Steam Summer Sale: Prison Architect

Unfortunately the Steam summer sale of 2013 has come to an end. As always, I bought too much but I regret nothing. This will be my last post on the sale until Christmas, when the Steam Winter sale will begin. I will binge on games I won't have time to play and get all excited all over again.

If you're tired about me talking about my gaming purchases, you can scroll to the bottom and leave a comment about pancakes or something.

I went to Ihop for the first time the other day, they were pretty good.

Today we'll be talking about another indie game. I'm certain that most people have played or heard of Simcity, the game where you're tasked with designing and caring for a sprawling metropolis. You control everything from taxes, to where residential areas are built, or getting more police to deal with crime.

Prison Architect is in the same vein of gameplay, except you are now in charge or building and maintaining a maximum security prison. You decide their daily regime, how many cells are in maximum security, what kind of staff to hire, and even providing power and water to your entire facility.

Things get hectic very fast.

It's such a simple concept, but it really makes you think about the kind of decisions you make. Should a man on deathrow have a window in his cell? A fenced off area outside technically counts as a yard, but should you put the effort of adding trees or weights for your prisoners to use? You're low on money, is it ethical to lower the quality and quantity of the food provided?

The decision is yours. If you wanted, you could even take in more prisoners than your prison can handle. Just keep the excess in a holding cell forever. Who cares right? You're still getting money from the government. Which is actually what some prisons do so it's not completely unrealistic.

But to keep things interesting, each prisoner has an individual psychological profile. And you have no way of knowing what they're actually like. Is Prisoner A just quiet and boring, or is he actually quietly waiting for a chance to start a riot and murder everyone in his cellblock? Is Prisoner B spending a lot of time in visitation, or is actually getting contraband from his family?

Or I can just search Prisoner B all the time for no reason.

But your prisoners will care and will complain if they aren't treated right. For example, I thought that simply serving food in a canteen was enough. Nope, turns out prisoners don't like standing and eating. In fact, they hated it so much that after a week they started rioting, and murdered all my staff. I can only imagine what would happen if I revoked visitation rights.

The game however is still in its alpha stages. So things are still very buggy and features are continually being added. For example, there's a glitch where a fire can start but prisoners will continue to eat and burn to death. I have personally experienced workmen refusing to construct things for me.

I'm personally excited for features such as parole. 50% of your prisoners will claim that they're innocent, but only a fraction of them actually are. And now you're in charge of deciding who gets to be released early.

Riot police would also be nice if they actually did anything.

Prison Architect is still available for purchase and because it's in the alpha stages, you can pay a bit more to get addition benefits. For example, I paid just enough to name a prisoner and provide his personal information.

Regular posting will resume later this week.

Steam Summer Sale: Surgeon Simulator 2013

The spending continues. As mentioned in my last post, from July 11th to the 22nd, Steam is having it's annual summer sale, where games are anywhere from 25% to 85% off. My brother and I have been buying probably way too much for our own good,  and I still will not disclose how much I have spent.

(It's doubled since my last post).

In my defense, when I see something that's normally $30 and it's on sale for $5, I'll buy it, hoard it, and then give it someone later as a gift. I'm literally stockpiling birthday and Christmas gifts right now.

I am so clever.

But let's not just talk about my horrible spending habits, let's talk about another great game that I've been playing. Ok, some people may find it absolutely horrifying, others may find it absolutely hilarious. In reality, it's a bit of both.

Who here has ever wanted to be a doctor, but didn't want to go through all the training and debt that comes with medical school. Well, now you too can become a surgeon and perform operations all by yourself with Surgeon Simulator 2013!

(Note, do not try anything you see in this game in real life.)

Yes, that is a fire hydrant being used.

You play as Nigel Burke, a man who literally has no experience being a doctor but has been forced into the role of being a surgeon, and it shows! The controls are clumsy, unintuitive, and difficult at best. He only operates with one hand, and each finger must be individually controlled to grasp anything. With separate keys for each digit, moving the arm up and down, and turning the hand.

And this is where the fun begins.

Now, using these klutzy motor skills, you, yes you, will attempt to perform anything ranging from a heart transplant in a surgical room, to a brain transplant in the back of a moving ambulance using the most awkward of tools in uncompromising angles.

Or just fill the patient's chest cavity with everything you can.

Hack your way into Patient Bob's ribcage using a hammer in order to remove his defective kidneys, saw out his old heart with a bonesaw, and remove unnecessary organs in order to make room for the new. Lungs? Who needs lungs! Onto the floor they go.

Of course, you need to be careful. Slashing around mindlessly whether you want to or not is going to cause your poor patient to bleed and lose blood. And as we all know, losing ALL of your blood is the only way to die.

For anyone still interested, the trailer is below. The game is currently 40% off until July 22th and I highly recommend it for a good laugh.

Note: The Team Fortress 2 Downloadable Content is also free with the purchase of the game. It's good to fool around with if you're a fan of the series.

Steam Summer Sale: Don't Starve

I'm a big fan of deals and a big fan of good PC gaming. So it's not a surprise that I am particularly fond of the digital distribution platform, Steam, which is notorious for it's sales. Right now, tons of great games are on sale for anywhere from 15% to 85% off. I've managed to snag several for $2.50 so these will make great gifts in the future.

I however, will not disclose how much I've spent so far, or how many of these games are going to sit untouched. I have a tendency to stockpile games and let them gather dust. I am also told this is a common occurrence.

All hail Gaben!

But one game I have been spending a lot of time with is Don't Starve. You are a scientist, and for whatever reason, someone or something has dumped you in the middle of the wilderness to fend for yourself. Now you have to make sense of the new world you've been placed in, gather enough resources to survive each passing day, defend against wild animals, and most importantly, don't starve.

It's such a simple idea but it has a lot of depth to it. With each passing moment, it gets closer to night and you need to make sure you have enough light to dissuade monsters from taking a bite out of you. You need to constantly hunt and forage for food but not everything is edible. And being alone in the dark can really take a toll on one's sanity, resulting in hallucinations which can eventually manifest and attack you.

And they never leave you alone!

But you are a scientist afterall! Find the right materials and soon you can craft better forms of light, research farming methods, and build armor and weapons to help in your fight for survival. Cook food to make it more nutritious, build and bait traps to catch prey, and begin to tinker with magic that can freeze your enemies or even bring you back from the dead.

Speaking of death, Don't Starve is in the genre of of rogue-like. This means that if you die, your entire world is deleted and you need to start all over again. While it does ramp the difficulty curve up a bit, it makes survival that much more pressing. You need to explore to get food, but running through a dangerous swamp could be deadly. Chopping down trees for fire is necessary, but it's hard to do when besieged by a swarm of spiders.

This also gives the game a lot of replay value. You are given a completely new world to run around in each time you start over. Plus, after playing through a few times, you'll unlock new characters, each with their own quirks and traits to mess around with.

For example, Willow starts with a lighter.

For a game that's only in the beta, it runs very well, has a lot of content, and is continually adding more content with each passing week. New areas like caves are being expanded on, as well as new characters and gamemodes to try. I highly recommend taking a look at this game, especially since it's currently 40% off until July 22th.

Anyone who isn't convinced so far can watch the trailer below. If you'll excuse me, I have more games to buy.

Why I don't play poker

I am not good at gambling nor am I a guy blessed by Lady Luck. I don't like leaving things to chance because more often than not things will not go in my favor, especially with gambling. I mean, does any remember when I visited Macau, aka, Chinese-imitation Vegas? Well long story short, my sister and I tried the slots for half an hour and lost nearly everytime.

I know we only spent like $10 CAD but that's thanks to the exchange rate. Could you imagine how much I would have lost if I was playing slots back home in Canada?

Good thing I don't play poker.

DURR. JUST TAKE ALL MY MONEY.

Seriously, do you want to know how I learned to play poker? I learned to play poker via a game that I bought off of Steam. A poker game that I didn't even really want. Let's be honest here, I bought this poker game so I could get exclusive in-game items for another game.

Yeah, I bought a game so I could get stuff for another game. I was a Team Fortress 2 addict, what can I say? I'm so cool right? For anyone who's interested, it's Poker Night at the Inventory. And surprisingly I did learn how to play the game of poker. The character have fun bits of dialogue and are interesting to listen to.

Even if the characters I played against were a bit questionable. 1 is semi-based on a real person, 2 are from famous web series, 3 are homicidal maniacs, and all 4 are idiots.

Guess who is who!

Still, playing poker with rules off a game on Steam may not have been accurate. I have been informed that it is but I wouldn't wander into a casino based off what I learned playing against computers who folded everytime I went all-in.

So in my curiosity, I decided to learn a bit more about poker, poker techniques, etc. etc.. I'm not sure what to make of this really. I didn't even know there was a thing called Chinese poker, with it's own unique set of rules. Since when did Texas hold-em have probability imbalances involved?

Maybe that's why I'll never be a poker legend. I don't have the time (or desire) to learn all the nuances and variations. And despite my Asian heritage I'm sick of math and math related things.

And maybe that's why I won't be a Starcraft legend either.

Actually, it's probably a good thing I don't play poker. Given my pigheaded stubborn tenacious personality I'd probably wouldn't know when to call it quits and lose all my money.

And don't worry, none of my projects involve learning how to play online poker. I have such little money as it is, can't risk losing anymore of it.

Speaking of which, I probably should get back to work instead of researching poker tips. I'll leave you with my favorite clip from Poker Night at the Inventory.

EDIT: After this post I spent the next few hours playing Poker Night at the Inventory. So much for being productive.

FTL: This Game is Incredible

Today I'd like to talk about a success story from Kickstarter. Basically for those who haven't heard of it, Kickstarter is one of the better known crowd funding sites. Here, people promote their product and ask for donations so that they can successfully fund their projects. Without Kickstarter, many smaller, independently owned companies and groups would not have been able to see their ideas come to fruition. A good example would be Brian and Brandon's book.

Another would be the game Faster Than Light.

The game revolves you, your crew and your ship. The Galactic Federation has been all but destroyed by Rebels but you have critical data that can defeat them. Somehow, you have to jump across enough sectors using your faster than light warp drive to deliver this data in one piece.

And this is all while the Rebel fleet is right behind you, trying to catch up and stop you. Each sector contains an exit that will allow you to jump to the next sector, and every sector is broken up by various waypoints which your ship can jump between.

Everytime you play the sectors are randomly generated so it's a new and unique experience each time. 

Sound simple so far? Here's where it gets tricky.

Here we go...

I know I have several Sci-Fi fans, people who loved shows like Firefly, Star Trek, and Battlestar Galactica. Who's ever wanted to command their own crew? Yell at someone to fix the engines because a volley of enemy missiles have damaged them. Meanwhile you divert power to the shields to protect the ship but intruders have boarded so you need to to stop them too. You target your own lasers to destroy the enemy weapon's array but by now the boarding party has already destroyed the oxygen generators (causing your crew to slowly asphyxiate).

At least someone is extinguishing the fire in the medbay.

FTL lets you do all that and more. Every possible function and upgrade in a starship is available to you. Every system of your ship requires power to work, upgrading a system means it needs more power and with limited power you have to balance and make sacrifices to survive. I play extremely defensively, maxing out my shields, grabbing cloaking abilities, and using weaponry that disable enemy systems. My friend prefers to max out on offensive weapons, destroy your enemy before he touches you. I've see other people use automated drones or send their own crew to infiltrate other ships.

Every waypoint you travel to has a chance of an event happening. It can range from a simple automated Rebel scout attacking you, to answering a distress signal, or entering an asteroid field with Pirates waiting. And you could just decide to run away from a fight, sometimes distress signals are traps, and maybe the Pirates upon realizing it was a bad idea to attack you, beg for their lives. But it's up to you to spare them or not.

Every jump is random!

I'd recommend FTL to anyone with any interest in the Sci-fi genre. It is not an easy game and it's not a forgiving game either. If any of your crew members die, it's permanent, shops and repairs are uncommon and who says you can afford their wares anyways? All it takes is one bad encounter to cripple your ship for the rest of the mission and if you die, you have to start over.

And you'll want to start over. Just one more time, maybe you'll be luckier, maybe you have a better idea of how to do things, or you could be just masochistic. Whatever your reason, FTL has additional unlockable ships, achievements, high score recordings and potential for modding. Available on PC, Mac and Linux for only $10 on Steam I thought it was well worth my money. I even ended up buying the soundtrack but that's because I liked the electronic music in it.

The Slenderman

Most urban legends and mythical creatures are products of older civilizations and eras. It's difficult to replicate the sort of mystery, wonder and sometimes fear that is associated with things like the Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot, Jack the Ripper and similar entities.

But if there is any modern urban legend that is thriving it would be the creature known as the Slenderman.

The Slenderman is depicted as a tall, skinny, and faceless entity in a suit and tie, often with disproportionate limbs and fingers. He or it, is usually seen in the edges of photographs with the photographs ranging anywhere from the 1900's to modern times. It is common for the Slenderman to be seen in areas where children frequent. And it is not uncommon for children sharing a photo with the Slenderman to be declared missing.

No one knows why the Slenderman stalks and abducts children. Or what happens to those who go missing. Upon seeing the Slenderman, some individuals claim to suffer from, but not limited to, nausea, blurred vision, and headaches. But reports will vary from individual to individual.

Can you spot the Slenderman?

So popular is the Slenderman that he has become the choice topic of numerous short stories, "documentaries", and even games, the most well known being Slender. You play as a young woman lost in the woods as you try and find pages of a notebook whilst being stalked by the Slenderman.

The game has gotten so much attention that an updated and improved version will likely be released on Steam in the near future. I intend on doing a review, but make due with the trailer for the meantime.

Now there's a reason why I'm suddenly discussing the Slenderman, and it's simple. It's been years since I've dressed up for Halloween and going as the Slenderman is easy. I'm tall, thin, and I don't mind standing around looking creepy. All I need to do is get my old suit adjusted for my weight loss over the years, and away we go.

Though, I'm going to have to get used to wearing contacts because no glasses allowed. And I'm also unsure of what to wear so my head is completely white. I'm tempted to just get a nylon something to shove over my face but I doubt that be effective, or comfortable.

Any suggestions would be great.

Dear Esther: This Game is Artsy

I was originally going to make a post about me baking cupcakes but I ended up forgetting half my supplies in the fridge at work. I can't be the only one who wanted to rush home from work after a shift and forgot some things. So instead we'll be talking about Dear Esther, the remake of the fairly popular mod available on Steam.

Nearly all the games I review are going to be from Steam because I am a Valve fanboy.

The game is hard to describe. It's hard to say if it's even a game. It's an interactive story where your character will provide monologues at random intervals as you walk around. Though, the only interaction that's provided is movement keys.

The story is given through the mentioned dialogues, with each playthrough being different as the monologues are randomized. There are also small events that are randomized in the game though you have to have a careful eye to notice them as they are small and easy to miss. Their significance is also lost if you aren't paying attention to the monologues.

Unfortunately, I cannot tell much of the story without spoiling it. What I can say is that it's about a man on an island, and the monologues he gives are portions of the letters he has written to a woman by the name of Esther. The story is vague and will leave players to their own interpretations of what is going on.

And it is a strange island.

The environment itself is gorgeous. Some of the best and well-designed areas I've had the chance to explore. The atmosphere is well created as well, and gives a sense of loneliness and mystery. This is and the soundtrack are probably the most discussed and enjoyed portions of the game.

The soundtrack is even better. I found it to really help with the atmosphere of the game. A mixture of orchestral and instrumental music.

The caves were easily my favorite part of the game.

Despite all the praise I've heard and given for this game, it does have flaws. For starters, this isn't your conventional game, if it can even be called that. You walk around, a story gets told, and that's it. No shooting, no leveling up, and no cutscenes. Some people will be grateful for the change, others will be left bored and unsatisfied.

The game is also fairly short, it'll take you an hour, maybe two hours at most to complete it. The pacing is also a problem for some. Having a narrator tell your story for you is quite enjoyable as discussed in my Bastion review. And I think Dear Esther could have benefited from that as opposed to the sparse bits of narration.

I think the best way I could put it is that Dear Esther is like an art gallery. You walk around, you look at some pretty things, and sometimes a voice will pop up to say a few words. If you're not the kind of person who enjoys art galleries, you are not going to enjoy Dear Esther.

The Binding of Isaac: This Game is Horrifying

Theresa gifted me many things from the Steam Summer Sale while I was away in China. Now my backlog of games grows even larger and I have no idea how I'm going to get through all of these. In the meantime, I seem to have a preference for games by independent developers so today let's talk about The Binding of Isaac.

And while it is an excellent game, it is also easily one of the most disturbing games out there as well. Created by the same man who made Super Meatboy, some readers may be offended by this game's religious content. Anyone who may be offended can just scroll to the bottom and talk about their pet cat or something.

Yep, nothing out of the ordinary here.

The game is about a young boy named Isaac who lives with his Mother. However, his Mother begins to hear the voice of "God" and is ordered to sacrifice Isaac to prove her devotion. Yes, this mimics the Biblical story of the same name.

Isaac attempts to flee from his Mother by escaping through a trapdoor found in his bedroom. From there he must try and survive mazes filled with monstrous creatures and eventually face his Mother. The game has 11 different possible endings (13 with the Wrath of the Lamb expansion pack) each shedding light on Isaac's fate.

You play the game as Isaac, a small boy who is depicted as constantly crying. And that's actually how he fights the monsters in the mazes, by firing his tears at enemies. It is also possible to unlock other characters sharing the names of other Biblical characters such as Samson and Magdalene who have their own attributes. For example, Judas starts the game with very low health but the highest attack, whereas Cain has a much greater chance of finding better items.

 Again, the Wrath of the Lamb expansion gives additional characters.

The game differentiates itself from other dungeon crawlers in two ways, the maze creations and the items. Each playthrough is completely different in terms of mazes explored, monsters encountered, and items obtained. There are no saves and each time you play, you're either going to die or beat it. Dying involves you starting all over. As you progress and beat the game, additional items, bosses and even levels unlock giving another layer of depth to the game.

There are over 100 items that can randomly appear in the game, with an additional hundred items with the Wrath of the Lamb expansion. You have items ranging from basic health upgrades, attack upgrades to items that grant you wings, change your tears into lazers or give Isaac bad gas.

Oh on top of that, most items will cause your character to change his appearance. A tub of lard makes you fat, coat hangers will go through your head, diseases make you appear infected and sick, chemicals will burn off half your face.

A guy on Deviantart has drawn depictions of his character after each game, and remember that each playthrough is going to give you different items resulting in completely unique experiences:

You can view the rest of his gallery here.

Despite its cartoony appearance, The Binding of Isaac is NOT a game I'd would recommend for younger children. The monsters range from bizarre to disturbing and there is an exceptional amount of blood and gore in the game. The game is also quite difficult and often unforgiving. You are not required to explore the entire map and in fact can just go and fight bosses as soon as you find them. 

HOWEVER, by doing so you risk missing items that will make the rest of your playthrough easier. Or maybe you won't find anything at all and you'll end up fighting a boss half crippled. That constant threat of risk vs. reward is another well done feature of the game. Any mistakes are done because you decided to do them and you have no one else to blame.

For only $5 and an additional $3 for the expansion pack on Steam, this game is well worth its cost. Lots of content, plenty of replay value, and a unique experience and different challenge each time you play, I highly recommend this game.

Bastion: This Game is Glorious

It's been ages since I've done a review of anything but I've finally had a moment to dip into my backlog of books/games and decided to play Bastion.

I reviewed LIMBO many months ago and you might start noticing a trend. I'm generally only going to be reviewing Indie or uncommon games. I don't want to be discussing something like Battlefield, Diablo, or anything else that gets enough attention as it is.

I think this makes me a hipster though.

Nevermind, I only have 2 Xs on this thing. I'm still safe.

Bastion is the story of a boy know only as "The Kid" who wakes up, finds his entire world destroyed, torn up, and spat out by an event known as The Calamity. Guided only by a Stranger's voice he sets off to explore what's left of his world and find a way to start-up a structure called the Bastion. In doing so, hopefully the events of the Calamity can be reversed.

It's a 2D Adventure Role-Playing Game (or ARPG) with an isometric viewpoint. In other words, you control a character and make him do things in a 2D world that's made to look 3D. If you're confused by my description of how the world looks, take a look at the picture below. The world is done in this beautiful hand-drawn style and is a mix of both Steampunk and Fantasy.

But the visual presentation isn't what makes this game so wonderful, it's how everything else is presented.

Everything looks so pretty!

First, the story. A lot of games have trouble weaving a story with gameplay. Some games present massive blocks of texts, others have unskippable cutscenes, or wordy and boring dialogue sessions. All of these interrupt gameplay. Bastion gets around this by simply having the Stranger narrate chunks of the story as you play along.

For example, let's say you enter a new area. As you walk around, the Stranger will give a little bit of information, just a few sentences as you're running around. And then that's it. And he won't say anything else until you've done something worth saying. With this, you get a rich and unique narrative that's not overwhelming or intrusive.

Anything and everything you do can get a line from the Stranger. Doing well in a fight can get him to comment on how you breezed through, whereas nearly dying will prompt him to say how it was a hard fight, but you still did it. And this extends to the weapons you chose, the tasks you complete, the way you die, so on and so forth.

I know this sounds odd. But imagine if you could have Morgan Freeman follow you around for a day and give random commentary on everything you do, where you go, and give justification for why you did that. That is exactly what the narration feels like.

Every word this man says is liquid gold.

But this is also an action game so how does combat fare? Combat is also excellent. You are given a wide variety of upgradable weapons and skills to use so there is a large variety of customization. Nothing is better than the other, it all comes down to personal preference which is good. The enemies encountered are also unique and present their own challenges.

But there will be a point where you feel ridiculously overpowered and the game becomes too easy. Some people are going to like this but others are going to want a challenge. However, instead of a difficulty setting you eventually get access to a Shrine.

In Bastion, praying to the Gods will benefit your enemies, not you. Depending on who you pray to your enemies may gain increased defense, health regeneration, dropping explosives on death and many more. In return, you get an experience bonus which will help you level up faster if you can survive.

Why do the Gods hate us so much?!

Any problems with the game? Some of the challenges I found were very challenging unless certain upgrades were purchases which can be frustrating, but I guess that's what makes it a challenge. Another feature of the game is that the world pieces itself together as you explore it. A path will literally form in from empty space in front of you. This can be disorientating at times, running around, trying to find the trigger to activate the next chunk of world to form.

Other than that, I can't think of any other complaints.

The music is lovely, the art is lovely, the story could be considered cliched but the way it's presented should be applauded, and combat works great. The game is only $15 on Steam for PCs or 1200 Microsoft Points in the Xbox Live Arcade. You're looking at anywhere from 8 to 15 hours of gameplay depending on whether you do the challenges and/or the Story+ mode upon beating the game.

I highly recommend this game, one of the best I've played as of late. Trailer is down below:

And that's the voice of The Stranger in case you were wondering.

And I know this post is a few hours late. Still going to try and stick with my every third day posting schedule. Next post will be on Saturday.

LIMBO: This Game is Depressing

If it wasn't obvious enough that I'm a gamer (and that I would give internal organs to Valve if they asked) I'm not sure what else I need to do. However, I know a lot of you aren't like this and can't understand the appeal. That's fine, but whenever I do make comments on a game I will do my best to make the commentary more accessible to non-gamers.

Preemptive apologies to Beth because this isn't a book review.

Thanks to finals being done I can actually enjoy myself. So today we'll be talking about LIMBO, a game about a boy who wakes up in a forest and needs to go find his missing sister. It's a 2D platformer with physics puzzles, in layman's terms you run and jump around and manipulate the properties of the environment to move to the next stage. Sounds pretty standard so far.

And now why LIMBO is horrifying and how only a serial killer could smile during a playthrough.

This is not a happy game.

The entire game is set in black and white environments. Utilizing that grainy film effect and clever lighting it creates a ominous, dark and unwelcoming world. To further help this, the only sound effects in the game are faint background noises such as the sound of flies and soft crunching of questionable objects.

The puzzles generally take a bit of thinking and timing to figure out. Most of them consist of some variation of timed jumps, operating switches and machines as well as pulling and moving objects to help you advance. The game particularly enjoys having you desecrate the bodies of the dead.

Oh and did I mention? The entire world hates you. Everything, anything and everyone can and will kill you at a whim. Whether it be like falling from too high, drowning, cut into pieces by a sawblade.

Being eviscerated by massive spider.

And the boy dies in the saddest ways possible. You feel bad every time you watch his tiny body go limp or fly in all directions of the wind. Afterall, it is your fault he missed that jump or electrocuted himself. That being said, you do come back in a safe and reasonable location in respect to where you died. You're not going to have to redo every puzzle upon your death.

The story is sparse and is left almost entirely to the player to figure out. Some people think this is a problem but I personally found it added to the unnerving atmosphere of the game. You don't really have a sense of what's going on or why. Some people question if the boy and his sister are even alive.

It's a mystery!

That being said, it is a very solid puzzle game and has won many awards. I love supporting the independent developers because they don't produce bland and repetitive games. These guys are willing to take steps in new and unique ways and they should be rewarded for it. Unlike companies such as Electronic Arts.

(By the way, I will take as many opportunities as possible to bash EA because I hate them with every fiber of my being).

This is technically my first review of ANYTHING ever. Any comments or suggestions would be great whether it be about the post or potential future reviews. I'm really open to anything, as long as I can make it entertaining.

You can pick up LIMBO on Steam for $9.99 or try the demo for free. HOWEVER, Steam is currently having their 2011 Holiday sale so LIMBO is $4.99 until January 2nd.

Terraria, why do you hate us?

For those of you who are not aware Steam is celebrating the holiday season with their Daily Wishlist giveaway. Simply have a Steam account with 10 items in your wishlist and then view the daily special to be entered.

What does Terraria have to do with this? Well, to celebrate version 1.1 coming out it was Thursday's daily special at 75% off. A lot of people call it a Minecraft clone but there are enough big differences between the two games so that really isn't an issue.

Diggy diggy hole hole.

Anyways my girlfriend Theresa prefers Terraria to Minecraft because 2D games don't make her nauseous. We don't understand why Minecraft makes her motionsick, we disabled headbobbing, fiddled with mouse sensitivity, etc. etc. but still she feels ill some days.

But for whatever reason, Terraria did not want to cooperate with either of us that day.

Maybe we should have stuck with Minecraft...

There are new features out for Terraria and because I want to try them out with my girlfriend I begin setting up a server. I'm not the most techy guy around but I at least I know how to go onto Youtube and research these things. Follow step by step instructions. I may be derpy but I'm not that derpy.

But no amount of research would get my router to port forward correctly. In other words, no one was able to connect to the server I was hosting. I struggled for several hours before finally giving up. Maybe it's an issue with my router, I'm tempted to reset it and try again.

Or maybe I can just stare at it until it fixes itself.

Meanwhile, Theresa was dealing with in-game issues. The game has new challenges and hazards including new monsters and traps littered around the dungeons. Our current armor isn't up to par and it became quickly apparent. BUT, there is a new NPC that exists who can help enhance your armor. Theresa set forth on a quest to find him.

The new NPCs spawn randomly in dungeons and needs to be "rescued" by you. After that they spawn where ever you've built a home allowing you to access their services more easily.

Surprisingly, my girlfriend managed to find the guy with no trouble at all. She goes up to talk to him and then....

A bug occurred that caused the NPC to glitch and disappear.

 

I imagine her expression was something like this.  

While my girlfriend goes to find where the NPC has respawned I'm tempted to just pay a bit of cash and just rent a server for as long as Theresa wants to play. It'll be easier to manage and maybe we can get other friends to join.

And if that works, maybe I can get that Minecraft server going too.

Early Christmas Shopping

With about a month left until Christmas most people begin to start shopping (and panicking) right about now if not later. Me? I started shopping back in October. Thanks to the glory of being able to order things online I can just buy and forget, receiving a package in the mail a few weeks later.

Makes me wonder why more people don't do this.

For my girlfriend I've got things still on their way. There are rumors that Problem Sleuth Volume 3 and Homestuck Volume 1 are coming out near the end of the month so I'm hoping to order both for my sister. Anyone else read the Inheritance series? The 4th book came out so I grabbed that for my Mom and my brother wants computer parts so I'll get those whenever.

For a lot of friends it's as easy as going onto Steam during a Steam sale and buying things to gift to them later. No seriously, I just bought Portal 1 and 2 for less than $12 yesterday and I'm just waiting for other games to go on sale for other friends. I also bought a ton of Minecraft giftcodes to give away just before the game came out of Beta.

That was easy.

But there are two people I'm having trouble thinking of gifts for. My Dad and my cousin. Mom should be on this list too but I lucked out this year with the book. Dad is hard to buy for because I sadly don't know my Dad that well. We're both usually busy, we don't have a lot in common, etc. etc..

I know he likes chocolates and I've heard that some of the best places to get chocolates are from online stores. Unfortunately, I have no idea where that particular issue of Consumer Reports has disappeared to so I'll keep hunting.

The cousin is also someone I don't really talk to as much. I guess I could just get him a random PS3 game or One Piece related (are there any One Piece games for the PS3?). I already have something in mind for his brother so that makes me look bad if I don't get both of them gifts.

Why couldn't he have a Steam account instead of a PS3...

But I still have one month left so I'm not panicking too hard. This blog is actually helping to pay for some of the gifts so I'm grateful for that. Never thought I could ever successfully make money off what is largely considered online leisure activity.

Never been more glad to be wrong.