I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking ‘Why does that little Minecraft man look so sad?‘. That little Minecraft man is Matt’s, and I have to take this moment to congratulate Matt on his achievement earlier this week, the achievement of managing to accidentally wipe an entire (new) world of things that a bunch of people worked pretty hard on. How the hell did he do that, you ask? Well, in the attempt to update our server so we could enjoy the wonders of the latest updates from version 1.3 (including a new lighting engine and BEDS), he inadvertently reset the server, losing the entire world and setting us back in a brand new world to start again. Now, thankfully, all I had built was a pretty shit skyscraper, and all the spawns were completely buggered (10 creepers per day attacking my structures), but there was also a lot of other hard work done by other members of the server. So yes, Matt, you should feel terrible.
There were lava-pits, crumbling skyscrapers, stairways to heaven (seriously), and vast stockpiles of resources found in the most treacherous places beneath the surface, in the most deadly and dangerous caves, where brave souls spent hours – nay, days – marching through hell and back, just to find that one extra diamond they needed for the best tools they could craft, in their never ending search for.. well.. more diamonds. It was truly another sight to behold. But sadly, Matt clicked one tiny button and nuked the entire thing. Sure, he did it before, but this time it was completely unintentional…
The world is now a barren land of sadness. Luckily though, I’ve already built a house on it!
Matt now spends his days crying in this Minecraft bed, wishing for the days when the world was a simpler place. Technically, he already got his wish.
At least we have a whole new blank canvass to work from again, and the secksy new lighting! My addiction has just been reset.
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.
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.
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.
Format: PC
Year: 1999
Here’s another game that was introduced to me by my uncle Dave (who to this day, does the best impression of the monk from the first game out of anyone I know – “WOLOLOOOH!”) Anyway, I learned more history from playing Age of Empires 2 than I ever did in school. I experienced the brutal horde of Attila the Hun as he ravaged old Europe. I followed the rise of El Cid, and helped Ghengis Khan flood across Asia. I can’t remember much else actually, because my mind always turns to making a plague of Persian elephants to send at my enemies, crushing all of their puny houses and stamping their cities into the dust, mwhahaha! Ah man, it’s an absolute classic game, the first strategy game I ever played and thanks to the recent HD remake, is still a lot of fun even 18 years later.
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