tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11893249267124840952024-02-07T07:45:30.866+00:00The Armchair AdventurerA look at Adventure Games, Retro Games and Video Gaming in GeneralRobin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.comBlogger105125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189324926712484095.post-67451342691275747612015-08-24T12:35:00.000+01:002015-09-15T12:40:19.935+01:00Lost Dimension Review<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The story consists of the world being threatened by a terrorist known as The End. He has launched a campaign of destruction against major capital cities, with the threat of further global annihilation in three days time. Only the secret service unit known as S.H.I.E.L.D stand any hope of breaching The Pillar (his base of operations), and preventing the impending disaster. You take on the role of eighteen year-old Sho Kasugai, who – along with ten other psychically gifted teammates, finds himself inside The Pillar, seemingly the earth’s last hope of defeating The End.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span> </div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The bulk of the gameplay consists of working your way through several floors of main missions and side-quests, made up of action-oriented, turn-based battles. You take direct control over six agents in each fight, and can move them freely around the battle area. However, tactics are very important, whereby keeping your allies close together will allow them to perform assist attacks and counters, as well as building up closer trust between one another. Positioning your teammates and combining your allies skills is the key to successful attacks, as well as a strong defence.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Please read the full review </span><a href="http://nextgengamingblog.com/blog/lost-dimension-review/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">here</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://nextgengamingblog.com/files/2015/08/lost-dimension-main-1060x595.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://nextgengamingblog.com/files/2015/08/lost-dimension-main-1060x595.png" height="223" width="400" /></a></div>
Robin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189324926712484095.post-19259421533960074512015-03-10T12:33:00.000+00:002015-09-15T12:34:59.827+01:00Tormentum: Dark Sorrow Review<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Anyone who has watched a single film in the Alien series will be at least somewhat familiar with the work of surreal artist H.R. Giger – whether they realise it or not. Most famously responsible for designing the titular Xenomorph in the Ridley Scott original, his entire portfolio of work consists of ghastly organic-cybernetic monsters and nightmarish environments. These fascinatingly detailed works of art have long inspired other creative minds – including the disturbing 1992 graphic adventure game Dark Seed and it’s subsequent sequel. It is no surprise therefore that another adventure game has chosen to take inspiration from his artistic horrors, as the aptly-named OhNoo Studio has done with its first ever release: Tormentum: Dark Sorrow.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It may not be the most revolutionary graphic adventure ever put together in terms of its puzzles design and gameplay, but few other titles could match the unsettling tone that has been created in Tormentum. There is little in the way of story set-up – you take on the role of an unnamed and hooded figure, whom we cannot see their face. Awaking to find yourself in a cage, suspended in mid-air, being carried by an airship to an unknown destination, things aren’t off to a good start. A fellow prisoner tells you that your captors kidnap those that they think have “sinned”, under the auspices of punishing them to cleanse their soul of their misdeeds. You are soon alone, locked in a cell, and must use any means necessary to escape before you too are tortured and cleansed.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Please read the rest of the review </span><a href="http://nextgengamingblog.com/blog/tormentum-dark-sorrow-review/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">here</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://nextgengamingblog.com/files/2015/03/Tormentum-Dark-Sorrow-main-1060x595.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://nextgengamingblog.com/files/2015/03/Tormentum-Dark-Sorrow-main-1060x595.jpg" height="223" width="400" /></a></div>
Robin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189324926712484095.post-49103496462153717132015-02-20T09:44:00.002+00:002015-02-20T09:44:34.475+00:00The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 Review<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
The Book of Unwritten Tales, developed by German studio KING Art Games, was a traditional point and click title set in the world of swords and sorcery. What made it stand out from the many cookie-cutter adventures on the market was the plethora of pop culture parodies and references contained within, and the genuinely witty dialogue. Central Europe has long been a hotbed for development in the genre, but many releases have been criticised for their poor localisation and humour that was inevitably lost in translation. The Book of Unwritten Tales was a pleasant surprise that marked a coming of age in this respect.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
It is no surprise therefore that a sequel was put together. After the success of the first title, we had already been treated to The Critter Chronicles – a seemingly fast-tracked prequel following the exploits of the strange pink, fluffy sidekick of Nate the adventurer – but that spin-off didn’t reach quite the same heights as its predecessor. The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 is a proper follow-up, however, promising over twenty-five hours of playtime, more locations to explore than ever before and a return of the multi-character gameplay that allows players to hot-switch between the four heroes to approach puzzles in the order and method that they wish.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/reviews/the-book-of-unwritten-tales-2-review/" target="_blank">Read the full review here</a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Book-of-Unwritten-Tales-2-Review.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Book-of-Unwritten-Tales-2-Review.jpg" height="215" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
.</div>
Robin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189324926712484095.post-52986954674764491842015-02-16T09:45:00.000+00:002015-02-20T09:45:58.517+00:00Dead Synchronicity: Tomorrow Comes Today Preview<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
Ten years ago, the games industry was lamenting the lost art of the Graphic Adventure. But now, thanks to platforms like Steam and crowd-finding via Kickstarter, small-scale adventure games are a dime a dozen. Whereas gamers once had no options, now there is the problem of picking out the titles worthy of your attention. Dead Synchronicity immediately stands out as one that you shouldn’t miss.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
First-time developers Fictiorama have eschewed the common route of cartoony, humourous adventure games, focusing on a much more serious, adult storyline. Shades of classic science fiction such as the work of George Orwell and Philip K Dick abound in this dystopian future. Players take on the role of Michael – an amnesiac who has awoken in a world ravaged by disaster and struggling to maintain a semblance of modern society. This isn’t just a cheap use of that old memory loss premise however, as the cataclysmic events happening around the world have not only caused some residents to lose their memories, but others to lose their minds completely.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/2015/02/dead-synchronicity-tomorrow-today-preview-blood-work/" target="_blank">Read the full preview here.</a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Dead-Synchronicity-Preview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Dead-Synchronicity-Preview.jpg" height="223" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</div>
Robin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189324926712484095.post-69521490804431070442015-01-27T09:48:00.000+00:002015-02-20T09:49:43.114+00:00Grim Fandango Remastered Review<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
I certainly experienced mixed feelings when playing through Grim Fandango Remastered. Whilst it’s still an epic adventure that is equally adept at making one laugh as it as at jerking on your heartstrings, the high definition makeover feels distinctly lacking. This new version will allow a new generation to play through one of the greatest adventure games ever produced – with some much needed changes made to the control system and interface – but don’t expect to be blown away by the graphical upgrades.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
For those who haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing Grim Fandango before, it is a traditional point and click-style adventure with direct controls, that follows the story of Manuel Calavera – a travel agent who helps lost souls on their journey through the Ninth Underworld. The story spans four years and draws inspiration from Mexican culture and the Day of the Dead festival, mid-twentieth century Film Noir and Casablanca in particular, and Art Deco design. Pulling ideas from such a disparate range of influences could easily create a real mess, yet Grim fandango ties it all together into one strong vision of life after death, and tasks you with uncovering the corruption therein.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/reviews/grim-fandango-remastered-review/" target="_blank">Read the full review here.</a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Grim-Fandango-Remastered-review-790x444.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Grim-Fandango-Remastered-review-790x444.jpg" height="223" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</div>
Robin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189324926712484095.post-27229721243432880602015-01-27T09:46:00.000+00:002015-02-20T09:47:09.805+00:00The Rise (and Fall?) of Tim Schafer and Double Fine Games<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
If I were to put together a list of my all-time top ten games, there would be at least three that Tim Schafer had a hand in. During his time at Lucasarts in the nineties, Schafer was one of the main creative forces behind the golden age of adventure games, being involved in seminal releases such as Maniac Mansion, The Secret of Monkey Island and, of course, his magnum opus, Grim Fandango. However, while his time since leaving the house that George built and establishing his own games company, Double Fine, has been full of creative promise and critical adulation, his past successes have never quite been replicated.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
Indeed, such was the popularity of the graphic adventure games coming out of Lucasarts in the late eighties and early nineties, it seemed like the company could do no wrong. Eschewing the “save early, save often” mantra held by Sierra – where death and disaster lay around every corner – the team at Lucasarts created a solid string of hits where comedy and great writing were prioritised over punishing the player for every mistake they made. This didn’t mean that their puzzles were any less tricky, either; in fact, Lucasarts games tended to involve some of the most complex and technically interesting puzzles ever found in the genre, including time travel, cause and effect, puzzles based upon the writings of Greek philosopher Plato and, lest we forget, the noble art of insult sword-fighting.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-157064" height="416" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Grim-Fandango.jpg" style="border: 0px currentColor; display: block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;" width="740" /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
But the lack of dead-ends and multiple death scenes did seem to allow the writers and designers more time and freedom to focus on crafting really original, creative and absurd characters and worlds for them to inhabit. As Tim Schafer moved up the ranks at Lucasarts, he was clearly afforded more and more rope to express his personal interests and influences, which culminated in the title that many believe is both the pinnacle of adventure game design and the the one that hammered home the final nail in the coffin for the golden age of the genre.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
Grim Fandango combined art-deco design, Mexican Day of the Dead imagery and many cinematic references (most notably a large portion of Casablanca) into a truly epic four-year story. Despite the myriad different influences, all the different aspects of Grim came together to form an adventure full of intrigue, humour and suspense – which was probably the most cinematic gaming vision realised at the time. The production values were obviously very high, with great voice acting, a fantastic musical score and a massive story that kept you hooked for hours upon hours.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
Critics adored Grim Fandango and were instantly taken with its fifties cinema sensibility. Protagonist Manny Calavera was the Humphrey Bogart of gaming, and Tim Schafer was being hailed as Orson Welles. It seemed that after his huge success with Day of the Tentacle, he was the golden boy, and even though biker-themed adventure Full Throttle didn’t set the sales charts alight, Grim Fandango was backed to go far. Sadly, the reception at retail got nowhere near matching the high levels of critical praise. A decline in the adventure genre coupled with the fast ascension of first-person shooters and fully 3D games were partly blamed, and the unusual subject matter only compounded issues, making Grim a difficult title to market. It suffered heavy losses and marked the end of big-budget graphic adventures for around a decade.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-157065" height="430" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Psychonauts.jpg" style="border: 0px currentColor; display: block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;" width="740" /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
With Lucasarts cancelling their story-driven games left, right and centre, such creative minds as Tim Schafer realised it was time to move on, and just a year after the release of Grim Fandango he set up Double Fine, his own development studio. Aiming to focus on creative titles, it would be five years of development and broken publishing deals before their first game Psychonauts hit retail shelves. Being a 3D platformer where each level is set inside the deranged mind of an unstable individual, the game is packed with both exciting visual and gameplay ideas. Some of the characters and mental afflictions that are brought to life in each stage are really unique and each stage is distinctly memorable.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
Sadly however, shoe-horning all of these great ideas into a platform game engine – especially a fairly buggy one – did no favours to the game. The 3D camera was difficult to control and keep aimed at the action, and there were far too many sections where some really precise platforming skill was needed – something that has never been easy since games switched from two-dimensional visuals. On top of that, Psychonauts was a new IP that no-one had heard of, and it received no discernible marketing push as it was only picked up by the relatively small publishing house, Majesco. As such, Psychonauts floundered at retail – once again being the darling of the critics, but almost untouched by the general gaming public.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
Double Fine have sadly suffered from several similar setbacks over the years, and oftentimes something that sounded like a sure-fire hit ended up being somewhat of a disappointment. Brutal Legend would be the most obvious of these: an action game set in an alternate demonic dimension ruled by Heavy Metal gods. Featuring an all-star cast of metal icons and Hollywood comedian Jack Black, this game was expected to really strike a chord with players. However, the baffling choice to play out most of the game as a poor Command & Conquer real-time strategy immediately turned off many gamers. It just wasn’t a fun title to play, despite all its audiovisual bells and whistles, and a slew of decent review scores couldn’t persuade them otherwise.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-157066" height="416" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Stacking.jpg" style="border: 0px currentColor; display: block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;" width="740" /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
This definitely suggests the idea that Tim Schafer is more of a writer than a games designer. His ideas sound great – and would probably make a fine cartoon series – but a lot of the time building a gameplay system to fit around such ideas is unsuccessful. Psychonauts and Brutal Legend both suffer from this affliction, as did Full Throttle, the biker point and click game from his time at Lucasarts, which never quite felt right being a puzzle driven title, spliced with hog-riding road fights and a demolition derby action set-piece.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
Indeed, Double Fine have perhaps had better success with titles that Tim hasn’t designed. Stacking was a charming and intuitive Russian Doll puzzle game, while Costume Quest applied an American Halloween makeover to classic JRPG gameplay – these games were small-scale, inventive and fun to play: they just worked. The poor retail performance of Psychonauts and Brutal Legend actually did Double Fine a favour, in that they began to focus on smaller, self-published projects, rather than games that would be competing with triple-A releases. These games are cheaper to produce, quicker to turn around and can be tested on their target audience through events like the Insomnia Fortnight, where Double Fine designers write game treatments for fans to vote for. As a smaller, tight-knit development team, Double Fine can be more reactive and have even greater freedom than before.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
Sadly, just when things were looking up, the reputation of Tim Schafer and his whole company was sullied further by the Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter debacle. All seemed well to begin with, when their project was funded within hours and several stretch goals were smashed into oblivion several times over. This was a true Kickstarter success story. But then delay after delay occurred, and we were told that the team couldn’t finish the game as they were out of money. A project that more than quadrupled its target was out of funds?! Rather than the embarrassment of asking for more money however, the game was hastily cut in two, with sales of the first episode earmarked to fund the second. Yet here we are, almost two years later, still with only half a game. Double Fine lost the faith of a lot of their long-time fans through this whole disaster.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-157062" height="436" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Day-of-the-Tentacle.jpg" style="border: 0px currentColor; display: block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;" width="740" /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
Perhaps some of these different failings are behind Double Fine deciding to now fall back on the very same success stories that gave them notoriety to begin with – what with the upcoming release of Grim Fandango Remastered and the announcement that a Day of the Tentacle re-master is also on its way. Having suffered from several of these less-than-stellar releases and the goodwill-killing Kickstarter mess, the company could be forgiven for wanting to back a less risky project this time around. A re-master of a popular title with a proven track record is a less costly endeavour, and already has an established fan base who will likely back the project no matter what.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
And so it is a little upsetting that – despite the joy I will feel at being able to play through Grim Fandango and Day of the Tentacle in high-definition, and the fact that a whole new generation of players will be exposed to these classics of story-telling and humour – Double Fine are no longer working on the new, creative titles that they set out to. Although not all of their ideas will be success stories, I would much rather see two brand new games from a team of such great designers than two re-mastered classics. I will play them both of course, but I will be looking forward to their future projects with greater anticipation. One day, Tim Schafer will find the perfect medium with which to turn his fantastic visions into a video game, and I want to be there when that happens.</div>
Robin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189324926712484095.post-91153256248847079352015-01-19T17:00:00.000+00:002015-02-20T09:57:24.845+00:00Resident Evil Review<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
Resident Evil is the undisputed granddaddy of survival horror. It may not have been the first game in the genre, or the most realistic, but it was the title that really captured the imagination of so many gamers and laid down most of the foundations that shaped all the other releases that followed in its wake. That isn’t to say that Resident Evil was perfect by any means. In fact, it had its fair share of issues and idiosyncrasies that make playing that original version today a pretty painful experience.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
It is lucky then, that when Capcom decided to re-master Resident Evil in high definition, they chose to base this on the 2002 Gamecube release, which had already improved on the original in many ways. Whereas the 1996 version arrived just when 3D games were first becoming en vogue (and as such have now dated horribly), the Gamecube edition delivered beautifully rendered new character models, hand-drawn backgrounds and much more atmospheric and moody environmental effects that set the tone more effectively than bright, blocky polygons ever did.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/reviews/resident-evil-review/" target="_blank">Read the full review here.</a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Resident-Evil-Review.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Resident-Evil-Review.jpg" height="223" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</div>
Robin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189324926712484095.post-83041489925873365622014-12-29T12:00:00.000+00:002015-02-20T09:54:27.191+00:00The Return of Sierra<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
When Ken and Roberta Williams were awarded with their honorary award at the video game awards at the start of December, it is likely that the vast majority of modern gamers asked a collective “who?”. The same could sadly also be said for many gamers earlier this year when Activision announced that hey would be reviving Sierra as a publishing arm of the company. Many who actually did recognise the name of Sierra were more likely to associate it with such forgettable titles as Timeshift, or the terrible Leisure Suit Larry console games that were released in the early 2000s – a publisher responsible for out-sourcing unsuccessful titles.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
But the Sierra On-Line that I (and many other longtime gaming fans) remember was a very different company. Founded by the aforementioned husband and wife team back in 1979, Sierra became synonymous with the graphic adventure genre – being the first company to actually combine graphics with traditional text-based adventure games. The company was built on the success of King’s Quest – the brainchild of Roberta – although many more hits followed in its wake, such as the Police Quest series, many Space Quest titles and the risqué Leisure Suit Larry series.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
By adding an on-screen character sprite to a graphic adventure game for the first time, King’s Quest revolutionised the genre. It was a death knell of classic text-based adventures, and that sub-genre was soon forgotten. The SCI game engine Sierra developed especially for King’s Quest allowed players to directly control the movement of their protagonist through different scenes in the game world, gathering items, speaking to other characters and solving puzzles using a simple text parser system. USE BROOM, GET SWORD or LOOK AT MAN was about as advanced as it got, but this was the most interactive adventure that gamers had ever experienced at the time.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<img alt="Sierra logo" height="248" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Sierra-logo.jpg" width="400" /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
The titles published by Sierra were full of humour, suspense and action, whether that be trying to silently escape from a band of Space Pirates, attempting to win the heart of the girl of your dreams, or writing up a speeding ticket for a small-time criminal. These games immersed the player in another world and let you take on the role of hero, wannabe-lothario or beat cop, for instance. They were also really challenging titles. The company garnered a reputation for creating difficult games where death lurked around every corner if you weren’t careful (often even if you were).</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
The idea of save early, save often was spawned – whereby players knew they should create multiple save games throughout a game, just in case they made a mistake and didn’t want to lose too much progress. There were a lot of irritating sequences and painful dead-ends in Sierra games, that not only became their trademark but also one of their selling points. Players wanted to see how many crazy ways their character could be killed and what humorous reprimands they might be treated to as they failed yet again. And the protagonists were so likeable – even when they were losers – that gamers cared what was going to happen in their story, and wanted to play the next chapter.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
Sierra were innovators, and never wanted to stay still. Their adventure games moved to point and click mouse control shortly after the technology caught on, and were one of the first development studios to create games entirely using entire voice casts, or full motion video (back when FMV was thought of as impressive and new, rather than clunky and silly) with titles like Phantasmagoria – the first million-selling video game ever made. Even when the rise of 3D gaming seemed to cause a decline in adventure games in the late nineteen-nineties, Sierra tried to evolve and threw themselves into developing fully three-dimensional adventures for the first time. They may not have achieved the same success as previous releases, but showed that Sierra weren’t afraid to embrace new technologies.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Kings-Quest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Kings Quest" border="0" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-155857" height="225" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Kings-Quest.jpg" style="border: 0px currentColor; display: block; height: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;" width="400" /></a>In fact, the name Sierra On-Line was very apt as the company was one of the very first to embrace internet connectivity. Sierra ran chat rooms and gaming lobbies long before most gamers even knew what that meant – with their early card game collections and such including network play years before it was in vogue. The company was sadly crippled by over-expansion, repeated buy-outs and a major fraud case throughout the late nineties and early 2000′s, which led to their early extraction from the development side of gaming, to become a publishing house. Even then, they knew how to pick a hit, with Homeworld and Half-Life two of their publishing success stories.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
It was incredibly sad to the collapse of this company who helped forge new paths and bring so much innovation to the table. Slowly they were marginalised by and more by successive buy-outs and mergers, until they were inevitably closed completely in late 2008. Not only did that signal the end of an era for the company, but also for such iconic games designers as Roberta Williams herself, Al Lowe, and the two Guys from Andromeda, amongst others – people who really shaped the point and click genre radically and had more to give, were it not for the untimely demise of the company.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
And so it is with mixed feelings that I greet the first footage from King’s Quest: Your Legacy Awaits – the new re-imagining of the classic series by indie developers The Odd Gentlemen (of P.B. Winter bottom fame). Happiness because of the re-birth of a company that I grew up with, and which provided me with some of my earliest – and best gaming memories. But also with sadness and trepidation, that the iconic graphic adventure seems to have been turned into an action-adventure, platforming title. It looks graphically impressive, but remains to be seen whether it will recapture the core exploration and puzzling gameplay elements, or the spirit and atmosphere of those early, ground-breaking games that came before it. Ken and Roberta Williams really did give a lot to the gaming industry, and I only hope that the re-launch of the Sierra brand can do at least a little justice to their legacy.</div>
Robin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189324926712484095.post-4794864132778968672014-12-05T09:56:00.000+00:002015-02-20T09:57:08.767+00:00Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD Remix Review<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
A strange combination of Final Fantasy and Walt Disney, Kingdom Hearts was always bound to stand out from other video games on the market. Although the action-RPG gameplay may not have been anything revolutionary, the two PlayStation 2 releases were big hits and a whole lot of fun to play through. It has been around twelve years since the first Kingdom Hearts was released now though, and despite there being a third game on the horizon (albeit perhaps a far 2017 horizon), there will be a good portion of console gamers who have lost track of the series, or never played any of it at all.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
It is safe to say that, even if you thoroughly enjoyed both of the PlayStation 2 titles, you probably didn’t own every platform necessary to have played each and every game in the series. With editions released on PS2, DS, PSP, 3DS and mobile phones, the over-arching story has become difficult for the average gamer to follow – so it is definitely helpful that Kingdom Hearts fans can now experience the entire back catalogue (or nearly anyway) on PlayStation 3 alone.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/reviews/kingdom-hearts-2-5-hd-remix-review/" target="_blank">Read the full review here.</a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Kingdom-Hearts-2.5-HD-Remix-Review.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Kingdom-Hearts-2.5-HD-Remix-Review.jpg" height="223" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</div>
Robin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189324926712484095.post-61627378486644130242014-11-16T09:58:00.000+00:002015-02-20T09:58:36.845+00:00Randal’s Monday Review<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
You may be forgiven for thinking that Randal’s Monday is linked in some way to the Clerks films by Kevin Smith. The titular character Randal is a wise-cracking layabout, just like Randall in the Clerks series. The characters, activities and locations in the game constantly reference Star Wars and other cult movies and comics (just as in many Kevin Smith films), and the voice actor performing the character of Randal actually<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="font-style: italic;">played</em><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Randall in Clerks. It is confusing therefore that the game has nothing to do with any of that.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
Randal’s Monday is, however, a call-back to the classic adventure games of the nineties. Controlled in a point and click style, players can choose between a more traditional control method or a simplified user-friendly one. The game begins after your best friend “finds” a mysterious and seemingly-magical ring, when things start to go drastically wrong and Randal finds himself in a Groundhog Day time loop where he is trying to atone for his actions and to put right what once went wrong, one day at a time.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/reviews/randals-monday-review/" target="_blank">Read the full review here.</a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Randals-Monday-Review-790x442.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Randals-Monday-Review-790x442.jpg" height="223" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</div>
Robin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189324926712484095.post-40877907764730549542014-11-03T13:43:00.001+00:002014-11-03T13:43:43.768+00:00Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers – 20th Anniversary Edition Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Gabriel-Knight-Review-790x395.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Gabriel-Knight-Review-790x395.png" height="200" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br />When Jane Jensen created the first Gabriel Knight game back in 1993, it was rather unique. Whereas most point and click games of the time were comedies or fantasy adventures, Sierra took a chance with Sins of the Fathers, a horror thriller, grounded thoroughly in the real world. Jensen offered up a gritty, historically-rich tale, which captured the imagination of gamers and later spawned two sequels.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
It is no surprise then, that the game has received a high definition makeover. The current trend in adventure gaming seems to be for re-releasing and re-mastering genre classics, making them available both to long-time fans and to a whole new audience. This time thankfully, the original creative forces behind the game are behind the new version too, so at least the project was in good hands.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/reviews/gabriel-knight-sins-fathers-20th-anniversary-edition-review/" target="_blank">Click here to read the rest of this review.</a></div>
Robin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189324926712484095.post-4229947381576136312014-10-27T09:59:00.000+00:002015-02-20T09:59:36.611+00:00The Shopkeeper Review<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
Interactive story-telling is somewhat en-vogue in gaming right now. In a title like<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.godisageek.com/2014/07/the-wolf-among-us-episode-five-review/" sl-processed="1" style="color: #ca4061; text-decoration: none;" title="The Wolf Among Us Episode Five review">The Wolf Among Us</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>or<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.godisageek.com/2014/08/the-walking-dead-season-2-episode-5-review/" sl-processed="1" style="color: #ca4061; text-decoration: none;" title="The Walking Dead: Season 2 Episode 5 review">The Walking Dead</a>, for instance, there is a focus on storytelling and decision-making rather than traditional gameplay mechanics. The Shopkeeper takes that idea and pulls back even further in terms of interactivity, becoming a short-form choose your own adventure, where just a handful of different choices will guide the story in one direction or another.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
The Shopkeeper presents us with a young businessman looking for an Antique to impress his Mother-in-Law. The titular Shopkeeper tells the story behind each item for sale in his store, and through a series of dialogue choices will explain the consequences of choosing one gift over the other. Pick the incorrect gift and the story will repeat itself, until the correct gift and conversational choices have been made and the credits roll.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/reviews/the-shopkeeper-review/" target="_blank">Read the full review here.</a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Shopkeeper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Shopkeeper.jpg" height="171" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/20.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 25px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
</div>
Robin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189324926712484095.post-70004012552645714352013-12-10T19:29:00.001+00:002013-12-10T19:29:55.314+00:00Star Quest 2: United Galaxies Preview<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/001/394/611/0ff75b0776e0744b6b67f27a504fe566_large.jpg?1385829884" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/001/394/611/0ff75b0776e0744b6b67f27a504fe566_large.jpg?1385829884" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Towards the end of 1995, a small start-up video game developer named Virtual Adventures produced the space combat title Star Quest I in the 27th century. The game was self-published, entirely developed off the own backs of the team and sold directly too. The title garnered them quite a level of fame with hardcore PC gamers and led to the company signing a one-game publishing deal with Infogrames. Despite releasing another game named Stellar Mercenaries in 1997, Star Quest 2 was the game that Virtual Adventures really wanted to make.<br />
<br />
So in 1998, production began on the sequel - which had ambitious plans to expand the game from a simple 3D space shooter, into a complex real-time strategy and space combat hybrid. They even had a full demo produced and running by 1999, but a lack of funding and no publishing deal unfortunately meant that the game had to be put into an indefinite hold - and sadly Virtual Adventures moved away from directly developing games and into the consultancy arena.<br />
<br />
But as well all now know, the PC gaming environment has changed dramatically, and with crowd-funding websites like Kickstarter, small developers and individuals can now showcase their ideas and products directly to the fans that would be buying their games. This has led to Virtual Adventures finally being able to revive their hybrid game idea and Star Quest 2 has once again had new life breathed into it.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/001/394/602/9c74c2ae433b34c84a9bb986c9724427_large.jpg?1385829500" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/001/394/602/9c74c2ae433b34c84a9bb986c9724427_large.jpg?1385829500" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The main selling point of the title is that not only will it be a fully-realised real-time strategy game, where warring alien races from across the galaxy compete to conquer worlds, but also a direct combat game. Players will be able to build their armies and manage resources, directing battles from above as a Commander, but then also jump into the shoes of a ground troop or space pilot and get down and dirty in the action of a dogfight.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Part of the story behind the title is that the warring factions have tried to develop new ways of fighting, and new technology, in order to gain an edge over their enemies. This has led the most advanced races to eschew normal manned space ships and turrets, and to have entire armies of robotic drones and computer-controlled ships, all directed by one Commander in the Mothership. This has meant that as much as the actual battles themselves being important, the capturing of resources and manufacturing of technology has become just as important. Those who control the production and supply of war crafts, control the war.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/001/394/600/c1199c7e91e673749fec296eabd49b0f_large.jpg?1385829452" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/001/394/600/c1199c7e91e673749fec296eabd49b0f_large.jpg?1385829452" style="cursor: move;" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
So the foundations for a strong army in Star Quest 2 are built upon resource management and planning. This if, of course, very much in the mould of many popular real-time strategy titles. In Command & Conquer, for example, armies always relied on the successful harvesting of Tiberium, and here is no different. But what is different is how to fight when the player actually decides to go into war - which is very much their own path to choose, with the choice left to the player of what Solar Systems to explore and what strategy to employ to conquer each of them.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
When you enter the battlefield as it were, you begin with an overview of the conflict, and take on the role of a Fleet Commander. Here you can mobilise units and give out orders - strategising and maneuvering your troops. This is very much as you would expect from an RTS. The game gets really different however when you realise that after sending out troops, you can then warp directly into the cockpit of one of the many warships at your disposal (ranging from four up to twenty-five, depending on the mission), or into a gunner who is trying to shoot down enemy ships from his gun emplacement.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
You can actually get down onto the battlefield yourself and influence the direction of the battle, rather than simply sending out your troops and waiting to see how well they fare. This is an added dimension to the RTS formula, and lets gamers have a lot more input and say into how a battle will play out. No longer will you have to curse poor AI for not flying your ships well enough, as you can fly them yourself. And if you think your gunner isn't accurate enough, you can become him and show everyone how it should be done.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/001/394/606/30e9a1127a8f8f2b2026093053a2f1b4_large.jpg?1385829619" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/001/394/606/30e9a1127a8f8f2b2026093053a2f1b4_large.jpg?1385829619" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The game isn't only battles either. There are a variety of ground-based missions to take on, such as scavenging for resources and even racing against enemies and friends, to see who has the fastest fleet. Add to that the fact that there will be online multiplayer modes - which are very much focused on co-operative play, where one user could be a commander and others be ground troops - and there is a lot that will excite fans of the genre in Star Quest 2.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The game may not boast the stunning visuals of a Starcraft title, or the big-name actors that have peppered recent Command & Conquer games, but Star Quest 2 is looking to produce a new breed of real-time strategy game, where hands-on action is placed at the forefront. Not only that, but player choice is placed on a pedestal and gamers will really be able to carve out their own specific experience, based on their playing style and preferences. It may have taken almost a decade and a half to see the light of day, but Star Quest 2 still has plenty of fresh ideas.</div>
<br />
<i>If you wish to support the Star Quest 2 Kickstarter <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1760753044/star-quest-2-united-galaxies-space-sim-rts-racing?ref=live" target="_blank">please click here</a>. </i><i>On their official Kickstarter appeal page, the developers have posted both a video of the original demo from 1999, and some new and exciting footage from the updated version of the game. These videos can be found below:</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>New footage:</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<iframe frameborder="0" height="360" scrolling="no" src="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1760753044/star-quest-2-united-galaxies-space-sim-rts-racing/widget/video.html" width="480"> </iframe><i>
</i>
<i><br /></i>
<i>1999 Demo footage:</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/-IlzGVo8TsU" width="480"></iframe></i>Robin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189324926712484095.post-70353072644326030452013-12-06T15:20:00.000+00:002013-12-08T15:20:45.977+00:00Scribblenauts Unlimited Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Scribblenauts-Unlimited-review.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="183" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Scribblenauts-Unlimited-review.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
When the first Scribblenauts title launched in 2009, it caused a stir in the gaming industry as it was unlike anything else on the market. The premise of the game was simple – the gamer was presented with a series of short levels, each of which are made up of relatively straightforward puzzles. The twist was that in order to solve those puzzles, you couldn’t just use items you found in-game, you had to create them yourself. Armed with your Nintendo DS stylus and a notepad in-game, you could write the name of an object which would then be created for you to use on-screen.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
For instance, there might be a cat stuck up a tree – but how do you get it down? You could write the word “ladder”, and a ladder would appear for you to climb and save the cat. Or you might prefer to write “axe”, and cut down the tree. Further still, a jetpack would help you reach the cat even quicker. There were huge possibilities, although the game could only understand fairly simple objects and names. The concept evolved with Super Scribblenauts and a later Remix version, which added many more words to the in-game library, as well as the ability to add tags and adjectives to the words. Now you could use your stylus to create a blue house, or an angry Emu, for example.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/2013/12/scribblenauts-unlimited-3ds-review/" target="_blank">Click here to read the full review</a>.</div>
Robin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189324926712484095.post-56152195237980079762013-12-02T15:19:00.000+00:002013-12-08T15:19:45.513+00:00Zoo Tycoon Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Zoo-Tycoon-Review.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Zoo-Tycoon-Review.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
It may not be the most glamorous title, but Zoo Tycoon is one of the few platform-exclusive games available on either next-generation console at launch. The game does itself no favours by appearing on the surface to be a strange hybrid between Frontier’s previous Xbox effort, Kinectimals, and another Children’s Kinect title, Kinect Disneyland Adventures. These comparisons certainly won’t endear Zoo Tycoon to many hardcore gamers or long-standing fans of the series, but this isn’t simply a motion-controlled kids game.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
The story goes that Frontier were working on a new version of your common or garden Zoo Tycoon several years ago, making use of some ultra-realistic animal models. It was then that Microsoft asked them to put that on hold in order to work on Kinectimals, using their already-built animals and animations for the Kinect game. Years later, Frontier finally had the chance to build the game that they wanted, combining elements of their original vision and the interactivity of Kinectimals.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/2013/12/zoo-tycoon-review/" target="_blank">Click here to read the full review</a>.</div>
Robin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189324926712484095.post-80388571805729241392013-11-18T15:17:00.000+00:002013-12-08T15:18:10.351+00:00Morphopolis Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Morphopolis-003.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Morphopolis-003.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
New point and click puzzle game Morphopolis already comes with a lot of critical acclaim behind it. Before its release it has already won a Design Award from the Association of Illustrators, as well as being part of the special selection at Rezzed. Arriving with such high praise, gamers should expect big things from this hidden object title from first-time developers Micro Macro.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
Morphopolis is concerned with an Aphid who wishes to re-unite with its lost companion – but in practice, there is no exposition or set-up to explain this. When playing, you are thrown straight into the first scene and in no way is any sort of narrative conveyed. This is disappointing, as the developers have mooted the title as being story-driven, but it most certainly isn’t. The only way I knew about the fact that there was even a narrative at all was from reading the developer’s blurb.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/2013/11/morphopolis-review/" target="_blank">Click here to read the full review</a>.</div>
Robin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189324926712484095.post-78386873219162519012013-11-13T15:17:00.000+00:002013-12-08T15:18:42.761+00:00Deadfall Adventures Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Deadfall-Featured.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Deadfall-Featured.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
Embarking upon an expedition in the hopes of finding that one big pay-off is a romantic idea. Movies have long mined this genre, and video games too are well aware of its appeal, with Tomb Raider and Uncharted being obvious examples. It is Uncharted which is the clear influence behind Deadfall Adventures. Where Uncharted followed Nathan Drake, ancestor of explorer Sir Francis Drake, Deadfall Adventures follows a very similar pattern. Gamers this time step into the shoes of James Lee Quatermain, Grandson of the fictional original tomb raider, Alan Quatermain. James is a reluctant hero – a mercenary treasure hunter who shies away from the legacy of his Grandfather.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
That is until Jennifer Goodwin – an agent of the U.S. Government – asks for his help in obtaining a series of artefacts that could help protect the free world, and which must be kept away from the villains of the piece, the Nazis. In true Indiana Jones style, the game plays off Hitler’s real-life obsession with supernatural artefacts. So far, the story is very generic – being as hackneyed and unoriginal as you could imagine. This isn’t helped by uninspired dialogue that is delivered in a pretty lacklustre way. The story falls flat through this bad execution, and it certainly won’t grip you like the movies and books it is inspired by.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/2013/11/deadfall-adventures-review/" target="_blank">Click here to read the full review</a>.</div>
Robin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189324926712484095.post-27386068864772765282013-10-22T15:15:00.000+01:002013-12-08T15:16:28.669+00:00Pocket Titans Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/PT-Featured-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="186" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/PT-Featured-2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to combine a turn-based Role-Playing game with the type a sliding-tile puzzle game, Pocket Titans is the answer. A strange hybrid of puzzle game and RPG, Pocket Titans adds an extra dimension to what you stereotypically expect from a swords and sorcery adventure.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
You control a group of Titans – trainee heroes – as they set out on their first quests and learn how to best use their individual talents. Each of the eight Titans in the game is a unique class, with individual skills and abilities that much be learned and mastered in order to successfully complete levels. You begin with only the Mage and Warrior, with the Mage having a strong ranged attack and weak close combat, and the Warrior possessing great Melee strength. As you go forth on your quest to help the King of the land, you will encounter friends and foes, and unlock more Titans for your team.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/2013/10/pocket-titans-review/" target="_blank">Click here to read the full review</a>.</div>
Robin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189324926712484095.post-38565441330206681522013-10-14T15:14:00.000+01:002013-12-08T15:15:30.443+00:00Against The Grain - Or Why I don't Like Pokemon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Pokemon-Article-Featured-Image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Pokemon-Article-Featured-Image.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
Don’t get me wrong – I’ve tried to like Pokémon, I really have. When the craze first hit our Western shores in the late nineties, it caused a huge commotion and was an instant hit. You couldn’t avoid Pokémon, be it the games, the trading cards, the cartoon series, or the merchandise. You could hear young children in town spouting a list of near-incomprehensible words; names of the seemingly endless list of pocket monsters featured in the series.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
I, of course, couldn’t escape it, being a gamer and at school. I watched the television show and was introduced to the game on a friend’s Gameboy Colour. The characters and ideas were creative and interesting, but nothing about the concept excited me – remember, when I watched the show I was a schoolboy, and this was the biggest school-yard craze of the time. However, I just couldn’t get into the cartoon series without the knowledge of the game many of my friends had, and I didn’t take to the game – possibly due to my disdain for turn-based combat (not to say I hate all turn-based games, I love the Persona series, but find the mechanic slows down action scenes and acts as a barrier to exciting gameplay).</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/2013/10/why-i-dont-like-pokemon/" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article</a>.</div>
Robin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189324926712484095.post-3505850934662804282013-09-17T15:12:00.000+01:002013-12-08T15:14:19.467+00:00Interview with Child Of Light Lead Writer Jefferey Yohalem<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Child-of-Light-featured1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Child-of-Light-featured1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
At GDC Europe, Far Cry 3’s creative director Patrick Plourde let slip that he and his<br />
Far Cry partner and lead writer Jeffrey Yohalem were working on a brand new IP called Child of Light. Inspired by J-RPGs and built using the UbiArt framework, the game looks incredibly promising. At Ubisoft’s Digital Day, we not only got some hands-on time with the game, but also had a chat with writer Yohalem.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/2013/09/child-light-lead-writer-interview/" target="_blank">Click here to read the full interview</a>.Robin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189324926712484095.post-2632274202062521182013-09-16T15:11:00.000+01:002013-12-08T15:12:34.273+00:00Child Of Light Preview<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Child-of-Light-featured1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Child-of-Light-featured1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
One of the nicest surprises to arise from the European Game Developers Conference this year was that of the new game coming from the lead designer and lead writer of Far Cry 3. Indeed, the new title that Patrick Plourde and Jeffrey Yohalem have been working on came as a somewhat big shift in direction after last year’s jungle-based shooter.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
Child of Light was pitched as an interactive poem, and it really does seem just that. The whole game plays out in rhyme, with all of the characters who inhabit the game world speaking in a strangely poetic manner. If that wasn’t an interesting enough starting point, the game is also somewhat of an homage to Japanese Role-Playing Games, and the early Final Fantasy titles in particular. And all of that is wrapped up in a lovely UbiArt-designed package.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/2013/09/child-light-preview/" target="_blank">Clck here to read the full preview</a>.</div>
Robin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189324926712484095.post-21110770528596228202013-09-13T15:10:00.000+01:002013-12-08T15:11:24.831+00:00Valiant Hearts: The Great War Preview<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Valiant-Hearts-featured.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Valiant-Hearts-featured.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
The UbiArt framework has won widespread acclaim for its use in Rayman Origins and, more recently, <a href="http://www.godisageek.com/2013/09/rayman-legends-ps-vita-review/" style="color: #ad397b; outline: none;" title="Rayman Legends review">Rayman Legends</a>. But for some time now, gamers and critics alike have been asking the question: Wouldn’t UbiArt be great if used for other, non-Rayman titles? At the Ubisoft Digital Days event this week, Ubisoft came out with two brand new UbiArt IPs and a definitive answer – yes, yes it would.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
One of those brand new titles is also looking to defy the conventions of the war-game genre. Firstly, Ubisoft Montpellier have opted to tackle the far-less fashionable topic – in gaming terms at least – of the First World War. It has always seemed a more difficult conflict to translate into a game than the Second World War. But more importantly than that, the development team have avoided the all-too common wartime shooter genre, or real-time strategy, and Valiant Hearts: The Great War is actually a puzzle-based Adventure Game. It was proposed that the best way to tackle the subject of death was through a story-driven, personal game.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/2013/09/valiant-hearts-great-war-preview/" target="_blank">Click here to read the full preview</a>.</div>
Robin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189324926712484095.post-14117516945843662882013-09-08T15:09:00.000+01:002013-12-08T15:09:55.297+00:00Castle Of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Castle-of-Illusion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/Castle-of-Illusion.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Disney seem to be on somewhat of a retro kick lately, what with the recently-released DuckTales Remastered and now this – a re-imagining of classic MegaDrive title Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse. Of course, one of these was developed by Capcom and the other by SEGA, but Disney itself must have some interest in re-living the past glories of the company in video game form.<br />
<br />
Whereas Duck Tales was exactly what it said on the box, a re-mastering complete with updated graphics and sound but maintaining the gameplay and level structure of the original, the developers who put together Castle of Illusion take a little more creative freedom with their game. Although many factors and features remain from the original 1991 game, SEGA Studios Australia have used that title as a jumping-off point.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/2013/09/castle-illusion-starring-mickey-mouse-review/" target="_blank">Click here to read the full review</a>.Robin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189324926712484095.post-37969967970775906912013-09-07T15:06:00.000+01:002013-12-08T15:07:31.727+00:00The Raven: Legacy Of A Master Thief - Chapter Two: Ancestry Of Lies Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Raven-Featured1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Raven-Featured1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
KingArt may well have been responsible for one of my favourite adventure games of the last few years, the Book of Unwritten Tales, but as so many developers have found out, not everything that one touches turns to gold. With The Raven: Legacy of a Master Thief, the development team certainly made a strong start.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
The freely downloadable or browser-based prologue was a stylish and atmospheric introduction to the world. We learnt who The Raven is and some of those most concerned with bringing him to justice. Then there was the first episode, which was quite well-received, and further established what we could expect from the series. Unfortunately, with Chapter Two, entitled Ancestry of Lies, the series takes a somewhat major misstep, and the flaws that perhaps could have been over-looked in the first entry in the series are now far too obtrusive and obvious to ignore.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/2013/09/raven-legacy-master-thief-chapter-2-ancestry-lies-review/" target="_blank">Click here to read the full review</a>.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<br /></div>
Robin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189324926712484095.post-58931091520216968972013-09-06T15:04:00.000+01:002013-12-08T15:08:41.495+00:00Retro Corner: The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/the_magical_quest_starring_mickey_mouse_-_1992_-_capcom_co-_ltd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/uploads/the_magical_quest_starring_mickey_mouse_-_1992_-_capcom_co-_ltd.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
When you look at Disney games today, you can easily expect to find the exact same title on any platform of your choosing. That wasn’t always the case, however, and in the early nineties rights to produce Disney titles were split in a genre-specific manner. SEGA produced their own Disney titles for their Mega Drive, Master System and Game Gear consoles – which lead to the very popular Castle of Illusion, just to name one (which of course has received an HD remake just this month). At the same time, Capcom were producing titles featuring Mickey and Co. on Nintendo systems.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
This was great for gamers in terms of variety – so you had a real choice of different titles to play – but also a shame because those gamers who didn’t have access to multiple console formats would undoubtedly miss out on fifty percent of the titles, whether they were good or bad. One of these games that saw a Super Nintendo release, but never went multi-platform, was The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse. And whilst the game may not have been as challenging as its Mega Drive counterpart Castle of Illusion, it was certainly a lot more inventive.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.15625px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.godisageek.com/2013/09/retro-corner-magical-quest-starring-mickey-mouse/" target="_blank">Click here to read the full article</a>.</div>
Robin Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11594423895354997592noreply@blogger.com0