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Common Sense isn’t Common These Days

Specifically, people still don’t understand the concept of international data being more expensive that local, getting ridiculously large bills, and somehow thinking it’s not their fault and making a huge story out of it.

I’m really getting sick of these stories, and everyone even slightly involved is to blame:

  1. The people who rack up these large bills need to understand that you signed a contract for what you pay, and that includes the fact that international data is pricey.  Leave it at home!  Don’t take it with you!
  2. News journalists, social media, and anyone else who immediately cries foul at this thinking it’s the Telecoms being evil or unfair or whatever.
  3. The Telecoms who seemingly cave in every time this happens, thus backing up Group 2′s arguements.

IGF Season!

Call me pretentious if you must, but I love the IGF season.  Indie games are usually the most innovative and fun games coming out these days, and considering that this year no one had to compete against Minecraft, I actually felt interested in checking out the list.  So, after going through all 550+ entries, here were some of the more interesting ones.  Some I’ve played, some I own but haven’t, and others look really interesting and give me reason to try them.  Still, here’s my personal choice for “Cream of the Crop” games:

Games I’ve played this year:

  • Capsized: Saskatchewan-made platformer that created a breathtaking atmosphere through art and music.
  • Dustforce: A cruel and demanding, yet beautiful and fun platformer.  Requires perfection, but still fairly relaxing to play.
  • GIRP: Rock climbing sim composed of making good decisions and button memory.
  • Lightfish: A very advanced version of Jezzball, and while it is a short game, it is good fun.
  • Mos Speedrun: A platformer for the iPad that does mobile controls well.
  • Q.U.B.E.: First person puzzle game that looks like Portal, but lacks a story yet has more puzzle elements.
  • Rock of Ages: Combination of tower defense and racing, with Monty Python style cutscenes about history!
  • Solar 2: A solar system simulator that gives you enough laughs and gameplay missions to hold your interest.
  • SpaceChem: A hard puzzle game, but a great concept with very methodical thinking required.
  • Xotic: Crazy arcade score competitions inside of a first person shooter.

Games I’ve heard good things about:

  • Blocks that Matter: I actually had this game gifted to me at Christmas, and it caught my eye as a puzzle game with a really interesting premise.
  • Creavures: Artistic, nonviolent platformer.  Own it, and the first level was quite fascinating and different.
  • Serious Sam Double D: 2D sidescrolling shooter with ridiculous weapons.  Own it, and need to play it more.
  • Serious Sam: The Random Encounter: JRPG spin on the Serious Sam series with 8-bit graphics.  Own it, need to play it.

Games I’m interested to check out:

  • Beat Sneak Bandit: A music based game for mobile devices that requires rhythm and timing to beat, and games like that are always fun.
  • Blink: First person platforming which, when done right, is quite fun.
  • Bumpy Road: A mobile driving game where you control the road as opposed to the vehicle.
  • Crashtastic: 3D physics based puzzle game.  What’s not to like about it?
  • Dear Esther: An interactive storytelling experience.  Coming to Steam Feb. 14, and will probably pick it up day one.
  • Fingle: A kind of twist on Twister, except meant for two peoples’ fingers on an iPad.
  • Prom Night: Social interaction sim where, unlike The Sims, past experiences affect future decisions and relationships.
  • Retro City Rampage:  ”Grand Theft Auto meets Super Mario meets… well, just about EVERYTHING!”.  Looks like crazy, simple fun.
  • Spelunky: Platformer with randomly generated levels each time you play it.
  • Stay in the Light: Platformer with a LIMBO art style and a gameplay twist summed up best by its title.
  • Twirdie: Simple golf game where the distance you hit the ball is based on you guessing a word and seeing how often it appeared on Twitter in the past minute.
  • Wonderputt: Crazy looking mini-golf game.  Need I say more?

A little later I might adventurous and make predictions on winners, but we shall see.  I’m confident of some of the categories, but some I don’t have much experience in.

It’s Official

I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.

I’d like to think of myself as a fairly mildly-tempered person, but this is just beyond the point of stupid.  Minecraft is a LEGO simulator!  Anything you can make with LEGO you can make in Minecraft as well, with each having their own advantages and disadvantages!

I had already lost a lot of respect for Minecraft just because of the ridiculously dumb fanbase it has, but this would almost be enough to make me lose respect for LEGO too.  Sadly, with actually cool sets released like this Fallingwater one, it will have to try a little harder to lose my love.

2011 GYiR: Duke Nukem Forever

If there is one thing that will end up in the history books of video games for this year, it’s the fact that this was the year that Duke Nukem Forever was finally released. Yes, after over a decade of waiting, we finally got to see the glorious return of Duke in June of this year. People preordered it, were all in suspense and in anticipation for it, and when it finally came out there seemed to be a universal opinion of it:

It sucked.

Well, sucked is putting it very harshly. It certainly wasn’t going to live up to eleven years of anticipation, but nothing would have. It probably only ended up with a couple of years of actually development time at most, and it had passed hands so often that it was going to end up with too many cooks spoiling the broth, so to speak.

I ended up buying it during the Steam sale, as it had dropped to half price by then. I actually finished it a few weeks after buying it, and honestly, it’s not as bad as people say. Sure, you can literally slice the game in sections and see the development cycle of it, but it is still a very fun game to play. Duke’s character is still as funny as it ever was, and the lack of a good story makes it more about shooting aliens in the face than it is about morality and all that jazz.

It’s not anywhere near a game of the year contender, but it’s worth picking up. Any fans of either classic FPS’ or of hilariously misogynistic* quotes will get their money’s worth out of the game.

*Note that I do not condone misogyny in real life, but as long as it’s in good humor or an inside joke between people, then it’s fine. Just don’t go up to a stranger on the street and ask her to make you a sandwich.

2011 GYiR: Terraria

“But Patrick!” I can hear you saying already, “You said this game wasn’t that good, had a terrible learning curve, and basically implied that it wasn’t fun!”

Well, I’m an idiot and I take it back.  While the first playthrough of the game is really confusing and admittedly not that fun, wait a month (Which, by then, an update should have come out to add more content), start a new character on a new map, and gain a real appreciation for the game.  That’s what happened to me – a month or two after I played the game and was left unimpressed, I ended up playing it on a trip up to Moose Jaw, and was able to fall in love with it then.  They had updated it to give decent items early on through randomly generated chests, as well as adding a couple of new enemies and potions as well.  The game still kind of had the same difficulty curve, but a better understanding of what to do and a knowledge of what you’re seeking out made it much more enjoyable this time.

Even better, this is the game that keeps on giving.  This past month, they released a major expansion pack update to it that adds on to the most lacking part of the game – the end.  Now, instead of having that difficulty trail off, you can activate “Hardmode world” which gives you stronger enemies, stronger bosses, and a brand new set of weapons and other items to craft.  I’ve been playing with the new things for over a week as of the time of writing, and I’m both still finding new things every time I play, and still have yet to try even touching any of the new bosses.  Yes, this game is fantastic.

I’m avoiding the obvious correlation to another game of a similar style, mainly because I haven’t played that game’s new updates in the past couple of months, but this is a game that is now very worthy of not being called a clone.  In the fork of the gaming road where creative and adventure diverge, this one has happily travelled down the latter without apology, and if there weren’t so many other titles out this year it would have easily been a contender for game of the year awards.  Still, it’s a game that you can’t go wrong with for $10.