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Archive for August, 2013

The Cave

27 Aug

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I’ll start off by saying that I’m a huge fan of Ron Gilbert… some of my fondest moments in gaming were with his games.

The Cave is an action/adventure/platform game in which the player selects 3 characters out of 7 to go into a Cave that brings out the darkness in each character’s past, this done in the humorous tone of Gilbert.

The Cave where the game takes place is divided in areas, some of them common to all characters, and one specific one for each of the characters (where most of the revelations of their past come to light)…

The game is very well crafted, distilling the essence of a graphic adventure, and even it’s small failings (sub-par graphics, tedious traversal and backtracking) don’t detract from what is an awesome and dark adventure.

My only real complaint about the game is the fact that you can take 3 characters out of 7… which means that you’ll have to do 3 playthroughs to see everything the game has to offer, with most of it being the same over and over… And on the 3rd playthrough you only see one new place, which sucks royally…

That’s an incomprehensible choice, in my opinion…

Anyway, this was a great game, and if you like Gilbert/Schaffer-type of humor and design, make sure you check this one out!

 
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God of War: Ascension

20 Aug

If you’ve followed this blog, you know I’m a big fan of the “God of War” series… it’s mindless button-mashing fun, looks amazing, great soundtrack and an interesting enough story and character…

So, it’s with a heavy heart that I say: “God of War: Ascension” is the worse of them all…

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It’s not that the game does anything wrong, it’s the same as previous ones, but being a prequel (a sequel would be too hard in terms of storyline, it seems, considering the end of GoW3), we already know how the story turns out… it just feels like a random sequence of events, in which only one character (Kratos) stands out… and even he is a bit “subdued” (guess that comes with not being the God of War yet)…

From a gameplay perspective, it has everything the predecessors had: epic combats, a lot of quick time events, and very polished (except for some very silly fights, in which we’re mainly fighting the camera (too far away, so I couldn’t identify my character and the enemies) and an ever-changing reference point which makes predicting what to press next almost impossible).

It just feels stale… I know the focus on this one was the multiplayer, but I don’t do multiplayer games (with the exception of MMOs)… The learning curve on most of those is too steep for me to give a crap, and I really like playing most games for the story…

Anyway, I can’t say the game is bad, it isn’t, I was entertained for the 10-12 hours I’ve played it… I just felt like the game was going through the motions to open up for the multiplayer (I still think they should do “God of War IV: Valhalla in Flames”, in which Kratos goes against the Nordic Pantheon… Kratos vs Thor would be epic!).

Anyway, I’ll keep enjoying my vacation and working on Grey (check out Spellcaster Studios’ blog for the latest on that!)

 
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Hamlet, or The Last Game Without MMORPG Features, shaders and Product Placement

13 Aug

Well, as usual, I’ve been busy… We’ve just moved the RealJob™ office to a new location, closer to home, so hopefully I’ll have a bit more time to spend on Grey, and on gaming in general (less 1h30 I lose each day travelling).

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Anyway, I’ve not been playing a lot of games (not enough time), but I had time to finish “Hamlet, or The Last Game Without MMORPG Features, shaders and Product Placement”. This is a short game, takes a couple of hours to finish, but it’s a great one…

It’s a “one-room-a-time” adventure game, in which you’re inserted into a weird version of Hamlet and have to sort out the mess you’ve made.

The game is an advertised: it’s not a MMORPG, has no shaders and product placement, and is a very humorous game (as you might guess by the title)…

Give it a whirl, it’s a lot of fun (although some puzzles are just unfair!)…

 
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Posted in Games, Indie