🌑 Phobos - Subhuman | PC | Gameplay 🌑 @PhobosSubhuman #IndieGame #IndieGameDev

During the first manned mission to Mars, a group of Astronauts visits the moon of Phobos where they mysteriously disappear. 20 years later the daughter of one of them embarks on a quest to solve the mystery.

🦉 When the Past was Around | PS4 | Review | 8/10 | "...a fetish for four-digit combination locks" 🦉 @PixelHunted @WPWAgame #IndieGames #GameDev

When the Past was Around is about universal experiences everyone can relate to, like being in a relationship with a terminally ill, violin-playing, half owl/half-man abomination.

📕📗📘📙 Bitmap Books – A Guide to Japanese Role-Playing Games | Available 29th October 2021 📕📗📘📙 @bitmap_books

https://www.bitmapbooks.co.uk/products/a-guide-to-japanese-role-playing-games

Having previously covered – and been extremely impressed by – Bitmap Books’ Game Boy: The Box Art Collection (https://www.gamesfreezer.co.uk/2021/05/bitmap-books-game-boy-box-art.html), I already knew what to expect from them this time around. Solid, robust packaging, luxurious, glossy paper as well as well-researched and well-presented text augmented by crisp imagery and screenshots. Good.

🔥 Far Cry 6 | Review | Xbox Series X | 8.5/10 | "Rum and Rifles (also the names of my fists)" 🔥 @FarCrygame

My relationship with Far Cry 5 was rockier than Sylvester Stallone in 1976. The darker tone and focus on twisted zealots, cults and brainwashing (sadly reflective of the over-arching social climate of the time, which could well have added to my tiring of it)  – not to mention the constant, constant dream sequences - wore me down and it was only through revisiting it via the online co-op campaign some months later did I eventually begin to settle into it and enjoy the experience.

Far Cry 6 however, drew me in straight away. Whilst there are darker moments here, the overall sense of the game is that of fun and the traits of the series return in a way that makes exploration feel enjoyable - not through any real reinvention but rather through the solid gameplay, vibrant presentation, jaunty music, moment-to-moment scenes and satisfying gunplay.

🎴 🧟 Cards of the Dead | Xbox Series X | Review | 7.5/10 | "A Halloween Title Shambles into the Fold" 🧟🎴 @BoomfireGames #IndieGames #GameDev

Just in time for Halloween, Cards of the Dead bursts from the deck to eat our brains. A fun, well-presented and accessible title that only really falls short when it comes to the balancing act.

🕹️👾 Arcade Tycoon | PC | Ten minute Taster | Gameplay | "Dream Arcade" 🕹️👾 @thearcadetycoon #thearcadetycoon #GameDev #IndieGames

Build stunning Arcade Centre’s, purchase a range of arcades machines, manage troublesome staff in this colourful and humorous simulation management game. 

Inspired by Two Point Hospital, Prison Architect and Megaquarium.

🚴‍♂️💥🚗 Crash: Autodrive | Nintendo Switch | Review | 6/10 | "Who’s gonna drive you home?" 🚴‍♂️💥🚗 @StudioNightcap #GameDev #IndieGames

A lightly futuristic visual novel with some adventure elements, Crash: Autodrive puts you in the verbose shoes of Emily, a young woman who – sharing an auto-driving cab with three other passengers – hits and kills a cyclist, a cyclist that everyone personally knows – and all involved have motives for murder.

💿📀 BattleTech: Original Game Soundtrack Vinyl | Composer - Jon Everist | Produced by – Black Screen Records 💿📀 @blackscreenrec #Vinyl #VideoGameVinyl

Black Screen Records: BattleTech

https://blackscreenrecords.com/products/battletech-original-soundtrack-by-jon-everist?ref=DKckbeLXWw8-aj

Our home is one filled with love for Jon Everist, as mentioned in my previous Vinyl Fantasies article (https://www.gamesfreezer.co.uk/2021/05/video-game-vinyl-britt-recommends.html) I was quite taken by his Shadowrun: Hong Kong soundtrack and even now, almost nine months on, we listen to it pretty regularly.

Whilst this game was also created by Harebrained Schemes – those heroes behind the resurgence of the Shadowrun franchise -  it’s the first soundtrack that I’ve listened to from Jon Everist outside of the Shadowrun series and so I was intrigued as to how his approach would differ.

💿📀 Narita Boy Original Soundtrack on Vinyl "A retro-futuristic audio heaven" 💿📀 @studiokobaGAME #Vinyl #VideoGameVinyl

Available from (https://studiokoba.com/music/)

By Salvinsky (https://salvinsky.bandcamp.com/)

Narita Boy was a title that I reviewed back in April and, whilst the gameplay didn’t click with me, the visual and audio presentation were real highlights -  a vision of a digital future purely viewed through the lens of a romanticised ‘80s mindset was a heady mix and this soundtrack, comprising of a selection of thirteen tracks from the game, feels like a well-chosen highlight reel and has been firmly glued to my turntable since receiving it just over a week ago.

🃏 🐺 Inscryption | Demo | PC | Gameplay | Ten Minute Taster 🐺🃏 @DMullinsGames #GameDev #IndieGames

Inscryption is an inky black card-based odyssey that blends the deckbuilding roguelike, escape-room style puzzles, and psychological horror into a blood-laced smoothie.

Darker still are the secrets inscrybed upon the cards...

🚂 If On A Winter's Night, Four Travelers | PC | Ten Minute Taster | Gameplay | "The Silent Room" 🚂 @deadidlegames #GameDev #IndieGames

If On A Winter's Night, Four Travelers is a narrative-driven point-and-click adventure with horror elements that explores the stories of four characters in a masked ball taking place aboard a train in the late 1920s.

It's also currently FREE on Steam!

⚔️ INFERNAX | "A Blood-Splattered, Demon-Slaying Retro Action Adventure" ⚔️ #GameDev #IndieGames @TheArcadeCrew @berzerkstudio

Publisher The Arcade Crew (The Last Spell, Young Souls) and developer Berzerk Studio (Just Shapes & Beats) today announce Infernax, a demon-slaying action-adventure inspired by 8-bit retro classics, which is bashing monsters into a spectacularly bloody pulp across PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in Q1 2022.

💻 Tips for Looking After Your Tech 💻

 

Image credit 

Technology is expensive, so unless you want to be paying out to fix or replace it, you must invest your time in looking after your tech. Whether you use your devices for gaming or work, likely, your setup is not cheap. Looking after your tech will not only save you money in the long run but also help you benefit from more efficient functions and better security features to keep your data safe. 

Here are some top tips to help you look after your tech and increase its lifespan. 

⚔️ Tales of Arise | Review | PS5 | 8.5/10 | "A Tale As Old As Time" ⚔️ #TalesOfArise

Tales of Arise is one of the games that I've been most excited about all year, finally getting to play a JRPG on the PS5 from a long-standing series that I deeply adore.

My expectations were sky high, I was counting down the days to play it; frothing at the mouth, staring at my watch, screaming at time to move more quickly… ok maybe that’s hyperbole - but I couldn’t wait to finally load the game and start my experience. 

🚙 Gearshifters | Switch | Review | 8/10 | "A very smooth and addictive genre mash-up" 🚙 @NumskullGames #IndieGames #GameDev

I’ve had my peepers on Gearshifters since being introduced to it via a Numskull (the publisher of Gearshifters) presentation on YouTube earlier in the year.

The thought of combining top-down vehicular combat with the style of a classic horizontal shooter really unbuckled my trousers and folded them neatly in a drawer.

When the review copy was sent over, I was a little apprehensive as the previous game we had covered from Numskull – RICO: London – hadn’t been scored too well by my colleague, luckily those worries were unfounded as Gearshifters quickly held me captive in its cleverly designed, moreish, skidmark-laden world.

🥶 New Trailer Heralds the Release of We Were Here Forever! 🥶 @WeWereHereGame

A new trailer and a bundle of unseen content await behind a mysterious door as sign-ups begin for the We Were Here Forever closed beta

Chosen beta testers will be the first to set foot in the more lively world of We Were Here Forever, with the opportunity to experience selected moments from the journey in the closed beta!

Intriguing new screenshots and concept art hinting at what’s to come have been released, while We Were Here Forever hits its final stage of development. 

🕵️‍♀️🔎 Murder Mystery Machine | Xbox Series X | Review | 5/10 "A disappointing experience that had the potential for so much more" 🕵️‍♀️🔎 @BlazingGGames #IndieGames #GameDev

When I saw the trailer for this game, I thought, “wow this looks up my street! An isometric murder mystery where you solve the cases by linking evidence on a diorama board, having to piece together means, motives and opportunity… this sounds amazing!”

🍌 Super Monkey Ball | Banana Mania | Ten Minute Taster | PC | Gameplay | "Tally My Banana!" 🍌 @SuperMonkeyBall

Go Bananas with your favourite monkey gang in the ultimate Super Monkey Ball adventure!

Roll through wondrous worlds with AiAi and friends as you race to stop monkey mad scientist Dr Bad-Boon from blowing up Jungle Island! Join the all-star monkey team of AiAi, MeeMee, GonGon, Baby, YanYan and Doctor as you bounce, tilt, and roll your way across hundreds of delightfully crafted levels and mazes. It’s monkey business for the gang as you take down Dr Bad-Boon and steal back your beloved bananas!

☢ Chernobylite | Xbox Series X | 7.5/10 | "A mystery wrapped up in a beautiful misery" ☢ @ChernobylGame #GameDev #IndieGames

I’ve always enjoyed titles by developers from Eastern Europe, there’s a way in which they embrace darkness and struggle with a twist of idiosyncratic humour that appeals to me.

From the well-meaning but overreaching Boiling Point: Road to Hell, White Gold: War in Paradise and Precursors to the...well, also well-meaning but over-reaching Hard Truck Apocalypse – which has a gorgeous acoustic guitar-led soundtrack that yearns to be released on vinyl.

The games were janky and tough to run on PCs of the day but they had such flair and character that I always got excited when I picked one up.

Of course, a game from that area of the world that was one of the most influential – and is currently coming back with a sequel – was S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, which remains one of the most intense gaming experiences I’ve ever had - alongside Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth - and Chernobylite continues in that vein – a vein that very much scratches an itch that I didn’t even know I had in modern gaming. Good.

🧟‍♀️🧟 Deadly Days | XBOX SERIES X | Review | 8/10 | "With Pixel-Art Graphics and a Dash of Humour" 🧟‍♀️🧟 @pixelsplitgames #IndieGames #GameDev

With pixel-art graphics and a dash of humour, set in a zombie apocalypse, it's hard to play this game without comparing it to the excellent Death Road to Canada.

❤️‍🔥 Bonfire Peaks | PC | Ten Minute Taster | Gameplay | "Burn Your Belongings" ❤️‍🔥 @_coreymartin #IndieGames #GameDev

Bonfire Peaks - Set your belongings on fire on a beautiful voxel art puzzle island.

⛳️🏌️‍♂️Tee off for the unknown - A Little Golf Journey Takes To The Greens Today ⛳️🏌️‍♂️ @PTonicFriends #GameDev #IndieGames

I'm well into this premise of a game, hopefully, it lives up to my expectations, in the meantime, I'll just salivate over the trailer...

"A Little Golf Journey is all about the journey, not the driver.  Explore diverse biomes, uncover each course's secrets and enjoy a relaxed, playful experience built around a stripped back version of the game of golf.

Created by a duo of former AAA games developers and launching on Steam & GOG for PC and Nintendo Switch today, A Little Golf Journey allows players to soak up the natural beauty of the course, spend all your time out of bounds or shoot straight for the greens. But who knows what mysteries you might uncover if you explore a little?"

🌲🪓'Len's Island' Gets New Gameplay Trailer | Launch Date 26/11/21 🌲🪓 @LensIsland #GameDev #Indiegames

I really like the look of this game and they've just dropped a new Trailer for it...

"In Len's Island, players can pick their own playstyle, choose a simple life or pick up a sword and head for the mysteries that lurk below. The vibrant and engaging world has been lovingly crafted to appeal to all kinds of audiences whether they’re hardcore dungeon-crawler fans, home-builder and decorators, explorers and completionists, farming fanatics, collectable hoarders, or people who just want to live a simple life chopping trees as the sun goes down, there’s something for everyone to discover on Len’s Island."

Looks good, doesn't it!?

📘🚶‍♀️ Book Of Travels | PC | Ten Minute Taster | Gameplay | "Take A Walk With Me" 📘🚶‍♀️ #GameDev #IndieGames

 

Ready your pack, grab your walking stick and step into a world of mystery and legend in the Book Of Travels game. Craft a unique character and immerse yourself in the enchanted lands of Braided Shore. Set your own goals and adventure alone or together with Travellers you meet on the road in this serene TMORPG.

🛡️ EFFIE | Nintendo Switch | Ten Minute Taster | Gameplay | "Runes R Us" @Klabater 🛡️ @InvergeStudios #GameDev #IndieGames

Effie is a 3D action-adventure game that combines the classic elements of the genre, such as combat, platforming and puzzles, with the exploration of an expanded world. In the game, we play as Galand, a young man in his quest to recover his youth after a witch cursed him with premature old age. Powerful black magic controls the cities of the region of Oblena and to face evil, we will carry a magic shield called Runestone. This shield has a very important role in our adventure because it will be our only weapon and tool. It will allow you to defend yourself, to fight and to surf across the red grassland.

⚔️Ghostrunner | PS5 | Review | 9/10 | "Your enemies are hapless mooks destined to be carved into chunks"👻🏃 #IndieGames #GameDev @GhostrunnerGame @PixelHunted

In Ghostrunner you’re a super-powered, hyper-agile katana-wielding cyber-ninja. Your enemies are hapless mooks destined to be carved into chunks during your time-bending, telekinetic acrobatic rampage. Pounding electronic beats drive you through levels with the destructive potential of a tornado that’s sucked up the contents of a knife shop. In the right hands you can not - will not - be stopped.

🖱️ Point-and-Click Adventure Unusual Findings Launches On Kickstarter 🖱️ @EpicLLamaGames #IndieGames #GameDev #Kickstarter

 

Pull-on your leg warmers and get ready for a trip back into the 80s  Epic Llama Studio has just announced that the Kickstarter campaign for their upcoming point-and-click adventure title Unusual Findings has just launched. The funding from the Kickstarter campaign will be used to bring Unusual Findings to additional platforms, including Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series S/X and PlayStation 4 and 5. Any additional stretch goals will allow the team to expand the game with new scenes, mini-games and more.

💿📀 Children of Morta | Vinyl | Video Game Soundtrack 💿📀 @minimum_records #VideoGameVinyl #Vinyl

Available From:

https://www.minimumrecords.net/shop/baovigseys35z3i68et75e1hdtk0gv

Label - Minimum Records

www.minimumrecords.net

Music by - Hamidreza Ansari

https://hamidrezaansari.com/home

Taken from the 2019 ARPG game ‘Children of Morta’ developed by Dead Mage, the game tells the story of the Bergson family, who are trying to erase ‘the Corruption’ from their home, Mount Morta. 

Children of Morta is a game I have played only briefly, it just so happened to be a game I was just tucking into – not to review for GF, just stumbled upon it on Game Pass – just as a deluge of things that required coverage came into the GF HQ and the flaming gavel of justice was required elsewhere once more. Whilst I only spent an hour or so with the game, I was digging the presentation and mood and so I’m intrigued by how the soundtrack feels as a standalone piece of music.

🤡 A Juggler’s Tale | Review | Xbox | 7/10 | "Well-presented with some strings attached" 🤡 @ajugglerstale #GameDev #IndioeGames

The 2.5D platformer genre is one that I’m often attracted to, whether it’s something along the lines of Shadow Complex or more akin to Inside or even something that leans towards more of a hack-and-slash affair, there’s something about the distant expanse that paints the picture of a rich and full world - yet tied to streamlined, linear gameplay. The presentation of A Juggler’s Tale is very much a highlight, as is the audio work. It’s in the mechanics and controls that the splinters begin to appear.

🕷️🕸️Spider-Man Original Video Game Soundtrack Music by John Paesano 🕸️🕷️ #Vinyl #VideoGameVinyl

Available at Mondo - https://mondoshop.com/collections/all/products/marvels-spider-man-original-video-game-soundtrack-2xlp

The first record we’ve covered from either Mondo or musician John Paesano, this double-LP of Insomniac’s 2018 hit pulls no punches with the sprawling filmic audio expanse that it creates.

🚒🔥 EMBR | PC | Gameplay | Ten Minute Taster | "Come On Baby Light My Fire!" 🧯👨‍🚒 @EmbrGame #GameDev #IndieGames

In Embr you get to Fight fires for fun and profit in this unpredictable and frantic multiplayer game. Team up with friends, take on daily challenges and climb to the top of the corporate firefighting ladder. More than one way to become a hero!

🌕 Jettomero: Hero of the Universe | Nintendo Switch | Review | 6.5/10 | "I’m stompin’ around, move out of my way" 🌕 @GhostTimeGames #IndieGames #GameDev

Having so recently been completely enamoured with the GOTY contender Tux and Fanny, I delved into Jettomero, the previous title from Ghost Time Games. Whilst it didn’t grab me in the same way that Tux and Fanny did, there are some real highs here but they are unfortunately offset by some points that ultimately heavily detract from the experience.

💿 Video Game Vinyl Fantasies | #2 | Britt Recommends 💿 #Vinyl #VideoGameVinyl

My previous Vinyl Fantasies article on VGM vinyl back in May (https://www.gamesfreezer.co.uk/2021/05/video-game-vinyl-britt-recommends.html) resulted in some absolutely wonderful conversations, feedback and comments.

The article appeared to really resonate with a lot of people (thank you to all!) and so it made perfect sense to get hips deep again and talk about other albums that really stand out for me – as well as some recent additions to the GF collection.

Once again, there is so much solid gold out there that I keep coming across music that quite frankly makes my trousers fly off my legs and turn into butterflies that scatter across the universe…so here are more records that soundtrack my days.

💿 Dead by Daylight Vinyl | Review | "Michel .F April’s brooding, atmospheric score" 💿 @MichelFApril #VideoGameVinyl #Vinyl

(https://returntoanalogrecords.com/products/dead-by-daylight-ost-rsd-canada-exclusive?_pos=1&_sid=2c47c8118&_ss=r)

This is the first release I’ve covered from Return to Analog - a label based in Canada - and the contact, support, shipping and packaging were excellent, so it was off to a great start!

Being unfamiliar with the Dead by Daylight game, I went into this album with no prior expectations...but, upon seeing some of the track titles (Being Watched, Suffering, Enduring Torment, Threatening Gloom…) I did wonder if I’d have to listen from behind a tear-absorbent pillow.

♞♚♛♜♝ Chessplosion | PC | Ten Minute Taster | Gameplay | "Bomberman Chess" ♞♚♛♜♝ @CTMatthews #IndieGames #GameDev

Chessplosion is an arcade action puzzle game where you drop chess piece-shaped bombs to create chain reactions and trap opponents. 

Defeat enemies and bosses in Adventure Mode, break targets with limited bombs in Puzzle Mode, dodge explosions in Survival Mode, or fight friends and AI in Battle Mode