Quba HQ

Portal: Radio Update

Just when we thought we will never hear anything new about Portal (one of the best games of 2007, if not of all time), Valve released the Radio Update. The official release notes read: Changed radio transmission frequency to comply with federal and state spectrum management regulations.

The update places a number of radios around the game’s levels. When picked up and placed in a correct location in the level, the light on the radio turns green and the player can hear some cryptic messages. Forums are going wild as people start decoding the messages.

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Gotta Play: PixelJunk Eden

This is a first post of the new category I decided to introduce to Quba HQ. Gotta Play will consist of short reviews of some of my favorite games – not only the new ones, but mainly older, memorable titles.

PixelJunk Eden (as well as its expansion Eden Encore) ranks really high on my personal favorites list. It’s definitely somewhere up there in my top 5, but since I do not keep any particular scoring system it would be difficult to determine the exact place. One thing is sure – Eden was the very reason I decided to purchase PS3 console.

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Review: Mass Effect 2

Yesterday I have completed the final “suicide mission” of Mass Effect 2, concluding my first playthrough of this game. Right until before the final mission I was convinced the game was one of the best I ever played. Now that I have concluded it, my feelings are more bitter-sweet. Here’s why.

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Your Life as One Big RPG (from DICE 2010)

Whether you are a gamer, designer, marketing specialist, advertiser or a consumer – you do not want to miss this presentation by Carnegie Mellon University professor Jesse Schnell. The presentation was delivered during DICE 2010 summit and covers games, social networks, marketing strategies, consumer trends, and many more subjects, delivering quite an interesting prognosis for the near future of life and entertainment.

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Heavy Rain Demo: Impressions

I have just completed several playthroughs of the Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain demo released yesterday on Playstation Network. I was cautiously optimistic approaching it, having known the studio only from it’s Omikron: The Nomad Soul game released back in 1999. (Having loved Omikron, I have no idea how did I miss their 2005’s Fahrenheit (a.k.a. Indigo Prophecy).)

When the game comes out, undoubtedly the reviews will range all the way from calling it a “x-hours long quick-time event” to “the most cinematic experience ever”. Personally, I think it will become an instant cult classic, and can only hope the commercial reception will be as good. But that – only time will show. For now we have a demo:

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Windosill, Vectorpark and Patrick Smith

Windosill is an abstract point-and-click game – a genre that used to be quite popular several years ago among Flash developers, but since then got much harder to find. Main reason for genre’s decay could be the fact that if implemented incorrectly, instead of surreal exploration, the user may be subjected into frustrating click-fest without any clue whatsoever about the possible outcome.

Fortunately, Vectorpark, the authors of this game have a lot of experience in creating abstract adventures, resulting in a very relaxing and enjoyable experience.

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