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GAMER PC PC : DISCUSSION

From one mobile to another: the sublime strategy of Nokia's Reset Generation
Posted in Gamer PC | June 21, 2009 10pm

If there's one downside to sticking close to the indie set for all your gaming needs, it's that it can be an inadvertently isolating experience. Small budgets, game making software packages, and the general complexities and headaches of net-code mean that what indies do best are provide remarkable single player stories rather than multiplayer thrills.There are, of course, a number of notable exceptions, and this week's recommendation is one, though admittedly, it feels more indie than it actually is. Why? Because the ideas it represents are so wholly outside the usual gaming fare -- though at the same time firmly rooted in gaming's past, and because it comes from no less a tech giant than Nokia.The game is Reset Generation, the flagship game Nokia built to demonstrated the mobile multiplayer future of its re-launched N-Gage brand as an on-phone Xbox Live-type service, rather than dedicated gaming/phone hardware.And chief amongst the most impressive of its features is the fact that mobile phone players can play side-by-side with PC players -- that is to say, netbook players -- in the same matches with identical experiences.The hardest question to answer, though, is what the game exactly is. Here's a quick rundown, for what it's worth: each multiplayer match of 2-4 people sees each player attempting to storm the others' castles to nab their princess and steal off back to their own home base. Players do this by setting down faux-Tetris bricks across the field in their own color to lay paths that let them travel more spaces per turn.

Meanwhile, every other player is both trying to lay their own tiles over each others paths or otherwise destroy them with their home base cannons: the only tiles that can't be destroyed are ones where your Tetris skills have fit together lines longer than four spaces in any direction.Still with me? On top of this, players have to keep a close eye on people going for their own princess, and can directly or indirectly attack other players to hobble their progress: each player chooses from a lineup of characters that harken back to exaggerated versions of Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Lara Tomb Raider Croft, Halo's space marines, Pokemon's trainers -- all with their own specific special attacks.Sound complicated? Fantastically, and much to the credit of the many years the developers spent fine-tuning the mechanics, after a match or three (or by running through the single player portion of the game, which acts as a tutorial), it all falls into entirely illogically logical territory, and the underlying strategy really begins to blossom.So the best way to "get it" is simply to get it: create an account and start tracking your own stats and achievements at resetgeneration.com on a netbook of your choice -- nearly a year later, the developers have opened up access to the game for Mac and Linux players, as well, meaning no matter what flavor your portable computer, you'll always have the game at hand.
 

GAMER PC PC : DISCUSSION

Tomorrow's console game hits are on your netbook today
Posted in Gamer PC | June 8, 2009 7am

For all the myriad good-karma reasons to follow and support the independent game scene -- giving attention to those underpaid and passionate developers that are doing this for, usually, little more than the love of the art and craft and science of games -- a case could be made for one good selfish reason: being able to say 'you played it when.'2D Boy's WiiWare/PC hit World of Goo? You might've played it back in 2005 when its prototype Tower of Goo first sprang up under the Experimental Gameplay Project, or the Unlimited followup that would become the retail version's ranked metagame. Thatgamecompany's PS3/PSP hit fl0w? Played it on the web in 2006.Behemoth's 2D shooter Alien Hominid, which would go on to success on PlayStation 2, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, and, most recently, Xbox Live Arcade? Sprang straight off a version published on the web in 2002.And their more recent Live Arcade beat-em-up Castle Crashers? You can trace its lineage straight back to cutely ultraviolent playground brawler Dad 'n Me, still available to play today.So what are a few of tomorrow's indie hits we can play today? There's almost too many to choose from, but two of the currently most hyped are Super Meat Boy, a brutally difficult vertical climbing platformer starring the titular block of meat, currently available to play in slightly less Super form, and, of course Cave Story.







Cave Story is one of those rare breed of games that has won such unanimous acclaim that it's essentially spawned a genre around it: a game that hearkens back to all of the action and massive, slowly unfolding freely explorable worlds of Nintendo favorite Metroid, but feels decidedly modern in its fluidity and intensity.Indie startup Nicalis is currently hard at work converting the game -- which was entirely created by a single developer, Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya -- to be a full blown WiiWare title, but, lucky netbook owner you, you can play it now, for free, via the tribute site set up at cavestory.org.I'll keep plugging away at bringing you more from the indie game front lines over the coming weeks, but all the classic goodness above should suffice to tide you over until then.
 

GAMER PC PC : DISCUSSION

The vectorized playground dream world of Patrick Smith's Windosill
Posted in Gamer PC | June 2, 2009 8am

E3 is officially upon us, and it's not hard to tell that what we probably won't be getting out of the show is much in the way of PC gaming news: even during Monday's Microsoft conference the word PC wasn't uttered once (even as an accompaniment to the console release of Valve's new Left 4 Dead followup), as the company pushes harder to make the Xbox 360 the defacto home entertainment device in everyone's living room.And so, the PC moves ever closer to being the ubiquitous platform of choice for experimental indie developments, and that brings me to Windosill. Created by Patrick 'Vectorpark' Smith as the latest in a long-running series of quiet, surreal Flash games and toys, it's safe to say that Windosill is both Smith's most game-like, and most surreal.
Your object? Simply to manage to get your mouse pointer on a small white cube, one in every diorama screen, and place it into the lock above the exit door.
   The challenge? Every screen you pass through brings about a new, more complex situation that you'll need to grapple with to progress.The bonus? No matter how complex the situation, Smith has made every object in the game an absolute delight to interact with even on the most basic level: Windosill's world might be the most physical I've ever touched, and yet is rendered entirely in 2D Flash.Like my earlier recommendation, Samorost, Smith's game is a fantastic look back at a classic PC gaming style while at the same time pushing itself square into the future with both a graphical and mechanical design sensibility wholly unlike anything we've played with before.Find the demo for the game at Smith's site, and do put out the $3 for the full version: Smith saves the best of its challenges and creatures for the second half of the game.

GAMER PC PC : DISCUSSION

Offworld asks: what should we be playing on our netbooks?
Posted in Gamer PC | May 25, 2009 8am

Over my past few posts here at WePC I've given just a few of my top recommendations for cheap or freeware ultra-portable gaming that ranges from the retro-flavored to the realistically surreal to rare art-game playable poetry, but this time I want to turn the tables and get a sense of what everyone else is playing as well.
Here's a quick run-down of my latest finds and the games I keep returning to: 
 
Crackerblocks' Enviro-Bear 2000: Operation: Hibernation: In one of the most unlikely and original setups for a game that I've run across in recent months, Enviro-Bear 2000 is pretty much exactly what you see above, a short and chaotic bumper-car ride to collect enough food in time before hibernation begins, made difficult by the fact that bears can't drive cars. That goes doubly for cars full of angry bees, badgers, and the bones of your discarded meals. 
 
Yes, it's that Mirror's Edge, only in Mirror's Edge 2D, EA partnered with Brad Borne of BorneGames (best known for his two entries in the Fancy Pants Adventures series) to extend the franchise out to indie-made web-gaming territory, with full leaderboard functionality to compare your best runs to the rest of the world. 

CosMind's Glum Buster, a sprawling undertaking that took creator Justin Leingang an alleged four years to create, but it was quite worth it: it contains some of the best surreal dreamscapes since Amanita's previously covered Samorost.
But what about you? Have you teased great performance out of Steam's offerings? Are you DOSbox-ing, MAME-ing or SCUMM-ing the best of the past few decades? Are you surviving on Solitaire? Let us know!