Recent reviews by Bassem

Marble Duel plays similar to Luxor: there are marbles of various colours set in a wavy line, you have a paddle that moves along the bottom of the screen, and you can shoot a marble up in order to pop a chain (and can swap between two marbles to pick which one of them you want to shoot).

Marble Duel takes that concept and adds four very interesting elements:

• It's turn based against an AI opponent (with its paddle along the top of the screen).
  
• Matching marbles has different effects depending on their colours: red causes damage to the opponent, green heals you, blue adds a damage-decreasing shield, purple amplifies your next attack, etc. Some even have negative effects, meaning you need to avoid popping them by mistake.
  
• You gain "crystals" depending on your performance in each level, which you can then use to increase your stats, such as starting health, attack strength, healing efficiency etc. You can respec any time between levels, allowing for different "builds" - which you should do, because each enemy has a specific build of their own.
  
• Levels have all kinds of different layouts - sometimes you and the AI each have your own lines of marbles, which allows you to carefully lay marbles and set them off in combos; and sometimes you share the same line, which opens up all kinds of strategies in how to set a trap for your opponent while also making sure your turn doesn't end with the marbles in a configuration that gives your opponent an opening.

These additions to the match-three formula make for really interesting and deep gameplay - when it works (more on that below). As you progress, you face various enemies who have different play styles, as well as varying level layouts that require different approaches and thinking. It starts out really promising.

The story is nothing special, just the usual comfortably cheesy ware typical of these games. Your character is a little girl stuck in a magic land trying to find her way back home. The sequel supposedly has her as a badass young lady (hence how she looks in the game's Steam thumbnail).

The art is lovely, from the cutscene slideshows to the map screen with tiny cute animations to the game levels themselves. When it's your turn it's daytime and when it's your opponent's turn the sun seems to shift, trees casting leafy shadows and darkening the screen ominously.

Now for why this is a negative rating despite what I mentioned above: Even early on, I noticed that I would sometimes be at a disadvantage despite playing right. As I got further into the game and the stakes were raised, the game's problems became more apparent. The AI seems to be able to see marbles beyond the ones visible on screen, and it strategises accordingly, meaning it can build combos beyond what you ever can. Even worse, the marbles that are available for you to shoot out are sorely tied to chance. You really need a red marble so you can attack the AI? Well too bad, here's purples and blues while the AI gets red after red.

You can replay levels you've completed, which lets you try and get 3/3 stars for maximum crystals. But once you max out a level, replaying it gives you no crystals. You can't farm crystals. Why? Because this was originally a mobile game, and had microtransactions to acquire more crystals. When the game was released to PC, they removed the microtransactions, but didn't rebalance the game. Actually, they claim they did as of October 2018 among a larger update (kudos for still putting out updates, 3 years after release), but it sure doesn't feel rebalanced. Your stats are much lower than the AI's, and without the mobile version's microtransactions, you'll never have enough crystals to be on equal footing.

Marble Duel is so promising that I kept trying to push on, even as my enjoyment decreased and was replaced by frustration. But as deep as the gameplay is, it's also too driven by chance, and that ruins it. On some runs I get lucky and pummel the enemy down, while on others I can't seem to get the marbles I need. Finally, after I died on one ridiculously unbalanced level for more than 30 tries, I decided I'd had enough. It's a real shame too. I genuinely wanted to progress and see what's next in terms of interesting marble types and level layouts.

It's alright. As far as "shoot coloured balls to make chains", The Zuma series is better.

Nice options for different targeting aides. Sometimes I just wanna watch youtube while i overstimulate myself with a game, so I just set it to beam targeting.

Not fond of the way many levels put "dead areas" where you can't shoot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pkHn0AeWZc

It's honestly excellent. I had written a review before this that mentioned some issues, but they've all been improved or completely fixed. The developer is very dedicated and the game makes you feel like a badass.

The various options you have with multiple weapons, shields, as well as having a lightning spell to either zap enemies or imbue your weapons, being able to slow down time, telekinesis to control objects, the ability to grapple your enemies and bring them in for a stab or use them as human shields... So many systems that give a lot of replayability and allow you to set your own style.

If you grab say, a spear, you can slide your hands along the handle and adjust them just as you want. This also allows you to stab quickly, trombone style.

Sepaking of stabbing, it feels so real and meaty. It's almost unnerving how real it feels to stab someone, and how it feels to pull your blade back out with just the right amount of stickiness.

The telekinesis is a lot more advanced than I thought. You can whip objects into your hand, rotate them midair, push and pull them (basically remote stabbing / whacking people) and even spin your weapons at high speed, turning them into floating blender deathtraps.

The lightning magic helps as a stopgap to stun enemies so you can come in for the kill. To be used strategically because it burns though mana.

The holster UI for the shoulder spots is very well done, reminding you what you're carrying on your back.

It's an early beta, but it's being developed passionately and frequently. The gameplay is already very satisfying, and the planned roadmap is extensive.

I'd previously written about poor enemy AI and expressionless NPC faces. The AI is improving, and now they even follow you with their eyes. Their attack animations are very varied and interesting, and they even dodge you in some crafty ways.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSRRxkFS7Yo&feature=youtu.be


Thread Studio is a VR app by Shopify.com , the online store. It's meant to be a way for you to create t-shirt designs. You can do so in VR, and save the design as a PDF file to your PC. You can also pose a mannequin wearing your design.

Now here's the thing: The actual "t-shirt design" part of the app is pretty threadbare - all you can do is import a decal and scale & position it, in a limited way. I guess it's a proof of concept for now, and the Shopify management decided not to invest more time into it.

But! The mannequin posing is amazing. It's a robust system that lets you control the pose in detail, moving all joints on all axes in a natural way, with the mannequin having responsive, chained IK so it always looks natural.

On top of that, there's a selection of props (like hats, glasses, and sports items) that you can affix to the mannequin. And there's a camera you can use to take photos that are saved as image files to your PC. Very neat.

Honestly, to me this is foremost a posing app. Sort of like Poser. You know, that software with the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ UI that you pirated as a teen in order to pose digital naked people. No? Just me?

I would love whoever VR enthusiast working at Shopify who made this, to continue development on it as a new VR app dedicated to posing various characters and allowing to set a scene and do photo sessions. Like a photo-centric version of Mindshow. Imagine a webcomic made like this, how easy it would be.

Long before Race The Sun got its VR mode, this game came out. In fact it was one of the earliest VR games to release on Steam.

It's basically a third person endless runner, where you weave around obstacles as your ship speeds on and on.

Since the controls are simple (only left and right), it offers three options to control the ship - gamepad, head turn, or head movement.
You can't use the motion controllers, I guess because it was developed for mobile and before the Vive announced its motion controllers.

Personally I think the head controls are okay with this specific game, they make sense.
And surprisingly, there's no motion sickness at all, despite the high speed and third person camera. Even for first time VR users, it plays comfortably.

There are a few negatives: no motion controller support, and the levels are arranged in a strange order - it starts out difficult and then gets easier. Also each level has a colour scheme, but some of them are too monochromatic to offer proper depth perception.

I definitely recommend this game, give it a go and demo it to your friends.

The UI/UX needs improving, but this is still an awe-inspiring experience. The guided tour is well made, taking you through the solar system step by step, with quick facts interspersed here and there. Then it goes on to blow your mind by showing you how small our solar system is compared to other objects in space. The music is very well mixed in as well. I highly recommend it.

Cute, short, free, nothing too special, more a prototype for this studio's VR stories.

Their other VR story, "Allumette", is much more substantial and well made (and also free). Go check it out!

VR music videos are always great, and this is one of the really good ones! I see it's about 5-6 minutes long, but it feels longer than that, in a good way. Just cool music playing and you moving (slowly and not dizzily) through all kinds of trippy, futuristic landscapes. It's free, so check it out!

I got this in my Vive bundle. It's 20$? Really? It's not really worth that. The gameplay is very shallow. Worst of all, the long weapons can't be held with both hands (as far as I can tell). Nothing worse than shooting a shotgun or asault rifle one handed. And then it auto reloads.

On top of that, it's really grindey in order to unlock the guns. I wouldn't mind so much if the gameplay was more fun.

Would not recommend for 20$, at all.

Pretty fun playground where you can skii all over the map and build up momentum for jumps, spread your mechanical wings and glide around. More a playground than a game. Also check out the similar (but much mroe substantial) game "Jet Island".