From all of us at CGR to you, we want to wish you and yours a very happy July 4th. We appreciate the opportunity that you all give us to share our thoughts and video game news and reviews with you. Take care and have a safe (and potentially game-filled) weekend!
“Wielders of the Essence is an exciting new venture for us, taking the established world of Songs of Conquest and applying it to a new genre.” said Lord Querkius, Dungeon Master at Lavapotion. “We’re very proud of the work we’ve done so far and we’re excited to share the finished product with both our existing Songs of Conquest fans who are keen to experience the world of Aerbor in a new way, as well as new folks that enjoy the genre. See you in November!”
Making games is already chaotic and unpredictable, so having a war going on at the same time adds a layer of immense chaos. We were forced to constantly adapt and change our plans. So many times we had to rethink and adjust how we were going to get things done. And often just as we’d finally adapted and got into the new flow of things, something else would be waiting around the corner to throw us into disarray. Rinse and repeat.We went through entire winters where heat and power were regularly cut off throughout the day because our infrastructure was being intentionally targeted. We had days where someone would be part of the team, and then the next day we’d hear they had been called up to serve and needed to start handing over their work to the rest of us. You’d be in a meeting one minute discussing some trivial design question, and the next, half of us would be saying, “Hold on, the air raid sirens just went off.” We’ve had people disappear for days because, overnight, their home or apartment building was hit directly or indirectly, damaging their homes.Even during the week we finally picked a release date internally as a team, our feelings of joy and relief were quickly dampened when, that very Sunday, cities across the country came under some of the worst attacks since the start of the war. It felt like some vindictive force reminding us not to celebrate too much because everything could still change in an instant.But despite all this, we’re keeping our heads up. We’re beyond proud and in awe of how we’ve come together through all of this, and we’re happy to have finally brought the game to a point where we can see its release on the horizon.— Sergiy Oganesyan, Head of Publishing, Frogwares
House Flipper Remastered Collection by developer Frozen Way and publisher Frozen District and Frozen Way—PC review written by Jim with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated
Reading Time: 6 minutes.
I
enjoy simulation-type games, and I enjoyed the original release of
House Flipper, but I never got around to getting the DLC. When the
remastered version of the game was released, I figured it would be
the best way to experience the DLC while checking out how the base
game was upgraded. This might be a good chance for new players to
feel excited about exploring the game.
House Flipper is a
house renovation game where you take on jobs ranging from cleaning to
building new rooms and more. Since it comes with the DLC from the
original game, you will get a lot of jobs to unlock. You will pick
jobs from your laptop, then pick a city; each area seems to represent
one of the DLCs. North Levyville, for example, has all the levels
from the original release, while South Levyville seems to be just the
garden jobs. Some jobs involve renovating a house to be pet-friendly,
and jobs in farming, like fixing a barn for a cow. In total, there
are over 100 jobs to take on, ranging from small, short ones like
painting a room or picking all the weeds from a yard to huge lots
that need to be completely redone.
One of the new things I noticed is that the game
is now voiced. When you select a job, a character will tell you a
little about what they want done and why. The voice acting isn't
really that great, but then again, it doesn't have to be that great
in this type of game. I had one issue where a few of the jobs never
played the opening with the voice acting and loaded me inside a
building I wasn't supposed to be in, and I had to restart the level
where the voice acting never loaded again, but at least it loaded me
in the right place. Another issue I have that seems to be a glitch is
that you can use a top-down view to help with building and laying
furniture, but a few times I had it open, it wouldn't show anything I
placed, or where I was placing new things I was trying to buy. One
last issue I had was placing wall tiles: you sometimes placed them on
a wall in another room. An update that just came out claimed to fix
this, but it still happened in my game after the
update.
Graphically, the game looks about the same as the
original game, at least to me, and that's at max settings. However,
they added more movement in the background, like butterflies, birds,
and cars driving down the road now and then. There are some graphic
hiccups and stuttering, even on lower settings, and almost every
job-opening video freezes for a second or two. The music and sound
effects seem to be the same as the original release. One strange
sound effect, though, was when I lit a candle; it sounded like a
light switch. I think the sound of a flame would be a better fit.
I
really like taking on jobs more than flipping houses, and after over
15 hours in the game, I still have plenty of jobs left. There is a
lot to see in House Flipper Remastered Collection, which might be a
little overwhelming for new players. Some of the tutorials are not
really good, or some parts, like laying down a floor plan for a new
building, had none at all, and I had to figure it out myself. It took
me maybe 5-10 minutes, but I did figure it out. Just like the
original, you will level up as you perform actions, and you can spend
a skill point to make it easier to do things like building, cleaning,
farming, cooking, and so on.
Overall, I think if you own
the original and the DLC, it is not worth the price, but if you only
own the base game or don't own it at all, then it's worth buying as
it's a nice cozy game that I have enjoyed a lot, and there is enough
here to keep you busy for hours! It's not a perfect remaster, but the
game is still getting updated a lot, so the devs seem to be listening
to feedback and fixing the issues people are having. I do think it
needed a little more time in development, as some of these issues
should have been fixed before release, or it should have been
released in early access. Aside from the issues, I do enjoy the game
and find it relaxing to play!
Score: 7 / 10
Happy Canada Day from all of us here at Chalgyr's Game Room. We hope all of our Canadian readers have a safe and fun time filled with family, friends, and awesome barbeques!
From the CGR Team
“Deer & Boy has been in our hearts for years, and we are incredibly happy and proud to finally have it available to players, to experience the story and the emotions that drove us since the beginning. Thank you all for your support since the reveal, we hope you enjoy your time with our two friends!” said Jayson Houdet, Founder of LifeLine Games and Game Director.
“Shape Sender Deluxe encourages creativity in every level - wild, elegant, or stupid-but-it-works are all valid solutions, and it's up to the players to decide what they want to bring to the game. I'm super excited to see what the players do," said Tana Tanoi, game director at Dead Teapot.
