Steam of Consciousness: A year in review

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it looks like the year is coming to a close, and what an interesting year it has been! For one thing- this is the year that I started this very blog and I’ve really enjoyed the response I’ve got from all of you lovely readers. In what started out as a project for my Writing Across the Media class, this blog has turned into a functioning forum for video game discussion. Whether it’s receiving feedback from readers like you or the peers that I talk to about content on this blog, I’ve found that my quest to introduce gamers to new and interesting games has not gone in vain. I’ll continue to keep spreading the word about interesting Steam games as long as the interest is there- and with 2014 promising Steam O.S. and the Steam Box, there will certainly be something to talk about here on this blog.

The Mighty Steam Box- Behold!

Looking back at this year- we’ve seen some interesting games on this blog: remember that time I talked about “The Stanley Parable”? That was arguably one of my favorite indie titles of the year! And do you remember my first review? I certainly do. It was of Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs- it certainly wasn’t as scary as it’s predecessor, but damn did it have some hauntingly good music. There was a lot to celebrate this year- and on this blog I celebrated my favorite local co-op games like Spelunky and Castle Crashers. It’s been an interesting year and I hope to cover even more titles in 2014.

This has been a great year for Steam, too- it’s the first time they surpassed more users than Xbox Live which is a MASSIVE achievement. They also announced the steambox- which is being used to compete with the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One in the console wars. It’ll certainly be interesting to see how it pans out. Added to Steam this year was the ability for developers to release Early Access Games- games that aren’t quite finished, but are still playable. This move increases the amount of feedback developers can get on an unfinished product and help make it the best game it can be (the same cannot be said for microsoft and their relationship with its indie developers). I think it’s only appropriate to give a rousing round of applause to Valve for its work on Steam this year. Claps for you, Steam!

As we head for a new year full of changes- I guess it would only be appropriate to make some resolutions for this blog. But first, I need to know what I should change- if anyone out there has any idea as to what should happen with the blog in 2014, send your ideas my way in the comments section. As always- this steam machine is always chugging.
So Happy Holidays from the Steam of Consciousness, I’m Jacob Garr and I’ll be seeing you in 2014.

Review of The Stanley Parable / Do I Even Have A Choice?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBtX0S2J32Y

Sometimes I find myself playing a game: a game where I feel like I’m being quickly pushed along its narrative like a museum tour-guide might rush her last tour-group before a lunch-break, a game where I am presented with the illusion of choice such as ‘will you eat the apple? -Yes or -No’ and it turns out that the choice doesn’t really matter, or a game where I feel like a lab-rat in someone’s maze because every element of the game makes me feel like a slave to the environment with its invisible walls and ‘go here/don’t go there’ demeanor- These gaming elements ARE the spirit of The Stanley Parable, a Steam game by the Galactic Cafe for $14.99 USD on PC. The Stanley parable is a game about video-games: it is satirical and it is intelligent- it presents the gamer with an interactive piece of ‘Epic Theatre’ by removing the gamer from the game and taking a look at the elements that make video games what they are and delves into an interesting look at the illusion of choice. Instead of shoving a boring lecture down your throat about what makes a lot of games samey and tiresome, The Stanley Parable has you step into the shoes of an office employee named Stanley and get involved in a humorous partnership with the narrator who tells you that he wants you to follow a particular path.

“Stanley went through the door on the left”

The game’s first choice presented to the player is a set of two doors and the narrator claims that ‘you go through the door on the left’- you can either listen to him or decide not to listen to him- either way, you will end up somewhere completely different based on your choices. The game is riddled with choices and ultimately, they all lead to the game starting over and over again. The nature of the game is repetition- but of the many times that the game starts over, things change and some paths open up that maybe weren’t there before. Each choice you make leads to a very different end-game before everything restarts- every ending presents you with an aspect of game design through a humorous event or parable- and these endings are drastically different. One ending has an imminent death brought on by the threat of downward ticking clocks while another leads you to a grassy knoll where the narrator wanted you to go all along. The idea behind these endings are to show the nature of games and gamers- the relationship of the narrative to the audience- and the trade-offs that occur when narrative butts heads with player choice. The Stanley Parable appears to be a game about nothing, but it’s about everything in video-games. The game designers have made something interesting here- a video game that cleverly tears apart game design and shows you the bare bones- it allows for the gamer to sit down and think ‘Am I really just attracted to doing the same things over and over again?’ There may not be a whole lot to the Stanley parable in terms of gameplay because all you do is move around and click on the environment- but the game’s message and it’s active criticism on the nature of video-games is the heart of The Stanley Parable- this is, of course, on top of having fun scenarios, great voice acting from the narrator, and a wonderfully hilarious interplay between the player/Stanley and the Narrator. There’s a lot to this game and it’s worth checking out for yourself- it really discounts the experience if you don’t personally play it- part of what makes this game are the experiences and choices that you respond to and what happens as a result. The game may be somewhat short, but it is a game/narrative-adventure worth experiencing.

Hmm… Decisions, Decisions.

Steam Recommendation: Buy It

+Very Unique Game

+Great Ending(s)

+Hilarious Narration and Scenarios

-A Bit on the Short Side

Mmm! Do you smell that? It’s that wonderful ‘new-blog’ smell. Welcome to my shiny, new blog: Steam of Consciousness.
“What is Steam of Consciousness?” you may be asking… or not. Well I’ll tell you whether you want to know or not: it’s a blog all about this wonderful digital distribution software called “Steam” and the video-games and software that exist on it.

In an age of video-games that cost 60 dollars to play on consoles- it’s becoming hard for the average person to just flat-out throw money at games that may or may not be good. I am in the same boat of people who have a hard time coughing up 60+ dollars for video-games and I almost fell for buying a video game console again- almost. But, as the story goes, the internet pointed me in the direction of the affordable and fun world of P.C. Gaming and the great P.C./Mac/Linux gaming program: Steam. Steam offers a myriad of exciting games from AAA titles like your Grand-Theft-Autos and your Mass-Effects to indie-developed games like Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Spelunky that are available to purchase for more than reasonable prices (especially during the summer and christmas sales!) By the way- if you haven’t heard of Steam before, now is your chance: http://store.steampowered.com

About 3 years and roughly 200 games later, I have found myself hooked into the interesting world of Steam Gaming.
Hello, I’m Jacob Garr and I’m a Steam Gamer– I haven’t quite recovered from this addiction, though, and I don’t intend to.
But don’t think of me as some guy who sits down and plays Steam ALL day- a lot of these games have been impulse buys when major game titles went on sale for mere dollars and have been played for minutes, not hours. That’s the best and worst thing about steam: there’s always something on sale- and leave it to me to get too overzealous and buy damn-near everything they have to offer. I know I’m not the only one either, I see my friends and co-workers with huge Steam libraries, too- so I wondered if there was something I could do to help this growing outbreak of impulse buys for people who aren’t me and help people find games that they will actually want to play in the future. The best solution I had was to take Steam Games I own and post my thoughts on them in this very blog. In doing this, I hope to help narrow the scope for steam gamers so that they can find games that appeal to them instead of buying a bunch of games they may or may not play. Another goal of this blog is to introduce those who have not even heard of Steam or certain video games that they may be interested in to these things. This is a blog by a game enthusiast for game enthusiasts.

Weekly- on Mondays- I will be making posts about various Steam games, both new and old, and what my thoughts are about them. If you are visiting this blog and like video-games, I humbly request that you come back each week and learn something new about a game you may not have heard about or just scan your eyes over the page to look at the pretty pictures (PLEASE DO! I’M DESPERATELY BEGGING YOU TO COME BACK).

I am very excited to be starting this blog and it would be a great accomplishment if I could direct someone to a video-game that they absolutely love by posting about it here. So welcome to Steam of Consciousness… uh, I ran out of things to say here. Quick! Think of an exit strategy- hmmm… Dancing Penguin in top-hat? Dancing penguin in top-hat.

The dancing penguin exit strategy proves a success!