Posted by Guest Reviewer
Mon, 30 Jun 2008 08:19:00 GMT
[Guest Review by FishyBoy]
Cubes is an excellent online game. It can be summed up as a 3D version of the Tron lightcycles game. [Note: it’s essentially a multiplayer version of nenad’s Counterclockwise. -Derek]
You fly around, leaving a trail behind you. Hitting a trail kills you. You can move along any axis. You can also shoot at enemies, although it’s not too effective. Several power-ups are available, and you also have a boost. The world wraps around, so if you just keep going in a straight line, you’ll eventually crash. The default level is empty, although there are a few other levels with some trails already added. That’s about all of the game.
The game is simple, but it’s good fun zooming along colorful corridors, twisting about in a convoluted path and desperately hoping you don’t smash into a wall. When you first start playing it’s rather disorienting, but you get used to it pretty fast. The learning curve was only about 5 minutes for me, and in about 20 minutes I was doing pretty well. Rounds are done survival-style, and the field is pretty small, so games are fast-paced and short.
The game doesn’t have very complicated graphics, but the twisted multicolored architecture when you’re well into a round looks pretty cool. It doesn’t take a very fancy computer, either. My awful computer ran it nicely, with occasional frame rate drops.
The community is very friendly, helping out all the new and confused players. The menu mirrors the main game in simplicity, so it takes less than a minute to set your name and join a server. When there’re about 6-8 people in a room, it’s great fun, although it’s still pretty enjoyable with 2 people.
In short, it’s a fun and unique game, enjoyable on all accounts. I highly recommend it.
Mtp Target is a simple enough concept: In most maps, the penguin you control rolls down a hill, goes off a jump, and then must be put into gliding mode (CTRL) in order to be maneuvered over to the target area, usually some sort of platform. Your first few attempts at Mtp Target will most likely result in frustrating falls into the water, but if you stick with the game you’ll be landing on target in no time.
As I got better at Mtp Target, I picked up on some strategies that reveal a more competitive aspect of the game. For example, instead of racing to the landing area, more experienced players will glide in circles until everyone lands and then zoom over and knock everybody into the water, proving that even the cutest of games can provoke vulgar (not to mention hilarious) exchanges of insults.
My main problem with most multiplayer games is how long it takes to start playing; loading, finding a good server, more loading, waiting for players to join, getting utterly ravished by people who devote their lives to playing, etc. So it’s nice to see that there’s an online game out there that doesn’t take itself too seriously and instead aims for a laid-back, quick experience.
Take the weapons from the Quake and Unreal Series (the shotguns, the grenade-launchers, the laser-cannons), throw in swords, over-sized wooden mallets, and grapple-hooks for good measure and give the whole arsenal to a tiny, round, and colorful race of giggling cuteness that one might come across if say… Tribbles got into a large stash of food. Now force these creatures to fight each other in battles ranging from death matches to rounds of capture-the-flag.
Well, actually, don’t do that – it’s already been done, and turned into an surprisingly polished and addictive experience.
Officially, Teeworlds (originally titled “Teewars“) is a 2d multiplayer-only platform shooter available on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and with its gunning and grappling cuteness it recalls memories of games like Soldat, Liero, and the cute-but-brutal landscapes of the Worms Series. Although it’s only in version 0.4.2, Teeworlds has already shown amazing progress and is perfectly playable right now.
The controls of Teeworlds are standard controls for and big-title FPS (WASD for movement, number keys for weapons, click to fire, etc) and fit the gameplay very well. Of course, the player can remap any of these keys if need be. The customization doesn’t stop there though; each player can customize the shape and color of their individual character or even make their own maps via the map maker. Another aspect of the controls I really thought was innovative for a game of this type was the emoticon system: just push leftShift, and a circular menu will appear with several choices. Simply move the mouse over the emoticon you want to appear over your character, and release shift. Simple as that.
You can even go one step further if that level of freedom isn’t enough: Teeworlds is an open-source project, which has led to many, many, custom skins and mods on the part of the community.
Game play is easy to learn, and soon you’ll be a double-jumpin’ grapple-swingin’ gun-wieldin’ machine, so be sure to check this game out.
Posted by Guest Reviewer
Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:03:00 GMT
[Guest review by MisterX]
Has Clonk really never been featured on TIGSource? It’s a German indie game series (with English language support) that’s probably a lot less known worldwide than it is here, in Germany. But I’m not exaggerating when I say that they’re some of the very best games I know – and I’m not only talking about indie games. It’s quite a long-running series, with the first Clonk being released in 1994. Nine titles onwards there is “Clonk Rage”, the latest game. Following its release, the largely identical predecessor, Clonk Endeavour, has been released for free, though its online component has been stripped from it.
So if it really is unknown around here, I’ll try to summarize the game a bit. Basically, Clonk is an extensive 2D action-adventure-strategy platformer. Usually you control a group of the Clonks, using them to build up a settlement. For the building process you need resources, which you can get by digging into the ground. There you can dig for coal, pump up oil, or blow up veins of ore and gold. While gold is the common currency in the game, you also need energy – coal is used to fire up furnaces, which melt ore to metal. And windmills are used to power elevators which will let you mine more professionally.
At least, that’s the most common scenario. Actually that’s just a tiny bit of what Clonk offers in terms of variety, but summing it all up is practically impossible. Other popular scenarios are the middle age, where huge castles are built and knights fight hand-to-hand or on horseback, and the Western, where small towns are built and cowboys shoot each other. There are also several flavors of foreign worlds, like the arctic, a deep jungle… you name it.
There’s an uncountable amount of more stuff due to Clonk’s modability. For at least 10 years now there’s been a huge community of people who have created all sorts of stuff. It ranges from level mods that use pre-made content, or scripted adventures (for example, there is a neat Diablo-esque level that includes questing and leveling up), to completely original scenarios, like a cool sci-fi pack that includes armored troops with machine guns, hoverbikes, and huge complexes full of alien scum. I hope that helps explain why it’s so hard to just define Clonk.
Technically, the series has come quite far. While it featured cute, but crude, hand-drawn 2D pixel art in the past, the game now features a 3D look that isn’t any less charming. Probably most interesting though is the destructibility of the terrain, which reminds of Cortex Command, and the “fluid” physics. The water in the game is pretty dynamic, making rain a lethal foe as it loves to flood your mine shafts. The only thing that hasn’t really changed is the quite archaic midi music. For me that’s simply added nostalgia, but it might be annoying for new players (F1 disables music!).
And to briefly cover one of Clonk’s most important aspects: there is multiplayer. All kinds of it. You can play in split-screen with up to 4 players sharing a keyboard, but you can also plug in as many gamepads as you’d like. There’s also internet-play, which works mighty fine without especially much lag. And how you play is entirely up to you: You may want to play a small “Melee”, which is a kind of deathmatch, or you may build up huge colonies with walls and other defenses to have really big battles. Or you can just play a level cooperatively to build up a huge colony with a friend… or twelve.
Ouf, that’s become quite a wall of text already and yet it’s lacking any kind of structure and completeness. And let me make this clear: Clonk is not an especially complex game that takes years to get into or anything. Over the years it has become very accessible, most notably offering various control schemes.
Like I said, Clonk Endeavour, the second-to-last game in the series, is freeware and very similiar to the most recent release. Clonk Rage, the latest title, is shareware and can be bought for roughly 23$ (or, more precisely, 15€).
Tonight is GAME NIGHT. On the cards are the usual staples of Jet Set Willy Online, iScribble, and no doubt Trackmania too. And apparently Team Fortress 2 is free this weekend, so there’ll probably be a game or two of that…
If you’re up for it, make your way to tigIRC as soon as you can! Things are about to start!
Posted by Jordan Magnuson
Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:06:00 GMT
Triumph War 2099 is up there with Gladiator as one of the best cooperative multiplayer on one keyboard games ever made. You and up to three other players take control of 1-4 commandos with legions of troops at your disposal, and one goal in mind: retrieve the Plasma Cannon Energy Crystal from the clutches of an infestation of alien bugs! Easier said than done.
Basically what we have here is a top-down shoot-’em-up/strategy hybrid with a fantastic cooperative element. Pick up a machine gun, flame thrower, plasma cannon and a few grenades, call in some air support, let your troops know what you want from them, and head into the swarm guns blazing with your friends at your sides.
Sounds epic? It is. Do yourself a favor, and download this free gem now from Home of the Underdogs (sadly-or fortunately-one of the few sites still hosting the game).
Edit:
This game is only good when played multiplayer. I should have mentioned that before.
Also, if you’d like to check out another game in this vein, take a look at Planet Wars: http://www.winsite.com/bin/Info?21000000036522. Poor graphics, and full of bugs, the game can, nonetheless, be more fun than Triumph at times. Again, only multiplayer.
Posted by Jordan Magnuson
Wed, 14 May 2008 20:54:00 GMT
I know, I know, we’re all mature independent gamers here, and we know The Indie Canon like the back of our collective hand; and yes, Open Liero was mentioned here a scare half year ago. Well I’m sorry, but here’s the thing: is there any one here who is really going to stand up and say that Liero doesn’t deserved to be mentioned at least every few months on any self-respecting indie site? If there is one person out there who reads this post, and has not yet played Liero, and plays Liero as a consequence, then this post was not in vain.
So many clones, but there’s only one original; and here’s dos box, for sound.
If I had a million dollars for every time I had fun playing this game, well, I would be richer than Bill Gates—and that’s a lot of millions.
Edit: despite my [snobbish?] loyalty towards the original, it’s true that OpenLieroX is perhaps the definitive version of this game. Download it here.
Posted by Jordan Magnuson
Sat, 26 Apr 2008 16:46:00 GMT
One of my all time favorite “Click” games. You play the White Wizard, residing in a medieval fantasy fortress where you create and unleash hordes of minions onto a 2D battlefield with one goal in mind: defeat the warlord across the way. If you ever played Three-Sixty Pacific’s Armor Alley, you’ll find that the premise is similar, but this game might just be better than its classic counterpart.
The mechanics are fairly simple: use the keyboard to move blocks of resources around to form combinations which produce troops, then unleash those troops to the battlefield where they fight automatically as best they can. The game blends strategy, tactics, and dexterity in a really interesting way.
On the strategic level you will have to decide which Warlord to play (each has their strengths and weaknesses), and what your general plan of unit production is going to be: a cheap mix of foot soldiers and archers, with an occasional battering ram thrown in? Or perhaps you will rely on more advanced technology and an air based assault? Or how about trying to infect your opponent’s troops with the Black Plague?
On the tactics level you’ve got to respond to the situation at hand, both in terms of the resources you have in front of you, and the current state of the battlefield.
Finally, on the dexterity level… well, the game is played in freakin’ realtime, and you better get good at moving those blocks of resources around!
Siege has a couple of flaws, like its tiny 320×200 resolution and some imbalances that I’ll let you discover, but these small detriments are small next to the fun of madly mixing resources and watching your miniature troops fight it out to the death in front of you, with your arch-nemesis pounding away on the keyboard beside you.
The game supports human vs. computer and human vs. human play. I don’t have to tell you which is better.
P.S. You may need to run the game in Windows 95 compatibility mode; and remember to copy cncs32.dll to your system32 directory if the game doesn’t work.
Tonight is Games Night. Come join us in #tigIRC around 8pm GMT! Game of the night: iScribble! We’ll also be playing Jet Set Willy Online, TrackMania, Zap, and anything else anybody might want to play. Check out BlademasterBobo’s thread on the forums for more info.
Be there or be a four equally sided shape with 90 degree angles.
Kriegspiel, or “War Game,” is a digital remake of a board game developed by French avant-garde writer, film maker, and activist Guy Debord.
Inspired by the military theory of Carl von Clausewitz and the European campaigns of Napoleon, Debord’s game is a chess-variant played by two opposing players on a game board of 500 squares arranged in rows of 20 by 25 squares.
One of the fundamental strategies behind the game is to maintain various “lines of communication” across the map, while cutting off your opponent’s lines. These lines radiate from arsenals and relay points and allow your troops to move and attack. If a troop is not on a friendly line, it’s immobilized, but if it’s on an enemy line, it blocks the line at that point. The game is won when a player’s arsenals or troops are completely destroyed.
RSG, the developers of the remake, have chosen not to add a single-player component to the game, in order to preserve the “fidelity” of the original idea. Unfortunately, it makes the game, already in a niche, that much more challenging to get into. But for war/strategy buffs, I think it’s worth checking out what looks like an extremely elegant, Chess-like game (and a well-done remake).
