Indie posts

There's not many games that let you play as a dragon. Not a cute, almost human-like dragon such as Spyro, or a human that turns into a dragon like Divinity 2. Normal, fire-breathing, princess-stealing, loot-gathering, town-torching dragons are fairly absent from the rosters of gaming protagonists. Their actions are a bit hard to justify in a story-focused game, after all. Hoard aims to change that. Not the story bit, as the game is almost entirely arcade-like, but rather the playing as a mostly evil dragon part. Flying around and torching everything from towns to ogres has never been this satisfying, and Hoard has quickly become one of our favorite short-session games. Pop in, play for a few minutes, pop out. It's brilliantly designed, fairly cheap, and visually stunning. We found it difficult not to immediately love Hoard straight from the get-go.

The stoic and thoroughly difficult AI War has received three expansion packs to date: Zenith Remnant, Children of Neinzul, and Light of the Spire. Each one offers new units, scenarios, and AI types to bring to bear For this multi-part review, we'll be examining each expansion pack individually and giving them individual verdicts. After all, each expansion is independent of the others and brings new ships and Ai types unique to that particular expansion. The one thing they have in common, however, is how much the increase the difficulty compared to the original game. These expansions are for the hardest of the hardcore.

This is the playable PC demo for Anomaly: Warzone Earth, a reverse tower defense strategy game where players direct convoys through hostile territory to avoid hazards. Continue reading after the jump for system requirements.

"Anomaly: Warzone Earth is an extraordianry mixture of action and strategy in a reversed tower defence formula. The game tasks you with saving a near-future Earth from an alien onslaught. The invaders have captured world's major cities, building huge turrets that destroy everything in their path. It's up to you to lead an armor squad through the streets of cities like Baghdad and Tokyo, planning the route and strategically choosing which units to deploy in order to crush the opposition. Take control of the Commander, whose special abilities and quick thinking will be vital in supporting the squad in its mission, as you engage in fast-paced, tactical battle across story campaign and two heart-pounding Squad Assault Modes."

Download Anomaly: Warzone Earth Demo (395 MB)
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It's always nice when a highly polished indie game hits the scene, and judging by its critical reception, that's exactly what Anomaly Warzone Earth is. This launch trailer for the newly released indie title shows both cinematic and in-game footage, and it certainly looks interesting to us. There's also the standard snippets of praise that almost all launch trailers require at some point. Thankfully, it does not include the numeric scoring, but rather small fragments of quotes that make us want to read the actual reviews.

Download the Anomaly Warzone Earth Launch trailer
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One of the most important parts of any good action RPG are the monsters you slaughter. After all, if you fight the same old skeletons and oozes and imps, all that loot grinding can get a bit tedious! Runic has revealed some of the new monster designs for Torchlight 2 on the game's site, and they are rather impressive. The one to the left is one of our person favorites: dwarven automata.

They have also promised to reveal more information about the game every other week until E3 as well, meaning that we will soon get more than just monster pictures and backstories. We personally hope that they reveal the history of the world soon, since Torchlight got us quite interested!

Elements of War is exactly what it says on the tin: elements and war. Specifically, the natural elements mixed with modern warfare units. This trailer focuses mostly on the realistic units, such as the tanks and helicopters, but busts out some awesome weather manipulation for the finale. It's definitely got us interested, as new and innovative strategy titles are always exciting to see. So take a look and see if all the lightning strikes and thunderstorms tickle your fancy.

Download Elements of War Gameplay Trailer
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Streets of Rage is one of those classic games that just about everyone with access to a Sega Genesis played at one point. The indie remake project, Streets of Rage Remake, has finally released the final version of their sprawling, PC-oriented remake of the classic franchise. Characters, stages, music, and objects from every game in the core series have been included and remastered, making this one of the most impressive remake projects we've ever seen. On top of that, it includes tons of goodies, such as editors and concept images.

[Via TIGsource]
[Image via Rock Paper Shotgun]

Are you excited about Scrolls? So excited? Well, if you are looking forward to Mojang's next game that doesn't end with -craft, you might get a chance to alpha test it. The newsletter field at the bottom of the Scrolls website offers an opt-in for the alpha test for those interested in the virtual CCG. It's been around for a while now, but better late to the party than skipping it entirely! As mentioned before, alpha testers for Minecraft will also be introduced into the Scrolls alpha over time.

[Via Rock Paper Shotgun]

This small patch for Atom Zombie Smasher updates the game to v1.71, fixing a number for bugs for the PC, Mac and Linux releases of the game. A full list of changes can be found after the jump.

Updated demos are also available. The full game can be unlocked from the demo or by visiting the official website.

Patch
Download Atom Zombie Smasher v1.71 Patch [Windows] (1 MB)
Download Atom Zombie Smasher v1.71 Patch [Mac] (306 KB)
Download Atom Zombie Smasher v1.71 Patch [Linux] (755 KB)

Demo
Download Atom Zombie Smasher Demo [Windows] (24 MB)
Download Atom Zombie Smasher Demo [Mac] (31 MB)
Download Atom Zombie Smasher Demo [Linux] (25 MB)

Not many games let you play as the dragon terrorizing the countryside rather than the heroic knight. Hoard does, though! This trailer depicts the various things you can expect to do, such as gather gold, kidnap royalty, and fight other dragons for loot. Overall it's informative and entertaining, and makes us genuinely look forward to the game's April 4th release on Steam. After all, it's quite unique looking!

Download DHoard PC Edition Trailer
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