Emblematic Video Games from the 90’s

June 16, 2022Stanley

keyboard

Compared to the games today, those video consoles from the 90s and early 2000s we were all crazy about look gawky and unfinished. However, kids of that era went through a real technological revolution, and surely, they don’t regret a minute spent playing the first-ever real-time strategies, first-person shooters, RPGs, and action adventures. Equipped only with DOS computers with a few megabytes of RAM, we felt really happy. The big surprise is that most of those classic titles are still playable today, and the millennial generation’s interest does not seem to wane. So, here are some of the biggest hits of the 90s!

Tomb Raider

The original Lara Croft: Tomb Raider movie went to cinemas in 2001, five years after the tremendous success of the Tomb Raider action-adventure video game. The developing companies Core Design and Aspyr hardly suspected that a paid version of their game would still be in demand almost 30 years later. The plot is simple but engaging, and there are plenty of missions to play and help the archaeologist Lara Croft to obtain various pieces of ancient artifacts. If you feel nostalgic about the old times, try this masterpiece on any machine running at least under Windows XP.

Mortal Kombat

Well, this title does not need a presentation as it became a major franchise after the release of the game’s OG version in 1993. Since then, 23 new variants have been released, including fighting consoles, action adventures, updates, and re-releases. The newest one, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate really brings the action to another dimension! However, the 1993 release’s simplicity is somehow mesmerizing! Players don’t have to bring too much effort in the fights, something that is totally changed with the newest upgrades. The beginning of the sage is also suitable for inexperienced gamers who just want to feel like back in the days!

Half-Life

Despite its clunky graphics, Half-Life from 1999 will never be forgotten by the fans of the first-person shooters. Some visuals are really funny, just like when you make a kill, and the body of your opponent gets shattered in pieces of meat. This was the first FPS that had the resources to support a multiplayer game of more than several players. The aggressive campaign, fiction theme, and large list of weapons helped the title to climb and stay on top of many rankings. That didn’t change for some time, even after the Counter-Strike release in 2000.

Diablo

If you are a child of the 90s, you must have heard of Diablo, even if you preferred another type of entertainment. This was the first action role-playing video game that actually had success. Blizzard has added several avatars – Amazon, Assassin, Barbarian, Druid, Necromancer, Paladin, and Sorceress, to choose from and follow a different storyline. Actually, maps and battles were the same, but each character has its own strengths and weaknesses, which implies that a different approach must be chosen. The Diablo land is so vast and boss creatures so hard to kill that you can really lose yourself there!

Counter-Strike

Here comes one of the most thriving video games ever, which originally hit the shelves as a more realistic Half-Life mod. It’s a pure multiplayer FPS with three main scenarios – Bomb Defusal, Assassination, and Hostage Rescue. At a later point, AI bots were developed to fill the gaps or allow gamers to enjoy their time in a single-player mode. Anyway, the game not just survived until today, but it was heavily upgraded with better skins, 4K graphics, and improved sensitivity. The latest version of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO) gave rise to many live tournaments, some of which with prize pools exceeding millions!

Age of Empires II

It took 20 years for Age of Empires II fans to get a decent sequel to the 1999 all-time RTS masterpiece. The AOE2 is one of those rare moments when the second version of a game is far better than the opening one. Players can choose from different civilizations and run through various expansions and campaigns. The variety truly is enormous, and pretty much every nation has its unique buildings, civil and military units. The multiplayer functionality is also fantastic, allowing players to avoid the sometimes predictable AIs. Age of Empires II is still easy to find, but we recommend you try the Definitive Edition as well!

Warcraft

Warcraft: Orcs and Humans is another iconic video game from our childhood! It was actually a predecessor of Age of Empires II as, being released in 1994. This cult classic, however, brings another storyline and can’t really be compared with the other RTSs. Choose to be a fictional hero from Azeroth or a bloodthirsty Orc. It doesn’t really matter because the experience is totally captivating. Blizzard Entertainment has released four core updates so far, with new campaign missions, units, brilliant graphics, and visuals. The franchise also includes novels and cinema movies!

Command & Conquer: Red Alert

The last pick in our selection is the famous Red Alert, one of the most successful Command & Conquer brands. Although with too basic graphics, the first game quickly became an absolute sensation. It came live in 1996 specifically for Cold War fans. At the heart of the title is the opposition between the Soviet Union and the Allies. Both campaigns are really engaging despite the few-pixel large units. The 2000 Red Alert 2 was a total hit, including Yuri as a separate side in the conflict and uniting the former enemies against the new evil!

Visceral Shut Down; Star Wars Game Cancelled

November 3, 2017November 3, 2017Stanley

It was supposed to be a dream come true – Amy Hennig, the writer and director of many classics (most notably the “Uncharted” trilogy), was hired by Visceral Games (the people behind “Dead Space”) to make an “Uncharted”-style “Star Wars” game. I mean, I couldn’t come up with a better team-up if I tried, except maybe From Software developing a “Castlevania” game with Koji Igarashi at the helm or something. In any case, while literally all we saw from the game was maybe three seconds of footage during one of publisher EA’s many press conferences, I believe all of us “Star Wars” fans were beyond stoked to get our hands on it! But alas, it wasn’t meant to be. On October 17th, it was announced that Visceral Games would be shut down, and its “Star Wars” game – retooled by a different developer from the grounds-up.

This, of course, sparked a lot of outrage, since EA’s comments on the matter made it seem like the game was being changed from a linear single-player game into a massive multiplayer shooter in the style of “Destiny”, which wasn’t going to be a good fit for it at all and made many gamers concerned about the game’s future, and the future of gaming in general. Was this what we were going to be getting from now on, games as a service rather than as an experience? Something that costs a substantial sum of money from the get-go, and then costs even more in microtransactions, loot boxes and a never-ending string of expansion packs? It seems like a rather dire future, especially in a world where single-player games like “Shadow of War” and the newer iterations of the “Assassin’s Creed” series encourage you to spend real cash on them, as if they’re some kind of free to play mobile game and not a major AAA release.

So, what’s going on here? Did EA have a perfectly good single-player “Star Wars” game on their hands that they thought wasn’t going to make money in the long run, and so cancelled it in favor of something that would? Well… No, not really. Jason Schreier, a journalist famous for his many, MANY connections within the gaming industry, posted a gigantic post-mortem of the game’s development, exposing that, according to quite a few of its actual developers, the game was in trouble from the get-go. Its lack of focus and direction changed the core principles of the game numerous times, necessitating the hiring of Amy Hennig as creative director. Problem is, she decided to assume full creative control over the project (rather than merely writer/director like before), stretching herself far too thin due to what Visceral employees perceived as a lack of trust in them. The fact that EA essentially forced Visceral to work on “Battlefield: Hardline” smack-dab in the middle of the “Star Wars” game’s development definitely didn’t help morale. They went way over budget, making it quite clear that if the game was released it would never break even, let alone rake in a profit, thus necessitating the studio’s closure.

Did the cancellation of the game have anything to do with EA’s desire to turn their games into services? Yeah, partially. Reportedly, one of the executives said “FIFA Ultimate Team makes a billion dollars a year. Where’s your version of that?” So even if the game was actually released, chances are it would’ve featured some form of loot box system or something along those lines. But the sad truth is that the game was pretty far from being released no matter what. Many mistakes were made very early in development, and even the people who work on it admitted that there wasn’t a huge chance of it ever seeing the light of day. For better or for worse, its cancellation – which coincides with the release of “Battlefront II”, another EA “Star Wars” game which heavily features loot boxes, may mark a pretty radical shift in the focus of a company that not too long ago gave us smaller, single-player oriented classics like “Mirror’s Edge”. Linear single-player games aren’t dead, not by a long shot. But as games become more and more expensive to produce, they’re also going to need to bring in more and more profits to justify their costs. And, to be fair, I personally feel like adding lootboxes or microtransactions for those that want them is a better step towards that than outright increasing the base price of the games themselves by 20-30%. It’s a decent compromise, even if it’s one that will inevitably cost us some decent games in the future. But Visceral’s “Star Wars” is not among them. It was doomed way before the talk of microtransactions was ever on the table.

3 Webcomics To Check Out

March 9, 2017Stanley

Comic books are awesome. The Internet is awesome. So comic books on the Internet are awesome squared! Fifteen years ago, the idea of a comic book updated one page at a time and published online for free to the delight of a gradually growing fanbase sounded downright ridiculous and unachievable, but ever since then we’ve seen the formula perfected with mind-numbing success after mind-numbing success. “Penny Arcade”, a comic strip about two guys who sit around and talk about videogames, created an entire genre of “gamers on a couch” webcomics that is still imitated to this very day and launched an entire corporation, with the guys behind Penny Arcade organizing one of the biggest gaming conventions in America, PAX. “Homestuck” is a sensation among nerd circles, and it’s literally impossible to visit any big gathering of geeks without seeing someone dressed as a character from that comic. Hell, even something like “xkcd” showed the world that you can literally just draw stick figures and your comic will STILL be popular if you’re witty and expressive! Over the time, the formula of weekly, self-contained strips evolved to give us huge, overarching plots with complicated characters that rival anything that’s coming from the big comic book publishers, and if you’ve got time to really dig your claws into it, the webcomic niche can provide you with literally countless hours of entertainment. I’m not even scratching the surface here, but below I’ll outline three very different webcomics that I personally really enjoy, with the hope that you’ll either use them as a starting point or at the very least will be able to get a couple of hours of procrastination at work out of them!

1. Darths & Droids

Imagine a world where the “Star Wars” saga never actually existed… In the way that we know it, as a cinematic epic enjoyed by millions of people. Instead, the events from the galaxy far, far away played out as a “Dungeons & Dragons” campaign by a bunch of nerds, each with his or her own personality and quirks, many of which would be, um… Rather relatable to those of us who have dabbled in roleplaying. There’s, of course, the guy who just wants to play by the rules and have a good time, but also the guy who ridiculously misunderstands the rules and tries to attack everything, the guy who min-maxes every single stat of his character to perfection, the girl who’s a lot more interested in roleplaying a character than in engaging in combat and levelling up, the little sister who was dragged along because there was no babysitter available… It’s really, really funny to see all of the beloved “Star Wars” characters being played by these roleplayer stereotypes, who over time evolve into quite compelling characters in their own right. If you love roleplaying, “Star Wars” or especially both, “Darths & Droids” is basically required reading!

2. YU+ME

Okay, I’m going to keep this description pretty brief because it’s one of those comics where the less you know about it, the more you’re going to enjoy it – it thrives on throwing curveballs your way when you least expect it! It starts off as a slice of life with a young girl discovering her identity, graduates to romance, and then springs even more surprises on you to keep you from getting a little too comfortable. Now, a few fair warnings – as is the case with many webcomics, it was completed over a really long time (started in 2004, ended in 2010), and as such reflected the author’s change in personality, skills and worldview. As such, the beginning might be a bit rough, with an angsty teenage protagonist and an artstyle that wasn’t exactly stellar in 2004, let alone today. But I promise, both the writing and the art get a lot better as the book progresses, so if you think you’d be in the mood for high school/romance/drama/adventure/mindf*ck thing, be sure to give “YU+ME” a shot!

3. Split Lip

I’ve made you laugh, I’ve made you cry, now how about I make you scream in fear? I don’t know about you, but I personally adore horror anthology stories like “Tales from the Crypt”, “The Twilight Zone”, “The Outer Limits” and “Black Mirror”. So when I learned that a horror writer by the name of Sam Costello has decided to create his own anthology horror series, in the form of a comic where each story is illustrated by a different artist, you know I had to include it on here! The stories are unrelated to each other and are just a couple of pages long, dealing in matters from the creepily mundane to the horrifyingly cosmic, but always able to pack a punch at the end. Because there’s no coherent plot thread that ties them all together, you can basically just go to the site, pick the one that sounds most interesting to you and start reading! Sure, not all of the stories are stellar, but chances are that if it’s on “Split Lip”, it has the potential to give you nightmares!

Fun Games To Play In Online Casino Sites

November 22, 2016June 18, 2020Stanley

Casino Games On this site I’ve spoken a whole lot about online casinos and online games. We’ve discussed topics such as finding the perfect blackjack and roulette game online, as well as topics such as videogames, retro games and online entertainment. But for the most part, I’ve intentionally kept the two areas separate. Sure, they have a bit of an overlap, in that both gaming and iGaming are interactive fun, but honestly? The people who play videogames are rarely the same people who gamble, and vice versa. Which, to me, seems kind of weird, considering the fact that they both share a whole lot of the same design sensibilities. I mean, come on, you guys, when you’re buying a Weapon Case in “Counter Strike: Global Offensive”, where you purchase a random weapon for real money which could be either completely useless or really valuable, and if it’s truly valuable you could later resell for more money… Isn’t that essentially gambling? And similarly, while most people imagine online casino as nothing more than simplistic card games, that’s extremely far from the truth – there’s plenty of awesome games out there that come really close to videogames while still having a gambling element to them! So why don’t we take a brief look at three of them to illustrate my point? Keep in mind, I’m only going to be talking about games you can find on UK online casino sites like bestcasinosites.net and not physical casino games, because if I was talking about the latter I’d need to take into account arcade games and the new skill-based slots, and it just becomes too much! So, without further ado, let’s get right into it!

1. Aliens

Let’s start with a game that proves that you don’t even need interaction in order to have a fun and rewarding gaming experience! In the late 90s and early 2000s, a lot of us played the classic “Alien vs Predator” games (which today are most known for being adapted into utterly terrible movies like literally any other big videogame ever), falling in love with their claustrophobic hallways and terrifying alien encounters as a lone space marine tried to survive a climactic battle between two alien species! Well, years later, we’ve got almost the exact same thing, minus the Predators and any interactivity. “Boo, lame,” you might be thinking, but that’s only because you haven’t actually tried it! Each spin of the reels moves you forward in a fully 3D environment and determines how many magazines you’ll get for your rifle – two, one or zero. If you run dry, you die! If you manage to gather enough to survive until the end of the maze, you go on to fight the alien queen! And it is utterly exhilarating, even if you aren’t required to do as much as to push a single button!

2. Spider-Man

Like I mentioned earlier in this article, some regions of the world have recently obtained skill-based slots in which the bonus games require the use of your skills rather than luck. Typically, slot bonus games consist of trying to guess something (think a variant of the ball and cups game, except you don’t get to see the cups move), with absolutely no skill involved and a 100% reliance on luck to get you money instead of something that relies on your skills as a gamer, like, say, a bonus game that’s basically a round of Pac-Man. That’s because most countries have rather strict laws when it comes to those sorts of things, and the laws prohibiting skill-based slots have only recently started getting repealed. With that limitation in mind, I do need to point out that certain developers have pushed the laws to their absolute limits in order to provide us with quality gambling entertainment, and one of those companies is most certainly Microgaming! They made quite a lot of really high-quality slots, but the one that’s most interesting to me is certainly “Spider-Man”, which offers dozens of unique bonus games within itself! One moment you’re fighting the Green Goblin in a scene that looks remarkably like “Street Fighter”, another you’re swinging across the city… It’s great, great stuff!

3. Deal Or No Deal Roulette

Now, for the most part, this is just roulette. It’s the same old boring, unremarkable roulette that we all know and love – you play, you spin, you bet on red, yada yada yada, we’ve done this a million times. However, aside from the main wheel, you have a second bonus wheel, and when that wheel lands on the appropriate symbol… Well, you play “Deal or No Deal”. And I don’t mean some kind of roulette version of “Deal or No Deal”, I literally mean the exact same version from the TV show, complete with picking boxes and rejecting the bank’s offer. Do these two concepts mesh well? Not one bit! Are they completely awesome? You can take that deal!

“Town of Salem” – Your New Online Addiction

August 2, 2016Stanley

Town Of Salem When it comes to online games, most people already have this big, triple-A experience that they like to sink hours at a time into. Maybe it’s “World of Warcraft”, or “Dota 2”, or “Overwatch”, or “Runescape”… Okay, maybe not “Runescape”, but still, you get my point. Everybody who plays games (and many who don’t do it regularly) have that one online game that they like to play mercilessly. But what about games that you don’t play for hours on end? What about experiences which are best enjoyed 15-20 minutes at a time? Games that rely on communication and social interaction rather than on mindless shooting or gaining levels? Games that you can play in your browser for free, and thus you can totally sneak a session or two in the office when nobody’s looking (please don’t fire me, boss)?

Of course, I’m talking about one game in particular, and that is “Town of Salem”! Have you ever played the party game “Mafia”, or “Werewolf”, or “One Night”? It’s known by many names, but the premise is always the same – a town is being terrorized by monsters that murder its inhabitants one by one. Nobody knows who these monsters are, only that they’re hiding among the townspeople. Can they put their paranoia aside and work together to discover the infiltrators, or will the forces of evil win? If an online game where you win not through headshots or DPS, but through careful manipulation and investigation of your fellow players sounds exciting to you, then you’re in for a real treat!

A standard game consists of 15 players. 9 belong to the Town and have different roles, and abilities that come with them – the Doctor can heal people at night, saving them from death; the Jailor can imprison people and interrogate them, executing them if they seem suspicious; the Investigator can gather clues about other players’ roles, etc. None of the townspeople know who the others are, or what the roles of their fellow players are – they need to rely on the in-game chat, and the clues they’ve gathered, to decide their course of action. The Mafia, on the other hand, has no such problems – the three players within it know each other’s identities and can work together to turn the town against itself while also killing one person per night. Additionally, there are three wild cards – the Executioner, who is assigned a target that they need to get lynched at all cost (more on that later), the Jester, whose goal in life is to be lynched, and the Serial Killer, who kills townspeople indiscriminately regardless of their alignment.

Every day, the townspeople may vote on whoever is the most suspicious to them. If a single person receives votes from more than half of the town’s population, they get put on trial and may be lynched, if found guilty. Upon a townsperson’s death, their role is revealed alongside a will that they can prepare while alive. The contents of the will are often taken as an absolute truth (because why would somebody lie if they’re already dead), but the more skilled players may deliberately cause more misdirection like that (for example, if they know who the Jester is, they could implicate them as being the Serial Killer in their will and get them lynched).

“Town of Salem” isn’t your traditional online game, and as such won’t appeal to everybody. But if you’re looking for a break from your online game of choice, and would like to work on your social skills a little bit, this just might be the game for you! Or maybe it might become the game of choice for you! I know it almost has for me!

Finding the Perfect Blackjack Game

July 1, 2016June 18, 2020Stanley

Since my blog post “Finding the Perfect Roulette Game” was a huge success, I decided to write one about blackjack as well. You see, finding the perfect game of BJ is not an easy job either. If you’re thinking the task is hard because there aren’t enough options, think again. There are so many options for casino games in general and blackjack in particular that they will make your head spin. The digital world is truly an endless space of possibilities. But unless you are ready to get lost in it, you would be better off finding a way to somehow manage that space.

When it comes to exploring new grounds, the most useful and practical decision is to trust the experts. Be careful, though, which experts you decide on. Some people put too much trust in movie- and TV plots and characters. But just because it’s on TV, it doesn’t make it a reliable source of information. Not even if it’s a blockbuster we’re talking about. If you go to IMDb, you’ll find a ton of movies that have something to do with casino games. However, as fun as they may be, Hollywood movies have been known to be painfully misleading. Quite often, too. They certainly should not be your manual to gaming.

Blackjack by Felt When I say experts, I mean not just any wannabes but those that are proficient in iGaming. Those guys spend their time researching the matter and testing casinos themselves, wagering real money, winning and losing. Day in, day out, they keep an eye on what improvements casino operators are making and what the novelties in software and site management are. If not lightyears ahead, they are already there where common players could only be in months, sometimes years. It’s on sites like this one that you can learn the ropes of playing blackjack. There is so much helpful information – basic rules and strategies, varieties and, last but not least, how to make cash playing 21.

Anyway, I wanted to write about finding the perfect blackjack but, unfortunately, I can’t give you the name of a game or table. Nor can I give you a casino URL where to find it because it’s all relative. To some, the perfect game might be a Multi-Hand Blackjack, to others – one with a lot of side bets, such as the 6 in 1 Blackjack by FELT Ltd. Yet other players might enjoy themselves the most at Live Blackjack – where you get to play against a real dealer. What is common for all who would like to play this beautiful game online, however, is the need to only play at sites that are fully regulated. You don’t want to play at some suspicious casino, believe me. I know a few people who fell into the trap and that cost them a lot of money and one of them had to suffer an identity theft as well. So, only choose casinos that are licensed by the UK Gambling Commission. That’s your green light for providing your personal and financial information.

Though the UKGC are strict and don’t approve just any casino’s request, you still wouldn’t want to go test all the sites legal in the UK. That would take a lot of time before you actually get to play blackjack. What you should do, instead, is have a look here for expert tips on which the best UK casinos are. Don’t reinvent the wheel – let experts do their job and guide you through the maze of casino operators, game variations and bonuses to the game of blackjack that’s perfect for YOU.

Blackjack in Videogames

April 20, 2016June 18, 2020Stanley

gta blackjack Hello again! My long-time readers (hello to all two of you!) would know that literally one of the first articles I ever wrote had to do with slots in videogames. I’ve been meaning to write a follow-up article about blackjack for a while now, but I never really had the time to do something like this… Until now! Ladies, gentlemen, others, please gaze upon this most marvelous thing of beauty! Now, you might be asking yourself “Stanley, what’s even the point of an article like this? There’s plenty of free blackjack online, so what does it matter if some videogames feature it?” Well, yeah, you’re right – people can always go to a site like realmoneyonlinecasino.co.uk and find themselves a decent online casino, but it’s a different thing entirely when you do it while submerged within a videogame, wouldn’t you say?

Now, first and foremost, it’s important to note that pretty much any game that takes place in Vegas, or a version of it, probably has playable blackjack in it. Case in point – “Fallout: New Vegas”. The clue’s in the name, people! After a nuclear Armageddon pretty much wipes out most of the human race (read: anyone who didn’t hide in a vault when the attacks happened), the survivors need to rebuild civilization atop the ruins, and obviously the first thing they build is a casino, in which you can play several different games including blackjack. “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas”, while not a game which takes place exclusively in Vegas, or even in Vegas at all, still features a very Vegas-inspired setting – the town of Las Venturas. In their casinos you can play several different games, with the most interesting one in my opinion being, of course, blackjack. I’ve heard rumors that you can play blackjack in “Dead Rising 2” which, you guessed it, takes place in Vegas, but alas I can neither confirm nor deny them, since I haven’t played the game.

Let’s go a bit backwards in time now and examine one of my favourites, “Red Dead Redemption”, which takes place in the final days of the Old West. There, you can play some rather typical frontier games such as horseshoe throwing, poker and, you guessed it, blackjack! I didn’t even know that blackjack was being played in the Old West, but hey, I’m no historian, and who knows, maybe it was. Modern casino games are older than people suspect, after all. But my absolute favourite use of blackjack in a game has to do with the absolutely brilliant “Always Sometimes Monsters”, in which you play a person who was set to marry their SO (you can choose both of their genders), until life got in the way, things went downhill and the relationship ended. Years later you receive an invitation to your SO’s wedding and decide to get there and stop it, Hollywood style! Well, once you do get there you get invited to your SO’s bachelor/bachelorette party, which, of course, takes place in Vegas and allows you to play blackjack. Now, the reason why I really like this particular instance of the game is because it isn’t just some mindless game mechanic, it actually ties into the plot – you pretty much have to play the game enough in order to get the best ending, which, while controversial, is pretty awesome in my opinion.

Microsofts Cancels “Fable Legends”; About To Shut Down Lionhead

March 8, 2016Stanley

lion head UK-based games developer Lionhead appears to be going the way of the way of the Sierra. According to the General Manager at Microsoft Studios Europe Hanno Lemke (who made the announcement on the official Xbox website), the latest game in the polarizing “Fable” franchise, “Fable Legends”, has ceased development, and mass layoffs at the studio which developed it are being considered. According to UK law, any business that considers the layoff of more than 20 employees first has to attempt another option, such as retraining or transfers. Regardless, it is incredibly likely that, layoffs or not, Lionhead Studios will cease to exist in the following months.

The studio was originally helmed by controversial developer Peter Molyneux, who is infamous among the gaming community for making grandiose promises that couldn’t possibly be kept with current technology, which often backfires and results in lower sales of his games despite their generally good quality. Once the fogs of hype dissipated, “Fable” and “Fable 2” started being regarded as two very good RPGs, and yet their successor “Fable 3” was a critical and commercial failure, and even today most gamers agree that it’s objectively bad and tarnishes the legacy of the series, to the point where there is an internet meme which involves pretending that it doesn’t exist. Following the failure of “Fable 3” Peter Molyneux left the studio in order to found an independent one, 22cans, and Lionhead decided to focus on making spinoffs based on the Fable property rather than “Fable 4”, which included “Fable: The Journey” and the aforementioned “Fable Legends”. The latter was supposed to be the franchise’s foray into Free to Play gaming in the vein of “League of Legends” or “Dota”, being developed all the way into a closed beta before being canceled, likely due to polarizing opinions among testers.

Lionhead isn’t the only studio that Microsoft is planning on euthanizing, though. Denmark’s Press Play Studios, which were responsible for smaller games such as “Max: The Curse of Brotherhood” and “Kalimba”, will also be shutting its doors soon, leading to the cancellation of their latest game, “Project Knoxville”. The reasons as to why this studio is shutting down are very much the same as those related to Lionhead’s closure – the last few games made by it underperformed. While both were good games that enjoyed critical success, neither sold particularly well, and the premise of “Project Knoxville” was probably too costly to allow Microsoft to keep supporting the studio. “Project Knoxville” was supposed to be an online survival game very similar to “The Hunger Games” which, while an amazing concept with lots of potential, probably cost too much for a moderately successful developer to remain financially stable. There’s nothing much we can do other than wish the employees well and hope that their next endeavors will be more successful.

Nostalgic About Old-school Games? This is For You!

February 3, 2016June 18, 2020Stanley

Hey guys and gals! How have you been? What have you been up to? Jeez it has been some time, right! Well worry not, I am back and just look what I got you! A sweet trip to the good old days when gaming was…well…not that it’s bad now but you know what I mean. Just think of those boxes and boxes and tons of parts of useful and useless consoles, you know the ones you probably still gave hidden under the bed or in an attic somewhere. Yeah, I know, nostalgia is a b*tch!
The project I am about to share with you will sure put a smile on your face and might be just on time if you are looking for a present for a geeky friend of yours (or for yourself, why not!). Ah, and that drivel of nonsense for St. Valentiens is coming again this year…oh well. Check it out.
A great idea to put your favourite childhood games on the wall. Mark and Bill are two game lovers, just like you and me. They came up with the brilliant idea (wait for it!) to turn those sad memories from something depressing into something positive and arty! And what better way than sticking your favourite games on the wall!
Those guys have thought it all through in details – they put your favourite childhood games in frames. This way they will not be gathering dust, will be safe and the best – still accessible! The mounts Mark and Bill make are easy to open so you can get that Nintendo out at any point and play like the big kid we know you are! Linked to the Wall is on Kickstarter, so if you like what you see you should sure give those guys a hand in achieving their dream. There are 50ish hours left, so they will likely not reach target for the funding but hey, still a great idea! You will get some rewards for backing their project so do check it out.
So there, I know, not your regular casino talk but I did feel a bit nostalgic after the holidays – family visits and spring tidying up, you know how it goes! That’s it from me folks, hope you enjoyed this as much as I did, go hang some games on those walls of yours and come back in a day or so for more from the world of casino, slots, games and …well you must know me by now!

Finding the Perfect Roulette Game

December 8, 2015June 18, 2020Stanley

A roulette If you landed on this page, then probably choosing an online roulette game to play didn’t turn out to be as easy as you thought it would. Some sites offer more than a dozen different roulette titles and then when you add the 10 live roulette table that are usually available at the Live Dealer section of the different casinos, you end up with over 20 tables to choose from. So what do you do? Well, it depends on what you are searching for.

If your priority number one is to have the biggest possible advantage, then you should definitely choose a French Roulette game. While the American Roulette’s return-to-player percentage is only 94.74% and the European Roulette has an RTP of 97.30%, French Roulette has an RTP 98.65% and therefore features the lowest house advantage.

Another important factor you should take into account is whether or not you want to play against live dealers or you prefer the computerised version of the game. Note that not all casinos feature French roulette tables in their Live Dealer sections, so you might as well check that before you register and deposit.

Furthermore, you should also check and see the table limits of the roulette game you’re considering playing. If you are a low roller, you’ll be happy to know that there are tables where you can bet as little as £0.10 per spin, but also there are tables where the maximum limit is set at the staggering £500,000! In fact, roulette is still the game of choice when playing for high stakes as there are no other casino games that feature these types of limits. Having a huge bet limit range is especially important if you have the intention of using a progressive betting system such as Martingale’s or Fibonacci’s, as this will lower the risk of you busting.

Something else you might have a look at before you pick a game is the features of the specific variation. By this I mean, it’s good to check whether or not the table features called bets, statistics, history and other useful tools that you can use to better your game. For this purpose, it’s a smart move to always try the game in demo mode first, so that you know what you’re in for before even paying a penny.

Lastly, for those of you who are searching for more diversity and are willing to try some unconventional roulette games, there some titles which are quite innovative. Some of the most interesting roulette games out there are the Multi-Wheel Roulette where you can play with up to 6 roulette wheels while betting on only one table, a Three-Wheel Roulette game where you get three chances to win with only one bet and Marvel roulette which gives you the chance to win a progressive Jackpot.

In summary, here are the aspects you should consider before choosing a roulette game:

What’s the RTP of the game?
Is it live or not?
What features does it have?
Are there called bets?
What are the table limits?
Is it a classic or an innovative variation?

The rest is completely up to you and your personal preferences! While some players will prefer to play a plain ol’ European Roulette, other might find it fun to play the innovative Pinball roulette. Different people, different ways.