Recently, Electronic Arts closed Maxis. Maxis made such games as SimCity and it's hugely successful spinoff, The Sims. People are going around being all sad about it. Yes, people are losing their jobs, and that is bad. But from the perspective of the gaming industry's health, I think it's a good thing. With the recent reveal of Electronic Access by Original Systems, I started thinking about this cycle. Survival of the fittest applies to the game industry too.
I remember when Enslaved: Odyssey to the West first came out. Somehow it looked interesting to me. Then I saw that it was only on Xbox. That was the first time I threatened to get a game if it came out on PC. Three years later, it did, so I ponied up some money a few months later. I only now got around to it, and I'm glad I did.
Bioshock 2 is a game that I never thought I would play or even own. It's also a game that doesn't need to exist. It's a sequel to a not-RPG that summed everything up on it's own. I found the whole thing a little surreal, but mostly dissonant, and free of emotional sense.
One of the guys behind World Of Goo helped make Little Inferno. He was both the artist and music writer, and it shows well. So here's a game that won't warm you up for the winter.
I remember when Bioshock came out. People kept raving about how it was such a good role-playing game. After realizing that in a month I would never be able to use a mall gift card, I had money to burn. Having come off of an RPG that I rather liked, I figured I might check Bioshock out. What happened made Bioshock the most disappointing game of all time for me.
And now for another game from Twentieth Century. Fallout is a fairly old game that every other game nerd seems to be continually high on. And by "old game", I mean "game franchise". I wonder how many of them have actually played the first one.
And now for a game that I've paid for about five times over, thanks to the Humble Indie Bundle. It's also one of the few games in one of them that I had played before those bundles became a thing.
