Carson Game Review #3

Fieldrunners : http://store.steampowered.com/app/209690/?snr=1_7_15__13

Wicked Review 2/10 stars

     So I got this game on a Humble Bundle for like 5 bucks and the package included 7 other games. I am still not sure if I got my money's worth. I loaded it up this evening, figuring it would be a decent tower defense game with generic towers and settings. Thankfully I was not disappointed.

     Fieldrunners is basically another reskin of those free tower defense games on Kongregate. Its not that I don't like the genre, I still find myself jumping back into Bloons TD every few months to see what they changed. I even find Desktop Defense mildly amusing from time to time but that's kind of the problem. Bloons TD and Desktop Defense are free games. Fieldrunners is not. 

     Fieldrunners costs 5 bucks. If this were a free flash game it probably would have ranked a 4 or 5. Its decent, its cute and its great for blowing an evening. I suppose it would have flown with me if it was a mobile title. I mean, not much in the app store isn't worth a buck or 2 and portability would be an asset. I can even appreciate the fact that a more efficient platform than flash will keep those crazy late game waves of a hundred enemies from slowing you down to 2 FPS.

      Unfortunately, Fieldrunners has none of those qualities. If you want to have a fun Fieldrunners experience do yourself a favor and find one of the hundred lookalikes on Armor Games.

Carson Game Review #2

Ittle Dew: http://store.steampowered.com/app/241320/

Wicked Rating : 6/10

Anyone who has ever spent 10 minutes on our Youtube or SWGblog knows that this author LOVES him some Zelda. Seriously, I love Link so much that I'm petitioning my wife to allow me to get the Triforce of Courage on my left hand and the Antiforce on my right. I have a replica plaster of the Hylian shield sitting in my office and want a battle ready replica of the Master Sword for christmas. Hell, I never play console games, yet I bought a WiiU because I'm exited for Hyrule Warriors and ZeldaU. I am always itching for a fresh Zelda experience.

This is why I was pleasantly surprised when I played Ittle Dew. Ittle Dew a 3-8 (depending on if you go achievement hunting) hour Zelda clone on Steam. The game features a short list of bonus items, hundreds of Zelda jokes, 4 dungeons and a running Navi joke.

The enemies are adorable, the main character is cute and funny and there's replay value for days. Each artifact combo has it's own shortcut through the main castle (seriously, any combination of 2 artifacts can beat the game). Top it all off with a hand drawn aesthetic and this game will seriously get you giggling on some of the stuff that happens in your favourite LoZ title.

So, what are the downsides? The game is short as hell (I beat it in like 4 hours and there's an achievement for beating it in 15 minutes). There really isn't a story, either. In fact, the game makes fun of the fact that the entire plot revolves around an entirely nonsensical Macguffin.

Either way, if you are looking forward to the hoard of Zelda coming out soon and just want something to hold you over until then I strongly believe Ittle Dew.

Carson Game Review #1

Velocibox http://www.indiedb.com/games/velocibox/downloads/velocibox-demo-300-win

Wicked Rating : 4 /10 stars

Apparently (or perhaps, predictably) taking DNA from Super Hexagon, AAAAAAAA! For the Awesome!, and Canabalt, throwing them into a gene splicer and giving the result an Antichamber paint job wasn’t an entirely awful idea.

I saw this game on Sodapoppin’s livestream, realized it had a free demo, and decided I had to at least give it a swing. Those of you looking for a mechanically sound, if shallow, score hunter will find this game to your liking. The demo (this game is still in alpha) includes leaderboards and a whole slew of levels.

You start on a black and white tube. This tube has 2 or 3 bar combinations and you have to dodge them as long as you can. The basic game involves you rotating and jumping along this rectangular tube at breakneck speeds as your score steadily increases. In order to rapidly accumulate score, you can elect to collect orange boxes that give you a score multiplier. The rub is that once you collect a set amount of orange boxes you advance a level which increases your multiplier but adds more trap combinations to the tube. avoid the clearly marked hazards, collect boxes, and ascend through the levels until you die.

Those of you who play for story will find none here, not that there is anything wrong with that. The experience is visceral and will lead you to hours of Jedi trance-like focus. No garnish, no window dressing, just you, the tube, and a mounting score counter.

For those of you aching for the old arcade-era challenge crunchers of yore. This game will thoroughly scratch that itch and leave you grasping for more.

Jesse's Book Review #1

Goodreads: Click Here

My personal rating: 4.5/5 stars.

This book is part of the new adult Sea Breeze series, You don't need to read them in order. Though if you do read them in order you will see other characters you already read about pop up.

Bad for You is about a girl named Blythe who has a sad past and is moving to a new town to go to college. She moves into her apartment and is instantly introduced to the handsome tattooed Krit who lives in the apartment above hers. They are both instantly attracted to each other. Blythe sees that moving here is a chance for her to start over. She never had any friends and wants to make some. Krit sees how vulnerable and meek Blythe is and decides to protect and befriend her. Krit is a lead singer of a band and has women throwing themselves at him constantly. He sleeps around even after meeting Blythe the only difference is he cant get Blythe out of his head.

The good: I loved both main characters. Blythe is innocent, sweet, down to earth, caring and all around lovable. Krit is intense but in a good way. I read this book super fast and never put it down. I loved the chemistry between the two main characters. They thoroughly enjoyed each others company. Even though the spark was there they were able to maintain a close friendship. Blythe's innocence mixed with the intense and emotional Krit made for a powerful love dynamic. I was constantly always looking forward to the times they spent together. I couldn't get enough. I love how Blythe's story was portrayed and how you could see how much she deserved to be loved. I love how Krit treated Blythe. He was wrapped up and addicted to Blythe. He changed from being a ladies man (to put it nicely) to only wanting to be with and only thinking about Blythe. His eyes were always constantly on her whenever they were in the same room. The sexual scenes between main characters were hot as hell. Abbi Glines is like the writing queen of sexual encounters.

The Bad: There was a cringe worthy sex scene, that I felt wasn't really necessary. It was the scene involving Krit and a groupie, it was like the scene in Breaking Dawn when Jacob takes off and goes to the park to see if he can imprint with someone at random so he can take his mind off of Bella. Krit was using this groupie as an outlet to try and get his mind off of Blythe but instead she was all he could think about. Though I felt the scene was unnecessary it did help to portray Krit's emotional state. Also one of the main conflicts in the plot was moronic, and how it ended was obvious. The side character's were not strong they were barely there nor did I care about them.

If you like romance, sex, intense male leads then this book is for you.