Games Roundup

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about the games I’ve been playing lately. I’ve dabbled in a few games but I’ll only talk about the few that really grabbed me. I’ve been replaying a lot of CoD: Modern Warfare 2 lately but there’s no real point getting into that, and besides I’m terrible at it. I’m gonna get right into it…

NEON Ultra by PixelBark

I finished up my last games round up with twin stick shooter NEON Ultra, which was in Greenlight at the time. It has since been released and more than lived up to the promise it showed in Greenlight. It’s been polished to a shine and the action is frantic and fun. My twin stick chops aren’t great but I managed a respectable 3.7 million points, putting me at 38th of at the time of writing, with the number one spot being held with a score of over 500 million.

Regardless of my lack of skill I enjoy playing it and still enjoy the odd game from time to time. The difficulty curve is smooth and the game mechanics are simple but brilliantly executed. If you like twin stick shooters or arcade games, pick it up.

Automata Empire by Nonadecimal Creative

This is a real time strategy game with a twist. Instead of controlling your units in the traditional way by giving orders and producing units from building, you indirectly control units depending on what you construct around them. Units behave by their own set of specific rules in the fashion of cellular automata. Units combine together to make new unit types but they also act as the currency/resource, so you need units nearby a location if you want to construct a building there. It’s very much one of those games where a few simple rules together can create the best kind of chaos.

There are multiple game modes, one of which is inspired by Game of Thrones where all the enemies are behind a wall that they are slowly eroding, and you have to escape them. It’s excellent stuff and while it can take a while to figure out, once you grasp the basics it becomes tremendous fun, and the ability to play against your friends, no present in the original game but patched in now, is very well done. This game is brilliant in it’s multiplayer, especially if you’re playing with more than 2 people. The titles you get at the end of every match are a great addition too, giving the game even more personality.

Definitely a fun, if quirky take on the RTS genre but one that’s worth your time.

Shadow Warrior 2 by Flying Wild Hog

After putting a few hours into this I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s basically a Shadow Warrior version of Gearbox’s Borderlands. Which is to say it’s absolutely brilliant. If you’re at all a fan of either the recent Shadow Warrior remake, or Borderlands, this game is well worth your time.

It doesn’t have the ridiculous amount of weapons of Borderlands but the weapons feel all the better for it, they all have personality and are upgradable with loot you find in abundance throughout the game. They feel great to use and they all feel like they have a place on the battlefield.

Your powers are back and I feel this time around are a bit more accessible than the previous game. I didn’t use them at all really in the first game beyond healing but in this one I’m using them a bit more often to help clear a room or  hassle the enemies.

Enemy AI is decent, as is the variety. It’s hard to get bored running around an arena filling them with lead or using one of your (many) trust melee weapons. One slight let down is some of the bosses are a little bit rote and have maybe a bit too much health, but they’re niggles, not deal breakers.

The leveling system while not ground breaking is decent, you earn and find skill cards throughout the course of play which you can then activate and upgrade using skill points earned through leveling. And while it might not be particularly innovative it does add a lot of flavour to the system.

Overall I’m really enjoying it, everything ties together really well and it’s a fun game to play.

Spell Casting: Meowgically Enhanced Edition by Gordon Little

This is a fun little game you can play with your kids that hides a system more challenging than you might at first think.

The premise is that you’re a cat who wishes to become a wizard, but can’t make it to the wizards school, so instead you take up a distance learning education. First you learn how to cast spells, by drawing them on the screen, and at the end the spell book you take a test where you must draw them by memory with a few points as guides, which you are then graded on. Get overall 3 stars and you get to move on to the next spell book!

In the later stages, this can get pretty challenging, and is one of those games where you just want one more try to get it done! There are plenty of references and jokes in their for the adults as well as the kids so definitely worth playing with your kids.

Aside from that the game received a Halloween update, and will be receiving a christmas one too as far as I’m aware. But if you don’t get them at the time, it’s ok, you can enable them through the menu (at least the Halloween one so far, and I think it’s fair to assume the christmas one as well) so you can play them whenever you want. You won’t miss them if you were busy at the time.

As I said earlier, there are other games I’ve been playing as well but a lot of them I’ve not had the time to get into and while I’ve enjoyed them (Devil Daggers, Everspace, GRID Autosport and more), I’ve not played enough of them to write about.

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