robotriot

I’m not exactly a fan of what modern technology has meant for video games most of the time. With improved hardware capabilities always came graphics that tried to push the boundaries between the virtual and reality, while at the same time not quite getting there yet. Sure, it can work out real nice and a couple of genres really lend themselves quite well to photo-realistic graphics, like sports or racing games. However, I’m not always interested in reproducing what I can find outside on my screen at home. If I’m sitting in front of a games console, I want to be entertained with something unique nobody ever has thought of. Not an easy task of course. But I’m always happy if there is this one game every once in a while that breaks the usual conventions and starts doing something different with the visual potential that is inherent to the medium.

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I was shopping this morning when I discovered de Blob (Wii) was already released and I bought it right on the spot. I saw a couple of gameplay videos about a year ago, but then I never heard from this game again until today. Back then I already decided that I had to give it a try. I’m not very far into the game yet, but it’s definitely one of the must-haves for Wii. The platform generally doesn’t have that many great third party games on it, so it’s nice to see another addition to the Nintendo machine’s library worth owning.

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I’d like to present a couple of nice downloadable console games that have recently been released. Here’s a quick run-down:

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I was looking forward to 1942: Joint Strike (Xbox 360) ever since it was first announced earlier this year. I finally downloaded it a couple of days ago and was eager to try it out right away. However, the game fell flat from my expectations. I really liked the older 1942 series games, especially 1942 itself and the highscore battles I associate with it. Joint Strike however just has too many flaws to live up to its legendary predecessor.

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So I was able to play a couple of rounds of Boom Blox yesterday. First results: my arms hurt. Well, I guess I’m just not used to physical activity, the same thing happened to me the first days after playing Wii Sports back when I got the console. Boom Blox has several modes of play, one of them involves throwing baseballs and bowling balls at the towers of blocks in front of you. I may exaggerate the motion a little too much, but I kept getting weak in one arm, then changed to the other until that one hurt, changing back again and so forth. With the result of a hangover in both arms. I guess I should work out some more.

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Babel Babel got a major graphical update yesterday, the lighting looks much better now, with shadows finally being visibly cast into the arena. Most of the time we were struggling with the usual problems you get when you’re exporting models from Maya for HL2. Textures not working, invisible props etc. We’ve had all these problems before, but somehow you always forget one of the 1000 possible solutions that you have to use this time. We also had a bunch of ideas on how to improve the look even further, so stay tuned for more updates in the future. You can take a look at a bunch of screenshots at the new website for the game here.

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