One of the more interesting features of Steam are the global statistics for achievements. Namely it shows what percentage of players reach those achievements.  There are achievements for all sorts of things done in games, though not all games in Steam use the achievement system.

Only 49.8% of people completed Portal. So over half never got that far. I think we all knew many people don’t get around to finishing all their games. Most gamers have quite a few we have never completed even if we may have enjoyed them.

But there’s a more interesting story hidden under the numbers.

Take Fallout New Vegas for example. The most basic quest involving the absolute start of the game mostly about character creation and leaving the very first house of the game is “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head”. This is before even the tutorial-like beginning town of Goodsprings is completed.

94.5% of people who paid good hard money for Fallout New Vegas on Steam completed this quest and achievement. But that means that 5.5% didn’t even get that far.

Looking further only 59.8% of people reached level 10.

In Civilization V, 90.4% of people have found an ancient ruin so then 9.6% haven’t and this is also a very simple early thing to do in game, usually within the first few moves.

In Portal, only 74.7% got the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device which is the actual portal device required early in the game. So 25.3% of people didn’t get that far.

For Defense Grid: The Awakening 95.1% of people killed an alien and for a game about killing swarms of aliens that’s a very basic thing to do. So 4.9% of people didn’t get that far. Those who completed the “boot camp” achievement of completing the first three easy tutorial-like missions was only 76.2%. So 23.8% had thrown in the towel already by then.

The picture is of a substantial number of people who buy games but don’t actually play them. I really wonder why. One reason might be quite basic. Bugs and other gameplay stopping issues. I suspect though the greater number are simply turned off at the early look or play of the game. If that was so though I’d expect the game quality to be more telling.

I hope it’s not the same reason some buy books they have no intention of actually reading.

While Minecraft is hardly the first sandbox game, there is no doubt its popularity has caused a huge resurgence in the genre and we’re seeing a bunch of new games and new attention in the genre. The following is a shortlist of these with some general impressions.

• Minecraft – The famous Minecraft. Great crafting, popular and complex. Currently in beta. Check out my review.
• Terraria – 2D clone which has surpassed clonehood by merging combative platform elements with the sandbox elements. Check out my review.
• Wurm Online – I love Wurm but it’s a significantly different game to Minecraft. I would call it a pioneering sandbox game. Check out my review.
• Ace of Spades – Free, great change of pace which is totally combat oriented in a vague WW2 style. The block crafting aspect is used tactically.
• Dig-N-Rig – Windows only, free, 2D, sci-fi with cute conveyors
• Minetest-c55 – Free, really quite a good Minecraft clone with a lot of potential. No mobs and none of the complexity but looks good and I think I will keep an eye on it. Runs without java on Windows and Linux.
• Manic Digger – An open source Minecraft clone which gives some hope for something good in the future. Still needs work but is functional and looking good so far. Does not need java.
• Infiniminer – Actually Minecraft is a clone of this.  So this is the original inspiration. Much more mining focused and team oriented.
• Cubelands – Simple Minecraft clone that runs in the browser.
• Detonate – TNT gets a lot of fun play in Minecraft but these guys take it to extremes.
• King Arthur’s Gold – 2D like Terraria but has the combat style of Ace of Spades, albeit in a more medieval setting instead of WW2.
• Blockland
• Roblox
• FortressCraft – Xbox 360

So what’s missing?  Well that would be Lego. What the hell are they doing?

It’s great to see so many sandbox style games, I hope to see this whole genre improve over time.  Some of these may yet be reviewed and all of them are worth a quick look if you have the time to spare.

h/t: Gameblaster 64, RPS

Naturally E3 is with us again so I’ve filtered the barrage of announcements to pick out what I see as the highlights.

Minecraft is coming to Xbox 360 and Kinect. That could be interesting. They should include a cardboard pick for realism so you can swing it around like a right loon. Naturally all the Microsoft stuff is centred around Kinect. Halo 4 is coming. Meh.

Nintendo has a new console the er… Wii U. Really. Apparently the controllers will be detachable and usable by themselves with a 6.2 in touch screen built in. There’s a stylus and cams and mikes and similar goodness. Pretty much a simple tablet. Naturally they cannot neglect their just released 3DS. It needs high profile games and it is getting them.

EVE makers CCP talk a bit about DUST 514. For those who don’t know it will be an FPS for the console as the planetary force and mesh and merge with the greater EVE universe, presumably seamlessly. They have decided to go exclusive with the PS3 which is risky IMO.

One big name game at E3 does excite me. Skyrim. I look forward to it despite the risk of sacrificing depth for accessibility. It definitely looks good and seems to be living up to the dragon centricity with powers unlocked by absorbing dragon souls. How it plays is of course an open ended question.

Sony was centred on the Playstation Vita actually drawing boos at the exclusive deal with AT&T. It seems it will cost $US 299 with the wifi only model a bit cheaper, which had a far more positive reaction. Sony is also pushing cross platform and 3D gaming which I think is a good move.

Bastion also sounds interesting but probably needs hands on play to fully grasp.

Finally the great guys at QCF Design have released the Desktop Dungeons E3 demo for play for everyone including you for the next few days. Looking good!

Danny Day who works on the Desktop Dungeons project at QCF Design just sent in some details about the future of Desktop Dungeons. Recently I reviewed Desktop Dungeons version 0.151 which is fully featured and a worthwhile play for spare 10 minute time-slots.

However, that’s just a prototype. A very good one I might add so it will be interesting to see the final version. QCF Design are working hard on that full version of Desktop Dungeons. Danny Day put the difference between the two versions like this:

The full version is an incredibly expanded game, think Star Control 2 vs the original Star Control.

The game is rewitten in Unity (previously game maker) so now it looks better and has more possibilities in gameplay.

Danny goes on to say:

I’m really excited to see how players react to the Kingdom and the expanded metagame, if we’ve done it right, everyone will have slightly different upgrades and unlocking patterns.

I’m looking forward to it myself. I already liked how the 10 minute sessions were linked together even though it was simply done. There is a lot of scope for more and will be nice to see what QCF come up with.

I asked about multiplayer for Desktop Dungeons as it seemed to me small group coop multiplayer could be quite fun in such a setting.

We’ve thrown the idea back and forth, as we’re all avid multiplayer gamers, but for now we’re focusing on making Desktop Dungeons as good a game as it can be for just the one player. I think it’d be an interesting design exercise to figure out how to make co-op work, but that’s beyond our scope right now, so unfortunately no multiplayer in the near future.

I also asked about the leaderboard which is broken in version 0.151. The full version will have a completely reworked leaderboard which is well validated.  I leave you with a look at some of the halfling concept art.  Artist did a nice job on giving them some character.

I’m Still Alive

Release Date: 9^th October 2007

Developer: Valve Corporation

Genre: First Person Puzzle-Platform

Mode: Single Player

Portal 2 has just been released two days ago and by most accounts is likely to be an excellent positive game, if in a little bit of a darker setting. I thought I’d finish up the original Portal game review.

You begin as protagonist Chell a woman who is trapped in the Enrichment Center for Aperture Laboratories. It becomes clear pretty quickly this pristine environment is deserted except for a talkative but off-screen Artificial Intelligence (AI) GLaDOS (genetic lifeform and disk operating system).

The key to the entire game is the portal gun or the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. This device allows you to open two way portals in each testing environment which are crucial to getting through each challenge. The portals are the key of the game and an interesting idea not well adopted before. It is quite disconcerting at first but you get used to it and can even play with the idea.

Along with the portal gun are the various challenges which include energy dispensers, moving objects, toxic liquid and weighted activators. You need to imaginatively use the portal gun to solve the puzzle in order to make it to the next level accessed via a lift.

During all this GLaDOS is your only companion. It’s quite clear the GLaDOS was originally a helpful guide to the facility but has since been corrupted, possibly internally, into a rather dry witted being. The deadpan humour and interesting commentary greatly lift the game beyond the puzzle elements. I will not say more, so that the story is not spoiled for people who haven’t played the game yet.

I will say though that the game is rather short. So keep that in mind.

The innovative distortion of the physical laws of nature, as well as the puzzle elements and GLaDOS provide good positive entertainment.

The graphics of Portal are very good and are put in an interesting style which definitely gives a laboratory feel to the game.

Music in Portal is one of the greatest things about it. The end credits include a little song which I have embedded in this article. The sound effects are also well done.

Portal can be slightly difficult at the latter stages only because those strong on platform elements might have trouble with the logical elements and vice versa. This is a logical challenge where timing matters in some cases. Having said that it’s not too difficult to get through the challenges.

One of the reasons Portal grabbed attention so quickly, aside from being a good game, was that it was part of the Orange Box bundle which included various Half-life games.

Portal runs on Windows, Mac, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. A demo version is available on Steam. Portal is available for $US10 on Steam which is also run by Valve Corporation.

Game: 4½/5    Positive: