So if you're familiar with Steam, the online games distribution service, you probably know what Garry's Mod (GMod) is. It's a game that uses assets from most Source engine games, such as Counter Strike Source and Half Life 2, to allow you to essentially mess around and create maps, vehicles, more assets and even gamemodes. Sounds pretty dumb/cool right? Well i've put almost 80 hours in over the last few years and that's nothing compared to most GMod players.
GMod is constantly adapting and changing with new user-created assets and gamemodes. Even the base game, in which you use other Source game's assets to create things such as vehicles or just fun mini-games, has kept people entertained for waaaay too many hours. The highest amount of total time i've seen one person have in the game is 18,000 hours.
GMod is pretty unique in that regard. Not many games can boast the amount of content that it has, which is clearly backed up by how much time people spend in the game. Combined with the fact that the game's creator, Garry Newman, continuously updates the game with upgraded features (such as the semi-recent Steam Workshop integration), I feel like the question needs to be asked; Is Garry's Mod an immortal game? Will it last forever, being constantly updated, or will the creator eventually have to make a sequel to accommodate for newer versions of the Source engine?
Personally I'd say the game still has a lot of life in it! Perhaps not 'immortal' but it could easily last another 4 or 5 years. I think it's inevitable that the game will either stop being updated, or receive a sequel for newer engines, but until then Garry and his small team will continue to update alongside the heaps of fan-created content such as the 'Deathrun' and 'Trouble In Terrorist Town' gamemodes that have become increasingly popular over the last few years. I for one, will be along for the ride, but what do you guys think? Drop me a tweet over on my twitter or leave a comment on this post!
Saturday, 15 March 2014
Monday, 3 March 2014
Twitch Plays Pokémon - The First Adventure Afterthoughts
Twitch Plays Pokémon (TPP) is a social experiment/livestream in which the audience participate by entering commands into the chat. I use the term 'social experiment' loosely, considering it's mostly just 90,000 fellow nerds furiously typing commands at the same time as each other, debating the course of action and creating a hugely enjoyable community. The stream's host is running a script that picks up commands from the chat and inputs them into the game (a ROM of Pokémon Red), allowing the audience to control Red, the game's protagonist. Brilliant in theory, hectic in reality and fun regardless of this.
It can't be denied that TPP is great fun to follow. From the early moments of our adventure as we trained ABBY the Charmander, the rise of 'Bird Jesus' the Pidgeot, the evolution and eventual release of 'The False Prophet' Flareon, the slow progression from gym to gym, to the final moments when AA-Jay the Zapdos landed that killing blow on Blastoise. And of course, who could forget about the omniscient, omnipotent Lord Helix and our entire day spent stuck in the Team Rocket hideout?
As people who were there in the first adventure's final moments say, "You always remember where you were when Blastoise fell". The finale was truly epic; many members of the 80,000+ audience admitted to crying tears of joy at the game's completion. Me, being the cold hearted Onix that I am, even let out a tear or two. I couldn't help it, we'd come so far and I'd grown so attached to our team. To see us win that final match and land that killing blow after 16 days felt like we'd accomplished something far greater.
As I type we're almost a day into Adventure 2. This time it's the world of Pokémon Crystal, with our custom-named trainer 'AJDNNW', or AJ for short. Will this adventure be as epic as our first, or will it suffer from the classic "Never-As-Good-As-The-First-Time" trope? (that was a mouthful!). Join the rest of us and find out! You can check out the last adventure's team and progress in this Bulbapedia page, alongside information on our current progress. Hope to see you guys in the stream!
Honourable mention to 'AATTVVV', (All-Terrain Venomoth) for being the ultimate Dragon Slayer AND coincidentally my favourite member of Red's team. YOU'S MY HOMIE ATV!
It can't be denied that TPP is great fun to follow. From the early moments of our adventure as we trained ABBY the Charmander, the rise of 'Bird Jesus' the Pidgeot, the evolution and eventual release of 'The False Prophet' Flareon, the slow progression from gym to gym, to the final moments when AA-Jay the Zapdos landed that killing blow on Blastoise. And of course, who could forget about the omniscient, omnipotent Lord Helix and our entire day spent stuck in the Team Rocket hideout?
As people who were there in the first adventure's final moments say, "You always remember where you were when Blastoise fell". The finale was truly epic; many members of the 80,000+ audience admitted to crying tears of joy at the game's completion. Me, being the cold hearted Onix that I am, even let out a tear or two. I couldn't help it, we'd come so far and I'd grown so attached to our team. To see us win that final match and land that killing blow after 16 days felt like we'd accomplished something far greater.
As I type we're almost a day into Adventure 2. This time it's the world of Pokémon Crystal, with our custom-named trainer 'AJDNNW', or AJ for short. Will this adventure be as epic as our first, or will it suffer from the classic "Never-As-Good-As-The-First-Time" trope? (that was a mouthful!). Join the rest of us and find out! You can check out the last adventure's team and progress in this Bulbapedia page, alongside information on our current progress. Hope to see you guys in the stream!
Honourable mention to 'AATTVVV', (All-Terrain Venomoth) for being the ultimate Dragon Slayer AND coincidentally my favourite member of Red's team. YOU'S MY HOMIE ATV!
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