I am so glad that these Civony/Evony people are finally getting called out. Their shady ads featuring stolen art assets are everywhere. I can only hope they haven’t tricked many people into playing, but I know that mammary glands are powerful things.

This is a big one, and I will admit that I skimmed a bit, but there’s some interesting stuff here. Particularly, the acknowledgment that the general perception of the PC gaming market’s health is largely due to a lack of marketing and representation; that’s interesting coming from a PC manufacturer, not to mention a founder of the PC Gaming Alliance. Next up: much respect to Chris Remo for not letting the comment about $1,500 – $2,500 being what somebody needs to spend on a gaming PC slip by. The notion that a person needs to spend more than $700 to play any game is one that is hurting the platform. Finally, I very much like the idea of Steam being pre-installed on Dell and Alienware systems. I’m no fan of crapware, but if they’re injecting new machines with a bunch of it anyway, they may as well throw in something great like Steam.

This just tickled me.

Chains is a puzzle game created by independent developer 2DEngine.com, and published by Meridian4. Released in November of 2008, Chains is the first game to be built on 2DEngine.com’s proprietary cross-platform game engine AGen, which they make freely available for non-commercial development.

There is only one direct action to make in Chains: link three or more circles together. Though the means may be simple, the scope of Chains’ gameplay is anything but narrow; this is not a run-of-the-mill “match 3” game. Never mind the smooth, minimalist art style facilitated by vector graphics, or the haunting electro soundtrack; simply consider that each of Chains’ twenty levels presents for players a different objective and a different obstacle. Take, for example, stage 2, “The Gate” (pictured right), wherein the objective is to clear 200 bubbles before their collective weight becomes greater than the counter-weight keeping the gate below them closed. Compare that time-based level with something more relaxed like stage 7, “Gulliver”, where the objective is to clear 100 bubbles by creating 10 chains or less, and it becomes apparent that Chains offers something uniquely challenging from level to level.
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FlatOut 2 is an arcade-style racing game developed by Finnish studio Bugbear Entertainment and published by Empire Interactive. It was released in the US in August of 2006 for PC, Xbox, Playstation 2, and again in October of 2008 for Mac OS X.

FlatOut 2 is a racing game that offers something for everybody. Single race, stunt or derby modes will best suit the dabbler. Just pick a mode, a track, a vehicle, and get to racing, death-defying, and destroying your way to victory. There is nothing to unlock, to buy, to sell or to upgrade. Some prefer to earn their keep, though, so for the arcade-racing purist there is a full career mode complete with the aforementioned unlocking and shopping as well as classes, cups, tournaments and special events. FlatOut 2’s modes can also be taken to multiplayer games via party-play (local), Internet (where a healthy group of people can still be found playing), or LAN. No matter your poison, FlatOut 2 is always all about the mayhem with its destructible environments, brutal crashes, tons of debris, and AI-controlled drivers that are not afraid to get their hands dirty.
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Death to retail! This kind of problem could be fixed within hours or days, and for a lot less money, if all games were attached to digital distribution platforms like Impulse or Steam. Not that this particular issue affected the digitally distributed versions in the first place.

So Demigod had some problems. I canceled my pre-order a few days before release, so I haven’t experienced them, but they don’t sound fun. Gotta say, though, I don’t think I could be upset for long with how candid Stardock has been about the issues and their efforts to correct them.

Of course it is.

Radashay!

This week we find ourselves audiosurfing some rockin’ tunes from some friends here in Portland, OR. From their recently released album Swim, SweetJuice plays something “Beautiful.” (music and lyrics by Kris Deelane)

Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble! is a genre-bending puzzle-role-playing game in the style of a board game. It was released in 2008 for PC and Mac after over two years of development. Created by independent designer Keith Numitz of Mousechief Co., Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble! has won many awards including the Casual Games Assosiation’s 2007 award for Most Innovative Game, and numerous Game of The Year awards from GameTunnel.com including their Innovation Award. The game was also a finalist at IndieCade 2008 and was the only independent game nominated for Best Writing in a Video Game at the Writers Guild Awards in 2009. Its competition included Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, Tomb Raider: Underworld, Fallout 3, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
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Today’s song, March of the Zombies, I’m proud to say, was created by our friend, the funk-nificant Rob Geboers, A.K.A. “Rob Goobers”, A.K.A. “Doctor Soul”, A.K.A. Schnauzer Radio Orchestra. You may be familiar with some of Rob’s work from the numerous theme songs he has composed for such podcasts as ExtraLife Radio, The Final Score and Comics Coast to Coast. You can hear more of Rob’s music at SchnauzerStudios.com, or the Schnauzer Radio Orchestra MySpace page.