I dont like visual experience games, if I wanted to watch a story unfold, I watch a movie, if I wanted to make my own choices I'd play a RPG , if I wanted to follow a linear game if play a plat former. Their are very few people who can make a visual experience game and make them well, most notable is telltales, i absolutely love telltales games they are what should held as the pinnacle of how to tell a story in video game format. Awkward Dimensions Redux is not.
I'll start this off with this, I took an art class in high-school, did it for 4 years. I still dont understand artist and how their minds work, and that's okay I dont need to under stand everything in the world and I've come to terms with that, but when you take your art work and push it into video games and try to hard to make it more art than a game.. that's where i have a problem.
The games free I get that it probably isn't the best as its a second game the dev has published, but its okay for it to be bad its the second game they have published not everything is a 10/10 when it starts, but this isnt even a 5/10 hell i wouldn't even give this a 3/10.
WARNING SPOILERS.
So the game is about a guys dreams, cool concept I liked it that's why I got a copy of the game and for the first 6-7 levels its a really cool game where you go through and play through some cool dreams, and it does have some pretty cool mechanics to it, one level you are in an art museum and you must look through a painting to see whats really there. that's something I like.
What I dont like is when the artist in this case tries so hard to make it into an art piece with a meaning and subject to it that during my play-through, which can be found here ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3UoE93-fmU) I actually got genuinely angry at the game and had to skip a couple of levels because I couldn't deal with the devs self pity wow is fucking me bull shit that took up an entire level that I couldn't even finish,all I have to say is that thank the lord there is a skip button.
My other major complaint about the game is the lack of direction. I'm all for not spoon feeding the player to the goals, but when a level has no end and no indication of if your doing the right thing or not and than randomly will end without telling you what you did to make it end? come on now...
Now an argument to this is " but its art and you're meant to intemperate it how ever you want " you want to know what i got from the game? what i got from it was this.
It started off great the concept was cool, the art style was nice and the game played good, easy to follow controls all that jazz, but when I got to the level about 3/4 of the way through when I'm in the middle of a clearing in the woods in the dark in a semi demolished factory and all I have as things to do are;
A) pick a shoe up and look at it
B)throw it around
C)look at a mill of some sort and only look at it or
D) listen to the dev go on and on about how crappy their life is and how no one liked his first game and how he doesn't think he is going anywhere in his life forgive me if I call you out on your bullshit, during the level the he goes on to talk about how he has no choice in what makes him happy or not and if you watch my video you can see my answer to what he says.
Self-help is fine I get that some people are a bit touch and go in life and need a pick me up sometimes, but the self pity" wow is me my life is so bad nothing makes me happy" " no one liked my last game even though I thought it was good" that doesn't fly with me if something isn't making you happy or you cant bare to keep doing it, nothing is stoping you from leaving it or doing something else that does make you happy.
This isn't the normal type of post we wanted to put up here, we like to stick to cool games and fun things like interviews, cool gaming news and other things we find cool, but I had to write this to let people know just how bad I thought it was, as I said I genuinely got angry at a video game, not the sort of anger like when you die on a last life kind of angry, but the kind of angry you get if someone were to say, kick your dog on the street and i dont want anyone else to have to feel the sort of anger I felt if they dont have to and if only one person who was looking at it and wanted to know if the should download it or not ( it is free after all and a good way to kill an hour or so of your life if you skip the bull shit) then they can check here ,see that it has some of this crap in it and not waste their time.
Lucas Cause
www.twitter.com/thelarrylazz
www.youtube.com/larryplaysgames
contact info:
Email us here at---spotlightgamesreview@gmail.com
follow us on twitter at www.twitter.com/Spotlight_gr
check out our youtube channel over at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7RoOKJBv1BU3yRQFV20ejw
^^^ we cant get a custom url just yet but we are working on it
Showing posts with label lets play. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lets play. Show all posts
Saturday, 29 October 2016
Monday, 24 October 2016
Dev interviews--- Garrett Swindell: Computer Repair Simulator
Remember that spotlight we did a little while ago about the computer repair simulator? of course you do but if you dont a link can be found here http://tinyurl.com/hxwqfp8
well we were lucky enough to snatch away Garrett from the busy life of deving and get a quick interview with him and I'am going to publish it below, this is one of the things we here at SGR like the most about what we do, getting to know the people behind the games we enjoy, its all well and good knowing " oh this group made the game" but when you actually get a chance to talk to the people you find out things about them that shows where they got their inspiration from and you can really tell if they are passionate about the game they have made, or if they are just pushing out game after game to keep the lights on.
Lucas-"So Garrett, the game is great but we all want to know.. how long have you been working on it."
Garrett-"I started working on the game in late November 2015, implementing the base code."
Lucas-"interesting concept for a game, computer repair, mind letting everyone know when and how you can up with something so out there?"
Garrett-"I work in the IT field and I am a geek at heart. I have been programming for a very long time (since I was 13, now 31), and for some strange reason I was looking for a game like this that had the detail and reality...but could not find one. That was the same night I began drawing up concept art in my cold lonely basement. Several days later I invited two of my friends over (Monty Wilsher and Andrew MacArthur) to help me put ideas around the game play. From then, the project sat idle for a while, and was picked back up in November of 2015."
Lucas-"you mentions you had a couple of friends help you at the start, do you have a team you work with these days or is it a solo operation."
Garrett-"I started alone to get the concept going, and once the concept was proven, I picked a few other team members up to help accelerate the progress.Here is the current team:
Garrett - programming, modeling, basic graphics, web, server, music
Euthumis Kechagioglou - website manager, marketing, press, ideas (he is also getting into programming)
Brooke Swindell - graphics / fonts
Andrew MacArthur - sound FX"
Lucas-" awesome awesome, enough about business things, lets learn a bit about you, why , why did you get into game deving?"
Garrett-"Since I was a young kid that played his first Atari game, I knew I wanted to ultimately launch a video game one day. I remember playing Joust like it was yesterday."
Lucas-"i have to admit the Atari was a bit before my time but i can understand the passion it gives,you mentioned always wanting to publish a game one day, how long have you been working towards that dream?"
Garrett-"My passion is making video games, but I have always tinkered. I started modeling and coding at the age of 13, my first game being a simple text game built in Q-Basic on a Windows 3.1 computer. Second game was a checker game also in Q-Basic on Windows 3.1. In between I tinkered with many different software licenses including that of 3D Game Studio, Torque, Realm Crafter, Java 3D, and a few others I could afford, but settled on 3D Game Studio. We are now at 31 years old so I have been developing games for 18 years."
Lucas-" wow you have been deving almost as long as I've been alive that's pretty damn cool i have to say, i just want to say thank you for agreeing to this inter view anything else you'd like to say before we part ways?"
Garrett-"The Alpha Concept launch was very successful, the month isn't even over and we now have over 10,000 downloads of the game (good thing we updated our web server haha) and a lot of great feedback...I did not expect this to take off like it did, as I tell my family and friends, "I have created a monster". I want to personally thank everyone who helped prove this concept, this project shall move into the next phase which is "commercializing" it so that the code is solid and the game is actually playable with a story. The other item at hand is working with hardware / software manufacturers to use their branding and technology which has been pretty successful so far. This week alone we have had 2 publishing requests which is very positive. I am excited to see where the future goes with this software technology."
and there you have it, as you can see Garrett does truly have a passion for what hes doing hes been ding it for close to 20 years now, if there's a dev out there that you want us to interview be sure to send us an email or hit us up on twitter and we will do our best to get in contact with them, as always links will be down below to our email, twitter and our you tube channel be sure to follow us for more cool things related to the world of indie gaming.
---Lucas Cause
Spotlight game Review
https://twitter.com/TheLarryLazz
https://youtube.com/larryplaysgames
Contact Info:
Email us here at---spotlightgamesreview@gmail.com
follow us on twitter at www.twitter.com/Spotlight_gr
check out our youtube channel over at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7RoOKJBv1BU3yRQFV20ejw
^^^ we cant get a custom url just yet but we are working on it
well we were lucky enough to snatch away Garrett from the busy life of deving and get a quick interview with him and I'am going to publish it below, this is one of the things we here at SGR like the most about what we do, getting to know the people behind the games we enjoy, its all well and good knowing " oh this group made the game" but when you actually get a chance to talk to the people you find out things about them that shows where they got their inspiration from and you can really tell if they are passionate about the game they have made, or if they are just pushing out game after game to keep the lights on.
Lucas-"So Garrett, the game is great but we all want to know.. how long have you been working on it."
Garrett-"I started working on the game in late November 2015, implementing the base code."
Lucas-"interesting concept for a game, computer repair, mind letting everyone know when and how you can up with something so out there?"
Garrett-"I work in the IT field and I am a geek at heart. I have been programming for a very long time (since I was 13, now 31), and for some strange reason I was looking for a game like this that had the detail and reality...but could not find one. That was the same night I began drawing up concept art in my cold lonely basement. Several days later I invited two of my friends over (Monty Wilsher and Andrew MacArthur) to help me put ideas around the game play. From then, the project sat idle for a while, and was picked back up in November of 2015."
Lucas-"you mentions you had a couple of friends help you at the start, do you have a team you work with these days or is it a solo operation."
Garrett-"I started alone to get the concept going, and once the concept was proven, I picked a few other team members up to help accelerate the progress.Here is the current team:
Garrett - programming, modeling, basic graphics, web, server, music
Euthumis Kechagioglou - website manager, marketing, press, ideas (he is also getting into programming)
Brooke Swindell - graphics / fonts
Andrew MacArthur - sound FX"
Lucas-" awesome awesome, enough about business things, lets learn a bit about you, why , why did you get into game deving?"
Garrett-"Since I was a young kid that played his first Atari game, I knew I wanted to ultimately launch a video game one day. I remember playing Joust like it was yesterday."
Lucas-"i have to admit the Atari was a bit before my time but i can understand the passion it gives,you mentioned always wanting to publish a game one day, how long have you been working towards that dream?"
Garrett-"My passion is making video games, but I have always tinkered. I started modeling and coding at the age of 13, my first game being a simple text game built in Q-Basic on a Windows 3.1 computer. Second game was a checker game also in Q-Basic on Windows 3.1. In between I tinkered with many different software licenses including that of 3D Game Studio, Torque, Realm Crafter, Java 3D, and a few others I could afford, but settled on 3D Game Studio. We are now at 31 years old so I have been developing games for 18 years."
Lucas-" wow you have been deving almost as long as I've been alive that's pretty damn cool i have to say, i just want to say thank you for agreeing to this inter view anything else you'd like to say before we part ways?"
Garrett-"The Alpha Concept launch was very successful, the month isn't even over and we now have over 10,000 downloads of the game (good thing we updated our web server haha) and a lot of great feedback...I did not expect this to take off like it did, as I tell my family and friends, "I have created a monster". I want to personally thank everyone who helped prove this concept, this project shall move into the next phase which is "commercializing" it so that the code is solid and the game is actually playable with a story. The other item at hand is working with hardware / software manufacturers to use their branding and technology which has been pretty successful so far. This week alone we have had 2 publishing requests which is very positive. I am excited to see where the future goes with this software technology."
and there you have it, as you can see Garrett does truly have a passion for what hes doing hes been ding it for close to 20 years now, if there's a dev out there that you want us to interview be sure to send us an email or hit us up on twitter and we will do our best to get in contact with them, as always links will be down below to our email, twitter and our you tube channel be sure to follow us for more cool things related to the world of indie gaming.
---Lucas Cause
Spotlight game Review
https://twitter.com/TheLarryLazz
https://youtube.com/larryplaysgames
Contact Info:
Email us here at---spotlightgamesreview@gmail.com
follow us on twitter at www.twitter.com/Spotlight_gr
check out our youtube channel over at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7RoOKJBv1BU3yRQFV20ejw
^^^ we cant get a custom url just yet but we are working on it
Skybreak the No Man's Sky that isnt shit?
Sky break is one of those games that come along once every blue moon, they are really well put together, they look outstanding and they dont break the bank. it one of the games that im kicking my self for not knowing about earlier in its development because i would have loved to support these guys in anyway i could to get this out sooner.
the game is made by FarSky Interactive the same people who brought you far sky a couple of years ago back in 2014 and it shows they haven't just been sitting on their thumbs the whole time they have been hard at work.
So picture this, the earth is dying, a new virus has emerged and has started wiping out the human population , what does our world government do? why they send people into space to research and find a cure of course, but wait... somethings gone wrong your ship has crashed and you have been flung from the debris, you awake with a crushed ship and no clue where you are, you must battle the elements and the "Wild Life", now i use quotation marks because the wild life are robots.. or mechs i should say, picture wolves but robot wolves really angry robot wolves.
the guys over at farSky Interactive really do know how to do survival games and after the recent outrage from the community over the whole No Man's Sky ordeal its amazing to see devs not shying away from exploration space type games, its a bit of a leap to compare the two but i do feel they share a similar approach in the type of game they are going for
Gameplay
controls are simple and intuitive, WASD to move,space to jump,mouse to aim and shift to run/sprint.you have an endurance bar that limits how long you can run for, this is also uses a 1/4 at a time by jumping, you have an inventory that stores your items and an ammo pouch type bag that holds you ammo, kind of self explanatory i know but it also hold your hacking tool, i like to think of it as a hacking taser as it shoots out like a taser would on to the mechs in the world, speaking of mech, ever wanted a pet robot that is also a bad-ass killing machine? yeah you do who doesn't want a bad-ass killing robot? well sky-break has them, this is the main function on the hacking tool, to hack into the robot after yo beat them in battle and they begin to listing to you, the do things such as follow you, and attack enemies to help you, they can be upgraded from the sky ship with fragments you collect form beating other mobs, the same goes with your self you can upgrade your Armour your blaster, your endurance just like any other sort of rpg type game. 8/10 its a very well done approach to a very saturated market but they managed to break through and make something great here.
Visuals
Outstanding, simply amazing, beautiful. For a game made in the unity engine, an engine that alot of indie devs have used and not been able to pull much off with, FarSky have done wonders, it is hands down one of if not the prettiest games i have played in 2016, and the optimization holly balls, i was able to run this game on a 6 year old gpu in full HD on high with 60+ fps, which is the bare minimum these days for a quality experience, 9/10 just because of the fact nothing can be a perfect 10 as there is always something wrong.. i just cant find it yet.
Fun
Again farsky are hitting all the right boxes, at the time of me writing this I'am only 3 hours into the game,( I've died a fair few times and had to repeat alot of stuff) and I'am loving it, i dont see myself putting it down until its finished which is something i dont do often, normally with games like this ill play it for 6-7 hours and get bored but this games has the potential to hook you and be a classic, i can see it being something people will speed run, i can see it being something you will come back to in 5-10 years when you are looking for that rush of excitement of a nostalgic game 8/10 in the fun department.
25/30 or an 83% in our scoring its the highest i think i have ever scored a game and that's just because its the best game i have played in a long time, it has me wanting to play more, to explore more, to go and find this dam cure for the virus and save the world and i love that about it, its making games fun again,something people seem to miss when they make good games, the focus to much on the micro transaction instead of just making a good game as always links down below to where you can find the game and the devs web page, I've also linked to my own personal channel where i have started a play through of the game if you guys would like to follow me on my journey through the world that is SkyBreak.
Lucas Cause
sky break
http://www.farskyinteractive.com/skybreak/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/405370/
Personal Channel with play through https://www.youtube.com/larryplaysgames
Video playthrough can be found here https://youtu.be/RtBXijSJMY4
Email us here at---spotlightgamesreview@gmail.com
follow us on twitter at www.twitter.com/Spotlight_gr
check out our youtube channel over at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7RoOKJBv1BU3yRQFV20ejw
^^^ we cant get a custom url just yet but we are working on it
the game is made by FarSky Interactive the same people who brought you far sky a couple of years ago back in 2014 and it shows they haven't just been sitting on their thumbs the whole time they have been hard at work.
So picture this, the earth is dying, a new virus has emerged and has started wiping out the human population , what does our world government do? why they send people into space to research and find a cure of course, but wait... somethings gone wrong your ship has crashed and you have been flung from the debris, you awake with a crushed ship and no clue where you are, you must battle the elements and the "Wild Life", now i use quotation marks because the wild life are robots.. or mechs i should say, picture wolves but robot wolves really angry robot wolves.
the guys over at farSky Interactive really do know how to do survival games and after the recent outrage from the community over the whole No Man's Sky ordeal its amazing to see devs not shying away from exploration space type games, its a bit of a leap to compare the two but i do feel they share a similar approach in the type of game they are going for
Gameplay
controls are simple and intuitive, WASD to move,space to jump,mouse to aim and shift to run/sprint.you have an endurance bar that limits how long you can run for, this is also uses a 1/4 at a time by jumping, you have an inventory that stores your items and an ammo pouch type bag that holds you ammo, kind of self explanatory i know but it also hold your hacking tool, i like to think of it as a hacking taser as it shoots out like a taser would on to the mechs in the world, speaking of mech, ever wanted a pet robot that is also a bad-ass killing machine? yeah you do who doesn't want a bad-ass killing robot? well sky-break has them, this is the main function on the hacking tool, to hack into the robot after yo beat them in battle and they begin to listing to you, the do things such as follow you, and attack enemies to help you, they can be upgraded from the sky ship with fragments you collect form beating other mobs, the same goes with your self you can upgrade your Armour your blaster, your endurance just like any other sort of rpg type game. 8/10 its a very well done approach to a very saturated market but they managed to break through and make something great here.
Visuals
Outstanding, simply amazing, beautiful. For a game made in the unity engine, an engine that alot of indie devs have used and not been able to pull much off with, FarSky have done wonders, it is hands down one of if not the prettiest games i have played in 2016, and the optimization holly balls, i was able to run this game on a 6 year old gpu in full HD on high with 60+ fps, which is the bare minimum these days for a quality experience, 9/10 just because of the fact nothing can be a perfect 10 as there is always something wrong.. i just cant find it yet.
Fun
Again farsky are hitting all the right boxes, at the time of me writing this I'am only 3 hours into the game,( I've died a fair few times and had to repeat alot of stuff) and I'am loving it, i dont see myself putting it down until its finished which is something i dont do often, normally with games like this ill play it for 6-7 hours and get bored but this games has the potential to hook you and be a classic, i can see it being something people will speed run, i can see it being something you will come back to in 5-10 years when you are looking for that rush of excitement of a nostalgic game 8/10 in the fun department.
25/30 or an 83% in our scoring its the highest i think i have ever scored a game and that's just because its the best game i have played in a long time, it has me wanting to play more, to explore more, to go and find this dam cure for the virus and save the world and i love that about it, its making games fun again,something people seem to miss when they make good games, the focus to much on the micro transaction instead of just making a good game as always links down below to where you can find the game and the devs web page, I've also linked to my own personal channel where i have started a play through of the game if you guys would like to follow me on my journey through the world that is SkyBreak.
Lucas Cause
sky break
http://www.farskyinteractive.com/skybreak/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/405370/
Video playthrough can be found here https://youtu.be/RtBXijSJMY4
Email us here at---spotlightgamesreview@gmail.com
follow us on twitter at www.twitter.com/Spotlight_gr
check out our youtube channel over at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7RoOKJBv1BU3yRQFV20ejw
^^^ we cant get a custom url just yet but we are working on it
Friday, 21 October 2016
Orwell Being the Big Brother you wish you could
Privacy and safety... two sides of an extremely sharp sword, the idea of the government always watching and keeping an eye on you is a scary thought, I dont need the head of the country knowing if i scrunch or fold, but at the same time, If something were to happen to me, Id want the full extend of the law brought down apon the people in question, But that cant happen if there isn't enough evidence.
Which is where the idea of this game comes in.. you play as a new member of an information gathering group called Orwell, think Oracle from the Batman Comic books, the all seeing eye of Gotham, except instead of Gotham, its the nation. You take the part of a new recruit to this organisation on his first day and are given a "training "case as they call it.
You are tasked with digging into the life of Cassandra Watergate, a suspect in a crime, you start of as if you were any other detective, knowing nothing more then whats in the police report, this is where the game takes the turn into something i think is pure genius, they manage to mix puzzle and story telling together in a way that no one out side of tell tales has been able to do in a long time, games today spoon feed to much , and this game does as well to a certain degree.
But no where near as much as other story driven games that walk you right into the path of the next puzzle answer. Instead you have to use your own logic and understanding to figure out where the pieces fit in relation to each other, now this being only episode 1 with 4 more to come over the next coming weeks you are only given the opportunity to explore Cassandra's life and back story, despite being given information on other characters and their relationships with Cassandra.
The way you gather the information to Cassandras backstory and find out about her relationships with these other people is by digging through new paper articles , Web sites ,Blog posts, Social media accounts to find any mention of her that you can, from there you can take that information, lets say a social media handle, and look for that online and from there you might get a link to a blog post she made about someone, you are now given a blank profile on that person, and you must build the back grounds for these people to help prove weather Cassandra is guilty or innocent of the crime in question.
So remember when i said this game doesn't spoon feed you as much as other games do? the extent isn't as bad, they do spoon feed you in the sense that you cant put the wrong info about say cassandra, under the profile of her mother, that being said if you have 2 bits of conflicting evidence you do only get to decide on one piece ,and this can either save cassandra from jail or send her away for a nice sleep in a cold cell.
GamePlay
Its a point and click puzzle game, there is no getting around that so if you were hoping for am open world first person detective game, might want to look else were,(if you find one id really like to play that so let us know) what it does offer is a sense of exploration, you may not see it as that but its what it is, you are sifting through piles and piles of useless information in hopes to find that one link to a webpage, or that one text where they incriminate themselves, now most of the game is payed out through the " Reader" tab, think of this like your go to bag of tricks, it has all the links to everything you have uncovered about every one, from the news headlines, to the personal portfolio of cassandra,
You are also given a tab called " listener" which is what it basically Orwell doing some magic tomfoolery and tapping the phones and social media accounts of the person they are investigating, giving you full access to spy in on their private conversations they are having with people, there is another labeled " insider" but as this is the first episode this is still locked, i speculate that the insider may be a way to tap into the suspects computer in latter episodes but this is just theory at this point so dont take it as fact.
So along your travels you will uncover more and more info to put together the suspects life, back story, personality and other personal facts to develop a profile on said suspect.My first run through took about 45 minutes to an hour to complete most of which being the tutorial and walking you through how the game works, which is good, a game that explains how to play it is amazing, unfortunately
The music behind the game-play fits the tone the devs were going for perfectly, the slow intense resonance off the bass combined with the energetic liveliness of the mids melds together to really set the tone for a serious story.
through my play through i found no bugs, no glitches nothing, it was polished and a great example of what a game studio can do if they want to put out a good game my score for game-play is n 8/10
Visuals
The UI is outstanding, its the right amount of cluttered and organised to fully immerse you in the the idea of being swamped with information, it really made me feel as if i had piles of papers stacked around me , not knowing where to look for the next clue, That being said the colour scheme didn't quite match for me, its not that it didn't look good, i personally dont think the only blue tones they chose worked with for 90% of the background was a good choice, they proved they know how to do colour with the rest of thee game be it the web pages or the character profile shots, if they had of gorn with something in more of a deeper shade it could have worked well but with just the dull lifeless pale blues they weren't winning me over with visuals sadly, which hurt because they did such a good job everywhere else , 5/10
Fun
Now im the sort of guy who loves digging into things, always have, i like to understand why people do what they do, why things work like they do, and knowing what people are doing gives me a sense of reassurance that nothing will surprise me, so when i got to dig through page after page looking into Cassandras life and figuring out what made her tick and why she is the person she is... oh boy did i get excited, its the most fun playing a detective puzzle game i have had since playing L.A Noir years ago , which to this day i hold as the greatest puzzle game i have ever played, so it should be a surprise when i give Orwell a 7/10
Basic napkin math will tell you that's a 66.6% repeater of a score, which looks pretty low but dont let that fool you, the game lost a lot of score in the visual department, but if you can look past the dull lifeless colour of the back ground long enough to get engulfed into the world that is Orwell i dont think that will matter to you which is why i strongly recommend that you head over to either their
website http://orwellgame.com/
their indiedb page http://www.indiedb.com/games/orwell
or even the steam store http://store.steampowered.com/app/491950/
to go and get your copy of Orwell right now i know ill be on the edge of my seat for a week waiting for part 2 to come out
------Lucas Cause
Follow the writer on their social media below
https://twitter.com/TheLarryLazz
https://youtube.com/LarryPlaysGames
contact info:
Email us here at---spotlightgamesreview@gmail.com
follow us on twitter at www.twitter.com/Spotlight_gr
check out our youtube channel over at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7RoOKJBv1BU3yRQFV20ejw
^^^ we cant get a custom url just yet but we are working on it
Tuesday, 18 October 2016
Computer Repair Simulator Spotlight
How many times have you had a computer issue? how many of those times did you wish you knew what things were so you could go in and know exactly what the problem is? and how often have you opened up your pc and gone " shit.. there's so much going on where do i start"
if you were anything like me for a very long time then you probably tick all those boxes, but what if i told you, there's a way you can mess around with a computer with no worries of breaking something, no issues if you forget the thermal paste, no issue if you don't ground your self... and it could be used to teach kids basics without spending $1000s on old hardware?
Computer Repair Simulator does just that, the aim of the "game" ( if you can even call it that id call it a teachers aid and sell it to the school boards wink wink) is to bring computer repair to schools and business around. The goal is to use this "game" to train people and help them to understand what does on inside a computer, at least that's how i see it.
some back ground on the devs themselves, the team is composed of 3 people,a lead programmer-Garrett Swindell,a marketing and web developer Euthimis Kexagioglou and their graphics artist Brook Swindell, all with full time jobs or still at school them self's.
the project its self is not funded in any way and is instead backed by the creators themselves with both software and money they have put into the project.that said they are looking into other funding methods to help speed along the processes to avoid delays where they can.
so far the "game"(really need a new name for it as its not a game )has been in development for around 9 months, that may not sound like a lot of time but when factoring in the fact they all have full time responsibilities and only being able to work on it in spare time leads to slower development, not much they can do really.
CRS can be picked up on their website in the alpha stage here------http://s627866874.onlinehome.us/alpha-game-downloads
now on to actual "game-play" the game plays as a person who works out of their shed repairing computers for anyone who calls, this can be anything from replacing a ram stick to adding a new agp (accelerated graphics port) all the way down to removing the solder from the underside of the connections.
it used basic wasd keys to move around the table you work from with the mouse wheel being used to scroll in and out, one thing id like to note is that you can not invert the mouse wheel scroll which may be a small issue for people who play with inverted controls.
Lets gt into how a " round" plays out shall we? picture this...
GamePlay
your standing in your shed on a sunny afternoon , your phone rings.. " hello there seems to be something wrong with my computer it {xyz} can i bring it around?"
you are then given the pc to work on, you must first check the work order to find out what the problem is, from there if you dont know what part is what, they offer an inspect tool to will flash they broken parts in red to indicate what parts need to be replaced, after you have identified which parts are broken you get on to the "fun" part,
you must individually remove each part one by one until the broken part can be taken out, so for example, if the cpu is dead, you must first take the screws from the side panel off, then the panel its self, then the 24pin power plug. then the cpu fan plug, then the fan clips, the fan... all the way down until the last drop of solder is removed and the cpu can be removed.
now that you have the broken part taken off you go into your inventory and find the broken part along with anything else you have taken off, you have either the option to sell the broken part, or you can repair the broken part, from what i can tell in the future you will have the option to buy new parts or just repair them based on how badly it is broken but at this stage all you can do is repair the part.
Great parts fixed,now you get to re assemble the pc, this is where the game takes its turn from game into teacher aid like i mentioned before, this is the part where you get to teach people how a pc goes together, no admittedly you cant show the force needed to tighten a screw, or feel the force needed to latch a cpu( if you haven't done it before its a little scary using that much force on something so expensive)
now what happens if you forget something? well nothing.. the game wont let you finish the job until everything is done, at the end of this i will have a link to a video of some game-play with some of my experiences.
for how well the game plays, with the small bugs i found with the wasd keys not working, easily fixed by just clicking the mouse its a solid 7/10 you cant say this game doesn't work because it does the game-play is solid and it just ..works
Visuals
the game looks.. as you would expect, its clear that its just one person working on it, but thats fine, you dont need bright flashy lights and over the top colours on a simulation game, especially if you are trying to show pc parts, a ram stick should look like a ram stick, a cpu fan should look like a cpu fan and so on and so on, i do like the fact that if you open the shed door you can see a lake and a couple tree, but i feel they could have done a bit more with the inside work shop space, all you have is a relatively empty peg board aside from a couple screw drivers, a desk lamp a blue anti static mat and a couple cupboards behind you, i couple posters or even a car model in the the back ground could have further improved the atmosphere, im giving the visual aspect of the game a 6/10 just because i dont get the impression of being a guy in a shed fixing pc like they are going for.
Fun
This is a hard one to give a final score on... because its all subjective at the end of the day, but to me , the person who picked the game up because of it looked interesting not knowing what to expect when i hit the download button.. i had fun, its exactly what the game implies, its a simulation game based around fixing computers, now that might not be fun for everyone,and thats fine you have to remember this isnt the sort of thing they are trying to sell to the masses, this is a very perticular type of product that i feel is perfect for who they are aiming it towards so im giving it a 6/10
Finale thoughts on Computer Repair Simulator, for what it is, and the amount of time they ave spent on it its good. its no AAA title but they arent trying to be , the aim here isnt to take over the sim world and have everyone rushing out the door to replace that broken cmos battery on the clients pc, i keep bringing this point up but its a teaching aid, polish it up maybe add a bit more personality to it in way of design ie that car model i said or a poster, and take it to the board of studies in your area with the amount of time we spend on computers these days and how young kids are being taught how to use them this would be a perfect demonstration tool for a teacher to show off
Remember to check out the games website http://s627866874.onlinehome.us/
and while your at it give us a follow on twitter over at https://twitter.com/Spotlight_gr
anyone that wishes to get in contact with us our email is spotlightgamesreview@gmail.com
check out our youtube channel over at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7RoOKJBv1BU3yRQFV20ejw
^^^ we cant get a custom url just yet but we are working on it
link to game play of the game https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vglScmZ-Q58
if you were anything like me for a very long time then you probably tick all those boxes, but what if i told you, there's a way you can mess around with a computer with no worries of breaking something, no issues if you forget the thermal paste, no issue if you don't ground your self... and it could be used to teach kids basics without spending $1000s on old hardware?
Computer Repair Simulator does just that, the aim of the "game" ( if you can even call it that id call it a teachers aid and sell it to the school boards wink wink) is to bring computer repair to schools and business around. The goal is to use this "game" to train people and help them to understand what does on inside a computer, at least that's how i see it.
some back ground on the devs themselves, the team is composed of 3 people,a lead programmer-Garrett Swindell,a marketing and web developer Euthimis Kexagioglou and their graphics artist Brook Swindell, all with full time jobs or still at school them self's.
the project its self is not funded in any way and is instead backed by the creators themselves with both software and money they have put into the project.that said they are looking into other funding methods to help speed along the processes to avoid delays where they can.
so far the "game"(really need a new name for it as its not a game )has been in development for around 9 months, that may not sound like a lot of time but when factoring in the fact they all have full time responsibilities and only being able to work on it in spare time leads to slower development, not much they can do really.
CRS can be picked up on their website in the alpha stage here------http://s627866874.onlinehome.us/alpha-game-downloads
now on to actual "game-play" the game plays as a person who works out of their shed repairing computers for anyone who calls, this can be anything from replacing a ram stick to adding a new agp (accelerated graphics port) all the way down to removing the solder from the underside of the connections.
it used basic wasd keys to move around the table you work from with the mouse wheel being used to scroll in and out, one thing id like to note is that you can not invert the mouse wheel scroll which may be a small issue for people who play with inverted controls.
Lets gt into how a " round" plays out shall we? picture this...
GamePlay
your standing in your shed on a sunny afternoon , your phone rings.. " hello there seems to be something wrong with my computer it {xyz} can i bring it around?"
you are then given the pc to work on, you must first check the work order to find out what the problem is, from there if you dont know what part is what, they offer an inspect tool to will flash they broken parts in red to indicate what parts need to be replaced, after you have identified which parts are broken you get on to the "fun" part,
you must individually remove each part one by one until the broken part can be taken out, so for example, if the cpu is dead, you must first take the screws from the side panel off, then the panel its self, then the 24pin power plug. then the cpu fan plug, then the fan clips, the fan... all the way down until the last drop of solder is removed and the cpu can be removed.
now that you have the broken part taken off you go into your inventory and find the broken part along with anything else you have taken off, you have either the option to sell the broken part, or you can repair the broken part, from what i can tell in the future you will have the option to buy new parts or just repair them based on how badly it is broken but at this stage all you can do is repair the part.
Great parts fixed,now you get to re assemble the pc, this is where the game takes its turn from game into teacher aid like i mentioned before, this is the part where you get to teach people how a pc goes together, no admittedly you cant show the force needed to tighten a screw, or feel the force needed to latch a cpu( if you haven't done it before its a little scary using that much force on something so expensive)
now what happens if you forget something? well nothing.. the game wont let you finish the job until everything is done, at the end of this i will have a link to a video of some game-play with some of my experiences.
for how well the game plays, with the small bugs i found with the wasd keys not working, easily fixed by just clicking the mouse its a solid 7/10 you cant say this game doesn't work because it does the game-play is solid and it just ..works
Visuals
the game looks.. as you would expect, its clear that its just one person working on it, but thats fine, you dont need bright flashy lights and over the top colours on a simulation game, especially if you are trying to show pc parts, a ram stick should look like a ram stick, a cpu fan should look like a cpu fan and so on and so on, i do like the fact that if you open the shed door you can see a lake and a couple tree, but i feel they could have done a bit more with the inside work shop space, all you have is a relatively empty peg board aside from a couple screw drivers, a desk lamp a blue anti static mat and a couple cupboards behind you, i couple posters or even a car model in the the back ground could have further improved the atmosphere, im giving the visual aspect of the game a 6/10 just because i dont get the impression of being a guy in a shed fixing pc like they are going for.
Fun
This is a hard one to give a final score on... because its all subjective at the end of the day, but to me , the person who picked the game up because of it looked interesting not knowing what to expect when i hit the download button.. i had fun, its exactly what the game implies, its a simulation game based around fixing computers, now that might not be fun for everyone,and thats fine you have to remember this isnt the sort of thing they are trying to sell to the masses, this is a very perticular type of product that i feel is perfect for who they are aiming it towards so im giving it a 6/10
Finale thoughts on Computer Repair Simulator, for what it is, and the amount of time they ave spent on it its good. its no AAA title but they arent trying to be , the aim here isnt to take over the sim world and have everyone rushing out the door to replace that broken cmos battery on the clients pc, i keep bringing this point up but its a teaching aid, polish it up maybe add a bit more personality to it in way of design ie that car model i said or a poster, and take it to the board of studies in your area with the amount of time we spend on computers these days and how young kids are being taught how to use them this would be a perfect demonstration tool for a teacher to show off
Remember to check out the games website http://s627866874.onlinehome.us/
and while your at it give us a follow on twitter over at https://twitter.com/Spotlight_gr
anyone that wishes to get in contact with us our email is spotlightgamesreview@gmail.com
check out our youtube channel over at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7RoOKJBv1BU3yRQFV20ejw
^^^ we cant get a custom url just yet but we are working on it
link to game play of the game https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vglScmZ-Q58
Sunday, 16 October 2016
Colour Wheel Game Spotlight
So I recently got in contact with an indie Dev of a mobile game called "colour wheel", Iroiro Games contacted me after Ii reached out for anybody with any sort of playable builds of any sort of games, now normally I don’t play a lot of mobile games, especially ones I’ve never heard of before, but since these guys where nice enough to let me give it ago to do some content on it i thought " why the hell not ?" so that what I did, I downloaded it on my Samsung tab 4 10.1 and started playing it,
Now it’s not anything like a mobile game I have played before, it’s not trying to send you to an end level or anything, but it’s a points based system, think bejewelled meets a painters pallet, the whole idea of the game is to try and match harmonies as the game calls them, there are 6 possible harmonies that can created with several different combinations to make each one, and that points system that I was talking about earlier is based on how many harmonies you can make.
To create the harmonies there are 15 different colours to use , the more larger you make your harmony the more points you will receive, the colours are Red, red-Orange, Orange, Gold, Yellow, Lime, Green, Cerulean, Blue, Teal, Purple, Magenta, Black, White, and Rainbow. The rainbow acts sort of like a wild card, it will mix and match its self to what ever you want it to be.
Now onto actual gameplay, I’ve been playing with this for a couple of days now and while it’s not AAA gaming addictive, its more “ oh I’ve got 15 minutes free lets jump on and try and beat my old score” type of addictive, and I even let my mother have a go of it for a while, she’s a massive bejewelled fan, all the knock off she has all the cookie crunch Facebook games, most of my family play and she’s miles ahead of them, and even she thought it was a cool change to the normal way these type of games work. There are 4 different game modes and each one is slightly different in the way you meet the end goal of a high score.
But I’m not going to spoil what all the modes are, that’s something you guys are going to have to go and check out for your self’s here’s a link to the game on the google play store, its free so go on over and grab it and try it for yourself.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=www.iroiro.games
Being as this is my first sort of review/ spotlight of game that I have done a write up of I don’t really have a reference to compare it to, when I do videos you guys can see it in my face and hear it in my voice if I’m enjoying a game or not, and me just typing how I feel doesn’t really give of a feel to the game, so I guess a rating system should be brought in but seeing as how this isn’t a AAA developer it won’t be like an IGN review where it nit-picks every little detail I’m thinking Game Play, Visuals, and how fun the game is to play that will be our new system for ratings so…
Game Play: being it a time water game and something I can put down( but want to pick up as soon as I can) I’m thinking 7/10
Visuals: the game doesn’t really have many to judge here, but what ones they do have they have done well, The animated sprite on the menu screen the fluid movement between screens id have to say it’s a solid 8/10
Fun: this is the big one, how fun is the game to play, this is what it all comes down to when deciding to install a game, will I enjoy this, and if you’re the type of person who wants to sit down for a good couple hours and smash out a game, then no, this isn’t for you, but if you want something that’s fun to pull out while waiting for a train, at an airport or even while your waiting a couple minutes for your food to cook, then yes this is a great game for you, and with that said it’s a really solid 9/10
Now it’s not anything like a mobile game I have played before, it’s not trying to send you to an end level or anything, but it’s a points based system, think bejewelled meets a painters pallet, the whole idea of the game is to try and match harmonies as the game calls them, there are 6 possible harmonies that can created with several different combinations to make each one, and that points system that I was talking about earlier is based on how many harmonies you can make.
To create the harmonies there are 15 different colours to use , the more larger you make your harmony the more points you will receive, the colours are Red, red-Orange, Orange, Gold, Yellow, Lime, Green, Cerulean, Blue, Teal, Purple, Magenta, Black, White, and Rainbow. The rainbow acts sort of like a wild card, it will mix and match its self to what ever you want it to be.
Now onto actual gameplay, I’ve been playing with this for a couple of days now and while it’s not AAA gaming addictive, its more “ oh I’ve got 15 minutes free lets jump on and try and beat my old score” type of addictive, and I even let my mother have a go of it for a while, she’s a massive bejewelled fan, all the knock off she has all the cookie crunch Facebook games, most of my family play and she’s miles ahead of them, and even she thought it was a cool change to the normal way these type of games work. There are 4 different game modes and each one is slightly different in the way you meet the end goal of a high score.
But I’m not going to spoil what all the modes are, that’s something you guys are going to have to go and check out for your self’s here’s a link to the game on the google play store, its free so go on over and grab it and try it for yourself.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=www.iroiro.games
Being as this is my first sort of review/ spotlight of game that I have done a write up of I don’t really have a reference to compare it to, when I do videos you guys can see it in my face and hear it in my voice if I’m enjoying a game or not, and me just typing how I feel doesn’t really give of a feel to the game, so I guess a rating system should be brought in but seeing as how this isn’t a AAA developer it won’t be like an IGN review where it nit-picks every little detail I’m thinking Game Play, Visuals, and how fun the game is to play that will be our new system for ratings so…
Game Play: being it a time water game and something I can put down( but want to pick up as soon as I can) I’m thinking 7/10
Visuals: the game doesn’t really have many to judge here, but what ones they do have they have done well, The animated sprite on the menu screen the fluid movement between screens id have to say it’s a solid 8/10
Fun: this is the big one, how fun is the game to play, this is what it all comes down to when deciding to install a game, will I enjoy this, and if you’re the type of person who wants to sit down for a good couple hours and smash out a game, then no, this isn’t for you, but if you want something that’s fun to pull out while waiting for a train, at an airport or even while your waiting a couple minutes for your food to cook, then yes this is a great game for you, and with that said it’s a really solid 9/10
So final scores are 24/30 which if you can do math you will know is a pretty decent score it’s an 80% and that’s not exactly bad…
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