I knew the day would eventually come when I'd be ready to tackle the controversial existence of No Man's Sky. I've been following the game's story and keeping up with the good and the bad, the lies and the hype. Oh, and you might be surprised to know that I've actually spent a fair bit of time playing the game as well.
One of the coolest things about any form of art, is that it often defies any rational justification for why we like it. Sure we can point to likely culprits, such as quality and detail, but sometimes something hits you harder than expected. I often think that these odd connections with creativity are all the more powerful, as they defy logic and rationale.
There's a short list somewhere of super hype crazes that I completely missed out growing up. I never knew what a Pokémon was until recently, I've never played a Metal Gear game, and I've never played either a Metroid, or Castlevania game. It's funny how even though I've been playing games since the 80s, there are some major mainstream holes in my experience.
Having a large backlog of games to get through means that every now and then you come across something that you wish you'd found much earlier. It's the whole reason I'm determined to play every game I have access to, because there's no telling how many gems are hidden away in the pile.
Why has our society evolved to a state where sexual themes are feared more than violence? The other night I started watching The Revenant, which is a good movie, but there's a scene near the beginning (minor spoilers ahoy) where Leonardo DiCaprio's character gets mauled by a bear. The scene was shot really well and with subtle effects and camera trickery, it really looks like this massive bear is tearing into the man. Bones are broken, flesh ripped open, and it's altogether a brutal depiction of violence.
Much like the Farming Simulator series, Euro Truck Simulator 2 has to deal with being a decent simulator game amongst a gallery of jank. Thankfully though, there's enough simulation here to make it interesting, while cutting back on some of the more tedious aspects of driving a truck around Europe.
The world of mobile ports to other platforms is often fraught with bad controls, poor optimisation, and a long list of other complaints that make them barely worth considering. Often it's because the process adds a bunch of clunky patches in an effort to make it work, while ultimately distilling out the very thing that made it fun in the first place.
When I started writing these posts about games, I knew I'd be looking at a bunch of older titles that may not be all that relevant anymore. This was never meant to be a blog about the cutting edge new releases, but I didn't think I'd be writing about a game so close to the release of its sequel. I almost figured I'd wait until I'd played the next version, but this game is so damn good, I couldn't help myself.
Seems I've been playing a few mobile ports lately, which could reveal an improvement of mobile games, or perhaps a better understanding of how to port mobile games to PC. A while ago it seemed like every mobile port was guaranteed to be garbage, but it's hard to deny that developers have learned from past mistakes and there are some cool titles available if you look hard enough.
I'll probably give it a post eventually, but one of my favourite games of all time is The Tiny Bang Story. It's a simple little game that mixes solving puzzles with finding hidden objects, but it's all about the presentation. In a game with such simple gameplay, there's loads of room for beautiful art and music to tie the experience together and The Tiny Bang Story does this without ever uttering a word of dialogue, written or otherwise.
As I write this, it feels like every second game that gets released on Steam is some form of survival game. The flavour of the year is battle royale, or at least early access open world games where you need to keep track of a hunger stat or something. Before that it was exclusively zombie games, and before that the dreaded simulator.
There aren't many genres that invoke a noticeable cringe from me when they're mentioned, but "puzzle platformer" sits among the very top of the list. Even without the puzzles, I'm averse to platforming a lot of the time, despite the occasional exception to the rule.
Before we had DLC and digitally distributed patches, there was a wonderful thing called an "expansion pack". These were like dreams come true after you'd sunk countless hours into that game you'd saved up for and gingerly cracked the box to get inside. Loading up an expansion felt like finding a treasure trove of extra gameplay that had somehow always been there, just hidden away and waiting for permission to exist and entertain.
I was a late-comer to the whole "god-game" thing, as I never played the classics like Populous or Black & White. It might be a bit of a stretch to call it a god-game, but the first one I remember playing would probably be Spore. Unironically, the god-game I've probably spent the most time with has been the utter failure of Godus, which I enjoyed right up until it stopped going anywhere and was abandoned by its creators.
I'm really enjoying these experimental little games from accomplished developers that are tiny examples of a good idea that probably could never be expanded on. Before playing the wonderful Subsurface Circular, I unironically got my hands on Edmund McMillon's experiment; Fingered.
Anyone who was old enough to remember the 90s will probably know what I mean when I say that it was a very environmental decade. It was when we learned that recycling was a good way to minimise pollutants and unnecessary rubbish. We were told to "think globally, act locally", and we ushered in a new way of thinking that included a level of expected responsibility be taken for our impact on the planet.
One of the highlights of E3 2015 for me, was when Todd Howard announced on stage that Fallout 4 was only a few months away from being released. Then came the little tease of Fallout Shelter, which could be downloaded right away on your mobile device. Not only was there a brand new Fallout game on its way, we had the opportunity to build and control our own vault for free, right away.
Following up a huge indie success must be like trying to write a novel after publishing a best-seller. All that expectation and affection gained from success can often be a recipe for disaster, as a sequel rarely lives up to its predecessor. Of course, we remember the ones that do, but have a look at movies in particular, and you'll find that there are a hell of a lot of sequels that you've probably never heard of.
In the last few years I've been increasingly turned on to the whole re-imagined 1980s style that's brought on some interesting interpretations of alt-retro-isms. I don't know if it's been around the whole time, but all the amazing synthwave music and neon-fueled art has become some of my favourite retro-media these days.
I'm not sure if I've ever come across a Ludum Dare game on Steam before, but I imagine there are some out there. I don't mean a game that was developed from a game jam concept, but an actual entry in all its glory up on Steam for all to access.
