It's an Awesome Bombardment of Space Games!
When I began this blog last August — and it’s seriously grown since then, thanks to you guys! — I originally thought I’d spend much of my time reviewing older, classic games while looking at the occasional new release that would come my way. In the last several years, it felt like new space games had pretty much been coming out at a trickle, slowly but steadily, and I figured that this trend would continue. Holy crap was I wrong.
AAAARRRGG!
I love space games — “No, really?” I hear you say — especially spaceship sims like TIE Fighter and Freespace 2. Being in the virtual cockpit of a space fighter is a thrill few other types of games can match, and I’ve played and enjoyed most of the sims I’ve encountered over the years. Sure, there will be one reason or another as to why a space sim doesn’t light my world on fire, like bad enemy AI, a boring story or a useless HUD. There’s one issue that’s come up lately that has shed light on a pet peeve I didn’t even know I had…
I Feel Like I Use to Have More of This...
I’ve noticed something recently, and I wanted to ask if y’all are having a similar effect. When I was younger and starting to seriously get into games — around when I was 12-13 in the mid 80s — I could spend hours, nay, DAYS at a game. I tell ya there was this one time I guzzled a six pack of Jolt Cola and stayed up for five or six days STRAIGHT playing Starflight. Aahh, those were the days.
Fast forward to today. I’m working on several reviews — two for this site, one for PlaySF Magazine — at the moment, and even when I have HOURS to myself…I can only make myself play for two or three hours before stopping. Even if I have all day…I still stop myself. I’ll likely return to the game after an hour or so, but still, what the heck happened?
I’m thinking it’s one of two things. One, my ADHD is getting ADHD’er! ACK! Or…maybe my mind knows better now and is forcing me to take breaks, which might be for my betterment overall.
So what about you guys? Are you finding that this happens to you as you get older, or can you still put monumental amounts of available time into a game in one sitting? I look forward to your thoughts. :) Thanks for reading!
Imagine This, but IN SPACE! ;)
So I was having a conversation on twitter with my buddy Marcin, and we were discussing how he doesn’t like a lot of 4X games because you need to be zoomed out all the time, in order to keep an eye on the big picture. He’d much rather be zoomed in to see the action, which is totally fair. This got me to thinking…why hasn’t someone made a game that allows for something like that? And then my brain went crazy…er…
Give Me a Giant Robot and a Gun to Shoot Things With...
The other day, I came across a video game entitled BIONITE: Origins, which is an homage and a spiritual successor to the fantastic RTS/FPS hybrid Battlezone from the late 1990′s. I thought back to games like Battlezone and my favorite in the genre, Uprising: Join or Die, and started thinking…what other types of games do my readers enjoy? Now, while of course space games are my first true and still biggest gaming love, there are other genres that I just ADORE. These include:
So yeah, besides my beloved spacey games, those are the other types of games I’m really into. What about you guys? :) I can’t wait to read your choices. :)
How Does One Pronounce This Again?
So a little while back, I wrote a story about how Notch of Minecraft fame was talking about creating a new space game, which, new space game, yay, I was fairly excited. However, since then we’ve learned that the game has a name — 0x10c — and that it’ll be a hard sci-fi sim with its own built-in 16-bit CPU. The more I’ve read about it, however, the less excited I’ve become…
RIP Old Friend...
Around 2000, whilst still a professional gaming journalist, I was turned onto a little MMORPG called Jumpgate, which looked to be as close as we were ever going to get to either a Privateer or Elite Online (and it was). I gobbled up all the info I could about the game and covered it as much as I could (check out my old interview, preview and review covering the game).
I played the game on and off for the next ten years, putting in at least 800-1,000 hours. To date, it’s still my most-played game, and one of my most memorable. Unfortunately, on the official Jumpgate website, it was announced that the game would close up for good on April 30th, 2012.
50 Years Ago, Spacewar! Was Born!
I recently realized that Spacewar! was first released in 1962, fifty years ago. In looking at the game’s Wikipedia entry, the first operational version of the game was released in February, while the version we’ve come to know and love was released in April. Therefore, I’d say now is good enough a time as any to say happy 50th birthday to space gaming, and to look back at how far we’ve come since the very beginning…
Instead of "ho ho ho" he says "pew pew pew". ;)
So it’s the time of year where presents must be bought, whether for friends or loved ones, and if you have that person in your life that loves space games, or is new to space games and wants to play more, it can be confusing to know what to get ‘em. There are a goodly amount of choices out there when it comes to computer-based space games, but they all cater to different desires. Does the person for whom you plan to buy a space game prefer piloting a spaceship? Or maybe they want to be more of a tactician, commanding their forces like an admiral, or maybe they want to even control an entire space empire?
I’ve thought of the games that are still for sale these days, whether newish or not, and have come up with a list that I feel could cater to any space game fan, new or old. Click below to check out the list, complete with links to the various places you can buy the games listed.
This picture made me think of a spaceship Thanksgiving, okay?!
Tomorrow here in the States is our yearly Thanksgiving holiday, where we give thanks for the special people in our lives and the events that improved our year. While I’m thankful for many things – a wonderful girlfriend, amazing friends, gainful employment, and of course this blog – I thought I’d discuss which space games I’m most thankful for, and why.
