Gamezebo Archives - January 2012

GOG.com might be looking to shed its “good old games” moniker as it ramps up to start featuring exclusive game releases in the coming year, but that doesn’t mean PC classics won’t still be showing up on their service. Case in point, GOG has just signed a deal with Square Enix to bring some of its massive back catalog to their digital storefront.

Everyone knows Mario & Luigi. They’re plumbers, they're heroes – but first and foremost, they’re brothers. But surely Mario & Luigi can’t be the only siblings capable of running, jumping, and collecting with style – can they? It would seem not, as mobile gamers will soon be learning the tale of The Other Brothers.

When Electronic Arts launched their Origin platform last year, it was definitely an interesting development – but since that time, the platform seems to have stagnated. Sure it’s great if you’re into The Old Republic or any of EA’s “Play4Free” titles, but if you want to experience anything outside of the EA world, you typically still had to go somewhere else. Lucky for EA, this trend is finally changing.

Nostalgia isn’t worth much these days. It’s easy to wax poetic about things you barely remember, especially when the world wide web can so easily give you an instant refresher course on that thing you want so badly to remember so you can tell people that you remember it. The team that makes up White Whale Games knows a thing or two about how to mine your past to create something good for the present. With some of the team having previously worked for BioWare, they’re bringing that expertise to iOS devices next year with their first release, God of Blades.

Like most civilization building strategy games, 8Realms tasks you with taking a tiny settlement and growing it into a thriving empire. You'll train troops, gather resources, and build your population. And as a web-based social game, you can also interact with other players. So what makes 8Realms different? You can play it on any device with a web browser.

Within a few minutes of playing Speed Blazers, it's obvious that the developer Fraktalvoid made a mistake that's all too common within the game industry: It created a trailer that was a lot better than the game itself. That's a shame, because this new racing platformer isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it's not nearly as polished as the movie would've had us believe.

It’s not uncommon for non-game developers to create games for Facebook in order to promote something, and BMW is the latest to take to this endeavor with BMW xDrive Challenge. A 3D racing title built in Unity, it’s not the most extravagant game, but is still of a surprising level of quality for a Facebook racer. Complete with global and friend-based challenges, it’s not a game that will keep one’s attention for long, but can be entertaining in the short term. In fact, the only real issue is a few oversensitive controls.

Social strategy game developer Kabam has announced it has acquired Fearless Studios.

Reviews are a great way to help players figure out what games to play next. Heck, that’s a big part of why sites like Gamezebo exist in the first place – and sometimes user reviews can be just as helpful as the professional ones! That’s why Big Fish Games has just launched a weekend deal that honors the top user reviewed games on their site.

There’s been a lot of discussion recently in the mobile game space about the morality of “inspired by” design versus “straight-up theft”. With the ridiculously high speed that the mobile game space seems to move at, it’s definitely become something where everyone has valid opinions on almost every side of the issue. Meanwhile, us PC gamers that have been at this for a while are just sitting back and laughing, all the while pointing out that Blizzard’s Diablo series knows a thing or two about having inspired more than a few games, as well as being the victim of theft. Prolific free-to-play game developer BigPoint is throwing their browser-based hat into the ring with their very...ahem...Diablo-esque MMO Drakensang Online, currently in open beta. We’ve spent a decent chunk of time with the game and are here to tell you whether or not you should strengthen up your clicking finger.

Last May, I spent a bit of time pontificating on whether or not Steam belongs on a mobile platform. Regardless of my opinions on the subject (too lazy to read the article? The short version is “maybe, but they need to be careful”), Valve has just taken its first big step into the world of smartphones with the release of Steam Mobile for both iPhone and Android.

Facebook has slowly become a great place to go for free-to-play sports management games. Whether you want to take control of a soccer club, or hop behind the bench of an NFL or MLB team, there are options out there. Now EA Sports is hoping to do the same thing for hockey. NHL Superstars uses a similar set-up to games like FIFA Superstars and World Series Superstars, letting you cobble together a team from existing pro athletes, but the overall package leaves much to be desired. With so little to do and so much time required to unlock content, NHL Superstars will leave hockey fans out in the cold.

Fingle is one of those weird apps that’s not quite a game, but really more of an experiment or experience. It’s like a non-competitive take on Twister. But with your hands. There’s no real scoring system, and no winner. Maybe it’s not a game per se, but when you’re in it, there’s no doubt that you’re definitely “playing” it.

Originally announced all the way back in October at Zynga's Unleashed event, Zynga has finally released some details on the upcoming Zynga Bingo. The Facebook game maintains much of what has made bingo such an enduring game, but spices things up with the addition of power-ups and social features.

Woodland Heroes' unique take on turn-based strategy and charming world made it one of our favorite Facebook games of 2011, but the developers at Row Sham Bow aren't done yet. Very soon players will get to enjoy a brand new feature in the game, with an upcoming expansion that adds city building to the formula.

The once booming restaurant management genre has returned to Facebook with Diner Life. A game that tasks you with running a personalized diner out in the middle of the American desert, it’s a simplistic title that is standard at best. Offering little that truly stands out, it marks yet another rehashing of the a well-worn formual, but done in a style that feels stiff and ridged with little semblance of a hook for new players.

Three Musketeers Secrets: Constance’s Mission lets you experience the story of the Three Musketeers through a different viewpoint. You play as Constance, a secret agent to the queen. It is up to you to protect the queen using various disguises and searching for clues regarding the conspiracy against the queen’s life.

Say what you want about Zynga, you can't accuse the developer of being afraid to go after new audiences. It's just been revealed that the company is possibly going to start putting out sports titles, which could put it in direct competition with game giant Electronic Arts.

Trademarks are tricky beasts, especially during these litigious times. When you're naming your company, product, or service, you have to be very careful to avoid using a word that someone might drag you into court (or demand a fee) for. Companies that are particularly sue-happy when it comes to trademarks are known as "trademark bullies." But who's the worst bully around these days? Here's a hint: it's not Tim Langdell.

If video games could laugh, DeadEnd: Cerebral Vortex's laugh would be an evil, under-its-breath laugh; the kind that you might associate with psychopaths and/or the insane. This laugh is directed at you, the player, as you feebly try to better the game's many twisted labyrinths, and your brain becomes more and more battered and bruised.