Archive for January, 2010
Zombie Apocalypse
Zombie Apocalypse is fast paced zombie killing game, where you battle your way through levels (or ‘days’) with grinding chainsaws, pulsating guns and throwing around cute zombie bait.
Fundamentally it is a hilariously gory third person run-and-gun game, with blood splashing around (and a particular zombie who slows you down using its projectile vomiting skills). I know, it sounds grim, but it doesn’t take itself seriously and is a well designed game that you can grab for around £7.99 on the PSN network.
It is great fun in multiplayer and got a few laughs from my friend and I. See the HD trailer below.
How My Grandfather Won the War
This indie game created by OneMrBean for the 6th Casual Gameplay Design Competition is a quirky take on the shoot ‘em up genre and has a great paper cut-out art style.
Click here to play it.
The Alps Timelapse Movie
This stunning four-part timelapse video was created by Michael Rissi from Magic Time Lapse. You can view the whole thing in HD over at his Vimeo page. Be sure to check out part two especially for some excelent footage of the night sky.
LEGO Universe CGI Trailer
A new animated trailer for the LEGO massively multiplayer online game which was shown the other day at CES. I especially like the bullet-time brick construction.
Snowy United Kingdom from Space
Recently things have been a bit chilly over here in the UK, a large ammount of snowfall in the past few days has caused fairly widespread disruption. On a positive side though it has given us this awesome satellite photo taken by NASA showing what the country currently looks like from space.
You can view the full sized image by clicking here.
50 Best Photoshop Tutorials of 2009
The lovely folks over at Six Revisions have compiled an informative list of the best photoshop tutorials from 2009. Great for beginners or even for the more advanced of you to have a gander. Click here to see the article.
Thorndyke Monster Papercraft
Rawr! That’s the noise you will be making pretty soon when you finish putting together this little guy created by the wonderful folks over at CreatureBox. They are also running a photography contest from now until the end of February to see what strange and unusual places he can find himself in.
Star Guard
“Guide the Spaceman through the castle and defeat the Wizard” is all you really need to know about the premise of this neat indie freeware game for the PC and Mac. Although the graphics are simple the animations are suprisingly fluid and the actual gameplay is pretty fun too.
Now go check it out!
20 High Quality Free Fonts
Smashing Magazine has put together a nice collection of some free fonts for you to use in your projects. They should be free, but be sure to check the liscences first before using them.
Click here to visit the article.
Games of The Year 2009
2009 was a great year for the video game industry and saw a shift towards smaller, downloadable titles. Here is the selection of our favourite games of the year:
5. Braid
Although originally released last year for the Xbox 360, we did not get the chance to experience Braid’s innovative time-bending mechanics, excellent 2D graphics or the perfectly chosen music until this year with the release of the PC and PS3 versions. 2009 saw many notable downloadable game releases, but Braid was by far one of the best.
4. Empire: Total War
As with all of the Total War series, Empire completely captured a period of historical warfare and turned it into an entertaining strategy game with stunning graphics. The naval battles in particular are extremely cinematic to see in motion and have left a lasting impression on us.
3. Flower
Flower’s unique concept of controlling a petal in the wind helps to set it apart from other downloadable games, but the overall presentation and atmosphere of the game, combined with a good control scheme which utilises the PS3’s sixaxis motion control and the subtle orchestral music which paces along with the game earn it a place in our list. We only wish it was longer.
2. Borderlands
Borderlands is not a perfect game, but the concept art style of the graphics and the addictive procedurally generated loot-collecting gameplay held an iron grip over our spare time for quite a long time. So far two DLC packs have been released, expanding the world and providing even more content to the already impressive offering. It shows great promise for future games, and we can’t wait for a sequel.
1. Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
Playing A Crack in Time is a bit like playing through a Pixar film. The animation, graphics and overall presentation are top notch and the storyline wrapped up the future trilogy pretty well. Although a multiplayer component would have been welcomed with open arms back to the series (and was even hinted at by the online stat-tracking system) the single player mode was more than enough to make multiple playthroughs entertaining.
Truly though, the main reason this was selected as our 2009 Game of the Year was for the simple feeling of satisfaction which comes from smashing a stack of wooden crates then watching as a swarm of bolts fly towards you, firing the RYNO 5 into a group of enemies while Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture plays, or successfully completing one of the time-bending puzzle segments. This game is full of those moments.
