Thinking with Portals

I remember getting chills when I first saw the trailer for the game Portal, considered by many to be a masterpiece of gaming.  Even 7 years later, it still gets me.

Flash game: Zombie Defense Agency

Played a great flash game called "Zombie Defense Agency" and took down some notes while playing...


Strategy

• Use flame tower in areas with lots of area to cover.  The zombies move faster as a result of the flame so this can be counterproductive if
• Going up in levels is great for increasing tower range and density of damage.  So if you come across a level with very little room, the answer isn't more towers, it's better ones.  I used level 4 towers up until _.
• Zombies already on the map don't react to the "make an opening - close an opening" strategy (destroy a tower and then bring it back to block off access as they approach).  However, zombies NOT on the screen WILL do this.
• Furthermore, in later levels, the sort of "turtle" looking monsters are able to smash through a new tower.  So definitely don't try this mid-process.
• When upgrading, don't upgrade a tower past it's useful range.

I can't tell the difference between a level 4 shotgun tower and a lightning tower.  I guess some zombies are resistant to the electricity?  Their stats are the same but the shotgun tower costs 4x more.
The Heat Wave tower is also an area-of-effect tower.


Fairly obvious suggestions

• Its always best to have a range of towers for a range of different enemies.
• Setup "slow" towers apart from one another at places along the route as the slowing effect wears off.  I couldn't see any compounding effect from slow towers near each other.
• The basic $50 towers are mostly just walls.  However, they aren't bad in terms of range so if one ends up in the middle of the map, feel free to upgrade it rather than sell.
• If you keep hitting "next" the zombies will group up.  This is fine but you'll want the grenade tower for area-of-effect damage and you'll also want to quickly upgrade towers as zombies pass by.

Almost all tower defense games

• Put short range towers in corners, ideally so that the zombies have to walk ALL the way around them, thus maximizing power-to-area ratio.
• Always use natural obstacles to your advantage to increase the distance the zombies have to travel.  The only exception to this is healing targets, for which this might be counterproductive.  I think in this game they're the all-black zombies.
• Setup towers where they can group up nicely.  This helps use all your towers as much as possible while enemies are in proximity.  This is often the center of the screen, but if there isn't a clear center, just pick a good open area to create a choke point.
• Sniper towers (slow shooting, high range, high damage) should be posted in the middle of a larger maze area to get the maximum number of shots fired against enemies.  Try to set these up towards the exit to let other towers filter down to the big enemies.  In this game, that tower is called the photon beam.

Wishlist

• More levels!
• Sometimes I can't seem to click "off " a tower after selecting
• Ability to turn off music, but keep other sounds
• Some kind of note that one of the levels has a very different physic than previous games (zombies cross paths.  Same with the following level.  You can't block either path.
• Ability to change Flash quality level (it's set to high quality by default and there's no way to change for slower machines or if you want to save power for  process running in the background.
• When hovering mouse over "upgrade" it should list what will happen IF you click it and then go back to the actual value when not hovering.
• Call it "leveling up" when you get options for new towers, upgraded towers, or better starting cash.  It's confusing.
• On the score screen, some note next to score describing how many zombies were stopped vs. destroyed

Flash Game: Cursed Treasure sequel

One of my favorite online games ever has released another.

Maybe the hardest fucking game ever

Some of those early Nintendo games were genuinely, really, way over-difficult.  In thanks to them...

"A sardonic loveletter to the halcyon days of early American videogaming, packaged as a nail-rippingly difficult platform adventure" (homepage)

Although someone has beaten this game, this guy didn't.

(Thanks W)

Upgrade fever!

The tendency in games to push you through endless upgrade procedures even to get the game up to adequate levels is parodied in the excellent Upgrade Complete game where you buy -- not just components for your ship -- but menu buttons, music, a mute button for the music, and even the hilarious ending.

The game itself is actually quite dull compared to the upgrade procedure, but that doesn't take away from the fun of the experience.

Wallaces' Workshop

Although it is to some extent an advertisement, it also manages to be the best flash game I've played in a long time.  You'll have to mute the volume pretty early in (top right buttons) as the voice actor's input stops being cheeky after about an hour.

Two amazing flash games

Although ultimately a simple game with somewhat limited replay value, this zombie defense game brings something I've never seen before in the "real time strategy" world: no central base.  You are continuously building and breaking down your defenses and base-type structure as you move through the map salvaging materials and gathering survivors.  The goal here is not expansion but careful, balanced transition.  Move too slowly and you'll run out of resources, but move too quickly and you'll overextend yourself and become vulnerable.

A less revolutionary game, but with amazing replay value is Bubble Tanks 1.5.  I've played and set aside $50 games before I was halfway finished with this free, online game.  Awesome!

Flash games of interest

• Trap Master - Very fun and interesting "Defense" game where you are a bad guy and set traps for the good guys.
• Dadgame - an uber-destructive rampage that's very good fun for about 10 minutes, but loses flavor when you realize there's not much to it.
• Infectionator World Domination - a very entertaining game for about an hour or - play without the extra junk.
• Cursed Treasure - an outstanding game.  Can't beat level 13!.  (Get it full screen here.)

Ask Justify: multiplayer computer games?

So videogames have become increasingly social among my friends for a while now.  I'm trying to expand that and wanted to poll my readers for your favorites.

Suggestions, ideas, or success stories?  If it has two or more players and high replay value I'm interested.

Preferences:

1. Something that supports groups (4+)
2. Games with low system requirements, if only because its usually cheaper
3. Cooperative to competitive (tends to be more socially positive), but the option for competition is nice
4. Something fairly easy to learn and not restricted to first person shooters

Past examples:

• Modern Warfare 2 of course but not much beyond the hardcore gamer friends
• Diablo 2 - was great for groups and a lot of fun but burned out on this
• Gamecube is cheap, seats 4, and has some nice games
• Modded old xbox also 4 player and can be outfitted with MAME for some nostalgic gaming nights
• Wii Tennis entertained *really* well for like two weeks
  

Exercize your brain

A very fun and challenging puzzle site that lets you move gradually from easy to difficult on almost every game.  Requires Java to play directly or you can download the programs and run them on any Windows computer.

Related: more brain games

Game: Flaming Zombooka

A remarkably fun and silly game in the tradition of Lemmings.

Zombie survival flowchart

I've been working with flowcharts a lot so this was a delightful twist on something that's frequently pretty tedious.

Some zombie games I liked:

• Last Stand One and Two
• SAS - Zombie Assault II

Game: Armor Defense - strategy

A surprising game was recently posted over at Armor Game (Full-screen version, small-window version).  Gloriously, this game has the holy duality of being easy to pick up and difficult to master.  Further, unlike many "defense"-style games you can actively get involved in the fighting, rather than just set up and watch.  Unfortunately, the game can be a little painful the first few rounds so, after spending a lot of time with it, I decided to come up with a few pointers on how to get to the meat of the game where it gets really fun.

As with most defense games, there are three major concepts:

1. Keep defenses out of harm's way, yet close to the action.
2. Get money from taking out enemies that you spend to try to manage the increasing difficulty.
3. Put money into core improvements, or infrastructure -- not just more guns.  The game quickly loses its flavor if you only purchase more fighters

Tips:

• Rounds 1 and 2: with a little practice, you can handle this with just one Ruler.  You have to let the kids pass in front of him and then pick him up and drop him in front of them again for a second pass.  Put ALL your other money into upgrading your interest rate (in the lower left hand corner)
• Rounds 3 and 4: as bullies appear (characters who can knock you over), you must add another cheap attacker, the Toy Gun.  Put him on the hood of the bus.
  
• Your next purchase when you get the money should be a Ballooner -- he does splash damage and will help take out groups
• First boss: just set all three characters in front of the fort.
• Your next purchase will be another Ballooner and spread them out -- splash damage is great but if the enemies aren't grouped together, it doesn't mean much.  As they move across the screen they're more likely to group up.
• You should continue contributing to building interest.  Before the second boss, you should have this filled up to the max.
• With a little work, you can fit three characters on the hood of the bus -- this is ideal.
  
• Start to upgrade your Shooter and try to get him to level 3 before anyone else.  Then your Ballooner.  Then when the second boss shows up, just repeatedly set them behind the boss as he advances.
  
• This one is NOT obvious: once the bullies start becoming unmanagable, put your Ruler on the second floor of your base.
  
• Parents can be temporarily managed by giving them a low-level character to take all the way back across the screen again.  Once the parents get destroyed, you can move your character back to position.
  

That's a good start to what could become a much longer strategy guide.  Post some kind of response if you want more, or post your own hints.