Ben Fitzgerald – Mass Effect 2 (360), Star Trek: Armada, Baldur’s Gate, Yesterday (PC)
Having finished both Her Story and Icewind Dale II, I wrote my respective reviews and will be publishing them in the near future. I also intend to publish my review of Star Trek: Armada before the end of the month, so I need to get with the program on that one. I finished Mass Effect the other night (for the third time) and begun my fourth run on Mass Effect 2 (yes, fourth!). I am going to take my time this time, because I want to have internet at home before I get to Mass Effect 3, as I haven’t played any of the DLC for Mass Effect 3, and I want this go at the trilogy to be absolutely complete.
I am still slowly working my way through another run of Baldur’s Gate. Already, Jaheira has fallen to a hobgoblin’s arrow, and I am certain her mourning husband, Khalid, will soon follow. I am also planning to play yesterday, a Spanish murder mystery/adventure game in a visual style based on graphic novels. Sounds like fun to me.
Jake Rushing – Pokémon Go (Android/iOS)
Since I’ve got a lot on my plate for this week between work and getting things ready for my birthday celebration this week, my gaming will be confined to Pokémon Go. Which is not bad at all.
I just reached level 20 yesterday and now I can finally get Ultra Balls! I just got my Golem from evolving my Graveler. After a long day at work, I go to a park to catch plenty of Pokémon here and there.
Terry Randolph – Inside (Xbox One), No Man’s Sky (Playstation 4)
Since playing Limbo and enjoying the heck out of it, I’ve been really excited to dive into the next game Playdead studios was going to create. Soon as I saw Inside, I knew I had to play it. I immediately purchased it and have been waiting for the right time to turn it on and play through it. Now that my schedule is finally simmering a bit, I think it’s about time to play that.
Also, I’m looking forward to playing No Man’s Sky if even a little reluctantly. Truth is, my hype and expectations lowered for this game when the delays were hitting, and the trailers were showing a far different direction than I was expecting from the game. Hopefully with these lowered expectations it means the experience might feel better. Otherwise I’m going to jump into this cautiously sometime this week.
Sean Willis – Straimium Immortality (PC indie), Gotta Protectors/Protect Me Knight 2 (3ds)
Straimium Immortality is a sequel to Straima which are both equally weird. Lots of bright blues greens and reds ontop of a rather dark but animated background and one of the weirdest faces ever. It’s a rather stylized couple of indie games for sure. Straima however is a sorta four multiplayer one screen platformer which focuses on item collection and avoiding hazards. Personally it seems more fun with friends as it insta kills quite a bit. At least you get multiple lives though. Straimium Immortality however is a rogue like shoot em up with permanent death. You play as a ninja thing wearing a jetpack and much to my own delight feels a lot like playing Section Z or Abadox (it’s kinda gory, in a strange alien like colorful way) and even though it’s a little hard at times it’s pretty fun and full of weird interesting things. Though if you played Straima you’ll see a lot of the same assets but the gameplay has a much more lasting feel to it. It is currently under development and as I write this just became greenlight. The alpha I picked up off of a Groupees bundle has no sound or music but I have to say I enjoy the game already. Worth keeping an eye on for sure.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=715005660
Gotta Protectors or Protect me Knight 2 or Mamotte Knight 2 Rhapsody as it might be known is a game I’ve been waiting two years for. It’s a sequel to the game Protect me Knight that was available on the Xbox Live Indie Games market. It was originally a one screen beat em up with a bit of tower defence as you protect the princess in the middle from orcs and things with special attacks and barricades. This sequel however opens up the stages adds four players over four 3DS systems with download play even, stage editor and a rather silly tongue in cheek story. Heck even the opening intro makes fun of itself. It’s hard to tell but the translation seems to be true to the original or at least fits the game well. Lots of RPG elements and some of the best chiptunes music. Oh I forgot to mention is a very 8-bit styled game, not just in sprites but in how the animations work and there’s even a start up sequence that requires the player to blow in to the mic to “clean” the cartridge on screen which is just a nice fun bit of nostalgia. Sadly the first game might go away with XBLIG being discontinued but at least we have its sequel on 3DS, portable and now finally in the US after a good two years of waiting. Worth it though, it’s worth a try at least and I can’t seem to stop playing it, even if it is a tad repetitive when playing solo.
http://www.ancient.co.jp/~game/gotta_protectors/