I’d like to tell you about a book. Wait, don’t leave. Its about a man who wants to be a cyborg. Sounds good, right? It’s the story of a scientist who, after chopping off his own leg in a freak accident involving a huge bit of industrial machinery, decides to build himself a new one. He quickly realises the benefits of technology over biology and delves into a journey of self-discovery, voluntary amputation and a bit of love.
Charlie Neumann is a loner. Like most nerds, his exceptional technical skills come at the cost of being socially awkward, at best. He is a research scientist at a large corporation called Better Future, with access to the most cutting-edge technology in the world. It is in one of his labs carrying out an experiment with an industrial clamp where his initial accident occurs. After meeting an intriguing prosthetist Lola Shanks, and being considerably unimpressed with the prosthetic leg she offers him, he is inspired to use this potentially life-changing setback as an opportunity to quite literally improve himself, taking full advantage of the super-advanced equipment available to him.
It’s written by Max Barry, an Australian author who created the web game Nationstates. Originally written in 2009 as an online ‘serial’, Barry would write a single page a day, and email it out to anyone who had signed up to read it. A bit like a newsletter, except actually interesting. It was only sent on weekdays, and there were often cliffhangers on a Friday, meaning you had to wait the whole weekend to find out what happens next. I looked forward to receiving my page each day, some of which were only a few sentences, but that’s what kept it so engrossing. The story moves along at a lightning pace, and it was fascinating to see it evolve on the fly. Barry was literally writing it as he went along, even implementing ideas from commenters, but it never loses its way – he had a goal in mind, and was bringing us along for the ride.
It’s been 2 years since the live feed ended, but you can still read it online here, which I revisited with Paul recently and enjoyed it just as much the second time. However, Barry has since greatly expanded the story and fleshed everything out, and Machine Man is now available as an actual novel. I’m about halfway through it, and so far its been nothing less than superb. Barry’s writing style is very approachable, and has been in all his previous stories, but deceivingly clever. He’s an expert at marketing, which is a commonly used theme throughout his books, most entertainingly applied to vilify cold-blooded corporate types with self-serving agendas.
Try the serial. It’s free for the first 40 pages so you can see what its like. From this gamer with a fondness for quirky sci-fi, it comes highly recommended.
Dome Keeper is an excellent little spin on the tower defense game, in which you play the role of a jetpacking miner defending his base from swarms of aliens, whilst searching for a hidden relic buried somewhere beneath him. And now, with this huge free update, you can play it with friends.
I want to talk about Cloudpunk, a game where you get to be a flying-car delivery driver in a futuristic cyberpunk city. Its world is an incredible achievement of environmental design, and while the gameplay itself may be basic, the city of Nivalis is a thing of beauty to behold. Nivalis is built out of hundreds of hand-modelled cuboid buildings; there’s nothing procedural about it. Apparently it took 3 years for the devs to design the city, and it really shows.
I do love me some quality pixel art, and it doesn’t get much better than this. Cast n Chill is a cozy side-scrolling fishing game by small indie dev team Wombat Brawler, with absolutely gorgeous visuals. It’s simple to play, and you you can dip in and out of it at your leisure, making it a fine addition to our collection of coffee break games.
There’s not a lot I can say about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 that hasn’t already been said, but here’s my take anyway. The game deservedly garnered a heap of attention when it came out for being a fantastic example of a JRPG, that happened to be made in France. Technically, ignoring the fact that the team includes a bunch of ex-Ubisoft veterans, it’s the debut title from developers Sandfall. And what a debut game it is.
Format: Sega Mega Drive
Year: 1992
Another rare game in my long list of memories that include my brother, Sam, is Streets of Rage 2. It was the best in a trilogy of side scrolling beat-em-ups on the Sega Mega Drive. (Genesis in America). We would always play as the same 2 characters: I was Axel, and my brother would be Skate. He loved the agility and bombastic acrobatics that the tiny skater dude could pull off. Many of the boss fights would end with Sam leaping onto their necks and pummelling them in the back of the head. I liked Axel’s swinging flaming punch, and his multi-hit special combo. It’s a simple but satisfying game built around stylised hand to hand violence.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein introduced me to the world of PC gaming. I have my uncle Dave to thank for this. He used to play two games, Wolfenstein and Fighter Ace, and I loved going round his house because he had a gaming PC, curiously built by a company called Gateway… The PC was something so alien and awesome to me that it made my N64 seem like the toy it always was (I still love you, my 64). Wolfenstein became Enemy Territory, a free standalone multiplayer component, but it was the ‘original’ Return to Castle Wolfenstein that dragged me into PC gaming, and I’ve never looked back since.
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