Category: Games

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No Man’s Sky Is Finally Done, But Will It Be Fun?

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After years of development the largest game ever made is complete.  The question is will No Man’s Sky be fun?  There has been so much hype surrounding this game that it has been almost inescapable, but all the hype has been pretty much saying it will be good because of how massive it is.  I don’t care about how big it is, I just want a fun space sim to replace Freelancer (I have been waiting a long time).

My fear with this game is that it will be so big that even if I do end up playing on the same server as my friends, will I even ever see them?  The answer seems to be, “Unlikely”.  So we have to hope that flying around and exploring is fun enough without ever talking to or seeing another living soul.  There are rumors that the game’s focus is about finding our way back home to the center of the galaxy, so maybe once you get home the game’s multiplayer opens up because we are all in a much more confined area.  We will see I guess.

Between Elite Dangerous, No Man’s Sky and Star Citizen my hope is that I can stop pining for a game that was and start playing a game that is.  I have been let down in the past with space sims, and it is making me skeptical of all the space sims that are coming out.  That being said, I really want No Man’s Sky to be good, and we only have about thirty more days to find out if it lives up to the hype or not.

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Pneuma: Breath Of Life Is An Enjoyable Stroll

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Thanks to Xbox’s Games with Gold promotion I end up with a lot of games that I never wanted and will probably never play, but every now and then it is fun to start one up and see what it is all about.  That was the case with Pneuma: Breath of Life.  It is a first person puzzle game that all Xbox Live Gold members got for free last November, but I just now decided to give it a try.  It was fine, and it was a relaxing way to spend just under four hours, but not something I would enthusiastically tell people to spend their money on.

Pneuma starts out with you taking control of a being that has just now come in to existence, and since everything seems to react and be focused around him, he decides that he must be a god.  As the puzzles get harder and more devious he starts to question his deity.  I will not spoil his somewhat interesting conclusion.  Though the game seems to think the pay off is more thought provoking than it is.

First person puzzle games are all about two things: good graphics or art, and clever puzzles.  Pneuma does okay on both fronts.  The game’s Greek temple aesthetic works well for a would be deity, but there is nothing groundbreakingly pretty to look at.  As for the puzzles, they start off really easy as you learn the game’s systems, but just when they start to get difficult, the game ends.  I guess there are three hidden puzzles that I didn’t do, so I may go back and give them a shot, but I doubt it.  The game just needed a couple extra chapters to have players truly test their metal.  Puzzle games shouldn’t make players have to go find a challenge.

All in all, I enjoyed my time with Pneuma: Breath of Life, and it gave me 850 Gamer Score for very little effort, but I would have enjoyed it less had I paid money for it.  This game is worth a couple of dollars at most, so if it is on sale for $5 or less and you love puzzle games, I would say it is worth a try.  Though if you really are a puzzle gamer I don’t think Pneuma will present much of a challenge, more of a breezy walk in the park.  Much like walks in the park you shouldn’t have to play a lot for it.

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You Should Be Disappointed With Mighty No. 9; You Shouldn’t Be A Jerk About it.

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The Kickstarter funded Mighty No. 9 developed by Keiji Inafune launched this week, and the reviews have been less than kind.  Last I checked the game was sitting at 58% on Metacritic.  The people that teamed up to give more than $4 Million have been raging about it all over the internet saying things like, “He took our money and ran!”, or “People have created better games with a lot less money!”, but neither of the those statements are fair.

It is true that other games made with less money have been better, I could list several, but those teams were small being made up of one or two dedicated people, not full dev teams.  Large development teams like Inafune’s Comcept cost a lot of money, so if things go sideways they burn through money fast, and it seems clear from Inafune’s interviews that is what happened with Mighty No. 9.  Not many developers would ever utter the words, “It is better than nothing.”, if things went well.  Things went bad and Comcept pushed through and published a game for their backers.  Was it the game they wanted? No, but it was indeed better than nothing.  Which is more than a lot of failed projects produce.  Nothing.  Leaving backers empty handed.

I am not saying people should be happy with Might No. 9.  It is clearly not a great game, but they shouldn’t be so mad at Keiji Inafune and the rest of Comcept either.  They tried their best and failed.  A lot of good dev teams have created bad games, and I think that is the case here.  What people should be taking from all of this is to remember that backing any creative endeavor on Kickstarter can go sideways, even ones with a lot of talent and knowhow.  Which is why you should always spend your money and back projects wisely with the understanding you may end up with nothing, or something that is better than nothing.

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Adam Shows What Unity Can Do!

When people think of the Unity Engine, they usually think of small graphically un-intensive indie games, but Unity is trying to change that perception.  The video above is in-engine and rendered in real time, so no image capturing here.  While it may not quite be feature film grade it is still very impressive for a ‘free’ game engine, and it shows how far gaming software has come.  All I know is that it makes me want to buy a new video card.  Or possibly an Xbox Scorpio.