When I first started writing for Game On Girl back at the end of 2012, I immediately thought of doing an article at the beginning of every year where I looked ahead to the games that had me excited. I, to date, have done that exactly once, at the beginning of 2013. And looking at… Continue reading My Growing Despair of the Video Game Industry
I had the pleasure to chat briefly via email with the art director for a fantastic Kickstarter game, Charmixy. Tess Young took some time to answer my questions about this unique, puzzle-based combat game. It's rare that I promote Kickstarter campaigns but I think this game has great vision, diverse characters, an intriguing game play… Continue reading The Charm of Charmixy: An Interview with Tess Young
Recently, I returned to playing Warframe after about a six month hiatus. The impetus for this being that I wanted to see how pretty it would be on the new PC I built. After waiting about 20 minutes for the game to download, I began the install and was surprised when a beta Terms of… Continue reading Hiding Behind Beta
I’ve been thinking about early access games a lot over the past six months. On the surface it seems like an incredible way for small game developers to raise the capital to get their games made and for the gamers to see behind the curtain and have input into development. And when things go really… Continue reading Early Access Doesn’t Work. At Least Not for Me. Most of the Time.
I’ve been playing a lot of 7 Days to Die over the past couple of months. (In fact, I wrote an early release review of it that you can check out here.)
One of the things that has struck me about 7 Days to Die is how in-depth the game is when it comes to surviving in it, so much so that shortly after I started playing I started taking notes and writing down little epiphanies that I had as I played.
In an effort to help people who are new to this game, I would like to share some thoughts I’ve gleaned as I’ve been running for my life from a throng of zombies.
Nearly everything that you find in 7 Days to Die has a purpose. As such, you should always be gathering items from the world. Most commonly, I am always picking up small stones. They are literally everywhere you go in-game and are used in a few very important crafting recipes. The nice thing about picking up stones is that you can do it even when you are running for your life.
Even though I say you should always be gathering....
Be mindful of what you need most at all times and try to gather that class of items. Also, be thinking of what your secondary and tertiary needs are as well, and so on.
Nothing sucks more in a game than when you find a good piece of loot and you don't have the inventory space to pick it up. This is compounded in 7 Days to Die when you have a zombie—or twelve—bearing down on you intent on making you a member of their undead club.
This is the game screen on my iPhone. And I spend the majority of my free time lately gaming here. For many people, that would make me not a gamer. Social and mobile gaming is considered by many not to be "true" gaming, or not "hardcore" or "core," or somehow lacking in significance. Many people… Continue reading You Might Call Me a Casual Gamer, and That’s OK
7 Days to Die is a voxel based “survival horde crafting game” with a tower defense feel being developed by The Fun Pimps. Set in a post World War 3 apocalyptic world where a new virus causes dead human beings to return from the dead as zombies, you must gather resources and the knowledge to use them to survive. And right now, it looks to be one of the best, if not the best, zombie genre games ever.
Think survival horror meets Minecraft and you've got a good idea of what this game is like.
If you're like me, you love the zombie genre, but are sick of all the half-assed attempts at zombie survival games out there. Well, be sick no longer, friend. 7 Days to Die is the elixir you've been waiting for!
The first thing you're going to notice when you start up your first single player game or multi-player server is the huge amount of customization available in the setup menus. Whether you want a Walking Dead style game experience, 28 Days Later type, or something in between, it can be done in the setup menus. I assure you though, the first thing you're going to want to do when you start up is to turn the difficulty and zombie spawn rate down.
This game can be very unforgiving at “normal” settings. You've been warned.
I play free to play games.
There's lots of reasons why, but here are the important bits.
First, and foremost, I’ve become a bit of a penny pincher in my middle age. Money doesn't exactly flow freely and I find it hard to justify paying $60 for a video game. When you add the quality issue that a lot of video games seem to have on release lately (looking at you Watchdogs and Destiny), it just becomes foolish to buy most new titles.
Don't get me wrong. I’m happy to support a game when I have the money and the game is really worth it.
This is why I’ve taken to Free to Play (F2P) games in the last year or two. I’m not saying I don't play anything else, but when I’m looking for something new, that's where I start. Because of this I’ve come to realize what makes a F2P game work.
It comes down to playability, respect, and value.
Playability
When it works, the game is a fully realized concept. From controls to design, the game functions as it was intended to. The controls are smooth and react as you would expect them to and the game has very few bugs and is playable “right out of the box.”
When it doesn't work, the game is full of holes. It can be any mix of terrible controls, half-realized game mechanics, story, and bugs. In my experience, some of the really bad F2P games hide these shortcomings behind a pay wall where they only become evident once a player gets beyond that wall. For an example of this check out Regina and Rhonda's review of Swordsman on GoG podcast episode 125 and Rhonda's companion piece.
Linda Breneman from Pixelkin joins us this week. We have a great discussion about gaming with your kids, making content accessible to new gamers, and the fun of a good online gaming experience. Make sure to check out the site for lots of great reviews and excellent articles. Rhonda and I discuss some of our… Continue reading Episode 140 – Linda Breneman from Pixelkin
This week, Cathé Post from GeekMom.com joins us on the show. We discuss training your kids to be board gaming geeks, cosplaying as a family, and some of our favorite board games. In the WRaP, Rhonda and I discuss our current geeky obsessions! Make sure to check out all the great DIY science stuff on these… Continue reading Episode 139 – Cathé Post – GeekMom
