Once you get east of say, Chittagong, you can probably lose that cricket ball.
After pushing back release at the 11th hour last week, 80 Days is here tonight. The launch date switch-a-roo was a smart bit of business because this is one of the quietest release nights in memory: there’s only three new noteworthy titles to be pulled out of the ceaseless, fetid tide of infinite runners and hidden object games.
Let’s have a look at them, shall we? Have your manservant fetch the looking spectacles.
80 Days is the next game from the makers of last year’s genre-redefining Sorcery — it was meant to be a quick diversion while Inkle was on a break between Sorcery chapters 2 and 3, but quickly took on a life of its own. Based loosely on Jules Verne’s classic Around the World in Eighty Days, this game takes place on a 19th-century Earth that is not quite our own.
I loved the game when I played a preview build of it a few weeks back. Inkle’s steam-powered automatons and airship passenger lines make for exciting exploration and the characters in this gamebook are endearing and memorable. And like Sorcery before it, 80 Days has a completely fresh visual style that looks like no other work of interactive fiction I’ve ever seen. Neumann will be delivering PT‘s final verdict soon — we should have that review up no later than tomorrow morning.
80 Days will be out at midnight for five US dollars, and out at 11pm Eastern if you’re in the colonies.
I feel a bit as though MEG RVO is a younger cousin who’s graduating high school today — the game’s genial developers Skunkwerks Kinetic Industries (much nicer than that gunmetal moniker would suggest) have been keeping us abreast of this game’s development for years on our humble PT forums.
Tonight’s release of MEG RVO — Battle for the Territories is a multiplayer RTS that boasts of creative input from legendary novelist William Gibson. I’m too old and crotchety to play multiplayer RTS games but if I was going to recommend one, it would definitely be the one with William Gibson’s name in the credits. It’ll definitely be better than this one with Pauly Shore’s name on it, anyway.
MEG RVO — Battle for the Territories is five dollars when it arrives in your time zone tonight.
Some of you have already looked at the screenshot down there and deduced that Empire Manager borrows some inspiration from Centurion: Defender of Rome. Those of you have probably stopped reading and are downloading already.
For the rest of you, Empire Manager comes to us from Tower Dwellers makers Eccentricity, and it definitely takes a page from Centurion’s book. You have to manage a Classical-era empire, carefully balancing your expenses against your harvests and managing research while you build a standing army to conquer neighbours and guard your provinces. I’ve only had time to spend 10 minutes or so with it but it’s clever. No video I’m afraid, but there’s screenshots here.
No need to wait up if you’re interested — Empire Manager is out right now for $4 (iPhone only) or $8 for the Universal edition with no IAP silliness of any kind.
If you can seduce Cleopatra in this one I haven’t figured out how yet.
But I’m not giving up that easily.
Finally, we have Devious Dungeons, a roguelike platformer published by the fine citizens at Noodlecake, makers of PT‘s favorite guilty pleasure Super Stickman Golf. Their press release opened with the question, “Does anyone really know what a rogue-like really is?” I immediately deleted the email and then set fire to my computer before Clancy and Phil got wind of that particular topic, thus rescuing the rest of the week.
This one came out on iOS yonks ago but it’s debuting tomorrow on Android.
Devious Dungeons will be $2 on Android when it arrives a bit later, and you can grab it right now on iOS if you’re so inclined.
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