#zaffar

[tgpigeon]

Cockroach Simulator

Saturday, September 17th sees the release of a game that we’ve all been waiting for. Cockroach Simulator is a game about the war between humans and cockroaches. According to its Steam page, it will feature multiplayer with up to 10 players, and there’s going to be some amount of weapon variety. This is not to be confused with Contagion’s cockroach spectator mode (after the break, doing taxes).

The game began on Steam Greenlight last year and appears to share a lot of similarities with a bevy of other simulator games. It’s hard to look at the kitchen shown in the screenshots and not see a renovated version of I Am Bread’s infamous kitchen level. As someone living in a city, this one might hit too close to home for me. It’s out tomorrow for PC via Steam. 

- Written by Zaffar

- Photo credit: HFM Games

[tgpigeon]

Grand Pigeon’s Duty (PC) Review

You are Pigeon John. You have Superfast Bowel Syndrome. You must lead the pigeon resistance (pictured above) to bring bakeries back to the world so that people have something to throw to pigeons in the park. In Grand Pigeon's Duty (GPD), you are tasked with defecating on cars and humans with expert precision to demonstrate the worth of the Pigeon cause. Precision is important; As long as you can show that these are not random acts of evacuation, our trusty pigeon companions tell us "humans will find meaning in anything." 

What all this points to is a game that wants to be the next Pony Island or even Flappy Bird, but can't quite put all the pieces together. GPD is best played in bursts, but it suffers most from a poorly thought-out game concept: randomness. The game centers around flying back and forth and pressing a button to smash humans or cars with runny feces. The game introduces wind early on. This makes it more difficult to get the correct shot off because you need to overfly some of the bystanders. Then, it all goes one step further when the wind blows in the same direction, but has varying degrees of intensity with no indication. For a game where you can lose by missing 2 shots out of 24, this is a pretty frustrating design flaw.

With my 2 hours of playtime, a few things have become clear about GPD: The game is a lot of fun when it is taking it easy and trying to joke around. The gameplay is fairly engaging, except during some incredibly high-difficulty bumps which serve mostly to emphasize the absurdity of the random chance in the game. Lastly, the translation is pretty terrible, which begins as funny and then veers into the incomprehensible; there is even a message from the developer almost apologizing and explaining why that's the case.

Otherwise, GPD's campaign hovers around 2 hours. The writing is pretty good if you can dig past the poor translation. It's funny and you can catch a lot of potential resting below the surface. There are some puzzles which break up the action nicely. The simple 8-bit aesthetic works rather well, and I actually adore the design of each of our pigeon friends who will guide you through the resistance. It is a shame that more wasn't done with the concept, but the product is also the work of a sole Russian developer WolfgangIs.

Currently on sale for 98 cents on steam (a hefty discount from the original 99 cent price), GPD is easy to recommend as a silly thing to stream or show your friends when they stop by. It is almost impossible to recommend as a game on its own; the fun found in the wonky translation and simple game-play eventually becomes a joke that's forced a little too hard, and for a little too long. I will always remember positioning pigeon bowel movements with Grand Pigeon's Duty, but it will always be tarnished by what could have been. Some excrement really could use a bit of polish.

- Written by Zaffar, 2016 - Picture Credit (In Order of Appearance): WolfgangIs, In-game Screenshot (2)

[tgpigeon]

New Releases: July 2016

Happy Tuesday! Obviously July’s biggest release, Pokemon Go, is already in the wind. So let’s take a second to recognize some of the games that may get lost during our AR quest to catch’em all. Kerbal Space Program comes to PS4 and Xbox One today, along with Insomniac’s new Metroidvania game Song of the Deep (pictured above) for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. We’ve also got the remastered Resident Evil 5, and the new Ghostbusters game on deck. I think July may also be the month of extremely long and elaborate titles, scroll down and see how many “Rather Long Game Name: Extra Experience Edition” you can find.

Later in the month we are looking at one of only a few 3DS releases in Monster Hunter Generations on the 15th. The remastered edition of Indigo Prophecy (one of the original cinematic-and-QTE games) and new JRPG I Am Setsuna on the 19th. We round out the month with a port of Phantom Brave, a PS2 strategy JRPG being rereleased for the PC after 12 years. Any games we missed? Drop a note below and we will add it in.

July 12

Kerbal Space Program (PS4, XONE)

Song of the Deep (PS4, XONE, PC)

Resident Evil 5 (PS4, XONE)

Daydreamer: Awakened Edition (PS4)

Assault Suit Leynos (PS4)

Ghostbusters (PS4, XONE, PC)

Call of Duty: Black Ops III - Descent (PS4, XONE, PC)

VIDEOBALL (PS4, XONE, PC)

MilitAnt (PS4, PC

Super Mutant Alien Assault (PS4, XONE, PC)

Tumblestone (PS4, XONE, Wii U, PC)

Necropolis (PS4, XONE, PC)

Anarcute (XONE, PC)

FRU (XONE)

KYUB (XONE)

Pharaonic (XONE, PC)

Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late (PC)

90 Minute Fever (PC)

Beat Ninja (PC VR)

7th Dragon III Code: VFD (3DS)

Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme VS Force (Vita)

July 15

ADR1FT (PS4) - Pictured above

RevErsi Quest (XONE)

Bird of Light (PC)

Don’t Drop the Bass (PC)

Inversium (PC)

Ghost Sweeper (PC)

Jackpot 777 (Wii U)

Monster Hunter Generations (3DS)

July 19

Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy (PS4)

Moon Hunters (PS4, Vita)

Kill Strain (PS4)

I Am Setsuna (PS4, PC, Vita)

ARK:Survival of the Fittest (PS4)

Gal Gun: Double Peace (PS4, Vita)

MX vs ATV Supercross Encore (XONE)

Xast of Seven Godsends: Redux (XONE)

Trapper’s Delight (PC)

The Eyes of Ara (PC)

Soldner-X 2: Final Prototype (Vita)

July 21

Hot Rod Racer (Wii U)

July 26

Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force (PS4)

N.E.R.O.: Nothing Ever Remains Obscure (PS4)

Chambara (PS4, XONE)

OlliOlli: Epic Combo Edition (PS4)

Phantom Brave (PC)

Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and Dice of Fate (Vita)

-Written by Zaffar, 2016

Image courtesy in order of appearance: Insomniac Games, Three One Zero