Tuesday 30 August 2016
Thursday 25 August 2016
Press 'X' to Review: Besiege
Besiege
Platform: PC/Steam
Developer: Spiderling Studios
Premise: Conquer the world, one zone at a time, by building siege engines relying on physics, skill, and a frankly ludicrous amount of explosives.
Initial Release Date: 28/01/2015 (Early Access)
I picked up Besiege about a year ago when it came out on Early Access, but didn't get very far because a) a lot of the elements that I ended up finding useful during my recent run through hadn't been added yet, and b) my computer at the time couldn't really run it without slowing down to a crawl whenever things started to get particularly explode-y. However, since then it's received a number of updates and I've managed to get a better school laptop as well as something vaguely resembling a gaming computer, so in the absence of anything else to play this week that I could both play and review in the time allotted, I picked it back up.
The best way I can think of describing Besiege's gameplay is "Kerbal Space Program, but with siege engines and a vaguely medieval-punk aesthetic". The only other main difference is that if your siege engine manages to get to the moon, something has gone horribly wrong instead of horribly right. The builder is easy enough to use, although it would've been nice to know about the 'rotate' control before I was three quarters of the way through the first kingdom. That being said, something being poorly explained is the kind of thing that's only a problem once. Each level gives you a vague objective, something like 'Destroy 90% of everything', or 'Steal and deliver this crystal' and doesn't particularly care how you get from Point A to Point B, and I like that it doesn't hold your hand, but it would've been nice if it gave you a couple of ideas on what to build because I'll admit that despite the variety, I ended up relying on the same handful of tools. Pro tip: helicopters are relatively easy to build, easy to mod for a variety of objectives, and unless there are archers or heavy winds in play the only real danger to you is yourself.
Platform: PC/Steam
Developer: Spiderling Studios
Premise: Conquer the world, one zone at a time, by building siege engines relying on physics, skill, and a frankly ludicrous amount of explosives.
Initial Release Date: 28/01/2015 (Early Access)
I picked up Besiege about a year ago when it came out on Early Access, but didn't get very far because a) a lot of the elements that I ended up finding useful during my recent run through hadn't been added yet, and b) my computer at the time couldn't really run it without slowing down to a crawl whenever things started to get particularly explode-y. However, since then it's received a number of updates and I've managed to get a better school laptop as well as something vaguely resembling a gaming computer, so in the absence of anything else to play this week that I could both play and review in the time allotted, I picked it back up.
The best way I can think of describing Besiege's gameplay is "Kerbal Space Program, but with siege engines and a vaguely medieval-punk aesthetic". The only other main difference is that if your siege engine manages to get to the moon, something has gone horribly wrong instead of horribly right. The builder is easy enough to use, although it would've been nice to know about the 'rotate' control before I was three quarters of the way through the first kingdom. That being said, something being poorly explained is the kind of thing that's only a problem once. Each level gives you a vague objective, something like 'Destroy 90% of everything', or 'Steal and deliver this crystal' and doesn't particularly care how you get from Point A to Point B, and I like that it doesn't hold your hand, but it would've been nice if it gave you a couple of ideas on what to build because I'll admit that despite the variety, I ended up relying on the same handful of tools. Pro tip: helicopters are relatively easy to build, easy to mod for a variety of objectives, and unless there are archers or heavy winds in play the only real danger to you is yourself.
Wednesday 17 August 2016
Press 'X' to Rant: Multiplayer Only
An open letter to the developers of "multiplayer-only" games:
Dear developers,
I can understand why, over the past year or two, you collectively seem to have become entranced by the idea of making games "multiplayer-only"; It requires significantly less work than creating a balanced single-player and multi-player experience, it means that you can focus on a more polished and full experience in one court as opposed to having two thinner experiences in two, and you can apparently sell it at full-price with people calling you out on it left, right and center and still make a frankly ludicrous amount of money.
I'll grant you, multi-player is often very satisfying to be good at; there's something viscerally fun about knowing that you've bested your fellow man that you just don't get by playing against a computer. In addition, I'll grant you that multiplayer tends to take longer to get tired of than single-player, although this is largely dependent on who you're matched with or against. However, it does have one major problem which I've brought up previously in my RWBY: Grimm Eclipse review, and that is Ghost Town Servers. What happens six months down the line when most of the player base have moved on to the Next Big Thing?
Dear developers,
I can understand why, over the past year or two, you collectively seem to have become entranced by the idea of making games "multiplayer-only"; It requires significantly less work than creating a balanced single-player and multi-player experience, it means that you can focus on a more polished and full experience in one court as opposed to having two thinner experiences in two, and you can apparently sell it at full-price with people calling you out on it left, right and center and still make a frankly ludicrous amount of money.
I'll grant you, multi-player is often very satisfying to be good at; there's something viscerally fun about knowing that you've bested your fellow man that you just don't get by playing against a computer. In addition, I'll grant you that multiplayer tends to take longer to get tired of than single-player, although this is largely dependent on who you're matched with or against. However, it does have one major problem which I've brought up previously in my RWBY: Grimm Eclipse review, and that is Ghost Town Servers. What happens six months down the line when most of the player base have moved on to the Next Big Thing?
Thursday 11 August 2016
Press 'X' to Review: RWBY: Grimm Eclipse
RWBY: Grimm Eclipse
Platform: PC/Steam
Developer: Rooster Teeth Games/Jordan Scott
Premise: Play as one of the four members of Team RWBY to fight the forces of Grimm, Explodey-Grimm(tm), and android guards who will ruin your day if you're in the same postcode.
Release Date: 05/07/2016
A.N: Just wanted to say that this blog finally managed to hit 500 views over the week (WOOHOO!), so thank you all, from the bottom of my heart. I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
So, a bit of backstory: before it was a game, RWBY was (and still is) a web-show by Rooster Teeth. I quite like the show, although volume 3 did test that somewhat. There's only so much emotional trauma I'm willing to deal with in the span of 5 episodes. Anyway, the point is that I expected that Grimm Eclipse might follow the traditional curse of the movie/TV tie-in game. However, it was also made by the same people that made the show, which from experience is pretty much the best way to avert the TV show/game tie-in curse. So, now that I've actually played the thing, the one question that needs to be answered still remains: Is It Fun?
Platform: PC/Steam
Developer: Rooster Teeth Games/Jordan Scott
Premise: Play as one of the four members of Team RWBY to fight the forces of Grimm, Explodey-Grimm(tm), and android guards who will ruin your day if you're in the same postcode.
Release Date: 05/07/2016
A.N: Just wanted to say that this blog finally managed to hit 500 views over the week (WOOHOO!), so thank you all, from the bottom of my heart. I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
So, a bit of backstory: before it was a game, RWBY was (and still is) a web-show by Rooster Teeth. I quite like the show, although volume 3 did test that somewhat. There's only so much emotional trauma I'm willing to deal with in the span of 5 episodes. Anyway, the point is that I expected that Grimm Eclipse might follow the traditional curse of the movie/TV tie-in game. However, it was also made by the same people that made the show, which from experience is pretty much the best way to avert the TV show/game tie-in curse. So, now that I've actually played the thing, the one question that needs to be answered still remains: Is It Fun?
Wednesday 3 August 2016
Press 'X' to Review: Pokémon GO! (Australia)
Pokémon Go!
Platform: iOS, Android
Developer: Niantic Inc.
Premise: Pokémon, but in the real world and with pretty much all the strategy and combat mechanics stripped out.
Release Date: 06/07/2016
Between the Darwin Police Department having to issue an official statement asking players not to enter their stations looking for Pokémon or to use the PokéStop, the Tennessee Highway Patrol needing to run posters asking drivers to "Stop before you GO!" because people were having car crashes by trying to hunt down Pokémon while driving, and that whole thing with people going into graveyards or the Holocaust Museum because they're set as Pokéstops, it's been practically impossible to have not heard about Pokemon GO! over the past month. There was apparently some controversy among the Americans about the fact that Australia got access to it first given that we quote "already have dangerous creatures waiting to attack us around every corner", to which I'll simply say that it's probably karma for having pretty much every release arbitrarily pushed back by a month or two for the last forever.
For those of you that have somehow managed to avoid hearing anything about Pokémon GO! (presumably by living in Antarctica), it's an Augmented Reality game for iOS and Android where Pokémon are scattered throughout the real world, so you walk around and attempt to catch them, whilst also getting involved in a massive clan war between Team Instinct, whose philosophy is mostly "Eh, we'll wing it", Team Mystic, whose philosophy is that Pokémon battles should be approached more methodically, and then there's Team Valour who.... hmm. Look, you know the Hunters from Destiny? Whose philosophy was basically "Let's just run at the problem with a knife in each hand raised overhead while screaming 'LEROOOOOOOYYY JENKINS!'"? Yeah, Team Valour is basically that but instead of a knife in each hand they have pokémon. Personally, for me it was a toss-up between Instinct and Mystic, because both made good points. Mystic eventually took it, because I thought the Blue colour scheme looked better.
Platform: iOS, Android
Developer: Niantic Inc.
Premise: Pokémon, but in the real world and with pretty much all the strategy and combat mechanics stripped out.
Release Date: 06/07/2016
Between the Darwin Police Department having to issue an official statement asking players not to enter their stations looking for Pokémon or to use the PokéStop, the Tennessee Highway Patrol needing to run posters asking drivers to "Stop before you GO!" because people were having car crashes by trying to hunt down Pokémon while driving, and that whole thing with people going into graveyards or the Holocaust Museum because they're set as Pokéstops, it's been practically impossible to have not heard about Pokemon GO! over the past month. There was apparently some controversy among the Americans about the fact that Australia got access to it first given that we quote "already have dangerous creatures waiting to attack us around every corner", to which I'll simply say that it's probably karma for having pretty much every release arbitrarily pushed back by a month or two for the last forever.
For those of you that have somehow managed to avoid hearing anything about Pokémon GO! (presumably by living in Antarctica), it's an Augmented Reality game for iOS and Android where Pokémon are scattered throughout the real world, so you walk around and attempt to catch them, whilst also getting involved in a massive clan war between Team Instinct, whose philosophy is mostly "Eh, we'll wing it", Team Mystic, whose philosophy is that Pokémon battles should be approached more methodically, and then there's Team Valour who.... hmm. Look, you know the Hunters from Destiny? Whose philosophy was basically "Let's just run at the problem with a knife in each hand raised overhead while screaming 'LEROOOOOOOYYY JENKINS!'"? Yeah, Team Valour is basically that but instead of a knife in each hand they have pokémon. Personally, for me it was a toss-up between Instinct and Mystic, because both made good points. Mystic eventually took it, because I thought the Blue colour scheme looked better.
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