The Eyes of Ara is a newly released puzzle-adventure inspired by Myst
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
With Obduction, Myst's true spiritual successor, delayed from its July release all the way to August 24th due to the need for further bug fixing, there is currently a bit of a vacuum when it comes to puzzle-adventures.
This is where The Eyes of Ara, a newly released adventure with some truly devious puzzles, comes in to play as it offers almost exactly the same type of experience as Myst, and this includes the frequent moments of bewilderment when you encounter some of the more... obscure puzzles. If you're wondering what all of this looks like in terms of gameplay, here's an extended trailer showcasing just that:
South Park: The Fractured But Whole's latest dev video is a "behind-the-scenes" interview with the creators of the show
- By Ash
- in News
Even though it might not seem like it given the show's intentionally crappy art style and crude humor, each episode of South Park has a lot of thought put behind it, especially when it comes to the writing and timing for the various jokes.
Now imagine how complicated things get when you have to retain the show's quality and still somehow make all of it into an entertaining game that can last upwards of 10 hours, longer than an entire season of the show! If your imagination is a bit faulty due to the summer heat, however, here's the most recent South Park: The Fractured But Whole development video with Trey Parker and Matt Stone discussing how the game slowly took shape:
Project Sonic 2017 is a newly announced 3D Sonic by the team behind Generations and Colors
- By Ash
- in News
The 3D Sonic games don't have the best reputation these days given that the majority of them either released unfinished, unpolished, or just downright bland, though there are a couple of exceptions. Sonic: Generations and Colors are two genuinely fun games that have managed to take the 3D premise and concoct some compelling gameplay to go along with it, rather than simply stick to the 2D formula and wonder why it just isn't working.
With that in mind, I'm happy to announce that the team behind both of those games has been assembled once more to create a brand new 3D Sonic game - Project Sonic 2017 (a working title, I'd imagine). While there isn't any gameplay footage just yet, here's the announcement trailer showcasing not just Sonic, but two Sonics:
Sonic Mania, a new 2D adventure modeled after the classic Sonic games, is coming in 2017
- By Ash
- in News
The Sonic series has always been a bit of a roller-coaster in terms of quality, but I think everyone can agree that the classic 2D Sonic games are some of the best examples of how fun Sonic can truly be. Unfortunately, at least as far as I'm concerned, the Sonic Team mostly spent the past decade working on 3D iterations of the series and pretty much failing every single time, though I have to give special credit to Generations for being genuinely fun.
With that little introduction out of the way, I hope you can now understand how astounding it is to hear that Sega has teamed up with Christian Whitehead, Headcannon, and PagodaWest Games to create a brand new 2D Sonic game - Sonic Mania! There will be new zones and remixed classic levels, new gameplay mechanics to keep the "gotta go fast" attitude alive despite various platforming challenges, and best of all, all three of the original characters will be playable (Sonic, Tails and Knuckles).
If you're interested in what Sonic Mania looks like, here's the announcement trailer and I would suggest you skip to 55 seconds:
The Witcher 3's First Person mod offers a much closer look at the world
- By Ash
- in News
I consider The Witcher 3 a golden standard when it comes to open-world exploration. The various locations you can visit are absolutely gorgeous, the writing and voice acting are almost universally stellar, and the majority of the quests are interesting enough that it never felt right skipping them. However, I still have to admit that there is a certain level of immersion unique to The Elder Scrolls series simply due to the first person perspective bringing you closer to the world.
As it turns out, there is a solution to this little conundrum, and it comes in the form of Skacikpl's The Witcher 3 First Person mod. Rather than waste your time explaining what the mod can do, here's a video showcasing the first person perspective in action:
No Man's Sky's latest video is a brief showcase of what exactly trading is about
- By Ash
- in News
With No Man's Sky's release date fast approaching and concrete information being nearly impossible to find, the developers have started up a video series with the intent to briefly show what exactly the various parts of No Man's Sky are all about.
Today's video, as you can guess from the title, is all about trading, gathering strange and alien resources, unlocking new technology, and exploring the wide universe in search of further riches. Here's the video and a short description of trading that came along with it:
Starbound has finally been released after 5 years in development
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Starbound, an extraterrestrial sandbox adventure, has been in development for 5 years now, and even though there were many missteps along the way I'm happy to say its long journey has finally reached its conclusion with an official release.
In order to summarize all of the updates and changes made over the years, the folks at Chucklefish recently posted a 5-minute long trailer showcasing pretty much everything you can do in Starbound, from the story-focused campaign to the various boss battles. Have a look: