Author Archives: Entar

Shifting Focus

For this, the blog’s 200th post, I wanted to share some ideas that I have been pondering recently. Long time readers of the blog will recall an article I wrote about how the challenges presented in games are a core component of the design and to a large extent, “define the gameplay…”. In that article, [...] Continue reading

Posted in Descent, design, Doom, games, Links, Quake | Comments Off

Custom Cards

There’s another page under the Other Projects listing on this site! It’s for a project a friend and I created a while back called Custom Cards for Windows Phone 7. Basically, it allows you to enter your own “flash cards” with questions and answers as text or sound, or both. It’s pretty widely useful for memorizing vocabulary for [...] Continue reading

Posted in Apps, Links, Windows Phone 7 | Comments Off

Big Announcements!

I should apologize for the relative lack of updates this past March. I’ve been really busy looking after not one, but two big projects, each of which should be appearing in full in the coming months. I’m already certain you want to hear about them, and because you asked so nicely, I’ll tell you. Musagi: Conflict [...] Continue reading

Posted in development, games, Independent film, Musagi, RainSaver | Comments Off

Fez – Release Date!

Fez, the much anticipated 2D/3D puzzle platformer by Polytron Corporation, has just had its official release date announced by the developers, by way of a somewhat ridiculous flashing .gif on a post on their site.  According to the announcement, the game will hit XBox Live Arcade on April 13, 2012 (a Friday the 13th, incidentally) and [...] Continue reading

Posted in Fez, games, Links, XBox Live Arcade | Comments Off

Modern Warfare 3 Retrospective

Alright, it’s been about 4 months since Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 hit the shelves. I’ve already done a review of the game via my typical process, but I thought it would be a good idea to write a retrospective article to shed some light on longevity rather than impressions acquired over just [...] Continue reading

Posted in Call of Duty, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, games, Reviews | Comments Off

Mods To Watch: Quake Never Died

What’s that you say? Quake is over 15 years old? Of course it is, and that’s given developers plenty of time to update and improve on one of the most classic and mod-friendly games around… and improve it they have. DarkPlaces for Quake DarkPlaces is the premiere Quake modification of today, with changes to the game [...] Continue reading

Posted in games, Links, Mod, Quake | Comments Off

Snapshot Interview with Pixabyte

The boys over at Retro Affect have posted an article about an interview their own David Carrigg did with Pixabyte, about Retro Affect’s upcoming game, Snapshot. Among other things, David talks about some design decisions, planned platforms, and hints at a release date for the game. You can view the entire article and interview in embedded [...] Continue reading

Posted in games, Interviews, Links, snapshot | Comments Off

More Alan Wake Media

… is usually a good thing. Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is an upcoming XBLA title that takes place in the universe created in the original Alan Wake by Remedy Studios. The new game is set to release on XBox Live on February 22. The video below provides a few more interesting details for fans that are [...] Continue reading

Posted in Alan Wake, games, Links, Remedy Games | Comments Off

Big Things for TF2 in 2012

Woah, woah, hold everything. The team behind Valve’s online shooter Team Fortress 2 has posted a most interesting update on the TF2 blog, including some fascinating details about their plans for 2012. This includes a secret TF2 project, the new Steam Workshop Blog, and the Second Annual Saxxy Awards. Those are all well and good, but [...] Continue reading

Posted in games, Links, Meet the Team, Team Fortress 2, Valve | Comments Off

The Humble Bundle for Android

… and Linux and Mac and Windows. Once again, the Humble Indie Bundle guys are back with The Humble Bundle for Android. While the title clues us in on the availability of the games, through the bundle, for Android, the bundle also includes versions of the game for Linux, Mac and Windows. The games in [...] Continue reading

Posted in android, games, Humble Indie Bundle, Links | Comments Off

A Criticism of the Critics: Part 2

This post is part of a series that points out pitfalls into which certain critics seem to fall. These articles are meant both as constructive criticism to the critics and what to watch out for to readers. The first part of the series can be found here. OK, this one might get those comment buttons [...] Continue reading

Posted in Game Reviews, games | Comments Off

2011 Blog Review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog, and I thought you guys might be interested to check it out. It looks like we’ve covered a lot of ground this past year! Click here to see the complete report. If you have comments about the material posted on the site [...] Continue reading

Posted in Blog, Statistics | Comments Off

Is Anti-Lag Worse than Lag?

Lag has been around since the very earliest days of online gaming, and there’s not much that can be done to remove it. It’s just a fact of life that, with current technology, it takes a bit of time to send data from one place to another, so someone is always going to be a [...] Continue reading

Posted in design, games, Lag, Rant | Comments Off

A Criticism of the Critics: Part 1

I’ve been reading some game reviews and other commentary over the last few months and I’ve been noticing a couple of pitfalls into which some critics seem to be falling. This isn’t to say that all game reviewers are doing these things, but as a reader, gamer or critic, you may want to watch out [...] Continue reading

Posted in Game Reviews, games | Comments Off

Merry Christmas 2011!

Merry Christmas, everybody! May your Christmas be filled with family and friends and all that the holiday truly represents. If you have any gaming-related traditions around this time of year, feel free to let us know in the comments. Also, if I don&#82… Continue reading

Posted in Christmas | Comments Off

The Humble Indie Bundle #4

Just a quick post today to let everyone know about the Humble Indie Bundle #4. As you may already know, the Humble Indie Bundle occasionally brings a collection of popular independent games at a pay-what-you-want price. This time, the bundle includes Jamestown, Bit.Trip Runner, Super Meat Boy, Shank, and NightSky HD. They have also included [...] Continue reading

Posted in games, Humble Indie Bundle, Links | Comments Off

Gameplay Time Value 2 – Analysis

A while back, I posted a poll asking how much gameplay value that people expected out of a new, $60 game in terms of gameplay time. Here is a little bit of interesting data and analysis about the feedback: At the time of this writing, there have been 20 responses to the poll. According to the poll [...] Continue reading

Posted in games, Polls | Comments Off

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare Trailer

UPDATE: Newer trailer posted. Fans the Internet over, myself included, have been watching for and speculating about the next Alan Wake game, keeping our ears out for every piece of news from the creators we could find. Not long ago, we saw a teaser trailer that let us know a new game was on the [...] Continue reading

Posted in Alan Wake, games, Links, Spike Video Game Awards | Comments Off

Woah

This was too good not to share – the A-Team music really puts this video over the top. Thanks to BurnZeZ for pointing this out. Leave your reactions in the comments!
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Posted in Battlefield 3, games, Links | Comments Off

Gameplay Time Value 2

This might seem familiar to you, since I’ve done one of these polls before, but that one was in the context of $15 XBox Live Arcade games. Now let’s get down to the real deal – the brand new, $60 fully featured game. How many hours of gameplay do you look for out of a [...] Continue reading

Posted in games, Polls | Comments Off