Dustin Deckard

I’m very attracted to games I can finish in just a few hours, and the classic fun of Oregon Trail is timeless, so Organ Trail was a good fit for a lazy Saturday morning. I normally don’t name video games characters after real life friends, but it was too hard to resist here. My husband was almost shot dead by a bandit, Doug kept getting dysentery, Chelsea kept hosing us over by ruining batteries and spilling fuel (but there was that one time she told an inspiring story), and Sam got bitten and had to be put down.

The game follows the Oregon Trail formula very closely, so you know what you’re in for, more or less. Your station wagon stands in for the covered wagon, and hordes of zombies that go through various states of agitation stand in for raging rivers. 

Organ Trail started as a free flash game, but had extra love poured into it by a 2012 Kickstarter campaign that led to PC/Mac/iOS/Android versions of the game. The mobile versions are $3 and the PC version can be downloaded DRM-free for just $5. 

Game Dev Tycoon

I love business sims. RollerCoaster Tycoon and Lemonade Tycoon were a few standouts from yesteryear that cost me many late nights, but more recent hits like Kairosoft’s Game Dev Story and Hot Springs Story keep the genre going on iOS and Android. 

There’s no significant differences between this game and the much more popular Game Dev Story, but this is a very polished clone that’s easy on the eyes and has lots and lots of options to unlock. The game’s “story” does come to an end, after 25 years of simulated game history, leading up to the current generation of the Wii U, Nextbox and PS4. You can continue playing, of course, to improve your team and research more technology to include in your games, and even that stays fun for a while. Eventually, after 10 or 12 hours, it will run its course. Not a bad way to spend the time, and one of the few standout applications currently available on the Windows 8 store. 

(Game Dev Tycoon is $8 on the Windows Store)

I wanted to like DLC Quest, I really did. The art, the “buy a gameplay mechanic” gimmick, the solid platforming… it had a lot going for it. It’s even funny at times - like when you’re glad you bought that Horse Armor DLC after your horse takes a bullet for you. Or when you buy the “next gen graphics” DLC pack and it just makes everything a little more earth-tone.

It should be telling, then, that this game ran out its welcome with me in just 90 minutes. That’s all it takes to beat the whole thing, mind you - it’s a short game. But running back and forth on fetch quests is one of my least favorite things to do in a game, and after doing it several times, only to be told I couldn’t fight the final boss of the game until I had 200 coins to open a door… that’s my cue, I’m out. 

If a self-deprecating game about painful DLC practices sounds like it’s up your alley, then come for the jokes and stay for the tight platforming. 

(DLC Quest can be purchased on Steam for just $2.99)

Kill Screen has a great interview with Tomb Raider writer Rhianna Pratchett. Definitely worth a read.

• 23 hours after launch
• 16 hours of Origin errors
• 2 hours of download/install time
• 1.5 hours of post-install patching
• Game finally runs, but won’t let me create a city
• Why did I buy this again?

EDIT: I am one of the unlucky ones. It’s been over three days and I still haven’t been able to create a city, let alone play.

I can’t get over how well rendered Lara Croft is in the new Tomb Raider. The game runs butter-smooth at Ultimate settings on my AMD rig, and the hair… it really is cool. Look at all of those strands of hair! They’re being rendered individually, and blowing in the wind. Also, they get wet and then dry over time. That’s nuts.

Completely in love with the game so far - especially how the Crystal Dynamics pulled no punches when it came to the brutality of her situation. This is a strong, confident Lara, even from the very beginning. She relies on her strength of character and her well earned skills to get through this mess. 

Holy smokes, I did it. I crushed my Four in February goal, and then some. I didn’t think I would ever be able to fit this much gaming into my schedule again, what with all the adulting I have to do these days, but by making just a few changes to my routine I was able to get a lot more gaming time in without making any real sacrifices. Mostly I just got myself out of bed earlier on the weekends, and spent more nights gaming before bed, rather than watching television. 

As usual, the list only includes games that I completed during the month, and if they can’t be traditionally “completed” then it’s noted appropriately. Also of note: I probably spent more time playing The Pinball Arcade than half of the other games in this list combined. Pinball has really sunk its teeth into me, and I’m counting down the days until the Texas Pinball Festival where I’ll finally be able to get my hands on a few hundred tables IRL.

• DmC: Devil May Cry (completed, PC)
• I Am Alive (completed, PC)
• The Cave (completed, PC)
• Spec Ops: The Line (completed, PC)
• Dungeon Siege III (completed + DLC, PC)
• Proteus (completed two years on the island, PC)
• 10,000,000 (completed, PC)
• Bientôt l’été (conversed with 2 strangers, PC)
• The Pinball Arcade (ongoing, Android, Vita, PS3)

Brütal Legend

I am so, so glad this game finally got itself a PC release. At PAX Prime last year, I asked a Double Fine dev (who was walking me through a demo of The Cave) if I would ever get to play my favorite DF game on my favorite platform. He smiled coyly, “We’re working on all kinds of things for our fans right now.”

I’m having a blast running through it again, impossibly epic soundtrack and all - over 100 metal tracks! The only thing slowing me down is the ridiculous number of screenshots I’ve been taking. 

For the record, I think Proteus is wonderful. It’s a game, but condensed and stylized until the only thing left is exploration. This is the absolute minimalist version of “play.”

Proteus can be purchased DRM-free for just $10.

Spec Ops: The Line

This was a remarkably mature story with a profound ending, in a way I hadn’t felt since Bioshock. I’m usually not one for military sims, but the horrors of war on display here transcend the genre. The further the story takes the player down the path of… what is it, necessity? The further you’re intended to question whether or not you’re really a hero. If a man takes more lives than he can possibly save, is he good? Can he even be good? 

Laid over the loading screens are clever one-liners, starting off as game tips and evolving into comments on basic morality, seemingly straight from the consciousness of Captain Walker himself. One comments something like “There is no difference between the right thing and the necessary thing.” Later, “You are still a good person.”

There are four different endings to this game, each drastically different, but all of them horrifyingly understandable. I’m actually ashamed of the first ending I received. It was prompted by gut instinct and a startling sense of dread at the thought of facing reality. I didn’t want to see what would happen to my character after it was all over. Maybe you will.

Spec Ops: The Line is available on PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 for around $30.

Bientôt l’été

Software cannot possible be any more French. Smoking cigarettes, drinking wine, playing chess and walking along the beach - in Bientôt l’été, this is gameplay. Entering the small house on the white sand allows you to connect with another player, somewhere out there - accidentally drawing comparisons to Journey’s multiplayer. It’s a solitary experience, until you connect with another player. And even then it’s quiet, and intensely passionate. Poetry, animated and made ever so slightly interactive. 

It’s not a thing that everything will appreciate or find value in. But it is peaceful; a respite before you move on to the next game and the next digital killing spree. 

As the industry (and the whole world) continues to focus efforts on connecting everything and everyone, perhaps short, social experiences like Tale of Tale’s latest project will eventually replace the short, solitary arcade experiences that we’re addicted to buying in $0.99 injections.

It wouldn’t be so bad.

Bientôt l’été can be purchased for $10 from either the Tale of Tales website or Steam

Uh oh. Got my first taste of DayZ and now couldn’t be more excited for the standalone release. The adrenaline rush of hearing a car coming down the road and booking it into the nearest building, hoping that the driver didn’t see us; one of those rare, memorable gaming moments that keep you thinking about the game long after you turned it off. 

Also noteworthy: coming across another player camping out in an old factory. My friend and I could have taken him - we had a gun and outnumbered him. But there was a herd incoming, so we warned him and then ran like hell. 

The Cave

“I know you will leave here tonight with a new perspective on the choices to come.”

The second of my “Four in February” games to be completed, Ron Gilbert and Co’s The Cave was at its best, an inventive take on a platformer/adventure. But at its worst, it was a half-baked proof of concept with bugs to spare.

I’d certainly recommend it, if only for the replay value. There are seven characters in total (just like Gilbert’s 1987 classic Maniac Mansion), and you’re only allowed to bring three into The Cave. That means three trips through the game, although that last one will be repetitive. It will be a while before I make another trip though, but my time with the Time Traveler, The Hillbilly and The Twins was well spent. Double Fine’s usual hilarious dialogue was spread out and rare, but still enough to make me laugh out loud several times. I played on PC, but I think that the Wii U version would actually be most enjoyable, with the second-screen functionality adding a bit of flare.

Thanks to publisher SEGA, you can grab The Cave on Steam for PC, Mac, or Linux, and also on Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii U, for an MSRP of $14.99. 

And I so glad that I’m done with that game. I beat it with only 4 and a half hours logged, although I only took the time to save 5 out of 20 total survivors. It could easily be a 7+ hour game, putting it in line with other $15 games in its class. The end of the game felt very anticlimactic, which makes sense after I read about its development history. It was under development from 2005-2007 by Darkworks, before Ubisoft Shanghai nabbed it and finished it up. That explains the dated graphics, but not the “wtf” cutscene at the end of the game. 

It’s always frustrating to see great ideas ground into monotony, but I suppose I should be grateful that I am Alive ever even saw a release. While I wouldn’t recommend buying it at full price if you’ve got other material to play, catching it for under $10 would serve you up some unique survival gameplay with a heavy atmosphere reminiscent of the 2009 movie The Road. 

Survival log: I am a terrible person, but I am Alive

As part of my needlessly dramatic “Four in February” goal (which I am crushing, by the way) I’m playing through Ubisoft’s 2012 critical flop, I am Alive (PC, Steam).

Like reviewers said: it’s got some fantastic ideas, but this game is flat. Most of it is spent running or climbing from point A to point B, keeping your attention on the stamina meter (ugh), hoping you won’t run out of energy and have to use one of the precious items in your inventory to give you a boost (soda, bottled water, painkillers, etc). You’d think that the publisher of Assassin’s Creed would have made sure that climbing was a fun part of I am Alive, but no such luck.

If you can get past the boring parts, there’s actually a great survival game under the rubble. The word “survival” gets thrown around a lot in the games industry - most of us are probably used to hearing it before the word “horror”. But can you think of many recent survival-horror games? Resident Evil has been reduced to campy action, and Silent Hill’s survival element has been diluted by too many bad games that gave the player firearms. Odds are, when you think of “survival” games now, you’re probably thinking of Minecraft, or something like Don’t Starve. And in truth, that’s where I’d place I am Alive. It’s not an open world, but it’s close. It’s got action, but the action isn’t centered around killing the bad guys - rather, the goal is always to keep breathing. You’re rarely forced to kill anyone (comparatively) - and even halfway through the game you should be able to count on one hand how many times you’ve fired your pistol, bullets are just that rare. 

I’d call the setting post-post-apocalyptic, since at this point most people have died or are dying. You encounter other survivors, 20 in total, and are given the option to help them (bring them a bottle of wine, use your last med-pack on them, shoot their handcuffs off of them), or to ignore them. If you help them, the game rewards you with an addition “retry” (life) and the survivor tells you a little more about the incident that brought about the end of civilization. If you ignore them, that’s fine, too.

Early on, a young man begged me to bring him a first aid kit so he could cut his own arm off. He had been caught in a building during one of the quakes that still riddle the city, and rubble had caught him. His friends had abandoned him, but I had a first aid kit in my backpack. Sadly for him, my own health wasn’t looking so good, not to mention I was on a critical quest to find some antibiotics for a little girl. I couldn’t spare him my last bullet, either, so I left him to die alone and in pain. 

Later, I found an old man on his deathbed, who begged me to find him a cigarette so he could go out with some sense of comfort and normality. I saw the tell-tale glow of a special item that was surely his cigarettes, but it was in a hard to reach place and I would likely have injured myself getting there. I ignored his plea and walked away as he lamented the state of civility in a world where age and wisdom no longer hold value. 

Again I came across an older man, hiding out right beneath the noses of a violent gang. He’d carved out a safe place for himself, hidden in plain sight, and was doing well. He politely offered me a bottle of water and some painkillers, but asked me to leave the rest of his belongings alone in return. I took the supplies, but then rummaged through the rest of his home, taking everything of value. When he protested, I pulled my gun at him and told him to get back, before leaving and never looking back.

I had done a similarly terrible thing earlier, but this time the fellow survivor pulled a knife on me. I pulled my gun, and ordered him to step back until he was standing in front of his campfire. I kicked him in and watched him burn to death, screaming for help and desperately trying to swat out the flames. I didn’t find anything of value in his home. His death was pointless.

I haven’t finished the game yet, and I don’t even know where it’s headed. The story starts with you entering the city, a year after the end of the world incident, hoping to find your wife and daughter in your old apartment. They weren’t there, but I did find another little girl that needed help, and have been helping her ever since. I’ve been justifying these horrible actions by telling myself I’m doing it for the girl. But maybe it’s just because the game isn’t very good and I’m trying to finish it up. Either way, I am Alive deserves a little recognition for starting that dialogue. 

I am Alive is available on PC, XBLA, and PSN for $14.99

10,000,000

This was not supposed to be in the schedule for this month, since I’m trying to finish four other games, but it came recommended by a friend and I couldn’t resist after it dropped onto Steam for only $5. 

A lot like the Puzzle Quest games, you’re basically matching different blocks to get different currencies or items. Match swords to do melee damage, match keys to open chests, etc. In between rounds of the gameplay, you’re trapped in a dungeon, working your way towards an impossible-sounding score of 10,000,000. Every time you come back from a round, you have more experience points and resources to spend on upgrades, enabling you to go on longer and longer block-matching runs before the time runs out or you die and get sent back to the dungeon.

Constantly dangling the carrot of the next upgrade in front of the player is the perfect way to keep that “just one more round” feeling going, and 10,000,000 nails it. The inherent problem with that type of design, though, is that the game does end rather abruptly. There’s really no reason to keep playing after you finally reach ten million points, since the entire driving force was always buying the next upgrade, and they do eventually run out.

A perfectly paced and smartly designed game that deserves a place in anyone’s library. You can also grab it on iOS for just $2. The Android version is in development but should be out very soon.

Succubus: Who are you?

Dante: I’m your prom date, you ugly sack of shit!

Succubus: WHO THE FUCK ARE YOUUUUUUU!?

[Succubus tries to vomit on Dante]

Dante: You can call me Dante the demon-killer. Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

Succubus: You want to kill me? You can’t kill me! I’m twelve hundred years old!

Dante: You don’t look a day over twelve thousand.

Succubus: Fuck you!

Dante: Fuck you!

Succubus: FUCK YOUUUUUU…

[boss fight begins]

I was planning on keeping a static page updated with my “gaming log”, but after seeing how some friends are tracking their gameplay, I think monthly posts will be better. This way I can simply tag these posts and then link to them, collectively, from my front page. So here we have the games I played in January. I only log games that I completed during the month, and if they aren’t games that can traditionally “completed” (social games) I note that, as well.

• Batman: Arkham City (completed, PC)
• Trauma (completed, PC)
• Shank (completed, PC)
• SongPop (social/ongoing, Android/Facebook)
• You Don’t Know Jack (social/ongoing, Facebook)
• The Pinball Arcade: Star Trek and Attack from Mars tables (ongoing, Android/Vita)

Daniel Nye Griffiths

Review: Bientôt l’Été by Tale of Tales: Enigma. Variations? - Forbes

(via notgames)