Author: LepcisMagna

SPAAAAAAAACE!
Marathon Trilogy
by LepcisMagna

Somewhere in the heavens… they are waiting.

I used to be a Mac gamer.  I hung on every word of Steve Jobs’ keynotes – from the iMac to the iPod to the Nano to the iPhone.  Just watch the first few minutes of the introduction of the iPhone or iPod Nano.  It’s probably the best example of public speaking I can think of, and listening to Steve Jobs got me through speech classes and school presentations with flying colors.  These days, Macs have sadly fallen by the wayside (as I type on my iPad) and Jobs’ push for perfection in simplicity is lacking.  But for a while, Macs were the only way to go.

Why do I say all this?  Because during my time as a Mac user and as a gamer, the one flaw of the Macintosh was the limited selection of games.  The few we did get were spectacular, though.  One in particular stands out – specifically, the Mac-only Marathon Trilogy.

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Golden Krone Hotel (Again!)
by LepcisMagna

One of the first games I reviewed on PICD was Golden Krone Hotel.  I put it into Tier Two, because I figured that there would be far too many roguelikes ending up on my Tier One list.  This proved not to be the case.  Many roguelikes were terrible, and many others were just nondescript or uninteresting – I found myself constantly thinking back to Golden Krone Hotel.  Later, I was looking for it in my Steam Library, and was astonished to find I had put it into Tier Two.  After revisiting it, it proved to be just as fun as I had remembered.  It has been released from Early Access and just got its “Last Update” – I look forward to beating it (someday).

Steam link

King’s Quest
by LepcisMagna

No, not that one.  And no, not the other seven or eight.  This King’s Quest is a reboot/continuation/prequel of the classic King’s Quest games in an updated graphical style.  I was told that all of the textures are based on oil paintings which were scanned and applied to the game – it works, though not as grandly as I had hoped.  If you haven’t heard of King’s Quest, you probably aren’t a fan of point-and-click adventure games and can feel safe skipping this one.  If you have, I need to preface this with the information that I haven’t actually played the originals – they’re on my list, but I’ll first need to get them working in Windows 10.

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Alto’s Odyssey
by LepcisMagna

Endless runners are probably one of the few casual game types as old as Tower Defense.  They have been done and perfected in every way and in every style: from the sublime futuristic to the flash game classic to the puzzle version to the mobile modern to the ridiculously popular.  Any new entry must stand up to these and the thousand others which already exist.  Alto’s Odyssey looks pretty, but doesn’t have much new to add to this tired genre.

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New Game+ (Or, 100% Complete)
by LepcisMagna

I’m a math guy – let’s start with some numbers:

597 days (292 days after Chezni).

978 games in total.

229 in Tier One (23.4%).

216 in Tier Two (22.1%).

 

Now it’s done.  I have…far too many Steam games.  What’s more, I now know that even with unlimited time, more than half of them are not worth playing.  You might think that depressing (I’ve specifically avoided calculating exactly how much money I wasted), but it’s a remarkable feeling to look at all the Tier One games I have and know that I enjoy each one of them.  I can pick any game in my library and have a good time.  That was the point.  I no longer feel an obligation to play video games. I can have, you know, fun.

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Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition
by LepcisMagna

Let me be clear: I went into Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition thinking I could just knock a quick game off my list, sure I wasn’t going to be particularly interested in it.  It looked like a vaguely Mexican-themed Smash Brothers ripoff.  What I got was a fun and (mostly) intuitive game about a man named Juan who gets killed by an evil skeleton on Dia de los Muertos, but is given a second chance by a mystical luchador mask.  I look forward to playing far more of this – here’s to hoping the initial glow doesn’t wear thin.  Tier One.

Steam link

Dust: An Elysian Tail
by LepcisMagna

The character above is responsible for this game going into Tier Three.  I feel a little bad about that, but there are just so many games out there that I just can’t see myself coming back to this one.

Steam link

Crypt of the Necrodancer
by LepcisMagna

This is a difficult game to get screenshots of, since it’s a roguelike rhythm game.  You crawl through a dungeon to the rhythm of your own heartbeat, matched to the beat of the song (awesome songs, and apparently you can add your own as well).  It took me a little bit to “get”, but as far as roguelike gimmicks go, this one is amazing.  Tier One.

Steam link

Exploding Kittens
by LepcisMagna

Exploding Kittens is a card game claiming to be “a highly strategic kitty-powered version of Russian Roulette.”  Until I started this review, I was going to file Exploding Kittens under Tier Two – not bad, but not anything there to keep you entertained past an hour or so.  After reading that elevator pitch, I am inspired to write a bit more.  The premise of the game is pretty simple: draw cards until all but one player has drawn an Exploding Kitten with no Defuse card to stop it.  Everyone starts with one Defuse card, and there are chances to draw or steal more Defusal cards.  There is very little content beyond just that description, even with the advanced rule options.

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