corruptedsave Games of 2011

This article was written as a contribution for “The First Ever SMPS.Net Games of the Year 2011 Thing” which you should really go and check out for a broad range of well-written lists covering many games, old and new. This article has had a typo corrected, screenshot captions added, and uses some different screenshots than it originally included, as well as a link to new a video of me playing Dark Souls.

A Possible Glimpse of Things to Come

Deus Ex: Human Revolution has great references sprinkled everywhere, rewarding exploration.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution doesn’t quite live up to the original game, but it was a respectable, thoughtful effort. While boss fights fell flat, the hacking, sneaking, and upgrading of abilities made for an enjoyable experience that could be a glimpse of bright, promising future for the franchise and gamers alike.

A non-tea-bag taunt in Monday Night Combat.

To say that Monday Night Combat is an intelligent game is an understatement as it mixed personality and gameplay to create a fun, balanced, and unique competitive multi-player game. Using sound to balance an invisibility cloak, or rewarding players for doing a scripted, non-offensive taunt to earn some money instead of tea-bagging are ideas that will hopefully permeate game design in the coming years.

Continue reading

corruptedsave at PAX Prime 2011

Well, I wanted to get my thoughts on Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) Prime 2011 wrapped up and on paper in a timely manner, but then Deus Ex, Space Pirates and Zombies, and real life interfered. My apologies are offered in advance for the bad photography which may be blamed on little practice and no training of any kind.

Let’s start with the game demos, leading off with my game of show:

Torchlight 2

A sample of the improved writing I witnessed in Torchlight 2.

Bonus points for Runic's hand-sanitizer at each demo station.

Runic had an understated booth that wasn’t getting the attention it deserved on Friday. Toydonut and I were able to get into relatively short lines and were playing in equally short order. Torchlight 2 is everything Runic said it would be, i.e. Torchlight with co-op. Playing as an Outlander I was able to accept a quest (complete with well-written flavor text) to kill a boss monster, team up with a couple other demoers, and then go down into a two-level dungeon and kill said boss in the span of 15 minutes. The addition of a skillbar and UI improvements made killing fodder hordes feel easier than ever. As a demo, Torchlight 2 came off as being incredibly well-thought out and the concentrated approach it took to represent its gameplay distinguished it from anything else on the floor that I experienced. All of this with an announced price-point of $20, the reveal of the final class (Embermage), and a launch date before year’s end make Torchlight 2 the game to get most excited about for later this year.

Continue reading