Dwarfs!?

Having a Dwarf-obsessed friend means that a game with a title like this one gets instant attention!  That’s not to say it didn’t deserve it though..

Dwarfs!? is an arcade/strategy game which puts you in the role of Overseer of a Dwarf colony, aiming to make as much gold as possible.  To actually get the gold, you have diggers, who head off randomly in search of loot, but rather like lemmings often end up getting themselves killed in water, lava, or being attacked by various enemies!  For defense, you have warriors, which can be trained up at outposts and fired out of a cannon towards bosses!

I downloaded the demo several weeks ago, but then failed to even launch it, with so many other games to play, and an attention span like that of a goldfish.  However, the game appeared on Steam for just £2, so it ended up in the collection anyway 😉

The tutorial is voiced by one of the Yoggscast guys.. I wasn’t too keen on the rather forced “Dwarf” voice he was putting on, though I’m sure his fans love it, and it is good to see a boost for an indie developer too!  The developer is Power of Two.. a two-man team, assistend and published by Tripwire Interactive 🙂

Dealing with water or lava caves requires a sacrifice in the form of one of your diggers blowing himself up to create a hole.  Fortunately, your base produces more diggers as time goes on, so you don’t run out.. and trapping either cave provides you a bonus.

Enemies are fought off by your warriors, with bosses confronted via the awesome Dwarf Cannon, which fires warriors!

Once out of the tutorial, there are a few game modes to try out.. in Arcade, you simply aim to gather as much gold as possible in a set time limit.  The dungeon is randomly generated, so you just have to hope the diggers hit a treasure cave  before a water or lava cave.. and by the end of a 15 minute game there are so many diggers wandering around it’s hard to keep track of them all!

Other game modes include Tower Defense gameplay, Rush Mode, with crazy spawning of diggers, Dark Mode, in which you can only see the tunnels your dwarfs have made.. no guiding them towards loot, then, as well as a series of Challenges.. and Leaderboards to compare with friends.. or if I were a Dwarf, to measure my beard against 😉

Sanctum

Sanctum is an FPS / Tower Defense hybrid from Coffee Stain Studios.. awesome studio name!

Awesome game too, with a building phase followed by the FPS phase while the enemies come to destroy your “Sanctum”.  After each wave, you can build more towers, upgrade existing towers, or upgrade your own weapons.

After a very quick run through the tutorial, learning about the teleporters which allow you to move around quickly in the FPS phase, I joined a friend for some co-op.  The game allows up to four players, so hopefully this is one we can all play at some point 🙂

We started off with a nice row or three of towers..

Following each round, we had an amount of resources for upgrades, which we alternated between improving towers and our own guns.

After a while we’d upgraded the towers quite a way.. the higher up the level, the more impressive the tower..

The slowfields were useful for keeping the enemies in front of certain towers for longer, although they slowed us too.  I found the Gatling towers created a nice shortcut between rows, allowing me to avoid the slowing effects.. but there was a rather nice touch in that the sound slowed down and changed pitch while on a slowfield, with the effect being stronger on more upgraded spots as you’d expect 😉

Some of the enemies were easier to deal with than others.. the flying enemies are normally the ones I have trouble with in Tower Defense, as they bypass my mazes, but our nicely upgraded towers at the back didn’t seem to have too much trouble.

All the enemies had a weak spot, but these were highlighted in orange so it was easy to know where to shoot.. the only difficulty was with the enemies with weak spots on their bobbling, swaying heads, which I dubbed an unrepeatable name. 😉

We had picked Endless mode, but with a few hours’ play and no sign of being defeated, we decided to leave it and come back another time.. hopefully with four of us 😉

Firelands

I finally got around to starting the Firelands quests which were added in the latest patch.

Thrall’s quest chain was rather interesting, with a different section for each element, finishing with Fire.
For once I was glad of the random Alliance players who were also doing the quests, as rather than being in competition with them for a target, they were actually helping.. their assistance on the larger mobs meant the meter for each section was filled more quickly.

The Firelands looks like a real warzone.. I love it 🙂

Later, taking inspiration from a friend’s collection of mounts, I decided to try for the Swift White Hawkstrider in Magister’s Terrace.  I was rather shocked to find it drop on my first proper try for it.. but hey, I’m not going to complain!

More Silly Things

Tonight saw triumph in Grim Batol, on Heroic..this leaves The Stonecore and Halls of Origination to do, as well as the last patch’s Zul’Gurub and Zul’Aman.  Getting there, slowly! 🙂

There was also another return to the Arena, this time with three of us, as Norfolk n Chance 😉

We didn’t do too badly, with enough wins to pick up some new PvP gear and get an achievement: “World Wide Winner”, for winning a ranked match in each arena.  I hope we’ll be doing more 3v3 as it was rather good fun 😉

Afterwards came the silly, with a couple more of Vorlak’s random trinkets..

He looks rather too big for the sidecar, as I look too small for the bike..

And from one extreme to the other.. the Voodoo Gnome.. am I allowed to call this cute?

Majesty 2

Paradox Interactive’s strategy Majesty 2 is another game I saw a long while back, via demo, and like many other games, I decided to wait till a price drop before picking it up.  The Steam Summer Camp Sale provided the price drop in the form of the Paradox Fantasy Pack, and there we have it..

In Majesty 2, you are the last heir to the throne, and the last hope of the Kingdom.  King Leonard, who held the throne previously, wanted to make a name for himself and so summoned a fearsome demon, the Baron of Hell.. who promptly defeated the King and took the throne for himself.. 😉

Your first task is to learn how to play, aided by a narrator who sounds like a rather dodgy Sean Connery, and some very easy tasks.

Starting with just the castle, you create your town by picking buildings for your peasants to get to work on, starting with the marketplace, a tower or two for defense, and Hero Guilds, such as the Warrior’s Guild.

All you have to do is place the building where you want it, and the peasants do the rest..

Once you have completed a Heroes Guild you can then hire heroes, who you can then get to do your bidding via the setting of explore, attack and defend flags.  Well.. if you offer a reward, that is..

During the tutorial, my explorers seemed to wander the map freely, but after that they needed enticing with some reward money on the flags.  An easy task, such as exploring just into the fog of war, or defending a nearby building, seemed to only need 100 gold to attract interest from a hero, while missions further afield needed a larger reward to get any interest.

More difficult tasks require more heroes to take part, and also then need a larger reward.
I failed to get enough heroes to defend the trade caravan on my first attempt at the Engine of Commerce quest, as it started off further from town and had plenty of attackers on the way.

The game has an interesting economy.. spending more gold on rewards for tasks you want completed turns out to be a good thing.  Your heroes purchase goods and equipment from your Marketplace and Blacksmith with their reward money, and are therefore more effective on the next mission.. and the money then returns to your coffers via taxes!

Taxes are levied on every building; so as your town grows, your income grows too.  Caravans, which set off from Trading Posts, also bring you more gold, although they need to be protected on their journey as they attract attackers.

The tutorial continues through the first few missions, adding a few more building types and introducing more concepts.. there’s also a multiplayer mode, though as my usual gaming buddies don’t have this game, I might be leaving it alone for now.. till I think I can beat random opponents, anyway 😉

Steam Summer Camp Sale

After an amazing week away in Madeira, I returned to find Steam has yet another crazy sale going on, with lots of games at very low prices.  Should I fear for my bank balance now?

Friends have bought me a few games: Star Wars – Battlefront II, SpaceChem and my own copy of Oblivion 🙂

I’ve added to this with two tower defense style game: Sanctum and Atom Zombie Smasher, as well as a rather large bundle of Paradox Interactive games.  The Paradox Fantasy Pack got my interest because of Majesty 2, which I tried a long while back.. along with DLC for this plus the original game, it also contains a strategy game called Elven Legacy, plus follow-ups.  As Majesty 2 itself cost £5.35, and the bundle £5.89, this was pretty much a no-brainer!

Along with the Summer Camp Sale, there are a large number of “Camp Activities”, which basically amount to earning specific achievements in a variety of games to earn tickets which allow you entry into the Grand Prize Giveaway, where 100 people will win the top 10 games on their wishlist.  The tickets can also be spent on random in-game content, including map packs, extra characters, missions or vanity gear such as the Sunny Shades for TF2.  I’m only now up to 7 tickets, with a good number of achievements to get.. the HOARD one in particular is eluding me!

As for TF2.. this game has now become free, which has meant a lot more people playing!  We now even have somewhere good to play, as Jason set up his Closed on Sundays TF2 server, complete with silly Roll the Dice mod 😉
So far, the server has filled up quickly whenever we’ve played, which has meant a few good games.  Roll on the weekend!

Vortex Pinnacle – Heroic

Some time ago, I had a horrible experience in Vortex Pinnacle which made me reconsider playing at all, if it meant ending up with random idiots who would sooner kick you than speak to you.

Tonight we went back for our second attempt at the dungeon on Heroic.. and we killed Ertan again, despite the extra mechanics brought in.  This meant I actually enjoyed the rest of the run, despite a few slip-ups here and there..

The wipe also allowed me to take a look around while riding the Slipstream.. it is a pretty nice looking place when you get to look 😉

I think I now have three more Heroic dungeons to get through for the set.. not including the Rise of the Zandalari dungeons, Zul’Gurub and Zul’Aman, which are also on my hit list!

I am a little concerned about what I’ve heard about Disc Priests struggling here though, relating to the lack of ability for group healing.. I might therefore be forced to try Holy, which annoys me as I’d rather try it for myself, out of interest, than because of imbalanced numbers somewhere.

Red Faction: Armageddon

I didn’t actually complete the Red Faction: Guerrilla campaign, as I was distracted by the free-roaming possibilities.. buildings to destroy, vehicles to steal.. and the ever-respawning EDF to kill.

Red Faction: Armageddon is linear rather than open-world, which means there will be less to distract me from the story’s objectives.  I started this game on the PS3, and I’m not sure whether it’s the console controls, or the rather close-view that I’m not so comfortable with.. I felt that the player character took up far too much room on the screen at first too.

The destruction is fantastic, as expected, with plenty of explosive barrels and fuel tanks around to aid in wiping out as much as possible in an area.  My favourite weapon so far is the Magnet Gun which is great for destroying enemies and buildings.. or more accurately, destroying enemies with buildings!  The Nano Forge is a nice addition in this game, allowing the repair of buildings you actually want to leave standing.. maybe for cover, maybe to blow up again 😉

As in the last game, salvage is available everywhere, and here you use it to purchase new abilities.  Abilities and upgrades for abilities are presented on a tier system, allowing you to choose the ones you think are most useful or just coolest.. I quite like the Impact upgrade as it allows you to blast away enemies and anything else in your path.. very useful when swamped!

Leaving the campaign unfinished for now, I’ve had a quick go on Ruin Mode, chasing down a friend’s high-score..

The first map is Junction, and to unlock the next maps you need to.. destroy everything! 😀

I have indeed nabbed the top spot on the Junction map.. though I imagine it’s going to get stolen back fairly soon!

Oblivion

Oh yes.. here we are again..

A friend has been playing through Morrowind, followed by Oblivion over the last days, and it’s made me want to play again.

These are games I completed quite some time ago, and yet I have a scary amount of recall for both games.. to the point I’ve been able to act as an encyclopaedia for random quests!  So much for my dud memory.. I’m now sticking to my theory that my current job’s requirement of monitoring ridiculous amounts of trivia, or stress, perhaps, is actually preventing me from being able to remember things.

In this case my memories of the game mean that I don’t want to go and explore the world like last time.. it feels like all the surprise is gone.  Instead, I think I’ll be trying out the Dark Brotherhood, vampirism, and other evil things that didn’t fit in with my previous play, before trying out some of the awesome fan-made mods that are out there 🙂

Spiral Knights

Steam added a few free games to the list this week, including Spiral Knights, a co-op RPG published by Sega but created by independant company Three Rings.  Three Rings have a rather interesting office, modelled after The Nautilus from Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.. I can’t claim to know the book, but this still counts as an Awesome Office!

The Spiral Knights have been stranded on Cradle, an alien world, and need to work together to explore the Clockworks, the machine in the centre of the world.  This houses the dungeons, which are for 1 to 4 players, and contain a variety of enemies, puzzles, and minerals which can be collected to sell or craft better gear..

When you launch the game you’re first prompted to create your own cute little Knight with a choice from a small selection of helmet and body armour styles, which is customised a little by your choice of colour.. purple for me as usual 😉

You’re then sent through the tutorial, learning the basics at the Crash Site and going through to the Rescue Camp, where you first meet other players and learn about Cradle, the world itself, and take the elevator down to the training dungeon, Abandoned Depot.

As my friends were already in the main game, I joined a random group..

I think this is a fantastic inclusion, allowing a look at how dungeons would work in the main game.

Little communication was required.. it was all fairly simple with all players needing to be on the elevator to move between levels, and a variety of enemies dropping coins and ‘heat’, which are automatically shared between party members. After the dungeon was complete, the heat level of my equipped gear went up, though when I compared my sword with the sword of the same name from the merchant, I couldn’t see any improvement on the listed attack power and speed of the item.

In addition to heat, players also have energy.. you have up to 100 energy per day, which is used to enter dungeons, craft and purchase upgrades and to activate various devices.  Energy comes in two forms, Mist and Crystal Energy.  Mist Energy is replenished over the course of the day, but can also be refilled via rewards such as a Mist Tank, while Crystal energy is available via purchase from other players or with real money.

This means there is a limit to how much you can play without paying, which I think is fair enough.

After the training dungeon, there was one more dungeon, The Final Test, to get through before joining the main game and being able to play with friends.  This was still easy enough, with the addition of gates requiring keys or puzzles to be solved, such as placing statues on pressure plates or cogs which needed to be shot to allow the next gate to open.

Completing this dungeon brought me to Haven, the main area of the game with various different areas full of merchants, Strangers (Cradle’s natives), and the Arcade, where gates allow players into the Clockworks.

Here, I finally joined up with a friend, and we entered one of the easier dungeons together.  These were larger than the previous dungeons, with extra little rooms with treasure in them.. or hidden mobs!  Outside of the tutorial, I was also introduced to mineral gathering, with deposits hidden inside the dungeons.  As with the other loot, all minerals gathered are shared between party members, which removes the problem of fighting over it 🙂

After clearing the dungeon, the elevator allows you either to go back up to the Arcade, or down to the next dungeon.. we worked our way down a few levels meeting progressively harder enemies.. the zombies were fairly tough, taking a while to knock down.

The graveyard ended up being a bit too much for us as more and more enemies appeared! 🙂

When a player dies, a party member can revive them, or they can spend energy to revive themselves.  On dying, a player loses 30% of the heat they have gathered so far, and if a party member revives them, they gain that 30%.  This means that weaker players take longer to level up, while good players who are able to remain alive and revive others will level up more quickly. 🙂

The cost of reviving yourself also goes up with each death.. we had to quit after the cost of reviving ourselves was more than the amount of energy we had left.

As yet, I don’t have enough resources to craft anything, so that will come next time!