Could it be that Clockwork Empires [official site], a town management sim concerning a life of toil and struggle against nightmarish entities on a strange new frontier, is so dedicated to its theme that is has deliberately conspired to drive me mad? The thought occurred to me often, as I gibbered and bellowed at my screen in frustration. Was I, too, becoming like one of its colonists, their psyches fraying as they behold death, monstrous transformation and yet another fungus-based dinner?
Alas, not for me the sweet embrace of carefully-designed insanity. My struggles strictly relate to how powerfully frustrating Clockwork Empires is to play.
]]>I was certain I'd never have any time for roguelites. To clear up confusion about this most ambiguous of genres, by this I mean games that have permanent or mostly permanent death states, where losing means starting again from the beginning, with finite resources, and not necessarily any end goal. In fact, if you'd asked me a few years back, I'd have said this was the antithesis of why I play games.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
We had no idea what a roguelike resurgence there was going to be back when brutal yet light-hearted dungeon-running RPG Dredmor was released in 2011. Sure, a few were doing the rounds, but they were rare enough that this tongue-in-cheek take on perma-death adventuring seemed ever so special. It still is, even if what it's doing seems rather more commonplace today. It's got wit and strangeness as well as a mean streak a mile wide.
]]>We're seven years old! (Actually, we were seven years old last month, but we've never been much for punctuality.) And so by way of celebration we've curated the latest weekly Humble Bundle, and that means we've chosen some of our most beloved indie games from the past seven years for the Pay What You Want sale. An esoteric bunch, but so very beautiful, all. If only there were room for all the delights of those many wonderful years. As ever, some of the money goes to charity, too: we chose EFF and Medecins Sans Frontieres. Find out more, below, or simply click over the the bundle itself.
]]>Clockwork Empires is a citybuilding/Lovecraftian survival sim from Gaslamp Games, they of the splendid Dungeons of Dredmor, in which you manage and protect Imperial colonists attempting to build a life on a new frontier. A new frontier which just so happens to contain Other Creatures. While it might be a dramatic departure from the successful roguelike that went before it, it does retain the horror-comedy tone. It arrives on Steam Early Access tomorrow, but I've been playing it for the last few days.
]]>Imagine if so much of the bullshit Peter Molyneux has talked over the years was actually in a game. A simulation game where each tiny human lived their own lives, had their own thoughts and feelings and memories, and behaved accordingly. It's a claim we've heard so often that it's hard not to dismiss it out of hand. So much so that when Dungeons Of Dredmor developers Gaslamp Games were claiming it, I demanded they stop and prove it to me... They did. Clockwork Empires, a colonial village building sim (of sorts) pulls you in with the cult monster worship, but you stay for the extraordinary AI.
]]>While the main Humble Bundle is diverting itself from gaming with a really quite splendid collection of audiobooks, it seems to have snuck out one of the best collections of games so far in its Weekly Bundle. Rather than showcasing games from one studio, this week it's a collection of Roguelikes. (Everyone who wants to have a fight about the terminology, please do so here.) That's Paranautical Activity, Dungeons Of Dredmor Complete, Hack Slash Loot, The Binding Of Isaac + DLC, Teleglitch Die More Edition, and Sword Of The Stars: The Pit Gold. Cor.
]]>If you place some kind of weird one-trailer-per-day restriction on yourself and are currently fretting about finding Mr or Ms Right: The Extremely Brief Videogame Preview, then look no further. Clockwork Empires, the latest ball of bits and bytes from Dungeons of Dredmor developer Gaslamp Games, just got its first trailer, and it's sending RPS' hyper-sensitive Delight-O-Meter into a tizzy. The game is a 19th century steampunk colony builder, but the trailer reveals that it's so very much more than the staid stew of trite aesthetic cliches that description seems to imply. Somehow, it manages to prompt tearfloods of both uproarious laughter and bitter sadness within the span of, like, a minute. Also, there are giant squid monsters. Enough of my blathering. Watch.
]]>Welp, I guess that's it, then. We can't escape it. The Steam Summer Sale's returned, but honestly, can you remember a single moment before it began? Was there ever a moment before it began? Maybe we're trapped in some infinite, Groundhog-Day-style loop of spending, obligation, and guilt. Maybe we'll never escape. Maybe this is the least threatening eternal hell loop ever conceived. But oh well, because look at all of the savings!
]]>I went back to Dungeons Of Dredmor recently, having realised it had expanded twice since I'd last played. The good news is it's still as brilliant as ever. The bad news is, I'm still just as terrible at it. The brilliant news is, Kieron's still just as cross that we're all playing Rogue-likes now, after having ignored him about them for years. And the news news is, there's to be another update "hastily named" Conquest Of The Wizardlands, due out soon. It'll be adding not only new realms, but sneakiness and at last some weapon and armour augmentation crafting.
]]>Suicidally deciding to launch during E3 - don't they realise we have to post all the trailers, until such time as we are dead? - is a free expansion for the lovely (if divisive) Dungeons of Dredmor. Despite the devs coming up with all manner of "new items, enemies, rooms, skills, and things to generally make your life Better and/or More Full of Death", the one thing they couldn't force their tired brains to do was devise a title for the new content. Hence, it is simply "You Have To Name The Expansion Pack." I'm going to call mine Dungeons of Dredmor: George Osborne Is A Pasty-Faced Spawn Of An Earwig With A Weeping Sore Where His Soul Should Be. How about you?
]]>I'd gladly welcome another expansion pack for Dungeons of Dredmor and I gladly shall when the next one arrives in the near future. To add to the glad, it'll be free as well, having been constructed with "the cooperation of a handful of the Dredmor community’s top modders". It's not slight and full details of the contents are below. Not content with welcoming the mod community into their home, Gaslamp Games are also serving tea and biscuits, or at least that's how I interpret the news that modding will now be integrated with the Steam Workshop. Mods for all, mods of all stripes, and also biscuits for those who would like them.
]]>The 20th day of Advent is of course traditionally marked by tying a t-shirt around your head and screaming in the face of a stranger's baby. But ever flying in the face of society's mores, RPS instead simply peels back a door on the festive calendar to reveal another game that's made our 2011 lovely. By Great Yarmouth's testes, what could today's be?
]]>It was announced in the recently expired month of November and now, on what should be the day before release, Dungeons of Dredmor's first expansion has been trailerised. As well as containing graphic closeups of the most formidable eyebrows in gaming, the video provides details on the contents of Realm of the Diggle Gods. New enemies, areas and equipment are present, as one would expect, but did you expect a Werediggle skill line? I didn't because my imagination is clearly limited and limp. How about eye lasers and the ability to create a character who is a "Vampiric Pirate Hunter-Vegan that dabbles in Demonology"? Oh, and belts! Sounds good. Watch below.
]]>Not all dungeons require a cross-country trek or a cheeky spot of fast-travel to access. Dungeons of Dredmor was a light but appropriately vicious roguelike which charmed both John and I earlier this year, and creators Gaslamp Games have not left it to fester away on a darkened corner of Steam. As well as a steady trickle of patches, they've announced some real-money DLC is incoming, as well as a new patch which, among other things, doubles the number of avatar genders on offer. I did some pretty impressive maths to arrive at that conclusion, let me tell you.
]]>Intrigued by Alec's review, John got hold of Dungeons Of Dredmor too, and found himself finally clicking with a roguelike. Alec and John sat down at either end of the RPS banquet table to discuss the game, and their experiences while playing it.
]]>Indie roguelike Dungeons of Dredmor arrived on Steam late last week, quickly summoning a swarm of interest around it despite coming pretty much out of nowhere. More proof, perhaps, that big publishers' claims that the age of turn-based gaming is done and dusted are wanton foolishness.
Anyway! I've been playing Dredmor pretty much constantly since release. I couldn't pretend to have beaten it - and it's very possible I'll never be able to - but here's what I make of it.
]]>Bloody typical. I've only just kicked my Realm of the Mad God habit, and then another permadeath RPG comes along and imprisons my mind with compulsion, combat and crits. Dungeons of Dredmor, released yesterday, is far closer to the traditional roguelike model, though it's left behind the complicated controls and key combinations of the genre's steelier-eyed denizens in favour of something altogether more accessible. But no less punishing.
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