YourGamer.Net

lately, i’ve been addicted to two things. online, streaming video of television shows, and the web-game Star Pirates. Its an excellent way to have fun in the background while working, for those moments when you are in a hurry up and wait mode. Its more fast paced than most online web-MMO’s where in things happen and advice in minutes rather than hours or days.

This by no means makes it perfect, but the designers and programmers have done there best to have the “forever beta” feel. An ongoing idea that the game is always willing to shift, change and improve. they are very freindly to both paying customers and free customers in a way that is similar to puzzle pirates. They allow an interchangable form of currency that doesn’t neccessarily favor the free or paying members.

The game needs alot of work but the game elements are almost entirely suggested by the players, making the gameplay it self (rather than the software) sort-of open source. i gotta say, so long as they stay freindly with the players and keep there paying customers happy, they are in for a long and healthy life.

Check them out HERE.

When Artemis (one of the trolls in moonstruck chat room) told me that there was a Spore demo leaked, I thought he was screwing around with my head. This is a sport in the moonstruck chat room so i take it with a grain of salt, but he wasn’t joking and the link he provided was valid. I won’t link you the torrent because I am still uncertain as to whether or not it is a leak or a legitimate demo release, and I don’t wish to be liable for what may or may not be construed as infringement. All that aside, back to why I have a huge gamer stiffy for Wil Wright’s Spore.

When I had downloaded and installed the Spore Creature Creator demo, I was pleasantly surprised when it  started perfectly on my meager laptop. I spent the rest of the night messing around with the many options. It’s not complete in the selection of creature parts, but it being a demo of a small part of a game. This came as another surprise; apparently, EA games is selling the Creature Creator as a small digital toy. This made me think, “Is this worth it?”

The price is low, and from the looks of it, it will be a download only option. This still does not alter the fact that EA is selling a partial product when the full product is merely a few months away? I have a feeling that the marketing department at our favorite corporate game monger, EA games is behind this. I can see why someone would be willing to get the creature creator as a solitary application, but I feel that they are missing out on a great marketing tool by charging for this small piece of software. If they had given out this software completely free, in lo of charging, they would get more overall sales of the complete product than they would otherwise. Let me tell you how.

If they give out the Creature Creator for free, they develop a fan base that will be encouraged to buy the full version each time they play. Not through nagware, or feature limitations, the shear fact that it is only a small part of a whole game would be more than enough to create the constant desire in the gamer’s minds. Also, the extraneous content on the whole product is dependent on the data base of creatures created by the Creature Creator stored online. Building up the community between creators and players would also be in favor of the profit margin. By building a constant exchange between those two, you have a self expanding marketing campaign that borders on viral, thusly pushing the primary product into the public eye. They touch a little on this with the option to upload video’s of the creatures directly to YouTube (yes, by now there is probably a flood of those types of videos on youtube right now).

I can’t say for certain if Spore is going to live up to its hype, I found the controls and options intuitive and smooth. The selection of content was limited but this did not hamper its impact. The bonus material options, such as the videos, animated avatars, and pictures, make the demo quite fun to mess around with.

My suggestion is to search online for the leaked demo, (*coughthepiratebay.orgcough*) and play with that until your pre-order of the real game comes in. All I can say is that whether or not it lives up to the hype, Spore with indeed be a great game.

Recently, NCSoft gave a weekend free to former players (like myself) of the City of Heroes/City of Villains MMORPG. Now, i really liked that game, it was and still is a masterpiece of design and social interaction in the gaming field. Although not as popular as World of Warcraft, it still keeps pace with the times and maintains an excellent level of quality. And in that lies their problem.

You see, instead of developing major expansions for the overall game, forcing gamers to purchase more software in order to keep up. They add and remove content that follows a common storyline thread, just like a normal comic book would. This is a great strength for them, it has made some of their more dedicated fans even more loyal. But, in that thread, not much else is going on. Unless you sit down and read the comic books that follow the main vein of the lore, you loose track; it blends together in such a way that what ever transition happens goes nearly unnoticed.

The controls remain the same and the enemies, give or take a few quirks, are essentially the same. I’m not saying that its a bad thing. NCSoft tripped, fell, and rolled around into something brilliant, but they aren’t doing anything more than keeping pace. Its time they got a little ahead of the game. All they need is a shot in the arm of original content, and splash in the face of advertising. And i guarantee that CoH will see a heavy resurgence. I will go over the How CoH can be reborn, next time.

Toodles!

A few years ago, after playing a marathon of Unreal tournament with high octane rock pumping in the back ground, i was starting to think, “wouldn’t it be cool if i just game my game an mp3 and it would make a level based on it?”. You think i’m shitting you, but thats how it is. I had to talk with a game dev friend of mine to double check to see that my brain wasn’t screwing with me.

So fast foreword to now, and look at the top game on the Steam hit list, and you find AudioSurf. Indie Game of the Year in 07, and Most Original Gameplay Mechanic Award at last year’s GDC. This left me pissed, overjoyed, and confused.

Pissed, because, well, its my idea damn it! yeah i didn’t have the resources or skills at the time, to make it come to be. Yet , its the principle of the matter.

Overjoyed, because, it ROCKED!!!! it won awards, its popular, and its damn fun to play. This proves that my game design concepts are both worth while and executable.

Confused, due to the fact that i cannot do this for ALL my projects and ideas. They have the potential, but why can i not convince those that have the technical skills to pull it off to help?

I love AudioSurf, because its a good game. I know because the casual mechanic thats blended with the musical aspect of it makes it so unique and fun; that it speaks for itself. (just like i had imagined it.)

its worth the ten bucks on steam, i would suggest you try it out. NOW!!!

Well well well… it’s been a while.

Yes, I apologize. I’ve been extremely busy, but hark! IS THIS AN UPDATE?! I do believe it is.

Ok, I have some valentines things on the way, if overdue. Give them to your loved ones as overdue tokens of love! They’ll swoon to your feet. Honest. Girls love it when you’re late on these things </sarcasm>. ANYWAYS! Some credible words:

I watched Cloverfield last week (yes, it was released on Feb 1st in the uk because THE WORLD HATES US) and I have to say it’s one of the best cinema experiences I’ve had in a long time. Judging by reviews and what other people have said, it seems to be a ‘love it/hate it’ movie. There are some real memorable moments though and for me, its one of those films you’ll be thinking about a few days after you’ve seen it and just reveling in how subversive it is. If a monster was to descend on new york, you can’t help but think that this is exactly how it would look. Though it’s a movie that A. HAS to be seen in the cinema to get the full effect and B. Isn’t really a movie you can watch again. But when you do watch it, it’s one hell of a roller coaster. Oh, and if you suffer from motion sickness and have ANY common sense, beware when watching this movie. Lots of shake camera work. Sit near the back is my advice. At least if you sit in front of some chavs/annoying people you can barf all over them.

Oh, and of course, lots of homages to Godzilla, which I loved. And in the last scene, at the seaside? Watch to the right of the screen. Trust me.

Gets two thumbs up from me.

OK, Now to play some burnout paradise and get these valentines things wrapped up. Adios.

If you like flash games, or play them regularly, then you’ve heard the name Fancy Pants a few times. And if you haven’t played it, you should.

It is rare that you see such a polished game model at work, and its a pleasure to play it. Imagine the perfect combination between Sonic : the hedgehog and Super Mario Bros.

Essentially, you’re fancy pants man. A stick figure character that is very fast and has awesome pants. Its your job to go through levels and evade the nasty spider thingy’s . Or, in the case of Fancy Pants Adventure World 2, you must get the ice cream back from the angry rabbit that stole it from you. He wouldn’t give it back, even after you shook your mighty fist at him. Thats just not right.

As you play fancy pants man, you’ll notice that being a stick man in squiggle world is  very natural. The graphics fit the character…….like pants. (i got pages of these jokes so stick with me, lol) you notice that the level design is primarily focused on solving small and simple puzzles and not so much  defeating bad spiders. You’ll notice a lot of parodies made on both Mario and Sonic, all of them are tasteful and good natured.

What really amazed me the most was the shear amount of polish on the game.  You can tell that the guy(s) who made this game really wanted it to be great. They put a lot of time into it and it shows with smooth game-play and excellent mechanics, and sincere feeling that everything in the game is supposed to be there.

the game itself is a little short, but i think thats a good thing in this case because the game is rich with easter eggs, trophies, and even different colors of pants.

And to tie it all together, this game is FUN. (you remember fun, right?)  Its defiantly an example of a good idea executed perfectly.

PLAY IT!! 

Synopsis: You play as Sam and Max (Primarily Sam), freelance police that are called in to investigate the freaky and strange laws being in acted by the president of the united states. (mandatory group hugs, national official pudding, etc) As you move past the very hard task of getting into the front door, you’ll see theres more to it. I don’t want ruin the plot, but in the end max is president, and you kill the Lincoln monument with the Washington monument.

Graphics: The graphics aren’t spectacular, but they aren’t supposed to be. They are cartoony enough to stick with script. They are bright, but not blindingly so. On any other type of game, I’d say that the graphics left much to be desired. But the graphics aren’t SUPPOSED to be any better or worse. So the judgment is, pretty good. Smooth and just right for the genre.

Plot: The plot is pretty much what you would expect from something that takes notes from Family Guy, American Dad, and the Simpsons. Put a surrealistic spin on tongue in cheek humor without actually going into adult only territory. It changes from episode to episode, but its all cartoon humor with that dark surrealistic spin.

Control: Controls are about as simple and straight forward as you can get. point and click, all the way. In this episode there aren’t any real, “action” sequences, but its still so easy i could use it.

Learning Curve: Thats always been my beef with adventure games. The fact that some (Seirra online, i’m looking at you) adventure games drop you in a situation and expect that there logic is everyones. Yahtzee’s, of Zero Punctuation, games’ tend to understand the initial stupidity of the player. When i played 5 days a stranger, i found that i could get through the first part easy enough. Thats usually the deal killer for most gamers that want to try out the adventure genre. Its that annoying first puzzle that is the real painful part. After the first step, you have a constant up and down feeling of challenge. Hitting the president in the head with a boxing glove is a given, but giving vodka to the governors is kind of a stretch.

Overall: I’d say its a nice and funny way to find a love for the point and click adventure genre that was thought dead after that last leisure suit larry. The Sam & Max series is a good dip of the toe into the right end of the pool.

The story of Steam is well known to most PC gamers. The initial resentment, the crashes, the bugs, then the sudden upswing, the acquisition of indie titles, the increased ease of use, turning it into a useful tool more than a barely-tolerable burden to your gaming experience. Steam and Valve have together revolutionized the face of PC gaming, in terms of content (episodic games, third party devs all rolled into one app), installation and patching (all done automatically…if devs are gonna release a buggy build, the least they can do is have it patch itself when they finally get around to fixing it…), and most of all, exposure and advertising. How many people had heard of an indie studio calling itself Introversion before their outstandingly quirky RTS Darwinia was featured on Steam? With that success, the entire catalog of Introversion games started appearing on the service (Defcon, the classic Uplink, and the upcoming Multiwinia), and subsequently many other smaller studios started marketing their games on Steam. The platform has become a viable contender to become that “golden bullet” that will unify PC gamers, the answer to Xbox live that Microsoft’s own ham-handed attempt, GFW Live, clearly will never be.

So why bring all this up now? Old news, right? Well, what if Steam isn’t the golden bullet, but merely the trend setter? What if Steam is the prototype for countless other, similar systems of distribution? This could just mean a further splintering of the PC community, which, as some analysts would have it, can only lead to the DOWNFALL OF PC GAMING AS WE KNOW IT. Of course, this is BS, since PC gamers have exclusive, unlimited access to the most open ended online community known to mankind, the freaking INTERNET. Still, it’s an interesting point, and one that’s brought to the forefront by the freeware doodad known as “ZoopTEK Launcher.”

ZoopTEK is, according to their website, “a small organization built around programming for fun or creating useful programs.” This means that ZoopTEK has the notable distinction of being a delivery program for both gaming AND non-gaming software, though the focus is undoubtedly on gaming. The program is super-slim, at just over 500k, and grants you immediate access to several of ZoopTEK’s downloadable games. The reason the program was created, evidently, was to make an easy way for consumers to get the .net framework and Directx files that the games depended on, and it downloads these files automatically…but the potential is so much larger than this. The user doesn’t even need to check the website for new games, or updates to old ones…they’re just…there. And if you try a game and don’t like it, one click, and you’ve got an instant uninstall!

As for the games themselves, I can’t honestly claim to have tried them all. From the ones I have tried, most are passable for a short diversion, some are complete crap, and one is excellent (Zombsand, an outstanding zombie-survival-themed roguelike that I’ve been using to keep my hunger for Left 4 Dead at bay. Definitely try it.). But truly, that’s not the point. The point is, this is just another example of indie developers taking a concept from the commercial scene, using it, adapting it, and making it completely unique (and improved in many ways). That’s the sort of thing I love about the indie scene, and that is why we should ALL be paying attention to it.

EDIT: SO after writing all this up, our lovely editor johnwedd (killjoy =P ) informed me that ZoopTEK has been around for a while, before steam even. So, I stand corrected, but my point still stands. Indie devs are versatile and unique, and deserve notice.
Also, john mentions gametap, the well-received service that provides older games through a well-designed launcher, available on a rotating schedule of some sort or other (being on dialup, I can’t actually try it out to verify exactly how they do it). That sounds pretty awesome as well, and the thought of “recycling” old games in this way is novel. Too bad I can’t claim THAT spark of genius for indie, since gametap is run by Turner Entertainment. Ah well, can’t win em all.

Aig here, not a long post tonight, but I thought I’d try to make good on my promise to stay up to date from now on.

Last night I wrote about the excellent game Chalk by Joakim Sandberg, and tonight I have to quickly recommend another of his games, Tripline.  This puzzle game is done in a notebook style, showing the same awesome art direction as his other games.  The board looks like one of those graph paper games that you used to play in school with your friends while the teacher was talking, and place pretty similarly.  It’s about making a constant line through sets of three of the same shape, without crossing your own line.  Sounds pretty simple, but the cute graphics and addictive gameplay are awesome.  And it gets REALLY HARD.  If you haven’t heard of it, definitely give it a try.
I’m recovering from a pretty nasty sinus infection right now, so I’ll work up some more interesting posts when I’m feeling better.  Hope everyone’s having a wicked weekend.

So yeah, after my llengthy absence thanks to failed interweb, I’m back to stay…or at least I’d better be. Since I can’t play any games online these days, I’ve been looking through my single player library, and found some really fun indie titles that I forgot about completely. I’m gonna be showing some of them off over the next few days. Some of these may be old, but I can guarantee that you’ve never heard of at least one of these. I dug deep.

…deeeeep…

Anyways, the first game on my list is Chalk. This game drew a lot of attention when it first came out mid-2007 (I think…), but I’ve seen many people who’ve never heard of it. This is unacceptable, because Chalk has one of the most original and well-implemented gameplay concepts I’ve ever seen.

The basic progenitor of Chalk is the simple 2d space shooter. You have a character that travels around the screen, fighting swarms of progressively harder enemies with long boss battles at the end of each of the 6 stages. This is where the normalcy of Chalk ends. Instead of shooting bullets or missles at your enemy…you draw at them. That’s right, this entire game takes place on a chalkboard, and your only weapon is chalk. This could get boring fast, simply clicking and dragging lines across enemies, but the true genius of the combat system is the use of the same weapon (i.e. the drawn line) in different context. Enemy attacking with purple? Draw a line from the projectile to the enemy to transfer the damage to them. Attacking with white? Draw a shield and deflect the bullets back at them. I won’t ruin the other delicacies of the system, but let me just say that it’s truly engaging and a hell of a lot of fun. Puzzling and challenging bosses top off the awesome.
Sadly, the game’s short, easily beatable in about 30 minutes, but it *is* freeware, and I promise that you will replay over and over to try to beat your previous scores. I highly recommend it. I also recommend that you check out the author’s website, where there are some other fun games up, and more coming.

In other news, fans of Cavestory (another must-play, on the off chance anyone hasn’t heard of it) or Castlevania should absolutely check out this preview of The Undersi