buttonmashing

Mashing buttons since 1984

Archives for February 2009

Wake Up and Smell the Defense Grid

I’m not a big fan of tower defense games, but I have dabbled a little in Ninjatown (Wow. That’s another story. Uh….squee?) and a couple of web versions. Something about the sit/wait mechanic makes me somewhat anxious when I play. However, it didn’t stay that way.

Enter Defense Grid: The Awakening. It was at a reasonable price during the Steam holiday sale so I figured why not? In short, I love it.

It has that right sense of gameplay and a surprising amount of humor in the form of your AI interface to the defense towers. The game is full of Steam achievements and has a good deal of levels and challenges (being amped up difficulty replays). Online leaderboards? Yes.

The only reason I’ve not done a 2 Minute Review is because I’ve not completed it yet. I’ve been too busy taking my time with this game, enjoying and replaying the levels with different strategies.

Basically this writeup is a shill for Steam once again because it looks like it’s being sold for 25% off. I think it’s worth $15, but no more.

Easy, Breezy, Beautiful

No, I’m not talking about Cover Girl. I’m talking about Flower, the latest game to hit the PSN and a true contender for most beautiful game of the year.

flower-game-screenshot-1

If you’ve ever had a debate with anyone about whether games are art, thatgamecompany’s latest offering should help put that arguement to rest. If you have $10 to spend on a game this weekend, spend it on Flower.

Flower is one of the latest in a slowly growing field of games often referred to as ‘chill’ games. Pixeljunk Eden, A Kingdom For Keflings and flOw are other examples of this kind of game, where the focus isn’t so much on conflict and violence as it is on relaxing and exploring a world with few boundaries.

In the case of Flower, you blow a flower petal across a variety of fields, touching other flowers which open up and add their petals to your breeze. As you collect more and more petals, your ‘tail’ grows longer and longer, which can add some interesting effects and often helps you open up new areas of the world.

Flower uses the Sixaxis controls exclusively and is one of the only games I can think of that actually uses that technology effectively. thatgamecompany should be hired out to teach other studios how to harness the Sixaxis as they’ve obviously got a handle on how it works.

While some might complain about the length of the game (it can be completed in about 3-4 hours) or that it is essentially a gussied up tech demo, for those willing to approach it in the proper frame of mind, it is an utterly rewarding and relaxing experience. There are some twists later in the game that I won’t spoil and I have to say that level 4 is probably the high point of the game, artistically. There are also loads of trophies to unlock and lots of hidden things to go back and search out.

flower-game-screenshot-8

Enjoy!

An SMT Primer

Tony, this is for you…

The Megami Tensei series (aka MegaTen aka Shin Megami Tensei aka SMT) is a long running RPG series from Atlus. There are several different offshoots from the core SMT line, which tends to be a post apocalyptic setting with lots of nasty demons running around. To my knowledge, the only game in the core line that has come to North America is SMT: Nocturne.

The Persona games are more like a dating sim crossed with a dungeon crawler. Spending time with your friends and getting to know them is almost as, if not more, important than leveling up. The last two entries (Persona 3 and 4) are some of the best JRPGs to hit the PS2, period, and are refreshing in that they’re more about the storytelling and characters than they are about phat lewt. Persona 3 was infamous for the fact that to unleash your characters’ personae (ie. cast spells) your character would have to shoot themselves in the head with a gun-like implement.

Digital Devil Saga 1 & 2 are set in a post apocalyptic cyberpunk kind of setting.

Devil Summoner games(at least the ones that have seen the light of day over here) are set in the 1920’s with you playing as a sort of private investigator. There are other ones in Japan that are set in a more cyberpunk setting.

Devil Survivor is a new DS game that looks like a mixture of the Persona games and the core series. The main plot point is that it takes place after an apocalyptic event that the authorities were able to avert. Unfortunately for you, they averted it by sealing off Tokyo with all of the demons and citizens inside it. And you’re one of the people stuck inside…

One of the biggest conceits of essentially all of the various SMT games is that while you do fight monsters and demons of all sorts, you also tend to have some way of recruiting them to your team. Some of the games have you negotiating with the demons mid-fight, others have you finding cards and fusing new demons and monsters. In essence, it’s like a very dark, mature take on Pokémon…

Needing a New Desktop Wallpaper?

Lifehacker has the answer.

DeviantArt member Orioto’s high-resolution, you-won’t-believe-your-eyes paintings of classic video games for your desktop—a must-see for any gaming enthusiast.

His work, which has been featured in Nintendo Power magazine, is based on the idea of what high-definition versions of classic video games might look like with today’s powerful gaming platforms, with stunning results. Click each image to download the full version, or hit the link at the bottom for the full gallery.

Sonic

A lot more cool images at the site.

Reaching Out For The Truth

I just realized that it has been far too long since I posted anything around these parts. I intend to rectify that situation shortly. I spent the better part of the last month and a half (108 hours in game time) playing through Persona 4 and will have a review up shortly. I’ve also got a review of The Maw (XBLA), Flower (PSN) and a few other gems tucked away for a rainy day.

It’s nice to finally beat a Persona game though!

Recent Gaming

As I mentioned earlier, I actually have been playing games, but nothing recently. Our recent Gamefly delivery brought two games, one for me and one for the kids:

Left 4 Dead – No need for details here. There are four of you and thousands of them (Zombies). I will say, however, that while the game is okay with computer-controller teammates, I really want to experience some real-life teammates. If you see me on Live and want some to blast some zombies, let me know.

The shotgun is very satisfying. I have a need to explode some zombie heads.

Sorry!Hasbro Game Night – This is one we picked up for the kids to try out on the Wii. The kids love boardgames, but sometimes it’s nice to just have the computer handle all the details. Plus, there are no pieces the one year-old can put in his month. There are (Connect Four, Yahtzee, Boggle, Sorry, Sorry Slide, and Battleship). The older kids are still to young for Yahtzee and Boggle, and Connect Four is easily played without the Wii, but the absolutely loved playing Sorry. After they got the hang of it, they played it daily for about a week.

That is not, however, enough to deem a purchase. This is a renter at best.

Resident Evil 5 Demo – It was interesting to see the chatter (on Twitter mostly) shortly after this demo dropped. Most complained about how horribly it controlled or how slow it was or whatever. I had a similar initial impression. But as I played I realized what I needed to do. My suggestion (which took a while for me to figure out myself) was to put yourself in a Resident Evil 4 state of mind. From then on, I really enjoyed this demo.

RE5 Screen - B

Again, the co-op play has not been probed. I hope to rectify this situation, as well.

Dawn of War II Multiplayer Demo – I have been out of the RTS game for so long, this felt like reconnecting with a high school buddy on Facebook. I had a blast playing DoW II. I am not steeped in the Warhammer 40K mythos, but after playing this, I want to be. I suddenly feel a need to buy and paint little miniature metal figurines.

Guess What’s Been Announced, Tony

..or in other words, vote for Capcom. They make your wildest dreams come true.

I’m gonna steal the text from where I got it, Colony of Gamers. These guys are cool enough to have a flickr pool of images as well.

Capcom has officially taken the wraps off of the long awaited sequel to Dead Rising.

Dead Rising 2 takes place several years after the Willamette incident, and zombie outbreaks are now taking place across the nation. This game is set in the fictional Fortune City, where you should expect to encounter a whole host of new weapons with which to take on the zombie hordes.

Developed by Canadian studio Blue Castle Games, Dead Rising 2 is slated for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC platforms.

Seven days without gaming…

…makes one week.

Okay, that was lame. But I just realized that, other than Spider Solitaire, I haven’t played a single game in over a week. This is partly due to my kids doing torsion strength testing on my DS Lite’s hinges (it can’t withstand the force of two kids twisting it. It broke.) and mostly because I’ve been so stonking busy.

That being said, I did get in quite a bit of gaming the week before, so this is basically a weak attempt to say I actually do have some gaming to blog about, I just haven’t managed to get around to it. So no recent gaming for me. Even the weekend gaming was a no-go since this weekend was full of birthdays (mine, my daughter’s and the bro-in-law’s [Ehergeiz]).

So hopefully some of you guys got some weekend gaming in. Anyone play anything new or exciting?

For YOU, Tony

Can you tell what this is?



A city like Vegas? A casino? Sign me up.