The Chilean designers from ACE Team are back with the new crazy game Rock of Ages. It’s a strategy and action game like none you have seen before.

You control a ball that will roll downhill until it crashes at the enemy’s castle front gates. Repeat if it is not damaged enough. Your adversary does the same. The first to break into the castle wins. You can put obstacles between your enemy’s ball and your castle, in a Tower Defense way. You should balance your time and money between preparing defenses and attacking.

It’s overall idea is really nice but actual gameplay is not that fun. Well, It is fun at the beginning. I believe that it is fun in a sandbox mode, which you might experiment a lot. But for a single single player campaign, it is very frustrating. In the defense mode, the match is too short to allow you to test different strategies (or you win, or you lose in 2 or 3 rounds), neither gives you hints of would be a good call. In the offense ball rolling mode, the strategy is simple: avoid obstacles that make your ball weaker and go as fast as you can in the final meters in order to hit the gates as harder as you can. The problem is: that’s it. Not much else to do.

Nor difficult, especially for a strategy/action game. I was able to finish the game without complex thinking. The basic defense units, presented in the very first stages will take care of most of your needs in the entire game. The extra unities, gained when you reach later levels, are just visuals, offering almost no useful functionality. In like manner, the collectible stars, which was supposed to be difficult to obtain and would give the right to pass some portals, are also a piece of cake. So, it is more a matter to go and take them.

Another polarizing aspect is the humour. I felt it is genuine and fun, but you have to give it a chance, because it is not obvious or for the masses. Each stage is thematic from historic figures like Pope, or ancient legends, like 300’s spartans. The jokes are silly and the application in the actual level is vague. Nonetheless, it reminds me the same weird fun style from Zeno Clash.

Bottom line: play this game if you want to explore an original and beautiful game. Does not expect deep strategy nor loads of LoL moments.

I participated at Ludum Dare (give the game, in Latin), edition 27. It is a competition to create a game in 48 hours (in Brazil, from 10pm Friday till 10pm Sunday). The theme was “10 seconds”, but I refused to create an action game. It would be the most common approach. Rather, I created a strategy game.

In fact, there are 2 competitions: COMPO and JAM modes. The Jam allows you to bring a team and use pre-build stuff.You have to choose what mode you are going to compete. I didn’t know that was one OR the other, so I created a game in 48h and enhanced it in the next day.

Take a look. There are also some pictures from my design process.

But if you want to play it, download it!

EDIT 2021: all links are unavailable or broken

I’ve heard about Bastion for quite some time. People love it as a very refined indie game. This review aims to confirm all you heard elsewhere: Bastion is a lovely game and I’m both happy and sad for finishing it.

Core mechanics are the main success factor presented. The fluid gameplay makes it accessible for almost everyone. He combat is satisfying and challenging. There are enough weapons to make you believe there is a variety, but not much to make you think there are just for filling in content. Each weapon requires a different play style

The graphics are great. It was given a lot of work to give Bastion a singular look. Its cartoonish characters and hand maid painted scenarios are richly detailed. You will believe in the universe.

The enemies are also nice looking as well animated. They have different tactics and you have to fight them with a strategy, especially in the later levels and the arena.

But the most notable and unique feature of this game is the narrator. The whole story is from the point of view of an old man that follow the trajectory of the Kid to restore the Bastion to its former glory. The uniqueness is: he speaks the whole time! In the middle of the action, the narrator comes with fun comments. Sometimes it might get a bit annoying, but I personally felt as an amazing immersing technique.

You must try it. It is available on every platform, including browsers, so there is no excuse.

It has been almost 2 years since I bought, at the release date, The Witcher 2. I played it furiously for a whole week. Maybe 40 hours. But one day I went to a 4 day travel and I totally lost the momentum.

I must confess that the review I wrote by 2011 I had not yet finished the game, but very much close to the ending.

Lately, news about the third installment emerge every day. I was caught by a nostalgia and shame. I recommended the game to all people that I talked to. I love the series. I found an inner strength to re-enter it’s universe. Loading a more-than-a-year-ago saved game, I was able to finally finish the game. I originally bought from gog.com, the CD Projekt distributing company. I don’t even remember why I got it again from Valve’s Steam, but there it was.

Now I revisit my original review with new insights.

How superb are the visuals!  A totally unknown polish company manage to create a top 5 best looking game of all history, imo. The lights and color palette are amazing. The details presented in their 3D models are also incredible. Geralt of Rivia is very richly designed, with nice clothing. The same for the other characters and the scenes. Castles, dungeons, forests. Everything seems to be designed with care.

The story is for adults: strong on politics, sexual interests, loads of anti hero characters. It makes the game stand out among others, but it is not for everyone. However, the story is also very confusing. My perception it happens because the game is based in an established book universe. The authors know the geography and history, but the players do not. When they vomit geography details as part of the main plot, I felt like listening mandarin.

Once thing I disliked quite much in the game’s design: auto saving just before cut scenes. Generally, after important cut scenes, there is a battle. But if you lose, guess what: you have to see again the cut scene! Holly cow! How many times, especially at the end, I died but I had to see the whole dialogue all over again. Also worth noticing that, but the ending of the game, the among of dialogues sky rocketed. Based on your choices on the dialogues, you will face one of the 16 endings. Almost all of them decided by the very last hour or two.

Re reading this, I feel like I hated the game, judging by the amount of complaining. Do not think this. It is like complaining about your son or girlfriend: it is because you liked them very much that you point the weak points. This Polish company gained my heart. I loved their work. I liked the first one very much. But this one shows how much effort were put into the game. 2 years later, it still seems as fresh as a new release. I feel sorry that I wont play it again for a second ending, but the third game is coming… I cannot wait!

Buying impulse can be a disease. There are several ill people that cannot control their own reasoning and buy everything they see. Until they got empty pockets.

The gaming industry is now living a transformation (well, it already operates in large scale in this nee model), the distribution channels can be now totally digital. So if you see an ad, in matter of minutes you can buy and start the download. And if your internet connection is fast enough, the time difference between wanting and buying can be really short. Virtually immediate.

I’m not saying that impulses is wrong. And sometimes we have special items and tastes. We love stuff and when there are more to buy, we get excited.

I consider myself an economic guy. Hardly I go with impulses when we are talking about spending my own money. But other day I came with the question: the games that I bought worth? I played? Liked them?

Inspired by the indie developer Cliff, from Positech, I did some math in order to find what games was a bang of the buck.

The math is funding out how much time I played the game and divide by the price I payed. Thanks to Steam, I can see how much time I was with a game opened in my screen. Also, I can check my credit card to see how much. So all data I need is available.

There is one consideration: I’ve played several pirated games in my life and bought then recently for the sake of peace of mind. I did not count them also because I could not measure the amount of time I spent on them. Surely Mass Effect, Deus Ex 1, Morrowind and Oblivion, SimCity would be high on the list otherwise.

Considering that I can wait a bit for a game, I get many of them in a year of two after the release. These games tend to present a better ROI (Return of Investment). Buying at the release date is generally a bad decision, so unless is a long and good game, it will present a worse ratio.

The absolute king is… Team Fortress 2! Of course, it was free. But it is the game played most in recent years. More than 99 hours.

Then it comes smaller games that I bought very cheaply: Zeno Clash, Amnesia and GRID. All of them I played a lot, so the metrics favour them.

Then It comes some best-sellers that I played a big price, but I got me into them for a very long time: LA Noire I played 26 hours (and yet not finished), Witcher 2, Batman Arckham City and Skyrim, (other that I bought in the same day they launched the game and I still -shame- did not finish it).

Some of them I’m still playing, so there are some that would go even further up in the list. I can see Mark of the Ninja going this way… but I will write about it later…