Oh What A World!

  Every couple of weeks I return to Kongregate, which is a mass conglomeration of just about every browser game out there. Developers from Crazy Monkey Games, New Grounds, Armor Games, and countless independents (individual people as well as growing businesses) upload their games to Kongregate, thus the name. Recently I've been seeing a few games uploaded that require Unity. Unity, from what I can tell, is the new java/flash, at least when it comes to browser games. Generally the term is "flash game", but with this new program, it looks like we're about to see a whole new wave of browser games, and let me tell you, it's a development I can get behind. These new games aren't the most intense, but the potential is definitely there. But enough introductions, let me show you what "there" really means.

Important Note: These games require Unity, but you should be giving a link to download it. Don't worry, as far as I know, it's not anything scary. It's like a java update.

Drillboid

  What the hell is a "Drillboid"? This is a Drillboid. The game puts you in the body of a rolly-polly robot, adorable, who has a drill on one hand, and a phaser on the other. On top of that, you can turn into a ball, though I don't really use it that often. You can hop, jump, and even fly a bit. What's cool is that it's not a hot jolting mess, you can pretty much control all of that while doing all the other things. A lot of games of this style usually only let you do one of these things, or if you can do more than one, it's limited to flying and an arm function. Not this game! If you want to fly, drill, and have a phaser ball going all at the same time, who is this game to stop you? 

Who's my deadly multitasking robot? It's you! Yes it is! Yes it is!

But seriously, look at that shit. Is that not awesome looking, if only in a single picture? 

The plot is a bit iffy, if only because I didn't really pay attention. From what I gathered, you're a mining robot who has to retrieve a power core from a station in a cave, collecting gems along the way. Honestly, it's like they took Minecraft, Pacman (I...don't really have a link for that. Get it yourself), and Megaman and shoved it into one very circular tin can. Between the graphics, the simple yet slightly difficult game play, and a third thing, it's a wonderful little game. 

Arbitrary Star Rating: * * * * * * * * * (9/?)

Best feature: You are obviously stealing this power core, yet you go clank clank clank as you run around on the metal floors. "Guuuuys, I think someone's here... Guuuuys?"

Bullseye

  I would say that this is the next wave of games, and that's not just because I lost my mind and shot all of the hostages. Bullseye is a piece of a large game called Interstellar Marines. IM is an upcoming game that, to me, is trying a bit too hard to jump on the next big thing, but I'm behind them almost every step of the way. It must be a Netherlands thing, because this independent company, AAA Indie, hails from Denmark, much like Sweden's Mojang (see: Minecraft). I'm sure all of you hardcore gamers are shouting about that other tiny company no one has heard of, but please be quiet because your parents are trying to sleep, and I can't hear you. I'm beginning to wonder if independent games will start the next hipster fad. "I totally played that game before it was even released as a full game." 

  Anyway, when I said almost every step of the way, it's because the game costs 25 dollars and I don't think I want to shell that out for a game that's not released yet. It has a ton of potential, and not to put Minecraft on a pedestal, but Minecraft won't cost 30 dollars until it's finished and released in full, while IM is asking for 25 dollars upfront. They are boasting a nice solid team of eight, so I understand their financial needs, but come on. You're running an independent business for gods sakes.

That's not to discourage you from buying it, I just don't think I want to get into it. I'm doing my part by telling you readers about it. The other issue I have with it is that I finished Bullseye on Kongregate and am now trying out Running Man, another piece of their free test run. Why is that bad? I'm almost done with this portion of the blog and it's still loading. It could be my internet, as I'm on the school's server, or the game is just huge, in which case their new wave isn't so much a rip tide as a strong ripple.

  The game itself is a first person shooter, and like I said, has a shit ton (metric for being in Europe. I think.) of potential. It puts you in space, obviously, and I suppose it's a bit cliche, I can't tell, but I think you're trying to stop genetic experimentation. The reason I don't know is because it's mostly been training, and no plot exploration, except for what you can see in the video linked below. Overall I'd say it's a wonderful game. The weapons and unlockables look pretty neat, and I'm mostly interested to see how well it does out in the real world. It's definitely getting a lot of traffic through Kongregate, so it's using word-of-mouth (all of my projects failed because I tried implementing word-of-foot) nicely. 

Arbitrary Star Rating * * * * * * * § (7/? and whatever that thing is)

Best Feature: In the video promo, during the push for how independent they are, the incredibly unsubtle Minecraft icon. 

  Much like Comics Galore, this list will be ongoing, because I'm sure we're going to see more of these. Don't get discouraged just because there are only two games here. I jumped into writing this so I haven't tried past the first couple of levels on Drillboid, so I can promise at least 5 minutes of gameplay.

Decisions Bobicians Foficians

  More like fauxcisons, amiright?
Poor puns aside, at noon I started the coin flipping. I would have started this morning, but I was so damn tired I couldn't even bring myself to give up deciding things. Lazily going along with habits (or going along with the destiny, hmmmmm?!) is so much easier than trying to remember what you decided Heads meant.

2/14/11
12:00=> Heads eat, tails work => Heads => Heads pizza, tails pasta => Heads
Only problem with this is that is there are only two slices of pizza left, so inevitably I'll be eating the pasta, so I suppose all I've done is delay things a bit.

12:05 => Heads movie, tails surf web => caught coin, flipped it onto hand, fell off onto bed, tails (curses.)

12:57 => heads research, tails eat more => completely missed catching the coin, fell on bed, tails.

1:22 => heads movie, tails keep surfing => caught the coin, flipped it on my hand, heads. Huzzah!
So day one is pretty much done. It stops after 1:22 because I watched a 2 hour movie, surfed the web for an hour, and then fell asleep. Now I've eaten and have to get on to homework, which all must be done, free will to fight it or not.

2/15/11
My life is reeeeally dull.
1:15 => heads chicken sandwich, tails cheese sandwich => tails.
So then I got downstairs and they were serving regular chicken, so I was like, aaaw snap, I will be eating chicken anyway! But then it was jerked chicken, which is really spicy so I avoided it like tonight's homework.
I don't think I've made any other flips today because I've just been in my room for most of the afternoon.

2/16/11
  So I got into an interesting discussion after class with my philosophy teacher. I brought up the whole "predetermined" idea behind a coin flip. I asked her why there isn't a whole group of determinists out there who live by the flip of a coin or the roll of a die. Her answer was basically that it was already predetermined that I would flip the coin in the first place. If I was going to leave a coin flip to fate, I should technically flip a coin to see if fate thought I should flip the next coin and so on and so on until my brain shorts out. It lasted two days, and was actually kind of tedious. It was a bit fun to see my decisions made for me, but at times it was annoying because I had to surf the web for an hour before I could watch my movie, which while it doesn't sound terrible, it was just a bit boring.

Live by the Coin, Die by the Coin

  Because of my post about free will, I will be living this week by the toss of a coin. Obviously I'm not going to be stupid. "Sir, do you think you need an ambulance? You might have brain trauma!" *Pliiing* "Naw. Heads I don't need one."

NOOOOOOO!

 What I wear, eat, where I go after events, stuff like that, will be decided by a coin. Let's say I want to read a book but the coin says no, I have to wait half an hour until I can try again, and I can't try for the same event more than 3 times in one day. So every half hour I try to read this book and three times I get the wrong result, I can't read that book for the day. I'll be using a quarter in case anyone really cares. This probably won't effect much, but for the most part it will decide things like playing minecraft versus another game or because I have a paper, how long I can put it off for. I'll be keeping a record of the events on the blog, so if you're interested, check back every couple of hours. Anyway, it's 3 am and I have a class at 9. Nathan out!
Edit: The best way to put this would be that I'll be flipping a coin for wants and/or choices.