No Man's Sky

To say No Man's Sky had a rocky start would be understatement of the year. The game that was intended as an artistic walking simulator was bombarded with hate by confused fans. There are not many games on steam that can claim to have received mixed reviews at release, only to climb to "overwhelmingly positive" today. It was deserved though. NMS started with fancy as heck previews and trailers like any other game. Except, the actual end result was nowhere near people's expectations. It could even have been classed as downright ugly and scary to look at. Much like Cyberpunk 2077 on PlayStation 4. It was such a long shot from what was advertised by the media that the fans had prepared the pitchforks, tar and feathers and claimed their refunds when possible.

But, the devs stuck with it, making more and more improvements in the form of free updates. Four years later, the game is currently close to what the media showed us in previews.

Get your hardware up to speed

No man's sky's initial minimum hardware requirements are "ok" (see below), but over the years the game has added a lot of graphical improvements and settings. You may want to reconsider if you barely meet the minimum requirements. Even the GTX 970 was kind of struggling.

I jumped into a friend's freighter. Rather, I should say I "attempted" to do so, as I was able to stay on board for about a minute before crashing. Three times in a row. Freighters are BIG floating space stations that hold several player owned ships, a ton of cargo and are a small mobile base with faster than light travel capacity. Imagine the starship enterprise was one. In the case of No man's sky there are plenty of times where you just feel insignificant and small. Meeting a freighter is one of those times. Getting your first jump drive and being able to browse your current galaxy will probably be another.

The last, is a bit of a spoiler so click at your own risk. There are 255 galaxies in No man's sky. There are 3 to 4 billion regions in each of those, each again consisting of 122 to 550 star systems. The numbers are simply staggering. Still insignificant to the actual number of galaxies we have out there in the real world - but you can blow your mind on that another day.

Casual Joyride

You start out on a planet with pretty much nothing other than your suit and a basic gun/mining laser. 10/10 it'll be a toxic environment, and you're warned your oxygen and toxic protection is low.

In other words, you're going to have to find some oxygen and or maybe a cave for shelter. The game's tutorial doesn't really help very much other than "find some way to survive". Much like it'll stab you, and tell you to go heal that flesh wound. Once you overcome the initial obstacle of staying alive the game starts to become very casual friendly however. Simply hopping from world to world investigating the local rocks and plants can quickly consume several hours and days. Until you're reminded there is actually a main quest / story to follow.

First, the game show you how to survive and build a base. Next you're given a ship - not a very big one, but a ship that will service you for the next few hours. If you are lucky you can even find crashed ships and claim those as your own. They will need some repairs, but pretty much anything will be an upgrade over your initial ship. Later on you can even get yourself a moon buggy to ride around in and upgrade much like any other vehicle in the game. Who needs space flight if you can moon race into the local wildlife.

If you have a VR set however, I highly suggest plugging it in. No Man's Sky has great VR support, and honestly nothing beats VR moon racing.

You are not alone

The one thing that somewhat irks me (initial crashes aside), is the fact that there is so much life out there. Every single planet has several species of animals, plants, rock formations. And there's at least 4 or more intelligent species who you will find aboard the various space stations. Every single planet has life, and every single system has a space station. All the space stations are more or less identical and every planet has the same basic formula.

All the planets are unique however. In terms of randomly generated content there's a good few parameters which make up every planet and the resources or life you may find. Scanning all the things on each planet will award you with some points and coin to spend. Random boxes littering the surface as well as buildings will encourage you to go for a random walk, ride, flight, cave dwelling or swim in any direction and discover potential alien wealth. There is a wealth of discoveries to be made on every planet and you're encouraged to take your time doing so. Alone, or with up to 3 friends.

Aliens, everywhere

One of the main joys of going into space is the sheer size of if all. In games like EVE online, you go out into the endless nothing. Can sit there for hours on end without ever meeting a soul. I like the endless solitude of space. Mine a few asteroids and get rich from valuable metals to bring back home. It is harder to reach that feeling in No Man's Sky because of the sheer amount of alien life everywhere you go. Buildings, drop boxes, pirates, aircraft overhead no matter where you go. It's a gigantic near endless universe to explore with countless planets to claim as you own and be the first to discover. But somehow there's always been some few alien NPCs that have already found the place and created an observatory, crashed an aircraft or build and forgotten some ancient ruins.

You can interact with the intelligent lifeforms, but you'll need to learn their language to really understand them. You can learn one word from every single trader/scientist/diplomat and most other NPCs. Or, you can find knowledge stones out randomly on any planet. Finally, there's also the universal communicator that you should construct because every alien language in this game has at least 200 words to learn. The communicator makes their language a bit easier to understand. The reasoning behind this is: You're in a remote building - the AI asks you a question. Do you vent the gas, override the airlocks or drop the core. Making the right choice will award you with some shiny technology. The wrong choice will prevent you from getting any reward or angering the local sentinels.

Free patches

It seems so obvious, when you release software that does not meet the customer's expectations you fix it. Most devs don't really do much other than a few initial stability fixes, and some don't even do that.

Then there's the devs that add a few DLC, ignore bugs and milk their product. I'll skip naming anEA names, but we all know who.

Then there's the devs that make a game and make it better, and better. Crosscode, Stardew Valley, Terraria and even Warframe are a few such games. Making your initial purchase worth every so much more valuable.

It's not hard to see where the No man's sky devs land in that ladder, as with Patch 2.4 they added controllable exo mechs, Patch 2.6 they added derelict freighters to explore in space. Patch 3.0 did a massive overhaul on the randomization of planets and most recently patch 3.1 did a massive overhaul on the graphics engine to make the game suited for PS5 and XBOX-SX. More updates are expected still. Keep an eye on this puppy during the steam sales.

No Man's Sky - Release date: 12 Aug, 2016

Minimum system requirements: 64 bit processor, Windows 7 and up, Intel Core i3, 8 GB ram, nVidia GTX 480 or better, 10GB available disk space.

It's highly recommended (for the sake of stability) to have hardware well above the minimum however.

Darksiders 1-4 Remastered

The Darksiders franchise started early January in 2010. Currently there are 4 games in the franchise, with the first 2 having been remastered. The games play as a combination of puzzle/hack n slash in a semi open world and dungeon setting. On top of that even some metroidvania bits, roleplaying and some other elements mixed in.

Having played Darksiders 2 the Deathinitive edition, it does strongly remind me of Legacy of Kain. Where you run around, kill stuff and get taunted by a treasure chest somewhere. "How on earth do I get there" is a common theme that every dungeon will challenge you in finding out. You'll be smashing skulls, crawling and jumping ledges and walls a LOT.

Hack and slash, or Metroidvania

In Darksiders you play as one of the four hosemen. War, Death, Fury and Strife. Each hero gets their own game, but you'll get to encounter most of them in cinematics as well.

The base genre of the games is action and you'll be knee deep in it with a variety of weapons to find and upgrade. After most dungeons and boss fights there'll also be some special rewards such as learning how to grapple, wall jump or gain a pistol with which you may reach new areas. This also means you'll be backtracking every so and then (just like in most metroidvania games) to get back to places you could previously not reach.

"Oh so thats how you do it", is a common theme similar to dust and sundered from earlier reviews. Darksiders has some tutorials early on, but it lacks the in-depth hand holding that most modern games come with. This isn't really a bad thing, but it does show it's age. The original game is from 2010 after all, but the first two have been polished with new and fresh graphics about 6 years after their release.

It's a big world out there

Not all bosses are found in the world's dungeons, some will be as big and massive as early bosses in the shadow of the colossus. Since you're a horseman obviously your main means of transportation is going to be your skeletal steed. For Darksiders 1, you will ride Ruin. In Darksiders 2 you will ride Despair. Rampage and Mayhem will aid you in 3 and 4.

While mounted you can slash enemies - I highly recommend it in fact. The problem with that however, is that you lack the ability to perform the more advanced moves you learn later on. Still, having a horse to summon and go slashy-slashy is always a plus in any game. (Yes, that was a lucky tower reference)

It's quickly visible the game was designed for consoles, or at least to be controlled with a gamepad rather than mouse and keyboard. Sure M&K does work, but it feels very sub-optimal. If you have a controller, hook it up!

Separate games

Yes, it helps to play these games in order, but it's not really needed. The commentary voice acting and cinematics throughout the game help tell the background of what happened, and why you are fighting. If you aren't keen on playing through all the first games, it's perfectly fine to jump straight into Darksiders 4, which released late 2019. If you do grab 1 and 2, make sure to get the warmastered / deathinitive versions as those will feature higher resolution graphics.

The first 3 games were recently available through humble Choice and bundles, so you shouldn't have too hard a time getting a hold of them.

A small note of information however - DS4 plays more as an isometric hack n slash compared to the first 3 games in the series. Similar to for example Grim Dawn. As a bonus, this is the first game in the series to also feature multiplayer online / split screen cooperative play. If you have a friend who enjoys the series - you can now play together!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_BkKeHoTi0

Release dates:
- Darksiders 1: 4 Jan, 2010 / 29 Nov, 2016 (remaster)
- Darksiders 2: Aug 14, 2012 / 5 Nov, 2015 (remaster)
- Darksiders 3: 27 Nov, 2018
- Darksiders 4: 5 Dec, 2019

System requirements are a bit more tricky to determine, but fairly consistent among the 4 releases:
- Windows 7 and up, 3.5 GHz cpu, 4 GB ram, 15 GB available disk space, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960

Gaming on a Budget

Not everyone has a credit card like Tofu, and not everyone has a full time job with a decent income. Gaming on a budget is about getting the best out of steam with no money to spend. In other words - Free games!

Sure, you can drop the occasional dollar on Humble Bundle or Fanatical. Or keep an eye on IsThereAnyDeal like your life depended on it. But, there are hundreds of games up on steam (and other sites) free to play. I'm sure you've heard of F2P and P2W, or subscription services. The best things (games) in life are free. It's one of the best four letter word that just brings joy to our hearts, does it not?

Some games are cool about it, some will nag at you every chance they get to spend "crystals" or some other premium currency to speed things up or get better equipment. Those are the cheeky ones that may end up costing you more money than a normal paid game would. Do be careful with those. Let us focus on a few of the better ones.

We already have a review up for Warframe, which is also free. But let's look at two other great games in this review. Both worth checking out, or at least reading about.

Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop

Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop is a half-life total conversion mod based on the original engine. It turned the game into a top-down twin stick shooter. Imagine playing Among us, but everyone is sus (yes, friendly fire) and all the aliens outnumber you 40 to one.

Please do note, there are two versions of this game on steam. The classic alien swarm, and the newer Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop. The latter has everything the original had, but with much more content and more players to play with.

2-8 man cooperative play

Alien swarm can be played solo - but you won't have a good time. Similar to GTFO, alien swarm is a survival horror game in many ways. You're dropped into a mission and need to survive and escape with very limited supplies. Meanwhile hordes of hungry aliens will do all they can to make sure you do not succeed. You control the game with mouse and keyboard (or controller) and have a total tactical overview of your nearby surroundings and the map. Nothing scary right? Guess again. Headcrabs, friendly fire, dumb team mates, ammo running out. Plenty of things could go wrong at any time.

As you play the game you gain XP or "ranks" which will unlock more weapons and gadgets. Such as the ever wonderful and ammo efficient flame thrower. AI sentry guns, ammo boxes, welding kits and other tools to spice up your game. No purchase needed.

Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop release date: 20 Apr, 2017

Alien Swarm release date: 19 Jul, 2010 - skip this one.

Minimum system requirements: Windows XP and up, Pentium 4 at 3 GHz, 2 GB Ram, Direct X 9 or higher compatible video card, 4 GB Disk space.

In short, if your potato can't run this, it's time for a better potato.

Path of Exile

This is a big name, and for good reason. It's a diablo-like game similar to Grim Dawn. But it's free, and huge! Not only that, there's a Path of Exile 2 in the works, and it'll be the same game. Meaning, v1.0 becomes v2.0 and you keep all your characters and progress. This will be a major engine overhaul.

Path of Exile 2.0 is not slated for release in 2020, but a public beta is expected soon (tm). v1.0 is still available and getting regular updates however.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2VRRSVgCL4

Diablo-like

Any RPG with a topdown isometric view is quickly labeled to be "like" Diablo. In the case of Path of Exile (PoE) that is more true than most games however. As various devs and team leaders who all worked on the Diablo series have joined the PoE team.

One thing that will really stand out to players is the economy. Specifically the lack of a certain resource. Namely: Gold. While in Diablo and most games like it you'd find millions of millions of gold coins to carry around and spend on upgrades, PoE has none at all. Instead of gold you'll find bits and pieces of armor, alchemical components, runic stones and items with various functions. These can be used to upgrade your weapons, reroll specific stats or change sockets. And, they can be traded. The most rare items will be the most looked after, and will help you trade for some superior armor or skill stones.

Skill based system

And then there is the skill tree. The game has seven classes now, and it is unique in a way that every class has access to the same skill tree. It's just their starting position on the skill tree that is different. There... is just no better way to explain this than with an image. The tree is beyond huge. See the full image here.

The tree is all passive skills. Active skills are found, or awarded from quests and come in the form of gems. These gems must be placed in sockets found in your weapons and armor and will grow in power as you use them.

Six socket weapons are in high demand for this reason - but you can also "link" sockets together and have skills complement each other. It quickly becomes obvious that having a weapon with 6 sockets, all linked is going to get you the best damage. But, the weapon itself also has random effects and properties attached to it. Much like in Diablo - your quest in this game will be to find a specific combination of random properties on various items that work best for you.

Release date: 23 Oct, 2013

Minimum system requirements: Windows 7 and higher, Quad core 2.66 GHz, 8 GB Ram, Nvidia GTX 650 Ti or ATI Radeon HD 7850 or better, DirectX 11 and up, 40 GB disk space.

Path of Exile's system requirements are not for the faint of heart.

Show your creativity and draw a Dinosaur

 This event ran from 9th - 16th November 2020 on Discord.

The Winner - JapaniKatti

By: JapaniKatti

Dust: An Elysian Tail

Another metroidvania game - This time Dust. I'm sensing a theme here,. Dust is different from the usual genre however. It's "a bit" cliché in the sense that you're a mysterious hero who wields a legendary talking sword and need to save the world. Again.

But, you get a funny sidekick and a whole lot of abilities with which you wield the sword as you progress along the story. Some may be turned away by the slight furry theme of the game, but in all you shouldn't be bothered with it too much.

Classical Music and Arts

Not many games use classical or even orchestral music in a way that actually fits and enhances the gameplay. Dust does it very well and it's a lovely soundtrack worth nearly 2 hours if you look up the OST.

Music aside, this game, I'm sorry to say should have been included in the earlier review Games as interactive art. It's hand drawn and painted. The amount of time it must have taken seems staggering. The final product a sight to behold and play through. A few screenshots you'll find in this review, but in reality a video (as above) will do it more justice.

The cliché

Unnamed hero, memory loss, funny sidekick, tragic past, defeat the bad guys. The main lines of the story aren't really all that different from for example Zelda or any classic RPG really. However, Dust gives it form and character in a way that you aren't likely to have experienced yet. With a handpainted world and an eerily well made soundtrack.

As with any Metroidvania style game you will unlock new powers and skills as you progress and return back to older places to find secret rewards. Dust brings you these powers in the form of your sword. Whirlwind, higher jumps, magic missiles and much more.

Skills aside the game also features a decent size crafting and upgrading system. You can brew potions, make food, armor and other things. You may or may not need to find a smith for the latter. (no spoilers)

Hack and slash

Similar to Sundered, Dust is a hack and slash first. Kill first, talk later. That combo counter should increase rapidly and will even grant you a fairly simple achievement. The game features a number of (some very large) bosses to beat or get beaten by. A few dozen sidequests for bonus rewards and a large number of NPCs which will respond indifferently to a random guy walking into town big a big talking sword. Like it's the most normal thing in the world.

I keep telling myself I need to pick this back up and actually finish the game sometime,. it's quite long for a metroidvania, and yet simple enough that a 10 year old girl can learn and enjoy to play it. (Which one of my nieces was happy enough to demonstrate)

If you think it's "too easy" initially, then just wait until you reach the challenge gates. It goes from bashing bunnies with a club, to getting clubbed by were wabbits right quick.

Dust was released on steam: 24 May, 2013

Minimum system requirements: Windows Vista, Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8 GHz or equivalent, 1 GB Ram, DirectX 10 or higher with shader model 3.0 support, 1.5 GB HD space

GGP Spooktober meme contest

 This event ran from 16 Oct - 25 Oct 2020

Tofu's wife loves a good meme, so we held a contest on discord with big prizes!

Winner - First place - Smythe

By: Smythe

Second place - Urusam

By: Urusam

Runner ups 3-10th place

By: All those names in the image

Honorable mention - Rycoh

By: Rycoh

Community vote - xxxKa

Games as interactive art

Art evolves, as nature does. It all started humbly with cavern walls and charcoal, still discovered thousands of years later. We learned how to make paper, and that too became a medium for art. Paints and the canvas we used got better and brighter. In this digital and interactive age it's only natural that art too shall evolve and grow upon this new medium we call computers. 3D painting is already a thing in the novel VR systems.

Interactive art seems a foreign concept to many. Art is something you look at, but never touch after all. We were taught this from a young age. But, computer games bring a new dimension to these fragile things. Anyone can appreciate, interact and experience first hand.

Gris enters the stage.

Interactive

We've recently reviewed Sundered. A hand drawn metroidvania action-platformer. (Great game, do check it out)

Gris, features a ton of hand drawn and watercolor art. It's not an action hack and slash like Sundered, but deserves praise for the style and art nonetheless. You play as a young girl dealing with emotions. As she grows, so do her powers, and with it the game world around her. New abilities such as stomping, double jumping, swimming and song will increase your ability to navigate the world. Much like any metroidvania.

Short, but beautiful

As far as the game goes, Gris can be completed in under 3 hours. It's not super long on it's own. You can hunt achievements and take about twice as long and get your money's worth. The game was recently in a Humble choice as well as a Fanatical Bundle. So if you're looking for it, you shouldn't have much trouble trading for it.

As such, it's an experience more than a game. It feels like a walking simulator for the first 5 minutes, but quickly gains more interactivity and jumping/puzzles. Nothing too challenging - your 8 year old sister could probably complete it with a few helpful directions. The main selling point for the game is the art and music, as you'll quickly find while playing it or browsing the screenshots. Gris is in essence an interactive work of art. It will amaze you with it's fluid colors, and serene music.

Gris can be found on Steam, Humble bundle, Fanatical and likely more stores. It's got "overwhelmingly positive" reviews on steam.

Release date: 13 Dec, 2018

Minimum system requirements: Windows 7 or later, Intel Core 2 duo or better, 4 GB Ram, Geforce GT 430 1GB, 4 GB Disk space.

Thumbs up or down

Steam(Valve) allows users to give a review score based on two main factors: "Like" or "Dislike". Some review sites allow users to give the reviewed items a score between 1-5, or 1-10. Steam realized people are more likely to give a game a 1 star rating if they disliked it, rather than give a fair rating. So, Valve did a smart thing here. It forces users to put games in one of two boxes rather than a rainbow of options. It makes it easier, but does it also make it fair?

The main thing I miss is a "neutral" option. Some games are just bad, or annoy you up to a point where you don't want to bother anymore. Those get a negative review. Some games are "ok", but not necessarily terrible enough to warrant a negative review. Not bad enough for a low score, not great enough to give a positive review. Do you bother posting a review at all, or give it a negative review simply because it didn't "wow" you?

Not all games need to be great

When reviewing a game it's not always an easy task. Do you post your honest opinion, or are you swayed by the masses of other reviews? If everyone else likes a game, then there must be something wrong with your game skills perhaps? Or even your computer/controller,.

No. Simply put, everyone has different tastes. You may enjoy fifa and play the exact same game with a different number every year. Or you may enjoy first person shooters, while someone else gets motion sickness from playing those. I like dark themed games, while someone else wants bright rainbows in their hack and slash action game.

And that is fine. What matters in the end is the average score among multiple users. Your opinion is valid for you as an individual. But let's cut the positive go getter reading right here and look at some games. That's why you're reading this bit after all? Bring on the pitchforks!

Neutral would have been better

Hellblade. Beautiful game, wonderfully voice acted. Terrible timed events/combat that just pulled the rug from under me.

Book of Demons. Stable, well made game. Made in honor of Diablo 1 by Blizzard. Not terrible but just turned repetitive and frustrating after a while.

The elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. The game that everyone loves. Graphically sound and millions of mods and memes were inspired by it. But the base game is bland, buggy, lacks direction and feels empty. Yes, you can change that with mods - but we're reviewing the base game here, not what the community made with it.

Kerbal Space Program. A pretty unique simulation game that is highly HIGHLY rated, but simply fell flat for me. The tutorial was basically: "Go RTFM". What, but,. no? A game needs some level of intuitivity to play right. KSP did not have that.

The Purring Quest. A cutesy cat platformer that feels thrown together. The control theme in a platformer is important, very important even. On most levels that's "ok" and you can get around it. But once you get to the skyscraper level everything just falls apart and turns frustrating.

A Bird Story. The prequel to the amazing tearjerker: Finding Paradise. Felt empty, predictable and hastily thrown together. It wasn't terrible, but it felt like it should have been free rather than have a price tag.

Wings of Vi. A difficult platformer that gives you terrible controls just so it is even harder to play. Nope. The only redeeming factor are the well done 16 bit graphics.

Cultist Simulator. If any game needs a good tutorial, this one would. The game plays ok, but winning without a guide is just not an option.

Some games are just bad

Automachef. The game could have been good. A nice direction/ai puzzle like some well known Zachlike titles. But when you're spending 75% of your time clicking, setting orders, scrolling down lists and cursing at the terrible interface... Then you know a game deserves a negative review.

Inexistence. Clunky controls, simple graphics, buggy combat. There's not just a huge lot to say about this one. If you're looking for a good metroidvania style game - this is not it.

Reus. "Giant" when translated to Dutch. Crashes more than you can play it. Stability is important when you release a game.

Rapture Rejects. Everyone has heard of Cyanide and Happiness right? Amazing yet simple comic. Jumping onto the battle royale bandwagon was not a great idea. Nobody is playing this, and you can't play a battle royale style game alone. I have no idea why this game is still being sold at full price.

Cook, serve, delicious. Basically a ripoff of the flash games "papa's pizzeria", freezeria, bakeria, scooperia, sushiria, etc etc,. too many - all the same concept with different graphics and mind numbingly awful.

Deleted from steam

You know your game is bad when even steam doesn't want to have it in their store anymore. Usually these are oft reported and asset flipped games. Devs who put out 50.000+ copies of their game up for free and allow it to give cards. Then make money off the users when they sell their cards on the Steam market at 0.01$ per card. This business practice was eventually put to a halt by Valve, at least. But some of those games are still "around" on various trading forums. If you want to read more on that, look up Digital Homicide.

Prison Architect

Build and manage a prison they said. It'll be fun they said. And indeed it IS fun! Whoever this "they" person is that told this,. I'm sure we should listen to them more often.

Prison Architect is a chill prison management simulation game. And very well made at that. A quick note: If you enjoy Prison Architect, often RimWorld is mentioned in the same sentence. Be sure to check it out as well.

Bill and Barry

The initial tutorial levels should keep you busy for an hour or two. These will casually introduce you to the basics of prison life. What do people need and what can you provide them to ensure they stay calm and happy while in your prison. Do you build a luxury hotel with ample space, workshops, giant canteens and private showers? Or will you be a dictator that prefers to maximize security and keep your prisoners down and sedated under an iron fist?

Your first prison will probably be a small one. A simple entry hall to take in prisoners and for trash and produce to be exported. All the basics from the tutorial may be placed, and some bunks for your prisoners to sleep in. Making a decent, not overly comfortable place for your involuntary visitors to spend their days in and plot their escape.

As you grow your building to fit in more, and more prisoners you'll start to notice things getting a bit crowded. Queues are not a thing in Prison Architect, everyone wants to do their thing right away. And so you'll get a few prisoners who end up being rather angry at each other.

Riot!

Nothing good lasts forever, and neither will a peaceful prison. Each of your prisoners has their very own personality. Some are more sedate, but some like Barry, are hotheads by nature. Bumping into other prisoners in the shower will certainly lead to some knuckles getting busted and blood spilling on the floor. If things get really heated you may get some other inmates knocked out or even killed. Either way do not wait too long to build an infirmary.

Your income and expenses are a fine balance that will eventually topple over. Ambition is always a great thing when it comes to having a small prison and a massive slab of land to fill. Your prisoners are always plotting however, never forget that. Spoons stolen from the mess hall, used to dig a tunnel under their toilet is a favorite nighttime event.

Scandal,. your prison has had an escapee. Fundings were lowered. Scandal, another prisoner killed in your prison. Less money to spend on food, and luxuries means prisoners will become agitated and it's time for a RIOT !

Scandal! Fire! Death!

The prison goes on lockdown, all prisoners are ordered to return to their cells in an orderly fashion. Time to bring in the troops. You have available multiple squads of SWAT with riot shields, tasers and even shotguns.

But, not all prisoners were created as equals. Meet the Legendary prisoner. These guys will have the "legendary" tag in their profile, and can have as much as 10 perks instead of the usual 3-4 that Bill and Barry had. Think Barry, but then 10x as strong, hotheaded and able to kill other prisoners in a single hit.

I had a guy like that enter my prison once. He did not agree to his cell so be broke it open and took down a few guards before getting caught. Het got bumped up a security level and I moved him to a smaller cell with a reinforced steel door. Less than 2 days after this incident he was hungry and irritated again and eventually went into a rage. During this rage he broke his cell door. (Again,. this was reinforced steel! I guess reinforced with paper,.. but whatever.) Two guards took notice but were quickly dispatched and disarmed. An armed guard came in, and was dispatched in a similar way. There was now a single legendary prisoner on a rage, armed with a gun walking around my prison. He proceeded to kill three more armed guards before being pummeled down and locked up again.

The next day he did the same thing again! This guy was a madman.

The scandal that followed caused me to get fired from my job as prison warden. And right when you think it's game over - Prison Architect gives you an entirely new game mode to play. Escape mode!

Escape?

Similar to how your prisoners spend their day, you too now have the orange jumpsuit. Criminal negligence and most cruel - you get to spend your life in your OWN prison.

Welcome to your very own prison. You get assigned a random cell and your new game goal is to escape. (or die trying) Build a reputation as a legendary prisoner, gain game and grow stronger. You can recruit a crew / gang and fight your way out of the fortress you constructed. No special treatment for you, scrubs and prison food along with everyone else. Mandatory curfew and school hours if you want to learn new skills.

Prison Architect : Release date: 6 Oct, 2015

Minimum system requirements: Windows 7, Intel Core 2 duo 2.4 Ghz, 6 GB Ram, Nvidia 8600 / Radeon equivalent, 400MB HD Space.

Fall Guys - Ultimate Knockout

Lemmings. Or closer perhaps, Transformice would be the best way to describe the inspiration for Fall Guys. Maybe even the TV show Takeshi's Castle. It's a seemingly innocent game full of pink and soft tone colors suitable for the youngest kids in your household. But, in reality it's a brutal competition with only one winner.

60 player bash

Every match starts you off with 60 players. Each round is up to about 2-3 minutes in duration and you will play up to about 5 rounds until there is only one winner. The winner takes the crown.

It's a battle royale. In such a way that you will play up to 5 rounds of random levels consisting of races, team matches and dodging obstacles. If you are eliminated then you'll be able to start a new match pretty quickly because currently this game is on the 11'th spot of Steam's most played listing. It had a peek of over 100k players just last month. Odd enough the reviews are "Mostly Positive", which generally indicates about 60-70% positive reviews.

A modern success story

Fall Guys grew fast, very fast in fact. Currently it has over 2 million copies sold and isn't slowing down much. The devs have been overwhelmed (literally) with the gigantic influx of players and feedback. Quite simply being unprepared for the hit this game became seemingly overnight. Some Twitch streamers may be to blame for this, in bringing awareness of the game to the masses.

No company can expect suddenly having to deal with 100k active players when they're expecting maybe 10k or 25k. Just look at the ever memorable Blizzard launch days for Diablo or WoW, with queues going upward several thousands along with crashes.

As with any success story there will instantly be copies showing up. Especially on Android it seems. Titles like Fall Dudes, Knockout Race and Run Royale are basically lesser quality carbon copies. Or perhaps Fall Guys wasn't first? Either way it's very successful and people have taken notice.

On the flipside

With the high level of popularity the game has brought forth, so too come in the cheaters. After all, any competitive game will have people wanting to win - at any cost. Up until recently you couldn't join a single match without contestants magically flying or teleporting straight to the end. The devs have taken notice and been working hard at creating a fair competitive environment for all involved.

Season 1 is currently in progress, and season 2 has been previewed with a lot of improvements coming. New levels, more costumes, many more costumes. On top of the base game price there's a rapidly growing amount of extra money you can spend on making your Fall Guy look more unique than the rest of the horde. Unicorns, crocodiles, wolves, hamburgers you name it. For a couple bucks you're able to look just like everyone else who bought the collector's edition. As the franchise grows, we're sure to get more costumes over time. Those servers aren't going to pay for themselves.

As the game is new and fresh, the amount of content is still fairly limited. Season 2 as stated should bring in a lot of extra content as the devs have shown - they have no plans of stopping anytime soon. (Coming this october 2020)

Play with friends

Or better yet, play with GGPlayers. Come hang out on our discord and join the fun. Fall Guys is a decent game when playing solo, as you can quickly get into matches and boost up your rank for this season. But honestly - a game like this works best when played with (new) friends. Up to a small group of 4 players at a time. There really isn't that much difference to playing solo, so hopefully the devs will improve upon that in the near future. But for the time being - turn off the repetitive music, turn up some of your favorite metal tracks and get racing for that crown!

Fall Guys will inspire your inner competitive self to grab, tackle or hug your friends and drag them into the abyss along with you.

Release date: 4 Aug, 2020

Minimum system requirements: Windows 10 64 bit only, Intel core i5 or higher, 8 GB ram, Nvidia GTX 660 or AMD Radeon HD 7950 or better, Broadband internet, 2 GB available disk space, Gamepad recommended.

Life is Strange

The Life is Strange series is an episodic "choices matter" game. So far there's three parts to the series:

• Life is Strange: episode 1 - 5
• Life is Strange: Before the Storm (A prequel to LiS)
• Life is Strange 2: episode 1 - 5

Choices

I put "choices matter" in quotes because ultimately you're following a storyline. Whether you choose to eat cereal brand A, or cereal brand B,. you'll still end at the same place in the end. This becomes visible when you complete the first episode and are shown a list of choices you made versus the choices other players made.

In short - your choices don't really matter. The game is "on a rail" as it were for the major events. But, many smaller things like watering a plant or your choice in music will ultimately come back to haunt you. Obviously I don't really want to spoil too much, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Characters

You play the game (LiS1) as Max (depicted above on the left) and are often accompanied by Zoë, the girl with the blue hair. There are more characters to run into, some likable, some much less so. Everyone has a story and a past, and as this is a story based game you'll be introduced to most of them through your interactions with them.

The two are long childhood friends but Max had to move out of town. She just recently came back to school and learns someone has gone missing. She takes a photography class and here learns of her special power that somehow started showing up recently.

Power

The main gimmick of the game is Max' power to reverse time, up to a couple seconds back at will. Time travel in this way allows you to try things and see different reactions when you chat with various people. This allows you to have knowledge you otherwise would not have had, and to steer a conversation in a desired direction. You can play detective in a way, as you learn more about recent events and how the residents of your town are involved in them. Not everything (or everyone) is as they seem, as you will eventually find out.

Aside moving time slightly backwards, Max also finds she can "relive" and influence events from her past by focusing on a photo. With this power she can travel back in time several years and for all the good (and bad) this does, she may influence the coming storm.

A great story to experience

While your choices ultimately don't matter too much in regards to how everything plays out it's a great story to experience. I can highly recommend the in depth involvement you will enjoy as you play the game. Detective Max will surprise you in many ways, and the game will happily throw you a curve ball or two. It may even set you thinking why that cereal or pancake was so important.

Once you finish the first part (LiS1), the "before the storm" is a standalone prequel to the first in the series.

Life is Strange 2, is less well received, and needs a note of warning as it contains Denuvo anti tamper. This is downright weird for a single player offline game. If you've followed the critics regarding that software you may want to just skip LiS2 entirely, or find a way to play it without it. Especially since it involves different characters than Max and Zoë. But this choice at least, is ultimately yours.

• Life is Strange: episode 1 - 5: Release date: 30 Jan, 2015
• Life is Strange: Before the Storm Release date: 31 Aug, 2017
• Life is Strange 2: episode 1 - 5: Release date: 26 Sep, 2018

Minimum system requirements: Windows Vista, Dual core 2GHz or equivalent CPU, 2 GB Ram, ATI or Nvidia video card with 512 MB Ram or higher, DirectX 9 and up, 5 GB available disk space.

Also see: Top 5 story games where choices matter, on GGP.

Cat Quest 1 and 2

Wait, 1 and 2? Can we review two games at the same time? Let's find out.

Let's start off with saying Cat Quest 1 and Cat Quest 2 are actually very similar in terms of gameplay, story, monsters and puns. So many puns. You don't have to play Cat Quest 1 in order to understand Cat Quest 2, but it "does" help.

That's punny

The Cat Quest series is a LOT of puns and cat/dog related word replacements. You may think it silly, but it actually gives the game it's charm. Fur real that's an impawtant fact throughout the game.

CQ2 is a big graphical improvement over the first in the series but the main draw to playing CQ2 is the fact that it's multi player. Indeed, straight from the start you can plug in (or steam remote play) and enjoy the game with a friend.

Grapawcal impurrovements

Cat Quest 1 vs Cat Quest 2 graphics may be compared below.

As you can see the resolution is a lot better in the second version.

For a quick Cat Quest 1 demo you can view Eleonora's recent twitch stream. It's a bit laggy, but should get you a good idea of the gameplay.

The game

You find yourself a level 1 cat/dog with a pointy weapon. You're dragged along a questline to get a bigger pointy weapon and learn magic skills along the way. Many monsters are very rude to you and putting the pointy end of your weapon into them repeatedly causes them to stop being disagreeable. In the end there's always a bigger monster, and another cave to venture into. Cat Quest 1 and 2 are very similar in that regard. CQ2 brings you a few more dungeons, better graphics and teleportation for faster travel.

I found CQ1 to have a slightly more in depth story than CQ2, but both were engaging and very doable on the first playthrough.

The combat and magic are very similar as well - stab, stab, stab, roll away to avoid a counter attack then cast a spell and roll back in for more stabbing. It sounds simple in theory, but the speed and amount of enemies that get involved in a single fight make this quite tricky. Especially when those enemies start casting three or four offensive spells at the same time...

Mew Game Plus

Once you've beaten the boss in either game you're given some new options to continue your play and collection. The game would be very short without these. Introducing New Game Plus. Basically start from the beginning but keep your level, skills and gear. A good way to get yourself to a higher level of power and put pointy objects into disagreeable monsters.

But then,. Mew Game (yes, yes, many cat puns everywhere!) and Mew Game Plus. In Mew Game you're given a set of difficulty increasing game modifiers. Furever Alone, Naked Paws, Nine Lives, Purre Magic, No Leveling, Ruffer Enemies, No Upgrades, Fast Furwards. These options are basically translated as 1 life, no gear, 9 lives, and more. All made to change the way you play the game while all enemies get stronger.

Is there any reward to playing in that way? Yes, it's the only way to get the king's armor set and complete the "collect all equipment" achievement. It's a pretty monumental task.

Cat Quest 1, release date: 8 Aug, 2017

System requirements: Windows 7, Intel Core I3 2100 CPU at 3.1 GHz, 4 GB ram, Intel HD Graphics 520, 250 MB disk space. Available on Windows and Mac, also on iOS and Android.

Cat Quest 2, release date: 24 Sep, 2019

System requirements: Windows 7, Intel Core I3 2100 CPU at 3.1 GHz, 4 GB ram, Intel HD Graphics 520, 600 MB disk space.

Cat Quest 3, release date: tba. (Yes indeed, coming soon!)

GemCraft - Chasing Shadows

Let's talk Tower Defense. Not a favourite genre for many people, myself included. Gemcraft however, is different. The creators of this game started on Armor Games and other such flash sites, and have been making the Gemcraft series for a good many years. "Chasing Shadows" is the fourth installment in the series, preceded by chapter 1, chapter 2, and Labyrinth. The fifth game in the series: "GemCraft - Frostborn Wrath" is also available on steam.

The same but different

What makes a good tower defense? Well, towers for one,. I guess? And yes this game allows you to build plenty of those. Unlike most fairly flat progression tower defense games however, GemCraft expands on the genre by adding a multitude of options and maps. 23 Map sections, each with 5-6 fields in this case. A total of about 190 fields. Each map may be adjusted and replayed any time you like in regards to difficulty to improve your overall score for that level. Your total score will then determine your wizard XP and level - and this in turn will give you more abilities to improve. Such as higher gem power, cheaper walls, stronger bombs and many more effects.

Gems

The gems make up the meat of the game, and it's the monsters they will defeat as is usual in the genre. Critters come from 1 or multiple entry points, and will try to reach your orb. The fun bit is, in GemCraft you will be dealing with SWARMS of critters. It's not uncommon to have several hundreds of them coming towards your orb.

In the video above you can see you've got 9 gem colors, these can be moved and relocated among your towers. They can also be upgraded almost indefinitely, and combined to form dual, triple and any sort of color combination you like. A mana draining chain hit gem is a good way to level your score. Or how about a slowing gem with poison effect? Anything is possible.

The journey

This is one of the few games I went 100% achievements on. And this game has 419 achievements! Iron wizard was a definite challenge, but very doable. You unlock fields and earn new gem colors as you progress, along with new spells and curses. In normal mode you will be able to re-play fields to gain skill points which improve your strength. In iron wizard mode you get a flat number of skill points per beaten field. The number of monsters certainly won't decrease, so the challenge is quite rough if you're unfamiliar with the tower defense concept.

Setting higher difficulties (as in the image below) can be done to improve your score multiplier. This increases your score, and thus your XP, etc as mentioned. Faster monster spawns, more Giant monsters (big health and armor buffs), more swarms, orblets, etc. The game is very flexible and can be tailored to your skill in various ways.

The "goal" is to reach the iron forge, which will need to be unlocked by charging up a few pillars along the road. Meanwhile you'll get thousands of monsters coming at your orb while flinging spells left and right. Good fun.

Relics of an ancient past

Depending on the difficulty of the level you may also obtain some relic fragments. These you can equip into your very own pentagram charm, and this will provide you with various buffs on top of your skills. Debuffs for monster armor, increased gem range, extra skill levels all add up to improve your power and make it easier to get higher scores. In endless mode you'll find these things shine the most. Your gems can reach levels exceeding 100, but the monsters will have a few million hit points to compensate. The relics are random but they drop 1-3 or more per level, with varying values depending on the difficulty.

GemCraft is a game that should keep you busy for many hours. I've put in about 200 myself, and that was for the completionist badge. It's one of the best ways to spend 5$ honestly.

Release date: 30 Apr, 2015

Minimum system requirements: Windows Vista SP1, Intel Celeron N or better, 2048 MB Ram, Intel HD Graphics or better, 100 MB available disk space. Higher system specs are recommended however, especially if you play to summon a few hundred extra monsters on screen simultaneously.

Crosscode an RPG puzzle adventure

GGP Discord members will have seen me playing this game recently. Originally I picked it up during the 2020 summer sale. Sadly, it hasn't shown up in any bundles in the last few years (aside when it was in early access). Crosscode is available on various platforms, among which PC and thus Humble bundle. The price tag is worth it if you enjoy RPGs/Puzzles/Hack and slash.

Lea, Hi!

Comedy is a strong point in this game, and it is further enhanced with the main character's inability to actually speak more than a choice few words. Such as "Lea", "Hi", "Why" and a few others. Normally your run of the mill hero will happily chat, converse or ask directions from NPCs. In this case the NPCs seem to understand you happily even if you just say "Hi" and accept everything. They are just NPCs after all. Your "Player" interactions are a little more tricky, but that all works out in the end.

Secrets and puzzles

If you are expecting this to be a regular JRPG of even ARPG, you are in for a big surprise. The game's main focus is puzzles - lots, and LOTS of puzzles. Very challenging ones, and timed puzzles. There is no shame in lowering the speed in the game's settings for puzzles, or even the combat as it turns brutally hard by the time you get halfway through the game. You can always set it back to 100% in new game plus.

Secrets and parkour are also a big part of the game's design. Multi level, multi screen hidden pathways to get to a treasure chest will keep your brain very busy. In between dungeons you'll have plenty of sidequests and monsters to bash with your player friends. Take your time, look at things with different angles and you should eventually find out how to do things. But grabbing a guide can from time to time help you keep the enjoyment of this game on track.

Dungeon runs

Emilie - the spunky french girl challenge you to speedrun dungeons against her, and there's an achievement for actually beating her on every dungeon in the game. Aside her you can mix and match your party setup as you get deeper into the game, but she'll always be there to challenge you.

The dungeons are constructed as puzzle boxes. You go in, do a puzzle or two, get some keys and battle monsters in between all that until you reach the final room with a boss.

The boss fights are generally given a gimmick to beating them, whether with a specific element or trick in dodging and staying alive. The fights are very well made and quite doable, but certainly not easy!

It is a great game, well worth the price. I'd recommend playing it with a controller, but a keyboard is perfectly good as well. It's difficult to write about without spoiling too much of the experience, this is a journey best experienced first hand.

Crosscode release date: 21 Sep, 2018

Minimum system requirements: Windows XP, 2 GHx dual core, 2 GB ram, hardware accelerated graphics with 1 GB dedicated memory.

Honestly, if your potato can't run this game then it's time to upgrade to a lemon or hamster powered one.

Fancy detail - the game was written in HTML 5, and you can play the demo in your browser, for free - right now!