Tag Archives: Sci-Fi

Dragon’ Up The Past – A DragonLance Milestone

It’s a trip to the mid ’80s as we check out another classic Dragon Magazine ~

Brant & Jim, 13 July 2018

How lucky do the guys get on Friday the 13th going through Dragon Magazine #91?


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GrogHeads First Impressions of Stars in Shadow

Screenshots of snake-people swashbuckling around the stars ~

Boggit, 26 May 2018

Developed by Ashdar Games Inc and published by Iceberg Interactive

I’ve been meaning to have a look at this game for some time now and finally have got around to it. Playing Emperor “Gritok the Devourer” of the Gremak Empire – an aristocratic race of four-eyed cobra alien slavers – I took to the stars in a huge Galaxy to try my luck as the mean and nasty imperialist snake people!

Here’s a collection of screenshots from my early expansion into the stars, which gives you an idea of how the game is presented, as well as the sort of options available to players. I liked the artwork, which unlike a lot of space games is nice, bright and colourful – and even a bit cartoony – which added to the fun. I liked what I saw with this game, which reminded me of the classic Master of Orion 2 in terms of gameplay. A big plus is that it is simple to play like Master of Orion 2, yet had sufficient depth to keep my attention.

 

So here we start at our home planet of Gremal. We’ve already made life a misery for the poor Enfi race that shares our planet having enslaved those centuries before. Now we have a chance to enslave other species to our will.

What’s Gus Playing? Deadlight!

The mighty mite of meandering muses on melancholy moods ~

Lloyd Sabin, 23 April 2018

Sometimes games just click with us. There’s no break-in period, no giving the game “a chance,” no mucking around…we love it right away.

That was how it worked with me and Deadlight, a side-scrolling, zombie-killing, puzzle-solving adventure game built in the Unreal engine by Tequila Works. Most players clocked in game length at around 5 hours…I got very close to the end between 5 and 10 hours, and then got stuck on one part where the acrobatics involved were just too much for my slowing hands.

Up until that point, though, the game was great. I loved the story, I loved the setting (Seattle and the surrounding area circa the mid 1980s) and I loved the gunplay and survival components. Players get s small variety of weapons to use including a shotgun, pistol, and ax.

The mood created by all of these facets combined was palpable…the player really does develop a sense of hopelessness, which slowly recedes the better the player gets at the game’s mechanics, which can get a bit complicated.

Certain obstacles and levels also featured the developer’s sense of humor, especially when you come across them the first time and get slaughtered…left to think ‘how the hell am I supposed to beat that?’ It also didn’t hurt that the game is now roughly six years old and I picked it up for a dollar. Literally. So I easily got my money’s worth x 25, at least, even though I didn’t quite finish the game completely.

As you can see below, Deadlight is one of those games whose visuals speak for themselves. So this week I don’t really think captions for each shot are necessary, which will allow me to show off more shots than usual! Plus I’m feeling pretty lazy today. Enjoy the below and if you can pick up Deadlight for 1, 5, 10 or even 15 dollars, it’s definitely worth it if you enjoy platformers, zombies, survival games, moody lighting and the original Pitfall game by Activision…with an edge.

Car Wars – A Trip Down The Memory Fast Lane, (the lost) Part 9

Remember that whole series from over a year ago?  Yeah, we missed one… ~

Michael Eckenfels, 18 April 2018

click most images to enlarge

THE AADA ROAD ATLAS AND SURVIVAL GUIDE

VOLUME ONE: THE EAST COAST

The AADA Survival Guides, of which I believe there were seven, were essentially campaign game starter books that gave Car Wars-centric information for various regions of the United States. Or, at least, what was left of the United States. Further, it should be pointed out that these Guides are built to be used with the GURPS system (more specifically, the Autoduel GURPS rules).

What’s Gus Playing? Endless Space 2, part 2

The famous fun-sized phantasm of flight fights fearlessly ~

Lloyd Sabin, 15 April 2018

I totally forgot that I was supposed to focus on the combat of Endless Space 2 last week when I wrote up House of the Dying Sun. It happens. Our own BayonetBrant had to ask me ‘WTF happened to the 2nd part you said you were going to write up on Endless Space 2 combat?’

My response? ‘Well f– me, I totally forgot.’ Until now. Even if it is a dayweek late.

Endless Space 2 combat is liked by some, disliked by others. I enjoyed it because it had a lot of options that I had not seen it 4x games before, like your force’s offensive/defensive disposition, formations, etc. And again, I only scratched the very shallow surface of this game, including the combat component, and will be back for much more in the near future.

Battle engaged!