We don’t normally discuss individual game sales here, but I’ve acquired a certain fondness for Antipole that I think everybody should have. As such, here it is: Antipole is having a special 1-day sale right now where you can get the game for $1.99 via Desura down from the usual, already cheap price of $4.99.

Curve Studios formerly PSN-exclusive sidescroller Explodemon is out on PC, those interested can purchase through the developer directly and on GamersGate/GameStImpulse. The port was supposed to be out a while ago, but who’s splitting hairs? It’s available now and while I haven’t had a chance to play the game itself, I must say it looks pretty damn sleek.

So what’s going for Explodemon? All of the old-school platformer stuff we’ve come to know and love from back in the good ol’ SNES days, with physics-based puzzle elements sprinkled on top. Also you explode, a lot.

Lo and behold! The enhanced PC release of Saturnine Games’ gravity-controlling platformer Antipole (already out on Xbox 360 for $3) has finally arrived, with Impulse heading up the handling of digital distribution. Head over now to grab it if the $5 price tag suits you fine.

In the game you’re given the ability to alter the world around you by temporarily reversing the direction of gravity, affecting nearly everything loose around you as well as yourself. Ceiling run, jump otherwise impossible distances, use momentum to get past obstacles, throw enemies into deadly hazards, and more.

The updated version adds enhanced graphics and new unlockable challenge levels to play through (again and again.) Anybody who enjoys Terry Cavanagh’s VVVVVV, or any platformer fan in general should take to this like a large fellow takes to a sizable amount of food I tell you! So do check it out.

In related news, last we heard the DSiWare version was in better shape than the PC version. So what gives? The developer shares:

“Stay tuned for updates on the Nintendo DSiWare version. The DSiWare version has been approved by Nintendo. We’re currently waiting for Nintendo to give us an official release date.”

Oh, good. Hope to see that soon then.

[Saturnine Games]

RuneSpell: Overture is headed to the PC and Mac on Steam Summer 2011, followed by releases on Impulse, Macstore and Direct2Drive. DIY recently covered the debut announcement of this RPG/card collecting/Poker game. The first trailer left some wanting more explanation of the battle gameplay, and developer Mystic box answered. Check out the first trailer released days ago, which focuses on the battle system.

And now the developer has released a great trailer that explains “Mythic Poker”:

The developer recapped and added some gameplay detail:

- Attack hands: max at 1 time can have 7 attack hands in preparation
- The upper area is the player’s area; the below area is the opponent’s
- If there is a single card on the board, you can use it, both from your area, or steal it from the opponent’s to form a combo
- Once a card has been placed on top of another card, it cannot be removed/stolen anymore
- A combo of 5 cards creates an attack combination
- Every round there are three action points available (in a default situation)
- With certain monsters, building stacks and timing are essential as their play style, and Power Cards can be very nasty if you don’t.

When I asked if there were other card games they thought of using, developer Barry Hoffman stated, “Currently Poker/Yahtzee combinations are the choices we made. I am definitely sure we could do some nice stuff with Uno here, as well.”

Runespell: Overture is definitely looking polished and fun to me. What are your thoughts?

Keeping with this week’s theme of Zombies: Where Are They Now? Keldyn Interactive has announced the digital release of their colonial zombie slayer Dead Meets Lead, which Scott first spotted back in October.

The top-down slasher is available now for $20 on Impulse, GamersGate, Desura, and Direct2Drive, and bears a bit of a visual resemblance to Diablo…well, that is if you were playing as Diablo himself. I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, but here’s my take from watching the release trailer:

As a seafaring, super-strong captain marooned on an undead-infested island you were supposed to rid evil voodoo from anyway, you’re already a driven, agitated individual. Apparently hordes of zombies cause you to have progressive levels of rage (hell, I can’t even begin to question that because it’s just innately brilliant stuff.) As far as slicing and shooting goes, that’s good for you, bad for them, and horrible for your relationships with loved ones — who; thankfully, don’t seem to be running around anywhere in the game. Your red coat is awesome, and clearly resolves any issue of unsightly blood stains. Also there’s a cool killshot zoom feature, maybe? I’m a good journalist.

The dev also offers “The Challenge”, which acts a playable demo of the game that has you taking on one of the maps in a survival mode setting. The file weighs in at 132 MB, you’ll be prompted to join a facebook event upon arriving at the demo page, but note you can simply bypass that to the download if you like. If I can’t get my hands on a copy of the proper game, I’ll definitely be checking this out and reporting back with some thoughts.

Have a look at the aforementioned release trailer as well. See that the captain’s attacks are indeed fierce and motivated. Seriously looks like there’s a lot of fun to be had here:

[Keldyn Interactive]

Mystic Box has an interesting combination of genres built into its soon to be released PC and MAC title, Runespell: Overture. This role-playing game combines Yahtzee/Poker mechanics with power ups and turn-based card battles in what looks to be a fun twist on  RPG/puzzle hybrids.  The team states that Runespell: Overture will premiere on Steam in the summer of 2011, followed by releases on Impulse, Macstore, and Direct 2 Drive. Mystic Box already has a Steam Community portal established.

Check out the first trailer here and see what kind of gameplay is in store:

Runespell appears to have an overhead quest map like Puzzle Quest. The trailer states defeated enemies can become one’s pets or allies (how about both?).  Unfortunately, the trailer does not depict in great detail the mechanics behind the poker gameplay other than showing that it is turn based with specials lined up on the side of the screen and cards that seem dealt out more like Solitaire. The press release states the story is set in an alternative version of medieval Europe and there are more than 30 monsters types each with a unique card set and attack style.

I’d like to see some Yahtzee  gameplay footage next. Now that’s a game I love to hate. What are your thoughts on this poker/RPG hybrid?

Source: Runespell

It’s been too long, so let’s run over some indie sales going on around the web this weekend to make up for it.

Plenty of happenings at most of the major distributors, including large discounts and pre-order offers. All offers end Monday, March 28 unless otherwise noted.

Steam

Originally a PSiNdie exclusive, Big Sandwich Games is bringing HOARD to PC through Steam on April 4! I didn’t know this until this moment and it deserves more specific and elongated mention, but for now pre-order for 25% off ( $7.50.)

Joshyy’s all ready low-priced retro casual shooter Arcadia is 50% off and goes for just $2.50.

Fatshark is wrapping up a free weekend for team-based multiplayer shooter Lead & Gold: Gangs of the Wild West, with the game going 75% off ($2.50) until tomorrow morning (also on GamersGate.) 

Coffee Stain Studios’ upcoming part shooter, part tower defense title Sanctum is 10% off and goes for $13.50 up until its release on April 15. You can also get 20% off if you buy a two-pack which comes out to $10 a copy.

Finally, 800 North and Digital Ranch’s terrible lizard WWII mash-up (and potential GOTY candidate???) Dino D-Day has been given the 10% off pre-order treatment and goes for $18 until the title hits April 8.

GamersGate

Keldyn Interactive is offering a 30% off discount ($13.99) for those who pr-order their zombie-slaying action title Dead Meets Lead (offer available on Desura as well.)

Stout Games’ lightly priced experimental title Dinner Date has been given a light 10% discount ($4.50) as well.

Get Games

Get Games is offering Croteam’s furiously fun FPS Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter for a very nice 75% off ($3.74.)

Impulse

Haven’t actually heard of this one so can’t personally recommend, but developer Rake In Grass has taken a sizable 66% off ($10.18) their arcade shooter Jets’n'Guns Gold.

Direct2Drive

D2D is running a deal for 20% off all titles–indie or otherwise–including pre-orders when you use the code “marchmadness” at checkout.

Blind Mind Studios has simultaneously released two new updates for their space strategy title Star Ruler, now available automatically for Steam and Impulse users and as manual files through ModDB.

The patches (1.0.2.0 and 1.0.2.2 respectively) add a bunch of new additions, changes and fixes to the large scale 4X/RTS hybrid. From the solid patch notes:

Fixes:

• Civil acts were not affecting labor rate.
• Use tool orders were ignoring the hull’s orbit targets setting.
• Floating point errors were accumulating into the ships damage stat, leading to repair tools continuously firing.
• Victory message is no longer displayed when you start a game with no AIs.
• Explosion effects would sometimes randomly appear in the system when you started a game.
• When selecting a color for your empire the window would sometimes get stuck dragging.
• Fixed crashes on saving/loading dock and retrofit orders.
• Map-specified tags in the new game menu were not being displayed in the scroll box.
• Fleet names are now saved and loaded.
• The Phased Energy Beam was too cheap, and did far too little damage.
• Combat effects were broken in the legacy 1014 mod.
• Fleets could add other fleets as members, causing various issues.
• The camera position is now saved and restored on load.
• Servers/clients could lose connections if they took too long during the loading stage.
• Planet ticks (which handled the economy) were not using a managed tick rate, causing slower production than intended.
• Planets will be correctly lost when population reaches 0.
• Stealth Hulls were applying their effects after armor.
• Homeworlds now hijack the orbits of existing planets if possible, fixing planets orbiting through each other in non-tiny galaxies.
• Minor script exception in multi-rack mounts.
• Autosave was triggering every 15 seconds instead of 15 minutes.
• AIs were not checking systems generated after their home system for expansion, leading to randomly stalled AIs.
• Targeting sensors that were smaller than the connected weapon could actually reduce range.

Changed:

• The windows in the top bar can now be toggled with F1-F6.
• The movement solution has been further optimized.
• Improved system locking to make the game perform more consistently, and faster overall.
• Updated French, Polish and German translations.
• New designs default to not orbiting targets now.
• Saving a design with the same name as an existing one now marks the new design as an updated version of the old one instead of displaying an error.
• Updated the tutorial.
• Beam weapons now also have a random component in their firing delay.
• Pirate raids now become less frequent at lower difficulties.
• Updated Russian translation.

Balance Changes:

• Reduced improvement rate of stealth hulls. Capped their effectiveness at 95%.
• Cargo bays and Ammo storage now scales to a higher storage.
• Fuel Cells now scale in the same way as cargo bays.

Additions:

• Maps can now define options for an advanced window in their xml files, they can control the size and columns of their advanced window.
• Option to turn off galaxy gas display.
• The Options and new game windows can now be localized.
• Ships without engines (i.e. stations) now orbit the planets that created them.
• Added basic interface to choose empire settings when a game starts.
• Added range rings – hold alt to show the range of the selected and/or hovered object.
• Arrrr! Pirates will now periodically raid systems with lots of resources but no defenses.
• The names of the default, AI and pirate ships can now be localized.
• Autosaves and quicksaves are now rotated, you can specify how many saves to keep. The ones with the higher numbers will be older.
• The planet window’s queue tab now displays the total cost of the current queue.
• Added proper ship set support.
• “Defend Position” stance, ships will engage targets but return to their original position afterwards.
• “Update All” button in blueprints list that immediately updates all designs to the latest tech level.
• Remnants now roam uncolonized systems and attack all ships within them. Their amount and frequency depends on the difficulty.
• A basic victory condition (destroy every planet owned by another player).
• Subsystems in the damage report window now display their current level.
• Entry in the right-click menu to select all ships in a system with the same blueprint as the one you clicked on.
• Stations can now be retrofitted at the planet they are orbiting. It will cost 20% more than usual (up to 60% of the cost of building a new one) to represent the cost of moving it down and launching it back up again.
• Added localized versions of various graphical buttons for French and German.

Those interested in trying out the game can download the demo file on ModDB (also available to Steam users.)

[Blind Mind Studios]

For all intents and purposes this new “update” could well have been an expansion pack, or sequel with how much the developers have poured into it. I’m not joking, this is the largest and most robust update for a game I think I’ve ever seen.

AI War, by developer Arcen Games, has always been a fun tactical strategy game where the player is tasked with fighting against a horde of sentient AI machines that have driven humanity to the brink of extinction. This new update, however, goes above and beyond the original game by adding new ships, AI types, factions and maps to the game’s already impressive line up.

Here’s a rough breakdown:

• 36 new ships, including:
• 5 new ship classes with a variety of abilities.
• Enclave Starships and Regeneration Chambers for direct unlock.
• 6 new AI special weapons.
• 6 new AI Types.
• 3 Neinzul alien minor factions (NPCs).
• Devastating new Hybrid Hives AI plot.
• 3 new in-game music tracks, plus a new title music track.
• Two new map styles: X and Concentric Circles.

Of course, this feature set is pretty limited in just what the new update offers. If you’re interested in checking out just what was included then I suggest popping on over to the developer’s blog and checking out all the nitty gritty details.

As mentioned in the title, for those of you who have bought the game this is a free update. Despite the massive amounts of additional content, AI War 4.0 is 100% free. For those of you who have not yet purchased, I urge you to check out the trailer below and buy the game from either the developer’s website or one of the various online digital distribution stores. It’s only $19.99 and well worth it.

[Buy/Try, Arcen Games]

Trailer

Following up on the coverage we ran on the demo of EasyGameStation’s parody JRPG Recettear, we’re treated to the wondeful news that the game is currently set to arrive for North America and Europe via Stardock’s digital distribution outlet Impulse early next month.

A small mention on the website of the game’s translators Carpe Fulgar advertises the partnership with the digital distributor and notes that the game will be available to purchase on September 10; adding that the date is subject to change.

No pre-order option or page of any kind is available on Impulse currently, but hopefully we’ll see something in the next two weeks leading up to the game’s release.