July Independent Game Reviews From Game Tunnel

cyrus_zuo writes "Game Tunnel has published the July Independent Video Game round-up, the latest in their long-running Famitsu-styled panels that review all the latest Indie PC games. The 10 games reviewed this month include the physics-based puzzle game Obulis, the PuzzleQuest made even easier Puzzle Hero and the appropriately titled Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble."

Im all for indie but...

[carp3_noct3m]

it needs to be more fun. The solitaire effect comes to mind. I have always HATED it when people have the latest and greatest uber gaming PC, then they sit down and play fskin solitaire for two hours! Indie games are good in principal, but Id much rather spend the little time I have to waste time on something like my old whore counter-strike (since it came out baby!), or something new and shiny. Indie MODs are where the real good stuff is at. (see previous whore example). All the games reviewed looked like b

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[JoshJ]

You can find "Dangerous High School Girls In Trouble" elsewhere? High school doesn't count.

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[carp3_noct3m]

I prefer more...ahem...interesting girls------Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude

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[montyzooooma]

I prefer more...ahem...interesting girls------Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude

After that confession you should hang your head in shame and slope out of the games section.
I also disagree with you that independent games aren't fun - or at least that the ratio is any worse when compared to big developers. I also miss the time when mods were more prevalent. There are still plenty of mods out there but the barrier for entry to modding modern games is SO much higher than it was back in the HL days.

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[strelitsa]

When you say "Dangerous", does this mean that the girls are actually ninja assassins from South Secaucus NJ? Or is the statutory rape conviction hanging over your head if you boink one of them the "dangerous" part? Or are they actually from a high school with 50-ton pieces of masonry falling off the top floors due to lack of preventative maintenance?

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[kalirion]

The thing about Indie games is that you'll find developers taking risks that no publisher would let them. Often it doesn't pay out, but sometimes it does and you get a truly innovative game.

And now I'll go back to playing Titan Quest to tide me over till Diablo 3.

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[tb()ne]

I'm as much of a graphics whore as the next guy (probably more) and tend to be easily mesmerized by the new, bright, shiny objects. But there is something to be said for good and unique game design, independent of how many polygons/sec there are or whether the game uses PixelShaders 6.9.

I recently played a game that I had never gotten around to for the original Playstation. As a 3D game from 1998, the graphics were good for its time but look like ass compared to anything coming out today. But after about

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[kisrael]

It seems to me that it's volume of content and story where most indy games don't shine... there are of course some very happy exceptions to that. And not all games have to be about content, but still...

There are good indy games

[Sycraft-fu]

That's one of the reasons to check out a site like GameTunnel. In particular, the games they award game of the year tend to be real good. Pick a style you like and you'll probably find something fun. Depths of Peril is one I bought and am enjoying a whole lot. Really well done game overall.

Re:Im all for indie but...

[cliffski]

They aren't the only indie games around, just ones that got released (and submitted) this month.
Games that don't look like those include:

Lux (http://sillysoft.net/lux/)
Mount n Blade (http://www.taleworlds.com/)
Mr Robot (http://www.moonpod.com)
Cute Knight (http://www.hanakogames.com/knight.shtml)
Master of Defense (http://www.master-of-defense.com/)
Determinance (http://www.mode7games.com/)
and my own games:
Democracy (http://www.democracygame.com) and
Rock Legend (http://www.rocklegendgame.com)

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[cthulu_mt]

Thanks.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Pretty much all of those games have crummy replay value, as far as I know. I've played about half of them, and every one of them had a cool demo, and an ultimately disappointing full version.

Disappointing to the point where I can literally say "I spent as much time playing the full version, as I did playing the demo". Play the demo five times or so...Then go buy the full version, play twice, discover that there's really nothing more to the game, don't play much more.

Sorry Cliff.

(I'm not saying I did

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[cliffski]

You don't need to feel bad. If you didn't enjoy a game, then you didn't enjoy it, regardless if its something made by satan or by the dalai llama, or what the budget was. games are meant to be fun.

I have to say that I feel that way about 99% of AAA games. Very few RTS game grip me like Company of heroes, and 99% of FPS games bore me to tears. I hardly ever even finish the demo, sometimes even the tutorial of AAA games.

With indie games, I'm not so bothered by this, because the investment is much lower. if I

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[MiceHead]

Sure, Cliff; list Hanako's and Moonpod's but not ours. Where's the love?

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[cliffski]

I assumed you were mega-rich by now and didn't need any additional p1mpage!

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[jasper]

Lux is a great Risk clone I've probably put 20+ hours in. Good map community and competitive online atmosphere... at least when I was into it a few years back.

Still fire it up on occasion to kill bots.

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[Reapy]

I'll just add my kudos to mount and blade. Extremely fun game play, very actively developed, new versions seem to come out quite frequently. I quiet easily opened my wallet after trying the demo and have not been upset.

The best part of mount and blade is you can ride around on a horse and lance people. I haven't really seen this kind of gameplay anywhere, and its pretty freaken amazing. On top of this there you can train up and maintain an army that will ride with you and you can give orders to. So you real

different strokes

[hanako]

All the games reviewed looked like bland boring versions of something I bet I could find somewhere else for free already...if I wanted to waste all that time looking for something so dull anyway.

I could say the exact same thing about counterstrike though. Looks really boring, I could probably find something similar for free, but why would I bother?

This seems so obvious it shouldn't even need saying, but... people like different things. Some people really enjoy playing solitaire or gem-swapper. Some peop

Lack of Interest

[Cornflake917]

I love how so many people on slashdot complain about the lack of innovation and new things in the video game industry, but when we see an article about indie games (which generally are trying new things), the article barely gets a dozen posts. Can you guys now see why game companies churn out the same shit over and over? They're only catering to what the masses want. If you want new and interesting gameplay, try a game that isn't created by a company you've heard of. FWIW, I'm not trying to say indie games are good, but at least they are more likely to give you a new experience.

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[William Baric]

Although there are a few exceptions (I will probably buy Birth of America 2 if I can get a demo first), the truth is most indie games are either about small and very light casual games, or about being yet another clone of a popular game from the 80s. It seems better to me to look at small publishers (particularly Europeans) rather than Indies. For example, a publisher like Focus Home Interactive is much better for innovation than the true indie world.

The other solution for people who want "innovation", is t

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[Blueskied]

Yes, everything was better back in the days. That's called nostalgia.
It's not easy to find the real good indie games, especially if you don't know the scene.
Two of my favorites:
the DROD series: logic puzzles, haven't played a better puzzle game. Not even in the 80ies :-)
Armadillo Run: Physics puzzles, lots of fun.
http://www.caravelgames.com/ [caravelgames.com] (DROD)
http://www.armadillorun.com/ [armadillorun.com] (Armadillo)