special. I actually enjoyed the minions bantering more than most set dialog.

 While I couldn't get the game to run at all on my old AMD system and could with the Nvidia setup, I still ran into problems. Random crashing happened frequently, at least once an hour, sometimes more. More annoying was having to run through places again due to the use of auto save. While auto save can help, if it's not done enough in a crashing game, it's useless.

I played through the expansion as well, as I had it, and it adds 4 new areas to explore. You face old bosses as you traverse the evil abysses, but apart from adding unique weapons to forge, it didn't add much new to the game.

Final Verdict

Gameplay: 6/10
Graphics: 5/10
Sound: 6/10
Story: 5/10
Replay: 7/10

Overall: 6/10

Overlord is one of those cases where copying a successful game and changing a few aspects just doesn't work for it. It also doesn't work against it though. If you're nostalgic for those tiny plant creatures while waiting for the 3rd installment, and feel like being a little evil as well, try Overlord out. By no means put it to the front of your backlog though, it just doesn't do enough.

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And a new roll.
We have..
Gratuitous Space Battles - $14.99
I shall begin playing immediately. Should have it finished by Wednesday at the latest.

Overlord Update 1

Well, I got Overlord to run with minimal difficulties. It must have been my crossfire 6850's that were the problem because now that I'm using an Nvidia GTX 670 4GB Superclock it runs flawlessly. Just chalk it up to another reason I'm glad I switched over to Nvidia graphics.

As for the game, I'm probably close to 1/3 of the way through it, so I should have it completed in the next couple days.

As for the backlog, now that the Winter Sale is over, my lambent stew profile looks a little different.
293 total games
149 never played
As before, many of the games that show having been played are actually only started to see if they'll run, so it's actually much worse. So that means I bought 28 games during the sale that I probably won't even get to play for at least a year. And the one game I wanted to go on 75% didn't go on a flash sale the entire time and stayed at 50% so I said screw it. Such good self control.

Anyways, back to Overlord.

Faerie Solitaire

Sorry about the long layover between posts, after going out of town with my in-laws, work suddenly decided to get quite hectic. But fret not, I have not given up on my dream of finishing my backlog, which is growing daily because of the winter sale. So here my friends, is the game I was playing:

Faerie Solitaire - $4.99
Time Played Before: 1 Hour
Time Played After Completion: 9 Hours

Review

I went into this game quite skeptical. I mean, I enjoy solitaire as much as the next person, but only the occasional hand when I'm really bored or just have nothing better to do. After playing through it though, I'm glad to say I was wrong to be that way. FS mixes the correct amount of difficulty, learning curve, collectables, and length. It puts all those together and creates a solitaire game I'll be playing for the foreseeable future.

So let's start with the basics, the actual game of solitaire. This isn't the typical game, alternating red and black and stacking from aces to king. I'm sure it's based off a type of solitaire, I just don't remember what one, now that I'm thinking more about it, it might be the one called golf, not that it really matters. Basically a bunch of cards are lain on the table face up and down randomly in stacks. You're given a deck to use with a single card face up. Let's say it's a 9. Looking at the table, if there is a 10 or an 8 on top of the decks, you pull it onto the 9. Then you continue going this way, with Aces going to 2's and K's, giving you the full circle. If you have nowhere to go, you draw a new card from your deck. Your goal is to get all the cards off the table before your deck runs out.

It sounds simple enough, and in theory it is. But there are obstacles in your way. Thorns block complete rows on the table until you complete a separate row with a rose on top. Some rows are frozen in ice until you reach a certain fire card. These elements add a bit more difficulty to the mix.

Each stage has nine hands of solitaire to be played. Making the trek through faerie world even more difficult, each stage has objectives to complete. In the beginning they're simple, such as get 1 perfect in the nine hands or get a combo (basically cards in a row) of 5 or 6. Near the end levels through these combine to create truly nightmare stages. 15 in a row, 4 perfects and completing the progress bar in 2 minutes all in one stage can be difficult. If the objectives aren't met after 9 hands, you start over on the stage.

Also, a number of challenge stages await you if you finish the adventure. They just add a different backdrop and harder objectives, but they are still something different. 

Each card played gives you cash to work with. Cash buys you power ups, some more useful than others. They are mostly passive, with a few adding more undo's or giving you the ability to grab a card from the table for the top of your deck after a succession of useless draws. By the time I completed the game, I had bought all the power ups, making the cash essentially useless in any other times I play through since they are linked to my profile.

Also, finishing rows gives you a random chance at items or eggs. These eggs hatch creatures that you then make "active" and they grow. Once the bar is complete, you use the items found to evolve them. They're essentially useless, but the collector in me wants to get them all and evolve them all for the achievements. Apparently it's quite the challenge though. Reading the forums have people playing for almost 100 hours and still missing eggs, playing thousands of hands. Good thing the game is actually good.

The story is relatively boring, it's relayed between each stage. I never payed much attention to it really, I was more about waiting for my objectives in the next stage. Some may enjoy it though, and it setup for the second game, which is currently in production.

Graphics are what you expect, it is a solitaire game after all. My only problem is, there is no resolution setting, so on my 1920x1080 27" monitor, it was quite ugly, but who cares what it looks like when the game is that much fun.

Final Verdict

Gameplay: 8/10
Graphics: 4/10
Sound: 6/10
Story: 6/10
Replay: 9/10

Overall: 7/10

If it weren't for the resolution problems and boring story, it probably would have hit an 8, but the fact of the matter is, it's just a good game. I won't be firing up windows solitaire anymore, that's for sure. Many people have the game siting in their library too, since the dev, Subsoap, seems to constantly just give the game away to everybody. Steamgifts.com had a giveaway of 10,000 copies a couple months ago, basically ensuring anybody who entered received one. Also, I got my copy from a Reddit board (or whatever you call it) I was directed to. Just a list of keys the dev put up. If you don't have it, support great devs like Subsoap. If you do, give it a run and get ready for Faerie Solitaire 2.

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Spinning for the next game....
Overlord..
I've actually tried to play it before, but it would just constantly crash. But, I shall give it a try again, since I'm running with a Nvidia card as opposed to a AMD now, maybe it'll work. Who knows. I will try to find a solution and play it. If I can't, there may very well be a new post tomorrow with a new roll.

Happy New Year everybody