Alt+Games is a blog about games by a couple of gamers. Role-playing
games , computer and console games , board games etc. Focus on games that
enable playing together , whether in the same room or over the net. We
try to feature interesting stuff you don't hear from elsewhere.
My family just received a new member this Monday. It is a baby girl we like to call X (there's a bit of mystery for you :), Supergirl and The Thing. Everyone involved is fine and in good health.
On much smaller news Alt+Games also got a new graphical look last Weekend. I was never completely happy with the old one, mostly because of the wacky banner graphics I threw together (sorry 'bout that :). The template is Jamba from JoomlaShack with a green-black color scheme, the Alt+Games logo is based on the old one but this time it's sleek, cool and toned down and not ugly at all.
The icon banners in the right-hand top corner of the site are new too, there will be more of them later. Most of the banners are based on icons from MySiteMyWay , a very good source for royalty-free icon graphics.
There's potential for more changes, we'll see about the schedule. Maybe our Supergirl can help.
I just found out that the amazing physics based hammer-swinging game, Hammerfight by Russian Konstantin Koshutin and previously known as Hammerfall is available to purchase on Steam for €6.99. It has actually been available for a while as fun-motion.com reported it last Autumn. I'm gonna get the game so I can see how much has been improved and added to the commercial version compared to the free demo. I'll write a review afterwards, so wait for it (or get the game yourself if you are curious enough).
I did a feature on the Hammerfall demo on the old Alt+Games site, and now seems a good time for a re-run in the new site. Here you go:
I think that the FunMotion blog entry about this game started it. The Hammerfall v0.21 demo posted on a Russian GameNow.ru forum by a user with nickname GKosh has raised interest and inspired numerous blog post among indie game bloggers recently. I dl'd the demo and now it's official: I'm joining the bandwagon. Hammerfall is indeed a very promising and innovative action game demo for Windows machines.
Steampunk Action
The player controls a stempunk-style flying copter thingy which drags a massive rock on a chain behind it. The basic idea is to swat at enemies by swinging this rock-in-a-chain. The copter is controlled with the mouse; the rock follows behind following the laws of physics (yes, this game uses physics engine, too). The player can swing the rock into action with a circular flying motion.
A while back I posted a video of a Japanese drum arcade game that I shot in an arcade in Tokyo. That was in the old Alt+Games site, so here's the re-run.
After that incident a lot has happened in the drum game scene. Taiko no Tatsujin has been available in the western world for a while (athough I like the songs in the Japanese versions more) and more importantly the genre of band games has introduced the plastic drum sets into our living rooms.
I got the chance to play the drums on Guitar Hero World Tour a while ago at my friends Juha's and M's place. While my performance was nothing of the sort featured in the video below, I could immediately see the charm of drum-set-banging gameplay. To me the whole thing seemed to be a lot closer to the real thing than the guitar playingin Guitar Hero. Actually when I think about it the interface is exactly the same as in a digital drum set (minus the quality).
That said, it's really hard for me to get so excited about the drum set games as to actually get a drum set controller myself. The music games are essentially recycling the same concept over and over with only a few changes. I'm getting bored with the basic concept a bit. Something really cool needs to surface for me to sacrifice the space needed for the drum kit in my living room.
But, here's the video, please enjoy. Pretty sophisticated, ain't it?
