Blocks. Blocks Everywhere.

 

Before we start talking about what is possibly the most successful indie game of all time, you should probably go buy it. Seriously, just do it without even thinking, because it is just that good. I don't care if you don't understand the game at first. Just trust me on this one and go throw some more money at Mojang, because they completely deserve it in every way for making such a ridiculously popular and awesome video game gold mine out of seemingly nothing.

DO NOT PIRATE THIS GAME. YOU ARE A THIEF AND A CROOK IF YOU DO, AND BY DOING SO YOU WILL PROBABLY BE GOING TO HELL OR SOMEWHERE EQUIVALENT.

Anyway...Minecraft.

Minecraft is a game that has taken not only the internet but the whole video gaming world by storm. As seemingly simple as it is, it has raked in millions and millions of dollars to the present day, and it hasn't slowed down. Aside from the previously mentioned "freedom that players receive with building and exploring" that I mentioned in Sunday's post, it also has multiplayer, map and item mods, and it's own backstory adventure contained within. 

For those that don't know about Minecraft (and if you don't, shame on you and your deprived soul), it looks very simplistic, yet it is so much more than just a blocky landscape. Everything in the world is blocks and blocky from the animals to the trees to the dirt and rocks and water. You can almost pick anything up in block form and build anything out of it like houses or pixel art. It can get a little tedious, but set a goal for yourself and keep playing and you'll find that the game is more addicting than chocolate cake is to a stereotypical fat kid.

You can build items such as armor and weapons as well as tools like pickaxes and shovels, and you'll probably want to get that done quickly because this world isn't all flowers and kindness, especially when the night falls or you venture into the dark caverns below the surface...

You'll encounter zombies, giant spiders, skeletons that shoot arrows, and pictured above, creepers, which you will learn to fear the most (aside from Endermen, but those are another story entirely that you'll have to find out for yourself). One moment of being inattentive to your surroundings, and suddenly you'll be face-to-face with one of these green, four-legged creatures. They'll hiss at you and explode after a couple seconds if you don't run or kill them right away, and if you hadn't crapped your pants in the first place from it turning up out of nowhere, then you're in luck and you'll most likely be successful. Otherwise, you're probably going to become a pile of ashes in the next split second.

Multiplayer servers have popped up everywhere as well, offering even cooler things to do like player-made games and obstacle courses. Mods can put on new textures on all the blocks, a new skin for your character, new items that do even more amazing things than the ones already in the game, and even create entirely new worlds that never existed before.

The potential of this game is mind-boggling. It doesn't seem very deep, but the wonderful community and fans surrounding this game have turned it into a classic in just over a year, and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. It gets patched every so often with more new content that is entirely free and completely worth the wait every time. I highly recommend picking up this game (it costs just over $20 USD), because if you're the creative, adventurous kind of gamer, it will surely eat up as much of your free time as you allow it.

Games On Steam You Should Be Playing (2)

 First image is unrelated. I just thought it was funny. :P

We all should know by now about Steam and how awesome it is, so let's continue on from last time about some games that you should right now throw your money at.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

There seems to be an ongoing stagnation in horror games right now, but that topic is for another day. Luckily, Amnesia: The Dark Descent has got your back. Made by Frictional Games, it will scare the pants off you, then freak you out to the point of running away and staying at the neighbor's house for a few days, just because of how petrified you feel about returning to the same house that this game resides in.

For $20, this game redefines what it means to be scared. The atmosphere and environments combined with a truly creative way of storytelling from a man with amnesia has made this game a wonderful success. With a sequel on the way, don't miss your opportunity to live out the original on it's own.

Orcs Must Die!

Another great rendition of tower defense, Orcs Must Die! is developed by Robot Entertainment. Multiple types of orcs and other monsters are trying to enter the rift, and you've been tasked with stopping them.

What I like about this game is the awesome amount of weapons and methods you get for destroying monsters. You control an apprentice in a third-person view, and you have a combination of traps, spikes, and switches to assist you in killing anything that crosses them. You can also kill them yourself using your crossbow, blowing them away with magic, or slice them with your sword. Having this spectrum of choices is what really makes this game fun, and it's definitely worth the $15, or $20 if you want all of the equally worthwhile DLC.

Terraria

Do you like building things? Do you like exploring? Do you like killing monsters? Welcome to Terraria, a game developed by Re-Logic. Aside from all of the above, you can also craft items and armor, build yourself a house with multiple rooms for the various NPCs that show up, or summon giant beasts that are so powerful that you just might need some friends to log on to help you take them down.

Not only is the multiplayer in this game wonderful, but the RPG elements alongside the freedom that players receive with building and exploring makes it a ton of fun. Whether it be working together or alone, exploring the inner dungeons and environments of this world is more than enough fun to satisfy you for $10, especially when the developers keep coming out with new, free content every once in a while.


Speaking of "freedom that players receive with building and exploring", there's one game that I'm surprised I haven't talked about yet...and while it has similarities to Terraria, it is just as, if not more fun.

Make It Pop

I'm still not talking about video games this week. I'm probably going to personally regret writing about this, but...

Pop music. Holy hell, pop music. I love to HATE it, or is it I hate to LOVE it?

One thing is for sure is that it won't be going anywhere anytime soon. It's been around in some form technically as long as we can remember. The genre has to do with pop culture, which has evolved over the course of time, so you could consider Mozart a pop music artist from around the time of the American Revolution for all I care.

Today, most know pop music by their heavier-than-average bass beats, their easy-to-remember lyrics, and most of all, their catchy-as-all-hell melodies and tunes. Not all pop music is the same, or even has these specific characteristics, but usually it's something that's always played whenever you want to "have a good time" or "party". Personally, I used to hate the living guts out of the stuff, but in retrospect, I would always find myself tapping my foot or humming the tune anyway just because the song was so catchy. Then it gets stuck in your head and you can't think of anything else and you torture yourself to forget about it and etc. etc.

Why is it though that we find these songs clogging up the popularity charts all the time?

Well, it's mostly for what I already said above. They are all catchy, easy to learn the lyrics for, and have a basic beat that anyone can tap their foot or bob their head to. The genre is designed for the widest audience out of them all, and it does what music is supposed to do best: Make you feel good. Look at the artists that everybody knows, for example. All of their albums are filled with songs that are mostly this genre, and any other songs that somehow got into the popularity charts are usually by some other band whose songs are a little more niche appeal (and those I usually like more).

I guess it's just a thing with preference. Any kind of music can make you feel good if you enjoy it, but the basic formula of a pop song appeals to our senses like no other song does. It somehow penetrates your conscious mind and makes you enjoy it even if you downright hate it. While that may be somewhat bad, you can't really complain when you're belting out the lyrics for Tik Tok while dancing back and forth in your car, all while other drivers are staring and trying not to laugh.

Regardless, for those of you that just can't stand them, I say you should at least give them a try. Don't attempt to enjoy a song that you know you hate, but just listen to a pop music radio station or something one time for an hour or two. You're bound to find at least one song that you genuinely like, after which you'll probably punch yourself in the gut for admitting that to yourself, but you'll still enjoy it nonetheless. You could even try listening to songs from previous years (they tend to drop from popularity relatively quickly after all).

Though I do find them a little obnoxious overall, I'd say this is my favorite right now:

Heh heh heh heh...

Super Heros and Super Zeros

 

Let's take a break from video games for a week. It does say above that this blog is about video games, movies, music, and video games, and I'm pretty sure there's just a little bit of variety in that list.

I'm sure a fair share of gamers also enjoy their movies, especially ones that are tailored to their overlapping interests. Geek culture does span quite the distance in many directions, and the one direction I'm referring to above is comics and superheroes. The Dark Knight was one of the greatest movies I've ever seen and in my opinion one of the greatest movies of all time.

Before I go on, I'll say that I am much, MUCH less of an expert on movies and film than I am on video games. I am a gamer first, and I am a semi-frequent moviegoer second, but I am no expert or professional. I'm merely stating what I'm seeing in front of me, and you should take it for what you will.

Remember this movie? Well, you might remember it for different reasons depending on who you are. If you're a general person wanting an action-filled superhero movie, then you probably didn't mind this movie a lot. A little rough around the edges, but you got what you came for I suppose. However, if you're a fan of The Green Lantern with knowledge of his comic book storyline and you waited with great anticipation up to the moment you saw it on the big screen, then you'll probably remember it as the worst piece of crap to ever happen to superhero movies in recent memory.

Now, both Green Lantern and The Dark Knight were made in Warner Bros. Studios, who have the rights to several of DC Comics' roster of superheroes like Batman and Green Lantern. Why is it that they can kick out a 24-karat diamond of a movie like The Dark Knight, but come around and release a pile of manure like Green Lantern? To me, my first impressions are telling me that they may not know entirely what they're doing when it comes to telling the story of a well-known superhero. There is the obvious exception in Batman, but let me go off on a tangent for a moment.

Above is probably my most anticipated movie right now, The Avengers. Over the past several years, Marvel opened up their own movie studio to only make movies about their superheroes. A handful of movies later, a plot has revealed itself for this upcoming movie, and in a nutshell, everything that happened in all the other movies so far is canon. That's right: An entire movie universe is being made of some of our favorite Marvel heroes. Not only is this the coolest damn thing ever, but every one of their movies in this series so far has received generally positive to very good reviews, so The Avengers is looking very, very good right now.

Why does this matter? Marvel is making their own movies in their own studio and essentially doing all the hard work themselves. Because they know of generally everything that's happening, the movies can keep the flavor of the heroes that we know and love and we generally enjoy them. Warner Bros. did a terrible job with Green Lantern because they very well could not have possibly understood the years of backstory and lore found in the comics. In my opinion, the reason they only seem to make decent Batman movies is because his backstory really isn't that complicated and it makes a good, dramatic movie, especially with so many well-known and compelling villains at their disposal for him to fight. That's not to say every Batman movie by them was good (remember Batman Forever?), and all Marvel films are good (Spiderman 3...ugh...) but the pattern follows for the most part. Superman is getting a reboot from his last disaster of a movie, and several lesser-known DC series were met with confusion or bad reviews as well, like The Losers from the Vertigo series or the recent Jonah Hex movie.

Either way, hopefully they can find a way to make a good superhero movie other than Batman. I do love Batman, and The Dark Knight Rises looks amazing so far, but sometimes I wish something like this would happen again...and to be honest, I don't know if it ever will...

Hey! Listen! (to this person): Ben Croshaw

I think I'll start yet another new series called "Hey! Listen! (to this person)" today. In this series, each time I will talk about somebody I find interesting to listen and pay attention to because they are either funny, awesome, intelligent, or any combination of the three.

Why? Because they are famous (on the internet and maybe moreso) for a reason and if you're a gamer and don't know about them then you are WRONG, because I want to remind everyone about their certain hatred for a certain fairy from a certain game (you know who you are), and because nothing else happened this week that interested me.

Except for a release date revelation that required me to change my pants. Twice. I'll talk about that when I'm damn well ready though.

The above video is one of the first of many, MANY others in a series known as Zero Punctuation, created solely by a man named Ben Croshaw. Most people know him by the name "Yahtzee" though, and the name of the series describes the style of the video. His game critique flies past you quickly, but it's still slow enough for you to understand and laugh at. Images are displayed along with what he's saying at any given time to assist you, and honestly, if they weren't there, he wouldn't be funny.

Yahtzee started making a couple reviews and uploading them to Youtube until he was recommended to escapistmagazine.com, and if you don't know of that website, you should fix that. For nearly 5 years now a new video review of a recent game (or whatever Yahtzee feels like if there isn't anything interesting) is released on Wednesday to the awe and rage of viewers. People have awe because they are too busy laughing at his dirty but wonderful humor, but sometimes they are stricken with rage because their favorite game just got shot down with a rail gun.

This is what I love about Yahtzee. He has said before that he is a critic first and foremost, so if he didn't point out every wriggling doubt and thing he didn't like, he wouldn't be one. His reviews are brutally honest, and that I can appreciate, because it can make even the most hardcore, level-minded fanboy of any game take a more objective look at the game they love so much. His videos are awesome if you are wanting to have a good laugh while learning a little more about the game you love or hate. The only downside about Yahtzee's videos for me personally though is that it can sometimes he is a little jaded for certain genres or game developers, like JRPGs and Nintendo. I do agree with most of what he says about them, but I think sometimes he's just a tiny bit too harsh and needs to lighten up and have some fun, but again, he's a critic, and it's what he does.


If you're interested in seeing more, head over to The Escapist's video gallery of all his videos, where you'll find over 200 (!) videos of games he's reviewed over the past 5 years. There are also a few on Youtube before he was hired, like the one below.

The World of Tomorrow

Recently, the "I-probably-talk-about-them-too-much" video game company Valve Software debunked the swirling whirlpool of rumors around every news site that they were not making their own video game console. They were merely building PCs to test out the new "big picture" interface they're making for Steam.

Obviously, the picture above is unrelated to Valve. However, the iPad does relate to this news in a way. Many of Apple's products have become a new ground for gaming with its app store, currently receiving its fifty billionth download. It's more popular than any console or PC right now, and that alone is enough to say it has relevance in gaming culture.

However, there's several games that are crossing between consoles, mobile versions, and PC. Who's to say that this can't be for all games and all developers? The PC is already a platform that is like this, but not all developers make a PC version of their games.

As we move into the future, all of our media sources are being converged to the same portable devices. All smart phones today usually have some sort of internet browser, an app store for games and helpful tools, a way to call people (it's supposed to be a phone, remember?), daily news and events, weather, traffic, e-mail, and anything else a typical workaholic needs to survive other than dispensing coffee. What if all video games from all companies and developers ran on one single console? PCs can still be there for those with a preference, but what if Wii, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3 games all played on the same plastic box?

It would certainly be good for us gamers, because no matter what flavor of games we wanted, be it M-rated and hardcore or E-rated and casual, we would only have to buy one box for them. Developers and publishers would be happier too with only one console format to learn and possibly one manufacturer to deal with. Then again, with only one box, the price would skyrocket, and it might be even worse than that considering what hell the profits would be split into, even if one company did the manufacturing.

Overall, it's an interesting concept, and with the digital cloud on the distant horizon ready to put a twist on the way we know technology, it'll be a future worth seeing.

(Or we'll all just die come December when the world ends... AHAHA. NO.)

Gaming Outside of the Box

This past holiday season, I purchased The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Sure it was expensive, but such is the case for many triple-A titles that are given all the attention they need to make them perfect. This may not seem strange to you, but I didn't purchase Skyrim for the same reason that most of everyone else did. I had barely touched The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and I had no idea of the gigantic backstory and world that I was getting myself into with the purchase of this game.

That's right. I'll admit it. I had no clue how to play an Elder Scrolls game or any previous interest in them for that matter, but I decided to pick up Skyrim just for the sole purpose of trying something new.

I like fantasy games, and I like roleplaying games. That's exactly what The Elder Scrolls series was about, yet I had barely even heard about it let alone played it. Yes, I had tried a little bit of Oblivion before, but by the time I got out of the tutorial, I was bored. Then again, I was much more naive toward games at the time, so looking back, I'm glad I gave it a second chance. Up to its release, hearing about endlessly respawning dragons and a big, expansive world for me to slice up with my sharpened weapons and explode with my conjured magic. That alone was enough to make me give it another shot.

What point am I trying to make here? Well, I'm trying to say that limiting yourself to one single game genre not only limits your sources of entertainment, but to other gamers, it could possibly make you sound and look boring. Aside from that, how do you know what you do and don't like until you've tried it? I recently tried the first Mass Effect in response to the recent release of its closing chapter, and while I really wish I had more time for it, I've loved the third-person shooter so far, and shooters are probably one of my less interesting genre of games.

I'm not saying it's not okay to be a total expert on all things Pokémon or a walking encyclopedia on World of Warcraft, but trying something new every once in a while will broaden your gaming horizons and give you something more to talk about with your fellow gamers.

Of course, limiting yourself is a good thing too, since your wallet isn't bottomless.

...and Now For Something Completely Different

Well, different if you consider what I just said about Nintendo a few weeks back.

Oh Mario Party. You've brought memorable minigames and tons of friendly partying fun over the years, but unfortunately it has suffered through the typical Nintendo trait of not sucking, but always being more of the same thing. Each of the eight games in the series can be explained with the same description of "board-game-like party game for up to four players". Just the sole fact that EIGHT GAMES in a recurring series are so similar like this is not only surprising but depressing.

Luckily, the former developer Hudson Soft got swallowed up by Konami, and the now 13 year old series has yet to see a title in the last five years, until now. To be fair though, several employees have joined up from Hudson Soft, including the former president of Hudson, so at first glance, this could turn out to be very, very good or really, really bad. However, judging by some previews that game news websites have been posting, the former case seems to be the one coming around.

There seems to be several changes to the key formula that makes it seem like a completely new game. Gone are the currencies of stars and coins, and in come the new currency of "mini-stars", which according to the news sites above, will determine the winner in the end. Also gone is the whole "board game" concept with each player having a Mario world character acting as a game piece. As seen above, all players now travel in one singular vehicle that changes depending on what stage you're playing. If it is your turn to roll the dice, you become the driver of the vehicle as it moves forward, and you take whichever rewards or punishments that are thrown at your windshield.

There are still minigames (80 new ones to be accurate), but they no longer happen automatically after each round of player dice rolls. There are now spaces for free-for-all, battle, 1v2, 1v3, and Bowser Jr. minigames where two players are teamed up to fight the mini-koopaling. In addition, there are a staggering 16 other spaces that can either benefit you or completely screw with you (though some are only found on certain stages, like a space that raises and lowers lava on a lava stage).

The most noticeable change I've read about though is the boss battles. When I first heard of this, I had no idea what was going on. Boss battles in a Mario Party game? WHAT?! Supposedly they tie in with the stages, which are no longer considered game boards as they now are long, mostly linear pathways instead of the big, exaggerated circles that players used to travel around in. There's two per stage, marking halfway points and the end of the stage. My only concern with this is the possible short length of the linear experience and the lack of "turns", but previews have said that the game they played lasted about 45 minutes, which is pretty fair, especially considering the drawn-out 50 turn games that I used to play on some of the Gamecube titles.

I'm really looking forward to this game. The Mario Party series has always been all about the minigames and the multiplayer fun, and to get some innovation into this long-lived series is exactly what it needed after a four year hiatus, and the new direction that this appears to be going in is interesting enough to have the attention of critics and fans alike.

I just hope that the drinking games that people invent are just as fun as previous ones.

Free to Play, Every Day: Spiral Knights

Welcome to another rendition of Free to Play, Every Day. This time, we have Spiral Knights, developed by Three Rings and published by none other than SEGA.

Just looking at screenshots of this game, the first thing that comes to mind is an old-school Legend of Zelda-like dungeon crawler, and you're mostly right. Dungeon crawling is a big part of this game, but as of recently, more features have been added that make the game even more fun.

Appearance

To be quite honest, the game looks a little childish. The NPCs you meet and enemies you fight range from downright cute to large and lumbering. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it hasn't stopped many games before, but it could give the typical ignorant moron the wrong impression.

Aside from that, the graphics are pretty nice. The environments tend to be a little repetitive, as many of the dungeon levels are randomly generated with certain "themes" attached, but that just makes it much more fun to explore. Each item, enemy, and NPC looks like it belongs in the world that has been laid before you, and that adds a lot to the overall experience.

Character Creation

Again, to be quite honest, the character creation is a little lackluster, and in the end, is mostly pointless for the appearance of your knight. The helmet, armor, and design you select will only last until you replace the gear pieces with better equipment (although you can transform pieces to look like other pieces; more on that later). Your personal color will be what mostly sets you apart from other knights aside from your name, and it gives all the gear you will ever wear a touch of whatever color you select. I'm pretty sure you can change it at will through some item exchange process, so whatever floats your boat works.

Overall, you'll look like all the other knights in the world. The gear you'll acquire has more variety than the character creation models, but not by a whole lot at the moment. Although I would like a lot more customization options, you are able to mix and match whatever you want, and having a simpler system like this allows there to be a smaller barrier of entry.

 

User Interface

There are quite a bit of menus in Spiral Knights, but they are very organized and easy to use. In the upper left are your typical Settings, Help, Mail, and Friend List buttons, and the upper right has your minimap. Attached to the minimap are several other buttons for your inventory (which is nicely sorted for all of your materials and weapons), your character's equipment window, and two other buttons that aren't pictured above for player-vs.-player games and equipment sets. Below the map is a list of missions that the game gives you, and in the bottom right is your energy meter, which the entire game practically revolves around. Your average chat box is also in the lower left, in case you didn't notice it before.

In combat in a dungeon, the interface stays mostly the same except for a health bar that appears at the bottom of the screen. If it reaches zero, you must either be revived by a party member, revive yourself by spending energy, or leave the dungeon.

Gameplay

This one's a doozy. There are several things you can do in Spiral Knights, but the main feature of the game has always been dungeon crawling. You meet several different types of enemies on the way, and even a few bosses. You can have two weapons equipped, or up to four if you buy special slot items, and you attack by left clicking. From swords to guns, bombs to rapiers, each weapon is mostly unique when they are powered up to their maximum potential through crafting. Crafting itself is a bit large, but basically you collect or buy materials and craft weapons and armor by spending in-game currency called crowns combined with energy.

Speaking of which, energy is an integral part of this game. You have a meter that caps at 100 energy, and it refills completely every 22 hours. There is another meter for crystal energy, or energy that you can buy either with real money or with crowns and store it for use when you run out of your regular energy. Many gates and items can only be accessed by acquiring and spending crystal energy, and each new floor in a dungeon requires you to pay 10 energy to move forward, so learning how to play the auction house and earning crowns is very important, unless you want to free up some of the cash hiding in your wallet.

Other than dungeon crawling, there are PvP games and quest-like missions. Currently there are two match types for PvP: a territory control game and a game that is exactly like Bomberman. Just that one alone makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, because Bomberman was ridiculously awesome, and it's PvP! With Bomberman! Holy crap! 

 

Missions are very new and I haven't tried them a whole lot, but so far they seem like a good way to teach new players and to give veterans achievements to work towards. They seem like a cross between your typical World of Warcraft quest and the tutorial found in League of Legends where it runs you through each feature in the game one at a time.

 

The controls are fairly straightforward. You can either use both mouse buttons to walk in the direction of your cursor, or you can learn what everybody else is doing and use your WASD keys. Arrow keys work too, but there's nothing compared to the efficient method of WASD-ing.

 

Summary

Spiral Knights can turn into a very big time sink if you enjoy the gameplay that it offers. The dungeon crawling is fun and the recently added missions and PvP give the game enough of a twist to keep you coming back. It looks and plays great for a free cartoon-like game. The experience can feel a little repetitive at times, but every free MMO has a little bit of grinding here and there, and grinding is essentially the work you must do towards the goal you set for yourself. Even if you don't really like dungeon crawling or even grinding, the management of your crowns and crystal energy gives you a feeling of accomplishment when you figure out an efficient exchange and you're able to play continuously. Go try it out and see for yourself on Steam (which is still awesome, by the way).

Oh, and it has awesome music. AWESOME. MUSIC.