MIDI Week Singles: "Forest Theme" - Super Amazing Wagon Adventure (PC)

"Forest Theme" from Super Amazing Wagon Adventure on the PC (2013)

Composer: sparsevector

Soundtrack Released: Self Released

Developer: sparsevector

Publisher: Self Published

Before I wrote up today's article, I don't think I realized that sparsevector Amenábarred (or Rodríguezed too) this video game.  Think what The Men Who Wear Hats did with their Oregon Trail parody, Organ Trail, but instead of the zombie apocalypse, it's about heading out west, to Oregon (I presume since I haven't beaten the game) to strike it rich panning/mining/dynamiting for gold.  So more like Oregon Trail, but with automatic weapons. . .and rabid squirrels. . .and a retaliatory herd of deer. . .and a meteor shower. . .in space.

"Forest Theme" is the beginning song that you will hear every time you start up the game as it's the starting area.  It's that first song that sucks you into the retro-esque-ness of the world.  If you're going to be picky, as I occasionally am, the music here is beyond what you would actually find in the original Oregon Trail game and even possibly the 8-bit NES music processing chip, but the flavor is still there.  Basically it's a catchy little ditty that does its job very well.

And if you liked this one song, then you can hop on over to Mr. vector's bandcamp site and download the album for free (there's even a great rap remix version of the "Desert Theme").

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

We'll Be Coming Back Together

MIDI Week Singles: "Haters Gonna Hate" - Tiny Barbarian DX: The Serpent Lord

"Haters Gonna Hate" from Tiny Barbarian DX: The Serpent Lord on the PC (2013)
Released on BandCamp
Composer: Jeff Ball
Developers: StarQuail Games

And yet another game that I have yet to play purchased from Humble Flash Bundle: Modern Retro.  I was actually on the fence about buying this particular bundle until I watched the video and heard the music from Super Amazing Wagon Adventure and Tiny Barbarian DX: The Serpent Lord.  While the concept of SAWA was influential in and of itself, it was the clip of music from TBDX:TSL that really made me cough up whatever amount I decided to fork over that was over the average amount to get everything from this bundle.

"Haters Gonna Hate" makes me think of Souleye's music from VVVVVV, but with a blood dripping claymore in one hand, the skull of a fallen foe in the other while charging down a hill of bones towards a scantily clad virgin on a stonehenge-esque altar who is about to be sacrificed to the evil Serpent Lord.  There's a little more light hearted aggression here, which is perfect for the type of game that TBDX:TSL looks to be.  I am only a little afraid of finding out that I am in fact terrible at the game and the only enjoyment I am able to extract is this great song from a equally great soundtrack.  And really, that wouldn't be too terrible of a thing.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
A Magic Missile Shoots and Fireball Explodes

MIDI Week Singles: "Where Are You" - thomas was alone (PC)

For my last post of 2014, I wanted to cover a song that was the first song I thought of as far as gaming in 2014.  "Where Are You" by David Housden from thomas was alone was that one song.

"Where Are You" from Thomas Was Alone on PC (2012)

thomas was alone Original Soundtrack

Record Label: Digital Self Release

Composer: David Housden

Game Developer: Mike Bithell

I'm afraid of calling "Where Are You" a beautifully simplistic piano and ambient piece of video game music, but that's the easiest explanation of the song.  For me, not only is the music itself beautiful, but it also is about as nostalgic as something can be with less than a year gone by.

So goodbye 2014, and we'll see you in all your glory tomorrow in 2015.



JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
The Sounds of the World Driving By.

Path of Exile: FOR THE LOVE OF ODIN PLAY THIS!

You know, do not even ask me about the "Forsaken Masters" part as I do not really know.  But Path of Exile, I do not think I have ever sunk this much time into a free-to-play game.  Even the previously mentioned Clash of Clans or Plants vs. Zombies 2.  No, not even Mafia Wars, which was way back in the day, as far as I am concerned.

At the moment I have put 35 hours into this game, although that number seems to be growing week-by-week.  But let us talk about the game.

Bloody hell this game is beautiful, just take a look at this dank and infested dungeon!

and a spectral-esque-type forrest.

Now if I only played good looking games, there would be room for an argument here, but I am also playing a lot of The Elder Scrolls: The Arena which looks a lot like Doom with a sword and heal potions.  PoE plays remarkably well too.  Think Diablo, with bits of Torchlight II thrown in (stationary waypoints) as well as MMORPG action hot key type actions as well.   There are even some improvements such as removable gem socketing in weapons and armor without damaging either the equipment or the gems.  I think that is one of the things that helped to sell the game.  

There are even little individual animations that the enemies do.  For instance, an enemy archer will run towards you, stop, pull an arrow from their quiver, lick the fletching, knock the arrow then fire towards you.  That is, if you haven't already shot them yet.  If you zoom in as close as you can, you can see the corpses of fallen enemies twitching a couple of times before they lie permanently prone.  At first I thought it was either a glitch or my eyes playing tricks, but no, you can see hands and feet twitching a few times.  Sometimes monsters will also roar at you before or during attacks, you know, because their wild animals that just happen to want you very dead.

Oddly enough, one of the best things about this games is all the ways Grinding Gear Games does not charge you to play and there are a lot of aspects to this game that I feel that could have been used to create options to pay real world money.  You want to enchant that sword to a +1 to damage, pay 50 gold (translates to $0.50).  You want to recover that life sapping gem from your armor that you no longer want, that will be 200 gold.  You want to create more than one character, pay us 500 gold to create extra character slots beyond your first character.  Of everything that I have seen that the game charges money for, everything appears to be cosmetic.  Sure you have your swag stashed in a chest that has four pages of a 12x12 grid and you can pay for a fifth page, but I do not foresee needing that much space considering I am currently only playing one character.

Basically, there was one time when I left the game for the sole purpose of finding out how I could give Grinding Gear Games money using real money.  Maybe buy a package thing via Steam using my Steam Wallet.  I could not.  There was nothing I could do but use their in-game market.  That was not was I was looking for, so I have yet to give them currency validation towards their great game.

Similar to Diablo and Torchlight, I do have a problem with hoarding.  When I found gems, I saved them until I could create the next higher quality gem, then I saved that gem until I could create the next. . .so on and so on.  I was always paranoid that I would find a better weapon or suit of armor and that gem that I had soldered into my equipment would then be lost forever.  Thankfully in PoE, this is not the case as I can take out and remove gems as frequently as I want (unless otherwise noted in the description of the gem).  Grinding Gear is making this game too easy to like and doing things that I had wanted earlier Diablo-esque games to do.

There are a handful of other features from the game that surprised me.  At first, I was annoyed that the maps were a lot smaller than what I was used to on Torchlight II, but I quickly realized that they were more like the Diablo maps and one of the sidequest goals is to kill every monster on the map.  That would be quite the feat in Torchlight II.  Another is that your health and mana potions autofill as you kill enemies and whenever you return to town, which makes healing spells almost obsolete.  It can become difficult however when you have to go up against a boss that does not want to summon creatures to help fight against you, which would then refill your potion bottles.

To date, I have only played cooperatively once with Chreekat a month or two back.  And while the game could be played with friends, you don't have to and I feel that playing locally would be a lot more fun than playing across the country.  That being said, I am usually up for playing cooperatively if people are interested.  That then brings me to the online-ness of the game.  Unless you are intentionally playing with anyones else, all the areas, with the exception of the towns/villages are instanced.  You do not have to worry about other people running around in the same area stealing your kills and loot.

The only negative statement I have to make about this game is that it takes a while to load.  The first couple of times I tried playing, I gave up because I thought the game was stuck on the loading screen.  It turned out that I just had to wait a minute or two, then everything was as I expected it to be.  There was no noticeable lag in the game and the only times the game had to load was moving between areas.

I am going to stop now so I can get this out there.  Path of Exile has been out there in the world for 13 months now and honestly, it is never too late to pick up this game and start playing.  So, you should go and start playing as it is just too much fun to not play.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
The Great Warriors of Doom and Wind

Year in Review ~ 2013: Year of the PC

Well damn.  Only four days left in 2013, which is hard for me to imagine considering that I remember at the beginning of the year thinking about resolutions, none of which I kept.  I had planned to write 10 songs this year and paint "more" miniatures.  None of that happened.  What I did do though, was become more deeply rooted in PC gaming and I read more books (including comic books a la The Walking Dead).

2013 began with my computer in the shop after spilling a beer (again) onto the keyboard.  I gave the first two games in The Elder Scrolls series a go, two posts which seemed to be pseudo-popular with our target audience.

Looking back at what I've written, I noticed that the first half of the year I dedicated a lot of time to 3DS play while the second half of the year, there was very little in the way of 3DS games that I reviewed.  Of course not to forget the PSP, of which I only reviewed a single game the entire year.  And yet, I still like the PSP as a gaming platform, I don't use it as a portable gaming platform as I do with the 3DS.  I've noticed that I predominantly play the PSP whenever I'm home, which then presents the dilemma that since I'm at home, why don't I just play one of the many PC games that are gathering dust on my hard drive?

But really, 2013 was The Year of the PC for me.  My PC games library grew from something manageable to something that I'm surprised hasn't started reproducing on it's own.  And actually, reproduction has occurred with a couple of the games through Steam.  In one of the auto updates, Anna added an "Extended Edtion" without my knowledge.  Left 4 Dead 2 Beta became something that sparked questioning throughout the Steamverse for a week or two.  You're welcome Linux users.  Company of Heroes was released with a "New Steam Version" and since I haven't played any of those games from one of the Humble Bundles (back before they became an every day/week/month sale thing).

It was also the year that I visited both Kickstarter and Indiegogo a few times to back games that I wanted to see made.  Two Out of Three Ain't Bad, but I really would have like to have seen Shadow of the Eternals be made and Precursor Games stay around as a game development company.  I will see Beyond the Sleep and Darkwood come into fruition sometime in the coming year, so I am happy that at least two indie game companies are able to see their vision.

I will sometimes think back about what the mission statement that Dr. Potts and I had for when we created our little space here in the electronic void.  In our pre-production days, the thought of doing predominantly "retro games" was an idea that looked very tasty, and looking back throughout the year, I 've realized that that is something that I have not personally done a lot of.  I blame my lack of components that allow my SNES and N64 to be played on the schnazzy HDLEDC3POTV that sits six and-a-half feet from me.

I also found myself watching more-and-more over at LoadingReadyRun.  I guess I just have a thing for Canadians:  Nathan Fillion, John Candy, Caroline Dhavernas, Dave Foley, Ryan Reynolds, Jewel Staite, Conklederp.

So I'm now going to cut myself off before I continue to ramble on more than I already tend to do (thanks Dad).

Happy New Year everyone.  I don't want to say "Hopefully 2014 will be. . ." because I thought 2013 was a pretty damn good year as far as years go.  It wasn't the all time greatest year of the year, but that would be rather hard to beat.  Now, I don't want to make any promises, but in the coming year, look forward to more reviews that are/will be at least 6 months behind the release date of the game, or if you're lucky, it might be upwards of 20 years late.  But that how we do here.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Hanging Out With No One But Me

Monthly Update: November 2013

Happy November lovely people!  Jesus these months are flying by, at least they are on this end.  I've been somewhat busy, both on the working side and on the video gaming side.  Conklederp and I are also busy making plans of the matrimonial type, but there's many months to go before Convergence takes place, Altman be praised.

Since this isn't a blog about work, let's skip right to video games.

A couple of months back I posted about Donkey Kong Country Rerurns 3D, and I'm still working my way though the island that apparently has the tastiest bananas in existence.  I think the only lifeform that has yet to go after Kong's banana's are aliens, but I missed all the DKC after Diddy Kong's Quest so I might be mistaken on that front.  One thing that I forgot to mention in the original post was that I had to change the control scheme from the default to the alternative setting.  The default control scheme has you using the joystick to control DK, which I couldn't figure out why I didn't like it.  That is until I realized that the last time I played a DKC game was on the SNES, which still used a directional pad.  So that's what I'm using.  I've forgone the joystick for the directional pad and I'm a lot happier.  The only downside is that I now "have" to use the L/R triggers to do DK's characteristic slap-the-ground move and the newer blow when crouched, which is an ability that almost/practically useless.

Another issue that I've having with DKCR3D is that it's pretty difficult, especially the mine cart stages.  There are a lot of jumps that you have to make while ducking in the cart and if you jump a millisecond too soon you smash your head onto a spikey ceiling (and die) or if you jump too late you plunge to your death (and die. . .again?).  There's a reason why there are times in the game when you have close to 30 lives.  The game is designed with this in mind.  You are going to die.  Alot.  I would love to see a runthrough of someone going through the game on their first try without dying.  Actually I wouldn't, because then I might hate myself.

Next onto Ace Combat Assault: Assault Horizon - Extended Edtion, which I talked a bit about last week.  I would now like to make a correction.  In the post, I said that I had been playing on the "Easy" (or what the game slaps you with by calling you a "Rookie") difficulty setting, when in fact I was apparently playing on "Pilot," which is the equivalent of "Normal."  I realized this mistake when I booted the game up, went to free missions and noticed that I had a score when selecting "Pilot" as opposed to "Rookie."  So I started over again and wouldn't you know it, the game is easier.  Not a whole lot easier, I don't know if I would even attempt the game on "Elite" (aka "Hard"), but the game has now become fun again, although it's still pretty difficult, especially when you engage DFM (Dog Fight Mode) and the enemy plane plunges "below the hard deck" and you automatically follow, practically flying into mountains, creating a bit of lag because you shouldn't be able to fly through mountains.  Frequently your plane bounces of said mountains and you end up disengaging.  Despite the game being pseudo-less-hard, it's still pretty difficult for being on the easiest setting.

Back in mid-August, I posted about Plants vs Zombies 2: It's About Time and how it only came out on iOS.  Well, a couple of weeks back that all changed and was released on Android OS and just like iOS, the game is free with all the same in game purchases available.  Now, I'm not going to do an entirely separate First Impressions for playing it on my phone as it's the same game.  the only difference is that now my fingers cover more of the screen while playing, which has only been an issue a couple of times.(planting plants in the wrong spot or accidentally giving plant food to a plant while picking up suns).  I also decided to purchase the Snow Pea Shooter with my justification being that the game itself is free, and I've very much enjoyed it so why not show some monetary appreciation.

In the last couple of days in October, both Conklederp and I went through The Stanley Parable Demo, which was a lot of fun.  I don't want to give anything away, which I would easily do by talking more about the demo than I am doing right now.  I won't even say what it reminded me of or, really, anything else.  I should just stop right now.  Although I will say that (at least right now), the demo is not controller compatible, which is odd because it seems controller support would be perfect for this type of game.  Alright, I've said too much.  Go play the demo.

I see November being a similar month, gaming-wise, as October, although more turkey and most likely more running, which I'm going to get back into, tomorrow or at the very latest, Sunday.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
I Want To Touch The Other Side

November Monthly Update

Image taken from:  http://www.videogameobsession.com/videogame/merchandise/posters_flyers_stickers_etc/Nintendo_Calendar_1990/index.htm

I haven't played much games lately.  Mostly I've been working my ass off.  Also:  staying on my sisters couch in her tiny house.  And quite frankly, she tends to say judgmental things about video games which discourages me from playing them.  Even though I get a lot of alone time, I also feel compelled to work during that time, to help prepare her house for her upcoming wedding reception.  I have this little mean elf-goblin-thing on my shoulder that says 'you don't want to be the lazy ass that plays video games all day and doesn't work enough, you unemployed piece of shit!'  The elf looks kind of like my sister.  But I'm likely projecting.

Anyway, it's down to the wire, and I'm fighting these bad feelings more, and playing a bit more, y'know, to relax.  Trying to get through Mirror's Edge. I'm pretty far.  I think I might have enough new data to generate a full review, but the short version is:  Fun game, deeply flawed.  So very close to awesome.

I'm also playing Anodyne, which is pretty rad.  That's the one that's got my attention, and the one I think of when my thoughts are wandering.  I doubt it's too long.  I expect maybe four or five hours.  Creepy Zelda clone; like it!

I sort of left Fez out of the story.  I will return to it, but I think I want to do so under circumstances when I can really put a lot of attention into it, rather than playing while looking over my shoulder for judgmental sisters. (It's crazy how these dynamics pursue me into adulthood.  It doesn't hurt that I've got no steady source of income and have placed myself in a position to be somewhat dependent on her.)

Alright, so far I've:  torn down a wall of drywall, put up a wall of wood, hacked down way overgrown backyard, dug out a chinaberry bush, dug up a thirty foot driveway and am in the process of laying out four cubic feet of gravel on said driveway.  And I don't have a metal rake, just a floppy piece of shit leaf rake.

I'm done with manual labor for a while.  I'm taking breaks so I don't hurt myself.  Or anyone else.  On to Anodyne!  ... Yep, it's still cool, getting better as I play it!

-D

P.S. here's an article called "Plagiarize This" from a new (to me) website called Gameological Society.  The article is about particular game mechanics that you'd like to see used more often.  There are some cool ideas in the article and more in the comments.  Check it out, if your into that sort of thing (I'm really into that sort of thing!)

Steam's Summer Sale 2013 Part IIb: The Collectible Card Game: Special Executive Limited Edition #13,847/29,835,627

If you haven't noticed already, Steam's Summer Sale is in full swing.  From July 11th (which is now in the past) through July 22nd, Steam will have sales on too many games that I kind of want to play but because it's now 75% off and is now $4.99, I have to buy it.  Right now.  If there ever was an online event where the Shut Up And Take My Money meme was intended for, this surely seems it.

Recently Steam has also introduced a collectable card game-type thing for a select number of games.  The cards don't really do anything aside from just being there.  Let's take Portal 2 for example.  As you play Portal 2, you can randomly acquire cards during "drops," which are then viewed only after you close down the game.  You'll be notified that you have something new in you InBox and then you can view your pretties.  Each game has about eight available cards and once you have acquired each card, you're able to "craft" them into a badge, something that Steam has already been doing for a while.  

For Portal 2, this is what my screen looks like:

Notice the blue typescript "No card drops remaining."  So how do I collect the rest of the cards?  By trading and/or buying them.  You might also notice the "I'm A Potato! 100XP."  That's part of the badge system-thing too.  Each Steam account has an associated "Experience Points," that. . . um. . . do something?  Steam says that "Your Steam Level [XP] is a summary of your badges and participation in Steam events.  Each badge earned increases your XP, and earning XP progresses you towards the next Steam level."  That's like saying the definition of "Difficult" is saying that, "it's something that difficult."  Thanks Steam.

As for the cards themselves, you can acquire more than one of the same card and when/if this happens, you can do a couple of things with your duplicates.  1) Do nothing and just have multiples.  2) Trade them with your Steam friends.  3) Put them up for sale.  

A couple of weeks ago, I was able to sell three duplicate cards for a grand total of $0.85, but that was because I was selling the cards for about $0.05 less than the average asking price.  That "earned income" then went to whatever it was that I recently purchased during SSS; it might've been BIT.TRIP Presents. . . Runner 2: Legend of Future Alien or the Complete Half-Life collection.  The last four days have been a bit of a blur really.

I only have a slight problem/issue with the whole cards thing.  It seems/feels kind of gimmicky.  Back when Mafia Wars was in it's heyday, there were events/sales/missions where you could acquire a super-special-awesome-weapon with killer stats (pun intended) that you can only acquire if you complete this mission that you can only complete if you have a lot of friends to help out and if you recharge your energy at an exorbitant rate, which you can only do if you spend real money to buy energy refills which you then use up trying to get that one damnable item that works like an untraceable cellphone but is special-event specific and you know that you may not have enough to complete the overall mission before the end of the special event runs out.  You know, one of those type of things.  Anyway, that's kind of what the cards and badges thing feels like to me.  I'm not going to spend real money for these.  

Now, I might spend money that I make from selling cards, but that's just real fictional money anyway.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Enjoying My Burrito