Category: Greywolfe’s Lair

Four ^H^H^H^H Three out of Four In February Ain’t Bad

I had such high hopes for February, I really did.

I sat on Banjo Tooie, because I wanted to experience it, but I didn't want to experience it quite so close to Banjo Kazooie. I was genuinely looking forward to what Plague Knight had in store for me at the end of Shovel Knight. I wanted to delve into Simon the Sorcerer and find out if time - and my memory of that game - had treated it well. I also wanted to see if - a year on - Jazzpunk was still that spellbinding, silly experience I found it to be while watching Lucahjin play it.

You can read my gung-ho and ready post about all that here.

This tragic tale is a tale of how that all fell flat and how I ended up playing three games that weren't even on my list. Well. Kind of.

[Please Note:  Some of the links in this article will take you away from Twinstiq.  They have been formatted such that they will open new browser tabs.]

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Sequels Are Hurting The Game Industry.

I don't play as many games as I used to. Part of the reason for this has to do with the fact that I'm just more picky now: often, games only appeal to one of my senses and not all of them. As in, I can be swayed a little by the graphics. Or maybe I hear the soundtrack and I get pulled in by that. Or I watch gameplay and my mind starts considering those ideas.

Another part of the problem - especially when it comes to AAA gaming, has to do with the fact that all AAA studios and publishers know how to do is pump out sequels. It's even written into their language, in how they discuss their games - like they're brands and they're perennial and they have to "re-invigorate" those over and over again.

And it isn't doing the industry any favours. Let me tell you why. Read more

Dear Joystiq-that-was

It's been a year. Well, as of this writing, it's been a year and a bit. A year since I was last able to go to Joystiq and participate in the comments section as people discussed their WRUP's. A year since I could download and listen to a Joystiq Podcast - basking in the familiarity of the voices and the banter and the thoughts on video games. A year since the last time I've had terse arguments against DRM with other regulars of a video game website.

And you know what? I still miss it. Read more

I’d Like To See Some Real Games About Real Relationships.

There aren't enough interesting games about people and the most intimate way they can spend their time: in a relationship. Very often, games are peripherally aware that people get together and very often, those steps toward getting together are sometimes charted in fumbling missteps that lead to pixelated lovemaking. It's often pretty vapid and uninteresting. It's also completely misrepresented.

Very often, the lady/man is at the end of the quest. Something to be won.

Sometimes, the lady/man is up front and you play the bad innuendo game all the way through.

But mostly, games want us to feel lust for the lady/man we're after. They're beautiful and sometimes eager and they feel no shame in being objects.

This isn't the sort of game I'd like to see at all.

I'd like to see something with more substance. Read more

Hearthstone: League of Explorers Review: BRB. Dodging A Collapsing Temple.

Hearthstone's solo adventures are always a pleasant change of pace. Instead of beating up on other people, we're beating up on imaginary bosses. These bosses are generally thematically linked through some crumbs of story that get doled out as each wing of the adventure unlocks.

In the case of League of Explorers, the story's wrapped around a kind of Indiana Jones-like concept, where you help both prominent Warcraft lore figures and newcomers alike to banish a thief named Rafaam from the current dig you're on.

It's simple and fun - for the most part. It also introduces new adventure mechanics, new cards with thematic ideas and my very favourite Murloc - something I thought I'd never say - in the form of Sir Finley Mrrgglton.

So, as Peter Molyneux might ask...what's inside the box? Read more

I Played It Twice And I Changed

I've been playing video games for a very, very long time at this point. The first couple of times I stood in front of anything that resembled a game was back in 1979 or 1980. I don't recall which one it was now - might have been Asteroids. Might have been Space Invaders. All I know is that the moment my eyes took in that crude joystick and those round, red buttons of the arcade machine, I had found a kind of home. A hobby that has, so far, spanned a lifetime.

I dove headlong into that hobby.

And I played.

A lot. Read more

#4if

Greywolfe’s #4if

I got into #4if pretty late. The first year I tried it, [2012] my computer blew up and I had to postpone it to March of that year to get it done. The second year, I got three out of four games done - I ended up trying to plow through a game that just took too long. In 2014, I think I sat it out completely. Last year was...well, it was depressing. Joystiq went away and I wasn't sure if I was going to try and attempt it, but in the end I did - I didn't finish [silly Hand of Fate got in the way] but I gave it a whirl.

This year, I have four games all lined up and ready and I'm going to try my very best to finish them off.

What am I playing? Read more

Prince of Persia: Sands of time Review: Time In A Dagger

Way back when - back when PC's were still young-ish and AAA-gaming was a little like indie gaming is today, there was a guy named Jordan Mechner. He wanted to make very visual, story-intense games. But the thing is, the hardware wasn't quite at the point where he could do what he wanted. So, instead of making photo-realistic, beautifully rendered games - because he couldn't - he made stunningly realized pixel-based games that had the most fluid movement you could possibly imagine.

His first design was the masterfully simple Karateka. Always go right. Flip between fight stance and run stance. Kill the bad guys. Watch the story unfold. As simple as Karateka was, it summed up Mechner's way of creating games.

Between Karateka and Prince of Persia, five years would pass - and while the graphics got better, they were still not realistic. Which was fine. Prince of Persia was moody and simple - the motion of the prince was what was important. And boy was he fluid.

This doesn't quite bring me to Sands of Time, but it does illustrate the main point I'm trying to make - a lot of Jordan Mechner's games are about the fluidity of the body - and how beautiful it can seem when running or jumping or engaged in combat.

And that, in a nutshell, is where Sands of Time absolutely delivers. Read more

Goodbye, 2015

Greywolfe Picks His Favourite Retro-Styled Games From 2015

Welcome to my retrospective for 2015 in which we talk a little about those games that invited you to think of gaming's past through the lens of what's happening right now. This list covers games that - somehow - evoked games of yesteryear, whether in their visuals or in their gameplay styles.

2015 was a pretty good year for this style of thing - I didn't play all of the games that had retro-styled conceits, [like Freedom Planet or some of the bigger RPG releases] but the games I played that used those sorts of ideas were all [more-or-less] fun.

NB! The text links in this article will open in a new page and will take you to review pages on my personal blog. Read more

Armada Review: That’s When MMO Dreams Come True

I knew I didn't like Order of the Phoenix very much when Harry turned into a whiny, insufferable guy who felt sorry for himself for the first hundred pages of that book. It felt needless. On the one hand, there was a reason for it [the events from Goblet of Fire lead to Harry's chrysalis moment] and I could kind of understand that. On the other, there was absolutely nothing subtle about how Harry came across in those first hundred pages. The editors [who gave up at that point - they seemed to decide that JK Rowling was printing money, so thicker books couldn't hurt] could have handled this better. Could have made Harry a more subtle, believable character, but no. Harry turned into a brat.

I felt more-or-less exactly the same way about Armada's titular character Zack Lightman. On the one hand, I can sort of understand his anger management problems. On the other...it just feels so forced.

And that, in a nutshell, is the problem with Armada. Read more