May 2012
3 posts
The best bundle ever.
Bundle V.
Depth Jam.
I want to go to there. Chris Hecker’s notes.
“My biggest complaint for computer games so far is they are not good enough for...”
– Jenova Chen, Gamasutra
April 2012
5 posts
LA Noire
If I wanted to watch a movie, I would. But I wanted to play a game, and not the same game like every other single fucking game Rockstar has ever made. Cutscenes that are skippable, but occur quite often, especially to tell some kind of backstory that I’m sure will play some kind of role in the main character’s development.
Just after my first gears-of-war-esque sticky wall shootout,...
Fez
I haven’t picked it up to play it since I turned off my Xbox last Friday. And I don’t think I’ll be returning.
The more I think about it, the more I realize it’s just… kind of bland as soon as you get past the high polished gleam of indie goodness.
Except it’s not very well polished. A full system freeze, especially on an XBL game? Followed by the ridiculous...
Turns out...
I knew it was supposed to glitch out like that, but not CRASH the freaking game.
Yeap, loving it, an hour or two in, now that I know it wasn’t actually supposed to freeze the game.
March 2012
15 posts
Fastest selling game on PSN →
Awesome job, thatgamecompany!
FEZ. Friday the 13th.
So excited.
Time to buy some points… or do I wait until it comes to Steam?
Tactical Intervention
Sorry, folks… I had to go against my FPS ban when the beta key arrived this morning.
It’s like my freshman year of college again. Except I’m nowhere near susceptible to becoming addicted.
A couple of rounds in, still not feeling the innovation here… more like… more of the same.
And we all know, we as indie gamers, we demand more than that.
Request and purchase true variety.
You betcha.
This is why I don’t get the hubbub about Mass Effect 3. Stop paying for the same shiny shit. While you guys are discussing about how the ending should have been this way or how the DLC should have been that way, I’ll be experiencing “games”.
Gaming… it’s becoming a label to throw onto anything these days. Living in Vegas, I keep hearing it in...
“Games are unique among all media, among all art forms. We’re not novels, we’re...”
– Warren Spector
“Thou Shalt Not Monetize Thy Neighbor.”
– http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/3/8/2855369/protest-stirs-up-gdc-with-god-hates-game-designers-message
Warren Spector's Award Speech
I need this in text form. And quote large sections of this.
“Embrace the uniqueness of the medium.”
GDC Awards: right NOW. →
Too bad I didn’t know about it earlier.
Rohrer, you sly genius
Frog Skins.
"I'm an indie guy."
A nice post on Tactical Intervention.
AC III
Don’t mess this up, Ubisoft. I’ll keep loving you… but I’m assuming you’re going to go down the DLC path like every other large publisher…
February 2012
10 posts
This Whole Sexual Harassment Thing
Idiots. I hate these kind of gamers.
US AND THE GAME INDUSTRY
“The real problem that I have, and maybe even the reason why I’m making games in the first place, is because, as someone who is 31 years old with two children and a lot of my own work to do… I feel like there any games coming out that are really worth my time.”
Rohrer.
I have a feeling this is going to be like You Meet The Nicest People Making Videogames, which failed....
GravityBone
Ah, one of my favorites. Short and sweet.
1 tag
“Wired: Okay, The Last Guardian. Where’s The Last Guardian?
Yoshida: First, let...”
– http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/02/shuhei-yoshida-dice-interview/
While looking up information for IndieCade 2012
I found another Jonathan Blow presentation. Sweet.
Oh, and it’s Oct 4th - 7th. I really want to try and make it this year. Time to get a hotel room in Culver City.
PAX Prime is the month before, Aug 31st to Sept 2nd. Sweet.
And I wonder if I can get into IGF on March 5th to 9th…. I may have to ask around for this one.
Oh, is it Valentine's Day?
Then it must mean this is out.
Take my money NOW, part 2. →
A new point-and-click from Double Fine?
Ship me the goods nao.
TAKE MY MONEY. →
So… Psychonauts 2 anyone?
Hawken Beta Signup →
Yesssss.
January 2012
4 posts
WatchUh, no comment.
Excited?
Maybe. Possibly
Dear Esther.
Looks like I know what I’m doing on Valentine’s Day.
CES
And wouldn’t you know it… I somehow got to go to CES. But it wasn’t the gadgets or the “new” tech that excited me.
Whilst roaming around the Sony area, in the middle of the PS3 area with many blockbuster titles set up, there stood: Journey. I’ve been looking forward to this title for a while, ever since I played Flow and Flower, and so I naturally gravitated...
All Quiet On The Gaming Front
My focus is definitely elsewhere these days. Even when another insane Steam sale occurred during the holidays, I didn’t go too hard into games, except for some coal hunting.
Not too many games I’m looking forward to this year from what I recall, other than Fez and if somehow The Witness gets finished this year.
What, Diablo III? Pfft.
December 2011
4 posts
5 Years.
Fez took 5 years to make.
Wow. And it seems as though Fish really really struggled through all those five years.
Been meaning to read this for a while, but just haven’t had time to devote to my Kindle until today. Definitely worth the read, for any indie dev, games or not.
Bastion: Flip-flop Upgrades
It wasn’t clear in the beginning if I had to select a certain tech tree to climb, and if I would need to get an ability in the first tier to get the next, and if this wasn’t the case, if I could save up my shards for the next upgrade.
Turns out: Yes, previous tiers are required, but… you can change you upgrade, free and easily.
More games need to do this. This encourages...
Bastion: Timing Games
Ever since Mario RPG, I’ve loved timing attacks. Made all the combat that much more active.
But even in a non-turn based game like Bastion, I still love it. It’s like the reload mechanic in Gears of War: Just makes the action that much more frenetic and skill-based.
And I wonder… is the full health bonus from Zelda? Was there a game that did that before Zelda? Pew pew pew.
November 2011
18 posts
It's Another Indie Sale!
Hooray… I already own all the games I want out of this pack. :-)
Liked Super Meat Boy and/or VVVVVV?
Try Flywrench.
Why Aren't You Playing Uncharted 3?
Oh, you don’t have a PlayStation? I guess that’s fair.
But if you do… you have no reason not to at least rent the thing.
U3 is just U2, but bigger and louder. And I mean that both in good and bad ways. Maybe I’m remembering things a bit differently, but U2 felt more puzzle-oriented and U3. Take whatever cinematic/interactive experience in U2 and then triple it, and...
Big Fat Ugly Henchmen
Ugh. These battles are the worst.
Repetitive and boring. There’s a reason why there tends to be only one of these at most in a typical action movie.
Initial Load Times
Very little load time issues at all in U3, but the initial one… Makes me not want to start up a session unless I am to spend hours and hours in it.
Hand Holding.
There is none of it.
Very sparse.
If this was a modern game, I wouldn’t be able to fall off certain types of ledges.
This was just the way it was back then, I guess. To fail, and to learn, and to try again.
Makes for a frustrating experience on one hand, but on the other, even more satisfying if you happen upon the solution yourself.
Or, in the case of clicky adventure games,...
Outhinking the Game
I really thought I had to smoosh the miniboss between crates. I really did.
Turns out… I was wrong, and let down. Sad.
I really do feel, though, it’s been too action packed. It’s becoming a bit monotonous.
Or, I think I might just have to refer to my previous post. I think I’m just becoming dull of the awesome.
So, to break it up, here comes Ico.
Setting the Bar High
As I play through U3, I realize… how much of a bar U2 has set.
One moving train? Try dozens of barges, in the rain. Holy hell.
And I actually had to think about how incredibly hard it probably was to create, because how crazy immersive all of it were.