Look at him. Look at how happy he is. He’s beaming! I’m pretty happy too. I could sing some Gilbert and Sullivan, I’m so happy. I’m not going to. I don’t sing Gilbert and Sullivan because I find that stuff annoying, but since this level made me feel like the monarch of the sea, I could
Artifact Hunter. That’s today’s level. Excuse me while I sigh contendedly and say, it’s beautiful. Beautiful. It’s a simple platformer puzzle level. It’s all about triggering hidden chambers and finding treasures. Actually, no…that’s incorrect. The gameplay is about that, I suppose. For me this level is about texture and music. It just feels right to me. It’s not overly challenging, but it is evocative. Not in a profound way, but in a comforting way. Especially after some of the levels I’ve dipped into recently. Levels like this make me want to try out more of the story mode of the game (of which I have played little), and I find that a happy development.
There is one problem, though. Sadly it is significant. Happily, it’s probably me, and not the level. I can’t figure out the very end puzzle. The level, bless its heart, is doing its best to lead me in the proper direction, giving me those obvious camera hints that say, “Hey goofball! See this? You’re supposed to jump on this!” But I can’t figure it out. Maybe if I was conversant in platformer-ese I would get it instantly. But I keep getting stuck just before the very end, and having to do that little self-destruct thing. Thankfully there’s no awful sound associated with that action, like that horrific electrocution sound. Ugh.
I’ll keep trying. I like this little world.
One of the great gameplay innovations in Sins of a Solar Empire, a grand sci-fi RTS, is space pirates. These dudes have their own starbase off to one side while you and the other players are trying to conquer the galaxy. But every so often, they’ll take bids to determine which player they’ll raid. This leads to a great war-by-proxy auction. But it can actually backfire. A prepared player can farm pirate attacks for experience, leveling up his capital ships. Furthermore, some games can be decided by pirates, who get more powerful as more money is funneled into their coffers.
In a beta patch just released, Sins developer Ironclad is taking a new approach to pirates.
The Pirates system has been completely overhauled with this update. Rather than relying on random upgrades which could result in a huge power curve, the Pirates will now scale gradually in abilities, fleet size and power as a game progresses.
Among the changes, pirate attacks will vary based on the amount of money you pay them, which is now based on specific sums of money instead of the guesswork and gradual increments that used to drive pirate auctions.
The beta patch also includes some balance and interface changes. Read the full notes here. To get the beta patch, enable “pre-release versions” in Impulse via the options button in the upper left of the screen.
Actually, you could do far worse than this stylish English indie horror movie, because those are four words you don’t often see clustered together in front of the word “movie”. The plot, about a working-class English family coming to terms with a missing child, is pretty predictable. But for such a predictable movie, it doesn’t seem to think it’s tricking you. It understands that you’ve figured it out. Despite its similarities, this is no Sixth Sense or The Others because of how it lays its cards on the table without having to announce them. And although the resolution is oh-so-pat, it has just enough lack of resolution to be memorable.
The great thing about The Disappeared — and this is a really great thing if you watch as many bad actors in bad horror movies as I do — is the lead actor, Harry Treadaway. If you saw last year’s Fish Tank, you’ll recognize him as Katie Jarvis’ boyfriend. He looks like a sullen hoodlum, with a bit of Toby Maguire’s nondescript good looks. But he’s incredibly expressive, intense, and sincere. I get a strong River Phoenix vibe watching him act. The Disappeared’s director knows he’s got something special in Treadaway’s performance, and he fixes it front and center throughout the movie. Come for the bad horror, but stay for the fantastic lead actor.
The Disappeared is available on DVD or Netflix’s Instant Watch.
I just recorded an episode of Three Moves Ahead with Rob Zacny and Chris Remo in which we discussed player communities, mainly in real time strategy games called Starcraft II. What makes for a thriving community? Can games do a better job encouraging sportsmanship? Should they even bother?
Listen to it here.
[Ed. note: League of Legends is the wildly successful the free-to-play (no, really!) RTS known for its unfriendly player community and it’s serious min/max gameplay. We’ve jumped in feet-first and we’ll be writing about it for the next week or so.]
In League of Legends, you don’t build a base or train armies or drag select units. You play a single dude. Such as Shen, a really annoying ninja who keeps killing me. At first, I thought it was because the guy playing Shen was really good.
After the jump, I find out that’s not necessarily the case Continue reading →
