Lessaria: Fantasy Kingdom Sim – Playtest Impressions

If you are missing a comfy game like Majesty 2 in your life, I got a treat for you. Lessaria: Fantasy Kingdom Sim is a spiritual successor to Majesty 2 coming out this year according to Steam. I was invited to playtest the game, where I tried out three campaign missions and an endless mode. My first impressions are very positive. It retains that cozy approach to gaming where you just feel relaxed (just like Majesty 2), due to its presentation and gameplay. Even the original narrator returns! However, even perfect weather comes with a few clouds of rain.

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The Temple of Elemental Evil (Rediscovered)

I have been playing the semi-forgotten party based D&D RPG Temple of Elemental Evil from 2003 with the mods Temple+ (engine fixes) and Circle of Eight (more engine fixes, + extra game content). The reason I mention the mods so early in the article, is that when I played Temple of Elemental Evil the first time, none of these mods existed. And Temple of Elemental Evil was not a stable game, at all, at release. However, it showed serious potential, which these excellent modders saw and started to work on. These mods are now, as I can see it: essential. Temple+ for the numerous fixes, and Circle of Eight for the additional quests, that makes the first part of the game much more enjoyable.

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The Dark Rites of Arkham – Demo Impressions

Welcome to The Dark Rites of Arkham. We are once again back in the hellish Lovecraftian nightmare of Arkham. This time as detective Jack Foster, and wouldn’t you know it. When investigating something unrelated, you stumble upon a horrible murder with a ritualistic nature. And… that’s essentially what we get in this very short demo.

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Hell is Us – Free comic!

For those of you looking forward to Hell is Us, there will be a free digital comic released over at nacongaming.com August 6th. It seems to be a pretty important piece of lore, too. Since it explains why Remi, our dear protagonist, chose to abandon his job as a peacekeeper, before heading into the mysterious “zone”. Pretty significant stuff, I’d say.

I tried the demo when that was out, and I was impressed by it, especially its atmosphere and gameplay limitations – like not having a radar or showing where to go to complete quests. It just felt fresh and fun compared to many modern titles that always hold your hand. Hell is Us is set to release on September 4th, this year.

Fallout: Bakersfield Trailer

Spotted this over at RPG Codex. It’s a total conversion of Doom from 1993, to, yeah, you know it: Fallout. What makes this stand out is that the creator has taken the bleak atmosphere from the first game, and essentially remade it into a first-person experience called Fallout: Bakersfield. So no happy-go-lucky 1950s aesthetics a la Bethesda here. It’s a pure apocalyptic wasteland hellscape that has more of a horror mood than anything else. The trailer, which you can see below, is awesome, and seems to indicate that it will be a mix between RPG elements and pure shooting. Two big thumbs up for the “Ry Cooder esque” guitar licks about one minute into the video.

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