Greenman Gaming: Store Credit

I just found out about some nice referal program on Greenman Gaming.

GMG is one of the many digital game distributors rising lately, alongside Direct2Drive and Gamersgate.

Right now, Sid Meier's Civilization V is up for £5.99, which is, in fact, a steal (6.80€), especially considering the lowest it got was still 20 bucks on the steam summer sales.

Now the cool thing.
You can refer people who then sign up, spend more than £5 on something, which then will give both the one refering AND the refered person £5 store credit.

I just tried it, had to pick up Magicka again as a gift (you get both Magicka and Vietnam for slightly over £5), and with the additional £5 store credit I collected all the DLCs for free.

So, if you wanna check out Greenman Gaming and think about buying something, feel free to use my referal link to get there. It will serve both you and me.

Chantelise - A Tale of Two Sisters

Hey Guys and Girls, I'm happy to show you the beginning of
"Chantelise - A Tale of Two Sisters"!

Some might be familiar with EasyGameStation or Carpe Fulgur, who are also responsible for Recettear - An Item Shop's Tale.
This game was developed before Recettear fell into debt, but is entirely different - aside from the humor, item sprites, soundeffects and so on, which are used in EGS's titles.

It's easy to get into, but has quite some difficulty level. Don't get too frustrated in the beginning!

I've only recorded the first ~15 minutes, before you get to sleep and look for the town's Fortune-Teller.
I've only completed the Demo (full release on the 29th for $10, see below!), but already love this gem. I might replay the other half simply out of fun, and upload that as well.



Please visit the official site (still under construction) to grab the Demo!


If you wanna preorder the game right away, check Gamersgate


Steam's offering the game as well, but it's not yet open for orders:

Both GG and Steam offer the Demo as well, though.

In case you wanna get some additional information and discuss about this game, you might also want to join us on TheColorless.net, a relatively open Anime/Game-inspired community.

»Chantelise Screenshots«

New Space Marine Cinematic Trailer

Fresh in via SpaceMarine's twitter account, a new Cinematic Trailer.
Finally we're getting a better view on the events around our Ultramarines.

It looks stunning, and I won't be able to resist. Collector's Edition, here I come!

Either wait til the retail release for PC, PS3 and X360, or preorder your PC version right away. It's a Steamworks-game, so you'll activate your retail PC key via Steam anyway.

Humble Bundle #3 is live!

The Humble Bundle is a charity-sale of a bunch of indie games of which you might or might not heard of yet.

You decide how much you want to pay and who should receive how much out of it:
Charity or Developers, or do you just want your games?
You can support the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child's Play, or support the cause by supporting Humble Bundle itself, who provide the bandwidth and development - in fact, they keep the project alive.

Maybe you'll remember the second round and donated already, well, here's your next chance!

What do you get out of it?
- Crayon Physics Deluxe
- Cogs
- VVVVVV
- Hammerfight
- And Yet It Moves
and the wonderful feeling of helping a good cause!

The Games are DRM free and you can download & play them right away, but have also the option to redeem your Humble Bundle on Steam - all 5 games will get unlocked for your account in an instant!

Now now, go and spend some money!

http://www.humblebundle.com/

Assassin's Creed 2 is full of content.

I won't disclose on the quality of said content in this post, though.
I just want you to know that I'm damn busy playing that game and hating on Ezio for not jumping accurately.
However, the game is packed full of stuff, missions, treasures and so on, and as I am a completionist in these cases, I can't help but want to do ALL the sidemissions in every city.

That means I just arrived in Venice, but at least got Monterigionni fully renovated, swim in money and got basically everything done that was available til now. Boo Fucking Hoo, eh?

Anyway, the Game's going into a nice direction.


PS: Skyrim Sucks.

Catherine comes to Europe!

Joystiq reports Deepsilver publishing Catherine in Europe~

HELL YES! THIS IS NOT A DREAM! NOT A NIGHTMARE! IT'S HEAVEN!

Catherine is packing her bags for Europe. Atlus and European publisher Deep Silver have formed a professional relationship that will see the dramatic puzzle game making its way to PAL territories. Catherine will get some language lessons on the way, offering localized text in French, Italian, German and Spanish.

Atlus explained to us earlier this week that the company couldn't announce Catherine's European plans until it locked down a European publisher. The one thing missing from today's announcement is a launch window, something we hope to get during Europe's Gamescom convention, which is just a few weeks away.

Combining Assassin's Creed 1 & 2 Reviews?

So, you see, the AC1 Review gets delayed due to me being busy with Assassin's Creed 2, and I am constantly comparing the two while playing.

The deeper I get into AC2 (8 hours in atm), the more I have to admit a positive progress in development.
While I wouldn't really recommend the first AC, due to AC2, I'd rate it more benevolent in the series' context.

In the end, the question is:
Should I "recycle" my review (which is kinda elaborate in my mind but needs to be cropped down and brought to virtual paper still) and fuse it with the upcoming AC2 one I'm writing as soon as I'm done with the game?
These titles contrast so much, it would be hard to keep them apart now, at least for the reviewer.
I'd probably enjoy putting the two titles into relation, more so than switching back and forth all the time. However, I'd still need more time to finish AC2.

What would you have me do?

Darksiders 2 Comic-Con Interview

Fucking awesome, spectacular game awaits us in 2012!
Without further time-consuming text, watch the video:

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no Assassin's Creed Review today, sorry.

Thoughts on Assassin's Creed: Revelations E3 Trailer

Yes, you've probably seen this one already during/after E3 2011.
I saw it live (streamed) and have been watching it dozens of times since.

Partly, I've done so due to the excellent choice of music, partly for the incredibly fluid animation quality, despite the slow-motion sequences that brought a lot of action scenes down.

What makes this trailer great is the mix of music, pacing, lack of ingame scenes and dialogue.

It leaves you to your imagination while hinting the setting and overall plot direction.
The trailer's cliffhanger makes you want to see more, the appearance of Altair makes it mysterious and interesting.

It is not only Eye Candy, but also features musical and atmospherical brilliance.
One of the best trailers I've seen in ages, no doubt.

While I'm not all too happy with Ubisoft's policy, DRM-garbage and recycleware,
I tip my hat for the studio assembling this magnificent trailer.

Also, if you love the music even half as much as I do, you should buy Woodkid's EP "Iron".

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Assassin's Creed 1 Review probably coming later today, if I'll get it done in time.

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Catherine - Gametrailers, U Suck.

Not even Katherine would rate Catherine so low!

The score is a joke, really.
But hey, at least Square Enix bullcrap gets voted exorbitantly high, eh?

What frustrates me the most about the final score is that there was NO clear indicator for it.
The game overall got a good review, the control issues okay, its hard, okay, the music is amazing, although the game comes without Japanese audio.

There was NO big drawback being mentioned.
So why that score?

Don't get me wrong!
It's not the score itself that pisses me off, I could deal with that.
But the total lack of arguments against this game is shocking me.
Also, its the complete opposite of the initial impressions GT gave people before.

I could go on and look for a scapegoat, say that the reviewer was just butthurt about the lack of Japanese audio or found the game too hard.

However, Gametrailers, this was a huge disappointment and discredits you even more than voting Final Fantasy XIII 8.6 and giving Call of Duty: Black Ops a 9.7 in DESIGN!

Catherine: Final Trailer

God-dammit, I cannot wait til my Preorder arrives...
I decided to switch the design back to the Catherine theme; expect the change later today.

Click here to Preorder!

AC1 done, tackling Alice: Madness Returns

Alright, the Reviews will need to wait a few more days (pretty busy over here, not only with actual gaming but also some RL and whatever stuff).

I've now been tackling American McGee's Alice and Madness Returns. Good atmosphere, but everything else I'll have to experience for a bit longer, deeper into the game.
Of course, I started with the original game. The controls are rather annoying, I have to admit. It feels sloppy, especially compared to other PS2 titles.
However, atmosphere and style keep me playing for the time being.

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Oh, I preordered Catherine: Love is Over. I could not resist anymore.
Sadly, the import store I wanted to order from only had the X360 flavor in stock left, so I had to buy it from some canadian store. 70€ including shipping, okay, I could have gotten that for 60 with free shipping if only I decided to order it sooner. Let's just hope there won't be any additional costs...
Let's see if I'll put the Catherine back up again?

With Catherine covering my July, even though I don't have a PS3 til present day, Black★Rock Shooter's PSP game, which I preordered the White Box from (the one with the White Rock Shooter figma) is coming late August, means I can book that as a September order. My birthday's late August as well, so that won't be too much of an issue (I hope...).

Now how to get Space Marine onto my shelf? Coming September, wanting the Limited Edition. Ah, whatever, I'm gonna get it somehow.

If you want faster and closer updates from my side, feel free to meet me on Google+.
That's it for now

Done with Darksiders, almost finished Assassin's Creed

So yeah, I thought I might put a note up here.
I'm quite busy gaming, I already mentioned I wanna write some reviews once I'm done.

Darksiders was ace. Great game, worth my 22,50€ (7,50€ on Steam Sale around Christmas, 15€ about two weeks ago for the retail Collector's Edition).

Can't tell the same about Assassin's Creed, though, and these were only ~6€ on sale.
No, Assassin's Creed has to be the most repetitive game I ever played.
It's always the same, in every city, every fight, every saved civilian, every non-story dialogue, every tower-climbing sequence....
Playing Minesweeper or Solitaire has more variety to give, at least you'll need to think about your next move.

Once I'm done I'll write both reviews, then I'll get to the next entry on my current "Games to Finish" list. See below for that one - these are only the games I wanna scratch from my growing backlog.

With that I am off again to finish off Robert de Sable... let's hope he won't be just as easy to kill as the other victims...

Trails in the Sky comes to Europe!

"It's official, EU fans! The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky (PHYSICAL COLLECTOR'S EDITION!) is coming your way a la Ghostlight! Rejoice!"
via XSEED

TEARS OF JOY!
It is really happening!
Now the whole world is covered with another amazing game, one of the best I got to play these past years!

If you wanna go and look into Trails in the Sky, you might do so over here

Official Announcement by Ghostlight

I’m delighted to be able to announce that Ghostlight will soon be publishing a special Collector’s Edition of The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky exclusively for the PSP in the PAL region.

For those not in the know, Trails in the Sky is the first game in a new trilogy of the established The Legend Of Heroes series. The game itself is a fantastic RPG which was developed by Nihon Falcom and released in the US by XSEED earlier this year to critical acclaim (it currently has a mighty 80% metarating on Metacritic!)

As anyone who’s been following me on my Twitter will have seen, it’s also a game that I’m a massive fan of. In fact, I enjoyed it so much during our evaluation process that I borrowed a work PSP and took it home to play. One thing’s for sure, it’s a BIG game! So, for those of you who like to keep track of these things, my completed save time was 54 hours 30 minutes and 29 seconds, but there were several areas I managed to miss in my first play through. Still, now we’ve got the game it looks like I’ll get another chance to see them. Smile

The highlights for me were the amazing new battle system, where managing the turn order is key to defeating the tougher enemies, and the story itself which is brilliantly written and hilarious in places (just select each treasure chest twice and you’ll see what I mean). And that’s not to mention the fact that the game looks incredible and has an awesome soundtrack!

[...]

We don’t have a release date or price for the game just yet, but stay tuned for more information on this and also to find out just what cool loot we’re going to be including in our special Collector’s Edition. Plus, I’m hoping to have some other important news for you in the very near future.

Status Update/Apology

First off, I'm sorry I let this degrade like that.
I've been kinda busy these past weeks, part because of Moderator work on TheColorless.net, Games, real life, other activities... you get the deal.

Even now, I'm running Assassin's Creed (the first) in the background and am thinking about my upcoming reviews of AC1, Darksiders, The Last Remnant and the soon to be played stuff like Total War: Shogun 2 (which I loved the Demo off) and Cthulhu Saves The World (which I already started earlier today, see Youtube).

Not just that, I'm also trying to push myself through Chris Wraight's "Sword of Justice" really quickly, as I find myself enjoying it and want to write a quick recommendation as soon as possible.

Again, I apologize for not updating the site in quite some time.

On the topic of TheColorless, I have to say it's developing rather well lately.
Our staff is working very closely together now, on almost a daily basis, discussing site-related issues, suggestions, mod applications and so on while maintaining a healthy work atmosphere.

Due to the summer deep, our forum is kinda deserted lately, while the chat is booming with activity.
No matter how you look at it, now is the perfect time for new people to emerge, as they will be well noticed on the board and get an active, entertaining chat around the clock, so visit us on TheColorless

That being said, I survived the Steam Summer Sale without spending too much yet got amazing games out of it, which made me realize I have to work through my evergrowing backlog of games.

This is where I'll leave again to play Assassin's Creed, will hopefully get this done in a few days. Please note that my expectations were not very high for AC, but I can't help to feel disappointed nonetheless.
This will be obvious in the review.

Alright, that's it. I'm alive.
 If you wanna contact me, feel free to use Twitter or even Google+.