As gamers, we all like to imagine at one point or another what the characters and events in our favourite games would be like in the shape of a live-action production, whether it be the Halo movie that Peter Jackson was going to direct before it died on its arse, or the strong possibility of a Mass Effect movie, which by all means could still flop around on the floor like a dying fish out of water – because isn’t that precisely what almost all big-budget video game movies are? Fortunately, there are always individuals who are willing to make unlicensed, short indie films based on the games we know and love, entirely for fun and not for the sake of making millions. Outside Aperture is a great example, and entirely worthy of your time.
Some more great attempts at live action gaming stories are MINECRAFT: The Last Minecart, which is bloody funny and looks great – and not to mention Escape From City 17 another absolutely fantastic rendition of the Half-Life universe, with admittedly uninteresting acting, but fantastic visuals and production values.
I hope we always see more fan-made efforts like this, because they don’t need an enormous budget or A-list actors to be great; just a bunch of fans with a great idea and some free time.
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.
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.
It’s difficult to describe the levels of hype that I felt leading up to the release of Half Life 2, and I know I wasn’t alone. This was a generation-defining moment in gaming, the likes of which has never really been replicated, and likely never will, for multiple reasons. Not only was HL2 a huge leap forward for its artistic and technological design, it ushered in an entirely new way to buy games and changed the gaming landscape forever.
The first horror game I ever played, and I never got beyond the room in the attic where the wolf attacks you. All 5 polygons of the terrifying beast were enough to send me fleeing from the room, leaving my father to deal with it.
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