Monday, November 9, 2015

Avernum: Escape from the Pit Review

It is no secret that the video gaming industry has a love affair with technology. Back when the first 3D games came out, video games were just all about movement. Flight sims—particularly those with six degrees of freedom games like the Descent series—flourished. Sure, there were games that broke the mold (one of which is the forebear to the Avernum series) but most of these only got a cult following and largely took the backseat. In 1998, Valve’s seminal game, Half-Life, happened. Suddenly, flight sims vanished and the industry jumped into the first-person shooter bandwagon. Fast forward to the second half of the first decade of the 2000s and on-rails shooter focusing on powerful action sequences elevated the FPS industry to new heights. And QTEs. Lots of QTEs.

It was this predictable sine wave of trends that killed my fascination for triple A productions. Companies started getting into projects that were considered to be financially safe—you cannot imagine the number of Call of Duty clones that popped into existence like drab-hued mushrooms after a stormy night. There was no experimentation and aside from the drive to ramp up visual fidelity, no pushing of the envelope. Things started feeling to be run-of-the-mill affairs, cookie cutter products that rolled out the digital assembly lines like virtual minions of doom that conquered the world.

It was a breath of fresh air then that back in 2009 or so, a friend of mine told me about Spiderweb Software and their Avernum series. Intrigued, I pored over their site. Sure enough, the isometric view and the hand drawn sprites intrigued me to no end. For some reason though, I didn’t buy a single one. Which was just as well as recently, the first game in the series floated on my radar as a remake. I figured that with the new engine and revamped graphics it was a good time to jump into what Spiderweb Software was offering.


Avernum-Escape-Pit-Review-RPG-Strategy-Turn-Based-Isometric-2D-Classic-Retro

I never regretted the decision.

Avernum: Escape from the Pit is a turn-based, isometric, role-playing game that may not have impressive visuals but stands up on its own—and then some—on its other aspects.


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Friday, August 14, 2015

TotalBiscuit's View of Brutal Doom

Friends who refuse to play games that have sub-par graphics disappoint me to no end. This whole "Why play outdated games/games with retro graphics when you can play modern games that have amazing gameplay mechanics? Two birds, one stone." mindset all but ensures they will never ever get to play great classics like Half-Life 2, Dwarf Fortress, the very first F.E.A.R., the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, Knight of the Old Republic 1 and 2, and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.



Read more after the jump.



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Tuesday, August 11, 2015

The Trolls of Borderlands 1 - Part 1

So my friends and I decided to record some Borderlands gameplay clips. The result is an amalgam of hilarious tomfoolery that borders on the creepy. Here's Part 1:




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Wednesday, August 5, 2015

How to Organize Your Steam Library Using Categories and How to Hide and Unhide Games

Ever wish you can sort and categorize your Steam games into neat groups? Want to hide Steam games you don't want to play anymore? Here's a guide on how to do just that!




This video also teaches you how to hide and unhide games. (Useful for games that are so terrible you don't want them rearing up their ugly heads on your library. :D ) 


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Thursday, February 5, 2015

The Homeworld IP Is Seeing a Resurgence with the Remastered Collection and Homeworld: Shipbreakers

So several months ago, I saw this video:




thought it too good to be true and didn't pay it any heed. I was thinking it wouldn't disappoint me if the project crashed and burned but I didn't emotionally invest in it.



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Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Is YouTube Down?

Is YouTube down? Have they been hacked? It's not every day you get greeted by this:



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Thursday, January 29, 2015

The Pros and Cons of Continued Development of Early Access Games

So someone complained on the Folk Tale Steam forums:

"This was the first Early Access I brought, I actually didn't realise it was early access, I just liked the sound of it and clicked straight to pay (I will never make that mistake again). Anyway almost 2 years on, its still not ready, is this usual?

After realising it was early access I wasnt too concerned because I assumed there would be a few months max before it was finished, surely these things are regulated right, how foolish I was?!" [sic]

Photo credit: http://www.gamesfoundry.com/media.aspx
Click read more to see my reply.



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Why Dwarf Fortress for Me Is Still One of the Best Games Even Up to This Very Day

So I found this comic strip, which details a battle between dwarven and elven armies---and a big @$$ dragon:

Art by Tim Denee. Taken from: http://www.dfst.org/en/stories?page=1




In all probability the above happened during one of Tim Denee's playthroughs. Why am I convinced that is so? More fantastical things have happened. Check out the guy's story about the near-demise of Bronzemurder, another of his fortresses: http://bronzemurder.timdenee.com/.



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