99 Bricks may be the best browser game I’ve played since Desktop Tower Defense. At first glance, you’d think it’s Tetris, but that illusion quickly disappears. As you build the tower taller, structural stability becomes important, as the game uses physics. When you hit about 300 units tall, and your tower starts swaying like a playground swingset, the real game begins.

Play 99 Bricks

I’ve never played World of Warcraft, or any MMO for that matter, but a recent Penny Arcade Comic made me start thinking about how the “quests” in so many RPGs simply require you to travel to a faraway location, and either find an item, kill an enemy, or simply visit point A, then point B, then point C. This has been the case going as far back as Ultima 3, where you had to visit the bottom of dungeons to get brands, or Legend of Zelda, where you had to visit the bottom of a dungeon to get a raft or flute. As games evolved, quests began to take place outside of dungeons, dark enchanted forests, and mad wizards’ fortresses.

Sidequests, at one point, were a great innovation in gaming. Here was a purely optional mission that could get you extra experience, more equipment or gold, or simply tell portions of a story that a player could choose to skip. But they’ve grown cumbersome.

In all fairness, these quests have evolved beyond fetching and killing. In Baldurs’ Gate, you could talk a man out of commiting suicide. In Fallout 3, there is a section where you have to come up with a “creative” way to kill a woman, such a rigging her stove to explode, dropping a chandelier on her, or reprogramming her security robot to kill her. But despite these evolutions, these are all conversational-model “quests” – just an evolution of the old text adventures. I crave something more.

Today’s sandbox RPGs have become nothing more than a series of endless fetch quests. I don’t have a suggestion for a solution to get beyond this, but when a game developer comes along and gives us something new, an RPG where you’re doing something more than killing ten molerats or collecting twenty cans of Nuka Cola Quantum, it will be innovation. And I think people will love it.

For years, I’ve been following the work being done by the talented folks over at Black Mesa: Source. What they’ve been working on is a full remake of the original Half-Life game, using the source engine. Most importantly, they’re re-creating all game assets. Voice tracks, music, character models, textures, multiplayer maps, artificial intelligence, everything. Plus, you’ll be able to play Half-Life in co-op mode. Amazing.

Now, they’ve released a trailer. And it is also amazing. Check it out.

Ostensibly intended for those of us who are so fed up with the daily grind that suicide is the most appetizing alternative, the goal of Karosi Suicide Salaryman is to kill yourself. Odd in the way that only the Japanese can achieve, Karoshi Suicide Salaryman is an entertaining little puzzle game.

Play Karosi Suicide Salaryman

For the final installment of Lungfishopolis’s Holiday Bargain Shoppers’ Guide, we move on to the current generation of gaming consoles: XBox 360 and Playstation 3. Here at Lungfishopolis, we’ve passed a city ordinance prohibiting our citizens from calling these consoles “Next-Gen”, since at this point, the next generation would be the Playstation 4 and XBox 720, or whatever they call it.

In the meantime, if you’ve missed any of the other sections in this guide, here are links:

Part 1: PC Games and Nintendo Wii
Part 2: Nintendo DS and Sony PSP
Part 3: Playstation 2 and original XBox

Playstation 3

Out of all the games I’ve looked at, Playstation 3 seems to be the hardest console for which to find sub-$20 games. This is at partially because it’s been around for a year less than the XBox 360, and partially because there aren’t as many good games for the Playstation 3 as there are for the XBox 360. Still, there are bargains to be found, and there are good downloadable games. I shall lead you to them.

The Last Guy
This downloadable PSN game uses actual satellite photos of cities from around the world. The city is under siege by Mothra or aliens or CHUDs, and you’ve got to lead a set number of citizens to safe zones in each level. $9.99 on the Playstation Network.

The Darkness
This being another gangster story, even the demonic powers didn’t entice me to play. That’s just not my thing. But the game got fairly good reviews, and it can be found for a very reasonable price. As I see it right now, there’s an EBay auction about to end, and the price is currently at $8.

Burnout Paradise
Racing games are a genre I don’t normally like. But for fans of racing games, this one’s supposed to be pretty good. You can find it on EBay for around $20.

Super Stardust HD
Although I’ve only played the demo, my take is that Super Stardust is the Playstation 3’s answer to Geometry Wars. You’re a little ship with omnidirectional shooting, and there’s crap flying at you from every direction. Different types of ammo for different foes/obstacles adds to the complexity. It’s downloadable for $9.99 from the Playstation Network.

Echochrome
This puzzle game went largely overlooked, but I think it’s fantastic, innovative, and a lot of fun. The game is black and white only, consisting of simple lines and stick figures, but the simple-seeming goal can become quite challenging. You must get the walking stick figure, whom you cannot control directly, from point A to point B to point C and back only by rotating the environment. When an obstacle isn’t visible from your point of view, it does not exist. And when two planes appear to line up, the stick figure can walk from one to another even if they’re actually far apart. It’s half Lemmings and half M.C. Escher. Echochrome is available for download on the Playstation Network for $9.99.

Assassins Creed
Although the game didn’t totally live up to the hype, it was still fun. I’m not sure if it’s technically a stealth game when the stealth involves less hiding and more blending into a crowd, but the building climbing was well-done even if the stealth wasn’t. Battles annoyed me, and the game quickly grew monotonous. Thus, I never finished. But it’s definitely an interesting game, well-worth $15 on EBay for a used copy.

Resistance: Fall of Man
Although I’ve never played Resistance, the premise seems very Half-Life 2 to me. Alien Invasion. Fight the aliens. The sequel just came out, and while you won’t find Resistance 2 anywhere for under $20, you can get caught up on the story by grabbing the original on EBay for $16.50 used.

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness
I played the PC version months ago, but just finally now, the first Penny Arcade game has come to the Playstation Network. It’s fun. And it’s very crude. Not for kids. But it’s the most fun I’ve had with an episodic game other than the Half-Life 2 episodes. If you like Penny Arcade’s style of humor, I recommend it. You can download it for $14.99 from the Playstation Network.

Oblivion
Oblivion was one of the earliest games to come out for the Playstation 3. I played the heck out of the PC version, myself. It’s a fantastic RPG, and now that it’s a couple years old, you can find a copy on EBay for around $20.

Pixeljunk Monsters
For the past few months, since I sold my copies of Assassins’ Creed and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune on EBay, I’ve had no game discs for the Playstation 3. What have I been playing? Pixeljunk Monsters. This is hands-down my favorite Playstation 3 game. You can go back and read the three part guide I wrote up for it if you’re interested. Pixeljunk Monsters is a $9.99 download from the Playstation Network.

XBox 360

First of all, I completely agree with Greg about Penny Arcade, The Darkness, Burnout Paradise, Oblivion and Assassin’s Creed.  All of these are also available for the 360.  I’ll also add some more.

The Orange Box

I saw The Orange Box at Target for 20 bucks this weekend and was tempted to buy it all over again.  Getting Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2 for 20 bucks is an absolute steal.  Any of those games would be worth 20 bucks, but all of them for 20?  That’s downright unreal.

Mass Effect

Mass Effect can be had for about 19 bucks on Ebay, presumably less if you look hard enough.  This game was a great deal at 60, so for 20 it’s well worth it.  A gripping story, memorable characters, a fantastic dialog system and plenty of hard hitting sci-fi action makes it one of the most memorable RPG’s of late and one of BioWare’s best.  Get it for the RPG enthusiast or sci-fi junkie on your list.

Gears of War

The second one just came out, and it’s good and all, but for sheer balls to the wall intensity, nothing beats the original.  Gears of War is chock full of crappy writing and substandard story telling, but it also has some of the most intense moments in gaming I’ve ever experienced.  Grab a friend, jump into the story co-op style and have a blast.  You should be able to find it on Ebay for no more than 15.

1600 Microsoft Points Card

Unlike the PSN, the Xbox Live Marketplace uses Microsoft Points as a unit of currency.  Most stores sell 1600 points for 20 bucks, which is the ratio we’ll use when discussing the price of Xbox Live Arcade games.  Sometimes you can find 1600 point cards on sale for 15 bucks, but 20 is the usual rate.  Give one to a Live subscriber on your list and let them pick the quality game of their choice.

Braid

One of the best Live Arcade games ever released and one of the most inventive platformers to come out in some time.  In an effort to rescue a princess who may or may not want to be rescued you’ll use your ability to rewind time to navigate some seriously clever puzzles.  Braid has a lot of things going for it, including lush graphics, great music, a poignant story and some great platforming mechanics.  A must buy.  Cost is 1200 points or 15 bucks.

Puzzle Quest

We’ve talked about Puzzle Quest before, and the same glorious blend of addictive puzzle game play and RPG stylings is available on the 360 for 800 points, or 10 bucks.  For an extra 700 points you can give the Plague Lord expansion pack too.  What a bargain!

Bionic Commando Rearmed

I haven’t played it, but fans of the original Bionic Commando love this game to death.  For 800 points (10 bucks) you can give the gift of old school, cybernetic platforming.

I’ve got to say, overall I’m a bit disappointed in Fallout 3. What I’d wanted was a game much closer to Fallout 1 and 2. That is to say, a role playing game with turn-based strategy elements. What I got instead was something much closer to Oblivion, which is of course not a bit surprising given that Fallout 3 uses Oblivion’s game engine. And while there are a great many differences between Oblivion and Fallout 3, the new game fails to capture the spirit of the original two titles. If only the good folks at Bethesda had played through Wasteland and taken copious notes.

Still, I can’t claim that I’m not enjoying the game. I enjoyed Oblivion quite a lot, and even if I do wish that Fallout 3 had a greater number of weapons, something akin to Oblivion’s alchemy system, and vehicles (a drivable jeep, tank, or helicopter would be really nice) I’m still enjoying the game. I’m finding that I love the combat shotgun, Chinese assault rifle, and sniper rifle, and that I don’t like the minigun, laser rifle, or hunting rifle very much. Grenades and mines? Awesome. Rock-it launcher? Piece of crap. And the flaming shishkebab sword is made of win.

Read the rest of “Thoughts on Fallout 3” »

When I first had the idea for a Free Game Friday segment, the first two games that came to mind were Wasteland and Maniac Mansion Deluxe.

I first played Maniac Mansion years ago on my Commodore 64. It was a wonderfully nonlinear adventure game with multiple solutions to its problems, excellent humor, and a lot of replayability. It took me forever to figure everything out when I first played, but when I learned of this LucasFan remake, I downloaded and played through the entire game in a night or two. Guess I remembered the solutions to all the puzzles.

Download Maniac Mansion Deluxe

Ah, the Last Generation. We here in Lungfishopolis remember so well when it used to be the current generation, back before we had high-definition displays and online co-op gaming. There are still a number of gems to be found here. Read on, and you may see a few that make great inexpensive gifts.

Playstation 2

The Playstation 2 had a long reign as the king of consoles, and during that time it amassed a great number of excellent game titles. Although it’s all last-gen, this list is truly the creme de la creme.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Although I’ve never been as big a fan of the Prince of Persia games as many others have, I’ve played the games enough to admit their appeal. Crazy platformers with a lot of fighting, the Prince of Persia games were the first to implement real parkour into a video game. You can get a copy on EBay for around $8.

Kingdom Hearts
I’ve never played Kingdom Hearts, but I understand the draw of an RPG that puts familiar Disney characters into more serious roles and hands them crazy big swords. Essentially Final Fantasy with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, I’ve known many adults who’ve played and enjoyed Kingdom Hearts and its sequel. As I look, Kingdom Hearts is going on EBay for around $6, and Kingdom Hearts II for closer to $10.

Dark Cloud 2
I’ve been meaning to get myself of copy of Dark Cloud 2 for a while, and have never gotten around to it, largely due to the wealth of other games I’d rather play. An action/adventure RPG that I’ve often heard compared to Zelda, Dark Cloud 2 has you time-travelling in an attempt to save your world from a villain from the future intent on erasing everything. If you’re lucky, you can snag a copy on EBay for just under $20.

Katamari Damacy
This quirky game from 2004 is still a lot of fun. In Katamari Damacy, you play a microscopic prince whose job it is to help his father, The King of All Cosmos, to rebuild the stars which he’s accidentally destroyed. This is done by rolling a magical ball called a katamari through various environments, and picking up objects which stick to the katamari if they’re small enough. At first, you collect paper clips, pennies, and other small items. As the katamari grows in size, you’re eventually able to collect pencils, toasters, chairs, cars, houses, and eventually mountains. The game is completely bizarre, yet it’s so much fun to stick the family cat to the katamari, and eventually roll down the street collecting pedestrians and cars. You can get Katamari Damacy for $15 on EBay.

Resident Evil 4
I’m a firm believer that shooters need to be played with a keyboard and mouse, and that’s why I was so surprised to find myself enjoying Resident Evil 4 so much, when I had to constantly aim with a thumbstick. Somehow, they made it work. And it works very well. Resident Evil 4 is a fantastic game, and if you’ve never had the pleasure, now’s the time to grab yourself a copy and try the game. You can get it for between $10 and $20 on EBay, depending on whether it’s new or used.

Indigo Prophecy
I’ll admit that the plot at the very end of Indigo Prophecy gets so convoluted and wacky that it’s laughable, but the vast majority of the game is just fantastic. The game’s creators have taken the standard adventure game and added timed sequences, action sequences, stealth sequences, and a lot of minigames. There’s even a timer on conversations – if you take too long to respond, the game picks an option that’s usually a stuttered response worse than any of the options it gave you. The game has a ton of conventions that completely defy the norms of the genre. For example, you alternately play both the role of the suspect and the detectives tracking him down. And there’s a sanity meter rather than a life gauge – if it drops too low, you’ll commit suicide. Better not spend too much time looking at that picture of your ex-girlfriend! You can get Indigo Prophecy for $15 on EBay.

God of War
It’s unlikely that I even need to explain what God of War is to you if you’ve got a Playstation 2. Suffice it to say that it’s mostly a brawler with plenty of platforming and puzzle elements, and that its graphics approach the graphical quality of some of the first Playstation 3 games. You can find God of War on EBay for around $10, and God of War 2 on EBay for around $12.

Psychonauts
As I said two weeks ago when I listed Psychonauts in the PC section, I can’t say enough good things about Psychonauts. If you haven’t yet played this game, you may not know that this site got its name from Psychonaut’s comedy sequence, which may very well be the greatest single level in any video game, ever. An action/adventure platformer that strives for photorealism about as much as Indiana Jones strives for a job as a snake charmer. Psychonauts is the only game to date that has made me laugh out loud, and it did so on numerous occasions. If you’ve never had the pleasure, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy. You can get it for well under $20 on EBay.

Beyond Good and Evil
Another game that’s appearing in more than one section is Beyond Good and Evil. It may be my favorite game of all time. It has stealth gameplay, fighting, vehicle driving, puzzles, collection, and mini-games. The characters are lovable, and the story is well-written. For the record, I’ve bought four copies of this game over the years. A year or so after I finished playing on the PC, I wanted to replay it but the disc was scratched, so I bought another copy. Then, I bought a PS2 copy to give as a gift. A couple months ago, Steam was having a sale and I picked up another copy for $5. Currently, I’m seeing “buy it now” sales on EBay for $4 for the PS2 version. It’s so sad that such a great game is fetching so little money. But it’s good for those of you who’ve missed it.

Shadow of the Colossus
A phenomenal game that far too few people have had a chance to play, Shadow of the Colossus is a gem from the same folks that designed the cult favorite Ico. The story is left very vague, but the game focuses more on cinematics. In an attempt to save the life of a young woman, the protagonist follows the direction of an unknown spirit, and travels the land, slaying huge monsters known as Colossi. The battles against the colossi are as much puzzles as they are fights, and they are truly epic. You can find Shadow of the Colossus on EBay for around $15.

Original XBox

Doesn’t seem like too many people own an old XBox anymore. But in the spirit of being complete, I’m going to give you ten good XBox games. Who knows? You might have a nephew who’s only ever played Halo on the thing and hasn’t yet gotten to experience any of the system’s truly good games.

Max Payne
If you’re a fan of third-person shooters, and you’re playing on the XBox, you won’t find many better candidates. The recent movie was a hideous adaptation of what was once one of the very best games available on the XBox. Its use of bullet-time slow-down effects was unprecedented at the time, and the story of a man out for vengeance after having lost his family played the righteous wrath card perfectly. You can now find a brand new copy on EBay for a paltry $6.

Lego Star Wars
Although a bit too unnervingly simplistic for my personal tastes, lots of people loved the Lego Star Wars games. They’re actually really good for kids, as the game’s only violence involves the rapid disassembly of Legos. Even today, copies are hard to come by, but you can likely find one on EBay for $20.

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
I ripped on this game pretty hard after having played it on my PC. After all, it’s H.P. Lovecraft – how could I expect anything less than greatness? But although the frustration factor on the PC version was pretty high at times, and I did actually encounter a game-breaking bug, the overall tension towards the beginning of the game and the amazing chase scenes were probably worth the $10 you’ll pay for the game on EBay.

Prince of Persia
As mentioned above, I’ve played the Prince of Persia games enough to admit their appeal, although they’re not my favorites. You can get a copy on EBay for no more than $9 – less if you’re lucky.

Half-Life 2
It’s true that Half-Life 2 is one of my favorite games of all time, although if I were going to recommend it, the old XBox would be the very last platform I’d recommend it on. PC is by far a superior choice. Still, it’s an absolutely fantastic game, and you should be able to find it on EBay for around $5.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
X-Wing, Rebel Assault, Jedi Knight, Rogue Squadron, Lego Star Wars, Empire at War – there has been no lack of good Star Wars video games. But probably the most well-regarded of all of them was Knights of the Old Republic. This Bioware RPG not only allowed you to choose between dark and light, and gave you the ability of assembling companions of varying moral shades, it had a fantastic storyline, and a great twist. You can get a used copy on EBay for around $12.

Indigo Prophecy
This is another title I mentioned previously. The ending of Indigo Prophecy was worse than season 3 of Heroes, but the majority of the game’s story was much closer to season 1 of Heroes. That is to say that most of it was very good. Indigo Prophecy is a totally new take on the adventure game genre, and should not be missed. You can grab a copy on EBay for around $5.

Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
Whether or not you like Vin Diesel’s movies, this was a fantastic game. Primarily a shooter with a lot of RPG and stealth elements, the game’s storyline and voice acting are top notch. It must be one of the XBox’s best games. Somehow, I’m seeing it listed on EBay for just under $1.

Jade Empire
Before Brandon recommended it to me, I hadn’t even considered playing Jade Empire. I’m glad I did. While the fighting and movement are decidedly last-gen, the game’s story is simply awesome. And the River Raid type minigame is fun too. It’s going for about $3 on EBay.

Psychonauts
Ditto what I said above in the PS2 section. Great game, very funny. The XBox version seems to be a bit hard to find nowadays, but you could find it for as little as $15.

The Affordable Gaming Committee wishes you happy Holiday shopping.

Skullpogo is an odd little game. You’re a skeleton on a pogo stick. Whee! Still, it’s strangely addictive. You get to stomp on pigs and bats and stuff.

You can download Skullpogo here.

With my time in Stilwater officially at an end, I started up Gears of War 2 and have been progressing through the campaign all co-op style with my partner in crime from Saints Row 2.

GoW2 is a great looking game with plenty of action, tons of goofy dialog and many, many, many pitched, frantic battles, but for all it does right, it’s missing something.

After spending so much time in Saints Row 2 with the freedom to do whatever you wanted to, to now be in a game that shepards you along your merry way at every possible turn is somewhat anti-climactic.  Now, I know that you couldn’t do anything you wanted to in SR2.  You couldn’t, say, kill the hot dog stand vendor and make money selling hot dogs, or make pies and deliver them to orphans but there was a lot of stuff you could do and all of those choices gave the illusion of absolute freedom. Yes, there was a story, but like Oblivion, the story was there when you wanted to get to it.  Actually, this was better than in Oblivion as there was a financial advantage to doing the story in SR2 as you got continual revenue streams from the neighborhoods you liberated as a result of doing missions in SR2, but that’s besides the point.  When I was playing around in Stilwater I never stopped to say “Man, I wish I could do” insert stupid task here.

Now, that’s not to say that all of that freedom didn’t come at a price.  The game has a fair share of bugs, not as many as Mercenaries 2, but enough that there were plenty of aggravating moments, and I have no doubts that the bugs were a result of there being so much damn stuff to do.  That’s not to say that GoW 2 doesn’t have bugs somewhere, but hell if I’ve seen any so far.  SR2 also suffered from a bit of a personality disorder in that the goofiness of the activities flew in the face of the semi-seriousness of the missions.  Granted, you could do most of the main story without doing activities, but still, going from knocking over a casino to spraying human waste all over people is a jarring switch.

GoW 2, on the other hand, leaves no room for messing around, nor would I expect it to.  After all, humanity’s very survival depends on you fulfilling your mission objectives and killing the other guy, er, grub, before they kill you.  There’s no time for you to ride around in a burning ATV.

All of this makes me wonder if there’s a way to combine the immediacy of a well done narrative with the ” do what you want” freedom of a sandbox game.  GTA IV did a pretty good job of combining the two together, as most of the missions were done simply for Niko’s personal vendetta, so if he wanted to take time off to boost cars, that’s his business.  Even that suffered though as you could very easily blow off missions where your cousin was kidnapped, or in some other form of jeopardy so that you could instead go to the cyber cafe and email your mom.  I haven’t played Far Cry 2 but I understand that it’s an open world shooter where you can take things at your own pace.

So far, it’s not that I’m not enjoying GoW 2, because I am, immensely, it’s just that after playing so much open world stuff, the artifice involved in the linearity of GoW 2 kind of bugs me.  The other night, as we were progressing through the campaign, we realized that we had missed a collectible.  The game blocked off said geegaw from us by having a pile of busted up cars blocking our path.  Now, these are two of the biggest dudes you’ll ever see, capable of toting around guns that have chainsaws attached to them.  They’re not the spryest cats out there, but I’m pretty sure that they’re capable of climbing over a car to get to where we needed them to go.  The game had different ideas though, and because you’re supposed to get from point A to point B, and go no place else, the cars were insurmountable.

And there lies the real problem, that I’m a sandbox man in a linear world.  I see the cars and say “but I want to climb them” and the game sees me and says “but you need to be over here.”  All that needs to take place is a realignment of perspective , but the adjustment period is taking longer than I thought.  You could argue that the GoW 2 gameplay isn’t gripping enough for me to do what it wants me to do, but it’s plenty gripping.  It’s that once you can steal a chopper, fly it over the entire map, jump out and then parachute down to your crib, dressed like a HAZMAT worker, well, that’s a freedom that’s hard to give up regardless of how well your new, linear game plays.

I’m sure I’ll get used to it eventually, but until then, I’ll have to curb the urge to shoot the hot dog vendor, should I ever find one.  The thing about global fights for survival is that junk food is in short supply.  Fancy that.