James

By Pentadact

Games

 		 

Television

 		 

Films

  

Music

  

Links

  

Personal
 
 

About

 
 
Let Tom Francis tell you all what it's like, being male, middle-class and white.
 

 

Subscribe

 
 
All Posts
 Games
 Television
 Films
 Music
 Links
 Personal
 Comments
 

Preview: World of Goo

 
 

So there are these giggling little globs of goo that you can drag about with the mouse. If you place one near some others, it’ll form a wobbly structure by connecting itself to them with squishy struts. And about half an hour into playing World of Goo, the obvious point of comparison finally hits me: it’s Schindlers List. This is the game of Schindlers List.

wogoo

Link

I’m so freaking excited about World of Goo. The preview build 2D Boy sent us - despite being fundamentally a silly building game - left me breathless. It has this sublime, uplifting, wonderful conclusion. And it’s just the first chapter.

The main reason it excites me is something you’d never guess from Tower of Goo, its experimental predecessor. It’s the levels - each is a unique idea, a unique place, and a unique mechanic. In the one pictured above, you’re building downwards to reach albino goos in a dark cave, to wake them from their eternal sleep and bring them to safety.

The last games to do levels so well were Darwinia and Psychonauts - which I guess doesn’t put Goo in best-selling company. But the fact that it’s coming to Wii ought to help with that. And you. You ought to help with that.

Basically, in my preview, I ask you to buy it. You’re not really supposed to do that in previews. There’s no demo yet, and as I say Tower of Goo really suggests nothing of its genius. But if you do pre-order, you get the same first chapter I played right now - plus a, er, ‘Profanity Pack’. That’s it, that’s all I got. It’s beautiful, and fun, and it’s going to be one of the highlights of this year.

I probably shouldn’t go into marketing.

Update: Comments disabled for a bit, due to a weird spate of inept spammers who don’t even link or mention the site they’re spamming for.

Comment
 
 
WeakLemonDrink: Done.

Do me a favour and never tell everyone to kill themselves. Use your powers for good.

Rob: I can imagine it being bloody tricky on Wii.

ImperialCreed: Just pre-ordered the game this morning and am in love with it already.

Jason L: That sign in the last level? A damnable lie. 'You might have to leave some behind, it's OK.' No, it is not; I must have spent twenty minutes arranging to rescue every single last one.

The_B: I've said this before, but yes: I love that last level. So much of it is just pure joy, especially when you work the trick to completing it. It would be criminal to spoil it here or anywhere, but I will say it left the best kind of smile on my face afterwards.

...and then made me slightly saddened I would have to wait for the rest. But still!

Thomas Lawrence: I currently possess the 28th largest tower of goo in the world. This information pleases me no end.

Pentadact: You all rock. I'm away in Texas this week, so James will be a bit quiet. Am typing this on an iPhone in an Apple store. It is awkward.

Seniath: What was more awkward: using the iPhone to type, or having the Apple Store staff eyeing you up suspiciously?

Jason L: I haven't been playing this a lot. My Eiffelesque tower plans are too complex to actually start, I'm more interested in rescues anyway and I very quickly reached the mathematical limit of rescues on most of the levels. Tumbler is the only exception I know for sure; I estimate I could save two or three more Goos than I have. That's because a] a solution's optimality is less obvious and b] it takes so very long to try any new approach, waiting for multiple cycles of the tumbler's rotation. Today I was trying to replicate reported World of Goo crashes on my parents' machine, though, and messed around in Tumbler because it seemed to require the most intense processing of the levels my parents have unlocked.

I've discovered that under some circumstances a Goo in hand, so to speak, can be clipped through the tumbler wall. Drop it and it dies, but bring it up close to the wall and you can effectively nail your core to one wall - saving exceptional numbers of Goos via a cheater's exploit. A poignant moral diemmea!

 		 
 

Slim Mode

 
 
An unknown php script is randomly causing 15-second chokings of my server's CPU, ultimately hogging so much of its time that my host suspend this entire website for a few minutes. So I've snipped all non-essential elements until I can diagnose it. Apologies if you've encountered one of these CPU Exceeded screens. Believe it or not, what would help most with my diagnosis is lots and lots of people visiting James as often as possible over the next few days. Rolo desserts are also effective.