I have seen a lot of my online friends playing a game called Garry’s Mod, so I thought I would try it out. I don’t understand the appeal at all. Here is the description of the game on their store page:
Garry’s Mod is a physics sandbox. There aren’t any predefined aims or goals. We give you the tools and leave you to play.
You spawn objects and weld them together to create your own contraptions – whether that’s a car, a rocket, a catapult or something that doesn’t have a name yet – that’s up to you. You can do it offline, or join the thousands of players who play online each day.
If you’re not too great at construction – don’t worry! You can place a variety of characters in silly positions. But if you want to do more, we have the means.
I played around with this for a few hours and just don’t get it. Sure, I can place items around the world, but then what? The world isn’t very big and appears to be set in the Half-Life 2 universe. I really like Half-Life 2, but this doesn’t even seem to be a game. Once you set things up, you can shoot them, I guess? I’m not out much as this was a $5 game. Please, if you have played it and like it, explain the appeal to me because I feel like I’m missing out.
I was doing a fairly routine “when is Picross 3D 2 coming out” search last night when I found out that it’s out and has been since September 1! It’s been out in Japan for some time now, but because the 3DS is region locked, I could not play it without buying a Japanese 3DS. I love this franchise, but not that much. This game is digital only and available from the Nintendo store. I’m a bit bummed that it’s not a full retail release, but I still get to play the game.
I immediately bought it ($30) and dug in. I didn’t let myself get too wrapped up in it as it was a work night. I ended up going to bed at 2:30 anyway. There are some notable differences from the original. The first is the addition of colors. You no longer need to simply clear all of the blocks that aren’t there. Now you have to mark the ones that are left and determine which color they are. This adds an entirely new level of difficulty and makes the game more fun for me. The other change is the shape of the figure you’re working on. As you can see in the image above, there are now curves and differently sized lines. This might help later on when the puzzles really get tough.
I am thoroughly enjoying it so far and didn’t feel I needed to wait to the end to post about it. I know what I’ll be playing all weekend!
Genre: Adventure/Platform
Platform: XBox Original, PC
Psychonauts is the highest console game to make my list. Everything after this is a PC game. This game is one of my favorites ever. Top 5, actually. It is also the most unique game on this list. I happened to have found this one day at a GameStop. I hadn’t heard of it previously, but it looked interesting. I have since bought the game two more times as I gave away my first two copies to other people because I want everyone to play and enjoy it as much as I have. I am a Psychonauts evangelist.
You play the game as a character named Rasputin, or Raz. Raz is just a kid. A kid with special powers. His family doesn’t approve of his powers and is in a circus. Raz runs away to a summer camp for kids with special mental powers hosted by the Psychonauts – a do-gooding organization whose members all have psychic abilities. At this camp, he makes new friends and quickly shows that he is special indeed. Then something bad happens and it’s up to you and Raz to return the camp to normal. Through the game, you learn new powers, which help you defeat many enemies.
The game play is broken into two main areas – the campgrounds itself and the psychic realm. In the campgrounds, you go from area to area, looking for hidden objects, buying upgrades and progressing the story along. In the psychic realm, you are helping individuals sort out their mental issues. This is really where the game shines. Every psychic level is completely unique. There is a level where you are basically Godzilla and hated, one where you are essentially in a pinball table, another in a person who thinks he’s Napoleon and so many more!
Goggalor!
Fighting the lung fish
There are tons of things to collect in this game, which I always enjoy. The graphics are also unique. Some people like them, some don’t. Because they are a bit unusual, I feel the game still stands up today. What makes this game for me, however, is the writing. This game is HILARIOUS! There were a couple of levels where I laughed for a solid 5 minutes. When you play it, I recommend that you really take your time and listen to the things the other characters have to say. If you stick around, you’ll hear some really funny stuff. Read the billboards, too! The Milkman level is one of my favorites and I have played it over and over because it’s so funny.
This was the first game I had played by developer Double Fine, headed by Tim Schaefer. I have Psychonauts shirts, pins, a signed poster by Schaefer and Psychonauts figurines. This game has reached cult status, and I’m definitely there. I am a big fan of a lot of their other games as well. They all have that same sense of humor and excellent writing.
My little Psychonauts
I only have one criticism about the game. The game plays really well, not overly difficult, until the ending. As many times as I have played this game, I have never finished it. The ending requires ridiculous precision and is really frustrating. It’s so disproportionate to the rest of the game. It’s never made sense to me.
Otherwise, however, if you have not played this, GET IT NOW AND PLAY IT!!! It’s available for PC on Steam and it’s available in the Microsoft Store for the XBox 360. I’m not sure if it’s been ported to the XBone yet.
By the way, Psychonauts 2 is in the works. I will likely disappear for a week or so after it comes out. I’ll come out a zombie, but a happy zombie. I’m a bit nervous about it, though, because this is a tough game to follow.
Everyone knows by now that I love puzzle and logic games. I enjoy a good game of sudoku now and again, so I thought the concept of Toon-Doku was fun. You apply the same rules of sudoku – no more than one number per column, row or block – to a grid of icons instead. I’m sure this would have actually been fun if it wasn’t for the horrible presentation.
The image above looks pretty good. You can see everything pretty clearly. This is not how it actually looks on the system. The icons are so small that it’s hard to tell them apart. This makes it impossible to fill out the grid, which really defeats the purpose of the game. I really wanted to like this one, but after five minutes with it, I was done. Skip this one.
Long before there were The Sims, in 1985, there was Little Computer People. This was a game on the Commodore 64, but I also believe it was released for the Apple II and Amiga, too. My cousin had a Commodore 64 and she had this on her computer. We played it quite a bit. The premise is this – there are actual little people living inside your computer and they want to interact with you. Each copy of the game had a different person and all were unique. My cousin and I named her little person Norbert.
We could give Norbert commands to do things like sleep, play the piano, cook, etc. He would also do these things without us telling him to. It was really a unique game for the time that I really enjoyed. I haven’t played it since, but after a quick Google search, I see a download for it. I might try it again as an adult and see how it stands up. If you like sim games and want to see the foundation of that genre of games, check it out!
The video below is pretty funny, btw. This player gets pretty frustrated with his little person.
I just watched this video on YouTube. It’s a guy who creates his own mini SNES by using a Raspberry Pi Zero chip. He sculpts the enclosure himself out of plastic and clay and does all of the soldering himself for the connections. It looks like a lot of fun! I can follow what he’s doing, but I have never done anything like this myself. I bought my PSP for the purpose of modding it, but just haven’t had the time to do so. Maybe some day!
I was just watching the Patriots/Cardinals game and this commercial came on. Hooray for video games continue to be shown in mass media! This one was pretty funny and is referencing the NES game, Tecmo Bowl. Bo Jackson was a very popular player back then, until he injured his hip, which took him out of football and baseball.
I spent a good chunk of time reorganizing my office. Most of my collection is now in one area. I still have my 360, XBox original and XBone games out in the living room because that’s where those consoles are. I took a few pics. I’m putting close-ups of each section on the gaming gallery page. Here it is!
It’s floor-to-ceiling video games! And some work stuff, too.
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