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Hello all.
I don't know about you, but it seems like time has flown by quickly during this current generation of consoles. The Microsoft Xbox 360 is preparing to have its 5th birthday already, with the Nintendo Wii and Sony Playstation 3 not far behind. It seems like just yesterday that I strolled into GameStop to purchase my first 'next-gen' system. Time truly does fly by at times, which is not necessarily welcomed by this vintage gamer.
With these anniversaries quickly approaching, I thought it might be fun to have our next installment of The RFG Pulse focus on a very simple question: Which of the current generation consoles is your favorite? Each system has its redeeming qualities as well as its faults - that is a given. I imagine this will be a rather tight race.
| Which console is your favorite? |
| Microsoft Xbox 360 | Nintendo Wii | Sony Playstation 3 |
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Vote and Share your thoughts with the community! |
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Many of you probably know
Alien Hominid as a cult-classic Run-n-Gun Shooter for the GameCube and PS2. It was built out of flash, uses very basic cell-shaded graphics, and includes ridiculous over-the-top action, blood, and bullets that result in constant deaths. Bottom line: it's awesome. What's interesting is that very few people seem to know that the game was also released on the Game Boy Advance.
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If you've never played
Alien Hominid, you control an alien who has crash landed on Earth and is trying to escape a constant mob of Feds. It's an interesting concept as many Run-n-Guns are about humans killing aliens. Instead we've got a friendly looking ET loaded to the teeth with artillery and blades, and is definitely not afraid to use any of them. He burns up agents one second, and freezes and shatters them the next. It's really quite amazing to witness the comic-book-come-to-life art style.
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Of course it was a European exclusive, which is a shame since it's an incredibly great port. The Game Boy Advance actually loses very little in translation from its big brother console versions. Sure the 2Player Co-op had to go, but graphically, audibly and control-wise this edition is spot on. All the insane bloodshed is included, as well as the awesome sound effects (like the knife cutting FBI agents in half) are here as well. Although the GBA port is much harder to find than the console editions, if you're a Game Boy collector you might want to put in the effort to find this one.
As many of you are probably bargain hunters for video games, I thought I would contribute by giving you the possibility to download 5 games that you could add to your collection (because it's downloadable, it doesn't matter that you don't have the original cd... which doesn't exists).
First of all, I want to reassure you all, this is not an hack nor anything illegal, it's easier than that: these games were released for free for a short period of time. They were removed from Xbox Marketplace, but you can still play them and download them here (the link is at the end of this post). Also, please note that all these games aren't linked to a profile, which means that they will work on any xbox. They all have achievement points and some are really easy to obtain.
Now, let's go with the games:
Aegis Wing
This project, apparently an intership project, was available for free. It's one of these traditional 2d shoot 'em up in space. Nothing really exceptional, and quite frankly boring to play alone but if you're with a friend, you have played every games you have and still want to play something (for free), try this one. Please note that burned on a cd, this game takes some time to load but it plays fine.
Doritos Dash of Destruction
For the achievement points suckers, this is the easiest 200 points to get. This game enters the category of the advergames, games available primarily to sell something, in this case Doritos. It's a sort of cheap mix between Rampage and Micromachines where either you try to deliver Doritos while surviving waves of angry Dinosaurs or you play as the Dinosaur and beat the crap of everything. Quite fun, even more if you play with a friend, but it's not that exciting for long.
Hexic HD
You know Hexic? For the 0,0001% of the population who doesn't know, it's a little puzzle game where you need to move pieces to connect 3 identical or more together. It wasn't available to download but apparently was included with some memory cards sold by Microsoft. It angered a few players when they realized that it's not linked to the profile, which means that every player who deleted the game from the memory card wasn't able to download it online. If it's your case, I'm glad to give it back to you.
Totemball
Simple game included at first with the Xbox Live Vision Camera. Still requires it to play. If you don't have one, here's what will happen: the game will appear on your list for a second, then disappear. Buy a camera or don't play it, sad but I can't change that.
Yaris
Another advergame to sell you a Toyota Yaris. It's in fact a little racing game where you have no control of the speed, only of the direction of the car. While you drive, you need to collect coins and destroy robots to earn money to unlock other races, cars, etc. It's an okay game if you plan to play it for like 5 minutes. If you really love it, it's probably because the only other thing you've played recently was Pong.
Download instructions:
1) Download
this Archive 2) Extract the rar (you will require a compression software like
7-zip, yeah yeah I know, you thought of Winrar, but I don't like it, 7-Zip is free and opens more types of file than Winrar).
3) Burn the cd image (the iso file) on a cd
4) Insert the cd in your xbox
5) Go check your game library to see the games. You will need the cd to play these games as they will disappear from your list when you remove the cd.
So that's about it for the free games, hope you enjoy them. If you have any question, don't hesitate to leave a comment. Have a great day.
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There have been
a lot of Ghostbusters games released for various video game consoles over the years. But I can say with confidence that
Ghostbusters II for the Game Boy is the absolute best one out there. And sadly, many of you have probably never played it. To put it simply,
Ghostbusters II is basically an action-puzzler that looks a lot like the Ghostbusters are in the
Mother universe. And there's good reason for that --
Ghostbusters II was developed by Hal Labs, a fact that may have already sent some of you off to eBay to purchase a copy of this cartridge.
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The game is amazingly well put together. You choose any two of the four Ghostbusters and then you're off to catch some ghosts. The controls are very unique, as you are responsible for controlling two characters at once -- one to zap the ghosts and the other to suck it up. This takes some getting used to, but if anything it's refreshingly original. The levels are basically maze-like with the goal being simply to suck up all the ghosts from every room within the time limit. Although it's rather simple in theory, it's an extremely well thought out game.
Ghostbusters II is exceptional, and I'd urge every Game Boy collector out there to own a copy.
So November is a month of many things. But the most pertinant is Nanowrimo:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/Nanowrimo means National Novel Writing Month and it is a challenge to write a 50,000 word novella in 30 days. Thats 1667 words a day. I have participated in Nanowrimo every year since 2001 except last year (family medical issues) and still have never finished it. So I am taking out all potential writing distractions until I am at atleast 30,000 words. So no new posts from me for awhile folks. Granted I update this thing really haphazardly anyway...
And let me answer the question alot of yall are thinking - why try to do this since the resulting novel will be crap? Well the answer is quite simple: because many say it is impossible. And to quote Firefly "We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty." Personally, I do it because I feel that a story is the greatest thing one can give to another. And to have a story written down, as poorly as it may be, is an even greater gift. Call me old fashion, but I would still love to have a published book.
Yall may not realize it, but you have all played a game based on a FASA work. They created analog games for two decades and there titles live on in both video and analog game forms.
FASA stands for Freedonian Aeronautics and Space Administration. Which if you know your classic films is the country in Duck Soup. For those of you who dont know their Marx Brothers films:
Its kinda like how two of Queens albums are named after Marx brothers films.
One of the greatest films of all time aside, FASA created or fostered a lot of classic American game series. Their analog games and RPGs are top notch Battletech, Crimson Skies, Shadowrun, Earthdawn, and the shortlived Doctor Who and Star Trek RPGs. FASA closed their doors in 2001 and their properties were scattered to the four winds. Luckily, Smith and Tinker have obtained a lot of them and have been bringing them back in full force (Sorry Wizkids, you had your shot).
However there have always been videogames based on FASA titles. Those videogames run the gamut of good to unplayable. Out of those we are going to concentrate on their three biggest titles:
1. Battletech
2. Crimson Skies
3. Shadowrun
1. Battletech
Battletech is probably the best known of all FASA series, however not in its original form. Battletech provides the universe for Mechwarrior. While Battletech was more cartoony, Mechwarrior was more gritty. The two coexisted mostly sharing the universe until one fateful day in 1990 when the first Battletech Center launched. Battletech Centers were arcades that ran large pods that were pretty much Mechwarrior cabinets: the newest model Tesla IIs, run a modified version of Mechwarrior 4 distributed by Mektek. There is no good way to describe a Battletech pod. You get in it, there is a throttle for your left hand, a joystick on you right, five monitors infront of you, lots of buttons and switches, and you are piloting a big robot. It is worth whatever the cost to play it atleast once, regardless if you like the game or not. I would easily consider it in the top three gaming moments possible. A couple months ago I interviewed the guys that run Mechcorps in Texas for the Racketboy Podcast, itll go live in a few weeks with lots of pictures, but you really just have to play it. (it went live without pictures last week)
But to get back on topic, Battletech is Mechwarrior, and Mechwarrior has some great games (Mechwarrior 2 and 4) and some horrible ones (Mechwarrior 3050 and MechAssault Phantom War). Overall the Battletech video games are stellar and span several Genres. From Simulation, to RTS, to Arcade.
2. Crimson Skies
Ok Ill admit that I have a soft spot in my heart for the 30s styled pulp and noir. Crimson Skies is a boardgame that takes place in an alternative history 1930s where the USA has become nothing but an area for air pirates to rule. Aptly described by the creator as 16th Century Caribbean in the skies of 1930 America. Essentially, you build your squadron and try to take out the enemies. It is a lot of fun, but very expensive to get into (all lead minis twenty years out of print does that). Wizkids did a reboot that was ok, but like the Mechwarrior one it only survived for a short time (much shorter than Mechwarrior though).
Crimson Skies was turned into four pc games. Two arcade games: one of which I have NEVER seen in the wild, the other is in one of those rotating pods made by Microsoft. There was a soso PC game and an excellent Xbox game also released. I would go so far to say that Crimson Skies is in my top three exclusive titles for the original Xbox (under Halo and Steel Battalion).
3. Shadowrun
Futuristic D&D with magic and guns is all one of my friends had to say to sell me on the concept of Shadowrun. Rolling fistfuls of six sided dies would have sold me faster - I am one of those gamers who would play a game about growing plants if it means I can roll 40 dies at once. Shadowrun is an RPG set in a future where magic coexists with technology. So elves that blend into the building walls while they sight their prey in their sniper rifle. And dwarves that command radio controlled helicopters with machineguns on them. If that sounds up your alley, yes it is a lot of fun if you have the right group playing it.
Shadowrun was turned into three specific videogames (there are more but we are looking at three). An RPG for the Genesis, an RPG for the SNES, and a FPS for the 360/PC. The RPGs are fun little titles but apart from the universe have little to compare to the actual game. Dont get me wrong, Shadowrun on the Genesis is a fantastic rpg, just not as good as a campaign. But Shadowrun on the 360 is terrible. It is Counter Strike with magic and the ability to let PC players play against console gamers. Well thats sounds great on paper, but with no auto aim and having to rely on sticks to turn around instead of a mouse, well the servers that let both types of players play were shutdown for obvious reasons.
Gaming Flashback
Vintage PC Gaming & Memory Management |
After enduring countless badgering sessions from my lady friend, I finally relented this past weekend and agreed to clean up her computer. Mind you I am not a selfish person, but she is rather "download" happy and I was relatively sure this stint was not going to be a quick enema of the Startup menu. Sad to say, I was not disappointed. 
After adjusting her desk chair for normal human use (she is only 5' tall), I proceeded to fire up her PC and was greeted (after 5 minutes of boot time) with a plethora of system tray icons - 18 in total! Her system was so crippled and memory starved that ToolTips displayed after a 20 second delay. Needless to say I was disgusted by this mess, but at the same time rather invigorated by the challenge of freeing up precious RAM for this abused Compaq Presario. The task at hand reminded me of the old days when memory management and PC gaming went hand-in-hand.
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I bought my first personal computer back in 1989, an IBM PC compatible Packard Bell 386. This set me back $1,689 and truly had me living on white bread and generic peanut butter for the entire 12 month financing period. I didn't care - PC Gaming (at that time) blew away anything that was available on the consoles. I assumed that software for this new device would be basically like their console counterparts (plug-n-play), just with vastly superior graphics and game play. I dove into this technological pool head first with eager anticipation. My exuberance quickly changed to one of confusion after installing my first game, Quest for Glory I: So You Want To Be A Hero. Upon typing in the executable command (there were no menus back then), I was greeted with the DOS text message: "Insufficient memory to perform requested operation", quickly followed by: Just like a blank Word document is to an author with writer's block, this flashing prompt was intimidating to say the least. To this computing nubile, this was the modern day equivalent of the Windows Blue Screen of Death. I had no idea how to respond to that relentless blinking cursor. A lesson was quickly learned while I blankly stared at the monochrome display: a certain proficiency in the abstruse DOS language would be required if I wanted to partake in PC Gaming. You have to remember that Windows (or Mac/Linux/etc.) was not a standard in 1989 - it was basically DOS. There were no memory optimization programs at the time. You were left to your own devices to configure the allocation of this precious resource known as RAM. There was but one method available to monitor this critical component - the beloved MEM command (sample shown below). 
The key for early PC Gaming was to free as much Conventional Memory as possible, while ensuring that you still loaded your various device drivers (mouse, CD drive, sound card, etc.). This was accomplished by the editing of two critical system files - Autoexec.bat and Config.sys. Let me tell you, this was not an easy task and was basically a trial and error procedure. I won't bore you with the details, but for nostalgic purposes and as a tribute to us old farts here is a sample screen shot. 
Basically it became a game of Tetris while you juggled various commands/drivers into the High Memory Area to relieve the strain on the core resources of the system for applications. This "Quest for Memory" became almost an obsession during the era of vintage PC gaming. I vividly remember the first time I was able to get my Conventional Memory above the magical 600KB threshold - man was I stoked!! Though it is true that managing RAM is just as important in today's modern age of PC Gaming, I can't really say that I received the same level of satisfaction once I got done lobotomizing my lady friend's computer. Sure, I was happy with the end result but it did not resonate the pure joy that accompanied like accomplishments back in the day. After this past weekend, I am glad that this mundane task is not as arduous as it once was. That being said, the pure adrenaline rush that I experienced in finally being able to fire up Quest for Glory will always hold a special place in my heart. Thanks for taking a trip down the PC Gaming memory lane with me. 
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What are your fond memories of vintage PC Gaming? |
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I have fond memories of playing
Ghosts 'N Goblins on the NES. Well, maybe fond is the wrong word, but not really. It's hard to say. I mean, how fond can you really feel about getting your ass handed to you when your age is still in the single-digits? But strangely enough, the memory of me enjoying this game is there. I had the NES game, and I played it quite often. Though I don't remember ever really making it out of that first graveyard.
So then, what is it about
Ghosts 'N Goblins that makes it such a classic? We may never know. And although I can certainly make it much further today than when I was in elementary school, I still can't seem to beat it. And yet, it's still no less fun. Perhaps it just is what it is, and we all just accept that.
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The Game Boy Color port was released in 2000 and is a pretty accurate retelling of the NES classic. At least the way that I remember it. To be honest, I haven't gone back and compared it to the NES version, but that seems to make sense anyway.
Ghosts 'N Goblins is a game that I may look back on far more fondly than I should, so thinking of it highly regardless of what it really may be is probably appropriate. Though I want to curse the game out for being so hard and destroying me every time, I honestly just can't help enjoying it thoroughly.
When Castlevania: Lords of Shadow was announced, gamers had a lot to discuss. Common soundbites included,
"Wasn't this just
'Lords of Shadow' before?"
"What, did Konami just tag a 'Castlevania' name to an existing project?"
"Well, it will suck, because all 3D Castlevania sucks"
"I saw gameplay, it's a God of War clone"
"When is Konami going to finally release an HD remake of
Roc 'N Rope? What? Look at the
Lords of Shadow platforming? Wha..."
Being a longtime fan of the Castlevania franchise and having played most of the titles to completion, I knew I'd have to pick it up as I have every other western title in the series. I purposefully limited my exposure to the title prior to release so as not to form judgment (heaven knows I did not enjoy
Castlevania: Judgment), though I knew from the last few console entries that I should not have very high expectations. The portable editions on the other hand, of which I've finished each since
Circle of the Moon, have been a pleasant and regular gaming staple.
After completing
Lords of Shadow, I was more curious than ever about the development history and my research helped explain the final product. It also gave me fuel to address a relevant gaming topic concerning franchise reboots and restarts.
But first, is
Lords of Shadow any good?
As with any of my reviews, I will try to write something relevant that isn't immediately gleamed from a few seconds of scouring game reviews from countless sources around the 'net and therefore redundant.
In many ways I consider
Lords of Shadow to be this year's
Batman: Arkham Asylum. Both came from relatively unknown developers, both took franchises with unpopular gaming histories (Many agree that the NES versions of Batman were gaming's best with possible exception to the Genesis version, and despite some love for
Lament of Innocence, 3D takes on Castlevania are traditionally scorned.) Both titles are crafted in dark, brooding atmosphere that plays heavily into the game and mechanics. Both feature lauded combat systems and inventive mechanics. Each have excellent, moody soundtracks, and grand set-piece battles.
Both are also derided for occasionally terrible textures and graphics errors (made all the more obvious because most of the time both look fantastic.) Each are known for their game-breaking bugs and occasionally bad camera. Glitches and technical errors abound in both games, seemingly displaying a rush to complete the game and ship before artificial deadlines.
Lords of Shadow takes special exception with a few battles clearly containing too many enemies for the game engine to handle, as the frame rate nosedives into a literal slideshow. The fact that each of these enemies are the only thing in the game that require only one or two hits to dispatch hint at an issue the developer realized but was unable to repair in time.
I did very much enjoy both games more than I expected, but as a Castlevania fan I have far more to discuss over
Lords of Shadow.
Let me reference the three things most important to the game, both as a Castlevania game and as a standalone title: the combat, the platforming, and the narrative.
The combat is nothing like previous iterations, and once the player has most of the techniques and abilities unlocked after a few hours the game feels less of a
God of War clone and develops its own personality. The way magic, items, and combos are utilized together feel well developed and strategic, less button-mashy, and very fluid. Definitely a highlight, and very fun to play. Only the camera would sometimes become an unfair enemy, rarely shifting the view to an angle that obscured the avatar behind a wall. It didn't happen often, but it happened on a few boss fights. For a 15-20 hour experience it didn't happen enough to stop me, but it was an issue.
The platforming is more divisive. The locked camera only became a problem for those who don't like the use of viewing angles as a purposeful technique to hide optional items. The action itself was rarely hampered, save for a few jumps that weren't immediately obvious. I assume this was part of the puzzle solving challenge, though it does have the potential to frustrate. If you enjoy the platforming style of
Uncharted,
Enslaved, or the 2008
Prince of Persia, you'll feel right at home. (Disclaimer: the 2008
Prince of Persia is one of my favorite games of this generation.) Some find this current design of platforming lackadaisical and boring; I find the safer and relaxed pace less frustrating and more entertaining, especially in a 3D space where the camera angle is a greater villain than any Bowser or Dracula.
Finally we get to the narrative, and since I enjoyed the first two reviewed aspects of the game, this was the piece that I find myself in a hate/love relationship with. Hiring actual voice talent is always a big plus for me, as it shows a commitment to good presentation and attention to characterization. Here I enjoyed the subtle and restrained Robert Carlyle's Gabriel Belmont the most, though Natascha McElhone and Aleksander Mikic both give superb deliveries for Marie and Pan respectively. The voice casting overall was a great joy, save for an unexpected turn; I know having Picard as a voice in any product elevates its status to a divine plain for some, but here I found Patrick Stewart's delivery to feel unnatural and his vocal intonation inconsistent, as if reading Shakespeare to a kindergarten class. He wasn't
bad, mind you, just less understated than most of the cast. Unfortunately, the high school drama level dialogue written for the narration and characters strained noticeably between Stewart's voicework and the higher level the other three main characters were going for. Then again, after all these years, perhaps Patrick Stewart is just being Patrick Stewart, which is enough for most of us.
Beyond delivery, the story is a complete re'vamp' (sorry) of the canon timeline. In actuality, it ignores 26 years of loosely connected story completely. There are some interesting name drops, though most are completely incompatible with their relevant characters from other Castlevania games. For a non-spoiler example, the name Brauner is given to a well dressed. elitist humanoid vampire with two children in
Portrait of Ruin, with the story taking place in the 1940s. In
Lords of Shadow, set in 1047, Brauner is a savage, beast-like winged variant of a vampire who uses violence and force, and has none of the nobleman-like upper society traits as his previous namesake.
Lords of Shadow is peppered with such disassociated connections in name only to other Castlevania characters, though the art and design occasionally references the other series entries directly. It can be a frustrating thematic choice for a series veteran like myself to see these names used for characters who are completely alien to their namesakes in other games. Instead of a sly reference, it comes across as needless cannibalization. Then again, complaining over needless cannibalization when discussing a series known for reusing the same sprites and animations for some enemies for over a decade seems a bit moot at this point.
Anyway, the story is interesting, maybe better than the delivery, and gives players the chance to explore vast landscapes and gorgeously realized locales. The palpable sense of dread and despair are there by design and detail, from the faces hewn in rock to the captivating rain and water effects. The game gives an excellent sense of mood, using sweeping angles and changing perspectives for scale, and heightens the sense of the epic, of loss and desperation, until...a screen slaps up seemingly at random, splashing the statistics of score and items against your tenderized eyes, because you crossed an invisible line that signaled the end of the level. For as much mood as the game generates, it lacks the elegant tack of
Shadow of the Colossus or
Prince of Persia, which would be fine if the game were simply trying to stay in line with other Castlevania games as a gothic cartoon. But the presentation tells us it wants to be more. We all know this is a game, but for as hard as
Lords of Shadow tries to sell you on the experience, the rhythm is lost because the transitions are so jarring and needlessly reminding. Yes, I see from the flashy yellow excited letters I have a new combo available, was that necessary to punch into my view the second after the lead character cried from a conversation with his dead wife? Something a little more unobtrusive would have been appreciated. Especially after all the effort the developer put into making me care about what was going on in the game for half a second. Odd design decisions like this produce a thematic tug-of-war between selling the game as a sublime experience and jumping up and down to remind you that its a video game.
Still, these design decisions mirror the amalgamated beast
Lords of Shadow really is. It is a composite of other games, marinated in an alternate idea of Castlevania themes. About a third of the game is puzzle-solving, much more than traditional games in the series. The handful of items used are more spiritual successors than derivatives of those found in previous games. A few boss fights aren't borrowed so much as completely wholesale copied directly from
Shadow of the Colossus. The music, while somber yet grand, only hints at the original themes. The game's use of Dracula himself comes a bit out of left field, though obvious to those paying attention to the unfolding story. The flow and feel is not directly what we associate with other Castlevania games, yet we have to keep in mind that the series has entries as diverse as
Simon's Quest,
Rondo of Blood,
Symphony of the Night, and even
Judgment. Like it or not, 'classic' Castlevania is not easily defined. There are gamers who still prefer the original
Legend of Zelda over
Ocarina of Time, feeling that the transition didn't do the original series justice.
I do appreciate that a different tone and style were used for this post-
God of War generation. I just feel that a good chunk of classic Castlevania charm was sacrificed on the 'must-be-modernized' altar. There is good reason to believe that the old methods of successful Castlevania gameplay will live on with the 3DS iterations. If not, we have probably lost a great heritage with the series, but to be honest, with so many excellent Castlevanias already released perhaps the series needs a few years resting in the coffin, growing stronger while its Frankenstein-created brother romps about awhile.
I for one very much enjoyed
Lords of Shadow. I would have enjoyed it sooner had I dumped my baggage of what I expected of a Castlevania game and enjoyed it on its own terms. It does invite the comparison by carrying on the legendary name, but like Dracula himself, the Castlevania name resurrects itself different every time. If left alone, this one stands up pretty well without needing to be propped up from its parent games' heritage.
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A friend of mine actually threatened bodily harm if I didn't include
The Pinball Of The Dead in this month's Spooktacular. Having never been a fan of bodily harm, I thought that this would give me a good excuse to finally track the game down. It had been on my want-list for well over a year, but I never seemed to happen upon a copy. Well, I'm glad I finally did. As it turns out,
The Pinball Of The Dead basically takes levels, characters, and music from
The House Of The Dead 2 and shoves it all into a pinball machine. If anyone thinks this sounds weird, they've obviously never played
Typing Of The Dead, nor have they seen a Kiss pinball machine in the wild.
The Pinball Of The Dead is extremely awesome by my personal standards. A pinball aficionado friend of mine mentioned that he felt that the physics were pretty off on this one. But I guess I'm blinded by the zombies and blood (make sure you change the blood to "red" in the options menu before playing!). In fact I was so enamored with how well the music carried over the GBA, that I think I was in awe of this game almost immediately. Maybe it's not a perfect pinball game, but if you like zombies and think that shooting a big metal ball at them might be fun -- give this one a shot!
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Universal Interactive released
Monster Force in 2002 as a fitting throwback to the classic Universal Monster movies of the 1930's-1960's. Immediately noticeable is the excellent cut-scenes and dramatic music. The presentation is fantastic for horror genre fans. You choose to play as Wolfie (the werewolf), Drac (the vampire), or Frank (Frankenstein's monster) and venture out into the graveyards to collect keys to new crypts and take care of any ghosts that get in your way.
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At its heart the game plays similarly to such shooters as
Pocky & Rocky with its overhead view and cutesy graphics. But there's something so sincere and fun about the classic horror movie vibe throughout. Regardless of how bad the cover art is, this game is definitely one that needs to be discovered by the mass of horror film geeks who still don't know it exists. Trust me.
Old Man Stauf built a house, and filled it with his toys
Six guests were invited one night, their screams the only noise
Blood inside the library, blood right up the hall
Dripping down the attic stairs, hey guests, try not to fall
Nobody came out that night, not one was ever seen
But Old Man Stauf is waiting there, crazy, sick, AND MEAN!
The great PC puzzle game/interactive haunted house
The 7th Guest, like it's distant cousin
Myst, is considered largely responsible for the then expensive CD-Rom technology taking off with consumers at large. Considered an instant classic upon release over 17 years ago and selling over 2 million copies, it still holds a nostalgic sway over those of us who were there at the dawn of 'multimedia'. Consisting of brain teasers and devious puzzles, where even learning the rules of the game are a part of the challenge, gameplay in
The 7th Guest has aged much better than it's PC counterparts. And while the pre-rendered 3D environments and early FMV work are comically dated now, the incredible musical score and attention to mood and menace help keep the game worth playing even in the days of HD and Blu-Ray.
I have quite a history with this game, a game with quite a development history all it's own, and both are horror stories befitting the games' own darker themes. First up is mine:
As a gamer growing up, I was very fortunate in that my dad was an early adopter in the PC market. Once we had our fancy CD-Rom installed, we had to have something to play, and the magazines sure talked up the showpiece
The 7th Guest. Even to this day, I think the only games my dad ever bought for himself were really just to check out hardware. Worked for me! So, my friend Ben and I were soon up night after night, trying to conquer each devilish puzzle, entranced by the graphics and video, and the haunting music echoing in my living room. By the end of the summer, we were stuck on the infamous 'microscope' puzzle of Reversi/Othello. We thought the worst part of the game was pitting two 15 year-olds against a computer AI on Reversi with the difficulty set a notch above "divide by zero and then display the mathematical properties of a black hole on a pocket calculator while counting to infinity twice." We thought the game's most evil moment had to be past us.
We were wrong.
One room left, the mansion's attic. Where a summer's worth of head-splitting mind-bogglers solved would finally culminate, one puzzle that
had to be easier than that stupid Reversi game. Almost finished.
The door wouldn't open. Okay...maybe we missed something. Another puzzle? Nope. We tried everything. We went back and played every puzzle, even restarted and re-saved. No attic access.
We were stumped, frustrated, and driven to extremes. That's right, we called the 1-800 tip line in the instructions. Ben and I, the guys who didn't even use the in-game hint system. We had too.
After a detailed (and expensive) conversation explaining where we were stuck, I heard a knowing sigh from the voice on the receiver. We had a defective game. A copy from a print run with a known glitch that keep the game locked from the finale. Seriously. We'd have to mail in the second disc and a copy of our proof of purchase, and they'd mail us a working disc. In four to six weeks. Seriously.
Worse, dad couldn't find the original box. We had no proof of purchase, and so we were completely out of luck. Say what you will about how online patching allows developers to kick games out the door unfinished, back then it would have kept two teenagers from building an assault robot in metal shop and destroying Virgin Interactive and most of the UK. Just kidding: my school didn't have a metal shop. I just played too much
Battletech.
Years later, I bought another copy and tried to install it on our newer computer, only to be hit with DOS driver errors that kept it from booting. I wouldn't play the game again for over a decade, and I've still never gone through it again, only seeing the ending on youtube.
The game is/was truly evil.
But my hate/love experience with
The 7th Guest must pale in comparison to co-creator Graeme Devine's.
Mr. Devine is truly one of my gaming developer heroes. The guy went from porting Pole Position for Atari when he was
16(!) to helping develop Quake III Arena, Doom 3, Age of Empires 3, and Halo Wars. The guy was lead designer/programmer/producer for more than 40 titles on NES, Genesis, Gameboy, PC, Amiga Commodore 64, Atari ST and standalone arcade games. If I could take anyone in gaming culture out to a steakhouse, Graeme would be at the top of the list.
He and Rob Landeros formed Trilobyte and created
The 7th Guest, and became immediately successful. However, the co-founders each had different views on where to take the sequel. The story goes that Graeme walked over to the FMV filming for
11th Hour and
"There the actress stood, dressed in black tights, with a spiked black collar girdling her neck and no clothing on her upper body. In her right hand she held a silver metallic chain attached to a German shepherd. Devine walked onto the set, and as Rob Landeros remembers, "You could clearly tell he was concerned about the content."
Landeros was interested in immediately pushing the content for more adult oriented material. "I told Rob, 'This is just not a comfortable direction,'" explains Devine, who says he "thought about what I was going to tell my wife we were making at Trilobyte."
The divide between the two creators ended up bringing about the fall of the company, as detailed in Geoff Keighley's "Behind the Games" feature:
http://www.gamespot.com/f...atures/btg-tri/index.htmlAnd what began as a promising game company on the bring of new technology dissolved from creative differences, financial mismanagement, and hubris. Not every scary game has an even scarier backstory.
So this Halloween, fire up the emulator and give Trilobyte's success a whirl.
Just remember to get a patched version, or you'll face a real horror story.
So before I was hit with nostalgia and began collecting a few short months ago, I was the opposite of a collector, which explains why I gave away all my old stuff. Now that I have started collecting and have a "not too shabby" collection so far I find myself playing on these older systems more and more.
Before all this collecting it was simple, load up the PS3 and play Call of Duty, or load up the Wii and play Wii Sports, or hop on the PC for some beautiful visuals. During that time the PS3 dominated my gaming habit, and I was playing online constantly. Once I became aware of all the cheating going on, that's when things changed for me.
My first way of dealing with the Call of Duty cheating was to get Battlefield Bad Company 2 the day of it's release, and surely all the cheaters will stay playing Call of Duty, yeah right. It did not take too long before I was overwhelmed with blatant cheaters on Battlefield (my absolute favorite fps series by far).
Well Red Dead Redemption came out and that worked out well for awhile until I started to notice people cheating on this game as well. WTF! That was about how I was feeling at this point.
I had a great idea at this point, what if I play an older online game, surely the cheaters have moved on from Call of Duty World at War. It turns out I was dead wrong, there is still tons of cheating on that dinosaur albeit awesome game.
With all of these attempts to dodge the online cheating it has just made it overwhelmingly obvious that it is unavoidable, and so if I want to avoid cheating online I have to stay offline. This is where it has become appealing to just stay offline, game offline. If I want to have fun playing multiplayer, it'll have to be split screen I guess.
I did make some attempts to try to get punkbuster on the consoles, but that most likely will fail, whatever I give up. All this means is that multiplayer stats are meaningless...which is sad because the whole point of keeping stats was to keep track of how well you are doing, but with all the cheating that is right out the window, so why bother at all?
