Before we begin, a brief pause for all that is good about Half Life 2 … mmm … yes … now onto the problem. The problem, and it is a massive problem, is what we shall call “atmosphere: fail”. Let us unpack this into three categories, the impatient player, the sandbox player and narrative bottlenecks. … Continue reading
The Spectrum was a games machine back in the 80s that loaded games from a tape. Often this would involve pressing play on a tape deck and then doing something else for the hour or so a game would take to load. I’m pretty sure I once mowed the lawn while waiting for a game … Continue reading
Vegas, baby! Vegas! Ra-ta-ta-tat! Bleurgh! Aeeeeiiii! The newswires are alive, cash clunks in one-armed bandits as brains are splattered upon them; singers belt out tunes then their organs as they’re ejected from bodies: The Entertainment Capital Of The World is under siege! Special forces are assembled, a plan is hatched, time to find a commander: … Continue reading
Dragon Quest is popular in Japan, very popular, and two years ago Dragon Quest IV, this very game you’re reading about, was voted the 14th best game of all time by readers of Famistu, an equally popular Japanese games mag. So, this’ll be great, right? Well, hold up a little. FIFA’s very popular in Britain, … Continue reading
A dark room, furnishing tumbled in at odd angles, shelving bursting with cardboard cases, a desk before a window stacked with a glowing monitor and refuse that seems to be unfolding. Looking in through the glass pane we see the outline of a bed in the corner, a body writhing on top, one hand reaches … Continue reading
Everyone loves zombies, the rotting flesh, the stench of death, they make an ideal prom date or bride. Even better is killing them, with a lawnmower, or a frying pan to the face, perhaps even punching them in the belly and tearing out their intestines. You can’t date zombies in Dead Rising, but you can … Continue reading
The New World, terrific, I’ll just settle here and, oh, wait, okay, you want me to do this, and then this? Can I do that? Oh, not yet, you’ll tell me when? But I’d really like to do it now! Bother you, man!! – was how I first approached Anno 1701, squirming against the enforced … Continue reading
As delightful as the song.
Some really amazing bits stuck onto some poor game design – poorly designed because your squad mates will stand stock still waiting until you hit some kind of invisible “Red Light / Green Light / Go, Go, Go” barrier that sets them all off on a trot up the road, or into a headlong assault … Continue reading
An odd creation, sometimes dull and frustrating, sometimes quite splendid. You can eat frogs.
