I am not a Sonic fan. Since I only play on PC, I mainly play games like Team Fortress 2 and Hearts Of Iron IV so when I picked up Sonic Mania for 75% off, I didn't know what I was expecting. Sonic Mania is the 2017 love letter by Sega for 16-bit Sonic. Reliving the era of the Sega Genesis and 'Blast Processing', Sonic Mania tries to be the perfect sequel to where the 2D games left off. After the huge success of Super Mario 64, Sega tried to fight them with their iconic platforming icon Sonic. On the Sega Saturn (Sega's version of the Nintendo 64), Sonic saw a few outings with the racing game Sonic R and Sonic 3D Blast which was an isometric platformer akin to Super Mario RPG. Both of which and the Saturn itself were major failures for Sega. The Sega Dreamcast saw the first true 3D Sonic game, Sonic Adventure. The Dreamcast was not a failure per se, but it also failed, twisting Sega's hand into releasing on other consoles like the Playstations, X-Boxes and Nintendos. The 2000s saw Sonic failure after failure as Sega seemed to lack direction about where Sonic would go and also they kept making 3D games, not 2D. In 2017, it was the 25th anniversary of Sonic and people were curious about what Sega would do. They made Sonic Mania and here is what I think of it.
It's fantastic looking first off. The pixel art looks amazing and it's really cool what they could do with the graphics. Another thing is that the first act of every stage is a level from a previous Sonic game, mainly Sonic 2 but the game does start with Sonic 1s iconic Green Hill Zone. The game also runs at a perfect 60 FPS and it really is the true blast processing. There is also a boss at the end of every level which makes the levels all feel unique. Speaking of unique, the second act is a brand new level and a remixed theme of the classic music used in act one. It's a fantastic, fresh game that was a great experience. The game is worth the $20 and getting it for $5 felt like a steal.
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While stuck at home, I begin to get ideas for games. I don't know how to code in things like Unity or ClickTeam, so I am stuck using old faithful, Scratch. The little MIT project that's kept me making games since I was five years old. Since then, I have been 'coding' many games into existence. My tools are limited, so I have to make do with as much as possible, but it hasn't stopped me from coming up with ideas. I have many ideas, sometimes I curse myself for not knowing Unity or ClickTeam, and blocking myself from being the next Indie millionaire like Toby Fox or Scott Cawthon, both being examples of people who were average and made a hit indie game and are now millionaires. It's these success stories that keep me thinking up ideas. My process is to think of a setting and a theme. My most recent idea was a top down shooter in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. It's always something random and specific like that which gives me the motivation to keep going. However, determination can only carry me so far. The mid-development hell is the worst for anybody. You see what your game will become but the effort to do it isn't quite in you yet. I feel it to, so for now, I just have a lot of ideas and time to make them. But the mental block of game development is strong, and I think it's what holds most developers back from greatness.
The game I selected is certainly a weird one, it's also Russian. 'Pathologic' is a Russian survival horror game where you play as one of three doctors trying to cure a small town in the Russian steppe in the early 1900s for your own personal reasons. The game is very clever and not fun. Not fun? Pathologic is NOT a fun game; but it is a great one. The game is not meant to be fun, it's meant to be tedious and requires your patience, in fact, there is a Steam achievement you earn when you finish the first day in the game. Only 11% of players did it. The game is spread across 12 days, with the plague getting worse earch day and more dangerous. The three characters are called the Bachelor, the Horuspex, and the Changeling. The Bachelor is a bachelor of medicine and came to the town because the Russian government is close to shutting down your lab, focused on researching immortality. A man named Isidor Burakh, the town surgeon, invites you to the town. The first day, you try to go meet one ot the town elite, he is over 150 years old, but he was murdered the night before. You go see the surgeon who invited you, who was also murdered. The game plays as you trying to survive the plague and the town as you solve the murders and find a vaccine. Oh also food prices multiply TEN FOLD on day 2 because of stockpiling since you alerted the town of the incoming plague. This is the easiest playthrough and the one I reccomend a lot. Oh, also there are muggers who throw knifes that deal 90% of your health. I would like to explain the other two characters but this is getting long, honestly, play Pathologic, but don't enjoy it. Yes! This is what the game actually looks like!
Tweens make all animation easier. I make my own animations in Macromedia Flash 8 so I was very exited about using tweens to animate. Of course, we had to do the torturous, straight-ahead animation project first. That made me appreciate tweens that much more. I think that most people in the class agree with me too. The apple project was surprisingly easy because of how easy tweens are to use. The thing about Animate that slowed me down and others was learning the interface. It's interface is a bit opaque compared to Illustrator and Photoshop. It felt similiar to A
Worst. Monday. Ever. SCP: Secret Lab is a game that is a new multiplayer horror staple. SCP: Secret Lab is (Or SCP:SL for short) based on a web community named "The SCP Foundation" which is centered around a fictional organization called 'The SCP Foundation' (Same as the name). This organization's purpose is to collect anomalous objects and beings that range from a disproportionate 2m tall boney things that kill you if you look at it's face, to a ball that bounces at a 200% efficiency. Because it is a community project, the game has to be free and that makes it worth it easily. It's free, everything available (No microtransactions or premiums) and no ads. 100% is always worth a try. The game starts with giving you a random roll, sometimes you are a 'D-Class'. Prisoners who are guinea pigs and use the chaos to run away. Scientists who have keycards and odds. Guards with guns and the SCP's themselfs. (No you can't play as the ball but you can find it!) You can be the weird 2m tall person thing, a plague doctor, and even a giant dog lizard thing that can only see by sound. Gameplay is fairly simple, about 20-30 players are in a randomized, giant, underground facility. Important doors like an upgrade room, transition zones, and armories are guarded by keycards and you need to search around to find items while avoid enemies. There are four zones, light containment is farthest from the surface and where D-Class and scientists start. SCP's start in the next zone, Heavy Containment. The guards are in the entrance zone and there is the surface, where you can escape (If you are a d-class or scientist) and become better versions of yourself. Scientists become the MTF who have armour and rifles. D-Class become the insurgency who have armour and LMGs. Respawn waves happen a few times per game where all players come back as an insurgent or MTF and storm the facility through tight elevators choke-points for action. The game is fantastically paced and fun and all deaths feel like my fault. Unfortunately, performance is somewhat lacking. While a gaming PC can run it, my gaming laptop has to go on the minimum settings, but even they look pretty good so it's not a big deal for me, but I can see other people annoyed by this aspect.
Overall, this is a fantastic multiplayer horror game that can be pretty scary at points. It's 100% free on Steam and is worth a shot since there is nothing to lose. 9/10 for only slight performance issues on weaker devices. Texas Instrument calculators and Commodore 64s are like comparing dinosaurs to birds. The similarities are undeniable but so distant that it's hard to see how one became the other. Commodore 64s are old DOS computers from 1982. They were revolutionary in the way that the computer was in the keyboard and portable. It could also plug into your TV! But that's not what's important here. The C64 ran on a old coding style called "BASIC" which stands for Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instructional Code. And what else uses BASIC as it's programming? TI calculators! It's even called TI-BASIC. I have a TI-83 Silver Edition from 2001. There is a small button on it that's very special to me. The program button or on the calculator: Pgrm. This allowed the user to make custom code in BASIC and create simple products. Sometimes it's very simple, like a program that makes you input Leg A and Leg B of a triangle and it solves the hypotenuse. Other times, full games can be make on it. Some as complex as Doom! It's funny when you think about it. In 1982, the world marveled at the Commodore 64 and BASIC programming! "Don't ya know? It's soooo much better than "FORTRAN"'!" And now it's almost 2020. Nearly 40 years later and here we are in math class. With a calculator that is essentially a small Commodore 64 with a nicer screen. The funniest part is that almost nobody knows that everyday, they use a piece of ancient computing history.
Since I own a copy of 'Half-Life 2' by Valve, I have free access to a hidden program deep in the folders of the game. No exaggeration! Right now, the root directory for the exe file is:
C:\Users\Glenn_Thompson\Program_Files(x86)\Steam\Steamapps\Common\Half-Life2\Bin That is ridiculous! There is nothing to tell you it is there. I think that's unfortunate because it's really helpful. The exe file is called "Hammer." The Hammer editor allows you to make your own Half-Life levels with professional polish! It takes time to learn and understand like any other game tool, but it's really simple to make nice products. Unlike the Source SDK product, you can only make Half-Life levels. (Side note: You can make levels for other source games but you need to find their bin folders and load a separate version of Hammer!). Although it's exclusive, it does a lot right. Lighting is custom and simple, all you do is spawn it in using a single button on the side and type in "Light." Then, move it on the three mini-maps to place it exactly where you want in 3D space. It also has a fourth window, which is a 3D view of your level and you can move around in 3D by pressing "Z." It's really easy to spawn in entities and create custom doors and events. In my first level, I was successful in making three bad guys grapple from the ceiling when you open the door to their room. I genuinely had fun navigating a level that I had just spent an hour making. Of course, nothing is perfect and neither is Hammer. First, all levels are a custom file type (.bsp) and they export as another file (.vmf). Finally, the code for the lighting, assets, entities and more are also exported as custom file extensions that not even I know. The program also sometimes, fails to compile the map for no reason and you have to copy everything into a new file since the program corrupted it's own file dedicated to light. It makes no sense. In conclusion, it's near perfect. A new version without these complexities would do wonders for the program and community that surround it. Since we have began working with vector graphics, I have a pretty good idea on what makes them different and usefull. Vector graphics are the best option for basic images. Although they look cartoony and can't look more realistic, they are the best looking. Vector graphics are all mathematic and make perfectly anti-aliasted shapes and lines with little fuss. On the other hand, bitmap images can be realistic, since it's pixel based, all bits can be edited and any image can be formed, but they are aliased and look blocky and at worst, blurry. Vector images make the best logos and simple images, while bitmap is fully customizable. Overall, I prefer vector since my style of art is minimalsitic but I do like bitmaps in a photorealistic setting,
Crusader Kings II is the bread and butter of strategy games. Published by Paradox Interactive from Sweden, it's normally $40 USD, however, since the Paradox convention is happening, it's now free. I've played it for about 7 hours and this is my first take on the game: When the game is loaded up, you're presented with three start dates spanning from 940 to 1066 and the Mongol invasion. When selecting who to play as, you need to be very careful. All empires are split into many tiers you can play as. You can play as the king of the entire country, a king or duke of a smaller county. The game is also in real time (Sped up). Since the game is from 2012, the graphics are nothing special, but are nice to look at when there is absolutely nothing else to look at. Customization is high however, and it feels like most things, you can change. The music is generic and boring so I like to listen to my own. The game is 2d but textured and you look at a flat map. Armies do have 3d models of a single soldier that stands in the province where the army is. The game's depth really takes off in your court. The court is the menus wher you can do various actions that affect your kingdom. This includes the ruler's tab where you can see yourself, your spouse (If you have one), your family from grandparents to children, and possibly your Liege and heir. Right clicking on any of the portraits that represents your close family gives a bunch of options like a plot to kill someone or getting them married. Speaking of marriage, family is the most important thing in this game since if you get usurped by someone who is not a relative whatsoever, it's a game over. It's so complicated, I really could not describe it all. The court also extends to military, roles, laws, and technology. The game shines in this aspect. The complexity makes the game fun. If it were too easy, it would be boring. If it was too hard, it would be frustrating. The game would really benefit from a better tutorial. The one included is a bit thin. In conclusion, I give it two different scores. The gameplay itself is 4/5 stars but since it's free, has no ads, and no microtransactions, it's easily 5/5 for being litteraly risk free. It is now October 10 th. and I have my opinions on Photoshop. Photoshop is very intricate and very powerful but has some downsides. I found the interface to be simplistic, which is nice, but ultimately opaque. It's easy to forget hotkeys and spend 5 mins. searching for what caused your error or how to fix it. Time is precious and its a waste to search up functions. I found the tool switching annoying also. The wand tool and the edge select tool share the same space but require you to right click it and then select which tool you want to replace that slot and augh! It's a headache!
Photoshop does however, have some fun tools to play around with. Although I've needn't use it; I found spot cleaning tool crazy! It can fill in texture in splotches and it must be a very complicated algorithm. I also like the colorization tools. The overlay filters do a very good job in blending colors in different types. It's all way more advanced than anything I've used. |
AuthorI am an artist as anyone else is an artist (if that makes sense). My style is abstract and I also draw cartoons. I am also a voice actor for a web-series. Archives
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