18 Mar

I Built This City

It seems odd to talk about a game that was actually released recently, because this blog isn’t supposed to be a collection of reviews. I’m not a game journalist; I’m a designer, and each entry is simply a short rambling of my thoughts on how a particular game works or doesn’t work for me. I also try – often poorly – to pinpoint any designs in the game that I feel are particularly strong or weak. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk a bit about Cities: Skylines.

Cities: SkylinesWait, wait, I’m actually not done with disclaimers. Before we actually dive into Skylines, I want to talk a bit about my relationship with SimCity, because I think it’s important. I’m not what you would call an “avid” SimCity player. Back in the day, when SimCity was a fresh new piece of intellectual property, I found the game and simulation to be hard and unforgiving. I would immediately spend all my money trying to build a city only to find out I was bankrupt and had to sit and wait for a few months to go by to get enough in the budget to build another power plant or police station or school. I was frustrated that the game let me believe I could run free with my city-building imagination only to smack me down with gameplay incentives to take it slow. Read More

06 Dec

O Canada

Oof. I’m a day late and a dollar short, if you count a dollar as an hour of playtime on The Long Dark, a simulation survival game where you roleplay as a very inept Wolverine (the mutant, not the actual animal). I played until an untimely end three times, and have a save that currently sees me alive – if not well – on day 2. I’ve found a hunting knife and crafted a fishing line, though, so things look promising.

Sunrise

I picked up The Long Dark in the latest Steam sale because it looked like a survival game I could handle. I’ve played a few survival games here and there – most notably Don’t Starve and Sir, You Are Being Hunted – but I always found myself doing quite poorly. Would The Long Dark finally draw out the rugged Canadian survivalist I knew was always inside me? Probably not. Read More

29 Nov

I Feel the Earth Move

Sorry this post is a few days late. I was busy enjoying Thanksgiving!

From Dust had a little under an hour of game time on it already when I booted it up this past week to take another look at it. I remembered just a little from the last time I’d ventured into its world: that I would be able to move around balls of water and earth, that the time pressure felt limiting, and that it was a candidate for most-hated-game-due-to-DRM way back when.

Dust People

So here we go. Let’s hit that Play button once more, and let Steam boot up uPlay, so we can try to save these villagers once more. Will this game make me truly feel like a god? Will it frustrate me with control issues? Will I be forced to see the screen above over and over again because the same cutscene inexplicably forcibly plays after every single level? Yes, yes, and yes!  Read More

14 Nov

The Art of the Possible

Let’s take a vacation to an island paradise where everybody has a name and I get to make all the rules. Let’s go to Tropico, a simulationy city/island-builder with dictatorial overtones!

Tropico 2Steam actually doesn’t even recognize Tropico, its expansion, and Tropico 2 as separate titles. Instead, they are purchased wholesale as Tropico Reloaded, which is what I rolled this week. So I ended up spending a few hours with Tropico before dipping my toes into Tropico 2 for a little under an hour. I, sadly, did not try a new game with Tropico’s expansion content, nor do I think I ever will. What’s that? Why’s that? Let’s dictate! Read More