Orcs Must Die!

Orcs Must Die is an action strategy game by Robot Entertainment, where you guard against waves of Orcs, using traps, weapons and spells.  I tried the demo, which has three fortresses and a limited selection of traps.. enough to get an idea of what the full game will be like on release next week.

I quite like the character art 🙂

The Orcs aren’t too smart, and therefore make perfect enemies.. I also found their comments quite funny as they made their way over my traps 🙂

The three traps in the demo are the Tar Trap, which slows enemies, Floor Spikes, and my favourite, the Arrow Wall, which hits quite hard and also knocks the Orcs back.. I liked setting this up so the Orcs would end up on another trap!

I was less keen on the Boom Barrel.. although cheap, it requires detonating, and I’d rather spend the active part of the round shooting or pushing the Orcs back with the Wind Belt.

In addition to the traps, you also have weapons.. the Crossbow, the Bladestaff, and the Wind Belt, unlocked later in the demo.  Of the three, I found the Wind Belt to be the best weapon as it allowed you to send the Orcs back over the traps again.. and the special attack allows you pick up a single enemy.. not particularly useful, but rather funny 🙂

Sadly, the game is only single-player.. although there are leaderboards where you can try to beat your friends’ scores, this just isn’t as much fun as playing alongside friends, and I think it would wear thin after only a short while.

SpaceChem

SpaceChem has now been added to the Humble Bundle.. bringing the total to six games, a prototype and a pre-order!  I already picked up the bundle, but like Trauma before it, SpaceChem has also been made available to those who bought the pack 🙂

SpaceChem is a puzzle game by Zachtronics Industries, where the player takes on the role of a Reactor Engineer, converting various elements into useful chemicals, meeting production quotas and fighting monsters..

The first level, “Of Pancakes and Spaceships”, has you build a simple circuit using commands and directional arrows for your waldos to transfer a molecule of oxygen from the input to the output of the reactor.

When your reactor has produced the required number of molecules, you are presented with an overview of your performance compared to others.. and the option to upload your solution as a video on your YouTube account.

I noticed here that I’m also able to compare my results against my friends.. which means I have to do reasonably well for pride’s sake 😉

The commands are very specific, and I think most players would need to pay attention to the tutorial, or end up fumbling around a lot.  Using an output command in an output area  is not enough.. you have to use the right output command in each specific output area..

On my first try with the Crossover task, I hadn’t noticed this, so ended up with unflushed atoms waiting to collide with the next cycle’s atoms!  Once I fixed this problem, I then ran into the fact that the red waldo’s cycle was shorter than the blue, and therefore faster.. I fixed this by adding Sync commands just after the input, to make the waldos run together.

Bonding added more complexity to the controls, with the grab/drop command capable of being set as a sole grab or drop command.  I found it rather satisfying to see my newly created molecule heading for the output 🙂

The next level had me creating Hydrochloric Acid, which I managed first time, without any assistance!  I was still pleased with this even when I got to the performance screen, and saw that one friend managed this using only 14 symbols, while I used 19.. 😮

There must be more tricks to learn then.. but I’m probably not going to learn them tonight, as I have work in the morning 😉

More Technics Pack

I’ve been struggling for quick answers to things in my new modded game, due to there being so many mods added all at once, and not being familiar with any of them to begin with.  Some things are easy to quickly look up.. for NPCs and villages: Millénaire, for creatures: Mo’ Creatures.

But green ore?

It turns out that the green ore in my little cave is uranium, and needs to be dug up with an iron pick.. but I had to ask a friend to find this one out.  Google searches for Minecraft tend to return lots of videos and installation guides.. and well, I just don’t have the time or inclination to wade through hours of video footage in the hopes of getting an answer to whatever question just came up.

I suppose most people come to the Technics pack after having played with various other mods, if not the specific mods included themselves.. whereas I’ve come to it through the pestering enthusiasm of a friend, and find it all a far cry from the comforts of vanilla Minecraft and the wiki..

My friend has now linked me to the Industrial Craft Wiki though, which should alleviate my frustration enough that I properly look at this side of the mod pack, instead of just hunting Ogres or watching the villagers build stuff.. though maybe I’ll watch a little more first, as I do want to see how much they’ll expand 😉

There was a death in the village today too!  A bear attacked a woman.. and after taking just a few hits, she disappeared in a little cloud of dust 😮

Minecraft Mods – Technic Pack

I’ve mostly ignored Minecraft’s various mods so far.. nothing really leapt out as a must-see, and I just didn’t have the enthusiasm to face the hassle of setting them up.

However.. a friend has been trying out the Technic pack, which adds a big pile of mods to the game.. building, industrial machinery, more creatures via Mo’ Creatures, and from Millénaire, NPC villages which grow as the villagers work in them.

Minecraft itself has to be downgraded to version 1.7.3 before the pack can be applied.  So that I can play on the multiplayer server still, I need to have a second install of Minecraft.. or a second copy of the game’s bin folder at least.  I looked into creating a batch file to switch between the modded version and vanilla version, but that would rely on naming the folders “bin” and “bin(1)” rather than something memorable.  As I want to keep a backup copy of the modded version anyway, it should be easy enough to just copy that over when I want to play the mod.

So, into the game..

I spawned right next to an Indian village, with a few small buildings, and NPCs going about their business.. collecting wood, making bricks, and if I headed into the town hall, one or more would come running to trade with me 🙂

I decided to avoid gathering resources directly within the village in case it turned them against me.. but I was lucky enough to come across loads of blocks of wood from trees which were despawning all around, and ended up with a full stack of wood without having had to strike a single tree!

I’m still only at “Stranger” status with the Village Chief, though as I bring more goods to trade, this reputation should improve and I’ll be able to get more interesting things, including housing which isn’t so easily destroyed..

My friend had warned me against building too close to the village, as they will expand onto you if it’s in their plans.  I moved to the next flat piece of land and made a small house, containing a workbench and chest, and a bed for passing the night in safety.. or so I thought!

The Mo’ Creatures part of the pack adds.. as you’d guess.. more creatures, including werewolves, big cats, and Ogres..

I awoke from the third night’s sleep to a smashing sound, grunting, and the realisation that my house was being destroyed around me by three large Ogres!  I ran away, not wanting to take them on with the wooden sword I had to hand.. and when I came back there wasn’t much left..

In case you don’t want to be surprised like this, Mo’ Creatures has a few adjustable settings.

I have reduced the number of Ogres.. for now.  They drop Obsidian, so when I have a bit more gear, I will be hunting them for it!

Werewolves were another threat I’d been warned against, with the recommendation of just running if I saw one.  It’s a different matter during the day, though.. and I was encouraged to attack the “hobos” wandering around for their loot.. as well as for the fact that they were the Werewolves’ daytime form.

As well as the hostile creatures, there is a nice variety to the wildlife.. rabbits, cats, fish, horses.. even pegasi and unicorns, which a friend has been busy trying to breed..

For my part, I still need to create a saddle, find food, and even tame a horse, before I can worry about breeding them 🙂

I came across some dolphins too.. and I even managed to get a ride on one by clicking him.  I couldn’t repeat it when I tried, though, as the other dolphins just threw me off!

The trees are another great thing about this mod.. more variation, with a few types of fruit trees too.. and some insanely large trees dotted about, which remind me of our attempt at a giant tree on our old multiplayer map!

I also found an Oil Slick, but I think I’m quite a way off building any of the industrial machines which I’d want it for.. so I’m leaving it alone for now.

Before I start ripping apart the countryside, I want to see quite how much my little village can expand.. they’ve already started! 🙂

Trine

I picked Frozenbyte‘s Trine up in the Humble Bundle a few days back, and although I’d seen the name before, I had no idea what the game really was beyond “puzzle action”.

So when the game launched, I wasn’t expecting something quite so pretty and well-polished..

The story is told by a Narrator with an awesome voice, with some rather nice graphics to illustrate the decline of a magical kingdom beset by evil, with the dead rising from their graves until it was abandoned..

This is where the Thief came in.. like all thieves she wants treasure, and having learned of an ancient object hidden within the Astral Academy.. here she is!  The Thief is an acrobatic, agile character, equipped with a bow for ranged combat, and a grapple hook to get around.  Finding the treasure itself served as the tutorial..

On entering the Shrine and touching the object within, she was frozen..

The next character introduced was the Wizard, who wanted to escape the armies of the Undead.. but he saw a light from within the Shrine, and entered..

The Wizard has the ability to move objects, using the right mouse button, as well as create boxes by drawing them using the left mouse button.  This allows him to create a way of climbing up onto high ledges, or interacting with puzzles to clear a path or gather experience bottles which appeared during this level.  He eventually made his way to where the Thief was trapped.. and ended up touching the object and being frozen too!

The third character was the Knight.. he had been training to fight the Undead so he could join the King’s Army.  He also noticed the light within the Shrine, and headed on in.  The Knight is a more offensive character, and on his run to the Shrine I met some Undead skeletons to try my sword out on 🙂

Eventually he made his way to the object, and touched it too..

This then caused the three characters’ souls to be joined together by the object.. the Trine!

From here, you make your way through the Academy, playing as one of the three characters at any time.  You can switch between the characters as you want or need them by pressing 1, 2 or 3 for Wizard, Thief or Knight.

For travelling around, I preferred the Thief.. the grappling hook allows for fast movement and getting over large gaps, and just feels rather nice to use..

Her bow is great for ranged attack, so long as you power up the shot, but for any real combat I preferred to switch to the Knight.. he has the added ability of being able block damage with his shield, whereas the Thief is just too vulnerable at close quarters.

The Wizard has no direct offensive capability, although he can conjure a box in just the right place to land on an enemy and squish him!  I’ve only done that on single enemies so far.. mainly to see if it would work! 🙂

The characters have their own health and energy bars, and it is possible for the active character to die if they take too much damage.  If this happens, you can carry on with your remaining characters till you get to a checkpoint, where they return to life and all characters receive a health and energy boost.  Health is also dropped by some enemies, but first you have to kill them 😉

It appears that you can manage for a short while without one of your characters, as most puzzles can be dealt with by jumping, grappling, or climbing on conjured boxes.. but I wouldn’t like to try taking on waves of Skeletons without the Knight, and the Thief is the only one who can grapple over long jumps, so there will be some places where you’d have to go back to the last checkpoint.

The first boss I met was a giant Skeleton!

I used the Knight almost exclusively here, as the Skeleton moved too quickly for ranged attacks, and hacked through conjured boxes too easily to use them as a barricade.

The three characters are constantly gathering experience, and when they level up you can improve an ability or purchase a new one.  The improvement for the Wizard’s conjure skill allows him to have two boxes at a time.. and later he’ll be able to conjure boards and bridges!  I also found some pieces of equipment such as the Necklace of Life, which improves maximum health points and therefore went to the Knight, and the Ring of Spellcaster, giving the Wizard an energy boost.. this character is the only one who I’ve managed to run out of energy so far.

I might not have completed the game, but I’ve already discovered that it has a local co-op mode allowing two or even three people to play, though apparently it requires game controllers and some configuring.  This allows each player to take control of a character, with all player-characters active at once.. easier in terms of combat, but more difficult as all need to be able to get through the puzzles.  When I’ve completed the game, I might just have to grab someone to try this! 🙂

The Humble Frozen Synapse Bundle!

The Humble Bundle is a pack of indie games offered at a price set by the individual customer.. literally “pay what you want”.. where the money gets split between the developers, charity and the Humble Bundle site itself.. again as each customer sees fit.

Supporting indies and charity?  I don’t see a downside.. 🙂

This particular offer was headlined by Frozen Synapse, a turn-based strategy game which seems to have rated highly justabout everywhere.  While you could choose to pay just £1 for the game, paying more than the average also nets you some bonus games..

In this case, the bonus pack was the Humble FrozenByte Bundle, including: Trine a puzzle-action game featuring a thief, a wizard and a warrior, action games Shadowgrounds and Shadowgrounds: Survivor, a pre-order of Splot, a fairytale adventure, and Jack Claw, a prototype game featuring a guy with a rather large claw!

Trauma has since been added to the bundle, and can be downloaded by those who had already paid and redeemed their codes simply by visiting the unique link sent via email.  This one sounds like a different sort of game, described on the site as a “photographic experience” in the mind of a traumatized young woman.. I’m half-expecting something on the lines of Korsakovia, but we’ll see! 🙂

Sanctum got Updates!

FPS Tower Defense game Sanctum received some updates recently, adding new maps and towers!

Some of these updates are free, both others are via paid DLC..

Annoyingly, I see a lof of moaning on the Steam forums by ungrateful people who expect to be handed more content and not pay another penny.. despite some of these people only having picked the game up cheap in a Steam sale!  What they’re missing is that if the devs continue to work on the game, they need to continue to pay their bills and have some kind of income.. and optional DLC allows for this. I’m sure the whiners would absolutely love to go to work for nothing.. 😉

We went for a quick game or two to take a look.. it seemed that Sanctum had took a leaf out of BulletStorm’s book as we had the Penetrator and Violator in the mix, along with the rather interesting Holo and Ampfield ‘towers’, which allowed for more damage to be dealt to mobs.

I especially liked the Holo tower, which we paired with Gatlings or Penetrators.. and with the right positioning, players can shoot through the tower for a damage boost too 🙂

There was also a new weapon.. a Shotgun, which could be used for single shots, or by holding down the right mouse button, all shots could be fired at once for a rather powerful blast!  I loved this weapon, but haven’t decided which weapon is best to switch out with.  The Assault gun has the grenade alt-fire, while the Sniper allows you to hurt airborne enemies, and the Freeze gun is useful if a pack of mobs seem to be escaping the kill zone.. I guess it has to come down to balance.

Fortix 2 – Demo

I tried out the Fortix 2 demo a few days back, after it caught my eye on Steam.. all it takes is a colourful picture sometimes 😉

Fortix 2 is a reverse turret defense game by Nemesys Games, an indie developer from Hungary.  The aim of the game is to capture the castle while faced with dragons, cannons, and other monsters..

To capture land, you simply walk around it, bit by bit.. taking care not to be hit by monster or cannon ball while doing so.. being hit means losing a life!  You are safe while at the edge of the playfield, but once you have left the side you are vulnerable until you’ve made your way back, fencing off the bits of land as you can.

Claimed land is the same as the land at the edge of the playfield.. you are safe while you are on it, and can set off from anywhere along the edge to claim another piece of land.

The maps in Fortix 2 are lovely, colourful representations of the castle and surrounding area, with hills, trees, swamps and water.. all of which affect how fast you move!  So if you’re heading across a piece of swamp, you may find yourself slowed to the point you can’t escape enemies.  The trick here is to claim smaller pieces of land.. and aim to capture the stray cannons outside of the castle, as once captured, they will shoot at enemy cannons for you 🙂

I found the demo very easy to play.. and while I loved the idea, I thought it was maybe a little too easy as I flew through the entire thing rather too quickly.

Fortix 2 reminds me of Xonix.. a game I played so long ago I don’t really want to say.. suffice it to say the monitor I played on back then displayed only green and black!  Back then, my PC gaming consisted of text-based role playing adventures, Tetris, and a few others.  I’m glad things have moved on, but I wouldn’t have given up my green and black world for anything 😉

Geomon

Geomon is a role-playing game for the iPhone or iPod featuring collectible spirit-creatures called Espers, which you need to fight to capture.  You play the part of an Agent in the EsperCorp company, charged with capturing the Espers to study.  Espers can be found at different locations around the world, and the game uses geolocation to determine which Espers appear for you.  Some also only appear at night, or when it’s raining.. so collecting them all may be impossible.. I’ll have to see.

A friend was involved in the creature design for this game, so despite my initial resistance to a game which can track my location, I decided to take a look.  The game is currently free.. I’m not sure if some elements will turn out to be paid, or if the company have a plan for merchandising later on.

Anyway.. I started the game up, and was asked to choose an Esper from a small collection.  Each has different stats, strengths and weaknesses.. such as the ability to use toxins or fire, or being weak to physical attacks.  I chose the shadow wolf Varg..

The Varg’s strength lies in Shadow: sneaking and debilitating attacks, and whose weakness is light.

This is where the info falls a little short, or at least relies too heavily on game-genre knowledge.. which I don’t really have!  The information I get here tells me that Espers using light rely on healing and shielding.. but tells me nothing of what the weakness would be.  Does the Varg have less healing?  Will he be less able to penetrate an enemy’s shield?  Guess we’ll see! 🙂

After choosing and naming my new pet, I was given a radar screen, with little blips showing me nearby Espers.  Clicking on any blip allows inspection of the Esper, which tells me what the Esper is, as well as providing a difficulty rating.  All the Espers on my first screen were rated as “fair” difficulty.. I’m guessing that harder fights are left until you’ve passed the first few levels and know what you’re doing.

The fights are very easy: you choose an attack, which is applied to the enemy before they take a turn at you, and so on until you defeat the enemy.  The Varg’s special ability at this point is a Curse, which in addition to taking away some HP, also has a chance to apply “Afraid”, which I guess makes the enemy miss a turn, or fail to attack.

After the second fight I found an item.. a Flawed Quartz.  Crystals can be used to capture other Espers, when you fight and weaken them first.. and so I collected my second Esper!

So now I have two Espers in my party, which can contain up to five.  I’m guessing they can all come to fight at the same time too, maybe with the option to select two to send out, though I’ll have to capture more to see 🙂

To collect more, I can fight everything I see, or even trade with people, assuming they have different Espers.  I believe this is all very similar to the Pokemon games.. but I’ve not played that for myself so I’m only going off what I’ve been told.. for now.. 😉

Minecraft: The Adventure Update!

Minecraft has now been improved with The Adventure Update.. adding new biomes, ravines, NPC villages, more, and bigger, dungeons, and abandoned mines..

This last is maybe a bad thing where I’m concerned, because when I find a dungeon I want to explore the whole thing, and tend to get stuck down there for weeks.. but what I’ve seen so far has been rather interesting, and certainly an improvement to the game.

Another pair of additions are the food meter and the experience bar.  I wasn’t too sure about the food meter when I saw it at the weekend.. I don’t really want to have to eat in a game.. but I think it’s added an extra, minor challenge, as well as a use for all that food.  Food also has the unfortunate effect of making it look as though your character is vomiting, though not from your own point of view.  Experience hasn’t been added properly to the game yet, so while you can gather little glowing blobs of XP from mobs you kill, it doesn’t do anything.

I went exploring with a friend tonight, looking for an abandoned mine.   The abandoned mines also have small wooden structures and track, and I’ve been digging that up as I find it.. I plan to link up my latest base, ‘Wolvesholme’, with the rest of the explored world.

We found one of the many huge chasms first, and I was taught a slightly cheeky trick of using water for a fast descent to the bottom, rather than the slow staircase I’d have built.

There are now spiderwebs in the caves, which make it feel a bit more sinister.. especially when you hear the spiders scratching around above you..

I suffered at the hands of the mobs tonight, especially the creepers, and had to make several long runs back from ‘Silver Bay’ as that’s where I’d last used a bed.  Tomorrow’s job will be building some kind of outpost to save these long runs back!