Archive for February 19th, 2010
3 items.
We have three titles that have hit the Indie marketplace since the last update, two of which induce serious episodes of “wtf?”. As per usual we haven’t logged any considerable time in these games so any impressions we have are based on developer descriptions and screenshots unless otherwise noted. If you see a title here you want to know more about be sure to keep checking out the reviews and dead at demo posts, if we take a deeper look at a title thats where they will end up.
Brethren of the Coast |
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Brethren of the Coast, developed by Chris Rands, is a top down RTS set during the hight piracy. You take control of ships using a control scheme specifically created for the Xbox to battle enemy ships. I actually had to boot the demo of this one up to really get a feel for what it is all about. The firing of your ships canons seem automatic and fire as soon as an enemy ship is within range and in your sights. You utilize wind direction and terrain to your advantage to take the upper hand in these fights. The game looks pretty good with all 3D graphics and a mobile camera. I don’t know if I will get a chance to do a full review of this one but it definitely will not be appearing on a “Dead at Demo” post. It’s 240 Microsoft Points and is worth checking the demo out for yourself. |
Otami |
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This brings us to our first “wtf?” game Otami by DK Alpa . I had to boot this game up as well and play it. I STILL have no idea what it is supposed to be. For starters the description on the Xbox Indie Marketplace is in Japanese. The game itself, aside from its catchy music, is in English. That being said there isn’t a whole lot of English there to be had. There is no explanation of the gameplay that I saw and the game itself appears to involve the stacking of things. That’s right I “think” the objective of the game is to stack things. Oh you want to know what you will be stacking? Well I think there is an octopus, an orange, a fish, and some biscuit looking things. The game is set in front of a backdrop of a factory, and that sort of gives the impression that you are working on an assembly line. I don’t know people this thing is too crazy to hate and too weird to love, go try the demo and be perplexed with me. Rings up at 80 Microsoft points. |
Anger Management |
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Okay, “wtf?” game number two here. Anger Management developed by Super Boise looks to be a pong game built with the intent to piss you off, hence the name. While playing, the controls will randomly change on you causing you to lose a lot and then will make fun of you for it. While this is all going on, a song that is reminiscent of something Tim and Eric would make and a bobble headed Abraham Lincoln is gyrating in the background. Yep, thats it. So this one is 80 Microsoft points also, and if you have a sense of humor you should try the demo just so you can say “wtf?” and hear the song. |
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Larry Carroll, of MTV’s Splashpage, sat down with Jon Landau who talked about Director James Cameron’s intent to take on the task of bringing Battle Angel Alita to film once Avatar 2 is completed. I gotta say I have the feeling this won’t go so well, and will still make 2 trillion dollars for Cameron to swim around in like Old Scrooge McDuck.
“We had a wonderful writer who came in and collaborated with Jim, Laeta Kalogridis, who worked on it; Laeta brought to our attention that there was much more to this world of Battle Angel than we ever knew,” explained Landau. “We were familiar with the anime that had been produced, we were familiar with one of the main books. But she opened us up to the other nine books that exist, and how rich that world is.”
In a way, it was this eye-opening that caused Cameron to choose “Avatar” first.
“We really wanted to take our time in developing a large arc-ing story that really encompasses the whole world,” remembered Landau. “We were very close to doing that movie before we did ‘Avatar,’ and I think you’ll see that resurface. That’s a story in our minds about: What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to fall in love? Are you human if you have a heart? Are you human if you have a mind? Or are you human if you just have a body? It’s a journey of self-discovery for a young girl.”
Check out the rest of the interview over at MTV Splashpage.
Just like Billy Pilgrim of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, P.B. Winterbottom has come unstuck in time. Only instead of an easy-going everyman optometrist, Mr. Winterbottom (the titular character of The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom by The Odd Gentlemen) is a top-hat wearing, spatted man known mostly for his voracious love of pie. To wit, he uses this newfound ability to collect and devour said confection at every opportunity by recording his actions and utilizing temporal clones of himself to further his gastronomic ends.
Visual
The art style of Winterbottom is very much a joy. In general, I don’t enjoy pre-rendered 3d models used in a 2d context because they look sterile and the animations are very mechanical. But the fact the 3d is very often abstract and mixed with hand drawn assets, with some good filters like the general desaturation and the film effect turn it around. The backgrounds are fairly detailed and animated bringing a nice feeling of life. The game is helped also, by the interstitial drawings coupled with rhyming couplets to read, which are the main method of pushing forward the story. These drawings are done in a fabulous style which I can’t help but compare to Gabe of Penny-Arcade (in the best possible way!).
One bit that did annoy me, however, was the Winterbottom animations themselves, which use a side view for general motion, but a front view for floating with the umbrella. I love the look of the slow-falling Winterbottom, but if you’re going to use a 3d model like that, I would have preferred to see a bit of interstitial animation between the two states.
Audio
The bulk of the notable audio in Winterbottom is no doubt the music. From its atmospheric menu theme of grumbling horns, to it’s themes of wonderment all done in a fantastic style reminiscent of what you would hear accompanying a silent film. I particularly enjoy the usage of the Westminster Chimes as a motif to push further on the notion of time.
The rest of the gameplay sounds are fairly incidental, though fitting. There are of course sounds for pie collecting, smacking another Winterbottom with a broom and the “poof” noise of a disappearing clone. The projector sound when recording a clone, accompanied by a visual of film frames rewinding, is also a nice cue to help you know what you are doing.
Gameplay
Behind the rest of Winterbottom’s treats, however, the game mechanics taste the sweetest. As with a lot of the modern crop of the indie scene, Winterbottom takes a singular game mechanic and explores it from many angles over the course of the game. The basic premise is of a collect-a-thon with the twist of being able to record actions and replay them on a loop. This idea is then further modified by requiring pies to be collected in a specific order, allowing pies to only be collected by time clones, or making pie collection only possible when followed by a spotlight. The time recording part is also played with by limiting the number of active time clones, and eventually swapped out in favor of requiring recording to begin at portals positioned in the level. These portal clones can then only interact with other portal clones or sometimes considered to be evil, bringing death to Winterbottom on contact.
There were a few points of contention for me, however. The mechanical changes are all fairly interesting and play well, but I couldn’t help but find it a bit jarring to suddenly go from being able to record whenever I wanted, to having to record starting at a portal, using a different button on the gamepad no less. Some puzzles also involved two different solution methods that I wasn’t exactly thrilled with. First, some puzzles require you to use a clone and Winterbottom to simultaneously whack each other to fly in opposite directions. This feat is a bit hit-or-miss in that the window of opportunity for pulling it off is a bit on the small side. You generally have to set up a clone performing the “whack” on repeat and inch yourself in hoping to hit it back at the exact time it swings. Swing too late and you fly back by yourself and have to get back into position, sometimes even having to reset the other pieces of the puzzle. Swing too soon and the clone flies alone, requiring you to record a new one, since being hit puts a clone into “confused” mode where it stops replaying. Secondly, a few different puzzles utilize the fact that a clone will instantaneously jump back to its original position at the beginning of its playback loop, thus making this fact a requirement in reaching some time sensitive pies that are across the screen. While I can see how this emerged from the workings of the playback mechanic, I’m not sure I totally agree with its usage, as these are the puzzles that managed to stump me the longest until I figured out exactly what it was asking me to do.
Trailer
Summary
Overall, P.B. Winterbottom was an enjoyable, if generally short, experience. I played through the entire game in a matter of a few hours. But for 800 Itchy-and-Scratchy-Moneys it’s a fun diversion, and the extra bonus levels will probably keep you pie-hunting for a good bit of time longer. In short, if you’re a puzzle fan with a knack for thinking across a temporal dimension: The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom is a definite buy.
