Nicole Klein wrote our preview of the Third Global Game Jam at the end of January. Organized by the Philly Chapter of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), the Global Game Jam is an annual, international festival of game-making. For 48 hours, programmers, board-game geeks, musicians, and others all over the world banded together to make never-before-seen games.

This Saturday’s meet-up, hosted by IndyHall at their 22 North 3rd Street office, will examine the outcome of those labors. Anyone and everyone is welcome to attend and see demonstrations of the games developed both here and abroad. Register at their Eventbrite page to make your check-in at the event as painless as possible.

Oh, and the social butterflies among you should plan on heading over to National Mechanics at 22 South 3rd Street after the meeting to continue chatting up your friendly neighborhood geeks and game devs.

IDGA Philadelphia Chapter’s Monthly Meeting
Hosted by IndyHall
Saturday, February 11, 2012, 5pm – 7pm
22 North 3rd St, Philadelphia, PA 19106
igdaphilly2012february.eventbrite.com

If you are like me, you remember a time when being a “gamer” didn’t mean you played Halo or Final Fantasy of Street Fighter. Being a gamer meant only one thing; you lived for role-playing games, the kind where all the graphics took place in your head and a die roll decided if you lived or died. (If you were a Level 1 Elf, it always meant you died. Always.)

Nowadays there are precious few places left where you can join in on a game of Dungeons & Dragons and enjoy a good, old fashioned dungeon crawl or even gather around a board game like Settlers and throw down with some friends. So the news that Recap’s Corner is re-opening Jan. 27th at its brand new location of 3617 Lancaster Ave., right on the Penn Campus, is welcome information to anyone with a 20 sided die and a character sheet.

To celebrate, Redcap’s Corner is holding an all day Dungeons & Dragons gaming event Saturday, Feb. 4th. It will include 5 Dungeon Masters running games for the novice gamer as well as adventures for the more experienced player. Dice, miniatures and character sheets will all be provided and it is even sponsored by Wizards of the Coast. All you need is yourself, some Mountain Dew and your imagination.

So get ready to get your old school game on when Recap’s Corner re-opens January 27th. Dungeons & Dragons, Magic, Pathfinder, Heroclix, no matter how you game, you have a new home.

Redcap’s Corner
www.redcapscorner.com

As a part of the Year of Games, the University of Pennsylvania will be hosting the Editor Extraordinaire, the Creator of Crosswords, the Legendary Originator of Enigmatology, Will Shortz.

You may know him from the 2006 documentary Word Play, or from the 37 Friday puzzles from the New York Times lying around your apartment that are all 85% completed.

On Tuesday, January 24th, Will is coming to Philadelphia to give a talk titled The World of Enigmatology. It will be in Irvine Auditorium at 34th and Spruce from 5:30-7pm.

For more information, visit the University of Pennsylvania’s official website. See you there!

Happy New Year, geeks! Make any resolutions? Sure you did. Get your K/D over 1.0, maybe. Re-watch all of BSG in one sitting. Finally finish that Marvel Zombies musical adaptation you’ve been penning.

How about this though: Invent some new words and save the dying English language.

Sounds pretty good, right? The year’s first featured Kickstarter project has you covered. First conceived during last year’s Game Jam, LangGuini is part Balderdash, part Apples to Apples, and all awesome. Don’t believe me? Ask Papa Mustachio. Or just let creator Ryan Morrison break it down for you:

LangGuini is a multi player card game for 3 or more players. The game was designed during the 2011 Global Game Jam in Philadelphia, PA. last year’s theme was “Extinction” so we decided that the English language has been deteriorating rapidly so we needed some new words. Being big fans of party games we wanted to make a social game, hence the three player minimum. After almost a year of play-testing and messing around with the mechanics we really want to print this game and get it out there.

The deck comes with a box with instructions printed on the back. 108 cards in the deck. 1 card is the decision card (hopefully to be replaced by DICE) 105 cards that each have two word parts listed on either the yellow or orange side. The final 2 cards are our special thanks and stuff like that cards.

This project is a little unique for a Geekadelphia feature, in that Ryan and the guys have already hit their funding goal. However, instead of swimming through piles of money Scrooge McDuck style, they’ve decided to create new Stretch Goals that allow them to add even more goodness to every deck that ships.

Currently they’re looking to hit $5,500 and ship each deck with custom LangGuini dice, which are sure to fit nicely right next to your d20 in the dice bag. Check out the project, enjoy the video, and do your part to make up ridiculous new words.

The Project: LangGuini, a Card Game!

Creator: Ryan Morrison

The Sweet Spot: Some great limited edition back rewards have already been claimed, but you can still grab a full deck plus one of four themed booster packs for $23, and $52 will get your your own set of custom cards in addition to the regular set. There are tons of hilarious rewards, including dinner with Papa Mustachio, for the high rollers out there.

Funding Deadline: January 16th, 2012

More Info: Check out the main Kickstarter page for frequent updates.

Every Monday (today is an exception, we were closed yesterday) Geekadelphia features a Kickstarter created by locals. Check ‘em out and support our local geek scene. If you have a project that you’d like featured on site, contact geekadelphia@gmail.com

I caused the end of an established franchise, but I wasn’t that bad guys!

Alright, let me start this off by saying these aren’t the best games of 2011. In fact, they are far from it. When I think about the best games of the year, titles like Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Gears of War 3, Fallout: New Vegas, L.A. Noire, Dead Space 2, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, etc.

The games I’m about to ramble about? These are the best, tragically underplayed games. The titles you ignored because they got poor reviews or were released in the wake of large blockbuster titles (some in the midst of several). Games that had immediate price drops on Amazon and made you suspicious of their quality. Games that I actually enjoyed.

So read on, and feel free to hate. And if I missed a game you think should be included, leave it in the comments. I’m always looking for new games to play. Especially underrated ones.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine – Like I said in my review of this title back in September, Space Marine was the biggest gaming surprise of the Summer, end of story. And now that 2011 is coming to a close, I can say that it was the surprise of the year, at least for me. When THQ asked me if I wanted a review copy of this game, I scooped it up with intentions of just writing up a quick giveaway with some brief impressions (sorry guys!). I really didn’t think I’d end up playing it all the way through, as I assumed it was going to be… well, bad.

Man, was I surprised.

An intense third person shooter, Space Marine delivered a surprisingly engaging narrative (despite me not understanding much of the Warhammer lore), beautiful, albeit very dark and dreary landscapes, and voice acting that was shockingly decent. I poured a lot of time into the title, and tried to nab every achievement I could. The multiplayer was a little meh, but the single player campaign was engrossing enough to forgive that fact. And if you’re like me and seldom bother with multiplayer, it’s a moot point anyway.

Released around the same time as Gears of War 3, a title that Space Marine’s gameplay borrows heavily from, I had no doubt that this game would get lost in the shuffle. According to Joytiq, the title sold over a million copies, but I’ve yet to meet anyone in Philly who played it. You can score this title for around $30 – $40 these days, and it is worth every penny.

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron – My pals over on Joystiq hyped the hell out of this title, and with good cause. Beautifully unique graphics, amazing gameplay, a powerful story. After all the hype, I had to buy it. In El Shaddai, we meet Enoch, a man who has to beat up a bunch of rebellious angels who have been influencing mankind to do wicked things. Simple enough premise, right? Right.

Now, normally I’m not a big fan of the hack and slash genre. Button mashing just isn’t my thing. While Space Marine certainly had some mashing elements, there was a lot of shooting mixed into the gameplay. So how does a game like this stand above titles like Darksiders, God of War, and other semi-mindless button mash games? The gorgeous GORGEOUS visuals.

You’ve never really seen a game like this. Just Google image search for screengrabs, and prepare to be awed. Bright colors, impressionist backgrounds… the visuals are stunning.

These days, you can score El Shaddai for $20 on Amazon, for both the PS3 and 360. Great buy, beautiful game.

Red Faction: Armageddon – This game got a lot of hate. A lot of unnecessary hate. Red Faction: Guerrilla had an amazing, open ended world that let you explore (and consequently destroy) just about everything.

Armageddon got rid of this, delivering a far more linear experience. For some odd reason, this change seemed to infuriate the hell out of the gaming community, despite the fact that the title had some really awesome weapons (magnet gun!), an interesting (though a bit convoluted) story, solid voice acting, and great graphics.

I’ve always been a huge fan of the Red Faction universe, so perhaps I was a bit biased going into this title. I even took the day off work to spend the whole day playing it. Breaks my heart to hear THQ is done with the franchise. You can score the final chapter in Red Faction for under $20 as of this posting (it’s $16 now). Totally worth it.

Transformers Dark of the Moon – You know what. You shouldn’t have played this game when it came out. As much fun as this title was, it was a criminally short game for a full $60 (I reviewed this title back in the Summer and said the same thing).

However, the gameplay is exactly like the smash War for Cybertron, which was an absolutely amazing breath of life into the Transformers series in video games. Gears of War-esque gameplay with robots? Sold.

Right now, the game is still priced about $35 or so. It’s worth paying if you’re a huge fan of the Transformers series, like Geekadelphia co-founder Tim Quirino and I are. But if you’re only slightly into those robots in disguise… wait til it hits $20.

Child of Eden: (@CollinFlatt) Child of Eden is the greatest videogame of 2011 that no one played. In fact, Child of Eden might be one of the greatest games ever made, period. Ultimately, the concept of gaming is to immerse the player into an environment that is interactive and engaging enough to leave the rest of the world behind. Child of Eden delivers on both of these concepts better than anything I’ve played before.

In it’s simplest form, COE is an on-rails shooter from the brilliant mind of Tetsuya Mizuguchi (Rez, Lumines), featuring gorgeous visuals and an incredible soundtrack. The story is geeky-silly: In the future, scientists are trying to save Project Lumi, the first human created in space, from a virus attack in an Artifical Intelligence environment.

What sets COE apart from everything else is the level of interactivity the game offers via the Kinect camera system for Xbox 360 (there is a Playstation Move version, but it’s much more cumbersome). Your right hand controls the aiming recticle for a lock on weapon to destroy enemies, while the left controls a more machine gun-like weapon to defend against projectile attacks. Both weapons are fired by thrusting your hand forward.

The anthemic music builds as you rack up points and combos, which combined with the ethereal visuals and interactivity with your extremeties creates the feeling that you’re conducting a futuristic orchestra all while saving humanity. When the Kinect promised Minority Report-like interactivity, I was skeptical to say the least. COE has proved me wrong, and shows that in the right hands, the Kinect has a very bright future. COE is definitely the most underrated game of 2011.

Contest Closed! Thanks for playing.

As you all clearly know, I love me some Halo. And if my full suit of Master Chief armor doesn’t hammer home that message, I really don’t know what will. The games, the novels, the movies (Legends wasn’t bad!), the comics… I just can’t get enough. And that includes the hilarious Red. vs Blue series.

Red vs. Blue: Season 9 continues the story of Red vs Blue: Revelation, and breaks the same rules that RvB:R did… we’re introduced to a story being told without the traditional Halo engine, and instead, are treated to pre-rendered CGI.

And while the story this series tells gets a little confusing at times (there are two distinct story arcs through the twenty episode series, one of which goes back and uses the Halo engine), the Rooster Teeth crew continue to deliver a hilarious narrative that Halo fans everywhere will love.

The DVD has all the usual suspects that Red vs. Blue releases tend to include. Hilarious director’s commentary, outtakes and deleted scenes, cast interviews, and the PSAs that Rooster Teeth is celebrated for. Since you can watch the series for free online, it’s a must to include this sort of stuff for fans. And they give you a lot of it, especially with the behind the scenes videos.

The folks at New Video Group were kind enough to send over a bunch of copies to giveaway. I’ve got three copies of Season 9 up for grabs here. Just leave a comment about your favorite game in the Halo series for a chance to win. I’ll pick one of you at random next week and drop a copy in the mail.

Be sure to scope out Rooster Teeth’s website for more information on Red vs. Blue. Old episodes, hilarious comics… they do some great work, those guys.

Our good friends over at Cipher Prime recently re-released Fractal, their very first title, in the Valve Steam store.

Complete with all the “tweaks and improvements [they] added to the game for [their] Mac Store release, including rebalanced play modes, updated graphics, and improved music and sounds,” Fractal has been available on Steam since the end of November.

Dustin reviewed Fractal and loved it, and now we want to give one of you a chance to love it as well. Have Steam? I’ve got a download code for Fractal and Auditorium (another award winning game from our favorite local developer), up for grabs.

Entering is easy. Just leave a comment. I’ll pick one of you at random sometime next week, and email you the code. You can consider it an early Christmas gift. Good luck!

Today’s Geek of the Week is Greg Lobanov, a student at Drexel University.

He’s roughly a decade younger than the average Geekadelphia writer and already cranking out multiple video games, effectively making us oldheads look bad.

Are you currently in school? Where do you go and what for?

I attend Drexel University, studying Digital Media. I’m currently in my second year, and it’s been quite a learning experience thus far. It’s been my first time working with 3D modeling and animation, I must say it’s been quite a challenge.

How did you get into game design?

I can’t pin it to a single moment or reason—from a very young age I enjoyed making games, though back then it was with paper, cardboard and markers. Something about it felt very natural to me, defining rules of play and making the pieces. I also loved drawing comics and writing stories to go with them. When I started to get into computers and the internet, all those things got tangled up, until some point I was making computer games.

What kind of games or people inspire you?

I think the best (and most inspiring) games are the ones that give the best “feel.” You might be thinking that’s very vague, but I stand by it. I find a lot of games very interesting and effective for all very unique reasons. The qualities that make a good game are far from universal; they’re hard to define in strict germs. Generally, I think that you can realize a game is great from the point of being able to nearly feel the passion that the artists and designers put into it. That passion transfers into my own work.

I liken myself to director Quentin Tarantino and musician James Murphy in the respect that my inspirations are often shown very clearly through my work and combining them in unique ways.

I see you’re also quite the illustrator. Do you do more of the development side of things or design? Which do you prefer?

In most of my projects to date, I did just about everything. I’ll have to call it a 50/50. I honestly love both sides of making games, though I also would say that I’m not particularly the best at either. As I’ve brought on more talented people to help work on my projects, I’ve been gradually phasing out of the artistic end of things. That’s more-so because being “capable” as a programmer is is good enough whereas merely being “capable” at illustration and art starts to be detrimental when you start competing with truly talented visual artists.

I see a very strong separation from the visual art in games and the more literal “design” art in the layout, gameplay, controls, mechanics, levels, story. Etc. That particular aspect of games seems to be both creative yet logical. Those are the parts of the game-making process to which I’m most attached.

So what are you currently working on?

I’m making a role-playing game for the PC called Phantasmaburbia. It’s set in a suburban neighborhood, that’s most-obviously the Philadelphia region. Its plot revolves around teenagers who team up with ghosts of their ancestors or former residents of their homes. Players will protect their hometown from an invasion of ghosts and a particularly powerful and evil trans-dimensional demon.

You can check out my progress at Phantasmaburbia.com

—
Thanks for chatting with us, Greg. Keep up the good work! It’s awesome to have passionate game designers like yourself in our city. To keep up with Greg’s game-making progress and other things, you can visit his blog: http://banov.blogspot.com

Contest Closed! Thanks for playing.

Assassin’s Creed. I absolutely adore this video game series, and when Ubisoft released the outstanding Lineage mini-series, I was psyched. Live action Assassin’s Creed? Hells yeah. You can watch the full thing for free on YouTube, or if you’d like to scope it out on the big screen in HD… you could pick it up on DVD or Blu-ray.

Assassin’s Creed: Lineage serves as the prequel to Assassin’s Creed II, Brotherhood and Revelations. In the story we’re introduced Giovanni Auditore… Ezio’s father. Hunted in the midst of a conspiracy (a popular trope in the Assassin’s Creed series), he’s forced to fight for his life as he tries to expose a dark secret held by some of the most powerful families in Italy.

This is a pretty easy Blu-ray to talk about, considering the entire short film runs a little over half an hour. What you’re really paying for here is the amazing digital transfer (it looks gorgeous) and a number of short featurettes, including some making-of clips and developer diaries. All in all, with the series and the features, you’re looking at about an hour of content here.

On DVD, Assassin’s Creed: Lineage goes for a cheap $10, on Blu-ray, about $12 . The cheap price point, the solid story, and decent mini features, make this a great purchase for that mad Assassin’s Creed fan in your life, or even for yourself. It’s definitely worth the buy if you’re a diehard fan.

Now, for those crazy fans still reading, I’ve got THREE copies of Assassin’s Creed: Lineage on Blu-ray to giveaway. Just leave a comment about your favorite Assassin’s Creed character for a chance to win. I’ll email winners sometime next week.

Requiescat in pace…

Local game developer Cipher Prime, award winning creators of the games Auditorium and Pulse, have recently released an updated version of their addictive music/puzzle game called Fractal. Featuring colorful graphics, cool music, various play modes, and deceptively simple gameplay, Fractal will keep you hooked for hours.

Fractal’s main campaign starts you of creating “blooms”, which is when you connect a group of similarly colored pieces called fractals to create a giant hexagon cluster on the board. For every bloom you create, you also are rewarded with music. The more blooms you take off the board, the more music you hear within the level.

The catch is that you only have  a certain amount of fractals to put on the board while also trying to achieve a certain amount of points per level. As you move through the campaign, the difficulty certainly ramps up. Multiple colored fractals pop up on the board, suddenly making the player have to be aware that the upcoming fractal might destroy an attempted bloom combo.

While playing Fractal I was reminded of the game Lumines, but while that game had a style of gameplay very reminiscent of the classic puzzler Tetris, Fractal feels like it’s own thing. It has its own style  and pace. The campaign doesn’t have you trying to complete a level within a certain timeframe, nor does it suddenly ramp up the speed of gameplay. It all comes down to the player. How the player decides to interact with the level determines the tension and complexity of each level. Needless to say you can discover multiple ways of creating blooms within a level which certainly ups the replay value of the game.

The Campaign mode features 30 levels that keeps increasing in difficulty. Of course, you are given some help when bombs are put onto the level that helps you take out more fractals on a stage. Arcade mode ups the ante by being a time trials version of the main game. Finally, there’s puzzle mode which includes  six sets of levels each with their own batch of puzzles to complete. All of the various play modes and levels will continue to challenge the player again and again.

With Fractal, Cipher Prime continues to deliver immersive, solid gameplay with a great sense of style and design. Anyone who downloads this game will get their money’s worth and then some. You will lose many hours playing Fractal, and you will love it.