I grabbed the entire season on the $5 special and managed to play through the entire season in about a week or so.
Overall I quite like the new season. For me, although I played the first Monkey Island when I was ten, I didn't really understand what I was doing (I used a hint book I borrowed from my cousin) nor the funny dialogue except for the sword insult fighting. So I replayed the first monkey island about a year back and played and finished the second after I did that. Monkey Island 2 in particularly seemed way hard than 1 and completely sucked the joy out of the game for me in many ways.
Is the humour of the new series comparable to the first two games? I think the tone of the games has changed a little from the original but overall it delivers the same sort of feel I got from the original games. I think the easier difficultly also made the game much more accessible and enjoyable for me.
The very awkward controls which have been covered enough by most reviewers so I'm not going to say too much about them.
Anyway, here's a short summary of what I thought of each episode (some minor spoilers):
Episode 1: Solid intro the series. Travelling around the jungle was a annoying. Overall okay but not great.
Episode 2: Disappointing episode compared to the rest. The siege itself was broken fairly easily. I was hoping for more excitement, more explosions and puzzles. The intro to Episode 2 sets up Morgan LeFlay as a major rival but she only makes an appearance at the beginning, in a number of cutscenes taking place in different locations from Guybrush and the end of the game. I think plot wise there could have been more interaction between her and Guybrush to make it more interesting.
Episode 3: Now this is what turned a solid series into an excellent series for me. Completely new location, new characters, Murray the talking demonic skull, interesting fresh puzzles and just overall more punch and interactio, especially the rivalry between Morgan and Guybrush.
Episode 4: A very fun episode would have been as good as episode 3 if not for the fact that you are back on the Flotsam island in the exact same environments again. Sigh. I also think the court room sequence could have been done in a more Phoenix Wright style to spice it up a bit. Otherwise it's pretty much a standard talking sequence in a single room. I actually quite enjoyed the maze sequences in this one and its a good example of mazes done right.
Episode 5: Overall good solid ending to the series. Reviewers commented that walking to each location when portals were open was annoying and I have to agree. Lots of good puzzles and overall solid ending very enjoyable but ends on a bit of a cliff hanger and lots of loose ends. Also, I think the underworld could have been a bit more interesting and detailed similar to Grim Fandango.
Overall
Overall a solid adventure game series which I enjoyed. As mentioned earlier, environments are a bit too repetitive and I personally think that Telltale seasons at 5 episodes a season is too short.
My favourite episodes in order of ranking are:
Episode 3 and 5 tied
Episode 4
Episode 1
Episode 2
If you're an adventure gamer I'm sure you'll be pleased. I bought it at US$5 and I certainly got my money's worth. I say a fair price would be around US$15.
I can't wait for Season 2!. It just can't come soon enough!
Sunday, 3 October 2010
Friday, 1 October 2010
Resident Evil 2 - Windows XPTroubleshooting
LIke many have tried running Resident Evil 2 to on Windows XP I've had a great deal of trouble. Here are my solutions to overcoming the issues. All of this is based off forums I've visited.
Issue: Screwed up graphics. E.g. 2D backgrounds have black borders and 3D graphics not correct
This really depends on your graphics cards. I have an Nvidia card which works well with old games. Generally, try setting the graphics in the options to Voodoo or try it with different settings.
Issue: Game runs slowly
Not sure why this fixes it, but try running windows media player or classic media player if you have it. While its minimised, try running the game.
Issue: Game won't save and load
If you're trying to save and load games you MUST set the save directory to c:\RESIDENT EVIL2 which is the default apparently. Spacing is important as well. This is something to do with the way data is stored in Windows XP. Otherwise, the game won't recognise your save games.
Issue: Finished the game and now trying scenario B using the other character but movies and items are incorrect
If you've finished the game using one character, you will be prompted to save and when you load that save you will get to see the other character's version of the events.
Here's how I got around it:
1) You need to install the data of the other person's disc and run the game from the other person's disc. So insert the other person's disc and make sure the data is installed.
2) Next you need create a shortcut for the game to run it in Windows 95 Comtability. You need to use the shortcut from the CD. Navigate to the regis director and copy the short to the desktop, then from your desktop right click, go to the compatibility tab and select windows 95 mode. This step may or may not be required.
3) Run the game using the other person's disc. E.g. if you are playing Scenario B Leon, you must use the Leon CD. It should work now.
Issue: Game runs okay and then everything starts to slow down after some time playing. Also dying sequences and sequences with lights are fire are slow.
I think this has something to do with the way the 3D calculations are run when creating the 3D graphics. Try restarting the game. Unfortunately, I haven't really found a way around glowing lights or dying sequences being slow.
Some other things I've noticed:
Continuity - Scenario B puzzles and items don't match with Scenario A puzzles. E.g. you unlock the same doors/puzzles with the same keys/items in Scenario A. If indeed the other character was running around unlocking all the doors like in Scenario then these doors/puzzles wouldn't be locked/solved. This was clearly done to ensure there was actual gameplay in scenario B. The cutscenes and events in Scenario B generally match up.
Unlocking the special scenarios - There are suppose to be 2 additional scenarios in the game, an extra game featuring HUNK an Umbrella Operative and Tofu but the requirements are insane to get them requiring you to finish the game within like 2 hours and under 10 saves. Ouch. Frankly it requires too much effort.
Issue: Screwed up graphics. E.g. 2D backgrounds have black borders and 3D graphics not correct
This really depends on your graphics cards. I have an Nvidia card which works well with old games. Generally, try setting the graphics in the options to Voodoo or try it with different settings.
Issue: Game runs slowly
Not sure why this fixes it, but try running windows media player or classic media player if you have it. While its minimised, try running the game.
Issue: Game won't save and load
If you're trying to save and load games you MUST set the save directory to c:\RESIDENT EVIL2 which is the default apparently. Spacing is important as well. This is something to do with the way data is stored in Windows XP. Otherwise, the game won't recognise your save games.
Issue: Finished the game and now trying scenario B using the other character but movies and items are incorrect
If you've finished the game using one character, you will be prompted to save and when you load that save you will get to see the other character's version of the events.
Here's how I got around it:
1) You need to install the data of the other person's disc and run the game from the other person's disc. So insert the other person's disc and make sure the data is installed.
2) Next you need create a shortcut for the game to run it in Windows 95 Comtability. You need to use the shortcut from the CD. Navigate to the regis director and copy the short to the desktop, then from your desktop right click, go to the compatibility tab and select windows 95 mode. This step may or may not be required.
3) Run the game using the other person's disc. E.g. if you are playing Scenario B Leon, you must use the Leon CD. It should work now.
Issue: Game runs okay and then everything starts to slow down after some time playing. Also dying sequences and sequences with lights are fire are slow.
I think this has something to do with the way the 3D calculations are run when creating the 3D graphics. Try restarting the game. Unfortunately, I haven't really found a way around glowing lights or dying sequences being slow.
Some other things I've noticed:
Continuity - Scenario B puzzles and items don't match with Scenario A puzzles. E.g. you unlock the same doors/puzzles with the same keys/items in Scenario A. If indeed the other character was running around unlocking all the doors like in Scenario then these doors/puzzles wouldn't be locked/solved. This was clearly done to ensure there was actual gameplay in scenario B. The cutscenes and events in Scenario B generally match up.
Unlocking the special scenarios - There are suppose to be 2 additional scenarios in the game, an extra game featuring HUNK an Umbrella Operative and Tofu but the requirements are insane to get them requiring you to finish the game within like 2 hours and under 10 saves. Ouch. Frankly it requires too much effort.
Friday, 17 September 2010
Collector's Edition and Competition: Gameplanet Newspost
For those of you don't know, Mighty Ape used to be called the Gameplanet store before a split into two companies. I believe Gameplanet is now solely a news site and Mighty Ape is a online store. Today Gameplanet posted a news article about Mighty Ape feeling frustrated about being unable to meet demand due to larger companies holding exclusive rights to the Star Wars Force Unleashed Collector's Edition.
Gameplanet failed to mention that Simon Barton CEO of Mighty Ape is a shareholder in Gameplanet . This combined with the fact that Mighty Ape used to called Gameplanet store as well makes it seem extremely hard not to see it anything but a biased report.
To be fair it's not a big deal really. Its just a straight repost of the comments made by Mighty Ape but its good journalistic integrity to specify any and all possibility particular as the companies were at one point strongly intertwined.
This also brings me to an interesting debate is Mighty Ape's claim of competition good? In this case yes it definitely is and I agree that consumers will ultimately lose out.
In the US gaming industry however what has happened is that each retailer/publisher gets its own exclusive item(s) in their collector's edition. E.g. Gamestop gets an extra map, Steam gets 2 new character skins etc. is this giving consumers choice or ultimately making them suffer? In my opinion, the competition has caused rather silly proliferation of gimmicks in the end rather than giving consumers true choice. Who but the most fanatical fan will purchase all the collector's editions?
Game companies should be creating truly value added products rather than trying to create all these 'micro-differences'. Ultimately, customers will feel better knowing they bought the definitive "Ultimate edition" rather than the Collector's Edition of retailer XYZ. I completely understand why retailers want to create point of differences but surely there's a better way of doing it?
Update on this: Gameplanet has now posted up some clarification on their relationship. Anyway good to know that tweeting works!
They're clarifications are below:
Some comments on this story have expressed concerns about Gameplanet's relationship with Mighty Ape and a possible conflict of interest in our reporting. Gameplanet reported this story because we believe that it is local gaming news which is highly relevant to our readership. Any opinions quoted in the story are entirely those of the parties involved. Gameplanet sought comment from Sony representatives but they failed to respond before publication.
Gameplanet failed to mention that Simon Barton CEO of Mighty Ape is a shareholder in Gameplanet . This combined with the fact that Mighty Ape used to called Gameplanet store as well makes it seem extremely hard not to see it anything but a biased report.
To be fair it's not a big deal really. Its just a straight repost of the comments made by Mighty Ape but its good journalistic integrity to specify any and all possibility particular as the companies were at one point strongly intertwined.
This also brings me to an interesting debate is Mighty Ape's claim of competition good? In this case yes it definitely is and I agree that consumers will ultimately lose out.
In the US gaming industry however what has happened is that each retailer/publisher gets its own exclusive item(s) in their collector's edition. E.g. Gamestop gets an extra map, Steam gets 2 new character skins etc. is this giving consumers choice or ultimately making them suffer? In my opinion, the competition has caused rather silly proliferation of gimmicks in the end rather than giving consumers true choice. Who but the most fanatical fan will purchase all the collector's editions?
Game companies should be creating truly value added products rather than trying to create all these 'micro-differences'. Ultimately, customers will feel better knowing they bought the definitive "Ultimate edition" rather than the Collector's Edition of retailer XYZ. I completely understand why retailers want to create point of differences but surely there's a better way of doing it?
Update on this: Gameplanet has now posted up some clarification on their relationship. Anyway good to know that tweeting works!
They're clarifications are below:
Some comments on this story have expressed concerns about Gameplanet's relationship with Mighty Ape and a possible conflict of interest in our reporting. Gameplanet reported this story because we believe that it is local gaming news which is highly relevant to our readership. Any opinions quoted in the story are entirely those of the parties involved. Gameplanet sought comment from Sony representatives but they failed to respond before publication.
While Gameplanet and Mighty Ape have a long history of working together (Mighty Ape formerly used the Gameplanet brand under license, being known as "Gameplanet Store" until 2008), the two have always been separate companies and are operated independently with different ownership and management. Full disclosure: Mighty Ape CEO Simon Barton is a shareholder in Gameplanet.
Tales of Monkey Island: Only US$4.95 until Monday
A great deal for those adventure lovers, to celebrate the 'Talk like a pirate' day Tales of Monkey Island is now going for only 4.95 US. Check it out here! This weekend only!
Saturday, 4 September 2010
Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People Series
Just finished all five episodes of Strong Bad and thought I would share what I thought of them. This is the second Telltale series I've played, the first being Sam & Max Season 1 which I also finished.
Strongbad's Free Episode
Just something worth mentioning, I've never spent any amount of time with Homestar Runner so I had no understanding of who all the characters were except for Strongbad who I knew as the main character. My first game was Episode 4 Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective which was made free for a limited time. Unfortunately this epiode featured Strongbad making a spy movie further confusing me as to who the characters really were as they sometimes referred to themselves as the characters in the movie and sometimes as themselves. I've not watched spy movies either so a great number of jokes and references were not clear to me.
I don't think Episode 4 was a good introduction to the world or characters as a result and I think its something they should have thought of before using as a promotional episode to entice potential buyers to purchase the game. It made me somewhat reluctant to purchase the series even when presented at US$5 at the recent special.
My second episode however was Episode 5: 8 Bit is Enough which was made free for one day only and that really saved my opinion of Strongbad particularly as I'm a retro gamer and really understood lots of references being made. It remains my favourite episode out of the entire season.
Good
Mini-game with every game - Each game also had a simple retro style game which is funny.
Fairly clever and funny puzzles - Most of the puzzles are your usual quite interesting and I personally found the to be pitched at the right level.
Bad
Doesn't take advantage of the PC format to deliver better art direction - This is clearly a design choice but comparing this to Sam & Max's art direction, Strong Bad's creators seem content to simply create and realise their flash drawings in 3D. There is definitely a certain minimalistic charm to it but I feel they could have aimed higher or otherwise included more content in the game to make up for that. Take for example, Episode 3's map and film narrations everytime you conquered another 'land' or Episode 5's 8 bit environments patterned after various period in computer gaming history. more of these additional parodies could have made the game feel more exciting especially as Strong Bad normally walks around the exact same major areas in each episode. The main areas being his neighbourhood which unfortunately mimics the American suburban landscape.
Some secrets and clothes are time locked and you can only get them at certain times forcing you to replay the entire episode to get them - I don't think this is a good way of increasing replayability and it's even more annoying as some of these secrets require you to perform actions such as using two completely unrelated items together.
Game script needs even more optional jokes and funny sayings similar to Time Gentlemen Please! by Zombie Cow where nearly single combination of items will elicit some of clever response by the characters.
Requiring online verification could pose a problem for those without internet connections.
Conclusion
Overall, its a solid entrance into the adventure game market and if you're already a fan of Strongbad and the Homestar Runner series by all means buy it. The Strong Bad games are actually very well done and logical and I've actually had a great deal of fun. It originally retailed at $US30 Short length of each episode makes me feel that US$30 isn't enough. I bought it at at US$5 special and it was certainly worth the laughs but I don't think you should be paying more than say US$15 for the entire season.
Strongbad's Free Episode
Just something worth mentioning, I've never spent any amount of time with Homestar Runner so I had no understanding of who all the characters were except for Strongbad who I knew as the main character. My first game was Episode 4 Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective which was made free for a limited time. Unfortunately this epiode featured Strongbad making a spy movie further confusing me as to who the characters really were as they sometimes referred to themselves as the characters in the movie and sometimes as themselves. I've not watched spy movies either so a great number of jokes and references were not clear to me.
I don't think Episode 4 was a good introduction to the world or characters as a result and I think its something they should have thought of before using as a promotional episode to entice potential buyers to purchase the game. It made me somewhat reluctant to purchase the series even when presented at US$5 at the recent special.
My second episode however was Episode 5: 8 Bit is Enough which was made free for one day only and that really saved my opinion of Strongbad particularly as I'm a retro gamer and really understood lots of references being made. It remains my favourite episode out of the entire season.
Good
Mini-game with every game - Each game also had a simple retro style game which is funny.
Fairly clever and funny puzzles - Most of the puzzles are your usual quite interesting and I personally found the to be pitched at the right level.
Bad
Doesn't take advantage of the PC format to deliver better art direction - This is clearly a design choice but comparing this to Sam & Max's art direction, Strong Bad's creators seem content to simply create and realise their flash drawings in 3D. There is definitely a certain minimalistic charm to it but I feel they could have aimed higher or otherwise included more content in the game to make up for that. Take for example, Episode 3's map and film narrations everytime you conquered another 'land' or Episode 5's 8 bit environments patterned after various period in computer gaming history. more of these additional parodies could have made the game feel more exciting especially as Strong Bad normally walks around the exact same major areas in each episode. The main areas being his neighbourhood which unfortunately mimics the American suburban landscape.
Some secrets and clothes are time locked and you can only get them at certain times forcing you to replay the entire episode to get them - I don't think this is a good way of increasing replayability and it's even more annoying as some of these secrets require you to perform actions such as using two completely unrelated items together.
Game script needs even more optional jokes and funny sayings similar to Time Gentlemen Please! by Zombie Cow where nearly single combination of items will elicit some of clever response by the characters.
Requiring online verification could pose a problem for those without internet connections.
Conclusion
Overall, its a solid entrance into the adventure game market and if you're already a fan of Strongbad and the Homestar Runner series by all means buy it. The Strong Bad games are actually very well done and logical and I've actually had a great deal of fun. It originally retailed at $US30 Short length of each episode makes me feel that US$30 isn't enough. I bought it at at US$5 special and it was certainly worth the laughs but I don't think you should be paying more than say US$15 for the entire season.
Monday, 23 August 2010
Enter the Story: Les Miserables
Saturday, 14 August 2010
Osmos: Free Sound Track
Can't turn down free music The creators of the game Osmos have released the soundtrack for the game to celebrate their release on the iphone. check out the soundtrack for the game Osmos here in both MP3 and M4A format.
There's a little bit more to the story, if you've purchased Osmos direct from them you can get the newest album of Matt Jarvis for free. Details here.
If you've purchased it on Steam or haven't bought Osmos, you can still get it for free by checking out details here.
There's a little bit more to the story, if you've purchased Osmos direct from them you can get the newest album of Matt Jarvis for free. Details here.
If you've purchased it on Steam or haven't bought Osmos, you can still get it for free by checking out details here.
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