In this week’s episode of Side by Side we take a look at Toys for Bob’s Playstation Archon-like The Unholy War. Yeah, Toys for Bob, the folks behind Star Control and… Skylanders.
In the first episode of our new and shiny third series, Joel Goodwin of Electron Dance and I take a look at Alientrap’s delicious roguelite shoot ’em up Cryptark.
Among the panels I attended at PAX was a talk by one of my all time favorite game developers, Hidetaka Suehiro, AKA SWERY65. SWERY is the creator of Deadly Premonition, the Twin Peaks inspired cult hit game that became one of my favorite horror titles ever made. SWERY is now crowdfunding a new title that needs your support. I’m not afraid to shamelessly shill for this particular crowdfund, because I think his work is brilliant. …
I don’t want to bury the lede, so, if you read and reply to this article, you might win a small prize! Details below!
Over the next few articles I’m writing some recaps about my trip to PAX West in Seattle. While I was at the show I did the usual activities: played games, chatted with developers, and did a little cosplay. I also did something I had never done before at PAX, which is wait in line for several hours to watch other people play Dungeons & Dragons. And I also played a game which is in part about watching people play Dungeons & Dragons.
Joel’s been on a roll these last couple of weeks and managed to get out the final two episodes of season 2 which take a look at Gang Beasts and Abyss Odyssey. Next stop: season 3!
It’s time for a new episode of Side by Side and this time Joel and I venture into the psychedelic crustaceous wilds of Vomit Crabs. Chunks will be blown.
“A realistic crab fighting simulator with REAL CRAB PHYSICS. You duell [sic] each other in the form of laser vomit battles and teleportation. Just like real crabs do in the sea.”
So, uh, yeah. Video after the jump.
A trillion years ago, when my brother Marcus published his third novel Good People, a mutual friend reached out, not to congratulate him, but to warn me.
“Have you noticed that a younger brother dies in every book so far?” Vezner asked. “I think whatever he has planned for you, it’s coming closer. I’ve prepared this helpful infographic to illustrate my point.”
I found this infographic again the other day, while cleaning out my office to paint, and it still sends a chill down my spine.
When his eyes meet yours, you know you want to stay. But if I stay, you think, it must be for the right reason. It must be because he is a magician who will help make my quest a success. It can’t be because of my feelings. I haven’t time for that now.
Should I just come right out and tell him what’s on my mind? you wonder. Or will he think I’m silly? Childish, even? Or should I just leave, and find a magician who won’t complicate my goal with romantic feelings?
“Must you go, Summer?” Folc asks.
What is your decision?
If you leave to find a magician who won’t be a romantic problem for you, turn to page 37.
If you stay, being honest with Folc about your feelings, turn to page 130.
This is a post all about funny events that really happened.
I’ll start at the top with a confession.
Last year I got myself a press badge for the Philadelphia-based gaming event Too Many Games. Then, after attending the event, I struggled with how to write an article about it that properly captured the zeitgeist. As a result, a draft for this article, sans content, sat in the drafts folder on this site for an entire year. Steerpike can attest.
Seeing this unfinished draft sitting there, taunting me, I resolved that I would attend the event again, and write about it this year, as penance. Of course, this year, I forgot to register for the press badge in advance, so now I had to pay at the door. I can’t feel too bad about having to pay, since enjoying the event gratis one year means I should very well pony up the next. Anyway, I feel much freer to write about the conference in my own words this way, without any puff.
I play fighting games for the story.
I say, “I play fighting games for the story,” and then, I usually follow up with the joke, “which is like saying that I read Playboy for the articles.”
But it’s true… or, it’s at least, partially true. I could say, rather, that I play fighting games for the characters. After all, colorful characters are the core of fighting games, and central to their appeal. But that’s not quite it, either.
It’s been a very long time since I wrote about Dungeons & Dragons. I was once editorializing in a time when what is now D&D 5th Edition was still an uncertain series of playtests. This year, however, I’ve started up a new campaign in that edition. As I mentioned in my last article, I’ve been streaming live on Twitch, with a focus now on our Dungeons & Dragons game happening here in Philadelphia. We generally play every other week, on Sunday afternoons Eastern Standard Time.
We are not playing this week, however, because I’m at the Origins Game Fair in Columbus, starting this Thursday and going through Sunday, June 18! While I’m there, I’m going to be helping out with the D&D Adventurer’s League events happening throughout the show. Thanks to Wizards of the Coast, I got a sneak preview of some of the new Dungeons & Dragons material coming out this fall. At Origins – and hopefully soon in our campaign, too – we’ll be playing through material in the adventure series, the Tomb of Annihilation.
Ukrainian developer 4A Games took advantage of E3 to pre-pimp their work in Metro: Exodus, the third interactive installment and member of the growing cross-media phenomenon that began with Dmitry Glukhovksy’s brilliant novel Metro 2033. Let’s recap before the news.
I wanted people from my group to also play the game, to the point where I promised them a free game of equal value if they picked up Nier:Automata, played through the whole thing, and said they didn’t feel it was worth full price. I REALLY wanted them to play it.
The Nordic Games Conference is going on right now in Skyrim Sweden. There’s a vibrant Scandinavian developer ecosystem out there, and interesting stuff often comes out of this event, which I imagine to be rife with Viking-related imagery such as mead and hats with horns.
GamesIndustry.biz reports on a fireside chat (possibly in a longhall!) between Massive Entertainment’s Managing Director David Polfeldt and Fumito Ueda, the legendary artiste behind Ico, Shadow of the Colossus and (ZOMG) The Last Guardian.
Among other things, Ueda sort of reveals that he’s working on a new game, which is kind of a surprise. I at least had assumed he’d lost interest in game design, but his remarks seem to indicate the opposite. Which is exciting.
Last week Joel posted up our latest episode of Side by Side where we discuss Powerhoof’s Crawl, a competitive (sorta) co-op dungeon crawling arcade hack and slasher.