Games as Art, Games as culture, and the on-going search for ET in the desert.
Yes, I have moved over to WordPress and moved the blog to http://www.aliens.jetgirl.net/. Here it is. WordPress is AWESOME! Anyway, this will be here for a while longer but will eventually just re-direct you over there. More importantly, you'll want to update your feeds: http://www.aliens.jetgirl.net/feed/ http://www.aliens.jetgirl.net/comments/feed
I actually got to play a game! And its even still Friday! This week, check out Aveyond, a terribly charming and extremly fun RPG. When I first started it up, I thought "oh this is so silly...but hey the music is really great!" Not having grown up with an NES, the canonical graphical style of the classic Japanese RPG holds no nostalgia factor for me. But I played along for maybe fifteen minutes before I was won over by this gem. The story, elegant UI and lacked of Final Fantasy style "SURPRISE! YOU'RE IT!" combat encounters hooked me like a hungry and short-sighted bass. The web-site boasts fifty some-odd hours of gameplay. After about an hour of playing I had barely made it through the prologue. So I can see their claims being likely. So, as with all these games, now I come to the point where I have played out my hour, really enjoyed myself and have to decide whether to fork over the $20 or not to continue playing. Now, this is a really neat game and I want to see where it goes. And given the copious amount of potential playing time, and the reviews I have looked at, it definitly seems worth the money. But here's the thing: once I take into account my own game playing habits, I know I will probably not get my "money's worth" on this game. This is actually a nice segway into something I've been thinking about lately. You have a whole generation of gamers who have grown up now, who have day jobs and families. And yet we're STILL gamers! How do we best construct a game that caters to our specific schedules and yet keeps in mind our desires for rich, deep gameplay? Hmmmm...
I don't know who the geniuses are behind this, and I don't even remember where I found this site originally, but you must read Not Enough Owls: The only serious students of owls in videogaming. Here's their take on Wii: "In response to this afternoon’s exposé concerning the plight of Blathers - a once-proud owl drugged and used to propagate lies and stereotypes about his species - the company has effectively ruled out any chance owls had of appearing on its next-generation console by legislating against creatures without bladders. “Wii will break down that wall that separates video game players from everybody else,” Nintendo said. That’s our emphasis - but the phrase stands out a mile away. It’s us and them, says Nintendo. “No confusion. No need to abbreviate. Just Wii.” Unless you can’t of course, in which case you’re an owl, in which case you’re not welcome." Someone is brilliant, and they have a valid point about owls. Now if only somebody would devote a blog to how horrendously maligned bats have been in video games over the years. I would worship them.
Sam & Max are taking off on Game Tap as well as the Telltale site. I betcha can't wait! Whooo!
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Since my schedule has changed and its just too dang hard to actually write these fun picks on Fridays, this feature will now be called "Weekend Fun Picks". I know, its not as snappy. Maybe I'll have to find another name altogether. But not right now. This week I have been playing alot of games for work research, but not many of them have I actually enjoyed very much. Happily, I also decided to write some reviews for our own site, and in doing so stumbled upon this little gem: Master of Defense Master of Defense, by a little group called Voodoo Dimention. I found this originally on the Telltale Arcade. If you feel the urge to buy it, buy it through us and support my iced mocha habit. Master of Defense is a really nifty game that feels like a cross between a RTS game and an action puzzler. Nasty little critters are coming down from the mountains to invade your town and eat your populace. Your job is to place towers which will kill off the blighters before they get to the tasty morsels at the end of their journey. That's really it. You have no troops, no resources to mine and no tiny minions to mine them. The monsters handily stick to the curving road so that you can shoot them as they go by. You can upgrade your towers to do more damage and fire further and you can spend experience points as you go along for nifty things like adding poison to a tower type or making the towers fire faster. Despite the small number of mechanics that you need to know, Master of Defense isn't what I would call overly accessible to the casual gamer. Mostly because of its unforgiving nature. You start with 100 people in your town. As you go through the levels, you gain back one person for every extra 100 gold you start a level with -- a fact that doesn't appear in the tutorial. So on average you will get back a couple people per level. Maybe six if you are really cooking. In the meantime, each monster that gets through has the potential to kill between 1 - 3 people. And lemme tell ya, there are ALOT of monsters that come at you. The first time I played, I arrived at the second level of the game with sixty-ish people. I was so happy I finished the first map, but crest-fallen when I discovered my people did not replenish at the beginning of the next one. This set up will mean alot of starting over for some people, which those of us less patient types may find frustrating. A testament to this game is that I played the hour trial and immediately bought it so I could keep playing -- something I never do. For bonus Master of Defense amusement, check out their monster page . English is clearly not these guys' first language (I am curious whether the word "Dimention" in their name is mispelled on purpose). It may not be neighborly to chuckle at their attempts to provide us with flavor text for these monsters, but hey... Sepp. The huge bee with the long sting. Can kill with the deadly poison. Lives in countless ways intervined under the ground. Beware of small hills on the sand. Awesome.
Today I went to EB Games to try and find Odama, which was reccomended to me by a co-worker and looks completely fabulous; think two player date night. They were all out, but I did pick up Brain Age and Battles of Prince of Persia for the DS. As much as I love my Nintendog, I've been jonesing to curl up with something more strategic before bedtime. I also picked up The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for my husband. Even got him the collector's edition! Yes, I am a fabulous wife. Now the decisions. When do I actually hand the game over? He's not expecting it, so do I save it for an appropriate occasion? Or perhaps a time when I am going out of town for a month? Or maybe simply when he has done with Guild Wars for a spell and checked back in to Puzzle Pirates for a couple weeks? My mom and the rest of our crew miss him. Hmm...maybe I should try to get in any movie nights or his-turn-to-cook-dinner evenings first. See, I know that once he starts this game, he will do absolutely nothing else for quite some time. If there are any major chores to be done around the house, I'd better get him to do those before I surprise him with the mottled tan box.
Yes! Bone: The Great Cow Race is now available! Which means that I am free once again to unleash my game realted jibba jabba on the world! Even though its Sunday, I am going to offer forth these Friday Fun Picks for your enjoyment. These are two new games from Gamelab. Plantasia I have been playing this game to death. As a matter of fact, I have played every single level and then gone back and completed them all again on expert. All except for one. That last level is actually the second to last level in the game and it is DAMN hard!! Anyway, Plantasia is a truly fantastic game which brilliantly blends real time strategy with horticulture. You plant your cute little flowers in strategic formations while protecting them from weeds and bugs. This is all couched in an adorable love story between the fairy that is doing the planting and the owner of the estates where the gardens grow. Way to sneakily introduce the mom demographic to the world of RTS's! I have a Gameblast account, but this is one of those few games I have encountered online that I would gladly have paid full price for. Egg v. Chicken This game has been getting more attention than the afore-mentioned Plantasia. It is a solidly good game, but I prefer Plantasia myself. Nonetheless, this has a great story about these eggs going through time fighting the oppressive chickens everywhere along the way. Historical dictators appear in chicken form in each "age", the boss of some effort to keep the good eggs down. There is a great (if somewhat bizarre) sense of humor going on here, but it wouldn't be a Gamelab game if it didn't have fun gameplay behind it as well. This is kind of an action strategy game, and it can get damn well hectic at times! You have different colored eggs in a grid (though the shape of the grid changes from level to level). The grid represents the egg's stronghold, which the nasty chickens are coming to harangue. You arrange the eggs by matching up colors. Three or more colored eggs up against an edge of your stronghold can be hurled at the approaching chickens. You can get a whole lot of the eggs together and shoot them off to do more damage to the aggressive avians. (Wait...do chickens count as avians if they can't really fly?) The core mechanics are pretty neat and make for an addictive experience. Another two great games from Gamelab! Play em and love em! But play The Great Cow Race first!!
