First Hour Magic Toy Chest Review

Very interesting review of the *new* Magic Toy Chest over on FirstHour.net. They only review the first hour and we followed World of Goo... but although the scores aren't that high (5 is seen as average) there was a ton of praise throughout the review, so take a look.

Street Fighter IV impressions

Rented SF IV this weekend and have put in a couple hours. It has been overwhelming praised, but I'm definitely not blown away. It's a pretty safe SF2 in 3D adaptation. It's well animated, but I wish they had gone more daring with the paintbrush/watercolor art style. I find the characters a tad cartoony and really loved that highly stylized first trailer. The game definitely needs an arcade stick and the computer AI is pretty brutal even on the lower difficulties...maybe it's just the crappy D-pad on xbox 360. I've only played about 4 characters so far (really like the new C. Viper) but the game is certainly solid. I really like the challenge mode since it teaches you the ropes and builds up the difficulty well. The final boss in Arcade Mode is impossibly cheap and the anime cutscenes have some laughable voicework. The main theme song is also pretty corny. The gameplay is solid though and there was no noticeable lag for me online...well done.

New Magic Toy Chest Review: 7/10 Olives

The *new* Magic Toy Chest was reviewed over at Tech-Olive

here are some highlights from the review:

Despite MTC‘’s casual appearance, it actually takes quite a bit of thinking, planning and patience.

While MTC may be fairly complicated, the tutorial levels do a fantastic job of explaining to you how things work and what exactly your objectives are.

Gameplay: 8 With the physics and impressive level design, the game serves an experience that is not often found.

Lasting Appeal: 8 If you are a fan of this genre, then you know games like this offer massive replay value with the vast amount of solutions to any given problem.

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IGM Issue 3 is Available!

Here's a late valentine's day present, IGM issue 3 is now available. This issue is our largest yet and features tons of indie game reviews! We review the 2008 IGF grand prize winner: Crayon Physics, Blast robots to bits in Droid Assault, Kick our way to stardom with New Star Soccer 4, Built a Kingdom in Kingdom for Keflings, and more!

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Learning Flash: Game 1

Now that the Magic Toy Chest is pretty much done, I have decided to start teaching myself Flash before I start on our next major project. I've purchased a book and have gotten through chapter 3 so far. Here is the first of my series of flash games that I will chronicle as I learn actionscript. Perhaps an original free flash game will come out of this...

Visit Graduate Games

Halo Wars Impressions / Demo Review

I downloaded the massive 1.7GB Halo Wars Demo Last night. Despite the Tutorial being very annoying (your control is frozen as the computer talks to you...argh! let me do what you're telling me as you talk!), I found the demo pretty enjoyable. The gameplay works pretty good for being on a console and the graphics are pretty cool. I wish the camera could be manipulated a little more to show off some of the intense infantry battles. The most compelling thing about the game is certainly the story...this game looks to have the best story backdrop of any Halo title since the original...plus the CGI rendered movies look fantastic. I'm very disappointed about having only a Human Campaign, but perhaps we'll get a Flood and Covenant Campaign as downloadable content. I'm a huge Halo fan, so I'll probably get this if only to play thru the story and get the Mythic Maps early. I don't think the gameplay is compelling enough for me to play this multiplayer very much. I wish I was more of an RTS buff, but I'm not a huge fan of the genre. I'm very interested to hear if Halo Wars legitimizes RTS on consoles.

New Magic Toy Chest Trailer

Far Cry 2: Preview/Impressions

I rented Far Cry 2 and have been playing it. It is absolutely gorgeous....the graphics have absolutely impressed me. The ability to start brush fires is also very cool, but I have found the single player - sandbox/GTA progression to not work very well. Luckily the multiplayer is pretty good with an interesting EXP and ranking system. I really don't get why the game carries the Far Cry name since it has nothing to do with the original "Island of Dr. Moreau" storyline or even gameplay mechanics (no catlike reflexes in this game). Oh well, it's a good rental, but I'm passing on a purchase.