Interesting on Steam
Ori and the Blind Forest is a new and gorgeous looking puzzle platformer which seems awfully cute to boot. And I’m also kind of partial to it because part of that distributed studio is Israeli. Available March 11th. Guild of Dungeoneering looks like a procedural dungeon crawling RPG with card game elements. And it also has an interesting art style. Not much is known yet but it is starting to get some press and it could go very right. “Coming soon”.  Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy looks, from first glance, like some one is trying to take the mantle of Homeworld into the new generation while also integrating some ideas from Sword of the Stars and very high quality graphics. But, coming from an unknown developer and trying to reignite a field that had, virtually, no great successor to Homeworld is risky and I can only hope it plays as great as it looks. Available June 4th. Sid Meier’s Starships is starting to look like an Orion/SotS-esque top down 2D strategy add-on for Beyond Earth. It might come standalone but at that price, I doubt they put in a lot of effort into breadth. Available March 12th for 15$. Sky Battles looks like Monster Hunter if it was about dogfighting and giant robots. So far, not a lot to go on but the premise seems cool. Coming this Quarter. Shellshock Live looks like a colourful spastic reimagining of Scorched Earth. I’ll wait for more info before making a decision but I did love the old Continue Reading →
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The Definition of Hard Core
I got this idea from an article I just read. How Hardcore a game is determined by how Hardcore the average/median player is. Meaning, if you pick a random or average gamer who plays said game, how serious he is about that game? How often do they play and how badly will they take it if the game changes or someone make light of playing it? So, in my opinion, if you take an average Candy Crush, Angry Birds or maybe even Clash of Clans player and ask them those questions, you’ll probably get a player who plays once or twice a day for a few minutes while they have time to kill and if you change their game or break it they’ll probably shrug their shoulders and move onto the next one. Of course, there are outliers who take the game very seriously but they are the minority. Then, if you take a game like League of Legends, Counterstrike, StarCraft or even Hearhstone, the average player is more likely to take their game very seriously, play for many hours every week and they take every change to the rules very seriously. They are rabid fans. So we call these games hardcore. I know, not all people would consider Hearhstone hardcore and I actually think it might be split down the middle, which is what makes it more interesting.
Posted in Gaming, Less Interesting News, Philosophy, Thinking Out Loud by Eran with 4 comments.
Interesting on Steam
Raptor – Call of the Shadows is one of the best top down scrolling shooters ever made. But you can get it on GOG DRM-free and I don’t see anything different about this version. Available now for 4.5$ (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 →
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פסיבל ג’אז קטן
אתמול חזרנו מסוף שבוע ארוך באילת. המשפחה של מעין ונספחיה נסעו לאילת לפסטיבל הג’אז בים האדום – Extra Winter Edition! אני פחות בקטע של הג’אז אבל יש מדי פעם מוזיקה שאני אוהב, כמו הקבוצה שראינו ביום שבת. שהיו כל כך טובים שמעין לא היססה לרגע מללכת לקנות את האלבום שלהם. ואני מסוגל להבין למה. שתי ההופעות האחרות שראינו לא עשו עליי יותר מדי רושם. זאת אומרת, השלישייה הראשונה שראינו הייתה טובה ברגע שהוסיפו את המתופף אבל חוץ מזה, לא נורא התלהבתי. אבל לא בשביל זה באתי. גם אם זה רק סוף שבוע, אני בא בשביל החברה, בשביל לבלות עם מעין ובשביל להצטרף לאירועים שכוללים את כל המשפחה המורחבת. אז למרות שהבאנו המון משחקים, לא שיחקנו אף אחד מהם. אבל כן ניהלנו המון דיונים, מוצארט טייל באילת וקצת התרחקנו מהשגרה. שזה תמיד טוב.
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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 →
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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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תקשורת על שני גלגלים
הנה רעיון: לאופניים יש פעמון (אם לא, לאופניים שלך צריך להיות פעמון) בו אנחנו משתמשים כדי (לנסות) לתקשר עם שאר המשתמשים בכבישים. אבל יש המון חוסר הבנה בנושא הזה. יש אנשים שמתעלמים לחלוטין מכל צפצוף באשר הוא ויש כאלו שמתייחסים לכל *דינג* קטן ומסכן כמו אצבע משולשת. אז אני מציע סכמה חדשה שמתבססת, כרגע, על שלושה עקרונות פשוטים. *דינג* אחד = “סליחה, שימו לב אליי, בבקשה.” שני *דינג*ים אחד אחרי השני = “היי. אתם עושים/עומדים לעשות משהו לא תקין. תשנו את זה עכשיו.” לא משנה באיזה מהם אתם משתמשים, תנו רווח בין לבין אם אתם לא צופים תאונה בקרוב. צפצפו בתדירות גבוהה רק אם צריך פעולה מידית כדי למנוע תאונה. באו ננסה להשתמש בזה ונראה אם האיבה בדרכים תרד?
Posted in No Category by Eran with comments disabled.
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.