Tag Archives: PC games

short;Play, Videos

short;Play: The Incredible Machine

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PC gaming today is, in a lot of cases, “console gaming but prettier and smoother”. There are exceptions, of course, but over the years I feel like we’ve lost a little something.

Back in the MS-DOS era, “PC games” felt a lot more distinct from “console games”. And a fantastic example of this is Dynamix’s The Incredible Machine: a delightful, subtly educational, Heath Robinson/Rube Goldberg-inspired puzzle game that challenged you to accomplish simple tasks in the most convoluted manner possible.

Join me in rediscovering this old classic in the video below — and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

short;Play, Videos

short;Play: Blake Stone – Aliens of Gold

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One of the reasons I wanted to introduce the short;Play series was to celebrate some of my favourites from yesteryear that don’t get talked about all that much.

Today we take a look at Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold, a sci-fi first-person shooter running on an enhanced Wolfenstein 3-D engine… and a game that has been mostly forgotten by history thanks to the fact that it came out a week before the legendary Doom.

I like this game a whole lot, and it provides a noticeably distinct experience from both its spiritual predecessor and id’s subsequent classic. Check out the video below to find out more — and don’t forget to subscribe over on YouTube while you’re at it!

One-Shots, Puzzlers

Helltaker: Hell is Sliding Block Puzzles

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At the time of writing, a new independently developed game called “Helltaker” is all over social media, with all sorts of people sharing screenshots and fanart.

With that in mind, I decided to give it a look for myself. Turns out it’s a free download for PC, available via Steam. As such, there’s absolutely no risk involved in trying it out at the very least — and if you like it, you have a cool thing to add to your library; if, on the other hand, it’s not for you, you haven’t lost anything.

What did I think? Hmm, mixed feelings if I’m perfectly honest; let’s explore all that a little further, then.

Continue reading Helltaker: Hell is Sliding Block Puzzles →

short;Play, Videos

short;Play: A Valley Without Wind

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One of the things that has always been good about the indie sphere has been its many developers’ willingness to experiment.

One company that has always been at the forefront of experimental gameplay is Arcen Games, who are very fond of blending disparate genres together to create something wonderful — and of throwing a healthy dose of procedural generation into the mix, too.

A Valley Without Wind was my first encounter with them… and it’s a game I’ve loved since I first came across it back in 2012. Take a look at the video below to see how it plays — and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

One-Shots

Doom: Now Available On the Go. Kind Of.

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[UPDATE 27/07/2019 — Bethesda has said in a tweet that the online login requirement mentioned in this article was originally intended to be an optional feature for their “Slayer’s Club” members to obtain rewards for playing the classic Doom games. They are presently working on a fix to remove the mandatory online login. The original article follows while the situation remains.]

The sudden, surprise news that id Software’s venerable first-person shooter Doom was coming to Nintendo Switch (and PS4, and Xbox One) was initially very exciting indeed.

In celebration of Doom’s 25th anniversary, it seemed, we were to be treated to modern ports of Doom, Doom II and the underappreciated Doom III — and they were going to be cheap. Moreover, the fact that they were coming to Switch meant that you’d finally be able to take a competent version of Doom on the go with you without having to battle mobile versions’ awful touchscreen controls.

And indeed, you can now take a competent version of Doom on the go with you… but there are some important things to note. Let’s take a look.

Continue reading Doom: Now Available On the Go. Kind Of. →

One-Shots

Magical Diary: Wolf Hall – A Wolf in Wizard’s Clothing

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Those of you who have been following my work for a while may recall a good few years back now I was rather enthusiastic about a game called Magical Diary: Horse Hall.

This unusual game, developed by Hanako Games and Spiky Caterpillar, blended elements of visual novel, life sim and first-person dungeon crawler to create something very interesting indeed — and something that was clearly intended to be the start of a series.

That was back in 2012. Now, in 2019, we’re finally getting a follow-up — so let’s take a first look at what the sequel, Magical Diary: Wolf Hall, has to offer, and how Hanako Games and Spiky Caterpillar will be making use of crowdfunding to realise their goals.

Continue reading Magical Diary: Wolf Hall – A Wolf in Wizard’s Clothing →