Archive for ‘General’
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If you’re anything like me, then you’re probably getting a little tired of shooting zombies and are really interested in a change of pace. Maybe you’d like something a little reminiscent of the adventure games of late 1900′s, where something isn’t going to chew your face off or explode if you take a second or two to actually look around and enjoy the environments that have been so painstakingly created. Well then maybe Travis Rogers’ latest installment in the Mind’s Eye of Jupiter series is just the ticket.
Gameplay
As a science fiction based adventure game this ones gameplay is exactly what you think it is. Reminiscent of many 1990′s adventure titles such as Myst, Return to Zork, and the like. You simply wander around, investigating the environment, inspecting objects, and more or less trying to figure out what the math is going on.
Similar to the aforementioned titles, this second installment of the Mind’s Eye of Jupiter series features some puzzle solving in a 3D environment. The puzzles themselves provide the main resistance to progression in the game. Unfortunately, the puzzles are impossibly simple. There is just simply no challenge present in the game other than pick up object x, place object x at location y. Considering their simplicity, the game was notably devoid of any sort of red herrings. For instance, in one room you need to figure out how to open a door to proceed to the next room. In this room there is literally only the objects you need to open the door. All the puzzles in the game seemed to be this way.
Also on the list of negatives is the completely linear layout of the game. There is absolutely zero branching and that is a bit strange for games of this genre. I would have liked to have seen some alternate means to an ends and maybe some outright wrong turns that reward your exploration with some interesting flavor or clues to plot intricacies.
All this complaining may give you the impression that I didn’t enjoy the game, as it turns out this is just not the case. I was quite pleased to be playing a game of this type on the XBLIG as it is quite an unusual offering. The game was short enough to play in a single sitting, which didn’t feel wrong in this particular instance as it felt a bit like reading the chapter of a book. Additionally, the transition for this typically mouse dominated genre to the console worked out pretty well with the use of a pretty solid menu system.
Audio/Visual
The Mind’s Eye of Jupiter series is in 3D. I would liken it to probably a very simplistic looking PlayStation 2 game. I say simplistic because there isn’t an awful lot of “stuff” in the game. Very few objects laying about, mostly large cavernous rooms with heavily geometric looking shaped items. The character models are a little bizarre, but not in a way that negatively effects the game since their presence is limited. As a pure adventure game the world is odd enough that it makes you want to look around, so in that category it does get bonus points. But, as previously mentioned, the lack of branching and additional areas to explore for explorations sake you do feel a little unfulfilled – which is something my girlfriends passed say is sometimes a deal breaker.
Musically the game is unmemorable, it has music and that’s about all I can say for it. It has a sort of a surrealistic scifi feel to it that doesn’t hurt the gameplay and adds to its atmosphere but you aren’t going to be trying to find the soundtrack.
Summary
If you played the first game of the series I think you probably know what to expect and whether you are interested in playing the second installment or not. To those of you interested in starting with the second game you can do so, as the game has an intro that catches you up to speed and doesn’t simply strand you in the middle of an already started narrative. I would say I enjoyed this game as it provided a bit of a breath of fresh air, its unnecessary simplicity may have even contributed to the overall positive experience. With all that said I can’t simply stamp a buy on the 240 MS Point Mind’s Eye of Jupiter – 2, I think it would be best for those who are interested to pick up the game’s demo and see if its plot and world appeal to their tastes. For those who end up uninterested but still seek an adventure game you may want to check out Decay.
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In case you hadn’t noticed, the Earth is doing its northern tilt twoards the sun thing, and that more or less means it’s getting hot. I think it’s 427 degrees outside right now, which incidently happens to be the melting point of my resolve. What this also means is that it’s time to load up the wagon with supplies and set off on a cross country adventure of the family visiting type. If your mind is racing through your vast Rolodex of various Oregon Trail text style deaths, you’ve pretty much got the picture.
Of course my inevitable struggles against famine and dysentery are but the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The real struggle will be managing to survive without my consoles. In addition to the slow exceedingly painful withdrawls from console gaming, I’ll also have a difficult time doing any sort of posting. Likely I will be relegated to posting a brief poorly thought out rant of sorts about whatever I feel like ranting about. This could potentially be the best and worst thing ever, mostly for you, the reader.
I will, thankfully, have my iPad along, which will be the only real internet connection available. I actually bought the 3G model specifically with this yearly excursion in mind, since ten days away from the Interwebs typically results in greeting Death. I may also need to Google something important like “how to escape from bears.”
It’s pretty likely you don’t care where I’m going, but I’m going to tell you anyways. I’ll be cutting a swath through the American heart land driving from Tulsa, Oklahoma to a small town in Illinois called Pecatonica, which is near Rockford, which is a couple hours from Chicago — no, fortunately, I won’t be seeing a Blackhawks game.
This more or less concludes my public service announcement, be sure to look for our oddball content over the next ten or something days, or mark your calenders for when its safe to come back for your indie game goodness.
Yes, that’s right. Gaming sketch comedy masters Mega64 have finally released the third season in their series.
You can pick it up from their site at http://mega64.com/, and check out the teaser series leading up to its release.
I’ve gone ahead and allocated bonus points to Kotaku reader Michael and his obviously too-good-for-him girlfriend for their handiwork on these LocoRoco plushies — they look pretty top notch. All that said, I’m not sure they edge out the crocheted Pea Shooter, it’s really a tough call.
Check out all the pictures over at Kotaku.
We’re running the gamut today, with everything from the suprisingly awesome to the questionably priced. So without further stalling for time, here we go. The following games have been lovingly described by their respective developers, our slightly less lovingly crafted commentary is eye fetchingly emphasized.
Burning Fist of Rage |
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Burning Fist of Rage- Experience violence, political corruption and heroism. Where the actions you make, affect the outcome, but mostly you walk right and beat people up! + Play 2 player Co-op and use the buddy move to devastate the enemy. + Multiple endings. + Knock opponents into the air and keep them bouncing. + Save the city from the forces of evil.
Developer: DarthCheesiest Price: 240 Microsoft Points A little side scrolling beat’em up that features some pretty decent 3D models for the XBLIG. The gameplay presented by the demo is somewhat rigid and limited to a few different moves. |
Team Chess |
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2v2 Chess – Many years ago, thousands of chess armies scattered the barren lands. Constant battle ensued. Armies learned to fight in teams to survive. After much bloodshed & troop shortage, leaders offered meaty bores & ale to entice captured units to join. It worked! Captives were trained by allies & sprung back into battle, forever changing the landscape of the chess wars…
Developer: T0PSP1N Price: 240 Microsoft Points I’m game as long as I get Deep Blue on my team. |
Rapunzel’s Fight Knight |
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A racing game with swords! Combining unique racing, combat, and power-up elements, Rapunzel’s Fight Knight pits players against one another as they climb to the top of a teetering tower. Join three of your friends and battle it out to see who makes it to the top first and gets the beautiful princess!
Developer: Axull Price: 240 Microsoft Points Eh, it’s amsuing enough for a party game. I wouldnt go spending $3 bucks on it for solo play though. |
Flatlands |
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Traverse your way through Flatland by maneuvering through each level and rotating the screen 90 degrees at a time. A new twist on the Point A to Point B puzzle. 100 total levels with varying degrees of difficulty.
Developer: poison8 Price: 240 Microsoft Points Puzzle platformer based around the mechanic of rotating the world. However, the lack of a rotation animation makes it a little difficult to conceptulize your movements. |
Fabarite |
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In this falling block puzzle game, pairs of lines fall from the top of the screen. Match lines of the same color to form enclosures and make them disappear. You can delete blocks by enclosing them with lines of the same color.
Developer: nobusi Price: 400 Microsoft Points 400 Points seems pretty outlandish for this game. |
Murphid |
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70+ levels of addictive block bashing and strategic planning. Full version of this great looking, progressively more challenging dynamic puzzle lets you play to survive the longest, beat a highscore, complete full Campaign, or unlock all powerups and awards. Hours of heavy-duty fun delivered to you by the proprietary FunQuantization technology.
Developer: DecapodStudios Price: 240 Microsoft Points Gotta admit it, I rather enjoyed demoing this one. It has a good deal of things going on, what with all the special blocks and all, but the learning curve is very manageable. |
Retent |
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Test your ability to retain memory in less than a second. Do you think you can beat the Retent challenge? I bet not…
Developer: GoldBlade77 Price: 80 Microsoft Points It flashes a number, you remember it and input it. Not worth a buck. Here allow me to illustrate: 85924, now close your eyes and say the number out loud. You just played Retent. |
Avatar Hangman |
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Can you work out the phrase in order to save your avatar? Full version features include: 1000 phrases in 5 varied categories, access to your statistics and a system to avoid repetition of phrases. Includes support for the XBOX 360 Chatpad or USB Keyboard, and a variety of color schemes.
Developer: Steve G Price: 80 Microsoft Points It is what it is. |
まもって騎士 |
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8bit styled action game from video game composer Yuzo Koshiro’s development studio, Ancient. Defeat all monsters by 4 unique heros to protect your princess.
Developer: ANCxna Price: 240 Microsoft Points Easily the best game of today’s update, seriously go check it out. You’ll have a blast. Objective is to protect the princess. The combat style is reminiscent of Gauntlet with its RPG character progression elements, but it all takes place in a single frame. There is a little hint of a tower defense in the mix too, but that comparison is limited since you don’t actually build any of the defenses. |
There is really no better way to save on XBox LIVE! than to buy the Microsoft Points on sale. We’ve got no real idea how long this deal will go for, but you can pick yourself up some 1600 Microsoft Point cards right now for a pretty decent 17% savings. That actually nearly puts points in parity with pennies! Which is to say that this deal makes will sell you 1 point for 1.03 pennies! How exciting. In any event, be sure to get something else while you are at it and get the Free Super Saver shipping to make sure your savings matter.
Get it here: Xbox 360 Live Points Card
Valve’s Steam platform has finally made the move to multiplatform and to celebrate it seems they’ve seen fit to throw together a bundle capable of giving both your Mac and your PC a work out. The bundle features five indie games, regularly priced between ten and twenty bucks each, for the total price of $19.99. That’s a good deal of win people.
Included Games:
- And Yet it Moves
- Galcon Fusion
- Mechanarium
- Osmos
- World of Goo
Pick it up here.
