1. 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.

     
  2. image: download

    A friend of mine sent this to me for what I assume Christmas.

“Now you have no excuse.”

While I am thankful for the gesture, I guess it’s a little quaint to be installing and playing off of the ol’ optical distribution medium.

    A friend of mine sent this to me for what I assume Christmas.

    “Now you have no excuse.”

    While I am thankful for the gesture, I guess it’s a little quaint to be installing and playing off of the ol’ optical distribution medium.

     
  3. 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.

     
  4. 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 different styles of gameplay. And it’s less douchey to the gamers.

     
  5. 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.

     
  6. It’s Another Indie Sale!

    Hooray… I already own all the games I want out of this pack. :-)

     
  7. Liked Super Meat Boy and/or VVVVVV?

     
  8. 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 you’ll get what U3 is.

    Not as tight of gameplay as I would have liked, but overall, very very good.

    Where does this game not go in terms of environments. Water to sand to forest to air. Holy shazbot.

     
  9. 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.

     
  10. 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.