Games

Worm · by **Worm** » 12 Dec 2010 23:47

I posted my Machinarium review in the reviews subforum.

icycalm · by **icycalm** » 13 Dec 2010 19:38

http://insomnia.ac/reviews/pc/machinarium/

7 out of 18. If we keep this up Insomnia will become the internet's no. 1 source for "indie" game reviews, lol.

icycalm · by **icycalm** » 10 Jan 2011 05:10

http://insomnia.ac/reviews/web/flow/

8/18

icycalm · by **icycalm** » 12 Jan 2011 17:26

http://insomnia.ac/reviews/xbox360/braid/page_01.php
http://insomnia.ac/reviews/xbox360/braid/page_02.php
http://insomnia.ac/reviews/xbox360/braid/page_03.php

Also added Seiklus. If anyone wants to review it and take it off my hands I would be eternally grateful (I am reviewing VVVVVV right now). Here's a summary of what you'll be going up against:

Seiklus (Estonian for "adventure") is a puzzle platformer written on GML (Game Maker Language) with an emphasis on exploration. There is no dialogue or literary exposition of the plot. The game consists of various different, loosely connected areas the player has to explore, collecting both items to help on the way and floating "wisps" of various colours; obtaining a 100% collection rate on all levels will unlock the bonus level which is needed to view the ending and credits. Seiklus has no weapons and no violence. There are various "hostile" lifeforms in some areas, but at worst they only set the player back a little. It is impossible to die or get stuck.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiklus

If anyone does decide to review it, it'd be a good idea to post your intention here so that everyone else will know not to waste time attempting it too.

zinger · by **zinger** » 12 Jan 2011 17:35

I came across that game today. Nifflas stated it as an inspiration for his Knytt games.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-qVq4ElvTk

Looks to be of similar caliber, but uglier and with bloody awful music.

DJ Orwell · by **DJ Orwell** » 13 Jan 2011 02:46

I would like to review Seiklus. MS Paint platformers without hazards - WHOO FUN! I can probably get it done within four hours or so.

EDIT: Done.

icycalm · by **icycalm** » 13 Jan 2011 15:05

His review sucks, so my request still stands.

aaden · by **aaden** » 14 Jan 2011 00:19

Aquaria is another good candidate for the list.

http://www.bit-blot.com/aquaria/

While I was looking for information about the development of the game, I stumbled across a whole interview full of lols about the game here:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... le2337.asp

Derek Yu wrote:In games you often have something blocking your path that very much feels like it was placed there artificially to prevent you from moving forward. In Aquaria we tried to avoid that.

ghost4 · by **ghost4** » 14 Jan 2011 07:03

I played Aquaria years ago, and liked it at the time. I should try it again one of these days.

Aaden, Yu also said that "it was really important to us that everything feels natural." While all obstacles are intentionally placed by the designers to restrict and guide the player's movements, they should still make sense. For instance, an invisible wall in a first person shooter does not make sense within the game and feels completely artificial, so a more natural solution is to create a force field, locked door, collapsed bridge or steep mountain wall.

Perhaps you interpreted him as saying that the game has no obstacles, but this isn't the case. Aquaria is a lot like an underwater version of Metroid, and you need to gain new abilities and forms to access new areas.

aaden · by **aaden** » 14 Jan 2011 15:10

I did interpret his statement that way, to be honest. I read it as "We made the game too easy."

However, I do like the way Aquaria looks from the videos and screenshots I've seen, so I'm going to give it a try myself.

cephissus · by **cephissus** » 14 Jan 2011 23:24

I played Seiklus many, many years ago. I would regularly check Cly5m's site for updates on his new games, Vellela and Avaus. They're both many years overdue (he's crossed out the release date on Avaus every year since 2007, lol).

Like Pixel, Cly5m seems like a very humble guy and definitely never said he was making a masterpiece. Whether Seiklus has been portrayed as such by any significant number of people, I don't know. Scanning through his site, I highly doubt one could find an egregiously stupid quote worthy of the indie bums page.

Anyway, if anyone is still interested in reviewing yet another platformer, you may want to consider checking out N and its sequel, N+. N is a flash game with simple graphics and very short levels, similar in many ways to Super Meat Boy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N_%28video_game%29

N+ has been released over XBLA, and on DS and PSP, so I'm sure it's reached quite a number of people.

[Banned for failing to read the thread, or for being too stupid to understand it. --icy]

ChairTax · by **ChairTax** » 17 Jan 2011 05:28

I will review Seiklus. I intend to post the review tomorrow.

icycalm · by **icycalm** » 18 Jan 2011 16:19

Another crappy attempt. Forget it, people. I'll review the game myself.

zinger · by **zinger** » 25 Jan 2011 21:09

http://nifflas.ni2.se/?page=NightSky

Maneuver a sphere through 10 worlds filled with unique challenges and new surprises. NightSky is a two dimensional physics platform game for Windows produced by Nicalis. A Mac version will be released soon!

http://sites.fastspring.com/nicalis/instant/nightsky

NightSky is an action-puzzle game that offers an ambient gameplay experience. Cerebral challenges fill uniquely designed picturesque worlds. Each of these worlds is broken into different areas in which the player must maneuver a sphere by using realistic physics to advance.

This one is 10 bucks. I'm starting to get seriously depressed by these games though, I'm not sure I can take anymore.

Edit: Windows version was released on January 6, 2011: http://www.joystiq.com/2011/01/02/nical ... january-6/

icycalm · by **icycalm** » 25 Jan 2011 22:34

Dude, nobody knows that game. I've already banned several people from this thread for suggesting games nobody knows. Read the OP for christsake.

But I get what you are saying. I am fed up with this shit too. Thankfully, I've already tackled the three or four most widely acclaimed ones (Braid, Spelunky, Cave Story and World of Goo), so everything else we do from now on is just a bonus. We don't actually have to complete the list, or we can tackle the rest one game a month or something -- I am sure if we put the project aside for a month or two we'll eventually feel like coming back to it at some point. All I need is a couple more games (including Super Meat Boy) and I'll be ready to post this page on the frontpage:

http://insomnia.ac/reviews/introducing_the_indie_scene/

and then the project can take a back seat for the foreseeable future.

icycalm · by **icycalm** » 09 Mar 2011 13:55

I am getting close to finishing up these reviews (I should be publishing half a dozen more of them within the next few days), so I'd like to get the index page ready for the frontpage. So what I'll need is a suitable header image of some kind. If all fails the current one will do for now, but if anyone has any ideas, let me know. Perhaps something to do with abortion clinics?

icycalm · by **icycalm** » 09 Mar 2011 13:58

Do YOU regret your abortion?

Qpo · by **Qpo** » 09 Mar 2011 15:22

Perhaps something on the theme of "The Emperor's New Clothes"? It's not accurate in that the artfags are in a high position and snobby about it (they are in the lowest position and snobby about it, lol), but it is accurate in that they trick people into pretending they see something they don't. (Maybe artfags really can't tell the difference, but I really want to believe that Romero isn't completely brainwashed (and that the sham will finally be over now that it has been exposed)).

Putting the artfags in the position of an emperor, no matter how silly or stupid an emperor, makes me cringe a bit but it is something people would recognize instantly and maybe it would help them get part of the point right away.

The more stupid the emperor looks the better (and more accurate) the picture would be. This is the best picture I've been able to find:

(Edit: Some might be thinking that the artfags would be the tricky weavers in "The Emperor's New Clothes", but they would only be that if they were consciously tricking people just to make some money. This doesn't seem to be the case since they seem to believe their own lies more than anyone else.)

(Edit 2: It's even possible to add "Art Games" on the banner.)

icycalm · by **icycalm** » 09 Mar 2011 17:28

I prefer the abortion idea. I use the term a lot in my essays, so people will recognize it easily, while I've never used the "Emperor's clothes" one or whatever. I don't find it appealing.

faceplant · by **faceplant** » 09 Mar 2011 17:45

Shit attempt #1

I may attempt a full on abortion themed one later. This one has some fetus cookies in the background.

icycalm · by **icycalm** » 09 Mar 2011 17:48

Yeah, give it another try. I am looking forward to a real good one.

ronan · by **ronan** » 17 Apr 2011 20:57

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, for iOS, got some very positive reviews:
http://www.metacritic.com/game/ios/supe ... ic-reviews

icycalm · by **icycalm** » 18 Jul 2011 12:29

Finally decided to add Minecraft and Aquaria to the list. Minecraft because I looked into it and it seems like an "indie" game alright (though a very unusual one, to be sure), and Aquaria just to spite Derek Yu. That brings the total of games on the list to 21, with 12 of them already reviewed (including Seiklus and VVVVVV, which will be going up shortly).

These, then, are the games that are now left:

SUPER MEAT BOY
CANABALT
MINECRAFT
MEAT BOY
IJI
AQUARIA
EVERYDAY SHOOTER
DARWINIA
ALIEN HOMINID

I had previously reserved several of them for myself, but now the only ones I am keeping are Minecraft and Darwinia, because their genres are unusual and I don't think anyone else is capable of doing them justice. The rest are up for grabs. I am especially looking at Josh and zinger here, and promise that I will be shortly matching every review they contribute with one of my own (as I just did with Josh's review of Seiklus), as an added incentive to get this project moving again and wrap it up. I think this is a good idea we could adopt for the rest of the site too. If you guys want to read what I think of some of these games, give me something to read first and I guarantee I will reciprocate.

icycalm · by **icycalm** » 22 Jul 2011 16:09

Huge thread on /v/ from which I am saving here a few comments for the sake of posterity:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... google.com

Introducing The "Indie" Scene

http://insomnia.ac/reviews/introducing_the_indie_scene/

The latest attack in insomnia.ac's war-on-indie.

Thoughts?

>Let's start out by exploding a myth about this game: Spelunky is in no way, shape or form a "roguelike"

I agree. Derek Yu is an overrated cunt. Spelunky is only popular because we all have a hard-on for "procedural generation" after Will Wright made it chic at GDC 2006. Nobody said it before then. Now TIGSource uses the buzzword in every sentence.

>WORDSWORDSWORDSWORDS
To sum up the fucklong Cave Story review
>Indie games are shit, unless they're Japanese
>Cave Story gets the basics right, nothing special
>Too easy, not pretty enough
>One guy making it isn't a proper excuse
Pad it out with a few paragraphs of name-dropping and you're done.

Indie games

hey you're fast
>for a fat fuck
Hey you're smart
>for a retard
Hey you're hot
>for the bearded lady at a carnival
Hey it was a good game
>for being indie..

Icycalm got banned for being too much of an elitist fuckhead on the shmups.com FORUMS. Let that sink in.

>Too elitist
well they're a diamond doz-
>on a Shmup forum
Mother of God...

Lol, you fucking idiot: what matters isn't that it's an opinion, it's what the opinion is, and how right it is. Charle's Darwin's Theory of Evolution was a fucking "opinion".

ITT: people from
http://insomnia.ac/reviews/introducing_the_indie_scene/ found out people don't like them and mostly don't care about what they do, and desperately try to find appreciation from the /v/ crowd

I have never even played any of those games faggots, I have Amnesia The Dark Descent, is that indie enought? your whole site is:

A) I hate pretentious devs (PROTIP: so does everyone, this is why non-fans ignore them)
B) Stop liking what I don't like

Stuff on Newgrounds doesn't get 90+ ratings on Metacritic for being black and white:

http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/limbo

>Limbo
saw a review once somewhere, maybe gametrailers, whatever, the thing is I don't have that game, never have played it, and its existence and the ratings it has on metacritic (a site I have heard of but about which I don't give a damn) have not affected my gaming hobby in any discernible way
this guys are ranting about some indie games being shit, so what? I already knew that from fucking watching them, pretentious stuff have been getting awards from circle jerks since the first hipster made a dull spearhead just because sharp ones were too mainstream

A truly good writer presents their thesis clearly and cleanly. You don't have to have a PhD in Theoretical Physics to read books by Stephen Hawking, and even in the more arts-ish half of the world, clear, concise writing is a must. You always have a thesis.

Pretty much all of Icyclam's prose is stream of consciousness mutterings that stretch out nothing but patently obvious shit, trite observations, and unsubstantiated assertions for as long as possible without saying a single damn concrete thing.

>Sometimes when we understand a thing, it does not even seem to be very intelligent any more.

-William G. Plank

He is the only person writing about games saying these "obvious" things, so that immediately puts on the top of that particular pile. Which may no be a very impressive pile, admittedly... but he's still on the TOP, and I appreciate him all the same

icycalm · by **icycalm** » 03 Mar 2012 21:31

Added Flower: http://culture.vg/forum/topic?t=3839

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