My game deconstructs (2007–2021), republished as a searchable archive. Each gets a "what happened next" footnote and a one-line "was I right?" verdict. A new wing opens each month.
Wing 01 · 2008: the Xbox 360 years
Twenty posts from the year I wrote the most. Demos, initial experiences, Facebook word games, and a girlfriend who couldn't start Beautiful Katamari. Each one graded against what actually happened.
Draft · under review Footnotes are drafted and await Jason's sign-off.
Mass Effect: First hour or so...
Mass Effect became a trilogy and one of the defining RPG series of the generation. The sequel threw out the 'reconstruct a corrupted personnel file' c...
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune... Initial Experience
Liking, not loving, was the consensus on the first one. The sequel in 2009 was the breakout, and Naughty Dog doubled down on the thing I complained ab...
Well, you don't need a million dollars to do nothing, man...
Warhammer Online shut down in December 2013. The feature I called the best ever, doing fun things while the matchmaker works, became table stakes with...
Darkness: Initial Experience
The Darkness found a cult following rather than a mass one, and the 2012 sequel broadened the combat beyond shooting out light bulbs, which was my wor...
Tomb Raider: Underworld Demo... Bump it up my Gamefly Q
Underworld sold below expectations and was the last of that era. The 2013 reboot delivered almost exactly the list I wrote here: human enemies instead...
Portal: The quest for community created content
Valve shipped Steam Workshop in 2011, and Portal 2 got an in-game level editor with ratings and one-click install a year after launch. The Amazon-styl...
The Club: Demo Impressions
The Club underperformed and Bizarre Creations closed in 2011. The convention I argued for, no health packs and regenerating health with in-fiction fee...
Little Big Planet & World of Goo...
Nintendo did exactly what I hoped: New Super Mario Bros. Wii shipped a year later with four-player drop-in and controls that actually felt good. Littl...
Dead Space: Initial Experience
Dead Space became a beloved series and the 2023 remake was praised for fixing the control and onboarding rough edges I hit in the first twenty minutes...
Spore... Bye...
Spore sold millions in its first weeks and then the critical consensus caught up with this post: the later phases were thin and the Civilization stage...
Spore... First impressions & PC gaming redux
Steam went from 14 million to over 100 million accounts, so the how was right: frictionless install, no readme files. The where was wrong. Casual game...
Aging 360, Projector Woes, Braid, No More Heroes...
Braid got an anniversary edition in 2024 and is taught in design courses. No More Heroes became a trilogy and Suda51 a cult name, while still never se...
Wheel out the DS... It's time for New Super Mario Bros
New Super Mario Bros. sold around 30 million copies and became one of the best-selling DS games ever. The restrained use of the touch screen I singled...
Text Twirl: A decent head-to-head version of Text Twist
The Facebook word-game wave crested and broke within eighteen months. Scrabulous was pulled after Hasbro sued, Text Twirl faded, and Words With Friend...
Speaking of sandboxes... Kingdom for Kelflings
A Kingdom for Keflings got a sequel in 2010 and the avatar-as-giant idea stayed charming and niche. The upsell pattern I noted, offer the purchase eve...
Critical Failure... My girlfriend tries to play Beautiful Katamari
Katamari stayed a cult series and the 2018 re-release kept the same baffling 3D menu, so the game never learned. The industry did: first-time user exp...
Mirror's Edge Demo: Too short, man... too short....
The retail game sold a couple of million and the combat was panned by nearly everyone. The 2016 sequel, Catalyst, went open-world, removed the guns, a...
Progression: Quantitative vs. qualitative
Mass Effect 2 cut the talent spreadsheet down to a handful of powers and leaned on qualitative choices, which was my argument here. Some players mourn...
Never mind... Word Crack (er... Scraper) is here
Scrabulous was pulled from Facebook in July 2008 after Hasbro's lawsuit and came back as Wordscraper. The real-time mode I said would be terribly addi...
Midnight Club: L.A. First Thoughts...
Los Angeles was the last Midnight Club. Rockstar San Diego moved on to Red Dead Redemption. The seamless transitions I called out, menus and online mo...
Search the archive
212 deconstructs · 20 graded so far · a new wing each month
Apple Store & Connected Toys
Stopped in the Apple Store to get the battery replaced on my old iPhone 6. It's a backup for testing and handing to the kids now that I have an 8 (AR Kit).
Behind the 8 ball, seriously...
Time to start the game list again. So far behind.
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons... Heck of a User Experience
Was reflecting recently on a panel I participated on at SXSW this year. I was asked what User Experience means in the context of games.
And another thing about RTFM...
Just saw this today in my Facebook feed:
Playtest your GAME, not your tutorial...
Was delighted by a link a friend of mine sent me the other day:
Why are games \"too difficult to play?\
Been some talk recently that maybe games are "too difficult to learn to play" for newcomers. [EA execs talk...]
Googleoids... I'm #3. And other stuff.
So, I've been playing some more Droid games lately. And Googleoids caught my attention. I love word and anagram games and loved the idea of the game: 8 letter anagrams, each...
Other random krag...
I'm always on the lookout for interesting examples/tidbits of user experience failures. Mostly I feel like I should have some interesting examples to use when I give talks.
Blizzard Boofdown? It can happen...
Was trying to figure out a way to kill a few hours and remembered that I'd tried the StarCraft II beta and figured I should pick up the retail version. I'm not a competitive RTS...
Green Zone & Career Update
I just watched the movie Green Zone last night, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Something that emerged early on was a feeling that it was playing out like a cool mashup between a...
Word Spasm -- It's no Griddle, but it'll mostly do for now
I've been taking a look at some game portals on Facebook recently and all complaints aside, I've managed to discover a game or two here and there that has captured my attention.
Red Dead Redemption, FB Game Portals... In Brief.
They did it. Finally Rockstar invented a car that handles in a way that I like to drive and doesn't totally make me feel like an idiot. This car, of course, is a horse (of...
Horse Gaga... I say \"neigh!\
My queue of games is stacking up, but I decided to try out Ubisoft's latest entry into the world of Facebook gaming.
The Impossible Game: A great try-before-you-buy experience
Simple mechanics. Shallow learning curve. Frustratingly hard challenges.
It was the best of gaming, it was the worst of gaming...
Mild Spoiler Alert if you haven't finished Mass Effect 2.
New Year: New Update. Shadow Complex, Wagons East, Dog-eared Magazine Pages, To Do List
No excuses, just no posts in the past month. I'll just jump right in and get going.
Sometimes geolocation can suck
So normally I love the way that software applications incorporate geolocating tech. Google Maps seem to work better when they know where I am, the iPhone has several apps that...
Cogs demo
I also downloaded the Cogs demo from Steam to try out on my SEA –> BOS flight. It was a sliding tile puzzle game (arrange the tiles to complete a pattern via a series of moving...
Everyday Genius SquareLogic Demo
Wow. Fantastic. I got the Everyday Genius SquareLogic demo from Steam before I headed out to the airport. Being a little gun shy from my last experience (Steam made a fuss about...
Continuity... A fun little puzzler within a puzzler
Whilst procrastinating from doing some work (and judging IGF entries) I came across Continuity via a tweet from @raphkoster. It's a student game that sucked me right in.
Torchlight. Oh, my.
I’m hoping that December is my “YESvember” follow up to my dismal “NOvember”. I’ve been traveling and playing games, but just haven’t had the gumption to do much writing.
No(gaming)vember to remember...
Actually, it wasn't "no" gaming. It was more bite-sized gaming without leaving enough time to post thoughts.
Uncharted 2, Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time. Yeehaw.
Just a brief post. This is another month that is swamped with work and travel.
Can I just say... Why does the PS3 firmware update experience suck so hard?
I use my Xbox 360 pretty much all the time. It's a no-brainer for me given my social network (mostly Xbox gamers) and desire to compile most of my achievements on one platform.
Quick thoughts: Uncharted 2 and Delta's lame in-flight game service
A couple of quick thoughts in between travel for work (doing some consulting on social games) and pleasure (Anacortes with friends, Chicago for a wedding).
Tedious learn as you play + suboptimal try-before-you-buy platform experience = FAIL
I tried a few Xbox Live Indie Games the other night. There were some hits and misses. I talked about Trino the other night (great game). This time I want to talk a little but...
Trino: Try it, buy it.
I just finished a play session with Trino, an Indie game available on the XBM. What a fantastic experience. Very relaxing, engaging, and fun from moment one. An excellent example...
Brutal Legend: The Demo
So, I loved Psychonauts. Except, of course, for the final boss battle sequence. Frustrating way to end a great game.
Raptr and Mirror\u2019s Edge
So, I had a friend heckle me yesterday about my Raptr updates. Specifically, Raptr was updating my Facebook status with information about the game I was currently playing. It’s...
Moar Demos: Wolfenstein
I’ve been playing a bunch of XBM demos lately. Time to update my blog.
Adding to the game queue\u2026
I’ve been buried in bizdev work (talking to prospective clients) and actual work (reviewing a game-in-progress for a current client) so I haven’t had much time to play many other...
Number Jumper for Facebook
Number Jumper was surfaced to me on a recent InsideSocialGames RSS feed item. It was described as a “deceptively simple” game – something that I love mostly because I associate...
XBLA demos: \u2018Splosion Man, Defense Grid
Fast and frenetic with almost no hint prompts vs. slow and dialog heavy campaign tutorial. I’m talking about ‘Splosion Man and Defense Grid: The Awakening, respectively.
ScribbleNauts, Social Discovery, and Claustrophobia
So, I’ve been reading more about the pros/raves associated with ScribbleNauts in order to better figure out what I’m missing.
ScribbleNauts: Addendum
Well I’ve played another couple of hours of ScribbleNauts and I’m not sure how much further I’ll be able to get.
ScribbleNauts & \u201cLearn as you play\u201d
So, I picked up ScribbleNauts based on the hype surrounding it. I don’t often do this, but sometimes I just give in to the prevailing winds.
Arkham Asylum, Fable 2, 9/9/9
I ended August with a bang. Lots of new games played. Lots of writing. Then I was called out on an emergency usability run for a week. I’ve quietly slipped back into relaxing and...
Day 28: Call of Duty 4
I know, I know. The game has been out forever. But as I mentioned in a previous post, I've been saving Call of Duty 4 for a rainy day.
Day 26: Part 3, Arkham Asylum and WET demos.
I tried two very different demos with two very different initial experiences that both left me intrigued and curious about getting my hands on the full retail versions of the...
Day 27: Konami Play
I've been playing a bunch of social and casual games from the "native biggies" like Zynga, Playfish, Playdom, etc. Then there are the casual games portals who are also jumping on...
Day 26: Ergon Logos
The folks at Play This Thing brought Ergon Logos to my attention and I figured I'd give it a try.
Day 26: Part 2, Quiztastic
So, I've been paying attention to some of the Playfish applications on Facebook. They seem to be releasing some interesting and polished user experiences that are worth...
Day 25: Gum Drop Celestial Frontier, Chrono Trigger (DS)
Well, it's day #25 and progress has been slow, slow, slow. I doubt I'll get to 31 in 31, but I do have some down time over the next few days so I might be able to catch up a bit.
Day 22: Country Store Beta
Day 22. And I've sadly fallen behind in a serious way from my 30 in 30 goal. And to add insult to injury, I forgot that there are actually 31 days in August. I guess I should...
Day 17: Great Red Herring Chase, Gray, Effing Hail
I’ve been doing a mix of indie and more mainstream games lately. Today (well, in bits and pieces over the last few days) I focused on IntuitionGames titles: Great Red Herring...
Day 16: GTA Chinatown Wars
I’ve had a hate-love relationship with the GTA games over the years. Bottom line is that I just never feel cool playing the games. I find the cars too hard to drive, missions too...
Day 15: Puzzle Bloom
Puzzle Bloom is a puzzle game that incorporates elements of Ratchet & Clank (when you'd take over control of various robots as Clank; obviously this mechanic is used in many...
Day 13: Part 3, Trials HD
This is the third installment from Day 13. Trials HD for XBLA. I started out with the demo version and found it entertaining enough to plunk down the whomping 1,200 points to...
Day 14: Osmos Demo
I'm now up to 11 in 14 days. Some of my posts have been a little more rushed that I'd normally like, but it's hard to dive in deep while I'm on the road. Either I'm way too...
Day 13: Part 2, Closure
I decided to try another Pax 10 finalist: Closure.
Day 13: What is Bothering Carl?
I found a link to the trial version of What is Bothering Carl? on the PAX 10 list of finalists. It's an interactive e-book for kids aged 3-6. The demo took me about 10 minutes or...
Day 7: Puzzle Quest Galactrix
I started out excited to play this game. I'd played the XBLA version before and quite liked it, except for the fact that it seemed more suited to a mouse or stylus input device....
30 in 30 updates...
This isn't the Day 6 update (that follows later). But I need to organize some of my thoughts as I'll be on the road for several days working long hours on games I can't talk...
Day 6: Kodu Game Lab (with a shout out to \"Polarity World\" and \"Kodu Portal\
So, I'd been meaning to take the leap into Kodu Game Lab for a while and managed to spend a couple of hours of quality time with it over the last day and a half.
Day 5: Bubble Town: Party Plant Beta
Busy day today. I mostly want to spend some more time with Kodu (the game-making game on XBLA) tonight, but managed to get a little new gaming in today that's worth posting about.
Day 4: Professor Layton and the Curious Village
More DS gaming today. I played a bunch more MMA today, but in the spirit of "30 in 30" switched over to Professor Layton and the Curious Village (PLCV). It's an interesting...
Day 3: Woxel Word Game
So, a friend and former work colleague recently came out with an iPhone game called Woxel Word Game. As a lover of word games, I was intrigued.
Day 2: Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again!
I ended up borrowing a bunch of Nintendo DS games from a friend, knowing that I would need a steady diet of new titles to meet my "30 in 30" goals.
30 games in 30 days.... Day #1: Eets Demo
So, I've decided to mix things up a bit and force myself to play more games.
Lookin' for options? You've got none left, boy ;)
So, my friends (and probably others) and I firmly believe that serious voice talent can make even reading a phone book engaging and interesting.
Metal Gear Solid 4: No surprises here
I've been sitting on a couple of my Gamefly games for several months now. It's really quite frustrating because at this point my rental fees are more than the used game price of...
On the road again (and again...) and some self-promotion
I haven't been able to play much in the way of traditional gaming since, oh, the end of April because I've been pretty much constantly on the road.
Gaming on the sly: Plants, Zombies, And Yet It Moves
Travel. Between work and my recent wedding and honeymoon, I’ve been traveling a heck of a lot lately. Traveling so much that I haven’t really had a lot of time to sink my teeth...
Ouch... It's been far too long.
Between some very fun client work, my wedding, and the "mini moon" I haven't been doing too much gaming lately. Hence not much in the way of blogging about gaming.
Some fun with Tag: The Power of Paint (student game)
I found Tag: The Power of Paint while trolling for student games. It is representative of many of the polished, enjoyable games coming from student game developers these days. As...
XBLA meet Amazon.com: You got your peanut butter in my steak
Eventually there will be a better way of surfacing great XBLA content to prospective buyers. Selling Arcade titles on Amazon.com is a step in the right direction in terms of...
When I say I need you, you say \u201cyou Peggle, you Peggle, you bet!\u201d
I’ve talked in a previous post about the PC downloadable version of Peggle. My basic conclusion at that point was that $19.95 was too much, but I would consider purchasing it for...
Update to Jewel Quest 2
So, I've been playing a bit more Jewel Quest 2 on my flight back to Seattle. I must say, that although I'm still enjoying the core mechanic (gem swapping), there are a couple of...
Questing for Jewels: Jewel Quest 2 (retail) and Jewel Quest Mysteries (30 min trial)
So, I don't think these are the most recent incarnations of the Jewel Quest games, but they were all I had installed on my laptop during my SEA->AUS flight. I did have the GotY...
I purchased (with effort) World of Goo on Steam for $5
I've talked a bit in the past about Valve's Steam platform. My basic complaint is that it mainly appeals to hardcore PC gamers who are familiar with things like directory trees...
Co-op/social Dungeon Master: Left 4 Dead as a proof of concept
So, I never did play the original Dungeon Keeper, but before I got into the games industry I did try to DM some modules using the Neverwinter Nights mod tools. There were some...
Time to play ketchup... er... catch up...
Lots of games on my radar. Fiancee is away for the weekend. I do have lots of non-gaming work to do, but I should at least try and make some headway.- Galactic Civilizations 2....
Gaming on Virgin America: In flight games
So, I've been telling everyone I know lately about how much I love Virgin America. Great prices, connects me to the places I want to go, and a kind of cool/club-like atmosphere...
The Space Game: A Casual Collective Joint
I've been experimenting more with Twitter lately as a way to keep up with interesting folks in the game and social computing world.
Afro Samurai, Skate 2, Hardwood Backgammon, Sonic Chronicles
So, I spent some time gaming this evening. That is, gaming in addition to the usual dose of Facebook Scramble and Turn Play Backgammon.
Bejeweled Blitz Sound Off. Why is BB harder to play without SFX?
I'm sure other folks have addressed the issue more thoroughly, but I've definitely noticed that I obtain much higher scores "sound FX on" than "mute" whilst playing Bejeweled...
Just tell me why can't this be love? (by love, I mean a great demo)
After watching a really terrible movie on the 360, I decided to cruise some of the recent demos that I have downloaded. Some of them were trial versions of XBLA titles and others...
I'm a swinger: Pandemic, FEAR 2 Demo, Left 4 Dead MP, Bejeweled 2
I've had a chance to do a bunch of "brief" gaming over the past couple of days. There were highs and lows and in-betweens. I dealt with my biggest "low" in a previous post re:...
Quick Diversion: Sonic Chronicles
I'm not a big DS RPG player -- and I don't think that Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is going to make a convert out of me.
Guitar Hero: World Tour and Left 4 Dead
It was a weekend of high profile titles: One new IP (Left 4 Dead) and one sequel (GH: 4).
Some gaming updates: Wii Fit, Guitar Hero, Conan, Bejeweled Blitz
First things, first.
Amazon.com/GameDownloads: Initial Experience
So, in a much anticipated move after their acquisition of Reflexive Entertainment, Amazon.com launched their videogame download store beta: http://www.amazon.com/b/?node=979455011
Lego Batman... Finally got around to it.
I'm wondering if the novelty has worn off of the Lego series. I find this hard to believe as I still just love (love) busting objects and collecting blocks/bolts/what-have-you.
Time to dust off the blog-webs... Light, Camera, Curses!
I just completed the recently released Nancy Drew: Lights, Camera, Curses game. It was available on Big Fish Games as one of Her Interactive's first "casual" releases on the...
Little Big Planet & World of Goo...
I downloaded the World of Goo demo from Steam the other day and gave it a quick spin. A fun indie game that has roots in other indie ventures like Armadillo Run but with more...
Xbox Live Community Content... Is the game worth $2.50?
I downloaded and tried three different Xbox Live Community Content games. They were:- Lines: A Lumines/Tetris derivative.
Initial Experience: Playstation Home
I'll add more notes later... But the first (ironic) thing I noticed was that the "Playstation Home" theme that I downloaded and installed in anticipation of the open beta...
Speaking of sandboxes... Kingdom for Kelflings
Kingdom for Kelflings is the kind of game I'd like to put in front of casual gamers to see whether it appeals to them or not. It's a pretty relaxing city builder game (like the...
Fracture Demo: More sandbox, please...
Fracture promised mucho fun game play, but I'm not sure the demo really put the game's best foot forward.
Mirror's Edge Demo: Too short, man... too short....
So, I had a quick play of the Mirror's Edge demo. Just as things started to flow, the demo ended. Although the demo had an overall feel of polish and a nice arc from start to...
New Super Mario Bros: I finished it!
Great game. It's the second Mario game that I've ever finished (the previous being Super Mario Galaxy). Obviously, I'm not a hard core Nintendo gamer.
Tomb Raider: Underworld Demo... Bump it up my Gamefly Q
Creating a great demo is hard. It needs to be accessible to all gamers yet it can't be so dumbed down that it bores the core market who have played lots of similar games and...
Wheel out the DS... It's time for New Super Mario Bros
I've decided that I need to play some more handheld games. I'm mostly going to play iPhone games, but I've also had some Nintendo DS games recommended to me recently that I...
Housekeeping (and more Dead Space)
I took some time this evening to clean up my game queues a bit. I need to get organized as I'm falling behind and 'tis the season for decent new releases...
Dead Space: Initial Experience
Dead Space piqued my curiosity a while back when I saw a teaser trailer. It looked like a survival thriller set in space. Then I heard one of my colleagues talking about the game...
Dead Space: More...
So now I'm about a third of the way through the game and I'm starting to enjoy the claustrophobic atmosphere even if the combat and econ/upgrade system seem lacking.
Midnight Club & Dead Space
I finally got my second wind in Midnight Club: Los Angeles. It started out great -- as fun as the original and with more visual and story polish. Then I got a little lost in the...
Addiction vs. Fun...
I've reached a stage in Warhammer where I need to reflect deeply on whether I'm becoming addicted or whether I'm actually enjoying the game.
Midnight Club: L.A. First Thoughts...
I developed an unexpected love for Midnight Club: Dub Edition when it came out a few years ago. I'm not a racing gamer at all, but decided to check it out because of the rave...
Well, you don't need a million dollars to do nothing, man...
I must admit that I'm starting to really like Warhammer for all of its basic flaws (it's an MMO which requires too much chat/monogamy; it has serious usability issues mainly in...
Spore... Bye...
Well, I tried the "Civilization" phase of Spore tonight. It was pretty much an impenetrable mess of unplayability. Impossible to tell friend from foe. Impossible to conduct...
Spore... High.
So I finally muscled my way through the RTS phase of things. Now I'm just starting the more Civilization meets Rise of Nations portion of the game.
Spore... Sigh...
So, I'm still stuck on the "tribal" stage in Spore. Sigh. I'm on normal difficulty and need to figure out how to put it on "easy".
Aging 360, Projector Woes, Braid, No More Heroes...
First things first. It looks like my 360 might be on its last legs. I've been noticing degraded video quality for a few weeks now. I figured it was due to the capture device I...
Spore, Braid & Nintendogs...
First, Nintendogs. I broke down and bought Liza (and I) a DS Lite the other day. I thought it might be more relaxing for her than playing games on her huge MacBook Pro. And I...
Spore... First impressions & PC gaming redux
Well, I'm reminded of what the "state of the art" is in terms of the PC install experience now that I've got Spore up and running on my machine.
Quick update: Spore, EA shared content, and more to follow...
As I download Spore from the EA Online Store I figure I'll do a quick update on what I've been up to. I'll drill in more over the next few days.
Oh yeah, I've been gaming... Wordscraper, Boom Bloxx, and GTA IV
I haven't posted in a while. I'm going to start getting back to it now that I've taken a brief break from work and a nice flurry of gaming over the past few days.
Lots of demos... Lots of games: GTA IV, Alone in the Dark, Ticket to Ride, and (of course) WordScraper
I've been buried in games that I'm working on (which I can't talk about), but I have been trying some demos and am waiting on my copy of Grand Theft Auto IV from Gamefly.
Some tidying up: So long Jericho... Hello Ticket to Ride
I did some tidying up of my lists today.
Jericho: Some promise, but a little flat in terms of game play
After doing a bunch of brick smashing on Astropop (a fun XBLA game that, sadly, is too hardcore in terms of its Achievements) I fired up Clive Barker's Jericho.
More XBLA Demo Content...
I also played a few demos. Notes to follow (I can't remember the names of the games) and I'll add 'em to my evaluation list.
WordScraper User Created Content: It's not always sporn...
So, a group on Facebook now hosts a place where people can upload screenshots and links to custom Word Scraper boards that they have created.
Never mind... Word Crack (er... Scraper) is here
I haven't been this excited about a Facebook game since Griddle.
Eternal Sonata: Not exactly a triumphant return to gaming
Eternal Sonata...
So long Scrabulous... Hello WordScraper
It was inevitable. Hasbro was going to insist that Scrabulous be removed from Facebook and replaced by an official version (developed and published by EA).
Tenchu Z: A ninja game that is NOT Ninja Gaiden
I'm obviously doing research on ninja-related game play. Tenchu Z is a completely different beast than Ninja Gaiden. It's about stealth (similar to Thief, Splinter Cell, and...
Check Mii out channel.
I wanted to download some Wii Ware today, but I didn't realize Nintendo wasn't using a demo/try before you buy strategy, so I want to do more research before I actually purchase...
Ninja Gaiden 2 Thoughts
I'm doing a bit of research on Ninja games for some projects that I am working on. Obviously Ninja Gaiden 2 is a must play game.
Steam-ing experience...
So, I fired up the demo to Penny Arcade Adventures. It felt very polished from a UI perspective (although the "options" menu was pretty PC circa 1994). The character creation was...
Steamy experience...
This is the way that demos were meant to be experienced: - Email update (from an email list that I actually signed up for) that tells that the Penny Arcade Aventures game is...
Kung Fu Panda Demo
It was pretty fun. The pacing was great and it was a pretty darn tight experience. The combat was fun and ramped up in complexity in a very user-friendly way, I love Jack Black's...
Demos... Sigh.
After geeking out on my Wii for a while it was time to get back to the 360 and check out some new downloadable demos.
Finished Super Mario Galaxy...
What a fun ride. It was enjoyable to the end. The pacing and challenge felt just right and the main plot progression allowed for skipping content that was less enjoyable (if you...
I have \"obtained prominence\
I haven't posted here in a while. I've been posting a bunch more business related stuff in my private blog -- more about the ins and outs of my new consulting business.
More SMGalaxy Goodness
I'm just getting a short Super Mario Galaxy break in. This, of course, is another great feature of the game: I can just take in a 10-15 minute snack if I want, which makes it fit...
More Super Mario Galaxy
I left SMG yesterday night (well, really early this AM) wondering whether I'd want to keep progressing through the game or file it away as a great exercise in fun Wii-mote based...
Super Mario Galaxy...
So far, Super Mario Galaxy has been a fun ride. It's still amazing how a game can take just a few elements, polish them to a sheen, and make even a basic tutorial fun and...
Finished The Darkness (and played some God of War 2)
I just completed The Darkness. It was created by the folks behind Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. I quite enjoyed the ride, even if it wasn't as polished an...
Universe at War: Demo
I tried the Universe at War demo tonight. I didn't spend too much time on it and left with somewhat mixed feelings.
Bourne Conspiracy: Demo
Since I've returned to working on games I haven't had as much time to write about (and play) games recreationally. This will hopefully change soon as things die down -- though...
Portal: The quest for community created content
I decided that I wanted to try to play some community created content for Portal. As I mentioned in a previous posting, the game doesn't make it too obvious that this is possible.
I'm not gaming, I'm updating drivers
Well, I decided that I needed to test my new PC gaming rig with a retail title in order to see what the current state of the industry is. I haven't played a retail PC game in...
Now I'm gaming... And Portal still rules
I just breezed through Portal again... This time on the PC.
Text Twirl: A decent head-to-head version of Text Twist
I'm a big fan of most word games... and an especially big fan of Text Twist. The basic premise of the game is to anagram various words from a 6 letter rack. You have a certain...
PMOG: I'm so very confused...
So, I figured I should check out the borderline memetic PMOG (passively multiplayer online game).
More The Darkness
The Darkness is still enjoyable, but it is seeming less and less like an action adventure and more like an adventure. It really does fall more in line with Eternal Darkness than...
Scrabble on Facebook: Initial experience failure
I tried to play the "legit" version of Scrabble on Facebook today. It was a failure.
You have to burn the rope...
Yes, the little internet meme game You have to burn the rope has crossed my PC. Well, interestingly, it did not work on my personal lap top (and crashed my browser) but it ran...
Boomshine: A frivolous (and fun) romp
I just checked out Boomshine (a free Flash based game). It was easy and pleasant to play, had a decent initial learning curve, and had me hooked until I the learning curve went...
Virtua Fighter 5: Demo Notes
I'm not a big fight-game fan. But I figured I'd give Virtua Fighter 5 demo a whirl.
Thrillville: Off the rails Demo
So, Thrillville is a kids title. It starts off promising enough in terms of offering cool character customization. The intro movie is a little long, but it looks like a...
The Club: Demo Impressions
So, The Club has been getting some good press. And, I must admit that I was intrigued based on the trailers I have seen. The game looked humorous and like it might have a fresh...
More Darkness
Well, I've played another couple of hours of Darkness. And it's been up and down.
Darkness: Initial Experience
Finally back into console game world. I fired up The Darkness and am about an hour or so into the game. I really enjoyed the demo and it was recommended highly by a friend whose...
Scramble & Housekeeping
I haven't had as much time for console gaming lately. Luckily a couple of competitive Scrabulous players have started playing their turns more often. We're quite evenly matched...
They're here.... And now they're gone!
Well, the undead have finally arrived in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. I'm kind of sad about how the 6-axis functionality was incorporated into the game play (shake the controller...
Uncharted: Upon further review
I'm quite enjoying Uncharted. I'm a little sad that I mostly fight humans and that I never feel very smart for solving puzzles because inevitably I bump into more humans guarding...
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune... Initial Experience
So far I am liking, but not loving Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. I guess I've always been more of a Ratchet & Clank guy than an Jak & Daxter guy -- the Insomniac games folks just...
FIFA Street 3 Demo: Fails to impress...
Great concept: Small court adrenaline soccer that should play like NHL Hitz or NBA Streetz. While the game may deliver as well as those titles once one gets up to speed on the...
More housekeeping...
In preparation for a weekend of rotting and gaming, I have decided to do a little housekeeping in the right column. Mostly I just shifted around a few entries to make sure they...
Grayed out abilities & lame boss fights... But reasonably cool ending none-the-less
Well, I'm done with Mass Effect for the near future. Maybe (maybe) I'll try and cheese out another achievement or two, but I should probably move on.
Devil May Cry 4: Trial Version
I should mention that the Devil May Cry series never really appealed to me. Too button mashy and too much flipping between character-relative and screen-relative controls for me...
Finished (but not finished with) Beautiful Katamari
I have to say that I am somewhat disappointed with Beautiful Katamari. I so wanted to have a game that my girlfriend and I could get into together, but its utter disdain for the...
Board Gaming: Catan & Lost Cities
Today was definitely a game of gaming. In addition to some Beautiful Katamari and XBLA trial versions, I watched the Superbowl and played the "analog" versions of Catan and Lost...
More Beautiful Katamari
I'm starting to garner some achievement points and generate larger katamari so the game is getting more fun. At the same time there are just some fundamental flaws in the game...
More Misc Trial Versions
I quickly bolted through a bunch of XBLA trial versions. Here are some thoughts: - Omega Five: Fun for a Japanese old-school arcade game. The flow was nice, but the default...
Tron: The Trial Version
Er. Terrible demo. Where do I begin?
Turning Point: Fall of Liberty -- Demo
What a fun little demo. I got stuck at a couple of points but still it was an enjoyable 10 minutes or so. I'm not sure it would have been accessible for a non-FPS gamer (there...
Triachnid: Initial thoughts
Triachnid was mentioned as a must-play on a recent Independent Games Festival roundup, so I decided to give it a try.
Critical Failure... My girlfriend tries to play Beautiful Katamari
So, I left my girlfriend alone with Beautiful Katamari for 10 minutes. I came back 10 minutes later and she still hadn't figured out how to start a single player game.
Progression: Quantitative vs. qualitative
So, I've mentioned that I dislike the fact that Mass Effect makes me care too much about the spreadsheet when it comes to progression and stats. In other words, I need to decide...
Mass Effect: Grindy goodness in bite sized chunks
I'm quickly discovering another great thing about Mass Effect. I haven't had marathon blocks of time available to me over the past week and I was originally a little worried that...
Scattered thoughts on Mass Effect
Just a few random thoughts as I've been going tonight. No real organization, just a bunch of non-connected thoughts.
Mass Effect: The (often fun, but sometimes painful) addiction has begun
I'm about 15-20 hours into Mass Effect and I'm pretty sure I'm in it for the long haul at this point. I'll probably stay on the relatively fast track (though I would probably do...
Housekeeping
Short post tonight before I do a bit of Mass Effect and then some karaoke.
More thoughts on Mass Effect...
So, I'm really enjoying Mass Effect for the most part. The "most part" being getting to know my character and supporting cast through interesting and engaging dialog.
Mass Effect: First hour or so...
Well, I just dropped Blue Dragon's 3 DVD envelope into the mail and am waiting for (hopefully) Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. I'll actually miss Blue Dragon a bit -- and will likely...
The numbers have changed... And a layer of cheese has been added
My Bogglific rating dropped a few points, I think through decay but I'm not sure. I'm down to 1307.
Another (sigh -- underwhelming) Demo: Dark Messiah M&M Elements
This demo left me curious, but underwhelmed. I'd give it a chance as a rental, but probably wouldn't buy it.
Mistaken Expections: The new Kingdom Under Fire Demo
I keep trying the Kingdom Under Fire series. And for one reason or another I just can't get very excited about it. The first two games in this series were action-adventure RTS...
Bogglific: The most polite yet competitive online game I've played
I've been hitting the pipe again... The Bogglific pipe. I can hardly believe that I was so down on it in comparison to Griddle. I still believe that the initial experience was...
Bogglific is to crack what Scrabulous is to cocaine
So I no longer allow myself to play Griddle. It was simply too addictive.
Griddle vs. Bogglific: Facebook Fight!
So, it isn't much of a fight so far. Griddle kicks the heck out of Bogglific for now at least.
Blue Dragon: Will I complete it?
I'm enjoying Blue Dragon. It has several annoyances that I've detailed separately, but it has enough going for it that it keeps me plugging away.
OK, I finally get it. My life as a drummer.
I could understand the appeal. I even enjoyed watching people (especially non-gamers) play the game. But I just never enjoyed playing Guitar Hero. The gameplay was too boring at...
Call of Duty 4: Finally a chance to play the movie \"Final Option\
Wow.
Blue Dragon: UI and Feedback Annoyances
I'm still having a reasonable amount of fun playing Blue Dragon. The world is interesting and the enemies are bizarre and different enough (at least visually) to keep me plugging...
Free games: Why not?
I decided to check out an arbitrary "best 10 free games of 2007 on the web" website via one of my gaming news RSS feeds.
Steam: Taking behavioral based profiles to the next level
Lots of folks talk about profiles and personas when trying to perform User Centered Design. Obviously these techniques can help designers (and usability folks) make better...
Assassin's Creed: There's a fine line between feeling cool and feeling stupid
I reached a point in Assassin's Creed where I'm not sure I have the will to plow forward. Unfortunately the narrative is not strong enough to make me want to complete the main...
Blue Dragon: First hour
Not bad. Definitely has me interested in playing more. The first 15 or so minutes were a little too much movie watching. Attempts were made to make it a bit more interactive, but...
Culdcept Saga: A little confusing at first play
I downloaded the Culdcept Saga demo last night and played a bit of it. It had a learn as you play tutorial, but I found that there was a bit too much reading and not enough...
Lumines PC Demo
It's amazing how a set of simple mechanics (rotate cube, move cube, and drop cube) can feel so right on my Xbox and so wrong -- at least according to the default keyboard setup...
What are the key components that make casual games fun?
This is something that I'm going to have to more seriously investigate. Normally I like a balance of solid core gameplay (the mechanics are layered on in a fun and appropriately...
Puzzle Quest just keeps layering on the goodness
So, after meandering through a bit more Assassin's Creed I found myself strangely not caring that I had no idea whether it would save my progress correctly given the wacky and...
Bad Demo... Good Value?
I just finished the demo of Blacksite 51 (downloaded via 360 Marketplace). It's the second demo for this game and both have left me underwhelmed.
Save game error...
Assassin's Creed has failed me. Again.
If co-op can make the \"fart-in-a-bag game\" fun, then...
Early on when I played some of the less than stellar Xbox live co-op offerings I remarked to a friend that co-op can even make the "fart-in-a-bag-game" fun.
Assassin's Creed: Initial Experience
Well, so far I'm a little underwhelmed. I actually thought the beginning of the game was quite clever -- a send up to bad tutorial/learn as you play design where the player is...
File for later: Investigate Mass Effect initial experience...
So, I've tried to keep myself in the dark as much as possible on Bioware's recently launched Mass Effect. Often I'll do this for big game and movie releases so I can enjoy the...
Price point vs. entertaining trial version... To buy or not?
So, I've been playing some Peggle (from PopCap Games) lately. Specifically, I've been playing the demo. Like other reviewers, I went from an immediate reaction of "how is this...
Trials and tribulations...
Last night I checked out a few XBLA trial version games. I needed to chill out for a bit after my hockey game and didn't want to risk getting caught up in another marathon...
Catan: Worst AI evar?
So, one of my coworkers made the bold claim that the AI for Catan! (XBLA) was the worst in the universe. I'd heard some complaints about the AI before, so I asked him to explain...
Instrumentation for game improvement and community zeitgeist
Both Bungie and Valve are doing a great job of sharing customer behavior data on their websites.
More Half Life 2 goodness (and some thoughts re: RPGs)
I'm blowing through Half Life 2. It's obviously not as fun as the first time through, but there's enough excitement there to keep me going. And, I can't wait for the new content...
Updates
I just did a little maintenance to my right side columns. I'm also trading my Gamefly copy of The Simpsons Game for Golden Compass (the book).
Fantasy Football Frustration
Fantasy football, ideally, is a great way to keep in touch with out of town friends. It provides a social network with a meta game that draws people back at least once per week...
Tutorials & Learn as you play... The book?
I came across a link to an academic paper that discussed the tutorials in Rise of Nations in the context of how to improve teaching and learning, more generally.
Speculation
A couple of co-workers were wondering why The Simpsons Game seemed to be reviewing poorly on Amazon.com.
Oh, baby... 10,000 points + 1 Bingo (at the same time)
Just received the "Fight the power" achievement in The Simpsons Game to take me to exactly 10,o00 gamer points... And while I was waiting for a cut scene to finish I played a...
Initial Experience...
I sat down, briefly, with two XBLA trial version games today: E4 and Exit. Both seemed fun and I'd like to try them some more. I really only left them behind because I was...
Sports and social gaming
Sunday is a day about non-videogame games for me. I watch football (and participate in a fantasy football league, which is kind of like a videogame) and play ice hockey.
Make it rain... Make it rain... Make it rain bolts on my head
Whew.
The hair of my chinny-chin-chin
I've got a couple of minutes before midnite to go over a few first impressions of Ratchet & Clank: Future Tools of Destruction. - Wow -- console gaming is almost as awful as PC...
Memorable credits sequences
I keep singing the lyrics (that I can remember) from Still Alive, the credit song that you hear at the end of Portal. What an awesome bit of icing on an already delicious (and...
More Puzzle Quest... And a non-sequitir on the joy of breaking boxes, crates, and barrels
I'm really enjoying Puzzle Quest. It's the kind of thing where the core mechanic is so relaxing and compelling (basically Bejeweled), it makes me forget some of the annoyances.
Movers & Shakers...
I've updated my game categories on the right.
Orange Box & Puzzle Quest... Oh, my!
Well, it looks like I may need to add Puzzle Quest (for XBLA) to my currently playing list. And, sadly, Overlord may have to be demoted to the "done with" section before I finish...
Warbook -- I need a good three day weekend away from you
Been playing Warbook via Facebook for a few weeks now (sorry, the link will probably only make sense if you're already on Facebook). It's amazing how compelled I am to play it...
Inserting some smart defaults (I hate blank landing pages)
Just inserting some text from my Facebook.com "Extended Info" app. I find that I like the basic structure of the app, but find it hard to edit and promote so that my friends can...
Photos of games I've worked on...
Settlers of Catan Fansite Download, originally uploaded by jackalshorns.