Tea Talk: Experimental Games

I saw this game called An Aspie Life on Steam, which is stated to be “an experimental adventure game that deals with the topic of Asperger’s Syndrome”. Naturally, I want to try it. It’s an extremely unusual pitch and it’s for a rather good cause, since it raises awareness for Asperger’s and let people understand it more. And I got stuck about five minutes in. I have no idea what I did wrong. Since it is in Early Access, I would normally assume that it’s a bug, or just a mistake by the creator. However, the line “as every element… [Continue Reading]

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Satisfactory Shooting: The End

Previously I was talking about how guns should be designed for shooting to feel satisfying. Now, we’ll talk about how the targets need to be designed for the shooting to feel satisfying as well. First up, the environment should have some response when shot. Have brittle objects break, leave scorch marks and bullet holes on the walls, the whole works. It makes the map feels like an actual environment rather than just a static arena, and that helps immersion a lot. Hell, bring down a whole building or two, why not? Of course, the damage created should be proportional to… [Continue Reading]

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Satisfactory Shooting: The Beginning

I was playing EDF: Insect Armageddon when this struck me: I really hate the Jet armour’s starting weapons. One of the energy rifles literally makes “pew pew pew” noises and they felt as impactful as throwing tofu at a tank. Less, in fact. At least the tofu will splatter in a rather interesting way. At first, I chalk that down to them being energy weapons. Conventional gunpowder-based firearms in games always feel good with the recoil, muzzle flares and the very loud “BANG!” each time you fire a shot. But then I remembered that the Cow Mangler 5000 is a… [Continue Reading]

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EDF: Insect Armageddon, a second look

I played more EDF: IA after my first article on it. There are a few more things I want to talk about for this game. First up, Insect Armageddon is somewhat divisive among the larger EDF community as far as I can tell, at least for the Western audiences. It is so different from the main EDF games that a lot of people are put off by it before even trying it. The main series EDF games always have that very Japanese feel to them, while Insect Armageddon is, no other way to say it, distinctively Western. IA has a… [Continue Reading]

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Workshop Irritation

I used to visit the TF2 Workshop a lot. Back when I first went there, going through the Workshop queue is a joy. Sure, there are some cosmetic submissions that are just lazy, some are stupid, and some made me lose hope in humanity. But a lot of them are interesting, and some of them are jaw-droppingly fantastic. There are also some that made me genuinely angry at Valve for not adding them into the game. Why aren’t you adding Aristotle into the game Valve? It’s the best pet cosmetic for the Spy I’ve ever seen! Get lost, Backstabber’s Boomslang.… [Continue Reading]

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Superflight

I really like Superflight. It is an extremely simple game. You use WASD to control your little avatar as he glides among multicoloured, procedurally-generated worlds. There is nothing to hear but the occasional chirping of birds and the constant sound of wind as you flew between rock formations. There is a point system, which is determined by how closely you are flying to the rocks. Flying beside a wall with your hand almost brushing against its surface, gliding between rock pillars, drifting just above a plateau, or darting through a hole on a rocky wall, they all contribute to your… [Continue Reading]

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Scorn gameplay trailer – I’m really interested

I am extremely intrigued by Scorn from what I saw in its gameplay trailer. Scorn is a Kickstarted game by Ebb Software GmbH, a Serbian indie studio. Aside from an official trailer released to the public, backers received an alpha demo version of the game. When I first saw a snippet of the gameplay trailer above in a compilation, I was drawn in by the environment. It is, for no better world, alive. It is moist, warm and veiny. However, parts of it resemble a somewhat futuristic industrial complex, making the place look like a weird hybrid of a machine and the… [Continue Reading]

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Echoed World

Echoed World is a puzzle platformer game. In it, you play as Algiz, an Architect imbued with the power of life. Long ago, after creating the universe, the Creator split all of his power into seven fragments and granted them to seven Architects. Six of them, including Algiz, created beautiful worlds. But the last one, Tyr, being a perfectionist but lacking the power to create life, failed to achieve anything that is satisfactory to him. Lusting after Algiz’s power as the Architect of Life, he came to his land and stole the crystal that houses Algiz’s power as he slumbered… [Continue Reading]

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Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon

I like EDF: Insect Armageddon. I mean, there are some things that are just beyond criticism. And when you get to fight giant insect, giant mechs, and giant mechanical insects in a game, that game cannot be criticized. I kid, I kid. EDF: Insect Armageddon is flawed. Rather flawed, actually. But even despite those flaws the base experience is so enjoyable that I can ignore those all the way through the campaign. It was only during replaying and preparing for this article when the flaws start surfacing. I did get the game during the Steam Christmas sale for a dollar,… [Continue Reading]

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Tea Talk: Random Achievements

I’ve been playing one particular mobile game recently. It’s not really that good of a game, and it’s not unique or interesting enough to warrant any discussion on the game itself. But there is one particular issue I have with the game that really irritates me. In that game, you can collect tokens to earn extra points. And there are a whole series of achievements based on collecting a specific number of tokens. Thing is, the token spawns are random and you can’t completely control whether you collect the tokens or not. Thus, whether you collect the specific amount of… [Continue Reading]

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