Features
Silicon Sasquatch: Year one complete!
Dec 21st
Our seasonal/anniversary gift to you: a very tacky card.
It hardly feels like a year has passed since Nick and I made the audacious decision to produce our very own videogame blog. The seedling concept that would eventually become Silicon Sasquatch gestated for a long time over many nights of World of Warcraft (and post-college pity parties), to no immediate avail. But in December of last year we finally put our talents to the test, and gave it go. So here we are now: I’m extremely happy to report that the past year has been quite successful for our corner of the Internet.
Sasquatch PSA: Torchlight 50% off! (PC)
Dec 18th
The headline says it all, friends. Steam is running one of its beloved Weekend Deals on Torchlight, a game we at Silicon Sasquatch hold very dear to our hearts — even though we’ve only played the demo (a lot). But now everyone can have the clever action RPG from Runic Games for just $9.99 (normally $19.99) until Monday! It’s a steal, so go grab it right now. Don’t have Steam? Get it. Don’t have a PC? Buy one — or at least put Windows on your Mac. Linux…sorry?
And did I mention that you can have a dog or cat companion cart your loot back to town for you? I’ll let Penny Arcade explain.
Read after the break for more details.
Sasquatch PSA: Ch-ch-changes
Dec 1st
Maybe we’re ready to kick this website into overdrive, or we’re simply tricking ourselves into doing more work than ever before. Either way, astute readers will notice some changes around our corner of the Internet.
Most obvious is our change in a layout theme. As much as we enjoyed the old look and its simplicity, I think we can all agree that too much white space only quickens corneal cancer — a problem our new theme certainly doesn’t have. I’m no doctor though, so please don’t quote me on that. Our pretend lawyer would be upset I insinuated anything we do might have caused cancer.
In the next few weeks our design team (consisting of Nick and I) will be working together to introduce a much-needed banner image for the top of the site, and what can only be called a “sweet” background pattern. We’ll also work on developing a trademark color scheme to differentiate us from the millions of other gaming blogs out there. So while that’s going on, I sincerely apologize for any hiccups and delays this process will likely cause. Look for larger article images, too.
I also need to mention our latest page, which we’ve named “Squatchcast.” It might not be obvious from the word we made up, but this is where we’ll compile our podcasts. Please enjoy them, and marvel at my potentially trademark-infringing header image.
Lastly, thank you for all of your support and patience. We’re almost upon our first anniversary of this blogging venture, and we have a lot more ground to cover to be exactly where we want. We thank you for sticking with us this far, and into the uncertain future.
Check back over the next couple weeks for our latest podcast, reviews of Modern Warfare 2 and Beatles: Rock Band, and don’t miss Doug’s freshly minted review of Forza 3!
Demo Impressions: Brütal Legend
Sep 23rd
Tim Schafer (left) watches as Jack Black does something with a ridiculous expression on his face. Jack Black is a funny man.
What’s in a name? In the case of Brütal Legend, a whole hell of a lot.
- Jack Black stars as Eddie Riggs, the world’s best roadie who’s transported to a dimension of awesome metal-inspired brutality.
- Rob Halford, Lita Ford, Lemmy Kilmister, Ozzy Osbourne and…Tim Curry all have been tapped to lend their voice talents to the game. From what’s been shown so far, each looks to be perfectly at home in his or her element.
- Tim Schafer is the game’s creator; his previous credits include Full Throttle, Monkey Island, Grim Fandango and Psychonauts.
Schafer’s games all have an expected pedigree of quality when it comes to establishing setting, story and characters — in that regard, Brütal Legend won’t disappoint. But what about the game’s design? How well is it implemented?
After romping through the demo four times, there’s little doubt that the game itself does an admirable job of wrapping all this larger-than-life, metal-soaked goodness into a tasty little love burrito.
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: The 10th Anniversary of Final Fantasy VIII
Sep 9th
Editor’s Note: In recognition of the tenth anniversary of one of the most controversial — and possibly misunderstood — entries in one of the most significant video game series in history, Silicon Sasquatch will spend the next month examining Final Fantasy VIII and its legacy. Frequent podcast guest Tyler Martin starts us off with a foreword:
How do you produce a follow-up to the biggest RPG of the 20th century? Square had barely any time to answer this question. Development on the seventh sequel to a series that wasn’t expected to outlast its initial outing began shortly after the American localization of Final Fantasy VII, a game that radically altered the perception of the franchise as well as the entire genre.
Read the rest of this entry »
SquatchCast: Now on iTunes!
Jul 28th
We’re pleased to announce that the Silicon Sasquatch podcast (irksomely referred to around these parts as the SquatchCast) is now available for your downloading and subscribing pleasure through the iTunes Music Store. For a one-time price of nothing, every podcast we produce will download straight to your computer and mp3 player of choice.
In other podcast news: We’re set to record episode 2 tonight, and with any luck it’ll be posted sometime on Wednesday.
Please give it a listen and let us know what you think. We’d love to hear from some of you; for all we know, nobody else besides us ever reads the site, so even just a “hello” would work wonders for our self-esteem.
We haven’t forgotten you
Jul 13th
Dear Readers,
I want to apologize. It’s been weeks since we’ve written anything, and you’re probably in the dark as to why.
Well, the short version is we’re all in pretty time-consuming situations of our own:
- Doug just started graduate school,
- Nick’s working full-time and trying his hardest to get into the gaming industry,
- and Aaron’s on the cusp of moving to Portland to begin his job search anew
Those are the excuses we’ve got, anyway. And while they really do account for a significant part of the site’s stagnation, there’s more to it than that.
We’ve lost sight of our purpose in blogging here. We set out to do something different from every other gaming blog we knew and loved (or acknowledged and hated, occasionally) and instead we ended up resorting to the same routine — churning out lengthy, comprehensive (and sometimes terribly boring) reviews of games and almost-daily news regurgitations that fell short of the high standards of informed opinion, polish and sharp analysis we’d hoped to deliver. Basically, we were overwhelmed by the workload and the mundane nature of the process, and we knew we needed to evolve the site or we’d all burn out.
So we’ve been taking a little time to do our own things, and I’ve been thinking about how to reboot the whole thing.
We’re not there quite yet, but I hope that if you’ve stuck with us this far, you’re not about to give up yet.
In the meantime, please subscribe to our RSS feed so you’ll be informed the second we get our act together.
And one last thing: We really want to know what you think of the work we’ve done so far. Anything you love or hate, things you’d like to see more or less of, suggestions, anything — please drop us a line. You can comment on this post, send us a direct message on Twitter, or email any of us — our addresses are just our first name at siliconsasquatch dot com.
Thanks again! We hope to be back and doing what we love to do soon.
Cheers,
Nick
The Beginner’s Guide to Sports Games
Jun 23rd
The Penny Arcade Expo, the show by and for hardcore gamers, loves games of all kinds…except sports games. The "hardcore" seem to shy away from licensed sports sims, but should they reconsider? Photo by Doug Bonham
Sports games: They come out yearly, they’re some of the top selling video games on a yearly basis (the Madden NFL and FIFA soccer series each sold more than five million copies worldwide last year), yet they’re almost entirely shunned by most “hardcore” gamers. As somebody who has gone to the Penny Arcade Expo three times, I can tell you with certainty that you’re far more likely to find an obscure Japanese fighting game or pen-and-paper RPG than a copy of Madden.
Which is a bit of a shame, because from a pure gaming experience standpoint, non-sports gamers may well stand to gain a bit from trying out one of the many sports games out on the market today. Besides being one of the last bastions of single-console multiplayer out there, sports games – much like fighting games – allow for creativity in how you manage to play a game. While the great stereotype is that nerds and jocks don’t get along, truthfully it doesn’t matter when it comes to playing games — you don’t need to be athletically gifted behind the joystick.
Rooted in desires shown by my Silicon Sasquatch comrades to give these games a try, here’s an introductory guide to unlocking the joy to be found playing sports games.
Daily Recap: June 16, 2009
Jun 17th
News for Tuesday: The UK acquires a unified games rating system — seems pleased, and Microsoft already shoots back at 1UP’s Natal rumors.
They're certainly colorful, aren't they?
After a bit of governmental deliberation the United Kingdom has chosen to make PEGI (Pan European Game Information) ratings the sole standard for labeling the content of videogames. The decision came about as part of the Digital Britain report, an inquiry begun last October by Stephen Carter, the country’s first Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting, to primarily help modernize Britain’s telecommunications capabilities. PEGI’s ratings will be enacted with help from the independent Video Standards Council (think of it as the British version of the Entertainment Consumers Assocation…kinda).
In light of Tuesday’s announcement, PEGI has unveiled its new color-coded classification icons for UK game releases, as seen above. The freshly minted labels keep the same age ranges as the previous ones, but ditch the black-and-white, Electronic Software Ratings Board-like design.
Previous to Tuesday’s ruling, PEGI ratings were used in conjunction with the British Board of Film Classification’s (BBFC) system of certificate labeling (e.g., Universal, 12 and 18 among others), resulting in a somewhat confusing dual game rating — especially for mature titles. Now that PEGI has control of classifying videogames released in the UK, the hope is to create a clearer and more easily managed system which provides parents and families with easy-to-understand ratings.
If anything, let’s hope for the sakes of our British friends that the decision prevents any more game bans from happening in the future. Read the rest of this entry »
Daily Recap: June 15, 2009
Jun 15th
Somewhat ironically, Animal House was filmed at the U of O…but you all likely know that by now
First of all: Congratulations recent college graduates. Welcome to a world full of (seemingly unavailable) opportunities!
I’m sorry, that was harsh.
Still, the University of Oregon’s ceremony for the geography and anthropology departments had a wonderfully apocalyptic keynote speaker telling everyone the skills they earned during four years of tuition-giving are for jobs not yet created, and that there are no guarantees of gainful employment right now — but good luck anyway! I laughed for my graduating friend.
As far as Silicon Sasquatch goes we’re back on track this week with our lovely Daily Recaps, and we’ll actually get around to posting additional content over the next few days.
Doug’s preparing a wonderful beginner’s guide to sports games, which is something I’ve always wanted to read considering my inability to get into the genre. I’ll be working on a review for Saints Row 2 and I can’t say enough good things about it from the in-depth customization to the spraying of public property with fecal matter.
Also, look for our impressions of the recently released Overlord II demo; as far as I can tell, controlling a horde of gremlin-sounding demons with a penchant for clubbing baby seals results in guilt-laden hilarity.
Monday’s news = 1UP posts some hefty Project Natal rumors, Verizon steps onto GameTap’s turf and Shigeru Miyamoto really wants to help you win at gaming. Read the rest of this entry »