The Humble Indie Bundle

This is a great idea in my opinion, as you can get 5 games (that would normally cost around £30-£40 if bought otherwise) for whatever price you chose, AND you can choose how that money is distributed, so you can give it all to charity if you want to, or give half to the developers and half to the Humble Bundle team. The charities participating are EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) and Child's Play, both of which are really good causes in my opinion.

You can get the 5 following fantastic Indie games for the low price of whatever you like!

Crayon Physics Deluxe
Cogs
VVVVVV
Hammerfight
And Yet It Moves

You can find out more here.

Till Next Time,
Have Fun

Chantelise: A Tale of Two Sisters - First Impressions

Chantelise is a game that has had me interested for quite some time, after I heard about it's translation and eventual release some months ago. It's made by Carpe Fulgur and EasyGameStation, the same people that made Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale, and that immediately got my excited, seeing as that game is perhaps one of my favorite RPGs in the recent years. When i heard that the demo was available on Steam i jumped at the chance, downloading it immediately. Here are my thoughts on the first half an hour or so (seeing as its only a demo, i don't want to get too into it).

So the initial interface remains the same, same font, same options layout. I love the art style of these games,especially all  of the hand drawn characters and backdrops. The game starts with a little backstory, and unlike the story in Recettear, this one seems to be fairly coherent. (come on, trying to pay off a fathers debt being the objective? Not exactly canon :P) There was an old story about how, on a red moon night, a witch would come out and curse anybody outside, and it turned out to be true, and from what I gather, the objective of this story is to find the witch and reverse the curse that your sister is inflicted with (she was turned into a Fairy). So to that end, you're adventuring from town to town seeking information about the witch and where to find her, and that's where we join the story.

After the backstory, you get thrown right into the tutorial, which is pretty simple, and you can redo it when you please if you forget anything. One of the first things I notice is how awkward the camera is. you press 'V' to lock onto an enemy, and hold it to unlock, and the 'A' and 'S' keys rotate the camera either left or right. I'd imagine the game would be simpler to play on a Gamepad, but i don't have one around at the moment.

The combat in the game is fairly fun and simple, but very fast paced. You have your normal attack and combo, and a jumping attack, a dodge and magic. The magic system in this game works from picking up gems and combining them (at the start, only 2 gems can be used at once) and then unleashing them as spells.

You can also combine two different coloured gems, but I think all that does is use one right after another. You get gems  from hitting and killing enemies, and scenery such as trees and grass patches, barrels and other things. The magic seems initially very powerful, but you have to aim it right by locking onto enemies, which I kept forgetting. To move on from an area you have to clear all of the enemies in that area, but only once, which is good because I quickly found out that it is really quite easy to die in this game, but all that does is return you to town with items intact, which aids to the game because you don't have to keep failing at one part, you can upgrade whilst you're back at town and go back to kick some ass.

Items increase in price as you buy them, and decrease as you sell them, which adds a nice feel, like its almost a real economy, and if I'm honest, I don't actually know if it -is-, having only played the demo. Upgrading your equipment in this game really is essential. I bought a set of Leather Gloves and a shield to put in my equipment slots (you start with 2, but I believe you get more) and straight away noticed that my attack damage was doubled and the damage I was taking was halved. I also gained 20 more health, which made a huge difference as a few of the enemies were able to take my measly 30 health away from me in mere seconds.

The art is really awesome, I love the anime styling of it, and the voices are kept Japanese, but the text is in English, which makes it nice and different. The only thing I can say is that it does look a bit odd with hand drawn models on a computer graphics background, but I can live with that. We'll call it a mark toward uniqueness.

I hope that I will be able to bring you more on this game when it is fully released on July 29th on Steam, but for now this is pretty much all I have for you. Go check out the Demo on Steam, it promises to be a really fun and generally awesome game!

Till Next Time,
Have Fun

Chantelise : A Tale of Two Sisters on Steam!

Chantelise : A Tale of Two Sisters hits steam on the 29th of this month and i have to say I'm pretty Psyched. You can definitely expect a First Impressions when I get my hands on it. Chantelise comes from the makers of Recettear : An Item Shop's Tale, and that alone in my eyes makes it worth a play. Chantelise and Recettear were made by EasyGameStation and adapted and translated to English by Carpe Fulgur LLC.

Recettear was truly a unique game where you played a shopkeeper trying to pay off her fathers debts. This was aided by going into dungeons as other characters and gathering rare and valuable items to sell in your store. The game was very, VERY addictive to say the least, and I think that was aided by the uniqueness of the game as a whole.

Chantelise promises to be as good as its predecessor, and at the time of writing i am currently downloading the Demo that I did not realise was there. Silly me. I'll have a First Impressions later today.

Till Next Time,
Have Fun

Minecraft : One build to Rule them All

Mind = Blown. Middle Earth recreated in Minecraft on a 1:2 scale. absolutely fucking crazy, give it a watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhksNvUwaRc&feature=player_embedded#at=2711

Some Screenshots from the video (sorry for the bad quality)

Till Next Time,
Have Fun

Minecraft : The Troubles of Building a House

So, from my starting position I explored the surrounding area. I was in a large sand clearing surrounded by a forest. This was a pretty much perfect area to start in. I made my way to a nearby cliff side, butchering trees as I went, which is made easier by the Treecapitator Mod by DaftPVF, letting you chop at the base of a tree and harvest it all, and was greeted by this beautiful site.

You might notice several things. One, I have half the starting life you would normally have, this is due to a Mod called More Health by Nohero, which you can set preferences for, and find Heart Pieces and Heart Containers, like in Zelda. Eventually you can get double the normal maximum health, which is pretty cool. Second, you may note the Score in the top left, which is also pretty cool, and self explanatory, also by DaftPVF. Thirdly you might notice Sharks and Dolphins in the water, which are deadly and which you can tame respectively. These are part of Mo' Creatures by DrZhark.

So, after clearing the area next to my cliff side view, I put up a basic wood shack and set up a bed and crafting bench so I could have a base camp. It was getting dark, so I decided to call it a night and use the Somnia mod by MALfunction84, which allows you to sleep whenever, and wake up at any point, but also simulates the world while you do it, so you can smelt and grow crops.

In the morning, I awoke and went on a treck nearby, where I saw a cliff with some coal. When I got there, I found a little more than I bargained for. Big cats and birds were around, from Mo' Creatures by DrZhark and on the cliff side was some Iron, Randomite (by Scokeev9) and what looked like Verdite from Axebane's Mystic Ores and Stones, part of his fantastic Mystic Mod Pack. Also, this adorable little guy.

He's from the Baby Animals Mod by Cocoavalley, and you can raise and tame them :3

Anyway, after I cleared the ore from the cliff side, getting a stack of Coal, some Iron and some Gold from the Randomite, it was once again getting dark. So I made my way back to my humble abode to make some torches...and that's where it started to go wrong. After blocking up my house and accessing my crafting bench, I noticed light coming from where my bed was.... Odd, I thought, so I turned round.

OH CRAPPING HELL WHAT THE FU-

And then I exploded. Along with all of my stuff, and most of my house. After punching the Ogre to death (which took a while), I surveyed the damage (whilst beset by Creepers, Skeletons and a Werewolf) This was not good, I had very little of my house left, and very, very little possessions. And it was night-time. So, after defeating all of the enemies around me, I decided to call it a day. Who knows, Maybe tomorrow will hold better fortune? 

Ogres and Werewolves are also part of the Mo' Creatures Mod by DrZhark, and all Mods mentioned are part of the Wonderful Yogbox (Which, at the time of writing) has JUST been updated to include Mod Updates and Elemental Creepers. Sounds fun, and Painful. Like paintballing, only with explosions and horrible death.

One last thing, I recently made a new Character Skin, and was wondering what you guys thought of it? It's my first attempt at a character skin, and I think it's not too shabby.

Till Next Time,

Have Fun

Terraria : MUNDO NOOOO!

My adventure in Terraria started out on a sunny morning near a cliff side and a forest, and I set out from the original spawn with high hopes.

The more destructive side of me kicked in immediately, and i quickly butchered all the nearby trees and gathered some stone nearby and made myself a Workbench and Bow, with some arrows and torches (I'm a huge fan of ranged weapons in this game) and set off tho the right of my spawn, and quickly came across some copper. Happy days! :D

i thought, seeing as it has a small cave underneath it, that this would be a good place to set up shop. I leveled the area a bit and got the pot from underneath my land and sealed it back up for now, it was getting dark and i needed shelter. So i made myself a basic wooden hut and was quickly joined by a fluffy little visitor. I named him Mundo. Why? Why not. So, soon it was night time, and i was beset by Zombies and Demon Eyes.

This situation seemed to frighten my little friend, my only companion in the world bar the Guide, who was nowhere to be seen. So i bravely opened the door to fend off the attackers, who promptly murdered me and Mundo.

I shed manly tears that night. The adventure will continue next time, i must make a grave and monument to my fallen friend.

Till next time,
Have fun

Runespell: Overture - First Impressions

I've heard that Runespell: Overture can be compared to Puzzle Quest in the way that it's played, and that got me curious, so i Downloaded it from Steam, and here's my First Impressions. I have to say, i already like the art style of the game, that's a good sign.

After playing the first tutorials i can tell you this: this game is very unique. It uses a Poker/Solitaire system to deal damage to your opponent based on the Poker hands you create. You can also unlock Powercards, which you can equip for extra effects in battle, such as Blessing, which adds 25 to your maximum health. you can also have spells in battle that use Rage Points to activate, adding that little extra bit of strategy to the game.

You play as a Changeling with amnesia, and begin  to work your way through dirty northerners to find your lost memories. Along the way you meet a woman called Brin, who serves as a kind of Guide for the main story. There are also a number of side quests to complete, each will get you a number of Silver and potentially new Powercards.

I have to say i understand what people were saying about the combat system, it is VERY similar to Puzzle Quest, in that you form combinations to unleash powers and defeat your opponent in combat and earn silver and rewards. As far as I've played, there isn't any kind of level-up or stat system other than the HP/RP boosts you can get, which is a little disappointing, but then again i don't know exactly how that kind of system would work in a game like this, and would probably end up distorting the unique gameplay. In a way, silver helps you 'level up' because you can buy increasingly powerful Runespells to use in combat.

Runespell is a pretty cool game, and i can see it getting very addictive, its by a company called Mystic Box. Its currently available on steam for about $10, or £7.99. Go check it out.

Till Next Time,
Have Fun