Game-related ramblings.

Month: April 2014

More Name Game: Elite: Dangerous

Despite having played a few games I want to write about, I’ve been extra busy and haven’t had time to write a post. Instead I’ve just been watching the disappointing progress of the Outcast HD Kickstarter campaign. It’s got 12 days left and ~$370,000 left to raise, so it needs a serious boost. Seriously, go donate to this. Outcast is awesome. It’s only $20 to get a copy of the game when it’s released, and if they don’t meet their goal you won’t be charged anything.

Anyway, to fix my not-posting problem I’m resorting to a tactic I’ve used before: making fun of a game’s name.

Now, I’m actually very excited about all the upcoming space-based games in development right now (and I may even post about some of them soon, if by “soon” I mean “in a few months”). TIE Fighter was a very important game in my youth, and both it and Freespace 2 are deserving of History Lesson treatment in the future. So I’m looking forward to the recent crop of Kickstarter-funded space sim games, including the two giants, Star Citizen and Elite: Dangerous. The latter promises to be a fully modern entry in the series that started the whole open-universe, free-flying space sim genre, and it’s looking really good. But oh, that name. It’s as if the developers just picked a subtitle at random. Well, two can play at that game. Here we go:

Elite: Scary
Elite: Intriguing
Elite: Dastardly
Elite: Afterburner
Elite: Shiny
Elite: Capitalism
Elite: Slightly Worrying
Elite: Make It So
Elite: Spaceman
Elite: Serious Business

More after the jump.

Original Outcast Developers Pitching An HD Remake On Kickstarter

Long-time readers of this blog may remember that one of the earliest History Lessons posts I wrote was about Outcast. Originally released in 1999, I didn’t play Outcast until shortly before I started this blog (2011, I think), but it was still one of the best games I played that year. In fact, it is one of the best I’ve ever played. It’s a beautiful, wonderful game.

It is, however, getting old. Processor speed issues made it difficult for me to run it, although these have been fixed in the version for sale on GOG. But it also runs in a very low resolution which some graphics cards and monitors no longer support, and the controls feel clunky in comparison to modern games. Fortunately, many of the original developers managed to buy back the IP (that’s “intellectual property“, for those who may not know) for Outcast, and they’re now pitching a full high-definition remake of the game on Kickstarter. They’ve made about a quarter of their goal of $600,000 with 26 days left at the time of writing.

They even quote me in their pitch video! Not from here, but from my user review of Outcast over at GOG. Still, it’s pretty cool. But I’m not just posting this because they quoted me, I’m posting this because I’d quite like this Kickstarter to succeed. The hope is that it will be the first step towards a full-fledged sequel to Outcast. Which is something we all want, even if you don’t know it yet.

Get Your Thoughts Straight: Anodyne

Before I started playing Anodyne, I did not know that its title is a real word. An older term referring to painkiller drugs, it has since acquired a wider meaning, describing anything that is blandly agreeable or even trying too hard to be inoffensive. It’s a fitting title for the game, which explores themes of human relationships and the pressures one might feel to maintain appearances or meet expectations. It’s also a slightly ironic title, because I think Anodyne will prove divisive among players, with many feeling very offended indeed at its “pretentious” presentation and use of symbolism.

Anodyne is very clearly inspired by the Zelda series, especially the early entries. It follows protagonist Young on his journeys through The Land, on a quest to save The Briar from The Darkness. This is accomplished by traversing many top-down screens and battling monsters with his broom. Yes, a broom — only one of many early hints that all is not as it seems.

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén