I’ve been a gamer since I was a little kid and got to try an Atari at my cousin’s place, and I’ve been playing with the idea of making games for just as long. I’ve made some simple Flash based games up through the ages, but I finally decided I wanted to do something with a grander scale. To make my first ever real game project a bit easier to start on, I decided to re-make one of my favourite platformers from the NES era, Gargoyle Quest 2.

In my remake I’ll re-use all the existing sprites, but each level will only be reminiscent of the original ones. My goal is to re-create the mechanics (and modernize them a wee bit along the way) and expand on the possiblities made possible with them.

The following link is how far I’ve made it so far. Keep in mind that the level is incomplete and that the mechanics will need a lot of tweaking. There is no preloader, so please be patient. And don’t fall off the map, k?

Shoot: Left SHIFT
Jump: SPACE

Gargoyle Quest DX Alpha 

*** Possibly spoilers ***

… is approval of their single player campaign in StarCraft II Wings of Liberty. Sure, I knew they were going to release this as a trilogy, but come on. It ends so abruptly it feels like a fluke; it’s as if you’re watching a movie on a scratched dvd that just suddenly skips to the credits. I was prepared for a cliffhanger but I didn’t even get that!

I’m just glad I bought the game for the multiplayer and the single player. If I’d bought it primarily for the continuation of the storyline, I’d fume on the battle.net forums like so many other lost souls have done before me. Don’t get me wrong, the gameplay is fantastic, but the way it ends makes it feel like I paid 60€ (that’s 75$) for a game that doesn’t even manage an interesting ending.

Unless you’re eleven years old and seeing a space marine carry a naked chick is all the rage.

I’m disappointed.

Can you tell?

Upon buying StarCraft 2, it has become obvious to me that Blizzard understands me. Not just because the game hit all the right chords from the get go, but also because of the packaging and the included details. 

Inside the DVD box there’s a quick start guide that, aside from the mandatory installation instructions, includes a neat summary of the story so far – perfect for those of us who don’t have a super geeky memory seemingly solely dedicated to remembering every detail of every story we like.

But then Blizzard also included three stylish cards; one for a 10-day free World of Warcraft account (buy one drug and get one for free?) and two cards with 7 hours (or 14 days, whichever comes first) of free StarCraft 2 game time, with full access to all features, including multiplayer, which the also included guest accounts do not feature.

This is fantastic marketing. I am the kind of guy who likes to talk to everyone and anyone I know about games (excluding a few family members), and to be able to give them the ability to experience the awesome game I just rambled on about for an hour or two is pure genius. And did I mention these cards with the codes look awesome? They do. Which is why I want them back after my friends have used them.

Kudos to Blizzard for getting gamers. While a lot of people seem to utterly laud their success, I for one can recognize a good developer and publisher when I see one.

I’ve been playing a lot of Pokémon SoulSilver lately and thought I’d share some strategies. First off is my favourite Milotic setup:

Moves

• Surf
• Ice Beam
• Aqua Ring
• Rest

Held item: Leftovers

This is a really great setup for Milotic. If you can get Aqua Ring up it will heal 2/16 of its maximum HP after every turn since Leftovers and Aqua Ring both heal 1/16. Rest is great when you get too low on health, due to Milotic’s Marvel Scale ability that will boost its Defense by 1.5 times if it is affected by a status condition. It also takes care of pesky Toxic poisoning and Will-o-Wisp burns.

This setup is by no means unique, but the usual setup includes Sleep Talk instead of Aqua Ring. While this is a viable choice, Aqua Ring has served me much better. There’s a 50% chance that Sleep Talk will execute either another Sleep Talk or Rest, and in my experiences it really hasn’t turned out to be more helpful than the extra heal after every turn. 

I’ve been playing the GameCube version of Resident Evil 4 on Wii for the last two days, and even after five years it’s still great fun.

It was a pioneer in third-person action back then, and it still holds its own today thanks to its brilliantly crafted set-pieces and superb atmosphere. The controls are so responsive you can’t blame anything other than yourself when you manage to get killed. And despite the annoying “A button for all interaction” problem, the only controller related issue there is, it has a control scheme that really puts a lot of modern shooters to shame.

I propose a toast to Resident Evil 4, arguably one of the best games of the last decade.

Torchlight works really well on the Mac. The performance is good, it looks great and is indistinguishable from the PC version, and it’s as fun as ever to play!

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