Black and white. I’ve mentioned before that there’s something about a black and white level that speaks to me. Even when it’s a bit awkward to play, as Along Came a Spider can be, I’ll treat it to multiple plays because I like the feel. Classic. Almost cinematic.
Speaking of cinematic…
After the jump, if I only had a brain Continue reading →
I’ve often said that asymmetry is inherently interesting. So is randomness. Eventually. In Ascension, a tabletop and iPhone card game for two players that a few of us on Quarter to Three have written about fondly, players compete for cards in a middle row to build up your decks. Whoever earns the most victory points wins. You get these victory points by either using military power to kill monsters in the center row, or “spacebucks” to add more cards into your deck. Sometimes you can do both at once! Some monsters also give you spacebucks to buy more cards.
But there’s one card — only one! — that can earn you points in three different ways. Xeron, Duke of Lies. Not to be confused with an Intel processor or a noble gas. He hates that. He’s a monster who gives you victory points for banishing him and for adding another card to your deck. But Xeron can also earn you victory points a third way, because the card you add to your deck is randomly taken from the other player’s hand. So you’re earning victory points for the act of kiling Xeron, by adding another card to your deck, and by reducing the other player’s victory points when you steal a card from his deck.
This doesn’t always work out well, because you might draw one of the common worthless cards from the other player’s hand. Oh, look, an apprentice worth zero points. Big whoop. That’s Xeron for you. He’s not called the Duke of Lies for nothing. But sometimes — sometimes! — it works out slightly better than that. And then there are the times you involuntarily make a loud whooping sound before you even realize it.
I’m not sure who Crazy Puck is, but in the game we’ve been playing, I defeated Xeron and then drew a card from Mr. Puck’s hand. The card I got was the Hedron Link Device, which is worth seven points. That means a 14 point swing in our relative scores in a game that is often won or lost by a few points. Of the roughly 250 cards in the game, there is only a single card that would have been worth more points (the Hedron Cannon is an eight pointer). The combination of conditions that had to come together for this to happen is unlikely, to say the least. The device had to bubble up out of the 250 cards in the deck, Crazy Puck had to acquire the device, I had to defeat Xeron on the turn he’d drawn it, and then I had to pick it from his hand instead of one of his other cards. And it’s a real shame I don’t know Crazy Puck, and that we’re playing on the iPhone instead of in person, because it was one of those quintessential game moments that randomness and rarity make all the more special when you know the victim.
One of the reasons I love real time strategy games is because they’re like toy boxes. When you’re a kid, lifting the lid on a toy box is a wonderful moment of possibility. What will you choose to pluck out today? Where will you put it? How will you use it? Will you array a handful of stormtroopers against Han and Chewie? Will Luke fight Greedo? Will a diecast 57 Chevy figure into the action? And what if you throw a swarm of small plastic dinosaurs into the mix? That’s the unfettered kid mind at work. Real time strategy games, at their best, tap into that mindset, but governed by adultly rules about resource allocation and thematic unity and mutually exclusive choices and unit balance and effective interfaces.
When a game of Conquest of Elysium 3 starts, I feel much the same way as I feel when I start a great real time strategy game: here is a wonderful moment rich with possibility. Never mind that Conquest of Elysium 3 is turn-based and visually roughhewn. It’s a generous toy box governed by adultly rules.
After the jump, toy story Continue reading →
Amnesia: The Dark Descent stands apart from most recent horror games for how it doesn’t have any combat, and doesn’t even really want you to look at scary things. It’s got an old school adventure game vibe, but it has its share of fans who appreciate not having to headshot zombies for a change. The game’s developers at Frictional Games recently announced the name of their next game, and not much else, to Joystiq. But what a name it is. Amnesia: a Machine for Pigs. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you name a game!
A Machine for Pigs (pictured?) will be written and designed by Dan Pinchbeck, the creator of the artsy Source mod/ghost story, Dear Esther. Frictional intends to release it at the end of this year.
