Vox ex Machina » Sega

GameOgre: Spiral Knights hits the right spot in a first impressions article

Helvetica — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 07:24:03 +0000

Coming soon to the free-to-play MMO market, Spiral Knights released by SEGA and Three Rings Design looks like it ahs all the necessary elements to be a wonderful time-waster. Even with its business model that seems to want to limit the time you can play (unless you pay them.) Kyt Dotson over at GameOgre covers the game with a first impressions article,

The Clockworks, which account for the dungeon system of Spiral Knights, are accessed via kiosks attached to elevators called Clockwork Gates. In Haven there is only one static Clockwork gate called the Firefly Gate–the rest of them exist in the Arcade and they cycle in and out of accessibility with time. The concept means that every few weeks you gain access to new Clockworks dungeons and old ones get cycled out (I suspect they return.) This means that you’ll always be able to choose from a new Clockwork every time you return, increasing the game’s playability hugely.

So far there’s a lot of screenshots of the level design, the game seems to have a Gauntlet-esque feel combined with a 3D Castle Crashers style. Cute clockpuk characters crash-landed on a clockpunk world trying to survive. All the hallmarks of a fairly solid MMO. It appears to currently all run on one shard – of course, that might have been for the preview only.

The actual game launches on April 4th.

Link, via GameOgre.

Ten Years Ago, The Dreamcast

Nelson Williams — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:53:41 +0000

It was a different time, a lost time, when console gaming was just stretching its wings. High off the success of the NES, the Genesis, the Super Nintendo, the gaming industry was ready to try new things. It a storied time, fabled, hallowed in legend and mystery. It was a time when Sega did something right.

The Dreamcast was unveiled this day ten year ago, a small thing, a white box with a controller designed under alien influence, as if a Martian would return at any moment to reclaim his high score. The Dreamcast played discs, it had a web browser, it ran online multiplayer.

Ten years ago, Sega held the future in its hand.

Then the Playstation 2 ate Sega alive and the Dreamcast was cast down from Sony’s bloodstained teeth as little more than the picked bones of a failed promise.

Still, for a short time, there was no better console.

I didn’t own a Dreamcast, my world at the time was mostly beaming out from a computer monitor, so I’ll just let a few other people have their words. The Dreamcast left an impression, and its parting, a void. These are the voices of gaming.

Dan Ackerman at CNet
David Hansen at City Pages
Mike Snider and Brett Molina at USA Today
The Penny Arcade Forum
The Something Awful Game Forum

Ten years today. Happy birthday, Dreamcast.

House of the Dead: Overkill, Skullhumps Profanity Record

Nelson Williams — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:08:42 +0000

Swearing? In a zombie game? Oh my. In a record confirmed by the Guinness people who don’t make beer, House of the Dead: Overkill takes the top place for most profanity in a single game. According the Guinness World Record folks, the f-bomb flies more than 189 times. That comes out to about 3% of the entire dialog in the script.

House of the Dead: Overkill is available on the (heh, heh heh) family-friendly Nintendo Wii console. This makes me smile on the inside.