Nate Crowley

Last time on the BoC: Due to a prolonged water shortage during a goblin siege, the dwarves finally breached the underground to slake their thirst. Despite attacks by giant bats and a mishap with a captured goblin swordsman, great treasures were unearthed below - basement founder Lorbam retrieved a feather from Tol, the great winged worm, as well as using herself as bait to catch…

Tagged with #HopeOfBrutes, #StrangerOfApes, Bay 12 Games, chimp bizkit, Diary, Dwarf Fortress diary, elf and safety, feature, Tarn Adams, The Basement Of Curiosity, Zach Adams, Dwarf Fortress.

With Stronghold: Warlords recently announced at E3, now seems as good a moment as any to look back on the game that kicked off Firefly’s seemingly endless series of castle ’em ups back in 2001. In fact, I’m genuinely astonished to learn that Warlords will be the ninth game in the series, as despite loving the first instalment, I’ve managed to play precisely none of…

Tagged with feature, Firefly Studios, Have You Played, Stronghold HD, Stronghold: Warlords.

One of the games I return to regularly is Crusader Kings 2, and usually, what pokes me back into its torrid embrace is a trip abroad. I’ll go to a place I’ve not really thought about much, then get well into its history and, because my curiosity writes cheques my attention span can’t cash, I’ll fail to read up on it at all. What I…

Tagged with feature, Ghoastus, Paradox Development Studio, Paradox Interactive, Crusader Kings II.

An idea I’m happy to see the back of, is the notion that “graphics” is a one-way sliding scale towards photorealistic perfection. While I’m certainly fond of games that exhibit hyperbudget beauty along the lines of Metro: Exodus or Shadow of the Tomb Raider, I’m equally - probably more - excited by those who eschew realism in order to utterly master a particular aesthetic. Often,…

Tagged with feature, Have You Played, stoic studio, Versus Evil, The Banner Saga, The Banner Saga 2, The Banner Saga 3.

Last time on the BoC: After a wild summer in which the fortress was revamped, a ghost wrestler arrived, and the Bird Hole was finally bricked over, autumn arrived with its traditional goblin siege. This one was heavier than most: despite an attack from within the enemy ranks by a shapeshifting Werepanda, the blockade remained all season, leaving the fort without a supply of water…

Tagged with #DingosVersusDogs, BATFIGHT, Bay 12 Games, Diary, Dwarf Fortress diary, feature, I'll kick your head off mate, Tarn Adams, The Basement Of Curiosity, Zach Adams, Dwarf Fortress.

Last Time on the BoC: With the exception of a squad of sharpshooters hurling themselves off a roof to punch an invading army, and a vast two-headed giant muscling its way into the fort (only to get thoroughly Idded), the Basement entered a period of shocking prosperity...

Tagged with Bay 12 Games, Chimply the best, Diary, Dwarf Fortress diary, feature, Tarn Adams, The Basement Of Curiosity, Zach Adams, Dwarf Fortress.

Last Time on the BoC: The fort’s period of civil disorder came to a bloody conclusion, and a new wave of immigrants bolstered efforts to begin constructing a suite of new living quarters deep underground. Siege defences were also bolstered, with the construction of a new sniper tower.

Tagged with #OhRakust, Bay 12 Games, Diary, Dwarf Fortress diary, feature, Hooray for Id, Tarn Adams, The Basement Of Curiosity, Zach Adams, Dwarf Fortress.

Last Time on the BoC: The dwarves partied through a siege. The tantruming Udil claimed her first life, before starting an apocalyptic pub fight. The underground was revealed, in all its dank glory.

Tagged with Bay 12 Games, Bowelhammers, Diary, Dwarf Fortress diary, feature, I'll bite ur teeth out m8, Tarn Adams, The Basement Of Curiosity, Zach Adams, Dwarf Fortress.

I’ve got two completely separate takes on Maneater. It’s almost as if I split into two people when watching the gameplay footage released at E3 -- two fizzing outlines of myself, roughly tethered to my physical form like a bad 80s special effect. One of those outlines, the crackly red one, loved it. I think he’s my inner nine year old, who used to entertain…

Tagged with E3 2019, feature, Tripwire, Maneater.

After so many years of the big screen being dominated by the Avengers as portrayed by Evans, Hemsworth and company, it’s great to see the limelight passed on to some less well-known interpretation of the famed superheroes. Namely, those daubed on the side of janky-looking ferris wheels which appear without warning on turd-strewn commons across the UK.

Tagged with E3 2019, feature, Square Enix, Marvel's Avengers.

My friend Josh loves Halo. For nineteen years now, whenever a new Halo has come out, I’ve gone round to his place, and we’ve spent a night playing through its campaign as a sort of ritual. I’m garbage at shooters, mind, and Josh insists on playing on Heroic mode, so the whole experience boils down to him protecting me from aliens while we chat about…

Tagged with 343 Industries, E3, E3 2019, feature, Microsoft, Halo Infinite.

Over in LA, Frontier Developments have just shown the latest trailer for their upcoming menagerie-’em-up Planet Zoo, as well as setting a launch date for November 5th - and it’s looking very powerful indeed. I’ll be straightforward with you here: with the exception of the extremely relaxing Megaquarium, I’ve always been disappointed by zoo games. And that’s not because I’m not into the concept. I…

Tagged with E3 2019, feature, Frontier Developments, preview, Planet Zoo.

Last time on the BoC: The dwarves began digging out some grand new accommodation, and the chef Ushat built a legendary chair called the Hot Thrower, featuring a cool picture of a leopard. The tantrums of the furnacehand Udil grew more intense - and so did conditions in the Basement’s zoo, thanks to the chthonic, squawking sorrow of the Bird Hole.

Tagged with #LizardsOfOrder, Bay 12 Games, Diary, Dwarf Fortress diary, feature, Tarn Adams, The Basement Of Curiosity, Zach Adams, Dwarf Fortress.

I’m pacing the dank, red-lit command deck, haggard even before the voyage starts, and worrying about my crew. They’re an untrained bunch; a mob of roustabouts I hired at the last waystation because I couldn’t afford anyone else. And in truth, I’ve got barely more experience than them - but I can’t let them sense my weakness.

Tagged with FakeFish Games, feature, first impressions, preview, Steam Early Access, The Sea Hates a Jester, Barotrauma, space station 13.

I can go one of two ways with turn-based tactics games. Give me something like XCOM, where you’re thrown situations full of random variables and asked to make the best of them with inadequate resources, and I’ll go at it like John Henry, digging away in a doomed attempt to beat the machine. Give me something like Into The Breach, however, where there’s less element…

Tagged with Ctrl Alt Ninja, feature, review, wot i think, Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest.

Last time on the BoC: The Basement’s zoo got some major upgrades, and the fort rode out a goblin siege through the time honoured tactic of hiding. A furnace worker called Udil snapped under the pressure, and some migrants chose exactly the wrong moment to try moving in.

Tagged with #ThaBirdHole, Bay 12 Games, Bernard Matthews Anxiety Dream, Diary, Dwarf Fortress diary, feature, Tarn Adams, The Basement Of Curiosity, Zach Adams, Dwarf Fortress.

I wince when people dismiss bad films as “just a load of CGI-heavy garbage”, because I know people who work in the visual effects industry. Thanks to their harrowing anecdotes, I know just how much talent and graft goes into making blockbusters look pretty, and so I always feel bad when their efforts get sidelined as a footnote to an utter roaster of a flick.…

Tagged with Devespresso Games, feature, jrpg, review, roguelite, wot i think, Vambrace: Cold Soul.

For small developers seeking a breakout hit in the increasingly hard to define simulation/management genre, one of the perennial silver bullet concepts is “Dwarf Fortress, but it looks nice, and people aren’t scared to play it”. Of everything on the market so far, it’s probably Rimworld that comes closest to this goal, but it had the crucial flaw of not including any dwarves. As such,…

Tagged with feature, interview, Linda Zetterman, Warpzone Studios, Dwarf Fortress, hammerting.

Sometimes, even when playing in the giddily accelerating wonderland of digital entertainment, the best fun is that which we make for ourselves. So it is in Game Dev Tycoon, a business simulation by Green Heart Games, dealing with the history of videogames from the early 1980s through to the mid-2010s. You see, while the game does a great job of presenting thirty years of technological…

Tagged with feature, Green Heart Games, Have You Played, Game Dev Tycoon.

Last Time on the BoC: After a catastrophic goblin attack slaughtered the entire military (except Id), as well as their bloodthirsty mayor/captain, the Basement began a frantic programme of fortifications. Former mayor Urist, transformed by grief, was re-elected, and pledged to put aside her differences with Lorbam the Founder in order to make the Basement Of Curiosity the finest zoo in the land.

Tagged with action figures of a witch, Bay 12 Games, Diary, Dwarf Fortress diary, feature, Tarn Adams, termite ichor, The Basement Of Curiosity, Zach Adams, Dwarf Fortress.