Do people remember Routine? It was a spooky looking sci-fi horror game set on retro space station running on chunky 1980s computer tech, e.g. Alien Isolation with just the androids. I remember seeing lots of hype for it back in the mid-2010s before communication stalled. Today it’s still not out but there’s another trailer uploaded on composer Mick Gordon’s channel and news that it will eventually release on GamePass. I’m glad it’s back because I love the aesthetics they’re going for.
Rez
6229
The title “Space Beast Terror” reminded me of a really bad and boring Peter Cushing movie called The Blood Beast Terror about a monstrous, murderous moth lady. The ending had me in stitches when the film’s hero has the bright (and contrived) idea to light a bonfire which the flying, fluttering mothlady, being mostly moth, couldn’t help but dive straight down into, like a moth to a flame, thus immolating herself.
geggis
6230
Never forgot! Looked terrifying. That’s amazing news because I thought it was toast. Will give the trailer a look later. Funny too, because I only heard it mentioned yesterday, and not in relation to that news either.
I tried the Metal: Hellsinger demo. I’m pleased to say that I defeated the devs. This is, I’m so bad at maintaining the rhythm and hitting on the correct notes that it was totally impractical to try to play the game.
Thraeg
6232
Yeah, same here. Seems like a fun idea, but I couldn’t get the hang of the rhythm.
For all you folks interested in Aces and Adventures, there’s going to be a Kickstarter going live this week. My understanding is that it is to raise money for art assets and other things needed to finish the game, including the addition of a roguelite mode. There’s a streamer playing a more complete build than what the demo offered, so it’s possible the KS will give access to that.
Having played the demo, I’m really pleased with what I’ve seen so far.
Yeah it’s the same people who made Ring Runner and Popup Dungeon so I’mma pledge day one.
I haven’t played Vampire Survivors so can’t speak to 20 Minutes Till Dawn’s relative merits, but I’m really enjoying it.
Each run only takes a few minutes, the upgrades have a meaningful impact on your style of play (which is saying something considering you really only move + shoot), and the impact (both visually and mechanically) ramps up quickly and provides quite the satisfying spectacle.
And I haven’t even gotten to the different hero classes and weapons.
EDIT: forgot to mention the speed of the game. I’m not a ‘twitch’ gamer by any means, so I really appreciate how the character movement is designed. While shooting the enemies are faster than you, but when not shooting (ie running) you’re quicker. So you can take a few well-aimed shots, then dash through a gap as the monster horder closes in on you. It’s not constantly frantic - it feels like you have plenty of time to plan your path (and lines of escape). Plenty of risk vs reward decisions in terms of shooting vs moving, and ensuring you’re heading in a direction which allows you to pick up XP drops (which fall from killed monsters…who you’re typically back-pedalling from ie the XP gets further away!).
For less than the price of a cup of coffee, you really can’t go wrong!
Oh, and the pulsating soundtrack adds to the grim atmosphere.
Dread Delusion, a King’s Field throwback with chunky, PSX-style aesthetics and a garish palette, entered early access today. I’m going to keep a close-eye on how this one develops as the surreal, floating islands is something I want to explore. I hope it ends up being a hidden gem like Northern Journey.
Wishlisted, “Morrowind but weirder” seems like winning art direction to me!
Ah, the plight of the Mac-using gaming fan. The 1980’s (when there were lots of Mac games) are never coming back. When they slowed to a (always late, always expensive) trickle over the course of the 1990s, I’d had enough so I “went over to the Dark Side” in 1999.
A developer (I think Bob Saunders?) had explained to me why maintaining Mac builds of games was calling for troubles on Steam: there is some tighter and tighter as OS revision goes launching rights rules, and as a small game dev, the headache of having to tell users individually to go look for the game executable, right click it and launch it manually as to tell the OS to not block it wasn’t worth it — especially since a not launching game usually ends up with a thumbs down opinion and a refund, I am guessing. It’s really a shame.
Well… it does save me a lot of money.
Probably. I admit I went a little nuts back then, being in my late 30’s with a good job and being able to take advantage of the white hot PC gaming scene at the time, and places like GoGamer.com that would send you a second game for free with whatever game you’d ordered, and older games available for cheap via mail order, and used PC games also from Electronics Boutique.
geggis
6242
Oh that looks interesting, thanks for the tip!
I still think about Northern Journey. That game had such a distinctive vision and atmosphere.
That looks pretty neat. Thanks!
Some of you might have played the free game Seedship.
link for the free browser game:
It has a small thread here as well.
A short “procedural narrative experience” about a cryo-sleep colony ship. You arrive at various planets and decide whether to colonize them or not. While travelling random events improve and degrade your ship.
The developer released Beyond the Chiron Gate as a greatly expanded implementation of the same idea, still mostly text based.
Annoyingly only available on itch.io for PC, and in the usual mobile stores:
You control an exploration ship with a small crew and traverse an unstable, newly discovered gate network.
The lineage from Seedship is very noticeable but the mechanical interactions are greatly expanded.
The whole experience still works on some level but also suffers due to the loss of simplicity. Events are more numerous and more elaborate but also more punishing and random. Your crew will get hurt a lot as you fail 30-50% chance rolls.
Surface level interaction with various extinct and alive alien civilizations at different tech levels is the game’s best part even though it quickly bumps against the boundaries of the design.
As a whole it still works as the aimed for “procedural narrative experience” and is quite unique. Its frustrations however make it less enjoyable than Seedship despite/because of the mechanical expansion.
I was just thinking about Seedship yesterday. Thanks for bringing this up. Could have easily missed it completely!
I am playing seedship now, unknowingly I just enslaved an entire planet!
