Leisurely Geeks

I am a huge fan of anything that has to do with space. Especially when space is portrayed in  movies, books, and video games. When I stumbled across Kinetic Void in the Steam Community, I was very excited. Kinetic Void is a single player action simulator, made from the Indie developers Lumberingtroll Workshop on Steam. It is a greenlight item, meaning that it is an Indie game being supported and voted on through Steam and its members, which Steam is a video game digital store and hub for gaming. They are providing great opportunities for Indie developers like Lumberingtroll to get their games out there, like Kinetic Void.

In the game, you are in charge of your own ship, building your own ship, exploring galaxies, and running into different types of factions that may or may not like one another. Decisions are taken into consideration when coordinating with different factions, so be careful what you say, do or who you interact with. So far, Kinetic Void looks promising and intriguing with its innovative in-game physics and exploration capabilities. By visiting the Steam store, like I did, you can find more information on the game, its controls, screenshots and other updates from he developer. This particular game looks very interesting to me, but if it does not, take some time and browse other greenlight items and support your favorite game.

2 weeks ago Capcom spoiled a video showing Mega Man battling Ryu in a 8-bit Mega Man fashion.

It is actually a fan made Mega Man game where Street Fighter characters are the bosses. Also it is Totally free and only on PC. Here is a link to the Website with info and Download

I ran across this the other night. Not sure if anyone here has seen any of her stuff, but it is really good. I especially like this little diddy.

ENJOY!!!!!

Here is an interesting short film about the reason some people game. And how gaming can help out in people’s lifes and give them somewhere to get away from it all. I found it over at IGN http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/10/31/zelda-fan-film-gets-to-the-heart-of-gaming. Let me nkow what you think.

                      I bet some of you on this site have given Diablo 3 a try. At first the game was great, it just felt right. As you leveled you felt more powerful and that nothing could stop you. Then Inferno hit!!!!!! And it hit hard. All of a sudden you were getting hunted by the demons and it seemed like you were the monster getting killed by some random kid. And you couldn’t get any good drops because Blizzard controlled the drops on your specific account. And all you wished for as you cried yourself to sleep that this game was Diablo 2.

I know Diablo 3 has gotten a lot of flak over the past couple of months over item drops, RMAH(Real Money Auction House), and difficulty being too hard or not enough. Now Blizzard did make a great product in Diablo 3. Sure it’s not Diablo 2, they’ve gotten rid of skill trees,  Inferno mode is either to hard or to easy for you, and yes you can now spend real money or in-game gold to buy items through blizzards RMAH instead of going through some guy on a website (who in turn would possibly hack your character and take everything). Just like Diablo 2 though, Diablo 3 needed some polishing to get it right. Some polish comes in the form of the newest patch for Diablo 3 (patch 1.0.5).It feels great and it has a little something for everyone.

Kotaku‘s artictle by Jason Schreier  goes into great detail and includes some great screanshots of the Steam client in Big Picture mode. So, I will keep it simple. This will be a great way to game…Period. Yes having your PC hooked up to your  TV is the way to go with this service. But, even without doing that, it will be handy. I know that many games I play on PC through the Steam client work great with a controller. I’ve played Batman: Arkham City, Dead Island, Skyrim, Fallout 3, Saints Row:The Third, and a bunch more games using a controller. And even on my 24 inch monitor I lean back in my chair for lengthy sessions. It just feels right to do so with a controller in hand. So this is where this mode comes in. The UI design is fantastic. The client includes a browser and a great text input interface that should have happened years ago on consoles. Biggest thing might be the browser. 1. Having an easy browser to get into from the Steam Overlay is much better than Alt-Tabbing out of a game (even when not using a controller). 2. A full browser on a pc can access other services such as Hulu and Netflix. And lastly Steam will soon be supporting other apps through its client. So your PC hooked up to your TV could replace consoles as well as other media streaming options. All with an interface you can see from your couch. Even if you don’t want to do this for your big gaming PC, a semi-decent laptop will play more steam games than you think (especially many indie/older  titles) and likely fit into the living room better. Sounds fun and it’s nice to have options.

By all means, check out Kotaku’s article for a more in-depth look: http://kotaku.com/5941793/valve-is-bringing-steam-to-your-tv-today-watch-out-consoles

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• Valve Is Bringing Steam To Your TV Today. Watch Out, Consoles.

E3 Expo 2012- Borderlands 2 (Photo credit: Pop Culture Geek)

Jonseing for Borderlands 2 but played the hell out of Borderlands? Gearbox has graciously released the “original” game that started it all The Border Lands.  You can find it in its full 16 bit glory over at http://www.wubwub.eu/demake.php Head over there now and kill some skags and pop some loot boxes in the comfort of your own browser for free.

Steam logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’m surprised no one else here has picked this up yet.  Valve announced yesterday that on September 5th, they will begin selling non-game software on Steam.  No titles were mentioned in the Official Press Release, but of course there are plenty of rumors.  Titles “will range from creativity to productivity,” and many “ will take advantage of popular Steamworks features.”  See the full press release here.

So this is my first of many posts here on Leisurely Geeks. I will start off with a quick introduction. My name is Phil Young. I currently work at a game store called The Game Preserve (www.gamepreserve.com) where I am “The Magic Guy” and also their Social Media Specialist.
I have a newer passion to gaming that was sparked by a fellow Leisurely Geek, Joe P. I had always liked video games, but it wasn’t until he introduced me to World of Warcraft, that I decided I actually was a “gamer” of sorts. It followed by a rough and very smashface tutorial to Magic the Gathering during the summer of 2008. After that, I decided that I need to become great at this game. I found out all these great things about Magic the Gathering: it was played every Friday, there were even bigger tournaments not even 4 hours from where I live, and most of all, it was addicting as hell. I went on a whirlwind attempt at “going pro” which ended with me becoming very tired and very frustrated with the state of the game and what it did to people. I took a break and decided to search for new and exciting card games. The first I stumbled across was Fluxx, and then Chrononauts, but all that was great, it was not satisfying the “High Fantasy” (something that I had loved about Magic the Gathering). I then found Ascension (http://www.ascensiongame.com/). My god this game was great. The art was stylized, the game play gave way to experienced TCG players as well as thecasual gamer. It was the rejuvenation and wake up call that I needed. Out with competitive play and in with enjoying my time with friends. This is just a little about me and my relatively short existence in the gaming world.

I would like to share something that has started only about a week ago. The makers of the game I give credit to for saving my gaming soul, Ascension, and Richard Garfield (Creator of Magic the Gathering) have come together to bring us a DIGITAL Trading Card Game! They are calling it, SOLFORGE! I would love if you all check out the Kickstarter.com for it and give feedback and share feeling on this Brave New Adventure these men and fellow gamer’s are going through.

http://www.solforgegame.com/

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1965800643/solforge-digital-trading-card-game

Here is a video courtesy of IGN: