Category Archives: Game Diary

The Walking Dad: Starved for Help

This image holds the SB! record for SB!'s hungriest header yet!

Lee tries to decide which snack to eat while waiting for tech help.

Once again, we here at the Space-Biff! Aerodrome have invited Lee Everett, protagonist of The Walking Dead, to come and review the game for us. Today he’s going to tell us about his experiences with Episode Two: Starved for Help. Take it away, Lee!

Read the rest of this entry

The Guts of Metro 2033 (Act Four)

So... Moscow has a subterranean Venice?

A brief glimpse of the splendor of Polis.

Act Four begins with Artyom successfully completing his original mission to reach Polis and tell them about the Dark Ones that are invading his home station. We know this can’t be the end of Artyom’s story, not only because then the game would have been shockingly short and lacked any real endgame climax, but because the opening scene of the game was of a desperate windswept battle against a horde of mutants at the base of a mysterious tower. Act Four is all about getting Artyom there. It’s the closest thing Metro 2033 has to a “filler” chapter, and even then there are still plenty of disturbing secrets to unearth and dreadful locations to visit.

Read the rest of this entry

RPS Ascension: The Index

Antopeos, also the Anatolian Peninusla

Antopeos

RPS Ascension, the game of Dominions 3: The Awakening as played by a handful of forumites from Rock, Paper, Shotgun, has finally come to an end. The early parts were some of the first articles I wrote here on Space-Biff!, so please forgive some of the rougher sections. I could go back and touch them up, but that sounds a lot like effort.

Unfortunately, the game didn’t end as we would have hoped—a broken PC and waning interest caused a couple players to drop out prematurely, as is sometimes the problem with Dom3. Still, it was an excellent game, and whoever won (I’m not 100% clear on that, actually. All I know is that I lost) certainly deserved it.

After the jump, the complete index.

Read the rest of this entry

RPS Ascension: Ignominy

Led by a pair of Darth Vaders.

The Sauromatian army at Vlecz.

Did I mention that I, Ichiro, was once the Prophet of the cyclops-god? I suspect not—it is the supremest of punishments to play both the roles of Prophet and Last Believer. At any rate, it is right that you should know why I have been chosen to tell this last chapter of the tale of the greatest alliance of shunned creatures that Antopeos has ever known. We stood upon the fields of Vlecz, far from the Fissure of Yomi, and witnessed the brutality of man. And now I am their guest, kept alive for the sole purpose of regaling their guests and striking fear into the hearts of those who dare resist them.

Read the rest of this entry

The Heart of Metro 2033 (Act Three)

You actually just misinterpret their intentions. If you could understand Russian, you'd hear that they're saying, "Come, brother! Today is Hug A Stalinist Day!"

A commissar’s idea of asking for volunteers.

I believe that each of Metro 2033’s five acts has a distinct goal. The first introduced us to the Moscow Metro and informed us that humanity isn’t going to be improving their quality of life anytime soon, and the second battered us over the head what sounded a lot like a theme. The third does something else: armed (hopefully) with what you learned from Act 2 (if you were listening), Act 3 is all about testing the state of Artyom’s heart (and, by extension, yours). I’ll explain.

Read the rest of this entry

RPS Ascension: The Mystery of the Disappearing Pretenders

This will be the last picture for half a thousand words. Prepare, reader.

The Yomi conquer the lands of the Marverni tribes.

Listen well, and I well tell you a tale. It is the story of how the Ascension Wars came to end; of six great Pretenders that sought to sit upon the absent Pantokrator’s throne; and how I, Ichiro, came to be the last surviving Oni on the face of Antopeos.

Like any true story, it must be told in parts, and it is much larger than any one teller. As for the first: I can speak what I know in two nights, for I have been assured that the early years of the Yomi Kingdom have been chronicled elsewhere. And as for the second: I have but narrow insight into the whole of the tale, and my limited vision will have to suffice.

Read the rest of this entry

The Walking Dad: A New Day

Ah, let's hope SB! never stops covering games that look better in motion than as screenshots.

A diorama of Atlanta.

Hi there, loyal Space-Biff! readers! Today we have something special planned—a guest review/impressions piece from a dude named Lee Everett. Lee is going to tell us all about the first episode of The Walking Dead, despite the obvious conflict of interest that arises from him being its protagonist. Oh well. There’s no such thing as an objective review, anyway! Find all about his adventures right after the jump!

Read the rest of this entry

The Soul of Metro 2033 (Act Two)

Ah, is there any picture/caption combo that popular '90s band Counting Crows *doesn't* have a song for? Answer: only 95% of them.

Ghost Train.

Okay, so Metro 2033’s first act left us good and depressed. The world is broken, and it’s painfully unlikely that humanity’s dreams of rebuilding it will ever be realized. At best, humanity can hope for the relative dignity of extinction. Yay.

And then the second act comes along and plays with what we already know about the bleak Moscow underground. Tonally, it’s a complete one-eighty from Artyom’s early adventures. Not in terms of bleakness—things are still outlandishly grim. It doesn’t inject cheer or hope or anything like that. Instead, it gives its world a shot of religion, and mulls a bit on the state of mankind’s soul.

Read the rest of this entry

The World of Metro 2033 (Act One)

It looks bleak, but that's just how post-apocalyptic Moscow Metro residents sleep.

Life in the post-apocalyptic Moscow Metro is desperate and short.

I originally began writing Space-Biff! to talk about four games. On September 20, Space-Biff! will be turning one year old, and I’m ashamed to say that even as we approach our baby’s birthday, I’ve only written about one of those four titles—and I haven’t even managed to finish writing the game diary for that one.

Well, this procrastination will stand no longer! The goal is to eventually write five articles, one for each of the game’s five broad segments, talking about the story in some detail and explaining how Metro 2033 appeared out of nowhere and weaved a masterful tale of hope and despair at the tail end of humanity’s run. This will be wildly self-indulgent, but since this entire site is basically me sitting in a darkened room making car noises with my mouth and playing make-believe that the entire internet relies solely on me for PC gaming information, it’ll fit right in.

Read the rest of this entry

Runewars Mega, Year 8: Race for the Dragon Throne

Or is it the mother of all R.U.S.E.s?

As everyone races to the Lost City and the Dragon Throne, the Daqan head the opposite direction.

Well, our story is drawing to a close. By the end of this year, one of the four nations will have gathered the necessary eight dragon runes and put themselves onto the Dragon Throne—that’s right, both.

At the beginning of the eighth year of the War, it really could have swayed in one of three directions. Waiqar the Undying had taken a few lumps, but his dark empire still spanned quite the distance, and his ranks had swollen fat from a combination of seven years of war and the efforts of his necromancers. The Daqan Lords had a small military, but their alliance with the Uthuk Y’llan barbarians meant that they could focus on expanding without having to protect their flanks—and they had the plans of Andira Runehand to guide them. And the Latari Elves were in possession of nearly half of the entire continent of Terrinoth. Each of the four nations were well-aware of the many prophecies floating around, and it seemed that all the peoples of Terrinoth held their breath at once, eyes fixed on the Lost City.

Read the rest of this entry