Just received my Elgato Game Capture HD today in the mail. It’s a great little machine that allows you to capture gameplay, edit your material, and stream live to Twitch, YouTube, and Ustream, among other useful options. So, here is the final product and short video captured today playing Titanfall on the Xbox One.
Also look for new segments and videos in the future. Enjoy!
Some indie games are becoming equally, if not more, popular than triple A retail games these days. Games like Braid, Hotline Miami, Fez, and Minecraft, just to name a few, have garnered much attention and praise. Indie games allow the developers to be more creative than if they were working for a large developer or publisher, thus creating games at a lower cost with some interesting gameplay.
Here are 5 indie games that exude creativity and look to be white-hot when released.
5. Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number
Neon, the 80’s, ability masks, gratuitous blood and violence, a fast-paced environment that makes you feel like you’ve funneled mounds of cocaine up your nose…Hotline Miami is one of the most addictive games I have played within the last couple of years. It was one of those games that I had heard a lot about but was too apprehensive to actually throw a few bucks down to try. It wasn’t until I watched the Giant Bomb guys play it in one of their Quick Looks, and released on the Vita, that I became interested in purchasing this maniacal game. Hotline Miami is also one of the best scored games, ever! So good!
So, obviously, seeing as how good Hotline Miami was, it was only natural that the sequel would make this list. Hotline Miami: Wrong Number picks up where the first game left off with “escalating levels of violence through multiple factions born from the events of the original game and driven by uncertain motivation.” Wrong Number will come packed with 20 high-paced chapters, an interconnecting story lines, and multiple different characters that span over a variety of new locations and time periods. So basically Pulp Fiction, almost.
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number will definitely be out on PC, Mac, Linux, PS3, PS4, and Vita sometime in 2014.
4. Broforce
If Minecraft, Contra, and every big 80’s and 90’s male action star had a baby, Broforce would be the product.
Broforce is a side-scrolling action action game with destructible environments where you play as like-versions of randomly generated 80’s and 90’s action stars – such as Brobocop or Rambro – 15 in all with more on the way. These characters make up the team Broforce.
Developers, Free Lives, explains Broforce as:
Broforce is a co-operative patriotism simulation. You play as 80’s and 90’s action heroes waging war against terror in almost entirely destructible nostalgic settings.
While superficially a run ‘n gun in the vein of Metal Slug, Broforce’s reactive environment encourages tactical play. Each bro out of the 15 the game currently features (with many more to come) has distinctive attacks and special abilities, and, aside from spraying terrorist blood across the landscape, mastering all these abilities is one of Broforce’s core pleasures.
In Broforce death is instant and often surprising, but this is balanced by the incompetence of the enemy. The explosions (which are numerous) often result in unpredictable chain reactions, but this shouldn’t discourage you from permanently holding down your trigger finger. Yelling “‘Murica!” while you do so is optional.
Broforce also has various other game modes such as Explosion Race and Deathmatch, to name a few.
Broforce is being developed by South African indie studio Free Lives and is available through early access on Steam.
3. SOMA
I love science fiction and horror, so naturally SOMA makes the list.
SOMA is a first person psychological horror game developed by Frictional games – yes, the Amnesia guys – for the PS4 and PC. So you know this game is going to be ripe with atmospheric tension.
Through a series of videos showing a woman who is documenting her interactions with these machines, she is confronted with the sobering fact that these machines are taking on a life of their own and in one video, showing her own death.
To see more, go to the SOMA website. This game is slated for a 2015 release on PC and PS4.
2. Invisible Inc.
Developed by Klei, the guys behind Shank and Don’t Starve, Invisible Inc. is a tactical espionage turn-based strategy game.
Not much is explained on their website, but doing a little sleuthing of my own and extracting from the teaser trailer I found there will be various classes (Sniper, Stealth, and Cyber Psychic) working in tandem that you control to sneak and traverse your way through a variety of maps. Similar to games as XCOM and the original Fallout series.
Invisible Inc. is still in Alpha development phase but can be bought and played through the Invisible Inc. website.
1. Below
Not much is given about this title either. On the Capy website all they give you is a slew of videos and on the Below website all is given is a video and a few screenshots. But here is what I’ve heard about this title. I hear it is akin to Zelda and Dark Souls. Punishing in the way of Dark Souls where if you die, that character is dead – like, perma-dead. When you respawn, you respawn as a different character and have to try to get to the previous dead character to collect all your belongings from your previously deceased self. And I hear its akin to Zelda due to its dungeon crawling.
Like I said, not much has been given to the player in regards to mechanics, story plot, or any other mechanical aspect of this game, but from what I hear, I like. Also noteworthy is it’s art style – it is an absolutely gorgeous looking game. Probabaly one of the most innovative art styles I’ve seen in some time. The soundtrack is also being produced by Jim Guthrie.
Look for it on Steam and Xbox One.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,600 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 43 trips to carry that many people.
HOT NEW press release email incoming from Polish studio, Techland. The developers of Dead Island & Dead Island Riptide has graced us with a new trailer spotlighting the humanity associated with their upcoming zombie title, Dying Light.
In this new trailer we get a glimpse of what it’s like to live in their new zombie-filled world. Not only do you have to deal with zombies during the day, and deadlier zombies at night, but you also have to deal with the hostility and disparity of the living.
Dying Light is being published by Warner Bros. Games and has not been given a solid release date. Here is the new trailer and stayed tuned for more information. Enjoy.
Press Release –
Dying Light puts our humanity to trial
Techland and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment released today a new trailer for Dying Light entitled “Humanity”. It shows the horrible reality of living in a zombie infested quarantine zone and how it changes people inside.
Dying Light’s “Humanity” trailer shifts focus from the infected to the survivors – people who had enough strength and luck to endure the outbreak. Yet, the worst is not over as in the quarantine zone every day is a struggle and every night is a challenge. Sadly, human mind can withstand only so much.
In what ways does the quarantine zone influence you? Does killing the infected really leave no trace on your mind? How long can you defend your humanity? What will happen when you eventually break?
Dying Light is a first-person action survival horror game set in a vast and dangerous open world, where players scavenge for supplies during the day as to be best prepared to survive the night. The game will launch for Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in 2014.
I understand you are upset and need your Humanoid fix. Who am I kidding, no one reads this blog. But who cares, I like doing it. I will be in Bali, Taiwan, and Manila until late August. I will return with new content and a “My First 30 Minutes” of The Bureau: XCOM Declassified and “Games of Summer”-Marvel Heroes and Shadowrun Returns.
Thanks and see you in August.
10. Any game that supports female character creation –
I recently moved from rolling strictly dudes to rolling only female characters when given the chance in video games that allow me to choose between the two sexes. Because who wouldn’t want to spend 30-100+ hours playing as a female?
9. Sonya Blade –
Sonya Blade has been a staple in the Mortal Kombat franchise since the first game released in 1992. Ever since then, Sonya Blade has cartwheel-kicked her way into our lives and has made numerous appearances that spans 9 games, 2 movies, and various other entertainment outlets.
8. GlaDOS-
Ahh, GlaDOS our “the cake is a lie” loving, passive aggressive AI matriarch is a hard circuit board to deny. Although not THE lead in the Portal series, she is the one who cynically narrates Chell through two games.
7. Jade –
Jade (Beyond Good & Evil, not Mortal Kombat) is one of the most recognized female protagonists in video games and made her debut in 2003’s, Beyond Good & Evil. Armed with a brain and a camera, Jade broke the objectified female mold and has received praise in other various top ten female protagonist lists throughout the years.
6. Jill Valentine –
You may have heard of this little franchise called, Resident Evil. Yeah, I haven’t either. But from what I hear, there is this zombie-equalizing bad-ass character, Jill Valentine. Although I hear she wasn’t as strong as her partner, Chris Redfield, she was better equipped with skills and weapons which allowed her to kick serious zombie ass. Jill Valentine has also appeared in numerous other Resident Evil games and movies.
5. Commander Shepard –
Kicking ass and taking names is Commander Shepard’s second job in the Mass Effect franchise. Her first job is leading a rag-tag group of assassins, scientists, and mercenaries against an eminent threat, the Reapers. Spanning three games, this leading lady traversed the universe in the Normandy leading her crew, battle after battle, wiping out the Reapers which resulted in an ultimate act of selflessness.
4. Princess Peach –
This peach of a lady stole Mario’s heart in Nintentdo’s Mario and Donkey Kong franchises, which in turn stole our hearts. This heroine made her epic levitating debut in one of my favorite Mario games, Super Mario Bros. 2. Since then, Peach has been in a multitude of spin-offs and even getting her own game, Super Princess Peach.
3. Chun Li –
It’s only natural that the first female in a fighting game be on this list. Not only the first, but arguably the most effective in a fighting game as well. She debuted in Street Fighter 2 and has been in just about every other Street Fighter since. If you don’t think she deserves to be on this list, especially at number 3, I have a SF2 machine in my house that will prove otherwise.
2. Lara Croft –
Besides all the negative sexual attention this character received when the first Tomb Raider released, Lara Croft was one of the first female characters in a strong protagonist role. Armed with two pistols and the ability to climb any mountain, crevasse, hillside, or cliff, Lara Croft treads fearless into any cave welcoming any challenge she faces.
Recently rebooted, Lara Croft was given a new appearance and story. Although Lara was portrayed as a broken young woman, by the end of the game she was transformed into a fearless adventurer. I look forward to seeing what new adventures come her way.
1. Samus Aran –
Yes, Samus hails at number one of this top ten female lead list. Why, you ask? Samus is in the Guinness Book of World Records: Gaming Edition as, “the first playable human female character in a mainstream videogame.” Not only is she the first but, at the time, a dominant force in video games as the protagonist of the Metroid series. She didn’t just jump, bop, and run from left to right like her cousin, Mario. She spun, gunned down, and morphed her way in, through, and around the world of Zebes, eradicating Mother Brain.
Being a male in his mid-thirties, I grew up in the NES era and one of my favorite games was Metroid. The developers pulled one of the biggest and greatest switcheroos by unveiling that Samus was a female in this male dominated genre. Being young, and only seeing male protagonists, imagine how astonished I was when I found out that this ball-morphing, spin-jumping, arm-gun shooting protagonist was actually a female. Mind. Blown.
15. Crackdown –
Released in 2007, Crackdown was a huge hit with Xbox 360 owners which later spawned a sequel that was not as well received.
In Crackdown you play as a bio-augmented agent who is fighting crime lords and their factions in Pacific City. It’s your basic run-of-the-mill 3rd person open-world shooter. Personally, I didn’t get too into it but I felt it deserved a place on this list…a crowd-pleaser, if you will.
14. Journey –
This game could be debated whether or not it is a truly open-world game in comparison to the other games on this list, and I like to think it is.
Journey takes your shadowy cloaked character and drops him in the middle of the desert, only to have it solve puzzles and grow the scarf around its neck while making its robed way to, and up, a snowy white mountain.
Journey has won multiple awards, including, “Game of the Year.” If you own a PS3 and looking for a, what I like to call “spiritual” and tranquil game experience, Journey is one game you need to play.
13. Dead Island Riptide –
Zombies, blood, gore, open-world terror, crazy-ass homemade weapons, and extremely bad dialogue make this follow-up game to Dead Island a diamond in the rough.
Dead Island boasts beautifully colored flora, crystal blue waters, and murky swamps that can be navigated by boat or (if you’re daring) waded through. Those zombies can be mighty overwhelming in chest deep water.
12. Saints Row: The Third –
Saints Row: The Third is the only game where you can run around an open environment and beat people with a huge purple rubber dildo. So yeah, it deserves to be on this list almost for that reason alone.
11. Infamous –
You’re probably sitting there wondering why I didn’t choose Infamous 2, because Infamous 2, “has this” and, “it has that.” But for me, Infamous had a great soundtrack and a superb atmospheric presence that I feel Infamous 2 lacked. Infamous was dark and grey and I felt the mood and tone of the game was more desperate than then its colorfully lit predecessor. Plus, this has one of the best environment traversal systems in my opinion and I straight up enjoyed the hell out of Infamous.
10. Burnout Paradise –
Burnout Paradise is an open-world arcade-style racing game where every stop light that you come to is either a race, time trial, takedown events, or other race-type event.
Burnout comes loaded with a ton of cars to choose from to roam its vast open world. This is also my favorite racing game because I get to destroy cars and have fun doing so without any repercussions. (I wrecked numerous cars in my day.)
9. Far Cry 3 –
This open-world game allows for complete freedom amongst its tropical terrain. Besides the usual run-and-gun of an open-world FPS, Far Cry 3 allows you to hunt animals, dive deep within its bays, and hang glide across the map. Also, weird drugs.
Warning: If you are deathly afraid of sharks like I am, Far Cry 3’s deep ocean environments will scare the crap out of you. You’ve been warned.
8. Borderlands 2 –
Gearbox Studios knows how to make big games and the proof is in its Borderlands franchise.
Building off the first game, Borderlands 2 is vast and colorful with a wide variety of diverse environments, ranging from a desolate desert to a winter dystopia to a caustic cavern. Borderland 2 also produces crazier battles with an even crazier cast of creatures and maniacs, that when played with 3 friends, make for an extraordinary experience.
Even Borderland 2’s DLC is humongous.
7. Arkham City –
This may not be the biggest open world game, but it sure is the darkest.
Arkham City is quite possibly one of the best games of this console generation and a lot of that success is due to the environment and the freedom for Batman to swing and stealth his way across the map on his way to take down the Joker.
6. The Legend of Zelda –
No, I did not just hit my head.
The Legend of Zelda is indeed an open-world game. Link travels from frame to 8-bit frame, collecting what he needs to enter each dungeon or cave and collect all the pieces of the Tri-force to save the venerated Zelda.
If you don’t believe this should be on the list, I challenge you to go back and play it.
5. Red Dead Redemption –
Red Dead Redemption is an extremely large game that allows the player to hunt, ride horseback, and even travel by train. When playing Red Dead you definitely feel the scope of what Rockstar was trying to execute in this behemoth of an open-world environment.
Red Dead Redemption takes our protagonist, John Marsden, from the snowy mountains of the US all the way down to the dusty villas of Mexico. Rockstar Games always does a great job at putting small tasks and missions in from of you so you never feel like there isn’t enough to do in this huge world.
I remember playing this game and thinking to myself, “I’m just going to walk across the whole map and see what happens.” I never made it because this map is ginormous.
4. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City –
So, you could pretty much put any GTA game here. But for me, growing up in the 80’s, Vice City had it all. Pastel colors, neon lighting, one of the best soundtracks to any game EVER, plus awesome 80’s vehicles.
Eat your heart out, Kit. (That’s a Knight Rider reference for all youngsters and if you don’t know what Knight Rider is, you should brush up on your 80’s culture. Pssst….it’s a talking car.)
3. Shadow of the Colossus –
Big and Hairy, Large and Scary are the Colossi in PS2’s, Shadows of the Colossus.
So naturally a game with such towering and large crazy cracked-out steroid-looking Snuffleupagus’ roaming the land, you’d need a large open space to find and kill these monstrosities.
All kidding aside, Shadows of the Colossus is one of the most spiritual games I have ever played. There is something very serene about traveling across a desolate land by yourself, your horse, and a sword that guides you by reflecting the sun in the direction to these skyscraper-esque beings.
Once you arrive at a Colossi’s lair, you need to figure out how you are going to pounce upon and climb these beings to jam your sword into its vulnerable spot marked by a special symbol.
This is an amazing game this is definitely one of my favorites of all time and the fact that it’s incased in an open-world environment, is the topping on the cake.
An HD remake of Shadows of the Colossus and its spiritual successor, Ico, can be found for the PS3.
2. Fallout 3 –
Fallout 3 houses one of the most eccentric maps in all of gaming history. One of the reasons people love games made by Bethesda is the ability and freedom to roam its crazy vast environments at one’s own discretion.
Once emerging from Vault 101, you are encouraged to visit the closest town, but why would you want to do that? you have ghouls to see and places to pillage…or not.
Bethesda does an impeccable job of creating a desolate DC wasteland with dilapidated overpasses and crumbled building that bleed into barren woodlands and rocky hillsides which house Super Mutants and Radscorpions.
Sounds like my next vacation spot!
1. Skyrim –
Tamriel, Morrowind, and Daggerfall don’t come close to size and scope of Skyrim.
From Markarth to Riften to Falkreath and Winterhold, Bethesda completely immerses the player into their mountainous winter wonderland, Skyrim.
You can fish, fight dragons, and even build your own home (if you have the correct DLC, Heathfire). The diversity this open-world brings to the player is unparalleled. It’s so good, in fact, that I convinced multiple friends to play this game who doubted it and then ended up spending a good chunk of their lives scouring, sneaking, pickpocketing, and questing their time away in this majestic open-world game.
I, personally, have only spent 200+ hours (I know, what a noob) wandering the land of Skyrim and still haven’t seen or done everything there is to do in this monstrosity of a game.
At one point, I caught myself literally stopped at the side of a river to just sit and breathe in the environment. Ahhhhhh……
10. When you sweat, your pores secrete digitized sweat. Imagine Minecraft sweat.
9. You start to learn and speak all alien and foreign languages from all the games you play without realizing it. Thanks, FEZ!!
8. When holding conversations with friends and family, you start to check your dialogue tree in your mind to come up with the best dialogue option.
7. Texting and phone calls are a thing of the past. The only verbal interaction you have with people and friends is through Xbox Live, PSN, or Ventrilo.
6. The ONLY interaction you have is through Xbox Live, PSN, or Ventrilo – and if you really want to go out of your way, Video Kinect.
5. You have devised and manufactured the couch-toilet. No more pausing for bathroom breaks.
4. You have replaced all the light bulbs in the house – but mostly the room you game in – with UV bulbs due to the fact your skin has become pale and almost translucent from lack of sun exposure. Gotta get that vitamin D, son!
3. When – and if – you leave the house, you start rolling around and hiding behind walls and cars pretending you are in a video game. Pew-Pew!! That’s the sound my hand-gun makes…pew-pew!
2. Your pants are now infused with the couch/chair for which you play games on. Ugh…
1. You have somehow managed to escape reality and are now living with in the games themselves. Similar to Emilio Esteves in 1983’s Nightmares tale, “The Bishop of Battle.” If you’ve never seen it, stop what you’re doing and go YouTube it. Phenomenal.
Sometimes I’m a little slow to realize things. Maybe it’s an inappropriate joke I told, food in my teeth, the pungent smell emanating from my armpits, or realizing that this past 2013 E3 showed us a peek into the direction games are being pushed by developers.
I wasn’t at E3, but I watched the presentations that Monday from the major companies (Sony, EA, Microsoft, and Ubisoft) from the comfort of my domicile. By the end of all four presentations, I was on stimulation overload. I witnessed new games for new consoles, new franchises from new developers, established developers presenting new games, horrible jokes, uncomfortable silences, and the hardware reveal of Sony’s PS4. I was overwhelmed but generally satisfied by what I saw.
Over the next few days the media flood gates opened and the overflow of information poured out. I was uninterested. The luxury of viewing such an event from the confines of my own home is that I can pick and choose what I want to see and read, however, there were quite a few games that had piqued my interest and knew little about. These games offered a fresh prospective on how we would play games in the future and presented possibilities that aren’t readily available to the current generation of consoles.
So, you might be asking yourself by now, “What is he getting at and what does this have to do with his introduction and the title?”
It hadn’t dawned on me until a few weeks after E3 that developers are pushing their own imagination of the MMO. Developers and publishers are now afforded the opportunity to go out on a limb and develop ambitious titles that allow for an experience seldom accomplished on a console, an experience usually reserved for the power of the PC.
The reveal of The Division came at the end of the Ubisoft presser and was well met by the audience. Instantly I noticed the game looked gorgeous. As the demo went on, my level of intrigue rose with each frame. The player met up with two other players, seemingly, and together they trekked through the New York wasteland. The small nuances of the game caught the eyes of many and the internet was a buzz about the animation of the character closing the door of a car that he was hiding behind while being shot at. (You had to see it to realize its awesomeness.) After a run in with some enemies, we got a glimpse of another division of players and the demo ended. This was a game I must have.
But one question went unanswered, “Who were those other players and how will this all fit together in terms of multiplayer?” I searched the internet, turning up nothing. A day or two later after I had obsessively scoured the internet trying to drum up any information on this game, an interview arose from the E3 press tendrils. The Division was in fact an open-world game that would house multiple characters at the same time where players could also meet up and form divisions to complete quests and such.
Another game to position itself on my radar was Destiny. Destiny was announced a few months before E3 and not much was known about this mysterious title other than it was being developed by Bungie and published by Activision, it was going to be a persistent open-world FPS, it was to have a possible life span of up to 10 years, and the game world would contain multiple players at the same time.
Inquisition would be put to rest during the Sony E3 presser when Bungie took the stage to show off their new persistent shooter. Destiny looked gorgeous with its beautifully bleak backdrop and intricate character design. During the E3 demo, the player would meet up with a multitude of other players during the demo to complete a quest and then conclusively winding up at an instanced battle. Once again, my eyes were dilated and my mouth wet with interest. Here was another game I could not wait to get my sweaty mitts all over.
Another game that was previously announced before E3 was, Elder Scrolls Online. People scoffed at the prospect of another MMO. Why in the hell would Bethesda, a well-respected and very intelligent game development company be working on a game in a genre that is super hard to succeed in? Did they not get the memo? MMOs are dead.
Yes, this is a traditional MMO by base standards and by the looks of it, not adding anything new to the genre. But what makes this title so unique is that it will be fully playable on the upcoming next-gen consoles. Yeah, I know. PC is still better. But the diversity of both console and PC allows people access to a game that would otherwise be condemned to one platform. Now a full spectrum of gamers can have access to a style of game that maybe they previously couldn’t afford to play due to the high cost of gaming PCs. Also, consider that this franchise could re-spark a dying MMO genre.
MMOs are making a comeback, whether we like it or not. The examples shown at E3 by publishers prove this theory. It wouldn’t make sense for a major publisher like Ubisoft and Activison to sink a substantial amount of time, money, and resources into a genre that was dead. The traditional MMO model may be dead and we may never see the subscription model again, thankfully so. But what we will see are developers pushing a new style of game, a style of game that blankets the MMO architecture with a veneer of interesting gameplay that will appeal to the masses.
If you’re a crazy avid gamer like me, then you know that summer is the deadest season for gaming. So dead that it makes most gamers go absolutely ape-shit crazy from the lack of fresh and new digital stimuli and fiend for even the shittiest games out there. Why publishers and developers utilize this bruised formula for not releasing new titles during the summer, I have no idea. One could only speculate. What I do know, in fact, is that summer is a great time to catch up on all the games I started and didn’t finish as well as buy a shit-ton of games on demand or from Steam that I don’t need.
Just the other day I performed my usual morning ritual: I woke up, got out of bed, hit the couch, laid back down on the couch, and turned on my Xbox. Much to my surprise, a bundle of games was on sale that was too cheap and too good to pass up. One of those games was Prey, and on sale for only $2.99. “Fuck it,” I thought. How bad could this game be? I mean, it’s only $3. That’s like 3 collect calls. That’s less than 1 gallon of gas. That’s only 3-$1 menu items from any disgusting fast food chain.
I had played this game before but thought it was uber-lame and turned it off after a half hour or so. My digital palette hadn’t been refined enough to enjoy this tasty morsel of a game. I was too enamored with military shooters and other various superficial games to care about a game that was trying to do something creative and different such as Prey. Basically, if I couldn’t shoot Russians, then it wouldn’t hold my interest. So, I returned the rented Prey and didn’t shudder to think about it for the following years.
Enter Microsoft’s Summer Sale. Prey was mine, again, and this time for keeps.
I started Prey and instantly I identified with the angst-ridden and anxious Native American protagonist, Tommy. Not because I’m Native American or angsty, but because of the cynicism and foul language he radiated. I could have sworn I voiced it.
After a few minutes of character development, messing with the jukebox, and playing on the in-game digital gambling machines, Tommy, his girlfriend, and grandfather were bathed in a green hue and swiftly teleported through the butthole of an alien ship. This is where the game gets super weird and super good.
It isn’t the shooting or the combat or the story that makes Prey good. It’s the tone it sets. Tonally, Prey is a strange game that blends Native American spirituality with the likes of demented alien abduction and torture, all the while narrated with a laughable and oddly relatable dialogue by Tommy as he navigates his way through the alien vessel.
Prey was released in 2006, and it shows. This is a straight linear shooter that still touts a ‘no reload’ shooting mechanic. However, the uniqueness about Prey is that the game is always putting you upside down and on the walls of the normal oriented room. So, for example, you may enter a portal or portal box and end up in the same room but now on one of the walls or on the ceiling. This mechanic is simply implemented to help you get from ‘Point A’ to ‘Point B.’ A mundane, yet oddly refreshing and rare implementation.
Another tonal subtlety was the dialogue produced by Tommy. As you get abducted into and through the bowels of the alien ship, others have been abducted as well. At times, you get to interact with these NPCs. Either you’re accidently pressing a button which in turn brutally impales them or you ‘accidently’ pull on the right trigger of the controller that ‘accidently’ shoots them in the face. Upon where Tommy usually utters an apologetic, “Ah fuck,” or, “Oh shit. I didn’t mean to do that. Fuck,” and where, strangely, the game shines for me. It’s the small comical nuances that really play into my funny bone.
For a game that is 7 years old and $3, this is a must have. Why I didn’t allow myself the time to really get into this game earlier is beyond me, and quite frankly, irrelevant. Prey is great for what it is: a solid corridor shooter that employs unique mechanics that is basked under the glow of some comical dialogue moments. If you read this before the Microsoft Summer sale ends (which at this point is only a day or so) and live in North America, purchase this game. Maybe then Bethesda will finally get going on the recently submerged sequel.
Digital Humanoid 