Author Archives: Andy

Can't sing, can't dance, can handle a sword a little.

Game music: Mirror’s Edge

MIrrors Edge OST CoverWith a sequel on the way, and sounding disappointingly combat-centric, it’s worth looking back at the flawed gem that was Mirror’s Edge, from that brief period when EA actually had a go at releasing new and interesting games.
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Going Nowhere not fast enough

Nowhere

Nowhere is a place outside of… well… outside of everything. Or inside something. We don’t know.”

And with that introduction husband and wife team Duangle have forever endeared themselves to me as people and as developers. But they go on. “Strong social AI”. “First person experience”. “Procedural content”. “Emergent player-driven storytelling”. Let’s face it, with those phrases they may as well just have opened up the top of my head and pressed the “Want” button.
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Game music: Lemmings 2 – The Tribes

Lemmings 2What’s that you say? Christmas got you in the mood for more Lemmings? Well, that’s perfectly understandable. How about a healthy dose of Lemmings 2: The Tribes?
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Move over Serious Sam, Tower of Guns wants your seat

Tower of Guns

Back in the day Doom and Quake had a style of play that was totally incongruous with their creepy gothic/hellish (delete as appropriate) level design and atmospheres. No cautious advancing and room clearing for them, no sir. Movement was everything. If you wanted to survive, you never stopped moving. Since then FPSs have assumed a more deliberate pacing, and even more recent id games like Doom 3 are rather stately affairs. In general it’s been left to games like Painkiller and Serious Sam to hold the Bunny-hopping Torch of the Circle-Strafer. Until now…
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Sir, you are about to be more hunted

Big Robot - The Landowner

Big Robot are teasing something new in Sir, You Are Being Hunted. Speculation is rife on the forums… What will the Landowner do? How will he attack? One thing everyone can agree on though – the way he moves and the way he sounds are both deeply creepy.

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Game music: Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog OST CoverEarly nineties. Sitting at my friend’s house in front of his TV. His Sega Mega Drive chuntering away beneath it. Sonic the Hedgehog on it. The speed. The sounds. The music. Along with Mario and Metroid, the music to Sonic was one of the early greats, echoing down the decades, recognisable even to people who weren’t born when it was released.
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The Great AI Link Dump of February 2014

HAL 9000

In honour of the fact that we will soon be ruled by machines it’s maybe worth taking a look at how the video games industry is helping to bring about our doom. Or not, in some cases.
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Dreamfall, The Kickstarted Journey

Dreamfall Chapters

How did I miss this? Ragnar Tørnquist has run a successful kickstarted campaign to make a new Dreamfall Game. Not only that, but it’s actually nearly ready for release. Zoë Castillo, yay!
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White Night: A survival horror game that’s actually survival horror?

White Night

From the description alone White Night is either going to be wonderful or disappointing:

White Night is a third person adventure game that combines puzzle and survival horror elements while taking its inspiration from the cult game Alone in the Dark 1.

Lots of games have advertised themselves along those lines and lots of games utterly fail to live up to their own vision. “Survival horror” usually means “action horror” and “inspired by Alone in the Dark” usually means “third-person shotgun-fest”. But OSome Studio look like they might actually be able to follow through on their ambitions.
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Robot uprising time

Sparki

My Sparki arrived! Soon the fun will begin. I’ll probably run a series of articles on the basics of programming it and then maybe a couple more articles on some larger, in-depth projects.
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