Demo Driver 8: Wings of Prey (#176)
Going out in a blaze of glory, mostly because your plane is on fire.
I swear by all that is holy, if I never see another game based upon World War II, it will be far too soon.
Honestly, I am relatively certain that we are never going to need another game which involves more skirmishes against the Third Reich. We are full up on anything that involves fighting Hitler’s forces in any theater of engagement. So my opinions on Wings of Prey has two strikes against it right from the start. It’s Yet Another World War II Game, something we have not needed since 2001 or so, and it’s a dogfighting simulator, which isn’t something I really care for.
So there was never going to be an ending wherein Wings of Prey and I ride off happily into the sunset, holding hands and smelling the flowers. The best I could hope for was that the game would turn out to be better than my lackluster expectations, and to its credit, it succeeds at that. I don’t know if that makes me really like it all that much, but sure does give me some food for thought.
Demo Driver 8: Pyroblazer (#284)
Your guess is as good as mine right now.
Sometimes you get a very clear picture of a game from a demo because the demo is well-constructed, offers you enough of the game to know what it’s on about, and leaves you wanting more. Honestly, most of the demos I’ve reviewed here have accomplished that goal rather nicely. I’ve no desire whatsoever to play RACE 07, but I have a reasonably clear picture of what the game is from the demo and feel as if everything it wanted to accomplish was laid out clearly.
Sometimes, though, the demo – and possibly the entire game – is a confused mess that gives you such a top-level overview that you’re not sure what in the world is going on, let alone how the game is supposed to tie into anything or be relevant. And that, I’m sorry to say, is what I was left with after my brief time in the Pyroblazer demo. The whole thing comes across as a big blending of various elements without further explanation, and by the time I was done I was just plain tired.
Demo Driver 8: Assault Android Cactus (#202)
We’ve never really moved on from television of the smashiest variety, have we?
I am not, as a rule, one of the people for whom Greenlight is intended. This is because I enjoy cooking.
Cooking is delicate. Cooking takes time. Cooking is not particularly helped by having people clustered around eager to taste what you haven’t finished cooking yet. It’s not that I think the companies on Greenlight are wrong in some fashion, just that launching there means you’re buying a chance to taste something that the designers freely state isn’t yet cooked through. I’ll wait until you’ve finished with the cooking portion, thank you.
Assault Android Cactus is a Greenlight game, however, and one with a demo available. And it’s what I rolled, so it’s where I’m going. That having been said, what is present in the demo is quite polished and fun, although I harbor vague doubts about how much more you get at the moment for being an Early Access purchaser. But time enough for that elsewhere, let’s take a look at what the game actually is.
Demo Driver 8: Imperium Romanum Gold Edition (#374)
Our artist’s recreation of the city before the incident under discussion. He works, like, really fast.
Before I explain what happened in Genoa, senator, I feel it’s only fair that I set the appropriate context.
When you sat me down in Genoa, I didn’t have a forum, I had a shack with a central road. There were no roads linking the forum to the fishing regions that the Senate considered so vital to restoring the town. There were no houses. You had even neglected to inform me that a warehouse had been constructed on the other side of the nearby mountain line, thereby necessitating an expensive (and troublesome) expansion to the east just so I could establish a supply of timber and stone. When I found out later that there was another deposit, I of course was overjoyed.
But the demands of the Senate in this situation were unreasonable. You have asked me to build more fine stone architecture, more homes made of stone, a monument commemorating the city’s restoration. Do you know how much stone that takes? Do you know how much stone there is around Genoa? Because I do. The answers are, in order, “a whole lot” and “not much.” Not nearly enough for the temples and the fine stone homes and the monument and the other temple.
Once you understand that, it’s a lot easier to understand how the fire got started.
Demo Driver 8: RACE 07 (#118)
The title of this recurring feature has never been so appropriate.
Some games are very easy to evaluate based on a minority of information.
RACE 07 is a game based on a certain philosophy of racing games. Within that context, I can tell that it does quite well, even in the demo, of conveying that exact philosophy. If you’re fond of that philosophy, the game itself will leave most other possible games dead in the water with only minimal effort. It’s a game that clearly believes in a specific kind of racing game. The demo shows that off wonderfully.
It is not a kind of racing game that I like. It is, in fact, the kind of game that I actively avoid. Which leaves me in the awkward position of praising the demo for very effectively showing me what the full game is all about and what it wants to be while at the same time not wanting to pick it up or even think about it ever again.
Recent Work
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Chocobo Dash
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Eliot Lefebvre 