A Green Mushroom

This is an iOS game that I've been playing a lot lately when I have a spare minute or two.  It's actually the digital version of a board game that has been on my wishlist for awhile. In Tsuro you start with your stone on one end of the board and choose/lay a tile in front of you.  Your stone follows the path on the tile all the way to the end.  Everyone takes a turn and then on your turn you choose and lay another tile.  The goal of the game is to be the last stone still on the board. As the board fills up it gets harder and harder to lay a tile in front of your stone without it connecting to an already existing tile.  When that happens your stone follows that path all the way to the end as well, which might send it right off the board. It's been nice to finally play it a bunch against different AI levels.  It's fun and scalable.  I like how it's simple enough and complex enough at the same time. Now I really want to pick up the board game ...

As soon as I realize I'm going to purchase a game that's not out yet I stop consuming media about it.  The lead up to Fallout 4 made me realize that I've started doing this over the past few years. I love finding out about games while playing them, so as soon as that purchase decision has been made the only thing I can do is spoil it for myself.  I don't actively hide my eyes from all things about the game I'm interested in but I do stop seeking it out and reading every in depth article. These days I'm much more likely to consume media around a game I'm on the fence about. It's actually really fun this way.  I get to go into huge games with giant media blitzes basically blind and truly experience it all for the first time. That's how it's been this year since Fallout 4 was announced.  Immediately after the E3 press conference I knew I would buy it.  I pre-ordered it on Steam as soon as it was an option and then promptly forgot about the g...

I've been watching a lot of Marvel lately and getting into the new Star Wars stuff and it's gotten me thinking about Disney. Disney is a company that has been through some good times and some questionable times.  I feel like the content they were putting out in the 90s when I was a kid was amazing.  Movies like The Lion King, Aladin, Mulan, Hercules, Pocohantas, and so many more came out of that era.  They had hit their stride for classically animated movies and it was great. Then in the 2000s it seems like they faded a bit.  I know they were never in trouble as a company, but their output just wasn't of the same quality as it once was. Recently I feel like they've finally turned this around.  The acquired Pixar and started making amazing animated movies again, although this time CG movies.  Then they started buying licenses like Marvel and Star Wars.  So far they're doing amazing things with the Marvel universe and I'm so excited to see what...

One of my friends on Twitter said, "Life is too short to play something that doesn't make you happy."  And when I read that I realized that's the philosophy I've been living by this past year. Last December I got the desire to start working through my giant backlog of games.  And this is the one trick that allowed me to do it: If a game doesn't make me happy, I stop playing it. It sounds so simple, but in practice... it's difficult.  Once you get involved in the daily grind of a game it's hard to extricate yourself.  What if there are daily quests?  What if it's an MMO with a community of people you interact with?  What if you're half way through the story of a massive RPG? What if there are so many forces driving you to keep playing the game that you're currently playing... but you stop having fun with it? This last year, after 25+ years of playing games, I was finally able to get my head into a place where I can walk away from a...

One of the items on my Gaming To-Do List the other week was the generic "Fall Releases".  It's a big category and I'd like to dig into it more. The reason I didn't list specific games is because I'm not sure what I'm going to pick up yet.  For one of the first times ever I'm near the end of my gaming backlog, so I'm really excited for the new Fall releases.  The release season has already started with games like Metal Gear Solid 5 and Super Mario Maker but it always seems like things truly get crazy in October and November. Here are the games I know I'm going to get for sure.  I either have these pre-ordered or I plan on picking them up day one: Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes (October 22nd) Fallout 4 (November 10th) StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void (November 10th) Star Wars Battlefront (November 17th) Two of those I already have paid in full and the other two I'll grab digitally right when they release.  But, that's no...

A bit off topic today, but that's ok.  It's my blog.  I choose the topic :) I've barely had any time to game at all since I got home from PAX at the beginning of the month.  For those of you not looking at a calendar, that's 23 days ago. I got home, had one day with my family, and then my wife left for a trip to Europe where she was gone for a little more than 10 days.  The same day she left I had 4 clients all contact me that needed things ASAP and were in a panic. I quickly went into overdrive for work and parenting.  I watched my two kids (both under age 5) and worked more than my normal work hours while they were resting/sleeping.  I basically did nothing but work and take care of my kids for 10 days straight.  That's including Labor Day weekend. This is the trade-off of being a freelancer.  I normally get flexible hours, but if I get slammed with work I'm the only person who can do it.  I don't have any teammates or co-workers to...

Armello is a video game, but it's also very much a digital board game.  Everything from the aesthetics to the gameplay feel like a board game while the game has all the conveniences of a video game.  I picked it up on Steam for PC but it looks like it's coming out on PS4 as well. The game sells itself as Game of Thrones via animal avatars... and it's kind of right.  You won't get any sweeping narratives here but you will get an unpredictable contest for the throne of the kingdom.  You see, the king is filled with corruption and is slowly dying.  When he finally dies one of the animal Heroes in the world will become the new king.  It could be you. There are a handful of ways to become king.  Kill the corrupt king, cleanse the king of his corruption, or just end the game with the highest standing in the realm when the old king dies. Like it says up their in the title, this game is early access.  It truly shows in the new player experien...

This seems like it might be straightforward, but it's not.  If a game is un-fun should you keep playing it?  The answer should obviously be "no" but often we keep playing games we're invested in.  Or we put down a game and tell ourselves, "I'll come back to that soon." but we never do. I feel like these games have a mental weight.  For me they definitely do.  These type of games will be in the back of my mind in some sub-process of my thoughts until I explicitly tell myself that I'm done with a game and I let it go.  But it's a hard thing to do. Sometimes it feels like failure.  What if you've only played 30 minutes of a game?  What if you've played 40 hours?  What if you're right near the end?  All of these are valid jumping-off points but they all carry different feelings and can lead to guilt.  I know I feel it. One of the best ways I've found to let go of these games are to write about them.  If I can get my thoughts ...

Video games traditionally have a summer drought, and we're currently staring it in the face.  There are still a few releases trickling out this month that I'm excited out - mainline Splatoon - but the rest of the release calendar looks pretty bare between now and September. This always happens, but I seem to forget about it until it hits each summer.  Summer is the time when people have the most free time but it's also the time of year where people spend their days outside.  Less people are inside playing videogames. It makes sense that publishers would hold back big releases until the fall when they can start tying them in to the Holiday release season. That means that this is the perfect time to settle in and work on your backlog.  Or hunker down with a game that you're having fun with and experience everything it has to offer. I know I'm planning on getting into my backlog again.  I also want to keep working on my Final Fantasy Project by investigati...

I love Star Wars.  I was super excited to see this topic come up as our community post topic today.  But now I don't even know where to start. Here's the truth: Star Wars is my weakpoint. If I were a boss in a videogame, Star Wars would be my giant blinking red section.... or something. I consume everything Star Wars.  The movies, novels, ebooks, audiobooks, videogames, toys, board games, trailers, fan theories, whatever I can get my hands on.  I just love Star Wars. I'm so happy to see it coming into the hands of a generation of creators who grew up with the original trilogy.  The Star Wars trailer last week gives me a ton of hope for the direction of the series.  I think JJ Abrams is going to knock it out of the park.  It seems like he has immense respect for the original trilogy but he also understands what needs to be done to bring the films into a modern age. And he's just the first creator at the reigns.  I honestly expect to s...

Happy New Year everyone! I know a lot of gaming sites and blogs have been doing top games of the year lists lately.  Honestly, I wasn't overly impressed by many of the games that came out this year.  I had fun with a bunch, but none of them truly wowed me. My top gaming experience of the year is Final Fantasy.  I've been playing through the whole Final Fantasy series and having a blast.  I've had more fun with the Final Fantasy series than any other game or series I've played this year. If I had to pick a top game of the year it would be Bravely Default.  It came out early in the year, but it tied in perfectly with my Final Fantasy games.  Bravely Default is an amazing RPG on 3DS created by the same developer who makes Final Fantasy.  The Final Fantasy lineage definitely shows while playing the game.  I played all the way through to the true ending of the game and loved all my time with it.  I'm super excited for the sequel! I'm hopi...

Recently I’ve been playing two separate games which go by the names of Starcraft 2 and League of Legends. Both games are highly competitive. Both pit players against each other in deadly head to head combat. And, without a doubt, both are ruthlessly brutal to new players. Yet, only one of them frustrates me beyond belief. League of Legends. It’s interesting that two games which are so competitively similar can affect me in two vastly different ways. So why is that? I believe the key lies in how information comes across, or does not come across, to the player. Starcraft 2 is very transparent, while League of Legends is extremely opaque. In Starcraft 2 most information is telegraphed to the player. It’s pretty obvious to anyone that an army with 30 units is better than an army with 15. While unit composition can muddy the water of army size comparisons, most of the time, it still takes a miracle to beat an army twice the size of yours. This transparency also extends to...

The past week was Mario's 25th anniversary as well as the original Playstation's 15th anniversary.  It's pretty amazing that gaming has come as far as it has. The original Super Mario Brothers is the very first game that I remember playing.  I can remember when I was 4 or 5 years old and played it on the NES at daycare.  I have the game, the room, and the people around me firmly entrenched in my mind forever.  It's the moment I got hooked on gaming.   Toad was still disappointing in those days. When my uncle gave me his NES a few years later I was as thrilled as a small child can possibly be.  I couldn't believe someone would give up the magic of gaming and hand it over to me.  I still owe him for that. I also remember how big of a deal the Playstation was when it came out.  I didn't follow gaming news as much as I do now (I was 9) but a console that had 3D games was unheard of.  It was so amazing!  It ushered in a new era of ga...

My posts have been less frequent this week because my wife and I had our baby!  I'm not giving up the blog or anything, but I probably won't post as often for awhile.  A brand new baby takes a lot of time to take care of, but that's ok because she's the most wonderful thing I've ever seen. In the meantime, might I suggest a few of my former posts to check out: Pedigree and the Importance of Developers StarCraft 2 Newbie Guide Game Marketing Fail Jumping into the Action Innovation Trumps Graphics  I hope to get a couple more posts out this week, but our little newbie is my number one priority at the moment.  For the foreseeable future I'll be playing a little game called parenthood.

I realized that I don't strictly "play" games, a lot of the time I'm just testing them.  That's why I can rent a game from gamefly, play it for 5 minutes, and be done with it for good.  I have enough experience with gaming that I can predict how much fun I'll have with the game - in total - after only a few minutes. I've been going through games in this way for quite a while but I only realized it a few days ago while I was catching up on watching the first season of Penny-Arcade TV .  They post a show every Friday which range from about 7 to 10 minutes.  Each episode is based around a topic or event.  If you like Penny-Arcade at all it's worth watching.  It's probably the best "reality" TV show that I've ever seen.  Anyway, their episode on videogames is what started making me think about how fast I can wade through new software, because the PA guys do the same thing. I try almost every game I can get my hands on, but only a fe...

  Beta Testing Frustration Beta testing isn't what it used to be.  A beta test used to be the second formal round of testing (after the alpha) and it was used to test all the ins and outs of the game.  Players find thousands of ways to break a game that developers would never think of.  Bugs pop up when your testing base goes from a few hundred to thousands.  Betas were used to solve these problems. Some companies still use betas this way, but more often than not beta tests are glorified demos that are released to the public for a limited time.  Look at the giant media push for the Halo Reach beta.  They were trying to give everyone a small taste of the game in the hope of getting them to buy it in the fall.  They aren't the only culprit. MMOs are among the worst offenders.  "It's still in beta" isn't an excuse that MMO beta testers accept anymore.  They expect the game to be content complete with all the features in place.  ...

After a long two weeks of work I'm taking today to just play games.  I try to remember to play games and not just read and write about them. I'm spending most of my gaming time in Blur, Trine, and the StarCraft 2 Beta. So, dear reader, what games have you been playing lately?  Anything I should check out?

I love to support indie games.  Indie developers aren't afraid to take a new idea and run with it.  Most of the time I find cheap indie games on steam or my ipod touch to try out.  There are all sorts of free demos on both services and a full copy of an indie game is almost always under twenty dollars.  Many are priced around a buck. If you aren't afraid of wading through some bad games the other option is to play flash games online.  The amount of free games online is amazing but finding high quality games can be a challenge. This is where Kongregate comes into play.  It's the best  flash game site that I've ever found. Kongregate has a rating system to help filter through all the junk games.  The community rates games and the site lets me sort by top rated and most played.  Every gaming distributor needs to be able to sort by rating and being able to sort by number of plays is like icing on the cake.  This is one area in which...

I've written 100 posts after about 4 months of blogging and I'm fairly proud of myself.  I thought I would take this milestone and look back at what I've written so far.  So, here are my favorite posts out of my first 100. StarCraft 2 Newbie Guide - I love this series of posts and hope to continue them in the future.  I actually get some traffic from Google for this set of posts.  I have a ton of fun analyzing the ins and outs of StarCraft 2. Innovation Trumps Graphics - I truly believe that innovation is more important than graphics.  I hope to see new concepts breaking ground in the world of gaming more often.  It's time to shake things up because so many genre conventions have grown stale.  Indie games do new concepts very well. Expansion Packs: Leveling the Playing Field - I've used this post as a basis for many conversations with friends.  I hate the way the gear treadmill is designed for the endgame of most MMOs today.  All of a...

Wooohoooo! I never thought I would make it this far.  I started this blog as a writing exercise for myself.  I hoped the habit of writing would stick, but I didn't have a lot of faith.  I honestly can't believe that I made it 100 posts. So, what now? Well, I think I'll keep writing.  I'm having a great time and I feel like my writing is improving with practice.  I would really like to try writing fiction some day and I think this is a good way to refine my skills. I may also branch out into some other topics.  I love writing about games, but there are some days that I just want to write about something else.  This post is a good example.  I have a passion for all things media and I want to explore that further with my writing.  I'd also like to discuss things happening in the real world if I feel that I can make a quality post about them. I expect most of my content to still be game-centric but it's my blog and I'm leaving my optio...