2021-03-26 17:23:56

Hello all!

currently working my way through "Choice of the Ninja" and will have the results to you as soon as I finish it, but there's a bit of a release for Vampires: The Masquerade: night road I thought you should know about.

This game has yet another expansion pack released and that expansion pack along with the others are on sale for a bit. This one gives you two new vampire clans to play with, as well as some new powers that come from being certain new types of vampires.

In addition, another set of chapters have been added to the game for a longer and more complete story with more things to do.

I won't get to this game for a very long time, but thought you should know about them, especially because I've heard good things about this one.

2021-04-01 19:29:30

Hello all,

just wanted to let you know there is a new hosted games title out. It is "Keeper of the Night and Day" and it is the sequel to "Keeper of the Sun and Moon." In this you play as a mage in new magi city in an urban fantasy setting where you have to deal wtih the intrigue of the city and the political actions going on as well as your celebrity while you possibly find love, raise a fet, battle monsters, and go to your class at the university.

Perhaps one of you who has played the first can tell us a little about "keeper of the sun and Moon"  so people thinking about it can make a mor einformed decision.

2021-04-03 04:51:02

I just started playing "Keeper of the Sun and Moon" a few minutes ago.

#FreeTheCheese
"The most deadly poison of our times is indifference. And this happens, although the praise of God should know no limits. Let us strive, therefore, to praise Him to the greatest extent of our powers." - St. Maximilian Kolbe

2021-04-04 02:44:36

Bookrage's review of "Choice of the Ninja"

hello all,

it has been a bit since I had a review, but I've got a nice one here.

biases: I am not a huge fan of ninja fantasy or wuxia stories. I also hate Naruto with a passion so I came into this game rather skeptical as to what it would deliver.

gnre: This game puts itself as alternate history, but as far as I can tell, it is more of a general Japanese ninja adventure and I can't even directly state what time period it is supposed to be in. My way I would say that it is alternate history is the fact there is magic and that there are ninjas in the game largely doing what ninjas were famous for doing in the popular imagination, even though, like the knight in shining armor or the jolly pirate, the image of the ninja that we think of is mostly imaginary. That said, what it advertises is exactly what you get a game with some intrigue and a lot of action.

writing: This game, is in many ways, Choice of King Fu's little brother. It gets you in an east-Asian setting and makes all you do feel "normal" and not so strange, though the ethics are phoned in and sometimes the game is a little too transparent about explaining what your choices mean, often with rather ham-handed advice from your allies that isn't something they would actually say and explanations often of risks you are running before you even take them. The game often also has points where you can make choices but they have one where you can basically have the game choose for you based on your stats. Admittedly, some of that was helpful when it did get confusing but in other ways it was annoying because there was a lot of hand-holding.

mechanics: it is a simple system in the game, and you can easily understand what your stats mean. Speed, martial arts, honor, cunning, and magic are pretty cut and dried. The game even tells you pretty blatently when you are opting for combat and when you are chosing to rely on magic. I played a pretty magic-heavy ninja. One thing that is sort of cool is unlike in "choice of the Dragon" cunning and honor are not on a rocker balance and you can be high in both. At the end of the game both my cunning and honor were above 90 because unlike how I usually play, I was very sneaky in terms of how I approached missions, but I largely was a good little boy and did mostly what I was told. There is an enemies and allies counter that I had no part in in the story, but I imagine that will have to wait for replay so I can understand it along with a few other things as I know that I have not seen much of the game so far.

romance: possibly, but not the way I played it. It is clear you can set up one of the NPCs as your love interest, but you have to behave a certain way probably to persue that and as I played, I did not have the opportunity to join the lovely lady ninja. I think that that character is your only option, and I don't know much of her character so I can't say much about how well it is written.

railroading: not much. The story is 190k words and it isn't all that long to play through in terms of number and length of chapters. That means in my mind that we've got a lot of branches left to explore. I know I was offered three opportunities to alter my position away from the path I was walking and I refused them all. I'm pretty certain I would've had to go through very different events had I chosen to betray or take some side jobs from some semi-friendly NPCs along my way. If any of you can verify this without spoilers, please do. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of branching paths because I didn't read anywhere close to 190k words going through that story.

Achievments: none: and that's a real shame. getting through the story without injuries, doing something incredible, or going through the what I'm sure are numerous branches in the story would all be great options, but none of that comes into play and it is a real lost opportunity. It is a major disappointment.

closing remarks: If you like "Choice of Kung Fu" you'll like this one if your main draw is a well-done Asian setting. "Choice of the Ninja" is nowhere near as good a story as "Choice of Kung Fu" and many other games I've played are better, but this one was a major surprise as I was expecting a bad naruto rip-off or something completely pointless and suprficial. The characters are a bit "meh" and sometimes the game holds your hand too much and explains things a little too fully, but this is a fun little game that you won't regret buying.

2021-04-04 23:19:48

Ok, something on railroding.
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
I played this, and during a certain mission where your trying to recover an engineer or something, you have a betrayal option.
I took it 3 times iwth all different stats, and each time, it ends in you dying.
I could be doing it wrong but idk

2021-04-04 23:40:37

my guess is you die when you get enough injuries is when you die as in many titles. I only got one in the whole adventure because I was really smart with my choices.

2021-04-16 22:13:51

hello all,

two bits of news, but not a lot of info I can give you on these two new hosted games. Not only because I have not played them but also because the notice I got in my e-mail wasn't very helpful in terms of telling me much.

The first of these is The Mage's Adventure. This one is an alternate timeline story in the same world of "The Magician's burden." In this one, you are part of an adventuring party heading out to fight an evil demon and another party is getting in your way. You also have a demon who offers help to you on your adventures... for a price.

The other is "War of 2022" which is a game where you play a modern soldier in a fictional country. as you fight in battle after battle as things like commander or heavy machine gunner or several other roles, your decisions affect the world around you and the progression of the war. Who will you ultimately side with and will you support a corrupt government or cut ties with them?

I can't say much more about these games myself because there isn't much on them to look at, but thought I would let you know.

2021-04-16 22:55:51

The second game sounds a lot like Silent Gear, never liked that game much, but will check it out.

Greetings and happy gaming, Julian

If you say you never lie, you're a liar.
Oh, and #freeGCW

2021-04-18 11:57:41

ya, I didn't really enjoy the second one from the little I played of it.
The mage adventure one's fun.

2021-04-24 16:12:30

hey all,

just have to let you know, xince many of us are pressed for cash that 4 new games have been made free on Choiceofgames.

the four new games that are now free are as follows.

1. To the city in the coulds.
2. Thieves' gambit: the black cat (or curse of the black cat) can't quite remember)
3. The Daring mermaid expedition
4. T-Rex Time Machine.

I can only speak to the first one on that list and see my two reviews of that game for what I think of it. In short, skip it, but I do admit it gets better over time with more playthroughs and if you're willing to try a few different things, you might get some good fun out of it. It certainly isn't the worst game out there.

At least for a while, I'll need you guys to tell me if any of the other three are any good.

I'm currently working through "Affairs of the court: Choice of Romance" but I'm only on part two and have a long way to go yet before I'll be ready to review that for you guys.

be seeing you.

bookrage.

2021-04-24 20:49:55

Careful! If it says free, it doesn't automatically mean free. It was the same bullshit in this heart's choice thing
Also happened when they made some games free before (don't remember which ones).

About the first game, skip it, it's not good at all in my opinion. I haven't played the others.where the games themselves were free but along the way they tried to annoy you into paying (like wait for one hour to play the next chapter or something). So if these guys say something's free, it might mean they implemented some bullshit like that.

Greetings and happy gaming, Julian

If you say you never lie, you're a liar.
Oh, and #freeGCW

2021-04-24 23:12:14

@Juliantheaudiogamer
Better than nothing by far still...  It's somewhat misleading for sure, but I can handle it.

2021-04-25 00:24:34

@186: Free with waiting is still free. Just be patient. If you get so annoyed by that that you pay or stop playing the game, that's a you problem.

2021-04-25 10:18:40

@187: Agreed. I'm willing to pay for these games, the thing is just that people are like "Yay! the game is free!" and then are surprised to find that such mechanics are in place. I just find it really misleading.

Greetings and happy gaming, Julian

If you say you never lie, you're a liar.
Oh, and #freeGCW

2021-05-07 20:37:26

Hello all,

just letting you know that Hosted  games has a new title out, but I'll need your help to explain it because the explanation wasn't very good in the ad. The New game is the third book in the Evertree series and is called "Lux, City of Secrets" It is some sort of sandbox-type world adventure in the world of the evertree world, and it is also going to be followed up by "Lux, City of lies" later

They talk about professions, old and new characters, the tavern where you can go with relationships and the like but for someone who has never touched the series, it's  not very informative.

all I can give you is the bare bones of this one. If anyone has played the first two, or one of the first two evertree books, please help me out here.

2021-05-07 23:16:09

I have played the first one and played the free part of the second one, but wasn't all that impressed to be honest.

Greetings and happy gaming, Julian

If you say you never lie, you're a liar.
Oh, and #freeGCW

2021-05-14 15:40:59

Hello all,

no new games to report but just letting you know that for the next week, all of Kyle Marquis games are on sale.

I will tell you right off the bat that I have not played any of these titles so can't speak to any one of them other than that the vampire one has gotten some praise from other people here.

but here are the titles that are on sale

Empyrean
Silverworld
tower behind the moon
sky pirates of Actorius
Pon Para and the great southern laborynth
Vapire: the Masquerade: Night road.

have no information on the quality myself but if anyone can help me, I would definitely appreciate it.

2021-05-16 14:53:08

Bookrage's review of "Affairs of the court: choice of romance"

Hello all,

I've got another review for you and originally I was going to do "Choice of the vampire: fall of memphis" but I will tell you I in fact, have already reviewed that one as it is now part of the original "Choice of the Vampire" instead, I have done "Affairs of the Court: Choice of Romance."

biasses: I don't like romance stories though I love intrigue and court politics, so originally I was not sure of what to think fo this game from the name and description alone.

genre: This game is seen as an alt-history fantasy game and I must admit the "choice of romance," is a deceptive secondary title. You do get to charm a number of fine ladies or men (depending on your preference) but "Affairs of the court" is a much more accurate way to think of the game. Politics and intrigue are the main focus of this game and at least when I played were primarily involved in my deicion making.

writing: There are definite plusses and minuses to this one in terms of writing. This game holds your hand a bit and helps spell things out at many times, but the plots in the story are complex enough that I think this is more to the game's credit to keep someone from getting lost. As I only play a chapter a day it proved very helpful. The characters are a little hard to grasp and sometimes they don't have much meat to them, nor do their actions always make sense, even when you take into context certain complications of the story. The choices also have a bit of a "What the Heck?" vibe to them as some of the choices I made seemed to be completely ignored or sometimes my actions got a definite "are you sure?" vibe to them more than once and I essentially had to make my same choice repeatedly to do what I wanted, and these were things I succeeded on. Admittedly I ignored one towards the end of a game and going past the "are you sure" reaction got me killed, but I wish there wasn't so much of this.

The only part of the story I can say where I really hated the writing was when I was under the effects of a mind control spell. For several decisions I pretty much had three "yes master" options with 3 "no" responses dimmed out. My magic stat and other things I thought would matter were super high so having greyed out responses and making me do something I did not want to do several times just made me angry. I see what the game was trying to do to make you feel hte powerlessness, but I would've preferred  just shortening that and just had me move through the conversation with the next button.

also, although I played as a man, as I tend to, a lot of the game's scenes seemt o refer to me as a woman, including some of the ways I dress and prepare myself, though the distinction was less what we think today in the early renaissance where the story is conceptually based. Also the creepy flirting of a bad guy was clearly to a female in terms of the gestures and motions he made.

mechanics: This game has some of the most transparent mechanics I have seen. Your personal stats and favor at court are clearly defined with percentages and there aren't too many to keep track of. What you do have to remember however is who you are in good standing with and who you are not  as there is not a tracker for that but it clearly matters in the story.

Railroading: Not a whole lot. There are definite moments where it seems your choices are ignored but once you force through all the "are you sure" responses you get to do things that really matter in the end. The achievements also show there are a lot of ways the story can go. Except for the mind control scene above where I'm pretty sure the railroading with the responses was intentional, you can eventually do what you want in this story.

Romance: for a game that has "romance" in the title, it doesn't take center stage for many ways you can play this game. In my game, my character was more concerned with his position and being important and his backing of the queen was more about his career and standing than his interest in love. Although you have several possible love interests in the story and you get the chance at multiple times to hop from one to the next if you want to switch, the game really isn't about that and I've seen much more involved love plots in games that were not about Romance at all in their stated concepts. Most of the love interests are forgettable anyhow. I will give it to them that at least all the possible loves you can have in the game have alterior motives and aren't just there to fall all over you.

achievements: so far, the only game I've seen that has a more robust achievement system is "slammed" and I know I've got a lot of exploring to do on repeat plays. Everything from dying in multiple ways, utter failure at court, having affairs, starting a revolution, surviving each part of the story (I still didn't quite make it through part 3) and various major and minor successes are all there. It is one of the strengths of this game and I wish I saw achievement systems like this more often.

closing remarks: With wooden characters and writing, some awkward moments where gender is unintentionally assumed, and too much pressure on the player to be cautious.  this game has a lot of problems. However, it isn't worthless and is better than many titles. It also has fun court intrigue, a robust achievement system, complex plots going through it, and an unusual degree of freedom for a Choiceofgames title. I must say that this game is strictly mediocre, and by that I mean the real meaning of the word and that it is by no means terrible but it is not by any means one of the line's shining stars

2021-05-17 13:29:17

@192: I have only played Sky Pirates of Arctorius. The game is in my opinion a bit too short, but it's kind of fun. Now that I think about it, the ending of that game sounded like there would be a sequel...
Can't say anything about the other games though.

Greetings and happy gaming, Julian

If you say you never lie, you're a liar.
Oh, and #freeGCW

2021-05-21 12:32:47

hello all,

just in the interest of telling all the news, have to tell you that "if it please the court" is the latest title to be released on the Heart's choice line.

In this game, you play as a female, or in any shape not man spy in 18th century france and get involved with court intrigues, seductions, and stuff like that. The game is openly stated to be a lesbian romance which is the reason along with the other titles that if I ever finish my Choiceofgames titles, I'll definitely do hosted games before I touch heart's choice because what sound like cruddy romance novels are not my thing.

but if a steamy lesbian 18th-century French romp is your thing, "If it please the court" is now out for you to play.

2021-05-28 14:49:30

Hello all,

at last the main line of choiceofgames titles has a new entry and if I've heard right, it is a good one. "Vs. Deathscapes" has just been released and it is the conclusion to the Vs. line.

I have not even played one of these and the ad was written in a way that you probably needed to play the first two to really gather what it is saying. It is supposed to answer a lot of questions and you are supposed to steal yet more powers from others to ultimately stop the evil in the story and have godlike abilities at the end.

All I can say to the quality from what I know is it is written by the same guy who did the hero's rise stories and I've played the first one and really liked it.

If anyone can tell us about the "Vs" series, It would be much appreciated.

2021-05-29 10:35:36

Oh cool, I really liked the first two. As with all of his games, it's very politically loaded, but there is also a cool story underneath. It's been a long time since I played the earlier titles, but if I remember correctly, there are 26 chosen tributes who get transported to the planet Versus by complete surprise. The planet is split in half. The one half is reserved for the 13 constructive tributes, the other half for the 13 destructive tributes. Every week, the teams vote their champion, and they must fight against the champion of the rivaling team and kill them. When one tribute is left, he can leave Versus and is destined to achieve great things for the world, either constructive or destructive.

We are pleased, that you made it through the final challenge, where we pretended we were going to murder you. We are throwing a party in honor of your tremendous success. Place the device on the ground, then lay on your stomach with your arms at your sides. A party associate will arrive shortly to collect you for your party. Assume the party submission position or you will miss the party.

2021-06-04 15:11:13

Hello all,

just popping in to tell you that Hosted Games has dropped a pair of new games this week that you might want to know about.

The first is "Donor" where you play a woman captured by a cabal of evil vampires who must try to escape them while they periodically feed on you. You can also befriend them and such as well. This one advertises 14 different endings and if something causes you to die, you simply go back to your last choice.

The second one is "50" where you find yourself on a mysterious island with no knowledge of who you are or how you got there. All you and 49 other people know is that each of you has a dog-tag around your neck with the name of one of the 50 US states. You must now try to survive on the island while dealing with its hazards and dealing with the politics of dangerous members of the survivors. You get to choose who lives and who dies in the end and you also have to find out what this island is for and why you are here. It sort of reminds me of the TV show "Lost"

just thought I'd tell you about these while I could.

2021-07-16 14:55:14

Hello all,

Wow! a month and a half since my last post. Don't worry though, more is coming very soon as I'm about to finish "The Hero Project" and should have a review of that tile to you on Monday or Tuesday at the latest.

Today though, I have a new title from Choiceofgames to share.

This one is "Pugmire: Treasure of the sa dogs" and is based on the popular furry franchise, "pugmire." A world long after the time of man where pet animals have been uplifted and have become the sentient creatures of this post-appocoliptic world.

This one has the player playing as a breed of dog and going in search of the Corgy pearls, having to dodge sketchy situations with the Cat Nation, and engage in general nautical pirate adventures.
This doesn't really seem to be my thing though. I'm not into furries, I think pugs are ugly and gross, and even though I like nautical adventure and fantasy, the Furry element is a bit much for me.

That said, I did like the Earplay game of the Pugmire RPG.

Pugmire has been made accessible to us before. It also was one of the games released by Earplay a few years ago.

I admit my biases make me not overly interested in this one, but if you guys play it, and I see no reason why one wouldn't want to beyond my personal biases, tell us how it is.

2021-07-16 18:17:48

in adition,  there's a new hosted game game called a kiss from death, it's a romance game where you play as an imortal trying to hault an apocalips.
for some reason, this one didn't send out an email.