Machinarium is independent puzzle / adventure game about a little robot who’s been thrown out to the scrap yard behind the city must return and confront the Black Cap Brotherhood and save his robot-girl friend.
The demo is out and you can get it here. The game comes out sometime this fall.
The official website. Check out the trailer.
The demo is out and you can get it here. The game comes out sometime this fall.
The official website. Check out the trailer.
Number of staff employed: over 4,600
Number of computers to run: 20,000 with 75,000 CPU
Amount of memory storage: 1.3 petabytes (over 1 billion MBs)
Lines of code: 5.5 million
Bugs corrected: 180,000
Art assets: over 1.5 million
NPCs: 40,000
Quests: 7,650
Spells and abilities: 70,000
Wow's astounding numbers
Number of computers to run: 20,000 with 75,000 CPU
Amount of memory storage: 1.3 petabytes (over 1 billion MBs)
Lines of code: 5.5 million
Bugs corrected: 180,000
Art assets: over 1.5 million
NPCs: 40,000
Quests: 7,650
Spells and abilities: 70,000
Wow's astounding numbers
BioWare revealed a new character for Mass Effect 2: Subject Zero.
Subject Zero comes off as unattractive*, lewd, crude, and badass. And female.
As a feminist, I consider this a good thing. One of the biggest complaints I have about women in popular media is that they constantly have to conform to notions of attractiveness and sexiness. Here we have a woman with (almost) bald hair, tattoos (and I don’t mean butterfly in the small of her back or the kanji characters for ‘hope’ wrapped around her ankle), and some nasty scars. Excellent.
Another thing is that popular culture prefers ‘strong’ women who are completely non-threatening to the male audience. Again, Subject Zero does not fall into that trap.
I found her a breath of fresh air. And you know what’s just as good as the BioWare making a female character like this? The response on the BioBoards is very positive. Despite what many marketers believe, the average straight male can handle the horror of not being pandered to.
In other news, I thought Batman: Arkham Asylum wasn't out until the end of the month, but I was wrong. I grabbed it today and have played several hours of it so far. It's great stuff.
*Meaning, she does not fit conventional notions of beauty.
There I was, fooling around in World of Warcraft and decided to make a blood elf mage (?) with penis (??). Madness! But I did so and fooled around with him; I enjoyed the goofy ‘kill them before they even touch you’ combat and being able to make my food and water so I could spam spells without worry.
I decided to take a screen shot of my bizarrely masculine self when I realized something was missing.
“My dude has no dude bits!” I said to myself. This is something I’d never noticed before as I’d never played with a masculine avatar. It was a bit shadowy in the inn, so I went outside where it’s a bit lighter to verify, and it turned out I was right: Ken doll smooth. No wonder elves breed like pandas!
I decided to look at the other races, and it was true across the board.
As a comic book reader, I’m familiar with the habit of making female lumps prominent and male lumps non-existent. The idea is, I think, though Superman can fly and toss cars around, if he’s packing more kryptonite than they are, young, male readers might get an inferiority complex. Or something. Several comic fans actually complained about Alex Ross’ depiction of Citizen Steel , calling it ‘creepy’ and complaining about the ‘over-sexualization’ of the character. That’s an issue for someone else to blog about. My question is why this would spill over into video games, specifically RPGs where your avatar is ‘you.’
I’m only a lesbian, but I was rather disappointed to find my guy avatar had effectively been neutered. I mean, if I’m going to play a man in World of Warcraft, I want hulking muscles; cool, shiny armor (with spikes!); a weapon as long as my body (with flames!), and a dick could double as a baseball bat when hard.
I understand that they can’t give me the last one, but would at least a slight bulge hurt anyone?
With this in mind, I decided to go on my own epic quest for a package. First I opened up Morrowind, created a male dunmer, after the intro I stripped naked and – whoa! It’s the full monety. I’d forgotten I had loaded the ‘Better Bodies’ mod along with improved textures. After removing it, I loaded the game, and my dark elf still had a bulge in his underwear. Oh, and a woman walked by me and insulted me. Good work Bethesda!
Thief: Deadly Shadows: This was a hard one (little penis humor there) as Garret constantly crouches; even while standing pressed against the wall, his knees are slightly bent. I spent a little time fiddling with the camera but saw no sign of a bulge.
If not, Gerret, how about the Witcher, Geralt? I don’t have the game installed right now, but I remember that having sex was a fairly prominent gameplay element. As expect, Geralt had a prominent bulge under his leathers.
Guild Wars: one of the few games where the guys are attractive. After playing through the intro with my Dervish, I stripped him down and took a screen shot. The bulges are three for five against the smoothies. I cracked open the Neverwinter Nights Toolset. After looking at my Dervish, my eyes wanted to bleed as the models were worse than even Morrowind’s, but the men were suitably equipped
Batman AA: Bulge. The demo even begins with the camera slowly panning up Batman’s muscular legs and prominent package.
Dead Space: Bulge. Blink and you might miss it, but it’s there.
Mass Effect: No bulge. I have no saves as maleshep and figured the armor might be hiding something, so I played through Eden Prime. It was all for naught; he’s as smooth as a baby’s butt. Good thing asari mate via the Vulcan mind meld. Given that NWN had bulging, the question is: will the bulge make an appearance in Dragon Age?
Drakensang: No bulge. I hear the seduction skill is useless for men anyway.
Devil May Cry 4: Bulge. A shock I’m sure to those who hate pretty guy Japanese characters.
The result is that seven out of the eleven games I looked at had bulges, so I guess the package wins by an inch. Now I’m off to contemplate why I spent the time to find this out, but I’ll leave you with a lineup of the fellows from my survey.
I decided to take a screen shot of my bizarrely masculine self when I realized something was missing.
“My dude has no dude bits!” I said to myself. This is something I’d never noticed before as I’d never played with a masculine avatar. It was a bit shadowy in the inn, so I went outside where it’s a bit lighter to verify, and it turned out I was right: Ken doll smooth. No wonder elves breed like pandas!
I decided to look at the other races, and it was true across the board.
As a comic book reader, I’m familiar with the habit of making female lumps prominent and male lumps non-existent. The idea is, I think, though Superman can fly and toss cars around, if he’s packing more kryptonite than they are, young, male readers might get an inferiority complex. Or something. Several comic fans actually complained about Alex Ross’ depiction of Citizen Steel , calling it ‘creepy’ and complaining about the ‘over-sexualization’ of the character. That’s an issue for someone else to blog about. My question is why this would spill over into video games, specifically RPGs where your avatar is ‘you.’
I’m only a lesbian, but I was rather disappointed to find my guy avatar had effectively been neutered. I mean, if I’m going to play a man in World of Warcraft, I want hulking muscles; cool, shiny armor (with spikes!); a weapon as long as my body (with flames!), and a dick could double as a baseball bat when hard.
I understand that they can’t give me the last one, but would at least a slight bulge hurt anyone?
With this in mind, I decided to go on my own epic quest for a package. First I opened up Morrowind, created a male dunmer, after the intro I stripped naked and – whoa! It’s the full monety. I’d forgotten I had loaded the ‘Better Bodies’ mod along with improved textures. After removing it, I loaded the game, and my dark elf still had a bulge in his underwear. Oh, and a woman walked by me and insulted me. Good work Bethesda!
Thief: Deadly Shadows: This was a hard one (little penis humor there) as Garret constantly crouches; even while standing pressed against the wall, his knees are slightly bent. I spent a little time fiddling with the camera but saw no sign of a bulge.
If not, Gerret, how about the Witcher, Geralt? I don’t have the game installed right now, but I remember that having sex was a fairly prominent gameplay element. As expect, Geralt had a prominent bulge under his leathers.
Guild Wars: one of the few games where the guys are attractive. After playing through the intro with my Dervish, I stripped him down and took a screen shot. The bulges are three for five against the smoothies. I cracked open the Neverwinter Nights Toolset. After looking at my Dervish, my eyes wanted to bleed as the models were worse than even Morrowind’s, but the men were suitably equipped
Batman AA: Bulge. The demo even begins with the camera slowly panning up Batman’s muscular legs and prominent package.
Dead Space: Bulge. Blink and you might miss it, but it’s there.
Mass Effect: No bulge. I have no saves as maleshep and figured the armor might be hiding something, so I played through Eden Prime. It was all for naught; he’s as smooth as a baby’s butt. Good thing asari mate via the Vulcan mind meld. Given that NWN had bulging, the question is: will the bulge make an appearance in Dragon Age?
Drakensang: No bulge. I hear the seduction skill is useless for men anyway.
Devil May Cry 4: Bulge. A shock I’m sure to those who hate pretty guy Japanese characters.
The result is that seven out of the eleven games I looked at had bulges, so I guess the package wins by an inch. Now I’m off to contemplate why I spent the time to find this out, but I’ll leave you with a lineup of the fellows from my survey.
If I’ve been quiet lately, it’s because not much has happened on the game playing front. Batman: AA comes out at the end of this month, and then Alpha Protocol, and Dragon Age, two games I’m all aquiver with anticipation about.
In response, I’ve played a few of the older games I have: Galactic Civilization, Civilization IV, and Outpost are turn-based strategy games, while Civ City: Rome, Children of the Nile, and Startopia are all real-time ones.
I prefer turn-based strategy games as they tend to be more expansive in scope. I’d rather manage a dozen cities/planets and end the game by ruling the world/universe than manage a single city and win by shipping enough barley to Rome. Turn-based strategy games also have their draw back in the form of dead time: long stretches where you’re not doing much in particular save hitting the ‘end turn’ button and waiting for the next technological breakthrough. A large part of this is that I tend to go for cultural domination type victories and so avoid military conflicts.
There’s only one real time strategy game where I experienced real boredom: X3: Something Something. I followed a friend’s suggestion and traded in my original vehicle for a merchant ship so I could ferry cargo and make lots of money. Horrible idea. In the game, you control a single space ship and it took five minutes for my cargo ship to make it from one jump gate to the next.
Five minutes just sitting in front of the computer watching space go by. It was like playing that Microsoft star field screen saver.
Oh, and it had a ‘dynamic economy’ so it was very possible that by the time I left Space Station A traveled four maps to Space Factory B to spend all my credits on Cargo C and then traveled back to Space Station A, a AI cargo ship (all faster than mine) had sold them Cargo C in bulk, so they didn’t want it anymore.
But my favorite of all these games is Startopia. Why? Because it doesn’t take itself seriously. There’s a race of four-armed, purple skinned hippies that I please by planting flowers. High end establishments attract a race of slug people who poop the most valuable substance in the galaxy when they’re happy. If your space station gets dirty, you’ll find cute space kitten frolicking near the trash bins that the aliens love to pet. Each pet results in an egg being placed into them, and a few days later the infected burst open and some cross between a werewolf and the incredible hulk springs out and starts destroying everything.
This is far more fun than watching Egyptians gather clay, Romans cart bricks, or building another cathedral. Only raising your critter in Black and White is more fun.
Next, I’ll play Morrowind.
In response, I’ve played a few of the older games I have: Galactic Civilization, Civilization IV, and Outpost are turn-based strategy games, while Civ City: Rome, Children of the Nile, and Startopia are all real-time ones.
I prefer turn-based strategy games as they tend to be more expansive in scope. I’d rather manage a dozen cities/planets and end the game by ruling the world/universe than manage a single city and win by shipping enough barley to Rome. Turn-based strategy games also have their draw back in the form of dead time: long stretches where you’re not doing much in particular save hitting the ‘end turn’ button and waiting for the next technological breakthrough. A large part of this is that I tend to go for cultural domination type victories and so avoid military conflicts.
There’s only one real time strategy game where I experienced real boredom: X3: Something Something. I followed a friend’s suggestion and traded in my original vehicle for a merchant ship so I could ferry cargo and make lots of money. Horrible idea. In the game, you control a single space ship and it took five minutes for my cargo ship to make it from one jump gate to the next.
Five minutes just sitting in front of the computer watching space go by. It was like playing that Microsoft star field screen saver.
Oh, and it had a ‘dynamic economy’ so it was very possible that by the time I left Space Station A traveled four maps to Space Factory B to spend all my credits on Cargo C and then traveled back to Space Station A, a AI cargo ship (all faster than mine) had sold them Cargo C in bulk, so they didn’t want it anymore.
But my favorite of all these games is Startopia. Why? Because it doesn’t take itself seriously. There’s a race of four-armed, purple skinned hippies that I please by planting flowers. High end establishments attract a race of slug people who poop the most valuable substance in the galaxy when they’re happy. If your space station gets dirty, you’ll find cute space kitten frolicking near the trash bins that the aliens love to pet. Each pet results in an egg being placed into them, and a few days later the infected burst open and some cross between a werewolf and the incredible hulk springs out and starts destroying everything.
This is far more fun than watching Egyptians gather clay, Romans cart bricks, or building another cathedral. Only raising your critter in Black and White is more fun.
Next, I’ll play Morrowind.
To the people with PS3s and X-Boxs who keep on telling me how awesome and fun Batman: AA is, you are bad, evil people, because I can’t get the game for PC until September 30th. I might not even be able to get it until *later* as I need to save my cash for Dragon Age: Origins (I want the CE), and Divine Divinity 2, and probably Alpha Protocol.
Thank goodness they delayed BioShock 2.
For those without PS3s or X-Boxes, please hold off buying the game until September 30th, or you might feel compelled to tell me how much fun you’re having.
Thank goodness they delayed BioShock 2.
For those without PS3s or X-Boxes, please hold off buying the game until September 30th, or you might feel compelled to tell me how much fun you’re having.
I'm playing Betrayal in Antara and loving it. It's wonderful how a lack of expectations and choice makes a game enjoyable. This is a continuous statement though ‘RPGs need less choice;’ I can’t get others to agree with it.
Betrayal in Antara is a very basic RPG as it was made back in 1997. I have no idea how it manages to fill my 22’ widescreen monitor, but it does so with only vertical bars on the side. The graphics are crude, the fighting is very basic, and discussions involve you clicking on a topic and sitting back while the three PCs discuss something with an NPC.
The PC’s are all pregenerated: William of Escobar, third son of the noble house Escobar, who’s a warrior, Aren, son of an innkeeper who learns he can use magic, and Kaelyn, the girl who’s a ranger. Their history and looks are totally out of your control. And that’s fine. In fact, that’s great.
I’d say ‘more RPGs should do this’ but there’s a slight problem with this. If RPGs used pre-generated characters then 98% of RPGs would be about straight, white dudes. As-is, Betrayal in Antara has two white dudes who fit nicely in the plot, and a white gal who decided to join them permanently for no particular reason. However, given that Willian and Kaelyn constantly bicker, I assume they’ll fall in love with one another.
Perhaps it’s because I grew up reading books instead of playing games or watching TV, but without a pregenerated PC, I always find the NPCs more interesting than the PC. They have personality, while the PC is this boring glob that I’m expected to project a personality onto. This works fine for some people, but for the majority I don’t think this is the case. If people wanted to play a character who was simply an empty receptacle they could move around, they’d pick up a FPS, and even shooters are moving around from that model.
I’m not entirely serious when I say that RPGs need less choices. What I mean is that the increased choices in RPGs are all about things I don’t care about. Sure, oblivion style facial sliders mean we have a ton of choice when it comes to the character’s face, but does that choice matter? The majority of time, I can’t even see my character’s face, and people in the game world fail to acknowledge that I look just like Angelina Jolie or, and this is far more like, that my face is bizarrely distorted because no matter how hard I try, my create custom face skill is remains at 0.
Mass Effect is almost a parody of weapon and armor selection in RPGs. Five hundred different versions of the exact same thing. I would prefer a game where there is the basic arms and armor, perhaps three upgrades, and a few, unique items that are better than usual. Increased in damage, accuracy, speed or protection would be through increasing character skill.
We have World of Warcraft and Diablo type RPGs where, a character is purely about your class, stats, and gear, and where the main activity is killing stuff for XP. I would love an RPG that is the exact opposite: a predefined character with built in history and desires, little inventory, no attributes, no XP, and very little combat.
Oh, how I miss you Quest for Glory. It’s so sad to have fallen in love with a game design that is completely out of fashion.
Betrayal in Antara is a very basic RPG as it was made back in 1997. I have no idea how it manages to fill my 22’ widescreen monitor, but it does so with only vertical bars on the side. The graphics are crude, the fighting is very basic, and discussions involve you clicking on a topic and sitting back while the three PCs discuss something with an NPC.
The PC’s are all pregenerated: William of Escobar, third son of the noble house Escobar, who’s a warrior, Aren, son of an innkeeper who learns he can use magic, and Kaelyn, the girl who’s a ranger. Their history and looks are totally out of your control. And that’s fine. In fact, that’s great.
I’d say ‘more RPGs should do this’ but there’s a slight problem with this. If RPGs used pre-generated characters then 98% of RPGs would be about straight, white dudes. As-is, Betrayal in Antara has two white dudes who fit nicely in the plot, and a white gal who decided to join them permanently for no particular reason. However, given that Willian and Kaelyn constantly bicker, I assume they’ll fall in love with one another.
Perhaps it’s because I grew up reading books instead of playing games or watching TV, but without a pregenerated PC, I always find the NPCs more interesting than the PC. They have personality, while the PC is this boring glob that I’m expected to project a personality onto. This works fine for some people, but for the majority I don’t think this is the case. If people wanted to play a character who was simply an empty receptacle they could move around, they’d pick up a FPS, and even shooters are moving around from that model.
I’m not entirely serious when I say that RPGs need less choices. What I mean is that the increased choices in RPGs are all about things I don’t care about. Sure, oblivion style facial sliders mean we have a ton of choice when it comes to the character’s face, but does that choice matter? The majority of time, I can’t even see my character’s face, and people in the game world fail to acknowledge that I look just like Angelina Jolie or, and this is far more like, that my face is bizarrely distorted because no matter how hard I try, my create custom face skill is remains at 0.
Mass Effect is almost a parody of weapon and armor selection in RPGs. Five hundred different versions of the exact same thing. I would prefer a game where there is the basic arms and armor, perhaps three upgrades, and a few, unique items that are better than usual. Increased in damage, accuracy, speed or protection would be through increasing character skill.
We have World of Warcraft and Diablo type RPGs where, a character is purely about your class, stats, and gear, and where the main activity is killing stuff for XP. I would love an RPG that is the exact opposite: a predefined character with built in history and desires, little inventory, no attributes, no XP, and very little combat.
Oh, how I miss you Quest for Glory. It’s so sad to have fallen in love with a game design that is completely out of fashion.
