Tag: Software

We’ve all tried the NBA 2K series, but it never satisfied the need for some quick, intense matches. That’s something that NBA THE RUN tries to rectify, by offering us 3v3, online matches where you try to advance and potentially win a 3v3 tournament. You are playing with either randoms or a team of friends, and there are multiple game modes to try out. My favorite thing about NBA THE RUN is that it’s very simple, yet it still has some great players. And naturally, it’s a game that you should play with a controller, although in my experience even on the keyboard it ran great and you can end up winning a lot of matches if you time things correctly. Despite its more arcade nature, the game is meant to be fun and strategic. You can easily strategize with your team, focus more on defense or offense, or experiment with all kinds of attacks. I like the fact that you can steal the ball, block, dive for loose balls and so on. Even if it still is an arcade game at heart, it’s...

Being a vampire was supposed to be all about dominating humans. But it seems that their patrols are keen-eyed, able to easily spot suspicious activity, and more than willing to intervene. I decide to back off rather than risk a wound because it’s pretty tricky to get the weird doctor to treat one. So, I abandon the idea of feeding and decide to get back into detective mode. I talk to a few people, trying to extract info. They don’t have anything new to say, so I take a look at my phone. A little bit of sneaking gets me into a locked room, where I get information, I’m not supposed to have. Human vigilantes try to attack me as I head back to my hotel sanctuary, but judicious use of my vampire talents makes it easy to avoid any damage. I have high hopes for tomorrow’s hunt. Nighthawks is developed by The Curiosity Engine and published by Wadjet Eye Games. I played a preview version on Steam. The video game uses an adventure game framework to tell a story about blood d...

Have you ever wanted to play a pixelated diablo with cool loot, excellent magic and intense gameplay? Cursemark is a title that wants to cover all those things, and even if it’s just in early access, it already feels incredibly promising. The game offers a great combination of melee and spellcasting, with a large array of runes you can implement for even better results. You can be more melee-focused, but still use wards, ultimates and spells in order to become the ultimate killing machine. The game is room/level based, as you clear a room and then move on to the next. There are different biomes and enemy types, and also plenty of bosses. Even if the game is in early access and still incomplete, the content that’s there was extremely impressive for me. What stands out in Cursemark is definitely its combat and great attention to detail. The game map looks stunning, and every level is detailed, even if the graphics are pixelated. They even have a CRT mode, which bring...

Kharaz, the dragon knight, might have advanced a little too far into the throng of enemies. He is tasked with keeping as many enemies as possible entertained, even if he cannot kill them, as my archer and my wizards are dealing damage and weakening anyone who cannot be easily destroyed. These druid cultists have invaded a temple, and they need to be cleared out and their Dark Vine destroyed. I throw the tank one of my healing potions and decide it's time to activate Veshi’s ultimate power, which deals damage directly and then burns all enemies for a few turns. It will help thin the herd, while my ice wizard activates her area of effect spell and then slows down two enemy casters. Unfortunately, Cedwin, the ranged specialist, is caught in a bad tactical position. He swings to hired ground, which means he can only attack twice, but it’s better than allowing him to get hit. It takes another four turns to kill everyone, and we probably have another big battle to get th...

Pioneers of Pagonia was warmly received by city building fans, because it brought that impressive Settlers theme, along with beautiful visuals and good gameplay. The new DLC called Meadowsong brings us an interesting campaign with many hours of content. It also introduces us to the Withering, a challenge that brings disease in crops and pioneers. That’s why your pioneers and you have to figure out ways to tackle this problem to the best of your capabilities. It’s also a nice way for them to introduce cats and dogs, which help attack whiterrats and witherwolves. I found it funny that you can’t have dog houses and cat trees near each other though, because they are mortal enemies. Pioneers of Pagonia: Meadowsong focuses on adding a lot of mechanics, new buildings, while also focusing on a specific storyline. 6 buildings, 4 new animal species, 2 new plants and 11 new goods are yours for the talk, and they do help make the gameplay more interesting. I also like the idea ...

As we play those large, AAA games, we always feel the need to take a break from all the complex storylines. And games like Skull Horde are the perfect distraction. It’s an auto-fight dungeon crawler that I found very intense, yet inherently fun and with a ton of cool gameplay mechanics. The fact that our main character is a skull tells you everything you need to know about the game. It’s not meant to be a very serious, 50-hour long RPG. Instead, it’s similar to titles like Vampire Survivors where you have a lot of automatic systems designed to make the gameplay easier, but still intense and fun. At its core, the idea is quite simple in Skull Horde. You are a floating skull commander, and you create a tiny bone army near you, with a variety of skills. Those soldiers will be there to fight and die for you. As you play, you will get cudat coins that can be used to reroll squad members or purchase them and corpuscles blood, which can be used to improve your stats. Lik...

Generation Exile is one of those sandbox games that comes with great premises. You’re in a dystopian world where humanity is on the brink of total extinction. As you are on the final generation ship, the focus is to find a new place for our society to be reborn and shine. That’s inherently interesting, but it also offers plenty of challenge as well. When you start the game, you learn more about the game’s story and there are different choices you can make during the dialog. It’s not much, but it does allow you to bring your own spin on the situation. It doesn’t impact your overall gameplay, so that’s good to know. Generation Exile has an interesting art style that’s both bright and vivid but also doesn’t deter you from a lot of lights. At times, it will bring its own sense of darkness, with intricate and darker nuances. But it all blends together very nicely, including the music which offers a wonderful vibe that matches the action you see on your screen. In this g...

The Guild - Europa 1410 puts us in the 15th century Bohemia, right on the verge of the Hussite Revolution. The idea is that we are a local business owner and we must create a dynasty within a city called Kuttenberg, the only one available in the demo version we played. The demo also limited the starting professions to alchemist, taverner and smith. That being said, every mission has a set number of turns, and here turns are basically a season each. It’s nice to offer us a great way to monitor time, but adding turns and a limit does make the gameplay a lot more intense. Like any Guild game, this one is very complex, and as soon as you start playing, the game puts you in control. Everything is explained, but it does take a little bit to get used to every detail and piece of information. Since you are a business owner, your focus is on narrowing down on your business first. The civil war happening within the country does affect people’s morale, but it’s just nice to s...

The stalwart forces of Australia, boosted by ANZAC spirit, are easily holding the Japanese at the Malaysian border. In my version of World War II, Singapore is not threatened, and, with some good support from airpower and naval assets, we can even drive the invaders back. And then the rest of the Empire decides to prioritize this front. Crowding a lot of divisions into space with limited infrastructure and ports is a bad idea. Attrition does damage that the enemy cannot. My first instinct was to use my civilian factories to get supplies into Indochina. After a month, I pulled out my forces, allowing the rest of the Empire to hold the front. The problem is that they also abandon the front after a while. With Singapore threatened again, I redeployed my elite rangers from Papua and decided to take it as slowly as possible. Create the infrastructure, rebalance my divisions, use force multipliers rather than just infantry, and hope that the Allies manage to control the ...

If you have that Portal itch and you want to scratch it, then Puzzle Parasite might very well be the game that you are looking for. The title is a sci-fi mystery game combined with a physics-driven puzzle experience. You have a vintage cricket bat and the will to solve all kinds of exciting puzzles. But that’s easier said than done, since Puzzle Parasite is continually bringing its own fair share of challenges, while also retaining a good focus on first person puzzle solving goodness. The idea of using an old-school cricket bat to solve puzzles is cool, and I think it’s well-worth considering, especially for puzzle lovers. You use that to redirect beams, manipulate all kinds of energy cores and even create your own light bridges. Although it definitely feels quite different than what you might expect, Puzzle Parasite is very much a rewarding and powerful first-person puzzle experience with a very exciting twist, and something people will appreciate quite a lot. Unl...