Worth Reading: 08/31/12

My initial thought was to put Worth Reading on hold this Friday, since the crew (sans Alex, sadly) will be wandering around PAX in a stupor. Since Worth Reading has been on and off since the beginning of July, so I’ve put together this truncated version.

Mostly, I just want to talk to people about The Walking Dead’s third episode, which is a...doozy. Without getting into spoiler territory, this feels like the equivalent of a character development episode in a TV show, where it simultaneously feels like nothing happened and everything happened at once. I'm still reeling from some of it.

(Please don't discuss/spoil episode three in the comments.)

I don’t know if you’re reading this at PAX or not, but if you are, stop doing that, and make sure to come up and say hi. The reason we don’t schedule to see very much at PAX is two-fold. One, it feels weird to be cutting in line of the patient folks who paid to be part of this very cool event. Two, the more time we can spend chatting with the users who make this site possible, and this job so great, is vital.

Hope to see you there!

Hey, You Should Play This

• Where Am I? (Browser, Free) -- www.parsecproductions.com/games/whereami.html

I didn’t intend for Worth Reading to have yet another horror game as a highlight, but when the creator of Slender drops his latest work, you can bet your ass I’ll be the first one to listen. Granted, Where Am I? isn’t a fully fledged follow-up to Slender, but Mark Hadley participated in the more recent Ludum Dare, and came out with...this. I’d agree with the general set of critiques I’ve seen elsewhere. Primarily, Where Am I? takes way too long to execute on its one, pretty excellent scare, but there’s an argument to be made the anxiety and frustration over the prolonged feed greatly into its execution. Stick with it, and if you’re like me, every minute or so will result in moving further and further back from the screen, knowing the “unexpected” scare is coming, and trying to distance yourself from it.

And Maybe Read This, Too

• http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/08/22/valves-abrash-on-virtual-reality-wearable-computing/

When companies like Valve, Epic Games and id Software are trumpeting the merits of virtual reality, maybe it’s time to check your preconceived notions of the technology at the door. Touch controls used to be garbage, too, and we all know how that’s turned out, whatever you think of the games built on it. Michael Abrash, the same programmer who co-authored Quake with John Carmack, is heading up a series of R&D projects at Valve, including the idea of wearable computing. Abrash shows the right amount of skepticism about VR 2.0’s prospects mixed with enough excitement to give someone like me pause. I mean, when games like Hawken are announcing support for devices like the Oculus Rift, it’s hard to not get a liiiiiitle bit geeky about the whole thing. Hey, I’m listening. Show me more.

My personal feeling is that – and this is far enough out that it’s something I’m not personally looking at – but my speculation is that there will be haptic devices. Once you have immersive VR that people are really using so that there’s a market for it, there will be experiments all over the place. My guess is that there’ll be some sort of form-fitting, shirt-like thing, and it’ll have some kind of percussive devices so it can tap on your chest and arms. That seems like an obvious and manageable thing. But there are so many ways that could go.

If You Click This, It Will Play

I Don’t Know About This Kickstarter Thing, But These Projects Seem Pretty Cool

• There are plenty of 8-bit games, but how many are using a Game Boy asthetic? Two Brothers is.
• I've mentioned Planetary Annihilation, but it hit its funding goal early, and the stretches sound great.

Oh, And This Other Stuff

• This lengthy interview with David Cage at Gamasutra is keeping me interested in Two Souls.
• Pendleton Ward's Tumblr blog is worth it for the endless gifs.
• The new style for Spy Party is pretty impressive, though I'm still partial to its current look.
• This doesn't have anything to do with games, but I'm fascinated by stories about Internet trolls.
• OnLive CEO Steve Perlman writes a personal letter to OnLive fans. Not much new info but still.
• The Soul Reaver series is one of my faves of all-time, and this NeoGAF thread of cut material is great.
• I'm always fascinated by games hacked to become social commentary.
• NFL Sunday Ticket's going to be cheaper on PS3, and I couldn't be happier. Please work on day one this time!
• If you've ever wanted to know how crane machines work, now you have the answer. Amazing.
• It may go a bit over your head, but Valve's ongoing economics blog remains fascinating.

My initial thought was to put Worth Reading on hold this Friday, since the crew (sans Alex, sadly) will be wandering around PAX in a stupor. Since Worth Reading has been on and off since the beginning of July, so I’ve put together this truncated version.

Mostly, I just want to talk to people about The Walking Dead’s third episode, which is a...doozy. Without getting into spoiler territory, this feels like the equivalent of a character development episode in a TV show, where it simultaneously feels like nothing happened and everything happened at once. I'm still reeling from some of it.

(Please don't discuss/spoil episode three in the comments.)

I don’t know if you’re reading this at PAX or not, but if you are, stop doing that, and make sure to come up and say hi. The reason we don’t schedule to see very much at PAX is two-fold. One, it feels weird to be cutting in line of the patient folks who paid to be part of this very cool event. Two, the more time we can spend chatting with the users who make this site possible, and this job so great, is vital.

Hope to see you there!

Hey, You Should Play This

• Where Am I? (Browser, Free) -- www.parsecproductions.com/games/whereami.html

I didn’t intend for Worth Reading to have yet another horror game as a highlight, but when the creator of Slender drops his latest work, you can bet your ass I’ll be the first one to listen. Granted, Where Am I? isn’t a fully fledged follow-up to Slender, but Mark Hadley participated in the more recent Ludum Dare, and came out with...this. I’d agree with the general set of critiques I’ve seen elsewhere. Primarily, Where Am I? takes way too long to execute on its one, pretty excellent scare, but there’s an argument to be made the anxiety and frustration over the prolonged feed greatly into its execution. Stick with it, and if you’re like me, every minute or so will result in moving further and further back from the screen, knowing the “unexpected” scare is coming, and trying to distance yourself from it.

And Maybe Read This, Too

• http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/08/22/valves-abrash-on-virtual-reality-wearable-computing/

When companies like Valve, Epic Games and id Software are trumpeting the merits of virtual reality, maybe it’s time to check your preconceived notions of the technology at the door. Touch controls used to be garbage, too, and we all know how that’s turned out, whatever you think of the games built on it. Michael Abrash, the same programmer who co-authored Quake with John Carmack, is heading up a series of R&D projects at Valve, including the idea of wearable computing. Abrash shows the right amount of skepticism about VR 2.0’s prospects mixed with enough excitement to give someone like me pause. I mean, when games like Hawken are announcing support for devices like the Oculus Rift, it’s hard to not get a liiiiiitle bit geeky about the whole thing. Hey, I’m listening. Show me more.

My personal feeling is that – and this is far enough out that it’s something I’m not personally looking at – but my speculation is that there will be haptic devices. Once you have immersive VR that people are really using so that there’s a market for it, there will be experiments all over the place. My guess is that there’ll be some sort of form-fitting, shirt-like thing, and it’ll have some kind of percussive devices so it can tap on your chest and arms. That seems like an obvious and manageable thing. But there are so many ways that could go.

If You Click This, It Will Play

I Don’t Know About This Kickstarter Thing, But These Projects Seem Pretty Cool

• There are plenty of 8-bit games, but how many are using a Game Boy asthetic? Two Brothers is.
• I've mentioned Planetary Annihilation, but it hit its funding goal early, and the stretches sound great.

Oh, And This Other Stuff

• This lengthy interview with David Cage at Gamasutra is keeping me interested in Two Souls.
• Pendleton Ward's Tumblr blog is worth it for the endless gifs.
• The new style for Spy Party is pretty impressive, though I'm still partial to its current look.
• This doesn't have anything to do with games, but I'm fascinated by stories about Internet trolls.
• OnLive CEO Steve Perlman writes a personal letter to OnLive fans. Not much new info but still.
• The Soul Reaver series is one of my faves of all-time, and this NeoGAF thread of cut material is great.
• I'm always fascinated by games hacked to become social commentary.
• NFL Sunday Ticket's going to be cheaper on PS3, and I couldn't be happier. Please work on day one this time!
• If you've ever wanted to know how crane machines work, now you have the answer. Amazing.
• It may go a bit over your head, but Valve's ongoing economics blog remains fascinating.

The icon for this story made me laugh

Thanks! Look forward to these, always something interesting.

Thanks for filling my weekend again Patrick! Wish I could be at PAX though...

do a QL throwback of illbleed, it's an amazingly awful game that is hilarious.

Might want to check that link to "Where Am I?"

Illbleed is kind of a Bad Game but for all of the right reasons and it is a joy to behold.

The Where Am I link doesn't work for me.

I'm so annoyed that The Walking Dead Episode 3 is delayed for Europe. People keep saying it's awesome and it's driving me crazy. Any other game I would have spoiled for myself already but The Walking Dead gets a special treatment.

Parasec link doesn't work!

Regarding illbleed, SUPERGREATFRIEND did a fairly thorough LP of that bizarre, incredibly.. .. weird .. bad game..

http://supergreatfriend.com/illbleed.php

A bunch of years ago I bought a Dreamcast and a friend gave me all his games (he had a pretty extensive collection). The one he urged me to play the most was ILLBLEED and I tried but when they said it will make you vomit they were right. Something about playing that game simply murdered my eyes and gave me a terrible headache and I literally got sick while playing it. Never had that experience before or since when playing a game. I have tried to go back to it once in a while but I can't, after about three minutes my head starts pounding and I get nauseous again. Even watching that video up above hurt my head.

@jasius said:

Parasec link doesn't work!

Throw a .net in there. parsecproductions.net/games/whereami.html

dudes, just add a .com to the link

http://www.parsecproductions.com/games/whereami.html

Wow. I'm not much for bullet hell games, but that Korean (?) game looks like a blast!

Oh nice! Illbleed! Anyone interested in LPs should check out supergreatfriend's take on it. At one point he gets sick and talks delirious nonsense, which is very fitting for this game.

I'm down with VR.

dat thumbnail

Pendleton Ward's gif blog is great! lol

Did a double take at the ILLBLEED thumbnail. I haven't thought about that shit since high school.

Where Am I is pretty good. I was about to cut it off because I was about to have an anxiety attack, but I took out of headphones instead and stuck with it. Ending still made me jump. Good find Patrick.

Isn't that Soul Reaver post just made up of stuff taken from my buddy Lincoln's site thelostworlds.net? He's had all that stuff up for like 10 years now.

God that Soul Reaver link makes me pine for another one of those games.

A dark Zelda before Darksiders was a thing. A story that should be remembered forever. Voice acting that was peerless at the time, and has yet to be toppled.

A pity Tony Jay is no longer alive, and that we will never see a successor... well, unless it's rebooted and made into an FPS.

That's a pretty nifty drawing of Patrick, I bet who ever made it is really talented.

www.parsecproductions/games/whereami.html is not a valid url.

Loving the Valve blog. So incredible to see their take on spontaneous order in terms of business. NEVER would have thought would be a viable, long-term business model. Just goes to show what I know.

As always, good article.

Man, that's crazy that they have the manual to those claw crane game machines online for the general public! Super neat to see how the odds are always against you in the different types of games.

@SortedeVaras said:

Isn't that Soul Reaver post just made up of stuff taken from my buddy Lincoln's site thelostworlds.net? He's had all that stuff up for like 10 years now.

He links to that and thanks him :)

@TheHT said:

Wow. I'm not much for bullet hell games, but that Korean (?) game looks like a blast!

Heck ya, I want it.

Oh man, Illbleed.... The game was weird as fuck.

Hahahaha Illbleed...

Sexy Doll!

So, the mention of Soul Reaver reminds me how GODDAMNED MUCH I WANT THE FINAL GAME THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO COME AFTER DEFIANCE.

Man I love the entire LOK series. Yes, even Blood Omen 2.

Thanks as always, Patrick! Have a great time at PAX. Wish I could be there. Oh, by the way, McPixel just came out for IOS, in case anyone missed it. Not a lot of fanfare for that game, which is a shame.

"Oh man, Illbleed.... The game was weird as fuck."

Killerman is Killerman.

Two Brothers looks cool. I backed it

Spy Party looks like a Pendulo adventure game.

I'd like to second Supergreatfriend's Illbleed let's play. He does a great job, and if you enjoyed the nonsense from the clip, there's much more where it came from.

That trolling story was... weird. Every time they used the term "trolling" it just felt out of place. Internet slang shouldn't be used to discuss a serious issue like cyber-bullying. I mean, "extreme trolling may be a sign of mental ill-health"... come on, doesn't that sound just the slightest bit humorous in that context?

I've been waiting for another Soul Reaver... I think it's about time the rumor became truth.

I've been waiting for years for Giant Bomb to acknowledge Illbleed's existence. Amazing cult game, I wish you guys would play it at some point. Probably not. :(

I really love the idea and look of the Two Brothers game, I'll throw in a few bucks there.

Thanks for the weekly headsup, Patrick.

The link to the game is broken. Where will I get my scare today? :'(

Wow I don't know what game that 3rd one you linked in the story is Patrick, but god damn. A RPG/Schump hybrid with physics and explody bits!? Sign me up.

Planetary Annihilation sounds pretty awesome. Also, I spotted a Giant Bomb member t-shirt in update video #4.

That shmup in the 3rd video is Mirror War. Any korean speakers who could let us know how to register on that site? I wanna play that so bad!

This reminds me to pick up a copy of Illbleed for my Dreamcast... on second thought I should have done that 8 years ago when I was in college and a used copy went for $5.

Oh man that big post on GAF cleared up some ancient mysteries from my youth about Soul Reaver, I remember seeing all those walled off areas and I'm sure there were some cheat codes to load up the extra reaver blades, drove my young mind crazy, now I can finally rest...

Illbleed Game Inormer Super Replay,

It must happen.

Where am I? was interesting, I found myself building up to the big scare so much that when it actually hit it fell a little flat for me. It lasted too long.