NORSE: Oath of Blood – Viking Retribution [Review]

The Viking saga NORSE: Oath of Blood is here, and it’s primarily a bitter tale of revenge—fitting for the historical theme of the game. When I tried the demo, I came to like it, but it was clear to me that it needed a lot of polish and optimization. Did they succeed? Not quite, in any real sense to be totally honest. I was expecting a Viking X-com, but instead got a very linear experience with a heavy focus on narrative and cutscenes.

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Occam’s Sponge: Mapping the Timelines of the Command and Conquer Canon [Lore Video]

Here we have an excellent video by the one-hit YouTuber Ictiv. The reason I call him “one-hit” is that he released this exceptional summary of the confusing Command & Conquer timeline four years ago and then just disappeared. Almost like he had his own chronosphere. The reason the Tiberium series of C&C are a tad messy is because of its connection to the Red Alert series. The Red Alert games use time machines and split timelines as important plot points, so there isn’t an easy linear progression to follow.

This naturally won’t bother 99% of players, but for those of us who love lore and obsess over story details (serious gamer autism), it’s a fascinating video that tries to make sense of it all and establish a canonical timeline. An underrated lore video for sure—so make sure to check it out after the jump!

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Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss – Demo Impressions

Now, there is a name that proudly says what kind of game this will be. And for the smart ones of you, dear readers, as you might be able to tell Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss, will be yet another title set in the Lovecraft universe. I don’t mind, as long as it’s good. The more, the merrier is my motto, but Lovecraft being public domain, there is bound to be a lot of crap. So how does the demo of Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss fare? I’m glad to tell you it had me intrigued as far as adventure games go.

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Dverghold – Demo Impressions

Christmas must have come early this year, because here is yet another turn-based blobber on a grid. And just like the demo of Underkeep, the Dverghold demo is excellent too—landing right between feeling genuinely old-school and modern in the form of UI and snappiness. There doesn’t seem to be a way to create custom party members, which is a bit of a bummer. However, I understand the design decision, as it seems death is permanent. Meaning that the run will continue, even in defeat, as long as you have recruits for your dungeon diving gang back at base.

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