I've been enjoying a free demo of Braid lately.

Woops, posted in the wrong place.

Haha, 1st year consisted solely of me playing Jumper in the computer room trying to beat level 3.4.

@amomjc said:

@BoG

Well, I never thought to give Cave Story a try until you mentioned it here as free and now I am in love. I literally put my daughter down (she sleeps for 3-4 hours) and the next thing I know she's ready to feed again. How can such a simple game be so much fun?\

EDIT: Please continue with this blog, I have enjoyed every single game you have mentioned thoroughly and want more!

You put your daughter down? That's terrible!

I never realized Cave Story was free on PC/Mac. I'll be playing it shortly, then!

As someone who has familiarity with masacore (clearly,) how do you feel about I Wanna Be The Guy? Personally, I think it's a really cool game for an hour or so, but it just gets kind of stupidly hard from that point forward.

@BoG: I highly recommend it. It's probably best you get it on PS3 though; I've read it plays better and has more content. But in the meantime you could watch the Quick Look.

@EVO: No, but I just looked it up. I missed pretty much everything released over the past few years. Looks really great! I'll put it on my "to buy" list. It says it's $20 (whoa!) on PC, so I'll have to wait until I get my PS3 fixed.

Great blog, it's always good to see indie games getting love. I've only played Cave Story out of those but unfortunately it didn't really grab me. Have you played Eufloria?

@BoG: Awesome! I will download it now.

Just realized you became a mod again....good to see one of the old school mods back on the team.

@SSully said:

This list is pretty convincing, I am going to have to check these out!

If you had to pick just one of these games, which would you pick?

Cave Story is a must play! I would pick that one. I don't think there is much of a contest. Of the other three, it's tough, but probably Shoot First. It's very simple, but with a lot of depth and variety.

This list is pretty convincing, I am going to have to check these out!

If you had to pick just one of these games, which would you pick?

@BoG

Well, I never thought to give Cave Story a try until you mentioned it here as free and now I am in love. I literally put my daughter down (she sleeps for 3-4 hours) and the next thing I know she's ready to feed again. How can such a simple game be so much fun?\

EDIT: Please continue with this blog, I have enjoyed every single game you have mentioned thoroughly and want more!

@BoG: Woah i didnt know you could use a mouse for it!

@Djstyles92: It's a roguelike! They are supposed to be hard. How are you controlling the game? I found it a lot easier to use the mouse. I didn't know I had the option at first.

This blog has reminded me that I still have a ton of HIB3 games to play, and that I haven't entirely finished the HIB2.

Shoot first is so goddamn hard! I keep getting my ass handed to me

I've wanted to start blogging more often for a while now, but have lacked direction. A blog without a purpose is boring, especially when whoever writes it doesn't write well. I've had a revelation in my search for blogging purpose: indie games. Lately, I find my gaming time dedicated exclusively to indie stuff (and TF2, and Final Fantasy, and Professor Layton. Whatever). I've posted a few topics about gems I've discovered, and nobody has replied! Duders' interest in indie stuff seems to be pretty low. As there are so many amazing indie games out there worth our attention, I decided to dedicate my blog to indie game awareness. It's not as noble a cause as spreading any other kind of awareness, but it's way more fun (not to mention relevant to this website).

My plan is to blog at least on a weekly basis, highlighting old and new indie titles. The content will mostly be free PC titles, as these are the most accessible to our community. If console titles or shareware really impress me, I'll highlight those, too. Do note that this is an entirely subjective blog, and I'll really only mention stuff that I like. Expect a lot of games with old-school flavor. Also, I'm not big into browser games, so you won't see many of those.

So, let's kick this thing off! I've picked some of my favorites for the flagship blog:

Jumper 3

Jumper 3 is a very simple, highly challenging platformer game. When you first start it up, you're probably going to think "this game is a total rip-off of Super Meat Boy." When I first played Super Meat Boy, my initial thought was "This game is a total rip-off of Jumper!" They're remarkably similar, but Jumper came first. Actually, the main character in Jumper, Ogmo, is playable in SMB.

I've been following Matt Thorson's development since the very beginning (we used to chat all the time on MSN messanger) and am a huge fan of his work. Jumper 3 is my personal favorite title in his catalogue. Check it out!

Shoot First

Shoot First is an action roguelike developed by Teknopants. In traditional roguelike fashion, you descend floor by floor in a randomly generated dungeon. What I really love about Shoot First is the amount of variety. Every time I play, I come across a new enemy or weapon. There are tons of point-earning objectives unique to each playthrough. For example, sometimes you're given someone to escort to a staircase to escape the dungeon. Making things even more fun, the game can be played cooperatively. Playing a roguelike with a friend really mixes up the experience. Also worth mentioning are the online leaderboards, and killer music.

If you've been playing The Binding of Isaac, you will really enjoy this game. It's not as fast paced, but it has all the action roguelike fun and challenge of that game. Oh, and it's free.

Here is the website: http://teknopants.com/games/shootfirst/

Super Crate Box

Warning: Super Crate Box is very addictive. The game is a very fast, arcade style shooter. The entire game takes place on one small screen, and your object is to collect weapon crates. Each one will give you a new weapon. As you do this, enemies will constantly spawn at the top of the screen, and move down to the bottom. If they make it to the bottom, they'll respawn at the top, faster and angrier. The concept is a bit complex, but once you get playing, it is incredibly simple. I really love how fast paced and rantic the game can get, and highly recommend this one to everybody.

Website:http://www.supercratebox.com/

And finally, an "Indiessential" (I totally made that up, so proud of my self:

Cave Story

A classic indie title. If you haven't played it, you have absolutely no excuse. It's free for PC and Mac, or available over WiiWare. Just play it.

Cave Story is an action-platformer that has light Metroidvania elements. It has beautiful artwork, great music, and, most importantly, awesome gameplay. Cave Story is a classic.

Website:http://www.cavestory.org/

Thanks for reading! I do apologize for my lack of writing skill; that's part of my motivation for starting this blog, to get my self regularly writing. I hope to improve the quality of my blog with time and practice.

If you have any tips about anything, especially games I should look into, shoot me a PM!