• 18Mar 10

  My media intake this week!

  Well a week has already gone by since my first post and to tell the truth I haven't really gamed a great deal during that time but I can't renege so soon on my personal goal of posting regularly. After Vvvvvv I went on a bit of an indie kick and checked out De Blob, Eets, Trine and Machinarium.

  I can't say I've played enough of any of them to give a full on impression, Machinarium certainly has a really charming feel to it and has got me interested in point and click style games, which as a formally console exclusive gamer are almost completely new to me.

  The reason for my lack of gaming has been that I've been busy job searching and have been fortunate enough to find work in France for the summer (go me!), also one of my housemates came back for the week so I've actually had something to do other than become nocturnal.

  While job searching I have found myself passively watching tv shows, a lot of tv shows. In fact in the last week I have (re)watched every episode of Futurama, I then discovered and proceeded to watch every episode of a sci fi show from a few years ago called the 4400, it really is amazing to see how much the general standard of quality of american tv shows has gone up in the last half decade! I'm not bashing the show, I think that the premise is/was really interesting and some of the actors weren't that bad considering the lines they had to work with. All in all it was an easy to swallow, (passively) watchable show.

  Other than what has become my now embarrassingly large standard weekly tv show viewing (being a student has upped my tv intake no end), I also got around to watching some of this year's oscar nominated films that I'd previously missed which I'm ashamed to say included District 9 (was great). I also really liked An Education, with the relationship between the daughter and her father being a particular highlight and went and saw Avatar with friends in German "Ich sehe dich!", which was weird.

  Not that anyone will read this but I apologise for the lack of gamey topics here, ooh here's one, wasn't Zero Punctuation good this week? I've not played Heavy Rain so don't hold any opinion towards it but Yahzee really was funny, which was nice to see.

  I don't just sit inside watching tv shows and internet videos, finally finding a job has allowed me to relax a bit and I've found myself reading for pleasure again, the snow eventually clearing and the sun showing up has made sitting outside with a book a welcome departure from sitting in an empty, cold house.

  Oh yeah, I've been learning to juggle for a few weeks now and have created a youtube account to see how I get along, so far there are a couple of vids of just me juggling basically.

  I got Miles Edgeworth recently so I expect that'll be my topic next week as opposed to the scrawling ramble that was this week!

  • Posted Mar 18, 2010 2:00 pm GMT
  • Category: Rant
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• 10Mar 10

  I Just finished VVVVVV!

  I just finished VVVVVV! so proud I thought I'd tell you twice!
  

  I have been reading this site for nigh on 3 years and have never felt the need to start my blog, until now!

  Just wow. If you've never heard of this game, stop reading now and pretend you didn't read the above and just generally forget I even mentioned it, I don't want to be responsible for putting anyone else through that! For the rest of you either you've already put yourself through it or are going to check it out regardless, the demo can be found here.
  

  VVVVVV (that's six V's) is modern day 8-bit platformer with a twist, you don't jump. Instead you control gravity so one second you're walking the right way up, the next you're walking on the ceiling. You're a space captain and you need to find your crew after some sort of accident.

  Sounds simple enough right? Well truth be told it is. Simple by no means is the same thing as easy however. This game follows along the same gameplay vein as N+ and Prinny. By that I mean that it is soul destroyingly difficult, but in a good way as I will attempt to explain.

  As with N+ you will die a countless number of times (ok there is actually a log of how many times you've died but I'm too embarrassed to say!), whereupon you will instantly respawn at your last checkpoint, these tiny little C symbols will quickly become your best friends and you will find yourself praying for the next one to show up. That's not to say that they are sparse and they rarely seem unfairly spread with the next one always within reach. I think this is where the magic from this type of game comes from for me, it's this kind of fair challenge that makes me want to try the stupid wire section with the spikes scrolling at the top and bottom of the screen for the 50th time, safe in the knowledge that I will get there eventually, even if it is only to be greeted with an even greater challenge.

  Graphically this game doesn't try to do anything special and it succeeds, but its the music where this game comes into it's own. Pulsing, electro-y, 8-bit-y tunes that sink into your mind and somehow rarely get irritating. This is an example of the sort of thing you'll be listening to most of the time.

  To sum it up, VVVVVV is a relatively short (took me about 2 and a half hours, first playthrough) incredibly punishing, yet mostly fair platformer with some great level design, very interesting ideas and some great music. For someone like me who finds themselves spending less and less time playing games, it seems that shorter, more intense games like this are the way forward and I certainly won't forget it in a hurry!
  

  • Posted Mar 10, 2010 9:43 am GMT
  • Category: Rant
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