Gyromancer

For some reason, someone thought it would be a good idea to take Bejeweled, the strengths/vulnerabilities and multiple units from a game like Pokémon, and wrap them all into a beautiful world and story that could only come from the people at Square. The result is Gyromancer, and I don't know who is responsible for it, but I would like to thank that person.

In Gyromancer you are Rivel Arday, an immortal with immense power. The realm in which you reside is in the middle of turbulent times, and a rebel group known as Temperance has just killed a noble family and presumably kidnapped their adoptive son. Tasked by the King to seek out and bring to justice to this organization, you set out to the magical Wood, where you and a ranger by the name of Laska will work together in pursuit of your goal. You'll face the monsters of the Wood, and the perhaps even more monstrous men who seek it's shelter, in a story with plenty of twists and turns, where few are who they seem and death isn't necessarily the end. You know, typical Square Enix fare.

Also add "creepy enemies" to that list.

Story aside, which is told in cut scenes at the beginning and end of the each level, and is quite good, there is the issue of gameplay. There are a total of twelve levels that are involved in the story, as well as several additional levels that contain bonus content and one story level that is transformed after completing the story. While replaying levels allows you the freedom to access areas that may have been closed off during the story or just generally earn trophies for defeating certain enemies or achieving a high score, the story levels focus you on an objective, which usually requires you to reach a location and then defeat an enemy, or just make it to that location, which can be a huge challenge in and of itself, to succeed and thus advance. You'll encounter patrolling beasts, which may be spawned by a monster's lair, blocked paths that need to be removed by a switch, healing fountains, teleporters in select levels, and chests that contain useful items, that is, except when that chest is actually a monster-in-a-box.

Starting out a level.

Prior to departing to a level, you can visit the Summoner's Den, the location where you can change your active beast roster to any beast that you have unlocked by finding it's gyrocode in a level, by spending this game's currency to make the swap. There are 14 beasts with three tiers each, and 5 legendary beasts. Each new tier comes with some slightly different abilities, or just a higher level cap, as there is a leveling component to this game, where the level of your character determines the level of all your beasts, but since various beasts cap out at different levels, they can become useless if you progress too far without finding the gyrocode for the next tier, Each beast maintains a variety of moves, up to 3, that can deal damage or change the buffs and debuffs each party maintains when in battle. Some abilities are related, such as one beast's which first applies a damage over time debuff to the opponent, and then activates a weak attack with another move, but the number of attacks depends on how many stacks of the debuff there are. Other abilities negate an enemy's attack, or are useful for drastically altering the field of play.

In addition to considering a beast's stats and moves, you'll always want to take into account it's affinity color. This is a system to determine relative strengths and weaknesses in battle, and I'll touch on the specifics later. The important thing to consider is that you do not want a team, consisting of only three beasts, to all be weak to the same type of enemy, because while it is possible to overcome those weaknesses, it makes things much more challenging then they need to be

A full Summoner's Den.

When you encounter an enemy, the first thing you'll do is choose which of your beasts you would like to battle with, but choose carefully, because the fight lasts until one beast dies, and if it's yours, your down one of three chances to complete that level. Each beast in your roster will be displayed, as well as all the information about their moves, and their affinity color. The same information will be displayed for your enemy, allowing you to make an informed choice about which beast you would like to use. If possible, you should use a beast that is strong against your enemy, as you will gain a bonus to your might and armor, while your enemy will incur a penalty. Sometimes it might be prudent to do things a little differently, but that is because certain moves prove more effective against your enemy, such as one that stops an enemy's attack, or destroys most of the board.

Combat comes in the form of Bejeweled Twist, the match three game from Popcap. No, this is not a rip off; Popcap was actually involved in the making of the game, at least according to the credits that flash when you start up the game. If you're not familiar with Bejeweled Twist, its a different take on the more traditional form of Bejeweled, in that rather than simply switching the place of two adjacent gems in a field of various gems that have unique shapes and colors to make a match of at least three, you must rotate a group of four gems. When you make a match, those gems are destroyed and the gems above fall down, letting new gems in at the top, thus keeping the playing field always full. It is essentially simple gameplay, as you're just looking for moves that can make matches, while considering what your move will set in motion, such wondering if making this match will setup, or destroy, the possibility of another.

Selecting a beast with which to do battle.

Take the gameplay I've just described and add too it these additional mechanics. Each twist that makes a match charges up both your abilities, and your enemy's. An idle twist, one that makes no match, does nothing for you but greatly increases your enemy's charge. When an ability is fully charged it is placed on the board in the form of a gem if it is an attack, while other abilities may turn an enemy's ability into an unmatchable stone, lock it into place, or just change buffs. You must make a match to activate the ability, which will then deal damage, and sometimes has a special effect, such as causing all gems of the same color to be destroyed, or explode and destroy some gems around your gem, or just create a huge electric cross that wipes out a good portion of the board. If you happen to be using an ability that explodes, it will also destroy any other ability gems caught within the blast radius, activating yours and cutting off your enemy's attack. The result is, with a densely populated board, you can trigger several attacks at the same time to deal a massive amount of damage.

Your enemies work a bit differently. When one of their abilities is fully charged, it is placed on the board just like yours. The difference is, rather than having to make a match to activate it, since you're the only one that is in control here, the ability auto activates after a certain number of turns, usually seven. If you make an idle twist, well, that counts for two turns, accelerating the time until you take damage. This can create a situation where, particularly with an enemy that places a lot of ability gems on the board at once or very quickly, you will not have the opportunity to destroy all of them by making a match prior to them detonating. So, you've got to ask yourself, do you feel lucky enough to survive the damage and focus on your own attacks, hoping none of your gems get destroyed in the process, or do you attempt to stop your enemy, making idle twists as necessary, but also sacrificing bonuses that would increase your rate of ability charge for each consecutive match?

Seven active abilities at once

The final thing to consider when making matches is your and your opponent's affinity color. Make a match of your color, and you'll greatly boost your abilities' charge. Make one of your opponents color, and they gain nothing. So if you happen to both be red, you might want to focus on those matches whenever possible, since they will help you more, and hurt your opponent.

There are several other mechanics that come into play during combat such as increasing bonuses for consistently making matches, which ultimately unlocks a powerful move if you can reach level five. There are four useful items, which unlock all locks, immediately activate your abilities, reverse the direction of your next twist, or resets your debuffs back to zero. Or, if you're worried a fight is going to be particularly difficult, you can activate your breakthrough ability before the fight begins, which unlocks a supped up version of your beasts, assuming you've earned enough points by playing well to have an available breakthrough.

A rush occurs when you activate three or more abilities at once. When all's said and done with this one, only 10 gems remain on the board.

Gyromancer is a good game, plain and simple. It is straight forward, easy to deal with gameplay that can be highly addicting, wrapped up in an intriguing story that makes you desire to know what's going to happen next. In 20 hours I managed to clear the story and all the full bonus levels, as well as unlock a full Summoner's Den. The only issue I ever encountered with the game was that my GPU was able to render it at over 800 FPS, and with no vsync option, I had to go into my control panel and tinker around a bit. Nothing big, and potentially a very limited problem. So if you're looking for an easily approachable game, maybe pick this one up the next time it's around $5, and consider it money well spent - 7 out of 10.

So, the final breakdown:

Score: 7/10

Suggested Price: $5

Steam Autumn Sale 11-26

So this looks like the end of the sale. I know I waffled on that a bit yesterday, uncertain of what would happen, but now I'm looking at the most recent flash sale, which hit at 2 pm pacific today, and see that it's not set to expire until 10 tomorrow, and I'm pretty sure that means we're done.

Main Sale:

Counter Strike Global Offensive - The latest version of the ground breaking online FPS. Personally, I never got the whole CS thing - I loved Team Fortress Classic too damn much to give any of Valve's other games a go. But at $7.49, you can try the whole create your own class, plant bombs, rescue hostages, play terrorists game.

Call of Duty MW3 - Or, if you just want to do most of that same stuff, but not have to deal with the issues of one life per round, etc, you could play this. Now, a few things about this game. First, it has been reviewed (List of Reviews up top), and I decided it was really just an average game. I did try the mutliplayer as well, but stopped because 1 out of three games or so would have someone using an auto headshot hack that killed the experience, which, considering it is a CoD game, didn't amount to much more than simply respawning, gunning down 1 to two people, and then dying. I don't recommend getting this game at this price, but if you want it, it's not likely to go any lower any time soon, at least on Steam. It's half off at $29.99.

Alan Wake Franchise -  Think I got this one on a flash sale during this year's summer sale, but I haven't tried it yet, so I don't know what to say. The whole thing is $9.99.

Castle Crashers - I'm not familiar with this one, truth be told. I suppose I could do some research for my personal benefit to find how it plays if I wanted to try it solo, or if you do really need four other people to play it. Anyways, it's $4.99 today.

Legend of Grimrock - A game that I haven't heard much about, but it was all good. Not sure how that actually works. Anyways, it's supposed to be a great dungeon crawler, and while I didn't pick it up during the Summer sale when it was 40% off, I'll be getting it today at $3.74, because it is highly unlikely to go lower.

The Witcher 2 - I haven't played this one, but I'm going to highly recommend it anyways. Why? Because I started playing the first Witcher, which is also 75% off, earlier this past weekend. I've already put in over 30 hours into this unique RPG, and I'm maybe half way through it, and I know that when I get around to reviewing it, it's going to be a 10/10, because it's that good. Speaking from the point of view of the first one, the game is much more about strategy - planning how to attack your enemies. You must have knowledge of the monsters you're fighting to understand their weaknesses, as well as what useful drops they have. Battles aren't won so much by the combat, as they are in the preparations leading up to the event, such as brewing the proper potions to increase your energy or health regeneration. You make your own bombs, or oils to coat your weapons with to do extra damage to certain types of enemies. Then there is a complicated system of decision making. An early decision forces you to choose between giving some supplies to a starving unit of non-human rebels, or leaving them to their own devices. I thought I would have pity on them, and 4 hours later I find out that they murdered someone with some of those supplies - someone I had planned on turning a quest into. No way, besides cheating, that I could have forseen that outcome. So considering you can get both games for $10, or just #2 for $7.49, this is a must buy.


Flash Sales:

Grand Theft Auto IV - $7.49
Crusader Kings II Collection - $12.49
Tropico 4 - $5.99
Bastion - $3.74 (reviewed)
Just Cause 2 - $3.74
The Testament of Sherlock Holmes - $19.99

Also, indie titles, which you might want to check out since this will be your last chance (from all appearances) of this sale).

***

So, now that the sale seems to be over, what do you think? I did like that the flash sales where much longer, lasting 12 hours each go, since during the summer the short flash sales and community choice items rotating so frequently didn't allow me to spend much time away from my phone or a computer.

Did you get anything interesting? What was your favorite deal? Were you disappointed that something else wasn't on sale, or that one offer wasn't what you were hoping for?

Personally, I didn't get too much this time. Just some DLCs for Orcs Must Die! 2 and Quantum Conundrum, ColourBind, Mutant Blobs Attack, all the Sniper Elite stuff, and Legend of Grimrock, keeping my total purchase quite low compared to normal. Sure, there were other games I wanted, mainly Dishonored, XCom, and Borderlands, but those have DLCs coming or can just generally wait, as well as some other titles that might drop a bit more during the next sale. So I would say it's maybe a good sale, but not great. I definitely have some extra cash in my wallet, which is a huge surprise after one of these things, so I guess in that sense it's not the best sale ever, but with the Winter Sale coming, that's not a bad thing.

Oh well, time to get back to the reviews. Currently my buffer is a bit smaller than it has been, and you can expect to see the following games reviewed soon, after witch I'll have to play through a couple more so I have more content for you guys, though, thanks to a suggestion from Rand/PoetryinMotion, I'm in the middle of a huge RPG, so if the reviews dry up a bit, you know who to blame:

Gyromancer
Amnesia
A Virus Named TOM
The Darkness II
Alien Breed: Impact
Rock of Ages
+ assorted video reviews

If you've got a game you'd like me to review, just check my steam profile to see what I've got, and just maybe I can cover it for you before the next time it's on sale, because sometimes that great deal still isn't worth it.

My Steam List of Games

Steam Autumn Sale 11-25

So in the upper right of the Steam store page it says new titles every day through tomorrow. Does that mean that these titles below, which won't expire until the 27th, are the last bunch, or will some new ones, or just the Best Of, pop up again tomorrow. I am not actually sure, and am afraid this might be goodbye. At least for a month or so, until the Winter Sale starts, though last year there was this whole half sale thing that went on for the majority of December...anyways, you're just here to hear what I have to say about the games.

Main Sale:

Dishonored - Similar to Borderlands 2 and XCOM, Dishonored takes a pretty good price cut today - 50% off. I will say I am a bit supprised it dropped so low, but I can't say that's a bad thing. So if you want a game where you can play all stealth like or just slaughter enemies with everything from rat plagues to possessing them into getting shot by their buddies, this is for you. The only thing to consider is if it might be included in a Bethesda pack during the Winter Sale, where you could conceivably get this, Skyrim, and maybe some Fallout titles for less as a group...decisions decisions. $29.99.

Civilization V - 75% off today, including all the DLCs, namely God and Kings. I won't say too much about this one, since I've already reviewed it (List of Reviews up top), but it's the same price I paid when I got it back in March or May. I am a bit tempted to try the God and Kings expansion/DLC, but really, after my experience with the rest of the game, I think it would just be the best if I passed.

Orcs Must Die! 2 - I preordered this game during the tail end of the Summer Sale, knowing full well that this game would probably come up on sale a few times at the end of the year. I thought the original was such a great game that it deserved more financial support that it had previously recieved from me, so I paid more than triple what it is today. While I haven't gotten around to playing OMD! 2 yet, I did do a video and written review for the first one, to give you and idea of what the gameplay in this interesting take on tower defense is like. I know there are changes in this game, the two largest being the addition of coop, and the other concerning the way the upgrade system is handled. The discount also impacts the DLCs and soundtrack, all of which I've already scooped up this morning. $3.74 for the base game.

Batman Arkham City GOTY - Oh my. At $7.49, this is probably the game I've had to think about the most. I think, given my personal situation, I'll be safe in passing - I've got a few games that require a lot of time to play, specifically The Witcher, which I've already put 26 hours into and I'm less than halfway through it, so I won't miss much if I wait until the Winter Sale, where it will either (hopefully) be the same price, or potentially less.

Torchlight II - I haven't tried the second yet, having only put some time into the first. The best way to describe that game (the first) is Diablo-esque, due to it's isometric top down look, and the fact that you're delving into the caves/mines/etc underneath a town. It was a good game, something I could tell from my limited time in it, and I would suggest this one if you're into that genre (or just feed up with Blizzard's handling of D3). $9.99 today.

Sonic Generations - Sorry, I never played sonic back in the day, as Sega was a four letter word in my household. Well, technically it's a four letter word in anyone's household, but what I'm trying to get at is that we were Nintendo people, and as such, I don't maintain any sentimental affection for the games like I do Mario, Zelda, or Metroid, that might get me to buy something that is otherwise so different than what I normally enjoy. $7.49 today.


Flash Sales:

Metro 2033 - $4.99
Bioshock 2 - $4.99
Doom 3 BFG - $14.99
Quantum Conundrum - $3.74
Lone Survivor - $4.99
Dragon Age Origins Ultimate Edition - $8.99


Then of course there are your featured indie games, where there has been about a game a day that I've gotten around to reviewing. Today that would be the annoying-to-type-out-in-full-length AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!...for the Awesome.

Steam Autumn Sale 11-24

We're halfway through the sale now, and miraculously I haven't bought anything. That's probably a good thing though, since I haven't actually installed any of the games I picked up during the last sale, let alone gotten around to playing them. Still, there are a couple of recent deals, such as today or through the flash sales, that I've almost jumped on. I'll probably just wait for the best deals on the last day, and then hold off on the bigger games until the Winter Sale, though if they include achievements like they did last time, that could become very, very expensive.


Main Sale:

Borderlands 2 - If you go back and read the end of the post from the first day of the sale, I posed the question of if this game would come up on sale. What I didn't realize is that it would be 50% off. Holy purple cow! If you don't know about the purple cow, it's the idea that you're driving through the French country side, and while it's all beautiful, nothing really catches your attention until you see a purple cow. Why am I going on about that? Because that is how Gearbox has described their Borderlands series, with it's visual style and over-the-topness that makes it stand out in a world of post apocalyptic shooters (if you've never seen the original debut trailer, it resembles Fallout 3, or the later released RAGE). Anyways, I loved the first one, but I never put the grind in that others did, opting out of the multiplayer and the New Game + that is the endgame on this series. While the game is only $29.99 today, none of the DLCs are discounted, so if you get the Season Pass and the 1 additional character, you're looking at an additional $40.

F1 2012 -  If you're into that sort of thing, it's $24.99 today.

Deus Ex Human Revolution - If you don't have this yet, it's under $5, which is dirt cheap with how good this game is (suppposed to be). I can't imagine this game going any lower, so get it now. I got it back in March of this year and it was $13 for the base game and all three DLCs, but you can do the same today for under $10.

Chivalry Medieval Warfare - If I were still into multiplayer, I would probably get this. I don't know, maybe I've just been playing the witcher too much lately, but the idea of a first person game where I'm using a sword or bow instead of a UMP or a noob tube to kill my enemies just seems like it would satisfy some baser desires. $12.49 today.

Today War Shogun 2 - While the game is $10.19 today, you may want to consider some of the other packs its featured in, such as the Shogun 2 collection ($12.49), War Master Collection ($22.49), or the Grand Master Collection ($41.24), depending on if you want any/all of the other Total War games.

Mark of the Ninja - A beautiful looking game that has been on my wishlist for a while, one in which stealth is actually supposed to matter. If you're up for an action adventure indie title, today this is $7.49.


Flash Sales:

Call of Duty Black Ops - $19.99
Carrier Command - $24.99
Dawn of War 2 - $4.99
Mass Effect 2 - $5.99
Hotline Miami - $4.99
Fallen Enchantress - $19.99


As always, don't forget to check out the featured indie games. I've seen quite a few I didn't realize were on sale due to that.

Steam Autumn Sale 11-23

If you're in the U.S., after you blow through your budget on Black Friday sales, and you warm up again after waiting outside all night to save $100 on your new HDTV, you might want to check out what's on sale today.

Main Sale:

 Skyrim - Finally there is a decent sale on this, though for a title to only reach the 50% mark over a year from release is pretty rare. If you've been holding off on this one, you're not likely to see a better deal for quite some time. It's yet another game I've been holding off until a GOTY or otherwise complete edition comes out, but Bethesda is one of the slowest companies to drop their prices (in case you're wondering, the other is Activision, which still sells Black Ops 1 for $29.99 on a 25% sale). For the next several hours the game is $29.99. Don't forget the two DLCs, which are also 50% off, at $2.49 and $9.99 when discounted. Yep, one of those DLCs is $19.99 full price, to which one can only exclaim WTF.

War of the Roses -  A recent game, less than two months old, which is currently $14.99.

Saints Row III - If an over the top sandbox style game is more you're thing, you'll find Saints Row at it's lowest price that I can recall since release. Similiar to another recent release from the troubled publisher THQ, Darksiders II, there is a ton of DLC packs for the game, and while they are also all 75% off, the total for all of them is apparently $20.55, or more than double the $9.99 for the base game. Thankfully, the full package, the complete version, is $12.49, making for quite a deal.

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron - I'll admit this one doesn't interest me. The number of posts on the forums about hacking in multiplayer does nothing to change that either. $29.99 today.

Crysis 2 - I haven't really heard anything good about this. Actually, most of what I have heard are laments that it isn't more like the groundbreaking original. That, and the fact that someone forgot to add the 5 at the end of the 70% off today means I'd be willing to wait a while longer.

Farming Simulator 2013 - Okay, so if you've followed the comments in other postings you'll have learned about my background, which includes that I am a farmer. So much so that when I originally got the announcement that this game came out, the first thing I noticed was the Case IH Steiger 600 on the cover. Personally, if I had to pick a tracked tractor, I'd got with a Cat MT-765C, rather than anything articulating, but that's just me. So I'm speaking honestly when I say I'm not at all interested in this game, since I use my time playing games to relax or escape the day, not just do more of the same. If it's for you, or you think farming is "cool" (in which case, consult a physician, you have something wrong with you), you can get it today for $14.99.


Flash Sales:

Anna - $3.39
Inversion - $9.99
Magicka - $2.49
Left 4 Dead 2 - $4.99
King's Bounty - $14.99
Thief Collection - $6.74


And plenty of other games too, so don't forget to check out the featured indie games today. Also, about the flash sales, they do seem to last 12 hours for each wave of three, expiring at 2 am, 8 am, 2 pm, and 8 pm, all pacific time, so plan out when you want to check back, so you don't miss an otherwise great game.

Steam Autumn Sale 11-22

Another day, and another flurry of games on sale. In case you missed it, yesterday's games are still on sale for another 24 hours, so hurry up before they're gone. There are also new featured indie games, though I'm sure they were on sale for the same amount yesterday, they are just getting more advertising space today, so be sure to check it out. And, finally, keep an eye on those flash sales.

Main Sale:

ARMA II - This has been on sale a few times in the last year, and there is really only one reason for it - the popular Day Z mod. I haven't tried it out yet, and probably won't until it gets it's own standalone release, but you could get the required games today for $14.99.

Max Payne 3 - Just 6 months old and already 75% off. See, that's why I do this, this whole waiting to buy games thing, because today's $14.99 is a much better deal than the original $60.

Awesomenauts - Oddly enough, this one was on sale just last weekend, though I can't recall the price, so I'm not sure if today's deal of $3.39 is better or not.

Portal 2 - The only game on today's list that I've actually reviewed. Again, you can find it in the List of Reviews at the top of the page. I gave it a 7/10, and suggested a price of $10. Lucky for you, today it's half that, at $4.99.

Sleeping Dogs - Less than three months old and 50% off, though it was also a weekend deal not too long ago at about the same price. I messed around with the demo and it seemed interesting - very GTA like in controls, missions, etc. The highly destructible evironments were nice, such as kicking an enemy into a power junction to kill him with electricity, but the controls felt...iffy. Maybe I'd just need some time to get used to it. Anyways, today it's $24.99.

Prototype 2 - I very much enjoyed Prototype, a sandbox game where you are infected with some virus that gives you superhero like powers, such as running up the side of buildings, gliding like you're flying, and plenty of other useful mutations, such as giant claws, a fleshy whip thing, or a body suit of armor. Still, there are few things more awesome than the ability to dropkick a helicopter. The sequel is just $19.99 today.


Flash Sales:

Dead Island - $6.79
Train Simulator 2013 - $18.69
RAGE - $4.99
Company of Heroes - $2.49
Of Orcs and Men - $19.99
Garry's Mod - $2.49


There you have it. As I said, don't forget to check out the indie game section, since the featured list seems to rotate daily too, bringing games to your attention that you didn't know were on sale.

Steam Autumn Sale 11-21

Today kicks off the second major Steam sale of the year (I'm not counting the Halloween sale, because that breaks the norm of three sales a year), though the Autumn sale is kind of the red headed stepchild of the Steam sales, being so close to the longer, larger, Winter sale, which generally has the same or better deals. Still, in following in the spirit of last time, I figured I'd post the games for sale each day, make a few comments, particularly if I've already reviewed it, and send you on your way.

So, about this sale. First, it marks the return of those flash sales - the shorter term sales that were started with the summer sale. There are 6 games up at a time this go round, but they are (currently) stagered in two groups of three, rather than one sale expiring every two hours like the last time. So less checking your computer, steam client, or mobile device. Other than that, things seem to be pretty normal, with the first batch of six games lasting until the 23rd, getting us through Thanksgiving day in the U.S.


Main Sale:

XCOM Enemy Unknown - While it's 33% off, it was actually 35% a week and a half ago or so at greenmangaming.com, but, given a foreign currency conversion (at least with my card, when made from the U.S.), the deals are probably the same. Personally, I'm holding off for a GOTY or otherwise complete edition, this is a great deal on a recent game, and you're not like to see better come Christmas. $33.49 for the next several hours if you're interested.

Magic The Gathering Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 - I was never a fan of this type of card games anyways, but at $4.99, I am almost tempted.

The Walking Dead - The episodic adventure game is 50% off today, which is convenient, because the fifth and final episode just game out. I've heard very good things about this game, both online and from Real Life friends, because I actually do have those (don't act surprised), and while the $12.49 price tag is tempting, I'm thinking it won't hurt to wait until the Christmas sale when it will either be the same price, or a bit less. Maybe 66%?

Darksiders II - I really liked the Zelda-esque game that was the first one, which was also one of my ealier reviews. Again, tempted, partly because it's only $16.99, and partly because I don't want THQ, the publisher, to go out of business without realeasing a few of the titles they have in their pipeline, such as Company of Heroes 2. Still, when the total for your DLC content is more than your game, that's a bit of a turn off.

Age of Empires III Complete - I'm out of my depth on this one, so I will just say it's 75% off at $9.99.

Terraria - Hey, look, a game I've actually reviewed.  Just click up top on the List of Reviews link, and you'll find it in there. But, in case you don't want to, the TL;DR version is I gave it an 8/10, and suggested you get it at $5, though today it can be yours for only $3.39.


Current Flash Sales:

Intrusion 2 - $3.39

The Amazing Spider-Man - $24.99

Operation Flashpoint Franchise - $13.74

Payday The Heist - $4.99

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II - $2.49

Limbo - $2.49 This one has received both a written and video review. Check out both if you're interested, which you should be.



Don't forget to check out the Indie games section, to the right of the flash sales, where you'll find many games for 40-75% off, including these in the feature games section:

Sanctum - $2.49
World of Goo - $2.49
Waves - $2.49
Audiosurf - $2.49
Fortune Summoners - $9.99
CaveStory - $2.49
Qube- $3.74
E.Y.E. - $2.49
Krater - $5.09


There are tons of other games on sale as well, and looking at my wishlist right now, I see almost everything is 50% off.

So are you going to get any games today? Or are you hoping for something else to come up later in the sale? We've already seen XCOM, a game that is less than two months old, go on sale, so does the same hold for other games from that period, like Borderlands 2 or Dishonored? So far I'm thinking I'll be getting a few different indie games off my wishlist, such as Colour Bind and Mutant Blobs Attack!!!, as well as DLCs for SpaceChem, and maybe Quantum Conundrum.

World of Goo

Welcome to the World of Goo. Aside from sounding like the Goo megastore, which I'm not sure I'd actually want to visit, World of Goo is a tower building, physics simulation game. While that doesn't sound that much fun, it actually is.

Raining goo balls!

Each level follows the same premise: take those fun loving goo balls and build yourself a structure to get to the pipe that acts as the exit for the level, but make sure you don't use all your goo balls, because you must get a minimum number of goo balls to the pipe to continue. The levels are all drastically different, sometimes requiring your to build a bridge, or a tower, or navigate between spikes or spinning kill blades that will destroy the goo balls, all of which is complicated by the laws of physics, or at least a simplified version of it, because if you build too far without supports or counter balances, well, those mighty goo balls just aren't strong enough.

This one you build and build, pushing the orange ball higher and higher, until she gets to the crushing unit at the top.

In addition to levels that present you with drastically different challenges are the differences in goo balls themselves. As you progress you'll stumble across more and more types of goo balls, each with their own unique properties. The basic form of goo ball must connect to two other goo balls, no more or less. Different ones may attach to drastically more, making a strong structure, or only one, allowing you to make a rope to wake up some other sleeping goo balls. Others are reattachable, or have special properties, like balloons which give you critical lift, or skulls that are immune to the death spikes would otherwise inflict on your precious goo balls. The result is some pretty interesting combinations, like one level that requires you to take a reattaching spiky goo ball to secure another group to a rotating platform, which you must keep working higher and higher, adding in skulls to keep your group from tipping over onto spikes. So no, World of Goo is not your typical tower building physics simulator.

I tried this level on my phone once...it didn't go well.

World of Goo is an oldie but goodie, and by old I mean it came out in 2008. This is yet another game I played long ago, taking it to the brink of completion, and then failed to carry through with two levels to go. Since then I have purchased it numerous times through bundles, and have started it on multiple devices, most recently my phone, which is what encouraged me to boot it back up on the PC - to finally finish what I had started. Back when I got it, right when it came out, it was a full $20. Now it's $10, but with it's habit of appearing in Humble Bundles, or just seasonal sales, you could get it for a lot less. I wouldn't recommend going below $5, because it is a quality game with great gameplay, good art, and fantastic music, and with 6 hours of play time, though without too many issues since I had done all the levels before, and avoiding the appropriately named OCD challenges, it's a great game - 9 out of 10.

So, the final breakdown:

Score: 9/10

Suggested Price: $5

Osmos

Osmos is a game unlike any other I've played before, and frankly, I'm not sure how to go about labeling it. It's called Casual/Indie on the Steam store, which is about the least helpful description ever. It can be extremely relaxing, or seem like the most difficult game in the world. I would point out it has strategy, puzzle, and even physics elements, though not in the sense that it would fall into any of those genres, rather those concepts will be in the back of your mind as you attempt to complete a level, doubly so for the later end ones. Perhaps the best approach with a title such as this is to simply describe what the game entails, and let you come to your own conclusions about how you would classify the game.

You take on the role of a mote; just one of many in any given level. Generally you're goal is to become the largest mote in the level, though a few levels have your defeating specific motes to succeed.

An early level. Just become the biggest. But avoid the red ones, for reasons I'll explain shortly.

There are three key mechanics to the game. First, if any two motes make contact, the larger of the two will absorb the smaller as long as they remain in contact, so if the one being absorbed moves far enough away that the larger of the two does not grow fast enough to remain in contact, the now diminished mote survives. This is important because you can survive an encounter with a larger mote. The second is that to move, and this only applies to you and a few other special motes, you must expel a portion of your mass. The more mass and the faster you expel it, the quicker you will accelerate in the opposite direction. However, at the same time, you'll shrink, which is almost always the opposite of what you'll want to do in this game. The final mechanic is physics, which occurs in a number of ways. The first involves movement, wherein you'll gain momentum in whichever direction you're accelerating. In a similar fashion, those little motes you shoot out will impact other motes around you, and can be used to slightly nudge very large stationary motes around. Given enough time, since momentum is conserved, you could slowly move everything else around the screen. The final thing to remember about physics involves a few special levels that are similar to a solar system, as you'll find attractors, special motes that suck everything in, set up to act like a sun with the motes taking on the role of planets - but as long as you maintain a good orbit, you'll survive.

Okay, so that's the background in a nutshell. Towards the beginning of the game you'll simply be tasked with becoming the largest mote in a completely stationary environment, usually where things are a similiar size. So you'll need to judge which motes you can reach without losing too much mass for the potential gain. This is simple when things are roughly the same size as you. It's not so simple when they are 50 times your size.

Well, it's not quite 50 times bigger, but it's still a great illustration of a level where you'll need to move carefully.

That's where strategy comes in. You'll need to look around for something you can actually absorb, and you may not find anything. What do you do then? Use the motes you expel to nudge things around, which will cause some motes to shrink when they collide, hopefully giving you a chance to swoop in and absorb them before they completely disappear. You'll need patience, though the ability to slow down or speed up time on a sliding scale does help for those critical moments that need lots of input or those times when you just are waiting for something to happen.

After you get out a bit further, the levels start branching off, breaking up into three categories - basically different game types. Force levels have attractors, or occasionally a repulsor, that impact the other motes in the level. You're usually tasked with absorbing these, rather than just becoming the biggest, and it can be tricky. A level with several attractors will become very chaotic very quickly, as each gains mass it becomes more powerful, exerting it's influence across the level, and so you will need to come up with a solution to quickly deal with them before they've absorbed everything and things look very bleak for your chance of success.  Special force levels have you orbiting a stationary attractor, and those are the levels I most enjoy, as you'll speed up or slow down, gain mass or lose it, and change your orbit as a result. Basically, I hope you remember your physics courses.

A nice, calm, orbit. Slow down, and you fly into the 'sun'. Speed up, and you fly out to space. Change your angle to go to an elliptical orbit. God, why do I know this stuff?

Sentient levels have other living motes, which you must absorb. These can be very tricky, because some do not live by the same rules you must, moving very, very quickly. Generally the motes are more passive than aggressive, but you must always make sure you don't end up as lunch.

The final category is Ambient. These come in a few different flavors, but the premise is always the same - become the biggest. Sometimes all the motes are moving, sometimes they are stationary, and sometimes there is antimatter, which follows all the rules regular motes do, but destroys normal motes when the two come into contact.

Antimatter makes things a bit more interesting. Also, you're the tiny blue spec in the center. Have fun!

The variety of gametypes makes things interesting, and each one requires a different strategy. No two levels are exactly the same, even if the underlying principles are. For example, a level may have fewer motes that are close to your size, or just fewer motes in total, which would require you to carefully plan your route, and then execute it with near perfection. For the most part the result is a relaxing, easy paced game with good music that functions well at any game speed and pleasant visuals. However, should you wish to take on some of the last tier levels, that isn't always the case, as the difficulty seems to escalate exponentially. To give you an idea of what I mean, at the final level there are four achievements, one for beating each zone, and one for beating everything. Each zone - Force, Sentient, and Ambient - does consist of multiple levels, so it's much more than beating three more levels, and they are broken in to subcategories, so there is a lot to do. The important thing however is this, which comes from the global achievement data off of Steam: 20% of players have unlocked the final tier, 16% have completed Sentient, 9% have completed Ambient, 2% have completed Force, and less than 2% have completed all three. In other words, the game gets incredibly difficult at the end, and 98% of people never end up completing it. The game is still worth getting, but just know, particularly if you're a completion focused person, it does get quite hard. If you'd rather just have a good time with a casual game, you can certainly do that too, but that would be limited to the first half of the game.

You orbit one of three attractors, each of which orbits the large center one. This level is NOT easy.

Osmos is a game which I picked up way back in 2009, and put a good chunk of time into until I hit a brick wall of difficulty, as explained above. It wasn't until more recently, when I finally joined the smart phone crowd and picked it up in a Humble Android Bundle, did I rekindle my interest in completing the game. I put a total of 8 hours into the game, but about 25% of that time was spent on the last few Force levels, by far the hardest in the game (except for the secret levels that come afterwards, but those achievements are at or less than 1% completion). Despite the frustration and the level of difficulty towards the end of the game, I still absolutely recommend it. Way back when I picked it up it was $2, and it has been in several indie bundles, so you could probably still get it around that price, but it's worth it up to about the $5 mark. How much you're willing to part with could depend on if you're looking for a fun casual game, or a challenge, one that only 2% of players have completed. Either way, Osmos is a very good game - 8 out of 10.

So, the final breakdown:

Score: 8/10

Suggest Price: $2-5

Puzzle Agent

Located in an obscure corner of the FBI headquarters is the office of one Agent Nelson Tethers. Tethers heads up the department of puzzle research, and as such, he's the one the FBI goes to when the eraser factory in Scoggins, Minnesota, which supplies the erasers used by the White House, suddenly stops production, and all inquiries are responded to with puzzles. But this isn't just any mission, as right from the start, when you have a dream and find the word scoggins scrawled on your crossword puzzle prior to learning about the eraser shortage, it is apparent that something far from ordinary is going on, and the things you'll uncover, and see, out there in Minnesota will test the limits of Agent Tether's sanity.

The art style does have a certain kind of charm.

Dramatic introductions aside, Puzzle Agent plays like a point and click adventure game, but instead of having an inventory and attempting to figure out what goes where, or who you need to bring this particular item to, your progress is metered by puzzles. They are everywhere in this game, and you'll find that people won't talk to you until you've helped them with their problem, such as finding the correct fuse for a neon sign or properly arranging food on someone's plate. Successfully completing a puzzle will unlock dialogue options with someone that might otherwise remain silent, resulting in forward progress, though there are a number of optional puzzles as well. You'll also want to keep an eye out for gum, of the already been chewed variety, because you can use that to get a hint if a particular puzzle is giving you problems.

A pinging system helps you find options you might otherwise overlook.

There are a total of 37 puzzles in the game, which could easily fool you into believe that is a lot. Unfortunately, there are several that are just the same puzzle, but harder. One requires routing Agent Tethers' snowmobile around a map, and since it is so icy, the only way to charge directions is to ricochet off of logs you place around the map. You do this same puzzle three times, to varying degrees of difficulty. Another is a number of puzzles that require you to distribute weights amongst various birds, where each type is limited to how much it can carry. This puzzle also occurs in multiple forms. Repetition isn't necessarily a bad thing, and is pretty important with puzzles (how else will you learn?), but it would have been nice if the game dropped one or two of the jigsaw puzzles in place of those word problems, or just something a bit different. Still, it is nice that there was some variety in the puzzles available, it's just unfortunate that there wasn't more.

One of the more unique puzzles, where you must route out each lift, which move in tandem, while avoiding traps. It requires to you consider each lift, and remember what you're doing as you go along, because nothing actually moves until you submit your solution.

My reason for acquiring Puzzle Agent was simple: I played a bit of Puzzle Agent 2 for a contest, enjoyed it, but didn't want to progress any further without taking on the first one. That's good, because the first game is a bit short, and seems like it ends abruptly, though given what the secret of Scoggins is, I can't blame Tethers for wanting to get the heck out of there. I managed to complete the game in a single sitting, which is not what I was expecting to do, because the game takes around 3 hours to complete, if you've got a mind geared towards puzzles. The normal cost of the game is $5, but I would suggest waiting for a sale so it's $2.50, though it's not much of a price difference, so maybe you just get it now and burn through it. Just know that this game can best be described as a combination of entertaining, bizarre, and at times, difficult - 7 out of 10.

So, the final breakdown:

Score: 7/10

Suggested Price: $2.50

Quantum Conundrum

**Be sure to check out the video review!** 

Quantum Conundrum casts you as the young lad who is surprisingly dumped on an uncle for the afternoon. Of course, to make things interesting, that uncle is a, for lack of a term that would imply the same level of ingenuity without evil intent or insanity, mad scientist. While on your way through the manor to see him and his latest invention, a terrible accident occurs, and suddenly it is up to you to turn the power back on and find your uncle, who has no idea where he is.
 

Such is the setting behind the game. To get the power back up and running you'll have to struggle your way through three wings of the manor, past all manner of puzzles, and get the generators running. Of course nothing is simple, or in the case of this particular house, safe. You'll have to ride flying furniture, avoid lasers, and gain a bit of help from the loveable Ike, short for interdimensional kinetic entity. Sounds like the perfect adventure for a kid.

I don't know about you, but I'm automatically suspicious about anything that cute.

To accomplish your goal you'll need to learn to control up to four different dimensions, utilizing the idiosyncrasies each maintains. Those four dimensions are heavy, fluffy, slow, and reverse gravity. There is also, and this can be the key to a puzzle, the normal dimension, which really brings the total to five.

Objects behave differently in each dimension. Fluffy makes objects lighter, so you are suddenly able to pick up heavy things like safes or sofas. Heavy makes objects denser, such that they cannot be destroyed by lasers or turns light objects like boxes into something sufficiently heavy enough to activate switches. Slow slows down time, while reverse gravity is self explanatory. Certain objects, yourself included, remain immune to dimensional shifts, so you don't go flying when reverse gravity is activated or move slowly in slow. You'll need to gain a certain mastery of each dimension, and understand how they can be used together to create interesting results, such as using fluffy to pick up a sofa and throw it into the air, switching immediately to slow so that you have ample time to jump on top of it, and then toggling reverse gravity on and off so it floats through the air, but making sure to turn heavy on right before you both head through a laser field that would otherwise vaporize your ride, and you.

That's pretty much the solution here, minus the fluffy.

The puzzles themselves, and indeed the layout of the game, are structured in such a way that solutions really build off of one another, as you'll take the principles learned earlier and apply them, with the added twists the game throws at you, to later puzzles. For example, there are three wings to the manor. During the first wing you only have access to Fluffy and Heavy, while the second wing adds in Slow, and the final adds in Reverse Gravity, giving you time to really grasp the concepts you'll need before you advance. In that sense, the game is a success; it felt less like a random array of testing chambers, and more a contiguous experience, one in which I only once found myself stumped, and that was simply because I didn't realize I could move a key object around.

An interesting modulator to the game are a few of the mechanics I'll cover now. You control dimensions via an IDS glove, which stands for interdimensional shift device, which should really be ISD if you want to get your acronyms correct, but I digress. However, the glove is only the remote control, and not what actually generates the shifts. To do that, you'll need to find an IDS battery for a particular dimensions, and plug it into the receptacle that runs that area. This results in a few puzzles where you must swap out one battery for another due to limits on the receptacle, or one particularly good puzzle where you must decide on which battery you would like to start solving the puzzle with, while the other three are whisked away. Sometimes you don't have control over the dimensions at all, because instead of the battery being plugged into a terminal you control with the glove, they are tied to a button that is pushed by a drinking bird, creating a timer effect.

I will reference this in the second sentence of the next paragraph.

Some other things about the ambiance the game sets forth. The art style is fitting of the lighter nature of the game, and even though you can, and most likely will, die, those deaths result in humorous little tidbits to cheer you up, such as "Thing # 49 you will never experience: Being better at this sort of thing than you are right now. Actually, being better at absolutely anything than you are RIGHT NOW. Or, were." which is typical of the type of humor that's present in the game, which includes artwork that looks different in each dimension. Your uncle acts as a helpful guide, alternating between funny stories and giving you hints should you take too long with a particular puzzle, though they didn't strike me as being particularly hard, which probably makes this game even more approachable.

Now, the comparison/question that is on everyone's mind: this game vs. Portal, which pretty much defines the whole first person platform puzzler genre right now. The game is the result of an idea by one Kim Swift, who was a lead designer for Portal, which it self was a result of an earlier project she had been a part of. But just because the same person occupied a key position in both games doesn't mean Quantum Conundrum is a copy of Portal. There are some similarities: both are puzzle platformers, there is a main character you interact with, though you are a silent protagonist in each game, and then there is the whole physics is the answer part, but that's where the similarities end. While Portal is more about twitch reactions in many puzzles, expertly placing a few portals while flying around, Quantum Conundrum is more about timing and clever use of different dimensions. You'll be quickly entering Slow so you can hop from one flying piece of furniture to the other, instead of tricking a rocket launcher to destroy an obstacle. Portal is a game about struggle, while Quantum Conundrum is more about hope, and you can see that in everything from the art to the relationships you have with other characters - Portal is oppressive and sterile, with enemies that are trying to kill you and an antagonist that wants nothing more than for you to fail; Quantum Conundrum is happy and humorous, set in the reassuring environment of the family home, with characters that help you and guide you along the way. And if it counts for anything, which, if you're reading this, I hope it does, I actually enjoyed Quantum Conundrum more than I did Portal 2, though the original still rules the genre for me.

You're not going to turn slow motion falling safes into a bridge in Portal.

Overall, Quantum Conundrum is a very good game, and if you're into this genre, I do recommend it. Like all other games in this category, it is a bit on the short side, requiring just over 6 hours to complete, though there are challenges, such as beating levels without dying or within a certain number of shifts. Still, I had a good time playing the game, and currently have the two DLCs on my wishlist. I worked out a trade deal for the game, but I have seen it just under $9. I'd say spend at least $10 on this, because it is a quality game - 8 out of 10.

So, the final breakdown:

Score: 8/10

Suggested Price: $10+

Sid Meier's Civilization V

I don't know why I wanted to get Civilization 5, but eventually the game of the year edition came around on sale and I figured I'd pick it up. I had never played a Civ game before, which, considering there are people that are very attached to specific versions of the game, will drastically impact the outcome of this review, as I lack those preferences, or even the knowledge of the way the game has been done in the past.

RTSs, RPGs, and regular old strategy games generally aren't my forte, but I have delved into each in the past. Still, I wasn't quite prepared for just what Civ is. It is a far grander game in scope than any other type of strategy game I've played before, and that's because it's really an amalgam of different ideas. There is what is essentially a talent tree in the form of major scientific advancements, such as mathematics, sailing, flight, or atomic theory, each of which unlocks some useful new buildables or other nice options. Then there is the whole territorial expansion portion, where you increase your reach by growing your civilization, providing different structures that will keep your budding population happy, securing food, and improving tiles so you get more resources out of them. And, ultimately, Civ 5 is a turned based war game, wherein you'll need to learn about units strengths and weaknesses, upgrade units that are successful in battle, and bring the siege to enemy cities.

After this game I adopted a new rule of thumb: Any game that has a help menu that can legitimately refer to itself as encyclopedic should be avoided for complexity reasons.

Civilization 5 is a turn based strategy game wherein, according to the settings of the map, you take a civilization from roaming settlers all the way to futuristic superpower. You'll face rival civilizations, city-states whose favor you can purchase, and roaming bands of barbarians. You'll have to take your civilization through history, researching new technologies like steel so that you can forge better soldiers or physics so you can build trebuchets to destroy enemy defenses, advancing from the ancient era, to the classical, to the medieval, and continuing until you progress through the modern era and ultimately arrive in the future, assuming you survive that long. Treaties, betrayals, war, and giant death robots - the game is human history summed up.

Generally a match begins by providing you with a group of settlers and some warriors to defend them. After you decide upon a suitable location to found your civilization, taking into account things like the defensive bonuses of the surrounding terrain, proximity of important resources, and the respective benefits of locating near certain geological features such as ocean, river, or desert, you direct those settlers to establish your first city. From then on, during each turn, you'll take your units out to explore this new world, uncovering wonders, find ruins with delicious treasures, or stumbling upon a band a roving barbarians. You'll also be cranking out workers to improve the tiles within your territory, or buildings that will grant you bonuses to one of the various stats in the game, such as a city's production, science, or happiness. Oddly enough, that pretty much sums up the entirety of the game, though it is far from that simple.

During each turn you must give every unit an order, though some units you can automate, such as workers.

Of course there is more, that's just the basic premise. Units are limited in what they can do during a given turn by how far they can move, as determined by the roughness of the terrain, or the presence of things like railroads or streets. You can only move so far before all your other options, such a fortifying in anticipation of an attack, or to heal, are locked out. Essentially, each unit gets a certain number of actions per turn, and movement is one way to burn through it. Another is by attacking, and there is a whole defensive/offensive bonus system for your military units, which accounts for everything besides worker units and settlers, based on where units stand. Attacking someone in a fortified position on a hill is generally a bad idea for a melee unit, while attacking an unprepared unit on open ground is great. Since, as I'll explain later, Civ 5 generally devolves into a war game, you'll really want to get to know all those rules.

When you're not involved in combat, you'll be focused on things like upgrading tiles within your territory, building improvements such as farms on grassland to increase food, or mines on hills to increase production, all of which impacts the city associated with that tile, by upping it's production so you can build new units, buildings, or world wonders that have special bonuses faster, or providing more food to feed your growing citizenry. Additionally, there are special resources you'll want to exploit, such as silk or marble, that require specific upgrades, in this example a plantation or mine respectively, and provide bonuses to happiness or can be used to trade, rather than directly impacting base stats like production. Strategic resources are far more important to exploit, like oil, iron, or uranium, as those are required to build various more advanced units. There really is a lot in this game that is focused around development, but in the interest of brevity, or at least not writing a thesis on the topic, I'm blowing by things here, and that's because, if you so desire, you can really get involved with each city in your civilization at a micro level, upgrading tiles, constructing specific buildings, and then developing and allocating specialists with those cities to change the way it behaves. Basically, there are way more choices than any sane person needs, and even it you choose to let the game automate much of it for you, there is still plenty you'll end up doing yourself.

Sometimes your cities demand a certain luxury resource, and acquiring it temporarily increases production.That would be the tiny box in the top center of the screen. The rest is just information to crit your brain.

A few other areas to touch on just to give you an overview of what this game entails: research, social policies, great people, and diplomacy. One stat you'll develop in your cities is science, which increases the rate you can complete research. I've touched on this tangentially, but this is the tech tree through which you unlock new buildings, units, and wonders to build, as well as how you progress from one era to another. You can only proceed a little bit in any one direction before you'll find you're being held back by those you skipped over, such as quickly advancing into the medieval era by researching the compass, which gives you naval superiority in only 4 upgrades, but being prevented from acquiring the next tier until you research 8 other upgrades. Ultimately you'll need every discovery to reach the end of the tree.

Social policies are similar to research in that you can foster culture in your civilization, and as you do so, you can adopt social policies. There are a total of 10 trees, of which you can have up to five, though several do not work together, such as piety and rationalism. Each tree consists of a number of different modifiers that helps to tailor your civilization to how you want to play, such as diving into liberty early to quickly expand, and negate some of the penalties of doing so.

Great People come in one of five categories: artists, merchants, engineers, scientists, and generals. These individuals are generated by accumulating points towards their production, which occurs based on some extremely fine details about the way your cities are managed, with the exception of generals, which come from doing well in battle. You'll want to use these great people wisely because of the bonuses they can provide you, such as turning a portion of territory adjacent to your civilization, even that of another civlization, over to your control with an artist's culture bomb, or increasing the power of nearby military units with the general. They also can all be sacrificed in order to generate an immediate Golden Age, which naturally occur in a happy civilization, and drastically increases your production for a period of time.

Finally, diplomacy. The size of the map determines the number of civilizations and city-states, which are useful as allies but do not function as a normal civilization. As you explore and encounter these other civilizations you'll find you can engage in a very limited form of diplomacy - make treaties, declare war, trade both luxury and strategic resources, or denounce one group to the rest of the world. It can be a useful method of creating pacts to attack or defend, or acquiring resources that aren't naturally occurring within your borders. It is also extremely limited when attempting to convey ideas, since you do things like demand another player stops settling near you, but I'll get into that more later.

Through diplomacy, I learned there is no group I trust less than the Iroquois. Though a betrayal from the Germans hurt too, at least that I expected.

There is a huge selection of different cultures you can take control of, and each one does things a little differently, as you're granted a unique ability and a few unique units. For example, should you be the Germans, any time you defeat a barbarian encampment there is a chance they will join your side, spawning a unit you can control. The Spanish gain large sums of gold when discovering natural wonders. Americans gain the Minute Men unit, which can move through rough terrain without incurring a penalty. While these are nice to have, unless they serve a purpose during the early game, they aren't particularly useful because you'll quickly advance past them. Barbarians will most likely get exterminated, the world will be uncovered, and you'll replace your Minute Men with mechanized infantry. You may find that a particular group fits your play style more, such as the Germans for early expansionism, but that's not to say you can't succeed if you'd rather have a large empire, but your character skews towards fewer cities.

One of the more interesting aspects of the game, and which I was particularly hopeful for, is the variety of ways you can win a map - a total of 5 in all. Default map settings include a game length limit, such that by the time you arrive at 2050, the game is over. Have the highest score at that time, which is determined by a number of things such as the number and size of your cities or the number of technologies you've researched, and you win. You can construct the U.N. and buy the favor of the various city-states so that they'll vote for you, because each civilization generally only votes for itself. For a science victory you'll build the various parts for the space ship of the future, which you then must assemble in your capital. A culture victory requires you to completely unlock five different social policy trees, and then construct the utopia project. The final way to win is simply to be the last civilization standing, and crush all other players. So basically, genocide.

I lost this one several times due to the 2050 time limit until I developed nukes to devastate the enemy's population. Coincidentally, I had been trying to achieve a diplomacy victory.

The last thing worth covering quickly is the map customization, which is incredible. It is one of those features that most people will never mess around with, content instead to select one of the defaults and see what the map generation comes up with. I however, do recommend you mess around with this, as you can do everything from limit the types of victory conditions allowed, start at any era you choose, change the type of map, the abundance of resources, the pace of the game, and so on. It is useful because you might find yourself jumping straight to the future era in an earth like map with few resources and hot wet weather, or choose an archipelago style map with a high sea level, resulting in a decent amount of variety, and the ability to tailor everything to the kind of experience you want to have, such as changing the pace down to quick instead of marathon.

Civ 5 is a pretty complex game, as this general overview should convey. Yet it is not without issues that diminish the experience. There is an assortment of bugs that do things like lock up your screen when it is not your turn, preventing you from viewing your opponents moves, which occurs when they attack you, or split your units over two turns, such that you command several units at first, instruct the game to proceed, and then are kicked back to other units it didn't tell you needed orders. There is the AI, which can be problematic in two forms. The first is when it is supposed to be working for you, as you can automate certain units, thinking specifically of workers. Auto workers will only improve a few tiles around your city, rather than expanding, and seem to have problems completing roads or railways, which can be queued up using a path to command, such that if you want to finish a road, or build it as the crow flies rather than pathing all the way back to your main city and then to this new city. The other way the AI can be a problem is through the sheer idiocy of enemy civilizations, which have a tendency to denounce you for founding a city near their boundaries, which were only established after they moved halfway across the map to grab the one oil resource that was right next to your borders, or that question your motives when, during a peace treaty that was established after they attacked you, you have built up an army so as not to be caught off guard again. There is also the annoyance of having to give orders individually, rather as a group, such as is often the case in a RTS, which becomes more of an issue during some of the special scenario missions, thinking in particular of one that has you rushing to conquer England, when you are granted 10-20 units at once.

Yes, a group select would be nice here.

Perhaps my largest issue with this game though, is that it seems to be played best as a war game, rather than an exercise in diplomacy, and so, ultimately, the best way to win requires knocking out as many enemies as possible, placing their cities under siege and either razing them, making them puppet states, or annexing them. Peace only gets you so far, which usually means until an aggressive civilization can focus on you, even if you've had extremely good relations in the past. I have been caught flat footed by groups I thought were allies, as we fought side by side to destroy the expansionist forces in the game, until they suddenly and without warning turned on me. That was the point in this game where I realized peace is for suckers, and you should build your armies up as large as possible, stationing aircraft and bombers, submarines and nuclear missiles around the map, ready to strike in order to, at the very least, lower your opponent's score in anticipation of the 2050 deadline, which ultimately ends up being the determining victory condition rather than any of the other options, resulting in a situation where there are supposedly this grand array of choices, but none of them ever get utilized.

Well, that was quite a rant. Despite all of that, Civilization 5 is an interesting game, one which is quite possibly the most complex thing I've ever played. You'll want to set aside plenty of time for this game, because it can take quite a while for even the simplest matches - lasting several hours. I put in over 54 hours before I decided I had enough, which is good, but frankly the time wasn't as enjoyable as some other games I've played, though still a positive experience, one that had me questioning multiple times where the last 14 hours of my day went. It would be interesting to see what the Gods and Kings expansion adds to the game, and I may one day find out. Look for the game of the year edition at $15 or so, though with the expansion out now, I wouldn't be surprised if it was at $10 during a major sale, because while the game does have an extremely large amount of content, it is only above average in it's execution - 6 out of 10.

So, the final breakdown:

Score: 6/10

Suggested Price: $15