UPDATE:
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Spam
Just some inside info for our other contributors, and also I guess a somewhat "behind-the-scenes" look for our actual readers. The LBC actually gets spammed with a fair amount of comments, but you never see them since Google seems to do a good job filtering them all out. Regardless, I still get the notices in my inbox. Here's a couple of the recent ones that replied to the "Blog Updates" post:
People like to get paid by posting junk blogs and commenting on others' garbage (including ours), but since they only get paid a couple cents per click, it just makes much more sense to program bots to do it. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be working out too well for them nowadays. Sadly these bots sound almost sincere, and I'm a little depressed that Google would rather do away with them since having them around would at least make it seem like this blog isn't a big circlejerk.
UPDATE:
UPDATE:
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Blog Updates
The LBC has passed its first year online, and now that we have a decent collection of content, I've added a "Feature Articles" menu to the side of the page for quick access to our main series of blogs. It's the thingy that looks like this:
Speaking of content: I apologize if it feels like we've been too review-heavy lately. The main intention of this blog was to focus on art and writing, and to have things like reviews be secondary. However, back in late April, I sustained a severe sprain to my left thumb, which belongs to my writing hand. This has greatly hindered my ability to hold a pencil, let alone draw anything. Recovery has been slow, but I now have what I estimate is about 75% of the mobility back in my thumb. I'm guessing/hoping that in a couple months I'll have full use of my left hand again and will be able to contribute more art to this website.
Speaking of content: I apologize if it feels like we've been too review-heavy lately. The main intention of this blog was to focus on art and writing, and to have things like reviews be secondary. However, back in late April, I sustained a severe sprain to my left thumb, which belongs to my writing hand. This has greatly hindered my ability to hold a pencil, let alone draw anything. Recovery has been slow, but I now have what I estimate is about 75% of the mobility back in my thumb. I'm guessing/hoping that in a couple months I'll have full use of my left hand again and will be able to contribute more art to this website.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Quick & Painless Reviews: Triple Game Slam Jam
I've just had a fuckload of games fall in my lap over the last couple of days. Apart from the three I'm reviewing, I also have to get around to playing through Sleeping Dogs, Resident Evil 6, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, and XCOM: Enemy Unknown (2012) over the next week. Let's hurry up and get this slobberknocker started:
Survival Crisis Z
Now we all know James Silva is a lazy cunt who should stop making casual Xbox Live Arcade games so that he can finish the more superior looking Survival Crisis X. He should also hire some good artists (but who are the garbage men and woman of this blog to judge?). But you've probably read this on just about every blog you've seen feature this game, so let's just try and talk about the game itself.
This game was a little ahead of its time in 2004. It was released just before open world games officially became "a thing," and it manages to be better at it than 95% of the games that try it today. Also, until DayZ and The War Z are finished, this is probably the only game that's pulled off open world zombie survival well. It also has that old indie game quirk of having unlockable mini-games hidden in its files, like Asteroids, Columns, and a little text adventure game.
Did I mention that this game has balls? You can set the difficulty to "Hardcore," and the setting actually is hardcore. If your character dies under this setting, that's it, your character is dead forever and his profile gets erased. It brings back the fear of death that many recent survival horror games have forgotten about. Of course, the human/zombie sprites in this game look like ass, and I'm surprised there haven't been any mods (that I could find) that improved upon that, but if you can get over that, running around town, taking over strongholds, doing missions, and, uh, surviving is mega fun. Probably in the Top 15 of zombie games that are now plentiful this gen.
Cortex Command
This fucking game has been in development longer than Survival Crisis Z has been out, and almost as long as Duke Nukem Forever took. Now, does this game's quality reflect eleven years of development...? Not necessarily, but it's shitton better that Duke Nukem Forever is. This is probably the best side-scrolling strategy game since Worms: Armageddon, and it even surpasses it in several ways. The campaign mode is similar to Risk, except in how it's not a terrible board game and makes the idea of Risk fun. The menus and help windows keep getting in my goddamn way when I'm trying to click something on the world map, but the controls are, for the most part, fine when I'm actually in battle.
Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery EP
Now my review of Zombie Survival Z kind of makes me sound like one of those retro-gaming faggots. I'd just like to make it clear that this is definitely not the case. Though there are indeed older gems that have withstood the test of time, I think games are slowly getting better. That said, shit comes from both sides of the spectrum; most games were bad then and most games are bad now. The difference between then and now is that many of the great games of yesteryear were by the big developers, whereas now it seems many of the well-made titles are coming from new developers, and even indie studios. Even then there's some bullshit. Some of the most successful indie games that have come out recently use crappy, big-pixel graphics in an attempt to look retro. That's weird, because when I think of almost any "good" retro-era video game, they all had great art direction and tried the best they could to push the hardware to present the most beautiful graphics possible. What these indie games are doing now doesn't look "retro;" it looks like shit.
Rant aside, Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery EP isn't one of them. Some of the sprites do have a derpy over pixelated style about them, but as you can even see from the screenshot above, the designers have gone out of their way to render some fascinating environments... and that's not even a good example of what this game looks like. The animations are very fluid, and the moody soundtrack is on par with Sonic Generations as the best video game soundtrack of 2011.
The story is kind of your archetypal "collect this sacred something-or-other to save the world" affair, but it's presented in a neat way. In the first chapter, your character finds a magical book that allows you to literally read people's thoughts, which is often a tool in solving puzzles. There is also a fourth wall breaking narrator character simply named "The Archetype" who adds a so-called "quicky David Lynch" flavour to the plot. The gameplay itself is a mix of point-and-click adventure and timing based combat. It was designed with the iPad in mind, so everything is controlled with the mouse. You double-click or hold the left mouse button down in the direction you want your character move, and you use different motions with your cursor to manipulate the environment around you. When combat occurs, you are given two icons: a sword and a shield. You click the shield to block and click the sword to attack. Sometimes the shield icon will flash, requiring you to click in time to dodge an unblockable attack. Everything in the fight is based on timing, and knowing when you should either attack or defend. It's quite fun and does a good job of livening up the mood after bouts of wandering.
It is also one of those games that takes advantage of your computer's clock to affect certain aspects of the game. Parts of the game cannot be completed unless the Earth's moon is at a specific phase. You can change the date on your computer if you want to speedrun through, but you won't be able to achieve a 100% completion rating. Personally, I'm going to wait the fifteen days until the moon reaches the right phase to complete the third level, because, like I said, I have a fuckload of other games to play.
The Winner
All of these games are great and must be played, but out of the three the most honourable is...
Survival Crisis Z
 |
| Thanks Moby Games. I'm too lazy to take screenshots. |
Now we all know James Silva is a lazy cunt who should stop making casual Xbox Live Arcade games so that he can finish the more superior looking Survival Crisis X. He should also hire some good artists (but who are the garbage men and woman of this blog to judge?). But you've probably read this on just about every blog you've seen feature this game, so let's just try and talk about the game itself.
This game was a little ahead of its time in 2004. It was released just before open world games officially became "a thing," and it manages to be better at it than 95% of the games that try it today. Also, until DayZ and The War Z are finished, this is probably the only game that's pulled off open world zombie survival well. It also has that old indie game quirk of having unlockable mini-games hidden in its files, like Asteroids, Columns, and a little text adventure game.
Did I mention that this game has balls? You can set the difficulty to "Hardcore," and the setting actually is hardcore. If your character dies under this setting, that's it, your character is dead forever and his profile gets erased. It brings back the fear of death that many recent survival horror games have forgotten about. Of course, the human/zombie sprites in this game look like ass, and I'm surprised there haven't been any mods (that I could find) that improved upon that, but if you can get over that, running around town, taking over strongholds, doing missions, and, uh, surviving is mega fun. Probably in the Top 15 of zombie games that are now plentiful this gen.
Cortex Command
This fucking game has been in development longer than Survival Crisis Z has been out, and almost as long as Duke Nukem Forever took. Now, does this game's quality reflect eleven years of development...? Not necessarily, but it's shitton better that Duke Nukem Forever is. This is probably the best side-scrolling strategy game since Worms: Armageddon, and it even surpasses it in several ways. The campaign mode is similar to Risk, except in how it's not a terrible board game and makes the idea of Risk fun. The menus and help windows keep getting in my goddamn way when I'm trying to click something on the world map, but the controls are, for the most part, fine when I'm actually in battle.
Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery EP
Now my review of Zombie Survival Z kind of makes me sound like one of those retro-gaming faggots. I'd just like to make it clear that this is definitely not the case. Though there are indeed older gems that have withstood the test of time, I think games are slowly getting better. That said, shit comes from both sides of the spectrum; most games were bad then and most games are bad now. The difference between then and now is that many of the great games of yesteryear were by the big developers, whereas now it seems many of the well-made titles are coming from new developers, and even indie studios. Even then there's some bullshit. Some of the most successful indie games that have come out recently use crappy, big-pixel graphics in an attempt to look retro. That's weird, because when I think of almost any "good" retro-era video game, they all had great art direction and tried the best they could to push the hardware to present the most beautiful graphics possible. What these indie games are doing now doesn't look "retro;" it looks like shit.
Rant aside, Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery EP isn't one of them. Some of the sprites do have a derpy over pixelated style about them, but as you can even see from the screenshot above, the designers have gone out of their way to render some fascinating environments... and that's not even a good example of what this game looks like. The animations are very fluid, and the moody soundtrack is on par with Sonic Generations as the best video game soundtrack of 2011.
The story is kind of your archetypal "collect this sacred something-or-other to save the world" affair, but it's presented in a neat way. In the first chapter, your character finds a magical book that allows you to literally read people's thoughts, which is often a tool in solving puzzles. There is also a fourth wall breaking narrator character simply named "The Archetype" who adds a so-called "quicky David Lynch" flavour to the plot. The gameplay itself is a mix of point-and-click adventure and timing based combat. It was designed with the iPad in mind, so everything is controlled with the mouse. You double-click or hold the left mouse button down in the direction you want your character move, and you use different motions with your cursor to manipulate the environment around you. When combat occurs, you are given two icons: a sword and a shield. You click the shield to block and click the sword to attack. Sometimes the shield icon will flash, requiring you to click in time to dodge an unblockable attack. Everything in the fight is based on timing, and knowing when you should either attack or defend. It's quite fun and does a good job of livening up the mood after bouts of wandering.
It is also one of those games that takes advantage of your computer's clock to affect certain aspects of the game. Parts of the game cannot be completed unless the Earth's moon is at a specific phase. You can change the date on your computer if you want to speedrun through, but you won't be able to achieve a 100% completion rating. Personally, I'm going to wait the fifteen days until the moon reaches the right phase to complete the third level, because, like I said, I have a fuckload of other games to play.
The Winner
All of these games are great and must be played, but out of the three the most honourable is...
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