Category: PC Games

Gaming Gems - Wolfenstein 3D!

8/13/2018

by R.A. Rowell; Co-Owner of Intent-sive Nature & the Brand Shamans network

Newer gamers are likely familiar with the Castle Wolfenstein games, but the legend began way back in 1992 with Wolfenstein 3D! The adventures of B.J. Blazkowicz infiltrating Nazi strongholds and taking down their bosses became such a huge hit that the game spawned console ports as well as a sequel in Spear of Destiny!

I probably shouldn’t have been playing this game as a kid, but it was fun! After all, this game has a MATURE rating for a reason, with all the blood and whatnot - pixelated as it may be. Still, for a game as old as it is, it’s actually held up really well!

Pros of Wolfenstein 3D

I’m one of those 100% gamers who try to do absolutely everything. And this game is great for that! In addition to tons of secret rooms that you can find by pushing walls, there’s also a secret level for each of the six episodes! Really, you can play this game for years and never find everything. The level design is that deep!

Over the years, there have even been mods made for Wolfenstein 3D that allow for endless extra hours of gameplay, testing the limits of the original game engine! So, the replayability of this game is pretty crazy high!

Also, you get to be the “good guy” and help take down some pretty evil baddies!

Cons of Wolfenstein 3D?

Are there any? Perhaps the biggest knock you could have against the game is that the entirety of the game’s six episodes can technically be completed within half an hour if you know what you’re doing.

Observe this speed-run:

Of course, this particular speed run is actually a bunch of separate segments and not really a “true” speed-run. But it shows you how a lot of the floors can be beat within 15-30 seconds if you know how to take advantage of guys walking through otherwise locked doors, etc. But I don’t think this is a bad thing. Obviously, you have to run through the levels umpteen times to get this good at it.

And yeah, it’s really dated. But for a game that’s over 25 years old, what can you really expect?

It’s pretty hard to come across a copy of this game that you can buy these days. So I won’t be linking to any, but you can certainly find it online if you really want to play it! Of course, there are tons of people on YouTube that have played it, so if you want the full experience, there’s this 100% walkthrough by Big Mac Davis!

What awesome classic games did you play as a kid? Whether they be on PC or any console, I’d love to hear about them?

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Gaming Gems - Raptor: Call of the Shadows

8/12/2018

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by R.A. Rowell; Co-Owner of Intent-sive Nature & the Brand Shamans network

Raptor: Call of the Shadows was one of my favorite PC games growing up. It was a top-down vertical-scroller shooter by Apogee Software & Cygnus Studios from 1994. Sure, I probably wasted far too many hours playing, but, man, it was fun! It’s similar to another classic game called Major Stryker, but for whatever reason Raptor has really lived on. Heck, there are streamers who even STILL PLAY IT LIVE ON STREAM!

This longplay on stream by cs188creations is super awesome. It’s 2 and a half hours long, so don’t feel pressured to watch the whole thing. But, you can get the whole experience by watching it. He played it on max difficulty WITHOUT SAVING! Yeah, he died a couple of times, but that’s what you get from going hardcore!

Like a lot of older games there were some cheats that made the game easier, like skipping levels and a “god mode.” But I always preferred to play the old fashioned way. I pretty much only played on MAX difficulty - Elite - but I always saved after every wave!

Pros of Raptor

The soundtrack of this game was so good that I’d find myself humming tracks from it all of the time! There’s even a playlist or two of the Raptor: Call of the Shadows OST on YouTube! Despite there only being three sectors with nine waves each, the game has surprising amounts of replay value. There are also some cool easter eggs that I forget how to get at now.

The selection of equipment and weapons in Raptor: Call of the Shadows is also pretty expansive for such an old game, although there are a few that are clearly better than others, like the Auto-Track Minigun and the Twin Lasers. The graphics were superb at the time and it was critically liked.

Really, Raptor’s a great game to play when you just want something straightforward where you blow stuff up!

Cons of Raptor

Honestly, I don’t think there’s anything I dislike about Raptor: Call of the Shadows. I will say that there’s a Windows version from 1999 that had some serious control issues. But since then there’s been a version released on Steam which is fine and an iOS version of the game, as well.

The only other knock I’d really have against the game is that it’s not packed with quite as many levels as other similar games. But the quality of its 27 levels makes up for whatever replayability value it loses from having such a small number of stages.

Overall, it’s really fun to watch other people play Raptor that have such a nostalgic fondness for it like myself! At one time back in 2015, it looked like there was going to be a sequel to Raptor: Call of the Shadows, but it never came to be. If you’re looking for a classic game to fire up, this is definitely one that’s worth a couple hours of time for the serious retro PC gamer!

You can find the DOTEmu 2010 version available for download on Amazon or the newer 2015 release on Steam.

Games similar to Raptor: Star Defender 4 & Alien Stars by Awem Studios

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Subnautica: A Hard Look at This Underwater Survival Game

10/22/2016

by John Grgurich, J. Grgurich Music

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to explore the ocean? Now you can with this underwater survival game. While still in development, Subnautica is available on Steam for $19.99, and it’s gained significant momentum since it was released in 2014.

I have spent quite a bit of time on this game over the last few months. And in spite of the occasional bug or two, it’s surprisingly addictive. I can immerse myself in a vast ocean full of strange (and sometimes deadly) creatures, and I enjoy the challenge of surviving amidst the great deep.

The Beginning

If you’re looking for a story-driven game, Subnautica may not be for you. It doesn’t mean there isn’t one, and there’s no way to know if the developers will add more plotlines sometime in the future. It is, after all, an early access game.
You’re the survivor of the Aurora, which is a crashed ship not too far from your escape pod. The small area in which you start out is the only thing that stands between you and the world below, and your first task will be to repair it. That means gathering materials and crafting tools – all while keeping yourself from dying of hunger or thirst.

You can probably guess by now that it can be a little challenging in this early stage of gameplay, and it was a struggle for me to keep myself from dying of thirst. Water and food aren’t just given to you. You have to catch fish to cook, and you’ll need to make fresh water to drink. This can be hard if you don’t have the right tools.

But that’s not the only challenge you’ll face in the beginning. Until you have at least a couple of oxygen tanks, you won’t be able to stay underwater for extended periods of time. And it can really slow you down.

If there’s any consolation, the game does get easier as you progress – especially when you start to build underwater vehicles. That’s when you can start moving beyond the shallow reef from which you started, and it’s where the real fun begins.

Crafting Tools

One of the most common (and perhaps the most useful) tools of this game is the fabricator – a wall-mounted device that can be used for making stuff. Think of it as something similar to a replicator on Star Trek. It’s where you cook food (I hope you like fish), make water, and craft tools.

You’re going to need a welder to fix any broken vehicles, and you’ll need it to repair your escape pod. You’ll need a knife to gather various resources for crafting certain items. You’ll definitely need a scanner, which you will use to get new blueprints (a necessary part of increasing your crafting repertoire). These are a few of the common tools you’ll need, but there could be others as you progress in the game.

Vehicle Crafting

Vehicles play a major role in Subnautica gameplay, especially when you move into deeper water. And you’d be surprised how deep you can go. I’ve explored areas that are over 400 meters deep, and I almost crossed the 500-meter threshold. Each of the two vehicles has a maximum depth range, so you need to be careful how far down you go.

Unlike standard crafting, you won’t be able to use the fabricator to build vehicles. You’ll need a separate crafting station specifically for that purpose, and the blueprint isn’t just handed to you on a platter. Remember what I said about finding blueprints? This is what I mean, but the fun doesn’t stop there. You have to find blueprints for the vehicles themselves, and that can be far from easy.

Getting the blueprint for the first vehicle can be a challenge, but it’s a breeze compared to the Cyclops – a full-fledged submarine that can be used for long-term expeditions. There are other things you have to consider as well, like finding a way to recharge batteries and power cells. Did I mention you have to get blueprints for those as well?

Seabase Building

As you progress in Subnautica, that little escape pod won’t be nearly enough to support you because you’ll only be able to do so much in that tiny area. That means you’ll have to expand your operation.

If you have played survival games before, you know that building a base is an essential part of staying alive, and you also know that that the process is far from simple. You’ll have to do some planning, and you need to be skilled at gathering the right materials. Believe me – you’ll need a lot of it.

The good thing is that you can build your base pretty much anywhere. I chose to keep it close to where I started out, and it took many hours of gameplay to get it to the size that it is now. My strategy is to find certain “safe zones” where I can build scattered outposts throughout the game, because there are some potentially deadly creatures out there. I guess building seabases is like eating salted peanuts. You can’t just have one.

Possible Negatives

Aside from the many positives of this game, there are some possible negatives, and they can be enough to turn some people off. Because it’s still in development, there are occasional bugs. And they can be a bit annoying at times. The knife will stop working on occasion, usually while I’m farming certain types of coral. You would think that making another one would solve the problem, but to my chagrin that wasn’t the case (believe me, I’ve tried). The only way to fix it is to close out the game and reboot, and that can be irritating if I’m in the middle of an expedition.

Subnautica also lacks a multiplayer option, which can be a stumbling block for some people. Part of playing these kind of games is interacting with other players – not that multiplayer doesn’t have its downsides. Spending hours on a base to have someone else rob you blind and destroy what you built can be frustrating, so having a single-player option might not be a bad thing for some people.

Final Thoughts

Like any video game, Subnautica has its share of both good and bad, and because it’s an early-access game some of the negatives are understandable. The question is if the good outweighs the bad. And in my opinion, they do. It’s a great survival game that you can easily get caught up in, and in some ways it can be as bad as World of Warcraft. You can spend late nights playing this game. Just make sure you can show up on time for work the next morning.

Gameplay Videos

John Grgurich is a freelance writer, YouTuber, and blogger who has spent the last year and a half writing online content for several companies. He has been gaming most of life, and he’s played classics like Super Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt. He has a B.A. in English from Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi, and he has spent most of his life writing fiction, music, and poetry. Be sure to check out his channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/jgrgurichmusic, and follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/john_grgurich.

Gaming Gems - Wolfenstein 3D!

Gaming Gems - Raptor: Call of the Shadows

Subnautica: A Hard Look at This Underwater Survival Game

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