Oh match-3 games, how can you be so addicting even though you all basically play the same way? It seems no matter how many of them I play I just keep getting sucked in over and over.Cradle of Egyptis really no different; in fact it's very much the same, actually. But in spite of it really just retreading familiar territory (or maybe because of it), I found myself once again sinking more than a few hours into the game.
Well kids, it's almost Halloween and you know what that means—spooky tricks, piles of treats and the inevitable release of bad Halloween-themed video games. Every year publishers try to bank on our holiday fervor by getting us to spend money on themed entertainment. Unfortunately, the quality of these offerings in general, just isn't very good. In keeping with this disappointing trend, developer Casual Arts brings us Halloween: Trick or Treat, a textbook example of cynically conceived, carelessly made, holiday-exploiting, interactive dreck.
Prepare to go on an epic adventure in Odysseus: Long Way Home. Help Odysseus find his way home to Ithaca after the Trojan War and navigate all the obstacles he will face along the way. Long Way Home is based on Homer's famous epic The Odyssey and give players a nice break from all the stories set in haunted mansions and dilapidated hospitals.
Best in Show Solitaire takes a normally simple form of solitaire (a variation on TriPeaks) and adds plenty of man's best friends to form a game that's unfortunately far too complicated for its own good. With a completely shallow (and almost nonexistent) story detailing your progress as an up-and-coming dog handler, you'll be introduced to plenty of different breeds, with each of those dogs having different effects on your game.
Have you ever played Mario Kart? Exalt Studios, the developer of PC game Silas, certainly has because it's clear where the inspiration for this futuristic kart racer came from. Right down to the power slides, the weapons and the race tracks, there's a strong whiff of Nintendo's racer throughout. That's no bad thing - the plumber and his pals boast a fun time - but at times Silas is a tad too reminiscent for its own good and the new ideas that it does bring to the table don't stand up very strong.
When you stop and think about it, playing golf is a lot like shooting artillery. You have to consider factors like trajectory, firing power, wind speed, as well as hazards like livestock and suicidal groundskeepers. OK, maybe not that last part, but all of these are the types of things you have to account for in Worms Crazy Golf, a surprisingly clever and fun addition to the Worms franchise.
Sometimes you really want to love a game but just can't bring yourself to do it. There can be many reasons for this. The game may look lovely, for instance, with 2D visuals that look hand drawn. Or it may give you a giant world to explore full of all sorts of strange and unexpected surprises. It might even offer a lot of social features to encourage you to play with others. Glitch does all of these things and they definitely make it a title worth checking out. But at the same time, the moment to moment gameplay can be quite dull, which makes Glitch a game that's easy to like but hard to love.
Randomly-generated gaming content is seeing a real boom as of late, with numerous indie-developed titles churning out the replay value by allowing the game to be different every time you play it. Sometimes it can unfortunately dilute the overall experience, and other times - such as with roguelike The Binding of Isaac - it can make the game infinitely playable.