A Game Review - Dear Esther (PC)

 Dear Esther is an interesting piece of software. Some people have argued that it isn't even a game. I can see where they come from with that, as it does bear more resemblance to an interactive book than with a traditional game. Developed by thechineseroom, Dear Esther is an indie art game. You might know the type. The kind that some people rave and say are destroying games, the kind that some people call pretentious or arsy or bullshit. Other people go wild over them, studying them like classic literature. I'm sure you know the type, and Dear Esther easily fits that definition perfectly.

A Game Review - The Ball (PC)

 I first heard about The Ball a couple years ago through a preview on Destructoid. It caught my interest, and I kept and eye on it for a while, until finally taking the opportunity to nab it for a sweet price during the same indie bundle that I got Sideway: New York from. I had a pretty large backlog of games at the time, and have only been adding to it since, so it took a while for me to finally get The Ball rolling.

My Top 10 Favorite Guitar Solos

NOTE: This blog contains embedded YouTube videos. For some reason, they only show up about half the time when I view it. I don't know why, nor do I know how to fix it, so if they don't show up properly, I apologize in advance.

 If somebody asked me to sum up my ideal music in one word, it would be "guitar." I love the guitar. I enjoy looking at guitars, holding guitars, listening to guitars, and playing guitars (porrly, but I try.) The things that the guitar is capable of is astounding. It is the driving force behind multiple genres adn sub-genres of music. It has been weilded by many, mastered by some, and used to creat some of the most powerful music of all time.
I've been doing a lot of reviews on Indie games lately. I'm not getting vored of it, but I wanted to take a break to keep my blog fresh. I love music, especially the guitar. While riffs and chord progressions are fine, I believe the guitar truly shines when it blazes away a good lead composition. Something about the power, the wordless voice, the tones; when they mesh together the right way, the melody and emotion can be breathtaking. So in the interest of fun, I decided to put together a list of my favorite solos.

My Apology to the Grizzled Boor

 Dear Grizzled Boor,
I'm sorry. I didn't mean to beat you up. I didn't want to beat you up. I just had to, that's all. I mean, it was part of the game. Well okay, that's not true. It was an optional sidequest, but pretty much a necessity unless I wanted to cheat the game or wait a month. It's not my fault the developers made that specific sidequest so necessary for beating the game in a reasonable amount of time. You are such a cool guy, and I wanted you to know that kicking your butt was nothing personal, and I have felt terrible about it ever since.
*sigh* okay. That first paragraph was a little disjointed. Let me start from the beginning.

A Game Review - Lone Survivor (PC)

I first saw Lone Survivor on the front page of the Steam store, when it was released. The image grabbed my attention, looking like it would be right up my alley. I added it to my wishlist on a whim adn more or less forgot about it, until the last Humble Indie Bundle. When I was pleasantly surprised to find that it had been awarded to me, I immediately decided to check it out.
The game was an emotionally and intellectually enthralling experience from start to finish. To be honest, I'm not even sure where to begin. I briefly considered not even writing this, since I'm kind of stumped on where to begin. Still, the game is too hidden and I loved it too much to let it go unsung.

Sportsmanship in Gaming

A lot of people play multiplayer FPS games online. We all know the same cliche, too. People spewing hate, racism, sexism, cursing. Kids with no business being online shouting slurs into the microphone because they're parents either don't know or don't care. Anger and harassment are so common that they have become an accepted feature of many games.
I'm not going to analyze the phenomenon too deeply. If that's what you're looking for, I suggest checking out the latest episode of Extra Credits: http://www.screwattack.com/shows/partners/extra-credits/extra-credits-season-4-episode-11-harassment

I don't play online that much, but I've still seen some pretty nasty stuff. I was going through Portal 2 coop a couple months back and was hooked up with a random opponent. I was just about to finish the last level, and he had already gone through it. So I went through, taking my time and trying to figure out the puzzles. The guy I was playing with spent the entire match denouncing me and calling me stupid because I had not gone through it already and while he had all the solutions memorized.

A Game Review - Sideway New York (PC)

 A couple weeks ago somebody brought my attention to a charity bundle of Indie games, similar to the Humble Indie Bundle. You buy three games of your choice and pay what you want. The biggest draw for me was a first person puzzle game called The Ball, which I have been eyeing for a while. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get it for cheap, so I shelled out a few bucks and got a couple more games along with it.
One of the other games was the subject of this review: a 2.5D platformer called Sideway New York. The game was developed by Playbrains and released on PSN for the Playstation 3, and later brought to Steam. The game follows a hip young grafitti artist with the Nox. While parkouring around the city one day, looking for his missing friend, Nox gets himself dragged through a portal into the land of Sideway, a two-dimensional world made of paint that exists on flat surfaces. With the help of the mysterious Fume, he must rescue his friend, defeat the tyrannical Spray, and find a way back to the third dimension.