I miss demos. I miss them so much. I wouldn’t be here, writing these words, if it weren’t for demos: how else could a sport-fearing, skinny young misery with only the slightest pittance for pocketmoney have found his way into playing video games? Once, my bedroom was littered with floppy discs, each and every one of which had at some point led to me standing outside a game shop, counting pennies with a quivering hand, praying I had enough.

Granted, magazines were the gateway drug back then, when there was no way to watch a trailer or scour Facebook for new screenshots, but later in life the web too seemed an infinite fount of sampled digital delights, and led to any number of purchases of those games that seemed the most absorbing – or simply because the demo ended, apparently expertly, at a point which left me urgently hungry for more. Those days are gone.
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Oops. This was intended to be an initial impressions post rather than a Wot I Think, as I didn’t have the time to give Crossworlds enough of a shake for a verdict. Or so I thought, in my guilelessness. This is a King’s Bounty game, though. It’s a strategy-roleplaying mash-up that plum doesn’t care> whether you have time or not. Show it even a hint of your soul and it’ll eat it, with a beaming smile but without any remorse whatsoever.

So here I am, far too many hours later: exhausted, behind on a frightening number of chores, fascinating webgames and half-hearted calls to family members, but merrily game-sated and with my pointy finger of judgement all ready to go. I’ve missed you, Kingy-kins. (more…)

Any day with more King’s Bounty in it is a good day. There’s no sign yet of a proper sequel to what was one of the best PC games of 2008, but we have had an expansion pack in sequel’s clothing, in the form of 2009’s sprawling but slightly underwhelming expandalone Armored Princess. Now that> is getting its own expansion, Crossworlds. There’s only one possible name for it. It’s an expandapandalone>.

And, peering at its content, there is a good chance Crossworlds could inflate AP into the game it should have been…

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