Hurt Me Plenty: The Ultimate Guide to First Person Shooters 2003-2010 [Rich's REVIEW + Unboxing Video] 📖💥 @bitmap_books #Retrogaming

Hurt Me Plenty: The Ultimate Guide to First-Person Shooters 2003–2010 is the mahoosive 464-page hardcover book follow up to I'm Too Young To Die that explores the evolution of first-person shooters from the years 2003 to 2010. 

I’m Too Young To Die covered FPS games from 1992 to 2002 so it's cool how the new book just picks up the baton from where ITYTD left off. The book features almost 220 FPS games including Call of Duty, DOOM 3, Half-Life 2, BioShock, Crysis, Borderlands, Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, and Halo 2, alongside some lesser-known titles and experimental shooters.

The book also includes some cool interview chapters with FPS industry legends like Ken Levine (BioShock), Minh Le (Counter-Strike), Tim Willits (DOOM 3), and Jeep Barnett (Portal, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2). The book also explores and discusses FPS trends, such as the rise of multiplayer-only shooters, the impact of digital game distribution, and the shift from WWII settings to modern warfare.

Once again as with all Bitmap Books the book is designed with highest quality printing at the forefront along with the use of special Pantone ink, and an illustrated cover by Ian Pestridge that is Spot varnished and accompanied by a dust jacket highlighting key FPS genre elements against a stunning matte background. As always the book is a must-have for retro gamers and FPS fans.

First Person Shooter: The Definitive FPS Documentary 📽 @FPSDOC @80shorrordoc

The FPS genre is one of the biggest in all of gaming, and has its roots back in the ‘70s, leading from that time of flares, massive tellies and everything being brown or cream – right up to the online competition-based military shooters that capture the imaginations of millions worldwide today.

It is a genre that has morphed through many permutations through the decades, and if one were to cover it, surely they’d need a pretty lengthy documentary – maybe even one that’s four-and-a-half hours long? Just like this one, in fact!

Planet of Lana PC Review 7/10 "...absolutely reeks of competency" 🐈‍⬛ @PlanetofLana #IndieGames #GameDev

Planet of Lana absolutely reeks of competency. 

This cinematic 2D platformer is the debut release from indie developer Wishfully Studios, and if they’re setting out to make a name for themselves as an artistically minded team with a rock-solid grip on puzzle platformer mechanics then mission accomplished.

Set on an alien yet familiar world you play as young girl Lana, who we meet enjoying a bucolic life in her cosy fishing village. Naturally, as is the fate of practically every video game hero’s cosy home town, disaster soon strikes. 

Robots emerge from the blue skies to entrap the locals and promptly speed off into the distance. Lana is the sole survivor and must rescue her ambiguously defined best friend/girlfriend/sister/boyfriend/brother from their steel clutches.

I’m Too Young to Die: The Ultimate Guide to First-Person Shooters Review 💥 @bitmap_books @BrittRecluseuk

We’ve covered several Bitmap Book releases here at GF, and each has been cause for celebration, from the sheer scope of 'A Guide to Japanese Role-Playing Games' through to the oddly enchanting 'A Gremlin in the Works', their books always get hips deep into their subject matter and yank my trousers off, regardless of how firmly I’ve initially buckled them. 

In the case of I’m Too Young to Die: The Ultimate Guide to First-Person Shooters, it was the sections on oddities and ultimately unsuccessful titles that had grazes with greatness that really caught my attention.

It was eye-opening to find out just how much experimentation was going on, especially in the world of PC gaming in the mid-’90s, and I found myself marking a page to watch some gameplay footage of these games - that had somehow passed me by in my formative years – before continuing my reading and inevitably repeating the process a few pages later, always a good sign when reading a book such as this.

🐒🏝️ Return To Monkey Island Review 7/10 "The 90’s. If you’re too young to remember them, they were great." 🐒🏝️ @grumpygamer @terribletoybox #ReturnToMonkeyIsland

The 90’s. If you’re too young to remember them, they were great. Bands were cheap to go and see, you didn’t need to mortgage a kidney to heat your house or feed yourself, and beer was reasonably priced.

But none of that mattered to me back then because we had point-and-click adventures. Which were ace. 

🐈 Rem Michalski - Harvester Games Interview 🐈

I’ve had the opportunity to interview some very cool people for Games Freezer in the past and the man behind Harvester Games – Rem Michalski – has been on my radar for a while. Having inhaled his games; Downfall, The Cat Lady and Lorelai (collectively known as ‘The Devil Came Though Here’ trilogy), I was casually checking up on possible release dates for his next project, Burnhouse Lane, when I stumbled across a limited vinyl release of The Cat Lady soundtrack through Stumpy Frog records.

After purchasing the album as quickly as physics would allow, my mind drifted back over Harvester Games’ output and it freshly dawned on me that they are good. REALLY good.

It’s always awesome to find out that the people behind adored creations are good folk and this was very much the case here, Rem is a cool guy that makes extremely memorable, high-quality games that everyone should play, quite frankly.

💦🍆Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don’t Dry | XBOX | Review | "A surprisingly good-natured, innuendo-filled rump, er, romp" 💦🍆 @CrazyBunchTeam #IndieGames #GameDev

Platform Reviewed: XBOX ONE

Developer: CrazyBunch

Looking back over Leisure Suit Larry’s release history is long and hard. First exposing himself on our screens back in 1987, the adventures of Larry Laffer have been received in a range of ways, from standing so achingly proud that you feel worryingly light-headed to depressingly flaccid, with the last major entry in the series, Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust, being as welcome in my bed as a genital-eating spider comprised entirely of clones of my father’s disapproving eyes that can only be thwarted by watching a looped, grainy VHS tape of myself weeping into a hessian sack filled with physical manifestations of suppressed memories as I’m force-fed burnt clown-hair.

🎮 Friend’s Faves & Most Underappreciated Video Games 🎮 #Retrogaming #GamersUnite

I was recently asked to guest on a gaming podcast, in preparation I was asked for a combination of my favourite video games and also some I found to be under-appreciated. 

I’m pretty sure that it’s the same for everyone; where favourite games are always in flux depending on mood and memories but it was quite fun to think back at the games that either had the biggest emotional impact on me or that I remember having an awesome time with. 

☆ Review: The Forbidden Arts - "Could Someone help these guys make a new trailer?" ☆ #IndieGame

After my editor sends me a game to review, I usually start by watching the trailer, a short clip of video that is designed to build hype and show off some of the best parts of the game, but the most exciting thing about that was the burning Steam logo at the end. 

That trailer did nothing for me, and I hate that, because that is no way to go into a game, especially one that is unfinished and needs a bit of an open mind.  

The Forbidden Arts is thankfully a straightforward game: an action-adventure platformer with a simple button scheme and a good dose of ambition, but this work in progress from Stingbot Games seems to have a long road ahead still, so this is more like a dry first impression.

Review: Ancient Domains of Mystery "Up and ADOM!" ⚔️ #GameDev #ADOM #IndieGame @adom_dev

Ancient Domains of Mystery

Platform reviewed: PC (Steam)

Rating: Ice Cool

For the uninitiated (myself included) Ancient Domains of Mystery (or, ADOM) is a roguelike game that has been in development in some form or other since 1994.

In 2012 a crowdfunded project began that moved the game from its ASCII roots to a fully-fledged GUI and this version (3.05 as of December 2017) is the finalised version.

☆ Review: West of Loathing "A game that will ‘stick’ with me for a long time" ☆ #IndieGame #GameDev

West Of Loathing - PC

I’m not going to sugar-coat it, West of Loathing is my single-player game of the year.

I have never played any of Asymmetric Publications’ previous games but I will absolutely be front of the queue for their next release. 

West of Loathing is a joyous, hilarious and occasionally touching gem of a game that conjured up feelings that I haven’t had whilst playing a game since The Secret of Monkey Island.