Wednesday, December 31, 2014

2014 Wrap-up

There wasn't really a game I thought was deserving of being called the best game of the year until december month, when I finally played Transistor. Oh, my, Transistor. Oh my. Well, to be fair, I did miss out on a lot of games this year which I wanted to play. In fact, I believe that if I were to have made a prediction at the beginning of the year as to what games would make it to my top ten, I think a lot of them would have consisted of games I've barely touched upon. The Witness would be there for sure (which didn't see the light of day 2014 - better luck next year Jon, I'm sure we'll be BLOWn away!) The Vanishing of Ethan Carter seemed very promising too, although I don't think I actually knew about the game a year ago, and decided on playing it when it hits the PS4 with a friend instead of playing it with low fidelity on my pc. Then there's the Dreamfalls, The Wolves Among Us, the Walking Deads, the Kentucky Route Zeros - episodals which I haven't played because I'd rather do them all in one go when they're a wrap. Both The Longest Journey and The Dream Machine have taken many years to finish, and I've decided that waiting is better than playing a bit here and there.

Dragon Age Inquisition is another game that would have made the top ten prediction, although by now I've accepted that I won't be playing that type of game much more anyway - sad but true. I'm opting out of the 50hour+ games, and going for stuff such as Consortium and Unrest for my rpg fixes. Shadowrun too, for next year. Well, sure, I'll be playing Pathologic and the new Planescape game, which will both be very long games, but mainly I'm just opting out of games which have a lot of filler and to me meaningless violence/gameplay. Perhaps it's no coincidence that two of this years biggest disappointments for me have been The Banner Saga and Wasteland 2 - both oldschool computer RPGs which I helped kickstart. The Banner Saga was simply too epic for me, too abstract, with too little emotion. It has the same problem as had the "Choice of" games, which seemed very interesting to begin with (interactive novels which lots of choices, yey!) but then got me not caring at all about the characters and my motives. Wasteland 2 on the other hand... well, I did play 40+ hours of it, almost finished it actually. But it just wasn't worth it. I know I love those types of games and just using them as escapism, but it wasn't a memorable experience in the end. It gets an honorable mention, basically.

Perhaps I should be skeptic when it comes to my hopes for the old-school pc rpgs that are coming in 2015, but I can't help myself. Pillars of Eternity and Torment: Tides of Numenera are two of the games I'm looking forward to the most next year. Then there's the aforementioned The Witness, the PS4 exclusive Everybodys Going to the Rapture, the X360 exclusive Ori and the Blind Forest and Quantum Break, the remakes Grim Fandango and Majoras Mask, the follow-up Metal Gear Solid 5, the question marks Sail Home, Outer Wilds, Gorogoa and Life is Strange, the kickstarter successes Pathologic (O_M_G!), Ice-Bound (by my favorite creator of interactive fiction, Aaron Reed), That Dragon Cancer, The Sun Also Rises, Epanalepsis, Moon Hunters, the kickstarter non-successes To Azimuth, The Black Glove (Bioshock without combat encounters), and Late to The Party (same guys that made Unrest).

So anyway, speaking of being late to parties, I gotta go. Here's the list of my favorite video games for this year.


2014

Missed Out On, Want To Play
[R]espawn
Amphora
Bayonetta 2
Beeswing
Blood & Laurels
Broforce/Expendabros
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
Chariot
Consortium
Contact Cowboy
Donald Dowell
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Dragon Age Inquisition/Dragon Age Keep
Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey - Episode 1
Game of Thrones (Telltale Games)
Goat Simulator
ibb & obb (Sparpweed)
Hidden in Plain Sight
Kentucky Route Zero: Act III/Here And There Along The Echo
Marginalia
Mario Kart 8
Quora
Screencheat
Shadowrun: Nightmare Harvest
Shadowrun Returns: Dragonfall – Directors Cut
Speedrunners
Soul Axiom
Super Smash Bros
Tales from the Borderlands: Episode One - Zer0 Sum
Tennnes
The Deer God
The Sensational December Machine
The Talos Principle
The Terror Aboard The Speedwell (Javy Gwaltney)
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter/The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Prequel Mini-Comic
The Wolf Among Us: Season 1
The Walking Dead: Season 2
Thief Town
Void & Meddler
Framed
The Sailor's Dream
Republique
Revolver360 Re:Actor
Honorable Mentions
// / I’m Really Sorry About That Thing I Said When I Was Tired and/or Hungry (Deirdra Kiai)
02:22AM/Text and Drive: Friendship Never Dies (Albert Lai)
4PM
A City Sleeps
Among the Sleep
Arboretum (Matthew S. Burns)
Bezier (Philip Bak/Niine Games)
Cave! Cave! Deus Videt – Episode 0
Crawl
Cyborg Goddess (Kara Stone, Kayte McKnight)
East van EP/Oracle (ceMelusine)
Echo of the Wilds (Anthony Case)
Error City Tourist/Black Pyramid/Abstract Ritual (Strangethink Software)
Five Nights at Freddy's (Scott Cawthon)
Geometry Wars 3: Dimensons
Girls Like Robots: Nerdfest
Grim Express
Initation/The Way of Yiji (Schizoid)
Lethal League
Level 2 The Virus Master
Luftrausers
NaissanceE
Neverending Nightmares
On August 11, A Ship Sailed into Port (Cameron Kunzelman)
Project Temporality
Rehearsals and Returns
Sleep When Exhausted (Benjamin Willems)
Spelunky
Starwhal: Just the Tip
The Lion's Song (LeafThief)
The Banner Saga
The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo (Michael Lutz)
Three Fourths Home/Letters to Babylon
Tradesmarksville (Molleindustria)
Universal History of Light/The Serpent/The Transgression/Happy Memories/wear & tear/Place and Time/ Vigil (increpare)
Wasteland 2
You Won't Tell Anyone, Right? (Oxeren)
Zest (Richard Goodness)

Close Calls
Broken Age: Episode 1
Chyrza/daymare #1: "ritual"/Dust City (Kitty Horrorshow)
Dog of Dracula 2: Cyber Monogatari
Elegy for a Dead World
hets (ditto)
Journal (Richard Perrin)
Laza Knitez!!
Monument Valley
Octodad: Dadliest Catch
South Park: The Stick of Truth
Sportsfriends
The Journey Down: Chapter Two
Year Walk

10 Bernband (Tom van den Boogaart)

9 P.T (Silent Hills Playable Teaser)

8 Niddhogg (Messhof)

7 Shovel Knight

6 You Were Made For Loneliness (Tsukareta)

5 Towerfall: Ascension

4 Glitchhikers (Silverstring Media)

3 Jazzpunk

2 Unrest

1 Transistor






Tuesday, December 30, 2014

30/12


A theme ought to be omnipresent but subtle. If the audience can identify the theme easily then it's too over-the-top. If there's unanimous consensus about the theme then it's also over-the-top. A theme is like the body language of the work. It should give a strong impression to those paying close attention while operating on a subconscious level in most cases.

A theme is not a moral. It's an open question, not a conclusion. It needs to be an open question because an entire work of fiction needs to be created in its service.
http://kasavin.blogspot.se/2011/12/developing-themes-in-games.html

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The Game Design of Tinder & Online Dating | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Shpx1O88f04

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Extra Credits - Snakes and Ladders - How the Meaning of an Ancient Children's Game Adapted Over Time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzLYKY1nPsY

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Anti-War War Games
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-228auScq1g

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23 Ways Gaming Makes You a Better Person | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsF68eEyyXs

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Extra Credits - Global Games: Norway - The Challenges of Norwegian Game Companies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYyzKbXebsE

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Why Do You Still Play Smash Bros.? | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vO-MNP0itT4

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Mass Effect lost its way. It could have been a series that really explored these notions of morality, humanity, artificial intelligence, and merging with technology. And it really does hit so many amazing character and story beats—while Mass Effect has the greatest sense of world-building, I fell most in love with the cast of Mass Effect 2. And I credit Mass Effect 3 for achieving a sense of epic scale, urgency, and drama. It delivers well on its “galaxy at war” premise, making you feel like you’re at the head of a massive operation to save life as we know it. It also has some of the most stunning cinematic production values I’ve ever seen in a video game—let’s just say I was not expecting what happened on Tuchanka.

But in the end, the glue that ties a story and its characters together is the writing and the themes, the stuffing between the lines and all that hums in the subtext. And that part of it was sadly fumbled, regardless of how much fun I was having with all the side stories and character vignettes.
http://www.videogameheart.com/daily/shepard-among-the-machines/

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After four years of talking with all these versions of myself, the long-distance aspect of my relationship came to an end. My girlfriend and I moved in together. I don’t travel as much anymore—only on holidays to see the folks—and so I had no use for my passengers anymore. I didn’t need their voices or, at least, my awareness of their voices. I made an effort not to think about them.

That is, until I played Glitchhikers.
http://antagonizethehorn.com/2014/11/29/you-are-never-alone-an-essay-on-glitchhikers/