Mount & Blade v0.950 Released!

By: Derek Yu

On: April 30th, 2008

Image by Vanemuine, via the TaleWorlds forums.

The latest version of the awesome cavalry/siege sim Mount and Blade has been released, offering a slew of improvements, including new character models and animations, new towns and cities, new quests (with rehauled dialogue and descriptions), better AI, and more video options. The developers are claiming that v0.950 contains most of the features they want to add for v1.0, which will be published by Paradox Interactive later this year.

For a more complete list of changes (which is being compiled by players), click here. For more gorgeous screenshots, click here!

As before, you can still buy and play the game now for $25, which will also grant you access to the $39 full version when it comes out.

(Source: Kieron Gillen, via Rock, Paper, Shotgun)

Trials 2 Second Edition

By: Derek Yu

On: April 24th, 2008

Oh, man, this game is fun! Trials 2 Second Edition is a physics-based motorbike game that’s reminiscent of the classic Elasto Mania. The series began with two Flash games, Trial Bike (and variants) and Trials 2. Trials 2 SE, however, is a downloadable commercial title with really nice 3d graphics and many more options (although the 2d gameplay remains more or less unchanged).

The goal of each track is to make your way from one end to the other. In between, you’ll be jumping gaps, popping wheelies, doing loop-de-loops… and probably smashing your poor rider into every surface along the way. Have you ever fallen face-first into a tire fire? I’ll bet even Travis Pastrana hasn’t.

Thankfully, this is another game where losing can be as entertaining as winning (hurray for 3d ragdoll physics!). Also, checkpoints are placed liberally, and restarting is as easy as hitting a button. Trials 2 Second Edition is surprisingly frustration free.

The full version of the game is $19.90 USD, and gives you 40 tracks, 3 game modes, 25 achievements, and the ability to maintain a profile and compete with other players for online ranking. One of the coolest features of T2SE is that, when comparing scores, you can click an icon next to a player’s name to either watch a replay of their best run (complete with key presses), or to race with their “ghost.” You can also create and join teams and compete as or within a group. (Which reminds me, team “TigerSauce” is looking for members! The password is herebeowls.)

So yeah, damn fun game. Video after the jump!

(Source: Kieron Gillen, via Rock, Paper, Shotgun)

Ikariam

By: Derek Yu

On: March 31st, 2008

I’ve been playing this web game Ikariam for a few weeks now, and man, it’s pretty fun (and free!). There’s just enough to do that it keeps my interest, but it’s passive enough that I don’t feel bad walking away from it for a few days at a time. It’s well-balanced so that you can have a good time no matter how social you want to get.

Essentially, the game is empire-building. You register an account, choose a world (server) to play on, and then you’re plopped down on a random island. A big part of the game involves building up your town, doing research, and managing resources. Which, of course, ends up being pretty fun. Harvesting of materials and research is automatic, and the only decision to be made is how many citizens to devote to each (citizens without specific tasks will generate gold).

Every island in Ikariam holds 16 towns maximum, and each island has one sawmill and one luxury resource – marble, sulfur, crystal glass, and grapes. These two spots are shared by all the inhabitants of the island and must be upgraded through donations. As you can imagine, you need all four of the luxury resources to expand in Ikariam, so trading between other islands is a must. The trading interface is slick and easy to use.

Since the sawmills, quarries, pits, mines, and vineyards are all communal, you get some moochers on every island who don’t donate – it’s common practice to pillage these poor bastards until they feel generous. War and diplomacy are also big parts of the game, and I won’t go into too much detail, but, suffice to say, you can be a total Machiavelli and/or Ghengis Khan, if you please. Just be careful of pillaging towns that belong to alliances, as you can quickly find yourself at the wrath of one of the more powerful ones.

This is about the perfect amount of learning curve/investment for me, for an online game (and the graphics are nice, too). If you want to play together, join the world “Iota” and come find me! My capital is “Tiger Sauce,” on Cukios [70:45]. My friend and I have a small alliance going (“Owl Country”), and it’d be nice to have some TIGers in it!

EDIT: Great to see so many people joined up! Here’s a guide to joining alliances. Before you join, you need an embassy!

Preview: Glitchracer

By: Derek Yu

On: March 19th, 2008

The next project from the creator of Toribash – a sandbox racing game. “Build, race, crash, and share!”

(Thanks, Data!)

Gene Pool

By: Derek Yu

On: February 7th, 2008

Man, artificial life gets me hot. Did I just say that out loud?

Gene Pool is a cute little a-life sim in which “swimbots” compete for mates and food. Each swimbot is made of small segments, which are used to propel it across the primordial soup. Swimbots which are more “attractive” (determined by a number of factors, including segment color), can swim faster, or develop independent video games get to propagate their genes over their uglier, slower neighbors.

Not really a game per se, but it’s fun. You can pick up swimbots and help/hurt them. Gene Pool also has a number of parameters you can set to change the way your swimbots evolve, such as attractiveness.

The developer, J.J. Ventrella, has some other interesting math and science experiments on his website. I particularly enjoyed Branchy Branch.

Pictured at left: two swimmers ’bout to bump uglies (or, in this case, little pink arrows).

(Source: Alehkhs, via Puppy Buckets)

Find the Creature Living in You

By: Derek Yu

On: January 17th, 2008

Proof that if there’s a God, he’s laughing his ass off at us.

(Many thanks to the lovely Jennifer Yin for the tip!)

Original SimCity Source Released

By: Derek Yu

On: January 15th, 2008

The original source for Will Wright’s SimCity has been GPL’ed, with some modifications made to it to remove any reference to the name “SimCity” (which EA has a tight choke hold on). It’s now called “Micropolis.” Also, plane crashes have been removed from the game because of 9/11, proving once again that we are living in a world of pure fear!

Anyway, it may not fit within your definition of “indie,” but I thought it was close enough and interesting enough to post here. It’d be cool to see some fun mods come out of this.

Mount and Blade v0.890

By: Derek Yu

On: September 21st, 2007

Mount and Blade, the incredibly realistic and detailed medieval combat game, saw a whopper of a new update last week. The last public version, which I believe was 0.808, was released almost a year ago!

Some of the more notable changes in this version include ragdoll physics for soldiers and horses, a graphics overhaul, and generally just a mind-boggling number of improvements and additions to every aspect of the game, from commanding troops to the faction system. Strangely enough, Taleworlds does not publicize the changes from version to version, so fans of the game are compiling a list, the most current of which can be viewed here.

If you’ve been waiting for a good time to try out this game, which was one of our 50 Really Good Indie Games, now is it!

(Source: Soldat Movies, Image Source: Antix from the M&B forums)

Fly the Friendly Open Skies For Free

By: Shabadage

On: July 22nd, 2007

Well, the simulated skies anyway. FlightGear is an open-source, multi-platform flight simulator. Highly configurable, FlightGear even allows you to choose from different flight dynamic models. There are numerous official scenery packs, aircraft, and the userbase generates a large amount of downloadable content as well.

The launcher can be somewhat picky sometimes, and the terrain somewhat sparse (without the massive scenery packs anyway), but for such a detailed sim with fairly moderate system requirements, FlightGear deserves a look.

Real Lives

By: Derek Yu

On: July 16th, 2007

Real Lives is a “life simulator” that puts you in the shoes of someone, somewhere in the world. Who you are, where you’re born, and to who are based on real life statistics, as well as the random events that may happen to you. The interface is quite simple, the most prominent feature being a giant map in the center of the screen. Everything else is text and icons and buttons.

The most important button is the “Advance an Age” button, which you will be using to move forward in your life. As you get older, various choices and options will be presented to you – everything from schooling to finances to who you date and marry and have (or not have) children with. Of course, what you’re able to do depends heavily on where you start out, and at any moment tragedy can strike.

The game, as simple as it is, is incredibly compelling, and very sobering. In my first game, I was quite fortunate, having been born in a middle class family in Slovakia. I died at age 61 of rheumatoid arthritis as a well-to-do police captain with three healthy daughters. In my latest game, however, I’ve been born as a girl to an extremely poor family in rural China, and things are going to be difficult. Being beaten, raped, arrested, or contracting a fatal disease is not uncommon. It’s brutal.

As I said above, the game is based on real life statistics, and as you’re playing you can view those statistics as each event occurs. If you get food poisoning in Slovakia (as I did quite a few times), you can see statistics about what percentage of people like you living in Slovakia get food poisoning each year. The context in which the information is presented makes it so much less dry than if you read it in a periodical.

Real Lives works on a lot of levels: as a game, a simulation, and an educational tool. It also has the incredible potential to increase awareness and human empathy. So it wins pretty hard, all around!

The demo (available as a direct link from this Something Awful thread) is free to play for as long as you like, although if you want access to the character creator, you have to pay $25 for the registered version (via the first link). And here’s a thread I started on our forums for you to post your own “Real Lives.” Everyone should post their first!

(Source: Soldat Movies)