puzzles
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Wordle clones have jumped the S_ARK
Four Wordle puzzles at once? That was so five hours ago.
Wordle, the game everyone's obsessed with, gets bought by the New York Times
The New York Times has purchased the beloved puzzle game for an undisclosed sum.
Patrick Stewart will narrate Holocaust game 'My Memory of Us'
My Memory of Us was teased early last year, a heartfelt game with touching animation, based on real events that occurred during the Second World War. Now its creator, Juggler Games, has revealed an expanded trailer and announced that the game will feature narration from an appropriately revered individual: Patrick Stewart. Juggler Games CEO Mikołaj Pawłowski notes that Stewart's "talent and skill provides the right mixture of gravitas and hope, and his performance resonates perfectly with [the] game."
Acclaimed platformer 'Inside' is coming to PlayStation 4
Limbo developer Playdead has revealed it will be releasing its latest acclaimed platformer, Inside, for PlayStation 4 on August 23rd. The date was announced via a new trailer which shows the game's main character falling into an abyss.
Deals with Gold: PopCap puzzlers
This week's Deals with Gold features discounts on a handful of PopCap-developed games for Xbox Live Gold subscribers. Xbox One owners can pick up third-person shooter Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare at 66 percent off ($13.59) as well as Peggle 2 at 60 percent off ($4.79). Garden Warfare is just $10.19 this week on Xbox 360 as well. Other Xbox 360 games are half-off this week, such as the original Peggle ($4.99) and its Peggle Nights expansion ($2.49) as well as Bejeweled 3 and Plants vs. Zombies ($7.49 each). Lastly, players can download both Zuma and Feeding Frenzy ($2.49 each) as well as their sequels Zuma's Revenge and Feeding Frenzy 2 ($4.99 each). The deals are good through Monday, December 15. [Image: PopCap Games]
Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris dev diary talks puzzles
Crystal Dynamics' latest developer diary for Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris discusses the game's puzzles, which change based on the number of cooperating players solving them at a given moment. Temple of Osiris will launch on December 9 for PS4, Xbox One and PC.
Community puzzles out first Wildstar vehicle: Hoverboards
MMO fans are always eager for more news about their favorite games, and Carbine Studios obliged with a new WildStar DevSpeak video this week focusing on the Warrior. But there was more to this video than just a class highlight; embedded in the clip were clues to even more news. However, to get this tidbit of hidden news, players would have to work for it. The community jumped on the task and soon puzzled out the solution, leading them to the discovery of a new mount: the hoverboard. Check out the visual reward for the community's investigative labors in the video below -- unless you want to figure it all out for yourself! [Thanks to Exes for the tip!]
Daily iPhone App: Perfection is an original, fun, and easily accessible puzzle game
Creating an original, fun and easily accessible puzzle game for iOS can't possibly be an easy task these days. You'd think that by now just about every new idea would already have been done a dozen times. Then a game like Perfection comes along and proves that theory wrong. Perfection tasks you with whittling down a two-dimensional shape by slicing off its edges. A hovering outline remains ever-present in the middle of the screen, showing you the shape you need to craft in order to complete the puzzle. Hacking off chunks of the shape is as easy as sliding your finger across the screen of your device, and as you drag your digit from one side of the screen to the other you can reposition the slice before actually cutting. Once you have created a reasonable replica of the outline in question, the level is over, and you move on to the next shape. On the default puzzle mode you must only cut each object to the correct shape, but you can move on to two slightly more advanced versions of each puzzle. In the second (if you couldn't tell, these aren't actually named, as they are represented with icons alone), you must slice as well as twist and turn the object to the correct alignment, and in the third mode you must slice, twist and also pinch / zoom the shape to fit the outline, adding yet another layer of complexity to the simple gameplay. These added bonus modes are great additions that help to break up marathon sessions by adding a bit more variety. Despite its name, which you might assume would signify a game with unforgiving rules. Perfection is actually an extremely casual and laid-back experience. You can take as many cuts as you want to whittle your shape to size. There's no time limit; you can skip any level that you don't like; and you can even redo cuts that didn't turn out as you wanted. In the end, it's really a game made for relaxing, and in that way it does a fantastic job. However, the simplicity of the gameplay doesn't mean you're going to breeze your way to the end. In fact, nobody will ever actually complete the game. Perfection uses randomly generated puzzles to allow for a literally unending wave of levels that could keep you busy forever, if you don't burn out first. Perfection's musical score is just as zen-minded as its puzzles, allowing your mind to drift and relax as you cruise through endless stream of colorful puzzles. Sure, you can't challenge your friends to beat your high score or play head-to-head multiplayer until your eyes cross, but that's not really the point of the game. Perfection fills its niche as a game that you can play whenever and wherever you please, with no long-term objectives or goals. For just a buck, it's one of the most inventive and peaceful puzzle games on the App Store.
Daily iPad App: Tipping Point Adventure for iPad is clever and engaging
My experience as an adventure game player goes way back to the text-only Colossal Cave game, which then morphed into the classic Zork text games from Infocom (which, by the way, you can play even now on iOS with the Lost Treasures of Infocom app). Now, with speed and graphic power, games are a lot more immersive and fun to play. Tipping Point Adventure, is a recent iPad-only release that is rich in puzzles and high quality graphics. The game is currently on sale for U.S. $1.99 in the app store. You begin the game sitting in your virtual home watching TV, when a strange message sets you off on an epic adventure. At first, I was stabbing around the screen looking for things to interact with, but soon I saw a logic to the way the game was constructed. I liked a lot of the subtle things the author has done, like picking up the TV remote and selecting stations has old movies actually playing on the TV. The game has built-in hints available but there is no in-app purchase required to get them, so unlike some other games, you don't have to buy them. I still needed one or two of the built-in hints. One hint told me I had to go to a particular TV channel for a message, and with hundreds of channels available, I don't think I would have figured that one out for myself. %Gallery-187323% There's a sizable story line, lots of puzzles and challenges to play with, an original music score, and quite a few surprises to find. Tipping Point is a great, reasonably priced diversion that offers up a nice throwback experience to those old text-only adventure games of old. The game is a hefty 255 MB download, and requires iOS 4.3 or later.
Daily iPhone App: The Silent Age is a great, stylistic point and click adventure
The Silent Age is quite an experience. It's a point-and-click adventure game, in the style of old games like Monkey Island and even Maniac Mansion. But as you can see from the screenshot above, it boasts a very original look and feel, one has a lot of style and a little bit of menace added in. The story is about a janitor who's pretty easygoing, when one day he's given a time-travel device and asked to save the world. And that's about all you need to know to start: The Silent Age unfolds itself like a puzzle box, very carefully and with a lot of excellent design. Unfortunately, the same issues that all of these point-and-click games seem to have are present here as well: The puzzles can sometimes get confusing, and the interface can sometimes not be 100 percent clear (usually, you need to find objects to use on other objects, but sometimes the solutions can be more abstract than obvious). But the good news is that The Silent Age's interface is very simple and straightforward, so there isn't a lot of room here for confusion. The game is more about experiencing the story and unlocking just what's going on, rather than trying to get you hung up on a specific puzzle. Plus, The Silent Age is currently completely free. At that price, there's no reason not to download this and check it out this weekend. It's probably not a game for everyone, but if you're ready for an experience that's a little strange and very experimental, give it a look.
Daily iPhone App: Interlocked puts lots of physical puzzles on a digital touchscreen
I am a big fan of The Room, an iOS app which has gained plenty of accolades here and elsewhere already. One of the most charming things about The Room, I think, is how well it replicates real-world objects on a touchscreen platform. The Room expertly turns the touchscreen interface into a series of mysterious puzzle-boxes, all very fascinating and ingenious to play with. Interlocked is another app that does that, although without a lot of the extra mystery and setting that The Room adds to things. The app is published by Armor Games, the same company that published the great Kingdom Rush, and like Kingdom Rush, it's based on a popular Flash game you can play for free online. Also like Kingdom Rush, the iOS version has been polished and cleaned up a bit. The game is simple: You're given a puzzle with a set of interlocking pieces, and then you can drag or swipe around the screen to try and pull all of the pieces apart. The game starts off easy, and quickly gets difficult -- just a few levels in, I had some frustration trying to figure out just how these pieces on screen fit together. If you're a fan of these kinds of manipulation puzzles, you'll love this setup for sure. As I said, Interlocked is a pure puzzle game, so it doesn't have any of the mysteriousness that made The Room so popular (and if you haven't played that one, you should). Still, if you like these very physical puzzles, Interlocked, with plenty of content and a nice clean interface, should offer up lots of fun. It's available right now as a universal app for US$0.99.
Leaderboard: Dynamic events vs. investigation quests
Guild Wars 2 decided to do something a little different when it was time to put together the game's content. Rather than having a few hubs where players can gather and grab a laundry list of quests, the game offers a few points of open-ended content and a lot of random events jumping up all over. The Secret World went in a very different direction with the same goal of mixing up the final experience. Not every quest is a matter of just clicking the right stuff in the right places. There are quests where the answer lies behind a puzzle, something to challenge the mind of the player rather than just your character's murdering arm. In the case of the former, dynamic events keep areas feeling fresh time after time, but they've also garnered some criticism for their simplicity or awkwardness compared to normal quests. On the other hand, the latter is pretty stagnant the second time you're solving the same puzzle, but it offers you a mental tease you don't always get from MMOs. So which do you think is the more interesting breakout? Dynamic events or investigation quests?
Yo ho ho: Happy 10th birthday, Puzzle Pirates
Puzzle Pirates is still way ahead of its time, despite the fact that it just turned 10 years old. For many years, MMOs have tried to get players to work together in real time in myriad ways, yet Puzzle Pirates is the only one that has approached the problem exactly in this way: having each player work a different puzzle to represent different activities. One player controls the direction and speed a ship travels, two players work a "bilging" puzzle to help keep water from filling in, perhaps a few more players man the sails, and another plays a puzzle that represents keeping the ship repaired. What you end up with is a pretty realistic depiction of a team working together to sail the high seas, fight NPCs, and attack other players. This same puzzle-based gameplay works its way throughout the entire game, making for a very unique and in-depth experience. It also ensures that players become experts at certain puzzles, something that easily represents the way a real-life sailor would become an expert at his or her station. In a word, it's brilliant. Massively checked in with CEO Daniel James on the occasion of the game's birthday. Read on for the scoop!
Portabliss: Bad Piggies (iOS)
This is Portabliss, a column about downloadable games that can be played on the go. Angry Birds is iOS gaming's juggernaut; even now, it regularly tops the App Store charts in both money earned and time played. Rovio, the Finnish company who created Angry Birds, put together dozens of mobile games before its first iOS release, and has seemingly hesitated to release anything else after it. The studio doesn't want to cannibalize its own success, so all we've seen from Rovio since Angry Birds' 2009 iOS release is a series of rebrands (including Angry Birds Rio and Angry Birds Space), and one licensed remake of a sandbox contraption game called Amazing Alex.Bad Piggies, then, is the first original title we've seen from Rovio in years, but even it doesn't go too far off the multibillion-dollar reservation. It's a game set in the Angry Birds universe, that follows the green pigs and their goal of grabbing eggs rather than the frustrated fowl trying to demolish them. But instead of unleashing furious destruction by catapult, Bad Piggies asks the player to create modular vehicles that will cart the pigs across a level, reaching a map piece goal at the end.
Free for All: Getting lost in the labyrinth of Wurm Online
Wurm Online is a game of darkness. Really, the entire world is balanced on what will happen after the sun sets. If a player isn't careful, she can find herself lost and alone without a torch to light her path. I don't mean to make the daylight out to be a haven from danger; a player can die during the day as easily as at night. But at least during the day, a far-off shelter can be aimed for. Unless there's fog, of course. OK, look. Wurm Online is a game of super-scary death things, but the night is particularly scary. That's what I meant. When an old Vanguard: Saga of Heroes buddy of mine let me know that he and his friends had built a giant maze in Wurm, one that can actually keep players occupied for hours and can possibly lead to injury or death, I jumped into a tiny rowboat and paddled my way south toward the Deliverance server. I had to see this thing for myself.
Why I Play: The Secret World
I can't stop! No, seriously -- I had delusions of sneaking this article out a week earlier than scheduled, but that involved actually tearing myself away from Kingsmouth long enough to log out and write. And you can see how well that turned out! It's hard enough trying to do so now; every time I think about The Secret World, I want to jump right back in and... um, excuse me a moment, I'll be right back... Hey, I just needed to test something in-game for this article, honest! Though if the test was to be able to log in and right back out of TSW, I failed. I checked what I needed to and thought to myself, "Just five more minutes." Before I knew it, too many hours flew by. And this was not an isolated incident, either. As much as I enjoy playing MMORPGs (anyone who has heard me in a game can attest to that!), it has been quite a while since I truly reveled in my time in game and champed at the bit to get back in when I had to leave. It's no secret that I have been waiting for this game for years now, and I have to say I am not disappointed. Funcom's newest release has truly ensnared me. So what is so compelling about The Secret World? Do you have a minute or five?
RealMyst now on the App Store
The original Myst has been available for iOS for a while now, offering up that game's classic click-to-explore puzzles on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. Now, Cyan Worlds has released realMyst, a 3D re-imagining of the old school title that features the mysterious island of Myst. Unfortunately, the game's only for the iPad 2 or the current iPad (iPad 3), so you'll need one of those devices to play the game (presumably because the graphical fidelity just needs that much power). The title includes the full original Myst in 3D, plus the add-on Rime Age and extras like a hint guide, should you get stuck. Right now it's available for just US$6.99, but the price is set to go back up to $9.99 soon.
PAX 2011: Funcom discusses The Secret World's PvP, ARG, and more
Funcom had an impressive presence at PAX Prime 2011, and along with that presence came a wealth of information about its upcoming horror MMORPG, The Secret World. In addition to showing off the Polaris five-man instance, the team also highlighted a new solo mission demo and revealed some new information about the title. From missions to PvP to character progression, the team had a lot to say. For the full details on both small- and large-scale PvP, skill progression, and the game's ARG and puzzle elements, head on past the cut.
Ragnar Tørnquist discusses The Secret World's history, factions, puzzles, and more
Funcom's Ragnar Tørnquist, project lead of the upcoming The Secret World, sat down with John Walker over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun to chat about everything TSW. The interview is delightfully in-depth, and is actually only the first part of the entire interview, so TSW fans have something to look forward to as well. In part one, Mr. Walker talks with Tørnquist about the history of The Secret World and how it arrived at the point it's at today. They also spend a bit of time discussing the game's three factions -- particularly the enigmatic Dragons -- and their potential motivations and interactions. And lastly, of course, they talk about the game's ARG-esque puzzles, which blur the line between game and reality for a more immersive experience. For the whole first part of the interview (which is really a must-read for fans of TSW), head on over to Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun gets an inside look at The Secret World
Illuminati, Templars, and Dragons alike, sit down and listen up. The ever-so-entertaining and informative John Walker over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun has an exclusive inside look at Funcom's upcoming MMORPG The Secret World. The title, which is being headed up by adventure game visionary Ragnar Tørnquist, is set in the real world, though with a few dark and dangerous twists. Mr. Walker spends a good deal of time talking about the much-talked-about ARG-esque connection between The Secret World and our reality. He goes into detail about a particular puzzle offered by the game which requires players to do a good deal of real-world research in order to reach their in-game goal, which sounds absolutely fascinating. Combat is also touched on, with Mr. Walker noting that "while its delivery is relatively traditional... there's enough that's different here to be interesting." For the full, fascinating read, head on over to Rock, Paper, Shotgun!
