The HTC One (M8) is undoubtedly one of the most leaked smartphones of all time, but still manages to impress with its bold design. Thought it is similar to its predecessor, the M7, the minor improvements make it feel even better. The rounded off edges make the device fit better in the hand than last year’s model.  HTC has of course included their now-staple BoomSound front-facing speakers, which just makes sense for watching video and makes me wish every smartphone I use has it.

The iPhone 5s is definitely an “S” generation iPhone for Apple. It stays virtually the same, design-wise, to the 2012 iPhone 5. However, that’s probably a good thing. We’ll always see the Apple-critics moaning about the lack of a bigger screen, but no one can deny the beauty and elegance of Apple’s simple design. The 5s fits perfectly in the hand and the gold color option adds an appeal of its own.

Clearly, the HTC One M8 would win a pure spec war, but specs are irrelevant when compared to the actual experience using the device. HTC’s M8 is running Android 4.4 with its brand new Sense 6 skin. Android 4.4 KitKat is the latest (and sweetest) version of Google’s OS and HTC’s Sense skin has just gotten better from what we’ve seen from the M7. From my time using the M8, it absolutely flies, with its industry-best Snapdragon 801 CPU, and Sense 6 looks sleek and modern. The iPhone 5s is running iOS 7.1, an update to iOS 7 that has really improved the user experience from my 5s. iOS does lack the customizability and flexibility of Android on the M8, but iOS 7 on the 5s and its zippy A7 chip is blazing fast, smooth, and consistent.

One thing Apple has been doing right with the iPhone is the camera. The 5s camera is, hands-down, the best camera on any smartphone (save for the Lumia 1020 which is more camera than phone). HTC’s previous flagship, the M7, had a decent 4-megapixel “Ultrapixel” camera. It worked well in low light, but was just about an average performer overall. The shots from the M8 camera have shown improvement over the M7, but I’d still give the edge to the iPhone.

If you want a big screen, however, go HTC. The HTC One M8 features a gorgeous 5-inch 1080p LD with 441 PPI. The colors are accurate and the screen has great brightness. This leads me to give the crown to the M8 as the best “media consumption device” with its industry-best screen paired with front-facing BoomSound speakers. Apple has a smaller 4-inch display on board with the 5s and 326 PPI. This is not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but the HTC One M8 dwarfs it here.

And then, there are the little things. The iPhone 5s features a Touch ID fingerprint scanner for unlocking the phone and for payments, and is overall consistent and convenient. HTC throws in a microSD slot for expandable storage and is great if you take a lot of pictures or enjoy taking your entire music library with you. Both carry Bluetooth 4.0, but the M8 brings NFC and 802.11ac Wi-Fi. No wireless charging at all here, probably due to their primarily aluminum architectures.

At the end of the day, deciding between these two flagships is tough. Keep in mind, when purchasing an Android device over an iOS device, and vice-versa; you’re buying into an ecosystem (Google’s vs. Apple’s). If you like the simplicity of iOS, the spectacular camera, and pocketable, yet gorgeous, design, the iPhone 5s is the better fit. If you like the flexibility of Android, a big and beautiful screen, front-facing speakers, and aren’t the biggest photographer around, the HTC One M8 is your phone. Either way, both smartphones both secure their places in the top of the smartphone world, and honestly, it is quite the luxury to be struggling to make a choice on which superphone to carry in your pocket.

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To begin with this game is entirely multiplayer focused, there is no single player campaign or any kind of side mode, the entire game is built around and focused on it’s 6v6 mode, meaning that this was the sole focus of the development team. Players take on the role of Pilots, fighting on foot with means very familiar to a lot of FPS conventions, albeit with the addition of a lot more mobility options including a wall run and double jump ability. What really sets Titanfall apart though is of course Titans, monstrous personal mechs that every player can summon during a match to force a change in team tactics. All match types are permanently set to 6v6 in every mode, and while maps are larger than most traditional 12 player designs, the use of Titans and the games inclusion of AI controlled minion soldier’s helps to keep the action alive across the entire landscape.

At it’s core there’s a lot of things familiar about Titanfall that have simply been reconstructed or changed up to fit it’s new approach, the majority of which I really like personally. First off the game doesn’t use any kind of Killstreak system, instead giving all player and titan abilities either a cooldown period after use, or set them on a timer you have to wait for. The only exception is the ability to summon a titan itself, which while requiring a timer initially, can be sped up through good performance like killing minions, pilots, or simply damaging enemy titans. This means that all players share a similar frequency of power use instead of simply based on kills, so it doesn’t give any kind of ridiculous momentum to someone with an early advantage or punish those players unlucky enough to get sent into a match midway through.

Gunplay on foot feels very similar to the COD franchise (for fairly good reasons), though recoil across all guns feels a lot weaker compared to most games. The new mobility options give pilot’s a crazier amount of speed than most games, and players definitely feel rewarded for learning the fastest ways to travel across the game’s 16 different maps. While titans control for the most part very similarly to pilots, the lack of jump and inclusion of a dash really change up the tactics of titan on titan combat, and players really need to learn how to adjust their strategies based on whether they stay on foot or in a titan, and what they’re up against. I really like the fact that while a titan can easily destroy pilots that just run around in the open, those who are careful enough and take their time are completely capable of taking on a titan one on one thanks to the games rodeo mechanic, though of course teamwork on either side can mess with this dynamic.

As is pretty popular these days in a lot multiplayer FPS games, players earn experience from matches and completed challenges and in return, level up and gain new abilities or options for customization. Pilots run fairly trodden ground getting a primary weapon, side arm, some kind of ordinance, a special cooldown based tactical ability like cloaking or stim pack, and a pair of passive bonuses. Titan’s share the choice of main gun, ordinance (albeit these consist more missiles than grenades), and passive bonuses and tactical ability; though an important unique option is the titan’s core which determines its appearance, speed, and defense. This brings us to the first thing I don’t like about the game: Lack of customization options. While some areas are fine and cover all the usual bases like weapon choice, other options are exceedingly slim like pilot tactical abilities, of which there are only three to choose from. Restricting this variety does make the game a bit easier to balance and test, but it just feels a bit too stifling and having a total of 5 customized loadouts almost feels like overkill considering how many you actually switch between mid match.

The second problem is it’s campaign, which honestly I can forgive considering this games approach. The campaign mode itself is simply running through 9 matches back to back on a specific level and match type, with the addition of some dialogue before hand and maybe some special picture in picture scenes during. It’s short, not always easy to follow since a lot of developments can occur while you’re focused on the match itself, and just not really all that interesting. Still though, I honestly prefer this over the choice of having a single player campaign that lasts 6 hours with no difficulty and was just added on out of a sense of tradition. Instead they knew they wanted the game to be about multiplayer, and made it focused just on that, which personally I respect rather than seeing time and resources go to a mode that devs clearly didn’t care that much for.

My last issue is one that is admittedly a matter of personal taste, and that’s burn cards. Burn cards are these special one time use items you get for completing matches and challenges, and offer some kind of special bonus that lasts for a single life, or in some rare cases an entire match. Effects vary from fairly useful temp bonuses like increased speed or a slightly reduced titan build time, whereas some others can get absolutely crazy like super amped versions of regular guns and permanently active tactical abilities in addition to the one you have equipped. I’ll admit they’re fun to use when you have them, but they just add an element of randomness that just doesn’t sit right with me for the competitive side of the game, and while they’re inclusion in the first place is ok, the fact that there’s no mode in which they’re turned off just bothers me.

Overall despite the few things I didn’t enjoy, Titanfall is a super fun casual style shooter, especially for those of you out there with a love of giant robots punching each other. From a competitive standpoint there are some things to take issue with, but if you just go in looking for a fun way to kill time, then this game is definitely worth picking up. I’d say it’s worth full price to anyone itching to grab it right away, though with EA’s track record and existence of a season pass, then patience can be rewarded since a more price affordable, complete version of the game is bound to come out in a year’s time under the name “GOTY edition” or “Premium edition”. Make sure to check out our complete Video review of the game which covers several of the same topics, but with the inclusion of shiny gameplay to give you a real sense of how the game flows. As always guys, thanks for reading Tech of Tomorrow!

The post TitanFall (PC) Game Review: Worth Picking Up? appeared first on Tech of Tomorrow.

We went ahead and grabbed the collectors edition last night at midnight, and it is absolutely insane how big it is, easily one of the largest and most expensive collector’s editions we’ve ever purchased.

Included inside is not only the game itself, but also a poster, fullsize 190 page artbook, and the main reason for the huge box (and $250 price tag), a 19.5” statue of a titan accompanied by a few soldiers. This is one of the most expensive collector’s editions around, and yet for what you get it feels surprisingly worth it as far as collectors editions go. Check out our full thoughts and the actual unboxing in todays video below!

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The post TitanFall (PC) Collector’s Edition Unboxing & Review appeared first on Tech of Tomorrow.

To start off let’s look at the game’s visuals and performance. While everything is super dark and dreary, for the most part it’s visually pretty nice and there’s some good concept art that went into detailing the city. I especially like how there’s the occasional level that really highlights the difference between the common city you normally find yourself in, and the more posh higher class areas you’ll visit. Running on our system which includes an i7 4770k process and an Msi GTX 780 Twin Frozr, we got an average of about 42 FPS on 2560×1440, and around 62 FPS on 1920×1080 while running the games built in benchmark utility. Regular gameplay does usually run at least 10 fps smoother or even 20/30 thanks to the fact that usually you’re just dealing with being in doors and moving slowly and stealthily, but for those few action moments with weather effects you will see your frame rate take a nose dive. Now as for actual gameplay, Thief has been something of a mixed bag. There’s a lot of good groundwork that showed potential for a solid stealth game, but there’s just some key issues that end up causing it problems.

Starting with the good side, theres a number of flavorful mechanics, some old some new, for avoiding and distracting enemies, including using water arrows to put out torches, fire arrows to start fires as a distraction, avoiding stepping on broken glass, and the ever popular throw a glass bottle to make a sound. One of the newer mechanics is your focus powers, you can enter a focus mode that slowly drains a magic meter, and while active you receive a number of bonuses that you can unlock over time. Initially it just highlights things you can interact with whether its a hidden switch or something valuable to steal, but as you invest in it you can also perform special one hit K.O.’s in combat, steal and lock pick faster while focusing, and even have shadows stick with you while sneaking shortly after leaving them. It’s not too intrusive of a mechanic and you do have to spend money or find special items in order to expand its powers, and the game’s option menu even gives you the choice to just have it not be around if you want a more traditional thief experience. Overall i liked it, Honestly the only part of the game it diminished was making hidden passages way too easy to find, because even if you’re out of mp you can just do a focus blink that still reveals stuff like that.

All of the larceny side of things is really fun in this game as well. Searching rooms feels more thorough as you see yourself checking drawers, feeling for hidden switches on paintings, and overall the way you interact with the environment just feels nice. Some of the mechanics are a tad easy such as lockpicking, though the main reason for this is that failing picking isn’t so much an issue, as it is taking too long that you get caught, or rushing yourself and making a stupid mistake which makes noise and can attract attention. There’s plenty of loot to search for in every area, and often times fairly well hidden collectables that get added to your home base over time. Money isn’t purely for the sake of score, but goes into restocking useful equipment like arrows and flash bombs, or buying upgrades like better armor, decreased bow draw time, or more focus powers.

So just looking at the core gameplay alone, there’s actually a lot of good going on here. The problems start however when you look at three main things: How linear the game is, how flat the story is, and by far the biggest issue of the game, the fact that enemy AI has the equivalent intelligence of a sack of marbles. As far as linearity goes, the game is divided into two main pieces, the main chapters, and the central hub. The main story chapters are the missions you complete to move the plot forward, and for the most part these can get really linear. Sometimes they feature maybe one or two alternate paths as a reward for finding a hidden button or using an optional tool you purchased like a screwdriver, but there’s usually one obvious path to take and all routes work out as a straight way to get to the same location. The central hub town on the other hand offers numerous paths to get from point a to point b, this is where you’ll hang out between main missions and can do side jobs and purchase equipment. It’s much more non linear but it’s also just the one place that you’ll revisit often, so it gets old fairly fast.

Then there’s story, which isn’t horrible but at the same time isn’t great. Characters are 2 dimensional, dialogue offers nothing really memorable, and at the end of the day it’s mostly just one big excuse to get you from one side of the town to another, stealing to your hearts content along the way. Neither of these things completely break the game, and for some people might just be a matter of taste. Story alone might not matter to you at all, and maybe you’d prefer a linear straight forward experience to a more open one, though Series traditionalists definitely won’t like that fact.

In the end though the one thing that really does harm the game is Enemy AI. Guards are some of the most unaware, unthinking enemies I’ve ever seen, which might be bearable in an action game, but in a stealth title it’s one of the most key areas. The whole point of the game is to not get caught stealing things, which is easy to do with how often the guards fail to notice you simply because you’re crouching in a dark place 4 feet away from them, or decide not to be alerted for the dumbest of reasons. My favorite example has to be when a I slipped through a door that was closed, and a guard noticed it being left open so they become alarmed, which is a good thing, thats how stealth games should be. The problem is, all i had to do was shut the door he was directly staring at, and everyone decided that the problem worked itself out and didn’t need investigating. And even when you are caught the game’s combat system makes it so that one on one fights are super easy, thanks to a god mode dodge that nullifies any hit thrown at you, and then you just have to hit back till they fall down. The only time guards are ever an issue is if you do manage to aggro them somehow, and do it in bulk, since 3 at once can actually be an issue since they can instakill you from behind. Thing is, that almost never happens, and when it does, you should just run and hide somewhere till they completely forget you exist.

So, final thoughts, I’m a bit conflicted on this one. While it certainly isn’t the same experience as the original series, there were a lot of good ideas going into this one that I like, and I see this potential for a solid stealth game that just gets thrown out thanks to how little guards seem to care that you ransack the whole town. How linear it is on average plus the weak story line only help to solidify this sense of disappointment. The game can still be fun in short instances, and I don’t regret playing through it, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone as a full price purchase. If you want a stealth game that challenges you and gives you the thrill of avoiding and tricking enemies, this isn’t it. If you want a stealth game just to mess around in and try to get the highest score possible stealing everything not nailed to the ground, then this one can certainly be some fun, I’d just recommend caution and buy it some time later during a sale or after a price drop or two.

The post Thief for PC: Review, Gameplay & Benchmarks (2014) appeared first on Tech of Tomorrow.

This is technically the third entry in the series, and serves as the closing game in a trilogy including the 3ds game Mirror of Fate, so it’s responsible for wrapping up the whole story line, and hopefully giving the series and enjoyable strong finish. Did it accomplish this task? Well this particular case is a bit of a yes and no situation, so let’s take a look at what the game did well, and where it runs into some roadblocks.

First off, let’s talk about the game’s strengths and what it’s inherited from the first game. Combat is very much the same animal this time around, albeit with a few major changes to help capture the fact that you’re now playing Dracula, as opposed to the more traditional vampire hunter.

Alongside familiar combo attacks using a blood whip, players are able to now use a finishing move on enemies to regain a bit of health thanks to Dracula’s penchant for bloodsucking, and the magic system has received an excellent revamp in the form of different weapons. In the first game using light or dark magic just made your weapon glow a certain color, and rewarded you a benefit like increased damage or life gain, as well as opening up some special unique attacks. This time around though, magic not only does these things but also gives you a different weapon in the form of a sword or pair of gauntlets, and completely changes Dracula’s fighting style. This adds a bit more depth to the combo system, and makes activating magic a much more interesting and dynamic option, rather than just giving yourself a health or damage boost when you need it.

Boss fights are for the most part really fun and each have their own little quirks, though something missing compared to the first one that I personally miss is the inclusion of giant bosses. This time around they’re all more traditional designs, and feature little to no platforming mid fight, a change that some might love, and others (myself included) will miss. This exclusion aside, boss fights are varied, decently challenging, and overall good fun.

Another area the game continues to excel at is it’s art design, featuring some beautifully designed areas and stages. The actual texture quality is somewhat hit and miss, but this is more than made up for with the games beautiful backdrops and set pieces, giving the game a memorable world to fight through. The modern day city settings can get a bit drab at times, especially in doors, but city streets and the entirety of Dracula’s castle make for a beautiful game.

The platforming aspects have been toned down a little bit in this one, there’s still plenty of running and climbing, but it’s all very linear. New exploration abilities open up at a healthy pace, not only giving the game a smooth progression, but also making it worth backtracking every now and then to reach previously closed off side paths with collectables and character upgrades to find, and thankfully the game includes a fast travel system that doesn’t make every journey super short, but cuts time down from having to run on foot to every single location.

Now where the game begins to falter is in two main areas: Its plot and stealth segments. The game’s writing is a noticeable step down from the previous entry, both in it’s dialogue and overarching plot. Characters come across a lot more two dimensional, and there are several events that occur in the game with little to no explanation, and make zero sense in relation to the overall plot line. To top this off the ending, without going into details and spoilers, is entirely too short and sudden, with little in the form of a conclusion and a tone that just betrays where the rest of the game was heading. It’s not a terrible plot line overall, it just doesn’t have the same impact as the first game, and may leave fans of the first installment with a feeling of disappointment and where it ends up going.

Now the change in plot is something that may or may not bother some people, even with it being weaker it does nothing to detract from the games solid and enjoyable combat system. There is however one major new mechanic that does, and that’s the new stealth segments. For some reason becoming an undead being of incredible power has lead to the main character needing to hide and sneak more, whereas the first game was purely combat focused. These stealth segments feel entirely forced, and feature somewhat annoying mechanics like needing to possess slow moving enemies or rats, turning into mist to avoid detection, or just staying crouched in the shadows. None of these moments were remotely enjoyable, and thankfully their relatively few and far between compared to the rest of the game, but still negatively affect the overall experience by constantly interrupting the game’s momentum.

Terrible stealth and weaker plot aside, Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2 is still a solid action game worth playing if you just want to wreck enemies. If you loved the plot of the first one and really want to grab the sequel to end the story, you might find it worth waiting a bit for a price drop, but if all you’re interested in is a fun action game with decent replay value thanks to collectables, upgrades, and higher difficulty modes, then it’ll make a good addition to your collection.

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Maxwell brings some very interesting things to the table, things that will help NVDIA move forward with not only a new chipset, but we will also see an entire card refresh as the year unfolds, which is great news for enthusiasts. The first card featuring Maxwell is the all-new GeForce GTX 750 Ti that will be hitting the shelves with a price point of $149.99 for the 2GB version and $139.99 for the 1GB version. There is also a standard GTX 750 launching as well, but our review sample is the 2GB version of the GeForce GTX 750 Ti and we will cover the GTX 750 a bit later.

Geared for 1080p gaming with the setting at their normal to high parameters was NVIDIA’s goal here as they are trying to find the right blend of performance and still maintain a sweet price point with the GTX 750Ti. Boost 2.0 technology ships with the 750 Ti and this is where your overclocking is achieved. Boost tech kicks in and speeds up your cards clocks when it see that your card has the available power to do so as well as push the card if the temperatures are maintained low enough to allow it to function. ShadowPlay allows NVIDIA users to seamlessly capture their gaming moments when using a supported NVIDIA video card, and I am sure we will see a lot of that action on the web after this launch, but let’s talk more about Maxwell and the GTX 750 Ti.

Next Page: Maxwell Benefits & Specs 

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Since then we got a chance to test out Mantle and get a feel for what it does and how it performs. Currently Mantle is only available in Battlefield 4 and Star Swarm but we do expect more support in the near future. Before we jump into the testing, for those wondering what Mantle is, in simple terms, it’s an alternative GPU API like OpenGL and DirectX.

The initial perception was that because Mantle allows a much higher amount of draw calls per frame, resulting in a significant boost in GPU performance across all AMD video cards but the reality is that Mantle is geared to improve performance by reducing the workload on the CPU, so the result is that performance gains depend on how CPU heavy game is and should offer biggest improvements to users with entry to mid-level processors.

Below is the video results of are testing but for those reading, we’re using an Intel i7-4770K + Gigabyte R9 290X Windforce video card for these tests. We realize based off Mantle’s benefits of lower end CPUs, this isn’t the ideal test setup but as Mantle support becomes more apparent, we’ll be settings up an AMD based test bed for future testing.

Battlefield 4 Ultra Settings

•  1440p Direct3D: 58.12 AVG FPS
• 1440p Mantle: 61.87 AVG FPS
• 1080p Direct3D: 86.76 AVG FPS
• 1080p Mantle: 92.67 AVG FPS

Star Swarm Extreme Benchmark

• Direct3D: 43.38 AVG FPS
• Mantle: 61.76 AVG FPS

For those curious how we were able to benchmark Battlefield 4 since FRAPS does not work with Mantle, there’s actually a built in tool that will allow you to do so and HardOCP posted a walkthrough on how to do so.

When the game is launched simply press the tilde “~” key to open console then use the following command.

“PerfOverlay.FrameFileLogEnable 1″ to start saving frame times

“PerfOverlay.FrameFileLogEnable 0″ to stop

The resulting .csv file will be located in your User/Documents/Battlefield 4 directory. The file will contain Frame Time, CPU Frame Time, and GPU Frame Time in milliseconds. To calculate average fps for the run you divide the total number of frame entries in the log (which is total number of frames for the session) over the total amount of time.

Average FPS = (Total # of Frame Time Entries) ÷ (Σ (Total # of Frame Times in ms) ÷ 1000).

So initially you can see Mantle is off to a pretty impressive start overall. One negative story though that broke from ExtremeTech is that Mantle enabled in Battlefield 4 is causing foggy, washed out images. It’s noted that the error is on Dice’s end and not AMD’s but take a look at the pictures below.

So what do you guys think of Mantle so far? If you’ve been running the BETA drivers, let us know your setup and thoughts so far. As always, thanks for reading here on Tech of Tomorrow and stay tuned for more Mantle coverage!

The post AMD Mantle Peformance & Impressions: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. appeared first on Tech of Tomorrow.

Outside of the illumination option, the Pulse-R comes with a few other key features including a detachable mic, detachable power cable, and one of the more interesting unique features, the removable and customizable aluminum plates. Both plates can be easily removed using an allen wrench, and can then be spray painted a different color more fitting your tastes, or customized with greater detail featuring a favorite symbol or logo. The Pulse-R already has a nice sleek look to it to begin with, and the ability to customize the plates just makes it all the easier to make sure that the headset’s aesthetics really fit your personal taste. It also helps that form factor wise it’s really comfortable, the ear cups and headband feature cushions that are just soft enough to make prolonged gameplay comfortable, but firm enough to last through extensive use. I was personally able to wear the headset for several hours without experiencing any major discomfort or noticeable ear pain, so this headset definitely wins my approval in comfort factor.

Now of course features and form play second fiddle to the all important and main reason for purchasing a headset, sound and mic quality. While not featuring surround sound, the Pulse-R does boast a great balance for gaming intensive use with a big focus on bass and high’s. While it isn’t necessarily first choice for music or movies (outside of the occasional Michael Bay explosion extravaganza), the Pulse-R manages to allow multiple noises and sound effects come through cleanly all at once. The only aspect gamewise that seems to suffer is in game dialogue, which will often times get easily drowned out in comparison to any other noises characters try to compete against. Chat volume on the other hand comes through nice and clean thanks to the Pulse-R’s noise cancelling microphone. While there is some obvious condensation of a person’s voice, it does a great job of drowning out background noises that aren’t too loud or sharp, making sure that the user can be heard loud and clear to his allies in game.

Overall the Pulse-R is a solid headset for it’s price point, while it doesn’t try to offer any major thrills or big features like wireless connectivity or surround sound, it does offer good sound quality and comfortable performance with the nice little extra of offering an illuminated design. It’s not gonna be replacing anyone’s top of the line headsets, but those of you looking for good performance at below a triple digit price point will find the Pulse-R well worth it.

The post CM Storm Pulse-R Gaming Headset Unboxing and Review appeared first on Tech of Tomorrow.

As you’re aware, here at Tech of Tomorrow we’re no strangers to custom build PCs but because music production is a large part of what we do, Macs also have their place here at our office.

For a couple years now, the 2010 Mac Pro has been the center of our music production and has chugged a long nicely. Since then we’ve upgraded it with a PCIe SSD from OWC and installed an EVGA GTX 680 video card to get the most power we can out of it.

This past week, we got a chance to go hands on with Apple’s newest Late 2013 6-core base Mac Pro and with all the upgrades we’ve performed on our 2010 model, we thought it’d be interesting to see how they ran against each other. We realize this isn’t a direct 4-core vs 4-core comparison but we still thought some old Mac Pro owners might be considering the new six-core model and this would serve a reference to see how it performs.

Image credit: The Verge

The post New Mac Pro vs Old Mac Pro Performance Review! appeared first on Tech of Tomorrow.

So to kick things off right away is a game that was available in open beta for some time, and found itself fully released earlier this year: Path of Exile. Fusing elements from loot grinders like Diablo II with popular mechanics from some choice Final Fantasy games (materia from FF7, Massive Skill Tree from FF10), Path of Exile is a really fun free to play top down hack n’ slash. Playing alone is all well and good for the challenge and messing around, but party options are what really bring this one alive, with an insane amount of character customization and building theory. A power gamers dream if you really want to test out all the different builds the game has available, this one is tough not to recommend thanks to it’s price tag of 0 (though there are microtransactions for cosmetic things).

• Path Of Exile
• Rogue Legacy
• Papers, Please
• Antichamber
• Brothers

The next game on my list is by far the most addictive of the bunch, and that’s Rogue Legacy. Think Castlevania only with a much steeper difficulty curve, and with each death you get your choice of different randomized heroes from a number of classes, with varying mental and physical traits including useful things like a smaller size for fitting in tight areas, to negative things like nearsighted so all things far away are blurry. Dying is something you’ll be doing a lot in this game, but that’s ok because with each hauling back of gold you can buy new items, stat ups, or even unlock more classes to play as. Even if you beat the game fully once it’ll keep you playing with the option for a new game plus mode with higher difficulty; this is one title that once you start, it’s just too damn hard to stop.

Now one of the most bizarrely great games this year takes one of the most mundane and slowest jobs in the world, and finds a way to make it into an addicting and strangely engaging story driven game: Papers, Please. Playing the role of a paper pushing border inspector in a fictional communist nation, players are tasked with finding inconsistencies in paper work or letting people through, all while making money and trying to keep your country safe. As you get farther more and more mechanics are added upping the games complexity and difficulty, and the game sports a surprising number of endings based on how you handle certain situations as the story goes on. It’s hard to explain how exactly this game grows on you the way that it does, being as mundane as it is at first glance, but anyone that starts sinking time into it will find it an engrossing, and difficult game to experience.

Continuing the theme of difficulty, the next game on this list has some of the most complex and mind bending puzzles, all with some of the trippiest visuals in a title from this year: Antichamber. Antichamber takes first person puzzle solving to a new level by making use of physics defying architecture, where the levels and areas around you change each moment just based on how you look at them. Staring at objects for prolonged periods, walking backwards while staring at a point of light, or even getting close to one object and turning around can completely change where you’ll end up. The ability to easily warp out and back to any room you wish (though resetting that room’s individual progress) makes it so that the game keeps a great even pacing and player’s surprisingly never feel quite that lost.

Last on the list is the shortest, yet one of the most impactful stories in a game to come out this year: Brothers. Playing a co-op adventure game with yourself can be a bit confusing at times, and controlling two characters simultaneously with half a controller each can be a bit rough at first. Once players adapt and move through the story however, they will find this title to offer a combinations of intuitive and fun gameplay, beautiful landscapes, and a story that manages to be touching and expressed without the use of any real world language. It only takes a little under 4 hours to complete, but the condensed experience is well worth it. It’s rare to find a game with so little quantity of content have such a strong impact with it’s short time frame, and Brothers manages to pull it off beautifully.

So those are my top 5 indie PC games of the year, make sure to let us know in the comments what your favorites are because we saw a lot of titles this year, almost too many to choose from. Those of you that haven’t played or even heard of some of the games I talked about, I’ll have links posted below to each of them so you can check them out. Thanks for reading Tech of Tomorrow and Happy New Year!

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