The many vaulted ceilings of "The Ball"

If you have been living in a cave then you should have heard of Teotl (pronounced: tee oh tell) Studios because, as evidenced by their new game, "The Ball" they can make your cave a beautiful and fun place to be.
A team of 3 part time modders turned full time developers, Teotl won fame and a little fortune taking the grand prize in the "Make Something Unreal Contest." The money allowed these three to quit their day jobs and do what they really wanted, make awesome games. Based in Sweden, these three are the only permanent staples in the company, but do contract out in between 10-15 jobs to get the work done.
But enough about Teotl, let's talk about me. What have I been playing? I am glad you asked, I recently wrapped up my roll with Teotl's "The Ball" (pun totally and unabashedly intended). "The Ball" is the winner of 2009s "Build something Unreal Competition" and was released as a mod before its retail release on October 26th of this year.
The game has been updated technically and with more gameplay for its retail release. I finished the game in about 7 hours and while there is a survival mode that pits you against wave after wave of monsters, I was perfectly content with my single play-through.
The game starts with you (archeologist and silent protagonist) falling into an immense cave. Your partners up top say they don't have the tools to get you out right then and to go ahead and take a look around while they get ready to rescue you. Our protagonist quickly comes across a ball and a way to manipulate it (a gravity gun for all intents and purposes). While it looks like a shooter, "The Ball" is much more of a physics puzzle game. Much of the game is played without any physical antagonist and much to the game's benefit, when there are enemies on the screen, they must be dispatched using the ball in conjunction with the environment, not just mindlessly running them over (although there is some of that too).
The architecture in the game deserves special note. Not many developers could make a game in a cave that didn't feel claustrophobic. "The Ball" really nails the feeling of ancient (even alien) Mexico. I often found myself ignoring objectives to look around and just enjoy the beautiful design. The puzzles weren't easy, but I was never stumped (except for the last puzzle which I was forced to finish using trial and error and even after didn't understand it. After a little investigating on the forums I understood it (I won't spoil it).
Speaking of the end, that is one of my only gripes about the game. What seemed to be the main antagonist oversees your progress in a G-man fashion, but it leads to nothing, or almost nothing. The voice acting is a bit on the rough side. I have heard worse, but this was obviously just a member of the team that had a couple extra minutes in between other stuff he was doing., but there can't be more than a paragraph of dialogue in the entire game and given the size of the studio, the nature of the game, and the price of it all, it is easily overlooked.
I enjoyed my time with the ball and while it's already uninstalled and I have no intention of playing anymore than the 10 minutes I already played of the survival mode it is a solid trip down a big cave worth exploring.

What have you been playing?

Hello and welcome to "What have you been playing?" a blog about the video games that I have been playing (see what I did there?). This would normally be the place where I would set parameters and tell all (or none) of you out in the blogosphere or internetland what you can expect from this website, but we won't be doing that today, or probably ever because damn it, I will not be constrained.
What makes me qualified to write about video games? Readers will have to be the judge of that, but to give everyone an idea my perspective: When I was three my parents brought home the Nintendo Entertainment System© which would forever change my life (up for debate if it was for better or to its ultimate destruction). I have owned all major consoles since (sorry Virtual Boy©, you don't count and you never will. (If headgear makes you look like a nerd, the Virtual Boy turns you into "Red Shirt Guy" (no disrespect intended high master of Lore and correction. You make Azeroth a better place.))
I have a huge place in my gaming heart for small developers and have purchased many a game based on the developer, without thinking twice if I would enjoy the game (I am looking at you Nation Red). I hope to have interviews with some of these developers so we can all share in our love of games and the people who make them.
Tomorrow we will start this journey together with the game that I have been playing: The Ball