Beta Launch - Yitien Chronicles

Today in gaming: Yitien Chronicles is an online MMORPG from Reality Squared Games -- they guys who brought you Wartune and Broken Realm -- that is supposed to launch it's beta test tomorrow. But I found out that tomorrow is now today! If you're a big fan of leveling up your character, then this might be for you. It's an Asian-inspired theme and you have to go around helping out the villagers with their problems and combat ninja ambushes with your pet panda.

This game is interesting for several reasons. The one that struck me the most was The Grove of Valor -- a PvP event that happens every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 8:15 PM -- I think that's EST, but no confirmation. You get 20 lives. Players get together and start attacking one another. A successful victory will earn you two points while a loss will earn you only a single point. Whoever is left standing at the end is declared the winner.

• [LINK] Yitien Chronicles Home Page
• [LINK] Yitien Chronicles Beta Trailer

Date - String Theory on iOS

Today in gaming: Southwest Gecko is a brand new game company that is launching a fun little game for iOS called String Theory. It's a word finding game with a twist: there's a micro timer that counts down and collects the words you find all at once every five seconds or so. The more words you find in five seconds, the more bonus points you get. It turns your traditional word seek puzzle into a race against the clock.

The game will kick off at $0.99US on Tuesday, April 30, 2013.

• [LINK] Southwest Gecko Home Page

New Trailer - Contrast

Today in gaming: Compulsion Games released a new trailer for their 2D/3D platforming title Contrast. It's a teaser trailer with some beta gameplay footage. It's eerie and gritty and drenched in film noir style.

The setting is art deco meets vaudeville. The plot of the game revolves around you helping a girl named Didi find out what happened to her family. You have a special power to meld with shadows, making this a pseudo stealth platforming game. As a result of your shadow ability, you can switch from 3D world to the 2D plain of a shadow-cast wall -- a really interesting game mechanic.

In the trailer, Didi helps you correct a problem with the shadows in order to allow you to pass certain obstacles. These are probably scripted events.

No official date, though it's rumored CONTRAST will be out sometime in May 2013. I will absolutely keep you informed.

• [LINK] Contrast Home Page

IdleThumbs Turns 100

Today in gaming: I found out that Idle Thumbs -- a video games podcast based out of San Fransisco, California -- published their 100th episode this week. It's entirely dedicated to Bioshock: Infinite.

• [LINK] Idle Thumbs Home Page

Launch - Sang-Froid: Tales of Warewolves

Today in gaming: a new game Sang-Froid: Tales of the Warewolves was released on Steam. You can get it for $14.99US. This is a really cool combination of tower-defense mechanics, sniper rifle wolf killing, and trap laying. This game was originally on the Greenlight service and was voted into existence, so that speaks to the quality of the game.

The game takes place in 1858 in Canada and is based around the fictitious appearance of warewolves in a logging community and the efforts of you and your fellow loggers to continue logging the local region while defending yourselves from wave after wave of deadly half-man, half-wolf creatures.

• [LINK] Sang-Froid Home Page
• [LINK] Sang-Froid on Steam