The Definition of Hard Core
I got this idea from an article I just read. How Hardcore a game is determined by how Hardcore the average/median player is. Meaning, if you pick a random or average gamer who plays said game, how serious he is about that game? How often do they play and how badly will they take it if the game changes or someone make light of playing it? So, in my opinion, if you take an average Candy Crush, Angry Birds or maybe even Clash of Clans player and ask them those questions, you’ll probably get a player who plays once or twice a day for a few minutes while they have time to kill and if you change their game or break it they’ll probably shrug their shoulders and move onto the next one. Of course, there are outliers who take the game very seriously but they are the minority. Then, if you take a game like League of Legends, Counterstrike, StarCraft or even Hearhstone, the average player is more likely to take their game very seriously, play for many hours every week and they take every change to the rules very seriously. They are rabid fans. So we call these games hardcore. I know, not all people would consider Hearhstone hardcore and I actually think it might be split down the middle, which is what makes it more interesting.
Posted in Gaming, Less Interesting News, Philosophy, Thinking Out Loud by Eran with 4 comments.
Interesting on Steam
Raptor – Call of the Shadows is one of the best top down scrolling shooters ever made. But you can get it on GOG DRM-free and I don’t see anything different about this version. Available now for 4.5$ (6$ on GOG). Etherium seems like an RTS in the old fashion but, so far the world building seems kind of shit but it’s very pretty and we could always use another high-production-value RTS, as far as I’m concerned. Coming in 2015, pre-purchase for 27$. Asteroids: Outpost is Asteroids. Except it’s not Asteroids. It’s a massively multiplayer, open world, 4X game? Somehow, this sounds like it can go very very wrong. “Coming Soon”.  The Escapists is a dynamic, crafting-infused, prison break game that doesn’t look like much – I didn’t really think much of it at first – but it appears to hide a challenging and exhilarating experience of outwitting a very smart system. Available now for 18$. Void Destroyer looks like it’s Battlezone if it was Homeworld. While that sounds cool in and of itself, their stylistic choices go way too far and the space combat itself doesn’t seem that exciting. Besides, when you call yourself “the best space combat sim ever made”, you’d better have some very convincing pluses over Privateer, Tachyon and Star/Freelancer. And it doesn’t. And if it’s a 3D RTS, it’d better be at least half as good as Homeworld, and it isn’t. Available now for 15$. Running Shadow looks like a dungeon crawler if it was, well… a runner. It looks good Continue Reading →
Posted in Gaming, Less Interesting News by Eran with comments disabled.
יש גרסה ראשונה!
גרסה ראשונה של המשחק שלנו זמינה עכשיו בחנות הישראלית! ווהו! אם יש לכם iPad3 או יותר טוב או iPad Mini 2 או יותר טוב, ואתם חובבים משחקי אסטרטגיה, אנא נסו ותגידו מה אתם חושבים. (התמיכה הכי טובה היא ל-iOS8 אבל יש גם ל-iOS7). ויש גם קבוצה ב-Facebook.
Posted in Gaming, Less Interesting News, No Category, Programming, Work by Eran with 1 comment.
Interesting on Steam
Just to make things clear, this is by order of appearance and should not advise anything about importance. Republique is the critically acclaimed iOS game reminiscent of Experience 112 but better looking, better acted and probably better designed. Available on the 26th. MyRPG looks like a piece of software for creating simple action RPGs without any coding. It seems a bit limited and not very diverse but who knows, maybe it’s the new GameMaker. Now in Early Access. Tormentum – Dark Sorrow “is a dark point & click adventure”. What exactly does that mean? I don’t know. But the images are very H.R.Geiger-esque. Not sure what to think of this. Available March 4th. Idol Hands is a new take on the god game and it looks cute if a bit simplistic. Available on the 18th. Ascent – The Space Game is a sandbox space MMO game built by two guys. It’s very ambitious, very dense and, the alpha version I tried had some wonky controls. But if they fix that and get a good handle on the scope, this could, at least, be the poor-man’s Star Citizen/Elite: Dangerous/No Man’s Sky. Early Access on the 27th. Paparazzi is a twitchy asymmetric action game about avoiding the Paparazzi and trying to get that great shot of the celebrity. Looks like it could be a lot of fun. Available on the 17th. Offworld Trading Company looks like something I’ve been waiting for for a while, a Civilisation-style game but with no combat and a bigger focus on economy. Now in Early Continue Reading →
Posted in Gaming, Geekdom, Less Interesting News by Eran with comments disabled.
Interesting on Steam
The Bluecoats: North vs. South is a remastering and reimagining of the old North & South classic. New graphics, new gameplay and it looks awesome. Yes I know my vision is coloured by nostalgia but I want it! Apparently it’s two years old. 6$ or 3$ until Monday. Wander is a non-combative, exploration MMOG. Not quite sure what to make of it but it looks good and it sounds interesting. I guess we’ll see. Coming out in April. Mortal Kombat X is the new installment in the Mortal Kombat franchise. Prettier and more gruesome than ever. The new mechanics look interesting and gore is out of this world. But I’m not really into fighting games. Available on April 14th for 60$. Aware is a survival, action, race to the finish kind of game. From is available now, it seems two players play survivors trying to rebuild an airplane first and get off an island. Right now, it’s not much to look at but it reminds me of the old Spy vs. Spy games so I’m keeping this on watch. Early access on the 18th. Castle in the Darkness looks like something that rides on the coattails of Rogue Legacy and especially Shovel Knight. It doesn’t look that great and I’m only mentioning it because it has seen some press already and I want to say I don’t really understand it. 6$ or 5$ until the 12th. Assassin’s Creed Rogue is the latest version of Assassin’s Creed. If you don’t know what that means, you’re probably not Continue Reading →
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Interesting on Steam
Let’s look at another week (more or less) of new things on Steam… Pix the Cat – looks like a new 2D action game where you collect ammo and use it to shoot your enemies (or you buddies in multiplayer) and it kind of reminds me of Towerfall, as far as the basic loop is presented, but I’m not entirely sure. Available now for 10$. Life is Strange – is an episodic story with a twist of a time-rewind mechanic. Considering it’s from the studio that made the critically panned Remember Me, it looks very interesting and very promising. Episode 1 is available now for 5$ or the season pass for 20$ (1$ discount per episode). Besiege – seems, so far, as a simplistic physics based game about building siege engines and attacking castles. It doesn’t look like much right now but it’s just a very Early Access title right now. Down to One – is a multiplayer only first person shooter but it seems like it’s playing on the hardcore angle and main idea is that 42 players go into a match, no respawns, and one player comes out. So it’s an interesting idea but is aiming in the entirely different direction than what I want from multiplayer games. Now in Early Acess. Fahrenheit Remastered – is the HD remastered version of what is now, probably, the GOOD Quantic Dream game. Since I wanted to play it for forever now, here’s a good reason to bump it up the wishlist. Available now for 10$. Continue Reading →
Posted in Gaming, Geekdom, Less Interesting News by Eran with comments disabled.
פיגוע תחת השראה חזותית
יש לי הרבה דיונים על מוסכמות קוד. יש לי שיטה מאוד מוגדרת וקפדנית לאיך אני כותב. אני לא עושה את זה כי ככה למדתי. אני לא עושה את זה כי זה נראה לי יפה יותר. אני עושה את זה כי זאת הדרך היחידה שבה הקוד נראה לי מסודר. כי אם הקוד מבולגן, זה מפריע לי לחשיבה. וזאת דרך עדינה להסביר את זה. חשבתי על זה עכשיו אחרי שהסתכלתי על הכיור. אין לי בעיה עם כיור מלא כלים. יש לי בעיה עם כיור מבולגן. יש סיפור ישן של דיוויד לנגפורד בשם “סוגים שונים של אפלה”. הוא מתאר משהו שנקרא ‘פיגוע תחת השראה חזותית’. מדובר בתבנית מתמטית ששוברת את האזור החזותי של המוח וגורמת לסוג של שבץ מוחי. תבניות מסובכות מאוד גם גורמות למוות. אז אני לא מקבל שבץ מכיור מבולגן או קוד מבולגן אבל זה מאיט ומסבך אותי. ואני לרוב לא מסוגל לקלוט אותו או לעבוד איתו אלא אם כן אני מסדר אותו שיראה כמו שצריך. בגלל זה אני עושה את זה. לא בגלל חשיבות עצמית או התנשאות. אני עושה את זה כי אני לא מסוגל אחרת.
Posted in IT, No Category, Programming by Eran with comments disabled.
Steam Complete
I recently did, what I call, “The Steam Exploration Challenge”. The point of which was to use the front page carousel of Steam and it’s Explore section everyday, perhaps several times a day, to go through and mark down every game and piece of software on Steam. With the addition of the Discovery Queue and the “Not Interested” button, I could make it so an app page appeared to me only once and never showed up again. Currently I have 4,500 apps under my belt. Which is but a fraction of the 8000+ games, software and DLCs on Steam but I do think I covered more than 90% of the Games + Software section. This gave me three distinct things: (1) A great sense of accomplishment, (2) A very clean Steam frontpage; and (3) an almost immediate knowledge of games that are added to Steam. Now, let’s discuss the 3rd thing I mentioned. Since I have a clean Steam frontpage, every new thing that is added or unblocked, I notice almost immediately. So, why not use my powers for good and share in the bounty that I see, as long as it’s interesting and not a fan servicy boob simulator (The link is just for reference. Please, do not click it). Let’s start with some backlog.
Posted in Gaming, Geekdom, Thinking Out Loud by Eran with comments disabled.
Global Game Jam 2015
During the writing of the previous entry, a strange woman approached me and asked me if this is an event where people played games or just developed them. I said that, sometimes, people would stop to play a game to relax or give the brain a break. Then she asked me what is “That game that all the kids are playing”. I said I don’t think there is such a thing anymore. She said, of course there is. And she finally remembered she meant Minecraft. I can understand why she would think what she thought. Then she asked me if I knew anyone who was really good at it. Against that I was speechless so she walked away. Normals are weird. Anyway, back to the regularly scheduled program. Shortly after I finished writing, Jeremie arrived and then everyone started waking up and showing up and we got back to work. As our games were mostly done from yesterday, this day was was spent on integration, bug fixing, polishing, balancing and adding just a few more tidbits for the fun of it. And when it came time to present, our game looked like one of the most polished games there and, I think, it’s one of the, if not the, best games of this Jam location. I’m not discounting the possibility of another team like “Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes” somewhere around the globe but I think ours is a prime candidate for mentioning. Just need to wait for this year’s Continue Reading →
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