Quba HQ

February 3, 2012
In Games, Gotta Play
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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.

April 23, 2011
In Games, Gotta Play
4 comments

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.

August 27, 2010
In Games, Webcomic
One comment

Bici Bee #145: Starcraft

I have been hard at work these past several ~~days~~ ~~weeks~~ months. My collector’s edition Starcraft 2 box is sitting right next to the computer, but I still could not even find time to finish the campaign (not to mention the multiplayer).

I usually manage to shell out half an hour a day or so, to watch some replays (comentated by Husky and HD Starcraft) of top tier players. This is my impression of how my game would look like.

May 17, 2010
In Games, Motion, Re:Post
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Portal for Mac: Free until May 24th

Hello Mac people! It is not too late to still grab your free copy of Portal – probably one of the best games ever made, now available for OSX.

To celebrate the launch of Steam platform for Mac, Valve software made Portal free to all the Mac users until May 24th. They also produced this cute little infographic announcement animation, promoting the… promotion.

April 16, 2010
In Games, Motion, Re:Post
2 comments

DAN the MAN

If you ever played classic 8-bit platformers, you know the drill. The hero fights monsters, defeats the boss and saves the princess. But what’s next? In video games you simply get a congratulatory message (“The Winner Is You”), but you never get to see how does “Happily Ever After” look like.

Well, thanks to Australian studio JOHO, now we can all learn. Their hilarious animation DAN the MAN is one of the best takes on the 8-bit gaming I’ve seen in a while. And, according to the YouTube comments, the sequel one is on its way! Video after the break.

April 10, 2010
In Motion, Re:Post
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Pixels by Patrick Jean

The motion graphics world is talking about it. The gaming world is talking about it. It was sitting on my desktop for the last three days and I didn’t have a moment to post it. Now it’s about time.

Pixels is a short film produced by One More Production and directed by Partick Jean. It tells a story of an 8bit invasion over the New York city and combines live action footage with blocky, stylized CGI. Drawing inspiration from the Nintendo and Commodore64 era of games, it unleashes waves of 3D sprites onto the world, bringing the coolest possible version of an apocalypse I have seen in a while.

April 7, 2010
In Featured, Games, Gotta Play
One comment

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.

March 1, 2010
In Webcomic
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Bici Bee #139: 8001050F

Today most of the old (non-slim) Playstation 3 systems started exhibiting the problems with connection to PSN, trophies, date and time. It is a result of a (Y2K ?) bug in PS3 firmware having problems coping with leap years. This episode of Bici Bee commemorates this momentous occasion.

February 26, 2010
In Featured, Games, Gotta Play
One comment

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.