Shoot-em-up games, or shmups, consist of lone or small groups of players shooting at and being shot at by hordes of colorful enemies. The genre is thought to have peaked in the mid-'90s, but recent games in the indie world may be saying otherwise. Geometry Wars and other twin-stick games kicked off the trend, but newbies Trouble Witches NEO, Outland and just-released Gatling Gears have brought some much needed originality into the modern shmup scene—making it something worth exploring again. ...
As someone who’s entering a time of life that involves weddings, reunions, and generally running into people I haven’t seen in awhile, I find myself being shocked by how much people have changed over the years. A lot of times, people will have dropped a bunch of weight, or have turned into a kind and articulate human being, or have obviously stopped doing so many drugs. It’s important, when complimenting people on positive life changes, to let them know how well you think they’re doing withou...
My name is Mike Goedecke and I am your professor for Production 476 / 690. I have been in the production and post-production field for over 20 years.
The Fog of Will Suki = a chink in the armor, a psychological weakness. Doubt.
Get a little perspective on FarmVille hysteria, via FarmVille World, written by tenebrism: Did you know it only took five weeks to make FarmVille? That it currently has over 80,000,000 users? That FarmVille farmers outnumber real farmers in the United States by a ration of 80 to 1?
Did you know it only took five weeks to make FarmVille? That it currently has over 80,000,000 users? That FarmVille farmers outnumber real farmers in the United States by a ration of 80 to 1?
Most bamboo in the United States is running bamboo, because nearly all cold hardy bamboo is the running or invasive type. The tropical bamboos are mostly "clumpers" and stay in a nice, tight clump. Running bamboos spread far and wide and can be very invasive. I grow many kinds of running bamboos and over the past 20 years I've had to learn how to control it's spread.
Getting your own blog is easier than what you can imagine. Thanks to WordPress. One need not be a techie to follow the steps mentioned below (though certain stages might require third-party advice).
Mass Effect 2 may have been around for a whole year... but not on the PlayStation 3. And last Tuesday, January 18th, PS3 gamers finally got their hands on a copy of the critically acclaimed RPG. Actually, this is the first time any Mass Effect game has been available on the PS3, making this a historical event for BioWare.
Another media player bites the dust. First, we saw the extinction of the phonograph and gramophone. Then came the fall of eight-track tapes. Even modern record players became more and more obsolete, with DJs switching over to the world of digital music. And today— the end of cassette players! What's next? Compact discs?
What is Indirect Care? Does it affect the CNA's exam result? Indirect Care entails your behavior in terms of how you communicate with the resident, valuing residents' rights and residents' safety and security. Indirect Care is absolutely important because: (1) it is a graded performance, (2) it has separate score ratings, and (3 )it greatly affects the testees' overall performance during the clinical skills exam.
When beginning her journey at Kaplan University, Michell Sturgis was unsure how the demands of working full time and college coursework would impact her life. Kaplan University’s flexible learning schedule and online degree programs allowed her to complete her assignments at her own pace while still being able to spend quality time with her daughter. Michell took the next step forward from her associate’s degree to earning her bachelor’s degree online.
This week's review roundup is a diverse lot. They really only have two things in common—their indie origins and puzzle elements. Otherwise, they come from France, Spain and the U.S., a few from unknown designers and one by the guy who inspired Minecraft.
Nicholas Entertainment Group (NEG) is a Polish independent game publisher that recently got their hands dirty with development. Their first game (with Intoxicate Studios) is the forthcoming horror first-person shooter Afterfall: InSanity, which comes out next month—dangerously close to the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3 and Assassin's Creed Revelations release dates. That's some stiff competition for small company, especially since it's a $35 debut game.
Minecraft is not just a game. It is a creative tool. Over the past year and a half countless epic builds, servers, and community projects have been undertaken. I'm sure some of you have seen the one-to-one scale recreation of the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek or the epic server Godcraft. Countless projects such as these are being worked on as we speak, and they serve to inspire us all.
Anyone who likes shooters is going to hate me for saying this: the best game of the 2000's for me was Psychonauts by Double Fine Studios. It came out in 2005 for the original Xbox, achieving critical acclaim, but never selling very well due to its sheer kookiness and poor marketing. Over the ensuing years it has become a cult classic, with downloadable re-releases on Xbox 360 (sadly no longer available). PC has allowed gamers who missed out on the original to bask in its ageless glory.
If you’re unfamiliar with League of Legends, you’re either not into PC gaming or you haven’t spent much time on the internet. Riot Games officially released League almost two years ago, and since then it’s become a huge hit. In fact, the Santa Monica based company recently announced that the DOTA inspired game has 15 million registered users, 4 million unique logins each month, and 500,000 people playing the game at any given moment.
Oh, teenagers. Maybe you would be better off planning a scavenger hunt for the screaming toddlers. Just kidding! Despite the mood swings, teens will enjoy a scavenger hunt more than younger kids. Some things to keep in mind, though:
It's a hell of a lot easier to make money selling an indie game now than it was four years ago. But it's still a rough game.
The indie game scene is constantly expanding, but in 2008, Minecraft, Braid and Angry Birds had not been released, along with all of the other indie games that established the financial viability of the format. Indie games were the all-but-exclusive purview of free Flash game sites and the proud users of TIGsource.com. The Independent Gaming Source is a massive forum for indie game developers to share their projects with like-minded individuals, while seeking help and approval of their games.
Japanese game shows are legendary for being more extreme (and absurd) than their American counterparts. Chris Farley immortalized the concept in a classic SNL sketch, and MXC and Ninja Warrior have both achieved great success dubbed and subtitled on American television. A big part of their appeal is how demanding they are compared to U.S. game shows. Only a few people have actually won Ninja Warrior in its 23 seasons on the air, and MXC is a constant comedy of failure and pain.
Tower defense games have taught us little. We already knew that defending castles from baddies was fun and that legions of weenies are the key to success in most real-time strategy situations. What other insights have they to offer?
Carpe Fulgur translates to something along the lines of "Seize the Lightning" in Latin. Sometimes that is enacted with golf clubs by idiots. But the three intrepid indie video game localizers who work under that name are trying to do it the right way: metaphorically. They are translating and publishing Japanese games for the Americans market—games that have seldom been seen before because every other company thinks it's mad to release them here.
For a long time, video games manuals were serious business. Especially for strategy games and RPGs on the PC, the manuals would often run to a hundred or more full-color pages in length. They explained in vivid and well-written detail the history of the game world and every facet of the gameplay system. There were pages upon pages of appendices explaining the statistics of every unit, faction, and terrain type. They were majestic, and I would spend an hour or more poring over each one before ...
Anybody who spends most of their day on the internet should know all about lulz. Lulz are most often jokes made at the expense of web users, as popularized on 4Chan. Today, a consortium of hackers called LulzSec is attempting (and in some cases succeeding) in efforts to shut down some of the games that offer web users a giant share of their online fun. World of Warcraft, League of Legends, EVE Online, and Bethesda Softworks have all been targeted by LulzSec's hacking efforts in the last week,...
Nobody could predict the success of Microsoft's Kinect, not even Microsoft themselves. So, it was quite a surprise when it ended up earning a Guinness World Record for fastest-selling consumer electronics device, and an even bigger surprise to see people buying one that didn't even own an Xbox 360.
Advancements in technology usually lead to the miniaturization of old technologies, and video games are no exception. Since at least 1990, game hardware manufacturers and enterprising DIY electronics enthusiasts have poured their efforts into making full-size video game consoles smaller, even handheld. And for good reason—who would have ever played a black and white Game Boy if they could have had an actual NES in their pocket?
Yesterday, Electronic Arts had a nice sale on Steam for 40-60 percent off some of their Sims titles, which included The Sims 3 (along with its DLCs) and SimCity 4. I've never been a big Sims fan, especially with the slew of virtual people games in the last decade, so I didn't realize until now that Maxis had stopped making their SimCity games; They haven't released any city building Sim games since SimCity 4 eight years ago. There was SimCity Societies in 2007, but it was made by a different ...
When you grab a video game off the shelves, finding love is probably not your end goal. Most games focus on letting the player shoot guys, order other guys to shoot guys, or build houses. Mass Effect 2 comes closer than most titles to offering virtual romance, but the relationships are shallow and strictly heterosexual. I found whoring my way around the Normandy much more satisfying as a gameplay option than developing an emotional connection to another character.
Long-Term Strategies for FrontierVilleWhen you first start to play FrontierVille, after you’ve cleared a bunch of trees and brush and started to build a schoolhouse or a barn and you’ve added a few neighbors, you look up at the people around Level 90 or Level 100, and wonder how they play the game and how they got that far.There’s a book (or a series of four books) you may notice – FrontierVille Tycoon Guide – that promises to tell you the secrets of the high level players. You can buy it on ...
Time to welcome back that wacky David Guetta! He's back on the scene (if you can say he actually left) with his first release from his Crimbo Cash-In album, a re-issue of the very successful 'One Love', innovatively titled 'One More Love'.
Baking bread might feel intimidating in advance. The fear to screw it up can make one chicken out and instead keep buying bread as usual at the store. Personally, I am very picky about which bread to eat, and learned over time that home baked bread bits them all when made properly.
There is an abstinence game being created by the University of Central Florida with $400k+ of taxpayer money. The game is directed at middle school girls to help them handle and cope with sexual advances.
SCRABBLE may seem like a board game for word nerds only, but believe it or not, SCRABBLE can be used to lure thousands of hot women into your bed... at least that's what Clive Worth claims.
What Hand Do I Read - And Why ?This is the first tumbling block for some budding palmists, so let me give you some real begginning tips.
So far in this game, my score card: 0-1 from saving a guy from coyotes. My first ever fail in the game.
...a FarmVille addict, that is. Poor Kira is just one of many who pours way too much time and money into their virtual Facebook homesteads. Zynga’s FarmVille is the most popular of the many Facebook web games. In fact, it attracts more than 75 million players monthly.
A November release week in May It used to be that games marked to be blockbusters (expected to sell more than a million in their first month) would always be released during the holiday September to December season. November was always the month companies chose to release their best game. This release model worked fine until the last few years, when too many games were being released in November and companies started to see diminishing returns on their titles because of the release rush.
A look at Aquaria Last week I made a post about the Humble Indie Bundle (http://www.wolfire.com/humble). It's a small online charaty drive where you could buy five indie games for any price you wanted.
A press release should be about news. It should have a sense of urgency about it and grab the reader’s attention from the outset. A good press release must quickly answer the journalist’s immediate questions:
