Spelunky

Picked up this game thanks to an impassioned write-up at Rock, Paper, Shotgun, that pack of Brits tend to have sharp eyes and good taste when it comes to indie stuff. It's a roguelike mixed with a platformer and the results are fantastic. If there were a prize for games like this it would be "Outstanding Achievement In Getting Me To Play Just One More Game Even Though I Really Need To Get Some Work Done." I'd pepper this with explanatory text but the game is free to download so just go try it. I've also decided on an official scoring policy for these kinds of games.

If you're not going to charge people for your game, I'm not going to belittle you with a score.

In other news, blar blar blar studying blar blar. Ben Abraham's comment on the dream thing has reminded me of a problem that has been gnawing at me for a while now: I haven't got any proof. That's not to say that I think I'm wrong, but rather acknowledge that generally speaking I'm willing to believe a lot of really weird metaphysical stuff that most people aren't. I'll have to think of a new approach for the ending that quits worrying about being the answer and tries to explain the question a bit better.

And finally, methinks I owe CLINT HOCKING and the folks at Ubisoft a beer. When I posted that FC2 post I figured I'd get some arguing about the ending (check) and then it'd slip away since the game had such a mixed cultural reaction. Looking at the wall stats though and I think it's safe to say it's the most viewed thing I've ever written for Popmatters. Which is both awesome (it's a damn good game) and depressing, because it just confirms that I have no idea which thing I write is going to be popular.

Like trying to get a particular color of gum ball out of a quarter machine.