Towns

Towns is a citybuilding and -management game still in development by SMP (Xavi Canal, Ben Palgi and Alexander Poysky) inspired mainly dwarf fortress and dungeon keeper. The game is currently in (pre)-alpha. If you're looking to support their project, take a look at their website: http://www.townsgame.com/

The main goal of this game is surviving as long as possible with your town and it's villagers, while building and expanding what you can. You start off with a few people in the middle of nowhere. It is up to you to maintain the welfare and stability of your town and villagers. This is done by providing sufficient food, building houses and protecting your villagers from vile monsters. Not fulfilling these commitments will result in the annihilation of your town.

First of all: food. Food can be found by various means. You can harvest fruits to get started. You can also plant wheat and make bread, which is a little more sustainable. Later on, once you've acquired iron, you'll be able to make an oven and hunt animals and prepare their meat. Combining these is the most durable way to sustain your food levels.

Secondly, housing. Your villagers will need their own private quarters to sleep in. Sure, they can sleep on the ground, but that'll leave them more tired and results in having them sleep longer. If you want to exploit your villagers to the best extent, give them a room with a bed!

Lastly, safety. When you start out this isn't a very big issue, but once you've played a couple of hours you'll start getting attacked: sieges will appear and monsters will rush from the forests or the depths looking only to eat your (probably skinny) villagers. You can stop these by building foritications (e.g. a moat/wall around your village) and raising an army.
To raise an army you need armors and weaponry. These can be made out of stone and bone, so even if you don't have iron or better resources yet, you should be fine during the first few sieges. Building up your military power is recquired to advance in the game regardless;a s you will need resources that can only be found deep underground in caves and dungeons, where monsters also reside.

I hope this gives you a basic idea of what Towns is about, be sure to check out their website for more information and tutorials.

Please note: this game is still in (pre-)alpha, therefore still in development. This game will most likely change in the future.

Europa Universalis III - What if: part 1: communism

The year is 1917 and the Octoberrevolution just happened, the tsar has been executed and the bolshevikes are now in control of Russia. In Eastern Europe more and more rebellions are rising. The balance of power is shifting and the Western Nations see it changing, they choose to unite and fight the red plague. New alliances are formed and old ones are breaking apart. You are forced to choose sides in a bipolar world, where Europe has been laid to waste due to the first World War.

The communist party of China is also growing in numbers rapidly, and it's Chinese imperialism is forcing China's expansion to a major scale. Most asian nation's are now in China's direct sphere of influence.

Meanwhile in Africa, the European colonies are fighting for their independance. With the European war losses of both manpower and gold, they can only do so much to surpress the rebellions.

The world is facing a conflict like it has never seen before, and you are a part of it. Where do you side and how do you play your cards?

Legend of Grimrock

Legend of Grimrock is a modern dungeon crawling / RPG game for the PC by Almost Human Ltd. It was inspired by Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder and Ultima Underworld.

You play as a group of criminals that have been sentenced to death by shipping them to Mount Grimrock. Little did their captors know that Mount Grimrock contains a massive network of dungeons and tunnels. It is up to you and your four-man party to find the path to freedom and live another day.

As seen on http://www.grimrock.net/media/

The game features a grid to grid movement and combat system, as featured in oldschool dungeon crawlers. This creates a very tactical atmosphere in which a simple step can mean the difference between life or death. The game completely follows up on oldschool gameplay by focussing on player wits and perception to explore the map and solve the presented puzzles.

The combat system in this game is based on the unique skills of your 4 party members. You have two people standing in the front of your party and two standing in the back. The ones standing in the front will take most of the damage, so it is advised you place some strong, tanklike characters here. The two spots in the back will take less damage, but can take damage nonetheless. This leaves room for some more offensive based characters.
Each character will have unique abilities based on their equipment, class, skills and race. It is up to you to find out which ability is best suited for which situation. For example: a poison cloud can be a good tactic if you trap your enemy in it, however it can also deal damage to you.

As seen on http://www.grimrock.net/media/

You attack by clicking on the character windows, as seen in the lower-right corner in the picture above. Once attacked, you will have to wait trough a certain amount of cooldown before you can attack again  with the same character. This forces you to build up all of your characters at once, so you can't click spam your enemies to death with a single overpowered character.

If you want to spice up the game a bit, and improve your immersion, the game also features an oldschool mode where you can disable the map. This means you will have to work your way trough the dungeon without a map, or make one yourself!

This game certainly seems worth checking out!