Posts tagged game
Jul 5th
One day some veteran game developers got together and asked, “Why doesn’t somebody make video games for something other than profit?” This question is the foundation for OneBigGame, a non-profit organization that describes themselves like this:
Our mission is to bring together some of the most famous game designers and major development studios to create a number of unique games, specifically developed for OneBigGame, with all the proceeds going to children’s charities around the world.
The known developers that are working with OneBigGame at the time of writing are: Charles Cecil (Revolution Software), Eric Zimmerman (Gamelab), Ernest Adams (International Hobo), Avalanche Studios, Relentless, Kuju and Freestyle. The first games being made for OBG are likely going to be flash games, but the founders of OBG hope that one day console games will be made too. If you are good at any game developing skill, you can send an email over to OBG and volunteer your services.
You’ll likely start seeing games with the OneBigGame logo on them in the latter half of 2008, so keep an eye out and make a contribution to world by playing video games.
Jun 30th
Face of Mankind: Rebirth was an MMOFPS that had some great potential. I personally played in the beta for Face of Mankind (not Rebirth, check out this article if you want some more information on the history of the game), and I thought it was an awesome blend of FPS, MMO, and RPG. It had “raids” where players from one of the factions in-game could take over another planet from another faction. The unique quest system let higher level players create quests for others, such as mining a certain ore or assassinating an enemy of theirs.
Even with all of the game’s potential to be something excellent, the recreation of an MMO is not easy for a small team of people financing their own work. Sadly, the game is coming to an end because of the team’s financial problems. Here is an excerpt from the offical FoM site:
FoM, as many other MMORPGs today, is a game that relies heavily
on visual content. For us, being only a small development studio with very limited
resources, it would be nearly impossible to make the game we want it to be. You
might wonder what there is to change? It runs fine and works in a way. That’s right,
but not the way it’s supposed to. And spending so much more power and private funding
into the project made not much sense anymore. There might be a time for FoM in the
future, but it’s just not now.
The developers of FoM, Duplex Systems, are working on another MMO that they hope to release in place of Face of Mankind, called NanoVerse Online. As of right now there is no content on the site besides a nice logo, but Duplex promises that if you continue checking back that more content will be there.
Jun 29th
I pulled up Addicting Games today and while looking for something to do, I rediscovered Bowman 2.
Bowman 2 is a well-made flash game in which the player’s job is to kill the other player without moving. You use the mouse to create an angle with the bowman’s arm and bow, and then let go and fire. It usually take about 3 hits to take down an opponent, or 1 hit in the heart or head.
There are multiple modes for Bowman 2 in addition to the original Bowman. There is a target practice in which the player shoots at a non-moving target. There is also Bird Hunter for those people who want to shoot at moving targets of different sizes.
While playing single or multiplayer, there are new editable features. You are able to create a wall between the two opponents, and change wind speed. These allow for a slightly more difficult game.
Though slightly on the easier side, Bowman 2 is an improvement over the original, and is great if you have another person breathing down your neck who wants to take a turn on the computer. Just tell them, “Hey! Lets play Bowman 2!” and maybe you can buy yourself a little more time in that comfy computer chair.
Jun 22nd
After many hours of searching for a somewhat enjoyable flash game (which is quite hard to find these days) I found Sniper Assassin. Sniper Assassin is one of the many stick figure shooter games, and I had the displeasure of playing it.
According to the games description, it’s “a job that requires finesse and nerves of steel”. Instead, all it requires is the ability to read, and rudimentary clicking ability. The very unoriginally titled Sniper Assassin presents you with a small area with 5 or 6 same looking stick figures at once. Your job is to pick out which one is your target. This would have been a solid concept if the mission briefings didn’t slap you upside the head with the targets flawless description. This takes away any challenge the game may have previously presented in locating your target. It’s easy, boring, and frankly annoying. I appreciate the attempt to create atmosphere with the music, but it was terribly annoying after the second loop. Game play, it’s solid, but boring. Nothing you haven’t seen in games like Tactical Assassin 2. It’s a repetitive, predictable, and criminally short game with mediocre gameplay. You’d be best off avoiding it.
Now that thats finished, lets take a moment to discuss something. Why are there so many freakin’ stick figure flash games out there? At one point, I would say they were rather enjoyable, but its getting ridiculous people! This is like the fiftieth stick figure sniping game since tactical assassin, and I’m getting tired of it. Are you people too lazy to come up with something new and original? You want a fun, different game? Try The Sniper. At least it doesnt use stick figures. Come on, flash creaters. Please switch up the usual, don’t copy the originals like Tactical Assassin or Thing-Thing, (which are both excellent games), make your own, unique, fun game.
Jun 21st
Line Rider 2 Beta is a flash game that you find yourself playing again and again. The objective of the game is prevent the little man on the sled from falling off of the lines you draw for him to ride along. Want him to fall straight down at 356 MPH? Go for it. Want him to fly off of gravity defying loops? You can do that too.
Line Rider 2 has many advantages over the old version. The most obvious addition is the eraser tool. It allows you to erase lines if they happen to make your character fall off his sled. He is very fragile, and will fall off sometimes at the slightest bump. Which brings me to one of the next additions, the sled rider is now harder to throw off of his sled, allowing people with no previous experience in the Line Rider Beta game to be able to pull off cool tricks with ease. You now also have the ability to draw scenery lines. These little lines are lines that the sled will not touch. He only passes though them, as they are used to add a background to your track. If your sled was not going fast enough, then another useful addition is the acceleration lines. These increase the speed of the sled dramatically. They let the user make line rider go up 45 degree angles, but if you get him going up much further than that with only acceleration lines and no natural propulsion, then you will find him flipping backwards over himself. Another new tool in Line Rider 2 is the flag tool. When you are creating a longer track, then you can use the flag tool to change the point at which line rider will start. This saves time, because you don’t have to wait for your character to travel the entire length of the track when you are testing new additions to your track. The magnifying glass tool is another useful addition to Line Rider. It assists you in finding the pesky problem areas. The new additions make Line Rider 2 far better than Line Rider Beta in terms of ease and entertainment.
Now that Line Rider 2 has been out for a while, fans are awaiting the new Line Rider game, and some may be surprised to hear that the popular pc game is coming to Nintendo Wii and the Nintendo DS in the form of Line Rider 2 Unbound. Line Rider fans are excited about what is to come in Line Rider 2 Unbound. It adds the element of art, which allowing you to create amazing tracks.
All in all, if you are looking for a challenge, give Line Rider Beta a chance, but if you just want to take the time to create an amazing track with a slightly easier interface, play some Line Rider 2 Beta.
Jun 20th
To celebrate their latest patch to the amazing game Team Fortress 2, Valve is allowing anybody with a Steam account to download the game for free and use it for the weekend. After the weekend (June 20-22, 2008) you can no longer play the game for free unfortunately. The new patch adds 3 new unlockable weapons for the Pyro class. There’s a shotgun replacement called the Flare Gun, which is basically just what it sounds like. It shoots off a flare to allow you to ignite your enemies at long range, but takes a very careful aim to get it right. It also adds a new flamethrower into the mix, called The Backburner. It removes the Compression Blast ability, but the Backburner always has critical hits when burning an enemy from behind, as well as adding 50 points of health to the Pyro wielding it. The final unlockable is a new axe, called the Axtinguisher. This weapon critical hits any enemy who is on fire, but does considerably less damage to those who remain in a state of not on fire.
The patch also adds 35 achievements for aspiring Pyros to unlock. One of my personal favorites, is called BarbeQueQ. You obtain it by causing a dominated player to leave the server. Other fun achievements such as Freezer Burn (provide enemies with freezecam shots of each of your taunts), make it worth your while to try for the achievements. There are also two new maps added, A capture point map called “Fastlane”, and a Capture the flag map called “Turbine”. All of these factors make it an excellent weekend to play TF2, and if you aren’t already a player, to join the phenomenon.
Jun 10th
Hell of Sand is a flash game located at Andy’s Life. Though Andy’s Life should not be your one stop for flash games, I would highly recommend that you check out Hell of Sand. Actually, the game has almost no point other than to have fun and waste time. You set the rules, you set the conditions, and you have more fun. You can create pictures, and do things such as creating large explosions and seeing which kinds of substances explode, or melt, or do other things in relations to the plant, the fire, and the water. Everything is shaped to be like sand, but most substances follow realistic patterns, such as gunpowder exploding and plants flourishing under water.
If you are one of those people who have to have some kind of goal to meet, then this is not the game for you, but if all you want to do is make something that you can enjoy for a while and then delete, or you just need to blow 10 minutes and don’t want to get too deeply involved in a good flash game, play Hell of Sand. If you need to meet some kind of requirements, then go play something else like The Last Stand 2, otherwise Hell of Sand is your game.
May 26th
Have you been looking to play some great-looking games without leaving the comfort of Firefox? Look no further than InstantAction, a website created just for that purpose. Made by GarageGames, the leader of independent game design, InstantAction brings quality games like Think Tanks and Marble Blast to you for free, with micro transactions helping to keep the site in business. InstantAction takes advantage of being a web-based service by letting you easily join groups/parties of up to 8 people to play games and chat. Currently only one game has a single-player option, which is Marble Blast; however, more games should have that option once the service is stripped of its beta tag.
The only thing I don’t like about InstantAction is that I seem to lose connection to the party leaders right before a game starts, so I have to try and find another host to play a game. Other than this, I think that InstantAction will shape up to be a really great online gaming service in the coming months as it grows in popularity.
May 25th
Typing is a very important aspect of using your computer, whether it be a Mac or PC, that takes time to master. One attempt at mastering this skill is TypeRacer, an online so called “competitive” typing game, which involves many users entering into a race, and then proceeding to all type the same random quote from a movie, book, song, and quotes from the popular media. As you type this quote, your racer icon moves along, and also displays a handy wpm (word per minute) icon by your name. The races range from a few racers to many competing to win the title of ultimate racer so that you get absolute reverence from your peers! This game also has incorporated an anti-bot, which was instituted very quickly after its release, due to the huge number of bots typing 180 wpm or higher. After the anti-bot was instituted, every time you type 110 wpm or higher (until they incorporate a permanent account system) you must complete a CAPTCHA-style paragraph in your wpm – 20 or higher. Still, even with the anti-bot, there are some true freaks typing 150 wpm or higher every day. This is one of the most effective games at boosting your typing speeds (for whatever purpose you have) because of the variety. Since the quote you type is random, you get a large variety of texts with odd punctuation here and there, to stop you from getting in bad habits. It even makes you correct every single mistake before you can move on.
I personally thoroughly enjoy TypeRacer, as it gives me a 30 second long break in between studying. The only flaw I personally can see in the game are periods of lag every few minutes, which has mostly been fixed since the launch of the game. I found that every once in a while you can learn something from the quotes, because of the diversity in the subject matter of the typing. Even though it may not be the best waste of your time on the internet (and it has it’s flaws), it certainly ranks well for its creativity.
May 25th
At first glance, The Last Stand 2, created by ConArtists, may just look like another zombie survival horror flash game. As soon as you start playing, you see that that’s not the case. The Last Stand 1 set the precedent by having players survive 20 nights shooting off zombies that rush your half-built fort, and by day searching for survivors, guns, or repairing the fort for the next night. The Last Stand 2 takes it up a notch by giving the player 40 nights to travel from their starting town to Union City, which is the last safe place left. The player can choose different routes to get to Union City, giving the game replay value. I’ve played through the game 3 times now and never taken the same path, and I’ve always had a different selection of weaponry. TLS2 also cranks it up a notch during the night battles by letting players place bear traps and explosives around the perimeter. For those of you that think that TLS2 is just too difficult, though, let me recommend playing TLS2 with cheats.
I would say that The Last Stand 2 is the best flash game I’ve played since Line Rider, which is saying something because I played Line Rider like no other back in its glory days. TLS2 has the perfect blend of shooting, strategy, and blood that makes you want to keep playing it over and over.