Osmos

Osmos is a great example of innovative game design, and an excellent physics driven experience. The price is a bit higher than I'd expect at 9.99, but I don't know if that's to expensive

Long story short, you control a blob of goo in an essentially weightless environment. You propel the goo by poking holes in it's membrane, resulting expulsions shoot the goo in a given direction, sacrificing mass for speed.

Weightless goo as never experienced before.

It sounds simple, and it is, but it's actually quite engaging, you can't move too fast or you'll get absorbed by bigger blobs, can't move to slow or same result, and directions don't change unless you hit a wall or sacrifice more mass. It takes a real balancing act to handle and a not a little bit of frustration.

I'm giving this one 7/10, it's worth looking into and the price isn't too high, but I can see the game requiring large amounts of cool-down time between plays or frustration will burn you out.

Hammerfight

Hammerfight must have come through a Humble Bindle, I wouldn't have bought this game for any other reason. I have to admit, I didn't get much past the tutorial, I don't have the patience to work out my fine tuning on controls.

A mouse controlled physics game it puts you as the pilot of a primitive flying machine with a mace on the bottom that you use to smash stuff.

Who'd have thought flying a barrel with a giant mace underneath would be so frustrating?

It gets points for novelty, and some for being cheap at 4.99, but not enough to make it worth picking up in my opinion.

I'm giving it a 5/10, it's unique, novel, and cheap, but not a lot of fun.

Feeding Frenzy 2 Shipwreck Showdown Deluxe

Feeding Frenzy 2 Shipwreck Showdown Deluxe is another Popcap title and along the same vein as the rest of their games except, this time, you're a fish in the ocean.

No complexity here, you start out as a small fish and have to eat other fish to grow; the bigger you grow the less threat other predators are to you and the more food sources that become available to you.

Finally, a fish simulator for the common man.

No keyboard work is involved, everything is done with the mouse. The game isn't very long, but it is engaging enough to kill an hour or two with no problem and the price is right at 4.99.

Another 8/10 for a Popcap title, seems like these guys know what they're doing when it comes to casual gaming.

AstroPop Deluxe

AstroPop Deluxe came in the Popcap bundle but is a pretty good deal even at full price. I wasn't expecting much from this one but was pleasantly surprised by what I found. Sometimes it pays not to be a snob.

Yeah! Explodey blocks!

This is a fun little casual game with a Tetris/Bejeweled type vibe to it: you grab blocks, pulling them down to your "ship", from the descending group above and stack them together, shoot them back up to get 4 or more together makes them explode, hopefully cascading more down into bigger explosions. There's a little more to it than that, but really, that sums it up. How much do you need from a game that costs 4.99?

I'm giving this one an 8/10, the low price boosted it up a bit, you don't get too much from it but it's a decent option if you need something quick to pick up and kill a bit of time.

Dynamite Jack

Today I gave Dynamite Jack a shot and I think I like it. A very simple game actually, but still engaging enough to interest me.

You have been captured in battle and put to work in a mine, but now it's time to escape. You have to find your way through a darkened maze of tunnels and rooms avoiding hazards to survive.

Run into the light little dude!

To make your way through you have unlimited bombs, use them to open passageways and kill guards, being careful not to be seen while planting the bombs. It doesn't get much more complicated than memorizing patterns, but there is an exploration aspect as well.

I'm giving this one an 7/10, it's simple, but still engaged me enough to burn through a few levels during the trial start up. I'd go higher if it was cheaper, but 9.99 is more than I'd want to pay for this one. Still, if you do find it cheap, I think it's worth grabbing.

Cradle of Rome

Cradle of Rome has been in my library for a long time, one I've rarely played, but always enjoyed when I do; after I installed it I killed an hour without even realizing it, and have been playing it continuously for the last 4 days. I don't care what kind of game I enjoy, fun is fun!

I think what appeals to me most about this game is the fact that puzzles make you feel a bit more like you're accomplishing something:

Matching tiles FTW!

Completing the screens gives you resources which can be used to buy buildings for your city (Rome, duh!) and buying the buildings give you better resources and bonuses for the puzzles which get harder and harder to complete; it's the type of self fulfilling interaction that true addiction is built upon.

This is getting an 8/10, highest marks possible for a casual puzzler. If you manage to find this on sale and need a decent way to kill a few hours you could do much worse. Carpe diem to all!

Brutal Legend

I don't think I have to tell anyone what Brutal Legend is by now. I picked this one up as part of the Double Fine Humble Bundle and have been meaning to try it out and this seemed like as good a time as any. Steam calls this an Adventure game and I can't dispute that name.

The opus of Tim Schafer, meant to make Jack Black relevant again, it's a hack and slash fest with a great soundtrack and no end of humor; unfortunately the control scheme sucks. Targeting is the biggest pain I've ever encountered, your character just runs off and does his own thing, especially frustrating when you're trying to grab your partner for a team attack; one of the first things you do is build a car, which turns into the worst driving experience I've ever had, it's just plain painful. And don't even get me started on the guitar solo's.

I want to like this game, I'm enjoying the story, but I don't know if I'll be able to force my way through to the end. At this time my rating is a 4/10 and that's boosted due to the soundtrack and cute chick animations. I should also point out it's been 2 weeks since I started this game and I haven't been able to convince myslef to go back to it.

Gish

I find Gish interesting, how can you not enjoy playing an amorphous blob of tar, but I don't have the patience to learn the control scheme.

You slide a blob of goo around a series of tunnels, trying to figure out how to work your way through passages, that's as much of the game as I got through to be honest

Just a blob of goo in the sewers

I'm giving this one a 5/10, it might be of interest to some players and I hate to arbitrarily stomp on indie developers, but this game isn't doing anything for me. I'm hoping ot come back to it and give it another try, but right now it's a no go.

VVVVVV

VVVVVV was a Humble Bundle purchase and while I can't say I hate the game I didn't particularly enjoy it. A study in gaming mechanics it is, but an engaging means of spending several hours it is not.

This is pretty close to an Atari 2600 level side scroller, although the physics are much more impressive than I would have expected from an Atari game.

Graphics intensive it is not

You move through the levels and jump from ceiling to floor of each level with no problems, using a combination of these movements to navigate through each screen. There is a story tied in here, but not one that I cared enough about to learn.

My real problem is the game play appears to be largely memory based navigation, study a screen and attempt different moves until you get the timing/pattern correct, not a winning combo for me. I understand gaming is all about patterns, but I like to strive for more with my games.

I'm giving this one a 6/10, it gets points for the concept, but loses a lot for being a memory building tool.

Heavy Weapon

Heavy Weapon is a game very near and dear to my heart. This my idea of a casual game, no moving jewels, finding clues, or solving anything, just driving a tank and shooting airplanes out of the sky. Seriously, what more can you ask for?

Heavy Weapon in all it's shooty gloriousness

You're not getting a lot with this game, in complexity or longevity, a handful of levels where you drive a tank back and forth across the bottom of the screen shooting airplanes, tanks, helicopters, and trucks with the occasional boss fight in it. Whole campaign can be beaten in an hour without really trying, but at 4.99, how much can you expect?

I'm giving this one a 8/10, it gives exactly what it promises with no apologies, and who doesn't love anti-communist humor?

All Zombies Must Die

All Zombies must Die is, in a word, fun. The title gives you everything you need to know about it: you need to live, so all zombies must die. In case you care, it's a top down 3rd person shooter.

It's a cartoony styled game with a lot of humour thrown in, some good, some overused and tired, but all well employed. It also appears to be multi-player, but those type of games are for people with social skills transcending my meagre supply and, therefore, shall not be covered other than this: some quests would appear to be easier to complete with access to other weapon types, which could be carried by team mates; this makes the single player campaign playable, but slightly less than ideal.

Gimme a girl who's good with a gun any day of the week!

The game has multiple characters that can be played, either in turn, or by other people joining in, a quest driven upgrade system, and endless zombies to shoot, beat, or blow up. I found the game to be lots of fun, but the zombie genre is overdone these days, and the art style may not appeal to some people, so take your own tastes into account.

I'm giving this an 8/10. I was inclined to go 9/10, but I just don't know if it has enough going on to rate another point, especially considering my multi-player hangup. Still, a am giving this one an unqualified recommendation, especially for the price,  there are much worse ways to spend 9.99 and a few hours.

Banished

Banished is an interesting study in gaming, I thought I should love this game, but, although I enjoyed it, there just wasn't as much as I thought there would be. True, as stated, I did enjoy the game, but not unreservedly. Good interface, tight control mechanics, and really nice graphics are all present, but that alone won't stave of eventual boredom.

Not much story here, you control a village of people who have been banished (hence the name) from their own community and have to start fresh. You build homes and produce everything your village needs to thrive, growing crops, creating tools, etc., while facing inclement weather, random disasters, ranging from tornadoes to flat out starvation and even the odd suicide, and just plain dealing with the environment.

A village on the verge of collapse.

It's largely an exercise in resource management with very little micro-management: you tell your villagers to build tools or grow crops, but beyond telling them what kind you have no control over how they do it. The goal is to make your village thrive with no real endgame, just keep on building more houses, trying to keep people happy and healthy.

I played quite a few hours of this game, so obviously I didn't hate it, however, with no endgame goal to achieve I found myself getting bored; generally when this happens I work toward achievements, as I'm very goal oriented in my gaming, but I found they require a fair amount of skill/effort to get, so that was met with mixed results.

I'm giving this one a 7/10, at least partly because I got it so cheap during the last Stem Summer Sale. If I had to pay the full price of 19.99 the score would have skewed much lower, but if you enjoy that SimCity vibe and want a well constructed game to play it on, this is a hard one to pass up.

Amazing Adventures The Lost Tomb

Amazing Adventures The Lost Tomb was another member of the PopCap bundle from a few years back. There is a whole genre of the point and click puzzle games that appeal to some people (my wife loves them) and while I do see why people enjoy them, I generally prefer a bit more action in my games

I took this screencap from Steam

Gameplay is pretty basic, you're given a picture with a jumble of junk and they ask you to pick out certain items (the screenshot above demonstrates this perfectly); find all the items and they give you a puzzle to solve so you can get the next picture; rinse and repeat.

I've played a couple of these games but I don't believe I've ever finished them, I tend to get bored when I'm not creating bullet sized ventilation holes in anything, so I may not be the best individual to judge these games, but I think this is the best game it can be given it's own rules. The only thing I can complain about is sometimes the names of object can be a bit obscure, I mean who the hell knows what a "Radiator Key" is in this day and age, but I think they did that on purpose to add at least a little difficulty to it.

I'm going to put this as a 6/10, perfect for a casual game (with an ok price tag at 4.99), no story to bog down or game mechanics to get fowled up, but not enticing enough to be interesting to a wide scope of people or for very long.

And Yet It Moves

Man, do I hate me some platforming and that's all And Yet It Moves is. To be fair, it's a neat little game with a cool art concept that requires you to guide your little paper dude through a paper world, using not just jumping and running, but actually rotating the entire map to meet your ends. I'm a little torn with this one, it's well thought out and fairly unique, something Indie gaming should be rife with, but often falls short on.

Fuck you and your platforming little paper dude

Individual levels are generally not that long and you get unlimited chances to complete each level, each death jumps you back to the last checkpoint (as marked by the semi visible paper dude on the side in the screencap).

I don't think I'm the best judge for this game to be honest, I just can't deal with the jumping and running, Crash Bandicoot burnt the platform out of me in the 90's. I'm giving this a 6/10, the game seems well made and it's got a great style and concept, just not my type.

Atom Zombie Smasher

Atom Zombie Smasher appeared in my library from parts unknown; the possible reasons I bought it are Legion and, therefore, will not be discussed here. I will also say that a game that fails to launch, then requires me to go to their site for an exe download (patch) before it'll start, does not inspire confidence in the impending experience. Having said that, I think I love this game.

The game plays like a boardgame, skipping all the drudgery of setup and waiting for dice rolls. I had no trouble getting into it: you're in control of a mass evacuation during a zombie outbreak using a helicopter and assorted mercenaries. Each level starts with you placing your resources and choosing a landing site for your chopper with a set number of civilians to rescue for success.

The blend of simplicity and complexity is sublime.

Rescue civilians, gain experience, and upgrade your resources for better rescues, that's really it. There are multiple ways to accomplish your goal, and it gets harder as you go on, I'd even say the difficulty curve is pretty steep. Graphics are very light, but that's because the concept doesn't require much to make it work; you don't need slavering bloodthirsty hordes to drive the point home, that would distract from what you're trying to accomplish.

I also enjoy the 1960's art menu style, told in the fashion of a surfer movie, complete with matching, unique, soundtrack; don't ask me why that works, it just does. The vignettes that appear between screens are a bit odd, but well done, I thought they added to the overall experience and set a great tone for the game.

I'm rating this a 9/10 right now. I didn't spend a lot of time with the game before writing this so the "fun" may wear out before long, and I don't believe the strategy style is a win for all people, but it sure looks like there is a lot of replayability with this little gem.

Overlord

It appears Overlord is on sale this weekend, you can get both Overlord 1 and 2, plus the Raising Hell expansion for 4.99 (75% off) so it seems to be a topical game to cover. In short, I'm a big fan of this game. I haven't played Overlord 2 yet so I'll save that for another time, however what is said here will cover Overlord: Raising  Hell as well since it's just an expansion on Overlord.

I originally played this on the 360, but I have played it on the PC as well since then; I actually feel the controls work a little better on the 360, but there is no problem with how they work on the PC. You play an undead boss who controls a small army of demons, Minions actually, and work your way through rebuilding an empire based on controlling the countryside. Complete missions to make your power grow and rebuild your castle (which includes it's own training dungeon for honing your skills and a forge for crafting equipment); decisions throughout the game will influence your "evil index" (my term, not theirs) which decide how your power is boosted. You can join the fight anytime you want, using your own weapons and spells but most times you need to use your minions to at least open the way into a fight

Since this was a spur of the moment review I stole the screenshot from Steam rather than grabbing one of my own.

The minions never stopped entertaining me, wearing random items for armor and just generally being obedient. As you progress you get 4 different types of minions, each with their own abilities, giving the game a bit of a tower defence aspect, some can throw items, but have weak defence, some are more powerful with melee attacks, but are susceptible to thrown attacks, blah, blah, blah, you get the drift; they also have environmental abilities' and weaknesses, like most are unable to go into water, which adds a bit of puzzling to some levels.

Overall I have give this game a 9/10, it's a well balanced game, it's got a great control mechanic, and the plot/story is pretty well written. If there is anything wrong with this game I think that the minions may wear on people a bit; I never stopped loving them, but their incessant chatter and horseplay doesn't have a lot of variation.

Cook Serve Delicious

Cook, Serve, Delicious is a relatively recent addition to my library, I purchased it off the Humble Bundle Store for a very humble price (although the exact value escapes me right now). This one was actually purchased for my wife, but since I received a Steam key along with the DRM free download I activated it on my account after downloading a copy.

This one is listed simply as an Indie game on Steam, but, if I had to classify it, I'd call it a Casual game. You run a restaurant, take orders and prepare the food, it doesn't get much more complicated than that. Along the way you need to do maintenance chores, like wash dishes and take out trash, to name a couple, while keeping up with the orders. Foods have varying degrees of difficulty to prepare and everything is done with the keyboard (the mouse works for much of it as well, but it really just gets in the way)

The gameplay is well done and works efficiently, however it gets repetitive after a short time; making money allows you to buy new foods with different preparation techniques, but it ends up being the same end with different key strokes; the story is almost non-existent, your goal is to increase your restaurant rating and become the top of your field, but, beyond your own need to achieve there is nothing compelling you to play.

I'm rating this one as  6/10, the game is well made and rock solid mechanically but there is so little variety there is nothing to keep you coming back to it. Couple the lackluster gameplay with the almost 10 dollar price tag (at full price) I can't rate it much higher than that.