Recent reviews by A watched pot never boils

I had no idea what to expect but I was pleasantly surprised by what Tinykin had to offer. Not that this game is innovative but rather that there are no particular weak points, with a solid foundation and consistently interesting locations that don't take away from the fun or ruin the novelty.

This is a solid 3D platformer that deserves your consideration and time.

I've been listening to the soundtracks of numerous games from Amanita Design and to me, Samorost 3 is by far the most attention-grabbing of them all. The instrumentation really stands out and is a great listen (especially for soothing the mind).

Art book is good too, but honestly the biggest reason to buying this is for the soundtrack (which comes in FLAC format).

While some tracks are missing from the game this is still an easy recommendation.

Primordia's one of the best point and click adventures I've played. Strong writing and well-designed characters elevate this game above most others (and not just this genre either). It's a shame I didn't play this earlier but better late than never.

I will say that some of the puzzle segments have unintuitive solutions but other than that this game is an easy recommend.

Crispy's also one of the best b'sodding sidekicks in any game and his jokes don't miss.

TOEM is a great game and its soundtrack should be considered the same - with soothing tunes that stay consistent throughout the tracks. This OST is just as fun to listen to when not taking photos and makes a day of studying or working more relaxed and enjoyable.

All tracks come in WAV format and I highly recommend this soundtrack to anyone who’s bored.

This review seeks more to assist the developers rather than suggesting players whether they should purchase the final game or not. This prologue is worth your time and should not last more than an hour.

While this review is negative I am still looking forward to Unbound: Worlds Apart's full release. It has a lot of potential. This review is only for the prologue in its early state and is not my final opinion for the official game.

TL;DR - give this game a try and wait to see how much of the game improves in its proper release.


Starting off with the good, the premise is quite unique and intriguing. The idea that an alternate version of the world can be rapidly interchanged with the existing world via a portal to navigate enemies and obstacles opens up many opportunities for puzzles and problems to solve. This prologue provides its fair share of fun and interesting platforming sections which heavily involve this mechanic.

The visuals are beautiful - the art style provides lots of character to the environment and residents of the world and the colours are well-mixed which provides a sight for sore eyes and helps to distinguish the friendlies from the not-so-friendlies. Not much else can be said about the visuals other than that it's well-made and polished.

I am indifferent to the soundtrack. The music does not stand out but it does work to sell the atmosphere of the various locations.


Here's the negative segments which really bring down the rest of the game, though most of these can be fixed with time.

The prologue has a seemingly lack of polish when it comes to its movement and controls. The player character Soli has stiff movement overall and while it is hard to pinpoint its source, the horizontal movement has an unnatural feeling to its acceleration and deceleration that causes the platforming and precise jumps to become more difficult than necessary. The keybinds are strangely placed and create lots of fidgeting when jumping, using portals and interacting (simultaneously at times). The gravity portal, while fun, changes gravity too quickly while in mid-air which can cause the challenge of some puzzles to become more timing based than deduction based.

The transitioning between loading, locations and cutscenes is abrupt and unpolished. The main menu instantly switches to the level and the audio does not properly end when leaving levels. A simple fade effect would fix the instantaneous transitions and audio cut-outs.

The prologue to the prologue did not help to sell the story. While a short excerpt to the player involving strange jargon followed by a cutscene to throw the player into a burning area did create some intrigue, it mostly caused confusion.

The 'light' portal works well with the platforming puzzles but slows the game down to a stop-and-go traffic pace when not platforming. The constant flickering of the portal when trying to move and watch for dangers is highly distracting. Having to constantly stop to replenish the portal to see ahead is detrimental to the exploration.

There is very little audio and visual feedback when dealing with enemies: they don't react when being pushed and when they despawn very little information is given other than a small particle effect and sometimes a sound effect which easily gets washed into the music.

These negative points are mostly nitpicks but do add up to bring down the game in certain parts. Overall the game shows a lot of promise and should be an exciting addition to the metroidvania genre.

I would wish the developers all the luck but I don't think their Kickstarter project got funded from luck, so I wish them all the skill instead.

I named my dinosaur 'Childhood' after my experience from 2008. I'm glad to see that Dino Run has aged well.

Dino Run DX is a two-dimensional 'racing' game created by Pixeljam. You control a raptor that must escape a giant pyroclastic wall of doom (thanks to the giant meteor) by navigating through all sorts of randomly generated obstacles and landscapes in order to reach safe shelter.

Originally released in 2008, Dino Run was given a new coat of paint in Dino Run SE (Slightly Evolved) released in 2011 and given another in Dino Run DX (no clue what it stands for) released in 2015.

Dino Run is a very simple side-scroller that provides an atmospheric and enjoyable experience with a lot of replay value.

Controls are very simple, involving only the wasd/arrow keys to control all aspects of movement and shift to activate a temporary boost. The mouse is not used during gameplay.

There are two modes: Challenge and Speedrun. Challenge is the 'campaign' mode where there are set levels and failed attempts can be reverted with a limited number of 'time shifts'. Speedrun is a simple run of a single level which may have unique modifiers applied to it.

Each level starts off with the dino to the left of the level and the wall of doom following not too far behind. The dino runs into a variety of obstacles, environments, critters, other dinos of different species, dino eggs and powerups. Some dinos are helpful and some get in the way. How the level is laid out can either be randomly generated or created from a unique code that guarantees the same layout when used in the same run.

Game modifiers can be used to further enhance gameplay. Try changing the sky into a nightly setting.

Through experience, the dino can be upgraded with DNA, which is earned via saving eggs, eating critters and obtaining milestones.

The dino can be customised with skin colours and patterns and hats. Some hats are unlocked via completing runs at higher difficulties.

I haven't tried multiplayer so I cannot comment on that feature.

This game is an absolute blast. The bright and vibrant colours, great soundtrack and very simple gameplay form a very enjoyable and replayable game. I highly recommend this game to all sorts of gamers. If you don't want to buy this game but would want to try it out, play their original version on their website here[www.pixeljam.com].

I've always loved the simple soundtracks this game offered. I never turned the sound off. I really wanted Dino Run 2 to get successfully funded, but now I hope the best for Pixaljam and their future projects (including and hopefully Dino Run 2).

Thanks for reading
Kevin

Edits:
Renamed some sections and added some info.

Time 2 Crash:

imgur.com/a/1vDD7

Crashed as soon as I opened it.

It's like Overwatch in alpha stage - it's still Overwatch.

Seriously though, Paladins: Champions of the Realm really isn't that similar to Overwatch except for a few character concepts and the map objectives. The maps are relatively large and this game runs smoothly (with low settings). The abilities of each champion are unique and are not very similar to this game's Blizzard counterpart. The characters are not too unbalanced but there are champion limits (just one per team).

You'll have to make an account first before starting this game (like a lot of MMOs). My firewall blocked something but I could still play the game normally.

Give this game a try and see if it keeps you in. It's not a bad game but it isn't anything special so far.

Oh, and press enter to chat.

Airscape: The Fall of Gravity is an action platformer made by Cross-Product, a small team of students from around the world. An octopus is abducted from its homeworld and is forced to save its family and return home while evading countless dangers along the way.

You control an octopus that is taken away from its homeworld along with its family and must either reach the exit teleporter in each level or rescue an octopus while moving through obstacles, traversing through land with each one having its own gravity and avoiding enemies that may or may not chase and follow you in order to return home. Objects and enemies include lasers, mines, spikes, robots, etc. There are a variety of octopuses (or octopi - take it as you will) to choose from with different unique abilities and with the first being unlocked by default and all subsequent octopuses requiring to be freed.

There are additional optional objectives where you can rescue trapped specimens (they are other sea creatures that have been confined as well) and find secret exits to unlock more levels and rescue more specimens.

This game was quite the roller coaster ride from start to finish. It's relaxing at the start but spiked in difficulty towards and at the end. I loved this game at the start, felt frustrated two-thirds of the way through and satisfied in the end. It was a blast.

The beginning and tutorial were very welcoming and helped to prepare for the gradual increase in difficulty and complexity in later levels. The next zones added a light challenge and a different atmosphere. It was at halfway through this game when its difficulty began to show, but the soundtrack kept me in and I pushed through all the way to the end where the level of difficulty never went down.

Expect an easy and enjoyable experience from the initial part of this game, but don't be surprised when the levels become much more difficult and require good reaction time, precise movement and good decision-making. You will be punished later on for mistiming jumps or making the wrong moves but don't worry about making mistakes, because it's all a matter of trial and error. There only penalty is to be sent back to the last checkpoint reached (or the start of the level if no checkpoints are reached).

- The start of the game is soothing and enjoyable to play.
- Controls are simple and easy to grasp.
- Unique physics and gravity mechanics.
- The atmosphere and feel of the game is quite comforting and welcoming.
- The orchestral soundtrack is excellent and accompanies the levels very well.
- Gameplay is smooth at 60 fps and frame rate drops are very rare.
- Enemies and obstacles are introduced at a consistent rate and are easy to understand.
- There are a good variety of enemies and obstacles, requiring strategic planning to pull through.

- The levels are linear and rarely reward creativity, if not punishing for it.
- The rotation when moving around may cause nausea and motion sickness.
- Difficulty will spike around the second half of the game and will require precision and timing.
- The movement of the octopuses is a little slippery and can cause a lot of deaths (and frustration) especially when the direction of gravity changes suddenly.
- Some levels are deprived of important checkpoints and will require a lot of focus (anger doesn't count).
- The teleportation ability of the blue octopus does not work when used to move through lasers and can cause suicides.
- The slowdown ability of the green octopus is very inconsistent and can ruin specific movement patterns of enemies and obstacles.
- The music can become jumbled and buggy when going in water.
- There's no way to change the zoom of the camera, reducing awareness and preventing some levels from being traversed properly.

- Adjust the screen rotation rate and shake to what makes you feel the most comfortable (the rotation can get a little crazy and the shaking can be distracting).
- Never stick to one particular rate of rotation and keep the orient camera button within reach.
- It is not necessary to complete the levels from a to z in order to progress through the game (only rescued specimens are required to progress).
- Watch out for a sudden loud noise when rescuing an octopus.

Players avid about platformers will likely enjoy this game especially with the increase in difficulty during the end-game, but casual players looking for an easy experience may want to avoid this game for the sake of sanity. People who get motion sick and nauseated easily may also want to stay away.

I'm not sure why I pushed myself to 100% this game but there's something charming about this particular game that made me want to come back. Maybe it's the soundtrack I absolutely adored or the love-hate relationship with the layout of the later levels or the design choices that were made, but I really enjoyed this game for everything it had to offer. I guess the frustration was worth it in the end.

Thanks for reading
Kevin

Edits:
Added a 'What is this game?' and 'What should I expect?' section, reworded some sections and made the headings more concise.

My firewall blocked some of this game's features. It's a good thing it did. The amount of pay to play in this game is off the charts. Thank you Windows 7.

I rate this game Windows 2.0 out of Windows 8 for the replayability of this business model.