Achron
Time is on your side. A world first, Achron is a delightful RTS that allows you to take your battle to the 4th dimension; time! Developed by Doctor Hazard (that is his real name) and his team at Hazardous Studios, Achron allows you to command your armies while standing outside of time. This concept can be confusing at first but will be great fun if you go through the well written tutorial.
In the future, man discovers alien technology that allows us to teleport through space and chronoport through time. You take the role of an Achron; someone who stands on the outside of the timeline watching the battle unfold. Gameplay is pretty much the same as every other RTS, with one exception. At the bottom you can see a timeline that shows you when the battles are taking place. If your units are getting overwhelmed, send reinforcements into the past to change the tides of war or go back in time and stop them from ever encountering the enemy. But beware of time paradoxes (thinking you have more units but they travel back to the past after a couple minutes) and chrono-fragging (sending units back in time to an occupied space killing both units). A match typically lasts 45 minutes to 2 hours. During this time, your mind will be boggled and you will laugh hysterically as you realize stupid mistakes you made.
.jpg)
In a unique marketing strategy, every purchase of Achron gets you 2 copies of the game. This way you will always have at least one friend to play multiplayer with, long after the MP community is dead.
Magicka
Put on your bathrobes and grab your staff. Magicka is an amazing game from Paradox Interactive that is packed with fun, strategy, and humor. You take the role of a wizard with unlimited magical powers (no mana bar). As you journey through the land in this action/adventure, you can summon any combination of 8 elements (as long as they don’t conflict). Combine Cold and Water to shoot icicles at your enemies. Water, Fire, and Electricity make a shocking steam spray. There are also spells to be learned that require you to summon elements in the correct order. They range from a lightning strike, to a meteor shower; from napalm to “Crash to Desktop” (hit your enemies with a blue screen of death).
Magicka is packed with content. The story mode can be played in single player or with a team of 4. There are survival maps, PVP, and DLC missions, such as Magicka Vietnam. Paradox has been regularly releasing updates and DLCs and is always listening to community looking for improvements.
The off-beat humor is hilarious. For instance, I got the “This is Sparta!!!” achievement for pushing a solider into a pit. There are other achievements with references to Star Trek, Rambo, Back to the Future, South Park, the Impossible Quiz, and more. Most of the time, I am not sure if the developers take anything seriously at all. For just $10 you can pick up the vanilla version of the game with most DLCs costing 1-2 dollars.
