Electron Dance Highlights
Behind the Poster
This is the first in a series of short musings on Control.
When I want to write about a game I like, it takes way longer than you might think. There’s an obsession to assemble an artwork of words that befits the title, something that feels as unique as the experience it delivered. That process never feels like a natural consequence of a great game; it’s not as if a game is an untapped seam of minerals and all I had to do was mine it for words. I’m looking for an essay that gives me peace, that looks like I've bled the memory directly onto the page. Write. Delete. Write. Delete. Go to bed. Format the drive. Start again.
I feel some remorse over my brutal carelessness towards a game which inspires derision. I can be cavalier with the words as all you have to do is swing that axe and the job is done. But what about the shrug game, the “meh”? How much brain juice needs to be expended on something that’s, uh, okay, I suppose? I will send my finest soldiers to the four corners of the world in search of exotic prose that conjures the most average of reactions. Now that’s real tricky, I think, as I write up my feelings after three hours of Control (Remedy Entertainment, 2019).
Side by Side: SSMP
Side by Side is a video series on local multiplayer games. This is the ninth episode of the fifth series.
This week, Joel Goodwin of Electron Dance and Gregg Burnell of Tap-Repeatedly float around a very indie take on Spacewar! in SSMP - short for Shoot Shoot Mega Pack - by Actual Humans. While it offers a four basic competitive modes which involve a variety of shooting each other or crashing into things, SSMP lets players craft their own modes by selecting mechanics from the large set of ingredients. Simple, easy to pick up, short rounds. The perfect party game.
If you enjoy the series, please like our videos and subscribe to the Side by Side channel.
Watch the video here or direct on YouTube.
Discussion: Fetch Quests For A Dead World
Welcome to the teensy-weensy-late October newsletter (sign up if you want to read it):
You end up wandering back and forth all the time, taking an object here and an object there. It doesn’t feel like you’re solving puzzles - it feels like you’re fulfilling fetch quests for a dead world.
Dear subscribers, if you feel like chatting about anything at all from the newsletter, please speak your mind in the comments here.
Side by Side: BADBLOOD
Side by Side is a video series on local multiplayer games. This is the eighth episode of the fifth series.
This week, Joel Goodwin of Electron Dance and Gregg Burnell of Tap-Repeatedly become their true selves, vicious killers in BADBLOOD, a deadly game of cat-and-also-cat by Winnie Song. A split-screen top-down affair, two players seek each other out in the tall grass but one side is rotated 90° which makes it a serious mental workout. It certainly has the looks - but how does it play in practice?
If you enjoy the series, please like our videos and subscribe to the Side by Side channel.
Watch the video here or direct on YouTube.
Status Report: Oct 2019
This is an update I put together for my YouTube subscribers. Watch on YouTube or embedded below:
Links
Music
- The Moscow Symphony Orchestra "Outcast Main Theme"
- Kraked Unit "L'air des cendres" (Paris Film OST)
Side by Side: Inversus
Side by Side is a video series on local multiplayer games. This is the seventh episode of the fifth series.
This week, Joel Goodwin of Electron Dance and Gregg Burnell of Tap-Repeatedly face off in a black and white world with parkour -- wait, no, this isn’t Chambara. This is the arena shooter Inversus (Hypersect, 2016), touted as “negative space combat”.
A black player can only move around in white-space and a white player can only move around in black-space. Player’s bullets will turn space to their colour, so the lay of the land constantly changes. There’s also a co-op mode which pits the players against endlessly spawning hostiles… but the magical PvP is where it’s at.
If you enjoy the series, please like our videos and subscribe to the Side by Side channel.
Watch the video here or direct on YouTube.
Side by Side: Double Takes
Side by Side is a video series on local multiplayer games. This is the sixth episode of the fifth series.
This week, Joel Goodwin of Electron Dance and Gregg Burnell of Tap-Repeatedly have a little chat about games previously featured on the series they have changed their minds about and why. Up for discussion are:
And there a few mentions of other titles along the way such as At A Distance and We Were Here. If you enjoy the series, please like our videos and subscribe to the Side by Side channel.
Watch the video here or direct on YouTube.
Side by Side: Battle Bolts
Side by Side is a video series on local multiplayer games. This is the fifth episode of the fifth series.
This week, Joel Goodwin of Electron Dance and Gregg Burnell of Tap-Repeatedly input instructions and watch the mayhem play out in the turn-based tank-vs-tank game Battle Bolts from Second Shot. Each turn, players send four instructions to their tank in secret then watch the results. On the more simple arenas, it's a little Botolo in terms of reading your opponent's mind. But when you've got conveyor belts, teleporters and rotating plates then it's chaos unleashed and no amount of reading your opponent's mind is going to help.
Battle Bolts is available for PC from Steam.
If you enjoy the series, please like our videos and subscribe to the Side by Side channel.
Watch the video here or direct on YouTube.
Side by Side: Hellfront Honeymoon
Side by Side is a video series on local multiplayer games. This is the fourth episode of the fifth series.
Joel Goodwin of Electron Dance and Gregg Burnell of Tap-Repeatedly go all Starship Troopers in this claustrophobic, stripped-down RTS, which can be played competitively or as co-op. Take control of honeypots, build turrets or barracks, destroy the enemy. That's more or less all there is to it - but the Side by Side team found it compulsive. Just one more match, they said, again and again until their bodies became dried-up husks.
Hellfront Honeymoon is available for PC from Steam and Humble. It's also out for Sony Playstation and XBOX ONE.
If you enjoy the series, please like our videos and subscribe to the Side by Side channel.
Watch the video here or direct on YouTube.
Discussion: ELIZA[0]
Welcome to the September newsletter (sign up if you want to read it):
The developer’s best asset is the player, as prestige text adventure purveyor Infocom suggested in their advertising back in the 1980s. “OUR STORIES LACK IMAGINATION,” they proudly proclaimed. “Because Infocom's interactive fiction is designed to run on your imagination.”
Dear subscribers, if you feel like chatting about anything at all from the newsletter, please speak your mind in the comments here.
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"@CA, Death Stranding interests me greatly, although I was indifferent to all the pre-release buzz. I'm no big fan of Kojima; bounced right off Sons..." – Discussion: Fetch Quests For A Dead World
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