Author Archives: admin

At Least It Isn’t Greensleeves

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Yeah, I’ve been slacking a bit, going on vacation trips tends to derail whatever I’ve been working on at the time.  So, to get back into the swing of things, I checked out English Country Tune today.  I knew it was a puzzle game but wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, but it turns out to be basically an advanced version of those Sokoban-like games.  Push items around a block maze to meet a particular goal, except with twists like gravity making the items drop, 3D aspects to the maze, ‘whales’ that run away from you and have to be pushed off the board, and so on.

The keyboard controls are a bit wonky due to how the direction you go in suddenly changes in spots when you move to a different orientation, and it’s sometimes hard to see parts of the level to see where valid places to move might be, but it’s a fairly interesting and challenging puzzler.  I wouldn’t sit down and play nothing but it, but I could see knocking off a puzzle here and there.

Getting Wet, Again

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No time for anything yesterday, but today I played a bit of Aquaria.  It’s basically a ‘Metroidvania’ game, where you explore, acquire powers that unlock new areas, defeat bosses, etc., but with a couple twists.  It’s almost entirely underwater, so movement is pretty freeform, and you use your powers by singing songs by playing certain notes.

Nothing earth-shattering, but it’s interesting enough that I’d like to come back and check out more of it.  It’s been a fairly slow start so far, without even any combat powers unlocked yet so it’s been a matter of avoiding enemies.

They Do Look A Bit Bug-Eyed

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For something a little less hardcore, I played a bit of Insaniquarium today.  Feed your fish so they don’t die, collect the, uh, coins they drop, and keep them from being attacked by…aliens?  I guess humans aren’t tasty enough.  It’s cute, and it’s adding new stuff often enough that it doesn’t get too repetitive, but it’s not a game I’m going to focus on either.

Spaaaaaaaace!

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I played a lot of X3 before, and on the recommendations of others, today I finally got around to checking out Evochron Mercenary.  It’s a similar style of game in that it’s a space sim where you can fight other ships, trade, build stuff, explore, go on missions, etc., but Evochron has a somewhat more ‘direct’ feel to it in that you feel more like you’re actually piloting the ship, while the X3 series often feels more like you’re the captain managing a ship.

Evochron also has some features that X3 doesn’t, like being able to fly down to the surface of planets, easier mining of resources, and sudden on-the-fly rescue missions, but it also feels more limited in other ways.  The potential ships you can upgrade to don’t seem to come close to the wide variety and large scale you see in X3, and it probably won’t have the same sense of managing a whole fleet like some rich trade magnate (though it’s still early to say for certain).  And Evochron definitely can’t compete in the graphics department, though they’re functional enough.

They’re still both good in their own ways, but I think I will definitely set aside Evochron Mercenary for more in-depth exploration later on.

No Angel

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Been slacking on the new games over the weekend, but today I tried Wasteland Angel, though it was a brief dalliance.  It’s an overhead shooter where you drive around a town and destroy incoming attackers, and…that’s about it.  It gets dull and repetitive really fast.  If I want this kind of overhead driving shooter, I’ve already got the far-better Renegade Ops.

Cobblers Vs. Blacksmiths

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Didn’t have time for a game yesterday, but today I finally got to check out Guild Wars 2, albeit in beta form.  I’m only up to level 4 so far, and haven’t checked out crafting or the skill tracks or such, but it’s been fun.  I still don’t fully understand mesmer combat yet, but there are a couple interesting twists from the usual cast-damage-over-and-over.  And besides the typical quests (‘tasks’ in this case) there are events that everyone can jump into as they happen, and are a big, hectic ball o’ fun.

Stop Me Before I Buy Again

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I went into this summer’s Steam sale figuring that there wasn’t really much I was interested in, so I’d probably spend very little, if anything.

I’ve already spent nearly $150 and there are still four days to go.  :-\  A large chunk of it is just DLC I was missing for games I already have, but I couldn’t resist a handful of games that hit that eh-what-the-hell-it’s-only-$5 mark.

Getting Wet

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Going for something a bit newer, I played a bit of Vessel today, and I’ll definitely come back to it.  It’s another puzzle-platformer, but it’s based mostly around fluid physics.  You’re either manipulating where water goes, spraying it yourself, or dealing with little creatures made out of water that can either help or hinder you, depending on the room you’re in.  Flip switches, open doors, move obstacles out of the way, etc.  It can require a decent amount of thought to get through a puzzle though, as it often depends on timing, the behaviour of those water guys, the order things happen in, etc., so it provides that nice oho-I’ve-figured-it-out satisfaction.

worms in my brain get them out

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I’ve liked the Worms series for a long time now, though the spin-off games haven’t generally done too well.  So it was mostly out of curiosity that I checked out Worms Crazy Golf today.  The mechanics are pretty simple, just get to the hole on a 2D map, using standard direction-and-strength shooting.  And, as expected from a Worms game, there are some tools to adjust the gameplay (e.g., a parachute for your ball), and various ways to interact with the terrain, like destructible blocks or cannons you can fire out of.

There are some things like unlockable alternate clubs, hats, voice packs, etc., goals to meet, and challenge leaderboards to sustain longer-term gameplay…but the glaring omission is that there’s no online multiplayer, only local hot seat.  Worms is best when played with multiple people, and there isn’t even an AI to play against here, so I’m not really interested in doing much more with it.

(It is pretty generous with the achievements, at least; I got five on the first hole!)

Getting Inside You

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Today’s game is Stacking, and it’s a rather…different…one.  You’re in a world populated by Russian nesting dolls, and you have to complete various puzzles by stacking or unstacking yourself with other dolls to gain particular abilities useful in solving the puzzle.  It’s not particularly difficult, but it’s a nifty aesthetic, and there are some other things you can do like search for unique dolls or find multiple solutions to the puzzles.  I’ve done the first ‘world’ so far, and I think I will come back to this one later on.