Tag: PC Games

06/21/13

GARPA 21 – GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory

GARPA #21 – Dan Pinkham and Lloyd Sabin

GARPA is now 21 … old enough to drink here in the US. These online tech articles grow up so fast. Make sure before you take GARPA out to hoist a few that there is a designated driver. And here take this … no no, shut up and just take it, you never know when you’re going to need it. Better safe than sorry I say, and I’ve seen GARPA’s taste in women. Just hang on to it and if needed GARPA will let you know, trust me.

And now … the best in crowd-sourced PC, board, miniature, and card games. You know, to pass the time until you go out drinking and carousing with a more mature (and on the hunt) GARPA.

PC Games

Data Dealer by Cuteacute

$560.00 pledged of $50,000.00 goal, funding ends Thursday, July 11.

Yes Cuteacute is a terrible name for a studio, I agree. But the developers are Austrian so that explains it and gives us a good reason not to mess with them further.

GARPA21-DataDealerOn any ordinary day, the idea of Data Dealer would be a great one: run your own social network and collect millions of online profiles and other bits of potentially secret information. Note that Data Dealer does not place the player in any sort of governmental role…you’re in this just for the thrill of learning millions of tiny little secrets and finding millions of virtually closeted-skeletons. And of course monetary profit! Millions of dollars of monetary profit!

Data Dealer is browser-based and there is a beta version available right now at the appropriately named www.datadealer.com. The developers have been working feverishly to get the game in the state it’s currently in…the Kickstarter campaign was started to get the game in a final state and make it available to as many people as possible.

Take the role of a positively shady information age tycoon and run every kind of online company you can think of: mobile apps, dating sites, search engines and social media are all available to you. But those components are just the beginning.
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06/3/13

Alea Jacta Est – Spartacus Scenario DLC

Author: Boggit

Developer and Publisher:  AGEOD and Matrix Games

In December Boggit reviewed the core game Alea Jacta Est, which offers the same game mechanics as Birth of Rome – you can see that original review here https://grogheads.com/rev-aje.html. AGEOD/Matrix has complemented this outstanding game with the Spartacus scenario, so Boggit takes the Grog’s view of whether it should “be crucified” or “granted a Rudis.”

For those gamers with Alea Jacta Est it is recommended to upgrade to the v1.02 patch. This is not necessary for those players using Birth of Rome only since V1.02 is the standard version shipped. V1.02 adds a number of nice features including tabs for city and fort size, enabling these important values to be spotted at a glance, but most importantly if you want to be able to play Spartacus you do need to patch to v1.02 from vanilla or from v1.01.
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05/27/13

GARPA 19 – GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory

Back by popular demand, the boys from GARPA are hard at it again bringing you all the crowd funding projects to empty your wallets. While the working conditions might not be the best and we are still waiting on that that funding grant from management, we still think we have a pretty cool job finding all sorts of great games and projects for you, our cherished readers. And now while we wipe the brown off our noses, enjoy the column!

Board Games and Miniatures

CCNormandy-1(RBM)

Enemy Coast Ahead: The Dambuster Raid by GMT Games

P500 – Not yet – Orders to Date: 240

In honor of Mayviation we bring you another aviation-themed boardgame in the throes of development. Enemy Coast Ahead covers the British 617 Squadron and their WWII mission, Operation Chastise. Operation Chastise was aimed at destroying three German dams that contained important reservoirs used by German industry to produce much of its war material. The task was never an easy one and even forced the creation of a special “bouncing bomb” to help the munitions reach their intended targets. Now GMT brings us a game that puts you in the shoes of the “Dambusters.”
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05/10/13

GARPA 18 – GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory

GARPA #18

Authors: Dan Pinkham and Lloyd Sabin

May 10, 2013

Spring is well under way even though we are still freezing are butts off here in the northeast at night. Which makes for a good excuse for gaming instead of being outside. Also there’s a plague of locusts coming to the region as well. You definitely don’t want to be outside then. See, we here at GARPA not only alert you to the best new crowd funded games coming to your desktop and PC…we also give you plenty of excuses for not going outside and reserving more time for gaming. Who loves you?

PC Games

Son of Nor by StillAlive Studios

$34,121 pledged of $150,000, funding ends at 5:17am on Thursday, May 30

Kickstarter18SonOfNor

Son of Nor is planned as a 3rd-person, fantasy-themed ARPG that will be playable in either single- or multiplayer coop mod, with up to four players cooperating online or through a split screen. The game takes place in the desert-world of Noshrac (not Horshack) where the player is thrown into conflict against desert-dwelling beasts and an army of warriors called Sarahul. To be the best fighter possible, the player will need to explore the game world and take advantage of strategically placed temples and avoid traps in order to advance…in other words, solve puzzles to improve magical combat abilities.
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05/4/13

Battle of Coral Sea – A Carriers at War AAR

carriers-at-war-box

Developer: Strategic Studies Group (SSG)

Publisher: Matrix Games

Author: Sean Drummy

Carriers at War is a classic game, and I’m not even talking about the original from way back in the day, I’m referring to the remake by Matrix Games. Most wargames require a substantial investment of time to complete a scenario, let alone a campaign, but the brilliance of Carriers at War is how succinct and utterly merciless the gameplay is. Depending on how brilliantly (or stupidly) you perform a scenario the game could be played through in as little as five minutes before a decisive victor is declared. In many ways this is a very wise design decision. If I just spent an hour setting up my weapons loadouts and task groups only to find five minutes in my ships are spotted and then bombed into oblivion I may be a little disappointed (read: infuriated).
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