No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow.
Friday, May 10
Oh My Stars, There's Another One
Amid all the random craziness and angst that makes up my life these days, there's a steady drip of light in the form of brick-based role-playing-strategy-gamey-things.
The aptly named Cube World. No idea when it's coming out.
Fifteen months ago, I was looking forward to only two games - Mass Effect 3 (which EA managed to fuck up, though not irredeemably), and Torchlight II, which was pretty good, though I remember the first more fondly.
Since then, we've had a new XCOM game, EA has announced, launched, and irrevocably ruined SimCity - to the point where the major feature announced for The Sims 4 is that it will be single player - I've discovered KairoSoft, and Kickstarter has exploded onto the indie gaming landscape like a big bomb made of money. Starboundis on its way, and Terraria has been revivified. Kerbal Space Program is amazing, but requires more time than I have (which is zero) to really get anywhere. We've got four major new isometric party-based single-player role-playing games on the way, with the first (Shadowrun) due next month.
And now we have these voxel-based games like Stonehearth and Cube World which take a fascinating tack, using the absurd amounts of graphics power that we have at our disposal today (you can get 1.8 TFLOPS for less than $150) to make games that manage to look endearingly retro and fluid and engaging at the same time. I can't wait for them to come out so that I can not have time to play them either.
Oh, and here's the gameplay trailer for Stonehearth, without the talky bits.
Bunny!
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Friday, May 03
Wombat!
4:09
The game is apparently in a very early state (despite appearances); the developers estimate there's a good 16 months of work before release. With any luck the millions of dollars they raise over the next few days will help speed things along.
The Starbound pre-order has passed the meelion-dollar mark and bagged all three stretch goals set so far (a new alien race, alien fossils, and alien starter pets). No telling yet what else may be in store, but the development team - some of whom had taken second jobs in order to keep things going - are apparently still slightly dizzy from their unexpected success.
The Torment2: Tidy Numerology Kickstarter Drive Bonus Paypal Round hasn't quite tipped the project over the $4.5 meelion dollar mark for the final stretch goal - an in-game Fortress of Tormentitude player stronghold. But it got pretty darn close, and with (apparently, significantly) lower than average payment failure rates, inXile have deemed their fundedness sufficient to add that particular fig to the pudding anyway.
Since these are two of the games I'm most looking forward to, this news is most welcome.
Oh, and Futurama got cancelled again. But it had a decent run in the end.
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Conents May Settle During Shipping
Your mileage may vary. Barooina brand Puppy Chow may not contain actual puppies. Do not taunt happy fun Kerbal.
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Saturday, April 20
Shiny Things Weekly
Toshiba's Kirabook: It's a 13.3" Windows 8 (but let's not hold that against it) ultrabook, with a Core i5 or i7 processor, 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, a 2560x1440 display, and weighs 2.6lbs (or 2.9lbs with the touch screen option). That makes it a Macbook Pro competitor that's lighter than the Macbook Air. It's not cheap - starting at $1599 for the i5 model without touchscreen - but if you're sick of bargain-bin 1366x768 displays, it may be quite literally a sight for sore eyes.
Australia's NBN to roll out gigabit speeds. The NBN rollout has been pathetically, miserably slow; they don't even have a plan to deploy it where I live yet. But at least the speeds where it has been deployed are good. And if it actually rolls out at 1Gbps on schedule, I will move to it rather than waiting for it to come to me. (I work from home most of the time now, so fast and reliable internet access matters more than location.)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Sunday, April 21 2013 12:17 AM (+rSRq)
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By the way, I'd like to comment on the utter lack of spam around here these days. Whatever you did that last time to the filter was miraculous. Very well done!
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Sunday, April 21 2013 10:08 AM (+rSRq)
Starbound has opened up pre-orders! That's usually not that big a deal, but in this case (a) it's a successor to the much-loved Terraria, being put together on a tight budget by a tiny studio, and extra money now could really help make the game better, and (b) they're running with Kickstarter-style stretch goals - when they reach $500,000, for example, they'll add a new alien race. At the time of writing, they've been going for a little over a day - on a weekend, too - and have reached $370,000, so it's looking good. Update: $500,000 reached, new race - Novakids - are in, next goal is alien fossils at $750,000.
Darkout. It's on Desura, GamersGate and Steam Greenlight. It's not pixel-art (the style of Terraria and Starbound), but it's still a little cartoonish; I think the art style works well for a slightly more serious game. Take a look at the trailer and see what you think.
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Starbound preordered. Hopefully it'll be at least as good as Terraria!
Posted by: RickC at Tuesday, April 16 2013 11:56 AM (WQ6Vb)
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It looks like it may even be better than Terraria. If it has a Linux server (very likely, since there's a Linux client) I'll set up a multiplayer instance here at mee.nu.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, April 17 2013 04:22 PM (PiXy!)
Sorry little green dude, I haven't worked out how to attach parachutes yet. But your epic journey 440km above the surface of planet Kerbin will not be forgotten, even if we never find your scattered remains.
Update: My improved Up Goer 2B reached 680km and is equipped with a parachute. I just need to remember to open it around 23km of altitude....
Update: Patience and practice and lots of solid-fuel boosters, and I can now make a stable orbit fairly reliably even if my primary stage goes flaky on me. Right now I have a Munar flyby lined up - my orbit will take me close enough that I'll be pulled to within 500km of the Munar surface, before being slingshotted back into a Kerbin orbit. From there I should even have enough fuel left to deorbit and land. Here I go!
Update: A little careful nudging and I'll be coming to within 50km5km of the Munar surface... As long as nothing goes wrong. If something does go wrong, Cmdr. Dudsen Kerman will be the first Kerbal on the Mun. Or bits of him, anyway.
Update: Success! Munar flyby and return landing accomplished! I guess the next step will be to make Munar orbit, then break orbit and return. I want to refine my vehicle first, though, so its a bit less fally-aparty.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, April 09 2013 09:50 AM (PiXy!)
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Aha! I see you listened to me
My poor^D^D^D^D intrepid crew are still stranded in a low Kerbal orbit with no fuel to deorbit with. So far my attempts to learn how to rendezvous a rescue vehicle have been less than successful.
It's also available on Steam now, FWIW.
Posted by: Artee at Tuesday, April 09 2013 12:50 PM (24day)
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Yep, I fired it up for the first time last night.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, April 09 2013 01:50 PM (PiXy!)
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I'd just like to mention that "Up Goer" is a wonderful name for a space ship.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Saturday, April 13 2013 02:53 AM (+rSRq)
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Of course, all xkcd references are wonderful examples of what they are.
Posted by: Mikeski at Saturday, April 13 2013 03:20 PM (DU6Ja)
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On The Daily WTF, xkcd comic images will be replaced by mods with a picture of Helen Thomas (or someone, I forget who exactly.)
Interestingly, the Time XKCD is still going.
Posted by: RickC at Sunday, April 14 2013 08:00 AM (WQ6Vb)
Would anyone like a copy of Civilization V, Torchlight, or Trine on Steam? I just noticed that I acquired free bonus copies somehow. Also Serious Sam HD, Frozen Synapse, Cthulhu Saves the World, and Breath of Death VII.
Update: Civ V goes to GreyDuck, Trine to Wonderduck.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Monday, April 08 2013 05:35 AM (9jITs)
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GreyDuck, email me at help@mee.nu with your Steam username.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Monday, April 08 2013 02:27 PM (PiXy!)
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I think after I sunk my weekend into Temple of Elemental Evil, following the GOG link in the previous post, you basically owe me Torchlight
Posted by: Kian at Tuesday, April 09 2013 02:24 AM (1riL7)
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I'm trying to remember if I said "thank you" or not. Since I can't remember, it's fairly safe to assume I didn't.
THANK YOU! Trine is, indeed, interesting. As with most platformers, I suck at it, but I'm getting better.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Wednesday, April 10 2013 12:14 PM (9jITs)
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Mini-review of Trine: it's good, but each level is just THAT MUCH too long. Like, if the perfect length of time to complete a swingy-jumpy-fighty level is 20 minutes, Trine's levels take 23 minutes, 18 seconds.
The game is GORGEOUS.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Thursday, April 18 2013 01:51 PM (9jITs)
I just found nine separate Doctor Who "minisodes" that I hadn't seen before. There are five that make up a sequence called Night And The Doctor, plus two two-part specials, for Red Nose Day 2011 (with Amys and Rorys) and Children in Need 2012 (with Madame Vastra, Jenny, and Strax - a prequel to the Christmas Special).
You'll need to hunt around for Night and the Doctor - or just take the easy way and buy the DVD set, which includes it as a bonus - but the charity benefit specials are on the BBC's Youtube channel. And so:
Also:
Which might be a spoiler if you haven't seen the 2012 Christmas special.
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Thursday, March 21
Squee!
My Kickstartled copy of Erfworld and accompanying red dwagon plushie arrived today. And I just discovered - before it was too late, for a change - this:
We need to get this to $1 million and hold him to that Jurassic Park pledge.
Numenera itself was extremely successful; asking for $20k to get his pet project off the ground, veteran game designer Monte Cook ended up with, well, this:
Now, even before the game rules are complete, he's got a computer game tie-in. They're asking for an ambitious $900,000. How are they going on that? This is how:
You’ve got to be freaking kidding me!! We just funded in six hours!?!?!
Sometimes people aren't as dumb as other times.
Which means that we, the rabid fans of good quality stuffs everywhere, in just a few months have successfully Kickstartled both a spiritual successor and an actual successor to one of the best games of all time.
Okay....Can we get a true turn-based fantasy strategy game patterned after Master of Magic, instead of the alternatives the world has to endure for the better part of the last two decades?
Or maybe a true science-fiction/space opera turn-based/turn-based-like CRPG? Or one that is not related to Star Wars.
On the other hand, Torment will probably break their just-announced two million dollar stretch in a few hours. Heck, they apparently beat the Ouya Kickstarter for the 'fastest time to reach the one million mark'...
C.T.
Posted by: cxt217 at Friday, March 08 2013 12:29 PM (3sPDg)
2Master of Magic itself with updated graphics would be fine.
This is inXile's second hugely successful Kickstarter (the first was for Wasteland 2, a little under a year ago), and Obsidian, who were facing financial problems, also had a big success with Project Eternity. Shadowrun also got nearly $2m, making it four big isometric CRPGs in the pipeline. Grim Dawn (a post-apocalyptic steampunk ARPG from the developers of Titan Quest) got $500k. And Elite: Dangerous and Planetary Annihilation both got over $2m.
So with the right names attached to the project, the chances are pretty good, better than they've been for the past 20 years, anyway.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Friday, March 08 2013 04:42 PM (PiXy!)
Gold Box games with HD graphics and isometric view would be great too, but that is asking a bit much. The Buck Roger XXVc CRPGs, using the Gold Box system, were probably the best scifi/space opera CRPG games I played, though.
I am a bit annoyed I missed out on the Elite: Dangerous campaign, if for no other reason than The Dark Wheel sequel that will come with it (Yes, I have a copy of the novella by the late Robert Holdstock from my Firebird copy of Elite.). With Wasteland 2, Shadowrun, and Project Eternity (As well as Dreamfall Chapters and now Torment, currently running.), it will be interesting once the games actually start shipping. At the very least, the Kickstarter games can not be any worse then a publisher-funded reboot like XCOM - which is another example of Firaxis muddling the development of a game with high ambitions. I really hope they will never reboot Alpha Centauri, for fear of what they will do to my favorite PC game of all time.
(Yes, I have been playing XCOM. How did you know?)
C.T.
Posted by: cxt217 at Saturday, March 09 2013 07:22 AM (3sPDg)
Wow! I did not look at the Elite: Dangerous Kickstarter page too closely before, because I would have notice the tier level where they offer a sequel to 'The Dark Wheel' novella that shipped with the original Elite.
Hmmm....That makes me dangerously eager to pledge, though how Kickstarter will handle the different currency from the dollar is another matter....
And finally - RIP Robert Holdstock.
C.T.
Posted by: cxt217 at Friday, January 04 2013 03:06 PM (or2/m)
As if GOG and Humble Bundle weren't providing me with enough games I don't have time to play.
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Wednesday, December 19
Expectations Exceeded
So on the 14th (Billy time) my little village joined the Ninja World War. At the time we had all of the upgrades available to us - 25 in all - as there's only so much you can do until you start fighting the Ninja War with other Ninja Villages.
On the 15th, I said:
8 upgrades in two days. So far.
There are 18 more upgrades we can buy while we stay safe in Tier 1. At our current rate, that will only take 4 or 5 days.
So let's do that, then get our Natural Resource Facility and join the big boys! (And girls.)
But plans change, and on the 16th:
Bought Natural Research Facility, Elemental Harmony! We've moved up from the Little League now.
On the morning of the 15th, I predicted 18 more upgrades in 4 or 5 days. Now, on the afternoon of the 19th the actual tally is 38. We set a crazily ambitious target and then more than doubled it.
Our daily announcement says it all:
Daily News (19 Dec): Please Collect. No Kaiju or Zombjas yet, that might not happen until tomorrow, sorry. Bought: Ninja Ambassadors, Medical Ninja Facility, Tunnel System, Elemental Shield, Special Forces (Genjutsu), Special Forces (Ninjutsu). Jonin and higher have access to S-Rank missions! Plus we should be significantly harder to invade now. Kaiju Upgrade: Needle Pits. Yesterday's drop: Hacksaw. Drop winners: Hypozeuxis. Raffle winner: Naksho. Raffle list: brikmuppet - 5, Dahemo - 4.
Yesterday's News (18 Dec): Please Collect and kill the kaiju! Bought: Verdant Fields, Temple of the Four Winds, Black Market, Invasion Defense, Ninja Beach, Nonja Lab, Television Studios, Summoning Circle, Lemonade Stand. We have Flower Wars and Mahjong! Kaiju upgrade: Wasteland Highway. Today's summon: Dakralai. Yesterday's drop: Tire Tracks. Drop winners: Hypozeuxis, Carrot 6. Raffle winner: Naksho. Raffle list: brikmuppet - 5.
So come join us! We have Burger Ninja and Pizza Witch, Hanafuda and Mahjong, Kaiju and Zombjas, BillyTV and BillyCon, Crafting and Summoning, Claw Machines and Darts, and Ramen and Lemonade!
Fractal Village: Because reasons.
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Monday, December 17
Memetic Plague Warning
(And yeah, I've heard about Psy's earlier, idiotic and repugnant lyrics. That sort of thing is why I appreciate artists for their art, and not for their political views. Also, was it windy here last night or what? My laundry basket is at the bottom of my garden; last night it was on the back porch.)
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I think it's a good thing she's fast, because I'd think that that routine would be immensely annoying to fellow competitors. Being a winner makes a lot of those obnoxious habits acceptable.
Having said that... fwoar!
Posted by: Wonderduck at Wednesday, December 19 2012 11:01 AM (cymHZ)
