Pike Plays Literally Every Game on Her Steam List (Current Game: Blood Bowl)

[Vyk]

Yeah, I always got an X-COM vibe from it. And love the Bakshi art style. I bought it when it first released, but never got around to playing it. I read all the controversy about King.Com suing everyone that had "Saga" in their name, and getting in a lot of trouble with the press and general public for being a douche. And The Banner Saga boys were actively stirring the pot, and getting a lot of love for it. And somehow that satiated my desire to support their game, and I never actually played it much... Weird. I'll get around to it one day, as it seems to be very distinct. There's not much else like it out there

[Loony BoB]

Think X-Com.

My attention has been obtained. Can you customise the names of the characters? If so, I sense epic opportunity for an awesome EoFF LP.

[Pike]

Unfortunately I don't believe you can change names - if you can, I haven't figured out a way.

And you are correct in saying it's very distinct, Vyk. It's pretty neat!

[Mirage]

hey a PC SRPG. My interest is tickled.

[Fox]

I just can't get into the theme of the Banner Saga. I like me a good SRPG, but there's something about the art and the Vikingness that doesn't appeal to me.

Luckily we have plenty of choice at the moment. XCOM, Valkyria Chronicles, Massive Chalice (soon). Maybe I'll check this one out in a sale. ...It's probably already been on the Steam sale for like, £3 hasn't it? ^^

[Pike]

Bastion
Action/RPG
Steam Link

This is a game I've heard much about but hadn't actually haven't gotten around to playing yet. Fortunately, we've reached this game on my list, so it's time to rectify things.

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Right away the world is unique and interesting. Things drop in from the sky, and the entire story is being narrated for you by a... narrator. My favorite part about this is when you fall of the edge and he goes "And then our hero fell to his death. Nah, I'm just kiddin' ya."

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Soon I get some fancy weapons, like a bow and a hammer.

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Once you get out of the intro sequence you can start building things to give yourself swanky upgrades.

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Like so!

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Then you can fly around to different worlds in order to get more materials to build things with.

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And then do more upgrades!

This is how most of the game goes. Granted, I didn't play for longer than an hour (although I'd like to play more), but I found it to be pretty fun. Note that this is mostly an action game with RPG elements. For some reason I had it in my head that this was a mostly-RPG game and being thrown into a world where I had to smash things up with a machete was a bit surprising (although I liked it.)

THE VERDICT:

• I'm liking it so far
• Really love the unique presentation style
• Good stuff for people who like isometric action-RPGs
• Great soundtrack
• Probably most of you have already played it

[Shauna]

Bastion is pretty excellent.

[Spuuky]

The Narrator is great. The gameplay is good. It's definitely worth playing for the low price it typically is on sale for.

[Vyk]

I wish I loved that game more, but I definitely love what they went for, and I don't regret giving them my money

[Pete for President]

Just bought Bastion but I haven't played it yet!

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I've been playing this for the first time the last couple of days. I haven't had much time to play, but I'm loving it so far. Great presentation and soundtrack. I'm excited to experience the story as I've heard the story is pretty great as well.

[Psychotic]

Like you I've never played it (well, unlike you I guess) despite hearing a lot about it. Like, what is the point of the upgrades? Are you going around bonking stuff on the head?

[Pike]

The upgrades give you things like either a faster or stronger weapon, faster reload or more ammo (when it comes to ranged weapons), or various "procs" like AoE damage.

You go around bonking stuff on the head but you can also pick a ranged weapon and a "trinket" of your choice. The trinkets are things like tripwires, lures to charm the enemy with, that sort of stuff.

It's pretty fun and well-made if you like going around killing things.

[Pike]

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Action/Adventure/Stealth
Steam Link

This is yet another highly acclaimed game that I never got around to playing. Well, best fix that.

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Already 2spooky

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We start out by escorting Joker into Arkham Asylum. Joker's gonna joke, it looks like.

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Looks like someone's happy to see me!

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WHAT? You mean this was a trap set by Joker all along?? THIS IS 100% COMPLETELY SURPRISING AND NOT AT ALL WHAT I THOUGHT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!

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You can activate a Detective Mode, sort of like Eagle Vision in Assassin's Creed, that lets you see what you can interact with and what your goals are. Also it helpfully tells you that the poor sod who is currently being held hostage by Victor Zsasz is "terrified".

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The Bat Daddy'll make ya JUMP JUMP

The Daddy Bat'll make ya JUMP JUMP

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Hmm, I wonder who could be leaving these question marks lying around everywhere? Can it be... nah.

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2deep4me

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The game also lets you glide around, which is pretty great. I AM THE NIGHT.

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Also you can fling Batarangs around like there's no tomorrow.

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Oh look Bats, your friend is back! (Note how incredibly done Bats is at this point.)

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LEVEL UP

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I can't wait to see what else Joker has got on his YouTube account.

THE VERDICT:

• Just being Batman is a load of fun
• Because you're freaking Batman
• Fighting is pretty great because you can slow motion roundhouse kick guys in the head
• At one point Bats saves a guy from certain death and then knocks him out cold
• I laughed really hard
• Although the grunts can all live in Joker's toxin for 15 minutes and Batman dies in 5 seconds what's up with that
• Get it if you want to be Batman

[Loony BoB]

The best thing about it all is that they used all the voice actors from the TV series. Everything else is pretty great too though.