Posted by Derek Yu
Thu, 29 May 2008 07:38:00 GMT
Somewhere out there, a U.S. Senator is earning his or her wings.
But really, what I like about Torture Game 2 is not so much that it lets you hurt a guy with nails, rope, spikes, a chainsaw, etc. – the actual gore is pretty campy, in my opinion. No, what I like is that you can use his body to make macabre art! The game even provides a little paintbrush for you to paint on him with.
For example, check out what the creative folks at Sensible Erection (NSFWish) have done with the game.
Posted in Unique / Bizarre, Browser Games, Sim | 49 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Wed, 14 May 2008 06:26:00 GMT
In Caveman Craig you’re charged with leading a tribe of cavemen as they try to survive the harsh realities of everyday life as a friggin’ prehistoric caveman! Namely, dinosaurs. And evil cavemen dressed in black.
The interesting thing about CC is how you train each individual caveman to do his job (which he will then perform automatically). Cavemen come in three flavors (hunter, gatherer, and preparer), which each have two skills. To teach them these skills you simply perform the action a number of times while they are following you. New cavemen arrive when enough food has been prepared.
Along the way, you’re blessed with small gifts that make things easier for you (e.g. a fire and spit that prepares carcasses). These are fun rewards, and they alleviate the repetitiveness of training somewhat, but more skills, more dinosaurs, and more variety would have been very welcome. Raids on other tribes, perhaps?
Still, it’s a fun little game while it lasts!
Posted in Windows, Sim, Strategy, Freeware | Tags RhysAndrews | 10 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:28:00 GMT
Image by Vanemuine, via the TaleWorlds forums.
The latest version of the awesome cavalry/siege sim Mount and Blade has been released, offering a slew of improvements, including new character models and animations, new towns and cities, new quests (with rehauled dialogue and descriptions), better AI, and more video options. The developers are claiming that v0.950 contains most of the features they want to add for v1.0, which will be published by Paradox Interactive later this year.
For a more complete list of changes (which is being compiled by players), click here. For more gorgeous screenshots, click here!
As before, you can still buy and play the game now for $25, which will also grant you access to the $39 full version when it comes out.
(Source: Kieron Gillen, via Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
Posted in Windows, Sim, Strategy | Tags Taleworlds | 11 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:28:00 GMT
Oh, man, this game is fun! Trials 2 Second Edition is a physics-based motorbike game that’s reminiscent of the classic Elasto Mania. The series began with two Flash games, Trial Bike (and variants) and Trials 2. Trials 2 SE, however, is a downloadable commercial title with really nice 3d graphics and many more options (although the 2d gameplay remains more or less unchanged).
The goal of each track is to make your way from one end to the other. In between, you’ll be jumping gaps, popping wheelies, doing loop-de-loops… and probably smashing your poor rider into every surface along the way. Have you ever fallen face-first into a tire fire? I’ll bet even Travis Pastrana hasn’t.
Thankfully, this is another game where losing can be as entertaining as winning (hurray for 3d ragdoll physics!). Also, checkpoints are placed liberally, and restarting is as easy as hitting a button. Trials 2 Second Edition is surprisingly frustration free.
The full version of the game is $19.90 USD, and gives you 40 tracks, 3 game modes, 25 achievements, and the ability to maintain a profile and compete with other players for online ranking. One of the coolest features of T2SE is that, when comparing scores, you can click an icon next to a player’s name to either watch a replay of their best run (complete with key presses), or to race with their “ghost.” You can also create and join teams and compete as or within a group. (Which reminds me, team “TigerSauce” is looking for members! The password is herebeowls.)
So yeah, damn fun game. Video after the jump!
Read more...
Posted in Highly Recommended, Videos, Windows, Sim, Physics, Action / Arcade | Tags Redlynx | 24 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Mon, 31 Mar 2008 05:32:00 GMT
I’ve been playing this web game Ikariam for a few weeks now, and man, it’s pretty fun (and free!). There’s just enough to do that it keeps my interest, but it’s passive enough that I don’t feel bad walking away from it for a few days at a time. It’s well-balanced so that you can have a good time no matter how social you want to get.
Essentially, the game is empire-building. You register an account, choose a world (server) to play on, and then you’re plopped down on a random island. A big part of the game involves building up your town, doing research, and managing resources. Which, of course, ends up being pretty fun. Harvesting of materials and research is automatic, and the only decision to be made is how many citizens to devote to each (citizens without specific tasks will generate gold).
Every island in Ikariam holds 16 towns maximum, and each island has one sawmill and one luxury resource – marble, sulfur, crystal glass, and grapes. These two spots are shared by all the inhabitants of the island and must be upgraded through donations. As you can imagine, you need all four of the luxury resources to expand in Ikariam, so trading between other islands is a must. The trading interface is slick and easy to use.
Since the sawmills, quarries, pits, mines, and vineyards are all communal, you get some moochers on every island who don’t donate – it’s common practice to pillage these poor bastards until they feel generous. War and diplomacy are also big parts of the game, and I won’t go into too much detail, but, suffice to say, you can be a total Machiavelli and/or Ghengis Khan, if you please. Just be careful of pillaging towns that belong to alliances, as you can quickly find yourself at the wrath of one of the more powerful ones.
This is about the perfect amount of learning curve/investment for me, for an online game (and the graphics are nice, too). If you want to play together, join the world “Iota” and come find me! My capital is “Tiger Sauce,” on Cukios [70:45]. My friend and I have a small alliance going (“Owl Country”), and it’d be nice to have some TIGers in it!
EDIT: Great to see so many people joined up! Here’s a guide to joining alliances. Before you join, you need an embassy!
Posted in Browser Games, MMOG, Casual, Sim | Tags Gameforge | 50 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:53:00 GMT
The next project from the creator of Toribash – a sandbox racing game. “Build, race, crash, and share!”
(Thanks, Data!)
Posted in Videos, Sim, Physics, Previews | Tags Hampa | 20 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Thu, 07 Feb 2008 06:32:00 GMT
Man, artificial life gets me hot. Did I just say that out loud?
Gene Pool is a cute little a-life sim in which “swimbots” compete for mates and food. Each swimbot is made of small segments, which are used to propel it across the primordial soup. Swimbots which are more “attractive” (determined by a number of factors, including segment color), can swim faster, or develop independent video games get to propagate their genes over their uglier, slower neighbors.
Not really a game per se, but it’s fun. You can pick up swimbots and help/hurt them. Gene Pool also has a number of parameters you can set to change the way your swimbots evolve, such as attractiveness.
The developer, J.J. Ventrella, has some other interesting math and science experiments on his website. I particularly enjoyed Branchy Branch.
Pictured at left: two swimmers ‘bout to bump uglies (or, in this case, little pink arrows).
(Source: Alehkhs, via Puppy Buckets)
Posted in Windows, Sim, Freeware, Abstract | Tags JJVentrella | 16 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:16:00 GMT
Proof that if there’s a God, he’s laughing his ass off at us.
(Many thanks to the lovely Jennifer Yin for the tip!)
Posted in Unique / Bizarre, Videos, Windows, Sim | Tags CougarInteractive | 46 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Tue, 15 Jan 2008 01:12:00 GMT
The original source for Will Wright’s SimCity has been GPL’ed, with some modifications made to it to remove any reference to the name “SimCity” (which EA has a tight choke hold on). It’s now called “Micropolis.” Also, plane crashes have been removed from the game because of 9/11, proving once again that we are living in a world of pure fear!
The key thing here is to peek inside the mind of the original Maxis programmers when they built it. Remember, this was back in the day when games had to fit inside of 640k so some “creative” programming techniques were employed. SimCity has been long a model used for urban planning and while it’s just a game, there are a lot of business rules, ecosystem modeling, social dependencies, and other cool stuff going on in this codebase. It may not be pretty code but it’s content sure is interesting to see.
Anyway, it may not fit within your definition of “indie,” but I thought it was close enough and interesting enough to post here. It’d be cool to see some fun mods come out of this.
Posted in Community, Sim, Developers | 22 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Fri, 21 Sep 2007 21:25:00 GMT
Mount and Blade, the incredibly realistic and detailed medieval combat game, saw a whopper of a new update last week. The last public version, which I believe was 0.808, was released almost a year ago!
Some of the more notable changes in this version include ragdoll physics for soldiers and horses, a graphics overhaul, and generally just a mind-boggling number of improvements and additions to every aspect of the game, from commanding troops to the faction system. Strangely enough, Taleworlds does not publicize the changes from version to version, so fans of the game are compiling a list, the most current of which can be viewed here.
If you’ve been waiting for a good time to try out this game, which was one of our 50 Really Good Indie Games, now is it!
(Source: Soldat Movies, Image Source: Antix from the M&B forums)
Posted in Highly Recommended, Windows, Sim | Tags Taleworlds | 11 comments
