Happy belated holidays (specifically Christmas).

As soon as the clock turned 12 a.m. I opened the gift from James. I took awhile to open it because he took awhile to wrap it nice, so I didn’t want to shred it to pieces.

I finally have an oven!… not a hardcore one but a toaster oven. I think that is fine enough for me.  Did you know my house doesn’t have one?

Now I can bake my cookies and also use it to properly bake my sculpey and shrinky dinks.

There was a family get together, but I didn’t go for many reasons. One being I am sick, another being the fact I’m pesco-vegetarian now and.. chances are everything would be meaty there.  They usually have traditional dishes as well so it’s a fusion dinner but…  this dinner was with my dads side, which is 100% Chinese, and I pretty much dislike most Chinese dishes. Especially fish & chicken when I used to eat chicken. I am also pretty much the black sheep/ family loner.   So I usually don’t find any point going to these events since I’d have nothing to do.

Surprisingly enough, one of my cousins’ + her bf gave gifts:

It’s cute. That was nice of her.

Kevin also wasn’t supposed to get me anything.. because of the financial situation his parents have put him under (pretty much paying the bills with little to spend on himself).  However, Steam is having a sale on games, and he ended up getting audiosurf for himself first, and then bought it for me too!

It was cheap though, so I don’t feel too bad he even got me something.  He also gifted me half life 2, since it was “Free”.

Audiosurf has been pretty addicting, and I’ll most likely review it in a post eventually. But, it’s basically described as a puzzle/rhythm game.. although sometimes it feels like a racing game (but you’re not racing with anyone just dodging blocks).

All I can say for now is I am top for “I Want to Ride My Bicycle” by Queen in the casual slot. lulz. I’m still pretty nooby though.

I also caught up with Gossip Girl, and Hilary Duff’s character brought back a gift, which is obviously a gloomy bear claw to us… but she said it was (something along these lines), “a bloody goblin arm that is very popular in Japan right now”.

Gossip Girl, you entertain me, but get your facts straight before you put something in your show.

Anywho, hope everyone else had a good day!

pärast väikest uinakut ärkasin ma umbes kell 2 ja asusin tegutsema – uni oli tappev, kuid kohvi ka polnud, mis mind korralikult jalule aitaks. täna siis ostsin lõpuks paki suitsu kah – olen mitu päeva ilma olnud ja nüüd otsustasin, et viimased kopikad lähevad siiski suitsude peale. süüa mul on – mis seal ikka. tahaks juba metsarahasid. tänane päev kulges kiirelt – modesin reidis, rääkisin msnis inimestega, tagusin näoraamatu kultusmänge ja tirisin omale ka mängu audiosurf, millest olin enne kofferi foorumist kuulnud. ma ei teadnudki, et seal saab oma lugude järgi “sõita” – suhteliselt tore oli mõni ropuma biidiga dnb lugu peale visata ja end blokkidest hulluks õgida. meenutas veidi guitar herot, aga see pole see pole see pole see.

ega midagi muud ei olegi, õhtu jätkub samamoodi nagu alati on jätkunud. äkki täna jõuan varem magama? kes teab. vähemalt on mul olemas nüüd mu kullakallid vähipulgakesed :*

Another LAN this weekend.

The Basement

Games which simulate the real world, especially first person shooters, are getting more and more realistic. People seem to like watching something which they feel is as close to reality as is possible without actually being reality. I think we’re approaching the limit though, so my question is; what will happen when every new game looks and feels just as good as the last?

At the moment the way I see it, there are two ways to get a game into the top ten. Option one, you make the latest fps hit, possibly part of an existing series, it must be full of cutting edge graphics, have some role-playing game elements and introduce a few innovations but nothing too hard to get the hang of. If you can pull this off and get it released without a hitch you’ll be fine, the producers know this that’s why there are so many games which follow this formula. However there is a second option, the road of the indie developer, creating new and innovative games which often defy scientific classification. Games like these carry a higher risk of failing or simply having mediocre sales however occasionally they really take off. For example, Audiosurf which sold more copies on steam in its first month than it’s million dollar budget counterpart Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. A simple rhythm game was capable of outselling the next installment in a huge fps franchise. If we were to reach the aforementioned point where the look and feel of all these shooters is pretty much the same, I think this gap will widen.

What it comes down to is this, beautiful little games which fall outside the staple genres show us another dimension, a place where the normal rules don’t apply; whereas the latest fps is praised for reminding us of what reality feels like, and I think that’s going to get old real fast.

Moths.  There seem to be a lot of them around here lately… and by “here” i mean… wherever.  There were 5 of them in the bathroom at work… at least, 5 I could see.

So I discovered this game called Audiosurf.  It’s really fun.  It’s a music-driven game that would go in the same category as Dance Dance  Revolution.  The biggest difference is that this one is adaptive and you can use any audio track you have on your computer.  The game analyzes the music and builds your level accordingly.  Very cool.  I’ve uploaded videos of my Audiosurf gameplay to YouTube.

I didn’t post a video log yesterday because I took the day off so that I could rest my voice.  If I could go a while without talking then it would allow my throat to heal.  I’m still coughing a little bit, but not nearly as much, and I think it helped to stay home.  Additionally, I’m starting to think I don’t need to do a video log.  It just seems silly for some reason.  At least… seems silly to make it so “official”, like “this is my official video log entry”.  I think from here on out I’ll just upload what I want to upload and not worry about categorizing it like that.

Tonight is the Entrance at church.  I’m excited.  I don’t know what the theme is yet… but whatever.

Okay I am done.  More to say but… oh well.

Antes de mais tudo, lembrei que esqueci de fazer mais uns testes com o Nano, esqueci de testar vídeos com legenda, os fones originais e mais umas coisinhas então o review sai semana que vem… E também começa a temporada de filmes então vou continuar sumido daqui, tenho 4 filmes pra ver esse mês.

Então pra não deixar este post vazio vou colocar aqui uma recomendação de um jogo que tenho jogado bastante nas horas vagas: Audiosurf

O jogo é basicamente uma mistura de WipeOut com Guitar Hero/Rock Band, o objetivo é fazer combinações de 3 ou mais “blocos” de cores iguais, o grande diferencial dele para outros jogos musicais é que em audiosurf você que escolhe as músicas que vai jogar pode ser desde Never Gonna Give You Up até um remix de Levan Polkka (aka Loituma)

Um dos destaques do jogo é que a “pista” é diferente para cada música por causa das diferenças de ritmo e tempo, nesse vídeo aí em cima está no mono (desvie das cinzas e acerte as coloridas) e no easy, existem mais uma pá de modos de jogo que não vou ficar falando aqui…

O jogo é levíssimo, roda em qualquer PC casas Bahia Style e pra aproveitar está em promoção no Steam por SO-MEN-TE 5 doletas (e quem comprar via Steam ainda ganha a trilha sonora do Orange Box pra poder jogar)… Quem ainda ficou meio desconfiado com o jogo pode testar o demo.

This weekend, surf your audio and enter an odd world on Steam. Afterwards, pre-order two co-op shooters – Left 4 Dead 2 and Borderlands, each at $44.99.  Direct2Drive’s 5th anniversary sale continues, with a collection of 5 dollar indie titles.

Play-Asia:
Terminator Salvation (Xbox 360) – $24.90 ($20 off). Korean version, English language, works worldwide.

Steam Weekend Deals:
Audiosurf - $4.99 (50% off)
Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee – $3.39 (66% off)
Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus - $3.39 (66% off)
Oddworld Pack – $5.09 (66% off)

Other Steam Deals:
Borderlands Pre-order – $44.99 (10% off). Available October 27th.
Left 4 Dead 2 Pre-order – $44.99 (10% off). Available November 18th. Early demo access and exclusive baseball bat included.
Left 4 Dead 2 Four Pack Pre-order – $134.99 (10% off)
Left 4 Dead & Left 4 Dead 2 Bundle – $64.98
CrimeCraft – $29.99 (25% off)
Grand Ages: Rome – $19.99 (50% off)
Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge - $14.99 (50% off)
Officers - $14.99 (50% off)
Angle of Attack – $18.74 (25% off)
All Aspect Warfare – $29.99 (25% off)
All Aspect War Pack - $44.99

Impulse:
Company of Heroes Gold Edition – 25% off
Making History: Gold Edition – $9.99 (50% off)
Warlords Battlecry 3 – $6.99 (54% off)
Nemesis of the Roman Empire – $6.99 (54% off)
The Spirit Engine 2 – $7.50 (50% off)
Europa Universalis Rome Gold – 50% off

GOG Promo:
Tex Murphy games 30% off:

• Mean Streets + Martian Memorandum Bundle – $4.19
• Under a Killing Moon – $6.99
• The Pandora Directive – $6.99
• Tex Murphy: Overseer – $6.99

Direct2Drive:
5 Year Anniversary. 50+ games for $5 each.
Week 4: Indie titles. Ends 05/10/2009.

• Mount and Blade (83% off)
• World of Goo (75% off)
• Defense Grid: The Awakening (75% off)
• Sword of the Stars (75% off)
• Cogs (50% off)
• Light of Altair (66% off)
• The Path (50% off)
• Bridge Construction Set (75% off)
• Gish (50% off)
• D2D Best of Girls of Gaming (75% off)

GamersGate:
Seven Kingdoms Conquest - $4.95 (50% off)
Borderlands Pre-order – $44.95 (10% off)
Campus - $4.95 (50% off)
Red Faction 1 + 2 Bundle – $9.95 (50% off)

If you have been living under a rock, then you should know that the PSPGO launched today. I find the PSPGO $100 too much. They said they are competing against the iPod Touch. Anyway, I looks like some crazy modder had has made a PS3 laptop that looks really sweet.

Working backwards because I want to. So #67217492. What does it mean? Well it is one of the reasons why the Wii sucks and why Nintendo should give me back my money. Couple of days ago, a new Wii firmware was pushed to Wiis. Of course adding nothing cool like what other firmware do to consoles. It breaks modded Wiis and non modded. Thanks Nintendo. Check the article from Kotaku…

Wii Update 4.2 Is Killing Wiis Dead

The Nintendo support forums and our tips email alike are packed with reports that Wii system update 4.2 is doing horrible things to Wii consoles, and not just the modded ones.

A quick scan of the Nintendo tech support forum tells the tale of a system update gone slightly awry. The update is freezing halfway through. The update is giving system errors informing customers that their Wii has been modified and then failing to start. There are even reports of random disk read errors following the update. While some of the problems can be attributed to modified systems, customers are reporting issues with units right out of the box.

Kotakuite Crazy Weavile submitted a possible explanation for the problems on the Nintendo forums, suggesting that the latest update irresponsibly updated the system’s bootloader, only to find himself banned shortly thereafter.

While no help is on the horizon for modded console owners, Nintendo tech Jane posted a message in the forums yesterday instructing owners of unmodded Wiis to send their units in for a free repair.

Some of you have reported problems with your Wii console after updating to the Wii System Menu 4.2. The symptoms most people are describing usually occur when the Wii has been modified. However, some of you also mention your system has never been modified.

We’d like to help get your system working properly again. If you’re experiencing problems with your Wii console after downloading Wii System Menu 4.2, and you believe your system has not been modified, please give us a call. If we find that you have a normal system and the update caused your system to not work, we’ll repair it at no charge.

Please call our Customer Service Department at your earliest convenience, 1-800-255-3700. We are open 6 AM to 7 PM, Pacific Time, 7 days a week

lastly, the fun game Audiosurf is back on sale. I recommend people who love music buy this game. It is now $5, down from $10. It is off Steam so what are you waiting for? Here is a review; it is short though.

OXCGN Testing the Waters: Zune HD & Gaming

Project Gotham Racing & Audiosurf sign of games to come…

by AXIS of Reality:

©2009 Alex Baldwin

[ED: Update:
Well, it seems within 24 hours OXCGN's predictions have come true! Microsoft has just released the update to XNA Game Studio bringing it to 3.1 that adds Zune HD support and SDK, including access for developers to the Tegra cores, accelerometer and multi-touch functionality. In just a few hours a drawing app was demoed by a developer that indicates the ease, power and speed of development that has made XNA such a hit for Live Arcade is still intact and ready for Zune HD.

Bring on the endless Snake clones! (and some great new indie games too!)]

Well, the Zune HD is finally available, thought unfortunately confined to the US for now. While Microsoft has been uncharacteristically secretive regarding gaming on the miniature powerhouse, details are finally starting to emerge (spoiler: Project Gotham is back!).

Sleek & Sexy: Microsoft's Zune HD

As most people interested will know, the Zune HD is one of the first devices to use Nvidia’s new Tegra chipset. Essentially, the Tegra is an entire system on a single chip. It can handle processing, 3D rendering, video, sound and everything needed for the modern media player (and more!). Especially impressive is HD video capabilities that allows the Zune HD to play back or output 720p video

Of course, the screen itself isn’t HD being confined to 480 x 272 resolution (same as the PSP) due to its size, but sit it in the dock and plug into your HDTV for some HD video up to 14mb/s (for reference, the iPod Touch doesn’t do HD at all and is only really happy up to around 2mb/s)!

Of course, it would be a waste to some to have all that raw power and only use it for video. As such, 3D gaming is the next to step up and take its place in the spotlight.

Personally I’ve been more and more impressed over time as gaming on the iPod Touch and iPhone has matured into a serious handheld contender with high quality titles such as Modern Combat: Sandstorm, Hero of Sparta and Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles. Visually they have been between the DS and PSP, but are now beginning to be favourably comparable to the PSP.

The iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch 3rd Gen are raising the potential even further with new, faster processors the can support advanced graphical features such as water refraction and reflections, bump-mapping and real-time shadows.

Now bring on the Zune HD, with numerous cores similar in essence to the PS3’s architecture of parallel processing with Nvidia posting specs of the Tegra powering it that aren’t all that far below the original Xbox such as 64 million polygons per second and anti-aliasing support. Simply put, the Zune HD is a beast. And a remarkably tiny one at that.

Soon: PGR Zune HD

All this discussion would be pointless though if Microsoft were going to ignore the potential but luckily the boffins at Redmond have been busy and released a press statement announcing – wait for it – Project Gotham Racing: Ferrari Edition, Vans Sk8: Pool Service and my personal most wanted: Audiosurf Tilt Edition.

It’s great to hear the Project Gotham series is alive and kicking and will be one of the launch games for the Zune HD gaming service.

While not much is known about Vans SK8, I’m very excited about Audiosurf: Tilt Edition. For those yet to experience the multi-award-winning Audiosurf indie game for PC I recommend you jump onto Steam and grab it right now. In a nod to Rez, Audiosurf combines music and visuals to create a seamless trance-like experience with simple gameplay based around the music playing.

You can use any music track on your computer which the game then analyses and creates a neon, floating road out of with every nuance of the music affecting the shape, height, speed and bumps in the track.

The player then guides their hovercraft along with collecting coloured blocks that are timed with the music to make combos in a deceptively simple manner that can change dramatically from a lovely Sunday drive in a classical piece to a keyboard-breaking challenge in a hard rock song. It’s damn addictive, and damn fun since you’re literally ‘playing’ your own music.

This sort of game is ideal for a handheld, and the pairing with the Zune HD is flawless – able to access all your songs to make into tracks that never gets old as you never run out of new levels as long as you don’t run out of music.

The iPod Touch and iPhone have been difficult in this regard as Apple placed many locks on accessing other data on the device by third-party apps so they couldn’t access your media. Audiosurf could be the ideal game for a media device and thanks to the Tegra chip should look absolutely fantastic.

Audiosurf will be on ZUNE HD FREE

And there’s more good news for 360 owners. As Microsoft announced at E3 this year, the Zune Marketplace will soon be available on Xbox Live integrated into the 360 interface. You’ll be able to download all the music, videos and games straight from Xbox Live onto your Zune HD and sync them between your 360, PC and Zune HD.

While the Zune Marketplace on Xbox Live has been confirmed for numerous countries, so far the Zune HD itself is only available in the US but considering the time and money Microsoft has poured into it, we can expect more international releases starting early 2010. eBay is your friend if you want to import as soon as you can though (I sure am).

While it’s all well and good, I’m sure a lot of you out there are already flicking through your wallet wondering how much these downloadable games will cost. After all, Microsoft aren’t known for free DLC and have paid subscriptions to Xbox Live, so it’s not unreasonable to expect the worst.

The Zune HD itself is priced very well (below the equivalent-storage iPod Touch despite Tegra and gorgeous OLED screen) so would the pricing on these high-grade games make up the rest of the cost? Get ready for a surprise.

The price of all Microsoft’s Zune HD apps is:

FREE.

Say that to yourself a few times. Got a nice ring to it, yes?

The only major question left is third-party support. While the Zune HD is still in its early days (well, it’s first day right now as I write this), so far Microsoft have only mentioned first-party and partnered third-party content.

The status of the Zune SDK and connection with XNA Game Studio (which previous Zunes supported) is unknown, and for the development and support of games and apps on the Zune HD wide-open availability of an SDK would make sense in a similar model to XNA.

For now they seem to be keeping quiet with only first-party stuff on the horizon, but have mentioned a possible plugin with the Windows Marketplace when Windows Mobile 7.0 is released in 2010 to prevent an overlap between 2 different appstores for Microsoft’s mobile devices.

Only time will tell as to the possibilities of the Zune HD as a gaming device alternative and the power of Tegra, but one thing’s for certain: Microsoft is onto a winner here with an incredible device and it’s up to them to make its potential a reality.

Zune HD Features Overview

Screen: OLED, 16:9 aspect, 3.3 inches, 480 x 272 pixels – perfectly suited for movies and gaming with a widescreen format, the screens is especially awesome being OLED, the successor to LCD that uses much less power and requires no backlight as the pixels themselves glow.

This means amazing colour contrast and where black actually is black instead of the greyish tinge of regular LCDs that still have a backlight under black pixels.

• Chipset: Nvidia Tegra APX2600 – while there are detailed specs sheet available for those interested, most important is that it supports OpenGL-ES 2.0 for advanced graphical effects, it can process lots of geometry, textures, vertex and pixel shaders, etc at once as well as having seperate cores for individual tasks such as sound and video.
• Capacity / Colours: 16gb (black) or 32gb (Platinum). Other colours such as green, red and blue are available as ‘Zune Originals’ from Microsoft that include laser-cut artistic or game designs (eg: Halo 3 ODST logo) engraved on the back plate.
• Battery Life: music up to 33 hours, video up to 8.5 hours. Charge time approx. 3 hours via PC, 2 hours via AC.
• Wireless: 802.11b/g Wi-Fi
• Video Output: Up to 720p (1280 x 720) video to an HD screen at 14mb/s via Composite or HDMI (requires HD dock).
• Audio Output: analog (3.5mm headphone jack) or optical (via HD dock)
• Audio Support: WMA, WMA Lossless, MP3
• Video Support: WMV, MPEG-4, H.264
• Image Support: JPEG

Other features: FM / HD radio, internet browser, social (Facebook, Twitter), apps, games, Zune Store, 360 connectivity, wireless syncing

©2009 Alex Baldwin

Please share us around

No soy muy aficionado a jugar a los videojuegos, pero si me llama más la atención su concepto y desarrollo.

A la hora de pensar ideas para el desarrollo de un videojuego muchos se ven nublados por los aspectos tecnológicos y comerciales, estos podrían ser por ejemplo un potente motor gráfico, una gran jugabilidad, un diseño gráfico muy espectacular o un argumento/guión inspirado en alguna película u otro juego. Hay quienes suelen ir por el camino fácil, exprimiendo una idea o creando una saga con tropocientas partes y versiones que perdura durante generaciones. Pero el factor más importante a la hora de desarrollar una idea es la originalidad. Este factor muchas veces suele malinterpretarse, hay quienes piensan que su idea puede ser original por un par de detalles o por mezclar elementos de otras ideas, pero en verdad no se dan cuenta que siguen el mismo concepto de idea y no están aportando nada nuevo. Una idea no puede ser original por si sola, necesita elementos propios que la hagan original. Esto último se puede usar en cualquier sector, no solo en el de los videojuegos. Seguramente habrá quien diga:

Si, pero la originalidad es difícil viendo que ya hay todo tipo de juegos y géneros.

Existirá mucho de cada género y cada vez más se verán nuevos géneros o nuevas ideas explotando alguna tecnología existente o innovadora. Pero eso no quiere decir que no sea posible tener ideas originales que se distingan de las demás aunque compartan ciertos aspectos. Es como si comparamos MacDonalds con Pans&Company, los dos son ideas de negocio, los dos son restaurantes de comida rápida, los dos tienen una estructura en la disposición del inmobiliario similar, los dos suelen estar situados en áreas comerciales…etc. Hay muchas similitudes en las dos ideas, pero hay algo en lo que se diferencian, mientras una se cierra a la idea de (marca=hamburguesa), la otra dispone de la flexibilidad de poder adaptarse a cualquier cambio desde un principio, cambia el elemento “hamburguesa” por el de “Pan” pudiendo ofrecer una gama más amplia de productos e introduce elementos como cafetería o panadería.

Volviendo al tema de los Videojuegos, una lección en originalidad es la que da el juego AudioSurf. A simple vista puede parecer un juego más de carreras futuristas, pero es más que eso.

El juego toma elementos de varios géneros, como son el de carreras, el de puzzles y el de música. Pero añade algo que lo diferencia entre todos los demás.

Ese algo tiene que ver con la música, y es que para que uno pueda correr en las pistas debe cargar canciones desde cualquier directorio del PC. El juego generará en tiempo real la disposición de la pista y los bloques según las propiedades de la canción, además la pista se volverá rápida cuando la canción sea rápida y será lenta cuando disminuya la velocidad del tema. Los bloques también seguirán el ritmo de la canción.

Aunque sea musical no se trata de ir tocando música mediante una secuencia de teclas ni de solo seguir el ritmo de una canción.

Además el juego permite registrarse gratuitamente para publicar puntuaciones a escala global, también dispone de acceso libre a una radio on-line con temas exclusivos. Otro punto a favor es que cuando jugamos una canción nos muestra las mejores puntuaciones de todas las personas que hayan jugado ese tema en el mundo, esto lo hace comprobando los metatags de las canciones jugadas.

El juego no tendrá unos gráficos de última generación, ni aportará un nuevo y revolucionario género a la industria de desarrollo de videojuegos, pero por los elementos en su idea aporta originalidad por los cuatro costados.

Video con el tema Blur – Song 2

Yesterday when I was writing my wrapup on Wings, I was also amusing myself by putting together a webcomic in the Halo 3 Theater. Unfortunately I spent about twenty minutes jotting down a really long script then completely disregarded it when it came to filling in the speech bubbles. As a result the comic isn’t nearly as funny or entertaining as it should be. But keep in mind that as my very first machinima was badly scripted and with bad voice acting; this is also no more than a first attempt. Because it’s long and thin I’ve stuck it on the left of this post otherwise it would take up too much vertical space. Oh and watch out because it’s 10 Megabytes big, if you’re on a slow internet connection you might want to consider giving it a short wait.

With the new influx of cash from the parents for my birthday I hope to either buy a super-cheap, small web server. Or I’ll pay for all the wordpress upgrades. Or I’ll rent some server space at a big server farm. Or I’ll do nothing at all, everything stays the same and I create a second blog on Blogger for Media Studies.

The advantage of having a server would be a more complicated but powerful blogging tool with more options, the ability to host video and much more space for storing that video.

I bought the Steam Indie games pack yesterday and I’m thoroughly enjoying all the games.

The sprites and landscapes on Braid are so well drawn it might as well be an interactive painting.
Audiosurf is different but welcome nonetheless.
The Path is avant-garde and just crazy enough to keep your attention.
Everyday Shooter actually has some interesting mechanics behind it which are nicely explained in the ‘notes’ section of the game menu.
I’ve played Gish the most and the multiplayer aspect is a nice touch. The ‘lives’ system and some bad level design did deter me a bit though.
Crayon Physics is what it says on the tin. It’s also beautifully drawn and although the music is nice it gets annoying after a while.
I still haven’t worked out the point to Blueberry Garden, but it looks nice so that’s okay.
Mr. Robot is a fairly standard RPG, I don’t play RPGs very much so I sort of avoided it.
And World of Goo is well deserving of merit, it is fantastic. However it’s also slightly overpriced at £16.

That’s probably the same kind of information you would have gathered from ten minutes on Google but I really want to encourage these games. They are really fantastic and it would be sad to see their creators slink away into some desk-job at an accountancy firm.

Every week, I make it a habit to check the Steam weekend deals. They have been good (Stalker for $4.99) to gooder (Dawn of War 2 for $24.99). This weekend, they happened to feature a whopping 10 indie games for $29.99, or 5 of those for $19.99. I was intrigued, especially when I saw the game list:

• Audiosurf
• Blueberry Garden
• Braid
• Crayon Physics Deluxe
• Darwinia
• Everyday Shooter
• Gish
• Mr. Robot
• The Path
• World of Goo

Wow. Even though I already have World of Goo and Audiosurf, I felt like I needed this. I couldn’t be more thrilled to have Braid, to see what all the hubub was about. Also, after I looked over the list, The Path is very interesting. I encourage everyone to support indie PC gaming and get this!

Well bought the 10 pack Steam Weekend Deal. Wish Steam would allow me to gift the games I bought with the pack and owned already, but steam only does it with Half-Life 2. Going to do a quick review on how the games is. First if it is Bad/Ok/Good. No numbers or grades, just nice an simple. Then go into why it is that way.

Audiosurf – Good
Bought this game a while back when there was a World of Goo/Audiosurf pack going on. This game is pretty much like Guitar Hero/Rock band but you race along this track hitting bricks. You can pick form your own songs, anything works, and the game does all the stuff needed to make a track.

Blueberry Garden – Bad
No idea what the fuck to do. And pretty heavy computer specs needed. Heavy downside that the controller doesn’t work.

Braid – Good
It was a hit on Xbox 360 and it is now on PC. It is a great platformer with a fun twist of controlling time. Xbox 360 controller works with it and recommend but not required.

Crayon Physics Deluxe – OK
Nothing to write home about. Just a physics based game where you trace shit out.

Darwina – Good
A fun and different RTS. You shoot these virus that drop off souls that can be picked up that will then be converted to people that need to be lead to an area. Lots of fun. Very retro looking. Think of Tron

Everyday Shooter – OK
Kind of hard twin stick shooter. Like Geometry Wars but with music.

Gish – Bad
Older game, but doesn’t matter, it hasn’t aged well. Basic platformer where you are a ball of tar.

Mr. Robot – Bad
Controls sucks, they are kind of jerky. Graphics looks amazing but that doesn’t help on a boring game.

The Path – OK
A different take on Little Red Riding Hood. Adventure game where you have to find shit. It is heavily indie. No map so you can easily get lost. Finding shit is like finding a needle in a hay stack. Not fun

World of Goo – Good if not Great
Ok, one great game is ok. This game is a fun puzzle game. You build shit to get to one end of the map but you have build the structures as efficiently as possible. Fun game. Sadly, heavily pirated.

Over all, I think the 10 pack version is the best.

Ride your Music

Seine eigene Musik als Rennstrecke fahren? Das Spiel Audiosurf gehört zu meinen Lieblingsspielen und wurde mir von einem Freund als Geheimtipp empfohlen.

Es funktioniert so: Man entscheidet sich für einen der vielen Spielmodi, wählt dann ein Lied aus seiner Musiksammlung aus, welches dann vom Spiel analysiert wird – und los geht es! Aus diesen Daten wird eine Rennstrecke generiert. Die Geschwindigkeit, Form und Stimmung der Strecke passt sich dabei dem Lied an.

Mit einer Art von Raumschiff muss man “Blöcke” einsammeln und diese in der richtigen Reihenfolge zusammenpuzzlen.

Anmerkung: Dieses Video zeigt den Mono-Modus des Spiels. In diesem Modus muss man nur die farbigen Blöcke einsammeln und den grauen ausweichen.

Fazit

Dieses Spiel zeichnet sich durch sein geniales, originelles und innovatives Spielkonzept aus. Gerade zum Spielen für zwischendurch ist es sehr gut geeignet – aber auch für Langzeitspaß ist durch die verschiedenen Modi und der eigenen Lieder gesorgt.

Es bekommt von mir auf jeden Fall eine Kaufempfehlung, zumal der Preis über Steam gerade mal 10 Euro beträgt.

Mehr zu Audiosurf auf der offiziellen Webseite oder bei Steam.

So here’s a fun little game that i’ve just discovered: Audiosurf. Audiosurf is a PC game that turns your music in to levels based on the songs characteristics. For example, if part of a song is slow, then the track will be slow, if the song has a fast pace, then the track will also have a fast pace.

It’s sort of like Tetris, in that, to score points, you have to collect coloured blocks. Get a bunch of same coloured blocks together and they vanish from the table (for lack of a better term) at the bottom of the screen and award you points. There are also various power ups that are placed on the track.

The good thing about Audiosurf is that the content of the game is only as limited as your music library. You can download a trial version of the game via Steam, or you can buy it for about £6 here.

Audiosurf ist gleich das erste Spiel was ich bewerte. In Audiosurf geht es darum mit einem Raumschiff farbige Blöcke einzusammeln oder auch diese Blöcke in 3er gleichfabige Gruppen zusammeln. Die Strecke und die Geschwindigkeit wird vom Lied bestimmt, welches ausgesucht wurde.

Das Spiel ist perfekt für Zwischendurch und hat mehrere Modi und Schwierigkeitgraden. Somit wird das Spiel nicht langweilig. Ich geb 8/10 Punkte

I’m still wound up in Prototype ( which should explain the brain damaged post that is this ) and the TES Construction Set while trying to watch State of Play. It just isn’t working ( easily compared to this pitiable attempt to keep myself eschewing this blog as well ). In any case, here’s some of the notable events that has happened since my last post :

• Unlocked a lot of new combat moves and powers in Prototype
• Started working on a new mod, stopped short of a release with a cameo of an annoying bug
• Found out that a very small amount of Japanese Oblivion players use one of my mods
• Michael Jackson died of a cardiac arrest
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen grossed $200 million in the box office in it’s first week, paying no regard to the reviews it received
• Public Enemies was induced into the IMDB Top 250 list before it’s official release
• I managed to update my collection of music by The Corrs
• Updated AudioSurf and was made Pro Champion of a few obscure ( according to AS ) songs
• Improved my standing in the field of Quantum Mechanics
• Watched The Insider

That about sums it up, give or take. I’ll let Calvin have his say before the last three minutes.

An Opportunity

Smart kid, eh ?

Estava hoje no meu deviant quando uma das garotas que eu dou watch postou seu journal e nele estava o link para o seguinte video:

Achei interessante e acabei indo atras, querendo saber mais sobre esse jogo.

O nome é Audiosurf, e você pode adicionar qualquer musica que você tenha (tanto e CD quanto dvd, pendrive e MP3/4 Player) a ele e ‘jogá-la’. Audiosurf é um jogo pago (10,00 dolares, praticamente) mas também existe a versão demo, que foi a que eu baixei.

Dentro de cada uma dessas dificuldades, você é uma especie de nave e tem que pegar os blocos coloridos e desviar dos blocos de cor cinza dentro de uma corrida. O ritmo da musica diz a velocidade com que as peças avançam, o que pode deixar dificil até a dificuldade mais facil.

A versão demo lhe da direito a jogar 4 musicas, de qualquer tamanho e duração e lhe permite 3 modos de jogabilidade. A unica dificuldade onde você só precisa juntar uma ‘cor’ é no easy, o ‘personagem’ Mono, o resto possui 3 cores ou mais cores.

Eu achei que seria facil, levando em consideração o video a cima, mas quando eu joguei o achei um pouco dificil (Pode ser minha coordenação não existente xD) e ele pode parecer Guitar Hero (Eu pensei que era até jogar), mas é sim diferente, já que você interage mais com o jogo do que GH.

Eu recomendo =3 (Se eu tivesse como comprar algora, compraria, por que achei divertido). A unica coisa que eu achei meio ruim foi que ele é meio pesado (Ou pode ser meu note velho e lerdo), mas assim que você começa a jogar, fica tudo bem. =D

Vou indo =3