A Psychotic Little Christmas - Alec's Seasonal Shopping Guide - #10: Minecraft

Time for #10! It’s 10 days until Christmas Eve, 11 days until Christmas Day...it’s so close, yet there’s almost two weeks left! So if you need a cheap present to ask for, or if you need a cheap thing to get someone, this indie game is perfect for them. If you didn’t find my clue yesterday INSANELY obvious, I’m ashamed of you. Because today, you should buy one of the most creative indie games ever: Minecraft.

 

 

Now, now, for the people who actually know about Minecraft, you’re asking: why would I pick this game? Because there’s so many things you can do! For people who don’t know about this game (what’s wrong with you?), the basic premise of Minecraft is to dig a hole, mine ore, and build stuff.
Sounds really simple, right? Wrong. While you’re trying to build things and keep a society going, you have many enemies (called mobs) trying to murder you in your sleep. This is called survival mode. I’m personally not a fan of this mode, because I don’t like my hard work being destroyed at night by Creepers, but if you’re into that sort of thing, go ahead.

But wait, Alec, didn’t this game come out last year? Not in my opinion. Version 1.0 came out in November, so that’s what I call the official release. (If you remember, this list only contains games from 2011.) But that raises a good point. Before release, Minecraft was in beta for a good year or so. As it slowly developed up from a simple game with no dying or any challenge, it grew to have a huge fanbase. People love this game. They had a convention for it in November. That’s how much people love it.

So you say you don’t like mining and dying? Well, there’s an alternative for you! While still in beta (only about two or three months ago), they added a Creative mode, where you have access to every block and can build whatever you want without the fear of dying. And you can fly. And as all people know, flying is what makes this incredible game turn into a must-buy game.

 

The PG Crew themselves made this display!

 

Better yet is the price. Literally days of gameplay await you in multiplayer mode, building cities and having fun exploring your Minecraft world with your buddies. All for only $20. Yes, you heard me. Days of gameplay for $20. Isn’t that amazing? That’s what this game is. Amazing.

So if you ever have a spare $20 lying around, and you don’t feel like spending it on something productive, why not invest it in this fun timewaster? I’m absolutely sure you won’t regret it. Unless you’re having so much fun you forget to eat. That might be a problem, and you might regret it. Maybe not, though.

Coming tomorrow, we have some very skinny games. See? This is a harder hint. Try and guess, I dare you.

A Psychotic Little Christmas - Alec's Seasonal Shopping Guide - #11: Batman: Arkham City

It’s now December 13th. Today, we have a treat for you. A couple of jokes, you might say. Some riddling riddles for you, too. Some penguining penguins, too. Wait, what? Penguining isn’t even a word! Well, it should be. Any word I invent shall be added to the dictionary. PENGUINING - Verb. The act of acting like a penguin. ‘My best friend Mark went penguining today. He loves penguins!’

 

Anyway, from the title, you can probably see where I’m going with this. So let’s jump straight in now. Today I’m going to be talking about Batman: Arkham City! This game follows Batman...in a city...and the Joker...doing stuff...with Batarangs? Yeah...I honestly know hardly anything about this game offhand. I know that it’s a sequel to Arkham Asylum, which is excellent. I liked Arkham Asylum, it’s a really fun game. Now imagine this fun game, but instead of traversing a prison and the surrounding island, now you’re exploring the vast and expansive Arkham City, which is five times bigger than Arkham Asylum. Judging by how large the map was in Arkham City, this area is just gigantic.

So why am I recommending a game I’ve never played before? Simply because it’s friggin’ Batman! Ask Pssych if you doubt me, he owns the game. This game was the Game of the Year for a whole lot of people. If it’s not good, then darn it, why do you people buy bad games? Why else should you buy this game? Because if for some reason you don’t like Batman, there’s still a wonderful story, and a wonderful combat system packed into this game. Oh, and did I mention  that if you get the PS3 version you get to play as the Joker with added DLC? I would pay $60 just to play as the Joker!

 

Even though I don't know exactly what's going on here, I know it's amazing. Because it's Batman.

So I apologize for not knowing a whole lot about this game. I’m a big boy, I admit my mistakes. Never playing this game was a mistake. I would still like to pick it up in the future, so that’s how good it is, in my opinion. I can tell you now, this is the only game on my list I have never even watched somebody play. I know I did not do this game justice. I hardly scratched the surface about why this game is awesome, and I’m sorry. I know this game is amazing. Batman is amazing.

Even though I don’t know a ton about this game, I know that it is brilliant. I’ve sadly only played the first game, Arkham Asylum, so I’m missing out. But just because I’ve never played something, doesn’t mean I can’t recommend it, because I KNOW for a FACT it is amazing. If you want a good time, with beating up baddies, and solving Bat-puzzles, you need to pick up this game. Hell, I need to pick up this game.

tl;dr Batman. Buy this.

PS. Get your pickaxes ready for tomorrow’s blocky game!

A Psychotic Little Christmas - Alec's Seasonal Shopping Guide - #12: L.A. Noire

HOLY CRAP IT’S CHRISTMASTIME. YESSSSSSSSSS Christmas is your friendly neighborhood news reporter’s favorite holiday. There’s just so much joy and love in the air and it’s wonderful. How could this wonderful festivity get any better? Seriously, there’s just so much fun here I can’t imagine anymore fun. Free food, free shelter, free visits with the family...wait, no one likes visiting their families. What am I talking about? Oh yeah, free visits with the family whom bring PRESENTS for you. Yes, how did I forget about how awesome presents are? What’s that? It’s December 12th and you still need ideas for Christmas? WELL YOU’VE COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE. For the next 12 days (YES, 12!) I’m going to be doing a series I’m going to be calling...GAMES ALEC WANTS YOU TO GET FOR CHRISTMAS OR SOMETHING. Wait, what? Why not. no not really. I'm not that dumb.

 

So what are we going to start with today? Well, up in #12 place we have L.A. Noire! This 1940s detective game follows Detective Phelps, who starts out as a simple police officer and slowly works his way up to a 5-Star Ace Detective. This crime game is notable for the first ever use of MotionScan technology, to accurately capture a person’s facial expressions. This technology uses 32 different cameras to capture all angles of the person’s face and it is then converted into footage that can be used for the game. And it looks amazing. It’s so amazing in fact, it took up so much space, they needed to make it on three discs for the Xbox 360 version. Now that’s a LOT of storage. Of course, the PC and PS3 versions didn’t have this problem because PC doesn’t use discs and PS3 runs Blu-ray, but oh well, what can you do.

 

The MotionScan technology in action.

So why should you get this game for Christmas? Because this game is fun. Like seriously. A ton of fun. It brings the open world of Grand Theft Auto to a detective story, where instead of being the guy killing everybody, you’re literally playing the opposite man who arrests the man doing the bad deeds. But that’s not the end of it. After the arrest, you get an interrogation sequence, where the MotionScan really starts having a role. Basically you just ask a question, and based on their facial expression and voice fluctuations you try to tell if he’s lying or telling the truth. I was never good at this part, I usually got all the questions wrong. But it’s still fun listening to convict swear his head off at you.

So in conclusion, this game is awesome. It stands out mostly for it’s amazing MotionScan, giving lifelike facial expressions. Of course the story is great too, trying to stop serial killers from killing. There are a whole bunch of side missions to go on, and it’s a real fun time. Pick this game up, because it’s amazing!

Well that’s all for today. Tomorrow we have a real joke of a game. Stay tuned. Your friendly neighborhood news reporter - out.