I read once that when designing a game, it is important to not include mechanics just for the sake of having them.  For example, don’t include a crafting system in your roleplaying game if you don’t have the time or resources to make it seriously compelling.  To take this idea once step further, when it comes to smaller projects I think it is almost necessary to design a single mechanic and build the rest of the game around it.  Magicka is an action game with heavy RPG overtones that really takes this philosophy to heart.  You (and up to 3 other friends you can partner with) all play wizards and the game mostly consists of your party hurling spells at hordes of goblins, orcs, and other ugly monstrosities.  So far, this sounds like it could be a stripped down Diablo analog (as if we don’t have enough of those in the world).  However, due to the nature of the game, the spellcasting system is really the star of the show.

The game lets you play with 8 different forces; fire, water, earth, lightning, shield, life, ice, and arcane.  Each has different properties and behaviors associated with it.  For example, lightning can jump between targets, ice slows, and arcane makes targets pop into meaty chunks when they die.  I say “targets” as opposed to “enemies” because it is worth noting that any spell can be cast against any being in the game.  I have accidentally wasted many an ally because they ran in front of the business end of my staff. All players can summon up to 5 elements at a time which will combine into a spell reflecting the properties of all its member components. For instance, earth can allow you to launch a boulder missile that does impact damage and fire burns. Combining the two creates a fireball. There are some rules about spell creation, as all elements have an opposite, which will negate each other if summoned together. Fire and ice are an obvious example of this. Other elements interact with each other constructively, however. Fire and water make steam which can combine with lightning to make a spell that moistens and shocks, a feat usually impossible in a single spell as water and lightning are opposed.

This depth is what makes the system so remarkable, but the game is also mind-blowingly frantic, especially in multiplayer. When I have been in multiplayer games, everything is blowing up all the time as I hammer on the buttons for spell combos that I know and trust with blind muscle memory. I should also mention the game’s quirky, referential sense of humor–the characters therein don’t so much make jokes as they talk about stuff you know about (e.g. Star Wars, Dungeons and Dragons, Monty Python, Lovecraftian fiction, etc.) but through insane fake-Swedish voice-overs.  This game is definitely worth a look, especially at the 10$ price they’re asking for it.  But it’s probably better to show than it is to talk about. Follow the links for a few snippets of gameplay I shot with a friend.

Magicka Dungeon Fight

Magicka Bridge Massacre

Magicka Lightning Suicide

The game is now available as a free download at Eric’s website

Posting on his Screwattack blog, Cutman had this to say:

Clocking in at just over a year of development, Mega Man 8-bit Deathmatch is the biggest project I’ve ever worked on. With a small team of fantastic spriters and rippers, we helped forge this tribute to the classic Mega Man series in our own free time. It has been an honour to be the leader of this project, and the amount of people who have contributed to the project (knowing that no profit was going to be made) is a massive statement to the Mega Man community.  We hope you enjoy this project as much as we’ve had putting the pieces together. Long live the blue bomber!

The game is currently Windows-only but the downloads section states the Mac and Linux versions are coming. Get your trigger fingers ready and enjoy!

Download Mega Man 8-Bit Deathmatch

Minecraft has taken the imaginations of PC gamers by storm. Still in a very early alpha stage of development, Minecraft is best described as a digital box of Legos. Players enter the world of Minecraft with two goals: mining and crafting. Mine materials such as wood and rock while crafting structures from the fruits of that labor. Some may be daunted by the open-ended nature of the game. Many have even wondered if it is, in fact, a game. Think of Minecraft as a block-building sandbox whose bounds are only met at the limits of your imagination.

The result? Players have devised everything from roller-coasters, underwater tunnels, castles in the sky, a functioning calculator, and everything in between.

The developer is now offering a $15 download of the Minecraft alpha. However, the first iteration of the game, Minecraft Classic, is free and playable in the browser. Hop in, dig deep, and build.

Resident Evil 5 was first unleashed on gamers in March of 2009. Almost a year later, Capcom is giving players another reason to re-enter the world of survival horror. Love it or hate it, Resident Evil 5 was a more action-oriented experience rather than a return to the series’ trademark horror stylings. The DLC pack “Lost in Nightmares” is a much-welcomed return to the franchise’s roots now available through the Playstation Network and XboxLive. Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine are back in a creepy mansion, looking to uncover the truth behind Umbrella and it’s founder, Ozwell E. Spencer. The episode is a closer look at a side-story only glimpsed in a cutscene during Resident Evil 5.

The setting is a complete dose of nostalgia. Capcom has taken special care to bring the original game’s Arclay Mountain mansion into the current generation. Every turn creates another feeling of deja vu. It doesn’t feel recycled or lazy in any way, quite the contrary. It feels more like wearing your favorite pair of jeans or eating your favorite meal. Even though you may have experienced something like it before it feels familiar and, for a die-hard Resident Evil fan, it’s good to be back.

Jill and Chris explore the mansion looking for Spencer, running into various puzzles and some recognizable death-traps. It’s not a very long experience, most players will be able to complete the episode in a little more than an hour but it’s a great ride while it lasts. The developers behind Resident Evil have proven they still have what it takes to create a new, horrifying creature. Lurking beneath the estate is a new enemy, a giant monstrosity dragging some kind of large anchor, waiting to impale Chris and Jill at a moment’s notice. While the duo start off with a small arsenal, they are quickly stripped of their weapons, which really heightens the tension.Moves like this- pitting players against these hulking enemies, in a dungeon without conventional weapons, is genius. It forces players to work cooperatively with their partner to trap them. Not only that, it keeps the sense of terror alive in a series where too much firepower has taken away all the scares.

Lost in Nightmares stumbles a bit when players complete the chapter and realize there wasn’t a whole lot to do. The time spent exploring is almost entirely devoid of enemies, in fact there are only about ten or so apart from a boss battle. It felt like there were some missed opportunities. At one point, Chris is walking down a hallway lit by flashes of lightning. Dogs can be heard outside. In typical Resident Evil fashion, I was expecting something to come crashing through the windows but, to my dismay, nothing happened. There were a lot of moments like this where I kept wishing there were more enemies, zombified or not, to dispatch.

As I said before, the time spent in the mansion is short. However, it is spent going through a nostalgia-inducing good time and, for under $5.00, it’s an incredible deal. The DLC also comes with additional trophies/achievements as well as new characters for the Mercenaries mode, Excella Gionne and fan-favorite Barry Burton. Series purists are likely to declare this is what next-gen Resident Evil should have been from the start. While I wish the episode were longer, it’s definitely given me more hope for the next RE installment and I’m eagerly awaiting the next DLC, “Desperate Escape” coming in March. Both DLC packs will also come with the “Gold Edition” of Resident Evil 5, set to release this Spring.
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DiRT 2 Demo (PC)

Call of Duty4: Modern Warfare Demo (PC)

Medal of Honor: Airborne Demo (PC)

Spiderman Demo (PC)

SWAT 4 Demo (PC)

Greed Demo (PC)

Age of Empires III: WarChiefs Demo (PC)

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising Demo (PC)

Sniper Elite Demo (PC)

Need for Speed Most Wanted Demo (PC)

]]> http://gameshack.com/downloads/2009/12/holiday-game-demos/feed/ 0 http://gameshack.com/downloads/2009/10/machinarium-demo/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=machinarium-demo http://gameshack.com/downloads/2009/10/machinarium-demo/#comments Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:31:50 +0000 shloomz http://gameshack.com/?p=808 Check out this game demo for Machinarium, an award-winning puzzle and strategy game that is sure to put your mind to test! In Machinarium, you play as a little robot whose been thrown into the scrapyard and must make it’s way back home to save his ‘robot girlfriend’. On this journey, you must confromt The Black Cap Brotherhood in this zaney adventure. This unique gaming experience truly plays on the fact that 3D is not always better than 2D. The creative designers for Machinarium have really created something special and we are definetly excited for the full game to launch.

The full version of the game is due to be released later this fall, and can now be pre-ordered directly from the Machinariun Website.