Sunday, October 27, 2013

Halloween Gaming 2013

I love the autumn and especially Halloween. Every year I gear up to the 31st by watching scary movies and carving pumpkins. This year I decided to pick out games for the spooky season. There are many games I could have gone with, but here is the lineup that I have chosen.  Luckily "Gone Home" was on sale on Steam the day I went to buy it (bonus!). "Lakeview Cabin," a browser game (on GameJolt and Kongregate) was released purposefully on the Halloween season and from what I have been following it has great atmosphere. "Slender" needs no introduction but I haven't played it yet and I haven't watched any Youtube videos on it either.....  Hopefully I get enough time to play all three.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

The Wolf Among Us (PC)


'The Wolf Among Us' was an easy choice for me. After playing Telltale's 'Walking Dead' and '400 Days' and reading a few of the Fables comics, I knew that Telltale's newest tale was going to be good. I love the idea of episodic gaming, which fits perfectly into my time scheduled and my attention span. You can play through an episode and it feels like watching an awesome television show that you've been put in control of. Also, the slow release of episodes give you time to think about your decisions, try out new ones and get excited for the release of the next episode.

From what I have seen in the first episode, The Wolf Among Us is going to be a more mature than the original 'Fables' comics (at least the storyline that I read). The melding of well-known fairy tale lore and hard-boiled detective story makes for some great storytelling and fun double-meanings, all wrapped in an eye-popping colourful New York. But be warned, if you have sensitive ears then you might want to turn the volume down; I haven't played a game that drops this many F-bombs.... can't wait for Episode 2.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Derez Infinite (Browser)



Derez Infinite is a trippy endless runner with cool backgrounds and no screen shake and a slick neon colour scheme. Maybe it's just another Canabalt clone, except it's got a game-changing mechanic: it's  DownRez and Uprez effect. Every time you hit a little white arrow you "gain resolution" and your screen looks like above. If you hit a black bat like creature your resolution goes down and you see something like the screenshot below.

I'm so into this game that I actually signed up for Gamejolt and went through the whole process of getting my avatar setup - now I'm 2nd on the leaderboard (only behind the developer himself).


When your REZ gets too low it suddenly gets really hard to see what you are doing.


Die and theres a very scary windows error noise followed by a faux-blue screen. That sound makes me jump every time. It's pretty much the scariest sound in the computing world if you ask me.


It's got different colour schemes and different difficulty levels.


There is even a little intro, very cyberpunky-80s scifi I liked it alot.

In conclusion Derez Infinite does so much right : soundtrack, intro, colours, mechanic, simplicity - I really wish I could play it on my iphone, or on my ouya. It fits perfectly into my gaming habits as a busy father - quick rounds and highscores, next to no loading time and no violence so I can play it around the kids. Go play it now and beat my highscore!

Play it now, play it here.


Sunday, October 13, 2013

Games That I Bought This Week

 The Wolf Among Us (PC) : After The Walkind Dead, I knew that Telltale was going to make good on a preorder.

 Descent 1 & 2 (PC) : I have a long love affair with these games, and gog.com had a sale: perfect.

 Sky Tourist (iOS) : Loved the artstyle and funky interesting control scheme.

 Mirror Moon Ep (OUYA) : After Fotonica I have been watching the development of this title and glad that it came out on the Ouya at the same time it got a PC release - nice!

 Dark Void Zero (PC) : An official Capcom "demake" - looks really authentic and only cost me a buck, nothing wrong with that.

 Race the Sun (PC) : This really fits into the kinds of games I am interested in right now and thanks to "notonsteam.com" I could afford to give it a chance.

Dungeon Keeper 1 & 2 (PC) : Another game on sale for a ridiculously low price - I couldn't resist. I have great memories of playing the DK series and actually, so does my wife.


Saturday, October 12, 2013

The Republika Times (Browser)


I played Republika Times because I had read an article about Lucas Pope's upcoming (at that time) game "Papers Please." Once I played it I knew that I had to get Papers Please.

In the The Republika Times you are a newspaper editor. You're family is being held hostage by your oppressive regime of a government. They will be punished if you do not do what the regime tells to you to. Your job is to gain readership to the newspaper while also increasing loyalty to the government. But what you don't expect from a little browser game with a very simple mechanic is that there is actually a story as well. There's also a really good twist. Imagine that, a thought-provoking game, simple in design and mechanic, but memorable and original.

The stark black and white and red palette works so well (especially for a game based on newspapers) as does the old-school windows 3.11 look of your "workspace." The clock in the top left corner is a perfect device to add a pressing challenge to your workday, ahhhhhh I just love it.

What should we call these kinds of games? They create awareness and perhaps even educate, they are thought-provoking and even political. I've run into a few of these lately and I have yet to find a good term for them, although they are definitely apart of a growing genre as games grow up and strive to become more then just squashing koopas.

You can play the game (and I suggest you do) at : http://dukope.com/

Let me know what you think.




Friday, October 11, 2013

JAWS Text Adventure (Browser)

Back in the day text adventures were the Skyrim. This game was a welcome distraction, it's very short but based on one of my favourite movies and though it doesn't give you much freedom to tryout strange commands it's got parts in it that will make you smile and chuckle - especially if you are a fan of the movie.

Play it here.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Ace of Spades (PC/Steam)


Yikes, I popped this one on the other day. I knew it was going to be kinda sucky - I could see from the rating but I wanted to give it a chance anyhow. You know, it's Minecraft meets Team Fortress or something like that, but the problem for me was that I couldn't find anyone to play with on the servers. So I was stuck with joining on of the only places I could find people playing which was some kind of zombie game. I ran around for a bit playing 1v1 with some stranger that knew the game infinitely better than me and then after dying countless times I decided I had seen enough - bits of the game are designed well and look pretty good, others are not but overall the gameplay just wasn't enough to keep me interested. If I want to play Minecraft then I will, if I want to play a competitive multiplay FPS then I have enough of those kicking around then I actually enjoy, am good at and are full of other players. So....no thanks Ace of Spaces : deleted.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Video : Alone - on the Oculus Rift - A Game Within A Game!



Game within a game? I'm listening...

I haven't really been following the Oculus Rift that much I have to admit. I think that playing games in 3d doesn't interest me too much - yet. After seeing this video I am more interested in the new game-design possibilities that could come together with the Oculus Rift and, after watching this, I spent a whole night watching Youtube videos of people testing the hardware.... now I will be paying more attention. I just wanted to share this....

....could you imagine what would happen if the guys from Bioshock, Gone Home or Silent Hill get a hold of this?

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Greedy Dwarf


Greedy Dwarf attracted me because of the centric-focused gravity-twisting that I thought would blend perfectly with simply controls that touch screens allow and with the endless runner genre. Unfortunately, Greedy Dwarf is not an Endless Runner and it breaks up the fun into little levels - which for me, ruined the fun. It did get me thinking about some other games though - and I went off looking for more Tempest-like, Super Hexagon-like and Star Fox-Like games.... as you can see in the following posts. I was interested in perspective, centric tunneling focus and maybe a 3d effect....funny how many games can fit into that category, suddenly they were popping up everywhere.

But this game wasn't one of them, it could have been so great - make it an endless runner, call it "Greedy Dwarf 2" and I am in, until them : deleted.


Not only can you twist the level to keep the dwarf on stable ground, but you can jump and jump to switch sides.....it gets pretty difficult pretty quick.


Nice little bit of level design and variety in the game too.


Seems simple: it's just the same, except I am on the ceiling....erm, it's not.


Camera changes and now you see the miner in his minecart from the side, time your jumps.....