Sometimes you just need a good old fashioned, tough as nails arcade game to play, am I right? Too often when I play new video games do I get the sense that they were trying to make a movie, rather than really putting work into gameplay. A focus on cinematic experience can sometimes cause some games to lose what really makes them …. well games. If you feel like you want something a little different and If you’re a glutton for punishment like I am, you’ll be pleased to hear about a new title from ThirtyThree games. This three person indie development studios latest release RunGunJumpGun, has been labeled as a “Satisfyingly Infuriating Psychedelic Runner-Shooter”. Quite a mouthful, but it actually illustrates the idea of the game very well. Fans of games like Hotline Miami, Enter the Gungeon, and Hyper Light Drifter, will appreciate it’s retro aesthetic, need for controller mastery, trippy visuals, and fast paced action. With just two buttons, one to fly and one to shoot, players will find themselves flying through obstacles, blasting thorough walls, and dying millions of times. Though it has a simple mechanic, the games pulse pounding soundtrack and fast pace keep your hands firmly gripped on your controller. It’s almost like Flappy bird, except you’re flying through space on bath salts with a jetpack and a massive mini-gun. All in all, if you’re a fan of science fiction, and looking for some hardcore fun that will demand your engagement, maybe RunGunJumpRun is a game you should throw on your STEAM wishlist right now.
Watch the trailer for RunGunJumpGun and let us know what you think about this “Satisfyingly Infuriating Psychedelic Runner-Shooter” in the comments section below!
Looking for a wacky and musical world to explore next time you sit down to game? Enter the world of Wailing Heights by Outsider games! Play as former “Deadbeats” manager Frances Finklestein, as you travel through the strange world of Wailing Heights, a town populated by vegan werewolves, Motown zombies, hipster vampires, and a series of other supernatural odd ball’s. With the ability to “body hop” you will be able to change playable characters at your leisure. Each with their own unique abilities, every playable character has different strengths you will have to use to uncover new areas, and to progress through the games story. With a comic book art style, 60’s rock and roll soundtrack, and endless personality Wailing Heights is sure to shake things up for fans of point and click adventure games.
Check out the Wailing Heights game trailer and let us know what you think in the comments section below!
I have been playing Hyper Light Drifter non-stop now for the last 4 hours. I have been beaten down and bloodied so many times that I’ve lost count. As masochistic as it sounds, I simply can’t get enough of it. Heart-Machine’s Kickstarter crowd funded indie action RPG has finally been unleashed and god damn is it great. If you’ve ever been a fan of games like Zelda: A Link to the Past, Beyond Oasis, the Y’s series, or even the mobile game Zenonia, then Hyper Light Drifter will feel right at home for you. If you aren’t a fan of that style of game, then I have no idea why you’re even reading this article. In any case, Hyper Light Drifter accomplishes much of what the team originally set out to do, which was to create a modern, visually and sonically impressive action RPG that truly captures the feel of the retro games we all grew up playing. As a backer of the games Kickstarter in 2013, I was immediately impressed with the games pixel art heavy and stylized art style. The developers claim to deliver Dark Souls level difficulty was also a big draw for me. However, it seems that for some it has been one of the games drawbacks. For those who feel beaten down by the games difficulty level, here are 5 ways to survive in Hyper Light Drifter.
Learn Your Enemies Attack Patterns
After my first few hours playing Hyper Light Drifter it was pretty evident that your enemies don’t mess around. The AI can be really aggressive causing multiple enemies to come at you simultaneously. Often times dealing with a large group of enemies can be the end of you quickly without the proper strategy. When in situations like this, a few missed sword strikes could be devastating, causing you to have to replay from your last auto save. One way to deal with this predicament is to learn your enemies attack patterns. You do this by allowing your enemies to attack you and quickly dodging. After analyzing how much distance is between you and the completion of their attack, you can then move in for the kill. Also be sure not to not just mash the attack button once you find your opening. The Drifter only has a 3 attack combo he can pull off, so make sure that as soon as you’re finished, you quickly move away from your enemies. Precision is everything.
Use your Dash Ability
Dashing is a common mechanic is most action RPG’s. It’s great for both its defensive application and the ability to move around the environment a bit faster. In Hyper Light Drifter you will be using your dash ability A LOT. Enemies will often times do a quick charge before unleashing a powerful and fast attack that can stop you in your tracks if you miss a beat. Using your dash ability frequently when surrounded by various enemy types is crucial to your survival and the ability to progress through the game. You must master the use of the dash or you will feel like you are getting crushed. Sometimes, mentally slowing things down and really thinking about your moves and strategies can be the secret to mastering a games controls. I know that when I was first getting into Hotline Miami, as soon as I realized that waiting for your moment was a part of the game, I blew through it. Do yourself a favor and use the dash. The Dash ability is your friend here.
Destroy Everything & Search Everywhere
Heart Machines glorious attention to environmental detail is awe inspiring and sometimes just requires minutes to stop and admire the beauty of it all. It turns out that many pieces of your environment like crystal shards, boxes, barrels, and other random things can be destroyed by the Drifter. Since battles will often leave you taking at least a hit or two before moving to the next area, you are going to want to explore your ass off in search of medical kits or weapon upgrades. Sometimes slashing through a big pile of crystal shards can reveal a path you didn’t see off screen, one that might lead to a much needed health pack or even to a new area entirely.
Use Your Pistol
In Hyper Light Drifter you are given a pistol as one of your primary weapon early on. At first, I found it a bit tough to get a grasp on since most of the enemies early in the game can be disposed of with your sword. This definitely changes as you get further into the game and are forced to deal with much larger groups of enemies. In these situations you must leverage the ranged power of your pistol to help take the health down on unique enemies. Having multiple enemies dash-attacking you simultaneously is a recipe for a quick death. Try and use your pistol against big crowds of enemies to try and get some extra damage done before entering into close quarters combat. If there is an explosive barrel located near a group of baddies, make sure you’re taking advantage of that opportunity and blasting the hell out of it. The reward could have you making it through a deadly area unscathed.
Dying is COOL
One thing you will have to become comfortable with in Hyper Light Drifter is death. You will die millions of times, so it’s best to just get over it now. Though it can be annoying to have to start from your last auto save, dying does have its benefits. Instead of getting frustrated and thinking of death as a roadblock to success, think of it as a way of learning from your mistakes. Since you will be making a ton of them before you have mastered Hyper Light Drifter, learn from every death you have and try to find new strategies that will work when you’re faced with different enemy configurations, and enemy types. Understanding why you are getting killed by certain enemies is half the battle. Often times I have found that my play style might have been too aggressive when facing certain type of enemies that call for a more strategic approach.
If you take time to think about your attacks, use your dash and ranged weapon, explore, and use your environment to your advantage, you will have a much greater chance of surviving in Hyper Light Drifters harsh yet colorful world. If you get a chance i highly recommend picking up Hyper Light Drifter, which is on sale for 10% off on STEAM right now.
The indie games sector may be one that many critics claim encourages more experimentation, and more creativity, than mainstream titles. However, the weird thing about that free-range environment is that it is often the less ‘out-there’ titles that are the ones that go on to achieve the greatest level of take up.
The major developers may have the resources to test out and trial different versions of their latest offerings but that is a luxury that smaller developers simply don’t have. In the true spirit of the word, indie developers only have one chance to make it. For them, the prospect of franchised riches is a rare commercial jackpot. The goal is that crossover title that can leap to board games, themed casino slots games or any manner of merchandising spin-offs.
A creative paradox
As often as not, for all the ground breaking that some developers might be prepared to attempt, the reality of the indie sector is that it represents an environment that is actually quite limiting. In a nutshell, if you don’t have the budget to blow on a second version of your game, you’re going to do everything you can to make sure you have something that is actually viable the first time around. It’s a scenario that has prompted PBS Digital Studios to query if the term ‘indie’ actually means anything anymore.
Given that backdrop, it is perhaps that little bit easier to understand just why it is that simplicity is so often the key to success. Day-to-day life is complicated enough. When we get down to play, something straightforward and undemanding is what most of us crave more often than not.
An old story
Professional chess players aside, there is a long history of keeping it simple being a key recipe for success. You only have to recognize that gambling games have stood the test of thousands of years to see how a straightforward formula really is all that’s needed.
Today, that formula is being put to good use by dedicated casino sites. A look at those online portals will show you that what is available is the digital equivalent of the machines your granddaddy would have recognized back in the day. The shift to the digital arena was perhaps inevitable given slots’ ubiquitous popularity. What has made these providers successful is their refusal to do away with a simple formula that, for whatever reason, just keeps on ringing the tills. And it is a formula that can be tweaked any number of different ways. As 32Red explain of digital slots, “the choice available online is almost limitless”.
32Red offer themed slots on adventure themes, fantasy themes, and recognizable cinema characterizations, including Game of Thrones, Jurassic Park and Immortal Romance, along with a host of alternatives. Common to them all is the basic architecture of spinning wheels and different winning combinations. To underline the point of this diversity within a simple formula, foxycasino.com offers over 200 different games and pinkcasino.com has almost 300. That is a lot of variation on a theme.
The tip of the iceberg
Of course when it comes to more action-oriented games, the formulas are not so rigidly evident. Some games don’t necessarily all stick to anything like the same script. But if we just take the most obviously successful titles as somehow representative of anything other than themselves we’re not going to get very far. Judging icebergs by the big obvious bit that sticks out of the water went out of fashion a long time ago.
If we’re talking about the bulk of indie offerings, then the reliance on simple, straightforward and familiar motifs has to be the order of the day. Whatever else it has to offer, I Can’t Escape: Darkness – Darkness Puzzles You delivers pretty familiar horror shtick. Similarly, PotatoMan Seeks the Troof is little more than a tribute to the classics of the 1970s. In these cases and more, any added complexity runs the risk of simply getting in the way.
Seeking the Troof
Potatoman Seeks the Troof is a great example of how an old formula can be enlivened with just the right amount of fresh ideas. The faintly spiritual nature of PotatoMan’s quest – for all the constant threat of death-by-just-about-everything – gives the game a lightness of touch that, like all the best indie games, genuinely does offer something original and worthwhile whilst still making it thoroughly enjoyable.
It is in many ways comparable with those online slots providers who keep coming up with new characterisations and new motifs to decorate their spinning wheels but also stick to the formula of getting similar characters to line up on a set of spinning drums. The simple fact is that new and eye-catching elements only have to be skin deep to keep people coming back time and time again. To reference 32Red again, “maximum fun and reward” are the key ingredients. And that same principle applies just as much in indie games as it does anywhere else.
The popularity of online gaming is growing at an incredible rate, and to accommodate this growth there has been an explosion of new online gambling sites, online gambling blogs, and affiliate programs. Marketing research surveys claim that online gambling sites acquire players at the rate of every second.
Gambling sites have all the appealing qualities of a brick and mortar casino with many additional benefits, including the ability to gamble and win real money from the comforts of your own home… no longer are forced to drive hundreds of miles to place a bet on the roulette wheel, or to pull the handle of the slot machine to spin the reels.
The primary advantage of playing online is the convenience it offers… there is no need to travel for long distances to the nearest land-based casino, which not only saves time, but traveling expenses. Why spend the money to get there… when one will make house calls?
There are a great deal of serious gamblers who actually prefer to play online, primarily because you are able to focus on playing the games without distractions… to concentrate fully while playing.
There are many reputable online gaming sites that are licensed and regulated by trusted and competent gaming authorities throughout the world, to ensure the security of your transactions and other personal data. Just like any other business … credibility is the key.
There are many different regions from which the online gaming sites are based, with the most dominant ones being based in the UK, Canada, Australia, Malta, Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America.
With so many people these days busy on their gadgets, laptops, tablets, and smartphones, software providers like Microgaming, Playtech, RTG, Rival, BetSoft, and NetEnt… (to name just a few)… are busy building online gaming platforms optimized for mobile and online gaming sites, to accommodate them.
Online gaming sites are expanding the games they offer to attract more Australian gaming enthusiasts… If you are a player from Australia, whether you pick an Australia based online gaming site, or whether you pick an international online site that accepts Australian players, it is always a good idea to start with an accredited site.
Playing at a legally authorized site means there is one less thing for you to worry about while playing online. These gaming sites are well-known in the industry for providing lawful gaming services, safe and secure transactions for worry-free deposits and withdrawals.
When thinking about playing at an international gaming site, Australian players should always check to see if the casino accepts players from their region or jurisdiction, as well as if there are multi-currency options for AUD, as this offers easy deposit s and withdrawals without the need for currency conversion.
Choosing an online site backed by a reputable software brand is another important factor, and the leading industry software providers offer impressive game collections, with newly released games launched on a monthly basis.
Online gaming sites with certification from online gaming authorities including eCogra, TST Certification, GLI Certification, Certified Fair Gambling, Kahnawake, BMM Testlabs, and iTech Labs, are widely known for fair and safe online casino games.
Since 2001, online casino Australia sites are governed by the Interactive Gambling Act (IGA) passed by the Australian commonwealth parliament to eradicate ‘problem gamblers’ to safe guard the wellbeing of Australian citizens.
According to the IGA, gambling sites in Australian domain cannot legally offer a ‘Real Money’ gambling option to Australian players / citizens. Gaming sites that notify you beforehand about the IGA or during the registration process when you enter your address, are considered legal.
One reputable online casino available to Australian players is Casino.com, which was established in 2008, and offers premium content provided by the well-known and reputable casino software giant, Playtech.
Offering more than 400 premium games, with more than 200 online pokies, the casino is available in a downloadable version, an instant play version (no download required), and a mobile play version compatible with Apple iOS, Android, and Windows Smartphones.
Another impressive online casino available to Australian players is MansionCasino.com, established in 2004. This online gaming site is licensed and regulated to offer online gaming services under the jurisdiction of Gibraltar.
There are 400+ Playtech games available in download, instant play, or mobile play, offering variety and convenience to suit the needs of all types of Australian players.
