A Great Gatsby game?!?!?! A game based on the worst book ever… I can’t even put in to words how furious this makes me. If someone I know buys this, I will make it my life’s purpose to destroy you.
I mean, hell.. the book is nothing more than subpar alcoholic ramblings, which for some reason unbeknownst to me is lauded as a “literary masterpiece”. How a point-and-click adventure game is being made from this baffles me. There are enough vapid people you can deal with in your day-to-day life, why would anyone choose to but a game where all you do is interact with vapid people?
If I haven’t mentioned it enough, I am a HUGE fan of Team Fortress 2. Not only is the game balanced (for the most part), but it is done in a tongue-in-check way that doesn’t take itself to seriously. TF2 focuses on being fun first, and everything else falls in to place.
Sadly, TF2 on the Xbox 360 is no where near the amazing experience it is on the PC. It has yet to be updated from the initial launch of the game, which means all of the new weapons, class balancing, maps, and rule sets are missing on the console version. It is also prone to people cheating, and if you can find a match, it will be a test or your patience. There was a video I saw that restored my faith in class-based shooters on a console:
Monday Night Combat, by Uber Entertainment, looks strikingly similar to TF2. There are multiple classes, each with strengths and weaknesses. It is light-hearted, and for all intents and purposes is a re-skinned TF2…. and I am fine with that. I would love to have a great class-based shooter on the 360.
The one thing that Uber needs to make sure they do is push updates to players for new content. If I have to pay $5 for every update, I am going to leave this game by the wayside and go turn on my PC, where I get all the TF2 updates freely. Games like this require constant tweaking and regular rollouts of new additions to keep the game fun and balanced. If Uber treats MNC like Valve treated the console version of TF2, it will become the same wasteland that TF2 is now.
(And yes, I realize that Valve wanted to put out free updated for TF2 and Microsoft wouldn’t let them distribute the content for free at the time.)
I LOVEPlants vs Zombies. It takes the concept of a tower defense game and executes it almost perfectly. If you haven’t played it yet, I suggest you download the demo now (unless you like being productive… then I suggest you stay as far away from this game as you can.)
I mean, look at the zombicide I was creating the other day
Plus, with a theme song like this, how can you not love the game?
I decided to boot up the windows side of my laptop last night, and noticed there were two games available for cheap on Steam. These are Episodes 1 and 2 of the Penny Arcade point & click adventure game. Both games are available now for $4.99 each! That means you can get two quality games for just under $10.
I grew up playing games like Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max, and Maniac Mansion. The PA games fall right in line with the games of my youth. There is a great mixture of humor and storytelling, some puzzle solving, and a polished user experience. If you are looking for a new game to play, I would strongly suggest you pick these up.
One of my instructors at DAAP, @artiekuhn, had told us that scores in a game should always be large enough to make the player feel like they are accomplishing something. I agree.. getting +100 every time you kill a bad guy is much more rewarding than getting +1.
The scoring system in Dishwasher: Dead Samurai takes this notion to the extreme:
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