Monthly Update: October 2013

Does anyone else question this?  This is the third month that we've done a regular "Monthly Update" with the current month in the title, although most of what I've said in these articles has to do with the previous month.  And I have now just answered my own question.  What I've just said would most likely then be titled "Month in Review."  That is now out of the way.

So during the month of September, I really got into Dead Island.  After playing L4D2 quite a bit, I remembered that I had purchased Dead Island in one of the Humble Bundles and wanted to play something else with zombies.  At first I wasn't sure about the game, which needed some tweaking in the keyboard input department, but after that first questionable hour, I've managed to put in 21 hours and I only recently started Act II (~33% complete).  You can expect a First Impressions article to pop up within the next week.  I've put some time in on Torchlight II and Symphony, which will also get their own First Impressions, hopefully soon.

I also just entered the world of smartphones which I last talked about.  I also picked up the Humble Android Bundle 2, because now I have another outlet for my gaming needs/desires.  As I may've stated in my previous article, I don't see the new phone becoming my go-to for portable gaming, that will continue to be my 3DS.  But, that doesn't mean I won't use if for such purposes.

For those of you interested in miniatures, Reaper is doing a second Kickstarter to promote their Bones line of miniatures.  I got in on their first Kickstarter and came away with well over a hundred high quality plastic-ish minis.  This time around, instead of having multiple tiers, there's the "Thanks $1" tier and then a $100 tier and the earlier you support, the earlier you will get your shipment of (currently) 140 miniatures of varying sizes.  With only a week in, they are already over $1,000,000.  If I didn't already have a backlog of minis that I needed to paint then I would definitely get in on this Kickstarter again.  I just don't know if I would be able to swing it this time around.  With hope, there will always be Bones III next year.

Lastly, Conklederp got me Antichamber because she's awesome/amazing and because we've been together now for over half a decade.  I played the game for about half-an-hour before accidentally deleting my saved progress as I didn't initially know how to exit out of the game.  I know now.  I'll delving in that strange world again soon, probably with Conklederp watching or watching her play.

And I need to get back to playing Papo y Yo and Penumbra: Requiem, although those games are pretty similar in their execution of puzzle-platformers, so I may have to put one on the back burner (speaking of which, I need to go drink some coffee) until one is finished so I don't make myself completely puzzled out. 

So that's where I am, here at the beginning of October 2013.  Nothing too new or out of the ordinary, just plodding along when I'm not at work.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Instrumental

Monthly Update: September 2013

Welp, PAX Prime has once again graced the Pacific Northwest with it's presence (and is currently in an unprecedented Day IV).  The Labor Day weekend for me however was spent at work, so much so that I'm going back today.  I was going to hit up Safeway on my way home too, but now remembering that a lot businesses celebrate holidays and might be closed or have modified work hours.  Not us!  We're Amur'can!

Self loathing aside and back to happy times.  Like a game D'Octorpotts got me called Papo & Yo.  Which is a really spiffy game.  I saw it on Steam for quite a while, but for whatever reason had never looked into it.  Then I played it.  It's a somewhat uplifting game with pretty dark undertones of alcoholism and child/spousal abuse.  

Right, happier things.  

As some may have predicted, the re-Kickstarter campaign for Shadow of the Eternals failed to reach their $750,000 goal.  However, the game was greenlit as part of Steam's Greenlight indie gaming place/thing, which is good news.  This doesn't seem like the game is going to be shelved and the company will implode, so there's still hope, even if it is just a fools hope.  Thanks Gandalf.

In similar news, fellow [ENFORCER] Jupiter of Earth (aka Jupiter) is working for/with Sword & Spirit Software to make a game that looks/sounds a lot like a mix between Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem.  The game is called Shades of Sanity and they started their own Kickstarter back in mid August and it will run until Friday September 27th, 2013.  Their target goal is $200,000 and they're currently 5% of the way there.  Here's to hoping, and better hoping than Shadow of the Eternals.

I have not a whole lot else to report in the wide world of video games.  I did recently find out that The Elder Scrolls Online will adopt the apparently poisonous pay model for their game.  The first month will be free followed by a $15/month fee after you purchase the game for around $50-60.  That's pretty much what I expected.  I'm still on the fence if I want to delve into this monster.

Infinite Space is continuing to be played, despite an obvious error in programing by Nude Maker and Platinum Games where celestial objects observed and discovered in other games affects if you discover them on your current game (even if you delete all game files by saving over them, which is the only way to delete saved files).  DKC Returns hasn't been played in a number of weeks because Infinite Space is just too engaging.  Torchlight is still being delved into.  Ace Combat Assault Horizon hasn't been played in over a month because of annoying/aggressive/bastardly vicious Ruskies that just won't die (ie let themselves be shot down) in the later half of a long level.  Plants vs Zombies 2 is seeing a resurgence in both gameplay and the number of popups to buy stuff.

So that's where I am currently at.

Oh, and the book Letters of a Woman Homesteader is doing a great job of reminding me that I'm not as much of a wilderness bad-ass as I would like to be.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Pussy, Pussy, Pussy. . .

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.