It’s once again time to get some fantastic games for almost no money. The latest Humble Bundle is out, and it contains all of Introversion’s back catalogue. So, if you don’t already own Uplink, Darwinia, Defcon, or Multiwinia, and would be willing to part with a single quid (or indeed, less), check it out. The company has been struggling to survive for the last few years, so I truly hope this makes them a crapton of money so they can continue making Subversion, which they had to abandon recently. Amusing trailer is below.
It goes without saying that this is a brilliant deal, as the Humble Bundles always are. I’m especially keen about this one because Introversion have never made a bad game, and yet financially they have been struggling to make ends meat for quite some time now. Its easy to forget that not every indie developer makes it big. With the most harrowing nuclear war simulator ever made (Defcon), and the charming, underrated Multiwinia under their belts, I just wish they make enough money to keep going. Subversion looked as though it was going to be another superbly quirky addition to their library, and I’m gutted they had to cease development for the simple reason they ran out of money. Without guys like this, the games’ industry will just get more stagnant, and we’ll be left with nothing but Call of Duty 19 and The Sims 27. That’s not a future I like the sound of.
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.
Is bingeing bad for us? It seems an obvious question, but I have been thinking about it lately, while revisiting Lost, the tv show that started 22 years ago (cripes, I feel old). Back when it was airing, my friends and I watched it religiously every week, talked about it in great detail, eagerly awaiting the next episode. It was the definitive show of its time, sparking debates and endless theories. It felt great to be a part of that, the sense of all experiencing the same thing together over a long period of time – most seasons had over 20 episodes, which is way more than most shows get these days – and they aired one by one, every week for several months. In today’s age of bingeing a show from beginning to end, I wonder what we are missing by not taking our time.
WoW consumed my life for almost the entirety of 2004/05, when I was studying for my A-levels, and was probably a key contributor to my D-grades. I’m probably not the only person who would admit to daydreaming of roaming through Elwynn Forest, even many years after I stopped playing. I just spent so much time there, and other places of that world, sometimes roleplaying, always questing, but best of all simply exploring an unknown land. Even though I LOVE what Blizzard did in Cataclysm, my favourite memories all come from what they call Vanilla WoW, the original version of the game.
To this day, the N64 holds my fondest gaming memories on a console. The PC may have stolen my heart eventually, but I’ll never forget the fun of my childhood, playing multiplayer games on my N64 with a bunch of mates after school, and during sleepovers.
Hades is a great example of a coffee break game. You can play through a single run within 30 minutes, but if something comes up and you have to stop mid-run you can save and quit in whatever room you’re in and continue later. As the father of a toddler, I find this particularly appealing these days. I like to squeeze in a quick game during my baby girl’s nap time, and since I never know exactly how long she’s going to sleep for, I need games that can be played in short bursts. I’m starting this new mini-feature series with Hades, because you’re almost always guaranteed to have a good time, no matter how long you play for.
