Todays Tech News

Saturday, October 18, 2008

World of Goo Review

Braingoo is not the only goo feeling the love around here lately. 2d Boy has recently released it's unusual indy physics based puzzle game "World of Goo". It honestly would never have been a game to cross my radar if not for all of the praise and really positive feedback being thrown around by gaming critics such as IGN and 1UP.

The game has a very simple concept, but as you progress the challenges become more and more difficult and the means in which you attack these problems become more varied and innovative. The basic concept is that you have a certain number of gooballs to work with, they can be pieced together to build a structure, but when gravity meets the rubbery goo it provides a real challenge meeting your goals. The end objective is always to get a certain number of these balls(which will roll along the architecture in which you piece together) into a pipe somewhere on the map.

At first you are building simple structures to the top with as few balls as you can, then you are trying to build a bridge across a large chasm. Before you know it you are putting large goo heads into grinders to break them into pieces. At one point I'm pretty sure the green gooballs I was using were mucus as I was sticking them to nostril hairs that lined the walls.



This game has an insanely addictive quality to it, mix that with a lot of variety, a lot of surprises and a ton of humor and you have one of the best budget games to come out in a very long time.

World of Goo is available for PC and Wii, for Wii it can be purchased for $15 and downloaded on the Wii-Ware service, for PC you can find it on Steam, D2D or what I actually think is the best way, direct from their site you get an installation with no DRM, no checks, no copy protection of any kind (they need to be applauded for this bold move). The PC version is $20.

I don't have a lot of negatives to say about this game, if I could nick pick I would fault the PC version for only supporting a resolution of 800X600, and in the game often the goo balls pile into what you are building in great numbers and it's tough to get the exact one you are trying to get (once you get different colors they have different abilities, so if you are pulling a time crucial move.. think ahead on that).

I'm going to give World of Goo a 10/10 , it has all of the polish and will last you longer in replay than most games that cost $60, there are not many games you are going to find that are this enjoyable in the $20 price range.

Speaking of Portal.

If you are a fan of the game Portal, then run don't walk ... err.. don't do either just click this link and download Portal Prelude. This is a fan made mod but the level of polish and content would fool anyone into thinking it was a full blown sequel... err.. Prequel..

The only warning is that it's difficulty begins where Portals left off, it's kind of like the "Insane and Almost Impossible" difficulty maps that we meant to ship with the original or something.

Definitely give it a go..

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Zero Punctuation : Es Tee Ahe EL Kay Ee Argh Clear Sky




Not a bad review this week they have been less funny as of late but this one seems like it back to business as usual for Yahtzee. This week he takes a crack at Stalker Clear Sky I have yet to play this series its on my to do list sometime this century, but I will definatly have to give it a shot after this review. I too am tired of the same old FPS games that have been coming out lately.

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