General update for May

Well, I know it has been a long time since I last posted. No good reason, unless you take into account my avid fascination with Star Trek and Sacred. But even so, the gaming world marches on, and there is definite activity. The biggest news is probably that Starcraft II has been officially announced by Blizzard, which has everyone and their grandmother in Korea in an uproar, along with every RTS Junkie. An very good thing to look forward to.

But everyone else will be talking about it, so I will instead talk about the lesser-known games out there. The first thing that comes to mind is that Aquaria may be released in late June, and has also been the best game on display at an Independent Gaming Festival. There are also other independent games to be noted, not the least of which is Battleships Forever.

Made with Gamemaker, by an person known as "th15", this game has an interesting Tron-style with the graphics of the ships featured in the game. It is an RTS kind of game, where the focus is not just what ships you have at disposal, but how you move them during the battles. The point is to out-manuever your enemies with your own ships, without exposing the vulnerable areas of your own. Very much micromanagement, but beautiful. Examine the picture below, to see what I mean. There is also an Ship Maker available, so perhaps ships similar to Sci-Fi classics could be produced, by the fans out there.

Battleships Forever






















An deluxe edition of the Princess Maker styled independent game "Cute Knight" has been made available by Hanako Games, for a price. While I haven't played the game due to my inability to acquire (let alone to play it because of my...environment), I think it may be quite interesting to women and those who enjoy raising an character. Still, you should judge it yourself since my basic assessment isn't too good. It has dungeon crawl elements though, to be sure.

Cute Knight Deluxe



On a similar topic, there is the PK Girl to be considered. A freeware game, it is one of those games that combines anime graphics, music, and writing style for an old-style adventuring format. Those of you who have played Adventuring games, like King's Quest III where you could type "Kick the Cat", know what I mean. It is an very solid game. Sadly, the author doesn't seem to have produced more games, and I feel it is an loss for the videogame community. Players who enjoy romance or interactive fiction where you think, should enjoy this title immensely.

The PK Girl