Quba HQ

Dear Esther

Dear Esther. I sometimes feel as if I’ve given birth to this island. Somewhere, between the longitude and latitude a split opened up and it beached remotely here. No matter how hard I correlate, it remains a singularity, an alpha point in my life that refuses all hypothesis. I return each time leaving fresh markers that I hope, in the full glare of my hopelessness, will have blossomed into fresh insight in the interim.

Dear Esther is one of these titles that defy our common conceptions about what video games should be. It can be considered an anti-game, or perhaps a game that transcends the genre. Personally I perceive it as an amazing experiment in interactive storytelling.

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PixelJunk Eden now on PC!

Around a year ago I published a Gotta Play article about PixelJunk Eden. It is a game that provided me with incredible amount of inspiration in my work, as well as hours of fun in my free time. A brainchild of Japan-based independent studio Q-Games and art director/DJ/multimedia artist Baiyon, Eden features possibly the most contemporary design I have ever seen in a video game.

Until yesterday, the game was exclusive to the PS3 platform, but now is available for all PC users through Steam. As a designer you owe it to yourself to check it out!

Check out and purchase Eden on Steam:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/105800/

Read my review of PixelJunk Eden here:
http://qubahq.com/2010/02/gotta-play-pixeljunk-eden/

For the first week, the game is offered at a 20% discount, bringing it to ridiculously low price of $7.99. You can also purchase the soundtrack. It’s well worth it.

Portal 2: Just the beginning?

It’s been a few days now since the launch of Portal 2. Looking back at the events leading up to the release I can’t help myself but awe at the skill and imagination of the Valve team. First came Portal (1) – an amazing game, introducing completely new gameplay mechanics to the FPS genre. It spawned cult following, multiple memes (The cake is a lie anyone?) and made countless players fall in love with a gray box with a pink heart painted on it. On March 1st, 2010 the first ARG was launched, eventually leading to the announcement of Portal 2.

The second ARG, running between April 1-18, 2011 sent users on a crazy scavenger hunt throughout 13 indie games (as well as real life locations) in search for the new clues about the sequel. The event culminated in a GLaDOS@home event where thousands of players contributed to releasing the game early. Finally came the game itself. I am not going to dwell on how good Portal 2 is – there are dozens of reviews all over the Internet that evaluate the game in-depth. All I’m gonna say is: if you haven’t done so yet, get it, play it. It’s well worth it. Hell, it is probably one of the greatest gaming experiences I had in a long time.

But is that it? The game is launched, single player and co-op campaigns are played through… I believe not. In this article I am going to speculate on what I believe is yet to come. Please, keep in mind that I am writing it assuming you have finished the game and therefore all matter of spoilers are to be found in the following paragraphs. If you haven’t played Portal 2 yet, do yourself a favor and do it first. If you don’t mind, however, hear out what I think is coming soon.

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Gotta Play: The Orange Box

If you like gaming, have a PC that’s not yet a museum piece, but you don’t yet own The Orange Box (or all the games that comprise this amazing collection), do yourself a favor: Stop reading this article, go to the Steam page of The Orange Box, purchase it for for $30 and let it download in the background while you continue with this post. It’s that good.

Released in October 2007, The Orange Box is a compilation of some of the best titles produced by Valve Software: Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episodes One and Two, Portal and Team Fortress 2. They even throw in a tech demo Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, just in case the rest is not enough for you. You will be playing this stuff for months.

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Gotta Play: Defcon

- Shall we play a game?
- Love to. How about Global Thermonuclear War?

You might remember a certain 1983 movie entitled WarGames. I was a little kid when it came out, but I got the message: War is bad, computers are awesome. Well, that’s the message I got anyway.

Produced at the height of Cold War, WarGames told a story of a young computer hacker gaining access to the A.I. controlling American nuclear arsenal and almost annihilating the entire planet in the process. The final stand-off took place in a military facility and featured (then) state of the art CGI simulation of a Global Thermonuclear War. It is this segment of the movie where Defcon gets its inspiration from.

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Gotta Play: Flower

It is difficult to believe that there may still be a PS3 owner, or a gamer out there who hasn’t yet heard of thatgamecompany’s Flower. The game was showered with awards and recognition since its release in 2008, most recently winning a BAFTA award for Artistic Achievement in 2010. It is also one of my personal favorites and one of these games I’d recommend to anyone without any second thoughts.

Much like other titles of the studio, Flower is an unusual title, often categorized as ambient gaming experience. It is a genre I have been very fond of for quite a while – an interactive entertainment type where player’s immersion and emotions take precedence over the score, reflexes or button mashing. It is a game that lets you relax and enjoy yourself in front of the console – a commodity much valued at the end of a busy day.

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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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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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