Up late talking games & writing? You're...

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Games: Just wrapped up Shatter on PSN. I’m in the middle of the review as I write this, but I will say that it's a fabulous little project and certainly one of the more desirable downloads on the service.
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It's basically Breakout or Arkanoid taken three or four levels higher thanks to razor-sharp graphics, game design that actually has strategy, layering, and nuance, and some absolutely kick-ass music. Seriously, those tunes are pumpin’. Recommended!
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TV: I loves me some Food Network, and I have to say that I'm diggin’ their latest show, What Would Brian Boitano Make? Starring the Olympic figure skater made even more famous by the infamous South Park ditty, he displays a highly irreverent sense of humor with an unorthodox, off-kilter style of production very similar to Alton Brown’s Good Eats.
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I cracked up several times during the first episode, and clearly Boitano has no problem making fun of himself. His recipes look great (although perhaps a tad too fatty for my taste) and he certainly knows how to entertain, even off the ice. Also Recommended!
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Misc: The wife and I have been looking for a new place to live recently. We really love the house we're in now, but the rent is going up and we already feel like we're paying more than we really want to. As a consequence, we're pulling up stakes but have been trying to stay in the immediate area. This is the first time either one of us has lived in a place where we have all necessary amenities within walking distance, and we've established a number of services (doctors, dentists, etc.) that we want to keep patronizing without having to drive across town.
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Last week, we did an intense grid-style search of the area, writing down phone numbers and calling every place that had a ‘For Rent’ sign in the window. We located a likely prospect almost immediately, went in and looked around the same day, and we both had decided that it was going to be a good thing. Afterwards, we gave notice to the current landlord and started making transition plans… we thought everything had been taken care of.
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Today when we went in to pick up the keys and sign the lease, one of the forms requiring a signature was a lead-based paint disclosure. It wouldn't have been a big deal since you usually find those required in a lot of older buildings, except for the fact that this particular one stated very clearly that the buildings had tested positive for lead. When I asked the leasing agent what had been done about the lead, she didn't have any information. I asked to see contaminant reports, or any paperwork the management might have had about abatement specialists coming in and cleaning the place up. She didn't have any, and wasn't able to produce any cogent responses.
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Granted, she told us up front that she wasn't the regular person in charge of the leasing paperwork, but alarms started going off in our heads and we had major second thoughts about our choice. With one young son in the house now and another that visits three times a year, the potential for lead exposure is nothing we want to gamble with, and doubly so if we ever decide to have another baby… instead of moving furniture in the afternoon like we had planned, we did another search and started calling more apartments.
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It wasn't exactly the way we had meant to spend the day and last-minute scrambling is never fun, but I think we have something workable and lead-free now… we'll see.
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Games: Just completed the new Tatooine DLC for Star Wars: the Force Unleashed on 360. As my co-podcaster Tim Spaeth so eloquently put it, it's another piece of ‘stealth DLC’ arriving with no forewarning or fanfare, much like Mass Effect’s Pinnacle Station. However, unlike Pinnacle Station, this add-on is pretty sweet.
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Starting out, the mission assumes that the player became the Emperor's new disciple at the end of TFU proper. (This was only one of two possible endings.) Seeing main character Starkiller as a desiccated metallic husk consumed by the dark side was a bit of a shock, but still pretty cool, regardless.
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Landing on Luke Skywalker’s home planet of Tatooine, Starkiller is after R2D2 and C3PO… as you might remember from the first Star Wars film, they have the blueprints to the Death Star and the Empire is eager to have them back.
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It's great to return to such a familiar locale, and the developers included the majority of elements that players would want to see. Jawas, a destructive trip through Jabba’s palace, a Rancor, Boba Fett, and a memorable (yet canon-breaking) showdown with Obi Wan at Mos Eisley spaceport. Without a doubt, this is one of the best, most exciting missions available for Force Unleashed.
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The only downside to Tatooine is that the asking price of $10 is a little absurd considering that the mission (start to finish) is only 30-45 minutes long, and all of the Achievements can be earned in the very first playthrough.
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Don't get me wrong -- I enjoyed it immensely and the content is still quite attractive in terms of graphics and presentation, but there's no way it's worth $10. At half the price, I'd be recommending this to everyone on the Internet. As it stands, it's really good… just not a very good value.
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Games: So, out of my ten-year career reviewing games professionally, I've only awarded two perfect ‘10’ scores. I’m no math whiz, but if you average that out, I'm pretty sure that's one for every five years. My gist? I don't hand them out lightly.
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One of the games to which I gave top marks was BioWare’s Mass Effect. Encapsulating basically everything I love about videogames, action, and sci-fi all in one complete package, I blew through the game and devoured every last tasty morsel. Couldn't get enough. Although it's true all good things come to an end, thanks to the implementation of DLC, good things can keep going for a little longer. More Mass Effect? Yes, please.
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The first piece of DLC, Bring Down The Sky, was short and felt a little cobbled together, but it was basically another chunk of what I was looking for. A few quick missions, some dialogue and choices to make, and another opportunity to put my own Comander Shepard through her paces. It wasn't mindblowing, but it was good enough. Besides, BioWare had promised at least two pieces of DLC before the launch of Mass Effect 2. I still had (minimum) one more to look forward to, and surely, that one would be a home run, right?
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Not so much.
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After months of total silence on the final add-on, it appeared on Xbox Live today with absolutely no fanfare or forewarning. Catching me completely by surprise, I drove home at the first opportunity, breathlessly queued it up for download, and was… absolutely disappointed.
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Titled Pinnacle Station, the new content is a tiny base that Shepard can enter. There are no new alien races that I noticed, no moral choices, or even any quests to undertake. No tasks, no jobs, no missions… essentially, Pinnacle Station is a bunch of combat-driven time trials that players can enter and attempt to rank on a leaderboard. That's it.
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Although there are four or five types of trials, they all boil down to being something that feels completely out of place and inappropriate for a story-driven RPG like Mass Effect. Time trials? Really? After all these months of waiting and looking forward to getting back into one of what I consider one of the best games of the last decade, the best BioWare came up with was time trials?
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Adding insult to injury, the content is quite buggy. At one point, my character became unable to move and I was basically reduced to an immobile gun turret. At another, the game simply froze. The framerate itself is somewhat choppy, as well. I put around fifteen or twenty minutes into the game, and then shut it off in disgust.
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I think it's pretty clear that I hold Mass Effect in the highest possible regard, having nothing but the utmost respect and affection for it, but I need to be honest when I say that Pinnacle Station is not only a complete waste of money, it's an insult to Mass Effect itself. I can't imagine why this shoddy cash-in was even released at all, except for a quick infusion of income from all the suckers like me who bought it on faith. Honestly, I'd have much rather BioWare not released it at all, or at the very least, been more straightforward and open with regard to what the content was.
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Pinnacle Station: massive, epic fail. Not recommended, even for hardcore Mass Effect fans.
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Books: When I'm writing, I notice that I often don't read anything. I've asked a few other authors if they have the same habit, and I seem to be the only one who does… I'm not sure why I do it exactly, but it seems like getting into someone else's words just clogs up my own process. That said, I don't have anything on either DS or PSP at the moment, so when I have downtime at work, I’ve started chipping away at the huge stack of books I keep meaning to get around to.
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I have at least ten or twelve “really good ones” that I've been waiting to crack, but lately I've found that it's impossible to really dig into any of them. Even authors that are usually my ‘go-to’ people have failed to hook me, and I'm starting to wonder whether I need to find some new authors or whether I need to just put reading books on hold until I finish writing the one I’m working on now. It's a little frustrating to be constantly disappointed in book after book, so maybe a break is called for.
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I guess I can always start knitting.
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Games: Started NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits on WiiWare yesterday. I only had time to get two or three levels into it, but I was really liking what I saw. The art style is very minimal and clean, and the mechanics are immediately accessible.
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Basically, you take control of a winged girl and navigate puzzle-ish levels on a 2D plane. The jumping/flapping/gliding works well, and the formula is enriched by using the Wiimote to manipulate certain objects in the environment. In certain sections, you’re controlling the girl with the left stick and a button, and moving stone blocks with the Wiimote pointer and a trigger. It's a little like the old ‘rub your stomach and pat your head’ routine, but in a good way.
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I look forward to spending more time with it.
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Games: I was poking around and trying to find out more information about the super-ultra-uber-deluxe edition of Dragon Age that someone had told me about… a quick check reveals that the contents were allegedly:
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Tin Case, Bonus DVD, CLOTH MAP, three extra pieces of in-game quasi-DLC, a bonus quest and character, and a suit of armor FOR USE IN MASS EFFECT 2.
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When I actually made an inquiry at GameStop, I was informed that this particular limited edition sold out in approximately 48 hours, and that no more pre-orders for it were available. I'm sincerely hoping that the person on the phone was mistaken, but I have a sinking feeling that he probably wasn't… if anyone can confirm that this particular package is available anywhere, please drop me a line!

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*Hold the phone... Thanks to @ThiefofHearts for the tipoff that it's still at Amazon. Order yours now before it's gone!!!
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Games: Finally, a bit on DLC. (That’s downloaded content, BTW.)
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I'm noticing more and more that companies are announcing planned DLC before their games are even released. Don't get me wrong, I'm actually a big fan of DLC, but only when it's properly implemented. I absolutely don't understand how a developer can plan to have DLC before people have a chance to play the actual game and give any feedback on what they've created.
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I mean, the developers can have an idea of what they think the players might want more of, but they can't know for sure until the game actually hits. Wouldn't a developer want to create a piece of DLC that actually addresses the desires of their target audience? At the very least, it seems as though any DLC should remedy problem issues that players might bring up.
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Besides that, there's no getting around the issue of perceived appropriateness. The general feeling is that when DLC is announced or even hits at the same time a retail release does, it's that the developer has purposely held back content in order to bilk the public out of more dollars -- and honestly, how could anyone not think that? Things like the extra Vs mode in RE5, or the extra character suits/colors in SFIV were almost universally considered things that should have been included with an allegedly ‘complete’ game, and Capcom took a certain amount of heat for the moves. It's not just Capcom, though. More and more publishers are cooking up plans for DLC, while at the same time trying to convince the public that their retail product is as rich and fully-fleshed as a consumer could rightfully expect.
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Sorry, but we're just not buying it.
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Although DLC is now a permanent fixture in the game's development landscape, the way I see it is that DLC should only be used as a way to genuinely enhance a game after said game has proven that it has an audience, and after the audience has had a chance to react to the original product. Not only will this feedback be instrumental in crafting truly desirable download additions, it will also calm fears players may have about being taken for a ride.
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DLC announced two months after a game hits retail gets players excited, and gives them a reason to dig their already-beaten disc back out. More adventures, more guns… it's great. DLC announced two months before a game hits retail makes players think that they're not going to be buying a complete experience when they pony up their cash at the counter.
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Whether it's true or not is beside the point… a huge factor in any DLC is perception, and at the moment, it seems as though publishers don't think players are paying attention.
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They're wrong.
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Games: I had originally intended to write about Avalon Code tonight, but before I get to that I have to discuss Trials HD. (Here’s my review, in case you're interested.)
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Anyway, never in a million years would I have predicted that I would have become as obsessed with this game as I have, but it's been dominating my life for the last few days.
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Reminding me a lot of an updated Excitebike early on, I knocked out the first few clusters of levels pretty quickly. I didn't get gold medals on all of them, but I did well enough to satisfy my own personal sense of achievement. Moving up, the Hard level was indeed hard. When I got to Extreme, I couldn't believe it.
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Now, I'm totally fine with games presenting challenge, but there are just certain lines that shouldn't be crossed. Certain places that a good game should never go. At some point, the developer needs to take a step back and say “you know what, this is just too much. Let's scale this down.”
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The Extreme levels require such an incredibly high level of finesse and precision that I'm sure an overwhelmingly large majority of people who download the game will never complete them.
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(And I can already hear the ‘core response: it's okay to have a level of difficulty that crushes most players!! I might agree under certain circumstances, but not in this case.)
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A big issue I have with the Extreme level is that the game’s challenge hinges on its physics. In general, I think the physics are spot-on and implemented extremely well, but these last few sections demand near-flawless execution. With the way physics engines are implemented in games these days, this equates to infinitely fidgety, over-sensitive situations that require an almost inhuman level of micro-adjusting to get through. Operating on a level this intense, videogame physics just get squirrely.
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In the Inferno II level (the game’s last) I was stuck on one particular set of jumps that took close to 2,500 attempts before I finally got a handle on them. I can't remember the last time, if ever, I spent that much time on getting past a barrier in a game. Honestly, I was getting stressed and agitated, and my wife was becoming concerned for my mental health.
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Why didn't I quit? It was probably a combination of sheer pigheadedness and determination on my part. That said, the developers clearly spent a lot of time and effort in crafting their game. Despite my annoyance, don't get me wrong—Trials HD is a great title that’s got a lot going for it, and it's easy to see all of the thought and craftsmanship that went into it. I guess I didn't want my fond memories of the early stages to be permanently tainted by the bitter taste of unconquered Extreme.
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In any event, that bleeding ulcer I cultivated finally paid off when I completed the last of the Extremes today. I was on the verge of delirium when something just clicked and I was able to tap into some unknown in a reserve and push through to that beautiful, beautiful finish line.
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Rather than a sense of victory or completion, what I mostly felt was just a sense of “thank god I don't have to do that again.” It's not really how I like to end most games, but considering that I ended it at all, I'll take it.
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Misc: Up to my eyeballs in stuff to do... look for an update tomorrow. Thanks!
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Games: First off, a quick shout-out to Gamezebo.com. For those of you who like to dip into the “casual” scene, they've got a pretty good thing going on over here. Even better, it's run by my friend and former GameCritics associate, Erin Bell. Nothing but good things to say about that lady. Go check them out, and tell them that Drinking Coffeecola sent you.
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Games: Head over to GameCritics and check out the podcast we did with Bryan Jury of Epicenter Studios.
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He’s a really candid straight-shooter behind the recent Real Heroes: Firefighter for the Wii, and he’s got a lot of interesting things to say about getting his game (and studio) off the ground. There is definitely no PR filter happening there.
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Games: It’s been a great summer for download-only titles. I'm still beating my head against the wall (in a good way… I think) trying to finish the Extreme level of missions in Trials HD, and I've spent a few hours with Shadow Complex over the last couple of days.
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I'm doing the official review for GC so I won't spoil the whole thing here, but I will say that it's a very well-produced, well-thought-out title that does credit to its forebears. Perhaps not the end-all, be-all that some are making it out to be, but it's certainly one of the best Live Arcade games released so far, and I'm enjoying it. Besides those, ‘Splosion Man was a fantastic little game, and there are at least three or four WiiWare joints I haven't even had time to get to yet.
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If you haven't started checking out some of the smaller DL games yet, you're missing out.
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That's it for now... it's bedtime.
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Games: I would never have guessed it, but I've been completely addicted to Trials HD on the Xbox 360 this week. One of the spotlight Summer Arcade releases, it's basically an updated version of the venerable NES classic Excitebike hopped up on stupidiculous amounts of steroids.
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I'm not a fan of games that feature timed runs as a core part of gameplay, and I'm not usually a fan of games that emphasize an extremely high degree of technical precision, but in spite of those preferences, I got hooked immediately and I've been putting an unusual amount of time into it every night.
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It's a little hard to describe why it's so compulsive, but I think a large part is that the game throws down the gauntlet quickly and it's hard to resist the challenge since the developers have absolutely nailed the physics and designed tracks with devious skill. Your brain thinks it can do it, and your hands feel like capable, so when the bike wrecks for the 147th time, you have no choice but to try again and get it right.
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The peerlessly brilliant choice of allowing players to restart instantaneously after a crash (without any load time) is an absolute game-saver. If there was even one second of buzzkill loading, the frustration level would quickly spike and turn me off. However, since the game is totally calibrated to let you try again and again (and again and again) without keeping you waiting, it's hard to stop.
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Trials HD is totally recommended, and FYI, you can only attempt a track for up to 30 minutes or a total of 500 crashes. I'm speaking from experience.
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(I also downloaded NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits and Swords & Soldiers on WiiWare, but haven't had a chance to get to them yet. If anyone's got feedback or words of wisdom, send ‘em in.)
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Games: I've said this before and I'll say it again, any developer that puts out a demo that makes it multiplayer-only is immediately on my bad side. What do I mean? Well, in this particular case, it’s two different things.
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The first thing that gets under my skin is when a demo requires a second player. So far, the only company guilty of this is Capcom. Last time I checked, their fighting games did include AI, so why is it impossible for a single player to try a demo before purchase?
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I couldn't play the remake of Super Street Fighter, and now I can't give Marvel vs Capcom 2 a whirl either. Quite honestly, I very well may have picked up both of these titles if I had been able to try them, but it's insulting and stupid to me that Capcom won't allow it unless I have a second living, breathing person with me. No sale.
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The second thing is when a developer releases a demo for a game that features a hefty singleplayer mode, yet only lets the multi out to be sampled. The recent revamp of Bionic Commando did this, and paid a serious price. Players were thrown into a deathmatch-type situation without any instruction on how the game was to be played, and it was an instant turnoff to most, myself included. (Ironically, the singleplayer mode was superb.) Initial backlash to the demo was so strong that it's commonly assumed that it played a large part in why so many people stayed away.
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Now, Naughty Dog has announced that they will only be releasing a multiplayer-only demo for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.
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They stated that the logic behind such a decision was that it's difficult to get a player involved in the story and to place them in the action when the singleplayer mode is effectively an hours-long movie. Instead, they choose to show off the graphics and gunplay in a “shoot everybody” mode which likely won't contain any of the Indiana Jones-ish adventure or exploration elements that I'm guessing most people are coming to the game for.
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I realize that creating good demos takes away development time from the game itself, but seriously people… it's not a difficult concept. Start a demo with a quick rundown of the controls, give players a very easy, illustrative section typical of the bulk of gameplay that they can breeze through a couple times, and end with COMING SOON. That's it. That's all we really want.
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I realize that I'm not a developer (and I invite them to write in and educate me if I'm way off base) but I fail to see how demo after demo crashes and burns -- hurting retail sales in the process -- when the winning formula is so simple.
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Live’s Indie games.
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Heard of them? Know what they are? Where to find them, and more importantly, how to play them? If you're like most gamers out there, then the answer is…
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‘No’.
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When the New Xbox Experience dashboard launched a while ago, there was plenty of chatter about the goofy Avatars and the revamped, graphically-intensive presentation of the dashboard, but neither of those things was as interesting or as important as one of the most-overlooked features that launched right alongside them: Community games… or at least, that's what they were called at the time, anyway.
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An expansion of Microsoft's XNA Creator’s Club initiative, the Community Games area (now known as Indie Games) is a place for creative individuals, independent developers and small studios to have their work seen by the 360 audience at large. Anyone who thinks they've got a great idea can enter a submission through the Indie process and eventually have a game ready to be sold and downloaded to hard drives all across the world. It's a great opportunity, and the only program of its kind to be available on a home console. Unfortunately, Microsoft has given this area of Live very little attention, and despite being an incredibly exciting and innovative feature, very few players know the first thing about it.
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With any luck, this article will help change that.
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Listed below are some of the finest titles that the Indie tab has to offer. If any (or all) of them catch your eye, turn on your 360, go to the Marketplace tab and then scroll upwards until you find Indie. All of the games in this article can be found there, each with a brief trial period, preview screenshots, and short descriptions of the gameplay.
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Keep in mind, these are titles produced by incredibly small teams or even lone individuals. Although they may not be able to keep pace with the latest high-gloss blockbusters, it's clear to see that they make up for it with originality, creativity, and pure heart.
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If you care about games the way that I care about games, these are exactly the kind of people that can and should be supported-- after all, even the most successful developers come from humble beginnings. They’ve all got to start somewhere.
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In no particular order, round one of the best Indie games:
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Title: Mithra: the Calling
Developer: Afiction Games
Team Size: 8 core members, 12 supporting
Website: http://afictiongames.com/
Price: 240 Points ($3.00)
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An inspired work placed squarely in the Adventure genre (think of the recent Monkey Island, or Sam & Max) Mithra starts off with two captive aliens in a cell. One tall and lanky, the other barely more than a blob, the pair work together to escape their confines in a mysterious lab.
Featuring fully-realized 3D graphics, voiceovers, and appreciably logical puzzle design that wisely avoids all of the ‘how the f* was I supposed to figure that out?’ pitfalls so common to the genre, there's a lot here to like. In addition, it features a faux-Achievements system and extras to unlock.
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If there is a downside, it's that the game is over too soon. Although it's only the first installment in a larger series, I could've easily devoured another few hours of this standout game.
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Full review HERE
Interview HERE
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Title: Machiavelli’s Ascent
Developer: Naturally Formed Studios
Team Size: 2
Website: http://naturallyformedstudios.com/main/
Price: 200 Points ($2.50)
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I have to admit that the first time I played Machiavelli’s Ascent I had absolutely no idea what was going on -- all I knew was that the player takes on the role of a jellyfish, which is not exactly something that you come across every day. After a few minutes of stumbling around, it all clicked.
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Starting at the bottom of the ocean, the player's goal is to get the jellyfish to ascend as close to the surface as possible. Controls are totally streamlined, utilizing only the left and right triggers to shift the creature across the screen. Progress is made by tagging bubbles while traveling vertically. Keep popping bubbles and the jellyfish keeps rising. Miss one, and there’s almost no hope of recovery.
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Requiring much finesse, this is certainly a game that will keep a player coming back for ‘just one more try’.
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Title: CaveIn: Miner Rescue Team
Developer: Johnny Death Games
Team Size: 1
Website: http://www.johnnydeath.com/
Price: 400 Points ($5.00)
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Offering an insane amount of content, CaveIn is best described as a perfect blend of the Action and Puzzle genres. Within a large cave complex, boulders come in a variety of colors. The player moves their avatar around each area and eliminates them by matching three of the same hue. The goal is to rescue fellow miners trapped behind rockslides and in distant corners of caverns.
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Although the formula is simple enough, what gives this game legs is the fact that there are several different types of levels. Some are simple boulder-matching, some involve precision aiming with a cannon, others are a matter of finding the correct route through a maze in a hurry, and so on. The sophistication of the level design here is notable, and with just a little work this game could easily have been sold as a full-on Arcade game, or even a retail DS/PSP title.
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Title: CarneyVale Showtime
Developer: Singapore-MIT Gambit Game Lab
Team Size: 7
Website: http://gambit.mit.edu/updates/
Price: 400 Points ($5.00)
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One of the first Indie games I fell in love with, CarneyVale Showtime was the title that sold me on the concept of player-produced games on 360 in the first place.
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Within just a moment or two of playtime, the top-tier quality of the production is evident. The graphics are solid and attractive, level design is masterful, and the concept is unique enough to stand head and shoulders above most of the competition -- take an acrobatic rag-doll clown, fire him out of a cannon, and toss him vertically via strategically-placed grippy claws.
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It's a little hard to describe, but the kinetic, physics-based gameplay is a model for just how fantastic these Indie games can be.
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Full review HERE
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Title: Weapon of Choice
Developer: Mommy’s Best Games
Team Size: 2
Website: http://www.mommysbestgames.com/
Price: 400 Points ($5.00)
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The best thing to hit the side-scrolling Shooter genre since Konami’s seminal Contra series, Weapon of Choice showcases a clear love of the subject material and insightful understanding of what makes it tick.
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Taking a long-established formula and making it fresh and vital again, this title implements a number of innovations like giving the player the chance to avoid death at the last second, or requiring that an ‘extra man’ physically be rescued before he's available for use. Toss in staples like completely over-the-top weapons and bulbous, drippy aliens, and this game is a total win any way you slice it.
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Full review HERE
Interview HERE
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Title: Solar
Developer: Murudai
Team Size: 1
Website: http://www.murudai.com/
Price: 200 Points ($2.50)
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Artistic, celestial, and most of all, minimal, Solar is one of the more unusual offerings. In this title, players control a star floating around the universe. One mode is simply a sandbox, giving people free reign to go where they please without fear of any consequence. For people wanting a little more structure, there are a series of challenges that can be completed. Knocking the first few out opens up some unlockable options that modify different aspects of the game… everything from altering the gravity to increasing the rate at which life develops on the surface of habitable planets. Certainly one of the more esoteric creations, it's got a flair all its own.
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Full review HERE
Interview HERE
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Title: Trino
Developer: TrinoTeam
Team Size: 6
Website: http://www.trinoteam.com/
Price: 400 Points ($5.00)
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Another top-quality creation that would certainly find success in more mainstream channels, Trino is another interesting blend of Action and Puzzle. In this effort, the main character is a strange bio-mechanical oddity that has the ability to create triangle-shaped traps. Capture a variety of enemy creatures within these traps, and move on to the next level. It sounds simple enough, but things get hectic quickly and the enemies have a variety of behavior patterns which require a lot of on-the-fly thinking.
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There are a good number of levels to get through and the player’s creature powers up at certain intervals, granting the ability to lay more than one trap at a time, in addition to a screen-clearing superbomb. Like a strange hybrid of Geometry Wars and Tempest, Trino excites.
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Title: StreamLine
Developer: Omer
Team Size: 2
Website: Unknown
Price: 200 Points ($2.50)
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The essence of minimalism, StreamLine is literally about two lines racing to a finish. The speed at which the lines move is constant, although it can be altered by hitting speed-up patches or getting caught on environmental obstacles. There are only a handful of levels, but there's something hypnotic about the hyper-stylized visuals and pumping music. The stripped-down play acts on something deep within the brain, almost inducing a trance. If I advocated mind-altering substances (which I don’t) I’d recommend taking some before playing. However, it’s still a spicy little morsel even when stone sober.
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Title: Miner Dig Deep
Developer: Robir
Team Size: 2
Website: Unknown
Price: 200 Points ($2.50)
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An experimental title that focuses solely on relaxing, self-directed play rather than establishing pre-set goals or putting pressure on the player through use of time limits or enemies, Miner Dig Deep is about exactly what you'd think it would be about… there's a mine, a miner, and he digs deep.
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The beauty of this title is that it offers clear sandbox elements without adhering to what modern players think of when the term is commonly used. Instead of an open-world city peppered with icons representing preset missions, the player is given free reign to dig into the earth as they see fit. The only goal is to unearth gems and other precious things, exchanging them for money to buy better tools and equipment.
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It might sound a little dull, but it's an incredibly addicting experience and one which really thrives without many of the elements that are common to what most people see as traditional games. The simple, unassuming graphics are a great fit for the distilled essence of gameplay, and the elegance on display here is something that I think more games could certainly benefit from.
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Thanks for reading. New Indie games hit the Xbox Live Marketplace every week, so check back in the future for another installment of the 360's best.
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Misc: Got a ton o' stuff to do, but today kicked my ass at least two or three times. Gonna turn in early and get some sleep... It's pretty much my only option at the moment. Check back tomorrow for the long-awaited Best of Community piece I've been putting together.
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(...Although I took so long, it's now called the Best of the Xbox 360's Indie Games!)
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Writing: Work on the new book is getting back up to speed. Currently working on building a romantic connection between characters and eagerly awaiting feedback from the wife.
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Also, random writing-related thought: one of the best things about writing fiction is being able to take someone that you dislike and have nasty things happen to them on the page. Petty, perhaps, but satisfying in a certain way. Nyah.
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Games: Just finished ‘Splosion Man and I've got nothing but positive things to say about it. The review was submitted to GameCritics a few days ago so you should be able to read it soon, but it was just a fantastically polished title, and absolute fun from start to finish. (In between all of the incredibly frustrating parts, anyway…)
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Totally loved it. One of the best things? The ending montage after the final boss was beaten is completely insane and awesome at the same time. I don't want to spoil it for anyone because it's a great reward, but I will say the words Live Action Footage.
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I also had a chance to play the Batman: Arkham Asylum demo currently available for download. The title is obviously getting a lot of attention for a number of reasons, a primary one being that it looks like it's going to turn out pretty decently -- an achievement considering that the majority (if not all) previous attempts to bring the Caped Crusader to consoles have been trash.
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I was fairly stoked to give it a whirl, but I have to be honest and say that the demo left me wanting… I can't exactly put my finger on it, but it just felt off. Although the playable section is fairly brief, it seems as though there’s potential to have the combat become repetitive. Besides that, lurking through ventilation shafts and grappling onto conveniently-located gargoyles to gain a height advantage felt a little disingenuous. And certainly not passing judgment on it and I really do hope that it ends up being as good as its PR machine wants me to believe, but after getting that short span of hands-on, I'm feeling a little cautious.
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TV: The wife and I caught the season finale of Burn Notice on USA. (Hooray for DVRs.) I'm not going to say that this series is high drama, or that it breaks new ground in any way, but the cast is extremely likable and each episode does a great job of delivering the kind of action that used to be quite commonplace on network television.
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Reminiscent of a mashup of Miami Vice, Magnum P.I. and, I dunno… maybe Remington Steele or the A-Team, superspy Michael Westen and company deliver a sort of shoot-him, blow-that-up comfort food that I'm only too happy to consume. Besides, it's got Bruce Campbell… I'd watch it just for him even if it wasn't as entertaining as it is.
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Another recent addiction of mine has been Chopped on Food Network. Each episode, chefs are presented with a black picnic basket filled with ingredients that ostensibly don't go together.
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Things like bacon, chocolate and oranges, or tilapia, artichokes, and macaroni & cheese. These chefs have an extremely tight time limit to come up with something that's creative and tasty, and watching them sweat it out while they grope for ideas is infinitely entertaining. Doubly so, since I fancy myself a devotee of the ‘cooking with what we have’ school.
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I've been able to pull together some pretty tasty dinners out of what most people would say was a fridge full of nothing, and whenever I see what these people get in their baskets, my brain goes into overdrive coming up with recipes of my own. It may be slightly less interesting to people who aren't foodies, but personally, I think the show is pure gold.
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Games: Just a quick note tonight… had a long day and I still have plenty of stuff on my plate, so instead of the usual blog entry, here’s a partial list of the exhibitors that will be on the floor at the upcoming 2009 Penny Arcade Expo:
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- 2K Games
- Aeria Games & Entertainment
- Alienware
- Atari, Inc.
- Bethesda Softworks LLC
- Big Fish Games
- Bioware
- Blizzard Entertainment
- Capcom Entertainment, Inc.
- Disney Interactive Studios
- Electronic Arts
- Funcom
- Garage Games
- Harmonix Music
- Hi-Rez Studios
- Hothead Games
- Hudson Entertainment
- Ignition Entertainment
- Mega64
- Microsoft
- Microsoft-XNA
- Mythic Entertainment
- Namco Bandai Games America inc
- NCsoft
- Nintendo of America Inc
- Omni Consumer Products (Tru Blood)
- Oni Press
- Playlogic Entertainment Inc.
- Rockstar Games
- Runic Games
- SEGA
- Sony Computer Entertainment America
- Stardock Entertainment
- Telltale Games
- The Behemoth
- THQ
- Twisted Pixel Games, LLC
- Ubisoft Entertainment
- Upper Deck Entertainment
- Valve Software
- Warner Bros. Games
- Wizards Of The Coast
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If you've never been to E3, this is a smaller-scale approximation that's pretty representative of what it's like. One big plus? For Washington residents, it's right here in our own backyard. I don't know about you, but I really don't enjoy going down to LA unless I have to, so I am endlessly grateful to Jerry and Mike of Penny Arcade for hosting such an awesome game-related gathering in the Pacific Northwest.
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For more info on PAX (September 4,5,6) click HERE.
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I'll be there. Will you?
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Games: Ok, so if you read this blog even once in a while, it's pretty likely that you know I'm a pretty big Atlus fan. I'm not quite sure if I've crossed into full-blown Atlus whoredom, but I may be getting there. In any event, because they have a great upcoming lineup (and because I have no other blog topics this evening) here's a quick preview of four games coming down the pipe from the hardest-working developer in showbiz…
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Demon’s Souls (PS3 Exclusive - releasing October, 2009)
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From the PR materials:
>Ultimate hardcore RPG challenge—In this brutal land, death is inevitable, but not final. Combining the best features of an action game and RPG, you'll slice, smash, shoot, and cast magic against some of the most horrible, vicious enemies ever encountered. Are you strong enough to face up to the impossible and win?
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>Ground-breaking online capabilities—Network features go far beyond any previous
RPG, allowing players to leave hints for each other, replay death scenes,
cooperatively revive dead players, or invade and wreak havoc in another's game.
Not merely an add-on feature, multiplayer options are vast, and uniquely focused
on changing and intensifying the single player experience.
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>Freeform and flexible—The open-ended structure of the game means that there is
no single path, but rather a wealth of options. Set your own pace and progress as
you like. Build exactly the character you want by creating a detailed avatar,
nurturing the right stats, and customizing your skills and equipment.
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Brad Sez: Out of everything they've announced so far, I think this one is the biggest question-mark. I see some really amazing potential here and I'm genuinely excited, but I think a lot of quality will be revealed in the details-- first and foremost, how the online is implemented is of huge importance, especially how it relates to the single player experience overall. Another issue that stands out for me is the developer, Fromsoft. I was one of their biggest fans for a decade and I’ve played basically every game they've ever released in the states. I'm very familiar with their strengths and weaknesses as a studio, and this time around I'm really expecting them to up their game (so to speak.) If they manage to pull it off, this one could be an extreme sleeper hit.
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Trauma Team (Wii Exclusive - release date TBA)
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From the PR materials:
>The makers of the acclaimed medical action series Trauma Center blow the genre wide
open with Trauma Team for Wii™, bringing not one, but six exciting and creative
gameplay modes! Play as a general surgeon, diagnostician, EMT, orthopedic surgeon,
endoscope technician, or medical examiner. With improved game balance and a
completely original approach to story cutscenes, Trauma Team delivers the thrills and
drama of the best medical entertainment.
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>6 specialists, 6 gameplay types—Try your hand at general diagnosis, where a keen,
analytical mind comes in handy, or put yourself on the edge as a paramedic, where
every ticking second could mean the difference between life and death! Tons of
variety means everyone can find a specialty they like.
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>More realistic, more balanced, more fun—Taking years of experience and tons of
user feedback into consideration, the Trauma Center team elevates the medical
action experience with cooperative play, unlockable rewards, and selectable
difficulty levels.
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Brad sez: I love the Trauma series in a big way, and I'm pretty stoked for this title. Among other things, I still think that Atlus gave players the single best use of the Wiimote when they married it to this surgical simulator, and I'm extremely curious as to how the different medical specialties will play out-- although they're all fantastic, the previous games had a little bit too much sci-fi influence. My impression is that the developers are getting a little more “real” this time, and that's a-ok with me since the gameplay is engaging enough without aggressive biological creatures ripping people up from inside. The thing I'm looking forward to the most: the devs’ response to player feedback. If there has been any issue with these games as a whole, it's that the difficulty curves varied wildly from title to title. They seem to be getting a grip on it lately, though… I think this one is going to turn out all right.
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Shiren the Wanderer (Wii Exclusive - release date TBA)
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From the PR materials:
>The grandfather of the rogue-like RPG, the legendary Shiren series (also known as Mystery Dungeon) is all about tough-as-nails battles, thrilling exploration, finding tons of items, growing in strength, and most important of all: staying alive!
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>Hardcore, complex, satisfying RPG gameplay—You’ll have trouble putting
the controller down; the temptation to clear just one more level of a
dungeon can be overwhelming, thanks to the deep, rewarding RPG
gameplay, character development, item acquisition, and boss fights!
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>True rogue-like challenge, accessible interface and controls—Polished, easy
to pick-up-and-play, and in many ways as simple as it is complex, Shiren the
Wanderer takes the classic rogue-like formula and offers it to gamers in an
intuitive, enjoyable overall package!
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Brad Sez: Ok, so roughly six people or so played Mystery Dungeon when it was released on the DS in ’08, so that means all the rest of y’all missed out. It's a minor miracle, but I couldn't be more thrilled to see this series get another chance, this time on the Wii. I'm not going to lie-- when I played the previous entry on DS, it was definitely hardcore and had more than its fair share of brutal moments. BUT, the reason I have such a great love of this series and such huge, huge respect for the developer (Chunsoft) is that they laid out the rules of the game very clearly, and they absolutely stuck to them from beginning to end. There were never any exceptions made for anything, so players who learn the system and manage their survival tactics will be immensely rewarded. One of my fondest memories was casting a game-winning low-level spell on the final boss AND HAVING IT WORK EXACTLY AS IT SHOULD. None of that bogus Final Fantasy ‘status effects don’t affect bosses’ bullshit here, and amen to that.
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Shin Megami Tensei : Persona (PSP Exclusive - releasing September 2009)
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No fact sheet info on this one since I just posted the video walk-through a few days ago (click HERE if you missed it) and really, out of the four games I'm spotlighting here, this is one that needs no introduction. (So of course I'm going to introduce it...)
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Anyone who is even remotely a fan of quality RPGs has heard of, if not played the SMT games and this is a re-worked, re-polished iteration of the title that kicked off one of the best series ever created: Persona.
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Since it was fairly unknown when it first launched stateside in ’96, I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear that the overwhelming majority of players have never spent time with this title. So, here's your chance. The only other thing I'm going to say about it is that it's likely going to be the best RPG that the PSP will ever see, so pick up a copy and don't say I never did anything for you. (By the way, most people don't know this and it doesn't seem to be mentioned very often, but dungeon navigation takes place in first-person… don’t flip out!)
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Writing: Thanks to everyone who sent in positive messages and kept their fingers crossed for me during the 2009 PNWA awards which happened last Saturday.
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For those who might not know, my first novel, Speaking in Forked Tongues, was selected as a finalist in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy category. It was a big thrill to be nominated and when I was at the convention, a few of the people who had read the manuscript submission came up to me and told me how much they liked it. That was a pretty fantastic feeling.
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At the actual ceremony when the winners were announced, I have to admit that I was a little on edge even though I had been trying not to think about it too much… it was not meant to be, however. Although SIFT was good enough to be in the finals, it was not selected as one of the top three winners. It was a bit of a bummer, but even still, I can't complain since there were tons of people who didn't even make the finals.
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Anyway, although it would have been nice to win, my real goal is to see it published, award or not. To that end, I managed to pitch to the #1 agent on my list and she requested a manuscript submission, so hopefully something will come of that.
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Games: HUGE THANKS to Anonymous for tipping me off on how to defeat the gorilla boss in world four of Cocoto Platform Jumper (WiiWare).
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It's a simple little game that by all reckoning should have been a complete cakewalk, but this gorilla seemed invincible and all efforts to find answers on the Internet were a complete fail. My frustration at this part had grown to the point that I had actually quit the game in disgust, and I was contemplating calling Nintendo to complain that they were selling a piece of defective software. Then, lo and behold, Anonymous chips in with a comment and solves the mystery.
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I couldn't believe my eyes. Not only had someone figured it out, but that same someone had also come across my blog and seen me ranting about it. The Internet is awesome! Once again, infinite appreciation for Anonymous-- thanks to his info, I went back and completed the game that afternoon.
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Speaking of completing games, I also put the wraps on Phantasy Star Portable on PSP. It started out as a fun futuristically-slanted dungeon crawler, and ended up being more tedium than I care to tolerate. The huge difficulty spike at the final boss was needlessly discouraging, and I ended up doing a little bit of grinding every night until I just bulldozed through it. A word to developers: if your game is a cakewalk for the first fifteen hours, don't make the last boss an order of magnitude harder than anything that's come before it.
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Working on the review for Twisted Pixel’s ‘Splosion Man (XBLA) tonight. I don't want to spill the beans before it's up on GameCritics, but I will say that it's bloody excellent and easily one of the best Arcade titles that's come down the pipe. Absolutely Recommended.
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Gonna be spotlighting some Atlus games soon, but for now, chew on this video walkthrough from the manly-voiced Atlus Aram detailing the pertinent info on the upcoming revamp of Persona for PSP. Dunno about you, but I can’t wait… And seriously, does anyone work harder to pimp their games than Atlus? I think not. They rock.
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One more quick thing before I post this blog and get back to doing stuff I'm actually supposed to be doing… if you haven't already seen The Legend of Neil, it’s (obviously) a NSFW spoof of The Legend of Zelda.
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Basically, a guy named Neil gets sucked into Hyrule after erotically asphyxiating himself and he has all sorts of mishaps that will be extremely familiar to anyone who's played through the first installment of Nintendo’s hallowed series. Episode seven is finally up and you can check it out HERE. However, definitely go back and start at the first episode if you’re new to these spots. (and yes, that’s Felicia Day as the fairy.)
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