Do not let the simple title fool you. Brothers adds an emotional complexity to the puzzle adventures you’re used to playing.
Wolfenstein The New Order: An Ode to Fergus
What’s better than killing Nazis? Killing them with this guy:
Fergus Reid, Sassy Scottish Airman
He always knows exactly what to say to lighten the mood.
As if his poetic profanity wasn’t impressive enough, he speaks with a Scottish accent, which everyone knows is superior to all accents.
No Post This Week
I was in Boston all weekend. Here’s a photo of my cosplay to tide you over.
Guybrush Threepwood, mighty pirate.
Alan Wake: Words
The written word in Alan Wake holds power. In the original installment, you find manuscript pages that hint toward future events. Alan wrote these pages while under the manipulation of a dark force in Bright Falls. When writing, he realized he was creating phenomenal cosmic power for his captor, so he took control of the story. He wrote himself out of captivity, which is where the game officially begins: Alan wakes from a car accident and can’t remember the previous week. As the player, you fight the darkness that controlled Alan, piece together his memory, and save his wife. In order to keep the darkness trapped, Alan has to write an airtight conclusion to the story that ensures no plot holes the dark force can exploit. So he writes his death. Continue reading
Animal Crossing New Leaf: Kapp’n is a Creep
My relationship with simulation games died in the nineties. SimCity, SimCity 2000, SimAnt, Roller Coaster Tycoon, Pharaoh–I had quite a streak. I obsessed over them, particularly the latter two titles. Nowadays, I stray more toward strategy games with minor simulation elements, like Civilization or StarCraft.
Or, I should say, I make myself play strategy games. I get my simulation fix without the awful addiction that comes with simulation titles.
My name is Tiamonster, and I’m addicted to simulation games. Continue reading
Alan Wake: Simple and Fun
At the base, Alan Wake is your typical survival horror: a lone protagonist hoarding ammo and resources while fighting off eerie monsters. It’s simple to begin with, but it adds a few twists that make the journey different from your run-of-the-mill Resident Evil game. It lands somewhere between the action-heavy horror games and the sparse, psychological games. I’ve already explained the combat: shine your flashlight, wait for the darkness to leave the monster, then shoot the monster. As you progress, the darkness begins infesting things other than humans: wooden pallets, steal beams, doorways.
Bulldozers.
It’s not all darkness, though. Sure, you have your creepy televisions that turn on when you enter the room and that only tune to two stations.
The Alan Wake Channel, where another version of our protagonist slaves away at a typewriter and talks crazy.
And Night Springs, which I haven’t been able to watch because it’s too damn scary.
Alan Wake: Speaking My Language
In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I present the following.
Haven’t we all, Alan.
See the objectives in the upper left corner? I’M ON IT. Continue reading
Alan Wake: Art Connoisseur
Alan Wake, Darkness Thwarter
I feel I should defend my willingness to play this game, but, look, I just spent months binging on indie games and XCOM. I’m exhausted. I like stories about writers, and I like survival horror. Enter Alan Wake.
Recaps Are Cool, Right?
After the disaster that was Bioshock Infinite, I decided to lay low for a while; play some quick and perhaps fun games. Attempt the Steam Challenge. Replay old favorites. Here are the spoils of war, done somewhere before and after clocking in 100 additional hours into XCOM: Enemy Within.
Why Am I Playing This? 