Preplay : Galactic Civilizations I : Ultimate edition

Two months ago, steamgifts user UselessB gifted me Galactic Civilizations I : Ultimate Edition. (GCIUE) As a way of thanking him I gave the game a high spot on my backlog. GCIUE was released in 2012 and includes Galactic Civilizations I (2003) and the Altarian Prophecy expansion pack (2004). The 2003 release of Galactic Civilizations was in its turn a Windows port of the in 1994 released Galactic Civilizations by Stardock. So despite its 2012 release, the game I'm about to play is actually quite old. This tells me several things. For starters I'll probably need some time adjusting to old game play and graphics as is often the case with older games. But more importantly it tells me that this is a game that must have a...

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Postplay : Dear Esther

Dear Esther, it took me a few moments to realize where I was after I had opened my eyes. I could hear the waves breaking on the rocks behind me while I watched the lighthouse and a cold onshore breeze played with my clothes. The loud call of a gull made me turn my head and in the distance I saw a blinking red light that grabbed my attention. It was somehow calling me, so I put my left foot in front of my right and started my hike towards its bright, flickering promise. The chinese room's Dear Esther is a hard thing to talk about for multiple reasons. First of it's difficult to say anything meaningful about the game or show screenshots without getting into spoiler territory. The value of Dear Esther relies solely on atmosphere and story,...

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Preplay : Dear Esther

When reviews for Dear Esther started hitting the internet back in February 2012 the game immediately grabbed my attention. They described something new, something different and I'm always on the lookout for these kinds of innovative experiments.  After doing some research it turned out that experiment was the right word to describe Dear Esther. It was originally developed and released by Dan Pinchbeck as a Half Life 2 mod in 2008. Dan is a researcher at the University of Portsmouth. The mod was created to explore experimental game play and storytelling and was funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council. When it was clear that the mod was becoming a success, a team of game industry professionals was added to the project...

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Postplay : Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD

In 2012 developer Robomodo released Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD (THPS HD), a game that set out to celebrate the heydays of the Tony Hawk series. If you've read my preplay for this game then you'll know that I have warm memories of those early THPS games. This made me a bit anxious to start playing THPS HD. You'll find out if my fears were grounded when you read on, but one thing is for sure, my love for the source material made this game one of the hardest for me to review so far. This has resulted in a longer post than usual, please keep in mind that everything is written from the viewpoint of an avid THPS 1, 2, 3, 4 & Underground 1 fan. Career and single run are the only two modes available when you first...

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Preplay : Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD

The year is 2000. Blink 182, the Bomfunk MC's and the Bloodhound Gang fill the radiowaves while Johnny Knoxville and his friends set the youth up to no good with their hit show Jackass. I just turned thirteen and I'm sitting in the passenger seat of my dad's car taking in every word of advertisement that's written on the big cardboard box that contains my newest game. After months and months of playing only one level of that game, the day has finally come that I have saved up enough money to buy the full version. I still remember where I bought it. I still remember where we parked. I still remember it being a nice and sunny day and I still remember how I felt while sitting there in that car. This was the day that I bought Tony Hawk's...

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Postplay : Bad Rats: the Rats' Revenge

As we all know some animals don't get along. Mice and elephants, cats and dogs and Rihanna and Chris Brown are just some examples. Another one is rats and cats. While humans might have a tendancy to favor the latter, making them the heroes of the internet and giving them all the cheeseburgers, it's understandable that rats' aren't so keen on our four legged overlords, given their tendency to kill and eat them. In Bad Rats: the Rat's Revenge (BRTRR) by invent4 we get a peak at the rats' side of the fight and learn that it mostly consists of sloppy attempts to kill their enemies one cat at a time. But let's not jump the gun here. Allow me to explain what BRTRR is. Bad rats is a physics game in which your goal is to hit a murdering device...

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Preplay : Bad rats: the Rats' Revenge

When I started Full Steam Ahead I let my friends know on Facebook. One of them, Styn, commented the following You are crazy and you're getting Bad Rats when it's on sale on Steam! He didn't wait that long though, a few days later I've got an email from Steam saying one of my friends had gifted me this invent4 game and I knew the only reason was to mess with me. Thanks Styn! While looking at screenshots for this game it's obvious that Bad rats: the Rats' Revenge (BRTRR) is a budget title. It was released in 2009 but the graphical quality looks at least 5 years older. When searching Youtube for some gameplay footage the first link I found was to a video called 'Why do I own... Bad Rats'. Things aren't looking good for BRTRR. What I can...

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