Awesome Indie Games: Papers Please

I think the five dollars I spent last weekend on Papers Please is easily one of the best purchases I've made on Steam. Papers Please puts you in the working role of an immigration inspector working at a border checkpoint to the fictitious country, Arstotzka. You are tasked with inspecting the documents of incoming immigrants and keeping an eye out for forged passports, terrorists, criminals and smugglers. If all the information in the papers of the immigrant match up, you can admit them into your country. If not, they get a big ole' fat denial and in some cases, you can have immigrants arrested. Making mistakes earns you citations and racking up too many and you'll have your pay docked.

Your pay is central to the game. The more immigrants you successfully approve or deny the more money you make, but you only have so much time in a day and if you go too fast, you can miss small discrepancies. At the end of each day, you are shown how much money you made or lost and are allowed to manage your expenses. Your money pays for rent, food, and heat for you and your family. Rent is mandatory but you can decide whether or not to pay for heat and food. Careful though, ignore them and your family members will get sick and you'll need to pay for medicine. I'm sure you can guess what happens if you don't pay for medicine.

It doesn't sound too hard but you realize at the very start of the game you're in for a rough ride. When you arrive to work, you are given very little instruction on how to do your job; likely similar to how lower-class working conditions were in that period. The game definitely makes you feel like a replaceable cog in the machine. When you start to feel like you're getting the hang of it, the game changes things up and adds in new documents to inspect, tools to scan or procedures to use. Things are usually changed day-to-day so you need to remain ever vigilant.

You're also challenged with moral dilemmas like a mother trying to see her son for the first time in 10 years without the right papers or a man trying to escape his war-torn country for safety in yours. I was surprised how my attitude quickly became very selfish. Helping people would directly hurt me and my family and that's what was important to me.  But not all of these encounters are given in complete selflessness, a revolutionary group seeking reform will compensate you for your cooperation in their plans.

Papers Please has 20 different endings, I've only unlocked 5 of them myself. Some are only slightly different while others give you a drastically different ending. You can also unlock an endless mode. In both story and endless modes, the entrants are randomized so you can't retry days and expect the game to follow a script that you can memorize. I definitely recommend Papers Please for any puzzle or simulation enthusiasts but it also makes a fun experience for more casual players.

Don't Starve: Why Can't I Get Into It?

I'm a big fan of Indie games. I find them to be refreshingly creative and original compared to some of the more mainstream titles we see on the shelves. I also enjoy the great majority of classical approaches developers have taken with their games like the top-down view in Hotline Miami, the 8-bit graphics of Minecraft, the retro style of Faster Than Light and side-scroll gameplay of many others. However, the open world survival adventure game, Don't Starve from Klei Entertainment has me at a loss. 

I love the concept of Don't Starve; it evokes images reminiscent of a Tim Burton movie mixed with something like Minecraft. You craft supplies from materials you collect, build fires to keep you sane in the night, explore caves and much more. The different monsters you find throughout the world are terrifying and add an element of horror to the game which I love. The game progresses through the seasons which alter your needs to survive. When you die, you are awarded experience to unlock more characters, each with their own perks. 

While it sounds fun and intriguing, I just can't get into it for some strange reason. The really weird thing is that I want to; I want to like Don't Starve but I can't bring myself to play it for more than 10 or 15 minutes before I move onto something else. I feel like I've explored the entirety of my world and I haven't come across anything particularly interesting. Then again, it's the only world I've played in, so maybe I should just die and generate a new world. If I were to die, I could also gain some experience which might allow me to unlock another character. I also haven't made it to winter which I hear adds more excitement to the game. I've also pondered if there are some secrets or lesser known features of the game I may not have yet discovered. 

Whatever it is, I'm sure I'll figure it out. I like Don't Starve and I want to enjoy it. Perhaps I just need to sit down and really grind for a bit and discover where the true fun is in this game. Have you had a similar experience with a generally well received indie game? Feel free to make suggestions for indie games I should check out too. 

Resident Evil 4 Ultimate Edition Coming to PC

Capcom has announced that Resident Evil 4 will be getting an HD remake exclusive to the PC. While an HD remake was released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2011, Capcom is calling this new HD remake, the Ultimate Edition, likely due to the fact this will be the first time the game will run at 60 frames per second.

The HD face lift will also include sharpened in-game objects, characters, textures and environments. The game will be available on Steam and will support the popular trading card system, and include controller support. Pre-ordering the game on Steam will net you the digital archives including 80 pages of Resident Evil 4 goodies and a 60 track digital soundtrack. The game will retail for $19.99 and will be available February 28th.

Resident Evil 4 was originally released on the GameCube in 2005 and several months later to the PlayStation 2. In 2007, Resident Evil 4 was ported to the PC and the Wii. The game has seen several editions already, some of which added extra content and story lines which will be available in this newest edition. While this new edition is making some improvements to an already great game, I have to wonder if people will really be intrigued by this. I played Resident Evil 4 on both the PS2 and the Wii, and next to Metal gear solid 3, it stands out in my collection as a game I have completed countless times (well over 15 times at least). Hopefully the excitement behind the game hasn't fizzled out.

I think it's also important to note that Resident Evil 4 was the last really good Resident Evil game to be made however (at least in my opinion). So I definitely wouldn't mind going for play through 16. You can check out some screens below for an idea of how sharp the game will look.