The Secret of Monkey Island

 Developer: Lucas Arts

Genre: Point n’ Click Adventure

  Release date: 1990

My name is Guybrush Threepwood, prepare to die! The immortal words of Guybrush Drinkwater, um, Thrinkwood, eh, never mind. Squinky, just call him Squinky. 

The Secret of Monkey Island can be seen as one of the greatest point and click adventures of its time, and possibly of all time! It remains in the hearts and minds of all dedicated adventurers since the beginning of the classic pirate series from Lucas Arts, and more specifically Ron Gilbert, master of dialogue behind The Secret of Monkey Island. Guybrush’s adventures continue to this day, with some of the original team returning, in the Tales of Monkey Island from Telltale Games.

Guybrush is the wannabe pirate hero of the adventure, our pony tailed protagonist doesn’t realise that his arrival on Melee Island couldn’t have come at a worse time as its inhabitants are being terrorised by the fearsome Ghost Pirate Le Chuck.

To begin his dream of adventure on the high seas, drinking grog, and getting “a-head in navigation”, Guybrush must seek the three grog swilling, foul-mouthed pirate Captains who reside in the SCUMM bar, aptly named for the games interface system explained below. Guybrush must complete the three trials given to him by the pirate Captains to succeed in becoming a pirate. Sword mastery, thievery, and eh, treasure huntery. With cracking dialogue, cut scenes and some very funny moments Guybrush’s adventure goes from wannabe pirate to captaining his own ship and crew in order to find his way to Monkey Island and rescue the woman he loves from the evil clutches of the ghost pirate Le Chuck!

 The Secret of Monkey Island is an adventure game that utilizes the command verb-based system SCUMM (Script Creation Utility of Maniac Mansion), the kind of point and click interface first introduced in Maniac Mansion and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The technology was used in all subsequent Lucas Arts adventure games, with the exception of Grim Fandango and Escape from Monkey Island. The branching dialogue system allows you to talk to characters in different ways without fearing a wrong choice, (if this was the not the case Guybrush’s’ further adventures could see him working down at the local fire station) after declaring to the pirate Captains “I wanna be a fireman”. The game play itself revolves around inventory-based puzzles to solve. Items are picked up and saved in the players’ inventory until needed; they can be used with each other or with an object, place or character within the game.

One of the most memorable of the three trials (for its longevity) is to defeat the island’s sword master Carla, an expert in the art of sword play and insults. A notable contributor to this very clever and funny part of the game was author Orson Scott Card. Orson wrote the insults and answers that the player has to collect by fighting stinking and bloodthirsty pirates on the road, and to  use the insults and answers collected to defeat the sword masters own unique brand of verbal abuse.

Along the way Guybrush meets many other great characters; including Captain Smirk who trains Guybrush, used ship salesman Stan, Otis the prisoner, and most significantly, the love of his life, Governor Elaine Marley, who Guybrush meets whilst attempting to steal the Idol of Many Hands (it really does belong in a museum).

 Le Chuck’s ghost crew kidnaps Elaine and takes her to the fabled Monkey Island. Gilberts dialogue throughout is funny and timeless, allowing new gamers who have not had the pleasure of the Monkey Island experience before to appreciate the superior humour and the great characters in a new light rather than focus on the outdated graphics and linear story line. The hilarious repartee between Guybrush and Meathook sticks in my mind to this day. If this situation arose in real life I’d be tempted to use it, although calling someone cannonball head may not result in the correct verbal reply I’m anticipating. Guybrush is busy insulting the people who will eventually crew his boat, (Carla, Meathook, and Otis), who all set out to find the mysterious island and free Elaine.

A brilliant game and still one of my all time favorites, it all culminates into a timeless game with humour and characters that stick in the mind to this day, playable and simply one of Lucas Arts, (or more accurately Ron Gilberts) greatest point and click adventures, nothing yet in my opinion has beaten sword fight insults and the pirate ghost ship shuffle. For similar experiences in humour and game play see other classics like Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle and the Last Crusade. Monkey Island sequels Curse and Escape (the 3^rd and 4^th in the series) have tried to sustain the template set out by Ron Gilbert but are missing the subtle humour and charm of the first two. Guybrush’s newest adventure from Telltale Games however raises the bar, and with a few familiar names on the production team recaptures some of the magic which made the first game such a classic.

Grim Fandango

Developer: Lucas Arts

Year: 1998

Genre: 3D Aventure Game

Themes:  Death / Mystery / Crime / Romance / Aztecs / Film Noir

“Manuel, are you in love with her?”

 “Love? Love is for the living, Sal. I’m only after her for one reason. She’s my ticket out of here.”

Impending Doom

Adventure games have always been very difficult to produce. Engaging the audience in a narrative which requires minimal contributions in terms of actual playing necessitates the need for holding attention. Lucas Arts is renowned for generating some of the finest additions to this genre, including the still thriving Monkey Island series, Sam and Max Hit the Road and Day, Full Throttle and Day of the Tentacle to list a handful. In the 90s with the continual release of thrilling action games such as Doom and Quake, the adventure genre was rapidly losing its appeal. People wanted to play more interactive games, not read sheets of text.

In an effort to revive the genre that was holding on for its very life, Grim Fandango was released in 1998 as a 3D adventure game. It takes place in the strangest of settings yet, the land of the dead, a sort of purgatory the departed have to pass through in order to reach eternal rest.

“It’s just your apperance, it’s a little a imtimidating…”

Players assume the role of Manny Calevera, a travel agent for the Department of Death (DOD), working to provide the deceased with transportation to the ninth underworld of eternal rest. It appears that this mirror world is very similar to modern society with those more comfortable with staying in the land of the dead building cities to suit such a lifestyle. Manny seems interested only in “paying off his debts” by working at the DOD, it appears those that led morally honest lives are able to receive tickets on an express train taking them straight to the ninth underworld.

“That compass on the handle will sure come in handy!”

Grim Fandango begins with Manny expressing his distress for having lousy clients, professing the belief that it won’t lead him anywhere. He intercepts one of the premium clients from his malevolent co-worker, Dom and things turn strange. He is unable to provide the woman, Meche with transport on the number nine despite her flawless life record. Meche leaves the DOD and begins walking towards the ninth underworld through the dangerous regions of the land. Those that can’t obtain tickets must brave its challenges on a four year journey.

It is revealed that corruption is taking place in the DOD and Manny escapes the organization with the help of Salvador, a resistance leader who is aware of the situation at the DOD. With nothing left for him at the DOD, Manny begins his own four year journey in search of Meche, believing she’s his ticket out of the land.  The story explodes into action, taking Manny to different locations. Each section of the game takes place on the Day of the Dead and each time significant events unfold.

Manny travels with his bear-resembling demon friend, Glottis a garage mechanic who lives for speed. Together they hunt for Meche, taken to several cities each with architecture similar to Aztec structures. The game takes on a very classic style of film noir with clear inspiration from Casablanca. This is made obvious through the attire and attitudes of others. Further to this there’s a clear emphasis on orchestral jazz music that just sounds perfect for each setting, some traditional folk music is also there. I genuinely believe that this combination of amazing artwork and delightful music takes Grim Fandango in a spectacular direction. It could be said that this alone would be enough for people to purchase this game and just walk around experiencing these epic settings.

Use Liquid Nitrogen on Dynamite

I’ve already outlined the story, and very briefly at that, however it’s what makes the game shine. Manny is hell bent on finding Meche and each time he’s placed in a situation where he’ll briefly encounter her and then proceed to give chase. This is where many of the puzzles begin to emerge.

 An example is when Manny fools the dock master, Velasco into believing one of his ensigns has died so that he can secure a spot on his vessel. Players will more than often have to think outside the box to solve these somewhat obscure puzzles. Your life is made easier with hints attained from talking to characters. Generally Manny might have to employ items in his rather bulky inventory to achieve this; it’s surprising how useful the scythe he carries is.

“Manny! You have to hear about my new coat system!”

In addition to their hints many of the lands’ citizens will talk to Manny about their lives in general. This is the backbone for comic relief in the game and it’s pulled off with ease. It’s a very dry sense of humor which anyone can enjoy, sometimes just listening to Glottis speak made me laugh, particularly his song about his beloved “Bone Wagon.” You’ll find yourself milking every piece of speech; the voice acting is just incredible.   

I have to apologize for sidetracking from the story again. To summarize it’s a suspenseful tale overall, perfectly balanced. Never too corny, never once dull, never less than amazing. I’m going to admit this right out; this is the first video game story that left me in tears at the end. It’s a thing of beauty. Last thing to say about the narrative is that there’s a collection of short cutscenes. They’re done impeccably, retaining that noir feeling and providing many laughs, one being the one that made me cry.

Not that way!

Thus far I’ve just conveyed one positive after another (Tim Schafer is a genius after all), were there really any negative aspects? Well unfortunately yes and this one will affect players the moment they take control of Manny. It is in fact the controls that lead me to complain, they’re pretty frustrating. This was the first time Lucas Arts made a 3D adventure game and many FPS gamers will mope about having to move and turn with only WASD, I think the camera also had a major impact, sometimes causing Manny to travel in a different direction altogether when pressing S to move backwards. Fortunately I think this didn’t last long in adventure games, Escape from Monkey Island is the only other game I can think of that had controls like this and the latest Monkey Island is 3D with pointing and clicking.

 I don’t think this is a seriously game breaking feature overall. It’s more of the only way they could work in Manny’s model with the scenes, I remember being disappointed with Myst and some of the Zork graphic adventures because you could lay an eye on who you were controlling.

Closing Remarks

Grim Fandango is my favorite adventure game and I strongly agree with other critics that this is the best adventure game ever made. The art direction, music, characterization, puzzles and story is well beyond anything produced today and will be for a long time. During this year’s Day of the Dead I actually loaded Grim Fandango up and played through it in one sitting as my own way to celebrate. It is on my top ten list for video games and I believe everyone should experience it.

 Before I conclude I just wanted to remark that before you sprint to the stores to grab the gradually dwindling copies available make sure you read some of the FAQs about running it on Windows XP / Vista, because it’s extremely problematic to operate on modern PCs, sometimes you’ll also have to use Software rendering.

 Score 100%

 Recommended Level: Year 2 – Rubacava (yes, the whole thing)

 Why No Video Review? – My system doesn’t do it justice (software rendering)

 Pros

 + Mind-blowing art direction

 + Memorable Music

 + Revived Adventure Games

 + Tear-bringing Story

 + Hilarious Dialogue

 + Various Cultural References and Noir Themes

 + Enjoyable Puzzles

 + Glottis!

 Cons

 - Controlling Manny is similar to moving a puppet on strings

 - Does not perform well on modern PCs

 - Puzzles in Year 3 are sometimes completely bug ridden

Folklore mexicano, cultura azteca, muertos y un ambiente noir envuelven a esta joya que es posible adquirir de nuevo gracias a las polémicas reediciones de los juegos de Lucasarts por parte de Activision, y cuya adaptación al cine de la mano del gran cineasta Tim Burton causó un gran revuelo en toda la comunidad hasta que se comprobó que era un simple bulo. ¿Qué es aquello tan diferente que ha hecho que sea una de las predilectas de los aventureros de todos los tiempos?

El juego se desarrolla en la Tierra de los Muertos, inspirada en el Mictlán —el inframundo azteca— y abarca en el tiempo la aventura durante 4 años de su protagonista, el esquelético Manny Calavera (Manuel Calavera), a través de la tierra de los muertos. Cada uno de los cuatro episodios comienza el día de Muertos, y es de la temática de la celebración de este día en México de donde se ha sacado la inspiración para el videojuego, de hecho, la mayoría de los personajes del videojuego son figuras esqueléticas basadas en el trabajo del dibujante mexicano José Guadalupe Posada y las flores son usadas como herramientas para el asesinato. El juego combina el ambiente del inframundo con un estilo de los años 30. El diseño artístico y el guión están inspirados en la atmósfera de las novelas de Raymond Chandler. Muchos de los personajes fuman, mayoritariamente por el efecto cinematográfico, con el argumento: bueno, ellos están realmente muertos.

Manny Calavera es un personaje genial cuyo trabajo combina el de segador siniestro o segador de almas (Grim Reaper en inglés, la muerte) con el de una agencia de viajes. Tras descubrir que se le han negado varias retribuciones post-morten comienza a investigar, atravesando por ello una compleja red de corrupción, mentiras y crímenes.

La muerte no es el final; es tan sólo el principio. Después de que un cuerpo abandone la vida terrenal en “la Tierra de los Vivos”, debe atravesar los ocho infiernos de “la Tierra de los Muertos” para alcanzar el Noveno Infierno y, con él, la paz eterna. Y ahí es donde entra en juego nuestro protagonista: Manny Calavera es un agente de viajes del Departamento de la Muerte, cuyo trabajo consiste en “cosechar” clientes recién muertos para ofrecerles el mejor paquete de viajes hasta el Noveno Infierno, para que alcancen su destino en mucho menos tiempo y más confortablemente que mediante una dura travesía a pie durante cuatro duros años. Si consigue un número alto de ventas de billetes de alta categoría, podrá saldar su deuda y viajar hasta el paraíso de los muertos, pero mientras tanto está condenado a permanecer en la ciudad del Tuétano.

La suerte últimamente no está del lado de Manny, ya que sus tiempos de gloria quedaron atrás y los últimos clientes que consigue no parecen ser aptos para un billete de alta clase, por lo que sus esperanzas se desvanecen. En un desesperado intento por salvar su trabajo, Manny le roba una cliente a su rival, Dómino Hurley, ya que parece que tiene todas las papeletas para conseguir el billete más lujoso. Cuál será su sorpresa al ver que la susodicha, Mercedes Colomar, sigue la triste estela de sus últimos clientes. Con un alto sentimiento de culpabilidad por haberla abandonado en esas circunstancias (y quizá porque siente algo hacia ella), Manuel se embarca en un arduo viaje para recuperar a su alma perdida y concederle su billete del tren número 9 injustamente robado.

Una intensa trama de corrupción, crimen, infidelidades y traiciones con multitud de guiños a los clásicos del cine negro (Casablanca, El halcón maltés, El Padrino…)

Li Österberg postade ett Dia de los Muertos-relaterat inlägg på sin blogg i helgen och jag blev inspirerad att göra detsamma(samt att spela om Grim Fandango for the umpteenth time), men eftersom jag förstås inte kan ta itu med saker och ting i tid kommer först nu en liten hälsning som borde varit klar redan för några dagar sedan. Hijole.
“It’s the festival of the Day of the Dead. Really more of a living person’s holiday, but we play along.”

… Och vad har jag lärt mig den här gången? Att man kanske inte borde måla allt på fri hand enbart. Ibland kanske det kan vara smart att mäta och tänka lite på det där med perspektivet… Det här var en svinlurig bild utan någon tydlig horisont som man kunde utgå ifrån. Vilket nu efteråt kändes som ett alldeles för svårt projekt… Känns som att jag la ner för lång tid på den här bilden.

53b 34h – Grim Fandango i akvarell. Jag tar en bättre bild sen, då kanske jag putsat på en del detaljer också.

Este Día de muertos, recordé este genial juego de PC, cual dicho sea de paso es una de las mejores historias que se pueden encontrar.

El juego se desarrolla en el inframundo azteca y abarca en el tiempo la aventura durante 4 años de su protagonista, el esquelético Manny Calavera (Manuel Calavera), a través de la tierra de los muertos. Cada uno de los cuatro episodios comienza el día de los muertos, y es de la temática de la celebración de este día en México de donde se ha sacado la inspiración para el videojuego, de hecho, la mayoría de los personajes del videojuego son figuras esqueléticas (basadas en el trabajo del dibujante mexicano José Guadalupe Posada) y las flores son usadas como herramientas para el asesinato. Manny Calavera es un personaje genial cuyo trabajo combina el de segador siniestro o segador de almas (la muerte) con el de una agencia de viajes. Tras descubrir que se le han negado varias retribuciones post-mortem comienza a investigar, atravesando por ello una compleja red de corrupción, mentiras y crímenes.

A grandes rasgos, Grim Fandango es una aventura en la tierra de los muertos, Manny Calavera,  el personaje principal, descubre una red de corrupción en el Departamento de Muerte, que a manera de agencia de viajes se encarga de transportar las almas de los difuntos a su lugar de descanso.

En Grim Fandango, como en muchas culturas, la muerte no es un cese de actividad, sino la continuación de un viaje. En la cultura náhuatl el Mictlán es la tierra de los muertos, que está dividida en 9 inframundos, los cuales encierran diversos peligros que las almas deben recorrer para alcanzar el descanso eterno en el noveno nivel; la estructura de Grim Fandango es esta misma. Otra característica del Mictlán es que el recorrido se hace con un acompañante, Xólotl (Perro monstruo o gigante); su referente en el juego es Glottis, el demonio y mecánico que acompaña a Manny en su aventura.

Algo curioso en Grim Fandango es que el objeto que genera la corrupción no sea el regreso a la vida encarnada, como podría esperarse en almas que aún se entretienen con pasiones amorosas, bebidas embriagantes y juegos de apuestas, sino la oscura nada del Noveno Inframundo. Y más aún, germinar flores sobre los huesos de un muerto (esto es, en cierto modo, volverlo a la vida) es un crimen terrible comparado al homicidio. Así, la colina cubierta de flores donde tiene su escondite Héctor LeMans, lejos de ser un paisaje de belleza apreciable, es algo terriblemente funesto en el contexto del juego.

El único personaje que siente simpatía por las flores es el Florista, un botánico con aire hippie, contratado por Héctor para producir sproutela y las armas para germinar sobre los muertos. En un momento comenta que las flores son la vida, no la muerte y que el mundo sería un lugar mejor si las personas fueran plantas.

Por otro lado en la morgue de Rubalcaba es notable el pesimismo del forense  Membrillo haciendo labores de jardinero: “todas las historias terminan aquí” (en la morgue) –dice. Pueden pasar años, horas, pero tarde o temprano nos llenamos de flores.

La adversión a ser germinado tiene sentido, pues significaría volver a entrar a los ciclos de vida de la materia orgánica y perder la oportunidad, quizá para siempre, de llegar descansar en el Noveno Inframundo. Esto guarda semejanza con otras religiones  que sostienen la existencia de un ciclo sin fin del que solo se puede salir mediante buenas acciones, tal como garantizan los boletos del tren expreso al Noveno reservados para aquellos que han sido buenos.

A mi parecer Grim Fandango va más allá de ser un simple videojuego con gráficos vistosos y argumento entretenido; es una celebración maestra de lo nuestro, de lo mestizo.

Última jornada en Art Futura.

• Desarrolladores independientes de videojuegos
  Representantes de 4 empresas que hacen desarrollos independientes han hablado sobre la situación del mercado y las oportunidades que se abren con la distribución digital de videojuegos.
  Roberto Alvarez de Over the Top
  Daniel Iborra de Alcahofasoft
  David Ferriz de Devilish Games
  Fernando Piquer de Bitoon
• Games in Spain
  La situación de la industria del videojuego en España, publishers, localizadores y distribuidores.
  Julio Moreno de Enjoy Up
  Mónica Gómez grupo Planeta
  Xavier Robles de Anaitgames y Eurogamer
• 25 años de 3D en España
  La evolución de los computer graphics en España, desde principios de los 80 hasta nuestros días, los cambios tecnológicos (Amiga, Silicon Graphics, Apple Macintosh, PC) y algunos de los protagonistas de este viaje por el tiempo: Juan Carlos Eguillor, Félix Bergés, Juan Tomicic, Xavier Berenguer y Ricardo Montesa. Xavier Berenguer ha mostrado algunos de los trabajos de animación por ordenador hechos en estos años, destacando la Demon Reel de Animática que entró en el Electronic Theater de Siggraph 1989, y otras animaciones que tiene organizadas en su web.
  Juan Tomicic ha enseñado sus anuncios de Iberia y Renfe, Juan Carlos Eguillor “Las Meninas” y Félix Bergés su anuncio de REPSOL y su último trabajo de efectos visuales para Agora. Ricardo Montesa ha contado su evolución en el mundo del software 3D con su Brainstorm Studio, que además de estar vendido en muchas TV de todo el mundo ha ayudado a una empresa como ILM en la visualización de Yo Robot, Inteligencia Artificial o Speed Racer.
• Dani Sánchez-Crespo, director general de Novarama ha hecho la presentación de su videojuego InviZimals, que tras 6 años de lucha ha conseguido que toda una SONY haya creído en su proyecto y haya hecho una inversión muy importante en el lanzamiento de su juego, que por cierto sale a la venta el 13 de Noviembre para PSP. Es un juego de Realidad Aumentada, que ha ocupado a las 14 personas del equipo de desarrollo de Novarama y a un total de casi 200 personas en diferentes fases de la producción. La idea base es que con una cámara de vídeo que se adapta a la PSP y que está especialmente diseñada para el juego, los niños de alrededor de 7 años podrán buscar por su casa extrañas criaturas que sólo se ven a través de la cámara y mediante el visor de su PSP. Estas extrañas criaturas llamadas InviZimals aparecen de forma especial en ciertos lugares y a ciertas horas.
  Si queréis ver una idea de cómo funciona el videojuego, podéis ver este vídeo.
  Cuando veo esta aplicación, me pregunto si los de Total Immersion están esperando con sus abogados o no para lanzar una ofensiva por sus patentes o no, ya que lanzaron sus productos de Realidad Aumentada en 1999. Espero que esté todo “atado y bien atado”.
• Tim Shafer ha hablado en su intervención ante un auditorio completamente abarrotado y entregado de su carrera en el mundo de los videojuegos, desde el primer ordenador que compró su padre para su casa y que se enchufaba a la TV poniendo unos celofanes sobre la pantalla, hasta la carta de rechazo por parte de Atari a su solicitud de empleo, o la que preparó para entrar en Lucas Arts, donde creció hasta ser una celebridad y crear juegos super famosos, pasando de juegos 2D con 16 colores, 256 colores, hasta los juegos 3D de hoy. De entre todos los que diseñó quiero destacar Grim Fandango. Luego habló de la creación de su propia empresa, Double Fine, y toda esta charla la ha amenizado con slides y chistes de lo más ocurrentes y divertidos, para concluir con varias referencias a su último proyecto: Brütal Legend.
• Los premios Art Futura se han entregado. Los mejores trabajos 3D internacionales, nacionales y de videojuegos, tanto del jurado como del público, y un gran premio al mejor trabajo de animación 3D dotado con 6.000€
• El futuro en OPEN, a cargo de Oscar Hormiga de Planet Idea ha sido una presentación que ha hecho un resumen bastante exhaustivo de las iniciativas “Open” en varios temas sociales. He echado de menos referencias esenciales en el movimiento de software abierto, en concreto a Sun Microsystems (Solaris, Java, OpenOffice, MySQL incluso su arquitectura abierta de procesadores SPARC que hace que tenga competidores en Fujitsu en la venta de sus propios procesadores, etc), y al proyecto Open Movie, Open Game promovido por Ton Rosendaal y su Blender Institute, ambas referencias esenciales para un evento como Art Futura, y en este contexto mucho más relevantes que los temas de sanidad.

by ChiefJimbolaya:

©2009 Aaron Klein

“What do you do with a bunch of kids who don’t know how to do anything but bang their heads all day long?”

“We start a revolution!”

Perhaps no greater tribute has ever been offered at the temple of an entire genre of music than Brütal Legend. This game idolizes the power and energy of heavy metal, creating an entire world with metal as its central mythology.

The world of Brütal Legend is steeped heavy metal symbolism; with every scenic vista looking like it belongs on an album cover.

Brütal Legend is a game with a lot of star power. First, it bears the name of one of the most critically acclaimed video game developers: Tim Schafer.

Schafer spent more than a decade at Lucas Arts working on games like Maniac Mansion, The Secret of Monkey Island and Grim Fandango before founding his own studio, Double Fine Entertainment, and creating games like Psychonauts. He has earned the reputation as being one of the funniest writers in the industry.

The game’s second big name is Jack Black, who voices Riggs, and whose enthusiasm for rock music evident in movies like School of Rock and Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny made him a perfect advocate.

In addition, heavy metal icons like Ozzy Osborne, Lemmy Kilmister from Motörhead and Judas Priest’s Rob Halford lend their voices to some of the game’s main characters. In another stroke of genius, Schafer secured the diabolical voice of Tim Curry as the game’s main villain.

Brütal Legend is a third-person, open-world action game where you play as Roadie Eddie Riggs. Riggs laments what passes for music nowadays, asking a fellow roadie, “Do you ever feel like you were born in the wrong time, like you should have been born in a time when the music was better?”

Soon enough he finds himself magically transported via his cursed belt buckle to a land of Nordic fantasy where demons have enslaved humanity. Only the power of metal–and Eddie’s superior organizational roadie skills—can save them.

In this world, Eddie can melt his enemies’ faces with a scorching guitar riff and allies can be healed with the soothing vibrations of a bass note from a steel string made from a giant spider. Eddie’s guitar launches special attacks, and behaves in a way similar to Link’s ocarina in the Zelda franchise.

The story lampoons various aspects of music culture. Eddie’s first roadblock, General Lionwhyte gets around by using his massive hair to fly, and represents the glitz and glam of corporatized hair metal in the 1980s.

Other enemies clearly mock the emo culture, as they don black clothing and mascara while saying things like, “you don’t understand my suffering.” These guys get their power by drinking from the “Sea of Black Tears.”

Eddie’s roadie skills particularly help in the massive “stage battles,” which are duplicated in multiplayer mode. Stage battles are a mix of third person action and real time strategy.

Here Eddie sprouts wings and soars over the battlefield, setting rally points and commanding his troops. Two opposing stages vie over fan geysers, which supply resources needed to build more and more powerful troops to take out your opponent’s stage.

Some RPG elements are evident in that Eddie earns flame tributes by pleasing the gods, which he can give to the Guardian of Metal (Ozzy) in exchange for upgrades to his vehicle and weapons.

Side quests are good ways to earn extra flame tributes. There are around a half dozen varieties, including ambush attacks, races, hunting wildlife and searching for collectibles.

If anything bad can be said about it is that it is too short. However, it could have just seemed that way because it was so much fun.

©2009 Aaron Klein

“8.5/10

“Average press score according to TestFreaks: 6.3/10″

Please share us around

I have guys like the “Party Pooper” in this article hit on me all night. I even got a good view of the Southern Cross tattoo, he had on his back, when he took his shirt off on stage.

His antics came complete with his brother and sister joining in on stage for 80% of all The Ataris’ songs, which ruined the gig for so many in the audience.

Thanks. At 45 bucks a pop, we really loved hearing you drunkenly slur what lyrics you could remember, and see your flailing body on the stage.

You won’t remember it, but sadly we will.

Ps. He even asked me why I was still single, my reply was short and to the point.
“I attract the idiots who I’d never date in a million year.” I think he got the hint.

This are some of the coolest gaming related stuff i’ve seen.

See if you can name all of them. No cheating. It’s not that hard.

Thanks to Kotaku.

Twelve Games that need a Digital Distribution release

Whatever your particular misgivings about digital distribution vs. retail, it has made many games available that would otherwise have been difficult to get a hold of.  I have bought quite a few games now, that I might not have been able to get otherwise and I’ve had a lot of fun with some of them.  The main reason why the following games should be made available is for future generations of gamers, there are many old games that are not really worth playing any more, but there are also many classics that have never been matched since and it would be a shame if people didn’t at least have the opportunity to play them.

So in no particular order, these are the games I feel are deserving of a chance:

System Shock 2

Top of the GOG.com wishlist currently with 8160 votes I think it’s easy to see why this one needs to be released.  Often heralded as one of the most atmospheric games ever made, the demo showed great promise when I played it.  The story is mentioned often and each time I hold myself back from reading it, hoping one day I’ll be able to experience it myself.

Planescape:  Torment

Like System Shock 2 above this one has been at the top of the GOG.com wishlist for as long as it has been around.  Developed by Black Isle Studios, the same team behind the Baldur’s Gate series this one is another that needs little discussion.  With supposedly some of the best story writing ever used in a game I have wanted to give this one a go for quite a while.  The graphics might be a little hard to get past now, but I think it would be worth the effort.

Jurassic Park:  Trespasser

The Arm!  I wrote a little about Trespasser a while back, famous for it’s unique control system (and interesting health meter) I would be very interesting in being able to explore a little more of this game.  It can be quite an unwieldy beast at times, and I’ve never heard anything about particular set pieces that might be good to try, but from what little the demo offers I just know there is more to be had from this strange game.  I know it’s not a good game, but it deserves a chance simply because of it’s place in gaming history.

Conquest Frontier Wars

A personal one this, I’ve played the demo many times over the years and despite it’s limitations have always enjoyed my time playing it.  I don’t enjoy it for being an RTS, I enjoy the stories I conjure up in my mind whilst playing.  As well as the usual number groupings for units you can also hire Admirals who add various bonus’ to ship performance, each of them has a distinctive personality.  The most memorable being Admiral Smirnoff with such classic lines as ‘Hell is icy and invites you all’ and ‘The bear has left the woods’.  What I also liked was the ship designs, in the demo you only see the human wessels, they’re pretty standard stuff but watching a fleet of Dreadnoughts having at each other was great, the sights and sounds conveying a great sense of physical impact.  It’s not a brilliant game, but the little things have made an impression on me.

Homeworld

I think it’s very strange that we have yet to see the Homeworld series become available from any of the digital distribution outlets.  Both Dawn of War and Company of Heroes have a significant online presence, but arguably one of the best space strategy games (not to mention the best 3D space strategy) has yet to be made available.  I wasn’t as impressed with Cataclysm, and number 2’s story and gameplay didn’t seem to have the same draw, although it was and is beautiful.  The first however I count as one of the greatest gaming experiences I’ve had, the music, the gameplay, the moving story of a race trying to find their new\old home.  I haven’t played it in quite a while now, but I think the visuals are simplistic enough to not have a negative impact on playing through the game.

Startopia

Another of my all time favourite games, Startopia suffered extremely disappointing sales and really deserves a second chance.  Your funny computer assistant, the remarkable detail of some aspects of the game, the interesting species that inhabit your station, there is so much this game has to offer.  Who doesn’t want to run a space station filled with weird looking aliens?

Grim Fandango

Not got much to say on this one, I’ve only ever played the demo and that was not only short but hard to remember in this gaming addled brain of mine.  What I do know is that it was made by LucasArts towards the end of their era, and one of the main people who worked on it was Tim Schafer, who is responsible for the hilarious and often clever Psychonauts.  So you know it’s going to be funny.  Truly funny games are few and far between nowadays so it’d be great to be able to play one from the golden age of humorous adventure games.

No-One Lives Forever

Another funny game, another demo I’ve played.  The sniper section; which has you covering a hotel guest as he bumbles about, dropping coins and muttering to himself, and the classic moment infiltrating a base where a nearby merchant gets into and argument with one of the guards (“Are you insulting my monkey?”) are two scenes that have stuck with me over the years, and that was just playing the demo.  When my little sister was younger she used to love going through the training section, never bothered with the rest of the demo she just had a fascination with trying out all the gadgets.  For some reason I’ve never bought No-One Lives Forever.

Starlancer

One of the earliest games I was hooked on, the relatively simple gameplay and the interesting plot grabbed me in a way very few games ever have.  Reminiscent of war films, with various characters in different planes communicating the plot.  The camaraderie of your squadron (despite having little to no in-game impact) as you fight for your survival was a lot of fun.  The missions had a great variety, some were massive set pieces with important story development, but then there were the more standard patrol type missions which furthered your engagement with the other characters, rather than moving the story.   Many people preferred Freespace 2, but that only goes to show there is a market for this kind of game.  It has been too long since we’ve had a fun space shooter, years ago there were so many of them, but now all we have left over from that era are the more sim-like X and Evocron series as well as EVE Online.

Mafia

The reason I mention this one is because it is most likely already on its way.  With Mafia II due out some time next year it is quite probable that they are holding on to it for some pre-release hype and the ‘pre-order and get a free game’ promotions that have become popular of late.  One day I will play this one properly, I am always hearing good things about it but didn’t see much in the time I played.

Star Trek:  Armada II

Back when I first played the original Star Trek:  Armada I enjoyed it a lot, but as time went on I started noticing more and more flaws.  Nothing game stopping, just annoyances here and there and a general sluggishness that made the quite times drag on.  Then I played the demo of Armada II, it somehow felt a little more cohesive with the implementation of warp travel and expanded options and range of ships.  I though about buying it, but I waited too long and soon I couldn’t find a copy anywhere.  Admittedly the demo contains the two best factions, the Federation and the Borg, but there were several others which would have been interesting to try.

Star Trek:  Starfleet Command III

I have absolutely no idea if this game is any good, I’m simply going off the quality of the first (which I enjoyed) and the fact that it contains the more modern Star Trek ships.  I don’t quite know what happened to the game, I wasn’t very knowledgeable about the goings on of the PC gaming scene at the time.  All I know is one day I saw it in the shops at full price, and thought I’d keep an eye out for it in the future, then it was gone.  What is especially strange is that Metacritic has it scored at 78, not amazing but hardly a failure.

]]> http://shadowoftheconsoles.wordpress.com/2009/10/17/brutal-legend-demo/ Sat, 17 Oct 2009 01:28:12 +0000 shadowoftheconsoles http://shadowoftheconsoles.wordpress.com/2009/10/17/brutal-legend-demo/

Brutal Legend came out on Tuesday and has received mixed reviews. Below is a brief review I wrote of the demo, more or less as an exercise for myself. I’m posting it here so it can be compared to the final product. I’ll likely do a full review once I get my hands on it. In many instances, I’ve found demos deceiving. We’ll see how this turns out.

Brutal Legend Demo Review

Double Fine, indeed! The Tim Schafer brand is prepped to bestow upon us another epic tale and the demo is far too small a taste. For the fans of Psychonauts, you won’t be disappointed, save that the content is much, much different. A fully fleshed world, crafted with loving care and humor, is splayed before you. Through the trailers, dev videos, and what little we see in the demo, it looks like this game will be a of combination of semi-sandbox exploration, brawlers, and action/adventure genres.

Schafer’s writing chops shine from minute one, with the depiction of “metal” band Kabbage Boy, whom our hero Eddie Riggs roadies for. Like Alien Hominid, Brutal Legend gives the option of leaving the gore out of cut-scenes, as well as bleep out the profanity. The only reason I can imagine the game includes this is the humor factor, as anyone who buys this game can see the bevy of reasons it’s rated M right on the cover. Unlike Alien Hominid, whose “turn off the gore” option yielded flowers instead of blood, the no gore option yields much less awesome cut scenes. This legend is, afterall, brutal.

The demo is fairly short, slightly more than 20 minutes with cut scenes, but it gives a solid taste of the game play. After a piece of stage scenery falls on Riggs and his blood trickles on to his Motorhead logo-esque belt buckle, he is transported into a temple filled with evil dudes in hoods. Within the temple, we are introduced to the basic combat elements. The A button is used to attacks with the axe, the X button for magic attacks played with the guitar. The B button is for blocking. The strong attacks, both melee and magic, are pulled off by holding down their respective buttons. It’s simple and smooth and, while not as complex as the God of War controls, it’s very effective. Using the lightning attack to stun the enemy before going in for a quick combo is quite effective when you’re surrounded. My one complaint about the game at this point is the control scheme. One button for melee? I don’t doubt I’ll get used to it, but I’m worried it will feel like Batman: Arkham Asylum where I’m mashing one button over and over.

The demo also showcases the driving mechanic, which, according to dev videos, is how you’ll traverse the massive metal landscape. Not a lot to say here, other than that it’s a pretty standard driving mechanic.

The only other complaint that may register when the full game drops is the graphics, specifically related to character design. This, however, seems to be Schafer’s style. The characters are block-y and textures aren’t the smoothest, but before you ding the game, take a look at Psychonauts. It’s strengths aren’t in the graphics department, either, and that didn’t stop it from being a top-notch gaming experience. As with his previous efforts, Schafer provides a unique vision and Brutal Legend promises to be another winner, even with the graphical limitations and the possibility of seemingly truncated controls.

Ya que se acerca el Día de muertos (El halloween no tiene nada que ver con esta celebración o alguna de nuestras tradiciones) recordé este genial juego de PC, cual dicho sea de paso es una de las mejores historias que se pueden encontrar.

El juego se desarrolla en el inframundo azteca y abarca en el tiempo la aventura durante 4 años de su protagonista, el esquelético Manny Calavera (Manuel Calavera), a través de la tierra de los muertos. Cada uno de los cuatro episodios comienza el día de los muertos, y es de la temática de la celebración de este día en México de donde se ha sacado la inspiración para el videojuego, de hecho, la mayoría de los personajes del videojuego son figuras esqueléticas (basadas en el trabajo del dibujante mexicano José Guadalupe Posada) y las flores son usadas como herramientas para el asesinato. Manny Calavera es un personaje genial cuyo trabajo combina el de segador siniestro o segador de almas (la muerte) con el de una agencia de viajes. Tras descubrir que se le han negado varias retribuciones post-mortem comienza a investigar, atravesando por ello una compleja red de corrupción, mentiras y crímenes.

A grandes rasgos, Grim Fandango es una aventura en la tierra de los muertos, Manny Calavera,  el personaje principal, descubre una red de corrupción en el Departamento de Muerte, que a manera de agencia de viajes se encarga de transportar las almas de los difuntos a su lugar de descanso.

En Grim Fandango, como en muchas culturas, la muerte no es un cese de actividad, sino la continuación de un viaje. En la cultura náhuatl el Mictlán es la tierra de los muertos, que está dividida en 9 inframundos, los cuales encierran diversos peligros que las almas deben recorrer para alcanzar el descanso eterno en el noveno nivel; la estructura de Grim Fandango es esta misma. Otra característica del Mictlán es que el recorrido se hace con un acompañante, Xólotl (Perro monstruo o gigante); su referente en el juego es Glottis, el demonio y mecánico que acompaña a Manny en su aventura.

Algo curioso en Grim Fandango es que el objeto que genera la corrupción no sea el regreso a la vida encarnada, como podría esperarse en almas que aún se entretienen con pasiones amorosas, bebidas embriagantes y juegos de apuestas, sino la oscura nada del Noveno Inframundo. Y más aún, germinar flores sobre los huesos de un muerto (esto es, en cierto modo, volverlo a la vida) es un crimen terrible comparado al homicidio. Así, la colina cubierta de flores donde tiene su escondite Héctor LeMans, lejos de ser un paisaje de belleza apreciable, es algo terriblemente funesto en el contexto del juego.

El único personaje que siente simpatía por las flores es el Florista, un botánico con aire hippie, contratado por Héctor para producir sproutela y las armas para germinar sobre los muertos. En un momento comenta que las flores son la vida, no la muerte y que el mundo sería un lugar mejor si las personas fueran plantas.

Por otro lado en la morgue de Rubalcaba es notable el pesimismo del forense  Membrillo haciendo labores de jardinero: “todas las historias terminan aquí” (en la morgue) –dice. Pueden pasar años, horas, pero tarde o temprano nos llenamos de flores.

La adversión a ser germinado tiene sentido, pues significaría volver a entrar a los ciclos de vida de la materia orgánica y perder la oportunidad, quizá para siempre, de llegar descansar en el Noveno Inframundo. Esto guarda semejanza con otras religiones  que sostienen la existencia de un ciclo sin fin del que solo se puede salir mediante buenas acciones, tal como garantizan los boletos del tren expreso al Noveno reservados para aquellos que han sido buenos.

A mi parecer Grim Fandango va más allá de ser un simple videojuego con gráficos vistosos y argumento entretenido; es una celebración maestra de lo nuestro, de lo mestizo.

“Soy vegetariano, por eso, fumo de esa Mostaza”

Vintage PC gaming is something that I have become interested in over the past year or so, and I have slowly been adding titles to my collection that interest me. Unfortunately, being an ardent Mac user I don’t really have the ability to pop these games into my machine and play them. I am a big fan of DOSBox, but as far as the Windows 98 area CD-rom games go I am kind of hooped. None the less, they are still a blast to collect and I do have a Windows XP based machine laying around that needs a bit of work, but that is on my very robust to-do list.

Anyway, I have aquired mostly all of these games through local online classified sites for next to nothing, and the rest I got for dirt cheap on Ebay by following my strict “never buy-it-now” policy, because why would I buy-it-now if I can bid on it and pay 40% less?

Anyway, let the games begin- err, game photos begin… whatever, here they are:

If you have never played The Secret of Monkey Island than you need to download ScummVM right now and find the rom for one of the many versions of this game. I prefer the original DOS 3.5″ version, which I ordered from Australia (via Ebay) for a paltry $8. Criminal!

Beneath a Steel Sky is without a doubt one of the finest Cyberpunk adventure games ever made. The game is seeing a re-mastered release on the iPhone in late 2009. One has to ask himself if Revolution Studios is testing the water for a sequel… only time will tell. The original big box version of the game features a supplementary comic book which provides some back story on the games main character. The art was done by artist Dave Gibbons who is best known for working on the Watchmen book with Alan Moore. So basically this game just kicks complete and total ass.

By all accounts, Grim Fandango was the last great adventure game. Although universally worshipped by critics, the games poor sales lead directly to LucasArts shutting down their adventure games division and effectively killed the genre. But what a way to go out. BioShock is hailed as a creative masterpiece but it owes some props Grim Fandango and the games brilliant use of art deco architecture and design. Again, this game is not to be missed by anyone who is an adventure game enthusiast.

The Blade Runner game you’ve probably never played. The game is, once again, a point and click style adventure game (do you see a trend developing in my retro PC gaming tastes?) whose sorry and in game events parallel that of Ridely Scott’s sci-fi masterpiece. The only way this game could have been any cooler would be if you could play as Rick Deckard. Man, am I a nerd.

The last of the original Monkey Island games and by far my least favorite, but a great game none the less. Sure beats the shit out of the ten thousand Star Wars related racing games LucasArts churned out after it shut done it’s adventure game division… but I digress.

Anyway, go download ScummVm right now. You can get it for both Mac and Windows. Right from the projects main site you can downloads section and get a freeware ScummVM compatible version of Beneath a Steel Sky. Did I mention that this was all free??? What the fuck are you waiting for!??!

Veja trechos da entrevista de Darrel Rodriguez (presidente da LucasArts) ao GameTrailler TV:

“The Secret of Monkey Island” – lançado no PC, Xbox Live Arcade e iPhone – superou todas as expectativas da Lucas.

“Uma das grandes oportunidades de trabalhar aqui é poder conhecer algumas da lendas – encontrar Tim Schafer (Full Throttle, Grim Fandango), Larry Holland (X-Wing, TIE Fighter), Dave Grossman (Day of the Tentacle) ou Ron Gilbert (Sam & Max, Monkey Island). Não seria ótimo trabalhar com eles em novas coisas?”

“Estamos muito animados de voltarmos à este legado e os dias brilhantes da LucasArts. Quando as pessoas não conseguiam esperar pelo novo jogo da Lucas saindo – games baseados em trama e personagens”

So I don’t have anything to write about. Here is filler/I am pretty tired and am going to explain why each of these songs is relevant (the time is ripe for my creative powers):

1. Put your iPod on shuffle. (iTunes in this case)
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS
4. Tag 10 friends who might enjoy doing this as well as the person you got this from. Fuck that

IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY?
“In Bloom” – Nirvana (aka in Spring, I am wise)

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
“Headlong” – Queen (Yes, on the inside)

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
“Those Magic Changes” – Sha-Na-Na (From the Grease Musical. It is an apt description due to my unrealistic expectations of girls/relationships)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?
“Brothers on a Hotel Bed” – Death Cab for Cutie (This is the first of two song choices that prove I am gay. It can also be interpreted as a pessimistic outlook on my life. Specifically, I’m going to do nothing with my life like my brother, and maybe we’ll travel together as losers, that doesn’t sound too bad I guess)

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
“Bandages” – Hot Hot Heat (I make people bleed)

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU ?
“Look Down” – Les Miserables (You guys would, assholes)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
“Breakdown” – Jack Johnson (Actually this is prettyspot on. Either emotional, physical, or like… vehicular)

WHAT IS 2+2?
“Disenchanted Lullaby” – Foo Fighters (I hate math, science, and learning in general now due to high school)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
“Glorious Day” – Weezer (Whoever is my best friend, it mostly matters how good the day is)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
“Rag Mama Rag” – The Band (I am interpreting rag as like, to annoy someone. But I think the song is also considered a “ragtime” song. I hate women… they are annoying)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
“Dreamworld” – Rilo Kiley (Despite my cynicism I have both a very unrealistic perspective of the world. Also I’m retarded retired and the way I see the world is apparently inaccurate)

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
“Natural Anthem” – The Postal Service (I like talking and convincing people of shit. I want to be the anthem of the people as convinced via pure/natural logic… yes)

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
“Bring Him Home” – Les Miserables (Great)

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
“Play Your Part, Part 1″ – Girl Talk (It’s all about playing your part. Doing what is expected)

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
“Seasons of Love” – Rent (This is the original broadway cast recording with Stevie Wonder. And why not, it’s a danceworthy and happy song)

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
“Eden” – Guster (Yeah that’s right bitches, my good ethics will be repaid)

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
“London Calling” – The Clash (I like traveling, just am not going to ever work enough to do so)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
“No Good Deed” – Wicked (Secretly even the good things I do aren’t actually good)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
“Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)” – Arcade Fire (Reading a bit into the song… it’s about finding truth, answers, etc. Yes, that is you guys)

WHAT’S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
“Fixing A Hole” – The Beatles (Fuck manual labor. Also this song is the idea of like, living in your own fairytale. And I am pretty opposed to this)

HOW WILL YOU DIE?
“Concerto No. 1 in E, RV 269 ‘Spring’ I: Allegro” – Vivaldi (This recording is with Itzhak Perlman. I’m going to die old and rich. Sounds good)

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
“Don Copal” – Grim Fandango (Video game soundtrack. Don Copal goes into some shady business and is killed by his boss. I regret doing that… or I regret Don doing that)

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
“Blue Casket Bop” – Grim Fandango (Whoo Bayesian probability. The Blue Casket is full of hipsters. Hipsters make me laugh)

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
“Badlands” – Bruce Springsteen (Yep, being poor and being a manual laborer makes me cry)

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
“No Reply” – The Beatles (Whoops, rejected)

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
“Emergency Exit” – Beck (Having to use the emergency exit sounds frightening

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
“New Slang” – The Shins (In this “new slang” like is a very odd word. Not sure if this question means anything. Also this song is basically about growing up in a boring ass town and how you get older and miss opportunities to bang girls who are DTF. No)

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
“Situations” – Jack Johnson (I don’t think I can change something without changing a situation)

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
“You Make Loving Fun” – Fleetwood Mac (Loving requires you to have fun and I am not a fan of that)

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
“Fear of Sleep” – The Strokes (It’s late. Bedtime)

Here it is… my Top 10 favorite video games of all time.

10. Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001)

GAMECUBE
Of all the games I’ve ever played, I’ve probably played this one the most. I bet I’ve played over a thousand matches, at least. My high school friends and I would literally, almost every day after school, go to my house, and play this for three hours straight. Things got emotional. Neufeld almost cried once when Sam beat him. Controllers were thrown, I’m sure of it. I even entered in a SSBM bracket tournament at Third North freshman year. I lost to some Asian dudes, but I got into the semi or quarter finals.

I think the above paragraph pretty much sums up why this game is so awesome. People who say the N64 original is better really don’t know what they’re talking about. I don’t even like to argue with them; their stupidity astounds me. Everything about Melee is better- Everything. And I’ve played Brawl, but frankly, I wasn’t impressed. I didn’t see much of a difference from the Gamecube version; I mean, it didn’t even use the Wii’s motion controls. Why even bother making another, then?

My main man was Falco, although previously I exclusively used Link. The thing is, almost all the characters are good in their own way (except for the Ice Climbers. They blow), which is why I think this is the greatest masterpiece in fighting games. If Da Vinci made a fighting game, it would be Super Smash Bros. Melee. Straight up.

9. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem (2002)

GAMECUBE
One of the scariest games of all time. Perhaps not as soul-shatteringly terrifying as the Gamecube remake of the original Resident Evil, but it has a way better plot, and much more innovative gameplay. The sanity meter is genius. Pure genius. All the different effects it can have- from your character shrinking as they enter a room, or losing their limbs one by one, to the game pretending to effect the real world by turning the volume down on your TV or creating bogus error messages- they’re all brilliant. I know there are actual Cthulu games out there, but Eternal Darkness is the best interpretation of H.P. Lovecraft’s works that I’ve seen to date. Just a really, really great survival horror game, a hidden gem.

8. The Curse of Monkey Island (1997)

PC
Like I said earlier, I consider MI2 to in fact be a better game. And maybe if Lucasarts gives it the special edition treatment they graced Secret with, it’ll replace this on the list. But this game just holds a special place in my heart. It was the second MI game I ever played, and the voices instantly sounded like the characters. There was no question in my mind, after hearing him read just a few lines, that Dominic Armato was Guybrush Threepwood, or that Earl Bowen was LeChuck. They just encapsulated the characters so brilliantly in the voice work. And the 2D hand-drawn animation fit the style of the universe perfectly. This game looks, sound and feels like Monkey Island. It also has the best story- it’s a good blend of real drama and goofy comedy (I think the fourth game got a little too dark, and I always found the ending of MI2 a little too trippy). And it has the best incarnation of LeChuck- as a demon pirate. Lucasarts adventure games were already breathing their last breaths by this point, but from 1997-1998, the company produced some of the greatest games ever made. And this is one of them.

7. Half-Life 2 (2004)

XBOX 360
I played this, along with the expansions Episode One and Two, when I bought The Orange Box for the 360, and although I was at first a little confused as to what was going on, as I had never played the original, but I quickly realized that this was not only one of the greatest first-person shooters ever, but quite likely the most original and compelling story ever put to a game. I mean- aliens invading from another dimension and subjugating us like the Nazis, complete with a human Vichy government- why didn’t anyone think of that earlier? And the character animations and voice acting are so impeccable, you feel like these are real people. Like, I kinda got a crush on Alyx Vance by playing this. And she doesn’t exist. All of this adds to make for an incredibly cinematic experience, and when my games are similar to my movies, I’m a happy camper.

This sums it up:

Episode Two ended on one of the best and most fucked up cliffhangers ever, so I’m crossing my fingers that the in development Episode Three is released for the 360. I really want to know what happens!!!

6. Grand Theft Auto IV (2008)

XBOX 360
Some prefer the more old-school GTA, but for me, this is it. This game literally blew my mind when I first played it. Like, I turned the Xbox on, heard a squish, and turned around and my brain was lying on the floor. That’s how impressive it was. I mean, the game practically recreates New York City in a virtual world. It’s smaller, and not quite right, but that’s okay, because this isn’t NYC- it’s Liberty City. But the city is so detailed, and so true to real life, that just driving around is fun.

While still allowing you to fuck, then kill hookers, and go on ridiculous killing rampages, this game actually doesn’t feel like as much of a moral vacuum as previous installments. This is in large part due to the much improved story, and a more compelling protagonist. As opposed to every other game in the series, Niko Bellic isn’t trying to become the pimpest gangster of all time. In fact, he doesn’t even really want to be a gangster- he just doesn’t have a choice because he needs money, his cousin’s already involved with criminals, and his skill sets are all killing-related as he comes from a military background. It’s a revenge story, which is great, but also incorporates elements from almost every crime movie you’ve ever seen, which trust me, is a good thing.

To top it all off, Rockstar has released a downloadable expansion that gives you as many missions and gameplay hours as some $59.99 retail games, entitled The Lost and Damned. You play as an entirely new character, which is great, especially as you’re a biker. And another is set to be released October 29th- The Ballad of Gay Tony. If the title has anything to do with the story, then it will probably feature about twice as much full frontal male nudity as TLAD (I’m not kidding, there’s a floppy dick in that game).

5. Resident Evil 4 (2005)

GAMECUBE
One of the best action games of all time, combined with one of the best survival horror titles. This game is AWESOME. AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME. Right off the bat- first mission in- you’re running away from hordes of angry Spanish villagers, and a dude with a bag on his head wielding a chainsaw, and are forced to hole up in a building and fight them off. IT’S AMAZING. Playing this game is like being in the middle of a really gory and really cheesy 80s horror film. I’ve never seen a main character in a video game die in so many horrible ways as Leon. Giant bugs can melt your face off with acid. You’re decapitated on a regular basis, sometimes with the aforementioned chainsaw. At one point a monster cuts you in half at the waist with his scissor-like appendage, and lifts your lifeless legs into the air as your guts spill out. NO JOKE.

See, even though this is much more of an action game than any of the previous installments in the series- you have a fixed, over-the-shoulder camera, and a truckload of weapons which you can upgrade- it still manages to keep the spirit of Resident Evil, and provide you with some really intense scares. It’s without a doubt the best in the series. Resident Evil 5 was in my opinion, a big letdown. It was pretty much the same game, only with better graphics and co-op play, which is admittedly fun to play online… but still… it just fell flat. Because unlike RE4, it lost the spirit of the series. It’s not very scary, not particularly gory (no decapitations shown on screen), and puts you in bright and sunny Africa, instead of dark and dreary Europe. RE4 worked because it shook of the Resident Evil world so much- it broke barriers.

4. Donkey Kong Country (1994)

SNES
The first console game I ever owned, this is a masterpiece, plain and simple. The graphics, the gameplay, the art direction, sound effects, music- wonderful. And it still holds up today. Every once in a while I break out the old, dusty SNES and play through the Donkey Kong Country trilogy. The first was the best- it’s a 2D, side-scrolling platformer, but it’s beauty is in its simplicity. I think that’s what sets these 10 games apart from all the others- they all find the perfect balance of simplicity, innovation, story and playability. I could play all of these over, and over again- and DKC is no exception.

3. Super Mario 64 (1996)

N64
And on the seventh day, God made Super Mario 64, and declared it the perfect platformer. “No other 3D platformer will ever need to exist” his voice boomed from the heavens. Nonetheless, man continued to pump out Crash Bandicoots and Dak and Jaxters, never realizing that Sir Mario Mario was the Jesus of platformers. Eventually God smited the heathens, and the platformer genre died a slow, painful death. In the end only Mario 64 remained, and all was right with the world.

2. Grim Fandango (1998)

PC
These next two are almost tied for first. They’re just that good. Grim Fandango is without a doubt, the greatest adventure game of all time. Many were skeptical if Lucasarts adventure games could be as good in 3D as they were in 2D. Creator Tim Shafer proved they can. Simple controls, incredibly difficult puzzles- that’s what these games are all about, and GF perfects it.

I teared up when this game ended. That’s how attached you get to the characters. It’s also probably the funniest game of all time. Especially having Manny recite poetry at the beatnik club- that always cracked me up. This game takes the Alex Hilhorst prize for Best Story- the mix of Casablanca-esque noir and indigenous Mexican mythology- worked really, really well.

I love this game.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)

N64

In a word, Ocarina of Time was monumental. The controls, the graphics- the sheer expansiveness of the world you could explore- there had never been anything like it when it came out in 1998. This catapulted the N64 into superstardom, and made it, in my opinion, the greatest of all of Nintendo’s consoles. Any little kid who’s into fantasy, sword fighting or horseback riding- this game was like a dream come true. And like Grim Fandango, it had a fantastic story. I remember very specifically, how shocking it was when the game jumped ahead seven years, and all of a sudden you were grown up, and your actions as a little boy had fucked up Hyrule for everyone, and turned a portion of the population into zombies. That reveal- it made me feel bad. Like, guilty. I felt bad for unleashing Ganondorf. If that’s not an impressive emotional reaction for a video game to elicit, then I don’t know what is.

Ocarina of Time is number one, in my eyes, because it is comparable to many of my favorite films. I could play it over and over, and probably would never get tired of it. It’s perfect.

Well, hope you enjoyed this countdown. If my hits are any indication, you did. There will be more lists in the future, but I think I’m gonna take a little break for a while. It was more difficult to think of things to say about a hundred different videogames than I thought it was going to be.

To end, I’d like to list my top most anticipated games:

1. Assassin’s Creed II – 11.17.2009

While to be honest, I did enjoy the Medieval Crusade setting more, I am certain this sequel will be above and beyond the original. For one thing it looks a lot harder and with more varied gameplay, and a much more refined combat system. I like the idea of usually not having a weapon, and disarming your foes for theirs instead. Also Leonardo Da Vinci acts as James Bond’s Q, giving you crazy contraptions like his fabled flying machine, and a hidden pistol. I want to own this more than any other game on the release calendar right now. Can’t wait.

2. Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction – 03.31.2010

While Double Agent did a decent job of changing up what was becoming somewhat stagnant game mechanics, it still didn’t achieve the greatness of the first installment, or Chaos Theory. Sam Fisher was a double agent, sure, but what he could actually do in the game hadn’t changed much. Conviction promises to change all that.

This game has gone through several facelifts since it was first announced a couple years back. At first it was going to be similar to Assassin’s Creed, with Sam out and about on the street; it even used the same crowd system as AC, and featured a grizzled, bearded Fisher. Fans weren’t so happy, so they did a page-one rewrite, turning the game into much more of an action game, while still retaining its stealthy soul. Watching the previews, I got a real Jason Bourne vibe. Sam’s newest ability- the mark and execute function- looks like a lot of fun. If you do well in the game, it rewards you with points you can use to “mark” enemies and objectives, then click “execute,” and Sam will automatically prioritize, and take them out. So, if you walked into a room, marked two dudes and a lamp, Sam would shoot the lamp first, then blast the two goons. Kick-ass, right?

3. Bioshock 2 – 01.31.2010

I’m still a little skeptical as to whether the Bioshock storyline can actually be continued in a cool and logical fashion, but no matter what this will be just as fun as the original. I mean, you get to play as the first Big Daddy ever, the prototype, and use the drill and rivet gun just like in the first game. How cool is that?

4. Alan Wake – Q1 2010

Another game that’s been in development forever, Alan Wake looks like the video game version of a Stephen King novel. The influence is pretty obvious, really. The titular character is a writer, after all, and the game takes place in a Maine-like wilderness. What’s cool is the way light works- light is what this game is all about it. If you don’t have a light source, you’re dead, because it’s the only thing that can weaken enemies. Pretty pumped for this one, hope it gets a real release date soon.

5. Brütal Legend – 10.13.2010

How could I not put a Tim Shafer game on this list? Prior to going to Comic-Con, I was interested in this game, but really only because Shafer was involved and because I liked the idea of Jack Black voicing the main character. But after getting my hands on it at the Con, I knew it was a must have. It was a lot of fun to play. The combat system is really good, and it’s really satisfying to fuck up demons with a guitar solo before cutting their heads off with an axe. The art direction was awesome, and the dialogue was really funny. This is the first M-rated Shafer game I’m aware of, but it works really well. There’s lots of swear words and blood, but it’s pretty comical- even the characters are designed to be cartoon-like.

Grim Fandango is one of the few games that simply has trouble on new machines.  One of the first official patches helped fix puzzles that ran to quickly on anything above a 400mhz processor.  I waited for the Lucasarts Steam announcement, but was left still needing to research this dilemma.

Upon inserting the disc you are greeted to an autoplay that *may* reject your harddisc space due to inaccurate readings, and the Setup.exe will not run under any variant of 64bit Windows.  I am testing under Windows 7 RC, so this should work under Windows XP, Vista or 7.

1. Instead, place disc A in the drive, then download and run this Custom installer available here: http://quick.mixnmojo.com/grim-fandango-setup
2. I installed to the default Program Files(x86)\
3. When prompted, insert disc B.
4. Included in this custom installer is a Custom Launcher (available separately here; NOT NEEDED for this install): http://quick.mixnmojo.com/grim-fandango-launcher
5. After installed, go to the Options of the Launcher and make sure there is a green check next to Run from Harddrive.

I am still trying to determine if the new Setup includes the patch or not (the readme file is not updated when you run the official patch after installation.  I do not think you need it, but can be found here: http://www.grimfandango.net/?page=patch)

That’s it.  I ran into trouble running with 3d acceleration, but it honestly doesn’t look very different from a nice window of software mode.