Terraria and Minecraft

Hey guys, it's good to be back. Expect 3 to 5 updates a week going forward for the foreseeable future. Anyways to the topic at hand....

I recently purchased a 4 pack of Terraria for my buddies and myself over the Steam weird summer camp sale thing. Being a huge Minecraft fan (PC Master Race hello?) I figured it was high time I try the seemingly 2D concept ape. Not to my surprise Terraria is about as awesome as a 2D Minecraft can be.

The point of this post is the potential for Minecraft will always be greater than the execution of Terraria.

Allow me to clarify; Terraria is an amazing Indie game. It is really great to explore caves and dungeons, fight boss monsters, craft new weapons and armor, find new materials, and have lots of really fun items and possibilities. Despite having a lot of fun with the 8 or so hours I've put into Terraria so far I still have the thought nawing at the back of my mind saying one thing....

What if these features were in Minecraft?

Despite spending at least 100 hours over the last year in Minecraft I really think, like many people, that it really isn't much of a game. I am in the process of building my 3rd giant map spanning castle thing on my friend's server and all I can think about is why? The major flaw with the build thus far (1.73) is there is still no purpose. Terraria has that purpose, but all it does is remind me how awesome Minecraft could be.

In Terraria if you build a castle useful NPC's will come and populate it. Imagine if we built a giant 3D castle in Minecraft and different shopkeepers and other service providers would bustle about, adding life and purpose to your creation. Imagine if there were 5 times the monsters to fight and if there were more differences between a skeleton and a zombie rather than one has a bow and arrow. Imagine if there were 10 times the ores to find, much more intrecate caves and
dungeons, and a real reason to explore in Minecraft?

Now I know Minecraft is still in Beta and we have had the "Adventure Update" being touted by Notch for a little over a month now. There still is a lot of time to see this potential be realized, but Terraria serves as a catalyst for my desire to see it happen.

Dungeon Keeper and the PC Golden Age

Have I ever mentioned how much I plain ol' adore GoG.com. It reminds me of the PC golden age of the 90's where developers could make weird games about mustering armies of humans vs. orcs, or a young visionary named Peter Molyneux could make a real commercial success about being a dick in high fantasy.

There is so much to love about the game Dungeon Keeper. Despite the dated graphics the game is very playable and the mechanics are so good that the game feels it has aged incredibly well. Nostalgia aside there is something inherently fantastic about strategy games with perfect mechanics (well great mechanics at least. Perfect may be a stretch) where it achieves a zen no other genre can hope to attain.

The intro cinematic also will forever be hugely nostalgic for me (despite having aged considerably worse than the game).

What I really loved and continue to love about this game and the 90's on the PC in general is that true innovation was possible. Development costs were in line enough where developers and artists could really experiment and make whatever they want and chances are they would even break even.

It's also nice to play something that isn't The Witcher 2 or Minecraft. Why did Notch have to put Nether in SMP. Dammit.

Dead Island Gameplay Trailer

Thanks to the amazingly beautiful and haunting, yet increasingly irrelevant cinematic trailer released for the upcoming release Dead Island I have been following the media surrounding the game reasonably closely. Just a couple days ago a 12 minute gameplay trailer was released finally granting us snarling undead masses of the game buying public it's first real impressions regarding the actual mechanics to back up the amazing 3rd party cinematography. Don't remember the video? Click here.

So the game looks like a Grand Theft Auto clone with zombies. Well that's not entirely accurate..... more like a Just Cause clone with Zombies with a bit of Bulletstorm (minus the subliminal sexual assault impulses) mixed in.

It looks like it might be fun, but my pressing concern is that of a lack of gameplay focus.

I see instances of score boons rising from bloodied undead corpses being shot with automatic weapons and then scenes portraying horror and other similar emotions. It seems to me like you have to choose between Duke Nukem and Silent Hill 2; it really would be impossible to be both. Bottom line is looks like the game is trying to mix arcade style action with tense survival horror and that is the developer trying to have it's cake and eat it too. (The cake is obviously a lie anyways wakka wakka)

A horror experience needs to be before anything else immersive. For a survival horror game to really be effective the player needs to truly forget they are sitting on their couch and really be fully emotionally invested in what is happening on the screen and in the game. Huds, numerical scores, and other numerical information displayed on screen serves only to remind us we are playing a game; a pleasant diversion rather than being a part of a story in another universe.

Arcade style games are very fun, but for completely different reasons. It is simply a blast to pwn newbs with the sniper rifle from half a map away and see the kill message broadcasted to the entire server. It is a blast to get points for mutilating fodder enemies in creative ways a-la Bulletstorm, but it is a completely opposite experience from that immersive survival horror.

My kingdom for a true zombie apocalypse sim!

Honestly, making an fps where survival is prominent, you need to strike a balance between resource management, creating safe houses, and staying a step ahead of the zombie hordes would be epic. Hell a talented modded could do it in Minecraft in theory, or make a complete mod for L4D. It really would be a license to print money if someone would do it right.

Regardless Dead Island looks to be in danger of having an identity crisis. Of course the game doesn't release for some time, but being an anonymous internet troll I certainly won't let that prevent me from passing judgment!

My Hawken Nerdgasm

As I mentioned in my last post I am a huge fan of the PC Mechwarrior games. I picked it up at MW2:Mercs and have played every game and it's expansion on to MW4:Mercs which is easily one of the best arguments for the PC master race. It is just inherently fun to be the pilot of a tweaked out mech you personalized wreaking havoc on a battlefield chock full of giant, mechanical monstrosities with missles, lasers, and projectile fire everywhere. It is the best PC exclusive shooter's get and I hope that Smith and Tinker can get a reboot a: released and b: as epic as it can and should be.

Meanwhile I have been watching the progress from afar of indie developer Adhesive making a game called Hawken. Watch the trailer below:



If that took 9 guys less than a year and the game play is half as awesome as that I may have to buy 2 copies. I usually try to have something intelligent and well-thought out to say but I have to just have a nerd spasm over this and really just revel in the fact is that this is what dreams are made of.

I hope this releases and sells like Minecraft. If 9 guys can make a game that runs this smooth and looks this good, well hopefully more talented individuals with vision and purpose will band together to really bring us what this medium has to offer. Bravo gentlepeople..... bravo.

Now hopefully the game is as amazing as the gameplay trailer.....

P.S. Hey Crabcat! Got an awesome cosplay idea for ya!!!