Superpositional Demo Man: Indy Titles

This will likely evolve as I write it, but I'd like to take a moment to talk about the state of PC gaming.  What games are there for the PC, and what games are gamers likely to play?  There is a standard staple, FPS, RPG, RTS, and MMO, of which there are multiple variations and subtleties.  However, most games these days are pretty easy to classify.  There are occasional breakouts, like Borderlands, which merge genres, but beyond that, it's been pretty stable, at least on the surface.



Anyone who follows games closely, or frankly just anyone who looks at the new releases on Steam knows that there are really a lot more games out there than just the big Triple-A Titles.  Games that go back to better times, to niche games.  Adventure, Space Sim, Tank Sim, Flight Sim, City Building, Puzzle Games, and the like.  Indy games with heart and soul and...well, the less said about the land sharks, the better, but it's fascinating stuff.  With modern technology, it's pretty easy to make a solid-looking game that has a lot of interesting gameplay thrown in.  You know what's best of all?  Most of them are cheap.  That's not something to sneeze at with this economy.  When you could spend $50-60 on a game, or more for the deluxe versions, getting a few games for the price of one can be very liberating.  On that note, I remind anyone who reads this blog to check out the deals on Steam, Direct2Drive, and Impulse.  There are some fantastic games on there you can get for very little money.  At the time of this writing, STALKER, a very cool Russian FPS, is on sale for a mere $5 on Steam.

So, here are just a few demos that I've been tinkering with lately:

The Demo Man: Risen

At a Glance:
Risen is billed as a gritty fantasy RPG with open world gameplay, a compelling story, and fantastic immersion.  Does it match its marketing with the demo gamers will use to decide its value?

Demos are one of my favorite things about gaming.  You can get a sense for how a game is going to turn out without spending a single cent.  Over the years, I've used demos, free trials, and all sorts of similar deals to try out games before I bought them.  Back when I was of more limited funds, I would use demos to discern if one game or another was worth my money, and now that I'm a bit more of a cheap bastard, I'm doing it again.

Might as well do something here.

Hi, my name is Hotfoot.

Okay, I do have a real name, but for the purposes of fake anonymity I'm going to keep that to myself for now.  Besides, I've been Hotfoot online for so long I'm used to it, so let's go with that.  I'm going to start off by saying that like many Internet people, I am a gamer.  Sure, there are other descriptors for me, but I've been gaming a long time and it's such a wide an interesting swath of activities that it covers a lot of my recreational activities quite nicely.  How nicely?  How nice of you to ask.

To sum it up as quickly as I can, these are the following realms of gaming I enjoy on a somewhat or more than regular basis:

PC Games
Console Games
Pen and Paper Games
Board Games
Tabletop Games
Live Action Games

Now, the subdivisions of each are pretty wild and varied for the most part, but suffice to say that if I were to actually list off all the sorts of games that I played, it would probably be much longer and much more boring.  Besides, why give away all my juicy secrets now?  I might as well entice you into reading further if I can.

As far as a schedule, I can't promise a full one just yet, but this is an interesting experiment, and I will try to do the following:

1. Update with a full blog subject at least once a week
2. Ensure that the relevant blog posts will be one of my predefined subjects or variations thereof
3. Try to be entertaining

Video updates may or may not be in the cards, we'll see how it goes.

As  far as my predefined subjects, this is a tentative list:
1.  The Demo Man: Reviewing demos for upcoming games, and possibly some older games as they are suggested
2.  Tachyon Emissions: Reviews of Games old enough to make me feel old
3.  Superposition: Comparisons of two or more similar games to determine which you should pay attention to
4.  Modular Construction:  Reviews of Modifications to existing games, ranging from several small modifications to full conversions
5.  Behind the Screen: Reviews of Pen and Paper games
6.  Board to Win:  Board and Card Game reviews
7.  State of the Game:  Updates to MMOs I pay attention to
8.  Words to End the World:  Reviews of newer games

I'm tempted to eventually put up a poll whereby my readers determine which fate I have before me, but that would assume I get readers, which would logically assume that I need to put up some content first.  That said, expect an update very soon.