Game-related ramblings.

Month: September 2015

History Lessons: Shadowgrounds

New readers may wish to read my History Lessons Introduction first. Other History Lessons posts can be found here. And, as always, you can click on images to view larger versions.

Finnish developers Frozenbyte are best known for the Trine series, the first entry of which I wrote about back in 2012. But their first game was the top-down science fiction shooter Shadowgrounds, released in 2005. It’s interesting because it’s a quality yet clearly lower budget title that appeared just before indie games really started to take off. As such it’s somewhere between the games that the major studios make and the games that we now associate with indie developers. Such a game could not have been made in the United States at that time; customers expected big expensive games, and digital distribution — which would soon make it feasible for small development teams to reach a wide audience — was only just getting established.

The Name Game: Better Metal Gear

You can read other Name Game posts here.

I was planning to write about some different games, but then Caves of Qud happened. And then I kept playing it even after I posted about it. I was going to write more about it but then realized that I already wrote everything I wanted to write in either my first post or my more recent post, so that’s out.

Instead, I have to write about a game I haven’t played. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain released recently, and apparently it’s pretty great. Unfortunately, I’m crazy and can’t play any game without playing all the previous entries in the series first, even when it’s not necessary and probably a dumb idea. It also may be impossible in the case of Metal Gear Solid since I don’t own any consoles. I’ve only ever seen other people play parts of the Metal Gear Solid games, so I’d have to start from the beginning, which would take a long time even if I can find ways to play them all on my PC.

In the meantime, however, I can provide a a few naming suggestions. Read on.

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