The Sims 4 is currently the latest in the popular life simulation series brought to you by Maxis/EA. As someone that hasn't played since the original Sims, I was interested in seeing how the series has grown. There's a lot of improvements to the graphics and UI, including a full rotating view. Characters have also been given many more features, both in terms of appearance and personality.
Pretty much every aspect of the game has grown since its first incarnation, but not enough to make the game feel unrecognizable. The overall experience feels very much the same, and that's not a bad thing because The Sims was quite the charmer back in its day. You can hear more of my thoughts on the game at 4:12:48 in the video above.
Plants vs. Zombies is a classic tower defense game created by PopCap in 2009. You must defend your home against a legion of undead, with only your gardening skills to save you!
Mine for ore and discover hidden powers as a steampunk robot!
SteamWorld Dig is a Metroidvania style game with a focus on mining. You play as a robot that has inherited his uncle's mine out in the desert. The local townsfolk are happy to see the mine re-opened and gladly assist you via purchasable upgrades. They also happen to know a thing or two about your uncle, particularly that he's hidden a lot of specialized tech down in his mine.
Here's something that thoroughly pisses me off, and with streaming MMOs every other month I encounter it all too often.
This is a screenshot of the En Masse launcher, which is in the process of downloading a game (though it might as well be nearly any game launcher). As you can see, the download has stalled. Clicking 'Pause' and then 'Resume' will in fact resume the download... for a short time. I know because I've had to do this over 50 times just to get to 22% and I will have to continue this until it's finished, for a total of several hundred clicks.
A challenging game with a colorful cast and an equally diverse blend of genres.
Dead in Bermuda is what happens when you mix Darkest Dungeon, the Dead of Winter boardgame and the Lost television series all together. A plane crashes on a mysterious island and eight survivors must now find a way out of this mess.
Join a genius inventor and his automaton engineer on a journey to a legendary island!
Syberia II is a point-and-click puzzle adventure game originally released in 2004. It's currently available free on Origin, likely to help promote the long-awaited sequel (Syberia III) that's set to release this month.
This critically-acclaimed BioWare title is available free for a limited time on Origin!
Man, have we been spoiled these last few months. Between all the Uplay 30th anniversary freebies, Origin's offerings and some of the goodies available via Steam, about half the titles of this series (based on free games) have been blockbusters. This week is no exception, as Origin brings us Mass Effect 2 free for a limited time.
I'm a bit pressed for time and more than enough has already been written about this game, so I'll keep it brief. If you like BioWare titles (Jade Empire, Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age) this is perhaps one of the most polished of the bunch. It blends third-person action/shooting with RPG elements and gives you the ability to use cover and direct your squad members. As someone who was actually somewhat disappointed with KOTOR, I find this title a huge improvement both in pacing and playability. There's less character options than in KOTOR, but Mass Effect 2 feels more streamlined (and a lot less clunky) as a result.
Need For Speed Most Wanted is an open-world driving and racing game developed by Criterion Games and published by EA, and it's available free for a limited time on Origin.
Let me get this out of the way - I'm not a fan of driving games. I haven't played a game of this type since probably the PS2 era. Even then I casually tooled around on a couple of GTA titles while hanging out with friends, but we focused more on causing havoc in the city than actually driving. I have nothing against driving games, they just don't pique my interest. If you're wondering, I chose to play this title to add some diversity to the games featured on the series, because it's often a good idea to try something new or different once in a while.
That said, I can appreciate what this title has to offer for fans of the genre. There's a big city to explore with races, challenges, new cars and other unlockables waiting to be found. Beating the races and challenges earn you upgrades to improve your vehicles, and doing pretty much anything in the game eventually racks up points and achievements. This gives you a nice feeling of progression while you work toward the main goal of beating the elite drivers in town.
I was disappointed to see cars sitting out ready to claim, only to find out they're DLC-only and bring you to an advertisement screen. I'm not necessarily opposed to DLC, but the in-game ads are kind of lame. Being that I got the title for free, even the ads are somewhat excusable - though I can imagine how one might've felt when they purchased the game at retail price and stumbled across these.
Still, if you're looking to race across a city while evading the authorities and unlocking new stuff by exploration and completing challenges, Need For Speed Most Wanted will likely suit you.
Classic martial arts action available free for a limited time on Origin!
Jade Empire is one of those classic BioWare titles that has a special place in my heart. I remember originally playing it on the XBox many years ago while attending college. I never found the time to actually finish the title and eventually sold the game and console, so I'm really happy to have picked it up again.
This game is a special blend of action and roleplaying, with that familiar BioWare design of story-rich dialogue, character options and solid combat. On the PC, you can choose to play using either a controller or keyboard and mouse. I fumbled a lot using the controller during the episode, way more than I recall doing when playing it originally, so I think I'll go the KBM route when I decide to play this proper. Understand that the controller seemed fine, I'm pretty certain it was just operator error! I did find a few of the standard controls a bit unintuitive though - I kept wanting to use the right analog stick to look around, only to find camera rotation handled via L2 and R2.
My ineptitude aside, Jade Empire is an amazing game that you should go grab on Origin's "On The House" now while it's free!
On a much sadder note, this episode is dedicated to James "AngerPuppet" Boley, who passed away last week. He was one of the best friends a person could ever have - funny, clever, generous and inspiring. If it wasn't for James, this series (and probably most of what I've done in the last two years) wouldn't exist. I miss him every day, and likely will for a long time to come.
The popular Match 3 title Zuma's Revenge is currently available for free on Origin.
I don't really have much to say about this game. It's not a bad title, but perhaps I wasn't really in the right mood to enjoy it this episode. There's a number of new features and tricks added that make this more enjoyable than the original Zuma, such as the leaping ability and variety of shots. It's not my favorite Match 3 game though - I personally prefer Bejeweled or Ironcast.
I'm going to openly admit that I'm not much of a fan of EA Games for a number of reasons, but I'm also a sucker for free stuff.
EA recently announced their "On The House" promotion, where they will periodically offer full versions of games, free of charge and no strings attached through Origin.
The first game up for free is Dead Space, initially released in 2008. Yes, it's an older game but what do you expect? This at least gives people a chance to play something they may have passed up before at no cost.
If you're not interested in Dead Space, keep an eye out because other games will crop up from time to time. Note that each game is available free for a limited (and unannounced) time, but it's yours to keep if you take advantage of the promotion.
Obviously, the "On The House" program aims to bolster use of Origin in the hopes of getting players to purchase other titles. It works pretty well for Steam and others, so why shouldn't EA give it a try?
This means more competition for how games are distributed online, and competition means more options and deals for consumers. Viva la free games!
