Monthly Archives: June 2012

The Android's Jetpack Augment (Platform)

Games Only You Played

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Hello readers! I just had an idea to write this quick blog post and thought I would throw it up now for you guys to have a ponder over!

The title, of course, is an exaggeration – unless you wrote something yourself and never even let your mother play it so she could smile and tell you how great it is, I doubt there’s anything out there that has only been played by one person EVER. But still, there seem to be games around which are almost unheard of among our peers. I thought I would ask you all to name any examples of such games, be they hidden gems that deserved far greater fame, or terrible affronts to gaming that fully merit their lack of renown *coughcough*VersaillesagameofIntrigue*coughcough*!

I’ll kick off by highlighting a game called Marko’s Magic Football, released on the Mega Drive and made by Domark. It wasn’t an astounding game by any means, but I did have fun with it as a kid, and the gimmick – that you had to use said football (a spherical one, that is. Bloody colonials and their handegg!) to defeat enemies and get around the levels – was a nice change from the more standard platformers of the era.

More importantly for this post, of course, is the fact that in my life I have not met one other person who has played it.

And who doesn’t want to commit assault with a deadly weapon on the peelers?

Of course as soon as you mention a game “only I played” some wiseguy comes along and has also played it! Nonetheless I now open the comments to you folks

The Android's POG Collection (Retro)

Happy 40th Anniversary, Atari!

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When I first saw the above phrase on the Internet this morning I was rather taken aback.  Surely Atari isn’t that old!  Quickly I rushed to Wikipedia, though, where they confirmed it: “Atari was incorporated in the state of California on June 27, 1972.”

Now Atari didn’t invent the video game, nor did they invent the arcade video game or the home console system.  They did, however, popularize these things and prove that video games were a profitable and interesting thing to go into.  Pong was the first game to really take arcades by storm, and while the Magnavox Odyssey might have been the first console, it was the Atari 2600 that wound up in the home of so many kids in the early 80s.  It was certainly in mine.

Thanks to Nolan Bushnell and Atari, games went on to become first a cultural phenomenon and then the art form that they are today.  So stop and take a moment to reflect on the last forty years, and enjoy a slice of the cake:

The Android's Bunker (Strategy), The Android's POG Collection (Retro)

Magna Mundi

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So there’s a pretty big mod for EU3 known as Magna Mundi, whose objective was among other things to make handling your country internally a trickier, more involved affair that required attention and thought, rather than mere afterthought. Well, so successful was this mod that they set out to license what they needed from Paradox in order to make it as a standalone game. Now this has worked well before, as we can see in Arsenal of Democracy and Darkest Hour (The latter of which I consider the definitive version of HoI2, in fact), and Magna Mundi the Game (MMtG) aroused plenty of excitement on the Paradox forums.

And then it was cancelled. And they didn’t beat around the bush when they announced it, either. Take a look at this;

“We have seen this project drag on and the code we have gotten has not shown significant improvement for many months. Some old and known problems persists and new ones appear with each delivery.”

Paradox’s executive produce Mattias Lilja then added this;

“Lack of trust; the leadership of [Magna Mundi developers] Universo Virtual has given a sunshine version of the project to Paradox and reacted with irritation and anger when we have pointed out obvious problems with the deliveries. It has come to a point where they claim the project is done, and the game is ready for release – despite the many critical issues found and reported on our end.

Internal strife within the MM team; we have gotten information from members within the MM team desperate to save the project whom report to us that the project lacks active leadership. Key personnel in the project see what Paradox sees but instead gets silenced by the UV leadership.

All in all, these are not circumstances under which we can work with a team and it will now stop. At this point we have no more news than the above.”

Wow! That’s pretty uncompromising stuff there, and there seems to be little reason to doubt them. What do they stand to gain by cancelled, after all? Ubik – the lead developer of the MMtG project – is meanwhile infamous for his hardheadedness and refusal to consider when he’s making a mistake. He is now threatening legal action against Pox, and nobody can quite see what leg he thinks he has to stand on. But he provides much entertainment!

Oh also the UI looked like this.

What, is it vaporware from 1997?

More here and here!

The Android's Liberal Arts Degree (Meta/Critical), The Android's Mother's Basement (MMO)

Diablo, Lord of Error.

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Whilst visiting Pike her brother generously donated a guest pass for Diablo III, letting me play until the Skeleton King in Act I. Back in England I gave it a try yesterday, and found it a fairly enjoyable game that seemed to lack something that D2 had which was so compelling, though I hadn’t yet identified what that was.

But this post is not about that. No, this post is about what just happened. I figured “I’ll play it for a couple of hours, see how it goes; the Cathedral was definitely better than the outdoors, maybe it continues improving.” so I fired it up. Logged in. Got this.

More like WHYablo

I was trying to play single player. Indeed, I was not yet at the point where you decide whether you’re playing solo or multi; this is just what you get. Yeahhh… no. We’re not having any of that. I’ve not spent one penny here and I am outraged at this. How people who spend LODS OF EMONE on the thing have failed to riot and burn down Blizz/Activision HQ is beyond me, but they are clearly exercising the saintly virtues that Diablo and his brothers seek to extinguish.

There is no reasonable basis for this. If you are going to make people connect to play in single-player, then you best have a reliable freaking service. Taking the servers down for regular maint does not constitute reliable. It’s fine with an MMO; heck it’s fine with any game in fact, but you best believe people should be allowed to play their single-player game in single-player mode when they want to, not when you permit them to.

In short I just uninstalled D3, I will not be buying it at any point in the foreseeable future (Blizz did me a favor actually because I have no money), and I’d urge anyone on the fence whether they want to support insane policies like this one with their patronage.

The Android can't be arsed with a real topic (Weekend), The Android's Favorites, The Android's Repair Shop (Meta-blog)

Back in the saddle

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As dear Pike said a couple of days ago we should be resuming normal service now that our visit has ended. It was supremely enjoyable and I look forward to her reciprocal visit to rainy old England in a few months. Still, let’s get to the videogames, eh?

What have you guys been playing over the past few weeks? Pike and myself mostly played our typical standbys, which is to say Civilization IV and a little bit of Earth Defense Force 2017, but things have come out that warrant attention. Dragon’s Dogma, which I have but haven’t yet played a great deal of, Max Payne 3, and Lollipop Chainsaw to name a few.

Or we could bring up E3 – a few things there looked real nice, I’m thinking Watch_Dogs, Assassin’s Creed 3, and The Last of Us. I may actually need a PS3 for that last one. Did anything at the show catch your eyes, folks?

Despite The Last of Us this situation won't ever change.

And as it’s Friday, why not; What are you playing this weekend? :D Anything you’ve finally managed to make some time for, or just some old favorites that help you relax?

As an aside are there any topics you want to see us talk about? We’ve had some requests before and I don’t think we’ve managed to remember them all; please let us know in the comments!

The Android's Bunker (Strategy), The Android's Repair Shop (Meta-blog)

*pokes microphone*

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So we really fell off of the bus with updates here, haven’t we?  Sorry about that.  We got, um… distracted by our visit.  On the plus side we both have all sorts of new blog ideas now, and we shall return you to your regularly scheduled blogging in very short order.

In the meantime, have this article about a guy who played the same save file of Civilization II for ten years: Fate of the World: The Decade Long game of Civ II

Soooo… how have you guys been?