Tag Archives: games

Looking Backwards and Forwards

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I may not have blogged much in 2013, but I did have a lot of fun finding and playing new games. Let’s take a quick look at what I really liked (and some that I didn’t) in 2013 and some of what I’m excited about for 2014.

PC Gaming:

FTL: I’ve already written about it once, but FTL was the big winner for me this year. I’ve sunk a lot of hours into it, and I still feel like I’ve only scratched the surface. With the DLC that’s been announced, I think FTL’s going to be high on my play list for quite a while.

Papers Please: Who could have predicted how engaging the 1980s Eastern Bloc could be? As a newly hired border guard for the fictional Iron Curtain country of Arstotzka, you have to decide who is and is not permitted to entry the country today. You’ve got to juggle your income, pressure from peers and superiors, emotional requests from possible immigrants, and the occasional suicide bomber. There’s a surprisingly compelling story here, with a lot of replayability.

Race the Sun: The elevator pitch for this one is “It’s like Tiny Wings, but in 3D”. Fly your solar-powered craft toward the rapidly-setting sun, dodging an ever-changing array of trees, rocks, mountains, and other impedimentia. Grab pick-ups that give you the ability to jump, resurrect you in the case of a collision, or zip you forward fast enough to roll the sun back a little higher in the sky. Let the sun set, or spend too long in the shadows, and you run out of juice and coast to a stop. Simple graphics, gorgeous background music, and a world map that changes every day. Try it – you’ll keep coming back.

It should be noted that all three of these games are available for multiple platforms through Steam, or directly from their publishers’ websites (although, at this writing, the websites for both FTL and Race the Sun are down).

I also spent quite a bit of time in Shadowrun Returns, after having backed the Kickstarter campaign. The game itself is gorgeous, and it’s obviously a very powerful storytelling engine, but I was a little let down by the size and simplicity of the first included campaign. There’s a strong community of folks making content, though, and the Berlin campaign should be coming soon, so I’m sure SR will get another chance from me.

The only PC game I picked up this year that hasn’t turned my crank is, sadly, Surgeon Simulator 2013. My 15-year-old, however, thinks it’s hilarious.

What PC games am I excited about for 2014? Top on my list: the long-awaited Wasteland 2 is scheduled for this year after its very successful Kickstarter, as is Torment: Tides of Numenera.

Tablet/Phone Gaming:

Lords of Waterdeep iOS: Holy Jebus. This is a beautiful and (I’m told) faithful recreation of the board game of the same name. Very tough computer opponents, but with a nicely detailed tutorial to get you started. Probably the best German-style board game I’ve played on a tablet.

Little Inferno: From some of the minds behind World of Goo and the director responsible for one of my favorite Nintendo DS games, Henry Hatsworth, Little Inferno is a both a great puzzle game and a wonderful call-back to the original Yule Log TV channel. Darkly humorous, oft-times gross, always beguiling. Also available on Steam for multiple platforms, but I found it most fun on a tablet.

Candy Crush Saga: ‘Nuff said. I love ‘join 3’ type games, and CCS has hit just the right inconstant reward button in my brain.

The biggest tablet gaming disappointment this year, for me, was the perennial Magic the Gathering: Duel of the Planeswalkers edition (at least, on iOS). DotP 2014 started out well, but the first expansion introduced an apparently infinite supply of crash bugs which WotC has not, at this writing, addressed. Very few people, at this point, appear to be able to complete, or even start, a duel. A bugfix update was pushed on 17 December which has apparently helped some, but by far only a minority, of players resolve their crashes. Hopefully, WotC will continue hammering on things and we’ll have a playable game soon.

Tabletop / Roleplaying:

Sadly, I did not do very much of either of these things this year, although I had several opportunities to play the always-fun Cards Against Humanity. 2014 is looking good, however, as several successfully Kickstarted games are now, or will soon, be shipping. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on David Malki!’s Machine of Death card game, and the re-issue of the classic Ace of Aces is just about in shipping stage (and I can’t wait to introduce my 15-year-old to a game that I remember playing at his age).

What did you play this year? What’s upcoming in 2014 that’s got you champing at the bit? Let me know in the comments!

FTL: Faster Than Light

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I completely missed the original FTL: Faster Than Light bandwagon. I didn’t back their Kickstarter project, I kind of rolled my eyes at the few folks I knew who lauded it, and, without evidence, assumed I wouldn’t like playing it. I have a long history of not really enjoying the classic “rogue-likes”, y’see. And then, it popped up in a Christmas sale on Steam. For $7.50, I figured it would provide a little entertainment, so I snagged it. And, sometime later, fired it up in a fit of boredom.

I’ve now played over 200 hours, according to my Steam stats.

Oh, not in a row, of course. But FTL has sucked me in far deeper in far shorter an amount of calendar time than many other games; for example, I’ve completed the main quest line in Skyrim, along with the main quest in the Dragonborn DLC, and I don’t think I’ve spent 200 hours playing that. FTL is a brilliantly executed game. Every single play-through has been different; every one has offered a chance to see a little bit more of the possibilities.

The backstory’s pretty straightforward – the Federation’s in trouble, rebel spaceships are rolling up the remnants of the Federation fleet, and you have strategic data that can turn the tide of the war. You have to navigate a pathway of 8 sectors (out of 18 randomly distributed sectors); each sector comprises a number of jump gates, and you move across the sector via these gates. Gates provide any number of experiences – some are empty; some have shops to purchase repairs, weaponry, and crew; some have navigational hazards; some just have enemy ships. Your ship starts lightly-crewed and lightly-armored; hopefully, by sector 8, you’ll have been able to update your ride to something capable of taking down the many rebel ships you’ll encounter, and maybe even take a bite out of the Rebel Flagship.

Visually, FTL is delightfully old-school, with the character sprites bringing an 8-bit feel with them. The ambient music gets a little repetitive, but can be turned off. The sound effects are utilitarian, but add just the right amount of atmosphere – hearing the heartbeats of a soon-to-be dead boarding party while waiting for your transporter to recycle so you can bring them home to the medi-lab definitely adds a layer of tension.

“Boarding party?”, I hear you say. Yep, the easy alteration of your ship, and the wide selection of unlockable ship forms, allows you to play any number of ways. You can be a heavily-armed and heavily-shielded tank, laying waste to enemy ships with a barrage of lasers and missiles. Perhaps you’d like to be a puppet master, sending robotic drones to capture or destroy your enemy. There’s a ship form that lends itself to a sneaky, non-combat role (although you’ll find it hard to complete the game with that one, I think). My current favorite method of playing, though, involves beaming my crew members over to the enemy’s ship(s), letting them kill the crew, then stripping the ships for scrap. Encounters run in real-time, but can be paused at any time to make strategic decisions. In fact, liberal use of the pause button has helped get me out of any number of scrapes and close calls.

However you play it, FTL has a short, gentle learning curve and a lot of replayability. With 9 total ship types (your basic starting cruiser and 8 unlockables), each with an additional unlockable variant, you’ve got 18 different starting points to build your ultimate Federation-saving ride. You’ll meet 6 different non-human species (some of whom may want to join you) and find new weapons and ship add-ons each time. Random encounters can change, based on the things you’ve used to equip your ship, so be prepared for new choices and results every time.

I didn’t think it would be my cup of tea, but FTL: Faster Than Light turns out to be the next best thing to Earl Grey, hot. Available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux.