Gregg B
Gregg B is tired and wondering where the day went.
Gregg B is tired and wondering where the day went.
Episode 6 of Side by Side is now up! (Well, it was up a couple of weeks ago but I sacrificed Magicka 2 for some Disney and Orlando ‘magic’.)
I’ve dabbled with Magicka 2 since Joel and I played it last year, both on my own and with friends who I played through the original with. I was very surprised to find that they didn’t click with it. Like, at all. They gave it just shy of a couple of hours and got a refund. Though they were unsure what felt ‘off’ about it, I attributed it to a few things.
As always, there’s a lot I didn’t play this year, mostly because of games from previous years. One in particular from a very previous year. Like, 2001. But that’s okay! Here on Tap we don’t let that kind of thing spoil a good list. A good wordy list.
Affordable Space Adventures got an honourable mention in my (ridiculously long) Games of 2015 list solely because of what I played with Joel for this episode of Side by Side. Since then I’ve played it through to completion with my girlfriend and a friend, and I can tell you now that it will be on my Games of 2016 list too, but not as an honourable mention this time.
Here’s how this affordable spaceship went down.
Joel and I dig into the dark (and light) depths of the past with chess-like arena-fighter Archon: The Light and the Dark. It was released in 1983 which makes it one of the oldest games ever.
I was born in 1983.
Archon is particularly significant to me now after discovering that it’s essentially the grandfather of one of my favourite multiplayer games on the PlayStation: The Unholy War, by Toys For Bob.
For additional notes on the history of the game visit Electron Dance. For the video, see below.
This year I’ve got an honest-to-god list of games from 2015. Even if it is late.
From 2015.
In this episode Joel and I get our groove on with Crypt of the Necrodancer. Well, Joel gets his groove on. I just die a lot.
Episode 2 is upon us and this week we’re taking a look at Psyonix’s smash hit car-to-ball game Rocket League.
The wait is over! You can now, at long last, refresh the Side by Side tab you’ve had open since the end of season 1 to see that season 2 is upon us! Bigger, better, harder, faster… uh, stronger? Actually, while season 2 won’t necessarily be bigger, we hope it’ll be better. Harder? No. Faster? No. Snappier? I didn’t say that, but yes. Sexier? Now now, don’t push it.
Joel Goodwin and I are now nine whole Great British episodes into our collaborative video series Side by Side which aims to cover an assortment of local multiplayer games both old and new, from the familar to the foreign, the physical to the frightening. If you haven’t checked it out yet then here’s a slice of what you’ve been missing:
2014 was the year I took a step back from writing and dug into my backlog without worrying too much about whether I should pen my thoughts or not. Yet, despite playing more than usual, this list is somewhat shorter than my previous years’. That probably makes it about normal size then.
It’s been quite a while since I posted anything on Tap but my good friend Joel Goodwin over at Electron Dance has just launched our new 15 episode local multiplayer video series ‘Side by Side‘. I say our, it’s more his because Joel has done all the hard work, I just hosted the sessions, giggled a lot, spoke with him about our experiences and fed him cheese and ham sandwiches.
Anyway, I’m incredibly happy with the first episode which covers Jan Willem Nijman’s fantastic TENNNES and very much starts the series as it means to go on. Side by Side has its own YouTube channel so feel free to subscribe, like, share and all that other social media jazz. If you know anyone who enjoys a spot of local multiplayer then point them our way: we’ve got lots in store.
You can watch the video after the jump, on Electron Dance or over on the Tube of You.
There were four major things I noticed at this year’s Rezzed.
The Castle Doctrine is probably one of the most cynical and brutal games I’ve ever played. I bought it for a few reasons: the premise sounded fascinating, it’s by Jason Rohrer who was responsible for Passage, Sleep Is Death, Inside a Star-filled Sky and Gravitation (amongst others), and it was 50% off and due to go full price a few days later to coincide with the game’s release. According to Rohrer the game will never go on sale again so it was as good a time as any to check it out.
It’s a rough game to start though, and if you don’t know what the game is about then stick with me here, you’ll be perfect to illustrate this to.
Kickstarter, Greenlight, Early Access, pre-alpha, alpha previews, closed betas, open betas, demos, full release! Post-release, DLC, expansions, mods, third-party utilities and patches, hell, even subscriptions, pay to play, free to play and voluntary donations… gaming evidently isn’t like any other medium. But we all knew that anyway, and that’s kind of why we love it.
I managed to dip into a version of Proteus a few years ago, at least I think it was a few years ago, I can’t quite remember– time seems to go so fast these days. It was an early build anyway, and I didn’t play it for long because I’m not a fan of playing betas or alphas when there are so many finished games out there already, all vying for my time and attention. My brief jolly through its crisp, bright sprite-encrusted landscapes however, was enough to put it firmly on my map. Even then it had a hypnotically calming air about it, and following Joel Goodwin’s adorable video of him and his little boy playing it together I only wanted to play it more.