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We are pretty well settled in our house. See: here’s Anny looking confused in the kitchen! Why am I taking a picture of her? Even I don’t know. Crazy!

Thanksgiving at Xian’s was really awesome (not pictured). He and Miyuki did an awesome job of hosting and everyone had a really wonderful time. Thanks so much, guys! It’s fun to be part of a new tradition.

Yesterday I did a bit to help Nathaniel move in. It was very foggy. Very foggy. Look! This is what it was like outside my back door:

I know! Looks like it could be a shot from a next-gen Silent Hill game. Driving along in it by myself was one of the best moments of the weekend, actually.

In gaming news, Left 4 Dead is awesome and I really hope that I get more of a chance to play with friends. It’s super fun! The only other thing I really had time for other than HOURS of Rock Band has been that new Castlevania thing on the DS. I’m actually really enjoying it — it retains the open-world feel and interesting technique alchemy of the previous DS titles with the spirit of some of the more sequential, insular level sets of earlier games. As usual, the pixel art is absolutely divine and incredibly inspiring. On inspiration — maybe I will have a chance to work on Paraplu this weekend! I hope I have enough time.

Progress!

Originally published at Grappa Pixel Tea. Please leave any comments there.

…than sitting down to a nice, quiet, after-work coffee in the afternoon with your wife. Ah.

I want to write some more content here soon about games, but I have a problem—there’s too many games to play at the moment! I’m mainly getting into Rock Band 2, which I don’t particularly want to write about because we all know it’s really good and fun and like, OMG the parties and Duran Duran etc. I think I’d rather write about something that’s a little more interesting than that. Dead Space I can guarantee I will write about, however I’ve promised Anny and Nathaniel that I won’t play it until we can all play it together the proper way; late at night in the basement with the volume cranked. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia is also wonderful and fun, but I don’t want to write about it until I’ve played more of it. Then there is Far Cry 2, which reminds me a lot of S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and we all know how much I loved that. Little Big Planet, Guitar Hero World Tour, Saint’s Row 2 and the Resistance 2 Beta all cap it off, but that’s only until next month when Mirror’s Edge comes out and yaaarghhh! Ahem. Needless to say, I’ll be writing more again soon.

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Looks like we get to go to Escrow today and bug a house. Gulp. Let’s hope this time there are no hiccups!

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For all of you who were never curious, here is my desk. I self-consciously thought about cleaning it before snapping this but quickly decided against it. That’s right, my dear readers, this is pure, B&W filtered realism!

Going from left to right you may spot some of the following items, amongst the eight PCs pictured, all of which I am currently working on:

• - Comfy old faux-leather chair that sometimes springs backwards unexpectedly.
• - Old CRT that I use for KVM, with a sticker: “Barry the Monitor”
• - WD 1TB External HDD, which doesn’t work some of the time, ugh
• - “Coat rack”
• - My work PC (on the far right), custom built small form factor dood with performance RAID and all that jazz. Fun!

Close up from where I sit. Contents listed below.

• - Notepad and pen, the most useful tools I have at work
• - One pair of Green Panasonic RP-HTX7s, the best pair of headphones  I have ever owned
• - Mug with face, for drinking copious amounts of tea
• - Apple Wired Keyboard, the best keyboard I’ve ever used
• - Logitech MX Nano Wireless Mouse, which I bought for my EeePC, but turned out to be so damned good that I use it full time
• - Lacie External HDD, which you can’t see in this photo very clearly, but has a lovely little retractable USB cable and is designed by Sam Hecht; meaning it is a rectangular prism

NOW YOU KNOW.

Originally published at Grappa Pixel Tea. Please leave any comments there.

I think this photo illustrates more clearly what I’m on about when I say I work “in a shopping mall” than any other I’ve taken. This is the lobby area of the building I work in, the Seattle Design Center. SDC is primarily home to very high-end interior design showrooms, some of which are so exclusive they won’t even allow mere plebes access to their wares—you must first be a sufficiently elitist interior designer of no small Masonic rank. Even then they have stringent requirements about the pronunciation of espresso and biscotti (both of which are colours, I’ll have you know!), as well as implements for measuring the extreme angle of one’s upturned nose. Often I see Prada-clad women, almost in tears; trepidaciously teetering on the thresholds of these boutiques, hoping, against hope that the Shopkeeper may deign to let them browse.

The building has a kind of strange physically inverted hierarchy; the most opulent stores are at ground level, selling chairs that will run you somewhere in the order of eight thousand “clams” and coffee-tables in the shape of curled scrolls. As you move up the floors the showrooms can rely less on the designer name to justify the price-tags; becoming less lackadaisical and more conscientiously elitist: a spotty, alien looking lamp for four thousand; a green backlit basin so expensive it doesn’t bear a price-tag; dress mirrors with inset Blu-ray players.

The top floor (as I understand it, I’ve never been) is all office-space; and accordingly is sealed off from public access—presumably so that the upper-crust clientele don’t have to needlessly mingle with the unwashed worker masses. Curiously, our company’s space is fairly high-up on this chain, sharing the same realm on the third floor as the lighting and carpet studios. I’m not sure if this is a reflection on our professional image or some kind of horrid mistake, either way I am positive we are the only room in this building that has a foosball table.

Originally published at Grappa Pixel Tea. Please leave any comments there.

Here’s a photo to go with a post. Why is it that no matter the relevancy, having a picture in a post makes it so much more readable? Even a list, graph or download link - something instantly digestible – can make a drivel-ridden entry such as this one seem more enticing. Anyway. This was taken inside our local lunch joint, aptly named “The Sandwich Shop”. Actually though, they also serve teriyaki, fish and chips, soup, salads…

Building-contractor-mans Larry is a good bloke, it turns out. I feel positive about his team doing the chimney work on 7312. The only thing left to sort out currently is if the bank is as keen on this house as we are. The riling aspect to this wait is that they already have the result, but are taking their time to relay it to us, presumably (again) to derive some kind of twisted pleasure from the whole ordeal. Pleasepleaseplease just let us know so we can stop worrying about what may go wrong! Grappa give me strength.

Meanwhile, our apartment is starting to get nasty. Anyone who knows us will no doubt find this unusual. Ann and I (well, mostly Ann) run a pretty tight ship – our house is usually fairly clean for various reasons (I won’t mention any felines’ names). Since going ahead with this whole “house” deal something instantly snapped in both of us – the impetus to clean anything further than baseline acceptability fizzled out. I simply don’t care about the state of the place anymore. It’s understandable, yes, but it certainly feels odd for us both to dashed such a diligent regimen without a moment’s notice or word to each other.

Still, it gives you more time to do more interesting things.

Like writing!

Originally published at Grappa Pixel Tea. Please leave any comments there.

  A good day will start with a Naan Pizza. Like today!

I’ve been having a hard time with HP recently. It would be far too unprofessional for me to discuss here precisely the reason for my current acrimony towards them, but today I a wonderful opportunity to have them explain themselves to Intel – in the end this was almost worth hearing an Intel higher-up balk at several aspects of how unusable the software was.

One of my colleagues in our software division, Don, is very careful about ensuring that all of the things in software’s labs are well organised and maintained. I admire this, and I think it’s important that his development isn’t compromised – but it sometimes has funny results. Here Don has labeled a monitor belonging to the Quality Assurance lab quite appropriately. I couldn’t resist the in and went ahead and labeled the keyboard for him.

We’re meeting up with a masonry contractor tonight to determine what the plan will be for the repair or reconstruction of the problematic chimney at 7312. Wish us luck!

Originally published at Grappa Pixel Tea. Please leave any comments there.

No, there’s no particular reason, this is just a picture of a cup in the shape of Jack Skellington’s head in Black and White. I guess I could use it to neatly segue into something to do with the undead in general, but that would just be cheesy.

Although now I think about it, I was just obliterating literal hordes of the undead last night! In Saint’s Row 2!
I know! Of all games – Saint’s Row 2? THAT one? The stupid GTA-clone rip-off? Wait, you were playing it? You bought it?

Yes, I did. It gets worse. The Zombie Uprising minigame - a Romero-esque limited-ammo-unlimited-zombies scenario - is just one of the many excellent and surprisingly entertaining distractions the sequel has. Yes folks, it is with a heavy heart that I bring this news. I am disappointed to admit that Saint’s Row 2 is goddamned brilliant.

It’s the same kind of attraction that continually draws me to the lowest-of-the-low B-grade movies, the train-wreck fascination with the supremely stupid. Saint’s Row 2 takes great pains to make even the most mundane aspects of the gameplay interesting, providing positive feedback and rewards for things such as driving in the oncoming traffic lane and time spent on two-wheels while careening around, as well as more off-the-wall activities like jumping out of moving vehicles, being launched through the windshield of a car, or leaping from buildings to your death. These things are, of course, just a dash of spice - there to add a little something extra to a mixture already knee-deep in the idiot-sauce. Any game that has a series of missions where you need to drive around on fire for as long as possible or get in a septic tank truck and spray poo on buildings has fairly clearly stated its mental age. Let’s see.. you can also dress your gang members up like clowns – or mimes! Or whatever! You can get ninjas for bodyguards. Ninjas. I really liked the first game, but this – this is ridiculous. It improves on the sequel in so many unimaginably insane ways – it gives the fans everything they asked for and more. I wish it weren’t this way, I really do. Then I could keep writing about art-games like Shadow of the Colossus and lovingly crafted environments like those in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.; and, you know – bring some actual meaning to this blog. Sigh. Unfortunately, I’m having too much fun car-surfing and throwing myself in the path of traffic for insurance fraud money. I apologise. Please ignore me.

Originally published at Grappa Pixel Tea. Please leave any comments there.

So, Ann and I bought a house. Well, almost. Assuming everything goes peachily, we’ll be homeowners in the next few weeks. Currently we are awash; under a veritable tide of overwhelmingly obfuscatory red-taperwork. This is crap. There are many happy things to look forward to, though. Our good friend Nathaniel is likely going to be moving in and renting a room to ease us into the blow of parting with a little more money, which is much welcomed. I’ve never had this kind of lifestyle before, but I’m actually looking forward to seeing how it works out.

The house itself is beautiful. Grimm-esque on the outside, bright and cheerful on the inside. She’s old, though, and though she has *ahem* “good bones”, she does need a little work. On the list of things to be done to some extent in the coming months and years are: roof, chimney, electrical, plumbing, exterior walls, windows, heating, attic – okay basically everything. We knew this, though, as is often the case when you buy a house nearing its hundredth birthday. I jest a little though, in general the house is in perfectly acceptable condition.

There are a number of features that made this house particularly attractive to us that I’m really keen to use. Firstly, space. Apartment living has been pretty interesting for me, but I feel a little confined after living a lot more spaciously for my whole life. I will look forward to not having to dig into the bowels of the poopy-smelling kitty-litter zone in order to retrieve any given item. Oh yeah, and not having the other litter box in the same place that I have my clothes. I have the most unusual phantom smell association of getting dressed and cat-litter slightly blanketed with mango air freshener. For a feeble mind like mine that has enough trouble just chugging along, this is trying.

This new place also has a three berth car garage. Perhaps “hotel” would be a more appropriate name. This is a lot for us, considering we have one tiny European hatchback. The resultant extra space pretty much solves all of our storage needs and then some. Heck, everything we own could probably fit in the garage before we even get to the house. There is also a sun room. Somewhat mind-blowing to me, since I’ve never been in a house that had a room dedicated to being in the sun – something traditionally done outside. I am sure our cats will find this to be a most sensible and useful addition to their indoor lifestyle, which currently is actually somewhat hindered by the lack of a sun room. Most importantly, however, there is a crazy large finished basement which accounts for almost half of the size of the house. My dream of making a kind of geek bunker is about to be realised. Down in this den, which I wish to call “B1”, there will be computers, gaming consoles, a large television, 5.1 sound system, plastic musical instruments, a pinball machine and a lot of dumpy sofas. The walls will be decorated with geeky video-game and sci-fi posters. There will be a humourous “Mans” sign on the bathroom door. There will be a place to get drinks and snacks on hand. Yes. I am being for really reals. If you know me, please come over often and help me enjoy this – I don’t think I’ll have enough time to do it by myself and I want to share the love.

Before all of these things will come to pass, however, is another few weeks of dreary, tedious bureaucracy. The people who design these documents and procedures are masterful and relentless. It is almost as if every form 21B or section 33.c, paragraph vi they craft in their evil laboratories is very deliberately designed to maximise the output balance of confusion, tedium, rage and belittlement. Thankfully we have a wonderful, wonderful agent who can speak Real Estate and also English, making translations relatively painless.

So, let’s hope this works out!

Originally published at Grappa Pixel Tea. Please leave any comments there.

It’s hard to really say anything that hasn’t already been said in other reviews about this game – and that is quite possibly the largest issue I have with the game, it’s so safe. Many of the idiosyncratic, old-fashioned game-design decisions that characterised the older games in the franchise had have been “fixed”, and in particular the story is somewhat… watery compared to some of the more labyrinthine and morally contorted Lynchian storylines of other Silent Hills. Both of these aspects of Silent Hill, particularly in Silent Hill 2, made it somewhat uncomfortable to play - not only was the story confusing and horrific, but the control you had over the game was too. Before playing Homecoming that would have been a snide joke, but I wonder now if it really is.

At any rate, I am probably exaggerating the magnitude of these changes; Homecoming is an immensely entertaining game to play - or even watch. The revamping of the combat system to include timed dodges, attacks, and combos actually makes controlling the game more enjoyable and less repetitive or tedious. There are also far fewer trinket-collecting quests and cha-chinking of the ever-present broken locks that seem to plague the small town with the same intensity as the abominations. To me, these aspects never really added anything to the previous games and made prolonged sessions with them irritating, so their removal is a welcome change. Homecoming also has really great graphics and sound, but I can’t help but feel that almost all of that rides on the already carefully established aesthetic of earlier iterations. It is worth nothing however that the new game dares to finally move away from many of the tired, same-y locales that we have seen repeated ad-nauseam in previous SH games (except, of course, the hospital).

The bottom line for this game I think is therefore quite easy to determine – it’s a watered-down version of most of the earlier Silent Hill games with a few modern updates. Perhaps due to this game being created by an U.S. game studio they saw fit to make it more accessible to a U.S. audience, who are accustomed to more formulaic, by-the-numbers horror films and stories. Maybe it was to broaden the scope of its prospective audience. Regardless, what’s left is easily a four-star game that is a lot of fun. I’m already playing through it for the second time! If only I could get the hang of taking down those damn Schisms. Grr.

Originally published at Grappa Pixel Tea. Please leave any comments there.

I recently upgraded my computer. This time, I decided to change it up a little and move to the Micro-ATX form factor. For the case I chose a smaller LianLi case (pictured above). I’ve never really spent a lot of money on cases before and this is easily the most extravagant I’ve ever been in that regard (around $100 without PSU). After having this computer for a short while I’m happy saying it’s one of the best purchases I’ve ever made. Inside this tiny little case is 3 HDDs, a monster video card, a full size optical drive, a full size PSU and a very decent processor. This all makes a great little gaming rig but what surprises me is that in this tiny space, which is only barely enough to house all of these components, heat or noise have never been issues! Plus it looks lovely… I could easily stash this underneath the desk but… look! It’s like HAL 9000’s cute baby daughter… how could you ever hide it away?

I’ve already had some good gaming times on this machine. From games that don’t really make use of her considerable processing might like Diablo 2 and Iji (everyone check out this wonderful game now!) to some of the more full-on modern games like Bioshock, Unreal Tournament 3 and Call of Duty 4, she’s been wonderful, never missing a beat or having an issue. The case itself seems like a minor part of this equation but it has been a long, long time since I have been this impressed with the quality of a component. If you are considering buying a computer case and you want something beautiful and incredibly well designed, I can’t recommend it enough – if only I could remember the model number, darn.

Originally published at Grappa Pixel Tea. Please leave any comments there.

Prosc in two phases: Horror, then repose.

See, I can be organised!

-Jules

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Originally published at Grappa Pixel Tea. Please leave any comments there.

Does it blog?

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That last post was pretty messy and incoherent. Sorry about that.

Here are some Indie games you should play. Today’s theme is "simplicity".

Weird Worlds: Strange Adventures in Infinite Space ($25)
This is a casual, coffee-break game - no real arcade or VG experience needed here. Each game is a randomised series of events that occur as you explore a randomly generated galaxy. There are a finite number of things that can happen in this game, but the way that are combined in each different playthough makes it delightful. The whole game-experience is very "lo-fi", but almost impossible to not enjoy, in the space of 5 minutes alliances are formed, ancient artifacts are found, giant space battles are staged and space whales are sighted. Yes.

Knytt Stories (Free)
This is a popular one, but I still know a lot of people who haven’t got around to it. Please, please do. It only takes about 2 hours end-to-end, but is a gorgeous example of minimalist game design. Nothing about the game is particularly attractive or clever, it’s just the purity of the thing. Knytt Stories simultaneously chills you out and keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Bridge Builder Game (Free)
Elefunk - a PS3 download game that came out recently - is a much more fleshed out version of this game, but the added complexity I think detracts from the excellent simplicity its granddaddy offers. The premise is simple: There is a chasm which a train must cross. You build a bridge using a limited supply of steel, then set the train off. Then the train falls into the chasm. Then you make modifications to your deathtrap until the train eventually makes it over without. It’s hilarious fun for the whole family!

Originally published at Grappa Pixel Tea. Please leave any comments there.

This weekend was pretty quiet as far as recent weekends have gone, but a lot of fun. Friday we went to see the new X-Files movie, which surprised me greatly because I actually liked it, and had fully expected it to be a new and mysterious variety of tripe. The reviews of the film are terrible, and it is almost universally regarded as a solid "bad", but I thought the subtlety, continuity and style were excellent.

Saturday I can’t remember doing much of anything of any consequence. In the morning Ann & I played around with PixelJunk Eden a bit, and both immediately fell in love with it. I think there is something inherently enjoyable about freedom of movement translates into an enjoyable video game experience, and battling gravity as our twirling grimps fly off their silken threads fall tantalizingly short of almost every jump they attempt is, amazingly, more entertaining than frustrating. It probably helps that the game bathes you in web2.0 reminiscent vector visuals and new-age beats - the whole experience is like a brain massage.

After a conversation with a my good friend Bill about Games He Should Play Next he mentioned in passing Valkyrie Profile 2.

WARNING, A LARGE PARAGRAPH: "VALKYRIE PROFILE RELATED RAMBLE" IS APPROACHING.

To me, both games in this series are almost too good to be considered RPG-kin amongst their contemporaries. They both break the rules - constantly - and perverse the methodical traditions laid down by SQUEENIX’s flagship games so meticulously for years beforehand. Examples: In the early stages of VP2 I already find myself with 8 party members to choose from, and no matter what configuration I put them in they still remain capable of their own brand of ass-kickery. To me, this is incredible considering the inconsistent nature of just about every variable the game offers - I have a new, level 3 character who has a 10% chance to cast Death on any enemy, bosses included, every time she attacks. One of my characters is level 19, and the next lowest down is level 6. One of the trading items I have obtained already is "Cat Poop" - this can be used to make amulets. Currently my party consists entirely of burly men who use massive two-handed swords. I released one of my Einherjar early and got 500,000 gold, enough (at this stage in the game) to buy EVERYTHING EVER. Valkyrie Profile takes the normal RPG rules and says "You know what? We don’t really need these, let’s just multiply everything by 2 to the power of ZOMG and see what happens." The really amazing thing is that it works. I can’t help but think that there is some genius chaos-formula behind the scenes that keeps playabliity and balance in check no matter what you do. There are other things I could mention like the gorgeous art, the incredibly interesting and different-from-everything-else battle system, the inspired music, the frighteningly deep character customisation options…. but I won’t.

We went down to Ballard for the SeaFoodFest and spent the whole time in an apparently Midwest-themed bar called something like Zadya Buddy drinking beer and eating unhealthily. I had fries with gravy, cheese and sausage on them, which I’m told was Very Midwest. All I can surmise from this is that all Midwesterners must be both awesome and huge. Then we went to see Batman. Batman was very cool.

One thing that bothers me about modern action movies is this - and this isn’t specifically Batman-related, it’s just a good example: what happened fighting sequences where you could actually see what the heck was actually happening? It seems to me like what passes for an edgy fight scene in modern action movies can be represented sequentially as follows:

• 1. Two dudes are standing there, looking badass.
• 2. One (or both, although it must be simultaneously) charges in, yelling or with gritted teeth. Grunting is also acceptable.
• 3. This is the crucial point. Under no circumstances must the viewer be able to make out what is going on. Traditionally, present this by showing only handycam-tastic crazy blur with some more grunting noises.
  4. Zoom in on the guy who got punched for a second. Go back to step 3 and repeat until all the baddies are gone.

Maybe I’m just so fond of those old Jackie Chan films where each fight scene was a joy to watch because of the wonderful choreography, but when did this get popular, and why?

Jules is here, and has finished writing this entry.

Originally published at Grappa Pixel Tea. Please leave any comments there.

I got Lost Planet a long time ago - I think it may have been the first 360 game I ever bought myself, actually. In the middle of my playing it the ol’ girl suffered the tragic Red Ring of Death. By the time we had it back, for whatever reason I never got back into the game again, until a week ago. I’m glad I’ve given it a second chance. I love this game. It was almost universally regarded as a three star game. I think this is an unfair assessment, and I’m going to write about why.

</a>Okay, I guess it isn’t hard to see why Lost Planet ended up being regarded as just "another decent shooting game". On the surface it really looks like one, but I think it’s more than just that. It boils down to this: since the early days of shooting games such as Space Invaders, almost all 2D shooting games can be diluted down to two actions: where you should be and when you should shoot. The only thing that the third dimension added to the formula was what direction should you be facing. It is how the player has control of those actions and the challenges they are presented with that determine if a game is fun to play. Making a good game is a tough balance - keeping it simple to play and close to the original formula is crucial; but making it different and interesting enough to stand out from the crowd by adding new ideas is equally important. I don’t think there is enough emphasis on this important balance in game reviewing and journalism these days, but enough of my rambling. Lost Planet.

I think Lost Planet is superb in achieving this design equilibrium - it borrows a lot directly from popular games like Halo (a game that I believe is successful because of it’s closeness to "the formula"), but also incorporates some very entertaining game mechanics that don’t stifle, but rather enhance the experience. The result is a game that feels quite different from other third-person action games but retains the all-important core arcade action. Perhaps the most dangerous of these differences is the deliberateness of the player’s movement. At the outset it can be challenging to get to grips with after other games that tend towards being fast-paced and chaotic, but Lost Planet’s deliberate nature makes perfect sense in context. It helps to make the levels work as intended in the setting - open, vast playgrounds where you have plenty of freedom to find secrets and choose your own path.

The reason for this scale is that rambling across snowfields and factories on foot is only one option for getting around. In every level there are a great variety of giant robots to pilot, sometimes buried under rubble, sometimes hidden in secret areas, but always not far away. These robots, or "VS" come in a ton of different flavours - many of which have unique abilities such as being able to wield energy swords, jetpack around or transform into a tank or bike. Furthermore, the player can customise any VS they find on the fly by attaching or removing weapons that are found all over the place. The player often has a choice between using a VS and charging in all guns blazing or sneaking around and taking out enemies one by one. Cleverly, both of these approaches are very similar in terms of challenge, and both have their own ways of making it fun. Despite the levels being very large and open, all of them scale very well and are excellently suited for either approach. It’s easy to underestimate just how hard it is to make this balance work, and it’s amazing how consistently this is achieved.

The other game dynamic that is worth mentioning is "T-ENG" - the ubiquitous energy source used to power absolutely everything in the frozen wasteland that the game is set in. Due to the freezing weather your personal supply of T-ENG is constantly draining away and must be replenished by finding heat sources (usually your enemies…) and sucking them up through your energy-storing "harmonizer". While the weather is always etching away at your T-ENG it is also consumed in order to heal wounds, meaning it is also your health meter. On top of this, many weapons use it as ammunition, and all of the VS you find require it even to move, and can drain it damn quickly if you insist on jet-packing around the terrain. By making T-ENG so valuable one has to make important strategic decisions. Burning it all up on special attacks and superior weapons may give you the upper hand, but leaves you with no insurance should you sustain damage. On the other hand, hoarding it and using non-energy weapons or eschewing VS will mean you can take plenty more hits at the cost of needing to wear enemies down slowly. It’s a excellent, simple dynamic that adds another "layer" of gameplay that remains exciting to wrestle with throughout the whole game.

Lastly I want to touch on a point that confusingly was one of the major targets of criticism - artistic design. I think this game is gorgeous. The levels themselves are stunning. Of particular note are the vast open landscapes and abandoned cities assaulted by constant driving blizzards that make up most of the setting. The game is awash with hazy white and blues, giving the game an beautiful, low contrast monotone quality tastefully punctuated by the bright orange of T-ENG sources you are always seeking. Each of the beasts you find on the planet also bears this frozen-blue hue, with weak points highlighted in bright orange making the designs beautiful and also neatly doing away with the "shoot the bad guy here" reticule or radio-advice that dampens the experience in other shooters. There is a good number of weapons including all the old reliables as well as some pretty interesting new stuff (the homing laser is crazy fun to play around with). Explosions looks absolutely terrific, and are just one facet the relentless special effects the game throws at you. The designs of the creatures, characters, scenery and robots are also terrific. So… maybe the game doesn’t have the same texture detail as whatever other game, but who cares? It looks wonderful.

Lost Planet may not have the most original premise, but if you want a really enjoyable, challenging, and appreciably different shooter with beautiful design and giant transforming robots and giant bug creatures and ridiculously huge laser cannons and lots of explosions and so on, then yeah. You need to get on this boat.

Oh yeah, it also has really excellent multiplayer. That too.

Originally published at Grappa Pixel Tea. Please leave any comments there.

Hey. There’s a fairly neat indie game that just came out called Thrustburst. Essentially this is a tiny coffee-break style game, which is something I don’t normally focus on but I think this one is definitely more than polished enough to warrant further attention.

The game is based on an old game called “Urthwurm”, which was a one-button game where you steered an ever-moving worm (well, line really) through an endless cave for as long as you could manage to not hit the walls. Thrustburst expands the formula slightly by adding a simple weapon and shield system, and including controls to slow and speed your ship. It’s very hard, but also quite a lot of fun - each time you play you’re likely only going to survive as long as a few minutes, and quite often less than that.

But the other interesting thing about it is that it was conceived and designed by a few of the brightest minds (such as Helm and ptoing) at the Pixelation forums, one of my most frequent hangouts on the ‘net. It’s the most heavily “academic” pixel-art forum on the net by a long stretch, and quite often skitters into the boundaries of being elitist, but nonetheless is probably the best and most interesting place to learn of and develop pixel art techniques. For this, the visual design is both interesting and thoughtful. The game is free and downloadable from their team website.

Umlautgames

Originally published at Grappa Pixel Tea. Please leave any comments there.

Bouncy!

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Edit: Hit the jump to view the video in this post.

Check this out - now.

I’ve been keeping an eye on this game for a long time but this is the first time yet I’ve seen the game in motion. The way the game moves is almost certainly what will decide if it is revolutionary or merely an interesting experiment. I’m impressed and even more excited after watching this two minute long clip. Other games like Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed have managed to represent athletic movement like this; in these examples it is indeed wonderful and graceful - but it still has the unpleasant aftertaste of fakeness. You can’t escape feeling that you’re watching an actor - not being that actor. The whole concept behind the presentation of Mirror’s Edge is to try and provide a realistic protagonist’s-view of the game-world. Evidently, and remarkably without being annoyingly visceral I would say it manages to powerfully and elegantly convey this feeling. Obviously it remains to see how easy or difficult it is to control, but I am hoping for the best. There are so many physical details here that I’ve always wished someone would at least try: the protagonist’s urgent, varied breathing, the realistic movement of the camera, being able to see your own god-damned body. Is it so much to ask that a parkour-genius super-spy isn’t stymied by a two foot tall wooden crate?

Clean.

Don’t even get me started on the artwork, the sound design or the visual style. It’s like this game was designed to make me drool uncontrollably. If, in the end, it is to be nothing other than running along pristine rooftop playgrounds I’m still totally going there. Totally.