A recurring trend one may have noticed over the course of the last three or so months (has it really been that long since we started this blog?), since my first review of Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale, is that when I featured a demo, it would always be for an indie title. Maybe a title that wasn’t indie snuck in at some point, but for all intents and purpose, indie games were on the menu. Why is that?
Logistical issues mostly. Mainstream triple A games would tax my system to no end. The most graphically intensive demo I played was for Xotic, and for good reason. The frame rate dropped to near the level of PowerPoint presentation when on my laptop. Happened a couple times on the less graphical titles I reviewed, as a matter of fact.
This teaches me two things: first, that I desperately need a proper desktop if I’m going to have a gaming machine. It would also give me greater resources with which to ply my hand at the editing of videos (which I do on occasion), but that’s not important right now. And second, that a college student working on a fixed, probably low, budget cannot be assumed to have access to a high end gaming rig. In fact, it would be irresponsible of me to write this column assuming my readers all have access to machines that can run games like Crysis.
So on the one hand, we have a selection of games chosen because they were the only ones around I could run, and it’s safe to assume others would have the same problem. Play to the niche, as it were. Purely practical concerns that limited what could be featured, so I just ran with it. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t also other good reasons for the selection.
Another reason is simply that enough people already review the triple A titles, and even if I could get them running at full speed on a computer I don’t own, it would be redundant to review demos for games others already reviewed as a whole. There are dozens, maybe hundreds, of gaming magazines and websites filled with budding journalists that will fall over each other to review the biggest titles with the largest budgets. So reviewing indie titles seemed like a better option if only because it’s an emerging field with plenty of opportunities. There was room on the frontier, so I moved in and built a farm. And then got caught in the dust bowl because of unwise agricultural practices.
Joking aside, there’s also just the fact that these games might not get as much attention as they deserve. Would you have ever heard of Blocks That Matter, Sideway, or Bastion if I hadn’t told you about them? Scores of up-and-coming game designers, perhaps even your former upperclassmen, labored long into the night to produce these titles. They’re labors of love, and they ought to be enjoyed.
As for the actual selection of titles I chose to spotlight, it was mainly whatever I particularly wanted to play. There were games that didn’t make the cut, mostly because I either didn’t like what I saw or couldn’t finish. Waves was a game that hit me with slow frame rate from the title screen alone, something not even Xotic did until I actually got to playing. I couldn’t make heads or tails of Hacker Evolution Duality. And let’s not even get into how frustrated I was at Lightfish.
If it seems unfair that I only spotlighted games I wanted to play, remember that these games are still out there. All of the titles I reviewed are on Steam, with demos ready to be played. If you don’t like what I displayed, go to Steam and find something more to your taste. There’s a brave and expanding world of games out there just waiting to be played.
Don’t think you need me or anyone else to tell you what to play. I personally didn’t think Demolition, Inc. was anything to write home about, but I’d never know that without downloading the demo. And that’s what the demos are for. Not every game has a critic coming around to tell people whether it’s worth your time. Demos are the developer’s chance to put their best foot forward and show how good their game can be. It’s their olive branch to potential customers. And due to the nature of the internet, they can’t come any farther than halfway. It’s you who have to meet them there, which is the least you can do. It’s like in life, where opportunities must be taken lest they pass you by.
So go my gamers, my colleagues, my friends. They’re out there waiting to meet you. Will you keep them waiting?
#Campuslife 