jdodson1

Joined 01/23/2012
  Admin

I'm an Engineer and built the video game community Cheerful Ghost and text based mini-MMO Tale of the White Wyvern.

2733 Posts

Here are a few game soundtracks I have wanted to talk
Here are a few game soundtracks I have wanted to talk about:

Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty: Got this soundtrack from the collectors edition bundle of Starcraft 2. I am not sure I love all the ways they mesh typical orchestral faire that moves to guitar that then moves to synth though. They do this in a few songs and I think they should just pick on motif and stick with it. Moving around that much in one song is jarring.

That said, its a great score and a few times I can hear people breathing in the orchestra so the mics at Skywalker Sound really hot that day.

The Binding of Issac: The score came with the steam game if I gave them like $2 extra. The score is really haunting and gives the game extra creep factor. Plus the intro voice over and music is included and is always a daunting treat to hear it come on randomly when im shufflin' my songs.

CaveStory+: I guess the version I have is the remixed/remastered version of the soundtrack. That said, its about as great as any classic NES score. Well. Maybe not Zelda or Mario, but its fun to listen through as it brings me back to the 90's.

Portal 2: Just listened to a few tracks of this today. The strongest parts of this score are the moody songs. The faster electronic music is fine but its not really my style of that sort of music. If I could put words on how I think about certain moody tracks of this score is "defeated," "thought," and "tragic."

I recently had Portal 2 on PS3 returned to me as a friend
I recently had Portal 2 on PS3 returned to me as a friend had been borrowing it for a few months. I started up a new game today as ive wanted to replay it for some time. Taking my time this playthrough as I missed a few things in my first playthrough.

I took a few pictures on my iPhone of stuff I thought was awesome:

http://imgur.com/U36kq (history of evil)
http://imgur.com/t4AGw (she is dead)
http://imgur.com/xx6Pr (so many choices)

I found a rat den where a radio plays The Nationals Exile Vilify. I missed that in my haste on the first playthough. I really like games where you can explore and find cool stuff. Playing through Portal 2 again is still really fun. The puzzles are still fresh even though the solution isn't too far away in my memory.

At the point where Wheatley pops off his rail and you have to pick him up I just kicked him around the room until he got stuck. I remember an article where the actor that played Wheatley said most of his dialog time was spent recording lines most people wouldn't hear because they dont go the wrong way or take too long to do things. This time I am going the wrong way and taking too long to do things. Haven't heard any looped dialog yet.

When Portal 2 was nearing release they put out the free comic called Lab Rat. You can download the comic and the entire 64 track soundtrack on their site for free: http://www.thinkwithportals.com/media_19.php If you haven't read the comic, you should its really good.

Lab Rat was one of the few comics that I read many times over. It ties neatly Portal -> Portal 2 and asks some questions the game really doesn't answer. The Rat Dens are obviously the product of the guy from Lab Rat but I wonder if this guy will make an appearance in a later Portal?

Looking forward to making my way through the rest of the game for the second time.

I havent delved too deepy in downloadable games for the PS3.
I haven't delved too deepy in downloadable games for the PS3. I am still wrapping my head around the new digital download world for PC games. That said, I picked up a few PS3 downloadable games and Age of Booty was one of them.

Its a real time strategy game where you play a pirate and you goal is to control the majority of the towns and then you win the round. You can do 1v1, 2v2 & 3v3. You can play online and split screen multiplayer as well.

One cool thing about Age of Booty is that its accessible enough for my wife and I to play together. Its not a terribly deep game so we don't play it a lot, but when we do its quite fun. One nice thing is that all the extras for the game are free. Basically they have made available a bunch of extra maps, often community create for you to download. That really adds to the replayablility of the game.

If you are looking for a good pick up and play RTS game with a pirate theme, Age of Booty is a fun choice.

Minecraft Legos? Awesome.

Minecraft Legos? Awesome.

http://legocuusoo.posterous.com/announcing-lego-minecraft-micro-world-the-thi

Wanted to post my current stats for Dont Run with a Plasma
Wanted to post my current stats for Don't Run with a Plasma Sword.

Time played: 24m
Games Played: 27
Total Kills: 168

Best Distance:
Easy: 2578

Trying to get over 3000 for my best distance but I need to adopt a better strategy on jumping because it seems later the game starts making the levels harder by making you jump all the time on small platforms. Since you can only tap on a circle to jump and the circle isnt large, often times my tap to jump isn't registered. Or at least, thats what I tell myself :)

A frustration I often have with phone games, analog sticks always registered my taps on the physical buttons.

Gem Keeper is a fun iPhone tower defense game I have been
Gem Keeper is a fun iPhone tower defense game I have been enjoying lately. I picked it up for free on special as I don't tend to buy many iPhone games. The game starts simple and then adds more towers gradually in the first single player set of levels.

Ive enjoyed the tower that slows enemies down and the bomb tower. I am playing the game on easy and find that sufficent diffculty to be interesting. Ive just unlocked endless mode which is pretty diffcult on any level because you are going to lose, its just a matter of how long you hold out.

As per @Chowda s recommend I downloaded the Dungeon
As per @Chowda 's recommend I downloaded the Dungeon Defenders demo off Steam. Rolled a Mage and went with all the defaults. Tried single player as I didn't want to be eviscerated as a noob.

The intro didnt say a ton about how things worked and over the first few waves I figured things out. Basically it's a first person tower defense game. Graphics are good and the play control in confused me a couple of times.

Survived well into the last wave when an Ogre spawned. I focused on the Ogre way too late and he killed the eternia crystal, which is what you are protecting so game over. Spawned in a tavern and the game explained what that was all about.

I like the art of the game and the tavern feels nice to hang out in. From the tavern you can meet with your group and head out to defend eternia crystals from bad guys. Saw no limit to the demo save one mode. I checked to see if anyone was online and didn't see anyone. I imagine the demo is on its own server.

It's a fun game. Knowing what I know now I believe I would focus on the Ogre sooner :)

By now everyone who loves Borderlands may have seen the
By now everyone who loves Borderlands may have seen the Borderlands 2 gameplay footage that someone took with a shaky cam. If not, check it out! I am now even more excited about Borderlands 2.

Dual wielding? Epic.

Been recently spending time playing another iPhone runner
Been recently spending time playing another iPhone runner game called "Don't Run With a Plasma Sword." I like the game because you can play in a story mode or a endless running mode where you try and get further each time. You can upgrade your abilities as you collect experience as with other freemium iPhone titles you can pay to upgrade immediately.

The game has a really fun style in that its styled after a old sci-fi B Movie. Before each level you are bestowed wisdom on how to handle your plasma sword such as "Don't stir your coffee with a plasma sword," "Don't shovel with a plasma sword" and "Don't duck and cover with a plasma sword."

Its fun and its also free so no reason not to check it out if you have an iPhone. I am only playing the endless mode right now, when I get to the story mode ill talk more about that.

Magical Games That Never Leave You
If I had a list of games that impacted how I think about art and life, The Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening would be on my list. I come back and play this game every three years or so simply because the story is absolutely stunning. I plan on writing more during my next playthrough on Cheerful Ghost, so expect more at some point.

I was never moved more by any video game ending than this one. Plenty of games brought me to thinking about life in certain ways, like Final Fantasy III and how frail humans really are. But this game sticks with me as a game that really made me feel invested in the world and I cared what happened to it. Being that the game was on the Gameboy thats saying something, then again Gameboy had some great games.

Magical.