Calculator (iOS)

No I'm not reviewing a calculator. I'm reviewing Calculator, an iOS game that looks like...well...a calculator. The premise is quite simple.  On each level the calculator has certain buttons, most of which are arithmetical operations such as "+12", "x3".  The calculator starts at a certain number, and you need to use the buttons to validly reach …

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Warlords (1990)

Warlords was a famous 1980 game for the Atari 2600.  But that's not what I'm talking about today. Today, I'm talking about the other Warlords  game, namely the 1990 fantasy turn-based strategy/wargame by Strategic Studies Group, who were the same people who designed Reach for the Stars, the original 4X game.  So it's got a …

GNOG

Long time good reason blogging kids work etc etc.  Let's just get into it. GNOG is published (though not developed) by Double Fine, so as you would expect it is a bit unique.  It bills itself as a  "3D puzzle game", which is a fair enough description.  It's the first puzzle game I've ever played …

2019: the catch-up post

Merry Christmas!!! I've got a touch of time over the holiday period so I'm going to try and cover all the games I've played in 2019 but missed on the blog, starting with: Beyond Divinity Release date:              2004 Purchase date:           17 June 2018 Complete …

Bits of Backlog – Eye of the Beholder I and II

The Eye of the Beholder games were, apparently, a clone of Dungeon Master with a D&D licence slapped on.  They're part of a brief 90s craze of combining first-person mazecrawling RPGs with real-time combat; that's what Legends of Grimrock is harking back to. The fad didn't last too long until being replaced with the ubiquitous isometric …

Bits of backlog – Opus: Rocket of Whispers

[Another of my short pieces in the "bits of Backlog" series] I've sat on writing about this game for a long time, because I couldn't decide what to write about it. Opus: Rocket of Whispers is a smartphone game.  Mechanically it's "search the maze for missing pieces then return before time runs out".  Imagine Pikmin …

Bits of Backlog: Hillsfar – Pirates! in the Forgotten Realms

[Welcome to the second of my "bit of backlog" format, where I'm much shorter than my usual 2000 word musings.] When I decided to play the sequel to Pool of Radiance, there were two games I could have chosen - Curse of the Azure Bonds (which I did choose) and Hillsfar.  They both came out …

Bits of Backlog – Dr Mario World and how to touchscreen

It happened - the blog has fallen woefully behind.  The reasons are the usual ones: less time for gaming, less time for writing, etc.  So I've decided to change format - less 2000 word full-blown reviews, and more "I'm playing this" type posts. So I give you - Dr Mario World. Dr Mario World is …

Quest for Glory III: The Wages of War is Worse

I once saw an interview with Josh Mandel, a great adventure game designer who worked at Sierra during its heyday. Most Sierra games (like Quest for Glory 1 and 2) used the old "text parser" interface, leftover from the text adventure games.  I had always wondered why Sierra stuck with this old interface for so …

Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon

You are Tex Murphy. A 30s private eye in an 80s cyberpunk novel. One day while searching for the next inventive excuse to keep the landlord at bay for another week, a dame walks into your office. That means trouble at the best of times, but this broad had the unholy trifecta – she was …