Gog.com ~ Finally

I think I've mentioned Gog.com a couple of times and if I haven't, I probably should have.  Well, by the looks of it, both DRPOTTS and I have mentioned this video game consignment store (aka Take My Money) site before, but only in a rudimentary passing type of way, meaning that aside from links and little blurb, neither of us have seem to have brought this site up as extensively as it deserves.

So gog.com (Good Old Games) has been around since 2008 although I only became aware of the site since, maybe, the middle of 2012, who can say?  The point is, gog.com offers a lot of older PC games at frequently ridiculously low prices, which I won't specifically mention as I still sort of hold that stigma since our KDVS 90.3FM Freeform Radio days; non-profit radio cannot mention prices on air, at least we were told never to do mention prices.  They've also started offering newer games, possibly to compete with both Humble Bundle, Steam and Amazon's Indie Gaming Store.

I only bring up gog.com now, because a short while back, I picked up a game that I had heard about sometime last summer.  I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream is a psychological horror point-and-click game from 1995 that was based on a science fiction book of the same name and published in 1967 by Harlan Ellison.  While not available on Steam, gog.com had this game for, we'll just say exceedingly cheap.  Science fiction point-and-click psychological horror are three genres that I love, so it was really just a matter of not caring about spending less than $5.

After purchasing the game, I looked at my games shelf and was horrified at what I saw.  There were eight games on my shelf.  All said "New" in the upper right corner.  I immediately checked my credit card statement online as well as my email to see if I had accidentally purchase seven other games.  Now, if I had taken the time to actually look at the games, all my fears would have been alleviated.

These seven other games were free.  That's what the green banner across the upper left of the box art that spelled out "FREE" meant.  I didn't buy them, they just. . . came with my purchase?  These seven games are simply free from gog.com and you don't even have to sign up for an account, although by signing up, they are automatically added to your library.

Below will be a brief rundown of the games that were included with my purchase, because I want to find out about these games (and proclaim my ignorance publically) at the same time you find out, then feel free to shun me in whatever way you feel appropriate.

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar.

Now, I'm familiar with this game, but only by name and the cover art.  I recall seeing this game as an NES cartridge at DRPOTTS' house.  I never tried playing it, knowing his family's penchant for not playing someone elses save files, and by the time I knew of this game, I had already developed a fairly decent etiquette when it came to video game save files.  If this game is anything like the only Ultima game that I've played, Ultima: Exodus, then I probably won't make it too far.

Tyrian 2000.

This is a top down spaceship shooter that came out back in 1999 from Eclipse Productions.  It basically looks like a mash up between 1942 and Gradius, which is a good thing.  I had fun playing both games although I was never a wiz at them, but this still sounds like a lot of fun.

Dragonsphere.

Dragonsphere came out on the PC back in 1994 from MicroProse.  The game is a point-and-click fantasy adventure game that looks like it was ripped straight out of a Dungeons & Dragons module from the same era.  And hell no that's not a bad thing.  For me, that's pure nostalgic fun.  And apparently it's a cult classic, which is a sign that I think always bodes well.

Warsow.

Warsow, released in 2012 by Chausser De Bots, by only looking at it, sounds like a Team Fortress 2 type multiplayer battle royale with a sense for camp.  I'll probably give the game a go, being free and all, but this genre really isn't my pint-of-stout mainly because I don't want/like to deal with online rage douches, but it's worth a try.  And, I don't think the same mean spirited 12 year old boys will be playing Warsow instead of Battlefield 4: Co-op Enemy Massacre Revenge: The Return of the Camped Out Revenge Killing Part IIa

Treasure Adventure Game.

Treasure Adventure Game, released in 2011 by Robit Studios  looks exactly like it's title proclaims: a retro style 2D platformer with a less violent Super Meat Boy thrown in because that seems to be a thing now-a-days.  I'll give the game a spin, but if it's as frustrating as Super Meat Boy, I may have to just pass after, say, 30 minutes.

Beneath a Steel Sky.
Beneath a Steel Sky was released in 1994 by Revolution Software.  It is a point-and-click science fiction adventure game.  I know absolutely nothing about this game (as opposed to the other six games that I know nothing about) and, I'm going to take a stab in the dark here, looks a bit like the film Dark City and Brazil with something else thrown in that I can't quite pin down (Shadowgate meets Who Framed Roger Rabbit maybe??).  Either way, whatever this game is, it looks like something that I will end up loving or never finishing because it's too avant garde.  As long as Eraserhead's babby doesn't show up, I might be alright. We'll wait and see.

Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire.
Released in 1990 by Origin Systems.  I'm not even sure about this game.  I mean, the T-Rex's posture isn't correct and the flying reptile looks like it's a mix between Rhamphorhynchus and a Pteranodon.  Oh, and I guess the scantily clad savage woman next to the safari game-hunter seems out of place too.  So maybe an Ultima style game, but instead of high fantasy, it's high colonial steam-punk meats Journey to the Center of the Earth?  I am of course making some of this up.  I will of course try out the game.







One additional thing that I want to let shine on gog.com, is that even the free games often come with their own special features of sorts.  Ultima IV comes with an audio interview with Lord British, maps, manual and spell book; Warsow and Treasure Adventure Game both come with the soundtrack; I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream comes with a manual, soundtrack and a making of documentary pdf file.  This is a great place and I am sad that I only recently discovered how amazing it is, this land of the lost pc games.


~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Learning To Live

MMORPGs - are they for me?

Or do I just want to play Ultima forever?  What's a cranky gamer to do?

I have a confession to make:  I have very little experience with Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games.  Given that Role Playing Games are my favorite genre, and I write for a blog about video games, and MMORPGs are like, the biggest thing to happen to video games in a decade - I think this represents a pretty substantial hole in my game playing experience and perspective.

Now granted, I did play FF XI to about level 20 or so, and gained dual class.  And I've watched 5 seasons of 'The Guild.'  Also - I once lived in a house where three of my roommates split their rooms up so that they all slept in one room, and then the other room was dedicated to WoW.  During that time, I picked some of the MMO experience through osmosis.   So I'm not utterly without knowledge of MMOs.  But I do realize that the MMO experience goes deep, and I just float above the surface, making observations.

But maybe i'm like a pelican or a kingfisher, maybe I can float above the surface, but dive in and grab a fish every so often.  The metaphorical fish being some sort of intellectual point that I want to make, somewhere, somehow.  Anyway, this topic came up because I was writing some thoughts about a game called Ultima: Exodus and going on and on and on-- as I am wont to do-- when I came to a point where I wanted to make a comparison to MMOs, and then make a series of claims about MMOs.  At this point, I felt I should break this subject off to its own post, and focus in on MMO vs Ultima: Exodus.

It isn't unusual to talk about the Ultima series in context with MMORPGs.  Ultima Online is widely credited as the first successful MMO.  In addition,  there's this great article about the Ultima series,  humbly making the claim that it is the most important game series ever.  And giving the series credit for a lot of what became genre tropes for MMORPGs.  For example, open world gaming and multiple choice conversation mechanics. 

In addition, outside of said article, I have made my own observations from playing Exodus.  One is the sort of 'guild' element:  the option to have up to 20 custom made characters with which to build a party. This element served my household well, as there was enough space for me, my two sisters and my Dad to all have four seperate characters.  In practice, this led to a lead party, the original party that we delved into the game with.  This one would have the highest levels, the strongest gear, and progress the furthest.  Then there were the splinter groups:  characters we would make just because making characters was fun.  They might not progress very far, or gain much gear.  But if we liked a particular character or party, we could boost them up with some grinding, into a legitimate party option for the lead team.  This actually turned out to be a pretty good idea, as there are certain class differences that can become primarily important in the game.  For example, I think the Mystic Sword may only be able to be equipped by a Fighter or Barbarian.  I remember getting to a point and realizing that I couldn't equip it to anyone in my party.   In addition, you may find that your party just needs a bit more brute strength or a bit more magic to accomplish a given goal.  So it is really helpful to have additional characters leveled up.

All of this contributed greatly to a 'team effort.'  The younger kids might not be up to the task of raiding the tougher dungeons, but we were a match for the goal of grinding away and raising characters to decent level.  This allowed our family team to, in effect, accomplish multiple goals at once.  Similar, I think, to MMORPGs of today.  Though, of course, Exodus was neither massively multiplayer or online.  But it was Multiplayer on a small scale, it just required taking turns rather than simultaneous play.  And why not?

So this brings me to confront my ignorance about MMORPGs.  Like, do any MMOs have similar elements to what I described above?  The only example that pops into my head is "Realm of the Mad God."  Which does a lot of things right.  I like the 8-bit graphics.  I like the team play.  I'm not wild about the shmup style action.  I know it sounds strange, but I kind of wish for a turn-based MMO, even if that seems counter-intuitive.  Also, Mad God doesn't do much for customization, as far as I can tell.

Alright, at this point, I should mention that I am feeling very rigid.  Like, what I really want is just for Ultima: Exodus, NES version, to be online so I can play it with my friends in exactly the same way I played with my family.  I realize this is not going to happen and it borders on delusional.  But I still want it.  I mean, what are video games if not escapism?  What's more escapist than a deluded fantasy about reliving my own childhood- today?  Anyway, maybe there's something deeper in there, but if you'll excuse me, I've got to go to work.  

-D

P.S. Big Congrats to Jaconian and Conklederp for being awesome!

Ultima Love

for more sweet video game comic art:  http://www.campbellwhyte.com/uncategorized/ultima-exodus/

As I mentioned before,  Ultima gets a lot of love online.  Here are some many examples of Ultima Love.

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/26/ultima-most-important-game-series-ever/
This article goes straight to the love.


http://www.pixsoriginadventures.co.uk/category/ultima-3/
Guy who collects strategy guides focuses on Ultima 3


http://ultimavforipad.tumblr.com/
Total Ultima love page

http://ultimacodex.com/2012/08/awesome-ultima-fan-art/
best Ultima fan art

http://blog.fantasyheartbreaker.com/tag/heros-quest/
Video games for people who care too much?  This article gives a spot to the Cleric class, and mentions Ultima Exodus

http://mikesrpgcenter.com/ultima3/
Ultima Exodus Maps, maps maps!

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL52FB86B0F0DFFF07
ulillillia's video walkthrough for Ultima Exodus on NES.  

http://allconsolerpgs.blogspot.com/2012/02/game-3-ultima-exodus-nes-introduction.html
The rpg consoler plays Ultima 3

http://www.jeffludwig.com/ultima3/
More Exodus love - this time it comes in the form of a mod for the game, changing the class and experience balance.  I call this awesome.

http://youtu.be/npOuYlxQj_E
Soundtrack to PC version of Ultima 3

Ultima Exodus: Graphics and Exploration

So, given I'm not really playing any other games at the moment, (though I did take some time out to play Among the Sleep - it's awesome!)  I'm just going to continue talking about Ultima for a while.  This series gets a lot of love on the Internet- mostly for the PC versions, though the NES versions of Ultima III and IV get their fair share as well.  Which I appreciate, since the NES version of Ultima III is the one with which I have the most experience. 

I want to take a moment to site a couple of significant elements outside the challenge of the game.  First is the party construction.  In Exodus, you are allowed up to 20 characters, each of which can be custom created.  You form a party of four of these characters each time you play.  These characters level up independently during play.  This element really lent itself to some of the household participation I experienced with this game, as 20 characters was more than enough for everyone in my family to have their own party of four.  That way we could contribute to a greater whole, while still remaining independent.  And we could just have fun creating custom characters and stocking the barracks, as it were.  That way different classes can be available to the main players who are out accomplishing goals and progressing through the game.  

Another thing I'd like to point out is the music.  I think it's pretty damn good for an NES game.  The songs tend to be long and varied, much more so that their contemporaries.  There aren't a lot of tracks in total.  I think that Exodus is often forgotten about in the annals of NES music.    

Finally, the graphics.  Sure, they're pretty crappy (though still way nicer than the PC version IMO).  But one graphic design element that I really like is the line of site shadowing.  Opaque objects such as walls, or mountains or deep woods, will hide portions of the screen in shadow, because they cannot be seen through, so the characters don't know what's on the other side.  I think this really deepens the sense of exploration in the game.  I'd love to see what Final Fantasy, or even better, Dragon Warrior would play like with this design aesthetic.  

In parallel to that, I'd also like to point out that the general map design in Exodus is nice.  There is a progression of wilderness that informs travel decisions.  The party starts out in a plain, where movement is unhindered.  Winding rivers creep in from the sides.  Bordering the plain is some heavy growth roughage, where movement gets a bit slower, making the party more vulnerable to attack.  Beyond the roughage is deep forest, which obscures visibility and beyond that are impassible mountains.  

I feel a definite sense of danger the farther I wander outside of the open plain.  However, it is clear that I will need to explore the darker, more confined spaces of the game if I am ever to get anywhere.  I think these elements add up to a more active world map, rather than a passive one of many of Exodus' NES contemporaries. Though the Exodus map is rather small, in comparison. 
 

Exodus is not without its many flaws.  Of which, I forgive all. I am happily biased, and give the game the benefit of the doubt at every turn. After all, this was an important and formative game for me, and I wouldn't have it any other way. But hey, just for fun, I'll list a few of these flaws and make excuses for each of them.

Most of the character classes aren't worth playing.   But they're still fun to build, and I appreciate having the option to explore the strengths and weaknesses of a class. The map is small, but well designed.  The objectives are confusing, but the challenge to explore is its own reward.  The story is non-existent, sort of.  The difficulty at times seems as though its from bad design.  Which is in the eye of the beholder,  bad design can be viewed as another challenge to be overcome, if you so choose.  And I do.  

-D     

Read Part 1 of my Ultima Exodus review.  

Emulator Hour: Real Ultima NES challenge!

After bouncing around between some 8-bit RPGs, I've settled on Ultima: Exodus (III).  This game has its hooks in me, and I find myself thinking about it when I'm not playing.  At any given time, when I've been gaming, I have these sort of nebulous game ideas floating around the borders of my consciousness.  These are usually influenced by what I've been playing lately, and there is definitely a distinctly Exodus flavor these days.  I probably spend more time daydreaming about this game than I do playing it. 

But I am determined to play it and to make substantial progress in this very difficult NES game.  After playing through a bunch of Final Fantasy, Ultima:Exodus is refreshing in its non-linearity, party customization and challenge.  And boy, is it challenging.  It really takes time to get some momentum in this game, and it makes Final Fantasy games appear to be positively coddling to the player.  For example: Inns.  There is one Inn in Exodus, and it serves only to save the game.  No free life points.  For that you have to shell out 200 gold to a doctor who will, in exchange, heal *one* of your party members.  This is a stiff contrast to Final Fantasy where Inns are in every town and cost pocket change to heal your entire party.  Oh, and did I mention nearly every treasure chest is booby trapped?  So even if the enemies are easy, you can be killed claiming your reward.   

Much of the early part of Exodus I have spent slogging around the overworld map, grinding, exploring and trying not to die. I routinely check each town to see if there's something I missed, some useful piece of the puzzle.  But as far as I can tell, my only mission at present is to rack up gold and xp and buy armor, so that I will be ready for the new slew of super-tough enemies when I level up. 

In this game the only way to level up is by cashing-in experience points with Lord British. 

At which point, I will need to find a new lead on gold, because killing enemies just doesn't do it.  I think what I need to do is hit the dungeons which are scattered around the map, and see if there isn't some loot in there.  Of course,  when I've paid these dungeons a visit, I haven't made it out alive.  I'm hoping that the boost to HP I will get when I raise my levels up will give me what I need to survive. 

I realize that I am accustomed to a JRPG pace, which is extremely steady.  Go out, grind a while, come back stay at the inn. Grind some more, buy weapons and armor, when your strong enough, move to the next area.  Repeat.  That is the basic JRPG progression, and as far as I can tell, it's been universal since the original Final Fantasy.  (I would say Dragon Warrior, but there was actually a bit less linearity to that game).  Ultima is much different.  The game guides you very little, and much of it is discovered through exploration.  And patience.  oh, so much patience.  

But I am resolute.  The very challenge of the game is what keeps me slowly moving forward.  I don't know how long I can last, but there are milestones that I'd like to achieve.  I'd like to get in and out of a dungeon and live.  I'm thrilled to say I just reached Ambrosia.  Next I need to collect some flowers and raise some of my stats.  Then start collecting marks, which means deeper dungeon success.  After that, I'm not sure what I need, but I'll most likely be consulting strategy guides along the way.  One step at a time, there's no getting ahead of yourself in this game.  If you get ahead of yourself, you will die.  Simple as that.  

Maybe I will play it until the end.  Maybe I won't.  But for the time being, this is the game that has occupied my attention.  I don't know what I'll be playing next, but I'm thinking about Planescape: Torment,  another Western RPG that gets lots of love. 

-D

Protips:  

• Cyclo DS Evolution is a great NES Emulator system for the Nintendo DS.  It's how I play all my old favorites.
• Use the 'Open' spell to avoid traps from treasure chests.  
• Also, press 'select' when the menu is open to see a different set of options, including ones that let you share food and gold.  
• And for God's sake, read the instructions!  

Family Fun Time

got this image right off the Nintendo website

Growing up with my Family, I was the undisputed #1 fan of video games.  I'm not sure when this was clear, but I do recall working hard to prove this point, even if no one particularly wanted to compete with me for the title.  I just knew that video games were for me.  When my family bought a new TV, I insisted that the old TG&Y piece of crap TV go into my room.  And even though I had to use a pair of pliers to turn it off and on, I was a rich child- I had what I wanted.  

I moved one game system, and eventually all game systems into my room, whereupon I held dominion over them.  I don't remember asking permission, I simply remember exercising Manifest Destiny over our family's NES and SNES.  After all, hadn't it been *I* who had badgered my parents, non-stop, for what seemed like years-- to buy a Super Nintendo?  And wasn't it me who saved up his own money to buy a Nintendo 64 the day it came out?  I deserved those systems, and that was all there was to it.  My younger sister Samz may have protested. After all, she played the most video games after me, and was a stalwart co-op game ally.  But I was insistent in my role as #1 game player of the household. 

It wasn't always this way.  There was a period when video games were for the whole family.  I can't quite place it, but it was a time before the Super Nintendo, but after the Original Nintendo.  My parents tended to drag their feet about buying me new toys, they didn't seem to understand that Nintendo was the greatest thing there was, and really, the best use of their money, as far as I was concerned.  Our Atari 2600 carried us through the first couple of years after NES was released, and we finally got a Nintendo with the Super Mario/Duck Hunt cart.   I can barely remember when this happened, but I know my age was still in single digits.

Anyhow, during the time before I  took over all matters of video gaming in our house, there was a golden period of the original Nintendo Entertainment System, where we all would play games, sometimes together, as a family.   Except my Mom - my Mom never got into any games at all, and I have a fuzzy memory of her holding a controller with a dumbfounded and annoyed look, like it was something the cat dragged in:  "What am I supposed to do with this thing?"    

My Dad would definitely do the funny move-the-controller-to-make-the-car-turn action that everyone does at some point when they're new to video games.  Action games weren't really his thing.  He and my older sister Emz both showed a preference for RPG and Adventure games.   Dad and Emz didn't play many games but they did play a few pretty seriously.  And when they got involved, then it was on!   

I have to tell you, having my Dad play video games with us was probably the coolest thing in all of gaming.  I had all the enthusiasm for gaming, I wanted to play NES more than anyone, and I dedicated the most time.  But I think fondly of the group effort that resulted whenever my Dad got involved.   I experienced that wonderful balance that many of us know- between playing the game, and watching others play it, and feeling involved all the time.  I miss that.

My Dad brought in other elements of his own.  The one that stands out most in my mind was mapping.  He broke out graph paper and a ruler, and proceeded to map every dungeon in Zelda II,  and also every dungeon in Ultima Exodus.  This allowed those of us who weren't playing to participate in a significant way.  And since I was pretty young at the time, it helped me to work on the new skill of cartography (after a fashion). 


Below, I'm going to say a little bit about the games that stand out to me as Family Games.  
>>Read More

Emulator Hour: 8-bit rpg round-up

I've been on an 8-bit RPG kick of late.  It started with Final Fantasy, moved on to a translation of Final Fantasy II, then to Ultima: Quest of the Avatar, and most recently, a cell phone game called Gurk - the 8-bit RPG.   Along the way, I've made brief stops at Dragon Warrior II and Ultima: Exodus.  I guess I'm just feeling some powerful nostalgia, as this genre and these games ate up many days and hours of my young life.

At the present moment, I'm thinking of my unwillingness to play completely through these games.  Granted, I never beat Ultima:Exodus, nor did I beat Dragon Warrior II, Ultima: Avatar - and I never even played Final Fantasy II because it wasn't released in the US.  There exists, in the back of my mind, the desire to actually finish these games; perhaps with the aid of guides, save states or other modern supports of gaming.  But for the time being, I'm more content to wade into the Nostalgia pool and swim around.  However, to experience this nostalgia it is not strictly necessary to sit down and play these games. 

Images and Sound are able to carry me a long way down memory lane.  I recently remembered a fantastic website called digitpress, wherein you can find scans of dozens of NES game instruction booklets.  This is really worth a look, I was strongly struck, when reviewing the manuals for Ultima and Zelda.  There are funny elements, like the consistency of formatting between games - the one page plot summaries on the first page are good for a smile.  The cover art - so influential to me when drawing my own characters, armor designs and such. 

We've written a bit about 8-bit music on this site, and it is another great source of Nostalgia.  If you spent time playing Ultima: Exodus, the song below should be triggering for you.  

A funny thing about my memories of Ultima: Exodus vs Quest of the Avatar:  I remember preferring Exodus greatly, though when I go back to revisit these games I see that the graphical improvement between the two was massive.  Exodus looks almost ridiculous in how blocky the images are and how stiff the movement is.  Still, I remember when Avatar came out, being so excited to play a new Ultima game.  And then I was ultimately disappointed, because I felt like it looked too much like 'all those other games.'  And I think that still holds- one example of which was the choice to outline the characters in black.  This was not the style of Exodus, but became the style in Avatar, and is such a common stylistic choice that it is easily overlooked.

I guess part of my goal in playing around with these 8-bit RPGs is to study different design choices, in things like character equipment, map design and battle design.  It is my ambition to make an 8-bit style RPG of my own some day.  And actually, I've carried this ambition with me for over 20 years.  This is something I visit and revisit- I'm in no hurry, if I'm not enjoying myself, then its not worth it.  I've looked into some RPG makers, and right now I'm playing with RPG Maker VX Ace Lite - which is the free version of the $70 retail RPG maker series.  There is so much that goes into the design of a game, I have to work hard to budget my time before I'm willing to drop the cash for an RPG maker that may collect more dust than design. So far, the map builder is a blast :)

Alright, I'm heading out now.  I want to make a quick note of Gurk - the 8-bit RPG.  This is a free cell-phone RPG available for Android.  It plays like an even more low-fi version of Ultima:Exodus, if you can believe that.  No music as far as I can tell, but its got equipment, item shops, combat and dungeons.  After getting used to the interface, I think I can get into this game;  Gurk will do the job of nourishing my 8-bit RPG nostalgia while I'm away from home, without requiring me to carry my Nintendo DS along with me. 

-D

P.S.  Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of the first post on this blog.  Happy Birthday to us.

First Impressions: BIT.TRIP RUNNER, Super Meat Boy, Team Fortress 2 & Penny Arcade's On The Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness 3

Now there's a mouthful.

I've been playing a lot of games recently since I picked up a controller for PC gaming.  Oddly enough it's an Xbox 360 controller.  Odd because it's me and I don't particularly like Xbox (I personally see it as the Sega of the Console Wars Era), but their naturally USB controller and it's a Microsoft product running on a Microsoft operating system, so I thought, why not.  Anyway, onto the games.

I remember first hearing about this game from Dr. Potts when he did one of those "30 Days of Gaming" posts on facebook, of which I did one as well.  Then I saw it in one of the Humble Indie Bundles, again which Dr. Potts got for me, which I previously mentioned was how/why I got a Steam account.  Anyway, my thoughts on BIT.TRIP RUNNER.  I really like it!

I can't state that enough.  It's an amazing combination of side scrolling, rail-platformer, rhythmesque-type game.  Basically you play as Commander Video who hearkens back to a style reminiscent of Atari 2600 characters.  You run, jump, spring board, slide and kick to the sounds of 16-bit-ish style music that progresses and develops as the level progresses and as you collect speed boosts.  It's a really fun and incredibly frustrating game.  In one sitting, it took me an hour to complete a level, albeit the longest level in the game.  Then, when I showed Conklederp how hard the level was, I beat it in less than 10 minutes.  There's just something about how the music develops over the course of a level that is a real incentive to not "die" and be thrown back to the beginning of the level.  Anyway, ti's awesome.

Currrent Time Invested:  5 Hours

Super Meat Boy is another game that I received from Dr. Potts in the Humble Indie Bundle.  Again, SMB is a platformer with a penchant for completing levels as quickly as possible.  There's even a timer that counts to a hundredth-of-a-second.  That's how frantic/fast this game can be.

For the most part, I thought I was doing alright, until I watched one of the trailers and that got me a little discouraged.  I don't think I'm that "agile" and "quick" for this type of a platformer, but that's not going to keep me from playing a couple of levels every so often.  So, due to my lack to pretty-word-forming, I just recommend watching one of the teaser trailers which gives a great example of how the game plays.

In game, I've made it through only 19 seconds of this trailer.  And the first 4 seconds aren't even game play.

I do really like that whenever you pass a level, the game shows you a compilation of all your failed attempts to pass that level along with your successful attempt, all stacked up on each other.  Depending on the difficulty of the level, it could end up looking like a mass suicide cult on acid.  To sum up:  this is a really fun/infuriating game, although I don't know if I'll be "able" to finish (not "complete") it.

Current Time Invested:  70 Minutes

If you haven't already figured out, I'm pretty late when it comes to specific games, especially PC gaming.  Again exemplified by the fact that this game is 5 years old and I'm just starting to play it now; or well, late last week.  Early last week, I couldn't even tell you anything about the game except that it was an FPS, there was a Tank with a huge gun, and a Medic that always seems to be behind him.  In it's most basic form though, Team Fortress 2 is an FPS with character classes.  I think that's a really awesome concept that I haven't seen in FPS games before.  There's no campaign mode, from what I can tell anyway, only multiplayer madness, which I was a little surprised about and something I'll have to get used to.

So since this game is 5 years old, there's no sense in me going into specifics about the game that pretty much everyone seems to already know about.  Everyone except this guy!  Which is cool.  I don't feel shamed.  It's a fun game that I'll continue to play, as long as people aren't bigotty-ass-hats when it comes to shit talking.  Shit talking is fine, just don't be an annoying 10 year old bigotty-ass-hat about it.  That's all I'm asking for, just a friendly game where we can try and kill each other like civilized people.

Current Time Invested:  2 Hours

So out of the four games that I've been dipping my toes into, with Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3, I've sort of dunked my entire body in and only occasionally come up for air.  As of the writing of this, I've put in 8 hours of game play and I feel like I might be halfway through.  Maybe.  I'm not sure.

Precipice 3 continues with similar themes and styles of game play that were present in the first two installments, although there seems to be a serious lack of Fruit Fuckers in this game, but I think that was explained in the end of Precipice 2.  Either way, my reasoning for feeling that I'm at least half-way through the game is that since there are a pre-set number of enemy encounters (enemies are visible on screen), which means there's a pre-set amount of gold/gil/$ available and I just bought the highest level weapons for my party.  Maybe I'm farther along than I thought?  I hope not, because I really like this game, but since it's made by Zyboyd games (the same people who did Cthulhu Saves the World and Breath of Death VII).

There's a lot of references to previous RPGs of the NES genre such as Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy, and there's a music cue that I swear sounds like the "Overworld" theme from Ultima III: Exodus, but maybe that's just me.

Current Time Invested:  8 Hours

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
The Parts of My Brain Fighting for Control

Also, this game comes out (again) in 11 days.
It will consume your life (again).