Contains flashing images which may cause photosensitive epileptic seizures.
This only begins to describe what is a transcendent, life-changing experience. The titular protagonist is “drugged up on drugs” and “can’t be sure if he’s been awake before.” This premise connects four otherwise unrelated minigames.
I’m not sure what the goal of the game’s design is, but I’m certain that it is monumentally successful at what it does. The game assaults the senses. It will make your eyes bleed and your head explode, both in the best possible way.
Another one of his games that I played recently is Flywrench, which is truly awesome. Flywrench is the game that I’d recommend for the uninitiated in Messhof games. While the Punishment series is incredible, it could be described by some as torture. Flywrench is not only not impossibly difficult, but it features simple yet elegant and engrossing gameplay mechanics and level design, as well as an entertaining narrative, all with very minimalist visuals.
Another of his games that I’d recommend is You Got the Grappling Hook, a small game that takes a simple grappling hook and swinging mechanic and turns it into a Portal-like narrative. Even if you’ve found my descriptions of Randy Balma: Municipal Abortionist or Punishment daunting, you should definitely try at least this game and Flywrench.
I’m terrible at finishing games that I start. Metal Gear Solid 4 comes out in a couple of weeks, and I intend to get it on release day if possible. Metal Gear is a series where the games demand to be completed. The stories are far too rich and compelling to leave them or rely on spoilers for plot details.
Back to the topic at hand… before I get Metal Gear Solid 4, which will consume my attention as far as gaming is concerned, I resolve to finish at least some of the games I’m playing currently, some of which I’ve left unfinished far too long. The top titles on this list are:
Grand Theft Auto 4
Bioshock
Sam and Max Season 2 (Episode 5)
I thought about putting Oblivion on the list, but I’m far too obsessive and that would just take me forever. I’ll most likely just abandon that one. I also have No More Heroes, but at this point I may just save it for after MGS4 since I haven’t actually started it yet.
I did one more level of Bioshock today. Check again soon for more updates on my progress!
Today’s been a busy day. Pat, Morty, Derek and I continued our Metal Gear Solid 2 playthrough, going from the beginning of the Tanker section to just after the fight with Fat Man.
After that, the three of us went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, otherwise known as Indy 4. I enjoyed it, overall. Maybe it’s not as fresh as the other ones were, but it was quite fun. It’s refreshing to see Spielberg make something so light, although the movie doesn’t feel as agile as some of his other work.
Indy must defeat Metal Gear Ray before he can deliver delicious cake to the lady down the street.
I was bored after dinner, so I watched Kiki’s Delivery Service. The movie’s really awesome. I find animated films like this really refreshing, especially after seeing the trailer tonight for Dreamworks’ latest CG monstrosity. I admit, I’m curious about Kung Fu Panda, but still.
I found a great series of four flash games called Understanding Games. These are a student’s thesis, where in each episode he explains a core concept of game theory through the use of games. These do for games what the outstanding book Understanding Comics did for comics.
From the site:
Understanding Games is series of four games explaining the basic concepts of video games. The tutorial-style episodes deal with rules, motivation, learning and identification in video games. The player is guided through each episode by the narrators Bob and Bub, who explain core concepts of games to the player. The player can experience these concepts directly while playing the integrated games.
These are definitely worth checking out. Each one is short, insightful, and entertaining.
It’s always great fun to stare at your PS3 downloading a firmware update.
Helping me achieve new levels of boredom.
I really don’t understand why the update can’t be downloaded in the background like anything else. Sure, it shouldn’t run in the background when the update itself is happening, but why do I have to stare at the download itself? It’d also be nice if Sony would give us a list of the changes/improvements/fixes included in the update before downloading it.
Platinum Games (formerly Clover, then Seeds after leaving being dissolved by Capcom) has just put up a trailer for their upcoming Wii game MadWorld, and it’s pure gold.
The company was founded by the guys who brought you Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, and Okami. Definitely worth keeping an eye on this. They currently have a four game deal with Sega.
Those of you who see me or speak with me on a day-to-day basis may already know this, but for those of you who don’t: I’m not dead.
I haven’t been watching that many movies, and unfortunately the few that I have I wasn’t really compelled to write up here, even the really great ones. I sort of fell out of the habit. I shouldn’t use that as an excuse to not write here, so maybe I’ll start posting more stuff along the lines of what I used to on Abattoir Noises 1.
These days I’ve been dedicating most of my spare time to playing games. Some on the PS3 and Wii, but the vast majority have been PC freeware indie games. In my PS3 and Wii I have Grand Theft Auto 4 and Smash Bros. Brawl respectively, and both are awesome. Enough hyperbolic nonsense has been spouted on the internets about these two games, so I’ll spare you here. Maybe someday I’ll put up a few critical nuggets if they occur to me. For Brawl they’ll most likely be too technical for most to really care.
I’ve also been trying to teach myself Flash, in hopes of broadening my skillset for web design and game development. I’ll eventually be posting some of the fruits of those labors here.
The last movie I saw was Iron Man. I was quite impressed… I expected it to at least be good, but the more hype built the lower my expectations were getting. In the end, the movie was a lot of fun, and lived up to my original expectations from seeing the preview the first time at Comic-Con last summer.
I may have written about the game Fez before, I can’t remember. Anyways, this is a gameplay video from GDC. The game still looks awesome, and looks like it will include all the platforming goodness Super Paper Mario didn’t with it’s “camera changes the game landscape” mechanic.
Like with too many other movies and games recently, I’ve kind of dropped the ball on writing a review for Mario Galaxy to the point where it almost feels so late that it’s pointless to do so. However, reading a Gamasutra review by David Sirlin, a designer for Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix who had similar views and some interesting observations has inspired me to write some of my impressions of the game.
The game is absolutely brilliant. We finally have a true sequel to Super Mario 64, with enough innovation to not just feel like a rehash. The levels all float in space, and most are made up of a collection of little oddly-shaped planets, each with its own gravity. In Galaxy we get classic Mario gameplay with the added twist of varied gravity mechanics. There’s many gameplay surprises and unique levels, and even some 2D platforming segments.
Playing this game is pure joy, with some small exceptions – mostly segments involving the motion sensing capabilities of the Wiimote that are irritating to play and feel very much tacked on. I’m two stars away from completing the game at 100%. As incredible as the game is, the final challenges – returning to past stages to collect 100 purple coins – are tedious and feel unimaginative. We’ll see once I finish everything whether these were worth it.
David Sirlin made an excellent observation about Galaxy, something I hadn’t even thought about:
Inertial Frames
When you jump straight up while riding a train in real life, you do not slam into the back of the train; you land on the same spot as you jumped from. Physicists say that you are in the same inertial frame as the train, meaning that you’re moving with it and your walking or jumping is relative to it.
You all know this instinctively and yet almost no platform games know this. I remember actually being shocked in the game Spider-Man 2 when my Spider-Man was on top of a car and I jumped straight up and landed on the car. “Wow, they know about inertial frames!” I said. At long last, Mario Galaxy knows about them too. You can finally jump straight up while riding a moving platform and land on the platform without worrying about it moving out from under your feet.
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