QCF: Ultionus: A Tale of Petty Revenge

ould you remember a time when games were hard? Sure, the 8-bit era or even the onset of the 16-bit generation would fit the bill, but I’m talking difficult here, like “Hey mom can you give me another dollar’s worth of quarters” hard; aren’t too many you may who care to remember those moments now is there.

Sure, titles like Super Meat Boy have written the love letter to the demanding skill and frustration of video games, but generally most of these messages romanticize all of the aspects of pleasure that deride from the teeth grinding challenge of video games, and never any of the horse shit that comes along with it. The question is how could both sides of this coin be faithfully represented for both the purist, and masochist?

Last Dimension steps in with Ultionus: A Tale of Petty Revenge as their answer and while it may not appeal to everyone in both of those groups, it’s the best one I’ve seen yet to come close to being that answer.

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QCF: OlliOlli

he snap of your deck as the concave flips around your feet, and the shock of landing clean against the ground, sending tremors through the soles of your feet; these are one of the few highs that skateboarding can induce, and it’s been some time that it’s been relevant in video games. While The Birdman took a stab at endorsing the concept of a plastic peripheral that was intended to heighten the appeal skateboarding in video games through physical simulation, the results were far less than stellar, and EA has done little to nothing with its SKATE series since the last entry underperformed in sales back in 2010.

Leave it to an independent studio by the name of Roll7 to introduce one of the most graceful return-to-forms for the genre; OlliOlli is one of the best thumb-twitching reasons to own a Vita.

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Late To The Party: Tower of Fortune

hen you ingrain yourself in the culture of video games, giving in to the lifestyle it can manifest, then there’s one consistent rule of thumb that should be understood if anything else; video games do not stop for you, they stop for no one, and they will continue to move by the numbers with every passing day. There’s no shame in it, even the most privileged individuals who can afford the time and money for their favorite past time will find themselves cast on the sidelines when it comes to certain games; it’s honestly one of the best assets from the gaming community and how connected we all are with each other.

That’s why we ‘re introducing this new feature, Late To The Party: a feature profiling our impressions and overall thoughts on individual games that we initially missed on our radar during their launch run, and why they’re worth mentioning now. It just so happens that I have a game for this inaugural feature too; Tower of Fortune, it’s something else.

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PPR Games Club: Gone Home

ove is a lot of things, but rarely is it ever easy; especially when you’re a teenager. For our very first Games Club of 2014, we invite Shidoshi of EGM and The Morning Project fame to join us as we break down why Gone Home was one of the most influential games to release in 2013. We talk price, drop our opinion on just what kind of game it is, and of course; we spill into the territory of crazy theories and the possible weight they may hold to Kaitlin’s return.

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on Twitch page and Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

Also, we sit down and play through the experience from start to finish to highlight all of the opaque allusions of the Gone Home saga, grab your favorite snack and watch with us won’t you?

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QCF: Max: Curse of Brotherhood

he duality of a sibling can be broken down to a science—a gradual rite of passage in life from childhood to adult life. Despite the bond of blood, the relationship of brother and brother isn’t always built with loyalty and love; it’s all too susceptible to the harshest animosity that this world has to offer. Case and point; when your little brother is being a turd, leave it up to irrational anger to lead you to buy into the first online search result on how to make them disappear—which is where we find Max, and his curse of Brotherhood.

Building upon the onset of Xbox One in the first few months of its launch, Press Play takes upon themselves to inject some whimsy into the fledgling library of the new box, and while Max aspires to shine, it instead struggles to be competent at best, and a fumbled mess of asinine physics the rest of the time.

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PPR Presents Now Showing: 01/24/14

hat’s that? You say you demand squeaky new footage on upcoming video games do you? Why of course you do, and we’re not pulling any punches in this latest Now Showing. 2014 may have started with a slight lull in releases (giving plenty of indies the opportunity to shine) but that’s soon coming to an end.

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QCF: Republique

This Review was Freelanced by Rob Rich; you can find his other work here.

eorge Orwell’s ‘1984’ and the bleak, oppressive image of the future it paints, is a theme that’s been adapted many times over throughout many forms of media ever since 1949. It’s referenced in other novels and movies, comics and cartoons, and of course video games. The latest piece of interactive fiction to give a nod to the Orwellian classic is Camouflaj’s Republique - Episode 1: Exordium; a surprisingly compelling stealth adventure game with some serious talent behind it.

Hope is a young girl living in some kind of super-swanky “we’re just kidding ourselves it’s totally a prison” compound, and the powers that be just found out she’s been reading something she shouldn’t have. It quickly becomes apparent that her would-be protectors have some rather nefarious plans for her, but there’s not much she can do about it locked in a cell. That’s where you come in.

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PPR Presents Lime Light: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

hanks to the work of one incredibly talented artist by the alias of bWWd and his team of contributors, all of the boys and girls who drove their parents crazy with their expensive fascination with Eternia can now rejoice; there’s a fucking He-Man and the Masters of the Universe beat’em up game—and it’s beautiful.

Toast takes the lead, as George joins in to wax nostalgia and marvel at one of the most impressive fan projects that we’ve discovered in the Del Quattro yet! You guys can tune in (and subscribe to us while you're at it) around Wednesday evening, January 15^th, at 7:30 PM pacific time and join us in the chat as we lay down our lives for the power of Grey Skull!

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