The Room

There are two HumbleBundles running this week.  I've contributed to both and I'm already writing a post about one of the games they gave me.  The Room was part of an android-only bundle.  Usually the android bundles also include PC versions, but I'm not complaining.

I dig puzzles and The Room is one of the coolest and most satisfying puzzle games I've ever played.  If you're the type that can derive even a shred of joy from a puzzle, I suggest you immediately go get the bundle before it expires (if you're on Android) or go throw $2 at these people on the App Store if you're on iOS.  The game isn't on the Google Play store yet and as far as I can see, there's not even any mention of an Android version existing on their website.  I think us HumbleBundlers have some top-secret build or something...

The Room challenges you with opening a safe that has a bunch of intricate mechanics, hidden compartments, and even extra-dimensional attributes that require the use of a monocle of sorts to see.  This safe opens, evolves, and unfolds as you manipulate it.  The control scheme is very natural and intuitive and the puzzles are challenging but not so complicated or obscure to be frustrating.  I was constantly wondering "what's THIS do?"  I got through the whole game in an estimated 2 hours or so of total play time.  They're going to release another level in an update this summer and The Room 2 is mentioned as a fall release.  To that I say "shut up and take my money."

Hawken

Several months ago I saw a page in a game magazine that told me to keep an eye on Hawken.  When I got accepted into the beta not long afterwards, I was turned off to it for some reason.  I don't even remember what it was - maybe the servers were having problems and I couldn't actually get into any games. That seems familiar...

Anyway, I got an email the other day telling me they're giving out 5000... credits(?) of some kind to use in-game.  I took them up on it and gave the game another shot.  It's still technically in beta, but it feels pretty well tuned.  The graphics are great.  It's fast-paced and controls well...with one complaint - pressing shift and any direction zooms you off in that direction.  Any direction EXCEPT reverse.  Pressing shift+back makes your mech pull a 180.  Instead of putting distance between you and the guy charging you, you're suddenly wondering what the hell you're looking at.  By the time you figure out what happened, you're toast.  Aside from that nitpick, the game is all kinds of fun.

I just hope I'm not suddenly required to drop $20 on a new mech at some point.  It appears everything can be attained just by playing the game and earning money (even if it would take some time.)  There's also RMT currency to help speed things up if you'd rather just pay.  For now I'm pretty happy driving around and shooting things in my TV-on-legs.  Plus, it's an indie operation which pleases me.

Neverwinter Beta

I've put a lot more time into Neverwinter this weekend than I did in the previous beta event.  I think I got a good feel for the game and how their free-to-play model will be structured.  As far as I've seen, the core game is there to play without much restriction and there is of course a cash shop to keep some money coming in.  There are three tiers of "Founder's Packs" for sale, and the cash shop seems pretty tame - consumables, mounts, appearance stuff, character slots.  One thing that's really nice in Neverwinter's sibling, Star Trek Online, is the ability to exchange the cash shop currency (called "Zen") for "dilithium" with other players.  From what I gather, "astral diamonds" are Neverwinter's equivalent of dilithium.  I've heard that things like identify scrolls and other special items might be purchased with astral diamonds.  On the surface that might sound like they want to milk you for real money in some way to get astral diamonds to play the game right.  If it's anything like the dilithium system in STO, there's little to fear.  There should be plenty of opportunity to earn the currency without spending a dime.

Something I noticed yesterday when I hopped in NW - I was seeing chat from the fleet channels we use in STO!  So I was able to chat with my fleet in STO while I was testing NW.  Very cool stuff.

Neverwinter isn't TOO different from any other mmo, with one exception - The Foundry.  This is actually something that was developed for NW but was back-ported to STO since they use the same engine.  The Foundry lets players create their own quests/missions/campaigns then let the rest of the community run through and rate them.  I toyed with the Foundry a little in STO and it's pretty spiffy if you're the type that has time to do that sort of thing.  The control system is more or less the same as TERA or Guild Wars 2.  Instead of click-to-target then repeat a series of number key presses until the mob dies, you control the camera like a shooter and attack/dodge.  I had fun working through the quests and fighting my way to the boss of the first main quest line (which took me up to level 8 or so.)  The final encounter was fun and challenging.  At the end of the beta weekend I at least felt like I had played through a campaign with a goal and a story rather than just being sent out to kill wildlife over and over.  It's not going to completely pull me away from TERA, but it's definitely something I'll be playing on the side.

SpecOps: The Line

I picked this game up on Steam a few months ago on the super-cheap - probably in the $5 range.  I just completed it today after 8 hours of total play time.  I got the feeling there was going to be a twist in the story as I played, but I never put my finger on what it would be.  Suffice it to say, my dude was crazy.  Good game, fun stuff.  I don't usually get into these types of games but they actually did a decent job with this one.  Well worth $5.  That's one more game down towards my goal of actually beating and deleting some of the games from my massive Steam library.

Defiance Beta

Syfy has teamed up with Trion (creators of Rift) to make a mmofps game tie-in with a new TV series:

http://www.defiance.com/en/

This is my second weekend of participating in the beta (if you count logging in and immediately getting disconnected as "participating".)  They still haven't unblocked screenshots though so I can't show any in-game action.

This weekend is far more polished and stable than last time and I was able to run around a bit and shoot things.  I was surprised that the game actually registers headshots.  I also got myself an ATV early on that I can somehow technomagically materialize at my whim.  The available skills are nifty - So far I went with invisibility and extra damage when attacking from behind.

Defiance is a buy-to-play game, so no monthly subscriptions.  I did see a vendor selling lock boxes of a sort and I do wonder if these will require keys (purchased with real money) to open, similar to other f2p games.

FIRST!

I play games.  A lot of them.  Since the Commodore 64 it has been my favorite (only?) "hobby".  I feel like I need to share my experiences even though I'm pretty sure no one will ever read them.  But hey, blogs are free and this is easier than carrying on three or four identical IM conversations starting with "have you seen this game yet?!"

I don't really want this to be a place where I review games.  Other sites already do that better than I care to even try.  But I'll blurb from time to time about what fun new things I've been dabbling in.

I'll probably post things I'm working on when I have something worth showing too.  Things are brewing around here.  SDK's are getting installed.  3D modeling is happening.  Nothing has really coagulated yet, but something is coming...