Review: Risk of Rain - Forecast: Shitstorm

This holiday season I constructed myself a $1100 computer so that I could finally have a high-powered gaming rig all my own.  Something that would run the shit out of games like Assassin's Creed IV or Splinter Cell and still have memory left over.

Since then I have logged approximately 17 hours in Risk of Rain and 44 in Starbound (will get to that later).  Yes, I have been playing pixelated indie roguelikes on a computer where the highest of graphics settings isn't high enough.  This might not say much for me and my PC gaming needs, but what I find is that it really doesn't say much for the triple-A gaming industry at all.  All of my needs have been met by two games whose combined prices don't even approach a shiny new $60 investment from some money-grubbing CEO's farm of development drones, and who's graphical style is still locked in a time vault from the 1990's with the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis.

Zero Tolerance Games is on YouTube!

This is kind of like a content update, only instead of typing words at your face, I've uploaded a YouTube video. Here's the first 10 minutes of me desperately trying not to get killed on the last level of Risk of Rain for the PC.

-Latency

A Brief Update

It's been a while since I posted, so I figure that it's time for an update.

We're currently in the busy season at my day job, so my hours have doubled there, leaving me with an excess of funds, and a huge need for free time. Instead of spending it making content for the site, or even gaming(for the most part), I've been working on the new site.

There's a lot of features I've been trying to get integrated before we go live on the new page, including a feed from our yet-to-be setup YouTube page, podcast delivery(including an RSS feed so you can subscribe through iTunes, WinAmp, or the program of your choosing), and a forum.

Esports - A Spectator's Guide

Happy New Year everybody! As we all know, with a new year comes a lot of new things. New games to play on our new consoles, new content, new resolutions that we'll quickly give up on halfway through February.  We'll even have a new site up here at Zero Tolerance.  But all that comes second to my favorite part: new esports seasons.

That's right, 2014 is bringing us new seasons of StarCraft II WCS, League of Legends LCS (if you're into that kind of thing), a new Dota 2 "The International", and a new Evo 2k championship series.  Whether you're into shooters, strategy, or fighting games, a new year resets the ladder and puts everyone back down at ground level to see who'll come out on top this year.

Review: Gone Home and The Stanley Parable - Indie Game Double-Header

I've found myself playing a lot more indie games recently. I'd hazard a guess that this is probably because most indie publishers place a higher value than Triple-A publishers do on things that FUCKING WORK AT LAUNCH.

So in the past weekend I worked my way through both The Stanley Parable and Gone Home, two excellent PC titles that have given me hope for the future of gaming.  The reason I'm reviewing them together is two-fold: 1) Their gameplay and mechanics are actually quite similar, despite them both having extremely different atmosphere, style and narrative, 2) since these will be spoiler-free reviews and both games are very story-intensive, they'd each be about half a post by themselves - hence the doubling-up.

We're Pulling a Capcom - What that Means, and Why

Things have been... well, stressful. After some behind the scenes talks, it has been decided that we're badly in need of a restructuring. An HD re-release or a disc-based update, if you will.

Accessibility - The Grand Cop-Out

Tonight's post is sponsored by Jagermeister, not because they're paying me, but because I needed to get faded enough to set free my actual anger on this subject.

These days, games are praised for being "accessible", which really just means "really fucking easy". It's an awful thing, and it is the biggest chink in the armor of the otherwise impenetrable games industry.  With developers chasing the next Call of Duty in terms of sales, and publishers chasing the next Angry Birds in terms of install base, games are getting easier and easier.