Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Its dark, you are likely to be eaten by a Grue

I’ve got a full series for you today. One that shouldn’t really need an introduction, and like Nethack, might actually be older than you. A trilogy filled with puzzles, monsters, traps, treasure, and some jokes along the way. That series is the Zork trilogy.
It could be like this, if you have IMAGINATION~
Released in 1980, 1981, and 1982, the Zork games are puzzle filled text adventures, and the main focus of each game is to find certain items to reach the end of that installment, like in the first Zork game, where you need to find the Twenty Treasures of Zork and stick them in a trophy case, only then will the way to the game’s end will be open to you.
Oh damn, its a GRUE! (holy shit this joke is so over done)
The Zork games are some of the best original text adventures, and they spawned a bunch of knock off clones when the source code got leaked. If you like text adventures, or puzzles, or maybe you’re curious about Zork from hearing about it before, then you should just dive right in to the games.
Doors open what are you waiting for?
You can get Zork one through three here or here

Friday, August 24, 2012

Kommendant Keen

Got a blast from the past coming at you! (And coincidentally, when you think about it, what really is a blast from the past? A time traveling explosion?  Sounds dangerous, but that’s beside the point). What I got for you today is Commander Keen!
That is a terrible robot design
Developed by id Software and originally released in 1990, the Commander Keen games are side scrolling plat formers with cartoony art and a comedic style to them. What plot there is something similarly simple and silly like “find the parts that were stolen from your spaceship!” or “Save all of the Earth’s major landmarks from aliens!”
Neat looking spaceship
The Commander Keen series has been joked about or referenced in numerous other video games, probably because some of the people who played it when they were kids are developers themselves now. The most notable of which is the “Dopefish”, a enemy from one of the Keen games that has been spotted in numerous other video games over the years, from Quake, to Max Payne, to Hitman, to Warcraft 3, that fish is everywhere.
So now you know where this damn fish comes from
The Commander Keen games were made in a series of trilogies, and in an attempt to get more people to buy the games, the first part of the trilogies were made shareware so people would spread those episodes around and people would get interested in the other episodes, the ones they would have to pay for. If you like platformers, cartoony graphics, or you’re nostalgic for old games, then Commander Keen might be for you.
Star date 36X206, Captains log...
You can get two seperate episodes of Commander Keen here
And you can get some music from the game here

Monday, August 20, 2012

In the future all hallways go in 90 degree angles

You better buckle up because its time for you to send a bunch of armored super soldiers off to die in some horrible twisted metal labyrinth. I’m talking about SPACE HULK. What is Space Hulk you ask? Well I’LL SHOW YOU (and by that I mean I’ll post a video someone else uploaded).

Some of you may already know of Warhammer 40K and Space Marines through 40K video games or through the table top games, and you may think “but would the crazy over the top weapons and armor make the game easy?” OH NO. Released back in 1993, Space Hulk is about squads of Space Marines going on missions in the titular space hulk, a giant mass of spaceships jammed together filled to brim with horrific aliens. The Genestealers (the horrible things that kinda look like the Xenomorph from the “Alien” movies) don’t care about things like explosions, bullets, and fire and you will most certainly be sending some of your men off to their gruesome deaths.
They dont come in peace
Unlike Alien Swarm which I already covered, this game has you directly ordering and controlling a number of guys instead of just one. In game play, troop placement is critical, as you only have so many men to cover the possible directions where the aliens could attack you from, and like the weird song in the intro video implies, you cant move any guys past each other in the narrow hallways. But seeing is better than reading, have another video.

Multiple mission types, unmapped missions, and strategy game play. If that sounds good to you, or if you’re a fan of 40K stuff, then Space Hulk might be for you. If nothing else, if you’re a fan of the board game you should know what to expect from the game.
"There was a board game?" Yes, surprisingly
You can snag Space Hulk here

Monday, August 13, 2012

The dev team really DOES think of everything...

Today I got something special. One of the most well known of all roguelikes: Nethack! Originally released way back in 1987, and its roots can be traced back to the game “Rogue” which was released in 1980, Nethack is likely older than you, and its still being worked on today.
It will still be going after you die
The goal of Nethack is to obtain the Amulet of Yendor from the beyond the Mazes of Menace, and then get out alive. If the name of the dungeon doesn’t tell you this game means business than how about the fact that there are over fifty levels to that hell hole? Nethack doesn’t screw around.

Nethack knows who you are
At the start of every new game you choose your race and class with a number of selections to pick from. Classes have the typical ones you would probably expect, such as wizard, knight, and priest, who are basically what you imagine they are but Nethack also provides stranger choices, such as archeologist who start off with scientific tools, cavemen who start with high strength but ancient weaponry, or tourists who start off with a lot of money and a camera. Races who can choose from are the basic human, and dwarves, elves, gnomes and orcs. You also choose an alignment at the start, Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic which has an effect on monsters and how hostile they are to you.
Nethack knows where you live
There is a lot to Nethack, from the randomized levels (with a few special exceptions), the cursed and blessed items, pets and Gods, you wont even see a fraction of what the game has in one go, odds are you wont see all that there is to Nethack period. What really makes Nethack is the high level of complexity and interaction in the game world. Your character can go blind, shape shift, lose limbs, then replace those lost limbs, wield dead monsters as weapons, make wishes, and starve if you don’t pay attention, and that’s really just the start.
Nethack will kill you in your sleep
Nethack uses ASCII graphics, though the option of tilesets is available if you're not into that.Whats even crazier is that Nethack can be configured so blind people can play it. I want you to think about that for a second.
...
Ok, now if any of that sounds appealing to you, you can snag Nethack here for whatever OS you use
and heres a guide for the game in general because damn this is complicated

Monday, August 6, 2012

I have no idea why the series is called "Quake"

Switching gears, here we’ve got a game that doesn’t have any puzzles at all (unless you count “how do I kill this guy before he kills me?” as a puzzle) but to be fair it is a kind of point and click. I’m talking about Quake Live, a first person shooter. Released in the summer of 2010, Quake Live is a free (obviously) version of Quake 3 and the Team Arena expansion pack that runs out of your internet browser.
Now with 100% more live Quakes
While Quake Live uses a slightly updated version of Quake 3 with some fancy new graphical stuff added like bloom (gotta have that bloom), its still mostly the Quake 3 released back in later 1999, so most computers should be able to run it, especially since you can turn down the graphics to the bare minimum if you wish. Not only does Quake Live have the original, basic game modes from Quake 3, such as Duel, Free For All, and Team Deathmatch, it also has some new stuff like Red Rover or Freeze Tag. The same speedy gameplay is there as well, with rocket and strafe jumping and all of the other movement based tricks in the engine meant to deepen the gameplay and to give you an edge over the other guy.
Standard FPS convetions apply, but thankfully Quake Live seems more interesting than THIS
Quake Live is all about competitive multiplayer, having a ranking system that allows you to play against people with the same skill level, game modes specifically for “pro” level players, and even multiple tournaments where people compete for those big stupid looking novelty checks. If you’re into that sort of thing you could get sucked into Quake Live for a long time, given how many game modes there are and the fact that there are over fifty different arenas to play in. 

Sure it sounds good so far but here's where we get to the ugly part of the post
HOW THEY TRY TO GET YOUR MONEY
Quake Live is Free to Play, it brings in cash through two sources. The first is in game advertising that plays before matches but also exists in the form of in game billboards. The second is a premium membership system with two tiers, “premium” and a more expensive “pro” level. These paid memberships allow access to yet another fifty more exclusive arenas to play in, more game modes (including the aforementioned Freeze Tag), the ability to bypass the ads that play before matches, the ability to make your own matches, and the ability to invite 5 standard players to play on premium content.
Not as bad as this, thankfully
Still, if you are willing to look past that, and are a fan of fast paced arena shooters, Quake Live might be what you’re looking for.
Seems legit
You can get Quake Live from here

Friday, August 3, 2012

"My head feels like its going to explode!"

Got one more point and click to round things off before we dive into other stuff: this time its Dark Seed! Developed back in 1992 by Cyberdreams, it featured freaky art by H. R. Giger. Yeah, the Alien guy, so you know you’re in for a ride if he‘s involved.
"Giger did stuff besides-" YES. Shut up.
I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone who hasn’t heard of Dark Seed and thinks this is worth checking out, so its rather hard to talk about the game, it being an adventure game and all. I will say that you have a limited time span in the game to get things done or you may get stuck in an unwinnable situation. The game isn’t perfect by any means and it hasn’t aged that well, and there are plenty of people out there on the net who mock the game for it.
OH GOD
Still, if you are able to look past those flaws, you may be able to appreciate the game for what it was when it was released, and you should be able to see why some people call it one of the scariest games out there. Just don’t look up the sequel though, no one needs to see that. (Unless you’re looking for a good laugh).
"Hey ya missed pal"
Ugh

You can snag Dark Seed from here
 But seriously don't bother with the sequel