Machinarium

Released 16 October 2009, Amanita Design

I love tiny flash games. I particularly love indie ones, created more for art than actual play. And I have explored this genre to its very limit- Plachy Trpaslik, Daymare Town 1-3, Submachine, and a lot more. But nothing has compared to the works of Czech game developer Amanita Design (found at amanitadesign.com). My particular favorite, Samorost 2, is brilliant and gorgeous. So imagine my joy when they released their very first full-length game, Machinarium. This was last year, and though I played the demo, I never bought it. Until now, when Steam advertised it for half off. Sold. And I absolutely love it. I mean, I even discussed it on my personal blog (which I'll shamelessly advertise at the end). It's not a game I recommend for those of you who absolutely love action games or FPS. It's a thinking game, the kind that'll make you reclusive for weeks on end until you beat it. You're playing as a tiny robot, running about a large mechanical city full of evil, black hatted robots with superior size yet inferior brainpower. You must navigate around and ultimately save the city and your friend. It's absolutely beautiful, with amazing 2D drawings and a wonderful, minimalistic soundtrack that is almost as important to the game as the art itself (I honestly don't feel like I'm playing unless the sound is on). There are also no words, relying entirely on thought-bubble sketch pictures to communicate meaning (very effectively, too). Even better, it's not just an artsy toy- the best thing about Amanita's games is the fact that they don't require huge, arbitrary leaps of logic to solve, yet are still extremely difficult. Very pretty, but functional, with a lot of gameplay: when they said full-length game, they *meant* it. I can only describe it as a very long, surreal dream that you can control. All in all, Amanita has delivered the best possible gift unto the gaming world. Go play the demo. You'll like it. You *must*. Roar.

//SleepToDream
I can haz scattered thoughts, as mentioned above: cufflinksoffate.blogspot.com

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Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

-The One With The Nose

Rating: 9.2

Reviewing Call of Duty games is hard, just because of the size of each game. All of the COD games have many modes, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. With Modern Warfare 2, this is defiantly true. Let's start with multiplayer.

       In the multiplayer mode, you can play one of three ways: split screen, online, or LAN party. In the online mode, there are many modes you can play in, such as team deathmatch, free-for-all, and search and destroy. Each has its own unique characteristics. Speaking to the multiplayer in general, the control over classes that you have is good, and the maps are decently designed, but the unlock system needs work, as does the size of maps. The maps on MW2 are too small, and the unlock system is too easy. All you need to do is get a few kills and you have a new gun. The guns come to easily, and are too powerful. Over all, the multiplayer is good, but needs work.

      The next mode we will talk about is the campaign mode. In the campaign, you play as many different characters, and never for long on one. The campaign revolves around a war started by the mission No Russian, in which you go under cover to kill Vladimir Makarov, a contract killer with a hatred for the US. In the mission, you go into an airport with Makarov and his men to kill all of the civilians in the airport. In the end of the level, you are about to get into a truck to escape with Makarov when he shoots you and leaves your body to be found by the Russian authorities, thus causing a war with the US. I enjoyed the campaign mode, but I was disappointed  with the end, as you are fighting to kill Makarov, but it is never done. The campaign is good, but again, lacks polish.

     The last mode I will tell about is the Spec Ops mode. In Spec Ops, you have many different missions to choose from, in the categories Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, ranging from shooting at wooden targets to fighting 15 juggernauts on an oil rig. The levels can also be customized in difficulty by turning up or down the difficulty. The difficulties that can be chosen from are Regular, Hardened, and Veteran. Spec Ops is my favorite mode on MW2, and it is amazing. It has the polish that other modes lack.

     So, I gave this game a 9.2 because the game over all is good, good graphics, good weapons, ect., but it lacks polish. The game is one of the best selling FPS games of all time for obvious reasons, and it is worth the $60.00 I payed for it new even now that I have Black Ops. So, if you want to buy a COD game, consider Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2.

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Warcraft III Reign of Chaos

-The One With The Nose

Rating: 9.63

Ok, this is kind of an old game, but it is still fun. It is a realtime strategy game, and the objective is to, in the battle mode, conquer all other people. There are four races you can play as: human, orc, night elf, and the undead. As each, you have different powers, different units, and different requirements. For example, the undead cannot build buildings on ground that is not close enough to another building. To build cities, you must build each individual building, such as a Town Hall, a Farm, and a Lumber mill. This game is really fun, and only costs $24.95 at gamestop.com. This game is defiantly worth the $25. I would know, I've had it for years.

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Civilization Revolution

-The One With The Nose

Rating: 8.95

So, this was my first Civilization game, and it is pretty fun. I enjoy this game quite a bit. Since it is a Civilization game, you can play it for hours at a time. Unfortunately, the team that made Civilization Revolution starved the game of all essential parts of the game, including the religion system of past Civ games and the long games. The games of Civ Rev are extremely short compared to the past and future Civ games. The longest games in Civ Rev are about an hour, so they are just for fast games. Hardcore Civ players won't like the fast game play and belittled controls. It is a very fixed way of playing the game, yet it is still fun. I enjoy this greatly, but I enjoy Civ V more, just because of the advanced controls. In conclusion, it is fun, but is fast.

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Sid Meier's Civilization V

Speaking as a devout follower of the Sid Meier cult, I have to say I wasn't disappointed.

The last Civ game I played was III, having skipped out on IV for lack of processing (computer FAIL). Having jumped almost a decade ahead in the series, I was obviously surprised, and at first disappointed. Yes, the graphics are amazing, the hexagonal grid (as opposed to squares for movement) *amazing*. But it didn't have it's ... inherent Civilization feel. Maybe I'm just being old school, but at first I was freaked out over the addition of city states (cities that are not trying to win the game, and can be made allies, enemies, etc.), as well as the fact that you can't stack units onto the same grid square (excuse me, hexagon). I mean, I'd honed a beautiful military strategy to near perfection that depended on that one fact. However, despite this (and a couple other things, I'm a little finicky) I got used to it, even with the annoying new counterintuitive controls ("Right click for unit movement?! This is madness!")  It's so perfectly similar yet a bit alien that it gives you an entirely new game while seeming so familiar. Perfetto.

Advantage for new players: they dumbed it down. A lot. Go into Civ III as a noob and you're dead, even on chieftain [the easiest level. For suckers, in my opinion]. So many things to manage. City happiness, shield production, civil disorder, anarchy, even balancing your budget, for god's sakes. It was all very technical, represented on a series of screens by arcane symbols and sliders that are comprehensible only to true addicts (ahem. me.). Now, they manage everything for you except the actual gameplay. Gone was my perpetual fear about the budget. Just pillage something, bro. Speaking of pillaging: gone was the two option menu when you captured a city (Install a governor! or Raze the City!). Now you have the option of creating a puppet government, where they're under your command yet you are unable to dictate production. You can still annex the city, but it'll reduce happiness and production dramatically.

And, oh how I've waited for it, they have Multiplayer! Yes! Multiplayer. Powered by Steam (the company, not the water vapor, idjit), you can now have teams or every-man-for-himself games of Civilization. Even with it set on fast-paced, however, this is a long game, and without a saving option (I mean, there's other people playing with you. Don't be selfish.) you'd better not be going anywhere for a while.

So, summary: Good game. Weird controls. Simplified. Good for beginners. Multiplayer: yes.
Go buy one. A bit steep, but you'll be entertained for the rest of civilization. (see what I did there?)\]

//I SleepToDream


-The One With The Nose

Rating: 10

The new Civilization game, as the title and above article say, Civ V, is amazing. This is my first computer civilization game, so it was pretty exciting. Up until now, the only computer strategy games I have played were Warcraft III Reign of Chaos (amazing) and Spore (in the city stage). The movement control for units is the same between Warcraft and Civ, so that wasn't a shock. Also, Spore essentially had city states (small civilizations) so I am used to that. For those of you who have never played Civ before, don't allocate 10 minuets to play or even an hour! A game of civilization will take you many hours to finish, even on the quick mode. I was playing one day online with a friend (SleepToDream), and we were playing for 5 hours, and weren't even halfway done. The game was on quick mode, and we were both conquering stuff, so the game was advancing faster than the speed of a running snail. Still, civ manages to stay fun by having constant things that require your attention, such as war, famine, demand for recourses, and diplomacy. This is an extraordinarily well crafted game, and a flexible one too. In Civ V, you can play in a "Mod" mode, where you can download mods created by other users and play them. The mods can include wars of the past, new empires, new tech, and scenarios. Though I have never played a mod game, I know how fun scenarios were in Civilization Revolution, so I will play a mod level soon. In conclusion, buy Civ V. Send me an email at randomstudiosgamingblog@gmail.com to get my Steam ID.

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Comments

Please, please comment. I know that you are viewing this (I have a page hit monitor), so, if you view this page, comment. We want input, we want to improve the site so that you like it. Help us make a more enjoyable blog.

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You Pick It

We are starting a string of videos were you can leave comments telling us a class to use (in MW2 or Black Ops). So leave a comment telling us a class. Make a good name for the class too because you want to make us pick yours. We will give a shout out to you and leave an address you want us to show in the video. The videos will be on Youtube and the blog. Make sure to leave a comment it might be the only one, you never know!

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Game Ideas Contest

So, we were thinking (well, I was) that we should start producing games. We have a few game concepts, but we want more ideas. Submit your ideas in an email to randomstudiosgamingblog@gmail.com and we will take a look at them. The winner will have their site/organization advertised on this site. Send in those ideas.

Here's what we've got

1. 3rd person game where there is a guy who randomly picks up a sword and starts killing stuff.

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Icon contest over

The new icon

That was the most boring contest ever. No one sent in icons. The only ones we had were made by us. Well, it looks like #1 wins. Here it is.

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Icon Contest

So, we are having a bit of trouble coming up with an icon for the site, so we need help. Email in an icon you think is good, and we will advertise the winner's site/service here. The icon must be appropriate and 100x100 pixels or smaller. Here is what we have so far.

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