Octodad Dadliest Catch [Mac, Linux, Windows, PS4]

This game is killing me. I was so excited for a full-blown Octodad game but now I just can't play it. I fire it up for a bit and then after a few minutes I want to stop. This makes it nearly impossible to review but I have stuck with it. I am going to make this a short review because I need my sanity.

The controls are fun because they are so wild and a little bit unpredictable but that also makes them so taxing. The most fun I have, is when I get so frustrated that I go on a rampage and do all the wrong things, or the game glitches out a little bit and something whacky happens. Unfortunately, that isn't the aim of the game. I just don't care to complete the games puzzles as they don't feel rewarding at all. The only reward is more awkward puzzles and more frustration. I'm sure there are sadomasochists out there who would love this game but that really isn't my style.

I hate these escalators so much!

Octodad is fun at times but the frustration overtakes the moments of joy. Sure the graphics might be better and there is a bit more polish but when Octodad was a freeware game it was short and to the point, unique even but it lacks any real new ideas since then. Playing this game makes me sad, why would Octodad want to live the life of a human? Everything is so hard for him. I think the best thing to do is put him down 5/10.

That's it, leave me alone, I'm off to shock my genitals or anything more pleasurable than this. Happy Valentines Day!

Broken Age Review [Mac OS, Windows, Linux]

Man that was a short ride but what a ride! Broken Age is a point and click adventure that has been broken into two parts. For the price of $25 US dollars you get Act 1 now and when it's ready Act 2 for free later. Or you could have kickstarted it but that was a long time ago now. It even has a tie in with Australia in that the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra recorded the soundtrack.

Right off the bat you'll notice how beautiful this game is, they have gone for an animated style rather than realistic but it totally suits the theme. Perhaps the most captivating aspect is the animations. The main characters are animated so smoothly that they blend beautifully into the world and there are plenty of whacky on screen antics to keep you amused. The music is incredible, as are the sounds and the voices are supplied by a star studded cast. There is that hobbit guy and the Adventure Time guy and even that women who is in all the games.

 

Gameplay is what you would expect from an adventure game. You talk to people, get items, make the items do silly things and solve logic puzzles. In general I found the logic to be pretty understandable and you were guided enough to know what to do, without it taking away from your sense of discovery. There was one time though, when I tried to combine an item with another item but I did so too early and not in the right screen. This meant I stomped around in frustration not knowing what to do next. Aside from that I found it to be quite flowing if a little short.

You'll want to take your time with this game, get stuck on puzzles and stare at the odd animations as it is all over very quickly. This is only Act 1 though and Act 2 will be free, so it isn't a big deal but that second Act is going to take a long time to come out. To get the first half done it took 2 years but at this point the optimistic view is Act 2 will be out next year. This is disheartening because the game leaves you on such a brilliant cliffhanger. I need to know what happens next and I need to know now god damn it!

That's sort of the thing with Broken Age it was all a bit of a gamble and it still is. I feel pretty invested in the story now and I really want to know what happens next but will it be as good as what I have just witnessed? We'll just have to wait and see. Because of this it makes the game really tough to score. I had a lot of fun with it but it just leaves me wanting more and there is little to no replay value. I think I'll give it an optimistic 8.5/10. It really is a joy to play and I highly recommend it but I'm worried about getting caught in the hype and promise of the next act.

Review of DeSmuME the NDS Emulator

Want to emulate DS games on your Mac, PC or Linux? Then DeSmuME is the application for you! Well probably don't try and run it on Mac as it is way too slow and I can't speak for Linux but in Windows it runs fine. Want to emulate DS games and dual (triple, etc.) boot into Windows? Then this is the application for you!

So far I have played Super Mario 64 DS, Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown wars. Some of the top rated games on the system. They have all been almost unplayable on Mac, Super Mario ran too slowly, Bowser's Inside Story had glitches as pictured below and GTA wouldn't even run. So I gave up and focused on Windows, everything ran and for the most part it ran smoothly. I did have a few issues with Bowser's Inside Story such as sound glitches and an error that almost caused it to crash, yet somehow clicking around fixed it.

To play these games I was using a Logitech Dual Action Controller as well as a mouse to control the touch screen. It worked well enough but there are probably going to be some games that won't work very well on PC; Metroid Prime: Hunters springs to mind. Though that game was basically unplayable on the DS anyway. The unique combination of touch screen and gamepad that makes up the DS is always going to be tricky to replicate but I found these games to be playable enough.

It's hard not to recommend DeSmuME even if it has a stupid name. As long as you are using it in Windows it runs quite well and there are a tonne of games out there for you to play. Yes there are some issues with the emulator but they are pretty minor and the team is still working on them, the latest update was released in the middle of this year. As long as you're willing to run DeSmuME under Windows I say go and get it and pick some ROMs up here 9/10.

Card Hunter Review [Windows, Mac, Linux]

Card Hunter is a freemium browser based game for Windows, Mac OS and Linux (if you can get the appropriate version of flash running). You get three heroes, a warrior, mage and paladin, for the single player campaign and off you go to war. Or at least a DnD style RPG bash with cards.

The core mechanic is, the gear you have equipped provides the cards you will be playing with. You get to play one card then your opponent goes, a round is ended when both players decide to pass. It seemed really cool to me at first but as moving is tied to your race/items the game becomes little more than clever manoeuvring. Manoeuvring is alright but really you just want to pull off a cool move and watch your enemy explode, not chase them around the board.

Card Hunter has a single player campaign, competitive multiplayer and they are planning a co-op mode to be released in the near future. The single player campaign follows a cheesy story of you playing the Card Hunter game with your friend. However the game is owned by your friends big brother, who butts in every now and then to tell you that you are doing it all wrong. A cute pizza delivery girl is involved as well but it's all so silly it isn't worth focusing on. As is to be expected in such a game the focus is really on leveling up and collecting sweet loot. In the competitive multiplayer mode you don't level up. Instead you are given a team of already high level characters in order to balance out play. If the client can't find a person for you to play against you will just fight an AI opponent which I found was happening more often than not.

Overall it is a good experience but it just lacks a little depth and fun at times. The game is free and you don't have to buy anything to have fun so it's worth checking out. I think you will only stick to it if you really love waiting for that next piece of loot, because the mechanics just aren't that great 7.3/10

0 A.D.

0 A.D. is a free game made by a community of volunteers and is an Age of the Empires style RTS. The game is only in alpha but they have a pretty solid build available for download on their site. The project still has a long way to go but amazingly you can already play it on Windows, Mac OS and Linux. I've tested it on Windows 7 and Mac OS 10.7.5, here's what I found.

Both versions seemed to run equally well, however, the game has yet to be optimised so when a lot of stuff starts to happen, the game starts to chug. The thing that strikes you at first is how beautiful the game is. The landscapes are incredible and most of the unit models are pretty good too, they just requiring some touching up here and there. Still it's pretty good for a community run project.

There are a lot of little bugs and features missing at the moment. One of the most annoying things is that workers will get stuck on each other and do this silly little dance back and forth, unable to pass one another. Like in Age of Empires  you can queue up units to come out in one big go. You shift click on the units you want and that will increase the number by five, you can keep doing this until you let go of shift and it will plop out 5, 10, 15 etc. The downside to this though, is that there are no warnings for having reached your population cap and this technique can really chew through your allowance. There are also no battle notifications as of yet either so it can be a bit confusing when you come under attack.

The gameplay is a lot like Age of Empires but there are a few differences. One thing I found whilst learning about these differences, is that even set to the easiest difficulty the AI is quite difficult. They always manage to find the one weak spot in my defences and raid my base. The first time I won a  game against the AI, I found the combat to be a little lacklustre. Skirmishers will run off in tangents firing at foes who get too close and because the game chugs when there is so much on screen it makes it very hard to manage.

The game clearly needs a lot of work but still, I am quite impressed with what they've done. It's the kind of project I will check back on from time to time to see how they are progressing. They are also always keen to have people work on the project so there is always that avenue to pursue, if you're interested. It's well worth checking out and I can't wait to see how it is when they enter the beta phase.