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Cibele

I really quite enjoyed playing through this. It’s a game, yes, but it’s probably best if you think of it more as a piece of interactive narration, as you are not really left to do any decision-making, simply progressing through the story – which does involve playing through a few MMO-like encounters, but the point is really to hear the dialogue that happens during these segments. I did feel slightly uncomfortable at times, as it really puts you in the role of voyeur, but that’s what the game wants to do, and I liked it for that. I definitely recommend it.

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Undertale

With everyone going on about how this is apparently the second coming in the form of a game, I figured I had to jump in. I’ve put in a couple of hours, and I do really like the fantastic dialogue and characterizations, but man, the “combat” system (I put this in quotes because I’m playing the game without killing anyone) is annoying to a point where even though I want to play more of the game, I don’t because I don’t really want to deal with that. It’s a neat idea to try something different than the usual classic RPG menu driven system, but moving a cursor around with a keyboard to avoid objects is a huge pain.

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Fate Tectonics

This is an interesting game, and I’m not quite sure how to describe it. I guess you could start by saying it’s a god game, as you are building a world, but then it also feels like a puzzle game in that when you get new pieces to add to your world, you have to be careful where you place them, making sure they fit with what’s already there – they act as tiles, so think Carcassonne, in terms of adding pieces and spreading the map. Mixed in are elemental creatures that affect the world you are building, and everything is presented in the form of delightful sprites – a nice change of pace from the regular pixel aesthetic we see in so many indie games these days. I’ve only played a couple of hours so far, and I haven’t wrapped my head around how everything affects everything yet (I think), but I’m sure having fun with it.

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Her Story

I’ve only played a bit so far, but this is such an interesting game. You play by accessing video recordings of a woman being interviewed/interrogated in regards to a crime, and based on that you need to figure out what really happened. Nice to see a game that incorporates live-action, and it not feeling cheesy.

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Sunset

Even though I was very much interested in playing this game, I hadn’t picked it up upon release, mostly because I don’t really play games on my Mac much (I’m truly a console/portables/iPad gamer). But seeing this announcement from Tale of Tales today, about the poor sales of Sunset and how it has made them want to get out of making games, well I figured I’d still show support by buying it and playing it. I doubt they go back on their decision, and the gaming space is going to miss them.

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Armello

It’s no secret that I love board games, and so when I first heard about this game – when it was going through its Kickstarter campaign – I was pretty excited about what it was promising: a beautiful digital board game experience that marries the best of physical board games and digital games. It came out today on Steam in “Early Access” form, and so I’ve only had a bit of time to play it so far, but I’m already having a really good time with it, even though I still don’t get yet how I should be approaching things (in terms of strategy). They really have done a fantastic job with the art, and I could really see this coming out as a beautiful physical board game as well. The one thing I will say is that this is something that I would really love to be able to play on iPad – but that’s just me being selfish, because I don’t tend to play games on my laptop much. I hear that it also really shines when playing in multiplayer (I’ve just played offline for now, to learn the game), so I’m looking forward to playing some matches with friends.

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The Sensational December Machine

Gotta love a company that shares something special like this – an interactive short story – with its fans for the holidays. Simogo simply can do no wrong.

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Hearthstone

I wrote a post last year about how much I thought Hearthstone was a great digital card game, but I hadn’t really put that much time into it. I’d unlocked all of the classes, and then sort of drifted on to other things (there are just so many good card games coming out these days in digital form). Since the game went into open beta recently, there’s been a lot of talk about it again – including from a few of my friends – and so last night I decided to go in again and play for a bit. Wow, talk about getting sucked in again, I’ve been putting in WAY too much time since then, both in ranked online games, and in the Arena, which is Hearthstone’s take on a limited format. I am loving this game so much, and have currently settled into playing a Warrior deck I quite like – and it’s still just made up of basic cards, nothing too crazy, as I’ve only opened a couple of extra packs. This is really dangerous.

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The Banner Saga

I was a backer of this, so got my copy last week, but only got around to playing it tonight. Wow, what a great game. It of course looks gorgeous – even better then I thought it would – but I’m also really digging the turn-based battles. I’ve only played about an hour and a half so far, but I can already see how it’s going to be interesting to find the right balance of characters and positioning on the battlefield. The story so far is pretty good too, and well told. It really is a fantastic time to be playing games these days.

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Broken Age

I don’t know where to start in describing how much I love this game. From the amazing visuals – this could be an animated film I’d love to watch (but it’s even better that I can interact with it) – to the sounds, to the music, to the voices… I’m having a blast playing through it, and really want Double Fine to keep making games like this. Just goes to show that you can still make really great point-and-click adventure games.