What’s the old saying about a good engineer being done when everything is taken away? I’m certain you can apply that adage completely to Terry Cavanagh’s games. Another that would fit quite well is ‘easy to learn, hard to master.’ I think a game that defines itself so simply and elegantly as Super Hexagon or VVVVVV leaves little room for flaws and leaves a much stronger impression as a quintessential game.
More …An excellent thing happened at PAX this year: Valve’s second annual Dota 2 tournament, The International. Hosted just a few blocks away from my hotel, and with free entry for PAX attendees, it was easy to attend and I’m very glad I did. I’d seen the odd camera-pan-over-the-crowd from online broadcasts Starcraft 2 tournaments and thought to myself, boy, those people are serious nerds. However, it didn’t take long in the crowd before I was cheering at the top of my lungs with the crowd.
More …I spent a large amount of time wandering the indie game section of PAX, checking out the widely varied games and chatting to developers. One that especially caught my eye was Brendon Chung’s new title, Quadrilateral Cowboy. I’d heard about it via the Idle Thumbs panel earlier that day, and had played a couple of his previous titles; Atom Zombie Smasher and Thirty Flights of Loving most recently, so I was eager to play, and was not disappointed.
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I managed to avoid the whole Demon Souls/Dark Souls series by not having a Playstation 3, but heard enough about the games that I was awfully excited to see the sequel come out on PC finally. Both games seem to be very much love/hate affairs, with many gushing over their brutally unforgiving gameplay while others throw up their hands in disgust after dying over and over and over again.
More …Firstly: I’m loving 10000000 , a retro-styled iOS puzzle RPG hybrid. It plays like Tetris Attack with RPG mechanics - on the top of your screen you trudge through an eternal dungeon, and you match keys on the bottom screen to open chests or swords to slay monsters, for example. You’ll die a lot; each gameplay session only lasts a few minutes, which is perfect for iPhone gaming.
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