During the years 1998 – 2004, PC Gaming was at its peak. With Half-Life, Unreal Tournament, Deus Ex, The Sims, and Half-Life 2, among others, PC gaming had never seen better glory days since Doom came out. It was a good ol’ time, as they say. In the years since then, PC gaming has taken a rather forced backseat to console gamers, endured shitty ports, and had even the most basic of PC gaming rights removed.

I’m happy to report that this is no longer the case. PC gaming isn’t dead, its only been sleeping. With recent releases like Deus Ex: Human Evolution (which fared much better on the PC), Infinity Ward changing their minds about dedicated servers, and Team Fortress 2 picking up more steam (get it?!?!?!?) since it became a free-to-play game, PC gaming has never looked better. Also, did I mention that I’m really excited about the new Borderlands? Oh, also: DotA 2.

To be honest, I was re-energized about PC gaming after playing through 20 hours of Deus Ex: Human Evolution. This game symbolizes a golden-age of PC gaming long forgotten, and I urge you to pick it up. Full review coming when I get around to completing the game.

Side note: Like Brett said, we aren’t dead. Really.

That’s right! We are officially back with our reunion episode! 72PC Podcast is officially back on the air. We’ll try the best we can to bring you the best video game reviews, opinions, news, and general banter on a semi-regular basis. Stay tuned to the website for all the great stuff. We’re working on a better way to bring you live podcasts, but for now, we’re going to focus on bringing you quality pre-recorded content. If you have any ideas, suggestions, or would like to see a certain topic, throw an email to fanmail@seventytwopinconnector.com.

Seventy Two Pin Connector Podcast – Episode 043 – Skibbity Fuck Poop Video Games

Go ahead and click for the show notes…

Feel The Magic Official Trailer:

Heavy Rain Trailer:

Wu Controller:

Poets of the Fall – Late Goodbye (Max Payne 2 Ending Song)

Big Daddy Daycare:

“Guru Meditation” is an iPhone/Atari 2600 game from mid-2009 that you probably haven’t heard of, and as far as I know it’s the kind of indie-art game that people point to as being “unfun” and “pretentious.” While I can see the “unfun,” I can’t really see the pretension. Made by Ian Bogost, the game appears to be a commentary and an homage about/to games that attempt to be relaxing, but can be unintentionally stressful. A good example of this is thatgamecompany’s “Cloud,” their first release, which is supposedly relaxing, but I found hair shreddingly difficult. The other item that the game is meant to refer to is the Atari’s balance board peripheral, a sloppy early implementation of what would later become the Wii Fit Board.

It’s interesting to see a game that intentionally comments upon the art form, and the game is extremely successful in its efforts to be incredibly annoying yet look like it should be calming. You hold the iPhone with both thumbs pressed down on two corners while maintaining a completely flat position and the slightest movement leads to failure, then it times you to see how long you last. Couldn’t go 30 seconds…think my record is 29.

For 99 cents I’m not disappointed. And it hasn’t stopped me from being intruiged by Bogost’s next project.

However, I would like to quickly address the idea of “fun” being an essential element to video games. “Unfun” games have frequently been called out for not being immersive enough, the problem I have with these statements is that they act as counter productive nay-saying. Bad design tends to be the true Achilles’s Heel of gaming, while one has a hard time calling “Silent Hill 2″ a fun way to spend the evening. Fun is for toys. Interesting, deep, and meaningful are words I tend to look for to describe my games. While “Guru Meditation” is interesting, I can’t advice people from the Kill Zone crowd to jump on it. It’s designed almost for academic reasons, as an exploration of old mechanics and certain philosophies within the medium, like one would study Joyce, Chekhov, or Fellini – their works aren’t “fun” but they need examination to understand their mediums. This is why “fun” doesn’t work as a selling point for all art: Fun things don’t usually make us think, they often prevent thought. I don’t say this to decry fun games, just to say that there is more to life.

“Guru Meditation” is probably the most recent game out for Atari 2600 to be released, it is also for the iPhone and iPod Touch, though I wouldn’t recommend purchasing it unless you are familiar with and enjoy the works of Ian Bogost.

And that’s what real art is.  It is a creation of emotions, a meaningful experience.  Each one of these games gave a unique emotional moment.  No two were alike, and they were all brilliant, from Tom Sennett’s lighthearted humor, to Molleindustria’s bleak view of reality, to Daniel Benmergui intense and thoughtfully poetic storytelling.  These people brought to me something more than money, or time, or big teams of people could provide.  All of them are artists.  All of them have created something wonderful, and if you haven’t played even one of these games I hope you choose to.  I think there is something for everyone here, whether you are looking for fun, challenge, or thought.

10. “Canabalt” by Semi Secret Software
“Canabalt” is a 2D platforming game from the mind of Adam Atomic (also creating the noteworthy game “Paper Moon” this year), and it manages to create an experience without plot or ending that is addictive in every way.  The core mechanics are hit button to jump and make sure not to crash into walls or fall, and with that simple gameplay element “Canabalt” became the browser game version of heroin.  The atmosphere and all together style built around the game helps to create questions in the mind of the player, “Why am I running?” being the prime thought to enter one’s head, but that never stops the player from running.  No matter what the circumstances, whether you’re the good guy or bad guy, whatever you’re running from, it’s always important to keep running.  Each new failure is just as heart breaking as the last.  It’s an exciting experience that is only trumped by its own iPhone port.

9. “Fig. 8″ by Intuition Games
“Fig. 8″ has a very strange premise, ride a bike through a maze built out of an instruction manual while trying not to crash into the pictures or text, all while not lagging behind the quick-scrolling camera – essentially this is a new way to become frustrated by instruction manuals.  However, the game is always “charming.”  As you play your ears are accompanied by playful accordion music or folk guitar which stabilizes the mood and smoothness of gameplay.  This keeps the player from becoming overly tired of failure or too panicked when things get tough.  “Fig. 8″ has a beautiful look, where the player leaves trails of color behind himself as he rides through a purely black and white backdrop.  The end result is one of the most intriguing experiences one can have in any medium.

8. “Ergos/Logos” by Molleindustria
Mood can be very important, and it’s not exactly something easy to master, or even explain.  A good game can be ruined by a lack of proper atmosphere, and a bad game can feel a little bit better when it gets the mood just right.  “Ergos/Logos” can barely be called a game, but whatever you want to call it, it’s good! and the mood is perfect.  Guiding through hastily moving text at unreasonable speed, trying to take a literary right turn, leaves one panicking in alarm without even realizing that there are no avatars or environments.  “Ergos/Logos” is as energetic and scary as any action or horror game.

7. “RunMan: Race Around the World” by Tom Sennett/Matt Thorson
Easy to play, hard to master, and simply adorable, “RunMan: Race Around the World” is a wonderful game.  You play as the titular RunMan who enters a competition to “race around the world.”  Even with all the other competitors dropping out upon his arrival he decides that it’s still best to go ahead and run, which leads to one of the most entertaining adventures of the year.  Every level is done in with cute and cartoony look that leds itself to the fun racing formula of early Sonic the Hedgehog games without the frustrating lack of saves.  Quite simply it’s a blast to play.

6. “Tower of Heaven” by Askiisoft
“Tower of Heaven” is about traveling up a tower, and with progress comes the more and more restrictions upon the player, limiting his actions – from going left to touch the flora and fauna and eventually not being able to look at the book to see what rules you have been set up, this is a challenging game, and whereas most games reward progress with new items for easier movement, “Tower of Heaven” is punishing the player for daring to defy the odds and scale the tower.  With a beautiful art style  found nowhere else, eyes may bleed when cast onto such a wonderful looking game.  It uses it’s simple 2D graphics to create a dark and gorgeous setting better than most any other game can try to do.

5. “Every Day the Same Dream” by Molleindustria
Reminiscent of stories like “An Occurrence at Owl Creek,” “Every Dray the Same Dream” leads the player through the world in a dream like state, even if it is perhaps a more mundane world than any of us are used to.  The dull events and daily routines which the player instinctively follows must be shucked away to investigate the greater world, a more beautiful and perhaps reflectively dismal world.  With a wonderfully scary ending “Every Day the Same Dream” is a hard game to forget.

4. “Little Wheel” by OneClickDog
“Little Wheel” is a very simple game, that probably won’t take long to finish, but within that short amount of time is an absolutely beautiful adventure game.  Based in a world without human life, where there are only robots, but the power ran dry and they all stopped, one robot awakes and (you, that robot) goes off to restore life.  It’s very rare to see a game that manages to provide the feeling of isolation so well, but with no dialog and an essentially lifeless world even more barren by inactivity it comes off strong.  Yet there are moments of cuteness, beautiful scenery, and a little puzzles that make the game feel like a lot more than just another game without NPCs.  “Little Wheel” is gorgeous and charming in every way.

3. “When the Bomb Goes Off” by Tom Sennett
Black comedy is a tough act.  If it isn’t done properly then you’ll have a tasteless joke with nobody laughing.  Luckily, Tom Sennett is able to show his prowess in the art through “When the Bomb Goes Off” a collection of microgames with a simple stick-figure art style where the player only has five seconds to accomplish his goals before a bomb goes off, presumably killing every one.  It’s ridiculously humorous when one thinks about just how mundane these tasks may be.  Tom Sennett definitely works hard to establish himself this year as a great game maker, and we to see more wonderful and fun pieces from him in the 2010.

2. “Time Fcuk” by Edmund McMillen/William Good
“Time Fcuk” uses a background shifting mechanic to solve each levels puzzle, pushing the character through to the next room.  With a neon and black environment, oppressive atmosphere, questions about time and space, a tumor growing out of you into you, you in the next room talking to you in the current room, an impressive length, and all of this taking place inside a box Time Fcuk is an amazingly well-done, challenging, and mind-bending game.  There is simply nothing that feels quite like it, and everyone should give it a go.

1. “Today I Die” by Daniel Benmergui
“Today I Die” more than any other game this year has convinced me that there is a way to combine gameplay and story into one body.  There is no story here without the gameplay, and there is no gameplay without the story.  Many times we compare video gaming to novels or film, often wrongfully so.  Though I’ve heard “Today I Die” compared to short poetry, which it does show similarities towards, it is the perfect example of how a video game can its own art without peers.  Short in length, but enthralling, “Today I Die” is able to raise emotions from the player with ease as you change the words of a short poem through interacting with the limited environment around you.  In the end it is not the titular depression one might think it is.  It is a beautiful romance and declaration of life.  “Today I Die” is a rebuilding of hoping, a reconstruction and reevaluation of life.  Spread thickly with symbolism and meaning, a wonderful yet simplistic art style set in 2D, successfully getting across the moods it wishes to convey, one of the greatest successes in art I have seen from 2009, this is a game impossible to forget.

The entries are in for the new Ludum Dare competition, and there are 121 brand new games up for judging in the next three weeks.  This means that there is a stream of brand new indie games being put out by industry professionals as well as hobbyist and indie game names like Cactus and Increpare.  There’s no actual prize for competing in the contest, the only goal is to make a game that fits the theme (this year’s theme is “Exploration”) and to show off the skills of the most brilliant minds in indie game creation.

If you’re interested in playing what almost always turn out to be the most unique titles the world has to offer then hop on over to the site and check out the entries.  All the games are free to play, though you can’t vote unless you’ve entered, but winning isn’t the entire goal for entering.  The real reason it’s there is so people like us, people from all walks of gaming, can experience the freshest ideas floating out there in the art form.  So if you have the time, and lord knows if you’re here ya do, check some of ‘em out.  It’s great to see people just being passionate about their art.

Survival Horror games are boring.  They replace the usual hack-n-slash fun that should normally be inflicted upon the undead and place it with patience and slow building fear.  Believe it or not though, there are actually games with horrible undead fiends and chainsaw-wielding massacres (chainsaws in the hands of the players).  And let us all remember that zombie killin’ fun is what Halloween is really all about.  That, and love…the love for candy.

So if you’re one of ‘em trigger happy types of any generation or creed of gamer there’s a zombie killfest for you!

The Modern Hardcore:
For all of you “hardcore” gamers I can only suggest two games.  (Hope you have an Xbox or PC because there’s no alternative for zombie blastin’ fun like) -  Left 4 Dead.  You and three buddies in absolute isolation (aside from…three…buddies), ripping through zombie hordes.  Intense, atmospheric, but with enough firepower and friendship you’ll blow your way through your undead attackers and survive to fight another level.  Alternatively, the solo player might get some holiday use out of Dead Rising.  It’s an aging and imperfect game, but the shear number of zombies you can kill with all sorts of hilarious weapons more than makes up for a few flaws.

Caught up in the Last Gen:
If anyone still holds tight to their last gen system then there’s at least one game they should seek out for some true Halloween horror.  And that’s Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel without a Pulse.  Change sides during this apocalyptic zombie invasion to the rotten green team.  You, as Stubbs, and your unholy army of the night will be able to tear up the town (and ride sheep!) while the delicious humans flee in terror.  There aren’t many games that have you fight for the antagonist’s side, and once you play through the story you’ll probably still feel justified for destroying a city’s worth of innocent morons – so maybe the zombies are sometimes right.

Old School:
Few zombie games from the past have been as charming as Zombies Ate My Neighbors.  You and a friend can run around using spirtguns, soda pop, and bazookas to put a whole in the zombie ranks, while protecting the neighborhood folks.  Zombies play the role of cannon fodder in this game, and the challenge really comes from imitation Chucky dolls, chainsaw wielding maniacs (before it was cool), and giant babies.  Everything fun, campy, comedic, and deadly that you could expect from a zombie shoot ‘em up.  You can’t beat the classic.

Casual Gamer:
If you like the pretty, the cute, the happy, and the undead then here’s a game for you: Plants vs. Zombies.  A tower defense game that came out just this year and is an essential for any zombie lawn care enthusiasts garden.  It’s very rare to see happy little flowers slaughtering the brain-eating dead, but somehow this game got made, but we’re lucky enough to have the casual game kings, PopCap, provide the treats for this Halloween party.

Indie Gamer:
I MAED A GAM3 W1TH ZOMBIES 1N IT!!!1.  I’m only typing that once.  This Xbox Live Indie Game provides simple and furious zombie slaughtering fun, and a brilliant soundtrack to boot.  At an insanely low price ($1) it’s a deal that you’d have to be dead to pass up.

For me, achievements have always been a mixed bag.  I’m not an obsessive achievement whore, and I think that they can ruin the immersion of a game that doesn’t need them to reach it’s full potential.  But then on the other hand, achievements can be great for extend the value of a game and I always feel this little ping of pride when I get one, like I’ve come one step closer to a pointless and unknown nirvana that I never really thought about reaching until that moment.

At first achievements were a fairly pointless addition to the video gaming world.  A lot of early games could be beaten from beginning to end and you’d have enough to proudly fill in all 1000 points.  An example of bad achievements in a game is probably the video game adaptation of “Avatar: The Last Airbender;” it was described to me like this: “You can get all the achievements by standing in a corner and attacking the wall for five minutes.”  Probably an exageration, but probably not far enough away from the truth to make the achievements an extension of the actual gameplay.

The dull grey slaughterfest of Gears of War 2 is probably one of the better examples of achievements.  They’re tougher to get and require an appropriate amount of skill and patients.  So if a person really loves playing it than that will show through their achievements.  On the other hand, does a game like flOw really need achievements (i.e. trophies)?  flOw is a game based around calmly moving deeper through an aquatic wonderland of geometric shapes.  I don’t really have to actually kill anything and sometimes I just load up it’s start screen to listen to the soothing music.  Does it require bonus points to be a great game?  Does Gears of War 2?

No.  Neither of them require achievements to be fun or interesting.  The soul purpose of these little treats is to give the player more out of their gaming experience, and it does do that.  Plus the achievements of flOw are drastically different from that of Gears of War 2.  They both use achievements (/trophies) that cater to their primary audiences.

The Path was a surprising game to find item collection (and therefore some kind of achievement based system) in.  The game shows itself to be a slow-paced and deep single player experience and here they have me collecting arbitrary stars for some reason, which I’m sure are used to reveal some kind of both ending for each character, but they are also trying to be more like a standard game while trying to play it artsy at the same time, and the elements clash.  I love the games-as-art progress we’ve made in recent years, and that’s one of the reasons I embrace the Tale of Tales games.  They’re trying to do something different, and here they fail by trying to meet an audience that they don’t have half way.  Item collection is not something that will tantalize outsiders, and the fans that they seem to have want the unique aspects they provide without it.  From my point of view the item collection adds a layer of gaminess to a game yearning to escape convention.  A backwards step.

My point with this is that achievements are good in the right places and when you understand your audience.  Gears of War 2 certainly does, as does flOw’s thatgamecompany.  But using the extras and achievements just to pad the lining of your games doesn’t always serve a purpose or improve the system.  It’s important to remember who you’re making the games for and achievements should reflect that, and avoid pointless drudgery and ignorant simplicity to the fullest.

The first four Silent Hill games show an incredible similarity to the first four Alien movies, and by incredible I mean minuscule, and by similarity I mean slight connection, and by an I mean a.  Within both series as wholes there are a few likenesses, both are about surviving horrible encounters with unearthly creatures in dark and restricting environments.  Both of them give male characters the chance to feel sexually violated and emasculated.   Both have been noted as bringing atmosphere and depth into almost completely generic genres.  But the biggest similarity between the two (and by biggest similarity I mean “similarity I choose to point out”) is the pattern at which they were released.

The Alien movies had a pattern like this: Alien – Aliens – Alien – Aliens.  While the Silent Hill series goes like this: Silent Hill – Not Really in Silent Hill – Silent Hill – Not Really in Silent Hill.  So ya’ha!  A coincidence?  Hardly.  Obviously Silent Hill is a blatant copy of the Alien films, just retold using nurses and rape monsters instead of the usual spaceships and rape aliens.  Now I’m not saying that the entire series is copycatting the success of a more popular franchise, many people would say that this is a clear salute to the wonderful movies that made so many of us wee our pants when we realized that it was right on top of him – no not that way – g’ya!!!, others might say that this is not a “real” comparison and that it makes no sense, but I choose to say that the entire series is, has always been, and will continue to forever copycat the success of a more popular franchise.

(My image editing is brilliant)

X-Men Legends was the first in a series of 4-person co-op games focused on using teams of Marvel superheroes (and sometimes villains) and franchise fapping.  The 3rd installment in this series was Marvel Ultimate Alliance and the 4th installment is a game being released just next week: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.  Because I have a ridiculous love for these games I’m going to briefly and nostalgically look at the original!

It’s probably most important to first note that X-Men Legends was a game with a weak plot, generic backdrops, and on occasion controller snappingly frustrating difficulty.  The 4-man co-op aspect of the game is a mess as well with portions of the  game only accessible as single player, making your three buddies sit around waiting for their turn to jump back into the game.  Legends sets itself up as the weakest of the three games so far, but luckily the other two were able to hammer out a lot of these problems.

Everyone knows that X-Men Legends is not a game to be played for the story or scenery.  It’s all about playing as your favorite characters from the comics, which Legends does fantastically.  Jubilee, Emma Frost, Magma…and probably some of the less popular mutants like what’s-his-name…the dude with the claws… Anyway, they’re all there.

The best thing Legends does is introduce the 4 character/1 screen co-op even in solo mode (granted Lost Vikings did it with 3 characters way before Legends, but shut up).  This allowed the player to not only control their favorite X-Man but their favorite X-MEn!  Like the phrase goes, “the more the merrier.”  It’s a winning formula that’s some much prettier and more varied button-mashing offspring.  But here at 72pc we don’t look at those qualities.  We respect our roots AND our video game elders.  Just play X-Men Legends once and you’ll agree that it feels pretty damn old.

Also, here’s a cool, new trailer for a game comin’ out this year, Scarygirl.  Here’s a link to the website.  Yes, oh my, oh my, if there ever were a game that could escape traditional genres it’d be this one…because it is EVERY genre.  And the best part…it’s gonna be FREE!  So check it out.

Scarygirl Game Trailer from Touch My Pixel on Vimeo.

This is just one of the many great looking indie games coming out this year.  And Yet It Moves, a game that looks like a running, jumping, spinning cave drawing will be out April 2nd on Steam.  Later this year Zeno Clash, Fez, and Stalin vs. Martians are on their way.  Not to mention the 2010′s new so-far-unnamed game by The Behemoth.

Support your local video games, kids!

DANCE!