Pioneers

Pioneers is another game of survival, but Eigen Lenk's work in progress is slightly different from other such titles and is showing a great deal of promise.

It's a turn-based exploration game which initially tasks the player with building a ship, garnering a worthy crew, loading the hold with essential supplies, before taking to the high seas in search of fame and fortune.

Quests are dished out from your homeland's cheery citizens but even a simple quest to gather spice from a nearby island is a perilous undertaking. Bears and other wild creatures roam the forested lands and if that wasn't enough to contend with, you need to forage for food, chop trees, set up camp, make sure your band of hardy adventurers don't starve, and interact with local tribes.

Visually, Pioneers is rather smart and uses only four colours - although these change depending on the seasons. It's also packed with character: smoke rises from chimneys, ships bob merrily on the waves, rain pelts down on the explorers as they snuffle about, while a delightful musical score plinks and plonks away in the background.

If you want to try out the latest build, you can find it here, on Eigen's website.

Have fun!

Aquanaut's Holiday - PS1

No sooner had I blogged about the return of Aquanaut's Holiday on PS3, when, to my amazement, I discover the original PS1 game was released this morning via the Japanese PS3 store for 600 yen.

My original copy has been misplaced somewhere down the line, and it's a game I've been looking out for over the last few years...to no avail. But tonight I downloaded it again and have put an hour or so into it.

OK, so it's nowhere near as polished as Endless Ocean on Wii, and the draw distance is pretty poor, but it's still got that old magic. Due to the game's minimalist sound effects and eerie music, Aquanaut's Holiday has a sombre atmosphere. But just travelling through the sizeable ocean, peering out into the gloom in search of some landmark or sign of life is as compelling as it was back in 1996.



Each of the pad's shoulder buttons emits a sound. The sealife you encounter all have their favourite sound and when played, they will dance. Squids rotate 360 degrees, while starfish twirl around on the sea bed. You can also set probes anywhere in the ocean which you can then hop between to cut down on journey times. This is especially useful for returning to a point of interest.

As for the points of interest, there are many - from huge stone faces on the sea bed, to mysterious footprints in the sand.

It's been a while, so I'll need to play around with it a bit more to jog my memory about creating a coral reef to attract different species, as right now, I'm puzzled. Still, the game is pretty self-explanatory and although the game is from the Japanese store, menus are in English, with only a smattering of Japanese throughout. Plus, there's the bonus of being able to play it on my PSP. Fantastic!