While having a limited visual field and a soundtrack that seems to comprise of scrap metal clanging together, Silent Hill retains an adoring fan base more than a decade after its release. Harry Mason and his daughter Cheryl are driving to the resort town of Silent Hill for a vacation. The car swerves and crashes to avoid the phantasm of a girl in the road. Harry later awakens to find Cheryl missing, and himself surrounded by a dense fog. He must venture into the dilapidated Silent Hill and unravel the clues of the mysterious Alessa if he wants any chance of recovering Cheryl.
I must be more fond of this game than I realise, as I have a poster in my living room, the chainsaw controller, the soundtrack on the shelf and a fairly wall-obscuring collection of figurines. I was certainly very enthusiastic about the game on my first play-through of it years ago. This time around, I'm a little more cynical, perhaps because I knew what to expect, although there are certainly many worthy aspects of this title.
Known as Resident Evil in the west, this game undoubtedly shaped the future of survival horror. The story is infamous. On July 24th 1998, the Alpha team of the Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) fly out to search for their missing Bravo unit, amid reports of cannibalistic attacks. All they find of them is a severed hand, and as they are set-upon by unusually vicious dogs, they flee towards a mansion. Trapped inside, one member of the team disappears, and then another. You must find out what's going on, and find a way out.
Whether you're a fan of the Jurassic Park films or you just like the Tyrannosaurus Rex roar, you'll simply adore this game. I love it so much that it was a primary motivation for going through four XBOXes, replacing each one after it went off to Germany for repairs that didn't hold up for long. Unfortunately, each time an XBOX died, I lost my parks. Nonetheless, the quality of the game is such that I yearned for it until now. I was recently considering purchasing yet another XBOX so that I could play it, but instead we went with the PC version. And so, I bring you this review.
"Zero" in its native Japan and "Fatal Frame" in America, this is survival horror with a twist. No weapons to battle the dead, just the mysterious Camera Obscura with the ability to capture them.
You start out as Mafuyu Hinasaki in the dilapidated Himuro Mansion, apparently based on a real site outside of Tokyo, where gruesome deaths took place. Inside, shadows mislead, hair traps door handles and candles are somehow lit. Obvious nods to releases like Ringu and Ju-On abound. A friend of Mafuyu's, Junsei Takaminé, is known to have gone into the mansion for research, along with his assistants Koji Ogata and Tomoé Hirasaka. The three have been missing since, and so too now is Mafuyu, as the game switches to his sister.
In my opinion, this instalment certainly lacks the charm of the first. The character personalities, particularly that of Nikki, have changed beyond recognition and they may as well have been new characters altogether. The aesthetics are far too psychedelic for my liking.
This interesting little gem came out a while ago but we recently got around to playing it. In black and white but never ceasing to be visually interesting, Limbo centres around a young boy, whose background you know nothing of. You don't know why he is there, but he's in a forest, and things are sometimes literally topsy-turvy.
There is an unmistakeable sense of macabre while guiding this boy's fragile and floppy body through such disturbed scenery. Someone so small and delicate just shouldn't be there. But he is, and the only way to solve the problem is to keep going forward.
This isn't always easy. In fact it is mostly frustratingly difficult. I am glad that I have played Limbo, but many of the tasks just had an unnecessary level of difficulty, and the longer I was stuck somewhere, the less I was interested in the game as a whole. However, I am thankful that at least progress is saved every few moments and you emerge never very far from the dreadful thing that finished you. Limbo features continuous gameplay, rather than being broken up into levels.
If you relish a challenge and have a penchant for unsettling imagery, Limbo is a game for you. Much like in Abe's Oddysee, you can expect to die during most puzzles before figuring out what you're meant to do. Some things are obvious, they look like they can be moved around a certain way, but eventually up, down and sideways gravity comes into play, along with highly volatile moving objects.
Limbo isn't an especially long game, but its length is comfortable when you consider the bursts of difficulty. The ending is somewhat ambiguous, and there are countless theories surrounding it (don't read if you haven't played the game). All in all though, I recommend Limbo.
This game has a certain charm to it. Quirky and loveable it is. Pandemonium is the tale of Nikki, a sorceress, Fargus, a jester, and his puppet Sid. One night they accidentally summon a monster called Yungo, who eats their village. In order to put things back to how they were, they must have a wish granted by the Wishing Engine. And so commences their journey.
Tomorrow Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars is free on the Playstation Store for Playstation Plus users. The promotion lasts until August 3rd, and EVERYONE should try this game out. Everyone.
This game is easily the biggest multiplayer cult hit on PSN. It was released 2 years ago, and the number of players in matchmaking lobbies today is almost as high as when it was released.
Its a very very simple concept. Car football/soccer. Except the cars can jump, double-jump, barrell roll and boost. Hence the acrobaticness.
The game is physics based, so every touch of the ball feels correct and all sorts of crazy goals can be crafted.
SARPBC has both single-player and multiplayer, but multiplayer is definitely where you will want to spend 99% of your time. The single player mini-games and tournaments provide very useful training exercises that hone your skills, and if you find yourself getting thrashed online, I suggest going through all the mini-games and trying to beat your high scores.
Multiplayer has Ranked, Unranked and Team Games. These can all be either 1v1,2v2,3v3 or 4v4.
This game has ruled my life for the past 2 years. The feeling of satisfaction from scoring a skilled goal or pulling out a backwards aerial-save is awesome. I can't think of any other game that can be this satisfying.
This isnt a review so I wont go on and on. Its a difficult game to describe and the only way you will truly understand it is to try it for yourself. And its free, so you have literally no excuse. DO IT NOW!
I found myself with the urge to get this out of the cabinet! If I remember correctly it was released with a magazine in 1997 and proceeds went to The Prince's Trust. There's a lot of cool stuff on the disc, including a somewhat trippy music video compiling clips of upcoming games:
I was always intrigued as to what game the images of the dolphin swimming through the electricity pylons is from. My dad later brought home a short demo of Depth (known as "Fluid" in Europe), a music game wherein sounds are collected by controlling the dolphin (although I remember that this was hard to do). We were never sure if this was the same game as we couldn't find a full copy, although it now certainly appears to be. I am still intrigued by it!
When I've got some more free time later I think I'll have a bit of a play-around on the disc.
If I remember correctly, this was the first game we bought for the original PlayStation back in the day, and we also had a copy on the Saturn. What a simply wonderful title. Many a gamer's opinion of Tomb Raider seems to have lowered as the years have gone by. I have spoken to those who see it as a cheap and unworthy franchise. While my opinion of some of the instalments that followed is not all that high, my loyalty to the original is unswerving. Even now, it is a delight. There is so much visible painstaking work on walls and textures and trims and items and statues. It was breathtaking at the time and still invokes feelings of awe.
Tenchu: Stealth Assassins dates back to 1998, and is set in feudal Japan. The reality of ninja has been butchered horrendously by popular culture in the last few decades, but Tenchu seemed to handle it with some integrity.
I got an email inviting me to view the live announcement of the winners before the public found out, but I thought neither my netbook or internet connection were up to the task. Here is the public list of the voting results:
My partner and I took a bit of a break in the countryside and became engulfed in some other things, but hopefully normal posting will resume. Unless you've been living under a rock, you probably know that the PlayStation Network is down and there's been a massive, colossal fuss. The rumour-mongering is unending and there is far too much sensationalism in the way of any valuable information.
The Sims theme is evidently going to continue for a while. We bit the bullet and got hold of the third game and all of the current expansion packs.
The plumbob flash drive included with the collectors edition looks AWESOME. I love game merchandise too much for my own good. And the good of my finances. Firstly I must say that, should this be genuine, I am very excited. I don't think I've actually been excited about a game release in years.
In families like mine, individuals often pick a matron and patron deity to focus on. Having long tied-in Shinto with my other beliefs, I chose Amaterasu, sun goddess. It goes without saying then, that I was delighted to get Ōkami time ago.
The aforementioned Smithsonian exhibit has extended its voting deadline to the 17th of this month :) I'm quite sure voting originally closed on the 27th, but OK.
After my review of the standalone Pets title for the PS2 my partner lovingly acquired me the PC version and a bunch of expansion packs :O! My netbook is far too small to play them on so I've been stealing his massive laptop for the last few days. Before I get down to specifics I must say that the series is a huge timesink. Midday. Sit on the computer, get Sims doing things. Partner comes home, makes a meal. Feels like twenty minutes has gone by but I know it must have been an hour or two. Partner asks if we can go to bed soon. "But it's so early" I lament as I swing my head around. BAM. Umbrella Corporation clock says it's 4am the next day. Where does all the time go?!
A recently released extended trailer for Mortal Kombat shows us a brief glimpse of what fun features await us in the online modes. In every interview recently, Ed Boon says how excited he is by the features that they've still got left to announce with less than a month until release. This then is evidence of that. From 1.00 onwards we catch a quick look at King of The Hill mode online.
From this we can tell that there will be at least up to 10 player lobbies in KOTH mode, and if you are not one of the two kombatants duking it out, you watch their match in a theatre-esque environment. Every spectator has a little cartoony avatar of their character and by the looks of it you can control them and make them taunt the players, cheer and do character specific animations (Mini Sub-Zero is seen making an ice projectile). This looks like a load of fun and something neat to pass the time before you re-enter the arena.
Note: These avatars are MK avatars, not Xbox Live or Playstation Home Avatars. The same avatars appeared in MK: Deception in Chess and Puzzle Kombat.
We'll have a full preview of Mortal Kombat coming up soon, but keep checking back here for the most recent announcements and updates to the game.
Prepare for a picture-heavy trip down memory lane. I was never much of a Sims player, but the standalone Pets title for the PlayStation 2 was much enjoyed. I also have a version on the DSi, but it is simply terrible and we shall not talk about it here. My friends and I adored this game a few years ago. We got together and designed households based on ourselves and running in-jokes. First came the Something family up at Lemming Falls. This harks all the way back to GCSE Information Technology, and boring data entry examples. We had to input the names of fictional people into a database. I couldn't come up with anything exciting, and entered "Somebody Something". This was funnier than it should have been at the time, and spawned a character. We also made houses of Resident Evil characters, ourselves and even my then-partners had one with their dogs. There were also green-skinned aliens distantly related to the Somethings with purple, green and red pets. Then, the save on my memory card corrupted. We lost everything we created. I managed to remake the Something family but didn't want to devote much of my time to it when the same thing could happen again. So, the game was shelved among my wallpaper-obscuring collection. This week, I decided to revisit the title for review purposes.
This game has the bizarre ability to make me yearn to buy a barn in rural America. It evokes a strange sentimentality for a place I've never been to. Developed by England-based Frontier, Dog's Life was much loved by my thirteen year-old self. I'd always wanted to play a game wherein a dog, horse or other fascinating four-legged creature was fully operable as a main character, but wasn't absolute crud like Mary King's Riding Star. Dog's Life was very much the answer, although I'd still like a title where I can be a horse for the entire time.
All of my original freebie stickers are still intact:
I'm sure there are few who have yet to hear of the 8.9 (upgraded to 9.0) magnitude earthquake, resulting tsunami and nuclear scares that struck Japan and other countries in the Pacific Rim just two days ago. With many astounding games having originated from this great nation, I have deemed this an appropriate topic to post about here. Nippon-koku has always been close to my heart. I have second and third cousins there, friends, an ex-partner and classmates from the language course I attended at college. I do not have social networking connections with all of them but I know that one old classmate is safe. I am also concerned about my former teacher and her family.
src="http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/?small=yes&lang=ja" width=400 height=300 frameborder=0 style="border: dashed 2px #77c"> [Japan Person Finder should appear above]
あなたのガスが動作していない場合../ If you are living in Tokyo and are having problems with your gas supply, click here: http://www.tokyo-gas.co.jp/
There have been cruel joke announcements of deaths of franchise creators, because apparently people have nothing better to do than revel in the grief of others. You should only take to heart information from a credible, authoritative source. The death of anyone, famous or otherwise, is a terrible thing.
Since the 11th my thoughts have scarcely concerned anything other than Japan and its inhabitants, including the Ainu. Because of the country's positioning in regard to multiple tectonic plates, this will sadly not be the last disaster, but hopefully coping strategies will improve with time. This certainly did not happen because it was the karmic reward for Pearl Harbour or the slaughtering of sea creatures only a select few know about, especially considering that those in such professions are seen as the "tainted" Burakumin and are discriminated against in society. When something happens to this country, I hope people won't refuse to help me because of what the army or industrial workers do. This event was a sad fact of nature. There are always going to be asshats with asshat views, none more so than on the internet. Life is a very precious thing, and sometimes it can take a disaster to remind us of this and its fragility. Although it doesn't work for everybody.
Something good to come out of this was my discovery of Shelterbox, and becoming a Response Team member is something to aim for when I'm in better health. I set up a fundraising page intended for crisis supplies and met my overdraft limit to get it started, which might not have been wise but I was compelled nonetheless.
Japan is a beautiful country that, along with its people, has always had a place in my heart, and I would gladly endure the Gaikokujin Tourokushou to spend time there.
Sequel to Oddysee, is Exoddus. I was trialling the PSN edition when I was reunited with my original PlayStation disk version halfway through, but continued with the former. This is a great game and one I'm glad to have, but some aspects of this instalment genuinely frustrated me.
Continuing the previous title's obvious digs at consumerism, Abe once again finds himself thrust into being the saviour of the Mudokon race. After the destruction of RuptureFarms, the Glukkons are back with SoulStorm Brewery, named after the working-title for the original game. There's something a little different about this brew; it's made from Mudokon bones and tears! Workers Slaves have their eyelids sewn shut so they can dig up the bones of their ancestors.
The open beta of city transport simulator "Cities in Motion" finished yesterday, and shockingly enough for a sim game it left me considering pre-ordering it from Steam for when it releases tomorrow (22nd February 2011).
The games of the 1940s weren't much to look at, but nowadays they are indeed an art form. You'll have a hard time getting others to agree though. I remember the days of A Level Graphic Design, even my teacher thought it was pointless to look at the composition of videogames and their cases, posters and other related media. Films were OK though.
Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee is an option for the PlayStation, as is Shenmue for the Dreamcast, Deus Ex and Doom II for DOS/ Windows. And that's just Era 4. There are a lot of gems competing with each other on there!
You can only vote for one game in each genre on each platform in each era, and have a total of eighty permitted votes. All you need to do is sign up with an email address.
The exhibit will run from March 11th until September 30th 2012. You have until April 27th of this year to vote. If the event will be within reasonable travelling distance for you, why not consider going there next year?
With a HD remake of this game being announced just days ago and the fact I've been replaying it, there's no better time than now to write about the masterpiece that is Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee.
Voiced by the ever-wonderful Lorne Lanning, Abe is a Mudokon on planet Oddworld, and slave at the Glukkon-owned, Slig-patrolled RuptureFarms. All you need to know about that is in the name.
My partner and I were sent barcoded tickets to the exclusive pre-launch event for the 3DS console. If you didn't already know, it's like the Nintendo Dual-Screen, but you have the option of observing games in 3D without glasses. I'm not much of a handheld-console gamer these days, I received a DS and DSi as gifts time ago, I occasionally enjoy Resident Evil on the former and I have this tradition of playing with my Nintendog every new years eve, although I usually won't see him for the rest of the year. I jumped at the chance to go, anyway.
Ah, Theme Park. I could spend entire sunny days of my childhood, sat indoors with the aim of running a successful park. Despite being roughly the age of five and having no concept of financial responsibility. Each of my creations would last a few in-game years before I was shown the disturbing bankruptcy screen we all know.
Fright Simulators, "Sensation of Fear" in Japan and "Haunted House Simulators" in America, are a different take on survival horror gaming. Commentators on such a fright simulator, JU-ON: The Grudge - the first on the Wii - say that such games rely on true horror rather than simple power struggles and fights with creatures.
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. I could spend entire sunny days of my childhood, sat indoors with the aim of running a successful park. Despite being roughly the age of five and having no concept of financial responsibility. Each of my creations would last a few in-game years before I was shown the disturbing bankruptcy screen we all know.
- the first on the Wii - say that such games rely on true horror rather than simple power struggles and fights with creatures.
