Starbound

So I have been playing a lot of Starbound recently. It's a Minecraft/Terrarria style game where you dig, mine, craft and build. now I said it's a Minecraft/Terrarria style game but don't get me wrong, it's actually good.

I like Terrarria and Minecraft, although they both got pretty stale after a while. Starbound on the other hand seems like it's going to keep me captivated for a good while.
The main draw of Starbound is that it's about space exploration. 

At the beginning of the game you have to create your character from one of six races, each with their own backstory. When you begin playing you will be stranded by yourself in your ship hovering above a strange new planet. After a quick (and optional) tutorial you learn how to survive. 

The gameplay is pretty solid, the crafting system is works like Terrarria although the game tells you what you can and cannot make from the get go bar some unique designs that you have to find blueprints for.
Melee combat is fairly basic and boils down to click when monster A gets too close. On the other side the ranged combat is more varied, on the other hand ranged weapons, in the form of bows and guns, is a lot more engaging even if the bows are pretty under powered at the beginning.
When using a bow you have to charge the shot by clicking and holding the mouse, by timing it right you can do more damage adding an extra layer to combat. Guns also come in various forms ranging from pistols to assault rifles to flamethrowers.


The game is very much similar to Terrarria in terms of aesthetic and the reason for this is that the lead artist worked on the art for Terrarria.

Right now the game is on Steam Early access so it's not finished yet so that means tons of updates are on the way, this is, to me, both a good thing and a bad thing. Many people wil claim that the game is unfinished and unfit for purchase and they may be right but what is currently in the game is several quadrillion randomly generated planets a simple and usable multiplayer system (I'm looking at you Minecraft) and tons of content with more to come.

If you love indie games this one is a must buy, if you don't mind it changing frequently and wiping your saves through patches.

The price on Steam early access is £11.99 here.

Another 100 games

Valve let 100 games through steam Greenlight today. most of them are fairly "eh" but there is one or two that caught my eye.

One game that looks interesting, if not insanely silly, was Probably archery  in which you control an Archer from a first person view, the only thing is that it controls very similarly to a game like QWOP. A good video of that game is on the channel of the wonderful man JsmithOTI here.

Another that I thought looked pretty good was The Girl and the Robot which is a game where you play a young girl escaping a tower along with a robot companion. The artistic style seemed very Disney-esque reminding me a lot of Kingdom hearts. The amazing Prescription Pixel also did a video here.

If your interested in seeing the rest of the games then check out the Steam page about it.