PC Zone and ummm…stuff

September 13, 2006 · Filed Under Personal · Comment 

Did a little interview with PC Zone a week or so ago for the Freeplay section, nothing major just a few questions dropped my way on the Grid Wars 2 situation and copyright in the Freeware/Indie sector. I must confess I was quite proud of myself for managing an entire interview without once letting rip with a barrage of swear words. Still, there’s a first for everything.

As usual with these things, lord knows how much will make it into print or wether someone, somewhere, will actually spell my name right for a change (so far an accolade only achieved by Retro Gamer magazine, so come on PC Zone - lets get that tally up!) but the issue is due to land October 12th I believe - so if you haven’t read enough of my ramblings on the subject across the internets, you can now do it from the comfort of your toilets in roughly a months time.

In other news, I’m around 12/13 reviews into the RR competition - and at the moment its about 50/50 between games that have really impressed me and games that made me want to take a power tool to the authors face. Obviously, when you’re looking at 70+ games entered into a competition, then the quality is bound to vary wildly - curiously, this year there seems to be very few that occupy the middle ground from what I’ve gandered at so far. They either seem to have missed the point completely and taken scant notice of a large part of the rules and thought “fuck it, we’ll do what we want and submit it anyway” or gone all out to impress and succeeded. Doubtlessly, when I start getting further through the games things will balance out a bit - but its quite depressing when you’re faced with 2 or 3 games in a row that make a little piece of you die inside.

So aye, time consuming stuff if you’re going to give every entry a fair whack of the bat and doubtlessly some of the scores I’ve sketched down now may change over time, either for better or worse depending on how they stack up against the opposition.

Judging by some of the reactions to some of the reviews thrown around the net elsewhere, December 1st should be a fun day indeed when the judges reviews go live. I forsee a lot of rattles bouncing around out of prams from people who thought they had it in the bag, and a lot of very happy folks who didn’t think they’d rate anywhere near as well as they have. So, pretty much competition judging business as usual there, then.

Still, it’ll give me something to laugh heartily at when its all done and more people queue up to call me and the other judges wrong and learn that hard lesson of “if you don’t want to be judged, don’t enter a competition”. Although, the more I think about it - if you don’t want anyone to say anything remotely negative about your game - lock it in a box under 30ft of concrete protected by giant hedgehogs with large cannons for hats and never let the general public see it at all. Its the only way to truly be safe from any such remarks.

And before I sign off for the night, I’ve added a little page where you can drop me a line if you’d like to see your game reviewed on here - its in the reviews section on the sidebar and I’ll take a gander at anything thrown my way. I really, really, can’t promise you a good review - but I can promise it’ll be absolutely honest. So, if you fancy a free plug - drop me a line with a review copy and I’ll get on the case.

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Quantized Blaze

September 12, 2006 · Filed Under Other peoples games · Comment 

A tad late to the party, with Quantized Blaze having already been covered by The2Bears way back in April and somehow managing to let it pass me by, until Tim over at indygamer.blogspot.com dropped this post a few days ago and reminded me of its existence.

By the same developer as the utterly mentalist NomltestFS and the superbly stylish Invisible Vision, keim, comes a game that shows that a little bit of additive blending goes a long way. With the action taking place on an eternally scrolling chequer board with flames bursting down from the top of the screen and interweaving lines forming patterns across the screen, even if the game isn’t for you - its sure to provide at the very least a wonderful visual treat.

Like NomltestFS, Quantized Blaze is essentially a play on the Space Invaders style dragged by the little green tentacles into the 21st century, the enemies move across the chequerboard spitting bullets in a variety of patterns - with the patterns getting increasingly complex as you progress through the ranks. What begins as bullets dropping down in a straight line and heading in your direction soon becomes a barrage of formations for you to duck and dive between.

To encourage more aggressive playing, when you destroy the flames barely visible items are spewed out from the explosions for you to collect. The further towards the bottom of the screen you lie, the more difficult it becomes to get a good stock of items. Your ship also comes packed with the obligatory supply of smart bombs - best to keep a hold of them wherever possible though, you’ll find yourself needing them when the going gets tougher later on.

Whilst the game is incredibly straightforward, the whole visual style has a very odd effect on my eyes after a while - its rare a game makes me go cross eyed whilst nipping inbetween bullet patterns, but the slight perspective of Quantized Blaze means I have to relax that little bit more to get into the zone with it. Luckily this is helped along the way by a fantastic use of sound - spot FX are kept to a bare minimum but the tune trips away nicely in the foreground helping you drift into the right state of mind.

Very enjoyable and frantic, without getting too stressful - and as Tim recommends, definitely not one for keyboard play. Pack your pad or stick for this beauty.

Fire! Fire! Fire!

How can we sleep when the board is burning? :s

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Gridrunner++

September 12, 2006 · Filed Under Other peoples games, Things I Enjoyed · 2 Comments 

One of my greatest non family based fears, is that one day I’ll wake up, I’ll look at the world and no longer care about games. Having been a gamer since the age of 7, and with barely a day gone by since where I haven’t had a blast at something - its a scary thought that your life long love may one day wane.

Gridrunner++ is, fortunately, a constant reminder that for every substandard clone or desperate money grabbing pile of utter turd that inexplicably floats to the top of the pile, there’s always going to be one of the most beautifully designed games in existance out there… the day technology reaches the point whereby I have GR++ taken away from me, may well just be the day I stop upgrading until we all raid Jeffs house and force him at gunpoint to make it work again under whatever level of technology we may have reached at that point.

Its also very rare for me to care for a game as much as I do for Gridrunner++. Its not by any means for the faint of heart when it comes to shooting kicks - if being arseraped by a giant smiley face isn’t your thing, then I suggest you head on over to World Of Spectrum and download Advanced Lawnmower Simulator or something a little less strenuous. It may not have the brutality of something like Fren-Ze, it may not have the visuals of where Jeffs heading now, but what it has in absolute bucketloads is a love of the genre, a respect for the player and heart poundingly intense but fair gameplay.

Its also one of the only games in existence where the advice “always keep a sheep beneath you” is sound advice.

There’s very little I can say really that probably hasn’t been said a million times before, better than I no doubt - but a world without Gridrunner++ would be a sad world indeed. So whilst the rest of the world waits for Space Giraffe to emerge, and NeonPC to raise its head from distribution hell - I’ll be waiting patiently, with Gridrunner++ as my companion until then.

And, whilst GR++ still exists, I’ll still care.

Sheepizapper Recharge

Oh My Goat!

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Return of the Arsecast

September 11, 2006 · Filed Under Things I Enjoyed · Comment 

The second episode of the increasingly excellent Arsecast has flolloped itself out onto the internets with customary aplomb and swear words. This time round its a special edition taking a peek at some of the Retro Remakes 2006 Competition entries - the good, the bad, and pretty much ignoring the indifferent and concentrating on the more interesting extremes…and Ghostbusters.

As well as the competition entries, there’s an obligatory look at some of the new games floating around the independent scene for your aural pleasure.

It even made Mrs Bob crack a smile or twelve, so get on down to the Arsecast groovetown.

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Blit Me Up, Before You Go Go

September 11, 2006 · Filed Under Other peoples games · 3 Comments 

So, Blitwise have let slip a few details of what a mysterious new “shooter” from them may involve…

“For the record… it’s an arcade game. Imagine taking a modern computer, with this game installed, back in time to 1982 and dropping it in an arcade. It would fit right in with games like Centipede, Defender, Joust, etc…. The input for the game would be a trackball and one fire button.

Of course, the player’s jaw would hit the ground when they saw the graphics, but the graphical style and gameplay would fit right in to the arcade environment.

BTW - There are stars in the background, but whether folks consider it a space shooter is up for debate. There’s lots of shooting… but not like you’d expect. hehe”

I wonder what it could be? Could it perhaps be….nah, not saying. You’ll just have to wait to find out.

Check out the info so far on their forums, no screenies so far - its all a bit hush hush etc…

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