You’re gonna love that full frontal shot…if your computer can handle it.
Virtual Programming announced today the release of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition for the Mac. And all you have to do is check out the trailer on VP’s site to realize that this is going to be the best RPG your going to play on the Mac this year. The graphics are the best I’ve seen in a game yet, and the voice-overs are professionals…no voices from the sound-guys girlfriend’s sister here.
The Witcher 2 continues the story of Geralt of Rivia from the first game, as chaos reigns and bloody assassinations become commonplace in a world where cruelty and violence are daily fare.
Follow the intense, emotionally charged, non-linear storyline, as you are forced to make crucial decisions in order to succeed, faced with rampaging monsters and fierce battles at every turn in the most lively and believable game world ever created. Decisions are crucial because each choice you make impacts the development of the storyline, resulting in different endings depending on the path you chose.
VP promises a new combat system that merges dynamic battles with RPG mechanics and tactical options using the REDengine, the game engine that CDProjekt Red, the publisher of the game, created. The engine provides for faster loading times and better speed in game. Also, we didn’t have to deal with that lousy DRM mess that PC gamers “tested out” when the game first launched. Sucks to be them, eh?
The Witcher 2 received game rankings in the high 80′s with review scores of 9 out of 10 on average. The Enhanced Edition includes additional content set in previously unseen locations, expanding the story and introducing new characters, mysteries and monsters; all new animations and cut scenes; and all of the DLC and improvements seen in the 2.0 version of the game, including Arena mode, Dark mode, and a more extensive tutorial system.
Hope it’s worth it, because the minimum system requirements require a high-end Mac to play it:
- OS X version 10.7.5 or later
- Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo
- Memory: 4GB RAM
- Graphics: GeForce GT 650M 512MB (on 1440×900, medium), Radeon HD 5770 1GB (on 1440×900, low)
Today I look at Zombie Toss…ed with red wine sauce, for zombie chefs the world over; Build-a-lot 3 comes to iOS; and Little Bird Game, a platformer for tilt-lovers.
Ever wonder if zombies taste as good to us as we taste to them? No? Well, me neither, but developer Flying Wisdom Studios decided to go that direction with Zombie Toss. A bizarre kind of swipe and slash game where you use a variety of weapons, from knives, shotguns, and machine guns, to tanks, helicopters, and flying sharks (I’m not making this up) to slash these zombies tossed up into the air for your destructive desires. There are four chapters with 30 levels in two modes: Story and Survival. You can toss your zombies for $0.99 with a universal app on iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.
Hipsoft’s Build-a-lot 3 has come to iOS, courtesy of G5 Games. Build-a-lot 3: Passport to Europe takes your real estate empire to 9 European countries, restoring rundown houses, beautifying neighborhoods, and developing services. You get to construct a lot of buildings based on European architecture while surviving weather conditions and environmental crises. Campaign mode has 45 levels, while Casual mode is more of a sand-box style system you play at your own pace. You can download the demo for free, then get the full version via in-app purchase. The game is discounted for a limited time: iPhone is available for $2.99, and iPad is out for $4.99.
Roentgen’s Little Bird Game is an interesting platformer. Rather than tap, swipe, or otherwise interacting with your little bird on the screen to get him from one place to another, you use only the accelerometer and tilt functions of your iPhone to move Little Bird. Using acceleration, you avoid obstacles or use features such as cannons, moveable platforms, and springs to get Little Bird to pick up coins and to his final destination each level. Wonder if I’ll be constantly trying to tap the screen, tho! Little Bird Game game out in September, so I’m a little late in finding out about it, but you can grab it for $0.99 for iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad.
Today I look at strategy game and mans’ greatest fear, Hairy Balls; Crazy Climber’s love child, Pocket Climber; and Reiner Knizia’s latest, Qin.
Developer Redtribe has released freemium puzzler Hairy Balls. Players must use strategy to move their balls via swipe in a limited number of turns to their destination…Ding-Dong mushrooms. Yeah, the in-jokes abound. The puzzles are pretty challenging right from the beginning, so if you can get around having to sidestep your 8-yr-old asking what’s so funny about the blue-ball character, you’re good to go. No ads, but you can purchase hint packs through in-app purchases in the game. You can download through the App Store as a universal app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.
CocoaChina released last week Pocket Climber. This takes the endless runner genre and turns it on its side…literally. Instead of running horizontally, you are climbing up. Scale skyscrapers, gather coins, and avoid obstacles thrown at you from some asshole above you. Oh, and a gorilla. Yeah, apparently King Kong makes an appearance. If you were a fan of ’80s arcade classic Crazy Climber, you’ll see a lot of similarities from this adaptation. You can get the game for $0.99 for both iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad.
Reiner Knizia, King of board games, has released new game Qin. What makes this interesting is that for the first time an iPad adaptation of the board game has been released at the same time. Using the same graphics as the board game, the game is playable by 2-4 players, or one player against AI. The game is set in China over 2000 years ago. The players must unite a bickering China by colonizing the back country and incorporating what he creates into his own realm. You can download this game for iPad for $4.99.
Today I look at the color-switching runner Polara, the creepy hidden object game Whisper of Fear: the Cursed Doll, and the port of trad RPG Avernum 6 to iPad.
Canadian-based dev Hope This Works Games has launched a side-scrolling runner that makes you think while you run. Polara requires that you know your colors to get through 50 levels and six different endless modes. You’ll have to match the right color to get through obstacles and barriers. Activate boostpads, jump through lasers, and dodge bullets by changing your color at the right time, but be careful: sometimes the most obvious color is not the right one, and the color you leave the ground with might get you killed by the time you land. Though there is no formal color-blind support, the developer assures that the color changes are strong enough for color-blind players to differentiate. There’s an in-depth plot-line to the game, but it isn’t clear from the trailer whether it really impacts gameplay or not. Pick up Polara as a universal app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad for $0.99.
G5 has released another hidden object game with a decidedly creepy storyline. Whisper of Fear: The Cursed Doll follows the story of a father’s pain after his daughter drowns in a lake, and his decision to curse all involved. Though the gameplay seems to be standard hidden object, the story and visuals aren’t standard at all. Download the demo of the game for free, then unlock the full version with an in-app purchase for $6.99 on iPad, $4.99 on iPhone.
If you are a big fan of traditional story-based RPGs, Spiderweb Software is your go to developer. Spiderweb just released their award-winning Indie RPG, Avernum 6, onto the iPad. The world of Avernum exists underground, but the mushrooms that everyone needs to live on have died in the Blight, and the reptilian Slithzerikai have attacked to take control. In the final episode of this saga, you have to help your people get to safety before everything falls apart. Featuring point and click gameplay mechanics in a touch interface. You can download Avernum 6 for the iPad only for $6.99.
Today we look at the odd King Oddball Ends the World physics-based puzzle game, Pinch 2SE for live Norbs and strategy, and whether Solar Warfare is just another space shooter.
Imagine if Angry Birds and Catch the Candy had a bastard child, and you’ve got some of the oddity for King Oddball Ends the World by 10Tons. In this physics-based puzzle game, you control the rock head of King Oddball…or maybe the rock head IS King Oddball…and swing large boulders back and forth with his tongue to knock out your enemies. The goal is to crush all tanks, helicopters, and soldiers on the screen with a limited amount of boulders. Boulders will roll and bounce, so figuring out their physics is key to your strategy. The artwork is eccentric, to say the least, but could have been pumped up to my mind, ala Katamari Damacy style. Now, that WOULD have been odd! Game is universal, with Game Center support, and is currently going for $2.99.
Thumbstar Media has launched Pinch 2SE, a special edition of Coatsink’s Pinch 2 game. In Pinch 2SE, you navigate your way through mazes with obstacles and barriers that you have to maneuver around or through. You do this by pinching the colorful Norbs apart or together to create different colors to match the barriers and obstacles in the game. The difference between the original game and the special edition is that in the SE, the norms are alive and will automatically merge with obstacles if they get close enough, adding an extra layer of strategy to the game. To be perfectly honest, I found the artwork in the original game much lovelier, but it should be fun to compare strategies between the two versions. Pinch 2SE is available as universal app for $0.99.
Lastly, Solar Warfare, an action space shooter, was released at the end of last week. The game consists of eight 3D worlds that you must explore and cleanse of hostile entities using features like hover and low altitude cruise, seeker missiles, and the Obliterator. Every weapon and shield is upgradable via coins collected in game or through in-app purchase and the game includes Game Center support. Already Solar Warfare has received some high scores on the App Store though whether they are legitimate or not remains to be seen. You can find out for yourself for a $0.99 download…the game has a 50% off offer right now for a universal download.
Today I look at the arcade sequel A Space Shooter Blitz; Boomtime Baseball, the game for lovers of the golden age of baseball; and the slingshot game Jumpster.
Frima Studios has released a sequel to their A Space Shooter for Free. Released last week, A Space Shooter Blitz takes the shooter angle and turns it into one minute combat blitzes. For each kill you make unscathed, the multiplier builds, the points add up, and the pissed off aliens redouble their efforts to take you out. You can challenge your friends to beat your best score. The game features cross-platform play between iOS, Android, and Facebook, or hotseat challenges. Lots of weapons, ship upgrades, and humorous voice-work ending with some epic boss fights. The game is a free to play, universal app, with in-app purchases.
Distinctive Developments seeks to bring back the golden age of baseball with Boomtime Baseball, released today. Starting with baseball heroes of the 1920′s and jaunty commentary from Jesse “The Shoe” Miller, to the sepia tone of the graphics shading mob hangouts, baseball parks, and even jazz clubs, the game seeks to create an integrated world of the age of Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson. The main game includes three single player game modes and multiplayer with Game Center support. You can also collect playing cards with each player’s stats, dance at Miss Kitty’s Dance Club, or take your chances at Al’s Casino. The game is pretty addictive and has many ways of playing, including a creative way of using in-game advertising. Definitely a game I’ll be reviewing in depth later.
G5 Entertainment is heading into some new territory with the release of their physics-based game Jumpster, released today. Jumpster, the cute little alien, crash-lands on the planet Okadia and must jump his way to new fuel and escape. This is a slingshot game, so think Squids or Parachute Ninja. The game is free-to-play, but there’s a renewable energy system that you can renew via in-app purchase or putting the game aside for a while. I wonder whether that will lead to some players never picking the game up again. G5 is promising that the game will be regularly updated with new content. But most of the powerups will be available via in-app purchase. Download the game as a universal app for free and try it out.
Today we look at G5′s La Jangada, a casual interpretation of a Jules Verne novel; Bingo Words, a good idea gone bad; and Hotel Transylvania Dash, a dashing game with no sparkles.
G5 Entertainment has decided to explore some classic novels for the next game they published. Epic Adventures: La Jangada is based on his novel Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon (The French title is La Jangada). The game takes you back to the 19th century as Minha travels with her family through the Amazon River to her wedding in Brazil on an amazing ship…a jangada. She is to marry her love, Dr. Valdez. But danger threatens when her father’s dark past, an accusation of murder, catches up. The novel itself is quite fascinating, so the storyline for the game promises to be intriguing. However, the gameplay looks to be standard adventure and hidden object and the graphics look rather low quality…the characters look like creepy androids. You can download a copy of the game for free from the iTunes App store to check it out, then upgrade to the full version for $2.99 for the iPhone/iPod Touch or $4.99 for the iPad.
I don’t often recommend AGAINST a game in the Game Watch, but this is one of those times. Win Interactive’s Bingo Words is a study in bad game design. Though the game is described merging aspects of Scrabble and Bingo, it has nothing definable as Bingo gameplay at all. The goal behind the game is to form words on a 5×5 grid as fast as possible, making sure that you cover all of the stars on the grid. The grid has 2 stars on it and you have a certain number of letters to use to make words. You don’t have an option to exchange letters…you just continue making words until you can’t anymore. Then you issue a challenge to your opponent to beat you. This more resembles aspects of Boggle gameplay, but I suppose Win couldn’t call it Boggle Words. You are required to log in to Facebook to access the game at all; there is no Game Center support. Game sessions cost coins which you presumably earn when you beat an opponent. And the coin packs themselves make no sense…the list of coin packs on the App store don’t match the list in the game, either for number of coins or even price. The game is free, so if you download it you won’t have to pay anything. But frankly I would consider even that a waste of time.
Sony is getting into the crossover business. It’s upcoming animated comedy, Hotel Transylvania, has a game to match. Published by PlayFirst, Hotel Transylvania Dash sends players racing against the clock to help Dracula run a monster-exclusive resort, juggling multiple demands from a kooky collection of guests across 30 levels. Some have complained that the game is just Hotel Dash with changed graphics, but it’s already quite popular. Hotel Transylvania Dash is available for free with an in-app upgrade purchase of $2.99 to get the full universal version.
The epic mobile MMORPG Juggernaut: Revenge of Sovering has leapt from iOS to Mac today. Mail.Ru Games announced its 3D action/RPG game is ready for Mac players to explore. Players must defeat the evil Sovering who threatens to annihilate the natives of Haradan by selecting one of six legendary characters, known as “Scorpions”, to battle demons and complete challenges.
Gameplay and decision-making is a crucial component to the future of a character. Each decision is supposed to impact a hero’s fighting style, appearance, and even their cinematic finishing moves. The turn-based gameplay include choices from a variety of different fighting controls, including swipes, taps, and buttons. There are also a large number of cool special effects, from blood spray hitting the screen to dust rising from the ground during battle.
Customization is also a large part of the game, and each hero can be customized by their armor, weapons, coloring, etc. Lastly, there are a number of mini-games included that are meant to create a deeper gameplay experience.
The Mac version is surprisingly cheap, available for only $4.99 on the Mac App Store. Almost the price you would expect for a mobile game. Except the mobile game was free with in-app purchases to provide the profit. Hmmm…one wonders how the Mac version will balance that out.
Techtonic Games has released the Mac version of Bust-N-Rush, available on the Techtonic site and soon through the Mac App Store. Originally intended to release simultaneously with the PC version last Friday, unexpected issues pushed the Mac version to today. You can purchase the full version of this 3D endless runner for $9.99 or even grab a free demo from the Techtonic site to try out.
In this humorous animated runner, you help Kovo, an armored juggernaut-like hero, as he as he seeks terrible vengeance when his best friend, a plastic flamingo named Paco, is savagely destroyed by the machine monstrosity, the Satellite of Wub. The game features three modes to play around with. Survival is the classic endless runner style, with high scoring and quick reflexes. Quest Mode adds the challenge of quests to fulfill as you run through the Bust-N-Rush worlds. And Bust-A-Friend lets you send challenges to your Facebook friends to be completed when they are available.
The 3D aspect of the game really challenges your reflexes as you shift Kovo back and forth through the lanes he can run in. Busting through the things he can and jumping over what he can’t becomes harder as the game speeds up. Check out the demo to get an idea of the gameplay, and listen in on the interview I did with Techtonic Games at PAX Prime 12 for more insight into the game’s development.
And if this game sounds vaguely familiar to you, as though you recalled it having been released earlier in the year (especially if you played and/or purchased it), then you’re not imagining things. Bust-N-Rush was released for PC, Mac, and iPad originally at the beginning of this year, but was pulled from the virtual shelf shortly thereafter for reasons that the developer hasn’t explained. Techtonic Games has stated that the iPad version is on indefinite hold, and has not mentioned anything regarding conflicts with previous purchases.
Bust-N-Rush is offered right now for $9.99 through the developer’s Early Adopters Sale, which ends Monday, 9/24. We’ll keep you posted as to when the game becomes available through other locations.
HeroCraft has released Gibbets 2, the sequel to the arcade puzzler that started as a Flash game. Draw back your bow and aim correctly to release the innocent guy hanging by the neck. It’s not good enough to just aim properly, one must learn to use all of the bonuses, pick-ups, warps, and teleports available. But if you don’t shoot fast enough, the innocent victim will be hanged. Pick up the full version or try out the lite version first. Gibbets 2 is on sale for 50% off for a short time for $0.99.
The iOS game Captain Badass boasts of being the first vertical shooter with stop-motion animation. Well, the images from the trailer certainly were fun to watch, but the gameplay didn’t look any different then countless other vertical shooters released in years past. Battle enemy forces, collect cash, upgrade, repeat. The soundtrack is a custom job and available separately as well. I suspect the game is there to promote the music. You can download the game for $1.99.
A guy named Brian Kokernak must really like his Nintendo history. He traveled back over thirty years to find a game to develop a remake of. Fire Escapes is a remake of the Nintendo Game & Watch game Fire. Don’t worry if that doesn’t ring a bell…I had to look it up too. The basic gameplay mechanic is the same…two guys hold a trampoline and try to bounce people jumping out of a burning building to safety. In this case, though, the people are babies, the two guys people are firemen firefighters (one’s male, one’s female), and the safety is the waiting arms of mom. The graphics are drastically improved over the original (we’re talking retro pixel here), tap or tilt to control, original music and Game Center scoring. Download this universal iOS game for $0.99.
UPDATE: Actually, the name of the game is Fire Escapes (with an “s”) and the firefighters have different genders (not that you can actually tell that in the game, but…). My bad.
