E3 has ended for another year, but luckily many awesome indie games were shown, none of them as unique as Afterparty for Switch and PC.
Created by the developers of Oxenfree and Mr. Robot:1.51exfiltrati0n, Afterparty gives you a reason to drink your problems away. You take control of Milo and Lola who are best friends who attend the last party of their college lives. They suddenly die and find themselves in hell. There is one way back to the land of the living and that is to outdrink Satan himself.
This adventure takes Milo and Lola into different bars as they attempt to figure out how they got there in the first place.
Afterparty’s E3 Gameplay Trailer
Drinking is the game and each drink has a different effect on Milo and Lola’s characters. These options change the dialogue and relationships throughout. If this is anything like Oxenfree, these choices will also determine the game’s ending.
Play beer pong, have a dance-off, sing karaoke or have a chugging competition with the demons of hell. How you spend your time in the underworld is entirely up to you. It’s looking rather great.
Afterparty will release for Switch and PC in 2019.
A grizzly survival horror packed with an MMO punch hits Early Access on Steam next month in the latest from indie developers Creaky Corpse: Dead Frontier 2.
Dead Frontier 2
Slay tons of gruesome abominations and survive in an online world where pairing up with friends may be your only hope of staying alive. Check out the battered and exceedingly bloody trailer for Dead Frontier 2 below:
Along with the announcement of the August Early Access period are tons of gameplay revealing features covering the infected-slaughtering cooperative game, such as:
Players will need to make every shot count and scavenge for every viable resource in this massive online survival shooter pitting the player against waves of zombie-infected horrors in a dark and twisted atmospheric environment.
Player driven economy has players trading with one another for survival supplies, rare equipment and weapons, or perhaps teaming up with each other to fight off the hordes of undead.
PvP action and punishing cooperative global events are coming soon to Dead Frontier 2, featuring both unreal boss battles and outpost defending carnage – or take on the hordes alone. The team also plans to bring in the option to barricade safe houses to keep what you don’t want in out.
Take advantage of a true free-to-play game with the option to upgrade your uniquely customized character with rewarded skills and abilities, or make them stand out with purchasable cosmetic wardrobes and other items.
Dead Frontier 2 will have players slaying and slaughtering hordes of deadly infected together come August 31st, 2018 via Steam Early Access.
“I am Jack Boyles. I am losing my humanity. I am turning Hollow.
“We should exercise more prudence when it comes to the modern age of Video Games. We hath forgiven too long and our acceptance is too high. Acceptance of defective, and deficient and fragmentary games; allowing these attributes to slowly become normality. Souls are spent, only to await patiently for the game to be patched, stitched and sewed together.
“The seal of quality has all but faded from time. The seal of quality was guaranteed, a mark of honour, but with the rise of AAA games force releasing and online services with a lack of quality control; the seal has broken. Many hath scoured for the seal, for all whom hath foraged hath lost humanity.
“Won’t thee aide me in my quest?
“Cooperation may assist me to hold on to my humanity, assist me holding on to my cause…
The Seal of Quality
“Masses hath been delivered into this world only knowing of this tactic. As for I, I hath seen better times, a time during which the seal existed. In that period, developers could not manipulate their games with Hexic rituals like today.
“Games had to be made to withstand the test of time, to be made with calibre; as once fashioned, could not be altered. Delays were accepted, unlike the delays that inhabit this age, today delays can turn people Hollow. We can’t wait for anything.
“The games from the bygone age can still be played today and will remain the status as they did back when they were first crafted. As for modern games, once the server is closed the game cannot receive the Hexic spells to alter it – leaving a patchless pile of shame.
“An abundance of AAA publishers and developers make haste to deliver their games, acquiring the souls of many. Many AAA games materialize as buggy, shattered and unplayable until the first patch is liberated, yet that may last several moon circles. What are thou thinking? Is thou thinking those companies fabricate gigantic games, so it’s too be expected, and I concur, but with the emancipation of Breath of the Wild and God of War, tis now inexcusable to witness faceless characters and NPC’s swimming on fresh air.
Reminds me of my first kiss…
“Tis not just the AAA publishers and developers either. The absences of quality control of the independent scene must be held accountable too, with Steam and console eShop releases unimaginable. Such abominations like Fidget Spinner Simulation, Art of Stealth and Life of Black Tiger diminishing the worth only for the acquisition of souls.
“With video game development software readily available and in most cases free. This has given us more games than ever and with smaller team’s producing unique titles. This has also created many people releasing asset flip games. There is no quarrel in an indie developer using asset packs as a tool, but many have taken advantage off this and been making games from nothing but asset packs; no original content, no original ideas, just cut and paste.
Based on a True Story…
“When the youth of this age re-buy the equipment of their childhood to soak in nostalgia; they will not get that same experience from their childhood, what they will get are faceless characters and NPCs swimming on fresh air. Their childhood will be debauched and distorted.
“Will you aide me in finding the Seal, will you aide me to salvation?”
Do you guys remember the classic SNES fantasy sports game Mutant Football League? Well, a remake of MFL was successfully funded through Kickstarter, and the remake launched late last year.
MFL was released on PC, PS4 and Xbox One to a surprising amount of success for a budget title. And, with these new found funds and fanbase, developer Digital Dreams is looking to capitalize on MFL’s success by making their game even better. Let’s get you guys caught up:
Earlier this week Digital Dreams announced a revamped version of last year’s Mutant Football League. This new version will be called Mutant Football League: Dynasty Edition.
This new version of MFL brings a new mode, six new teams, new stadiums and is releasing on a new console.
The main draw of Dynasty Edition is the new game mode simply called Dynasty Mode. This is where you become the General Manager of your favourite MFL team, and try to build them up to potentially take the MFL championship.
Although these new features are a cool addition to an already well-established sports title. The biggest surprise from this announcement is that Mutant Football League: Dynasty Edition will be coming to the Switch. Yes… that’s right, the Nintendo Switch is finally getting a football game!
Mutant Football League: Dynasty edition launches on September 18th, and will retail for $29.99
Will you guys be picking up this new version of MFL? Or do you think it is an unnecessary release? Let us know in the comments below!
The original Night Trap released in 1992 for the Sega CD. At the time I was only 5 years old, and as I grew older, the game always seemed to elude me. Part of the reason was that I never owned a Sega CD, Panasonic 3D0 or Sega 32X until just last year.
The other reason is my stubbornness to never buy a disc-based game unless it’s complete. Needless to say, I have always wanted to play it and I never had a real shot at it.
Night Trap is an interactive experience which uses full-motion video. You are a special agent that is tasked with surveillance duty as you watch a group of co-eds in a house. The girls are in danger from a bunch of weird vampire creatures. The actual game is very basic and repetitive as most full motion games were. You switch between camera angles and activate traps to capture the vampire creatures. Each trap you set triggers a different video scenario. As I type this article, the game doesn’t sound very exciting at all but, you have to understand this game’s history.
In 1993, Night Trap was the centre of attention at US Congress hearings. Along with Mortal Kombat, Night Trap had parents on edge about violence and sexual content in video games. It wasn’t every day that kids saw inadequately clothed women being kidnapped on their game consoles. Looking at the games we have today though, Night Trap is like a serving of soft serve ice cream. My how the times have changed. Nonetheless, it’s one of the things that lead to the ESRB or Entertainment Software Rating Board that is so prominent today.
This all took place during an infamous time in gaming history where Nintendo and Sega were in the heat of a console war. Sega was on fire and Nintendo was doing their best to keep things clean. It was during the 1993 hearings that then chairman of Nintendo Howard Lincoln stated that “Night Trap would never appear on a Nintendo console”. Fast forward to 2018, and Night Trap is announced for release on the Nintendo Switch.
This will be the second re-release of the game as Limited Run Games released 5,000 copies for the PlayStation 4 last year. I picked up a collector edition and Limited Run was nice enough to also send me a digital code.
Finally, I got my chance to see what the fuss was all about. It took me all of about 20 minutes to realize that Night Trap is not a good game. I do appreciate the cheesy 80s style video and costumes. I am a sucker for classic VHS style charm. I also appreciate developer Screaming Villains for reworking the game from the ground up. While the experience isn’t great, Night Trap will always have a special place in my heart.
All in all, Night Trap is a cult classic that sparked a real debate about content in video games. It will always be a nice part of video game history. Night Trap is set to go up for pre-order at Limited Run Games today. Unlike the PS4 release, there won’t be a release limit.
Ubisoft co-founder Yves Guillemot recently said in an interview, “I think we will see another [console] generation, but there is a good chance that step-by-step we will see less and less hardware.”
More recently at E3, EA introduced Origin Access Premier, a Netflix-for-games streaming service which gives players access to more than a handful of games for a flat, monthly rate. Even Xbox has already started to play with Game Pass and by the end of the decade, I’m sure more publishers will announce their own services, as well.
What Netflix did to movie theatres and DVD players and what Spotify did to CD players and radio, streaming game services will inevitably do to the PlayStation and Xbox consoles (at this point Nintendo plays by its own rules so let’s move them aside for now).
There’s a very possible future where a smart TV and a game controller will be all anyone needs to load up Square Enix’s probably-coming streaming service and dive straight into Octopath Traveler. But what does this mean for indie games?
Octopath Traveler
In order for this to be successful publishers will need to beef up their library in order to compete with each other and they may find (as Netflix has found with their premium content) AAA games to be too complex to pump out quickly enough.
Indie games could be the solution. Steam already offers an experience in which indie games populate most of their storefront, peppered in with extremely popular AAA titles. It would be easy to see EA mirror this infrastructure and bulk up their EA Originals line to try to curate a better offer for their Origin Access Premier service. This creates tremendous potential in the growth of the indie market.
However, in this console-less transition, indie games might begin to suffer an image problem too. It’s not unreasonable to think indie games will be held to a higher, possibly unfair standard. By removing price tags and putting all games on a level playing field, games like Tunic will be given the same scrutiny from players as Halo Infinite.
Tunic
When players are paying the same base price for an indie game as they are for an AAA game, will they be okay with the obvious size and graphical disparity? Will gamers be upset if indie games make up the bulk of any prospective streaming? Gamers who already play a wide breadth of games may instantly think this won’t be a problem, but for the gamer who only plays Call of Duty annually, will they be upset that they’re paying for a service that keeps offering them indie games?
Celeste
On the flip side, this could be an opportunity for that Call of Duty player to try their hand at smaller stories. There’s no extra work required to boot up Celeste when none of your friends are online and play a few levels in-between shooting matches.
Indie games could see a boom in their audience as they are paired next to games that they would otherwise not be associated. There can be tremendous potential to appeal to audience that wouldn’t otherwise choose to buy the game, but plays it now because they’re handed the experience for free.
The outlook may be bleak for consoles, but the future is uncertain for indie games. There could be tremendous potential to take advantage of future streaming services as long as they hold fast to their quality and create fun experiences.
The dark and grim platforming adventure, Dream Alone, is brought to life by indie teams Fat Dog Games and Warsaw Games – it’s officially released on digital stores on PC via Steam and the eShop on the Switch.
This terrifying journey has players plunging into a dark and twisted world in search of a cure that will save their village from a deadly plague. Twist around each level to conquer the bizarre settings inspired by silent black and white horror films.
To celebrate the release of the horror platformer is a fittingly gritty launch trailer showing off the dark atmosphere:
Check out some of the key features that make Dream Alone a one-of-a-kind experience:
Creatively manipulate each level to help guide your character safely through the dangers that lurk in areas like haunted forests, eerie ghost towns and mysterious caves. Use special abilities like distracting enemies with mirrored clones, switch between realities or slow down time.
The grim grey scaled aura adds to the mysterious and bizarre tone that mimics the peculiar setting heavily inspired by the German expressionist silent film era.
Award-winning composer, Paweł ‘Fleczer’ Flanc, provides a jarring musical score to help create a tense atmosphere that will have players engulfed in a dark and twisted journey through a surreal world.
As a young boy from a small village overrun by an ill-fated plague, players must search for the mythical Lady Death in hopes of discovering a cure to save your people.
“Dream Alone is a fairy tale for players to take part in, with mysteries to uncover in the grand tradition of folklore.” – Fat Dog Games CEO, Darek Skrzypkowski
Dream Alone is out now for the Switch and PC but is also heading over to the PS4 and Xbox One by the end of 2018.
Pedro is a talking banana that encourages you to destroy everything in your path. You take control of an unknown masked man. With Pedro at your side and sometimes in your head, you blaze through levels while skillfully flipping, jumping, and floating through the air. This is what I call shooting in style.
My Friend Pedro was first seen on Adult Swim Games as a free to play flash title on PC. It’s amazing to see how far the game has come since then.
Check out the gameplay trailer below and get ready for some slow-motion gun-wielding action when My Friend Pedro releases for Nintendo Switch and PC in 2019.
From 50 Shades of Gray all the way back to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales to the biblical story of Samson and Delilah, humans have always been intrigued with sex, attraction, and the social boundaries around the delights of the flesh.
Lust For Darkness Review PC
Lust for Darkness, developed by Movie Games Lunarium, attempts to combine erotic fiction with themes reminiscent of H. P. Lovecraft. Unfortunately, Lust for Darkness takes hold of some of the more sordid tropes of the erotic fiction genre, without taking advantage of the Lovecraftian themes, or even the gaming medium itself. Thus, leaving the experience feeling flat.
Your wife is kidnapped by a sex cult bent on opening a portal to a world of eternal pleasure named, wait for it, Lusst’ghaa. To be fair, the game explains the word “Lust” comes from the experiences of that world, not the other way around. But, this alone speaks volumes about the quality of the in-game storytelling, which, unfortunately, never fares any better than your typical discounted bodice ripper.
Without giving much away, you end up with a woman is kidnapped, the woman is then raped, and she then develops what appears to be an extraordinary example of Stockholm’s Syndrome. I am not one to feign offence, so I realize this is a standard trope in erotic fiction, but the story never really progresses above this, nor is there really much story to speak of in general.
There are sections of background info you can find throughout the game that give more details on the cult itself, which were actually quite interesting. These extra bits of story told through text were never quite enough to make up for the lack of story in a playthrough, but it did demonstrate to me that the developer put far more thought into the tale than the player ever gets to experience directly. I hope if the developer chooses to move forward with another title, they can add in more of this type of storytelling as a part of the game experience rather than in the form of side collectables.
Gameplay was similarly thin. Most of your time is spent simply wandering about, which would have been fine had there been a more detailed experience or plot. But, as it is, you find yourself only in a handful of run-ins with the baddies of Lusst’ghaa. These are very short run sequences reminiscent of Amnesia. However, these are so few and fleeting, the game rarely engenders a true sense of dread or terror. I was able to make it through each one without much trouble. Similarly, the puzzles are also few and far between, and so simple that can be solved in a matter of minutes.
To the developer’s credit, however, the game looks gorgeous and it is clear much time and thought were invested in everything from the numerous nick-knacks and items of decoration scattered across the extravagant mansion, to the purple-hued caverns of Lusst’ghaa, to the various masks you will see the cult members donning prior to their upcoming ceremony.
It is the clear attention to visual detail, along with some of the interesting background info you can discover along the journey, that makes me think Movie Games Lunarium has potential to develop an interesting title. But, Lust for Darkness is not that title. The game comes in at around three hours in length, but the short experience still feels hollow and offers little to nothing to encourage a second run-through unless you feel compelled to locate all the little snippets of extra story detail.
