Writing Assignment: Write a review of one of the games you have played for this week. What should be in your review? How personal, how impersonal should it be? How focused should your review be and what perspective do you have to offer as a reviewer of games?
Things
to Play: games listed are free unless otherwise specified
Interesting
and innovative narrative experience: Gravity Bone download from Blendo Games Site
Download
Narbacular
drop, the game whose mechanic inspired Portal.
Download
Octodad the Original student
version
The Old Tree a short
free-to-play cinematic puzzle game about a newborn alien baby. (Requires Steam)
Thomas
Was Alone play the
demo here the full game Costs 10 Dollars
I
Saw her standing there, a simple love story about a boy and a girl who is a
zombie (play in-browser)
Catlateral Damage you are a
cat, knock things over (play in browser)
Coma (play in browser)
Depression Quest not a
traditionally “fun” gaming experience but it explores what can be done with the
medium
Cube Slam weird, surreal 3d pong
(play in browser)
Pandemic 2 You are a
disease, infect the world (play in browser)
DOOM Experience the
original shooty monster game (play in browser)
Gods
Will be Watching, a minimalistic point and click thriller that presents
complex moral choices play the demo,
the full game on steam Costs
10 Dollars
Superhot,
a unique take on fps mechanics, play the
prototype
Winter
Walk for Android
Super
Monsters Ate my Condo, fun action puzzle game developed by Adult Swim,
available on Apple
devices and in the Google
store (mostly included because of the title)
Spaceteam,
A cooperative shouting game for phones and tablets. Available on Apple devices
and in the Google
Store
Mountain is difficult to describe so I
won’t try. Made by the artist responsible for designing the videogame in the
movie Her, Costs 1 dollar.
80 Days a unique, substantive
and addictive mobile experience, well worth checking out, Costs 5 Dollars
Year Walk, Experience the
ancient Swedish phenomena of year walking through a different kind of first
person adventure, Available on Steam Costs 6 Dollars
One
Chance - you have 6 days to find a cure that will wipe out the human
race.
Haunt the House -
you're a little ghost that needs to scare all the people in the house. Also an
App.
Plug and Play -
a surreal interactive animation. $2.99
Moonbase
Alpha - Free on Steam
Chivalry
Limbo
Bastion
Journey
Shadow of the Colossus
No Man's Sky, a game
getting a lot of recognition for it's countless number of planets.
Japanese Gaming we should hit more of the controversial aspects
of it, too. Such as the censorship and some that have been localized and the
ones that haven't.
Hatsune Miku Project Diva -
since it's after the class on anime and manga, it's a good transition. A rhythm
game based on the popular idol.
Dating Sims - Hatoful
Beautiful, Conception 2, DMMD
Visual Novels - Zero Escape,
Ace Attorney, Professor Layton
RPGs - Fire Emblem, Disgaea,
Atelier series, Persona (or Shin Megami Tensei in general)
Themes in Drakengard / Nier
I know Egoraptor did a few
lengthy videos discussing the difference in games from their originals.
Normally dealing with how they are dumbed down.
Sequelitis Megaman & Legend of
Zelda
The Rise of Horror Games
Outlast
PT
Five Nights At Freddy's
Alien: Isolation
Hektor
Movie Games - How game mechanics have been lees about gameplay and
more on the story, and sometimes graphics.
The Order 1886 (controversial
because of game length)
The Last Of Us (has gameplay)
Heavy Rain
Beyond Two Souls (blockbuster
actors)
Life is Strange
Until Dawn
Videos:
Videogame related stuff to watch (that aren’t Let’s Plays)
Leo Wichtowski’s on the
fuzzy definition of what makes a game a game. The rest of his videos
are also brilliant, hilarious and occasionally weirdly moving.
Read/Listen
to Developers speak about things:
Extended Interview with the
delightful Tim Schafer of Double Fine (creator of such games as Grim
Fandango, Full Throttle and Psychonauts)
An interview with Peter
Molyneux designer of the Fable series, on his (failed) kick-starter project
Godus. Molyneux is widely known in the gaming world for his unbridled
enthusiasm and creativity, but also for generating cosmological sized
expectations for his games that the finished product rarely lives up to.
None-the less he has some fascinating insights on Kick-starter culture and the
future of gaming.
John
Carmack Rambling about the Oculus for 90 minutes at Oculus Connect 2014 a
long video, but worth a look if you’re at all interested in what one of the
most brilliant technical minds in gaming has to say about virtual reality.
Games
and gaming trends you should probably be aware of:
Franchise
Gaming- The McDonalds of gaming, churned out on a regular basis with a
varying degree of innovation year to year. Worth examining the cultural
assumptions posited by these annual experiences. What makes people keep coming
back to these franchises? Is it just familiarity (like a McDonalds Hamburger)
or is their some other force; cultural, social or economic that drives their
popularity?
Call
of Duty and similar gritty first person war games are often accused of
promoting jingoistic attitudes and distinctly Western Militaristic point of
view. (See Spec Ops the Line for it’s largely successful ideological
counterpoint)
Battlefield
Assassin’s
Creed- actually examines the franchise phenomenon and the idea of history
turned-mass entertainment in a very meta and curious way in the later games.
Madden/FIFA,
still a thing
Halo
GTA-
a biting satire of consumer culture, violence and class in modern America or a
crass and misogynistic, male crime power-fantasy? (Tonal inconsistencies in GTA
5, is it a cartoon or a gritty crime drama?)
Remember
Guitar Hero? What happens when an intellectual property is horrendously
mis-managed i.e. bled dry. The danger of the franchise…
The
Japanese gaming world- despite producing some of the most innovate and
medium-defining properties recent trends suggests that the Japanese gaming
industry has fallen on a period of creative stagnation. Japanese developers
atre staring to incorporate elements from western developers into traditional
Japanese game structures. What does this mean for the future of Japanese games?
Is this the start of a more pluralistic global game development community? Also
worth discussing the influence of Nintendo not just on videogames but also on
global popular culture, they are in some respects “The Disney of the East.”.
Mario
Dragon
Quest
Monster
Hunter
Final
Fantasy
Resident
Evil
Silent
Hill
Metal
Gear
….
Etc.
Games
as Educational tools, “Lego-Set” games- these are games that don’t offer a
singular experience so much as they give you the tools and an open environment
to explore creative solutions in a variety of scenarios.
Learning to Code with Minecraft
the Minecraft phenomenon is really a topic unto itself however educators are
learning to use Minecraft as a platform to explore new ways of teaching.
Kerbal
Space Program, one of the few games where completing in-game objectives may
actually qualify you for a position at NASA. Kerbal Space Program As
Played By A Real Astronaut.
Little
Big Planet
Total
War Series
Age
of Empires (a childhood favorite)
Civilization
Besiege
Simulators
for every topic imaginable, most notably Train and Farm Simulator
Games
with Something to Say
Paper’s
Please
This
War of Mine
Gone
Home, one of many recent first person, non-shooters
Spec
Ops the Line
The
Binding of Isaac
Papo
& Yo
Hotline
Miami
The
Wolf Among Us, and other recent Telltale games
Among
the Sleep
Kentucky
Rout Zero
Crowd
Source Success Stories/Digital distribution platforms; is digital
distribution a viable long-term solution for indie developers, what is the
eventual outcome of digital distribution? Does it spell the end for traditional
console platforms? What does the popularity of digital distribution say about
the way modern consumers demand and consume content from developers?
Steam/Steam
Greenlight
Minecraft
was self-published
The
Hardcore Games Revival-Tried of the recent trends in gaming like intuitive
user interfaces, edifying game design and linear difficulty progression? Then
these throwbacks to the golden days of real games are for you! (*Authors
note all the games in this section are actually very well designed though they
do lack some of the accessibility of their more commercially successful
“mainstream” counterparts)
Dark/Demon Souls The
link is to an Honest Trailers, but I think the video gives an excellent
overview of the hardcore games phenomenon. (Favorite quote “Bugs are
just features that make it more extreme!”)
Mega
Man (these games are all impossible why does anyone even bother, discuss…)
The
Witcher 2, definitely not for the first-time RPG player, also manages a nuanced
and adult narrative. Handles sex in a mature fashion and has well-realized
female characters. (Good job Poland!)
How
to do world building in Videogames Properly (The Portal appreciation corner)
Portal
and it’s sequel Portal 2 are a master class in game design, game mechanics and
immersive, indirect storytelling via excellent writing and art
design.
The
complete Cave Johnson
audio diaries, beyond the comedic appeal note the specific character
choices the writers make that indirectly informs you of the world (Portal 2
spoilers obviously, but it’s been three years people)
Hardcore
Competitive Multiplayer- not really my area of expertise but I just wanted
to acknowledge that these kinds of games are hugely popular and represents a
very dedicated and diverse fan base.
DOTA and other
MOBAs
Counterstrike
Starcraft
“Comedy
Games”- Do modern games take themselves too seriously? These developers
seem to think so. The recent indie game boom enabled by digital distribution
has created a flood of mid-to low budget games hat are frankly far too dumb to
have ever been funded by a major publisher.
Goat
Simulator
Surgeon
Simulator
Bread
Simulator
Let's Plays
