#zaffar

The game began on Steam Greenlight last year and appears to share a lot of similarities with a bevy of other simulator games. It’s hard to look at the kitchen shown in the screenshots and not see a renovated version of I Am Bread’s infamous kitchen level. As someone living in a city, this one might hit too close to home for me. It’s out tomorrow for PC via Steam. 

- Written by Zaffar

What all this points to is a game that wants to be the next Pony Island or even Flappy Bird, but can't quite put all the pieces together. GPD is best played in bursts, but it suffers most from a poorly thought-out game concept: randomness. The game centers around flying back and forth and pressing a button to smash humans or cars with runny feces. The game introduces wind early on. This makes it more difficult to get the correct shot off because you need to overfly some of the bystanders. Then, it all goes one step further when the wind blows in the same direction, but has varying degrees of intensity with no indication. For a game where you can lose by missing 2 shots out of 24, this is a pretty frustrating design flaw.

With my 2 hours of playtime, a few things have become clear about GPD: The game is a lot of fun when it is taking it easy and trying to joke around. The gameplay is fairly engaging, except during some incredibly high-difficulty bumps which serve mostly to emphasize the absurdity of the random chance in the game. Lastly, the translation is pretty terrible, which begins as funny and then veers into the incomprehensible; there is even a message from the developer almost apologizing and explaining why that's the case.

Otherwise, GPD's campaign hovers around 2 hours. The writing is pretty good if you can dig past the poor translation. It's funny and you can catch a lot of potential resting below the surface. There are some puzzles which break up the action nicely. The simple 8-bit aesthetic works rather well, and I actually adore the design of each of our pigeon friends who will guide you through the resistance. It is a shame that more wasn't done with the concept, but the product is also the work of a sole Russian developer WolfgangIs.

Currently on sale for 98 cents on steam (a hefty discount from the original 99 cent price), GPD is easy to recommend as a silly thing to stream or show your friends when they stop by. It is almost impossible to recommend as a game on its own; the fun found in the wonky translation and simple game-play eventually becomes a joke that's forced a little too hard, and for a little too long. I will always remember positioning pigeon bowel movements with Grand Pigeon's Duty, but it will always be tarnished by what could have been. Some excrement really could use a bit of polish.

Later in the month we are looking at one of only a few 3DS releases in Monster Hunter Generations on the 15th. The remastered edition of Indigo Prophecy (one of the original cinematic-and-QTE games) and new JRPG I Am Setsuna on the 19th. We round out the month with a port of Phantom Brave, a PS2 strategy JRPG being rereleased for the PC after 12 years. Any games we missed? Drop a note below and we will add it in.

July 12

Kerbal Space Program (PS4, XONE)

Song of the Deep (PS4, XONE, PC)

Resident Evil 5 (PS4, XONE)

Daydreamer: Awakened Edition (PS4)

Assault Suit Leynos (PS4)

Ghostbusters (PS4, XONE, PC)

Call of Duty: Black Ops III - Descent (PS4, XONE, PC)

VIDEOBALL (PS4, XONE, PC)

MilitAnt (PS4, PC

Super Mutant Alien Assault (PS4, XONE, PC)

Tumblestone (PS4, XONE, Wii U, PC)

Necropolis (PS4, XONE, PC)

Anarcute (XONE, PC)

FRU (XONE)

KYUB (XONE)

Pharaonic (XONE, PC)

Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late (PC)

90 Minute Fever (PC)

Beat Ninja (PC VR)

7th Dragon III Code: VFD (3DS)

Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme VS Force (Vita)

July 15

ADR1FT (PS4) - Pictured above

RevErsi Quest (XONE)

Bird of Light (PC)

Don’t Drop the Bass (PC)

Inversium (PC)

Ghost Sweeper (PC)

Jackpot 777 (Wii U)

Monster Hunter Generations (3DS)

July 19

Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy (PS4)

Moon Hunters (PS4, Vita)

Kill Strain (PS4)

I Am Setsuna (PS4, PC, Vita)

ARK:Survival of the Fittest (PS4)

Gal Gun: Double Peace (PS4, Vita)

MX vs ATV Supercross Encore (XONE)

Xast of Seven Godsends: Redux (XONE)

Trapper’s Delight (PC)

The Eyes of Ara (PC)

Soldner-X 2: Final Prototype (Vita)

July 21

Hot Rod Racer (Wii U)

July 26

Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force (PS4)

N.E.R.O.: Nothing Ever Remains Obscure (PS4)

Chambara (PS4, XONE)

OlliOlli: Epic Combo Edition (PS4)

Phantom Brave (PC)

Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and Dice of Fate (Vita)

-Written by Zaffar, 2016