Free to Play? Awesome!

What is it these days that great games like Team Fotress, Planetside 2, and Star Wars the Old Republic become free to play. As in get the game for no cost at all and if there was one, it would be optional. Is it a desperate attempt to get attention? Is it advertising tactic to show the game producers future product? Is it to battle the dominating popularity of Blizzard's World of Warcraft? Or maybe its a way to give back to video gamers for their faith in the game.

You're probably wondering why is Dead Space screenshot is shown above. Well, that because the game is FREE in EA Origin. Yup, Electronic Art's digital distributor of video games is giving Dead Space, not the second game nor the third but the first game, away for free or what it says on the store page.. On The House. If you heard about the game, get it cause it will knock your sock off.

Dead Space store page in Origin

First you register to Origins, follow the instructions, provide necessary information, confirm email and then it should simple from there. Get it while its still hot.

Rising trend of survival games?

There has been an increasing trend of survival video games sold  in the market. Zombie survivors, environmental survivor, post-apocalyptic survivor, horror survivors, sci-fi survivors, adventurous survivors and more. The survivor themed game play is where the player has to endure or fight just to continue playing. There is a sense of thrill in the fight for survival and the horrific feeling in dying.

DayZ

Zombie survivors are the common theme for the survivor genre. Players have to fight off zombie hordes in order to live another day. The sense of dread in the knowledge in managing the amount of bullets and medical supplies. The beautiful feeling of gratification in surviving a day of zombie hordes encourages players to push on.

DayZ is currently is most popular zombie survivor video games out there. Players can play as single player, co-op or online and explore a post-apocalyptic world where zombies horde are found everywhere. When night time comes, it get even scarier as players can only see using their flash lights and zombie easily gang up on them. Other online players can choose to attack other players in the course of the game. So, I guess its fair game for everyone.

Rust

Another popular survivor game is Rust. There are no zombie, monsters or any dangerous animals. It is a multi-player game where players are set to live in a vast open-world and can choose to either to make  friends to form alliances or enemies. So I guess its fair game, not a good game to make friends. Unlike DayZ, players can build structures to make a home and defenses against other players.

Don't Starve

Don't Starve, the game title says it all, find food to live another day. Players is set in a 2D world of which I'm guessing is inspired by Tim Burton (Demon of Fleet Street, Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride) because it is a creepy game. There is a brain meter which measures the character's sanity, if low the player will notice hallucinations appearing and hungry eyes in the shadows. Craft tools to collect resources and research to build new tools.

There are survivors game to come, each with its own premise and gimmick to entice players to try. I hope to see more kinds of survivors in the future.

Banished, a City Simulator to try

Church in construction

Banished is city building simulator which was released October, 2013 for the PC. Its a great game of try. There are no enemies, no hostiles, no great disaster,this is about surviving the environment and try to keep your people alive.

The main thing to watch over are your settlers. They are what keep your settlement alive and operated. They live to work, eat food to stay alive, give birth to children and in the end pass away. This is concept is unusual but in a good way.

Starting a new game get you a handful of settlers and a warehouse filled with food supplies, building materials and construction tools. You can set the game to made easier by changing the game modes like enabling and disabling disasters and other hazards. You can also change the environment from flat lands to mountain sides.

The quarry

The purpose of the game is to develop your settlement into a bustling metropolis. There are no research trees for you to discover, all buildings are available to be built at any time which is great. This makes planning easy for future growth.Build farms to grow crops, build a forge to maintain construction tools, build graveyards to bury the dead, and build houses to house your people. 

The settlers are your currency, without them the game is finished. Keep them fed, happy, warm from the winter cold and your will be just fine. Later in the game, disasters will occur that will endanger your people. It can diseases, fires, and the harsh winter cold.

The game goes on forever and if you enabled disaster, it be an exciting journey from settlement to city. The success depends on your skill to manage it.

Check the game play video below. 

The game is just less than half a gigabyte. The graphic may not the best, but decent. Here is the minimum system requirement: 
• OS: Win XP SP3 / Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8 
• Processor: 2 GHz Intel Dual Core processor 
• Memory: 512 MB RAM 
• Graphics: 512 MB DirectX 9.0c compatible card (shader model 2) 
• DirectX: Version 9.0c 
• Hard Drive: 250 MB available space 
• Sound Card: Any

Civilization Series goes Beyond Earth

I had to post about this. Sid Meier's Civilization, award-winning strategy game series is going across the stars to colonize new worlds. Last Monday, Firaxis announced the new upcoming strategy game called Civilization: Beyond Earth. This was around the PAX East 2014. Not sure what it was about. This is going to be awesome, they haven't made a game like this since Alpha Centauri. They release a video and it looks epic.

To the new kids out there, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri was strategy game release in 1999 that was similar Civilization except for it sci-fi background. Set in an alien world, players will explore a new world, develop their settlements, research new technology and field futuristic units. Instead of historical leaders like Napoleon or Genghis Khan, your leaders will be a diverse race of aliens. The concept is just like Civilization, to win the game you have to either conquer or reach the highest level of the science research tree. The game was success and it got an expansion introducing two new races.

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

So far they announcement trailer and a couple of screenshots. If you want a more in-depth story on Beyond Earth, PC gamer got the interview. Click here to read it.

Screenshot of Beyond Earth

Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth is set to be released this fall, which is sooner than I expected. I hope more from this game. How far will mankind go? The choice is yours.

The horrors in the tunnels, Metro 2033

Steam had a discounted sale on the Metro series last month and bought it, it was a great bargain. I did play Metro 2033 years ago but I got stuck in one part of the game. Now, I got through (shoot where the blobs come from) finally. That and I was low on ammunition.

Missions on a writing pad

Metro 2033, a survival horror shooter set in post-apocalyptic world devastated by nuclear war. Its set in the Russian metro tunnels where humanity is forced to live in. 20 years have gone by and mankind is coping with their lives. Radiation has mutated creatures into nightmarish monsters and become a constant threat to human life.

Cramped space of a living space

The game manages to visualize what life is like in tunnels. People live off pork and mushrooms, not the funky kind. It seems you can grow mushrooms in caves. Did not know that. Homes are made from scrap metal and wood. No idea where all the wood comes from. The tunnels, where your character will be using often, are dark and ominous which set a good horror tonne to scare players.

Walking the tunnels

The weapons are original, makeshift weapons and new even to veteran shooters. There are pistols, magnums, rifles, and the awesome bastard gun (see the pic above). There is the gas powered rifles which silently shoots lethal metal pellets. Later in the game, your weapons can be equipped with additional attachments which increases the effective power for your weapon. For stealth missions, there is the throwing knifes to silently take down enemies. If all else fails, use your trusty knife to stab and slash your enemies.

Entering into the dark tunnels

The game is filled with untold horrors and mystery. Factions fighting over ideology of the past. If you want a thrilling horror game with a survivor theme, Metro 2033.