Category: Features

Game Club Plays: Galak-Z

Hey everyone. Me again, Scrooloose, with my pick for this weeks game club. This time it's 17-Bit's arcade space shooter, Galak-Z. This one is fun and feels like an old arcade title that you might drop a bunch of quarters in to keep playing.

Battle alien space bugs and run missions for command while earning upgrades for your little space ship in ever increasing difficulty levels of play. It's $10 on Steam and if you want to join us in playing that'd be great. I'm sure there are plenty of Let's Play videos out there as well if you don't feel like spending the money. Goodness knows I feel that.

System Requirements for Galak-Z are as follows:

Windows:

MINIMUM:

    • OS: Windows Vista / 7 / 8 / 10
    • Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo (2.6 GHz) / AMD Athlon 64 X2 (2.6 GHz)
    • Memory: 3 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Radeon HD 2900 XT (512 MB) / GeForce GT 430 (1024 MB)
    • DirectX: Version 9.0c
    • Storage: 3 GB available space
    • Additional Notes: Gamepad, Mouse and Keyboard Support

Mac:

MINIMUM:

    • OS: Mountain Lion 10.8
    • Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo (2.6 GHz) / AMD Athlon 64 X2 (2.6 GHz)
    • Memory: 3 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Radeon HD 2900 XT (512 MB) / GeForce GT 430 (1024 MB)
    • Storage: 3 GB available space
    • Additional Notes: Gamepad, Mouse and Keyboard Support

SteamOS / Linux:

MINIMUM:

    • OS: Ubuntu 12.04 / SteamOS
    • Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo (2.6 GHz) / AMD Athlon 64 X2 (2.6 GHz)
    • Memory: 3 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Radeon HD 2900 XT (512 MB) / GeForce GT 430 (1024 MB)
    • Storage: 3 GB available space
    • Additional Notes: Gamepad, Mouse and Keyboard Support

GAMECLUB PLAYS: REPLICA

You ever want to try and hack into somebodys phone for the governement? Well you're going to if you join our GameClub this week!

So, let’s talk about what you need to do if you’d like to join us while we play the game!

Get the game!

Steam

Play the game!

Game takes an hour to beat at the most, then join us live this Saturday!

Twinstiq Gameclub plays Reigns

Welcome, your majesty to your tragic kingdom.

Yes, that’s right, after an incredibly long hiatus, game club is back and we’re going to start up again with a fairly simple, quite laid back game about choices.  How can choices be laid back, you ask?  Well, all of these choices are pretty binary.  You pick one or the other, but be careful!  Things you choose might annoy the Church or help the people – and then they might annoy the Church or help the people so much that these two institutions stage a revolt, ending in your untimely death.

A Reigns logo featuring the four important symbols of the game that signify the Church, the army, the people and the economy.
Your rule is simplified to dealing with the Church, the army, the people and the economy. Just don't let either slip.

Reigns is simple in that you’re essentially playing Tinder:  The Game, but the way it simplifies creates ambiguity in players for what it’s not bringing up.  Do you get a doctor to prevent a plague?  Or are the people baying for blood and shouldn’t you knock the population of the kingdom down a peg or two by way of said plague?

This is the sort of question Reigns asks on a fairly frequent basis and your only means for answering those questions is to pick yes or no.

If any of this intrigues you, please do feel free to pick up the game on GoG or Steam.  We will be reconvening on the 4th of June, 2017 to discuss Reigns and to pick a new gameclub game.

Until then, may your kingdom flourish.

Twinstiq Game Club Plays: World of Goo

Hey everyone, Scrooloose here with my game club pick for this week. This time it's World of Goo, a puzzler from developer 2D Boy. This one's just for sitting and relaxing and honestly after Spec Ops: the Line don't we need to sit and relax a little?

The goal is to move though the world by solving puzzles on each screen to see a rather charming story unfold. That's about it. Simple and cute and a good way to spend a few hours using your brain.

It's worth noting that the resolution is locked at 800 x 600 but I'll post below how to change that. A big thank you to steam user Blootrix for creating this guide for both PC and MAC users.

PC

-Right click on World of Goo
-Click Properties
-Click Local Files
-Click Browse Local Files
-Open "properties"
-Open "config" with notepad

-You should now see this. (Ignore the message left by the Sign Painter, it's there as a joke)

<!-- IMPORTANT WARNING: If you edit this file, your computer will probably explode. Your friend, the High Resolution Sign Painter -->
<config>

<param name="language" value="en"/>
<param name="screen_width" value="800"/>
<param name="screen_height" value="600"/>
<param name="refreshrate" value="60" />
<param name="ui_inset" value="10"/>

</config>

-Now change "screen_width" and "screen_height" to your resolution. 1080p would be

<param name="screen_width" value="1920"/>
<param name="screen_height" value="1080"/>

MAC (Courtsey of Regi524)

1. Open a new finder window.
2. Goto your users folder.
3. Open 'Library' and find 'Application Support'.
4. Once in Application Support, find Steam.
5. Once in, goto 'SteamApps', 'common', 'World of Goo'.
6. RIGHT click on World of Goo.app(or just simply called World of Goo) and click "Show package contents".
7. Open Contents
8. Open Resources, game and then properties.
8. Open config.txt with textedit or another text editing software.

Thanks for checking this out and have fun with it. Of course make sure you join us as usual when we discuss the game during our game club podcast next weekend.

System requirements for World of Goo area s follows

PC:

MINIMUM:

    • Supported OS:Windows® XP or Vista
    • Processor:1GHz or faster
    • Memory:512+MB RAM
    • Video:Any 3D graphics accelerator less than 5 years old
    • DirectX® Version:9.0c
    • Hard Drive:100MB

MAC:

  • OS: OS X version Leopard 10.5.8, Snow Leopard 10.6.3, or later
  • Processor:Intel Core Duo
  • Memory:512 MB
  • Graphics:64 MB

SteamOS + Linux:

  • Processor:1 GHz or faster
  • Memory:512 MB or more
  • Graphics:hardware accelerated OpenGL 1.4 support
  • Hard drive:100 MB free space

The PlayStation Portable: A 12-Year Anniversary Retrospective

Well, today marks the 12th anniversary of the North American release of the PlayStation Portable. It's kind of hard to believe it's already been 12 years since Sony decided to enter the portable fray. In honor of the 12th anniversary, it only seems fitting to take a look back at the handheld console and talk about twelve of the greatest games to ever appear on it.

The PSP debuted in the US on March 24, 2005. The first real competitor to a Nintendo handheld since Sega's Game Gear (10 years earlier), the PlayStation Portable quickly positioned itself as a sleek and sexy alternative to the clunkier chunkier Nintendo DS. The PSP actually had a lot going for it: better graphics, a superior form factor, millions of ardent Sony fans, and a wealth of great games. It also had a few stumbles which were almost all hardware-related: screen issues on certain models, the decision to use prohibitively expensive proprietary memory cards, not to mention the incredibly unpopular PSP Go.

All in all though, the PSP was a pretty incredible little machine. Did I mention the great games? Let's delve into that further, shall we? Here are 12 shining examples of the best gaming experiences the PlayStation Portable had to offer:

Read more

GAME CLUB PLAYS: Spec Ops – the Line

Well get ready to stab your soul with a thousand knives made of Blood and Sand. The next GameClub game we will be discussing is Spec Ops - The Line. A strangely light shooter with one of the heaviest stories a game has ever carried in this industry. 

So, let’s talk about what you need to do if you’d like to join us while we play the game!

Get the game!

Steam

Play the game!

Play through the whole game, it's short and we'll be taking two weeks on this one due to my being out of town. 

 

Yoda’s #4iF Results

I am bad at video games. Plain and simple. So bad in fact, i can't get further than 15 minutes into Undertale without dying no matter what I do. I really want to like that game. But I've tried four times now to get into it, only to be so bad I couldn't get anywhere. So in a repeat of last year's results, I beat three games, then couldn't get through Undertale. 

But just like the Academy Awards this year, there is a twist! I took a look through my game library to find the shortest game on there, and saw Q.U.B.E. a first person puzzle platformer. And what do you know, it was easy enough for me to beat! Making this an official Four in February success story! So'm going to give a quick run down of the four games I beat and my thoughts on them, enjoy. :)

QUBE_Poster1

The Yawg

Our housekeeper here at Twinstiq, Dr. S, actually gifted me this first title. And I owe you a big thanks good sir ;) because I love this game. There are so many possible outcomes and heartbreaking stories to discover here. The sheer number of ways you can change the world your characters reside in is impressive to say the least, and I can't recommend this enough. 

Aragami 

What a gorgeous game. And if you're not hardcore about your stealth games like me, I'm sure you'll find a lot to enjoy here. I never found much challenge throughout this game due to it being designed around a teleport mechanic. But the story alone is worth playing, as long as you don't mind reading. 

Abzu

If i had to pick one game from my 4iF to suggest people go play, it's Abzu. Austin Wintory once again proves that he is John Williams of video game scores. Even if you could care less about that aspect, you are nearly guaranteed to find something in here to love. This is a game that everyone needs to play. 

Q.U.B.E.

My White Knight of February 2017. Emerging from the depths of my growing back catalog of games was a fun and thought provoking little indy title that did not get as much attention as it deserves. This puzzle platformer really did find every use for a simple concept that it could without overstaying its welcome. I'm sure many have compared this to Portal unfavorably but I actually found its narrative to be a bit more compelling then Valve's similar game. Definitely a game worthy of much more lengthy discussion, perhaps on a future GameClub down the line. 

 

Anyway, that's what I got done this past month! Thanks for reading guys! 

Good night, and good game.

The never ending cycle of WRUP

What the fuck is wrong with the video game industry? I can somewhat deal with a packed Christmas release window by spacing things out, but now they start the year in January? Isn’t that against the spirit of 4iF? Yakuza 0 and Nioh are both amazing. Then there is For Honor, Halo Wars 2, Horizon Zero Dawn, Resident Evil 7, Sniper Elite 4, NieR and Ghost Recon Wildlands? WHY, WHO, HOW? (Oh, and the new Zelda for people who care about that shit) Read more

Twinstiq Game Club Plays: Abzu

Hey guys it's me, Scrooloose. Welcome to another round of the Twinstiq Game Club. Ive been very busy playing many important video games and other things like: working and spending time with family members over the holidays so I haven't been writing much. But here I am now (yay) and this time I've nominated a game that I hadn't played until very recently. That title is called Abzu and I got it for Christmas. It's short, it's artsy and it looks very pretty and happens to have been developed by the same folks that did Journey. I actually nominated Abzu before I played it, but as luck would have it I was able to remedy that in a short time as my game wasn't chosen first this round.

So, Abzu: A game about diving in the ocean and watching ocean-y things. I'm down if you guys are. I couldn't help but smile during my time swimming and playing with dolphins and the plethora of other sea creatures in some pretty spectacular, yet relatively simple environments. Only visual and musical story telling is to be had here and what a beautiful presentation it is. This one only takes about three hours to play to completion so we'll be running through in one go. I hope you'll join us in checking out what is certainly a pretty great and immersive experience. open-water