Greetings Ramblees... er, people who read my blog (over a thousand views now by the way)!
Apparently Frictional Games (the geniuses behind the bestest horror title ever, Amnesia) have graciously let thechineseroom (the geniuses behind the bestest art/stroll-taking/tear-jerker of a title ever, Dear Esther) develop the follow-up to Amnesia; and are set to release it into our nightmares before Halloween this year! If you've played both studios' latest titles you should understand why this is (or isn't, depending on your point of view) such an exciting project. And if you haven't played both Amnesia and Dear Esther, then you really need to. Really. Need. To. Seriously.
I for one would like to see more developers do this kind of thing, and perhaps even do some crossovers. For the heck of it, here are some ideas that will probably never happen.
Naughty Dog and Insomniac - Clank and Daxter: Smaller is Better, OR,
Ratchet and Jak: Meaner Than They Look
Bethesda Softworks and Nintendo - The Plumber Scrolls I: Super Mariowind
All FPS developers - Battle-Cry of Half Resistance: Fear the Halo-Call of HonorZone
*I didn't say they'd be GOOD ideas
Random thoughts on video games and the industry.
Obligatory Gamercards
Monday, February 27, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
My Humble Attempt at Supporting Art.....Buy "Dear Esther"!
...or not. I mean, you don't have to do anything you don't want to. But, really, you should support this amazing project. Please, do read on...
I just booted up my Steam client to find that Dear Esther, originally a Half-Life 2 mod, is now finally to be released this valentine's day - tomorrow. I'll be honest, I didn't play all the way through the mod solely because I knew a superior treatment was being developed. In my short time with the mod, however, I was extremely impressed with the lone man's voice-overs and thought the music complemented the eerie setting and morose, but touching dialogue. Without question, I knew the "official" version would be worth the wait. And here it is.
For all you gamers out there, Dear Esther is basically an interactive walk through a mysterious island. By interactive, I basically mean you are able to walk around, and look around...and, well, I suppose that's about it. The exciting thing about this project isn't the gameplay, though. Come to Dear Esther looking for this: a dark, ambiguous narrative expertly told, and total immersion thanks to great graphics and a soundtrack that will have you weeping like mom during her "stories". Come to Dear Esther looking for this, and you won't be disappointed. Shadow of the Colossus, Flower and others have bore the "games as art" title proudly before - but Dear Esther is undoubtedly the closest I've seen to being more art than game, and this is just fine with me.
Just a note - all of my opinions are based on time with the mod and recent trailers and reviews I've read for Dear Esther. I haven't played it yet, so this isn't really a review. But, I think it's safe to say I know what's in store for me when I finally boot it up. If not, hey, I'll post a complete review and let you all know that I, Ye Old Game Rambler, was wrong.
Here are some links so you can judge for yourself, and perhaps you'll find it in your heart to support brave developers like this by purchasing a copy.
Developer website: Dear Esther
Game Informer review: Dear Esther Review
I just booted up my Steam client to find that Dear Esther, originally a Half-Life 2 mod, is now finally to be released this valentine's day - tomorrow. I'll be honest, I didn't play all the way through the mod solely because I knew a superior treatment was being developed. In my short time with the mod, however, I was extremely impressed with the lone man's voice-overs and thought the music complemented the eerie setting and morose, but touching dialogue. Without question, I knew the "official" version would be worth the wait. And here it is.
For all you gamers out there, Dear Esther is basically an interactive walk through a mysterious island. By interactive, I basically mean you are able to walk around, and look around...and, well, I suppose that's about it. The exciting thing about this project isn't the gameplay, though. Come to Dear Esther looking for this: a dark, ambiguous narrative expertly told, and total immersion thanks to great graphics and a soundtrack that will have you weeping like mom during her "stories". Come to Dear Esther looking for this, and you won't be disappointed. Shadow of the Colossus, Flower and others have bore the "games as art" title proudly before - but Dear Esther is undoubtedly the closest I've seen to being more art than game, and this is just fine with me.
Just a note - all of my opinions are based on time with the mod and recent trailers and reviews I've read for Dear Esther. I haven't played it yet, so this isn't really a review. But, I think it's safe to say I know what's in store for me when I finally boot it up. If not, hey, I'll post a complete review and let you all know that I, Ye Old Game Rambler, was wrong.
Here are some links so you can judge for yourself, and perhaps you'll find it in your heart to support brave developers like this by purchasing a copy.
Developer website: Dear Esther
Game Informer review: Dear Esther Review
Sunday, February 5, 2012
We Need a Trophy Room
Imagine yourself a professional bowler for a moment. You've been bowling for many years now and have built up quite a collection of trophies, as well as a handsome sum of money. While the money has either been spent or put away for Junior's bowling lessons, you have each and every one of your trophies displayed in a room built special for this purpose. You love your room. You love the trophies within this room. You may not go in there every day, but when you do it's nice to reminisce about the moments each trophy represents. Now imagine that, after earning so much money from winning tournaments, you had the opportunity to move into a much bigger, more attractive house. Your family wants to move, your friends and family want you to move - you basically have no choice but to move on. Unfortunately, for no other reason than "just because", you cannot take your beloved trophies with you. They must remain in your old house, into which no one will ever move. You can go back and visit them if you want, but the drive is a long one, and no one will be there to dust them off regularly. Basically, you'll probably never go back to visit them, despite all the work you put into earning them.
Okay, now step back into your own shoes - sorry, your pro-bowling days are gone now - and think about the above situation. It's a little silly, right? Why shouldn't the bowler be able to take his prized trophies to his new house? Simply put, he should.
Can all three of you readers see where I'm going with this? Sure you can! But I'll spell it out anyway: What happens to our achievements/trophies once the next generation of consoles releases? Should we even care?
Sure, not every gamer cares about these extra, perhaps meaningless, virtual trinkets; but many do, and I can see the possibility of losing these as a hot debate point for many gamers in the next year or so.
For my part, in the grand gaming scheme they really are worthless, and I would certainly still play and enjoy games withouth them. However, I still enjoy having something to take out of each game I play as a sort of reminder of what I did. Also, they offer their own unique challenges and actually change the way I play a lot of games now. I find myself being pushed harder to complete that FPS on veteran difficulty, complete more of the side quests in certain RPG's, and even pay more scrutiny to the levels as I search for that last collectable item - and all of these are due to the added replay value trophies/achievements add to games, which in the end means I'm getting more for my money. This alone makes tro&chi's (which heretoforth shall be my word for you-know-what's) worth having around. And, you know what? I think I would be a little upset if I had to leave them all behind once the next generation of consoles land on store shelves.
I don't expect the next Playstation or Xbox to be backwards compatible (though I would prefer them to be), but I think some sort of consistency is reasonable. And by this I mean being able to carry over our gamertags/PSN accounts, our tro&chi's, and perhaps even our downloadable games/DLC - the latter of which some of us have paid mightily for.
Here's what would make me happy: Let us carry over our accounts to the new systems (which I think is highly likely, anyway), and offer some space on the dashboard for a sort of library/trophy room for our past played games. It doesn't seem like much to ask - just as it may not seem like much to worry about one way or the other; but, hey, I earned those little digital bastards, and I wanna keep 'em!
Personally, I think this is really the only way to go if Sony and Microsoft let us keep our tro&chi's, as an ever-growing gamerscore would get a little out of hand in some cases, and (I don't know about anyone else) I'd rather start as a level 1 gamer once the PS4 is upon us - it just seems like the right thing to do.
Actually, now that I think about it, here's an even better suggestion for Sony and Microsoft: Gamerscores 30,000 and above net the player a year of free Xbox Live on the new system; and for Sony, gamers level 12 and above get a free year of Playstation Plus on the PS4. Get on it, ladies and gents!
Okay, now step back into your own shoes - sorry, your pro-bowling days are gone now - and think about the above situation. It's a little silly, right? Why shouldn't the bowler be able to take his prized trophies to his new house? Simply put, he should.
Can all three of you readers see where I'm going with this? Sure you can! But I'll spell it out anyway: What happens to our achievements/trophies once the next generation of consoles releases? Should we even care?
Sure, not every gamer cares about these extra, perhaps meaningless, virtual trinkets; but many do, and I can see the possibility of losing these as a hot debate point for many gamers in the next year or so.
For my part, in the grand gaming scheme they really are worthless, and I would certainly still play and enjoy games withouth them. However, I still enjoy having something to take out of each game I play as a sort of reminder of what I did. Also, they offer their own unique challenges and actually change the way I play a lot of games now. I find myself being pushed harder to complete that FPS on veteran difficulty, complete more of the side quests in certain RPG's, and even pay more scrutiny to the levels as I search for that last collectable item - and all of these are due to the added replay value trophies/achievements add to games, which in the end means I'm getting more for my money. This alone makes tro&chi's (which heretoforth shall be my word for you-know-what's) worth having around. And, you know what? I think I would be a little upset if I had to leave them all behind once the next generation of consoles land on store shelves.
I don't expect the next Playstation or Xbox to be backwards compatible (though I would prefer them to be), but I think some sort of consistency is reasonable. And by this I mean being able to carry over our gamertags/PSN accounts, our tro&chi's, and perhaps even our downloadable games/DLC - the latter of which some of us have paid mightily for.
Here's what would make me happy: Let us carry over our accounts to the new systems (which I think is highly likely, anyway), and offer some space on the dashboard for a sort of library/trophy room for our past played games. It doesn't seem like much to ask - just as it may not seem like much to worry about one way or the other; but, hey, I earned those little digital bastards, and I wanna keep 'em!
Personally, I think this is really the only way to go if Sony and Microsoft let us keep our tro&chi's, as an ever-growing gamerscore would get a little out of hand in some cases, and (I don't know about anyone else) I'd rather start as a level 1 gamer once the PS4 is upon us - it just seems like the right thing to do.
Actually, now that I think about it, here's an even better suggestion for Sony and Microsoft: Gamerscores 30,000 and above net the player a year of free Xbox Live on the new system; and for Sony, gamers level 12 and above get a free year of Playstation Plus on the PS4. Get on it, ladies and gents!
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