Resident Evil 4 (Wii)

Yet another review! Pff, you know I can't make games without "research"!



Resident Evil 4 had always been one of those games that I never really "got". One of my old bosses loved it so much that he bought his Playstation 2 to work one day to show me at lunch. People seem to put it on top lists and all sorts of things... and I could never see why. I bought it because I had been nagged into liking it by several people, took it home, played 14 minutes of it and put it back on the shelf to collect dust, quite unimpressed.

However, after finishing Moon and The Conduit, I really wanted something else to play. I found a few cheap games online and ordered them, but in the wait for them to arrive by post I was still interested in finding something to play. I saw this; and had been willing to give it to someone with a Wii who was interested when I found such a person, but thought "I might give it another shot".

And finished it in a day and a half.

The basic premise is that you have to rescue the girl and stop the bad guy, saving the world in the process.

Most of the action involves walking/running around, shooting/kicking/knifing/exploding infected brain controlled people, who from now on I will refer to as "freaks" to make things easier. One can see that a lot of effort has been spent to make fighting these freaks interesting. You can set them on fire, push them off ladders, kick their heads off, shoot their legs out... even the projectiles that they throw at you can be blasted out of the air with your gun. Most of the shooting is done with the Wii remote, which does a fine job of letting you aim around at freaks, even if it takes a while to get used to.

There are also some relatively simple puzzles to solve, big old boss fights with super freaks, action sequences, on rails shooter bits... even a part where you play as the girl that is being rescued, running around with no gun, throwing fire at freaks to defend yourself.

The whole thing feels very much like a big budget action movie. Boss fights encourage you to use environmental props to fight, and while it's a tad cheesy, it's also quite satisfying. Nothing beats sliding over a giant freak's head on a cable, dropping to a control panel and then opening the doors to the pit of lava as he steps on them whilst lumbering towards you.

Graphics do a good job of conveying a creepy atmosphere, the audio is very atmospheric and the story has enough detail to justify smashing heads in.

For a game that I owned for 2 years and disliked until very recently, I had quite a bit of fun playing Resident Evil 4. I wouldn't put it in any of my top lists, nor do I feel the urge to replay it, but I'm glad I gave it a second chance and finished it. It was a little longer than I thought necessary, but that's probably due to my love of shorter games.

It's a hard game to recommend seeing as I found it very hard to get into, but if you're like me and are not really sure about it, definitely give it a second chance. Everyone else will likely tell you it is a good game worth playing anyway!

Sauce!

Towards the end of last year I had the gall to release a game with the ludicrous title "!". Although it may look like a ridiculous affair at first, with it's preposterously low-fi graphics (drawn in the most ghastly 1970s linoleum colours I could create), pathetically low tech interface (single button gameplay and no inventory items? What on earth!?) and ridiculously illogical story/puzzles/whole, behind the nonsense lies a game that I really tried to make enjoyable.

I always planned to release the source code while making it, but thought I had lost it. Last night I was digging through old backup files and found it, as complete as it had been on the day of release! Playing through it, I was surprised at how much fun I had doing so. It's very contrived, but people seemed to like it as well - and the soundtrack is my most favourite of Sebastian's scores to date.

Anyhow, I've uploaded the source code for any who may wish to have a look around. You can check it out here for the price of a roughly 10mb download.

In other news, Dualnames has released his long term project, the graphical remake of the old Hitchhiker's Guide text adventure. I enjoyed the text game long before I read any of the books, and even contributed a couple of graphics assets to the game. If you haven't tried it already, you can find it here. Make sure you have your towel nearby when playing.

Moon (DS)

I know, all I seem to do lately are write ups of games I've played. I am working on actual games as well, but heck, I have played through hardly any games this year, so now that I have some free time I am doing my best to catch up!



Moon is a game I had my eye on for a very long time, and then one day saw it on special and grabbed it right then and there.

The game is a science fiction horror-esque FPS which takes place, for the most part, on the Earth's moon. Other than blasting through levels with assorted ray guns and alien cannons, you will also find yourself driving around in a moon buggy, controlling a remote droid around ducts and fighting robo-alien level bosses. For a handheld experience it's a remarkably varied affair.

The first thing that caught my attention is how smooth it is. Considering the fact that it is a 3d FPS on a handheld... it's phenomenally fluid. The graphics for the most part are perfectly atmospheric; there are a couple of textures that are a bit blockier than their surrounds, and the whole thing looks very 1990s, but again, it IS a handheld game and uses the technology remarkably well.

Story-wise the game is a fairly typical affair, with enough interesting elements to keep things intriguing until the end. A nice touch are consoles scattered throughout levels, each displaying various snippets of backstory that add to the creepy atmosphere. It won't blow your mind, but does the job admirably.

Gameplay wise it took me around four and a half hours to beat - which doesn't really seem like much, but felt quite satisfying at the end. There are a few bonus levels to unlock which are really nothing more than shooting galleries, but it is nice to have that extra touch.

One thing I really liked about the game was the way it kept things varied. Just as you get bored of shooting enemies, you have to use your little droid to get past gates. When you start tiring of running through corridors, all of a sudden there's a boss fight. When you're sick of being indoors altogether, they throw you outside into a moon buggy and let you drive around. New guns are spaced evenly throughout the game's progression to give you new toys to play with on a regular basis, and new types of enemies appear to make them worth trying out. It's a simple thing, but it really adds to the game.

All in all, Moon is good fun. It's a well designed shooter that makes the absolute most of it's technology and is a good few hours blasting through robo-jerks in space. To any fans of creepy science fiction and first person shooting who happen to own a DS, I'd recommend it!

The Conduit (Wii)

I have to admit that I've had my doubts as to whether the Wii could handle first person shooters and be fun. However, I'd seen The Conduit get some positive reviews and saw it for extremely cheap, so I took the plunge to see whether there was any real substitute for mouse + keyboard.



The Conduit is a game about fighting secret conspiracies and slimy space critters with buckshot and rayguns. That's really the best explanation you can probably get. The game was developed to be a cheesy Hollywood style science fiction action fest, and that's exactly what it ends up being. The story gives you enough excuse to blast away hundreds and hundreds of enemies without making you think too much, and even the few twists that it offers are very unlikely to come as a surprise.

The gameplay, however, is great. The Conduit is all about shooting, and it does it well. There are tons of different weapons to choose from in three different categories: The everyday hot lead launching human weapons, the spiky, slimy and organic Drudge weaponry and the glowing, high tech ray guns of The Trust.

Rather than letting you find new weapons one by one as you progress through the game, The Conduit allows you to choose from a variety of weapons in each stage but limits you to carrying two. This means you'll swap between all sorts as you blast away through the levels, as your ammunition counts dictate. You're unlikely to run out of ammo in this game, but you probably will have to swap your guns as you go.

The controls work well with nice, smooth aiming and the effective waggle to throw grenade maneuver making grenades a very effective addition to your tactics. Aiming is never a chore, and the Wii remote shines surprisingly well here.

As for the actual gameplay content, it's fairly standard shooter fare. You'll make your way through levels, with various traps, ambushes, sniping opportunities and the like along the way, as well as the occasional boss battle/section. In addition to guns you're given a device called an All Seeing Eye which acts as a sort of jack of all trades useful gadget. It is used to unlock doors, collect game secrets, hack terminals, remove enemies' cloaking defenses, disarm traps, read and find secret writings hidden on walls... and if you don't use it on any of this stuff, it puts out a magic trail for you to follow to the next checkpoint (a clever idea). It adds a nice touch of interest to an otherwise straightforward shooter.

The presentation is superb, with some incredible graphics considering the platform and atmospheric audio.

Overall, The Conduit was worth buying - although I did get it quite cheap. The single player campaign lasted just under 6 hours, and therefore fits into my 5-15 hours preferred range. The gameplay was entertaining and whilst I doubt I'll play it through again, I enjoyed the experience this time around.

Rabbids Go Home (Wii)

Good lord! Another review! And it has been so long!

Actually I finished this game ages ago... but haven't really finished many games this year, so there's been no build of up games I've played through to write about. Anyway, busy times are over so I now have the time to do this sort of nonsense...



Rabbids Go Home is a game that I bought and sat down to play having absolutely no idea what to expect.

All the most popular games are about collecting things. Pacman was about collecting yellow blocks. Pokemon is about catching little animal things. Starcraft is about collecting gas and minerals. The Sims is about collecting hot tubs, newspapers and other sims willing to "woohoo" with your sims.

If you're reading this blog, you've played adventure games before, and therefore are comfortable with the kleptomaniac protagonist character so popular in the genre. Therefore this game should leave you feeling, in some ways, right at home.

Rabbids go home is a game about collecting things. Actually, it's a game about collecting everything. Dogs. Toilet paper. Cows. Fire extinguishers. The clothes worn by people wandering around the levels. The list goes on.

Basically, you control sociopathic rabbity things (again, adventure gamers should be comfortable with this type of character) who run around putting everything that is and isn't nailed down into a shopping trolley (or inner tube, or jet engine... depending on the level), play manic but catchy music and scream "BWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH".

It sounds pointless... and in a way it is. There's no deep story (although some of the mini stories in the game are funny; particularly the nurse/patient love story). The gameplay is varied enough, with time limits and enemies to keep in mind, but it is still basically about collecting as much junk as possible then going and adding it to the pile after each level (until the pile is big enough to reach the moon, obviously).

However, the humour and presentation keep it fun until the end. The graphics are cute and charming, the characters say funny things along the way that had me chuckling and aside from the groovy soundtrack, the game includes licensed music that you're sure to recognize playing in lieu of muzak through shopping malls and the like.

Anyway.

It's silly, colourful, fun - and varied enough that I enjoyed the whole thing. It's not gonna blow any minds or change the way you view gaming as an interactive medium.

But if you're bored, have a weekend to fill and want to have a bit of a chuckle, Rabbids Go Home is pretty darn ok.

(I really need to write less in these summaries of finished games)

Oceanspirit Dennis: Mighty Pirate

Oceanspirit Dennis comes to you in an all new adventure!

OCEANSPIRIT DENNIS: MIGHTY PIRATE

Life partner Ray has gone to play adventure games and Oceanspirit Dennis must win his love back by starring in an adventure game of his own!

Once again it's a crappy joke that I put very little time/effort into so please download only if you have a sense of humour in your inventory.

This link has links to both the game and crappy source code.

Also I promise I have been working on real game stuff as well... this was gonna be my art practice time for the day but I got distracted by the idea ^__^

Updatey Type Things:

Hello!

Two updates for you:

Shifter's Box - Outside In has been translated into German by the super patient Selmiak; which can be downloaded from here.

AND

Oceanspirit Dennis: Scourge of the Underworld has been ported to Silverlight by the multi-talented Clarvalon and his astounding XAGE engine. Play now and marvel at the potential of games in a browser!

Oceanspirit Dennis: Scourge of the Underworld

There's been a bit of a commotion over on the AGS forums lately and the old "Make an RPG with AGS" topic has resurfaced.

I thought one of the ideas was hilarious so turned it into an actual crappy joke RPG using AGS. Don't play if you're looking for a rewarding experience!

DOWNLOAD!

Eh, what can I say - it was a nice way to spend an hour and a bit making - and a fun way to get in my art practice for the day!

The Interview With Erin Robinson

Some time ago that mischievous Ponch postulated that if I were to interview Erin Robinson then we could turn off the internet and get on with our lives as normal.

However it seemed like everyone else had asked her the same questions about the same things over and over - so I decided to come up with the Seven Questions That You Have Always Secretly Wanted to Ask Erin Robinson But Never Had the Guts to do so!

This is not an interview with Erin, folks, it is THE interview with Erin!


1. The most important question comes first: If you had the chance to create your own video game themed restaurant, which game would you choose as the theme and what special dishes would be at this restaurant?

Katamari Damacy; anything you can get to stick to a ball of rice, you get to eat for free. The biggest rice ball of the day gets a prize. Regardless of the size of the rice ball, your father is very disappointed in you.

2. If you had the ability to choose to incorporate a previously unused sense into one of your games (ie, taste or smell), which would you choose to incorporate, and what sort of gameplay would you base on this new sense?

I'd make a paintball simulator that would inject the taste of paint into your mouth if you got shot in the mask. Wait, did you mean one of my existing games? Okay...rescuing the goldfish injects the taste of paint into your mouth.

3. You've worked with both Dave Gilbert and Vince Twelve. If they were both giant robots, what would be their individual powerful super weapons, and what paint designs would their respective robo-shells sport?

I've never met Vince, so I assume he actually is a giant robot. How else could he blend in in Japan? I'm guessing he'd be painted like a transformer, but with sunglasses on to protect his secret identity. I'm not sure what kind of gun he'd have (photon beams? Laser bullets?), but it'd definitely have a custom GUI.

As for Dave, I imagine he'd be painted like a New York taxicab and have a gun that shoots hot coffee. Starbucks, of course. It's what launched his game dev career, so I can only imagine it would help in crime-fighting.

4. Let's pretend you've just been assigned to lead designer of the new Guitar Hero/Rock Band game and the theme for this game is "Guitar Hero/Rock Band: Terrible Buskers". What are the top 3 awful busking songs that'd be the first on your list, and what plastic instrument would you introduce to the franchise for players to play out of time with?

Oooh, tough one. I've seen my share of terrible buskers. For the instrument, it's a toss-up between "squeeze-box" and "out-of-tune violin". The songs would be 1) a cover of Metallica's "Enter Sandman" (so you'd play a cover of the cover) 2) Snoop Dogg's "Drop it like it's Hot", and 3) the entirety of Pink Floyd's "The Wall." If you pause the game your character either starves to death or moves back in with his/her parents.

5. If you had to marry an adventure game puzzle/action game sequence/strategy game battle etc, which would you choose as your husband, and what would your vows be?

I want to get married to that serpentine sequence in Half Life 2 where the helicopter drops mines on your air boat. I'd vow never to stray too far out of the path of the mines, and the helicopter would vow not to drop any mines while I was scratching my nose. The world is not ready for our love.

6. What cheat code should be in every single game, regardless of genre or difficulty?

I should be able to fight the last boss of Tyrian just by hitting the Q button.

7. If you were a level boss, what would be your crippling weak spot, and what special item would we have to make use of in order to get to this weak spot? (I promise I am not trying to steal your horde of treasure...)

I cannot be placed in direct sunlight for any length of time or I will die. But I counter that by wearing lots of sunscreen and never leaving my computer. So I guess if we were in a boss battle you could kill me by taking away my computer and making me go outside. Wow this is sort of depressing me. Way to go, Ben304. Way. To. Goooo.

(Buy Puzzle Bots).

Eternally Us

After a very interesting month, Steve and I are pretty darn proud to announce our first proper release - our entry to the April MAGS competition called Eternally Us.

Not only is it the first proper game we've made as a team, it's also fully voiced by a fantastic cast of awesome people.

The link is to the right, as usual folks, I do hope you enjoy :)