NP Secrets

Art Courtesy of Lukpazera           Roadside Picnic is about a lot of things. A setting so well developed that the jumble of unexplained jargon that pours out of it washes over you without question. Bug traps, grinders, empties, shriekers, spacells, lobster eyes, and rattling napkins. Zones or Hotspots left by extra-dimensional visitors speckle the earth and each develops in its own way. In Harmont, Canada a bustling town rings the Zone. Crowding the borders rife with brothels and smugglers - fat off the profits of super powered batteries, perpetual motion machines, and the promises of greater treasure still.            But there is a reason the Zone doesn't get a plushy name. It is a death trap.It features such delights as hellslime in the basement ready to rip out your bones, strange beasts risen from the grave, and phenomenon that move with minds of their own. For instance, Graviconcentrates (or Bug Traps for the layman)   are   pockets of extreme gravity that will crush a

          Stress is packaged into an extraordinary amount of media. Horror, Thrillers, Drama. Even The Office or Spiderman has its share of controlled terror. Of gut wrenches and headaches. Science argues over inherently good or bad lev els of stress (eustress or distress) and others say it's quality not quantity that makes stress good. Improves your hypothalamus they say. Tougher reactions to the next stressor, adaptability, increased learning capacity are all on the table. Furthermore the only working theory behind nightmares is Threat Simulation Theory. The idea that dreams exist as preparation for the worst case while keeping you in a safe environment. Welco me to nightmares in video game form. When the Going Gets Tough Gods Will Be Watching throws you headfirst into a tail of espionage, cyberpunk morals, nihilism, and the fate of the universe. It s tarts with a hostage situation. You are the villain. Of course the story is more complex than that but as y

          Gruff dwarves, majestic spelunking, and corporate overlords come together with a singular goal in mind - crafting an awesome atmosphere.           A spacefaring dwarven empire worships the almighty profits while your boss, who reminds me of Colonel Cambell, calmly sacrifices you for the sake of the shareholders. A corrugated spaceship, devoid of any soft corners, blasts massive drop pods into a hostile planet. And we haven’t even started playing the game yet.           In Deep Rock Galactic you navigate mazes of cramped attrition as your team of miners bombard and shoot their way through minerals and beasties alike. It features light rpg elements and deadly swarms of countless bugs coming for your family jewels. Even seemingly easy missions descend into Cals-very-bad Caverns as you progress. You’re running out of ammo, you’re running out of life, and most importantly - you’re running out of light. The dynamic lighting is reason alone to buy this game. Just to watch a

          Shigeru Miyamoto is known for many things - loving Popeye, making a hobby out of measuring things, and, of course, being Bowser Jr’s mother. But what we don’t talk about is how he saved a little robot and his annoying floating television from eternal development hell.           In 2003 skip Ltd. was developing a point and click adventure with a tiny robot taking orders from the player. You would fix appliances and collect gear in order to defend your home from two burglars in a strange parallel to Home Alone. An ambitious attempt to make Chibi-robo evolve and learn how to interpret orders left me with the feeling of an early Nintendog. He would start to anticipate orders for a careful player while an indecisive master would result in a Chibi-robo acting out of turn. A neat idea but little substance.           The game proceeded to get stuck here until Nintendo heavyweight Kensuke Tanabe brought it to the attention of Miyamoto. The plucky hero caught Miyamoto’s eye and

          A dim basement somewhere with shag carpeting. Staying up late for the third night in a row with no chance of stopping. Playing till your thumbs twitch, anticipating moves you haven't thought of yet. Words fail to capture the love I have for game nights as a kid. Memories of spilled sodas and playing till the mythical hour of 2am; of arguing strategies and dodging controllers thrown by sore losers. I hope you have at least one of these memories to draw upon. For me Towerfall is the freshest entry in a dusty drawer marked FUN.           As I played Towerfall for the first time I felt nostalgia. And I hated it. Not hate for the game, but hate that nostalgia is the best word for an experience I crave daily. Towerfall is a game made with distilled retro love and childlike glee. To understand it you have to go to the beginning. It takes a Village             We start with Matt Thorson, Canadian, playing classics like Legend of Zelda and Bushido Blade blade for the fir