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Adding a bit of realism to Katamari

Ah, Arduino. I have seen some truly innovative and useful things done with the Arduino, but mostly it's fun, beautifully useless stuff. This falls solidly in the second category, and I love it.

Using an Arduino, a dismantled PS2 controller, some casters, and a yoga ball, these brilliant hackers have made a lifelike Katamari controller, where the movements of the ball translate to the Katamari on-screen.

In other news, that song is now in my head and I need to play this game again.

Scrypt's favorite game: Journey

http://thatgamecompany.com/wp-content/themes/thatgamecompany/_include/img/journey/journey-game-screenshot-10.jpg

A few of us this week have played Journey (scheduled through the awesome event system) and will be sharing our thoughts. Anyone who wants to share can comment below or in a new post, whatever strikes your fancy.

This post contains spoilers, so tune out now if you don't want them. I don't want to hide all the text with the spoiler option because of the text above. You have been warned!

The one thing that comes through for me more strongly than anything in Journey is the sense of purpose, though that's never known to the player or the player character (that we know of). All we know is that we must strive for it. There's never any dialogue, but you can still almost feel... Read All A few of us this week have played Journey (scheduled through the awesome event system) and will be sharing our thoughts. Anyone who wants to share can comment below or in a new post, whatever strikes your fancy.

This post contains spoilers, so tune out now if you don't want them. I don't want to hide all the text with the spoiler option because of the text above. You have been warned!

The one thing that comes through for me more strongly than anything in Journey is the sense of purpose, though that's never known to the player or the player character (that we know of). All we know is that we must strive for it. There's never any dialogue, but you can still almost feel your character's sense of wonder as the world you traverse changes. Perhaps that just means thatgamecompany did a great job with putting you in the game.

The graphics are absolutely stunning. The first time through, it didn't really click just how beautiful the game is, but the second time through, knowing more about what I could expect, I was able to just enjoy the visuals way more than I had in the past.

There's nothing in the gameplay that hasn't been done before in the past, really. It controls basically how you would expect, and the controls work marvelously. The puzzles scattered about aren't very challenging, but they serve their purpose.

The big wildcard with this game was the multiplayer. As you progress you may join someone's game, or be joined by them. You never know who it is, and you can't talk to them. The only form of communication is the "ping" system. You can ping at them to your heart's content, but without some other context, your companion will have no idea what's being said. People have tried (and thankfully, failed) to come up with a ping language, so you can tell people specific things, but this misses the point entirely-- the point is that you are two strangers who must communicate without any kind of language. That adds to the tension.

My first time playing the game, I had been playing with a single person for about an hour, when suddenly the connection messed up on someone's end, and I was alone. This, for me, was a very brief traumatic moment, much like the loss of Aerith in Final Fantasy VII or any other death in a plot-driven game. This was the only other character that had any importance to me in this game, and now that character was gone. In a flash, I went from "NOOOOOOO" to realizing what was going on, and it was over. But for that brief second I realized I had come to care about this other player.

Journey is one of my favorite games of this generation, if not all generations. It's one of the few games I'd give a perfect 10, and it's one that I'm considering buying in hard copy even though I own it digitally, because in 10 years who knows if the PSN will still be available? I want to know I can play this whenever I want.

I highly recommend this to anyone. It may not appeal to you if you only like in-your-face action, but if you're interested in deeper experiences, definitely give it a play.

May The Way of The Hero Lead To The Triforce!

If you have noticed a bit of a dip in my posting on the site its because I was on vacation for the last week. One of the games I took with me to play on my trip was The Legend of Zelda a Link to the Past. Its a pretty good game to pickup and play in short bursts as the dungeons are not very long to complete. In my most recent play through I tackled the last two dark world dungeons before the one on the mountain.

I have been playing the dungeons mostly out of order as the game isn't very rigid with how you play them save a few cases. For instance, you need the fire rod to enter the ice world dungeon. That said, during my play through of the ice dungeon I remembered why... Read All If you have noticed a bit of a dip in my posting on the site its because I was on vacation for the last week. One of the games I took with me to play on my trip was The Legend of Zelda a Link to the Past. Its a pretty good game to pickup and play in short bursts as the dungeons are not very long to complete. In my most recent play through I tackled the last two dark world dungeons before the one on the mountain.

I have been playing the dungeons mostly out of order as the game isn't very rigid with how you play them save a few cases. For instance, you need the fire rod to enter the ice world dungeon. That said, during my play through of the ice dungeon I remembered why I tackle the swamp dungeon where you get the Cane of Samaria first. In the Ice World dungeon at one point you must drop blocks down to a earlier floor to push on a pressure plate to open a door. The steps you need to take to do this are annoying BUT the game allows you a way out by using the Cane of Somaria. Always wondered if this was an intentional design choice Nintendo made or if it was just happenstance. That said, I came to the part where I needed to drop the block to continue and I left the dungeon and went to the Dungeon where you obtain the cane and beat that. After I nabbed the Cane and beat the Dungeon I went back and completed the Ice Dungeon.

I wish more games allowed you choices to skip annoying parts in games. For instance, I wish I could push the "please let me bypass the grind" in Borderlands 2 to speed up to the interesting story missions. Its not really practical to do that because the game is fairly hard if you don't grind to level up your character. I used to lament the loss of games that take 60 hours to complete but more often that not nowdays it just means 40 hours of boring content. And if you really think about it, Link to the Past isn't a 60 hour game. I may have spent more than 60 hours playing it through multiple times but one can easily complete the game in 20 hours or so. Getting a ton of enjoyment out of a game doesn't mean the game has to be long as hell it needs to just be compelling enough to come back to.

Which is one of the cool things I am starting to notice about classics like The Legend of Zelda compared to more modern AAA games. The fun and interesting game play make me come back year after year, not a 4,000 hour single player grind-fest.

http://zelda.wikia.com/wiki/Cane_of_Somaria

P.S. Does anyone know of a use for Rupees in Link to the Past? Besides buying the flippers, nothing seems useful to buy. I load my bottles up with faeries and since there is a pretty good amount of magic and heart drops I don't think blue potions are that useful.

Tariq gives Mario some lyrics

Mario + The Roots. How could this be bad?

Half-Life 3 In Development At Valve?

"We have recently been sent a copy of the original Jira archive data, which has provided unprecedented access to the entire project tracker. Other listings in the data files for known and unknown projects include "Stars of Blood", "Return to Ravenholm", "Episode 3"/"Episode 3 Movie", "Hardware" / "Hardware Core", "SteamMMO" / "SteamMMO Core" and "F-Stop". "

Could be all made up fakery or the real deal. Either way, fun to speculate.

PS Jira is a popular ticket tracking and development web app for software development.

http://www.valvetime.net/threads/updated-half-life-3-left-4-dead-3-source-2-much-more-found-on-valve-project-tracker.243580/

Travis Admin wrote on 06/20/2013 at 06:56pm

I think it must be in development. I would think it's been in development since Episode 2.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 06/20/2013 at 11:53pm

Hoping its Half-Life 3, and not just Episode 3, but would be entirely happy with either.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/21/2013 at 02:04am

I was brief in my first comment-- I think they probably had Episode 3 in development shortly after Episode 2, but by this point surely it would be a full sequel, not just another episode.

Or maybe... http://1-media-cdn.foolz.us/ffuuka/board/tg/image/1345/68/1345683537561.png

scrypt Supporter wrote on 06/21/2013 at 02:35am

Both would be much, much better.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/22/2013 at 03:54am

This is just cruel. http://store.stearnpowered.com/app/246720/

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/22/2013 at 03:08pm

I get a bandwidth limit exceeded. What was it?

Travis Admin wrote on 06/22/2013 at 04:54pm

It seems to be working now. It's a fake Steam storefront (check the url-- it's STEARNpowered) for Half-Life 3.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/22/2013 at 05:08pm

Hahahahha, still bandwidth exceeded :D

Travis Admin wrote on 06/22/2013 at 06:16pm

Weird, wonder why it works here? Here's a screenshot http://i.imgur.com/HObLneR.png

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/22/2013 at 06:23pm

Hahaha, funny.

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E3 Developer Interview

Wolfenstein The New Order is the only upcoming triple A game I am excited about. The shooting looks great, the story is right up "camp alley(I love that shit)" and it just looks like a hell of a lot of fun.

This developer interview is pretty awesome and shows off some of the design goals of the new Wolf game. It is a action and adventure FPS and I am very excited to see how they pull that off. The Wolfenstein 2009 reboot was great and this one looks to be even better.

Xbone does a 180 on DRM

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18rc0hnnzhrusjpg/k-bigpic.jpg

Kotaku is reporting that Microsoft is back peddling on their DRM restrictions. Original article: http://kotaku.com/microsoft-is-removing-xbox-one-drm-514390310

According to the article these are the following changes:
No more always online requirement
The console no longer has to check in every 24 hours
All game discs will work on Xbox One as they do on Xbox 360
Authentication is no longer necessary
An Internet connection is only required when initially setting up the console
All downloaded games will function the same when online or offline
No additional restrictions on trading games or loaning discs
Region locks have been dropped

Travis Admin wrote on 06/19/2013 at 09:06pm

You and vdogmr both beat me to this by a minute.

Good news, but the family sharing is now gone. I think this is better in the long run.

vdogmr25 wrote on 06/19/2013 at 09:10pm

I was just posting this! I'm glad they made this choice. I'm more of a PC/Playstation guy, but decent competition is what helps produce better systems all around, as well as better in-house titles. Until now, I didn't think the XBox One would be able to hold up.

BR Supporter wrote on 06/19/2013 at 09:28pm

Not sure how I feel about this. It's nice to know they rethought their tactics but did they do it for the right reasons? Probably not. Most likely they got rid of these restrictions for the sole reason that the Ps4 was going to outsell them if they kept the restrictions.

Now don't get me wrong, this is pretty awesome, but I will still be buying the Ps4 over the Xbone.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 06/19/2013 at 09:28pm

Oh man, I have been an XBox guy, but had made the choice to jump to the PS4... now the decision is back up in the air...

CapnCurry Supporter wrote on 06/20/2013 at 02:30am

I'm probably being over-cautious, but I'm still in the PS4 camp. I simply can't imagine that five months from worldwide release they can fundamentally change their delivery mechanisms, DRM, and installation process, both at the OS level and at the software level, both internally and with vendors, and have it come out anywhere near playable.

Remember, too, that this is Microsoft we're talking about - the original 360 took years of tweaking before it overcame its reputation as being a Red Ring of Death engine, and that was under what you could call optimal launch conditions.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/20/2013 at 02:46am

I'm still in the PS4 camp for many reasons, but it's not that I don't trust MS on the change. They screwed up, and they're fixing it. If they now fail to fix it, there will be hell to pay, and I think they know that.

I'm still going PS4 because the indie scene is much better with Sony, the price point is better, and so far the games shown for PS4 have been more interesting. I also really like the way they're handling game downloads (allowing you to download the single player or multiplayer parts first), and PS+ has always given me a ton of value, and that doesn't seem to be slowing down.

Plus, it has better hardware. The next gen is running on the same hardware platform so that's actually something you can tell easily. Plus, since it's on the same platform, it's more likely that the extra power will be used well, rather than the ports of this gen where they just pick a console and do straight ports. Depending on the engine they use, it could even handle that automatically.

Timogorgon Member Post Author wrote on 06/20/2013 at 04:16pm

A little part of me was sort of hoping Microsoft would stick with the DRM scheme, fail miserably, and let the Xbone's smoldering remains serve as a warning for other companies who might want to try aggressive DRM. But I also don't want Sony to be the only big dog in the yard. :)

Over all I'm glad to see Microsoft change course.

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/20/2013 at 04:53pm

I wanted them to stand their ground on these choices. Partly, because I have zero care for another XBox and partly because I really wanted to see how the sales panned out.

Just because the internet exploded over this issue the way it did, I wasn't really sure that mean't a long term drop in sales. People often complain and then purchase or purchase a bit later. Plus, really the further both consoles are from each other the starker the competition is.

I agree with the Capn' here, if the DRM systems were so integral into the XBone then this is non trivial work to remove them. Unless they were creative with the truth and they really were just tacked on, either way its a pretty major course correction.

I am not sure in the end if this is a win though. I mean, consumers were heard and major company changes course but it just seems so insubstantial to me. Plus it seems many people were excited about the DRM and now they get less DRM and are upset. I read a few articles by people with "big important gaming press sites" that say we can't have nice things because Microsoft did what people wanted. Uh, sure, I guess.

People cite Steam and say "well hey look, you know Steam does what Microsoft wanted to do and now they are reversing course so we can't have nice things and gamers are hypocrites." I am forumlating my thoughts in specific response to that because they are comparing things I don't think make sense to.

Other people seem upset because people are not flocking back to the XBone and bowing down thanking Microsoft for being benevolent.

People are strange and what Microsoft is doing is even stranger. Personally, I think they should have stood their ground and doubled down on their ol' strategy because it would have been more fun to watch.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/20/2013 at 06:58pm

"well hey look, you know Steam does what Microsoft wanted to do and now they are reversing course so we can't have nice things and gamers are hypocrites."

It is painfully easy to pirate PC games. Steam's method is basically necessary for there to be any hope of the publishers/developers getting money these days. It's less easy with console games, requiring some real effort and sometimes physical modifications to the console.

CapnCurry Supporter wrote on 06/20/2013 at 07:16pm

There's also a different value proposition for console games. I'm not sure whether or where I've expressed this sentiment before, so forgive me if I repeat myself or if I repeat myself (ha), but I can't remember the last PC game I paid $60 for. Because of the historically minimal used-PC-game market and a commonly enforced "no returns on software" policy, I've become accustomed to paying about $20 and knowing I'll never get that money back. When I pay $60 for a console game, I expect to have some equity in the title - I can enjoy it forever for $60, or I can recoup part of my investment later via trade or resale. It's much more like owning property than licensing an experience, and it's that feeling of ownership that's warranted the higher price of console games for me - even though I know that most of that higher price is *actually* going toward development cost, so regardless of the delivery mechanism / rights conferral, the price of a console title is probably going to remain about the same.

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Mobile Games: What Are You Playing?

The other day I picked up Junk Jack on iOS after hearing it was a good Terraria clone for the iPhone. After playing it a bit I didn't really see the appeal. The last mobile game I played quite a bit of was Spaceward Ho on the iPhone.

I am interested in checking out interesting Mobile games but don't find the iTunes top rated games to be interesting enough to warrant an install, even the free ones. Because of that, I am wondering if you have been playing anything you might recommend?

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 06/18/2013 at 08:15pm

Really the only mobile game I'm playing right now is Candy Crush Saga (just beat level 155).

Travis Admin wrote on 06/18/2013 at 08:25pm

NOOOOO ADYM! NOT YOU TOO! We've lost a lot of good people to the Candy Crush menace.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/18/2013 at 09:29pm

Hmmm maybe I should start that up. I tried once and tossed it not knowing what the craze was about.

Ok, installing.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 06/18/2013 at 09:43pm

Yeah, I'm a goner. Waiting for FB friends to give me tickets so I continue lol.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 06/18/2013 at 09:44pm

Jon, the first few levels are Bejeweled Blitzy, but once you get past those, it becomes an addictive puzzle game.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/18/2013 at 09:46pm

I'll give it a shot and report back.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/19/2013 at 02:36am

It starts asking you for either money, or for you to share it with your Facebook friends to get more turns. You are locked out of playing the game for a limited amount of time before you pay them or spam people. I can't support that kind of evil.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/19/2013 at 02:45am

Well you either charge people for the game or go freemium. I dont agree w those methods but it pays the bills. That said "waiting games" are fairly boring for the most part, I think anyway.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/19/2013 at 02:49am

I have a friend who would seriously stop a conversation because he got more Candy Crush moves.

In other news, to answer the question at hand: Ridiculous Fishing on iOS. This game is seriously amazing. Way more fun than I would ever expect from a fishing game. http://www.ridiculousfishing.com/

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/19/2013 at 03:11am

Oh yeah, i heard about that one. Checking it out.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 06/19/2013 at 05:22pm

I actually picked up tiny tower again recently. My iPod touch died, and so I switched to using my wife's old iPhone and was surprised to see the game remembered my tower when I installed it again.

The other day I also dusted off my Gameboy DS and picked up a Chrono Trigger save file that was near the end of the game but still had several side missions to complete. It was nice revisiting some familiar places.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/20/2013 at 03:08am

I have been playing Candy Crush and I will say it has a bit more depth than a vanilla Bejewled. I can see where people drop money on this but i have zero desire to do so. Wouldnt have a problem laying them $5 for the game though but i cant justify .99 cents 5,000 times for extra turns.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 06/20/2013 at 04:13am

I've never put money into Candy Crush. I just wait when I run out of lives. Throttles my addiction I suppose.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/20/2013 at 04:15am

Yeah, it sort of stops when I have been playing a bit "too long."

adktz wrote on 07/10/2013 at 12:08am

Stickets for iOS!

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GOGcom No DRM Summer Sale + Free Torchlight

GOGcom is launching is summer sale with a pretty impressive lineup including giving away Torchlight for free for the next 48 hours.

http://www.gog.com/news/nodrm_summer_get_torchlight_free_for_48_hours

Lots of retro and indie titles marked down and worth checking out.

http://www.gog.com/NoDRMSummer

**UPDATE**

A few games you should nab while you can:

RollerCoaster Tycoon Deluxe

RollerCoaster Tycoon plus both expansions and the game score. Only $2.99 with no DRM. Holee shit this is a great deal.

http://www.gog.com/gamecard/rollercoaster_tycoon_deluxe

Capsized: Shipwrecked With An Amazing Score

Many of us picked up Capsized with the recent Humble Bundle 8. After crushing pretty hard on Awesomenauts and completing Hotline Miami I decided to play Capsized next. From the Humble Bundle 8 video I was very interested in playing it as it reminded me of a moment in Super Metroid where you find the crashed alien space craft. That said, the game was a quick download and I had it up and running on my Windows PC in a few minutes.

Capsized starts off with a story board intro that conveying the games premise. You are a crew member in a ship traveling across the stars and your ship crashes on an alien planet. The first mission is a good primer to how to play the game and... Read All Many of us picked up Capsized with the recent Humble Bundle 8. After crushing pretty hard on Awesomenauts and completing Hotline Miami I decided to play Capsized next. From the Humble Bundle 8 video I was very interested in playing it as it reminded me of a moment in Super Metroid where you find the crashed alien space craft. That said, the game was a quick download and I had it up and running on my Windows PC in a few minutes.

Capsized starts off with a story board intro that conveying the games premise. You are a crew member in a ship traveling across the stars and your ship crashes on an alien planet. The first mission is a good primer to how to play the game and uses a kind of way point system to teach you. Capsized is similar in style to Metroid but is different in that you start the game with a full compliment of awesome gear. You start the game with: A Jetpack, Basic lazer weapon, Gravity Force Gun, Energy Hookshot/Gravity Gun and the ability to wall jump. Over the course of the first few missions you get access to more weaponry to make you even more powerful.

The basic gameplay of Capsized is straightforward in that you must complete the objective of each level. In one such objective I had to find a stranded crew member. Each level is comprised of things that want you dead and things you need to move or get around to complete a level. The energy beam/gravity gun is really useful to reach locations your couldn't otherwise or move a rock or stone to form a bridge or clear something in your path.

The play control takes a bit to get used to but it never felt awkward. Compared to other more tightly controlled side-scrollers Capsized is fairly loose. This is often nice but sometimes my ingrained 2d sidescrolling reflex burned in from Mario games came to bear in unfortunate ways. That said, its nice to play something that approaches this genre differently.

One really impressive aspect of Capsized is how well the score works in the game. Sporting an amazing electronic and etherial score, Capsized really brings you into the games feel like few games can. From your first steps on this very alien world, the music really helps ratchet up the wonder I felt exploring this VERY strange and beautiful planet.

I have only played a few missions of Capsized and I am really enjoying myself. I recommend you check it out and let me know what you think. I might post further as I continue on with the game as I am only a few levels in so far.