Assassin's Creed for Dessert Again?

 I'll be the first to admit I'm a fan of the Assassin's Creed series, but when someone is flooded with something they like, they get a little tired of it. Too much of a good thing is possible. For example, "Pumpkin cheesecake again?"

The Assassin's Creed games are a lot of fun, but one has to wonder if an annual release is a mistake. I went a good two years in college without a job and because of that, buying Assassin's Creed Revelations was put on hold for me at the end of 2011. Another year rolls by and Assassin's Creed III comes to the shelves and I was then two games behind. Now I had two titles in the series on hold and they announced one slated for 2013. I was lucky to have a Steam sale with both Revelations and Assassin's Creed III and a good amount of free time to catch up, but I'm sure there are plenty of fans who haven't had the chance.

So far this may sound like a pseudo-not-really-a-problem type of problem, but there is more to my complaint. As someone who had played the original installment and waited two years for its sequel, I was blown away by the expansion of detail. The second game in the series was vastly superior to the first one and that is arguably why it got such good ratings. The series then on became an annual release schedule. The problem with this is that the innovations the developers make are much less noticeable and mind-blowing as the jump between the original and its sequel.

Sure, sailing on the ocean as a member of the Assassins sounds awesome (and it really, really does), but think about how cool it could be if they took longer to develop and innovate even further. I think the problem is that somewhat appeasing a mass amount of fans makes marginally the same amount money as blowing away the same amount of fans, but I don't pretend to be a marketing professional.

I love you guys, Ubisoft Montreal, but I worry for the sales of my beloved Assassin's Creed. If you see a kink in the chain, don't ignore it!

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It's a Hard Cart Life for Andrus

I know this one isn't brand new but I picked it up a few weeks ago. Cart Life is a charming crappy life simulator. At first, this may sound awful and in a way, it is but the game itself is surprisingly entertaining.

In this game you pick to own a bagel cart, a newspaper stand, or a coffee cart. The gameplay feels like a time-wasting Facebook game full of repetitive clicking and "Good job!" pop-ups. Wait don't the back button yet. I didn't tell you about the fact that you get to do this day in and day out through the game. Who doesn't want to type "Fold the paper neatly." perfectly or else lose said paper? ...Have I lost all readers yet?

Okay, so the gameplay sounds horrible. But dare I say that is in fact the point? How fun is it to sell newspapers all day in a grimy, dirty city? It's not. At all.

Cart Life almost goes out of its way to mock these Something-story/life/saga/etc. games by saying "look we're doing this too and it's awful!" Repeating the same processes every day makes the world seem awful grey. Go ahead and take a guess how wide the color pallet is in this game, I left it open with an awful pun.

 The difference between this game and yet another Facebook time sink  is the addition of a story, which speaks to the reality of these kinds of jobs. With the previously mentioned carts comes a character alongside it. You chose from a  young guy who can't keep one job for too long, a single mother going through custody battles for her daughter, or an Eastern European man with nothing to his name but his cat buddy.

Have you ever worked as a cashier? Do you hate when the correct amount of change doesn't show up on the cash register? Sure you're not bad at math, but it's still a pain right? Andrus hates it too, but he can't afford one of those fancy new-age cash registers. Have you ever run your own business? You have to have people skills in order to attract customers. If you have any, go take your children to school before the sun comes up, walk to work and maintain a smile all day long. Don't forget to feed yourself and worry about rent too! Hey, how much does a coffee cost? Not sure? Well, how much would you pay for one? What about if you're the one looking to make the profit, can you make it off of what you just assumed?

These are all issues that Cart Life addresses in its own way. It's more of a life lesson than a game. Maybe you'll think twice before rolling your eyes at the grumpy lady selling coffee in the park, she's probably exhausted. The gameplay is actually pretty fun despite the description. That's something I can't explain, even with a degree in journalism. If you spend $4.99 on this game and still don't understand it, you still get a pretty sweet 16-bit sounding soundtrack that's worth the price.

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Monkeys and Robots and Plants.... Oh My?

Starbound, from developer Chucklefish, first struck me as Terraria on crack. Being the creators of Terraria, this came to no surprise. But as I started following it on Reddit I realized it was much more.

Planet hopping, resource gathering and invention building are the names of the game. Chucklefish has always had a certain bit of whimsy to their games but Starbound's art style takes the cake. Their games' premises have always been light-hearted even in nightmarish situations (see: Eye of Cthulhu and Wall of Flesh) giving Chucklefish a "laugh in the face of danger" kind of feel.

To further this trend, Starbound has seven playable races. From left to right/front to back: Humans, Avians, Apex, Hyotyl, Glitch, Florans and the unpictured Novakids. Mixing Planet of the Apes, Zora-like fish people, medieval robots and glowing-energy space cowboys?? What more could a person want?

A lot of indie developers have one title under their belt but Chucklefish banked Starbound off of the success of Terraria by making a similar, yet very much unique game, claiming the style in which they develop as their own.

This space adventure takes you planet to planet, each one similar to Terraria's layout but with randomly generated terrain, items, animals and pretty much everything else. The combination of choices are limitless, meaning when it releases, Starbound will have lots of replay potential, considering every race acts differently and have different tech associated with them.

The pre-order has already started but the release date is still a vague 2013 release. Following this game's development has been entertaining on it's own, with one of the developers Tiy constantly posting on Reddit and Twitter. He is yet another example of the developer-community relationship that indie games seem to cultivate.

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Voxels Are Fun!

As mentioned last time, I have been playing a lot of a game called Timber and Stone by Robert Reed. It's a voxel-based building game (think Minecraft) but controlled more like a real-time strategy game. You spend your time making jobs for your townsfolk to do that they in turn will complete given that they have the right materials. The game is in public beta and people have already managed to make things like towns or even big castles and forts. The challenge here is that once your overall wealth goes up (food stored, materials gathered, etc.) you get attacked by enemies more and more aggressively. The more aggression you face, the more you want soldiers to protect you, but more people means more materials needed, which in turn brings more enemies. Balancing this pattern is really the "main focus" of the game, but there is much fun to be had around this objective.

The interesting thing about this game is it's community. Robert encourages players to commune in the forums of his site and talk about their latest exploits, suggestions and overall enjoyment of the game. He has a vision for his game, but has shown that he is not opposed to constructive criticism. This shows Robert's dedication to the art: community satisfaction. This may sound like a strange notion, as the phrase is usually "customer satisfaction", but most of these fans don't consider themselves customers in the definition that we usually attribute to the word.

Very few people look to Robert and demand something be changed because they "paid for it." The very nature of indie games is to bring an enjoyable game to the table for people to appreciate, not to appease a room full of rich investors looking to maximize profits. There is a level of respect and appreciation between developer and community, harkening back to the days of satisfaction-equals-success instead of making off with the loot.

Robert and his marry band of followers are what give me hope for the future of our medium. Timber and Stone is a game that I couldn't see a publisher like EA pushing out, but with Robert and company, it's in good hands.

Here's to you Timber-and-Stoners! Shout outs to Steveadamo, Hammer and the rest for being such an active community,

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Indies Galore

Sometimes I get into certain gaming "moods". By this I mean I crave a certain kind of game, and lately when I'm not working on beating Assassin's Creed 3, I pick up various indie games I have come across.

Through various sources, I found Kickstarter-funded games that had a lot of heart and dedication. For those who don't know, Kickstarter is a website that allows people to propose a project and have visitors back them monetarily. Usually, when these projects are backed and an alpha/beta build is ready, backers have access to it. When I realized how creative some of these developers were, I proceeded to back and follow three of them.

It was during this indie binge that I realized what a wonderful community these types of games can have behind them. One of the games I followed was a voxel-based game called Timber and Stone. It follows the basis of other building games such as resource gathering and base building and adds its own mechanics and personality.

While still being in beta, listing features may prove to be difficult as they may change but the fans of the game often talk in the forums, discussing new builds of the game, helping each other with strategy and even suggesting new additions to the game. The most interesting part is that Robert Reed, the sole developer of the game, often seeks the community's input and interacts with them a great deal through the forums and website like Reddit and Twitter.

The most interesting thing about games starting on Kickstarter is the vast difference between fans of these indie games and fans of the mainstream gaming market. While Robert's game had developed more-or-less on schedule, many games I have followed have had minor setbacks and the developer(s) would address the fans directly, apologizing and promising a polished game in return for their patience. There were very few negative reactions in most cases and even words of encouragement from the community, as if it were their job to support their beloved indie developer. This was certainly a refreshing sight compared to the pitchforks gamers get when a mainstream game gets delated. A particular example that comes to mind is Star Wars: The Old Republic as it was delayed and every mention of a later release date was followed by cranky gamers threatening to get a refund on their pre-order.

Self-entitled nerds aside, stay tuned for more indie-gaming talk as I post during the week and maybe you'll find a game or two you'd like to follow!

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A New Journalist Approaches!

My name is Steven. People call me Toast, I don't know why but it sticks.

I'm a gamer that went to college because it was the right thing to do, the logical next step. I went to school doing gen eds for a while, not knowing what I wanted to do, then I'd go home and play video video games. After a while, I came to the conclusion that I talked too much, so I declared my major as Communication. After declaring a major and attending classes every day, I'd go home and play video games. I then got into the school newspaper. I had a real knack for it and I really enjoyed writing articles, so much so that I declared journalism as my minor. After declaring my minor and writing articles for the paper all day, I'd go play video games.

Are you seeing a rhythm here? I would go through my life, only half convinced that I knew what I was doing. Video games were always there for me at the end of the day. It wasn't until I got to the newspaper where I was writing various tech-culture articles that someone proposed that I write a video game column. Suddenly, I was getting feedback from all my articles from different people. Some of which I hadn't even told that I worked at the newspaper in the first place!

 What I'm telling you is this: I may be pretty decent at speaking, and I may be a pretty good writer, but what really gives me the drive is video game journalism. Those skills don't mean a whole lot if you don't have a passion for something, which I didn't realize I had until late in the game. That's okay though, because I'm here and I know I have good, thoughtful things to say about my hobby.

I hope you all enjoy my opinions and I invite you to think right along with me in the comments section or by following me on Twitter . I will do my best at posting daily, but if I miss a few days here and there, bear with me, I wont leave you hanging long. I have a full-time internship to work around at the moment, so I'll think of it as a challenge.

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