Clint
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Added by Clint on Oct. 13, 2008

I was holding out for a Steam version of World of Goo before purchasing it (I only buy PC games on Steam out of principle), and when it was announced last night that the game would be on Steam today, I simply had no excuse not to buy it just now.
I played through the first of apparently 4 or 5 worlds just now, and this game is beautiful.  While so far the puzzles have been more action-puzzle oriented than pure puzzle, requiring you to stay quick on your feet as much as think ahead, the game is absolutely stunning simply for the sheer amount of effort that 2D Boy very evidently put into every aspect of the game.

As I type this, the lines of text on the screen on bobbing peacefully up and down as if they are lines of goo.  Gragh.

I think I enjoy the experience of World of Goo for the same reason that I enjoyed the experience of Spore, which is, in fact, just that.  Let me disentangle that: I enjoyed the experience because it's enjoyable, in both cases.  I think a shared element is a certain sense of wonderment.  In Spore, it came from the feeling of scale in the game: there are things bigger than you, smaller than you, and right there struggling along with you, and for once it doesn't feel like the game world cares if you live or not -- the game truly isn't about you.  In World of Goo, the wonderment that you feel as you play comes from an entirely different sorts, which is a very simple and visceral joy that the game manages to deliver despite its starkly simple -- and if you think about it, rather inane -- premise.

Gripes:
  • Why is there no options menu?  I have a 1680x1050 display; I'd like to use it, thanks.
  • Couldn't seem to connect to the internet the first couple of times.  Third time was the charm though.
  • It's a neat feature that free goos flock toward your cursor, but highlighting precedence should go towards balls on the structure so that if I want to get at them I don't have to clear the way first.
Related to: World of Goo


Added by Clint on Aug. 7, 2008

I haven't mentioned it here, only on IRC, so I might as well post it up:

I will definitely be at PAX on Saturday chilling with the rest of you fine folks.  Hope to see some of you there!


Added by Clint on July 26, 2008

I posted this in a thread on the forum, but I guess it bears repeating in a more indelible place:

  • It's been mentioned that you should do an advanced search before you suggest new pages, which I would like to re-emphasize, but please also note that the search engine hiccups a bit if your search query has a colon in it, so if you're submitting, for instance, Resistance: Retribution, search up Resistance instead of the whole title.
  • Please, please, please put down what type of change you are making in the box at the bottom. Are you relating similar games?  Are you adding games to a character?  If you're making changes to article text, what section is it from?  These things really help us prioritize and streamline when approving submissions.  "Adding information" doesn't really help us, because hopefully that's what you're all doing! =)
  • I will re-emphasize that we'd like Giant Bomb to be fresh and original.  If people want information from Wikipedia, they'll go there.  Let's build our own world here, yeah?
  • Finally, please be patient with us.  You're going to get a lot of stuff rejected because in 3+ days' time, other people are going to come up with the same characters to add and similar games to relate and all these other wonderful things as you do.  As Jax said, it's a process, we're doing our best to make it work, and we're all together on this.

Hang in there and keep up the good work, everyone!  Remember to not be bitter about points, they're just a number.  I'm constantly amazed at what everyone is coming up with (someone please fill in the grass concept page we just approved with ridiculous minutiae)!