Adam the Artist

I actually found an app all on my own for iOS, which is, like, unheard of. It was in the App Store’s “What’s Hot” section while Outwitters was being featured. The icon intrigued me, I tapped for details, & the screen shots closed the deal. So that’s what that feels like, I thought.

Shellrazer is a war-turtle-riding simulator from the guys that made N+, which Alex and I used to play together. I’m not sure how well this one will work on an iPhone, but on iPad it was perfect for me. You stack some guns on top of your turtle, throw some perks on those guns, and mow down goblins and gun towers and sheep-mounted knights. The difficulty gets pretty nuts towards the end, so paying attention to which guns work best on who and what perks you need becomes really important. I had a blast.

Alex the Codesmith

I’ve been on a PC gaming kick as of late, meaning more than Starcraft 2. Every now and then, especially after a major release or between projects, I tend to go through a lot of games. I usually don’t even come close to beating them. I’ve kind of gotten over the nagging “completionist” in me. If a game offers a decent amount of entertainment for a reasonable amount of time, I’m happy. Maybe it’s a sign of getting older…

In any case, one game I picked up during the Steam Summer Sale was Anno 2070. Very cool city building game with insane amount of depth. The selling point for me was the ability to play in the same ‘world’ with friends, either as separate cities or sharing a city. Provided for some good times.

Another game I’ve sunk a decent amount of hours into was the Arma 2 mod Day Z. It’s in alpha so ‘buggy’ doesn’t really begin to describe the quirkiness of that game. But it’s definitely playable and extremely difficult. The concept of being put on a vast landmass to survive on your own, avoiding zombies, and other players was really compelling. Death in this game is permanent. You start from square one when you die. You could be a month into the game, miles north into the territory and have a bad run in with some zombies, starve to death, or get killed by some bandits (other players) that don’t like the way you looked at them. From a design perspective, the game is fascinating. It’s a multiplayer game where paranoia between players is truly real, and even though there are weapons not everyone is rushing to point X to up their kill/death ratio. Killing another player in this game has a unnerving effect (at least on me). If you manage to kill someone (either by accident, defensively, or just by being a griefer) the consequences are huge. You could have potentially wiped out weeks if not months of another player’s playtime with a single shot (click of the mouse).

And finally, I’m currently pretty into Tower Wars by Supervillain Studios. It recently came out for PC on Steam. I’ve never been a big Tower Defense fan (mostly from fatigue of the game type), but this game was refreshing enough for me to be genuinely interested in the nuances of the tower interactions with the creeps. Having 2v2 and 3v3 co-op head-to-head is kind of what clinched it for me (again). Good times had by all.