The Posting of the Post about The Binding of Isaac

So this post is about another Indie game called "The Binding of Isaac".
I don't know to what extent a game remains in the "Indie" category, but this one became so successful that you can now find it (and its expansion, "The Wrath of the Lamb") on Steam!
So I mentioned this game recently in my post What? Posts are Evolving! but I thought it was really interesting and awesome (apart from being a horrible concept).

The game sorta jumped out at me because it plays a lot like a dark, gory and emotionally-scarring version of The Legend of Zelda. It was desiged by Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl.

Yes, that's the main image of the game. Pretty much sums up the game as well.

The Binding of Isaac is based on the biblical story of the same name. So the basic storyline of the game (you'll find out the same thing in the intro) is that Isaac is a cute, loving little kid that lives with his mum... "Mom".
His mum seems to be a nice lady. You find out she's also pretty religious. Maybe a little too religious.
She sorta proves this when God speaks to her and tells her that her son, Isaac, is a sinner, is being influenced by the world around him and should be sacrificed in order to prove Mom's love for him (where "him" = God).
Mom... as any loving mother would do... obliges. She locks Isaac away, takes away all his toys and even his clothes and prepares to sacrifice him. Naturally, Isaac manages to escape into the basement (or we wouldn't have a game to play, would we?). But has he really escaped? Maybe going down wasn't the best place to go.

In my opinion, this game is basically an incredibly harsh way of saying that you shouldn't blindly follow your religion. It might be a bit difficult to see that behind all the horrible gameplay. If you have a very open mind and actually play the game, it's pretty addictive and if you're an achievement whore, you'll love this game (especially the "Wrath of the Lamb" expansion).

I thought that this game deserved its own post even though I mentioned it before - Purely because I spent quite a while playing it.

Checked it out? Horrified? It's okay.
You'll feel much more comfortable when you play the game in my next post. :)

What? Posts are evolving!

Congratulations!
Posts evolved into PostsWithUpdates!

So I've written a fair few posts already, but I realise that a few of the things I've always changed have not been mentioned.

WARNING: EXCESSIVE BLABBING ALERT

Starting from now, I'm gonna include current and recent stuff that I was interested in. (see bottom of post)
I figure that'll be at the bottom of my posts from now on?
This might not feature on ALL my posts, but I'll see what happens.
Seems like a plan.

Otherwise, work has been pretty busy recently. (Not today, obviously, or I wouldn't be writing this post.)
Verushka's been really busy recently, hope she's alright. (She's in Richard's Bay at the moment.)
Her dogs have warmed up to me quite nicely recently and I've become quite fond of them.
Verushka and I managed to see Cavie, Sean and Adrian recently. I was happy about that.

My PSP broke a couple weeks ago because I dropped it during a software update :(
Unfortunately, it's bricked so I can't do much with it, but when possible, I'll need a friend's PSP to help me fix mine. I actually initially wanted to update the software because I had a PSP version of Cave Story (see Games section below)

I recently started using an internet browser called Torch. It's a modified version of Chrome, but peaked my interest with some helpful features like ripping media from webpages, a torrent manager, a built-in Internet Accelerator and more.
I know Cavie is sighing in disapproval here, but I haven't thrown away Firefox. In fact, I've felt uncomfortable with little things that I'm used to. Mostly the fact that it renames images to "download" when saving them. That's been bugging me quite a bit since I love saving pictures from Memebase. #FirstWorldProblems #IDontHaveOCD

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"Current and recent" section:

Games:
I'm currently addicted to Plants vs Zombies again and I already finished the Adventure mode. I'm incredibly glad I have a USB mouse to plug in or I'd never be comfortable playing it.

I've played a lot of Indie games recently. Most of them were creepy and/or dark and/or disgusting (forgive me). I'm not gonna warn or explain anything since some of them are very arty or abstract concepts until you realise what's going on. Play them and check for yourself. Some of them can be finished within a minute but will make you think a bit. Some of them will not be fun for you if you're easily offended or squeamish. Then again, half this blog might offend you too. So deal with it.
A few Indie titles I enjoyed recently were:
- Cave Story
- Ib
- The Binding of Isaac
- An Untitled Story (Check out the whole page. There's some cool little games there.)
- Eversion
- Knytt Stories
- Chalk
- Kaipuu
- Jumpman
- The "Karoshi" series
- Tower of Heaven
- Inquisitive Dave
- Prior
- Depict1
Honorable mention:
- Corrypt
- Lightmare
- Coma
- Loved
- Silver Stitch's "Colour My ..." series *
- Meat Boy *
- Terraria

* (Hope I put the correct links there. The network at the office restricted access to Newgrounds)

I'll probably add to this list since I enjoy retro games as well as thought-provoking ones.

Incidentally... I've also been working on my own game for a while. It's called Blue (title may be subject to change). I'll release a Beta demo in a post when I'm satisfied with it.
Watch this space. → [ ]
... Okay, you may stop watching that space now.

Music:
I've been happy listening to two new albums recently:
- Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
To be honest, I much preferred Daft Punk's music before this album. But I liked it anyway.
- Shortstraw - Good Morning, Sunshine
Shortstraw is a South African band that I recently came across when I heard their title song "Good Morning, Sunshine"
I quite like them. Somehow most of their guitar work sounds very local. I'm not sure how to explain it.

Series:
Game of Thrones
Okay, so I FINALLY got around to watching this... after being egged on so much that it felt like I was being pushed out of a window.
I know I joined the party a little late, but at least I'm not as late as Ned Stark.
Incidentally, I'm now finished with Seasons 1, 2 and 3.
"Hodor" - Hodor

Movies:
Man of Steel (Yes, that Superman movie)
DO NOT READ THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW MY OPINION AND POSSIBLY SPOIL THE MOVIE
I personally thought the acting and character design were carried out well. I thought the cast was decent. I thought that the special effects were pretty damn fine... And THEN I felt like the director, producers, etc took all that and stuffed it in a box without any planning and put it on the big screen. Really, guys? Honestly, I think that if they went down this road, they should have made a Superman Origins, and then this movie. But it felt very segmented and didn't flow and that ruined it for me.

Miscellaneous:
Virtual DJ
I started using this again after ages. I haven't really messed around enough to enjoy it properly but I will do so soon

Game Maker
In the middle of making my RPG, I noticed a few games made with this software so I checked it out and I think it looks awesome. When I have time, I might make a couple simple games with this as well.

So um... yeah. Will chat more soon.
KAY, BYE.