Posts Tagged ‘windows’

Snake worlds – Snakes, why did it have to be snakes?!?

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

May12 I don’t know if I like the idea of worlds of snakes.  They just can’t leave those slithery snakes alone.  There’s like a bazillion snake-based games out there, and still people make more.  And yet the games are fun.  Take Atomic Worm for instance.  It was a new twist on an old favorite.  It was also abstracted enough that it didn’t exactly resemble traditional snake.  In any case that didn’t stop Patrick Kooman from making his Snake Worlds.  What else can you do with a snake type game.  Eat stuff, grow, try not to run into yourself.  Well he managed to take it into 3 dimensions.  I don’t mean some other 3d ones that are still essentially 2d versions, but actual 6 degrees of freedom.  Okay well not really.  It takes place on a sphere so technically it could be said that’ it’s also essentially 2D.  But at least he does it in a cool an unusual way.  In the game you play the role of Snakey, the wonderful devourer of worlds intent on destroying earth!  Watch as he grows when he starts eating people.  Laugh as he gets ridiculously huge and looks like a giant sock with multiple legs.  Cry when you realize that all of earth is gone because one little snake got too big for his britches.  Naaaaaahhhhh…. Just kidding.  There’s no story and no eating people, although that would be pretty cool.  In actuality you’re eating “food” and I use that term loosely, as they look like dog bones or something.  It’s pretty much like other snake games, except a globe instead of a flat plane, and you eat and as you eat you get longer. 

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(ags) Ben Jordan Case 2 – I don’t think Lost Galleon’s are paranormal, do you?

Sunday, May 10th, 2009

May11 Certainly strange to find a ship in a desert, but paranormal?  Hardly.  Even the Skunk-Ape wasn’t really paranormal, just weird, and legendary.  Just like the Legend of Boggy Creek II hilariously lampooned by Mystery Science Theatre 3000.  In any case.  A lost ship in a desert is an intriguing idea.  Is the legend true?  How did it get in the desert?  Is there’s still treasure in it?  All these questions and more are answered in Ben Jordan’s second case, entitled The Lost Galleon of the Salton Sea.  Actually Ben’s investigating a disappearance of a local man from Dunesburg, California, who was after the Spanish treasure ship.  So I guess mysterious disappearances are within the purview of paranormal investigator, who knows.  In any case this promises to be most interesting as did the first case.  I did manage to finish the first case by the way.  Now I, too, have seen the Skunk-Ape in person and lived to tell the tale.  Of course I also had help.  Good ol’ internet is to the rescue!  Anyways, whereas there’s something artistic about Ben Chandler’s games and less about the game play (not that these are bad, you can see my Shifter and Annie Android reviews to see what I think about them), and Wadjet Eye Games (Dave Gilbert who happens to actually have done testing for this and some voice work, who is superb by the way) eye toward professionalism but keeping with only New York.  Ben Jordan is characterized by strong umm, characters, and story.  So far both cases have been immediately engaging to me, more so than the others I have reviewed (no offense guys).  So here is Ben Jordan, Paranormal Investigator, Case 2: The Lost Galleon of the Salton Sea by Grundislav Games (aka Francisco Gonzalez).

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Bumps – Today’s forecast, catchy with a chance of BUMPS

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

May07 What is the definition of bump?  Well I asked Google to define it for me.  A note here though, I don’t know where Google comes up with it’s definitions, I assume it’s from various dictionary sources.  Or I could have just gone to a dictionary.  However Google is easier because all I have to do is type define:bump in a search and it pulls it up.  So Google defines the word bump as a) knock against with force or violence, b) find: come upon, as if by accident, c) dance with the pelvis thrust forward, d) a lump on the body caused by a blow, e) to demote (actually I’ve never heard it used in this context, except if someone said bump down, technically speaking bump is upward or outward so I don’t think demote really holds, I guess “you’ve been bumped” would constitute a demotion, but I don’t know, generally speaking we usually like to say the direction of the bump, ie bumped down, bumped up), f) bulge: something that bulges out or is protuberant or projects from it’s surroundings, g) dislodge: remove or force froma  position of dwelling previously occupied, h) blow: an impact (as from a collision).  These are your main bump dictionary definitions.  Well now that I’ve obviously used some space as filler, what does that have to do with today’s game?  Well if you haven’t guessed already, the game is called “Bumps” by Utopian Games.

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