Review: Grand Guilds

Grand Guilds (2020)

Developer: Drix Studios

Platform: Nintendo Switch, Personal Computer (Reviewed)

Induction Date: 03/20/2020

Let's just get it out of the way. Grand Guilds is a grand failure. It's a promising game that combines card battle mechanics on top of turn-based strategy role playing game with graphics that reminded me of the golden years of PlayStation 2 RPGs. It is unfortunate that I couldn't even complete this game because it's utterly broken in more ways than one. The harder I pushed myself through the game, the worse things got so I had no choice but to stop playing it.

These cool looking characters deserve a better game.

Review: Sigma Theory - Global Cold War

Sigma Theory: Global Cold War (2019)

Developer: Mi-Clos Studio, Goblinz Studio, FibreTigre

Platform: Personal Computer

Induction Date: 03/09/2020

Manipulating the world from a cozy little office.

We all crave power, whether we know it or not. The power to live a better life, the power to buy more games, the power to control the world? This need for power is the most compelling aspect of the game for me: you take the helm as a director of operations for a team of agents and scientists in a race against both the doomsday clock and the world to secure advanced humanity altering technologies extracted from a newly discovered scientific method called the "Sigma Theory". It's a rather epic setup and if you buy into that fantasy, the game is able to fulfill some of your expectations with its effective offerings before you realize how deceptively simple things really are.

Review: 3000th Duel

3000th Duel (2019)

Developer: NEOPOPCORN Corp.

Platforms: Personal Computer (Reviewed), Nintendo Switch

Induction Date: 02/21/2020

The title, 3000th Duel, may mislead one into counting the number of enemies that can be found along the journey to find its significance but perhaps it's an allusion to the number of attempts it will take for one to beat some of the game's tough bosses? What is certain is that this little 2D action role playing game borrows heavy inspirations from the ever popular "Souls" series - which means that it's a game that rewards persistence - and those who are looking for such diversions will not be disappointed despite some of the game's glaring flaws.

The amount of "karma" you need to level up will increase with every level.

GMG Santa Cracks Me Up

When it comes to official third party Steam key online retailers out there, Green Man Gaming is a frequent choice for me. They tend to offer deeper discounts on anything that Steam has to offer even during special sales events. All of these companies always have some kooky themes going on and this holiday season, GMG recruits the help of a really funky Santa as the event's mascot.

These poses. The curious hair color change will be a mystery for the ages.

Unconventional Santas are cool and this one is really something else. Judging from the far left picture alone, you know that this Santa had too much eggnog. I was laughing so hard as I was browsing all the cool deals happening on the website. Weird is good and this time, it's really strange but it works.

Spirit of Christmas: An Epic Fail

I don't have a problem that Epic Games has its own digital storefront since its inception. I also don't have a problem with them offering a lot of cash to score exclusives for their platform - the only party you can blame there if your favorite games are not coming to your preferred game client would the developers and/or the publishers. Epic didn't do anything wrong there. Epic is just trying to be competitive. You can however blame Epic for missing the first free game on offer for their 12 Days of Free Games promotion that took off yesterday 12/19/2019 alongside their own Holiday Sale 2019 that is running concurrently with Steam's Winter Sale 2019.

The announcement for this event just arrived on my email this afternoon and imagine my horror when I realized that it is a day late and the first game they had on offer was Into the Breach - a strategy game that is on my Steam wishlist! I am quite upset about this. It would have saved me some cash by claiming the Epic Store version of the game. And no Epic. I may support what you are doing with the digital game storefront industry but that doesn't mean that I will keep your game client running on my PC 24/7 like I do with Steam just so that I won't miss any future promotions. I only use you when I need you. I know that Epic usually offers a free game on Thursday every week but I didn't know that this time, I needed to claim it immediately. I was too busy browsing discounted games on Steam yesterday. Someone at marketing is sleeping on the job...

This email should have arrived, I don't know... Last week?

Update Note: 03/24/2020 - It looks like Epic did learn their lesson from this mishap. They sent out an email today to announce their upcoming spring sale. Good job!