DmC: Devil May Cry - Demo Impressions

From the very beginning I was prepared to dislike DmC: Devil May Cry, the poorly-named reboot to the Devil May Cry series starring a new Dante in a parallel universe. I really enjoyed the originals (well, the first and third ones, anyway), and the DMC series is not so old as to warrant needing a reboot, which makes the whole thing seem like a dumb gimmick. I didn't like the look and personality of this new Dante, and the fact that it wasn't being developed by Capcom had me even more concerned.

With skeptical curiosity, I decided to try the PS3 demo; as it turns out, the game actually seems alright to me. It's not spectacular, and there are some things that kind of bother me, but it's raised my interest level from "absolutely no interest" to "might consider buying it sometime." It's been maybe a half-dozen years since I played any of the original PS2 games and I haven't even played the fourth one, so I can't make hard comparisons to how DmC lives up to the legacy of the originals, but here are my thoughts on how DmC stands up on its own, based on the demo. 

The Top 10 From 2012: Editorials

With 2012 now a distant memory, it's time to reflect on the year's greatest achievements and rank them in order of their success. Since I hardly ever play new releases, I can't compile a list of the top ten releases from 2012. Instead, I'll be highlighting some of my best articles from 2012. Shameless self-promotion with an opportunity to get some of my favorite pieces on the front page again. Huzzah.

This time I'll be ranking some of my favorite editorials, those opinion pieces where I talk about some aspect of gaming and compare the relative strengths and weaknesses of a few games. Continue reading for the full list.

The Top 10 From 2012: Free Indie Games

With 2012 now a distant memory, it's time to reflect on the year's greatest achievements and rank them in order of their success. Since I hardly ever play new releases, I can't compile a list of the top ten releases from 2012. Instead, I'll be highlighting some of my best articles from 2012. Shameless self-promotion with an opportunity to get some of my favorite pieces on the front page again. Huzzah.

I didn't play as many free indie games as I would've liked in 2012, so this list isn't much of a "top 10" -- it's more like "the only 10" ranked in order of preference. Some of them were a little disappointing, but the top half of the list were all outstanding, and even the bottom half showed a lot of potential. Continue reading for the full list.

Killing Floor Twisted Christmas 2012

Christmas is just around corner, which means there's another "Twisted Christmas" event for Killing Floor. The folks at Tripwire Interactive have been holding these Twisted Christmas events annually ever since 2010, and it's always fun to get free content updates for one of your favorite multiplayer games. This year's event features a return of the usual Christmas-themed specimen skins, the chance to get all of the old Twisted Christmas achievements and character skins, a new map, three new weapons, and two paid DLC skin packs. 

The gimmick this year is that, after besting Evil Santa in his own lair, and then a year later in his ice cave, Evil Santa has set up a new base of operations on the moon. You follow him all the way to his moon base to fight Christmas specimen in low-gravity. The update itself is pretty good, but honestly, it's beginning to feel like Killing Floor has jumped the shark. I've been feeling less and less excitement about Killing Floor events lately as each one continues to add controversial, game-changing content and marketing policies. My full run-down awaits after the jump.

Impressions of Forge

Forge is a fantasy multiplayer action game (with light RPG elements) that recently launched on Steam. After failing to reach its fundraising goal on Kickstarter, Dark Vale took the project to the Steam Greenlight, where it succeeded and made its way to an official release. Described as an MMO FPS that blends the tactical combat of end-game PVP from MMORPGs with the typical action of an FPS, I was immediately intrigued once I saw the game in Steam's "new releases" tab. 

After playing about eight hours, I'm rather enjoying Forge. There are some shaky things going on with its launch, there's obviously a lot of content missing, and there are certain aspects of its current design that kind of bug me, but the overall experience has been satisfying despite these kinds of initial issues. The controls are tight and responsive, the combat is tactical and visceral, the classes are nice and varied, and the maps are really interesting. Dark Vale are still working on the game, and with the things they've promised, I have high expectations for the game to continue improving. More of my thoughts after the jump.

Insert Stairway to Heaven Reference: Skylight

Here's an interesting little game. Skylight is a first-person indie platformer by Moment Studios with a simple goal: ascend a flight of platforms to reach your home at the top. The arrangement of platforms is randomly generated each time, and landing on a platform causes it to play some kind of musical note, so that the soundtrack progressively generates itself as you go along. There's not a whole lot of complexity to the gameplay, besides landing your jumps and trying to build up a new high score, but the whole experience is pretty relaxing and enjoyable.

At least in theory. For as much potential as Skylight has to be a nice, relaxing game, I actually found it kind of frustrating. For whatever reason, I had problems consistently landing on platforms and controlling my momentum while using the first-person camera. It became much easier in third-person, but it was a little less immersing seeing my little robot character on screen. Even after a few dozen attempts I'd only managed to make it 30% of the way through the game, and it only gets harder the further you go, with platforms becoming more and more scarce and the sky becoming darker until you have to rely on the light of a headlamp to see.

I kind of wish, therefore, the game were a little easier to complete, with more complicated strategies for building high scores; as much as I enjoyed sailing through the air and generating random musical goodness as I went, it was incredibly frustrating for me to fail so badly (as the result of simple, easy mistakes) at what should be a relatively easy task. I feel like the purpose of the game is primarily to enjoy the aesthetics, rather than to master the nuanced challenge of platforming. Either way, whether you're interested in the aesthetics or the platforming, you can buy Skylight for $2.49 from the official site or on Desura, or as part of Kyttaro Games' current Bundle in a Box (provided you beat the current average price). 

Averse Reactions to Eversion

Seems like indie platformers are a dime a dozen, and indie platformers "with a unique twist" are even more common. Eversion is an indie platformer with a unique twist. Initially evoking nostalgic memories of the likes of Super Mario World, Eversion quickly takes a dark turn to the strange and twisted. The gimmick, here, is that you can use a special ability to "evert" into alternate dimensions -- essentially different versions of the same level with different graphical styles, background music, enemies, and hazards. Navigating to the end of the level and collecting all of the gems along the way requires clever use of the different dimensions.

Eversion is pretty short; it only took me about 45 minutes to reach the ending, despite spending a lot of time dying and replaying segments of each level. Despite being so simple, the game sometimes reaches levels of "Nintendo hard" that had me dying repeatedly because of stiff controls and unpredictable hazards that required me to die, learn the hazards, and memorize the layout in advance. Using the everse function to navigate the maps is a decent idea, but it's a little annoying when you know you have to evert but can't find the right spot in the level to do so. 

I wasn't terribly impressed with Eversion. Indie platformers have to be really special to stand out in my eyes, and Eversion seemed kind of average. When I reached the end, I was happy to be finished with it and didn't have any desire to go back collecting gems for extra secrets. If you're curious to give it a go, you can download it for free on the official site, or you can buy the upgraded HD version on Steam for $4.99 or as part of Kyttaro Games' current Bundle in a Box (pay what you want, minimum price of $0.99).