Posts by James Murff at Big Download Blog

Dwarf Fortress hits version 40c

Posted Sep 2nd 2008 6:00PM by James Murff
Filed under: Indie, RTS, Sandbox, Simulation

Nothing like good ol' Dwarf Fortress, the indie game you can count on to be developed full-time. Thanks in part to Tarn Adams' development log, we can keep up with all the new additions and bugfixes to this incredible games. And since 39f, there's been quite a few. 40c's big addition over 39f is embark stocking profiles, enabling you to build a profile that you can use with each expedition, saving you the hassle of redoing your items and skills every time to restart. There's also a plethora of bugfixes, from fixing display errors to mood lockups. You can check out the full list of changes between versions on Tarn Adams' devlog, and can download the game on Bay 12.

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Independent Minds: A Friendly Competition

Posted Sep 2nd 2008 2:00PM by James Murff
Filed under: Culture, Indie

Independent Minds aims to take various aspects of indie gaming and present them to you each week. From game round-ups to design elements to interviews with prominent members of the scene, it's an exploration of what makes indie gaming great as well as what makes someone an indie.

It's a phenomenon normally only seen in amateur communities, among people that do not have the drudgery of a nine-to-five job in their field. The freelancers and visionaries, the next great creators of the future. From writing, to art, to movie-making, competitions are not so much the realm of professional-level creation but rather for those that can crank out a prototype, an early draft, or a short movie in a single weekend. For these competitions, none seems to be as interesting as those created by the independent game development company.

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Heavy Achievements Round-up

Posted Sep 1st 2008 4:00PM by James Murff
Filed under: Expansions, FPS, Multiplayer, Meta BD, Team Fortress 2

Comrade! It is good to see you. I see you have completed the gauntlet our wise commanders have given you. Da, I know. It was hard. But it was all for glorious Mother Russia! You may not have completed all of the tasks given to you, but our masters were generous. After 10 tasks, they gave you a delicious Sandvich. After 15 tasks, a glorious new minigun to mow down the dirty American Scouts. And at 22 tasks complete, you were given the K.G.B., a killing machine named after our most important government service. If you must still peruse the guide, though, it is divided into 5 parts, labeled, in the Russian tradition, plain and intelligently. Part one, two, three, four, and five are all freely available to you, and we wish you happy hunting. For Mother Russia!

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Freeware Friday: Survival Crisis Z

Posted Aug 29th 2008 1:00PM by James Murff
Filed under: Features, Action, RPG, Sandbox

Welcome to Freeware Friday, a weekly column showcasing excellent games that you can play free of charge!

The sandbox genre hasn't always been populated by games with delusions of complex storytelling. Back before Grand Theft Auto 3, most sandbox games were almost arcade-like, with more of a focus on doing what you want and being rewarded regardless of what you did. The original Grand Theft Autos had a score that doubled as cash, allowing you to complete a mission entirely by killing pedestrians and hijacking cars, if you really wanted to. This week's Freeware Friday game is similar to this mentality. However, it offers much more in the realm of replayability, thanks to its procedurally generated environments and missions. I am talking about a game I previously featured in a news post, the incredible Survival Crisis Z.

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Guide to TF2 Heavy Achievements, Part 5

Posted Aug 29th 2008 12:00PM by James Murff
Filed under: Expansions, Features, FPS, Multiplayer, Team Fortress 2

Da, Comrade? Vat can we help you with? Oh, you haf your new orders? Glorious! Praise to Mother Russia in all her visdom! We heard you will be gettink new weapons to assist in your fight for one of the Amerikanski corporations. While we do not applaud you working for capitalist dogs, we do not question to visdom of the Motherland. So, in celebration of your new orders and weapons, we will give you this document. It details how to acquire your new armaments. Do not misuse it or distribute it to the enemies of Mother Russia, or we will be forced to inform the KGB of your treasonous actions! You may view parts one, two, three, and four of our guide as well.

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Guide to TF2 Heavy Achievements, Part 4

Posted Aug 28th 2008 12:00PM by James Murff
Filed under: Expansions, Features, FPS, Multiplayer, Team Fortress 2

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Guide to TF2 Heavy Achievements, Part 3

Posted Aug 27th 2008 12:00PM by James Murff
Filed under: Expansions, Features, FPS, Multiplayer, Team Fortress 2

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Independent Minds: Of Critics and Developers

Posted Aug 26th 2008 2:00PM by James Murff
Filed under: Features, Opinion

Welcome to a new weekly column here on Big Download! Independent Minds aims to take various aspects of indie gaming and present them to you each week. From game round-ups to design elements to interviews with prominent members of the scene, it's an exploration of what makes indie gaming great as well as what makes someone an indie. The very first topic of conversation is something that, given the failure of Eternity's Child and the success of Braid, has been on a lot of minds: criticism. How do you respond to people tearing apart your most beloved works?

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Guide to TF2 Heavy Achievements, Part 2

Posted Aug 26th 2008 1:00PM by James Murff
Filed under: Expansions, Features, FPS, Multiplayer, Team Fortress 2

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TIGJam is ready to go!

Posted Aug 25th 2008 6:00PM by James Murff
Filed under: Culture, Indie

For those folks looking for an excuse to make games with the best of them, here's your chance! TIGSource and Flashbang Studios (the guys behind the incredibly fun Raptor Safari) have teamed up for a fusion of indie development and community down in Phoenix, Arizona. Dubbed the TIGJam, it's a game jam for you to work on your latest game in development, either alone or with someone else. With food, drink, and one of the best communities around, it's going to be a huge blast for all involved! Sleep is entirely optional.

Guide to TF2 Heavy Achievements, Part 1

Posted Aug 25th 2008 1:00PM by James Murff
Filed under: Expansions, Features, FPS, Multiplayer, Team Fortress 2

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New Cave Story mod available

Posted Aug 22nd 2008 8:00PM by James Murff
Filed under: Action, Indie

We here at Big Download obviously love Cave Story. A lot. It is then, with great pleasure, that we found out about a Cave Story hack being offered called Hack9. It's in Japanese, but you can figure out the game itself pretty easily. The only downside is unless you are fluent in Japanese, you'll have no clue about the story. It plays almost exactly like Cave Story but with a significantly darker tone. You are killing soldiers and destroying tanks and helicopters, lending it a much more military flair. All in all, if you're looking for a fun platformer, it's definitely worth a try, even if you can't understand it.

[Via IndieGames]

Browser multiplayer action in Solar Chiefs

Posted Aug 22nd 2008 7:00PM by James Murff
Filed under: Browser, Multiplayer, Strategy

Sometimes you just have to match your wits against a human opponent. They are so unpredictable and capricious that matching yourself against one is much more difficult than taking on a computer player. Solar Chiefs is very much along these lines. A multiplayer browser game, you must control the firing arcs and movement path of a floating space island. The only thing is that there are other human players doing the exact same thing. With an easy-to-learn interface, the aforementioned multiplayer focus, and some very fun gameplay, it's a great browser game to waste some time on.

Fight in the Epic War

Posted Aug 22nd 2008 5:00PM by James Murff
Filed under: Browser, Indie, Strategy

For those that must get their high fantasy strategy fix, there's Battle for Middle-earth. For those that can't play that, either because of system requirements, setting, or they just plain don't like it, there's another option. Epic War is a new browser strategy game. It's more of an arcade strategy game, not a traditional one, and that's fine by us. Send out your units, upgrade them, use spells, and wield a gigantic crossbow try and take down the Dark Lord's tower. Simple but fun strategy stuff. Winning is very much dependent on using all of these in conjunction.

Freeware Friday: Nethack

Posted Aug 22nd 2008 1:00PM by James Murff
Filed under: RPG, Simulation

Welcome to Freeware Friday, a weekly column showcasing excellent games that you can play free of charge!

Following in the theme of last week's Battle for Wesnoth, this week I have another game which can be considered an absolute must-play. It's the spiritual successor to the classic Hack and Rogue, and it's one of the deepest, most engaging RPGs of all time. Best of all, it can be played anywhere as long as the computer you are on has a telnet connection. The game in question in Nethack, and if you haven't played it, you are depriving yourself of one of the best experiences in gamings.

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