Category: Uncategorized Page 46 of 61

Wishful Thinking: Han Solo Simulator

On July 16, 2014

As always, you can click on images to view larger versions.

Writing my recent post about The Precursors, and how it attempts to be a dream game by coupling a free-roaming space sim with a first-person shooter/role-playing game, reminded me that I’d started a series about dream game designs over two years ago. I never got around to writing any more entries, which is too bad, because one thing I’d intended to write about is exactly what The Precursors attempts; namely, a Han Solo simulator. I touched on that a bit in my post about the game, but I wanted to clarify exactly what this dream game would be for me, and the ways in which The Precursors (and other games) succeed and fail in achieving it. Read on!

Another Link In The: RPG Maker Chain Game

By waltorious

On July 7, 2014

In Uncategorized

Longtime readers may remember that I wrote about the “chain game” Chain of Retribution a couple of years ago. It was developed by seven people in succession, each handing the game off to the next after their portion of the design was complete, and I was fascinated by the strange result. Well, now there’s another chain game, also made using RPGMaker, with the imaginative title RPG Maker Chain Game. I knew I had to try it out.

From Russia With Bugs: The Precursors

By waltorious

On July 1, 2014

In Uncategorized

Remember that you can click on screenshots for bigger versions.

There are some games that achieve such cult status that people still play them years, even decades after they were released. Often, this devotion is reserved for the catalogs of specific developers known for creating a certain type of experience. Looking Glass is one example: their System Shock and Thief series are so beloved that fans took it upon themselves to modify these games so they can still be played on modern operating systems with modern graphical resolutions. In fact, these fan-made fixes are incorporated into the recent releases of System Shock 2 and the first two Thief games on GOG and Steam. Troika are another example, known for creating deep, reactive, highly ambitious but bug-ridden games. Their steampunk-meets-fantasy role-playing game Arcanum inspired a fan known as Drog Black Tooth to work on an unofficial bugfixing patch for years, one that is regarded as essential for any new player. Their adaption of the World of Darkness pen-and-paper role-playing game, Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines, is so revered that a fan known as Wesp5 is still actively working on an unofficial patch, ten years after the game’s original release.

But that’s not the only game that Wesp5 is working on fixing. Wesp5 also has an unofficial patch for The Precursors, from Ukrainian developer Deep Shadows (yes, they’re Ukranian, not Russian, but their game is in Russian and I couldn’t resist that headline). I’d heard that Deep Shadows are also known for incredibly ambitious but buggy games, and I’d heard good things about The Precursors specifically, but it was Wesp5’s attention that really sparked my interest. I played for a surprisingly long time before The Precursors played its trump card and I discovered why Wesp5 was so inspired. It’s a genuine attempt at a dream game: a first-person shooter coupled to a free-roaming space flight game, letting players fly wherever they want, scraping together a little cash, and then land on planets to explore, chat, and shoot some people. It’s a Han Solo simulator.

Perchance To Dream: Proteus

By waltorious

On June 21, 2014

In Uncategorized

Ed Key and David Kanaga’s Proteus is the kind of game that sparks heated debates about whether or not it is actually a game. Personally, I think such debates are silly. Who cares what we call it? The important questions are whether Proteus is worth playing, and why (or why not). To decry it as not being a game is to name it unworthy without providing any reason. I know that humans are wont to label and categorize everything, but when this leads to argument over the labels of things rather than the things themselves, we’re missing the point. But I digress.

The reason Proteus sparks such debates is that it lacks the standard goal-oriented design that most players expect in games. There are no enemies to kill or challenges to complete. Proteus is, essentially, a surreal island to wander and explore, with a striking visual style and excellent sound design. It has also earned gushing praise from nearly everyone who’s played it, which caught my attention. It has inspired poetry. But the real reason I decided to play it now is a passing comment I saw, describing Proteus as a meditative experience, something to play at the end of a long day to de-stress and relax. Given how busy I’ve been lately, some zen relaxation sounded pretty good.

Hold Fast To Your: Labyrinthine Dreams

By waltorious

On June 5, 2014

In Uncategorized

In my last post I was lamenting how far behind I am when it comes to posting about games. But now I’m posting about a game a mere week and a half after its release. That’s nearly instantaneous, by the standards of this blog. What’s going on?

What’s going on is that the game in question is the latest (and first commercial) offering from Solest. Longtime readers will remember that I’m a big fan of their first game, Master of the Wind, and may also have read my thoughts on the still-incomplete X-Noir. So I definitely wanted to give Labyrinthine Dreams a spin.

Samorost 2 Is A Quick But Beautiful Adventure

By waltorious

On May 21, 2014

In Uncategorized

Whew… I’ve found myself very busy once again, so I’ve been slow to post. But I have managed to write this short post about a short but very pretty game.

Amanita Design, the small independent game developer based in the Czech Republic, is most famous for their point-and-click adventure game (a genre for which I gave a brief historical summary in this post) Machinarium. Or perhaps for their next game, Botanicula. But before those, Amanita Design made a pair of short, charming and beautiful adventure games, the first of which, Samorost, is completely free and can be played in a web browser. And I did, a long time ago. The second, Samorost 2, is in the same mold, with the first part available free in a browser but the second part costing a modest $5 (and including the excellent soundtrack). In my typical fashion of playing games in order, I’d intended to play Samorost 2 before Amanita Design’s more recent games, and I finally got around to it recently.

But, in a sense this post is timely, as Amanita Design recently (well, sort of recently) released a trailer for the third Samorost game. So I’m actually totally on the ball with this, right?

Right?

History Lessons: Call Of Juarez

By waltorious

On May 11, 2014

In Uncategorized

New readers may wish to read my History Lessons Introduction first. Previous History Lessons posts can be found here. Also remember that you can click on images to see larger versions.

How old must a game be before it qualifies for History Lesson treatment? I’m tempted to say that it’s my blog and I can do whatever I want, but I actually do think I’m justified in this case. While Call of Juarez is only seven years old, playing it felt like revisiting an earlier generation of design, one that corresponds to a gap in my own gaming experience.

I wish I could say that the positive response to Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, the latest entry in the series, motivated me to buy the original. But that’s not the case; I bought it because Kieron Gillen told me to. I further wish I could say that the positive response to Call of Juarez: Gunslinger was what motivated me to finally get around to playing the original game, but that’s not true either. I had just finished the melancholy and thought-provoking Anodyne, and decided I needed something a little lighter and more action-packed to play next. After realizing that my backlog contained a distressing number of huge role-playing games and puzzle-focused indie offerings, I spied Call of Juarez on my shelf and decided that a Western romp would fit the bill perfectly.

Roguelike Updates: New Crawlers and Redder Rogues

By waltorious

On May 3, 2014

In Uncategorized

Readers who are unfamiliar with rogulikes may wish to read my introduction to the genre, or some of my Roguelike Highlights posts. Also remember that you can click on images to view larger versions.

One of the two updated roguelikes I’ve been playing is somewhat timely: Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup reached v0.14 a mere three weeks ago (and is now on v0.14.1 with some bugfixes). The other is not: Red Rogue (which is actually a roguelike-like) reached v1.0.3 over a year ago (and I even mentioned it an an earlier Roguelike Updates post), but I hadn’t gone back to try it until recently. And then I found myself drawn in once more, playing it far more than I expected and being impressed all over again. I decided it was worth adding to my original post about Red Rogue with my more recent thoughts on the game.

Read on for details on these two, plus a run-down of other updated roguelikes.

More Name Game: Elite: Dangerous

By waltorious

On April 24, 2014

In Uncategorized

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

By waltorious

On April 10, 2014

In Uncategorized

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.