Monday, November 25, 2013
update
I'm going dark until December 3rd. I have to straighten out some personal stuff. That gives me 28 days to get through 51 games. I think I can pull that off. Stay tuned.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Vinnie's Little Virus
Remember before when I said that a review could potentially boil down to 2 sentences? Well, get ready for the most underwhelming review of all time, because I genuinely have nothing to say about this one.
It's a shoot-em-up wherein you play as a virus with the goal to infect humanity. It's got ASCII graphics, which are charming even during the atrociously ugly cutscenes that make the ones in Crazy Cross look like they had a million dollar budget...and the ones in Crazy Cross were pretty damn bad.
So the central mechanics are simple enough. shoot enemies, collect powerups. Left and right clicks respectively. Is it fun? Well kinda, in the Minesweeper way in that it staves off boredom, but it's certainly not engaging or entertaining or any of the other "e" words a game should strive to be.
I think the devs new they had just made a thing to alt+tab into while you're watching cat videos on Youtube or something, which is why they added the option to automatically beat a level by pressing "m," which I found out before I even learned how to shoot.
So yeah. It's a tiny file with a charming look, so if you get tired of Mahjong Titans and want something a bit more "gamey," then pick this one up.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay viral
Links
achoo: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=477
It's a shoot-em-up wherein you play as a virus with the goal to infect humanity. It's got ASCII graphics, which are charming even during the atrociously ugly cutscenes that make the ones in Crazy Cross look like they had a million dollar budget...and the ones in Crazy Cross were pretty damn bad.
So the central mechanics are simple enough. shoot enemies, collect powerups. Left and right clicks respectively. Is it fun? Well kinda, in the Minesweeper way in that it staves off boredom, but it's certainly not engaging or entertaining or any of the other "e" words a game should strive to be.
I think the devs new they had just made a thing to alt+tab into while you're watching cat videos on Youtube or something, which is why they added the option to automatically beat a level by pressing "m," which I found out before I even learned how to shoot.
So yeah. It's a tiny file with a charming look, so if you get tired of Mahjong Titans and want something a bit more "gamey," then pick this one up.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay viral
Links
achoo: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=477
bro level
I know I've said this a lot, but I've got a lot of stuff going on in my life right now. This time it's not just schoolwork, although there's plenty of that. Suffice it to say my life is keeping me from writing. I'll do whatever I can to meet the deadline, but the way things are going now...
Don't say I didn't warn you. Again, I'll try my absolute best, but sometimes that's just not enough. Sorry.
As for what's happening in the short term, I don't know. Stay tuned but don't hold your breath.
Don't say I didn't warn you. Again, I'll try my absolute best, but sometimes that's just not enough. Sorry.
As for what's happening in the short term, I don't know. Stay tuned but don't hold your breath.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
VeNix
...I'm so tired.
Since I only have like two things to say about VeNix, I'm going to waste some space up here with an analogy. Imagine you're baking a cake for a party. You really want to impress the people at this party, so you spend hours making the batter as sweet, succulent and decadent as you possibly can. After what seems like an eternity of toiling over a mixer and waiting for the damn thing to bake, you finally come up with an absolutely heavenly cake. Then, your friends come through the door, take one look at your cake and say, "where's the frosting?" That's VeNix in a nutshell.
VeNix is a vehicular homicide simulator kind of like Twisted Metal but a lot slower. You can choose between 4 different cars, each being different enough from each other to keep gameplay interesting. All things considered, the gameplay is fine. Nothing to complain about except for minor things. For example, one of the levels has way too many obstacles strewn about it that the camera always manages to get stuck behind.
The two things I had a problem with are the narrative and the sound design. First, I'll talk about the latter because my criticism of it is short: there is none. By now, most gamers and film-goers are mature enough to realize that you don't always need background music, but silence should probably be avoided unless it's driving a point. Let's use my latest obsessoin, Dark Souls, as an example. There are only a few tracks of bgm in that entire game, but when they're not playing, the game is still full of ambient effects and hit sounds. VeNix leaves you with an empty feeling. You want your ears to be occupied by something other than the annoying sound of the gray alien's special attack that he just spams over and over and over and over...
Sorry, got lost in myself there. Let's talk about the narrative, now. Look, I'm not expecting that every game on this list has a good story, or even just a story. You can have a game just for the sake of being a game. But narrative comprises more than just story. Setting is an important part of a consistent game experience. Twin Gates, for example, wouldn't keep me coming back to it as often as it does if it didn't have the ancient Greek aesthetic. Anyways, VeNix seems to be going for some kind of "save the galaxy" plot, but all of the battles take place in some dude's bathroom or living room or something. A bit more consistency would have been nice...
That's all I got for today. Until next time, stay tiny
Links
Venix Down, 500gil: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=469
Since I only have like two things to say about VeNix, I'm going to waste some space up here with an analogy. Imagine you're baking a cake for a party. You really want to impress the people at this party, so you spend hours making the batter as sweet, succulent and decadent as you possibly can. After what seems like an eternity of toiling over a mixer and waiting for the damn thing to bake, you finally come up with an absolutely heavenly cake. Then, your friends come through the door, take one look at your cake and say, "where's the frosting?" That's VeNix in a nutshell.
VeNix is a vehicular homicide simulator kind of like Twisted Metal but a lot slower. You can choose between 4 different cars, each being different enough from each other to keep gameplay interesting. All things considered, the gameplay is fine. Nothing to complain about except for minor things. For example, one of the levels has way too many obstacles strewn about it that the camera always manages to get stuck behind.
The two things I had a problem with are the narrative and the sound design. First, I'll talk about the latter because my criticism of it is short: there is none. By now, most gamers and film-goers are mature enough to realize that you don't always need background music, but silence should probably be avoided unless it's driving a point. Let's use my latest obsessoin, Dark Souls, as an example. There are only a few tracks of bgm in that entire game, but when they're not playing, the game is still full of ambient effects and hit sounds. VeNix leaves you with an empty feeling. You want your ears to be occupied by something other than the annoying sound of the gray alien's special attack that he just spams over and over and over and over...
Sorry, got lost in myself there. Let's talk about the narrative, now. Look, I'm not expecting that every game on this list has a good story, or even just a story. You can have a game just for the sake of being a game. But narrative comprises more than just story. Setting is an important part of a consistent game experience. Twin Gates, for example, wouldn't keep me coming back to it as often as it does if it didn't have the ancient Greek aesthetic. Anyways, VeNix seems to be going for some kind of "save the galaxy" plot, but all of the battles take place in some dude's bathroom or living room or something. A bit more consistency would have been nice...
That's all I got for today. Until next time, stay tiny
Links
Venix Down, 500gil: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=469
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Vektor Space
Remember Tron? Well I certainly don't. I guess I'm a bit young...it shames me to admit that I only just recently saw the Matrix. Anyways, apart from that dude on Youtube and the fact that Daft Punk infuriates me, the only thing I can think of when someone says Tron is the lightbike. Whoever came up with that either dropped a lot of acid, was a genius, or both. One of the things that made it so unique and fun to play was the 90 degree turn mechanic. I wondered what would happen if you just made a game about lightbikes but let them turn fluidly...then I played Vektor Space.
Vektor Space isn't quite as unforgiving as some other lightbike games I've played. You can run into somebody's trail once and not die, for instance, but run into two or the wall and its game over. Another innovation that makes this unique from your typical Tron clone is that the vehicles have stats, so you can go for either the tank that can run into three walls in a row without harm or the speed demon who expertly weaves in and out of other peoples' trails.
While I appreciate that Vektor Space added its own flavor to an old classic, I don't think the fluid turning mechanic really helped it all that much. After all, one of the most fun parts of the old lightbike games is that you can charge right for the wall but turn at the last second to get a tactical edge on the poor sap who was following you. If you want to try that strategy in Vektor Space, you're going to have to possess incredible precision to ride the round wall while turning in a tighter circle. I wouldn't really have a problem with it if I thought it added more to the game, but it really just feels like it was added for the sake of uniqueness.
While the core mechanic might not serve the game to the best of its ability, I still think Vektor Assault is a damn fun game. The artistic design is wonderful, the game feel is great, and there's enough variety to make this one of the few games on this list I'll return to when I'm bored. This one gets my seal of approval.
Links
Sector Lace: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=538
Vektor Space isn't quite as unforgiving as some other lightbike games I've played. You can run into somebody's trail once and not die, for instance, but run into two or the wall and its game over. Another innovation that makes this unique from your typical Tron clone is that the vehicles have stats, so you can go for either the tank that can run into three walls in a row without harm or the speed demon who expertly weaves in and out of other peoples' trails.
While I appreciate that Vektor Space added its own flavor to an old classic, I don't think the fluid turning mechanic really helped it all that much. After all, one of the most fun parts of the old lightbike games is that you can charge right for the wall but turn at the last second to get a tactical edge on the poor sap who was following you. If you want to try that strategy in Vektor Space, you're going to have to possess incredible precision to ride the round wall while turning in a tighter circle. I wouldn't really have a problem with it if I thought it added more to the game, but it really just feels like it was added for the sake of uniqueness.
While the core mechanic might not serve the game to the best of its ability, I still think Vektor Assault is a damn fun game. The artistic design is wonderful, the game feel is great, and there's enough variety to make this one of the few games on this list I'll return to when I'm bored. This one gets my seal of approval.
Links
Sector Lace: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=538
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Vectron Assault
Vectron Assault is apparently a callback to the good old days of arcade FPS games with vector graphics, which apparently means they just didn't bother to color stuff in. Whether or not such a golden age actually existed, I'm too young to know, but if Vectron Assault is an accurate representation of that time, I'm glad I missed it.
seeing a game described as a callback to a time I've never experienced pets me in an awkward situation. All of the problems that I had with the game might have been deliberately put there to reinforce the old timey aesthetic. But you know what? That didn't make it any less infuriating, so I'm going to talk about them anyway.
Far and away the most annoying thing about this game is the level design. The walls all have this weird effect that makes it seem like there's an opening around the corner, but such a thing never exists. This is especially infuriating when you can see the enemies with less than accelerated AI trying to shoot you through the translucent walls. almost half of my playtime was spent circling around the same 5 square feet trying to find a piece of wall i could go through until I realized that the opening I looked for was on the exact opposite side of the level. Try to visualize that: the game lead me to one side of the level and then told me to backtrack through the area I had already cleared in order to progress. That's like, the first thing they tell you not to do in game design 101, isn't it?
Other than that, the only thing worth noting is the control, which makes the came feel like a weird hybrid of Battletanx and Forsaken 64. The position of the mouse in relation to the center of the screen acts sort of like a joystick, if that makes sense. The farther your cursor is to one side, the faster you will turn to that side. This kind of control could work in a fullscreen game, so I guess I have nothing to complain about, but I usually play these games in windows if I have the opportunity, so my cursor was flying off the edge, leaving me motionless, way more often than I would have liked.
Well that's all I got for today. Final Verdict: nice try, but I'll stick with The Shaman Engines. Until next time, stay retro
Links
Graphics of Magnitude and Direction: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=1420
seeing a game described as a callback to a time I've never experienced pets me in an awkward situation. All of the problems that I had with the game might have been deliberately put there to reinforce the old timey aesthetic. But you know what? That didn't make it any less infuriating, so I'm going to talk about them anyway.
Far and away the most annoying thing about this game is the level design. The walls all have this weird effect that makes it seem like there's an opening around the corner, but such a thing never exists. This is especially infuriating when you can see the enemies with less than accelerated AI trying to shoot you through the translucent walls. almost half of my playtime was spent circling around the same 5 square feet trying to find a piece of wall i could go through until I realized that the opening I looked for was on the exact opposite side of the level. Try to visualize that: the game lead me to one side of the level and then told me to backtrack through the area I had already cleared in order to progress. That's like, the first thing they tell you not to do in game design 101, isn't it?
Other than that, the only thing worth noting is the control, which makes the came feel like a weird hybrid of Battletanx and Forsaken 64. The position of the mouse in relation to the center of the screen acts sort of like a joystick, if that makes sense. The farther your cursor is to one side, the faster you will turn to that side. This kind of control could work in a fullscreen game, so I guess I have nothing to complain about, but I usually play these games in windows if I have the opportunity, so my cursor was flying off the edge, leaving me motionless, way more often than I would have liked.
Well that's all I got for today. Final Verdict: nice try, but I'll stick with The Shaman Engines. Until next time, stay retro
Links
Graphics of Magnitude and Direction: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=1420
Vapor
Vapor starts out with what I think might be the most unintentionally hilarious cutscenes I've ever seen. All of the backstory, riddled with cliches, by the way, is delivered via voice over from the voice actress of the main character. In-game, she does her job very well, but for some reason, in the opening scene, she delivers every line like she couldn't give less of a crap about what she's saying. Maybe this is an odd thing to open up a review with, but it cracked me up, so I give the opening sequence my seal of approval.
But will the rest of the game be endowed with such decoration? Spoiler alert: no. I quit the game after about five minutes because I passed by two gate type thingies that looked like checkpoitns, died, and was promptly sent back to the menu screen without an option to pick up where I left off. Yeah, this is ground well trodden by this point, and I get that what the students at DigiPen are really concerned with is mastering game mechanics and design, but how exactly am I supposed to know whether you've made a good game if I get frustrated enough to quit before I've even experienced most of it?
There are three things I think are worth commenting on here. First, the design. Digipen delivers once again: the design is beautiful. The graphics make my GPU happy and the visual style makes my eyes happy. Second, the narrative. Despite the opening being about as enthralling as a used litter box, the way the plot unfolded during my limited play time actually made me interested in what happened to the characters. I attribute most of this to the voice acting, which is surprisingly well done for an amateur project. Third and most importantly, let's talk mechanics. Honestly, it's nothing special. It's your standard isometric shooter, and I didn't play far enough to see them improve. I mean, they are functional, and no matter who or where you are, beaning a goblin in the head with a fireball will always feel good. Still, though, I found myself wanting more. Again, though, maybe that all comes later.
I hate having to end my sentences with "I might totally be wrong, though," but when a game loses my interest, I stop playing it. It's as simple as that. Maybe you won't be quite as discouraged as I was about losing progress, but for me, it's a deal breaker.
that's all I got for now. Until next time, stay vaporous.
Links
Vaypr: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26720
PS- I totally meant to post this yesterday...
But will the rest of the game be endowed with such decoration? Spoiler alert: no. I quit the game after about five minutes because I passed by two gate type thingies that looked like checkpoitns, died, and was promptly sent back to the menu screen without an option to pick up where I left off. Yeah, this is ground well trodden by this point, and I get that what the students at DigiPen are really concerned with is mastering game mechanics and design, but how exactly am I supposed to know whether you've made a good game if I get frustrated enough to quit before I've even experienced most of it?
There are three things I think are worth commenting on here. First, the design. Digipen delivers once again: the design is beautiful. The graphics make my GPU happy and the visual style makes my eyes happy. Second, the narrative. Despite the opening being about as enthralling as a used litter box, the way the plot unfolded during my limited play time actually made me interested in what happened to the characters. I attribute most of this to the voice acting, which is surprisingly well done for an amateur project. Third and most importantly, let's talk mechanics. Honestly, it's nothing special. It's your standard isometric shooter, and I didn't play far enough to see them improve. I mean, they are functional, and no matter who or where you are, beaning a goblin in the head with a fireball will always feel good. Still, though, I found myself wanting more. Again, though, maybe that all comes later.
I hate having to end my sentences with "I might totally be wrong, though," but when a game loses my interest, I stop playing it. It's as simple as that. Maybe you won't be quite as discouraged as I was about losing progress, but for me, it's a deal breaker.
that's all I got for now. Until next time, stay vaporous.
Links
Vaypr: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26720
PS- I totally meant to post this yesterday...
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