Really liking the look of Legend of Grimrock. Having played the old Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder series this is pure nostalgia to me but comes with much more polish and beauty. You can see what they have done with it so far:

Basically a fantastic dungeon romp. Out sometime this year they hope on Windows and later on other platforms.

Update: Ironically it looks like Bethesda’s forum has had another security breach on the 12th of this month.  A full password reset has been conducted by the company.

One of the games I’m looking forward to which is not even slightly indie, is Skyrim, the latest in the Elder Scrolls Series from the famed software house, Bethesda. This role-playing game due on 11th November this year and I think Skyrim will hit that target.

There’s a collector’s edition at $AU199.99 in Australia which is around $US207. However in the US it’s $US149.99 showing us all once again how often and much Australia is ripped off by the games publishing industry. It’s not a bad kit as far as collector’s editions go with an artbook, making of Skyrim DVD and statue.

Apparently the character most desired by fans was the Dunmer thief and it looks like they’re in from this screenshot.

Zaldir on the forums of Bethesda has compiled quite a nice list of all the features and details of the upcoming game. It’s well worth checking out as the detail is staggering including information about the dragon shouts.

h/t SystemLink Multi

“What did he say? ‘Spit lead?’ What, like pencils?”

Release Date: 19^th July 2011

Developer: Obsidian Entertainment

Genre: RPG

Mode: Single

Old Worlds Blues is the third and latest Downloadable Content (DLC) expansion available for Fallout New Vegas. It is set in Big Mountain (Big MT), colloquially known as the Big Empty since the scientists blew the mountain up. It is a pre-war research area you are brought to as a lab rat/guinea pig. You have to decide if you want to turn on your scientific captors or ally with them against a bigger threat.

The core thing about Old World Blues is the tongue-in-cheek Science Fiction setting in a “stand back we’re going to try science” kind of way. It exploits a great deal of the silliness of this genre such as roboscorpions, brains in jars, lobotomy, experiments gone awry. If you love this kind of humour or setting you are going to love Old World Blues as it does the job so well. If it sets your teeth on edge, Old World Blues may not be for you.

Old World Blues is better than the last two DLC offerings Dead Money and Honest Hearts in my opinion. It too, offers 5 more levels for your gaming and more of the usual monsters, characters, perks, quests and so on. You cannot bring companions to Big MT.

The primary offering of Old World Blues, apart from the setting, is the Sink. A new upgradable home. It’s very compact, useful with all three crafting stations as well as having objects with personalities. I would love to talk about them but I think discovering their little quirks for yourself is more fun. One has bartering and one is a doctor so all your needs are covered. It’s also much easier to access than the Lucky 38 but I find the water in it does not reduce your water needs enough if you happen to play in hardcore mode.

The new area to explore, is perhaps ¼ the size of the main game though I think a bit more densely packed. No equipment restrictions exist when coming to Big MT. These locations can also be revisited after completing the DLC main quests so Old World Blues gives more of an expanded area than the other two DLC offerings. However, before the main quest series is complete, you cannot leave and the only vendor never refreshed their caps or goods for me. Fortunately you can store all your stuff at the Sink for later sale.

Old World Blues also comes with new traits and you can, once and once only, change your traits.

New implants with no endurance (END) restriction are available.

Old World Blues explains some of the main game monster origins such as the cadazors.

There are a few leads into the next DLC expansion called Lonesome Road.

To be fair, parts of Old World Blues can be quite difficult. There are several of the harder creatures from the original New Vegas area such as nightstalkers and cadazores. Newer creatures, especially roboscorpions definitely give you a bit of a go. Roboscorpions are tough as nails and often come at you in groups. I’d wait till level 15-20 before giving it a go.

The main degree of positive entertainment value in Old World Blues is via the fresh setting and the personalities in the Sink.

I found Old World Blues much the same graphically as the main game. A few nice new Jazz sons are added to the game. I also found the ambient noise in the Sink rather soothing for some reason.

Plenty of the usual kind of crash and other type of bugs which seem common for Fallout New Vegas but for the first time my saves were not permanently corrupted by a new patch or DLC.

Old World Blues requires Fallout New Vegas and is available on all the same platforms, namely Windows, Xbox 360 and PS3. You can get if from Steam for $US12.99.

Old World Blues is a very entertaining and relatively generous DLC for Fallout New Vegas. Fans of bad sci-fi movies won’t want to miss it.

Game: 4/5    Positive: 

Adventure, Bosses, Blocks!

Release Date: 17th May 2011

Developer: Re-Logic

Genre: Side-scrolling sandbox-action-adventure-RPG (very cross genre huh?)

Mode: Single/Multiplayer

Version: 1.0.5

Terraria inevitably gets compared to Minecraft and I’ve done a bit of that in this review. All told that’s fair enough as both are exploration-rich sandbox games. However, it may do injustice to Terraria. For as a Minecraft clone, Terraria is pretty awful. It’s simple graphically, 2D and the building scope is limited. But, you see, Terraria shines because it has grown beyond a simple Minecraft clone. It truly fleshes out the sandbox genre by offering something new. Terraria crosses the fun of platform games with the sandbox concepts and as such is more combat intense and rewards exploration more than Minecraft does.

Terraria, frankly, is even more unforgiving to a fresh player than Minecraft was. You really need to build a basic shelter pretty damn quick and it’s not quite obvious how everything works. Fortunately an NPC, the Guide, will help you in this area. The community is quite active and, like Minecraft, the wiki is a super-important read. If you’re the gung-ho explorer type it doesn’t take long to discover than the corruption biome is cruel to newbies.

In terms of complexity Minecraft easily wins out due to things like redstone and the 3D nature. However, Terraria probably has more item variety and certainly has more different mobs to face, approximately 30, including 4 or so bosses. A real seller for me was the inclusion of Silver which I adore.

Terraria has an alchemy system which comes in very useful, especially for healing.

There’s also some very nice touches. One of them is the Bloodmoon where the moon turns to blood and an awful lot of evil walks the earth. During Bloodmoon zombies can open doors. There’s a similar event called Goblin Attack which is fairly self-explanatory.

Another nice touch is Mana which is done in a brilliant way via falling stars. Hello Notch, paying attention? This leads to spells and all the fun that entails.

The last nice touch I thought was that Terraria has NPCs and they are even useful, mostly as traders.

Oh BTW if you’re wondering how to pause Terraria you just have to switch focus out of the game. Doesn’t work in multiplayer though, of course.

Terraria is a fairly difficult game, especially as you first adapt to the game mechanics. It’s even worse if you’re not used to platform style games with the jumping around being a problem I experienced. As you get used to it though the difficulty sharply reduces and really boils down to where precisely you go and explore and if you feel like tangling with the game bosses. The more you explore, the more new and difficult areas you will find.

Terraria offers positive entertainment via the innovative cross of platform with sandbox play. There’s some scope for creativity, as for all sandbox games, and there’s a lot to discover.

Terraria is built like a 16-bit sprite based side-scrolling platform game. The graphics are basic and 2D which you can see from the screenshots. The only real complaint with the graphics is how difficult it is to spot ores. Iron ore, in particular, is just a shade redder than stone making is a bit of an eye-popper to find. Actually come to think of it an option to make all the graphics a bit bigger would be very welcome.

Terraria’s lighting is quite dynamic compared to Minecraft. Sparks fly out and plants pulse with light.

The music is a different style than what I’ve heard before and really I quite enjoy it even after many hours of play. The sound effects are mostly good and come in useful in many cases.

Terraria runs on Windows only via Steam for $US 9.99. It may come for the iOS or Xbox in the future.

In the end, Terraria puts adventure first and crafting second, unlike Minecraft. As such it plays quite differently and can be quite a lot of fun.

Game: 3½/5    Positive:

Pleased to see Desktop Dungeons swish new site where you can now preorder the improved game as well as grab a copy of the slightly updated freeware version. The game can be pre-ordered at three different levels. The base game, the special edition and the exclusive edition. All editions give beta access. The exclusive edition is interesting as it is both limited (and nearly sold out) and offers to put a reference to you into the full game. Prices start at $US10.

Check out the review of the freeware version.

QCF Design sum up one of the great qualities of the game – “The perfect coffee-break game”

They aim to be on Steam and the PC/Mac, web, iPhone and Android and also have a forum now.