Free Meat Friday - Sanctum (Steam)

The "free meat" prize today is a copy of Sanctum on Steam. I talked about Sanctum 2 on the latest episode of Pixelated Radio--check it out here--and while you can't play that game yet, the original game is still a solid experience and an enjoyable FPS/tower defense hybrid and, best of all, is a Steamplay title, working for both PC and Mac (sorry Linux users, you're still shit out of luck).

All you have to do to enter is click THIS and then click "Retweet." -- Make sure you follow me, @Kush3, so I can DM you with details if a winner is you. Otherwise, a winner is who? Seriously though, a failure to follow simple instructions can turn a potential winner into one of many "losers." And if you'd like two extra/alternate entrees, increasing your chances of winning, subscribe to the site's YouTube page for a second entree; then, comment on any video, including the hashtag #FMF5313, but not only the hashtag, for a third entree. You-all have until Sunday (05/05/13) at 12PM CST to enter and the winner will be contacted soon after.

ENTREE PERIOD IS OVER. WINNERS IN PROCESS OF BEING SELECTED.

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Strike Suit Infinity review: suit up for a fun, arcadey ride

When I first launched Strike Suit Infinity, I didn't know what I was in for--I worried the controls might be too complicated, among other things--but I was pleasantly surprised to find a space combat game with easy-to-learn controls and fast gameplay that dives headfirst into the action, instead waiting for layers upon layers of customization and strategy before the game even starts.

Strike Suit Infinity is a very simple game: you take control of a spaceship capable of transforming into a mech and battle against a variety of ships through a seemingly endless amount of waves and rounds. That's all there is to the game and likely the reason for the easy-to-digest price--you can pick up Infinity right now on Steam for $6.99--but the simplicity is a good thing, it made the game easy to jump into and I found myself wanting to start over and try again whenever I died because I wanted to beat my high score and the amount of setup needed is miniscule. And you will die a lot.

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I predicted the future: GameFly hates me

Did you listen to the latest episode of Pixelated Radio yet--do so right now if you haven't--well, if you did, you know I talked about GameFly and how they have never sent me a game in the top 5 of my Q, not once. I also predicted the next game they would send me: My #10, Power Rangers Super Samurai. Well, call me psychic, incredible, the "one," or all three, because I was right; Power Rangers Super Samurai is on its way to my humble abode and I cannot wait to play such an amazing (?) game. (Seriously, why does GameFly hate me so much?)

Proof of GameFly's hatred towards me with a little clickage. (It's a tad big.)

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"Ship" your pants at Kmart

Does this have anything to do with video games or comics or movies or anything at all that usually graces the site? No, but this is the first good thing to come out of Kmart since I don't know when and it made me giggle like a little whippersnapper and you may just giggle a little too. You may want to bring some spare pants too.

Nimble Quest review: gathering a party into a snake

Do you like old school Snake gameplay? If you said yes, keep reading, if not, you might as well find something else to read. Nimble Quest is a free-to-play RPG/action hybrid that mixes the gameplay of Snake with the real-time action of hack 'n' slash-esque games.

You start off the game with one hero--the selection is limited at first, but new heroes are unlocked as stages are beaten--walking around a small square grid, auto-attacking enemies that randomly populate the screen. As enemies die, they drop anything from power-ups to gems and tokens to heroes in order to increase the size of your party, a.k.a., your snake. The gameplay is simple, using only swipe controls, no need to worry about pressing a button to attack, and gradually becomes more difficult as new enemies emerge and more enemies pop up on screen at once.

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This is The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct

Nothing more needs to be said; this is The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct. (No, it's not good.)

Saints Rows IV officially announced and insane

I love the path Saints Row has taken, getting crazier and crazier with each new game. Saints Row IV has just been officially announced and looks to keep the streak going with ridiculousness upon ridiculousness upon ridiculousness; also, dicks too. As I watch the announcement trailer, I can't help but think, "This is exactly what Postal always wanted to be." It's a damn fine trailer and most surprising of all, the game has a release date of August 20th, 2013 for North America (the 23rd for everywhere else), meaning Saints Row IV will be out before Grand Theft Auto V. I think that, my friends, is the craziest thing of all. Anyway, why are you still reading this? Just watch the damn trailer below already (and enjoy the utter insanity of it all)!

Dungelot review: give it a little tappy; tap, tap, tap-a-roo

Dungelot seems like a cool concept, mixing the structure of a roguelike, minus the often common brutal difficulty, with a Minesweeper-esque gameplay system. Each level is a 6x5 block grid and hidden behind every block is a potential danger, reward or nothing at all. Levels are randomly generated, as to be expected, and when you die, you start from the beginning, losing everything you gained from the previous game besides the gold you collected. Sounds good, right? Well, it doesn't quite play as well as it sounds on paper.

The problem with Dungelot is that it is just a bunch of mindless tapping. There is barely any strategy--the only real strategy is in deciding whether to fully explore a dungeon or move onto the next level upon finding the key to the next level--and the game becomes repetitive before the first playthrough in even finished. The thing about Minesweeper that Dungelot forgets to implement is the strategy that comes in deciding which blocks to click and which to avoid; in Dungelot, you just click away like a madman, over and over and over again, never stopping to think, "Should I, or shouldn't I?" Well, should you?

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Dollar Dash review: no, not one of "those" Dash games

Dollar Dash in no way has any relation to the popular Dash time management series published by PlayFirst. So if you are expecting a time management game set inside a bank, you are in for quite the surprise—in Dollar Dash, you rob the bank, among other actions, competing against a mixture of human and AI characters, both online and offline.

The game is broken up into three different modes: "Dollar Dash," "Hit'n'Run," and "Save the Safe." In each mode, you compete against one to three different opponents, no more and no less, each character wearing a different colored outfit so there's no confusion as to who's who. Scattered across every map are weapons and power-ups that greatly affect the way a match will turn out--from nukes to shields to bear traps, everything comes into play at some point.

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Robert and Lara, sitting in a tree, p-l-a-y-i-n-g

I had two loves during the era of the original PlayStation. Two women entered my life and I will always remember both fondly: first, the one I married, and then, the one who is still with me today—Lara Croft. But in Lara's defense, she was there first.

The first time I read about Lara Croft, she might as well have been transgendered. I distinctly remember reading a preview about a game where you played as a tomb raiding male protagonist; a little more Indiana Jones than Catherine Zeta-Jones. He even carried a whip like Mr. Jones. The next time I read something about Ms. Croft was when I flipped through a magazine at a Walden Books. It was as if the magazine was showing two games at the same time, but most people would say I fell in love with the wrong one.

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