The Talos Principle (PC)

I don't need a new game. I don't need a new distraction at all. I am sitting in a new apartment surrounded by boxes and instead of unpacking them and setting up furniture I find myself eyeing this weekend's Steam sale : The Talos Principle.

(screenshot from the Demo)

I've had it on my Steam wishlist so long I can't even remember what it's about and the trailer wasn't really that much of a turn on, but after reading about it I knew why I had put it on my wishlist.

Without extensive reading I was already bumping into quotes like : "a game that is every bit as smart as it purports to be" - "thought provoking narrative that delves with class into profound philosophical questions" -  "a soul-searching experience" - "it changed me" .... apparently this is the real deal....

I wish I had more time to play games and really delve into their worlds and get lost. If I am going to spend my time on them then I would love if it was something entertaining and thought provoking and if it 'changes' me in the meantime....

(screenshot from the demo - where can i get this as a screensaver?!)

The point is that often I find myself frustrated chasing highscores and playing though the same RPG stories or climbing up and down some online competitive FPS ladders....sometime's I crave meat, not just potato chips.

So, I downloaded the demo - thanks guys by the way since my computer is failing to run Alien: Isolation properly I was glad to have a demo to test first before I bought the game to find out that it also doesn't work - it turns out the demo, the writing, the mystery got me hooked and I had to get it.

I downloaded it over my excruciatingly slow internet connection (thanks Deutsche Telekom!) and it only took 6 and a half hours! So I didn't get to take a look until tonight.

(screenshot from the full game)

The game is made by Croteam - from Zagreb, Croatia (you know, "the mecca of video games" *wink*) You might know them from the series Serious Sam, they've been around since 1993 yet somehow still managed to stay indie and not get bought by EA or crushed by Activision.

This game is published by Devolver Digital (as it seems that almost everything is that I am playing or want to play is these days) and the story was written by Tom Jubert of 'The Swapper' and 'FTL' and Jonas Kyratzes of 'The Sea Will Claim Everything.' Not too shabby. 

The story and the gameplay is unfolding slowly but leading to some interesting comparisons to games like Portal, the Stanley Parable and even Myst. I have even read mention of a Animus comparison from the Assassins Creed games. If you like any one of those then you should take a look at The Talos Principle.

Heavy Bullets (PC)

I played Heavy Bullets before Devolver Digital got involved and thought it was already a striking and sexy - although a little rough around the edges. Now that its been given a full release - its great and I highly recommend it. I guess the stand-out point of Heavy Bullets (apart from sound and graphics) is your sole weapon; a six shooter. You also have to retrieve the bullets after you fire them, making every shot feel important. All the enemies are destroyed with one hit but this doesn't mean it's easy as every corner you turn could be your last. I found myself turning each corner and breaching each doorway like I was playing Rainbow Six!

(Yes, that little line mentioning Broforce did make me return to Broforce only to get my butt kicked so hard by that game that I stopped after 1 hour again....)

I've put in about 18 hours already into Heavy Bullets and only been to the end boss once. I really do love video games that unabashedly look like video games. It's not trying to realistically recreate a world or weather or a motion captured actor's face; it's just a cool game. I found myself wanting to play this game really BIG - and will probably get a friend to bring over a projector eventually so that I can.

The world looks like an 80's Miami Vice club version of Wolfenstein and it actually made me quite nostalgic for a slew of games : Descent mostly (the secrets in that game!) but also basement sessions of Wolfenstein on my first PC and made me pine for the days where I religiously played Halo online.... ah the good ol' days.

The idea of a world inside a computer really fits into my whole 'Tron' phase that I am having at the moment too. (Check out the show Tron: Uprising - it's worth a look). I also would recommend playing with headphones and turning the game up really loud - using the audio clues in the world gives you a heads-up on enemy and vending machine positions. Just a quick thought : How cool would this be with the Oculus Rift?

The one headline I read about Heavy Bullets upon it's release really helped me to enjoy and understand the game: 'A Spelunky FPS.' If you treat Heavy Bullets like a rogue-like then you are really going to understand the mechanics and the gameplay a lot more and if you play it with that in mind it's extremely exciting and each death is devastating.

Every attempt at the game sets you back at the beginning but you can feel yourself learning something with every failure. This balance is what makes Heavy Bullets so enjoyable - you die for sure but it's not going to be in vain as you will have learned something about the map, an item or an enemy so that each session leads you a bit deeper....just like Spelunky. Unlike Spelunky however, you can really take your time with this which is a nice touch.

There are vending machines scattered throughout the labyrinth that you can use to store items, buy upgrades or deposit coins for your next run. The items are sometimes downright quirky but even the ones that you may first deem to be useless soon prove to be otherwise as you understand them better.

The session length really suited me at the moment (at about an hour) and added to that was the bonus that you boot the game and are thrown right into the action without any distractions or relearning of items and inventory - it's distilled FPS fun. Check it out - in the meantime I am going to take a break because I made it to the end boss but I am a little burnt out on it for now.

AltecApollyon : This Week's Gaming

This week quite a few games have gone through my addicted twitching fingers. I traveled up north on a train to have a weekend away with my family (they were already there) and so I had some good alone time in the train to check out some iPad games I hadn't had a chance to.

Blek (Kunabi Brother), Eliss Infinity (Little Eyes) and Tengami (Nyamyam) I played on the iPad in the train. I had blown through about 30 levels of Blek  the first time I played but now I am quite stuck at level 38. Eliss Infinity I booted up just to catch up with my iPhone savegame because I got stuck as well and thought that I might be able to get further using the larger screen of the iPad (makes sense if you see what the game is about). Tengami I have been wanting to play for a while and after playing it for about 20 minutes I decided I was going to keep it to show my daughter since it seemed like something we could do together. Loving the style of that one though. There seem to be a growing number of games influenced by origami - I'll have to start making a list.

I ended up spending two days of my three day weekend almost completely in bed because I was dying of allergies. i guess I wasn't designed to be out in nature. When my eyelids weren't scratching my eyeballs like sandpaper and I wasn't gulping for air I was playing Device 6 (Simogo) and Xibalba (Phoboslab) on my iPhone. I finished both that weekend! One night my wife and I checked out Talisman (Nomad Games) on the iPad. It was difficult to enjoy through watering eyes and sinus migraine and I really want to give it another chance at home with Airplay. I do however have something against digital boardgame conversions that are heavy on the usage of dice.

On the way home in the train there were a few quiet moments where our two children were happily playing or distracted by something else. When this happens my wife and I never speak for fear of interrupting it, we just enjoy the moment and let them be - I checked up Kiwanuka (CMA Megacorp) and David (Fermenter Games) for the first time both which failed to really grip me, which I found surprising. I also started Deep Loot (Monster and Monster) which I wasn't immediately taken with but then over the next few days it got me and I bought the coin doubler and invested some time in that.

We came home on Sunday night and the daily routines resumed immediately. All week while bringing the kids to bed or pass the time waiting, I was playing Deep Loot. I also downloaded it onto the iPad to see if my daughter could play it.

Super Puzzle Platformer Deluxe (Adult Swim) came out on OUYA last week and I jumped at it, even though I already own it on the PC. It's a great fit on the OUYA and I've been preaching that since I first played it. It's also something that my wife will play so that's an added bonus. We got ourselves some snacks and once the kids were in bed we had a match (we count until 21 wins) and as expected it plays well on the little console.

I also found the time this week to play another episode of The Wolf Among Us (Telltale). The last time I tried to play it my computer died on me and after sending it to a friend for diagnosis it turned out that my RAM was fried. So this time I played the first 20 minutes of the episode cautiously even though it wasn't really the game that caused the problem. The storytelling in that game rivals TV shows.

The other evenings were used to try to make progress in Gods Will Be Watching (Devolver Digital\Deconstructeam) which has turned out to be a seriously difficult game - apparently I am not the only one that thinks so, Deconstructeam has announced a new update with a new difficultly setting.

Of course I had to pop on to our Minecraft Realm (Mojang) to do my chores and get some resources. I made the mistake of playing while my two year old son was watching - at the moment he always wants to see spiders - and I died in an abandoned mine under my house and lost my enchanted chest plate and a really special enchanted bow. So I felt that I needed to make up for that a little at least by getting back what I had lost.

On the weekend I played Secrets of Raetikon (Broken Rules) and Haunt the House: Terrortown (SFB Games) for the kids. Their attention span isn't long so I didn't have much time with either - but it's fun to show them some games and hear how they interpret what is going on. My daughter even helped me with some of the buttons in Terrortown since there is no real time pressure in the game.

I also tried to checkout Godus  (22cans) and I bought Crawl  ( Powerhoof) based on their awesome trailer (as I already posted about) and picked up Cook, Serve, Delicious (Vertigo Gaming) for a measly $2 at the Humble Store. Work simulators are also a strange genre but somehow I like them.

Alright, so I played too many games this week. I need to cut back and really concentrate on a few. I know that already thanks, but the original idea of this blog was actually to log what I was playing to give me an overview; why I do and what I choose - and also to get me writing again and to be more aware on how I spend my time. Well, now I know.

Dungeon Hearts (iOS)

Devolver Digital (of Serious Sam & Hotline Miami) has recently released Dungeon Hearts - a twist on the match three genre. You play a band of heros that stand in the oncoming wake of the "fatestream" - four lines on which little gems slide towards them. By matching these gems, mixing and linking them horizontally and vertically, you create combos and damage and kill of monsters in your way. After every battle you get a chance to play a mini puzzle on the fatestream to level up your characters, and then they get skills etc. The monsters have gems too and when these reach your heroes they take damage or other bad things happen, blindness, freezing, the usual. The whole thing looks like Guitar Hero mixed with Bejeweled mixed with Hero's Academy - which is good, the lack of actual violence and the colourful gameplay makes is possible to play infront of my little daughter (who loves to watch her daddy play on the iPad)

I bought this to support Devolver, since I loved Hotline Miami, but I'm already having a ton of fun with this face-paced puzzler. Another positive : only 1 in-app-purchase and that's to unlock the soundtrack right away (which must unlock eventually if you play well) - which shows some respect for the people that bought this game, there's no IAP for costumes or character upgrades or different skills...and it makes a big difference - gold farming here would really bring down the quality of the experience.