TAGAP: The Apocalyptic Game About Penguins

Title: TAGAP
Developer: Penguin DT
Publisher: Penguin DT
Released: July 2007
Download Link(s): Freeware Files, GamersHell, Official Site 
Extras: Official Soundtrack
Cost: FREE!
TBG Rating: 10/10
Game Info:
The Apocalyptic Game About Penguins - The title sums it up. Mad scientist doctor Glowenko is planning to take on the world with an army of bio-engineered cybernetic penguins. One of the penguins, codenamed Pablo, doesn't like the idea and escapes, only to find himself fighting against the whole clone penguin army, leaded by Pedro, another cyber-penguin. The fate of the world is in Pablo's... err... flippers!
TAGAP is a 2-D platformer shoot-em-up, but it plays more like a first-person-shooter than traditional genre game. Keyboard is for movement while guns are handled with mouse. Speaking of weapons, there are plenty to choose from: Uzis, rocket launchers, plasma guns and even combat vehicles. And you'll need them all against endless waves for zombie penguins, security robots and sentry turrets.
But TAGAP isn't just about penguins and guns, but also about pills. There are four different pills that are rewarded for in-game achievements, like hi-scores and killing spree combos. The color-coded drugs have different effects and side effects. As a result game play keeps switching from trippy slow-motion to fast-forward chaos – and back!
TAGAP uses OpenGL effects arsenal for 2-D presentation of slightly naïve style, resulting slick, anarchistic presentation easiest described as Mario-meets-Doom. Also featured are built-in level editor and thoroughly-documented TAGAP_Script scripting system. TAGAP: The Apocalyptic Game About Penguins is freeware. It's the debut game of Penguin Development Team, a duo of Finnish hobbyist developers.

Screenshots:

Trailer:

TBG Review:
TAGAP is a game that flew under the radar for me until recently. the game is a blast to play and looks great. The wide assortment of weaponry keeps the game from becoming repetitive and the music truly helps set the mood of the game. The mini boss fights are tough but not insane. The enemies are mindless zombie penguins so expect to see tons of them. I find it to be an outstanding addition to side scrolling shooters and think you will to, faithful readers. The fact that the development team is working on a TAGAP 2 bodes well as they will take what they have learned from making this great game and make an even better one.

Cha.. Cha.. Cha.. Changes!

WotC Revamps 'Core' Sets Data Source: ICv2

Annual Releases Starting This  Summer

Wizards of the Coast has announced a complete revamping of its core set releases for Magic: The Gathering. Starting this July the core set releases will no longer be identified by edition number--like new cars (with their forward-looking year-by-year designations), the July 2009 M:TG core set release will be known as Magic: The Gathering 2010 Core Set or Magic 2010 for short. Also starting this July WotC will release one new core set per year (instead of one every two years). Thus M:TG will now be on a regular yearly schedule that will see the release of three expert-level expansions and one core set every year.

Unlike previous core sets, which were composed of all reprints, the Magic 2010 core set will have approximately 50% new cards--a huge departure from past practices intended to make the core sets attractive a wide range of Magic players. New cards such as “Silence” and “Wall of Frost” use game terms that both new and experienced players can understand and employ to great effect in card combat. As was the case with Tenth Edition, all core sets going forward (including the Magic 2010 set) will be black-bordered. Magic 2010 will include 249 cards including 15 mythic rare cards (9 of the 15 mythic rares are reprints, while six are brand new cards).

Since the Magic 2010 core set contains so many new cards, WotC is, for the first time with a core set, planning traditional Prerelease and Launch party events on back-to-back weekends in conjunction with the Magic 2010 debut on July 17th. Previous core set releases have largely been ignored by the enfranchised M:TG player base, which looked at the core sets primarily as lists of cards that are legal in Standard tournament play. The revamped M:TG core sets are geared to appeal to both newcomers and experienced players. In order to put more focus on the Magic 2010 release, WotC is making sure that Grand Prix events in Boston, Niigata, and Prague will feature Magic 2010 Limited play events, an indication that going forward core sets will be an integral part of high-level organized play.

WotC is also changing its rotation policy to accommodate the more rapid release of core sets. While 10th Edition will rotate out when Magic 2010 is released this July, Magic 2010 will remain legal until the fall of 2010 when the large release codenamed “Lights” is released. That will mean that from July of 2010, when the Magic 2011 core set is released, until the debut of “Lights” in late 2010, there will be two core sets legal at the same time (another first for M:TG). This pattern of approximately 15 months of “legal” status for core sets will continue into the future.

While the central concept behind the “core set” as being a “jumping-on” place for new players remains, the Magic 2010 set also includes five Lorwyn “Planeswalkers,” which are promoted to their proper place as “mythic rares,” and should also help to make this core set more attractive to highly skilled M:TG players. The Planeswalkers cards are so cool that the designers behind the Magic 2010 core set are confident that newcomers to the game will do the work necessary to learn the rules behind the complex cards (the powers of these premier M:TG Characters can’t be explained on the cards themselves).

 

CyberDocs Take:

Wow. Where do I start with this one? I think its great that WotC have finally decided to make the core sets mean something other than a hold over until the next new block hits. Is doing it during one of the worse financial periods possible smart? Not so great. We have already seen a loss of magic players due to the hectic schedule of releases. I have talked to a lot of ex-players who list the costs associated with keeping up with the releases as one of their primary reasons for leaving the game. I hope this doesn’t cause more current players to join them.

I do enjoy the fact that 50% of the release will be never before printed cards and think this will be cause for players to pay attention to the seldom picked up core sets. From a financial standpoint I worry that the cost of keeping up with the Joneses will further shrink the player base.