Contributions > Descriptions by MichaelPalin (1414)

Chronology is a 2D side-scroller puzzle platformer with a cartoon-like graphic style. The player portrays an old inventor that wakes up in a ruinous world. His task is to fix it by traveling in time to a moment before the catastrophe occurred. Much of the puzzle-solving is based on time-based mechanics that have to be used to progress. In particular, the main mechanic consists in traveling between the two time periods, which changes the layout of the platforms.

Capsule is a minimalistic science fiction game of survival. The protagonist is inside a capsule that is piloted through an abstract radar-like screen. With oxygen and fuel depleting fast, every movement has to be planned carefully to advance, while finding source of those two resources. If the oxygen levels reach zero, it is game over.

The protagonist of Breached awakens unexpectedly from cryogenic stasis seemingly alone and with only eight days of air supply. The game consists mainly in sending drones through the geography in order to find the resources necessary to fix the broken machinery. At the same time, the game offers scarce narrative about the story of the desolate and ruinous settlement, as well as snippets of the protagonist's personal story.

You start in front of a chamber that is able to simulate your memory, no backstory given and guided by an AI you are not sure you can trust. From this moment on, the player has to move through different memories in order to understand what they mean to the protagonist and how this character ended up in this situation.

Asemblance presents itself as the pilot episode of a mystery/science fiction game series, explicitly mentioning The Twilight Zone, The X-Files, and Black Mirror as its inspiration. In addition to this, developer Nilo Studios has added elements of ARG to the mix and the game has been designed as a puzzle to be solved collectively.

Based on the 80s movie of the same name, this fighter aircraft simulator game offers 10 single-player levels consisting on dogfights, escort missions, target destroy missions, air-to-ground bombings, et cetera. It also features a multiplayer dogfighting mode with up to 4 players. The game plays from a 3rd person point of view of the fighter and is rendered in full 3D.

Probably a first, The Beginner's Guide is presented as a guided tour through the work of another developer, named Coda. This developer is real and created numerous experimental small games using the Source engine from 2008 to 2011, the year in which he stopped developing games altogether.

The player is guided through this list of small games by the voice of Davey Wreden, the actual director of the game and co-designer and co-writer of The Stanley Parable. Similar to that game, The Beginner's Guide can be considered a game about game design and about how players interact with games and, in a way, communicate with game developers.

Human Resource Machine takes the idea of an office as a soulless and automated space in its more literal sense. After choosing from a few character models, the game introduces its mechanics by describing the main character as "a good instruction follower". Indeed, this is a game about creating algorithms for the protagonist to follow, that is, this is a game about programming.

To do this the game give the player an increasing pool of instructions common to any programming language. From the "inbox" and "outbox" commands to manage the inputs and output, to mathematical commands like "sub" and "add" going through other commands like "jump to" or "copyto" and "copyfrom", the player has to literally build a program that the protagonist will follow in order to complete the task given in each level. In addition to this, every level offers two challenges that consist on a) building the instruction set in less than a given number of instructions and b) completing the level in less than a given number of movements. And, if the player considers that the base levels are not difficult enough, the game also includes non-mandatory levels with more complex objectives.

Being, a Tomorrow Corporation game, their signature doll-like cartoon graphic style is present too. And so is their usual artistic commentary on modern production and consumption models, this time, obviously, as an analogy between subordinate work and computer programs.

The Swedish game studio Frictional Games continues its tradition in the horror genre (Amnesia, Penumbra series) with SOMA. This time, the player is presented with a science fiction story in which the protagonist, Simon Jarret, is suddenly transported to an abandoned facility the moment he goes through a brain scan. After surviving a car accident with severe brain injuries as a result, Simon accepts to have his brain scanned with a new, experimental technology. While he starts the day in his apartment in Toronto, the scan takes him to the mysterious PATHOS-II facility mere hours later.

Much like its predecessors, SOMA's gameplay is built from monster encounters, puzzle solving and the exploration of mysterious game world and plot. Similar to Amnesia or the last two Penumbra games, Simon in unarmed and every encounter requires the player to avoid direct contact with the hostile creatures of PATHOS-II. As for the puzzles, Frictional reuses in part the capabilities of its in-house engine, the HPL engine (on its third main version), to manipulate every object in the world as if the mouse were a virtual hand that the player inserts in the game world. However, this time around puzzles are mainly about interacting with computer terminals, leaving object manipulation more for world exploration.

Super Scribblenauts is the sequel to Scribblenauts, a puzzle game for the DS consisting of spawning any object from a database of thousands of possibilities (from "chair" to "God") to solve given situations. It is fundamentally the same game with two major novelties: the possibility to add adjectives (a color, a size, a state, etc.) to the objects we want to summon and the possibility to use the D-Pad to control Maxwell, the protagonist of both games, in addition to the touch screen, the only possible input method in the first installment.

Octodad is a rather original game both in art/story and in gameplay made by some students at the De Paul University, Chicago. Octodad is an octopus, but it is also a loving husband and father of two. Its family does not know that it is an octopus, though, and your goal is to keep it that way. How? Easy, by doing what a dad does, playing with the kids and helping with the house, while looking for the occasional monster in the closet and finding time for the occasional romantic dinner.

However, it is not easy for an octopus to pass for a human and the game play in this game is an accurate reflection of this. Each "leg tentacle" is operated with each mouse button, push the button and move the mouse to move the tentacle accordingly. With the space bar the focus changes to the "right hand tentacle", that is operated horizontally by moving the mouse and vertically by holding right button and moving the mouse. Yes, it is as complicated as it sounds.

What originally was just a mod for Unreal Tournament III, has become the first game of the Swedish developer Teotl Studios. It is also one of the first games using the Unreal Development Kit and it has also received support from the Nordic Game Program.

The game starts in a mountain called Pico del Miedo (Fear Peak) in Mexico, 1940. A group of archaeologists has settled there due to what looks like interesting Aztec findings within the place. One day, one of the archaeologists, the main character of the story, falls inside a hole and, before his workmates can save him, his curiosity pushes him through a journey that will only end when he discovers the ancient secrets that lie in the deepest chambers of the mountain.

From the very beginning, we find a strange device that is tied to an even more strange ball two meters high that, much like the gravity gun in Half Life 2, can be attracted and pushed at the will of the carrier. The Ball is a first person puzzle in which the player has to carry a big ball around mysterious underground caves, cities, towns or fabrics, while pushing buttons, opening doors, crushing threatening local fauna or accessing seemingly inaccessible spots with it. Sounds simple on paper, but the ball eventually becomes a very versatile tool, when we discover that it can store lava or electricity, light dark areas, power ancient vehicles, serve as a platform and other surprises.

The game also features the mandatory achievements of modern gaming and a survival mode in which we have to stay alive against various waves of enemies and traps in four extra maps.

The title Medal of Honor is reused in this modern installment of the long running series of the same name. For the first time, the series leaves the Second World War. This time, the portrayed conflict is the war in Afghanistan conducted by the NATO forces against the Taliban army of that country, a war that was still on at the time the game was released.

The game plays like many other realistic war FPS in the Call of Duty or Medal of Honor series, with the player taking the role of various different soldiers within small squads who have to obey the precise instructions given by the squad leader. In the current game, we follow the attempts of Colonel Drucker to capture a valley full of talibans with his commanding officer, General Flagg, pushing him to do it in less than two days. The player takes the role of soldiers "Rabbit" and "Deuce" within AFO (Advanced Force Operations) Neptune and Wolfpack respectively for the subtle missions and ranger Adams in the direct confrontation missions.

All of the basics of any modern warfare shooter are here. There are driven missions (on quad bikes), missions in which the player has to mark targets to aircraft artillery, zones requiring night-vision, stealth mission, etc. The same way, the game features a class-based multiplayer experience where the player's avatar levels up and gains new skills by earning experience points during gameplay. The classes are Rifleman, Special Ops and Sniper and the two available teams are the Coallition, representing NATO forces and the Opposing Forces, representing the Taliban.

The single player campaign and multiplayer parts of the game have been developed by different studios, Danger Close the first one and DICE the second one.

It's Halloween and the siblings Wern and Reynold, new to town, are going trick-or-treat through the neighborhood in order to make some new friends. The player can choose between both of them, while the other will be kidnapped by a monster neighbor. The quest, as expected, consists on rescuing your brother/sister.

Costume Quest is a RPG with turn-based combat. The game takes you door by door asking for candy and fighting against the monsters that you find in some of the houses with the power of your costume. There is around a dozen of them and they have the power to transform the wearer into vampires, robots, the statue of liberty and many other creatures. The combats plays through synchronized button pushing much like in the Mario RPGs. Combat abilities are enhanced by acquiring experience points through a typical leveling system. Additionally, "combat stamps", which is the name used in the game for combat enhancements, can be obtained in the side quests (like finding collectibles or helping the characters of the neighborhood), with candy as the currency to buy these.

Cities XL 2011 is the sequel to the city building/managing simulator Cities XL and as such, it expands on the gameplay of the first game.

Among the new features there is a subway system, a basic sandbox mode has been included, there are now five different roads textures to choose from (default, US, German, English and French) and 300 new buildings have been added to the previous list. Another novelty is that different cities of the same planet can be connected now to trade between them. Additionally, 2011 includes three new maps (Hollywood, Hong Kong and Krakatoa) and three new content packs (medieval, Chinatown buildings and US buildings). The sequel, however, will not count with a multiplayer mode this time, as Cities XL did.

Like the previous Cities XL game, the player can build their cites using three types of zones: residential, commercial and industry. The residential areas are designed for four different social classes that range from unskilled workers to elite and there are five different types of industry that require different types of workers and conditions (transportation, surrounding zones, etc.), which accounts for most of the problems the player has to deal with as the major of their cities.

Mortal Online is an MMORPG with similar visuals to Oblivion. However, Mortal differentiates itself from other MMOs as it features many differences with respect to the common structure of the genre. To begin with, there are no levels nor classes. Instead, all the characterization of the avatars is made through dozens of interconnected skills. This skills can reach a maximum proficiency of 100 points, but the total amount of points a character can have is limited to 1,000. That is, if a player wants to have a given skill, he/she may need to have a minimum proficiency level of a previous skill of the same type first. And, if the player wants a skill with prerequisites he/she does not have, he/she may need to "forget" already learned skills to access the new one.

The game also allows cooperative building (bridges, walls, houses, etc.) and players can build and own their own houses. It also departs from traditional MMOs by taking the focus out of the quests and loot and by giving the players the tools to shape their own adventures. Additionally, the game is both PvP and PvE and it uses a first person view instead of a more typical point and click gameplay.

Bonetown is a sandbox game where sex with hot women is the main goal and drugs and violence the way to achieve it. The game takes place in a coast town where everybody, be it native Americans, Jews, Pygmies, hippies and many others, does sex, drugs and likes a good fight once in a while. There is no place for puritanism in a city like this. Unluckily, an evil corporation called "The Man, Inc." has settle in the city and has passed many laws against public sex and drugs. The main character is a newcomer that soon finds himself fighting for the liberties of Bonetown inhabitants and trying to have sex with as many women as possible.

The goal of Bonetown is to free the city from The Man corporation and, for this, your main tool is your balls. The bigger they are the stronger and more sexually attractive the character will be. In order to do so, he has to satisfy girls when having sex. At the beginning, only the fattest women will be interested in you, but thanks to paid sex and some drugs, the player will be able to bone increasingly sexy women. In addition, big balls also mean more strength to fight The Man's men, and any other man you want to rob. But not only balls are necessary to win a fight. There are many drugs in Bonetown that serve as power. Weed makes you jump higher, crack gives you high speed, etc. And if you manage to defeat various badasses of the city, you'll be able to gain their power moves and become increasingly unbeatable.

Chris Redfield returns to the series as the main character in Resident Evil 5, a game which takes place five years after Resident Evil 4. He is sent to Kijuju, Africa, where local agent Sheva Alomar joins him in the mission to apprehend Ricardo Irwing, who is trying to sell bio-weapons in the black market. Soon they are attacked by hordes of locals infected by an improved version of the "las plagas" parasite seen in Resident Evil 4, which they call "majini". As the story progresses, Chris discovers that some old fellows are behind the whole incident.

As well as including the concept of the "las plagas" parasite, this fifth part of the series also brings back the novel gameplay from the previous game. With an over the shoulder view, Chris confronts hordes of infected enemies that can throw objects and even shoot at you. They can be repelled with various guns, grenades, or using the knife and melee attacks if they get too close. This time though, Chris has a partner, Sheva, who accompanies him through all the game and can be controlled by a second player, with both characters having to keep an eye on each other to survive. The second player can enter and leave at any time playing locally through split screen or online through another console.

The mercenaries mode, which consists of closed levels where the player must survive a given time while defeating enemies to set up chains and earn points, also returns from Resident Evil 4.

Another game in the Ubisoft's Imagine series of games that show female children and early teenagers the basics of some of the professions culturally assigned to women.

As a young gymnast who is new in town, you are introduced to the local gymnast trainer. The player have to make his/her avatar learn to perform in various artistic gymnastics disciplines like floor exercise, trampoline or balance beam. As exercises are perfected, the player can personalize the gymnast's look with new hairdresser of clothes and can learn new movements up to more than 100 available.

There are also some minigames available to play at any time.

Another game in the Ubisoft's Imagine series of games that show female children and early teenagers the basics of some of the professions culturally assigned to women.

In Imagine: Teacher the player controls April, a young teacher who finds herself as the only teacher in a new town school. Through the usual minigames, April will teach her students different subjects in four different categories: Language, Sciences, Social Sciences and Art. As the only teacher at school, she is also responsible of the maintenance and cleaning of the school. Private classes and birthday parties will also help keeping the motivation high. If she does right, more and more children will join the school.

Minigames can also be played through multiplayer.

Following the increasing dance movement Tecktonik the Nintendo DS receives this tecktonik dance simulator. Much like rhythm-based games for the DS like Elite Beat Agents, the player have to interact with simple forms on screen with the stylus according to a given rhythm: pushing circles in a given moment, following paths at a given speed, etc. The goal is to become a world famous dancer with the guide of Treaxy, the real life popular dancer.

While visiting many cities like Barcelona, Paris, New York or Tokyo, and receiving good punctuations in each duel or warming-up is rewarded with different accessories typical from the tecktonik style like skinnies and mohawks. In addition, each of the beat duel choreographies can be seen at will with an in-game video editor. Beat opponents and scenarios can also be used to fight against other players in the multiplayer mode.

Another game in the Ubisoft's Imagine series of games that show female children and early teenagers the basics of some of the professions culturally assigned to women.

This time, the player plays Sue, a girl raising and riding competition horses at her uncle's ranch in Utah. The goal is to raise foals or to train wild horses in order to ride them in competitions until meeting a powerful black horse and defeating him.

Three different horses can be trained at a time and shared with friends through Wi-Fi.

Another game in the Ubisoft's Imagine series of games that show female children and early teenagers the basics of some of the professions culturally assigned to women.

This time, the player plays as a wedding designer. After creating a bride, the goal is to create the perfect wedding to suit her. Wedding style, guests, guests' outfits are some of the factors you can decide on. And when the big day comes, be ready to face the possible problems during the ceremony.

If the wedding goes right, the player will be rewarded with unlockable items, that can also be shared with friends through the wireless connection.

Mostly based on the 2008 movie Iron Man, this videogame of the one-man-army hero has been released for seven different platforms. The NDS version, by A2M, is the most different one.

The game of Iron Man puts you under the skin of Tony Stark. He is a billionaire weapon-industrialist and genius inventor who, after being kidnapped by terrorists who want to force him to build weapons for them, builds an armor instead to escape. Since then, he decided to stop producing weapons and keeps on working on the suit to fight them back.

The games take the story further, giving the player the chance to go through 8 different missions, divided in by air and by foot missions, and even fight villains that do not appear on the movie, like Whiplash and Titanium Man. All this is shown through images between every mission, which use the voices of the actors of the movie like Robert Downey Jr. and Terrence Howard.

As for the game mechanics, by foot or by air, with the first armor at the beginning and in the characteristic red and gold suit later, using range weapons or melee attacks, the game features Stark fighting with armies of soldiers, tanks, helicopters, canons, etc. with the help of an array of upgradeable weapons like missiles, micro-grenades, repulsive shots, EMP blasts, a flame thrower and the powerful "Unibeam". Both the weapons and the suit (propulsion and armor systems) are upgradeable using the points that each mission regards you.

In the handling section, the next approach is used: move with a given set of controls, aim with another. In addition, there is also a button for repulsors (extra propulsion) to fly faster. The NDS touchscreen is used for aiming 360-wise, touching in a given direction from the center of the screen, and the pad is used for moving.

Mostly based on the 2008 movie Iron Man, this videogame of the one-man-army hero has been released for seven different platforms.

The game of Iron Man puts you under the skin of Tony Stark. He is a billionaire weapon-industrialist and genius inventor who, after being kidnapped by terrorists who want to force him to build weapons for them, builds an armor instead to escape. Since then, he decided to stop producing weapons and keeps on working on the suit to fight them back.

The games take the story further, giving the player the chance to go through more than 12 different missions and even fight villains that do not appear on the movie, like Whiplash and Titanium Man. All this is shown through cinematics between every mission and use the voices of actors of the movie like Robert Downey Jr. and Terrence Howard.

By foot or by air, with the first armor at the beginning and in the characteristic red and gold suit later, using range weapons or melee attacks, the game features Stark fighting with armies of soldiers, tanks, helicopters, canons, etc. with the help of an array of upgradeable weapons like missiles, micro-grenades, repulsive shots, EMP blasts, a flame thrower and the powerful "Unibeam". Both the weapons and the suit (propulsion and armor systems) are upgradeable, and there are many special armors from the comics to unlock in most of the versions. Upgrades can be get making money by completing missions.

In Dracula: Origin, the player takes the role of Van Helsing, the famous vampire hunter, in the chase of Dracula, before he performs a ritual to save his lover's soul. In a faithful recreation of Bram Stoker's mythology, the player learns about the origins of Dracula's curse, how he took the path of evil when his beloved one committed suicide, thus becoming damned forever, and how he finally made a pact with the Prince of Darkness to become a vampire. With time he learns of a ritual that could bring damned souls, like that of his deceased lover, from their prison. Centuries pass and the Count finds a girl, Mina, that looks exactly like her and begins to seek the girl and the manuscript where the ritual is described, while Van Helsing goes after him.

Through the usual 3D characters over a detailed 2D background, this point-and-click adventure of classical style, takes you, Van Helsing, from London to Transylvania, passing through Egypt and Austria in the search for Dracula. There are also 40 different characters to gather clues from and 150 objects to use and combine in order to solve the different puzzles and mysteries of the game. The game mixes regular inventory and environment based puzzles with more difficult riddles that require logical thinking or pose language or maths problems. The player has access to reports where tasks are detailed, various documents and a log of all dialogues in the game.

There are some helpful features for adventure players, such as a key that highlights all hotspots in the environment and double clicking to quickly move between areas.

Horsez 2 is the sequel to the Nintendo DS Horsez, a title part of the Nintendo DS Petz series.

Ginger is now a grown horse trainer that owns a ranch side by side with her grandfather's. She has now the mission to rise and train three different horses.

Most of the gameplay remains the same as in the previous game.