The American video game company EA Games is currently offering the famous space horror game Dead Space for free. In order to get a free copy, the installation of EA Games' Origin is required. The offer lasts until May 8th, 2014.
When you have Origin installed, you can also get Battlefield 1942 free of charge.
Do you remember SEGA:s Crazy Taxi? The arcade game where you choose one of four different drivers, drive through a city resembling San Francisco, pick up customers and transport them to their destinations as quickly as possible to earn crrrraaazy money?
The mobile version of the game (Android/iOS) is now free for a limited time. The deadline is March 19th 2014. So if you haven't played Crazy Taxi before, or you want to relive the classic arcade title, you better start downloading now!
Yesterday (March 4th 2014), we finally got the news of a new game in the famous Batman: Arkham video game franchise. It's called Batman: Arkham Knight. The game, created by the British Rocksteady Studios, will be the forth and final game in the series. It will also be the first game in the series where players can control the Batmobile.
I have many thoughts regarding this. Firstly, I'm sad that Rocksteady has decided to conclude the series with Arkham Knight, although I understand that it's better to end a series perfectly than badly. Secondly, I'm glad that Rocksteady has to make Gotham City bigger and the streets wider (compared to the ones in Batman: Arkham City) in order to make room for the Batmobile. Thirdly, I'm still disappointed that sexism is still present in the game - I'm thinking of Harley Quinn's provocative outfit.
Although many people - including my countrymen - love and praise Batman: Arkham City, I'm not impressed with the game. Although Rocksteady intended to create the second game about "Batman in Gotham", Arkham City (I'm talking about the prison with the same name of the game) feels small. The prison isn't meant to be large, but since it consists of an older part of Gotham with famous locations like Crime Alley, Gotham Cathedral and Ace Chemicals, I think it should be larger than that. And the streets are narrow like a small suburb! This doesn't feel like a former part of a big city at all.
Regarding the sexism in the Arkham-franchise, I fail to understand why Rocksteady has chosen not to re-use Harley's classic outfit introduced in Batman: The Animated Series. While the male characters are fully dressed, Harley (like in the previous games) still have some parts uncovered - you can see that in the trailer at the end of this post.
In Arkham City, I would say that both Catwoman and Harley Quinn had the most impractical and sexist outfits. Poison Ivy is a "logical" exception since her appearance was that of a "naked-goddess" similar to Aphrodite.
These are some of my many thoughts of the franchise. Now please enjoy the YouTube-trailer of Arkham Knight:
The Japanese video game company Square Enix is currently having a promotion where gamers can download a free copy of Thief Gold (1999's updated version of the 1998 game Thief: The Dark Project by Looking Glass Studios) for Steam.
You can read more about how to get it on this link.
I can promise you that the instructions work. I'm currently downloading the game as I write this post.
A big thanks to you Razorcif at Loot Palace, for sharing this information with us!
Are you interested in a game but need to find an invitation code to give you a small headstart? Then hopefully this post will help you. I'll update it continuously so please visit it from time to time!
This weekend I got two new Limited 5* cards in Guardian Cross!
The first one is Mighty Valentine Specter which I won in the Coliseum (PvP-battles):
The information page about Mighty Valentine Specter. (Screenshot taken by me)
The second one is Berith which I got by logging in 15 days in a row.
The information page about Berith. (Screenshot taken by me)
Like I wrote earlier, Guardian Cross is a great and easy online trading card game for Android- and iOS-devices, made by the Japanese video game company Square-Enix.
I love it very much since the illustrations are very beautiful, it's a Final Fantasy spin off, it reminds of Pokémon and it's very easy to play. If you're searching for a great game for your mobile phone, I highly reommend it.
Here is an invitation code (sadly only for the iOS-version) to get you started: DT47351
With the code you get a Super Rare card. I hope you'll enjoy the game as much as I do!
Another weekend and another game which Steam lets its users try for free. This time we get to try the fantasy games The Witcher and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, based on the Polish author Andrzej Sapkowki's series of fantasy short stories.
Normally I would try a Steam-game during the weekend and then review it in one of my "A weekend with..." posts, but this time I won't play any of the games. The reason is the large game size. The first game alone is about 16 GB which would approximately take 20 hours for me to download. And I can't just let my computer "go on" 24 hours a day, can I?
GOG.com is an online game store where players can buy old & classic games mostly from the 90s, like Duke Nukem 3D (1996), the King's Quest series (1984-1998) and The Incredible Machine (1993).
This weekend, GOG (which is the abbreviation of Good Old Games), is offering the game Dungeon Keeper (1997) for free! Dungeon Keeper also exists as a free-to-play mobile game for iOS and Android. But the mobile game has been heavily criticised because it's not faithful to the original and it uses too much micro-transactions. So if you want to play Dungeon Keeper as it was meant to be played, this is a golden opportunity to do so.
Since there are many people who want to get a free copy, you don't actually get a direct download link on GOG. After you have registered your copy, GOG will notify you when you can download it.
But even if you (or I) don't manage to get Dungeon Keeper, I still recommend GOG. When you start an account at GOG the first time, you'll get some PC games for free. My favourite is the 1994-game Beneath a Steel Sky which I'm playing at the moment. The game is created by the company behind the famous Broken Sword-series.
If you can't or don't find the classic game of your choice, you can always request it. If there are enough votes on your game, GOG will consider selling it. I think this is a great way to stay legal since it's difficult to know if abandonware is legal or not.
So hurry! You have less than 15 hours left to get your free copy of Dungeon Keeper! Get it now at GOG.com!
No, when you read this post, you have less than 15 hours left
to get your free copy of Dungeon Keeper on GOG.com.
At last, after replaying all of the four John Stewart Green Lantern Challenges and completing the fifth and final one, I won a golden John Stewart Green Lantern card! Now that I have acquired it, I can always return to the in-game shop later to buy extra cards in order to enhance John. One extra John Stewart-card costs 165,000 Power Credits (the in-game currency). If I still had time to replay all of the challenges again, this time with a higher difficulty, I could have gotten one more card.
Being a golden card, John Stewart is the strongest of all Green Lantern cards in Injustice: Gods Among Us for mobile phones. His second special attack - "Parallell Nature" - is a very powerful attack which is a combination of rapid swiping and aiming compared to other characters' special attacks (which are either activated by swiping, tapping or aiming on the touch screen).
If any of the characters in the player's team get very low health - they are protected by John's Emergency Barrier which makes them invulnarable for 8 seconds. This is very useful if both the opponent and the active hero/villain have low health. Sadly each character can only get benefit by the Emergency Barrier once per match.
If I have any complaints about the card, it would be that John Stewart isn't voiced by Phil LaMarr - his original voice actor from the Justice League animated series and the original console version of Injustice. Instead John is voiced by Adam Baldwin, the same actor who lends his voice to Green Lantern Hal Jordan.
Lantern John Stewart as seen in the shop. (Click to enlarge)
During the weekend (07/02/14-09/02/14), Steam lets its members try Borderlands 2 (by 2K Games) for free. I found out about it during late Saturday, and after waiting more than 8 hours to download and install the game I finally got a chance to try it out - even if I could only play it for 1-2 hours.
In short, Borderlands 2 can be described as a FPS (= first person shooter) game with RPG-elements (= role playing game). 4 players can play together online in the story campaign.
Borderlands 2 takes place on a planet called Pandora, where a Vault (with alien technology) has been opened and a valuable mineral has been spread all over the planet as a result. The Hyperion Corporation, lead by the antagonist Handsome Jack, tries to find this mineral and "civilise" the savage planet with an iron fist. Many people travel to the planet in order to find the mineral, and they're hence called "Vault Hunters".
The story starts with four Vault Hunters travel on a train which gets destroyed by the Handsome Jack. Left for dead, the protagonists are found by a robot named Claptrap who decides to lead them to the city of Sanctuary. In the city, an anti-Hyperion resistance group is gathering to revolt against the terror of Handsome Jack. The voyage to Sanctuary isn't easy since the route is filled with bandits and mercenaries working for Handsome Jack, and monstrous beasts.
The graphics are cell-shaded, so it feels like watching a cartoon. I don't know how to comment on the humour presented in the game, but the game - due to its violent content (among others) - is definitely not recommended for younger players (compared to Sanctum 2). The ESRB gave it an M-rating.
Similar to a MMORPG (= massive multiplayer online role playing game), the player can't really "die" during the missions. Once defeated, the player gets a chance to recover by defeating an opponent. If the player fails to do so, he/she will respawn at a spawn point spread across the level he/she is in.
Borderlands 2 offers the player a chance to explore Pandora, something which I appreciate a lot. But I'm not into games with M-ratings so I might not buy it for a while.
Those who have visited my lenses on Squidoo may remember my article about Square-Enix's trading card game, Guardian Cross. I'll upload a new review about the game later on this blog, but now to the news of today.
As usual I participated in the game's Elite Coliseum last week. I got a B+ rating and won a Bronze Limited 5* card: Great Impundulu!
The message where I learn of my Coliseum Reward.
Great Impundulu's information page.
Guardian Cross is one of the few free-to-play mobile games which I really like. I've played the game almost everyday since late 2012. I like it very much since it's easy to play and other players won't attack you unless you participate in the Coliseum (player vs player battles). Not only that, a few Final Fantasy bosses appear in the game as Guardians (the cards which you must catch and use during battles).
If you're interested in Guardian Cross, here's my invitation code: DT47351 (iOS only)
The invitation code can only be used once when you create an account the first time (in order to play the game). Using the code will give you a super rare 4* card. I really recommend you to give Guardian Cross a chance. If you don't like it, you can always remove it easily.
Those of you who play the mobile versions of Injustice: Gods Among Us, know that NetherRealms every so often holds events where the players can win a rare golden card to his/her deck by completing five challenges.
The announcement of John Stewart Challange Mode in
the iOS-version of Injustice: Gods Among us.
During this event which started on January 23th 2014, the players can win a Green Lantern John Stewart golden card. I've played Injustice everyday and completed four of them. But today a dreadful thing happened: My progress has been deleted and now I have to replay the challenges all over again!
How could this happen? The only explanation I can think of is that the app must to be connected to the Internet at all times. So if you want to play the normal missions offline, turn the Internet off and start the game: You'll get the message that the "Previous challenge has expired". And when you turn the Internet back on, the app will think that you're starting a brand new session of the Challenges!
*Sigh* There's nothing else I can do but to replay the challenges again. I have reached the third challenge and I have only 7 days left. We'll see if I can make it in time. I can't play 24/7 everyday during the coming week can I?
Here is a YouTube-video showing the gameplay of Green Lantern John Stewart in the iOS-version of Injustice:
Do you like old school JRPG:s? Do you think that Final Fantasy VI is the best FF-game ever? Then you must look at this trailer which summarises the plots of Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII-2.
Square-Enix released this trailer yesterday (January 29th) to promote their upcoming game Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, which is the final game of the trilogy featuring the protagonist Lightning.
What do I think of the trailer? It's very awesome! Square-Enix should have continued to create old school RPG:s of this kind!
During the weekend (24/01/14-26/01/14), Steam let its users play Sanctum 2 free of charge.
Sanctum 2 is a science fiction hybrid of tower defense/FPS game by Coffee Stain Studios released in 2013. In the game, four players may ally with each other online in order to stop aliens from destroying the player base's power core.
The four players can choose between four different characters with different abilities. Each player can arm him- or herself with 2 different firearms.
When not fighting aliens, the players must build walls and towers in order to defend the power core long enough before all of the attackers are annihilated.
The plot is narrated through comic book panels which are interesting to follow.
Sanctum 2 is fun to play, but I'm more of an explorer. Instead of guarding an area I would rather visit new environments like Black Mesa (Half-Life), City 17 (Half-Life 2), Nar Shadda (Star Wars: Dark Forces) and many other places.
So would I buy it? Perhaps in the future, but not today.
Here is a trailer showing the gameplay of Sanctum 2:
Loot Palace - the best online rewards program where it rewards its users different gift cards - have different flash pages every month where the users can compete with each other. The goal is to get to the top 5 each month, since the winners will get extra Plunder Points.
My favourite flash game right now is Papa's Pastaria (original URL) by Flipline Studios. The aim of the game is to run a restaurant where you, the owner, mostly will do all of the work: take orders, cook noodles, add sauces and satisfy the customers.
At the moment my high score is too low to be on the top 5. But the game is addicting nevertheless.
Here is my first avatar before my saved game was deleted and I had to restart from the beginning:
