Computer and Console Games
To close out the year for us, Lars Roberts offers us a review of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons from 505 Games. This adventure game for PC and consoles stands out for its unique controls, which both play off of and add to the game’s story. If you’re in the mood for a heartbreaking faery tale plot with lovely scenics, Lars may have found your next indulgence.
Watch this space for more reviews soon, and watch us on Instagram for what we’re discovering now.
There are almost too many crowd-funded game projects to count these days, but one in particular requires your attention: War of Omens by Fifth Column Games. If you read through the game’s KickStarter page, you’ll learn that War of Omens is a fantasy-themed digital card game with deck-building aspects similar to titles like Dominion or Thunderstone. Sound good so far? Here’s a few words about the game from Fifth Column’s Art Director, Colin Adams (who you may have seen on our staff page):
I have spent about a year on it, and we are super excited to finally promote it. It is actually really fun to play – we play it at work all the time (when we should be working). OgreCave speaks to the type of people that like this type of game, which is a deckbuilder kind of like Dominion.
The game provides three levels of AI opponent to face off with, and also allows 1-on-1 play. With 30 days yet to go, War of Omens is almost halfway to its $30,000 goal. If you want to get in on a new, digital constructible card game that has excellent artwork and a passionate development team fine tuning the gameplay, this may be your omen to pledge now.
The Cave dwellers are lurking again, and have played a few things that need reviews. Therefore, let’s get started by meeting Chris and reading his review of Boss Monster! by Brotherwise Games. This dungeon-building card game is done from the viewpoint of 8-point console game boss monsters (hence the name) who must lure heroic victims into their carefully constructed deathtraps. Gaming culture references are everywhere in this game, and the art evokes the feel of old school videogames perfectly. See what Chris had to say about it here, and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
In an article in The Guardian today, a reporter reflects on the softening of Lovecraftian merchandise – not its salability, mind you, but rather its hopeless horror being glossed over a bit in favor of a fluffy, cartoony look. This is nothing new: the Great Old Ones have been presented with their hard edges sanded off for many years now, and it certainly wasn’t to teach kids about the Cthulhu mythos – it was to sell. One of the nerdiest properties after Dungeons & Dragons has always been Cthulhu (whether speaking of Chaosium‘s Call of Cthulhu, or just the works of H.P. Lovecraft), and if there’s anything us nerds love, it’s toys and collectibles.
(As an aside, when I ask my 12-year-old daughter what she knows about Cthulhu, she tells me he’s “like an octopus guy, who’s really big, and lives underwater, and eats people, and there’s only one of him.” H.P. Lovecraft? Never heard of him. Yes, I know – I’ve failed to teach her. I know. You’re missing the point.)
Is the “cute-ifying” of all-powerful Cthulhu the makings of controversy, or just clever marketing? These days, there’s cute/plush/Bratz/LEGO/Hot Wheels versions of nearly every popular theme, including zombies, vampires, and demons. An untapped market is hard to resist, especially when the burden of screening and/or explaining the eldritch content is so easily passed to the parents. A Mini Plush Cthulhu (from Toy Vault) was the hot item to send to new gamer parents for a time (Matt Forbeck received four at once a while back), and that (innocent?) trend has broadened considerably since those days. Now Lovecraft fans can select everything from children’s book parodies and dice games to fuzzy Cthulhu slippers and My Little Cthulhu (complete with victims).
Ultimately, selling cute Cthulhu isn’t a bad thing at all. If companies can support Lovecraft fans with products they (or their children) enjoy, more power to them. Just because my daugther grew up around a large plush Cthulhu (which she pronounced “Toolu” until she was 5 or so), it doesn’t automatically mean she’ll be playing through Mansions of Madness anytime soon, if ever. That’s okay. She’s aware of Cthulhu (a startling notion, if you think about it…), and has a vague notion of a larger storyline that she can investigate at her leisure.
If she ever does, though, I’d better teach her more about Lovecraft, or the guys at Chaosium will sic the gugs on me again.
While some of the OgreCave crew have been taking a little time off (call ’em mental health days, call ’em school/divorce/new baby recovery days – whatever), causing us to skip this year’s OgreCave Christmas Gift Guide, longtime Cave Dweller Matthew Pook has scraped together a quick list of gift suggestions that would make any Ogre proud. Anyone still searching for beyond-last-minute gift ideas – or wondering what to spend holiday gift certificates on – should head over to read Reviews from R’lyeh: The OgreCave.com Christmas List. The rest of the staff here at OgreCave appreciates the assist, Matthew. We’ll have your back next time, for sure.
Of course, if you really need a gift now, you can always resort to an electronic goodie or two. Pathfinder RPG fans might enjoy Hero Labs for the Pathfinder Beginner Box (Lone Wolf Development; Free!); and gamers in general are likely to find something worthwhile in the Super Indie Bundle, offered on Steam for a limited time – 10 games for $19.99 is hard to beat!
Be well, and happy holidays!
Petroglyph, the makers of Guardians of Graxia, has announced a new expansion for the PC version of the game. It is called Elves & Dwarves, and it is available from major PC direct download services. The expansion features two new Guardians, Flist the deceitful Elf and Broxin the greedy Dwarf. They bring with them even more powerful units and abilities to engage on six additional skirmish maps, some of which have random tile generation for unique gameplay. The base Guardians of Graxia PC game has a downloadable demo. We have previously reviewed the board game version of Guardians of Graxia and interviewed Chuck Kroegel, the General Manager of Petroglyph, as part of our Gaming News Update podcast series. We have also reviewed the fantasy deck-building card game Heroes of Graxia. Whether you are a card gamer, a board gamer, or a PC gamer, there’s plenty of fantasy gaming coming out of Petroglyph these days.
Well, okay: only if you have an iPhone. (And I bet it’s great on the iPad even in fat-bits mode.) It looks to be essentially possible to play the whole game with this “toolkit” if you wish: all the decks are in there, and while the screenshots don’t specifically show whether it tracks the position of multiple investigators on the map, all the maps are in there. It looks well done and professional, enough to make you wonder how much more it’d really need to be billed as a full-on digital version of the game. Has anyone played with it? Let us know.
The Fabled Lands series is one of the most ambitious gamebook projects ever attempted: a huge world which can be explored in a totally non-linear fashion, with each book representing a different region full of adventure and hazard. The tragedy of the series is that it never sold well enough for all of the volumes to be completed, and many adventurers have been roaming the world of the first six books aimlessly since the 1990’s, hoping that someday they could reach the distant lands of books 7 through 12. Just when it seemed all hope was lost, the books have been revived both as an iPod/iPad app and as new print editions. If these reissues sell well enough, the series may finally be completed. If you’ve never experienced the books, now is the perfect time to get involved. If you’re a fan from ages back, you can return to your old stomping grounds or share the adventure with your friends and family. Either way, buy some books and help complete a fascinating unfinished piece of gamebook history!
In our latest Gaming News Update interview, Lee Valentine chats with Chuck Kroegel of Petroglyph Games about the company’s plans to release a card game, a board game, and a PC game in the next few months, all about a single fantasy setting. Kroegel, Petroglyph’s General Manager and one of the company’s designers, goes into the details of their plans to present the world of Graxia to the greater gaming public.
I mentioned this in our KublaCon 2010 image gallery (on OgreCave’s Facebook page – you’ve become a fan of us, right?), where our readers saw a shot of the Small World iPad app. Well, this just in: Days of Wonder has upgraded the program to include an AI to play against, enabling solo play for the formerly two-player only app. Those who already purchased the app can upgrade for free, or new players can download the app for $6.99.
To commemorate the 20 millionth game that will soon play out on the Days of Wonder Online digital board games network, Days of Wonder announced its best Online Giveaway yet. In a nod to its recent release of the best selling Small World for iPad digital board game on the App store, Days of Wonder will be giving away a new Apple iPad Wi-Fi 16 GB, and a copy of Small World for iPad, to the winner of its 20,000,000th game. Additionally, all other participants in that 20,000,000th game will receive a nice consolation prize – an 8GB Apple iPod Touch. All Days of Wonder Online members are eligible to participate in this giveaway by playing any Days of Wonder Online games including: the Ticket to Ride series, Gang of Four, Fist of Dragonstones, or Queen’s Necklace.
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