Tag Archives: Sci-Fi

GrogHeads Reviews Underrail

Airboy dives into the bowels of Underrail to see if it’s worth taking the plunge ~

Avery Abernethy, 14 April 2017

Computer RPGs often have an excellent design concept but poor execution. Other RPGs have a great design and good execution, but play balance goes off usually later in the game. Your characters become so powerful that almost nothing presents a challenge. Very few RPGs have a good concept, and game mechanics while retaining challenging (but not impossible) play throughout the game. Even fewer RPGs manage to do this while enabling different effective play styles. Underrail is one of a handful of games I’ve ever played which hits all of these benefits.

What’s Gus Playing? House of the Dying Sun

The lord of lilliputians launches some laser-like love ~

Lloyd Sabin, 2 April 2018

House of the Dying Sun not only sounds like the title of one of the great rock songs of all time (that’s House of the Rising Sun for the uninitiated) – it is also a great arcade space sim with VR support. I don’t have a VR set yet but I can vouch that House of the Dying Sun is just as fun and intense to play on a regular PC set-up as it may be in VR.

This game is about revenge and the cold termination of your enemies and not much else.

The basic story behind House of the Dying Sun is that your emperor has been usurped by a cabal of bloodthirsty rebel overlords. And you and what’s left of the past regime’s military must take power back for the throne, eliminating a total of a dozen of the new regime’s collaborators without prejudice.

House of the Dying Sun has a minimalist graphical style as well as a spartan UI which somehow produce an atmosphere of dark blood lust…I can’t explain it much more clearly than that. Rebel Galaxy this is not – if you are looking for a arcade space game with a sense of humor, look elsewhere. This game is about revenge and the cold termination of your enemies and not much else.

If you’re skilled at piloting your craft, the single player campaign should probably take you less than 10 hours. I got about half way through it in about 6 hours. Your ship is upgradeable as you succeed in the missions you are assigned and the campaign branches in different directions, giving the player a choice in the missions taken on. They ultimately all lead to the same ending, though – the complete destruction of the rebels and your re-domination of the galaxy. There are assassination assignments, interception, dog fighting and capital ship assault. But you will always be a pilot – you will never exit your ship for any reason.

What’s Gus Playing? Endless Space 2, part 1

The eloquent elf of exploration expresses endless exultation ~

Lloyd Sabin, 26 March 2018

Although I have only played a couple of hours of it, The Great Meshing™ happened with Endless Space 2.

Some games just mesh with us. The art style, the UI, the characters, the writing…all of it just coalesces in to a greater whole that digs its claws in to us and we love everything about it. I can always count on the Assassin’s Creed games, the Total War series, Warner Brothers games like Mad Max and Shadow of War and the Witcher series, among others, to really blow my mind, even after numerous iterations. When this Great Meshing™ happens unexpectedly with a new title, it can blow your mind.

Although I have only played a couple of hours of it, The Great Meshing™ happened with Endless Space 2. Admittedly, for most of the time I played it, I was trying to figure out what the hell was going on, learning the game’s systems, reading up on it’s factions, and generally attempting to keep my head above water. I had chosen the Vodyani to play as, which may not have been the best choice…when I return to Endless Space 2 – and I am certainly going to – I should probably chose a more straight forward faction to try.

What’s Gus Playing? Call of Duty – Infinite Warfare pt3

GrogHeads’ moon midget muses meanderingly on martial mayhem ~

Lloyd Sabin, 19 March 2018

I loved this game. A lot.

And now…the last round of my gushing praise for Call of Duty – Infinite Warfare. I loved this game. A lot. Particularly the single player campaign.

You may know this already from the gushing I did last week, and the week before that. This is it, I swear. Next week will feature a whole new game and set of screen shots to gush over. Or despise. Who knows, really?

Anything can happen when it comes to what I am playing on my PC, for I am so very fickle, hour to hour. Here, have these screenies

What’s Gus Playing? Call of Duty – Infinite Warfare pt2

Our Space Smurf salubriously slobbers on super sassy screenshots ~

Lloyd Sabin, 12 March 2018

[I] will now regale you with a new collection of super sassy screenshots

You may have surmised that I really loved Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (IW) from last week’s installment, what with the gushing praise for everything it does right and just a mere mention of the one (very annoying) audio bug I encountered.

I still stand by everything I said last week and will now regale you with a new collection of super sassy screenshots. Two years on and this game is still incredibly beautiful, if not overly lengthy. It goes without saying that I wish it was twice or three times as long as it was. Maybe I’ll even replay it eventually… yeah I’m pretty sure I will, that’s how much I enjoyed it.

I took so many screenshots of IW that I feel obliged to make use of them here. Apologies if you’re just not that in to it. It happens. Perhaps one more gaggle of screens next week and I will move on, I promise. But for now…more gushing!