The Book of Metal RPG

For the last four years (on and off) and with over 600 hours put into the RPG Maker VX Ace software I’ve finally finished my first ever game – The Book of Metal.  Firstly here’s a video of the first 15 minutes of the game:

 

In a world where metal binds the people of The Peanus Isles, life is simple, and life is good.

Kept strong by the whisper of a legend, metal has grown strong over time and its influence is ever expanding.

All have heard of this legend.

The legend of a book, which has maintained the ethos of this world for many centuries.

But today…

It will be stolen.  It will be taken.

By evil.

Join Alan, Pete, Aiden and more on their quest to bring metal music back from the clutches of evil, stolen by the egomaniac Stubbs after a series of poor album reviews drives him to the brink of insanity.

Take a journey through a world drenched in brutality, taking on corrupted souls, fiends, demons and bad jokes along the way.

Can you save metal as we know it?

Features

• 4+ hours of gameplay
• A unique 40+ song soundtrack featuring metal/rock fused with old-school chiptunes
• A Triple Triad card game
• Collectables to be discovered

You can download it and play it yourself here.

 

RPG Maker Music Side Project

For the past few years I’ve been putting together a game called The Book of Metal using the RPG Maker VX Ace Software – for those who don’t know what that is it’s a… erm, RPG Maker, allowing the user to create retro-style video games in the style of SNES-era classic games like Final Fantasy I – VI and Chrono Trigger to name a few.

As you can guess my game is heavily musically-themed, and after not finding the built-in fantasy jingles to be quite what I’m looking for in a metal-themed video game I decided to make my own using a program called Music Maker Jam, which is perfect for those of us without an ounce of musical ability whatsoever.  Some of the earlier efforts are appalling but I think I’ve now got a reasonably decent soundtrack to compliment the game I’m working on; a combination of syth-style 16-bit era music fused with metal and rock.  With that in mind I’d love to hear your feedback on what I’ve put together so far.

 

June Channel Update

We’ve got a busy month coming up throughout June, with videos twice every week on Tuesdays and Fridays at 7pm BST (GMT+1).  We finish off our ‘How Not To Heist’ Grand Theft Auto V series with the final setup ‘convoy’ before attempting the Pacific Standard Job in spectacular fashion, before moving on to what will become our racing themed month.

We begin with an unbelievable qualifying session on Assetto Corsa, as Alan takes on Pete head-to-head in small Fiat cars to see who takes pole position for the upcoming race the following week.  Later we tackle some of the meatier cars and try to get to grips with the Shelby Cobra with hilarious consequences, and then for reasons that make no sense we switch to Formula 1 in F1 2013, first in a lighting qualifying round and then a race, followed by a more detailed qualifying session later in the week which causes Alan to lose his temper more than once.

Finally we finish June with Project Cars, first blazing through the American country in Pagani Zondas and then we switch to the slightly less glamorous Donnington Park in the UK for probably the best race we’ve had to date, as a Mitsubishi Evo takes on a Ford Focus in a nail-biting race to the finish.

Below is a calendar of everything we’re doing this month, if you’d like to keep track of our schedule please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, or you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter where we post everything as it happens.

Nintendo Will Use Their E3 Time To Showcase Zelda… And That’s It

Nintendo announced last week that their new Legend of Zelda title would be their only playable game at E3, but they’ve really shot themselves in the foot by now announcing that it’ll be the only game they showcase at all at this years conference, the biggest gaming event of the calendar year.

“Nintendo’s kickoff to the E3 show happens at 9 a.m. PT Tuesday, June 14, when Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime introduces Nintendo Treehouse: Live, which will be dedicated to a day of live-streamed gameplay of The Legend of Zelda. This will be the world’s first in-depth look at the game, which will also include commentaries by Nintendo developers. The Legend of Zelda gameplay will be streamed from the E3 show floor via Nintendo’s channels on YouTube and Twitch, as well as on http://e3.nintendo.com. The stream will include game coverage, behind-the-scenes info and plenty of fun.”

The 9 a.m Tuesday slot has always been Nintendo’s to do with as they please, starting with live shows alongside Microsoft and Sony, and then… really bad live shows (2008… *shudders*) and more recently pre-recorded Nintendo Direct presentations which were a step in the right direction, at least regarding last years’ effort, but with the company shafting the Wii U in favour of a new ‘NX’ console Nintendo really needed a strong E3 showing this year, which one game alone, Zelda or not, will not provide for them in my opinion. We’ll have to wait and see.

This post can also be viewed on Sherrard Gaming.

Players Have Been Creating Incredible Designs in Planet Coaster

There are two big games being released in the theme park management simulation genre this year, RollerCoaster Tycoon World which is out now in early access (and has received mixed opinions at best, but it’s getting there) and Planet Coaster, designed by the guys who made RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 but without the influence of Atari this time around.

Planet Coaster is currently in its open alpha phase for those who have purchased the ‘early bird’ (and expensive) version of the game and while reports of limited design capabilities are hampering the experience for testers certain players have found ways to bypass these limitations.  The following video is what they’ve achieved so far, and I can only imagine how good some of the theme parks in the game will look once these talented people have access to increased capabilities as development progresses.

 

Planet Coaster is available now in its alpha state for £50/$70 from the Frontier Store and has an expected release date of Q4 2016.

PSVR -is it usable on PS4 and PC?

Alan discusses the new Virtual Reality Headsets and pays particular interest to the PSVR from Sony – will it be usable on both the Playstation 4 and PC when it’s released?

No Man’s Sky Release Date Fills The ‘Big Game Void’

 

I was browsing the latest games at my local video game store the other day and it got me thinking – I can’t think of many big games I want for the remainder of 2016, and we’re only in March.  Of course, Final Fantasy XV is supposedly coming out at some point and there’s the annual churning out of Call of Duty and FIFA (but mercifully not Assassins Creed) but aside from Uncharted 4 and maybe Doom if it’s any good there isn’t a whole lot on the horizon to get me excited.

Thankfully No Man’s Sky developers Hello Games have finally given a solid release date of June 24th, which has definitely solved that problem.  This is a game I’ve followed closely since it was first announced at E3 in 2014, to the point where I watched a 90 minute performance by post-rock band 65daysofstatic with the game being played in the background.  It’s procedural (random, effectively) generation system for everything from individual planets to the background music and sounds of life fascinate me from an exploration standpoint, as I like nothing more than kicking back with a relaxing game like American Truck Simulator or Stardew Valley and No Man’s Sky looks as though it’s right up my street in that regard, with danger and excitement available should the mood arise.  Every planet will be explorable according to the developers, and with the randomness factor thrown in we’re set for a near infinite replay factor too – so this game is one to keep an eye on as we approach the release date.

Doom 4 Could Be a Day One Purchase

 

 

For anyone over a certain age Doom is almost certainly a franchise most gamers have played at some point during their childhood – despite having a well earned 18/R rating for being some of the most violent games of their generation.  I played the SNES port of the original Doom in the mid 90s and despite never growing fond of the first person shooter genre that game is still one of my favourites of all time.

Doom 2 was more of the same, but a drop in quality followed with the third game and very little has been said about the franchise since.  Thankfully after years of development Doom 4, or just Doom as it’s now known is set for a release in May and the new campaign trailer looks incredible.  A word of warning though, it is ridiculously violent.

Developers Bethesda have said that the campaign takes about 13 hours to complete factoring in difficulty, which is longer than average when compared to other games in the genre.  It’ll also come with multiplayer which will no doubt be where the meat of the game will be, but we don’t have too long to wait and find out.  Doom is released on May 13th.