I recently asked on Twitter if any indie game developers had any music they’d like reviewing or posting. The first response I got was from Elevate Entertainment regarding their upcoming game Lumena.
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Indie game music: Lumena
Oculus: Now part of the Facebook family
The Oculus Rift is one of the more exciting things to happen to gaming in a while. Forget 4K displays, 3D monitors and next-gen consoles – consumer-grade virtual reality headsets that aren’t rubbish are actually on the horizon. Future!
And now Facebook have bought Oculus for $2 billion in cash and stocks. That leaves me conflicted. On the one hand, Facebook are doing very clever things with hardware these days and their devotion to improving the state of technology and computing is beyond question.
It’s on the social and personal level that the misgivings begin – Facebook not exactly known for being privacy- or user oriented. The most visible fallout of the announcement so far has been Notch’s decision to end talks to bring Minecraft to Oculus because “Facebook creeps me out”. We’ll surely hear more of this sort of thing over the coming weeks, as well as the secondary fallout among fans.
Honestly, I think this is a good thing for Oculus – facebook will bring them a level of hardware expertise and resources that should open up whole new vistas of potential, and hopefully with John Carmack as CTO Oculus will be able to avoid wandering too far down the Facebook rabbit hole. The move is obviously going to cost Oculus goodwill among it’s early supporters – the set of people who mistrust Facebook overlaps pretty heavily with the sort of tech enthusiast who gets excited about new technology like the Rift. Yes, Facebook comes with it’s own marketing platform and immense user-base which will more than cancel that out, but I’m sure a lot of folks will see the deal as a betrayal.
Me, I’m cautiously optimistic that Oculus gets the “Facebook technology” treatment rather than the “Facebook social” treatment. In the meantime, no Minecraft on the Rift. Boo!
Game music: The String Arcade
It’s been a while since I posted a not-quite-game-music album, so here we go. A string cover of some well-known (and less well-known) themes. I present to you: The String Arcade. Don’t even click through the jump to read the rest of the article – just follow that link and buy the album. It’s beautiful.
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Meganatomy: The Anatomy of Megaman
Readers with good memories will remember that I’ve mentioned Jeremy Parish’s excellent “Anatomy of a Game” series before, and well-read readers with good taste will already know about it. For the rest of you, I’m talking about a set of analyses of games in which the level design, mechanics and direction inform gameplay and teach the player in a time before tutorials. Not some weird fanfiction about the actual, you know, anatomy of the little guy himself.
Parish’s latest run is on the original Megaman and I’m mentioning it here because he raises a very interesting point, one that I’d never considered before.
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Game music: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
My only attempt at playing a Metal Gear game was Metal Gear Solid 2 back on the PS2, which ended about ten minutes thanks to a scratched disc. Having only the lifespan of a single mortal human I haven’t had chance to play the more recent instalments with their movie-length cutscenes but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the music.
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Heroes of Might and Magic 3 has turned 15. Feel old yet?
Man… I remember marathon gaming sessions playing Heroes of Might and Magic 3 back in the day. In fact it was the first game I ever did an all-nighter on. And at the end of February it celebrated it’s 15th birthday. Now I just feel old.
To celebrate, Ubisoft have done some interviews with the original team and they’re well worth a read.
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Cadence: Brain-fizzing frustration has never been so tranquil
It’s Sunday so something relaxing is in order. Cadence from Made With Monster Love initially seemed to fit the bill perfectly, the demo’s tutorial easing you in with such calm and gradual assurance that it was a bit of a surprise when I realised I was playing a fiendishly clever puzzle game.
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Gender balance in video games: Desktop Dungeons does it right
It would be easy to open with “I don’t think there is any debate about there being issues with sexism in video games”, but let’s face it, even on somewhere as mainstream and generally progressive as Reddit you can still find “debate” on the subject. Or watch the fallout any time RPS take a stand on something. Or when Cara Ellison or Leigh Alexander say… well, almost anything.
Which is why it’s encouraging to find a game studio putting some real effort into things. Step forward please QCF Design.
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Game music: Mass Effect 2
Just as the story, gameplay and overall tone evolves as the Mass Effect Trilogy progresses, so too does the music. Jack Wall reprises his role in Mass Effect 2, bringing us a soundtrack that – unlike the game – stands as a worthy successor to the first.
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