I’m playing: No Man’s Sky – quick thoughts and shots

Posted at 14:29 on 13 August 2016 | Add Comment |

Apparently some people have been having trouble running NMS, but I’m not one of them. It’s very close to what I expected it would be, and for now at least it has me completely riveted. A space exploration game with combat pushes all my buttons but, though I love the idea of it, I’ve never been able to get into something like EVE Online, because of the huge commitment of time that it requires.

I don’t expect to be riveted to NMS for the next two years, although there are changes they could make that would certainly cause that. What I want from it, after the initial shine has worn off, is a game I can pick up and play any time I have a spare half hour for some warping space exploration. So far it seems that it will deliver in this regard.

Right now I still put every spare moment into it, but in the meantime here are some screenshots. (more…)

Posted under Games, I'm playing, No Man's Sky, Pictures, Reviews

That went well

Posted at 00:20 on 14 June 2016 | Add Comment |

Over the last few months I’ve been putting every spare night I could manage into developing the client for the AGS Awards ceremony 2015. Being that all these chunks of dev time didn’t add up to that many, it took me a fair few missed deadlines to complete the client, but this week I finally went from alpha to RC, and about five minutes after that we held the ceremony. There were quite a few features I had in mind but no time for, and even some that the older client had that I didn’t get around to, but the ceremony itself went very well, especially considering the political strife surrounding the awards this year. There is a recording of the event here, incidentally made by one of the award winners.

So now that I’ve been so diligently working in my spare time, I’m hoping some of that motivational momentum can continue at least until I release my next game. I apologise for being a bad blogger. Truth is that I don’t like to talk about my games very much while I’m making them, but since I brought it up I’ll say one word: Space. I think I might call it ████████ ███, but that might be only a working title.

In terms of blog content, I have also been working on a post about Star Wars (the late Star Wars?), but I don’t want to post it until I have the correct imagery to describe how much of a hack Abrams is. Maybe a black hole that sucks in the best franchises and spews out nothing but half-digested action films? No. Maybe a drunk who is mistaken for an editor because he fell asleep on wet newspaper.

Posted under AGS, Future plans, Games

Postcards from the Commonwealth

Posted at 00:49 on 19 December 2015 | Add Comment |

Well, not long after the mission in my previous post, I finished the main story. I’ll formulate my thoughts and provide a review at some point, but until then I’ll put some more work in scrounging for X-01 armour and adhesive in the Commonwealth.

To get back to our topic: Proctor Pangaea of Indie-games had an interesting idea with Postcards from the Wasteland [now offline], and I felt it was good enough to rip off:

(more…)

Posted under Fallout 4, Games, Pictures

I’m playing: Fallout 4 – Glorious Battle

Posted at 19:02 on 18 December 2015 | 2 Comments |

I’m milling about Sanctuary, counting companions, because I’ve misplaced Piper. Somewhere from the white noise of the settlers’ babbling, the information that The Castle is being attacked percolates onto my screen as a note. I’m lucky to notice this because, like too many notes of the same kind, it’s only there for three seconds and then lost forever.

The bell has gathered the residents of Sanctuary into such an impressive gathering that I feel a little guilty for having nothing important to say. I’ve simply mislaid my lover again. I’m in no mood to hear Paladin Danse having a boner every time I do an impact landing, so Strong and I sprint over to the Red Rocket, where I store my power armour. All I’m missing now to have a complete set of X-01 armour is a right leg, and I’d never used it before. So while it was risking overkill, this seemed like a good opportunity to test it. I get into the X-01. “Human look like robot,” Strong ruminates. It’s satisfying turning on the eye lights.

(more…)

Posted under Fallout 4, Games, I'm playing

Rockstar just sold me their last game

Posted at 23:53 on 2 November 2015 | Add Comment |

I’ve been a fan of grand theft auto for a long time. I played all the previous iterations until I had squeezed every bit of satisfaction from it. The only reason I ever owned any modern console was because GTA was released there first. Yes, I’ll drive a Vigero just for the way it looks, and drive a Comet smashed beyond recognition as long as it can still turn in at least one direction.

GTAV improved on IV in pretty much every way, except the story is half the length it should be. This was done so that people will grind out the second half of the story in GTA Online. I don’t know what the second half of the story is about, but I’m fairly certain it has something to do with waiting for other players to connect.

(more…)

Posted under Games, I'm playing, Reviews

I’m Playing: UFO Explorer

Posted at 20:47 on 4 October 2015 | Add Comment |

From the depths of the Unity engine, and the ##Indie-Games IRC channel on FreeNode, comes UFO Explorer, a game of skill, speed, and finesse.

The first release for Double Finger Play Games Studio, UFO Explorer has you navigating extraterrestrial caverns haunted by alien machines in a UFO modified to use rockets as its propulsion. Pressing right will activate the right-side rocket, causing you to go left, the opposite is true when pressing left. This inverted control scheme is the first level of difficulty to UFO Explorer, but I was surprised how quickly one adapts to it. (more…)

Posted under Games, I'm playing, Reviews

I’m Playing: The Long Dark [sandbox alpha]

Posted at 00:19 on 19 September 2015 | Add Comment |

It’s cold outside. Relatively speaking that’s a good thing, much better than some of the other common weather conditions: Freezing, and frozen. Successive attacks by the same wolf have left much of my clothing in rags, useless against the weather, so I have to move quickly.

It’s three or four hours into the night. Visibility zero. I would never be out in the dark, except I’ve been starving and if I go to sleep I may not wake up again. So, as is often the case in The Long Dark, you abandon all plans and do whatever you can think of to survive the next few hours. (more…)

Posted under I'm playing, Reviews
1 2 3 4