Interesting Things on Steam
Smite is the third biggest MOBA of them all and some say it is the most interesting. I haven’t played it myself but I’ve heard it called more accessible, easy to manage and more fun to play than DOTA2 or League of Legends. It’s free as per usual but now you can have it with Steam achievements. Mars Colony: Frontier looks like a serious simulation of martian colonisation. Its tags also include RPG and Adventure so I hope it won’t be a NASA level serious simulation but something arcady enough and more enjoyable. Available now for 10$. Space Xonix is… pretty much like it sounds. It’s Xonix but in space. And completely bonkers. You claim territory just like in Xonix but then there are lasers and fireballs and lava and… just watch the video. Available now for 2$. Transformers: Devastation is a very colourful spectacle brawler starring our favourite set of Autobots and Decepticons and while all of these games always look like a kind of “mash buttons for glorious mass murder” simulator, it is so far getting great reviews from whomever plays it and I still have an affection for Transformers, even after Michael Bay. Coming Soon. Velocity Stream is an interesting concept of a space-like racer with crazy tracks because it is one player’s job to lay down those tracks in real time as the race progresses. I can think of a few problems with this but the idea is neat. I’ll wait for reviews. Available now for 15$. Alien Robot Monsters looks like Continue Reading →
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Interesting Things on Steam
The Flock is an asymmetric “shooter” in which everyone plays a member of the flock trying to get an artifact, mark some beacons and survived without getting eaten by the other members of the flock before the round ends. It’s a rather basic gameplay loop and rather short rounds but the gimmick of the game is the limited population. Every time a member of the flock dies, a counter ticks down. When it ticks down to zero, the game will cease to function. It’s an interesting premise of planned obsolescence — as the developers put it, every multiplayer game winds down after a year or two, we’re just actively planning for it — and it kind of negates the idea of buying it later for very cheap. Right now, the responses are pretty mild with some even claiming this is not interesting enought to get enough players to play it for long enough to actually see the counter reach zero. My current stance on it is that I don’t really play multiplayer only games and this one does seem to be very light on content. It’s out now. Super Mutant Alien Assault is dubbed “The Citizen Kane of Super Crate Box Clones”. If you don’t know Super Crate Box, go right ahead. (You might also want to check out Muffin Knight). I’ll wait… Back? Good. From what is currently available, it does look like they’re taking it another step further, with more interesting weapons, special boss monsters, more level variety and distinct Continue Reading →
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About Cheating
I’m not ashamed of it. I publicise it. Like recreational drugs, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it as long as you don’t hurt anyone else or destroy your internal organs. Every time I think of cheating, I remember a point when I was still in high school and my big brother’s friend’s mom managed our high school’s computer classes so we could pretty much have free reign there during the weekends. So, we went there and played Diablo from dusk until dawn. And even then I had my hands in it deep and I knew exactly how to break the game’s economy in the player’s favour (the item dupe cheat still worked wonderfully). And one weekend, while we were playing, one of my brother’s friends called me over and asked me to explain to him how I cheated. He explained his philosophy on that. He said, that he finished the game, through and through, the way it was intended and now he was interested in doing it another way. And that’s completely ok. And there are also other reasons. Right now, I cheat in games for two reasons: the main one is that I don’t have a lot of time. I’m a working man (or as one might put it, a workaholic) and I have a wife and so my gaming time is usually limited to maybe an hour before bed, an hour or two in the morning and a bit more during the weekends. I can no Continue Reading →
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Interesting Things on Steam
Warshift is Battlezone reimagined. And it looks great. I especially love the ino-exo vehicles. However, it is very ambitious and it is still very early in development and it is being made by one man. Not one man and some contributors. Not one man, an artist and a musician. One man! So, if this doesn’t crash and burn, I predict it’s going to be one of the most talked about games of 2016 or 2017 (whenever it really comes out). Now in Early Access. XCom 2. It is now “Steam Official”. Coming in November 2015. Keen Dreams is… it’s Keen Dreams. A.K.A. Keen 3.5, it’s the weirdest of the bunch and now it comes with achievements and leaderboards. Coming on the 30th of September. Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime has been showing around for a while now and it looks great. It works single player but it’s designed as a co-op action game in which two people pilot a strange ship with lots of interesting weapons and tools in a very dangerous world. I’m really looking forward to it. And it’s coming 9th of September. The Flame in the Flood is a rogue like survival game with some interesting mechanics, shifting the pace and flow of the genres into something quite different. And it’s made by Bioshock, Halo and Rock Band veterans so it has some merit from the start. This will surely be interesting. In Early Access “soon”.
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The Creative Things We Do
גייב, מהצוות של ‘פני ארקייד’, כתב לאחרונה רשומה מאוד מעניינת בבלוג שלהם. בקצרה: אחד הדברים האחרונים בקומיקס היה סיפור קצר על עולם בו אבות המשפחה אחראים על הגנת הבית כי כל המפלצות מתחת למיטה וכל הפחדרונים שבארונות אמיתיים וצריך להיפטר מהן והסיפור עוסק בילדה קטנה שצריכה להתמודד עם זה כשאמא שלה חולה ואבא שלה כבר לא מסוגל להתמודד עם המטלה הזאת. הרשומה עוסקת באבא של גייב. הוא מספר על איך אבא שלו בא איתו פעם אחת למשחק גולף של הצוות והקשיב להם כשהם דיברו, בשיא הרצינות, על הרקע של העולם של הסיפור, על מה מקור המפלצות, על סוגי הנסיבות שיכולות לצוץ סביב הצורך להגן על הבית, על עיצוב המפלצות והדמויות בסיפור. הוא ישב והקשיב על איך הם מדברים על “דמיון ו-make believe” בצורה רצינית לחלוטין. ובתור בן אדם שעבד בתאגיד כל חייו, היה לו קשה להבין מה הבן שלו עושה. אני מציע לקרוא את כל הרשומה למרות שהיא ארוכה כי היא מאוד מעניינת, בעיקר לטיפוסים יצירתיים שעוסקים בהמצאות מוחלטות. הוא מדבר הרבה על איך זה להסביר את העבודה שלנו, את היצירה שלנו, את מה שאנחנו משקיעים בו את החיים שלנו, ל… מחוסר מילה טובה יותר, מוגלגים – אנשים שלצערי אני חושב שפשוט יש להם דמיון פחות מפותח. ואולי המשפחה שלנו תתמוך בנו בכל מה שנרצה לעשות אבל אלא אם כן יש להם את הנטייה לזה בעצמם, הם כנראה שאף פעם באמת יבינו איך זה, יבינו את התהום בינינו לבין שאר האנושות או את הסיבה למה אנחנו עושים את כל זה. ולכל אחד יש את הסיבות שלו. גייב עושה את זה Continue Reading →
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Interesting Things on Steam
Hard West looks like a weird western themed isometric roleplaying game with, maybe, some tactical elements. Not a lot is shown about it so far, there isn’t even a video on that page, but it looks good and interesting and a weird western take on this genre might be a vital shot in the ass. Coming this Autumn. Shift Happens looks like it was conceived at the same time and from the same juices as Shiftlings although the production values seem lower and it’s more cutesy. It’s get some room and time to grow so we’ll see. Early Access on the 19th.
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Interesting on Steam
Submerged is a beautiful, water-world-esque exploration puzzle game. I’m not really sure how the main mechanic work because what I’ve seen thus far is mostly traversal and exploration but it looks interesting. Though, if you’re not automatically hooked, better wait for reviews. Available August 4th.  Empyrion – Galactic Survival is, from what is available now — which is not a lot, Terraria if it was fully 3D and also in space. It looks very ambitious. It looks very early in its development. It looks like it still needs a lot of work. But if they can bring this up to snuff, I might opt for this over Star Citizen or No Man’s Sky. Early Access August 5th. Geocore is another Descent wannabe and it looks very very basic but it is early in development by a two man team. It’s all very early so I guess I’ll have to see about this one but I would love a proper Descent reimagining. Early Access July 31st.
Posted in Gaming, Less Interesting News by Eran with comments disabled.
Interesting on Steam
Nomad Fleet looks like finally someone is trying to make another, different Homeworld and not half-ass it. This one looks good, it looks interesting. I’m not entirely sure about the grid and the controls but I hope it comes out good. Early Access now for 13$. Contradiction is a full video point and click murder mystery and it looks like they went all out with it. Every section of it is full video. They claim that you have complete freedom inside the game scenes and the every movement is possible. The video also looks very high quality. It might not be exactly my thing but I put it on my list just for the novelty. Available now for 10$. Into the Stars is a space exploration and survival game that gives the player the role of the ship’s captain while actually still being the captain. That is, giving orders and seeing systems and not micromanaging everything. And it looks very good. Early Access now for 20$. Rocket League is football with freaky, rocket propelled cars and a big giant ball. And it looks like a hell of a lot of fun. Out now for 20$.
Posted in Gaming, Less Interesting News by Eran with comments disabled.