A Nother round of flash games

So, after playing 'I wish I were the moon'  on Kongregate, I got linked to a couple of other interesting games.  One of which I had played a couple years ago, and thought was pretty cool.  That was back before this blog, and really, just when I was getting back into games.  I hadn't really heard of indie games yet, most of my gaming was done over at my friend Zor The Red's house, where we would pair up to play games like Pixel Junk Monsters or God of War II.

Somewhere, during that time, I got into flash games.  I noticed that some of these games had a definite 'artistic' bent, which worked well for the short-form of flash games.  I played some very interesting games on Kongregate, including Looming, The Majesty of Colors, I can Hold my Breath Forever.  When I started using Steam a lot more, and purchasing the Humble Bundles,  I left Kongregate behind.

Well, I'm glad I went back to Kongregate, because now I found a game called 'hero story' by Terry Cavanagh, of VVVVVV and Hexagon fame.   This game is short - very short, but does not disappoint.  In fact, this game addresses a gaming convention that I've been wanting to see challenged for a long time. There's really something to be said for these short-run games and the ability to do one small thing effectively.  I still nurture ambitions of making games of my own, and I find these Flash games inspiring to that goal.

I should also mention that all the games on Kongregate are Free.  I've linked below to some of my favorites; I haven't posted any descriptions, but recommend you have a look at them.  Each of these games presents a strong atmosphere, despite being short-run and simple.

-D  

by Terry Cavenaugh

Heroes Adventure
http://www.kongregate.com/games/TerryCavanagh_B/heros-adventure

Hexagon
http://www.kongregate.com/games/TerryCavanagh_B/hexagon

by Gregory Weir

The Majesty of Colors
http://www.kongregate.com/games/GregoryWeir/the-majesty-of-colors

Looming
http://www.kongregate.com/games/GregoryWeir/looming

by Racter

I can hold my breath forever
http://www.kongregate.com/games/racter/i-can-hold-my-breath-forever

by Daniel Ben

Today I die

http://www.ludomancy.com/games/today.php?lang=en

I wish I were the Moon
http://www.kongregate.com/games/danielben/i-wish-i-were-the-moon

Storyteller
http://www.kongregate.com/games/danielben/storyteller

First Impressions: The Bridge (PC)

I brought The Bridge a few weeks back, which was when I saw that The Bridge was on sale over at Steam.  It's a game that I first saw around the first of the year.  I was intrigued by the concept, the artistic style of the game and the fact that I love M.C. Escher's artwork.  So take all that and make it into a puzzle-platformer, which is what Ty Taylor and Mario Castañeda did.  This isn't a game made/developed by a company, but by two people who love what they do.  I'm assuming they love what they do, because the game is a lot of fun and looks great, it's really shiny!

Brass tacks time!  The game mechanics are pretty simple.  You move left or right with the directional pad (I'm using a 360 controller) and then you can rotate the world with the right and left triggers.  That's it.  There's no jumping.  Oh, when/if you die, you can hold B to rewind to any point in the level in lieu of restarting the level from the beginning   And you press A when you want to enter a door.  There is no jumping, but at the same time, you can't die from falling too far and landing but, you can die if you fall off the side of the level.  There is no running.  At least through the second world/map, that's it.  However, if you watch the trailer, you will notice that there are times when the world rotates at an incredibly fast rate, allowing your character to hover.  Presently, I can spin the world at a pretty slow rate (R/L trigger) and "sometimes" if I hold the joystick in the same direction, the world picks up speed, but nowhere near enough speed to keep the character hovering.  Will this be an ability that I will learn later on?  Maybe, although I feel that that would make some puzzle solving almost too easy.  I of course, say that now.

Each level begins with the camera showing you your goal (the door), the key (if the door is locked) and any obstacles.  Your character, who bears some resemblance to M.C. Escher is drawn into the world:

That sounds like a lot to preface each level, but it's nice seeing the level up close before the camera pans out so you are able to view the level in it's entirety.  

True, the game does bear some resemblances to And Yet it Moves, but only in the same way that Mega Man bears some similarities to Super Mario Bros.  They are both platformers, they both have enemies and they both use the directional pad to move.  They are two different enough games so that there really should not be any discussion of The Bridge being a clone of AYiM, of which I have heard/read no mention of this.  So yes.

Nine stages (I-VI and II-III) and 71 minutes into the game, I feel like I've gotten a pretty good grasp on what I am supposed to do and how I am supposed to achieve my goal.  The creators also do a great job of keeping the puzzles varied and interesting.  In the first level you are introduced to the concept of solving puzzles simply by walking and rotating the level.  By the time you reach the last level (I-VI), you find yourself having to position yourself just right before rotating, waiting for the Menace to move, rotate back, move, rotate again, avoid the Menace.  This of course is not a walkthrough, but you get the idea.  You learn skills and new obstacles are introduced that do not seem out of place within the world.  Wait, did I not mention Menace's earlier?  Ah well, you'll just have to find out what those are on your own.  Cheesy, but whatever.

1727, I see what you did there.

In closing, The Bridge is a very fun game that looks beautiful.  The background music is very subtle, but still noticeable to um, notice how well if fits in with the game.  

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

So Lost Here In A World Not Meant To Be

Full Review: To the Moon

(to the moon image)
http://freebirdgames.com/system/wp-content/uploads/to-the-moon-promo.jpg

To the Moon is a charming little non-game - game, done in a 16-bit jRPG style resembling the games from my adolescence.  The story is sweet and sad.  It examines love, loss, memory and reality.  The lovely soundtrack is all on piano, and adds a great deal to the experience. (as any good 16-bit jRPG soundtrack will do).  The game play is all perfunctory, pointless stuff, but it keeps the user interacting with the story as it unfolds.  The plot is slow and winding,  but each turn is significant, and each theme is given an appropriate amount of time and care. 

The story closely resembles that of the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind, but, perhaps heavier and sweeter.  The action follows a pair of scientists working for a corporation whose business is to fulfill one wish for their terminally ill clients.  They travel to their clients house to deliver an old man's dying wish: to go to the moon.  This is to be accomplished through a method of memory alteration, which requires them to examine his memories in reverse order and then make changes in his life which would lead him to go to the Moon.   

I think To the Moon is a great entry into the discussion of what makes a game a Game.  Line To the Moon up with Dear Esther and Proteus.  I've enjoyed each and recommend them all.  This one took me about 5 hours to complete. 

-D



P.S.  Sticking with the Moon theme, here's a Neko Case song: 'I wish I were the moon tonight' which is significant to my friend Abby.  A great little ditty.

P.S.  And here is a little flash game called 'I wish I were the Moon.'  it's an experimental game in its own right and challenges gaming conventions.  It's also a romantic game.  Takes about five minutes to play.  Also a great little ditty, check it out!

(wish I were the moon image)
http://www.ludomancy.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/moon_screen-250x300.png

Book Review: Dead Space: Martyr

Dead Space: Martyr is a novel written by American author Brian Evenson that chronicles the finding of the Black Marker and  the "rise" of Michael Altman culminating in his founding of the Unitology religion.  The book takes place in the early 2200's, roughly 300 years before the events in the first Dead Space game.

I really enjoyed this book, despite the obvious stigma of a book being written that was based from a video game.  Keep in mind that I don't really have a problem with this media even though I don't have a real history with fiction based from a pre-existing movie or video game.  I never read any of the Star Wars books.  I had no interest in any of the Star Trek fictions and  I'm not a real fan of fan-fiction.  I understand their appeal, it's just not for me.  On the other hand, I do read the comics that continue the twice cancelled show Jericho and I am two thirds of the way through the Chronicles of the Shadow War trilogy that takes place after the film Willow.

With all of that in mind, when I found out that there were novels that took place in the Dead Space universe, I was mildly intrigued.  I loved the universe and the lore that I was introduced to in the first Dead Space game so the desire to find out more about this storyline was very tempting.  I was, however, a little trepidatious about the quality of the books.  I will admit that I was skeptical about how well the books would be written.  If the story would be just a wordier rehash of the games (having only played the first game mind you).  That was when I resorted to a resource that I rarely ever use.

I looked at reviews of the books, specifically Martyr on Amazon's page.  I don't often look at book reviews and I can't really say why.  (Is it hypocritical then that I'm writing one now?)  I feel like there are people who will love a book, people who like it, and people who don't.  And reading about someone not liking a book won't mean that it's a bad book, just that that one person didn't like it.  What other books don't they like.  What other books do they like?  I feel like I want to know their background as a person before knowing if their review of a book will be relevant to my own tastes in books.  Obviously I'm not going to actually do all of that background research on a single person before seriously considering their review, that's just too much work and I'm just too damn lazy.

So the reviews that I had looked up for Martyr were very favorable, and having now finished the book myself, I can agree on a number of points.  First and foremost being that it is a very well written book.  I was a little concerned during the first sentence when I was questioning if the author should have used "dove" instead of "dived."  Once I got beyond that, I was able to fully enjoy both the story and the complexity of the overall story.

Dead Space: Martyr is basically the origin-messiah story of Unitologist founder Michael Altman.  If you think of it as an author being told to write a Jesus Christ story in 374 pages and keep it interesting for the target audience who have most likely already played any one of the existing games, that's quite a feat.  The story that B.K. Everson wrote was a good one.  I was entertained throughout and once the book began to turn into an almost play-by-play of Dead Space footage, I could forgive this quick turn of events.  Having already gone through Dead Space, I knew immediately which of the necromorphs were being described, the way they moved/attacked so I had a pretty good image of incidences in the book.  I don't know what those passages would be like for someone who has never played any of the games.

I will say that the end of the book came up on me rather abruptly.  I wish that there was an additional 50 pages that took place before Altman's martyrdom took place.  There were a number of times that I thought I could see the direction Evenson wanted to take with Altman's supposed founding of Unitology that just didn't pay off in the end.  Even interactions with some of the necromorphs I thought were playing a larger role than just a monster in the way.  In the later chapters of the book, various characters are found to be using plasma-based tools/weapons that may not seem out of place in the 2200, but the fact that in 300 years, nearly the same tools are being used.  You'd think that some advancements would be made by 2500 or maybe they should not have existed yet in 2200.  One character does use a chainsaw (a nod to Doom maybe?), but it makes sense where it was introduced and it's application.

In the end, how successful was the book?  Successful enough for me to have purchased the next book in the Dead Space chronology which was also written by B.K. Evenson, Catalyst.  Additionally, I am now interested in reading other works that Mr. Evenson.  Success.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Still Alive

Game Idea: A frog, riding a bicycle!

The title is a joke on the fact that this is a frogger-like game idea.  I guess it's also a paperboy-like idea, with a touch of grand theft auto 2.  Or maybe it's not much like either game, but when I originally imagined it, it was a one-screen atari game, like frogger.  The gist of it is - it can be rather difficult and dangerous to commute to work by bicycle.  You have to deal with cars that can easily kill you or break your bones, and you must do this while racing the clock. These factors could be combined to make a good game. 

As I rode to work one day, I mapped out, in my head, the course I would take, based on the streets I thought were the safest but speediest.  As it turns out, I was incorrect in my assessment.  I thought I could take P to 10th street and have an easy time of it, but when it crosses 16th street, P st loses the bike lane.  After that, it turned out 10th St doesn't have a bike lane either.  This made my ride a little bit more harried than I originally intended. 

I realized that riding a bike safely around town during rush hour is actually pretty tough.  It occurred to me that a frogger-like game where you ride a bike from point a to point b could be a pretty fun game.  Traffic is a factor, time is a factor.  And both these things are affected by the layout of the streets.  You hit a car, you lose a life.  You hit a pedestrian, you lose time, but probably not the full turn.  Different times of the day equate to different traffic patterns, and you can learn a map after repeated plays. 

It’s kind of like a maze.  But you can technically hack your way through much of it.  The initial city is a grid, about 26 x 26, but there are one way streets, high traffic areas and construction zones to contend with.  Stop signs, stop lights and pedestrians will slow you down as you desperately try to make it to your destination on time.  Ignoring the traffic laws may save you time, but it could also get you killed.  I guess you could have a bike helmet item that preserves one life, perhaps a spare tube to repair flat tires.  

The basic idea has the layout of the whole city grid open and visible to the player.  But a ‘fog of war’ approach may be more appropriate.  Or maybe just a scrolling overhead view.  It’s hard to say.  Oh, maybe there could be a map before the level starts, and then actually playing the level would go by memory.  I haven't worked out all the details, but it's fun to think about.  I think it's a game that writes itself.

Having ridden my bike through a few different cities, I know that the danger and difficulty can vary greatly.  For different levels, there can be different cities, with different grid and traffic layouts.  Sublevels within the different cities could just involve moving a few pieces, changing the destination, whatever.  Plenty of room for easter eggs hidden throughout.  

Apart from Paperboy and maybe a BMX trick attack game, I've never seen a game built on riding a bicycle.  It may sound like a humble proposition:  commuter bikes aren't exactly built for tricks.  But dodging traffic and racing against the clock is always fun, provided the programming is sharp.  But I'll leave that part to someone else :)

-D

Full Review: Penumbra: Black Plague

This review of Frictional Games' 2008 release, Penumbra Black Plague might be a little shorter than my previous review for the first game in the series (Penumbra: Overture), but that is because I am omitting the "gameplay" section as the game operates on the same HPL Engine that Overture ran on, so all the mechanics are identical.  I will add though that there was a tutorial of sorts and leave it to Frictional Games to have a tutorial that managed to give me chills.

STORY

The game takes place shortly after the end of Overture.  You wake up to find yourself locked in a room and you have to escape, and to figure out what's going on and if you father (aptly named Howard) is still alive, whom you previously had thought was dead.  Like most sequels, all the gear and notes that you had accumulated from the first game are gone, possibly explained that whomever knocked you out had taken them, so I'm okay with that.

Once out of the room, the remainder of the story is more straight forward than the first game, although you are still attempting to locate your father.  In Overture, you're wandering through many layers of caves while in Black Plague, you find yourself in another section of the same complex, but predominantly in and around research labs and offices.  The setting change was a bit drastic and took me a little while to get used to, but I ultimately preferred this location to the caves.  

Early on in the game, you start hearing a "voice" inside your head who talks to you in consistently demeaning way, frequently calling you "monkey."  Now, the voice that was chosen I had a little bit of an issue with as it was a pseud0-stereotypical New Jersey accent.  Seeing as how the game was made by Swedes, I don't know if this type of accent is unnerving or has some other kind of connotation, but I just found it amusing and not disarming at all.

Like many of Lovecraft's stories, the story takes a hard right turn in the third act, revealing the backstory of the main antagonist.  It's honestly not really my pint of stout, but I do appreciate that this element works for the story that was written and I feel that if H.P. Lovecraft were to write for a video game company, this is probably what he would come up with as well.  Ultimately, it makes sense, and I'm okay with that.

GAMEPLAY

I lied, I am going to go into gameplay a little bit as there were some elements that were new for this game.  Hallucinations played a big part in this game.  During the first part of the game, you find yourself in a series of hallways, forced to complete different puzzles to exit said hallway to find yourself in yet another hallway.

For a research lab's hallway, I don't think this is very sterile.

There's another time in the game when you find yourself running away from something in an area that you've previously spent at least an hour in, so you know the general layout.  During this escape you're trying to make, you find that the layout is changing, hallways are momentarily becoming dead-ends, once open doors cannot be opened or have disappeared all together and all the while someone/thing is laughing at you.  Oh, and your vision is slightly blurry and shaky, so there's that to deal with as well.

SOUND & MUSIC

There was no real noticeable difference between the quality of the music/sound in Black Plague and Overture.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I felt that Black Plague was a very good follow up to Overture.  The game was a little short (I finished it in just over nine hours), but honestly, any longer and it might have felt like I was playing the same set of hallway, room, puzzle, monster, puzzle, hallway, monster, puzzle, room.  And being able to maintain a constant level of fear and paranoia for that long is highly commendable.  In the end, I didn't feel like I struggled as much with Black Plague, but that could have also been due to the fact that the spiders and wolves from Overture had been taken out and replaced with one particular type of monster/creature that was even more terrifying.

I will add that I had to look on gamefaqs for a couple of the final puzzles in the game, but as it turned out, I had either forgotten about something a few rooms back or just didn't notice that switch on the wall that blended in with the drab concrete/bricks.  The last puzzle in the game though I don't think I would have figured out on my own, which is kind of sad, but I guess my brain just didn't work in the way that the Tuurngait wanted it to.

Now it's onto the final installment, Penumbra: Requiem.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Ambient Silence

The Problems I Have With Worms

I feel like I start half of my posts off with "I've been playing [insert game name here] a lot recently."  And while I haven't been playing Worms: Revolution consistently, I do pick it up on occasion if I have 15-20 minutes to kill, which has totalled up to just over eight hours.  And let me tell you, the computer is too damn good for it's own good.

I've previously talked about my paranoia when playing games against computer controlled characters, and the computer AI in Worms: Revolution is no exception.  In fact, every recent iteration of Worms I've played, the computer controlled worms always seem to have great to just above average accuracy.  I can understand the computer having remotely high accuracy in the later levels, but on the level II-VI of W:R, there are a couple of enemy worms that are a pain in my annelid anus.

One of the funnest parts of Worms, especially when playing with other human players, is seeing how missed shots land.  Knowing that your overshot rocket could be retaliated with an airstrike that also accidentally hits their own worms, that's hilarity and part of what makes Worms a great game/series.  The computer's accuracy takes a bit of that away.

Let's just take a look:

 As you can see, the enemy worm aims with a hand grenade, selecting the perfect angle and power at which to launch said grenade.

 The grenade hits the wall with a timer count of 4 remaining.

The attacking worm, after their throw, retreated back behind the bottle.  That's coordination.

With the perfect bounce, it lands next to my worm with 2 seconds left and I snapped this picture right before the grenade goes off.

Perfect throw!

Here is another sequence of a well aimed arked shot by the enemy:

 It's that same damn worm again!  Five minutes later in the game and I was actually doing better than expected.  This shot though was the beginning of the end for me, although half of my downfall was my own doing.

Granted the enemy's shot was a little high, but the explosion still caused significant damage to my worm, launching him into the air and piling him with the other two to the right (76 & 61).  In the end, enemy worm (36) ended up down by mine (103) and he threw a perfect grenade through the the tunnel above and to the left, hitting two of my worms who were still gathered there.

I would like to point out, that the enemy worm (15) pretty much killed himself by shooting out sections of the map and flooding himself.

Am I complaining?  You bet!  But, only after I have to play a level more than three times and each game takes about 15-20 minutes that usually comes down to me making a stupid mistake and blowing myself up.  Or, by being killed by one of my own worms when they blow themselves up because they took more damage than they had hit points.

And apologies for not having this ready for yesterdays readers.  Life/work kind of got in the way and I ran out of time.  I know, excuses.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Someday, Life Will Be Fairer

$155,723/day needed to fund!?  That's possible right!? 

First Impressions: Plants vs. Zombies 2 - It's About Time (iOS)

What!?  I know right?  When did PopCap come out with Plants vs. Zombies 2?  I hadn't even heard anything about this game until the PvZ game on Conklederps Kindlefire downloaded an update to PvZ and the color of the icon changed, which prompted me to open the game and that's when I saw it, an add for Plants vs Zombies 2: It's About Time.  I heard a fair amount of parent company EA Games' mockup of their Modern Warfare series, Garden Warfare, which is a 3rd person shooter from the most recent E3, but nothing about this.  The game was mentioned on PopCap's Twitter back on June 26th of this year.

As it turn(s/ed) out, PvZ2 was released worldwide yesterday.  Yes, yesterday as in August 15th, 2013.  I didn't know that until a minute ago when I double checked the wikipedia page.  So now that that's established, lets get down to the game.

PvZ2 still feels like the original, which is a very good thing, because that's the game that I fell in love with.  My first concern when seeing that this game was coming out (saw as in four days ago), I was afraid that the new plants (you know they had to add new plants) would be less plant like, as in you couldn't tell what plant they were supposed to be, like most of the new Pokémon after the first generation.  That unfamiliar plant above is called the "Bloomerang," and while not too obvious as to what type of flower it is, I can forgive that because the Bloomerang is pretty cool.  It fires up a boomerang petal down the row hitting up to three enemies and then flies back, hitting them again.

Now, there are a lot of things that PopCap did right with this new iteration in the PvZ franchise.  First off, as you can tell from the above, they kept the game the same.  You still plant plants as zombies come towards you.  The level above is one of the conveyer belt levels while in most you still want your row of sunflowers in the back. A recent addition to the game play is Plant Food (that green leaf icon at the bottom of the screen).  Plant Food is earned from green glowing zombies (like the cone wearing zombie in the upper right).  Plant Food will give individual plants a bonus/upgrade, depending on which plant they are used on.  Sunflowers give you extra suns, Wall-nuts gain an extra level of protection (metal armor), Pea Shooters will fire a barrage of peas taking out nearly an entire row of zombies.

As in the first game, plants are unlocked during the course of gameplay, although in PvZ2, there's a world map that's somewhat reminiscent of Super Mario Bros. 3.

So, Ancient Egypt you ask?  If you go back to the title of the game "It's About Time," is a nice pun, admitting to the fact that it's been 4 years since the first game came out, and because the game involves time travel.  True, a lot of the zombies are the same in Egypt as they are in present day, but there are some minor variations, such as the Ra Zombie who tries to absorb suns when the appear on the screen.  Presently I am only on the 4th level in Egypt, but there are a total of 24 levels, just in Egypt.  The other times you are able to travel to are the Old West and the Pirate Seas, each with 22 levels.  I won't spoil the reason why you're time travelling and while the context is rather silly, so is the game.

Now, with all the good things that I've come across in the game so far, there are some elements that I am not too fond of.  The least/most being that the game is currently only available for iOS devices (iPhones & iPads).  Android devices seem to have been forgotten.  At least for the time being, although there is no word as to when Android users will have access to this game.  So when you visit the Apple store, you'll quickly find out that the game is free to download.  That in itself, in todays market is a warning sign.  Not much in this world is free, especially if it's currently an Apple exclusive.  With just a little bit of scrolling, you'll notice this:

That's right, In-App Purchases.  In order to use the Snow Pea, easily one of my go-tos in the first game, I would have to spend $3.99.  Yeah, that's probably not going to be happening.  Maybe that makes me cheap.  I don't plan on making any in-game purchases and presently, I haven't been inundated with "Buy This!" pop ups as all purchases are made through the store, located on the map screen.  I would rather spend $10-20 to buy a full version of the game and you can tell from the first two comments on the page there that others feel the same way.  And, I'm not really the kind of person who would give the game a one star rating just because there are so many purchasable plants and upgrades.  I'll be vocal about not liking it, but so far the game is still a lot of fun.

I feel like this is about all I'm capable to comment on about the game, again because I've played less than 10 levels of the possible 73.  The wikipedia page does say that the game can be completed without using any of the in game purchases, which is very nice to know.

I would say that if you have an iOS device and you liked/loved the first Plants vs. Zombies, you'll lose absolutely nothing by downloading and trying out part 2. 

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Don't Give Up So Soon

One week and 65% left to go.  There's still hope, even if it is a fools hope.

[Edit:  After playing two more levels in Ancient Egypt, I've had two popup ads, one letting me know that I can buy more coins/in-game money which can be used on the special moves I unlocked one level after posting, and another add letting me know about buying "bundles," which consist of buying a purchasable plant (Snow Pea, Squash, et cetera) along with some coins for a special price.  I might also add that I've come across three doors that can be unlocked with special pyramid keys that I've found "randomly" during levels, but I'm one short from being able to unlock one door and two keys short from two separate doors; keys also disappear after you use them so for the three doors I'll need 11 more keys, or I can buy a key for $1.99.  Sneaky.  Just wanted to throw that out there as well.]

It Looks To Be Another Update Of Sorts

I'm only kind of at a loss as to what to talk about today.  I wasn't able to post this last Friday (8/9/2013) as Conklederp and I had some friends (Vorlynx and Mills Co.) visiting from Nor*Cal all last week.  There was a robotics conference up here in Portland and there was some river floating and blackberry picking that had to be done as well.  We also started the process of making blackberry wine (adapted recipe to follow) and now our kitchen smells like fermenting fruit, which in turn brings me back to my time working for R.H. Phillips Winery during the 2006 harvest season.  It's the kind of smell that would make you think some fruit somewhere has done something it shouldn't have, if you didn't already know where it was coming from.  Goodtimes.

I've (still) been playing a lot of Infinite Space, (still) and have acquired some more "abilities" such as having a docking bay for individual fighters (a la Battlestar Galactica's Colonial Vipers) which cause minimal damage to the opposing fleets flagship while slowing down the rest of their fleet; realizing that icons above each of the ships in your fleet correspond to weapons and each have their own max and min range; melee battles are a pain-in-the-ass and play like a constant game of  roshambo; ship modules of a certain type (such as bridge/red modules) can fit in other areas of the ship as long as they don't say they have to be in a specific location in the description; "Grus" is a word used in the game that is substituted interchangeably for both "shit" and "fuck" and any other variation thereof; the game is pretty mature, considering it's Teen rating, such as the main character cutting off a bad guys arms to get information and a main character shooting a bad guy at point-blank range in the face out of frustration/fear/anger.  There's a lot going on in the game and a lot of space to do it in, sometimes almost too much space.

I also played a bit of Portal 2 co-op with Vorlynx, but only so much before I had to leave for work (which was also before he had finished the single player campaign).  I've also put roughly six more hours into Torchlight, 2 hours into Half-Life and maybe an hour into Penumbra: Black Plague.  Torchlight is more-or-less just dungeon crawling fun that I continue with after Half-Life becomes too frustrating with having/needing to save after every encounter with enemies and then reloading every time I feel I've wasted too much ammunition or taken too much damage.  I want to play more of Penumbra: Black Plague (partly so that I can write up my First Impressions, but also) because I really liked the first game in the series, I like the company (Frictional Games) and I want to see how the story will end.  And semi-most importantly, I want to play it in the dark for maximum un-nervingnous.

I also went through a couple of the demos that I have on my 3DS, most successfully were the two demos for Style Savvy which will make their way to Demo Time in the coming weeks.  Yes, stop laughing.

I haven't kept up with video games in the news and what's been going on in that world.  I haven't played enough "older" games to warrant another Emulator Hour.  I kind of feel like a bad person, except that I don't.  Boo hoo me, I know.

With all the PAX timbits floating around, I'm very sad that I will not be able to attend PAX Prime this year (as I haven't been able to since PAX2010) due to work scheduling problems.  It doesn't help either that I live 600 miles closer than I did when I was able to attend, but things are in the works (loosely) so that I will be able to attend in the future, although I vaguely recall making a similar statement last year around this same time.

Oh hey look, The Bridge is on sale.  Time to go and take care of that.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Wonders Need Time

In His House in R'lyeh, Dead Cthulhu Wonders If You've Read His Memoirs?

I love H.P. Lovecraft's stories.

I haven't read them all and while I don't, in fact, love them all, I love a lot of what he has written.  Despite the fact that he is somewhat racist and anti-semitic in some of his tales, as a whole, he was a writer of some fantastic weird fiction.

That being said, I think it's very safe to say that Lovecraft is a good description of a cult author, in I feel that a lot more people know about Lovecraft than have actually read his works.  Admittingly, I hadn't read anything by him until I was introduced to him back in late 2003 (the same year I started reading Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams).  I also to not claim to be an expert on anything Elder God or Old Ones related, just want to put that out there before I started gushing over various tomes of Lovecraftian lore.

The "industry" also has quite the love affair with H.P. Lovecraft.  Everything from in-game references (Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, Cthulhu Saves the World, Alone in the Dark), movies (In the Mouth of Madness, Prometheus), to board games (Arkham Horror, Munchkin: Cthulhu, Mansions of Madness).  I feel like saying that Lovecraft's lore, specifically the lore dealing with Cthulhu is a multi-million dollar-a-year industry, but that just might be me talking out of my ass.

There's so much good stuff out there that I would love to get my hands on (refrained from saying "tentacles"), all of it requiring money for one, that I have to keep reminding myself that I don't know a whole lot of people (especially people who live near me) that would have as much fun as I would spending an evening playing a game based on stories by Lovecraft.  A few weeks back, one of my friends Cletus posted on facebook about a Cthulhu game on kickstarter called Cthulhu Wars that looked pretty amazing, not including all of the add ons and "reach goals."  After looking over the kickstarter page, I had to force myself to leave the page and "forget" about it for the three days it had remaining in fear that I would plunk down $139 for a game that I probably wouldn't play too often because the people I do play games with haven't read much of any Lovecraft and would probably rather play Cards Against Humanity or Munchkin.  Don't get me wrong, I love CAH and Munchkin, but it wouldn't be as much fun playing a Cthulhu game with people who don't get the references.  Kind of like listening to a "Weird Al" polka and not recognizing any of the songs: it's still fun, but not as much fun as if you knew the songs to begin with.

I'm not sure where to go with the rest of this article, if it really needs to go anywhere else.  Maybe it's finished?  And so it shall be.

Happy Monday all!

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Playing Games on the Pavement

Well, that was one hell of a month

Hello friends and family, anonymous readers and adver-bots.  How are you?  Welcome to August.  

I haven't done much in the video game world lately.  After reading this article, on designing difficult games, I played a few stages of Adventures of Lolo.  I also booted up VVVVVV just for shits and giggles.  That game is still fantastic.   Today a game called Papo y Yo went on super sale, so I'll have to buy it.  And a good friend - who will remain nameless, hint, hint - went and generously bought me a copy of Worms Armageddon, which I have yet to open.  I'll be getting to this stuff soon though, with all the free time I have now that I'm unemployed.

Yes, I lost my job on Thursday.  Don't worry, I wasn't alone.  Maybe 75 other people lost their jobs.  The month of July was spent wondering when this was going to happen, as the month of June was spent watching my workplace crumble while we ran around, working our asses off, but were helpless to do anything to prevent it.  It was not fun by any stretch of the imagination. 

So yeah, no job, which means no money, which means Papo y Yo will be the last game I buy for a while.  But it also means a lot more time, which, as they say is money so-- that's exciting.  I will have more time to play games and more time to write, and I plan on doing both of them, so expect to hear a lot more of me in the weeks to come.

Of course, this will only be for a little while.  I've pledged to give myself at least one week of unemployment ecstasy before I start earnestly looking for a new job.  But I may stretch it for a little longer, depending on how I feel.  I am still in the planning stages.  I hope to do some soul searching in the time between, and I really hope to not be on unemployment when my meager savings runs out.  

I did manage to catch World War Z, and it suuuuuuucked.  It was just terrible.  Pointless.  Bad dialogue, bad action, bad plot.  I really need to read the book now, because, the good news is- it's completely different! I suppose the one decent thing about the movie was that it was kind of fun to watch fast moving zombies pile up on one another.  There was a sort of concept that the zombies were just one big disease, like influenza or HIV something, and it was just these mad gobbling bacteria, moving like a single large creature.  That idea is cool, and if there had been more exposition and less wasting my time I might have enjoyed the movie.  Why are so many movies roller coaster rides now?  I do not recommend.  I do, however, recommend this fun little rewrite of the movie. 

I also saw another movie, a kid's movie from the 80s.  It was called "Cloak and Dagger" - and this one I recommend.  For one thing, there was more exposition in the first fifteen - twenty minutes than the entire World War Z movie.  Another is that Dabney Coleman is in it.  And a third thing is that the little kid actors aren't bad.  Also, it was fun, and interesting.  I really liked this movie, I recommend it.

One last bit:  I just read Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake."  I also recommend this book.  I was hooked within a couple pages.  Without giving too much away, it's a post-apocolyptic novel.  However, it also does the flashback thing.  When the flashbacks started, I was annoyed because I wanted more of the present.  Then I ended up really liking the flashback portions, and then I just wanted to do nothing else, but read this book. I would think about it while I was at work, or riding the train.   I love it when a book or game is so good that I find myself daydreaming about when I get to read it again.  Oryx and Crake - I highly recommend it.  

-D


***next day update:
I watched the movie Prometheus last night.  I'm going to spoil a little bit of it by describing the plot flow.  But that's all I'll spoil.  Anyhow, at the beginning, the movie takes its time, and I really appreciate it.  The scenery is beautiful, and the character introduced is likeable and interesting.  The movie progresses slowly until about halfway through, when the action picks up.  At this point things seem to change so fast, and characters start throwing out conclusions, and performing actions that don't seem to have justifications.  It's very strange that a movie that showed so much patience would ultimately show too little.  Anyhow, I recommend the first 30 minutes or so, but I can't really recommend the rest.  

Monthly Update: August 2013

Happy August everyone!

I'm playing a couple of games right  now (story of my life), some that I could (and should) be writing about and others that I haven't spent enough time to warrant a sit down and interview.  I have a First Impressions in the work for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind that I haven't actually played in a month or two due to a possible glitch that keeps crashing the game; I've also put some hours into Ace Combat Assault Horizon: Enhanced Edition, Torchlight, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D and Scribblenauts Unlimited.  

Then there's the Shadow of the Eternals Kickstarter that started off strong and in the last couple of days seems to be slowing down.  It really saddens me that this game might not get made (again).  After seven days the Kickstarter is at 25%, which is still on track, but their gain went up so much in the first couple of days that they've now reached the point where they're going backwards against the daily average needed to reach their goal by Friday August 23rd.  (It started out that they would need $25,000/day and now they have to average $26,700/day).  I guess I'm just ever the pessimist, but I would love, LOVE to see this game made.

This last weekend ( by weekend I mean the last two days I had off, which were Tuesday & Wednesday) Conklederp and I saw Pacific Rim, which initially didn't interest me when I first saw the poster a couple of months back.  Then I saw it was directed by Guillermo del Toro and that Ron Perlman was in the film as well.  That sold me.  Then, I was listening to the Nerdist Podcast #273 and director Guillermo del Toro stated (old news) that he had contacted Valve to see if he could use the voice of GlaDOS in the movie.  Then a former KDVS Metal DJ posted a link to the soundtrack (composed by Game of Thrones fame Ramin Djawadi)  and I knew it had to be seen.  Now, I've never been into Mechs of any kind, so the fact that Pacific Rim was as entertaining as it was says something about it.  Conklederp even liked it and she's not one for loud action movies.  We also saw The Conjuring the week before, which was a solid ghost-ish type movie that takes place in 1971 with excellent kid actors (which is important when there are five of them).

I also haven't forgotten about "Demo Time" either.  Sometimes it can be hard to find time to sit down and play a game I know that is a demo that may take anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes when I have a game right over here (Half-Life, Infinite Space, BIT.TRIP.RUNNER, Torchlight, DKCR 3D) that keeps reminding me to play them.  First World Problems, I know.

And finally, it the time that I have been typing this out, the Shadow of the Eternals Kickstarter has gained an additional $976, so there's still hope.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Instrumental