SimCity 4 was released 2003 and I picked it up a few years ago in a discount bin with every expansion and a few other Sim games tossed in. How could you go wrong? Possibly no DRM(its on the discount bin), all the expansions AND it's a SimCity game. I mean, even if it sucks a bit it won't suck that much because again, SimCity. Well... about that. SimCity 4 wasn't fun. It had the epic scale I wanted as you could build huge cities and spend time managing things, but it just wasn't fun.

my history with sim games

Some of the most magical moments of gaming have been related to Sim games. Making a planet and populating with creatures that evolved in SimEarth was incredible. I sunk a jillion hours making all kinds of awesome cities in SimCity for Super Nintendo. I also spent way too much time in Junior High invading the house in SimAnt. And when my wife decided to surprise me with Roller Coaster Tycoon I was sucked in to building epic and profitable theme parks.

Yeah, I love Sim games. But it has been hard getting on board with new Sim games. They either are not very fun or delve into territory I don't want to hang out in. The new Simcity game looks interesting enough but I am certain I don't want to pay to frustrate myself with EA's DRM. Couple that with the fact that most people i've talked to that have played it don't like it very much. But I love Sim games and want to play something new.

Well, as luck would have it there is a totally awesome new sim game out called Prison Architect. How awesome? Well, so awesome I sunk something like 10 hours into playing it this Sunday. I know for many gamers that's a drop in the bucket, but let's put that into perspective. The last time I spent 10 hours playing a game was Fallout 3 back in 2009. Playing Terraria got me close that number, but it was a bunch of smaller chunks of time. No, no, Prison Architect is apparently my new thing. And I don't mind saying that because the game is totally bad-ass.

prison architect has something to say

I play lots of games and most of them keep it pretty "light" in terms of getting you to consider that your choices have any real consequence or make you think about the world around you.

Prison Architect is a bit different. It takes a topic, like managing a prison and makes you think about the real world implications of your actions. From the outset of the Introduction the story is compelling. A teacher admitted to and was convicted of a double homicide and is awaiting the death penalty. You must build an electric chair and upgrade the prison to handle the execution. During the events the Prison CEO tells you to not worry about what you are doing in that "society has judged him, we are just doing our jobs." As I completed the tasks and got everything ready I was facing a scenario I never considered. A scenario where doing your job means someones death in a situation I don't agree with. During the introduction a Priest mentioned that if the Teacher was convicted of the crime in another district he wouldn't be on death row because of different laws governing the crime. I won't spoil the entire game introduction, but it's compelling, raw and edgy. It takes games as a medium for discussion and turns the dial up to 11. And that's just in the introduction.

Introversion Software says they are going to make more of the introduction when the game is more complete and I can't wait for them get to that.

a mesmerizing mix of fun and serious business

You need to build a holding area for your prisoners to stay while you build them their individual prison cells. If you don't have an area for the prisoners to shower they will be upset because they smell bad. Ensure you build your Kitchen next to the loading area so your cooks can ferry food quickly back and forth and also make sure the Canteen is next to the Kitchen so the Cooks can get the food delivered quickly. If the prison is dirty, the prisoners will be upset they are wallowing in filth. Make sure you have a Laundry room because they won't love wearing the same clothes every day for a year.

Oh right and did you build enough stuff for them to do with their free time? If you don't they might riot, dig an escape tunnel or start a fight. But they will do that anyway even if they are happy, so stay vigilant! Prison Architect is built on some really great concepts that work together to make the Prison seem alive. It also helps that each prisoner, guard, cook, visitor, janitor, warden and builder is on screen and has some really interesting AI governing their actions.

how will your prisoners spend their day?

Like SimAnt, it's a ton of fun just watching the prison work day to day. It also helps that you can control the prisoners day too. Currently my prisoners "Regime" is as follows:

my prisoners regime:

• 10PM - 5AM: sleep


• 6AM - 7AM: shower


• 8AM: free time


• 9AM - 12PM: work


• 1PM - 2PM: eat


• 3PM - 6PM: work


• 7PM: free time


• 8PM - 9PM: eat


• rinse, repeat

So far, this seems to be a pretty good routine. Since they are working in the Kitchen, Laundry & Janitorial I can save on wages. I make a few extra bucks in the Workshop when they make license plates plus the prisoners not working get free time. This seems to work pretty well and since the prison is squeaky clean and everyone gets freshly laundered clothes, they seem much happier.

My first prison was a right wing hell hole in that I had no idea because I had no idea how to play the game or keep them happy so I gave them little and handed down very harsh punishments. I responded by putting the prisoners in solitary confinement for each infraction, which was way more heavy handed that I wanted to be but caused them to be morally disillusioned and they that caused them to stop rioting for a time. In the end this was a really bad strategy as if in Prison Architect you ignore the majority of the prisoners needs they will be very upset and riot often.

Since then, I have been playing the game as a sandbox, giving myself ample amounts of cash, to understand the game better and come up with a solid build to making a sustainable prison. But also one that sort of reflects how I would run one if given the real world opportunity. I have a solid block of work time, but keep things clean and make sure they have enough space to roam free, workout, call and visit their family, stay clean and get enough food.

fin

If you are looking for a great Sim game that takes the genre and goes beyond to create something special, Prison Architect is that game. Can't wait to dive back in and learn more about the game. Prison Architect also has a pretty involved community on Steam Workshop of awesomely built prisons you can upload and tear apart.

But at the end of the day, Prison Architect is just a hell of a lot of fun.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/233450/

YouTuber Resonance recently compared the NES with the Famicom side by side and the difference in terms of audio is seriously compelling. Like him, I had no idea the Famicom shipped with superior audio quality. He compares Castlevania, Zelda & Metroid. The NES sounds a bit more muted and does less with the score. I would say each song sounds better on the Famicom to my ears but the changes in the original Zelda are very interesting and something I am not used to hearing.

If you want to skip the side by side scrub ahead to 1.15m.

Capcom dropped its Street Fighter 25th Anniversary documentary on YouTube. Previously it was available only to the purchasers of the Street Fighter 25th Anniversary collectors edition. The documentary covers the franchises history as well as some of its more rabid fans and collectors. The doc also highlights the different versions of the game, which is pretty incredible as there are now, so many.

Check it out and toss your thoughts in the comments!

http://www.amazon.com/Street-Fighter-Anniversary-Collectors-Playstation-3/dp/B0085O6XF4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_Fighter

One game at PAX that drew some large crowds was Crypt of the NecroDancer. They had the game setup on a large monitor with a Dance Dance Revolution pad and people lined up to dance in this unique dungeon crawler.

The beat drops later this year as a Steam Early Access for PC and MAC and features the music by the amazing Danny Baranowsky(Meat Boy, Binding of Isaac, Canabalt).

If you are looking for a bit more of an explanation of how the game works, Northern Lion posted an early alpha build demonstration that shows it off well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dikSjbCRrPA

In the PC community Garry's Mod is a well known sandbox game built off the Half-life 2 engine that allows you to do... mostly anything you can think of. The game is still very popular and much awesome strangeness encircles its community. Facepunch Studios, the company behind Garry's Mod has a new game in development called Rust, an open world survival game. Interested in this I hit up Garry Newman to talk to him a bit about Garry's Mod and Rust.

I want to thank him and @Travis for taking part in the interview and I wish Facepunch Godspeed to Rust 1.0!

jdodson: Garry’s Mod was released in 2004 and came to Steam in 2006. Most people don’t work on a project for 9 years, what kept you going as long as you have?

Garry Newman: Well, the popularity of it! I don't think I'd have worked on it any longer than a month if it wasn't as popular as it was. I'd be deeply ashamed of myself if I'd given up working on it considering the amount of people that play it. They pay my wages - I should do something for that.

jdodson: Many people have made Mods inside of Garry’s Mod. Do you ever plan on running Garry’s Mod on top of Rust? If you did them people could run a mod on that which would instantly cause MOD-CEPTION! But, its possible you could go deeper too...

Garry Newman: It's not something we've put much thought into. I guess our plans for Rust are that open ended that all the 'modding' is going to be done in game.

Travis: All the different Source games and the Steamworks addons players have made give us almost endless possibilities with Garry’s Mod. Is there anything big you’re planning for the future besides bug fixes and compatibility with future Source games?

Garry Newman: I have a few things I want to do with Garry's Mod. Gamemodes have been good for us. A lot of people play Garry's Mod and never even touch the singleplayer - they go straight to TTT or prop hunt. So we'd like to find a way to reward the people creating those gamemodes. Financially.

jdodson: What’s the strangest thing you have seen someone do with Garry’s Mod?

Garry Newman: Oh man. That's like asking me the strangest thing I've ever seen on the internet. There's that much stuff out there that it's impossible for me to choose.

jdodson: Are you working primarily on Rust or Garry’s Mod these days?

Garry Newman: I'm flicking between projects. We have a lot of plates spinning right now at Facepunch. The last month or so I've been hitting Rust pretty hard. But I think now it's where we want it to be, I can start to lean off it a bit and let the other guys plough it forward.

jdodson: I know you may have answered this question a million times... but do you call it “my mod?”

Garry Newman: Haha! I call it Garry's Mod. or GMod.

jdodson: Rust is an open world survival game that features crafting and building. From what I have seen of it, it looks really cool. Will Rust be a procedurally generated world or a more narrative driven game?

Garry Newman: The worlds aren't procedurally generated. They're more iterative. They evolve as the players build houses, srongholds, towns.. and destroy them. We're planning to have farming and stuff - which will change the landscape hugely.

jdodson: Do you have any rough idea for when Rust will be released? 2014 or beyond?

Garry Newman: We don't have any aims or any plans beyond a couple of months. We don't know where the game is going or what it will become. We're discovering the gameplay as we release updates, seeing how it plays, then making decisions from that point.

Travis: You’re now selling alpha keys for Rust via a “Dutch Auction” model. This is an interesting alternative to something like Kickstarter for early backers, which in a way makes buying the game a game itself. What was the inspiration for this model, and do you have anything else like this planned?

Garry Newman: We wanted to let a limited amount of people in. If we'd have done it using the old model the keys would be gone in 10 seconds. So we had a think and this way everyone has a chance to buy - their limitation is how much it's worth. It also means we don't have to put a price on the keys - they choose how much they pay.

jdodson: Rust has been in alpha now for a few months. I am curious how this has been going and the direction development is headed right now?

Garry Newman: It's been going great!

Travis: Earlier in the year you said “we hate zombies and are going to replace them with other NPCs at some point.” What ideas do you have for the enemy NPCs?

Garry Newman: We've got lots of ideas. But they're just ideas right now. We want to concentrate on wildlife that attacks you right now. This seems to make a lot of sense to us because you can harvest them for their pelt, meat and bones. Further down the line we have some big ideas - but we don't want to talk about them until we're there.

Travis: Rust seems, at this point, to be heavily PvP-based. Are there any future plans for a “friendly” mode where players team up to take on the NPC enemies and there’s no friendly fire?

Garry Newman: Yeah this is something we are hating. We're trying to boost cooperation and make players treat each other friendlier. There's a bunch of ways we can do that. Adding voice chat was a big step in that direction.. but we appreciate it's still a problem so we need to keep experimenting.

jdodson: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us today, is there anything you want to say before we wrap things up?

Garry Newman: Thanks for taking the time out to send the questions!

http://www.facepunchstudios.com/

Just watched a few minutes of the Starbound game demonstration at i49 and I had to drop it on the site. Molly and Bart show off the game starting with Character Creation, Multiplayer and questing.

The game looks VERY pretty and polished for a pre-beta. The art and music work well together to build the world. The basic exploration elements look great. You seem to start with a nice assortment of items in the matter manipulator, flashlight, basic weapons & torches.

Check it out and sound off with your thoughts in the comments.

The new Mew-Genics teaser dropped on YouTube and is both fun and disturbing. So apparently in Mew-Genics you rub cats together to get another cat, WHO KNEW? Can't wait for more information on Team Meat's next game to surface but it seems still very deep in development right now.

Never knew I wanted to breed cats so badly.

My final day at PAX was Saturday and it was great. I decided to hit up a few talks and went back to the Indie Mega Booth to checkout other games I had missed on Friday.

talks

I went to a few talks this year. One called "Now that we Know Everything is Sexist, Now What" and a Q&A with the founders of Super Giant Games. Both panels were interesting for different reasons. I appreciate the Sexism talk but it depressed me a little. The Supergiant Q&A was good but I wanted a bit more time with them and the questions didn't seem to resonate with me. Super Giant Games is a great company and they have a very dedicated fan base so it was fun to hear the fans ask questions.

dwarf fortress

After seeing Death Road to Canada on Friday I wanted to head back to the Booth to talk to Rocker Cat Games about the game and try and see if they were interested in doing a interview for the site. Come to find out they are, so look forward to that in the next week or so. In the process I was waiting to talk to Kepa from Rock Cat and I talked to someone standing a bit to the side of the booth. He was a friend of Kepa helping out with the booth for some free PAX passes. I mentioned that as a pretty awesome trade and during our discussion it turns out I was talking to Zach Adams of Dwarf Fortress. Zack Adams a guy I have only read about in about a zillion online articles and The New York Fucking Times. We chatted up a bit about the game and general awesomery. After a bit Tarn came over and we chatted for and hour about Dwarf Fortress, programming, movies, Wolfenstein, OpenGL & SDL, Unit Tests and Nazis. Spoiler alert, Nazi's didn't receive a whole lot of love in the discussion.

It was a chance encounter and one I didn't expect having, but such is the magic of PAX.

http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/

where is my heart

As I was making my way through the Indie Mega Booth I came to a game called Where is My Heart. I talked a bit to the developer and decided to play it.

The game is a platformer where you can alternate between monsters to achieve goals to complete each level. It also uses a really interesting comic book panel style that really changes what you would expect from a traditional platformer. Coupled with the really superb audio and visuals the game is really something special. Where is My Heart is currently on PS3 and Vita and is coming to PC and Mac this month.

http://gutefabrik.com/wimh.html

hotline miami 2

Hotline Miami 2 looks like more of the super violent rad-ery that I loved about Hotline Miami. Watching people play the demo level was fun but it had a few story elements that made me cringe a bit. They had an area where you could write or draw something at the Hotline Miami booth so I thought a bit and wrote: "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fukc, fkcu, uckf, yeah!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotline_Miami_2:_Wrong_Number

always sometimes monsters

"Set out on a journey through the modern human experience as you overcome the heartbreak and hardships of lost love by making choices that will affect your life and the lives of those around you."

Always Sometimes Monsters is an RPG that contains no fighting. In fact, I asked the writer of the game "if you could go off on a rampage and kill everyone" and his response was "well no, because you don't do that in real life." Fair point and because of this is why I am really interested in the game. When the game launches there will be many hundreds of choices you can do in the game that dramatically change the outcome. Since most games involve some kind of fighting mechanic or game puzzle mechanic, it seems interesting to have a game that focuses on human relationships and choices that effect your life.

http://www.devolverdigital.com/games/view/always-sometimes-monsters

As I was frolicking in the Indie Mega Booth I made my way to the Indie Mini Booth, the booth inside the Indie Mega Booth. I am wondering if next year they will feature the Micro Booth inside the Mini Booth inside the....

One game that seriously caught my eye is Death Road to Canada. I was able to talk to the developer of the game for some time and nabbed a cool Death Road Zombie pin. The game is a great looking procedural road trip pixel zombie game featuring some really neat elements. The Kickstarter video shows them off well and also includes a CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT from Tarn Adams co-creator of Dwarf Fortress.

Love the premise of the game and I can't wait to try it out and if you feel so inclined, Kickstart it.

First day at PAX is always the most mind and foot numbing. I usually don't hang out in large auditoriums filled with massive art pieces, loud music and large seizure educing lights so the first day of PAX takes a while to acclimate to. @scrypt is at PAX this year so we have been co-ordinating a bit to see most of the show together and so far its worked out pretty well.

Today we decided to hit up the expo halls and check out the games developers are showing. I didn't have a huge list of games I came in wanting to play because most of the games I know about, i've played. All told, I found some awesome new stuff I hadn't heard of before and played some games that haven't been released yet... But enough of all that, lets get to it.

nekro

Nekro is an upcoming fantasy game where you summon demonic forces to fight for you. The Nekro team was one of many developers taking part in the Indie Mega Booth. The Indie Mega Booth got some space on the main PAX floor and filled it to the brim with games. It was PACKED with people the entire time I was there and to offer a bit of comparison, the 2K area showcasing WWE 2K was not. But back to Nekro...

Nekro is a game that just went to the top of my radar for a few reasons. First off the art for the game is both stunning and lush. The game world feels like an actual place and the way the Nekro moves around in it is awesome. The game is fairly easy to understand and the gameplay and is well polished. I asked about a possible release time and they have a few options on the table, the earliest getting the game out by December. Very excited to try this out and I hope I can score beta access at some point.

http://darkforgegames.com/

wolfenstein: new order

Wolfenstein: The New Order is the only triple A game I am interested in and after I got my hands on it at PAX doubly so. Getting a special lanyard/button and pin set for playing the game didn't hurt either. After waiting in line for about 10 minutes at the Bethesda booth I was playing the game. The demo was on the XBox 360 and it seemed to be a mission or so into the game. That or I missed an intro cut scene, because when the dialog started they referenced some stuff they hadn't set up in the game yet. That said, BJ only had a knife to start things out and I was pretty happy about that.

You start in an area that looks like it was recently shelled. After killing your first Nazi you gain your first handgun and continue on. After killing a few more SS you get a machine gun and then immediately hit your first mini boss fight. You come to a mech and with some strafing and ducking I took it down. As you continue on past the desolation you enter a Nazi bunker that contains more Nazi you must kill. I dashed across an area, up some stairs and started shooting people with a turret. Wolfenstein allows you to unmount the turret and carry around the massive gun. The bonus is you get a huge gun that will blow holes in Nazis as well as walls but it makes you walk slower and you can't run. I thought that was a fair trade for the bit of the level I played with it.

The gameplay is what you would expect for a triple A shooter in that its very polished and everything feels right. I really loved the variety of guns in game and liked how you could play things safe and stealthy or run and gun. Plus, the game is challenging. From the outset the Bethesda people running the game said the game was hard so not to up the difficulty much. Based on that recommendation I made the game mode as easy as possible and the game was so hard, I died quite a few times. I hope they keep the games challenge as it would be a nice change of pace for some of the shooters i've played recently.

The game looked amazing on the XBox 360 so I can imagine how beautiful the game will look on PC. Getting it when it launches, no question.

legend of dungeon

Had fun talking to Alix and Calvin, the amazing Indie Duo making Legend of Dungeon. Nabbed a cool game poster, a few buttons and @scrypt and I played the game on a large screen with 2 other people. The game is really awesome with four players and I will have to make more of a point to play this game with my friends when they come over. I have really only played it by myself, but the game is loads of fun with 4 people on the screen at once.

Asked Alix how long it took her to get to the bottom of the Dungeon and escape. She said neither of them had beaten the game so I told her I didn't feel so bad not having beaten it. :D I told them I appreciated a recent patch that made your default movement faster from the start. Being able to be a bit faster from the get go is nice because it allows your game to go a bit quicker and thats a pretty nice thing for a game that can be played in a few minutes to a few hours.

http://www.robotloveskitty.com/LoD/

even the ocean

Headed by the Analgesic booth to talk to Jon and Sean about Anodyne and try out the early build of Even The Ocean. The game feels very metroid-ish and I loved the overall feel of the game while I was playing it. They put together a few levels for PAX and they had some interesting game mechanics to show off. One unique aspect of the game is the shield you have. You can use it block projectiles as well as use it to catch wind gusts. Its interesting to in one moment use the shield to block a projectile then use it to catch a wind gust to make it to a higher area in the game.

We talked a bit about game platforms and so far Windows is planned and they will port it to Mac and Linux if possible. I nabbed a beautiful Anodyne poster and am really excited to play Even The Ocean when it hits beta.

delvers drop

Delver's Drop is one of the games I have backed on Kickstarter and after checking out the game build at the PAX booth my excitement for this game has been kicked up a few notches. They were showcasing two classes and much more gameplay than I had seen with the current Kickstarter backer build I have. They mentioned that the PAX build will be updated for Kickstarter backers in a few weeks and I am very interested to play it.

They are planning on a formal release of the game in December.

I have taken a bunch of pictures of PAX so far and will post them in the next few days as well as some other games I saw that were awesome.