Author: Thomas Ortsik

Founder and Kinda-Editor-In-Chief at Twinstiq.
Also known as Dr. Strangethumb

Rumor:  Bad Juju Games [Owner Of Desura And Indie Royale] In Trouble?

Trouble seems to be brewing with Bad Juju Games, the owner of Desura – a game store very much in the vein of GOG and Steam – as well as the folks who essentially operate Indie Royale – a bundle site much like Humble Bundle.

They have been having some difficulty making payments to games developers and as of the 27th of May 2015, put out a blog post detailing that they are “not going out of business,” and “are not in financial crisis.”

However, the internet has done some digging and...that’s perhaps not quite the whole truth of the matter.

Inforuptcy – a tracking site for bankruptcy cases – has noted that Bad Juju games has filed for bankruptcy with further inspection noting that they started a Voluntary Petition [a filing for Chapter 7] on the 1st of June, 2015.

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The first [bottom-most] entry lists Bad Juju games as going into Voluntary Petition [Chapter 7] as of 1 June, 2015
All this evidence seems fairly credible, but it remains to be seen what Bad Juju Games will communicate in the future.

Right now, if you have any games through Desura, it might be wise to back them up.


Winter is coming, and with it Battleborn

There's a new trailer for Battleborn and it looks particularly traileriffic. Battleborn is an online shooter from the creators of Borderlands, but that doesn't impress me as much as it probably does others. The reason? Borderlands never really grabbed me, even though I loved the setting and the story, it just always felt like a very shallow and repetitive shooter.  Still, it's not all doom and gloom, continue past the break to get my thoughts on the trailer and what we know of the game so far.
Just watching the trailer got me pretty interested, and if Smite is any indication then a third person shooter MOBA has the potential to be very enjoyable. The graphics are stylized and very Dota-Like with the aesthetics, though of course the models and detail are turned up to 100.  The characters look more interesting than a lot of other MOBA games on the market but it remains to be seen how good or bad the controls will feel. Still, I really want to play the hawk man with a rocket launcher. Plus, if I don't like the PVP I might still enjoy playing the coop story with my wife and some friends.Apparently they plan to release in the winter on PC, PS4, and XBox One but there's no firm date as of yet. With the announcement of the impending death of Infinite Crisis it'll be interesting to see how Battleborn does in the slightly crowded MOBA market.

Author: Billy C
Game: Battleborn
Developer: Gearbox Software

New Nintendo eShop Releases: Lord of Magna

After last month's spectacular Mega May on the Nintendo eShop, it's not surprising to see things slow down a little. This week, there isn't a whole lot to choose from. The one title that does look interesting is a turn-based JRPG for the 3DS. The game is called Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven. You can read more about it here, or by clicking the link to the Nintendo page for it below. Also out this week is the Angry Video Game Nerd...game (for the 3DS as well), and a Pac-Man puzzle game for the Wii U Super Nintendo Virtual Console. Wait for your turn, select your target, and then  jump past the break to see more of this week's new releases.
Wii U

  • Pac-Attack (Super Nintendo Virtual Console) (Bandai Namco Games, 2 players, simultaneous, $7.99)
  • Adventures of Pip (TicToc Games, 1 player, $14.99)

3DS

[Image: Marvelous]

Andrew J Amideo
[Source: Business Wire]

Black Tusk Studios is now just another COG in the machine

The new Gears of War developer, Black Tusk Studios, are now known as The Coalition and The Studio Formerly Known as Black Tusk.
Rod Fergusson (the head of The Studio Formerly Known as Black Tusk and long time Gears-head in general) posted a special video edition of their "Rodcast" to announce the changing of the studio's name and firm commitment to the Gears of Wars franchise. According to Rod, the new name was chosen not just for it's relation to the Gears series (COG stands for Coalition of Ordered Governments, for those uninitiated with the Xbox series, but also because it represented how the team felt as a whole.

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Source: YouTube
Questions or Comments?
Hit us up in the comments below or on our forums. We don't bite. I promise.

Til Morning’s Light Review

WayForward’s newest game was a bit of a surprise to me. At no point did I expect my first iOS game to be a well-crafted homage to the likes of Resident Evil and the soul of “survival horror” games. You assume the role of Erica Page, who’s lucky enough to be locked in a haunted mansion by her “friends” while in search of her long-lost BFF Angie. At least they give her a flashlight. Erica is immediately greeted by the mansion’s otherworldly element and begins her struggle for survival, which entails breaking the mansion’s curse by sunrise and not dying in the process. 
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Some areas in the mansion are genuinely creepy.

Maneuvering Erica is simple enough. A tap on the screen and she’ll move to that spot, or drag your finger slightly and she’ll walk in that direction. I won’t lie and say this works better than an analog stick, because it doesn’t, but it is functional and only in rare circumstances was a hindrance. Tapping on applicable objects will initiate interactions such as opening doors, pushing boxes, and pulling levers. Icons for Erica’s inventory, flashlight toggle (which seemingly had no purpose), and map can be found along the right side of the screen. Be prepared to use that map because the mansion is a labyrinth of locked doors and the keys are not universal.
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A key for every door and a door for every key.

Each key opens a single locked door much like the GameCube’s Luigi’s Mansion (to which Til Morning’s Light bears a slight resemblance) and you’ll need to engage in a bit of backtracking to enter new rooms. Snuggled in the mansion’s numerous rooms are scattered coins, keys, boxes, switches, a handful of friendly (and some not so friendly) ghosts, and hundreds of monsters. As silly as they look, Erica’s adversaries want to kill her and they will unless she bashes them to pieces with her arsenal comprised entirely of melee weapons.
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She's viscous.

Combat is possibly the oddest aspect of the experience. Enemies freely wander the mansion hallways and rooms and colliding Erica with them will initiate a battle much like in a JRPG. Erica doesn’t fight her opponents through menu commands though. Battles consist of a series of onscreen input commands based around taps and swipes. The icons for these commands are much like those found in the rhythm games Elite Beat Agents and Theatrhythm and consist of shrinking circles, bouncing dots, and pulsing lines. The combat is rhythmic but not in relation to the music. Every correct command lands a hit on the enemy and perfectly played battles will end without Erica being attacked. The upper echelon of baddies will occasionally block attacks, but as long as you never miss a command, you will beat your opponent until it dies. Though easy initially, combat becomes increasingly difficult as new potential commands are added to the mix and enemies hit harder when commands are whiffed.
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Erica's clothes become torn as the story progresses. A detail I've only seen in high budget AAA games like the Batman Arkham series.

Fire axes, shovels, swords, sledgehammers, fire pokers, meat cleavers, and the like can all be found lying around the house. These blunt implements aren’t just used for combat though, as many have functions that aid exploration. The shovel, for example, can be used to dig up dirt mounds and the fire poker can pull items from fire places. Unfortunately, only one weapon can be carried at a time and the need for specific weapons can lead to lengthy treks to reacquire less common ones.
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As cool as this room looks, it is solved by pushing boxes.

Puzzle variety is slightly disappointing as there are numerous box pushing puzzles throughout the experience including several during boss fights (which I found infuriating). There are several puzzles that don’t lean on box pushing and they are a highlight that harken back to survival horror puzzles of antiquity. These unique puzzles are never outright stumpers but require much more thought than placing boxes on pressure plates and replacing levers.

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Erica resonated with me in a way that few protagonists do.

Erica’s trip is spurred on by her desire to find the truth about her missing friend (the details of that relationship are notably absent from the game and only found in an audio book on Amazon’s Audible service) but what she ends up finding is a healthy dose of self-confidence. The unfortunate residents she meets on her journey begin to modify her character as she gradually grows from fearful to being feared by her captors. Erica’s banter with the villains and ghosts add a substantial charm to the experience that puts me in the mind of Buffy the Vampire Slayer through the veneer of a Saturday morning cartoon. It's fun and playful, even though it is based largely around death and loss. 

I enjoyed my stay in this particular haunted house and I encourage fans of “traditional survival horror” to at least take a peek inside. They might just find something that has been missing for a long time. 

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Images taken using the screenshot function of my iPhone
Game purchased for personal use
Questions or comments? 
I'm always up for discussion in the comments below or on our forum

Buy Games In The GOG Summer Sale And Get More Games!

It’s that time of the year for Americans.  Summer.  When everything’s pleasantly warm and you can spend an afternoon out by the pool sipping your favourite drink and enjoying the blissful cool of the water.

But why do that when you can stay indoors and buy computer games to play, instead?!

GOG’s summer sale is here!

This year, there are bundles and a fair number of games to choose from.  GOG has – helpfully – highlighted which games they think are worth your time, but there’s plenty on offer and the offers change every twelve hours.  So check in at least twice a day to see what’s new.

As always with such a sale, there are some bundles.  As with bundles past, you have to buy the whole bundle if you want the deeply discounted price that is on offer for.  Buying only one game out of the bundle nets you a discount, but it’s not quite as steep as getting the entire thing.

Finally, this year’s sale has an all-new wrinkle.  Spend money at different tiers during the duration of the entire sale and you will receive free games for your efforts.

$1 nets you Simcity 2000’s Special Edition.

$20 gets you Stalker:  Clear Sky

$50 sees you nabbing a copy of Xenonauts.Once you've hit a tier, GOG will send you an email with a redemption code that you can pass on to a friend or redeem yourself.  These codes must be redeemed before 21 July, 2015 at 01:59 PM, GMT or you lose them entirely.

Note, though, that if you’re not from the US and are using another currency, GOG is not using your currency as the yardstick for unlocking these games.  You must spend the equivalent of 50 US Dollars.  This means that if you’re using – for example, the British Pound, you must spend [at today’s conversion rate] £33.  Confusing?  Certainly.  To make things simpler, use a currency conversion website before spending, so you know how much you have to splurge.
(Addendum by Dr. S: GOG now shows how much you have to spend in your local currency, at least for €)


Source:  GOG Home Page

Some Fallout 4 (RUMORS) Might Be True

Wooah, mind blowing time. Remember that one person who said she was a fired from Bethesda and now wants some revenge in the form of leaked information? No? Good, because why would you. They were only rumors, right?There is one little detail in the trailer though, that makes those rumors look somewhat legit.

At the end of the trailer, we can hear the player character talk for the first time in a Bethesda RPG. One thing mentioned in the rumors:

“(…)we are making the game more "Story Based" and the player character will finally talk, and narrate his storyline.”

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If it's true that the player character can now talk, then our dreams of playing as the dog have been shattered
And Boom! goes the dynamite.
Now, if I was one to make up rumors on a new Bethesda RPG, a talking player character and a character creator that won’t allow you to make female characters wouldn’t be very high on my list.

The leaker also mentions that the game is set in Boston and that she was fired for accidentally leaking some Fallout 4 information to Kotaku. A quick check-up confirms that Kotaku did get some Information on the game back in December 2013, detailing that the game would be set in Boston. So this bit of the backstory could be true, but I wouldn’t take the Boston mention as further proof, since that detail was already known back then.

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Confirmed to be set in Boston
Call me the Mulder of video games, but I want to believe, so let me list some more details from the Reddit post:

  • The map of Fallout 4 is about 3 times the size of Skyrim
  • The game is set 10 years after Fallout 3, in the year 2287.
  • After finishing the storyline, you will still be able to swap your characters gender to female.
  • The Institute from Fallout 3 returns and is headed by a man called Thomas Littleton. They will be the primary antagonists and control most of Boston Downtown.
  • The Brotherhood of Steel returns, but they will be less like in Fallout 3 and more like the one we’ve seen in New Vegas.
  • Feral Cats make their debut and you can only find them in one of the vaults.
  • A couple of characters make their return, like Madison Li, Bryan Wilks, Three Dog (though he may only be a recording), and some other unspecified ones.
  • There might be a last gen version after all

 

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With flying pretty much confirmed as an option, 3 times the size of Skyrim would make sense
There is one detail in the Reddit post which makes me doubt the information though:

“Fallout 4 will be available for a wide range of platforms after launch. The first version that will be released is being developed for Playstation 4, Xbox One and PC. This version uses a brand new engine built from the ground up to take advantage of the power of next gen systems. Absolutely everything is new, and no assets or scripts are being used from Fallout 3/NV or Skyrim.”

From what we’ve seen in the trailer, this is very much running in the Creation Engine used for previous Bethesda games and at least uses some of the assets for character models. Now maybe they’ve scraped the version running on the new engine, maybe it’s just the way the game is built and the setting, but this statement still makes the internal Scully scream.

Either way, we will find out once E3 hits.

Source: Reddit
Via: Destructoid

Flame Over man! Flame Over!

Hello you beautiful people (and highly sentient animals)! Lately I've been playing and streaming some Flame Over, a new roguelike from Laughing Jackal.  Join me after the jump won't you?
So it's far too early to give you my thoughts on the game as a whole, though that is coming. I have spent a bit of time playing and streaming it, and burning to death constantly! The game is an odd roguelike in that it's not about killing enemies to get as far as you can, instead it's about putting out fires and saving people and pets. You have to utilize many different gadgets, from fire hoses to defibrillators, in order to make it as far as you can, and you'll want to save the civilians because each saved human adds a minute onto your time limit. What happens when time runs out? Stay tuned for episode 2 to find out!Don't like watching me play the game, or does the sound of my voice make your eyes spurt blood? Then check out the official developer Let's Play of the game to get an idea of what the game's all about.

Thinking about picking up the game? Already picked it up? Let me know in the comments below.
Author: Billy C
Game: Flame Over
Developer: Laughing Jackal

Game Of 8 Bits

Ever wondered what Game of Thrones would have looked like as a shite 8-bit strategy game?

Wonder no more, because the above video by internet comedian, film maker and Pop-Station aficionado Ashens shows you exactly what it would have been like (maybe).