Thursday, March 21, 2013

Review: 10000000 for Android

Mobile games are such a hard design problem to crack. How do you design a game that can be picked up for minutes at a time, give the customer some sort of satisfaction for that brief time invested, while also having enough depth they don't uninstall your game after a day.  EightyEight Games seems to have crafted 10000000 to be the solution to that problem but I'm hesitant to say whether they've truly succeeded.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Five Things You Should Know as a PAX East Virgin




This Friday, thousands will descend upon Boston in hopes of playing games, meeting people and getting free stuff. Here's the bare minimum of what you need to know if you've not been before.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Incredibly Late Review: Dead Space 2

I debated for a while whether doing a review for a game multiple years old had any value left for anyone but myself. It was possible my own satisfaction of putting my thoughts to paper was worth it alone. In the end I think that perhaps anyone looking to play the game in the future would still be best served by a review formed without the presence of the hype or marketing machine that comes along with most of these AAA releases. Especially considering the somewhat negative response Dead Space 3 has gotten recently, I believe now more than ever a reader can expect to get the most unbiased review possible.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Review: Dungelot for Android

Mobile RPGs must be quite difficult to create. A developer is playing to a demographic that wants an engaging experience that rewards persistence but also only has 5 minutes to spare before they put it away. The nature of the device is diametrically opposed to genre. Dungelot from Red Winter Software aims to bring both of these ideas together. But does it succeed?


Friday, March 1, 2013

Thoughts on the Playstation 4

Sony's press conference last month convinced me of one thing and one thing only: the company is willing to learn from it's mistakes. In not so subtle language they both demonstrated new (potential?) features as well as clearly displaying a humbleness learned from their past mistakes. The company finally seems to understand how people want to use their device instead of forcing them into antiquated non-existent use cases.

The emphasis seemed to be focused on speed and usability more than anything else. Instant on, instant resume, and instant streaming games thanks to the Gakai aquisition. All the things that used to be a nightmare, like patching, on the PS3 are now relegated to a completely discrete secondary chip. It's as if the featureset of the new box is totally reactionary to the criticism of the their last console. That's not a bad thing.

In terms of services provided and the actual hardware, I think we'll see parity on the part of Microsoft in the coming months so it's not all that relevant  Stereoscopic cameras may be interesting but I'm sure the Kinect 2 will be just as convincing (or not). Perhaps it's taboo to say so, but it seems as though Sony is finally producing a western produced product that responds to the needs and wants of the average non-Japanese consumer. The cultures are quite different so it's refreshing to see that Sony's hubris is gone.

The information dump was rather exhaustive considering the timing of the announcement yet it left me wondering what bombs they had left to drop come E3. Sony is an experienced company and they must know they have to bring something huge to the table for the biggest show in the industry.

All in all the announcement left me pleasantly surprised and optimistic for (this division) of Sony. A new interesting featureset that addresses everyone's concerns about the difficulty of development and usability of their previous device while showing us a good assortment of future PS4 games as well as a humbleness that is in stark contrast to what the company's presented in year's past. Microsoft better have their game-face on because Sony is still here to play with the big boys.


Wednesday, February 6, 2013

The War is Over: Time to Crown the King of Streaming

With Own3d.tv out of the picture, will Twitch rest on it’s laurels or bring E-sports to the next level?


Wednesday, January 30, 2013

From the Steam Sale: Mark of the Ninja

I first saw Mark of the Ninja at PAX East 2011 and it grabbed my attention right away. I am usually the kind of person who likes stealth action games then plays about 50% of the game, gets stuck, and never touches it again. Mark of the Ninja is not that game; from the beginning I was sucked in and couldn't stop.




Wednesday, January 23, 2013

TGN's Big List of Game's to Watch in 2013

Turns out there's a bucket-load of games coming out in 2013. We all have our preferences for certain genres and developers but sometimes, regardless of our own personal biases, games deserve a look regardless. Maybe they're "important" for the new things they're trying to do, or perhaps they're just a fantastic re-imagining of a classic. Some titles have us curious just to see if the developers can keep people interested with yet another sequel  We've tried to compile a list of the games we think you should be aware of. So here, in no particular order are the game's we're watching in 2013.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Review: FTL: Faster Than Light

Space... The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Doohickey. It's continuing mission, to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before. And blow the crap out of  anything that gets in our way.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Homefront: From the Bargain Bin

It's been well over a year since THQ's high-profile shooter, Homefront, launched.  The game was met with poor reviews and mediocre sales.  I spent some time with this game after purchasing it from Amazon recently during one of the THQ bundle deals.  Mathematically I spent less then two dollars for the game.  Let's talk about this bargain bin game that is consistently available on sale for under 5 dollars.  Is it worth it or is Homefront a complete waste of time?

For Homefront's launch, THQ marketed the fact that John Milius (writer/director of Red Dawn) was writing the story.  I loved this cult classic.  The intro scenes and pre-release screenshots of the game looked fantastic.  I erred on the side of caution and decided to wait for reviews and was immediately put off by what the media had to say about it.  The most glaring issue was that the campaign was very short, and ultimately mediocre.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Friday, January 4, 2013

The Gaming Nook Live: League of Legends

The Gaming Nook will be streaming League of Legends games all Friday night after 7PM EST. Please join us for some debauchery and mediocre skill with Jim, Brian and Jason this evening. The stream will be embedded here as well as available on Twitch. There will be drinking involved so cover you children's ears.



Thursday, January 3, 2013

Worth Playing: Frog Fractions

Alright, listen. I want you to take 20 minutes out of your day and go and play Frog Fractions. Just trust me on this one. Saying more would ruin the the point of playing the game. All I will say, is the game is not what it seems and perhaps can inform game design for other indie developers. Lessons can be learned from this little flash game. If nothing else, you will enjoy the music and nostalgia. Thank me later.