U gotta play the GAME to win..

Recently gained employment as a part-time shop assistant at the soon-to-be opened GAME store in Sandvika Senter outside of Oslo. Need the cash, looking forward to working with games and not to mention excited to be werking regularily for the first time in ages! First day at werk was yesterday (at a different store in the branch) and it went swimmingly. Good shit all round.

Time is on my side: Massive gaming update

OK, been a good two plus months now since I wrote anything, but with the amount of new shit I've been trying out and playing it's high time I tossed in my two cents about some games. First off, a bunch of games I played in Bodø.

To begin with I'd like to say a thing or two about Guitar Hero II. Anyone in their right mind has at this point at least given this title a go by now. I've until recently played it sporadically at best
but recently I spent some elongated quality time with the game and got completely hooked. I have yet to get around to grinding through "hard"-mode but most of medium is aced.. yeah, not the most hard core there is yet, but who really gives a crap anyway. An interesting thing about the game was pointed out to me by my pacifist musicloving father as he watched me play it (the playing took place at my parents house during the holidays). He noted how it was one of few games where the object is in no way, shape or form about destruction or killing.. and he's right, it really is one of few recent games that isn't confrontational and at the same time a massive success. Dwell on that for a minute.

Speaking of music games, I tried another more or less related title on the DS as well, Elite Beat Agents. It's a adaptation of a japanese title for the western market where the aim is to tap hotspots on the touch screen in time to the music. The in-game premise is quite strange but also fairly hilarious: when regular people have regular everyday problems they can't handle, they call for help and the EBA step to and dance the problems away. Only in japan.. In any case the tracks vary in terms of appeal but the game is fun all the way and has many of the same addictive premises as GH, worth a look if you're into music/rhythm action/crazy j-style games. Over-the-top visuals and a strong comedic nerve make it a stand-out title and a game that truly has it's home on the DS.

Speaking of DS, I had a run at Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, a surprising sequel indeed. Whereas many of the CV games of late have been quite good but somewhat formulaic this one steps it's game up by introducing not only a very well-implemented two-character system (no, not in the same way as Dawn of Sorrow) but also smaller environments outside Dracula's castle. The former twist works very nicely because it alters the gameplay dynamic quite noticably as you can switch characters swiftly, have the current secondary back you up at any given time or just go at it solo. This helps tailor the gameplay for a variety of situations (one of my favourite being the ability to jump off the secondary characters shoulders), and also because the two characters are specialized in magic and physical combat respectively. This may remind some of DoS option for two sets of interchangeable gear but is more expansive. The second twist is the most noticable not only in terms of introducing fresh environments but also in presenting a wide array of entirely new enemies. These sublevels are also at times structured in a radically different way and therefore offer a genuine break from the at this point almost predictable castle exploration the series is famous for. However, much like 10,000 days wasn't better than Ænima this doesn't beat Symphony of the Night, but it's possibly the most interesting installation in the franchise since said title. The only really negative thing I can come up with is that the music could have been better, but the rest of the sound design is spot-on. The animations and graphics deserve mention too. Crisp, clean, fluid sprites all round and vibrant detailed backgrounds make this a very pretty game indeed.

The last of the Bodø games is, however, by no means the least. Quite the contrary. If you own a PS2 and haven't already gotten Okami, do yourself a major favour and do so at the first possible opportunity. Not only is it the swan song for the short-lived but excellent Clover Studios, it is also a slice of pure beauty so sensually appealing you wouldn't believe the hardware powering it was capable of such things. On the one hand there is the stunning and artisticly superior visuals that pair up with exciting and brilliantly implemented sound design to enthrall your senses. On the other there is the almost Zelda-like explorational action-adventure gameplay that channels your commands fluently from hand to screen, guiding your character with effortless ease and grace. If you are unfamiliar with the premise it's quite the standard evil darkness and corruption versus the good forces of nature (note here the strong environmental vibe that courses through the game, hinting at a political agenda), a fairly standard framework based on several old Shinto myths that work well enough for the game but won't win awards for originality. You play as Amaterasu, a goddess in the form of a white wolf who travels the land with a magical paintbrush with the intent of ridding said lands of a cursed darkness that has swept over them. I won't go into details further about this, you'll have ample time to explore the story once you play the game. The two major gripes I have with this game is the unskippable story sections (the intro is excruciatingly lengthy) and the fact that the control of the magical brush with a Dualshock analogue stick leaves something to be desired in terms of precision. This last point is at times a jarring contrast to the main character controls, but not enough so to break an otherwise astoundingly gripping game. It took a couple of hours for my love for this game to surface, but when it came it stuck and my only regret at this point is that I wasn't able to play through it. Well worth the time!

Next post will address recent gaming adventures after my move to Oslo.

Coop: Rollin' with my mf strap on the side of me..

Had a nice day out yesterday, went over to a mate's place to do some serious gaming. The presence of a Wii with an ample library plus the promise of a 360 in the horizon made it an attractive proposition, plus it was an opportunity to barter away (and by barter i mean donate) my Edge collection that turned out to weight about the same as an armor clad giant gorilla.

Anyhoo, we spun through a few Wii titles, a few of which were not too bad. Seriously though, Nintendo really need to get some juicier titles out real soon, the lack of killer apps is getting embarrasing.. especially considering the very high sales figures the system has seen since launch. Games like Cooking Mama are a fun idea but they drive me a little nuts after a while. More fun, however, was had when we came into possession of a 360 and sat down to grind through Rainbow Six Vegas in coop.

Traditionally I haven't been much into these kinds of titles with the notable exception of Splinter Cell. The realistic setting and war focused theme never appealed too much to me, but I was willing to give it a spin. Plus, coop gaming is usually good fun. It also helped that we were running the game on a big-ass hdtv and a surround sound system, split screen doesn't seem so bad when each split is as big as a regular TV. In contrast to my expectations this game turned out to be great fun! Whereas I am hardly the most talented FPS player out there we managed to apply good tactics and weapon choices in such a manner that the game stayed consistently enjoyable for several hours. Playing the game in coop also allows for nice tactical possibilities, with assaults orchestrated in a coordinated and structured fashion.

It runs on the Unreal 3 engine (same as Gears of War) so it was quite good looking, save a few attrocious textures. Ubisoft have also implemented cover-based gaming elements similar to Gears of War making it very nicely playable and also allowing for some more structured tactics. The setting was initially just OK but as we got to the Vegas part this really improved, changing both the feel and pace of the game quite substantially. What stuck out as the real star of the game was however the sound design. Excellent effects coupled with the environment affecting acoustics made it highly realistic and involving. The sound of a gunshot ringing through a large trainyard or between the walls of run-down mexican houses was at times truly astounding.

Yeah yeah, it's yet another franchise game but Ubisoft are cooler than EA and this one was easily worth the time.

As a sidenote I would like to mention Guitar Hero II for the 360. I played this a fair bit when I visited Oslo recently and that shit is seriously addictive when you get into it. The difference between this version and the one for PS2 are negligible but one cold hard benefit remains firmly with the 360 version: downloadable content baby, downloadable content.

New Gen: The alternatives

So, the three new consoles are more or less out now (Sony still hates Europe.. fuck you very much) and for a game junkie like myself the question of system ownership grows ever more present. In a perfect world I would get them all and never think twice about games that I lusted for. Reality does however tend to impose it´s presence and it seems choices will have to be made. As I am currently a rather broke student type person I can´t even begin to afford supporting more than one system right now, albeit later I would like to have at least two at my disposal. In previous posts I have waxed about some of the reasons Nintendo´s latest is a great choice for me but I would like to add the following arguments: Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, Wario Ware Smooth Moves, Super Swing Golf, Dragon´s Quest Swords plus any incarnations of Mario Kart, Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon that might make their way onto the platform. This is not to say that no other titles tempt me, but all of these are prime cut deal-sealers that keep me awake at night thinking of them. However, other temptations lurk in the horizons of my dreams..

I´ll just come right out and admit that the PS3 is about as interesting to me as the World Quilting Championship broadcast live on pay-per-view would be. It´s too pricey, the premise seems unengaging, I can still remember how badly Sony have treated a lot of their european fans and gamers in general (delayed releases and Lik Sang spring to mind) and I have very little faith in Blu-Ray. Sure, there are bound to be some killer games for it and they will all probably look like Elvis is visiting your living room but you need a pricey-ass HDTV for that to even begin to be a factor. As of now the exclusives are beginning to be few and far between, and the crushing metal gauntlet the company has throttled it´s competition with the two last generations appears to be warping into a meek kittens paw that´s had it´s claws pulled out (cat lovers can feel free to leave their flaming in the comments section below). Availability is also a huge concern and judging by experience a price drop in Norway won´t see the light of day until well into ´08. Also, I just want to spill some bile toward them for blatantly stealing the motion sensor idea and claiming it was intended all along. For fucks sake, of all the idiotic statements the company has issued for the last year or so this one really shook my monkey tree (don´t snicker!). To hell with them and their overpriced barbecue. I had little faith in their handheld attempt and so far sales figures in the DS´favour are proving my assumptions right. Good thing I got the weird one and never thought twice about the glorified pocket movie machine with no studio support and very few actual games worth mentioning.

This leaves me with one further option, one that only a year ago seemed fairly uninteresting. Not so any more. The Xbox 360, like any other fledgling system, suffered from a bad case of "shitty launch lineup" and has also struggled to build a very convincing roster of games until recently. Now, however, it seems some truly interesting things have started popping up. My first-hand experience with the console is a little limited, involving mostly Oblivion and Dead Rising (both stellar titles IMO) and a little Call of Duty and Table Tennis on the side (no Live sadly) but some recent and upcoming titles are making this a more interesting console. I would like to go through Gears of War just to see what all the fuss is about, but it´s hardly a killer app from where I´m standing. Viva Pinata appeals to my prediliction toward naive nongames and would surely be in my library if I owned this particular system but even these two plus Oblivion (which I actually shelled out for during an extended borrowing of my friends Xbox.. I do love my oversized RPG´s) and Dead Rising weren´t quite enough. What really has me considering this powerplant of an entertainment system is Lost Planet, Blue Dragon and especially Bioshock. This last game looks to be seriously cool, and if it is able to meet my expectations it will be a hell of a ride. Besides an increasingly appealing catalogue of games the 360 is easy to find and probably due for a price drop soon (I´m guessing one that coincides with the euro PS3 launch). Choosing between it and the Wii is getting harder even if the latter is more probable, but these are definitely the two systems I aim to own this time around. I just have to find some way to pay for them..

Forgotten gold: The Dark Eye

In keeping with the current retro theme so far I have decided to delve into a long forgotten title that got far less attention than it deserved. It started last night when I was sitting in the cellar finishing Monkey Island 2 with my bro riding shotgun. After it was done we started talking about old games and started digging around the net for info, back stories and abandonware. Titles such as The 7th Guest, Goblins 3 and the Tex Murphy games came under scrutiny as we reminisced about the games we grew up with and after some time we recalled a game that is truly a special chapter in gaming history, namely The Dark Eye. You have probably never heard of or played it, so allow me to enlighten you.


The game is basicly a first person frame-by-frame adventure or interactive story where you as the protagonist experience several of Edgar Allan Poe´s legendary short stories first-hand. It´s set around the 1800´s and you start in a mansion belonging to an old friend and the core storyline vaguely resembles that of Fall of the House of Usher, but as you explore you find that you can delve into first hand accounts of The Tell-Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado and Berenice. All of these are experienced both as murderer and victim making for quite the grim experience. Besides these great tales of terror you find non-interactive versions of The Masque of the Red Death and Annabell Lee, both wonderfully rendered using the vocal stylings of William S. Burroughs (who also plays the owner of the house). The game isn´t as interactive as most other examples in it´s genre as you just seek out hotspots to continue through the story but it is hands on enough that you feel a part in it (something the first person perspective enhances).

After doing a little research it became apparent to me that this game got a bit of a bad rep, partly due to people not quite understanding the games premices but also on account of some technical issues. The interface is a simple single-click one that often promotes seemingly aimless searching for the right location and object, something that makes for a slightly weak game mechanic. Once you have entered a tale there is no turning back even if you´ve previously gone through it (albeit you can access them automatically in a phrenology-map style menu as the game starts up, in itself a nice reference to the era the game is set in), and there are no subtitles. However, as far as I can remember these felt like minor problems when I played it, which is atmittedly many years ago. The real strength of the game lies in the story and the design.

Plotwise this is hard to beat, as these are classic horror stories from one of the horror genres masters. Lookwise it was splendid at the time of it´s release, with wonderful computer rendered images blended with the use of bizzare caricatured clay puppets applied for the characters in the game instead of 3-D or 2-D sprites. It has an almost Dave McKean-like tint across the board making for very evocative and effective visuals that stand out even today as quite stunning. The sound is dark and evocative, a nice blanket on the back wall of the atmosphere sealing the deal in terms of mood. All these strengths alone make it worth the play but it is in it´s bolder choices that it stands out amongst it´s peers. Because, let´s face it, messing about too much with a working formula is bad news, and the stories in question work so well that any form of free will hampers the telling of them. Therefore it is decidedly more of an interactive story than a game, but a tremendous one at that. I just wish they had given this sort of treatment to some of Lovecraft´s work.

The fact that you often perform deeds of grim murder also enhances the awareness theme I described in my look at Manhunt (see older post), making sure you come out of the game feeling sullied and weary. I really like the idea of seeing two sides of the story. The only thing worse than the certain feel that you are imprisoning a person untill his inevitable starvation inside a brick wall you lay yourself is being on the other side of it as it happens. Take my advice and seek this game out, it is truly a long forgotten masterpiece deserving much more attention than it has ever gotten.

Great Ideas: Liang Shan-Po

Besides gaming there's been a fair few viewings of films and series and between the british sitcoms and the korean revenge flicks I revisited an old japanese series I first watched a few years back called "The Water Margin", a series based on an old chinese novel. For some more info have a look HERE and HERE, but the rough idea is that in China 1000 years ago the reborn souls of 108 heroes arose to defeat the evil military commander Kao Chiu. These rebels and outlaws, based in the inpenetrable fortress of Liang Shan-Po, are led by the great swordsman Lin Chung who lost his true love due to Kao Chiu's wicked schemes. Without going much further into the specifics, I have concluded that this would make an excellent premise for a video game. Perhaps an action-RPG in the style of Jade Empire would be in order, with some more emphasis on the combat part.

The reasons I think this would be an excellent idea are as follows. The roster of characters ranges from comic reliefs through corageous heroes to vicious villains and two-faced cut-throats. It's a great epic of good versus evil, honour versus dishonour and the large state versus the small band of rebels.. kind of like Star Wars really. Each of the 26 episodes centers on either the main story and the main characters or on smaller characters and small side stories that add flesh to the saga. There are tense battles and epic swordfights against a background of poor peasants being defended by those more capable. The series also boasts several strong female characters, making for some good gender balance. With a slight supernatural element (some magic, reborn heroes etc.) the obligatory fantastical part of an RPG is also satisfied. Add to this a good theme tune and the promise in this concept seems even more plausible. To be able to truly see how cool this could be as a game, maybe even as an episodic game considering this is trendy with smaller games lately, check out the series if you can find it. Sure, it's chock full of cheese and has to be considered by the standards of the time of it's making but it's great fun none the less.

EDIT: a little research reveals that others have had similar ideas, i.e. Konami with the Suikoden games, but I would still like to see a game closer to the spirit of the TV series and less heavy on the anime/manga styling.

Post Xmas gaming - portable: Cross my palm and hope to die.

As well as the already mentioned games that have been played so far during my extremely long northern holiday, all of them using a projector and surround sound system, the small screen hasn't been entirely neglected. Some things are in fact better on two small screen, hence the DS has been in use also.

I haven't picked up Animal Crossing Wild World since before summer for whatever reasons, and coming back to it was in part nightmarish. All those months of neglect meant that my town of Midas (named after the FOH mixer brand.. did I mention I dabble in sound engineering?) was overrun by weed.. and not the good kind. Getting rid of all of it plus the bloody 'roaches (still bad kind of) in my house (or I should say Nook's house that I borrow, still haven't finished paying him back.. makes me wonder when he comes knocking with two gorillas and a baseball bat demanding his bells made out in unmarked bills in three small suitcases) took ages, but it's done now and I can go back to.. just mucking about round town. At least one resident fucked off someplace else but I got a weird toad and a wolf in exchange so it's all good. Hopefully the acres of foreign fruits that have been planted in the northside of town will make the house expansion a fast process. Otherwise just getting some fishing done and the odd interacting with other villages fills what little time I spend with the game when I pick it up. Sometimes I even wonder myself what exactly is the appeal with games like these, but somehow I'm always attracted to these naive non-games. Good counterweight to some of the nastier stuff though (see post
below). My advice for any other ACWW player is: if you plan on keeping the game going don't leave it for half a year.. your town will look like shit.

Other than that I've played some of the mandatory Tetris DS rounds.. I swear Im a proper Tetris addict, once I start I can't stop, and the only mode I'm ever bothered with is limited marathon mode, i.e. best score within 20 levels. So far my sad affliction has net'ed a highscore of just over 615k, and trust me that took more time and effort than I care to admit. I also picked up Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow, playing the main game for the second time (not counting the partial run-through in Julius mode) in anticipation of Portal of Ruin.. Man I love Castlevania games, especially Symphony, Dracula X and Simon's Quest. I'm just dreaming of a nice 2-D one for the Wii. The 3-D ones have so far been fairly crap, so never mind those. CDS is still good fun the second time round but I'm grinding through the clock tower right now and it is hands down my least favorite part of the castle (this goes for pretty much all Castlevania games.. fucking Medusa heads).

Shotgun gaming: This is what happens when you don't keep it real!

The first part of the header mainly refers to the fact that I've been co-playing games with my brother, riding shotgun so to speak. The two titles I've "assisted" on are Silent Hill 2 and Manhunt, both slightly older games but neither without it's virtues, if such a term can be used rearding these titles. So far neither have been completed but some gametime has gone into them and some clear ideas about what they are like have emerged. Both games are being played on an Xbox.

Firstly, Silent Hill 2. I never got around to playing this when it came out but I enjoyed SH1 a lot when it was new so I was really curious about what this sequel was like. There are as far as I can tell some heavy pro's as well as heavy con's in this title. The really bad stuff first. The controls are APPALING! Steering who's-his-face and trying to engage in combat are seriously painful tasks that make me happy I'm not the one with the controller in hand. From what I could tell the control scheme is an unwelcome ghost from the original PS controller days before analogue sticks were standard and the designers should be hung, drawn and quartered for implementing this horrendous technique. Most of the time it's more tempting to just run past enemies rather than fight them simply because the fighting is not only awkward but no fun what so ever. The graphics are obvioulsy ported from PS2 and look somewhat aged on the Xbox but good use of lighting and grain filter still make it passably good-looking.
What really keeps this titles head above water are genuinely creepy environments and brilliant sound design. A lot of the time the fog in the streets is a little on the exagerated side but once you get into the apartment building it all becomes seriously pear-shaped and nerve shattering. Great dark ravaged rooms, low lights and disturbing stains all round make sure you're quite afraid of what the darkness may hide, but it's all topped off with teeth-grinding ambient soundtextures, the true stars of the game. I would argue that sound alone make this title worthwhile, with the notable exceptions of some sound effects (walking sounds in particular). The welcome return of the pocket radio from the games older sibling is still as effective, one of my all-time favourite game elements. The monsters look genuinely freaky and the evidence of violence all round keep this title interesting. I just really wish the game designers knew thing one about playability, because the controls are almost as attrocious as Resi Evil 1.

I have quite a few things to say about Manhunt. In contrast to a lot of gamers I not only think it's brilliant but also criminally ignored. Many complaints were leveled at it for being unnecessarily violent and gratuitous but I think comments like these were not only misguided but also clear evidence of what I felt the game set out to prove in the first place: most gamers can't stand being confronted with just how much violence their hobby activities really involve. This is truly a disturbing game as well as one that pulls no punches. All the violence is extremely graphic and every time you sneak up on a hunter to execute him there is no doubt about what you are doing. The only relief lies in knowing that the ones you kill are just as vicious as you are and probably deserve being killed.
If you are unfamiliar with the premise it's like a snuff version of The Running Man where you play a convict originally intended for a death penalty but spared in favour of participating in a grotesque entertainment show. Guided by commands streaming through a wireless earpiece you are constantly urged to murder gang members inside a dystopian deserted city "theme-park" using increasingly inhumane means. As you progress through the game you get access to different weapons (ranging from plastic bags and garotte wires to machetes and shotguns) and are transported to different locations populated by one demented and sadistic gang after the other. The most effective procedure through much of the game is using stealth and sneaking up for one-hit stealth kills as direct combat will often leave you either scarred or dead. These stealth kills vary in terms of the weapon used and all weapons have three degrees of excess, each increasingly gory and violent. The ambiguous feeling you get from committing exceptionally graphic murders is truly unique and will often leave you both thrilled and disgusted in unequal measures depending on your predilictions.

Technically it's quite well made, with a nicely detailed protagonist, monotone but effective environments, disturbing enemies and good sound design. The main character, one James Earl Cash, looks very good with all weapons visible and detailed as well as good movement responses. The grainy CCTV and VHS look really underscores the disturbing snuff vibe in an extremely effective way making sure it is a truly scary game. All the gangs have trademark costumes, often contrasting the innocent with the decidedly macabre. Sound is a vital element due to the heavy emphasis on stealth and suspense and this aspect definitely delivers. The gameplay is quite reminiscent of the GTA games and is simple but effective, no more or less than it needs to be. The simplified stealth may at first seem unsophisticated but this element also points out the important fact that you are in fact not playing a master thiefor a government op but rather an untrained "everyman" doing his best to hide from madmen lest he be brutally slaughtered. It emphasises the games premise quite effectively and while it may take some getting used to if you are more accustomed to the likes of Splinter Cell it still works nicely.

However, when all this is said, the game has a sort of hidden life veiled beneath it's grimy and disturbing surface. It may seem like an extreme exercise in gratuity and schlock from the people who shocked the world with GTA but I agree with Edge magazine in the idea that it is actually much more. The themes in the game works at a meta level and this is one of the only titles I know of that truly questions the violence most gamers are increasngly blunted toward in their chosen hobby. Many games involve a lot more killing than this title and are in many ways much more morally reprehensible but it is the way this is designed that awaken the disgust so lacking when playing for instance Call of Duty. The game forces you to face your actions in a way few others would dare, and it is probably this that has left a lot of gamers feeling uneasy and negative toward Manhunt.
For once a game has them realize just how vicious they act with a pad in hand and the average gamer can't take it. Even if you enjoy the title and feel elated when you finally take out that one annoying guy that's been a thorn in your side for half an hour you still feel yourself stepping back and questioning just how good you feel about the brutality you are directly responsible for. Even the degrees of excess in regard to executions has you make concious choices about how sadistic and graphic you want the game to be. As a piece of culture commentary this is close to unparallelled, and this is the reason I think Manhunt has been criminally ignored. I will also admit to being seduced by the unmasked violence and gripping suspense the game offers, not to mention that I really like to see a game being brutally honest and unafraid about using seriously innovative and disgusting elements to get it's point across. Avoid it at your own risk (or if you want to keep the tattered remains of your degraded mental health.. I'm already too far gone thanks to the likes of Takeshi Miike).

Post-Xmas gaming: Are you here to shake my monkey tree again?!?

Still stuck here in my old home town and still not much to do so games it is. Following up on the retread theme from before I've been going through the three first Monkey Island games again (partly, at least). I started out with Curse and am currently working on Secret 1 and 2. This all reminds me of a well-known gaming fact from days of yore: These games are among the finest ever for IBM-based computers and adventure games should be 2-D period (exception: Grim Fandango, but you need only look to Escape from MI for proof of this last statement)!

First off I'll say a word or two about the one I've actually finished, CMI. It still holds up very well, both in terms of gameplay and looks. The sharp clean graphics with large sprites and crisp colours are very easy on the eyes and stand as a good evidence that 2-D was abandoned just when it was getting good. The sound sits well with the whole package, dotting the I with well made tunes and amusing sound effects as well as voice acting ranging from capable to hilarious. Gameplaywise it has more in common with Full Throttle than MI 1 + 2 due to the three-command input rather than the old 3x3 old style SCUMM commands. This makes it less of a chore to play and leaves you to enjoy the batshit insane puzzles and equally weird humour. But let's face it, the two main pulls in this game series are setting and comedy, and the game delivers these in droves. I was almost surprised at how much I still enjoyed this title after all these years, but it seems the great characters and very amusing script make sure this title stands as a pillar in it's genre. I have to admit that with age I've become very impatient so parts of the game were completed using Gamefaqs (Yeah, I know, but considering the many years spent sweating and bleeding trying to solve adventure games way back when I feel somewhat justified in being old and lazy), but the main enjoyment is in the comedy, yeah? Good fun still!

I've only started on SMI 1 + 2, but they still stand out as amusing and engaging titles. What struck me when I started playing the first one was that the designers had gone for more realism than the sequels, especially in regard to close-ups of NPC's. This basicly means that the series got more stylized and cartoony with time, in stark contrast to the parallell trend in many other games of a more photo-realistic approach. Gameplaywise the two games are basicly identical and this is one of two aspects that haven't aged with total dignity. Having to mouse over the bottom of the screen and choose very specific commands for everything you do can be a pain, and whereas I thought the one-click approach of the reborn Sam'n'max game(s) was a little too simple I think the technique used in CMI is optimal. The graphics are of course not top notch any more but they were amazing back then and are clean enough to make the games easily playable. At times the rough pixels make objects hard too spot, much like I remembered it from back then, and this can be annoying but most of the time this isn't a problem. Most importantly the games are still funny and the weird puzzle logic still entertaining. What I would really like to see is remakes of these two adventure gems with improved controls, graphics a la CMI, reconstructed soundtrack and voice acting. That would be a more exciting gaming event than any next-gen game I can think of (excluding Wario Ware Wii).

My advice: take time out to play these gems among games again, or if you haven't already step to! Excellent entertainment and true pillars in gaming history.

PS: SCUMMvm is one of the greatest program inventions ever, viva la retro gaming!

Xmas gaming: Looking both fwd and rwd

It´s inevitable. With all the free time and lack of other entertainment a lot of us (at least myself) have during the christmas holidays having a game console available is a surefire way to keep yourself busy even if the TV sends nothing but shit and the weather is bad (and from where I´m writing now it is truly monstrous, almost storm-type wind strength plus cats & dogs). So what if you haven´t brought one to where you´re spending the holidays (which happens to be my predicament)? Three options present themselves: buy one (not smart, never buy stuff right before xmas), go to a friends place for some social gaming action or borrow one.

I´ve gone for the two latter options. The other day me and two friends had a go on my mate´s Wii (ha-fucking-ha), further sementing existing opinions of Sports Tennis and Golf being the most fun more than one person can have without plastic explosives and a dead badger and also confirming my suspicions that Zelda is in fact entertaining to watch as well as play. But seeing as weather is a major factor in available activities and seeing as I have to adjust to other people´s schedules to play socially I asked a friend if he ha a spare console. Turns out he had an old Xbox lying around that wasn´t being used much so I jumped at the chance.

So far I´ve been sampling Dreamfall and replaying Jade Empire. The former has so far been a bit disappointing. I quite enjoyed The Longest Journey back in the day (being an old adventure game veteran) so the slightly boxy graphics here and there plus the clunky control system were unsurprising but diminishing factors. The story unfolded in a fairly appealing way and only parts of the voiceacting were truly attrocious but the sheer feel of the game was not very tight at all. I know 3-D adventure games rarely have very smooth control schemes but this is no real excuse, it made the game feel a lot less fun after a short while and the fighting system they implemented for no sound reason I can concieve of is utter rubbish. I have yet to decide whether to continue playing it since I did find the story somewhat compelling (and this is of course the most important part of the experience next to puzzles and problem solving), but for now I´ll let it cool off.

My revisit to Jade Empire is a much more pleasant experience. I never got around to finishing much of i before but found it to be quite engaging. The main reason it started collecting dust before completion was that last time I had been playing a fair amount of KotOR (which I loved to bits.. but sometimes the same engine can make games feel samey, like with Thief III vs Deus Ex 2) prior to getting JE. Now it´s been a good long while since last I played a Bioware style RPG and upon encountering one again I still feel they are masters of their craft. The game still feels engaging both in terms of story, character building and combat. Whereas I prefer the tighter tactical fights of KotOR the realtime system here is clearly more suited to the theme, and in many ways I´m more in the mood for a deep character system now than the stripped down one in JE but it doesn´t make an enormous difference. It is still a surprisingly pretty game and hours pass by effortlessly while playing it. Unless I grow bored I think I might go for a completion by the end of the holiday.. That is unless social activities (hopefully) "interfere".

I have other titles available but they are somewhat uninteresting. Sure, Burnout Revenge is bound to pop up now and then (especially two-player mode) but titles like Sudeki and Fuzion Frenzy do little to draw my attention away from the games currently in progress. I also imagine there could be some DS multiplayer action since a large number of people I will meet up here own one so I guess busting out Mario Kart DS and Tetris DS might be in order.