we rule from plus+

first i want to say that it’s radian’s fault that i’m hooked on this now. I wasn’t sure if this post should be an iPhone app review or if it should be a ‘favorite (or just new) time suck’ (see last one here). it’s a little of both.

we rule is a pretty cool little game created by plus+, that is basically a virtual kingdom that you build and manage. think of it as simpler sims for the iPhone. it’s pretty easy; you have land, a castle and some gold to begin with and you just start building. you add farms to grow and sell veggies for gold coins. you build houses so you can tax the residents that move in. you add shops, schools, mining camps  - that all make you money in the end - and decorate your land with trees, fences, banners and other medieval accoutrements.

my kingdom on we rule. don't let my handle fool you.

the funny thing about this game - and the one that draws you back - is that it takes time for things to happen. if you plant carrots it takes 24 hours for them to grow in order for you to sell them. strawberries take 12 hours. it takes 12 hours to mine gems and a few hours to produce clothes at the tailor’s. i find myself logging in just to collect taxes from my lowly peasants (work harder you bums, i need a bigger castle!) and to make sure that my crops don’t wither and die before i can sell them.

as all games on the iphone, i showed this to my daughter and she loves to play it although the time factor doesn’t give her quite the instant gratification. plus, she doesn’t actually have the phone in her hands when she needs to maintain the land. she was, by the way, the one who chose the user name when we registered for the game together.

radian's kingdom. all nice and orderly

we rule has a nice little interface and there’s also a social networking aspect that allows you to ‘hire’ your friends (or soon to be new virtual friends). new friends show up on the map and you can visit their kingdoms and see how they have them set up. radian has a wizard in his and i want one too, dammit. overall i’d give this game 3.5 stars out of 5. so come on, you know you want to join and be my medieval friend in our virtual serfdoms.

Videogames have been around for over 30 years and its popularity has been steadily growing.  Most old-school gamers are in their early to mid 30’s and with the daily grind of life, stress, work and busy schedules, art in games has been evolving into a more tranquil and relaxation medium. People play games to escape from daily stress and as a means of entertainment, just like our favorite movies.  Not surprisingly, video games within the past  10 years have had a maturing audience  that crave a relaxed entertaining experience as opposed to blood and gore infused violence.

True, video games have grown in violence - with advancements in graphical technology, blood never looked so real; BUT they have also grown artistically as well. These graphic engines have plenty more to show off.

Here are some video games (in no particular order) that show off some of the artistic imaginations, original concepts with great execution both visually, musically and story telling from the design teams:

Cloud (pc): made by a indie game company. Inspiration for this game came from dreams, clouds, flying above land and as well as exploration. You collect white clouds to rid the skies of pollutants and rain from the muggy dark clouds.

Ico (ps2): one of the 1st games to take a chance towards artistic greatness. You play a young boy that has been banished in a castle for having horns. You then find a girl trapped in a cage at the tip of the castle. The premise is simple, try to escape the castle while escorting the young girl through the puzzles of the enormous castle.  On the way you must climb walls, pull levers and make ‘waypoints’ for the girl to follow; leave the young girl too far behind and the shadows come out and try to take her away which you then need to fend off.  You can call to her and she follows; holding her hand you guide her through the castle.

Flower (ps3): in this recent ps3 game you play as wind. Yes, wind. Collecting flower pedals while you sore through the games magnificent landscape. There are no button pushing just tilting of the controller simulating movement and speed. You explore nights and days with weather effects. Each blade of grass is individually rendered as you literately fly like the wind. The goal to enrich and bring life back to the land that has been corrupt by factories and plants, by collecting as many flower pedals through the levels landscape.

Braid (xbox360): puzzles that use time travel and manipulating the world around you (by slowing, rewinding, fast forwarding and freezing time) to get further. All in a poetic story with a great classical music score that changes with the speed of time.

Shadow of the Colossus (ps2): You play a young boy on a horse, traveling great landscapes in search of enormous skyscraper size giants. You find these giants by holding a sword up and following the light trail to the giant’s place of habitat.  Once you find one of the many giants you then must climb on to its ankles and climb up to its head in search of its weak spot. You are only equipped with bow and arrow and a sword alongside with your trusty horse. Your objective, destroy the giants to release a spell to awaken a deceased girl.  Giants vary from underwater serpents to flying dragons, and are always a spectacle to see.

Rez (ps2, xbox360): Visually this looks like Tron , speeding through glowing wireframes of colors. You (a digital lifeform that evolves to human spirit) are flying through a computers mainframe fighting off viruses that look like digitized organisms with highly creative boss battles. The music relies on your actions which is in sync with every ‘virus’ you shoot and adds to the musical scores great electronic/tech beat. Trippy indeed.

Welcome to the new digital paintbrush.