Finally Torchligh Again

It took almost a year longer than planned for Torchlight II to be released. On hindsight, however, it definitely was worth it.

A lot of sites and magazines are comparing Diablo III to Torchlight II or the other way around. Not a question for me, as Battlenet-bound, always-online RPG Diablo III is not an option for me at all. I only wonder whether Torchlight II was worth the wait and will be worth my money. And the answer to both questions is definitely ‘yes.’

I got the first Torchlight a bit late, after it had been through press already, but found it worth every cent I paid for it. The simple formula of fighting-looting-levelling worked out nicely, the game had a nice look, and I liked the character classes and the way the random level design made the game easily re-playable. It was like an updated and improved Diablo, one of my favourite action-oriented RPGs. Well, in many ways it was, I guess, as quite some Diablo developers are part of Runic Games, the Torchlight makers. I loved the idea with the pet which not only fights at the player’s side, but also takes back the loot to the town to sell it alone. I loved the Steampunk-infused look of the game and the characters. I loved the colourful and bright comic graphics and the interesting-to-strange enemies.

When I heard there was going to be a second one (bigger, better, longer, as usual with computer games), I was very happy. Originally it was supposed to be out before Diablo III (which would have made it less of a ‘which is better’ discussion), but the team postponed release several times. They did it for good reason, though, as they wanted to make the game as good as possible before release. They did a lot of balancing between the last official release date (beginning of August) and the final one (20th September). And made the game even better, I’m sure.

I pre-purchased the game at Steam (before the next-to-final release date, actually) and downloaded it right after release to play. I knew about the changes already, of course. The three character classes of the first game (Destroyer, Vanquisher, Alchemist) had been replaced by four new ones (Embermage, Berserker, Engineer, Outlander). Two pets (dog, cat) have been turned into eight (panther, bulldog, cat, chakawary [a lizard-like creature], papillon, ferret, hawk, wolf). The pets and characters are customizable to a certain degree (face/hair/hair colour for character, fur colour for pets). Each character class has a male and a female model (in the first Torchlight only the long-range Vanquisher was female). Changes don’t stop there, of course. The game has three long acts, taking the player from the partially snow-covered tundra to the hot desert to the rain-dripping forests. The final levels are set below the world, in an old dwarf-fortress/factory that leads to the world’s core. Instead of spending all the time underground, only coming up for air when you return to the town for shopping or selling (or finishing a task), you spend a lot of time above ground now, the biggest levels of each area are above ground, with entrances that lead to tombs, caves, towers or other structures for additional fighting and looting. There are quite some sub-quests that are presented to you either in one of the towns (not all necessary are towns as a such, but they are the place where you can go to trade) or on the above-ground maps. Usually they are connected to some of the entrances, even though some also require running around on the above-ground areas to find places.

The core of Torchlight II still is the same that is driving all action-oriented RPGs of the kind: looting, fighting, levelling. There is a lot of loot and, due to the fact that almost all characters can use almost all weapon types, a lot of different equipment. It pays to check the inventory in regular intervals, choose stronger weapons and better armour and hand the remainder to your pet, so it can carry everything into town to sell it. In addition to just selling stuff, the pet can also buy the four basic necessities: healing potions, mana potions, identify scrolls, and waypoint scrolls (they replace the ‘scroll of the town portal’ and create a lasting waypoint that only gets moved when you use the next scroll).

Each of the four character classes has three distinct ability trees to choose from at level-up time. Like this, it is easy enough to customize your character further, optimizing the abilities for your playing style. Besides spending 5 points on the four basic characteristics, you get to spend one point on abilities with every level-up. Increases in fame (which you get by slaying bosses and champions) also give you an additional ability point to spend.

Bosses are everywhere in the game, not only do you have to defeat one at the end of each act (two in the last), every main- and sub-quest in the game has its own boss. They live in the caverns, crypts, and other places everywhere. Bosses are huge, but so are quite some of the normal enemies as well. As a matter of fact, I think over 75% of the enemies in the game are bigger than the player character, which makes you feel rather heroic after slaying them.

As weapon types range from swords and pole arms over bows and guns to staffs of various kinds, there is something for everyone. While the Engineer prefers great weapons (they are slow, but do a terrible lot of damage), the Outlander is partial to all ranged weapons (bows, crossbows, pistols, guns, cannons), the Berserker can do terrible damage with swords, pole arms, maces, and suchlike, and the Embermage not only unleashes deathly spells, but also fights with staffs that do more than just physical damage. For most of the stuff you find in your inventory there is no class restriction (only very few objects I encountered were limited to one class). Restrictions usually are along the lines of minimum level or minimum character stats. In other words: nobody stops your mage from carrying a cannon for all those times when mana is low and enemies are swarming. It’s always nice to have a weapon to fall back to, especially as you can have two weapon sets equipped at all times, so change between close-quarter and ranged fighting is only a pressed key away.

What do I think about Torchlight II, then? I love it, I already spent a whole weekend with it, and I will play it for quite a while, to test out all classes and have fun. Especially considering it’s a lot cheaper than Diablo III (if you want a comparison from me), it’s a must-buy game for every lover of action RPGs for me.

Casual Corner

Hello and welcome to another month and another casual corner. This month, we have three interesting games here to talk about: Northern Tale, Dark Parables: The Red Riding Hood Sisters, and Faster Than Light.

Northern Tale by Realore is another game like My Kingdom to the Princess. Far north, the three daughters of the king have been abducted and cursed by an evil witch and now their father and his men travel the lands of summer, autumn, and winter to find them. The game is both very beautiful and quite difficult. There is an overkill of objects to pick up at the beginning of every level and it’s far too easy in many levels to work in the wrong direction and find yourself in a dead end. Yet the game also is very nice to play and a lot of fun. The graphics, the few, but beautiful cut scenes, and the demanding gameplay make it a game definitely worth the money.

Dark Parables: The Red Riding Hood Sisters is the fourth game in the Dark Parables series by Blue Tea Games. Again, you are sent out as a detective to find out more about a strange occurrence. This time, a strange woman has appeared in a French forest, commanding a group of huge, black, red-eyed wolves. The Red Riding Hood Sisters, a group of huntresses founded by the original Red Riding Hood, are supposed to help you, but it turns out you will have to help them instead. As every Blue Tea Games production, the fourth Dark Parables is very beautiful and has a great gameplay. It’s a  FROG (Fragmented Object Game), meaning that instead of looking for a list of objects in the search scenes, you are looking for parts of an object. The story evolves slowly throughout the game, you unlock several short stories connected to the main story. The Collector’s Edition also includes a little prequel story that tells how the portal was opened and  the mist wolves were unleashed into the world. As FROGs are rare among the huge group of HOGs out everywhere, Dark Parables is always worth a shot, and the story of the game is very well told, too. A good game, even though most people might want to wait for the SE with it.

FTL: Faster Than Light by Subset Games is not a casual game in a strict sense. It is out at GOG and Steam by now and it is priced like a casual game (for non-members at the usual portals like BFG and GOG). It’s a space strategy game with a few nice twists. Instead of putting groups of ships against each other, you travel with one ship through the galaxy, trying to bring information from one end to the other. You will encounter only one enemy ship in a sector (not in each sector, but in most), but will have to use your weapons strategically to bring it down. In addition you have to route and reroute power inside the ship every now and then, balancing out shields, weapons, life support, controls, and drive. Battles bring you scrap (the currency) and droid parts (that you can use, once you have a droid control center). You upgrade the ship and the systems and you can unlock various types of ships over time. Yet the game is terribly hard, there is so much that can happen (from fires and breaches of the hull to invading aliens), and there are many, many ways to die. I have yet to make it to the end once with a ship, sector 5 (half time) was the furthest I have gotten so far. The game gives you a new, randomly created galaxy every time, so you can’t just learn which sectors to avoid, you have to make up a strategy for dealing with all the problems every time – which makes the game great and challenging. FTL is going to test your frustration tolerance, that much is for sure. But if you tolerance is high enough, it’s a great game to get and it will keep you occupied for a long time.

That’s it with the casual corner this month, see you all at the end of October!

Casual Corner

Welcome back to the latest instalment of the Casual Corner. This month, I have three TM games to talk about: “Be Richest!,” “Dream Builder: Amusement Park,” and “Shop-n-Spree: Shopping Paradise.”

I will start with the last one named, “Shop-n-Spree: Shopping Paradise” by Viqua Games is the last instalment of the “Shop-n-Spree” series. While the first two, however, were very nice HOG games where you had to find the customers’ orders in a huge chaos of objects, this one is far more of a TM game. You still have to manage and enlarge shopping malls, open new departments and spend time there to do some work directly for the customers. Instead of the pictures filled to the brim with objects, there is now a design to each department that is easy enough to keep in mind. You still have customers ordering objects from the screen, but you don’t have to search for the objects, not really. Instead, you have to keep an eye out for filling up the shelves, you need to assemble objects, add decorations, or gift-wrap them. This makes for some hectic gameplay, because for additional money, you should keep the combo-meter filling up (my best was something like a 44 combo so far). On the whole, however, “Shop-n-Spree: Shopping Paradise” is a very good game, fun to play, with nice, bright graphics.

“Be Richest!” by Divo Games is a third part as well. After “Be Rich” and “Be Richer,” you have a much higher goal in this one. Instead of building up a new company, you build a city. Well, you rebuild it, anyway. Story is that the last mayor ran away with all the money and the city fell into disrepair. The game is a solid builder with nice levels and quite a bit of humour. You will meet Professor Jones (senior) and help him with a lot of excavations (and build a museum in the end). You will have to deal with annoying Yetis. And there are a lot of people who want something from you – usually a better place to live or shop or work. The game allows you to finish levels in your own time. There is a gold and silver time, but if you need longer, you need longer. You don’t lose a level, just because you need longer. On the whole, “Be Richest!” is a lot of fun to play and a very good, solid builder. The graphics are very nice and the gameplay is well balanced.

Finally “Dream Builders: Amusement Park” by FUGAZO, a ‘light’ version of games like “Theme Park” or “Rollercoaster Tycoon.” You build your park, add and research attractions and rides, earn money, and fulfil tasks. It’s easy to make money with your park in the game, so I shy away from calling it a business sim. On the other hand, it’s sometimes difficult to fulfil a task. Every task you choose (there’s various of them after the first few) earns you an award and with enough awards, you can open up a new amusement park somewhere else (4 locations are offered by the game). You have to provide rides, advertise your park, offer attractions, restaurants, toilets, and decorations. Grouping certain objects (not only rides and attractions, but also restaurants) will give you special zones that earn you more money (for objects fitting with them) and are required for some tasks. On the whole, the bright game is fun and not too hard to play – it’s a long one, too. It’s a nice builder game of a different kind that reminds me of “All My Gods,” but without the pesky gods trying to ruin everything. And without divine powers.

August was a good month for TM games. What will September be like? We shall see…

Back to an annoying topic

Yes, I know there is a lot of annoying topics for me, but this time it’s the Star Wars Prequels. I was reminded of how much damage they actually did to my childhood memories (sort of), when I saw these awesome ‘Star Wars Characters as people from the 1980s’ pictures. There might be coming something from that, but that’s not the topic here.

Looking over the pictures and identifying the characters (I love Luke’s Marty McFly look and Han’s ‘I shot first’ shirt), I was reminded of how I met the Star Wars cast first – on paper. And how I met them visually for the first time when the commercial stations in Germany started to run the original trilogy and I got to see them (as I was born in 1974, so I never saw any of the movies when they originally hit the theatres).

I was rather happy when they arrived at the movie theatres again, because it was my first chance to see them on the big screen. I even saw them all twice – once separately as they were released, once during a rather chaotic night all in one go. I wasn’t completely happy with all the additional scenes cut into them, but compared to the fact that Annoying Annie from the Prequels is now at the end of Return of the Jedi (which is illogical, as Obi-Wan still looks like the old Obi-Wan and Yoda probably is the old Yoda, too), the first release was pure bliss.

I see the point in not making sequels to the original trilogy, as it’s highly unlikely Mark Hamill or Carrie Fisher would reprise their roles (and Harrison Ford has a lot of other stuff to do). I could accept prequels that keep up with the pure basics of the original trilogy, though. There are a few details you will find in the novels to the movies that are actually negated within the new trilogy (in the novels, Obi-Wan says Owen actually is his brother, not the brother of Luke’s father; Leia claims she can remember her mother, but not much of her, which goes against their mother dying at their birth, especially as Luke is born first in the last Prequel). George Lucas also has gone all out to keep all novels in the same time line, but suddenly changes stuff in the past himself.

When the first Prequel, The Phantom Menace, came out, I was fully prepared to like the new Star Wars movies. Ok, so no Luke, Leia, or Han. New main characters, new heroes, a lot of new villains. That’s cool, really.

The Pod Race should have tipped me off, though. While all Star Wars movies to date had at least one big battle, the Pod Race was different. It was an omen for things to come. Ten minutes of rather pointless action shots. Rather pointless, because it’s obvious who will win the race. Rather pointless, because we will see how good a flyer Anakin is at a young age later one, during the space battle. Anakin’s major challenger during the race will never turn up again in the movies, so WTF, really. The whole Pod Race is ten minutes of my life that didn’t have any use for the story. It is unnecessary to establish the fact that Anakin is a pilot prodigy. It does not introduce any major opponent. It is not really necessary to drive the story, either. Seriously, the whole slavery turn is so unnecessary all by itself. We are talking about two men working for an intergalactic government and the ruler of a planet who need to buy something. Three people that should have some emergency account or something, just in case. I know the Old Republic was not well off towards the end (which is at least ten more years in the future at that point, anyway), but a few ten thousand credits for emergency use? And by the looks of it, Naboo does have quite a bit of cash to spend, why not have an emergency account in case someone from the government has to go off planet under disguise? Every normal government has something like that.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t end there. I, personally, found JarJar amusing, so I am not going to crucify him (others have done so already, no real point in me doing it, too). Cool new villain? Check. Survives the first of what will be three movies? Nope. Help me along here, please. Darth Vader, as we all know, needs a mechanic rather than a medic, right? There’s one dark Jedi in the first Jedi Knight game who only has half a body (upper half, of course). Yet the Emperor never tried to salvage the remains of Darth Maul? That guy makes a great opponent. He is such an opposite to Vader, really. Non-human, non-mechanical, savage, lithe. He would have been great to keep around until he fights a duel to the death with Anakin-turned-Vader. Yet the poor guy gets the boot in the first movie.

And Anakin himself? Not really a guy you would like, either. He grows from the annoying kid in the first movie (yes, he’s had a hard life, but does he have to be such a snotty know-it-all because of those midi-thingies in his blood?) into an adult that can put every Emo out there to shame. We know he will end up behind the black mask. We don’t need a reason to hate the guy before he puts it on. What do we get? Mr. ‘I’m so unsure about me and my life, because my mother died before I could save her, so now I will almost kill my highly pregnant wife I’ve been angst-ing over and try to kill my only friend/mentor in the world’ should have ended up in the black suit at the end of the first scene of the first movie of the Prequels. It would have made them much better. Seriously, the guy tries to strangle his wife to death (and is only stopped by his friend) and later on is shocked that she, and, as he’s falsely informed, the children, have died?

There are a lot of reasons for Anakin to switch sides (and, indeed, that stupid ‘Jedi are not allowed to get married’ rule makes an excellent reason). Playing it all on the ‘angst’ card is using the most stupid reason out there. The whole slavery issue is unnecessary by itself. Okay, Anakin has had a hard life and for some reason (and growing up in the Outer Rim isn’t reason enough?) he wasn’t found as a baby and thus has not attended Jedi school properly. What is so wrong with making him and his mother poor farm hands, for instance? The first Star Wars movie ever made has already established people have chosen a desert planet (talk about logic) for farming. It would make his mother marrying a farmer later on much more logical.

You want better reasons for Anakin to defect from the Jedi order? Have a few:

• Anakin did not start training at the proper age, make him grow to hate the others, because they treat him as inferior. Good one to explain him leading the forces to destroy the order’s headquarter later on.
• The Clone Wars are starting, throw him into dangerous situations and have him use ‘just a little bit’ of the Dark Side (which, supposedly, is easier to take power from) to get out alive. This will make him distance himself from his friend Obi-Wan, who will warn him of the lure of the Dark Side.
• Use the whole ‘Jedi do not marry’ thing and have him defect after he decides that marrying Padmé is more important than the order. I’m sure he’s not the first one to see things that way.

Don’t put it all down to the ‘fear of loved ones dying’. Don’t make the natives of his home world (as it’s pretty obvious the Jawa and Sandpeople are natives and the humans are colonists) look like terrible beasts that need to be slaughtered.

• If you have to use the ‘fear of loved ones dying,’ let his mother die of a disease that wasn’t treated, because the Republic does not provide any kind of health care to the colonies of the Outer Rim. A disease she would have easily survived, had she lived somewhere closer to the centre of the galaxy. Let him hate the Republic for it, let him join the Emperor to overthrow it.

I’m sure I could find at least a dozen reasons for a young man with a hard childhood to join the Dark Side that do not require him to be a whiny Emo to start with. A guy like George Lucas should be able to find at least as many. And how can a self-assured, snotty know-it-all kid turn into such a whiny adult? Is it all the Jedi training or what?

Then there’s the midi-thingies (I’m too bored with them to look up the proper name). Seriously, what is that all about? People can do awesome stuff, just because they have some sort of bacteria or something in their blood? Logically speaking, that would mean you can create an army of Jedi (forget those measly, non-Jedi clones), just by injecting those midi-thingies into perfectly normal people. The Force for everyone! What happened to the mystical force that keeps the universe together? It became an infection you are born with!

Then the second movie … Attack of the Clones. More like Attack of the Hormones, if you ask me. The movie is nicely balanced – between a sticky-sweet romance that nobody needs and action scenes that nobody needs, either. I’m always happy to see Christopher Lee, he’s an awesome actor and it was time for Dracula to make an appearance in a movie series which has had van Helsing in the first movie (look it up, if you don’t know what I am talking about!). I also like seeing Yoda jump around like a gummy bear on speed during their duel. But apart from that, Attack of the Clones is weaker than The Empire Strikes Back (which is pretty weak, too, second parts of trilogies are vulnerable to a certain weakness). So, all the clone soldiers are copies of the father of Bobba Fett. And Bobba, one of the most badass bounty hunters of all times, is a clone of his own father, too. Great. Someone shoot me, please, to put me out of my misery at that discovery.

And is it just me or does Padmé suddenly look strangely young, compared to her boyfriend? Didn’t the first movie establish that she’s at least about seven years his senior? Maybe choosing such a nymph of a girl wasn’t such a good casting idea. It does establish a certain similarity between her and her daughter, admittedly, but it does not make that jump of ten or more years more logical. If Padmé was 15 at the time of the first movie (which would make her an awfully young ruler) and Anakin was 8, Padmé would at least be 27 in the second movie, if we say Anakin is 20 (and I find that highly unlikely, he should be at least something like 25, in my opinion). She certainly doesn’t look a few years shy of 30 in Attack of the Clones, or even Revenge of the Sith, where she’s pregnant and should probably look even more grown-up.

What’s more, Padmé starts out as a woman very much like her daughter in the original trilogy. Like Leia, she is strong, self-reliant, a leader. But while the original trilogy and the novels that follow Leia’s future enhance those characteristics (even though her life is anything but normal and nice), her mother loses them in the following movies. Padmé must have caught that Emo germ from her husband while they were making new Jedi, because the strong woman she was turns into a helpless and hopeless girl who doesn’t even find the strength to live for her children.

Then there’s the Emperor himself. On the whole I approve of the take they did there. It was a great idea to bring back the actor who played him in Return of the Jedi for the Prequels. He had then reached the perfect age for the consummate politician Palpatine is and he knew what his character would turn into. Palpatine is nicely balanced between the more-or-less (as politicians go) trustworthy guy and the scheming manipulator behind the curtains.

Yet, why so plump? Mace Windu may be the fiery side to balance out Yoda’s serenity (there’s not much that could surprise a guy after 900 years…), but have him jump through a door, accuse a respected politician of being a Sith, and then duel him right there and then? Can you do something like that with any less finesse? Was that only so Anakin can jump in and save the ‘old man’ from the attack? The fight between Yoda and Palpatine later on shows the venerable Emperor is no weakling with the lightsaber. Now, that is a cool duel, really. But Yoda is a cool guy in all the movies he graces with his presence. Palpatine is only slightly less cool himself. Two cool guys, two lightsabers, and a lot of collateral damage, you can’t go wrong there.

It’s also obvious George did not listen to his fans, otherwise JarJar would never have left Naboo in his life (well, okay, once during Phantom Menace). Even after the first movie, it was obvious the fans hated JarJar. Yet he’s persistently present in the whole franchise. He’s in all three Prequels and in the Clone Wars universe (movie plus all the seasons, including the first two which are more artfully done than today’s ‘official’ first two seasons). He’s a minor side character, so why not just write him out of the movies? You can get rid of a potential badass enemy like Darth Maul after one movie, but you keep the hated side character up to now, George? Wesley had to go, which some people could use as proof that Star Trek is the better franchise… Just saying…

The Star Wars Prequels had a lot of potential to expand and enrich the Star Wars universe. They could have told a touching and interesting story about a young man falling for the wrong side. We know there was good left in Darth Vader, just as his son claimed in Return of the Jedi. When faced with the choice to stand by his master and see his son die or defy his master and save his son, he threw his master of over twenty years into the core of a battle station. That’s a definite statement. Novels, comics, and other material have shown a lot of people who had a brush with the Dark Side in their lives (including, btw, Luke himself). Many paths lead to the Dark Side, Anakin’s story could have added to that, enriched the topic. It could have been so much more epic than just ‘I was so afraid to lose my wife that I destroyed an order of guardians of the galaxy and almost killed her because of it.’

And plunged the galaxy far, far away into tyranny for over twenty years, but that doesn’t count…

I hate Trojans

I don’t hate ancient Greek people, to make that clear from the beginning. I don’t have much of a problem with them, as it were. I rarely think about them at all. But I hate computer Trojans, since I yesterday got one (no idea how, I wasn’t even downloading anything) and now have to build up my whole system again.

Now I have a new system and it will take ages to get all back into working order … not to mention I need to get used to Windows 7…

Casual Corner

Welcome to the Casual Corner for July, the month of the Steam Summer Sale. Despite the fact that Steam was just enticing everyone with their amazing discounts, the three games I have chosen today are not from there. I might do a post about Quantum Conundrum later on, but right now it’s casual games. This month’s choices are Adelantado, A Gnome’s Home, and some games I want to rant about. We’ll start with the two games I actually like, though.

A Gnome’s Home is a game in the style of My Kingdom For The Princess, but is has some nice changes in the gameplay. Instead of upgrading the worker’s home to get more workers, you order them and they arrive by blimp. I love them bungee jumping from the blimp. However, the game has a high difficulty (luckily they updated it with various modes), so it is a long one. I like the idea of rebuilding an underground kingdom while I make my way through various landscapes. The graphics are very nice, bright and funny. The gameplay is well-balanced (although getting expert isn’t easy) and fun. I love A Gnome’s Home and can definitely recommend it.

Adelantado (that’s some sort of Spanish title, but don’t ask me for any details) is a rather unusual game, at least for a casual one. Instead of a long row of short levels, it only has ten levels (plus one bonus level), but you can easily calculate between 30 and 50 minutes per level in this game. It’s kind of a real-time strategy game, but mostly without the fighting. The ‘mostly’ has to do with some cavemen that come out to annoy you in the later levels. Still, I like the gameplay. Building up production lines, exploring the maps, fulfilling tasks, moving on to the next level. Even though I got a lot of playtime out of the levels it has, I can’t wait for part 2 and 3 of the trilogy. They are promising.

Now for the rant. The first targets of my rant are Ghost Whisperer and Criminal Minds. Not the TV series, though, but the games Legacy has made with the licences. I guess House, M.D. should have warned me, as that game wasn’t very good, either, but those two somehow are even worse. I love both series they are based on, but the games are not very good. To be honest, they are both so boring I haven’t finished them – although I usually finish a HOG (and they both are HOGs) in about three or four hours. I wonder how you can buy the licences for great TV series and make games out of them that look and feel like they’re out three years too late. That is annoying and both series deserve better.

The second topic for my rant is named Emily. Said Emily is the main character of the Delicious game series. I found the series late and have mostly played the latter ones (starting with Emily’s Tea Garden). By now, I love them and want every new one as soon as it’s out. The latest, however, has really annoyed me. Instead of releasing the full game, GameHouse has decided to release the game in episodes containing two normal levels and a bonus level each. For half a year (25 weeks) they want to keep it up, demanding far more for the game than usual. All Delicious games have 50 levels minimum, the last Premium Edition has an extra restaurant that brings the total up to 60. The standard version has always been out for regular casual game price, $9.99 for non-members at GameHouse, $6.99 for members, and $5.99 for Funpass owners. The Premium Editions of the last two games (Childhood Memories and True Love) were available for $13.99 for members and $19.99 for non-members. For those prices, you were always getting the full game in one go. The newest Emily game, Wonder Wedding, is available for the season ticket, $24.99 for all episodes, in 8-episode packs for regular casual prices, or per episode. All prices are far too high, in my opinion. I don’t want to wait for half a year, until all episodes are out. Neither do most of the people over at GameHouse, but the company isn’t listening. That is really annoying and might kill one of the few TM series that are still produced (now that Sandlot has been bought up and Playfirst has decided to drift into the app market – the Dash franchise and Cake Mania are gone).

So, now that I locked my baser nature back in the cage, here’s the verdict: A Gnome’s Home and Adelantado? Definitely give them a go. The new Delicious game, Ghost Whisperer, and Criminal Minds? Avoid, avoid, avoid. And now excuse me, the monster deep inside my mind needs to be fed raw, bloody meat…

Casual Corner

Welcome back to the Casual Corner (I bet you thought I had forgotten it) with three games this month as well. Two are pretty new, one has found its way in here, because it was finally released at a casual games portal this month.

Again we have three different game types in this month’s casual corner. The TM building game Build-A-Lot: Fairy Tales, the life-simulation Long Live The Queen, and the RPG-Maker-made RPG Skyborn.

I will start out with Skyborn, as it has been out for a while, but was only released at the first casual games portal (BFG, as a soft release) yesterday. Claret, the main character of the game made by Dancing Dragon Games, is a young and very talented mechanic, working with her brother in their own shop. A long time ago, their parents vanished without a word, something which Claret has not forgiven them. The world of Skyborn is ruled by the Skyborn, a race of people with wings. Humans like Claret are used as workers and usually left alone – mixtures between human and Skyborn however, like Claret’s friend and helper Corvin, are imprisoned and frequently killed for having magic. The day her brother does not only sell their workshop, but also tries to marry her off to the insufferable nobleman Sullivan, Claret decides to take the money and Sullivan’s airship (which she has repaired that very day) and find another place to live and work. Unfortunately, that brings her into contact with a rebellion that is going on. The game has very nice graphics and a Steampunk style that has by now found its way into the mainstream gaming culture. It plays well and is balanced out nicely. Unfortunately, you really need to pick as many fights as possible (thankfully, the monsters are visible in this game, no random encounters), so you can defeat the later enemies. Unlike most RPG Maker games, this one has a fighting system in which you can have more than four party members and can see who will make their move next.

Next on our list is the building game Build-A-Lot: Fairy Tales. The newest of the Build-A-Lot series is set in the land of the fairy tales, where the player develops venues for various communities, building and upgrading houses, meeting goals such as X houses of this kind, X money, or special buildings (usually in the last level of an area). The game has very beautiful graphics and is well balanced, although it does get quite hard to get expert levels quite soon. Like usually in such building games, you need to have enough workers (fairies in this case) and materials for building purposes. In addition, you need to have the blueprints for the objects you build. And, as usually in such games, you need  to take a very close look at what the level demands.

The life-simulation Long Live The Queen brings up the rear of this month’s casual corner. Elodie, a girl of fourteen, has forty weeks to become a queen. On her next birthday, when she becomes an adult in her world, she has to take the place of her recently deceased mother, who ruled the Kingdom before her. Unfortunately, a lot will happen in the forty weeks, while Elodie has to decide which things to learn and how to spend her spare time. Will she master magic? Learn all about strategy? Will she fall victim to an assassination attempt? A robbery on the way to a friend’s birthday? Will she have to face a rebellion? There are a lot of ways not to end the game positively and only a couple to actually become queen in the end. Elodie has a great chance to die before the forty weeks are over – or to spend the remainder of her life in a prison cell. It’s a very difficult game, although not a very long one. I have played it through several times in the course of one day, experimenting with a variety of abilities. There is, however, a long list of possible things that might happen to Elodie, making them all come true will require a long time, making this game worth its money. The game comes with very beautiful manga-style graphics, as can be expected from Hanako games, the makers of life-simulations like Magical Diary. However, like most games of this type, it is not something for people who don’t like to read.

This it is, the Casual Corner for the month of June. Enjoy the games, I will be there next month, presenting three more games you might want to try out.