Tag: Steam

Grim Dawn: A Review From Scroo

I'm into ARPG's. From the isometrics like Diablo of the 90's, to the much more modern Path of Exile and the third person Darksiders from the 2000's, they've all entertained me and kept me in the hunt for newer and better gear just as they're designed to do. Grim Dawn is one such ARPG and I'm going to go into some manner of detail and hopefully give those of you who don't know about this title a reason to check it out. Read more

Greywolfe’s Games To Look Forward To In 2016.

Please note:  This article is LITTERED with links.  They will open in a new window and will take you off-site.

Now that four-in-February is behind us, I thought I'd take some time to look into games that I'm at least a little curious about for the calendar year of 2016. I have divided my choices into three broad sections:

Things that will almost definitely be with us in the near-future or before the end of 2016.

Things that might make it into 2016, but you never know.

And, finally, things that I'm totally worried about. Sometimes with good reason.

So, let's take a look and see, shall we? Read more

#4if

AJ’s #4iF: After Action Report

Well, now that February is over, I've put my controller down and it's time to see how I did. Not particularly well, as it turns out. I had my four games in mind, I thought finishing them up would be achievable, and I was excited to give it a try. But I guess it just wasn't in the cards this time. Here's what happened.

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#4if

AJ’s #4iF

What up, Twinstiq? AJ here, evidently back from the great beyond, and just in time for 4 in February. Having followed joystiq for several years, I've been a long-time observer of #4iF but this will be my first year as an actual participant. You see, I've always been great about keeping up with all the latest hits in the gaming world, be they on Steam, Wii U, PlayStation 4, or wherever; the only problem is that having to update my gaming catalog so frequently leaves me little time to properly see anything through.

Truthfully, my expectations going into this are anything but high, but I have decided to at least give it the old college try. So, without further ado, here are the four games I think I might have any kind of a shot at.

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Humble Bundle Presents Humble Monthly

Humble Bundle is now entering the monthly subscription business. They offer a highly curated list of games for the monthly price of $12. If you subscribe, you'll receive a new bundle of games the first Friday of each month. The monthly bundles are set to start on November 6th and they're currently giving away a copy of Legend of Grimmock 2 to early adopters.

You'll get individual Steam keys for each game in the bundle. In the very likely case that you already own one or two of the bundled games, you could give them away as presents to your closest friends. The bundle contents will remain a mystery until said Friday, but if you choose to wait for it to be revealed, you won't be able to purchase it. In other words, you'll be buying a mystery box for $12.

Humble Monthly is a new kind of bundle that delivers top-notch games straight to your inbox, once per month. If you’re interested in joining, head on over to the Humble Monthly tab atHumbleBundle.com

Membership starts at $12 a month.

Once you’re signed up, you can look forward to 11:00AM PST the first Friday of each month as the day new games are unlocked. The bundle contents will be top-secret until that day.

If you haven't subscribed by the time the games are unlocked, you'll miss out on that month's content (except for the instant-unlock game). You will be unable to purchase bundles from previous months.

Remember, the early bird gets the bundle. Don’t be the late bird.

As a personal opinion, I think the price is a bit steep. With $12 I could buy 4 or 5 games selected by myself during a Steam sale. On the other hand, I think Humble Bundle is really good at selecting great games for their famous indie bundles. I'm not sure what to think, my wallet says no, but I think it could be a pleasant surprise if I gave it a try. It's a good thing that there's plenty of time to think about it. What do you think?

Opinion: Dear Indies, Communication Is Important

I love indie games. So much so, in fact, that I've basically given up on AAA development. AAA development - to me, at least, seems like an endless cesspool of "generic brown shooter 56," or "Watch The Crew Dogs Cry Far As The Creed of Assassin's" takes over. Or to some degree or other, they're plagued with silly launch day fiascos that involve you paying extra money to get stuff that's already on the disk. Even if you somehow dodge all those bullets, you have to contend with pre-order exclusives, Day 1 "Downloadable content" and my absolute favourite, "we're patching the game on day 1, because we didn't actually test properly, so now we have to fix all these errors at launch." [which, of course, doesn't work for the most part, cf: the fiasco that was Batman: Arkham Knight, where that game just didn't work at launch and then continued to just not work even after patching.]

So, I'll take indies any day over AAA games. The experiences are shorter, more focused, often reasonably tested [within the limits/budgets of the small team, of course] and often, they're just more fun to play.

I'm currently about half way through Evoland 2, a game I've been waiting for for several years, now. It does absolutely everything better than the first game and is proof that indie devs can learn from their previous offerings.

The problem is, indie devs still need to learn one crucial skill and that's communication. Read more