This is a most enjoyable headline: “Online gamers crack AIDS enzyme puzzle”. Now, I didn’t get this until after several reads of several articles, because I am a thick-skulled artsy type whose only knowledge of science comes in the form of dodgy chemistry jokes. I would tell you one now, but after racking my brains all the good ones argon.
Why, why did I just type that? Read the rest of this entry »
I’m sorry to do this to you all, but after spending the last twenty minutes or so playing a rather snazzy little minigolf game that, as ever, Rock Paper Shotgun sent me to, I’ve decided to ruin your days by telling you about my favourite internet timewasters. These are games of potent arcane power that tamper with the laws of physics; play one for what you think is five minutes and in fact you’ll lose half an hour, maybe a whole one if it’s a good’un.
Some time soon my review of Pirates of Black Cove will be up on Gamedot (EDIT: lo and behold…), at which point you can marvel at how very mediocre the game is. Not bad, not hateful (I can think of one other nautical game that was…) but still undeveloped and not very satisfying. It would take a concerted development on behalf of any development team to make blasting an opponent with cannon fire dull and Pirates does avoid this, but only just. It’s a line the game skirts frequently, being just engaging enough not to repel you at first sight, but soon enough the boredom mounts and the rewards for completing tasks aren’t enough.
I’ve not played Minecraft. It might be the biggest indie hit that has ever been, with over 11 million registered users on the site, with 2.5m of those having rummaged through their pockets to pay for the newer version. It might have a presence on the internet through videos, memes and general gaming consciousness that far outstrips that of a lot of top-dollar games. The most I’ve toyed with it, though, was…well, just now actually, a quick two minutes of the free version just to see how it plays. That first sentence was true when I wrote it, honest.
Go and play this now. It is funny, quick and very different. It is Prime Minister’s Questions: The Game. I’m becoming a little bit obliged to Rock Paper Shotgun for giving me stuff to put in this blog, but if they will keep telling us about such wonderfully quirky games as this then what am I supposed to do?
I’m not sure if I’ve seen a more amusing competition that this one in many, many years. City Interactive are currently developing Combat Wings: The Great Battles of WWII for the PC, Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii, an game it looks set to provide decidedly typical dogfighting fare with not much going for it that hasn’t been seen in a hundred other such titles. Except for the fact that you could be doing voice over work for it.
When I started this blog, I planned to write a big post on Mondays followed by to smaller ones on Wednesday and Friday. If anything I thought that I might have to scale back; instead, I seem to have gone a bit mad in the last few updates and cleared 600 words on each one of them, which qualifies for the prestigious ‘bigger post’ status. So today I’m going to redirect you to a post on Rock Paper Shotgun and let that do my work for me.
Magnificent.
…
With a bit of commentary, of course. What do you take me for? Read the rest of this entry »
I’m getting suspicious of Valve. They might take ages in releasing games, but they do tend to be rather generous. Steam sales. Team Fortress 2 updates. The Orange Box. Every time they hand something over to us with a big smile on their faces, I can’t help but think that they want something in return (aside from our money, but that’s way too obvious a motive…).
Now, uniting my passions for both soundtracks and free goodies, Valve have released a volume of music from Portal 2, called Songs to Test By, which you can download here. Read the rest of this entry »
Warning: spoilers ahead…read this first, then play the game, then come back here again…Thank you!
I imagine that the Portal 2 team are feeling pretty smug right now. The game that they have created has a few niggles of the sort that reviewers (myself included) pick out when they want to avoid looking biased – but that’s it. I haven’t played a game that is this tightly packaged since Arkham Asylum, with both sharing in common an armour of gameplay, story and polish that made them nigh-on bulletproof, vulnerable only to the sort of subjective criticism that emerges once the critics have had their say and the inevitable forum backlashes begin.
One thing that I’ve come to learn as a reviewer for Gamedot is that 80% of games for review are not ones that I’d consider buying. In most cases there’s plenty of enjoyment to be had in them, with Alien Breed 3: Descent and Greed Corp springing to mind, but they’re titles that I would otherwise only have glanced at, perhaps if they managed to make it onto the Steam storefront.
Adventure games are probably the clearest example of these. Read the rest of this entry »
The Joy of the Digital 