Murder Miners
When I first saw this game, I went "is this Portal?" This game looks and feels like that game, except that you don’t have one-sided conversations with murderous yet snarky AI or murderous yet stupid AI.
The world is large and beautiful yet abandoned. You wake up from a deep sleep in the middle of everything, trapped within. Again, there are no murderous AIs giving you questionable advice. No gun to open portals anywhere. Nothing but a good grasp of physics.
I tend to not gravitate toward games with too much realism. Real life is full of realism already: some good, some demoralizing bad. So many like myself turn to gaming to escape reality and find something positive in our day.
But some games bridge that in such a way that you are left having to figure the puzzle out, having to live it out because it is that engrossing. And best yet, it tackles such a topic with tact.
City Tuesday is a sort of part story, part simulation. It has you tasked with trying to find bombs hidden by terrorists through a sprawling city. You are tasked to find these bombs or pandemonium will break out and people will get hurt.
Heard of Minecraft? I’d be very surprised if you haven’t by now. The exceedingly popular sand box game where you can craft to your heart’s content has captivated many a gamer. Realistic renderings of other universes and real life buildings showcase the amount of time and artistic skill a very dedicated Minecraft player can get up to.
This game is simple yet not. Strange yet not. The name made no sense to me like some computer cracking code generated the title and named said file. At first I thought this was simply a 3D version of that Centipede game that came on older PCS with minesweeper. I mean the whole changing things on a screen while avoiding colliding into your body is there.
I enjoy quirky games. I love games that have an engaging plot. I even enjoy the simple mindless fun or other games. But I have a special place for those games that try to give a message, that propose some ideas that can cause one to think long after the game is over. Xenosaga made you think on what constitutes life. Morality, kinship. Metal Gear Solid made you reflect on the truer costs of war. So many games try to put in a message even if that message is troubling or subversive.
I am normally an RPG geek. I tend to like games that aren’t but so liner, yet that give a decent story to mix things up a bit. But I also do like a random puzzle-style game. You know, something to tickle the large slab of meat between my ears. Portal comes to mind. Something fun, smart and with a story that intrigues to boot!
Have you ever worked at a call center? I bet most of you raised your hands. I am sorry. So sorry. As a former call center employee, I can attest to how unsatisfying that line of work is, especially if you do outbound calls. Well, you’d think that one of most frustrating jobs ever would stay that way but an indie developer has made it into a rather true and accurate version of a call center. Reality, watch out, we have simulated jobs now.
It’s been a while since I’ve felt the pull of a dungeon crawler. Usually a hack and slash game gets boring to me, as you can farm areas for experience if it gets too hard and if you die, you’ll respawn with some of your gear a bit farther back. But Diehard Dungeon challenges that.
I loved my TI-83 calculator in high school. It was required for people taking high math classes. It made math easier but hell, no one but the dorkiest of dorks had their calculator for just math. Everyone’s calculator was filled with games. I recall having Drug Wars, Super Mario Bros. and Tetris on mine. But as I finally did enough math courses to never take math again (ugh), I put my calculator away, then gave it away to a family member that needed it. I mean, the things were expensive (and still are)!