Current Backlog Of Games, 2012

May 2nd, 2012

I’m slowly working my way through my backlog of video- and computer games. Just recently I finished Tex Murphy: Under A Killing Moon. It was interesting, but a bit underwhelming, perhaps in part due to my high expectations; it’s supposed to be one of the pinnacles of FMV adventure games. It felt like they had maybe wanted to make a bigger game than they ended up doing (you only use the amazing crime computer once!), and the controls were frustrating (especially in the few places where you can actually die), and some of the acting was really bad (even for a FMV game). That said, moving around, looking for clues, trying to unravel a mystery, that was sort of fun, and it had a certain air of innovation about it.

The game was also surprisingly goofier than I had expected; there’s actually a scene where a thief runs through a brick wall, and leaves a silhouette-shaped hole. That’s not something I’d expect to see in a grim noir dystopian sci-fi setting. Also, I had expected werewolves, due to the game’s title, but there were alas none to be found.

So that’s one game down, and about… 50+ more to go. Doesn’t help that I recently acquired a PlayStation 2 console either, as a gift from a friend (hi Jørgen!), giving me a whole new library of games to explore. That is, if I can successfully track them down.

One game I did manage to track down (for a reasonable price, and still sealed!) and have already played through, is Michigan: Report From Hell, a somewhat obscure horror game from the renowned Japanese video game developer Grasshopper.

It was most definitely… a game. Except, not quite. But sort of. Not really sure where to start with this one.

You take on the role of a camera man, and together with your anchor lady and sound / boom operator guy try unraveling the mysterious mystery while both trying to survive monster attacks and trying to make film for the viewers. You only view the world through the camera’s lens, you never talk, and you can often only interact with objects through the reporter – like having her pick up keys and open doors.

The game scores you on “scoop”, “immoral”, and “erotic”. By picking up clues, relevant data, and getting goodies for the viewers you get a high scoop score, while filming females from risque angles and focusing on pornographic material gives you scores in erotic. Occasionally you can choose whether or not to help a character, which means you have to put down the camera. Or you can refrain from helping and instead keep on filming, increasing your scoop score but also your immoral score. Your final score in these decide what epilogue you get, and how the game judges you as a person.

Yup, that seems about right.

Your reporters can also die, in which case you’ll find yourself with a replacement reporter, but often skipping over a few levels. From what I have read about the game, all the reporters have unique dialogue. In addition, there are a lot of clues and scenes that are easy to miss out in, some of which are time based. So you’ll have to play the game several times and be thorough if you want to absorb all the content.

This was both an amazing and an awful game. The ideas above are pretty great, reminding me of Heavy Rain – there are time-based events, some different endings (but not nearly as many ad as substantial), and characters can die without you as a player getting a game over. Also bonus points for being a horror game that doesn’t focus on fighting. But…  the graphics and animations are awful (occasionally hilariously so, as you feel like you have to fill in the blanks of the poor animation with the power of your imagination). The game’s story seems both convoluted and cliché, and your trusty sound guy just won’t shut up. The game isn’t terribly scary or suspenseful, either.

The voice acting is just horrendous. And not in a consistently funny, over-the-top sort of way, but mostly in a grating, monotonous sort of way. Your sound guy just won’t shut up, and will keep going on and on about fairly trivial things, and the reports the anchor lady will do through the levels (which you will have to film) are often dull and redundant. “This is the counter. This is where people go to check out books. As you can see, there’s no one here right now. Let’s see what’s in the basement, shall we?” Not exactly breaking news material, and probably not what you would focus on when there are monsters everywhere.

They also messed up the European port of the game so that the movie theater isn’t viewable, where you can view various cut scenes from the game. It’s also where you can view secret video tapes you can stumble across through the game, which I believe would’ve shed more light on the story and maybe made the overall experience with the game a better one. They also removed all content relating to Yinling, a Japanese swimsuit model who did promotional work for the game, but I’m not sure if any story content was lost because of that.

And the list goes on.

But even so, the game’s thoroughly fascinating, and I’ve never quite played something like it before. It might also be a decent game to play with a group of friends, as you can make fun of the bad voice acting, animation, the news reports – and more! – together. Suda51 (one of those involved with the making of the game) has also expressed an interest in getting to remake, or re-imagine, the game some day. I’d definitely be interested in seeing that happening, as the game does have some genuinely interesting ideas.

Now, with my recent gaming experiences sufficiently covered, here’s my current backlog.

PC

  • Beyond Good And Evil
  • Clive Barker’s Undying
  • Cold Fear
  • Dead Space
  • Enemy Zero
  • F.E.A.R. Extraction Point
  • Gray Matter
  • Mass Effect 2
  • Nocturne
  • Obscure
  • Penumbra Collection
  • Sam & Max Hit The Road
  • Shadow Of Destiny

PlayStation 2

  • Haunting Ground

GameCube

  • Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
  • The Legend Of Zelda: Collector’s Edition – The Legend Of Zelda, Majora’s Mask
  • Need For Speed: Most Wanted
  • Odama
  • Resident Evil: Code Veronica X
  • Super Mario Sunshine
  • Viewtiful Joe 2

Wii

  • Catz
  • The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess
  • No More Heroes
  • Okami
  • Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles
  • Super Mario All-Stars
  • Zack & Wiki: Quest For Barbaros’ Treasure

Wii Ware

  • Bit. Trip Beat
  • Bit. Trip Core

Good Old Games

  • Alone In The Dark
  • Alone In The Dark 2
  • Alone In The Dark 3
  • Beneath A Steel Sky
  • Broken Sword
  • Broken Sword 2
  • Broken Sword 3
  • Constructor
  • Dark Fall: The Journal
  • Dark Fall 2: Lights Out
  • Giants: Citizen Kabuto
  • Kingdom: The Far Reaches
  • The Last Express
  • Litil Divil
  • Sanitarium
  • Still Life
  • Syberia
  • Syberia 2
  • Tex Murphy 1+2
  • Tex Murphy: Overseer
  • Tex Murphy: The Pandora Directive

Steam

  • BIT.TRIP RUNNER
  • Bully: Scholarship Edition
  • Cave Story+
  • Cogs
  • Crayon Physics Deluxe
  • Crazy Taxi
  • Dead Rising 2
  • The Dig
  • Dungeons Of Dredmor
  • The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
  • Gish
  • Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
  • Grand Theft Auto IV
  • Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City
  • Hammerfight
  • Hitman: Blood Money
  • Hitman: Codename 47
  • Hitman 2: Silent Assassin
  • Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis
  • Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade
  • Jamestown
  • Loom
  • Lost Planet: Extreme Condition
  • Lugaru HD
  • Machinarium
  • The Misadventures Of P.B. Winterbottom
  • Monkey Island 2: Special Edition
  • NightSky
  • Nikopol: Secrets Of The Immortals
  • Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus
  • Oddworld: Abe’s Oddyssee
  • Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath
  • Osmos
  • Overlord
  • Penumbra: Overture
  • Portal 2 co-op
  • Psychonauts
  • Puzzle Quest
  • Saints Row 2
  • Samorost 2
  • The Secret Of Monkey Island: Special Edition
  • Shank
  • Sonic Adventure DX
  • Space Channel 5: Part 2
  • Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic
  • Steel Storm: Burning Retribution
  • Super Meat Boy
  • Trine
  • VVVVVV

Again, my backlog seems to be growing more than it’s shrinking, but I’m still naïvely trudging onwards, hoping to one day clear it completely! But as mentioned, with the recent aquirement of a PlayStation 2, I have a new game library to wade through.  However, finding some of the titles I’m interested in might be difficult (or at least expensive), but I know a few titles I can borrow from local friends. So as an exciting bonus (at least more exciting than the unlockable “erotic” dance show in Michigan: Report From Hell), here’s a list of PlayStation 2 titles I’m currently hoping to experience, one way or the other.

  • Clock Tower 3
  • Dog’s Life
  • Echo Night Beyond
  • Forbidden Siren
  • Forbidden Siren 2
  • Glass Rose
  • God Hand
  • Killer 7 Also released for the GameCube, but it seems to be less expensive and more easily available for the PlayStation 2.
  • Kuon
  • Metal Gear Solid 2
  • Metal Gear Solid 3
  • Project Zero
  • Project Zero 2
  • Project Zero 3
  • Rule Of Rose
  • Silent Hill 2
  • Silent Hill 3

 

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Fidelity Wars #118: Antonio Banderas – “One Love”

April 25th, 2012

Shrek was a decent film.

Shrek 2 was a pretty good film.

Shrek The Third was a pretty poor film.

And Shrek Forever After, the final film (at least for now), was merely okay-ish. Story wise, the film is entirely redundant, adding practically nothing to the series’ overall narrative. In the film, we find Shrek fed up with family life. Consequently he ends up in an alternate time line where he has no family, only to re-learn the true value of family and of course finding his way back to his original time line in time for cake. They all lived happily ever after.

The highlight of the fourth film was definitely the character Puss, who unfortunately had very few scenes. Fortunately we got an entire film dedicated to Puss just last year, in the surprisingly entertaining film Puss In Boots.

Puss is voiced by Antonio Banderas, who is actually a pretty good singer; he even had a major role in the theatrical version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Evita. He has also provided the Shrek films with a few singing performances, like singing the classic Bob Marley song “One Love” in the fourth installment. Which is this week’s featured song.

Antonio Banderas – “One Love”

 

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Silent Hill: Shattered Memories & Lost Potential

March 29th, 2012

I had been looking forward to playing through Silent Hill: Shattered Memories for some time. I’m something as odd as a horror game enthusiast who hasn’t played any of the games in the Silent Hill series, as I unfortunately sold my PlayStation to “upgrade” to a Nintendo 64 before the first game had been released, and I never bought a PlayStation 2. I’ve heard enough about the games to have a rough idea of what they’re about, though: survival horror with clunky combat, psychological and sometimes sexual themes that go deeper than the typical horror fare, set to a location called Silent Hill. It sounds like a decent game series, and the first three games in seem to have a bit of a cult following.

So when a game in the series would finally be released for a console I owned – which in this case was the Nintendo Wii – I was pretty happy. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is supposed to be a re-imagining of the first Silent Hill game, taking greater liberties with the story and gameplay than a remake would. It was advertised as a psychological experience, a game that played you as much as you played it, and as a game where you truly felt helpless as you had no ways to defeat the monsters you encountered and instead had to run away or hide from them.

Having now played it, my feelings about Silent Hill: Shattered Memories are very mixed.

It starts off great, with tons of atmosphere (you can never have enough atmosphere) and an interesting story. It uses the Wii controller’s speaker for all it’s worth, having it serve as a faux mobile phone relaying messages to you, pointing you towards clues, and generally playing creepy white noise. But by the end I felt like I was walking through boring, desolate corridors and cityscapes, picking up clues which had nothing to do with anything at all (unless you analyze the heck out of them), and forcing myself through tedious and lengthy chase sequences.

One of the big selling points of the game is that the game can change each time you play it, as it makes a psychological profile of you based on both your decisions when you play (like which route you take and how long you stare at certain items) and asks you to complete occasional psychological tests. However, most of the changes that can occur seem rather minuscule, and don’t affect the overall experience all that much. You’re still largely exploring the same areas, getting the same clues, and having the same conversations – with occasional alterations. These changes definitely didn’t feel substantial enough to warrant playing through the game more than once, though it does offer a few different ending cinematics (which you can easily find on YouTube).

As mentioned, the clues you stumble over never really seem to be relevant to the story. For example, a couple of early clues you can find involve two brothers playing at a pumping station, where one of them ends up getting trapped and drowning. It’s both creepy and tragic. But you never actually hear about either of the brothers again, and it doesn’t seem to relate to anything else you find. It’s just a random, creepy, tragic event that happened in this city. And most (if not all) the clues seem to be like that. They’re often interesting and emotive, but in the end they don’t seem to really fit together, not forming any coherent narrative. They just seem to be random events involving random people, unless you try analyzing them all to death.

The chase sequences were atrocious. While a bit spooky to begin with, they quickly outstay their  welcome and become frustrating. You have to make your way from point A to point B while being chased by monsters. But you have no idea where to run, and your surroundings look largely the same, so you’ll often end up running in circles having no idea where you’re supposed to go. If any of the monsters catch you, they’ll cling to you and you’ll have to waggle your Wii controller like a crazy person to get loose. If you die, you’ll have to start over again. You can occasionally stumble over hiding places (like closets), but they’re hard to find and not very helpful; the monsters chasing you will remain right outside wherever you’re hiding, making it so you can’t come out without getting caught, and they’ll eventually find you on their own and drag you out of there.

To make my way through these chase sequences I started using YouTube, frequently pausing the game to watch a video showing me where I needed to go. It was frustrating, but less frustrating and time-consuming than running around not knowing where to go. If my choice is between having a shotgun or having to go through chase sequences like these, I’ll choose the shotgun.

Oh, and I actually had a fun and frightening bug one time when I was playing the game. The Wii controller will now and then play distorted sounds and static to try to set a creepy atmosphere. But one time, the controller wouldn’t stop playing the static sound, and it played it loudly. I actually called the friend I had borrowed the game from to ask if this was normal, holding the controller up to the phone so he could hear. Apparently it wasn’t, and when I restarted the game the static was at the normal volume level, and appeared and disappeared when it was supposed to rather than staying constant.

I really adore the basic idea of this game. A horror game without combat? Using the Wii controller well? Focusing on atmosphere and story?  Sign me up! It’s just too bad the execution left a lot to be desired.

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Fidelity Wars #117: Boy George – “Felidae”

March 26th, 2012

I recently saw the animated film Felidae, promoted as being a Katzenthriller. The film is German, was released in 1994, and is based on the German book by Akif Pirinçci by the same name. I watched the English language dub of the film, and while I would’ve liked to’ve seen it with the original German voices my DVD did not have any English subtitles for the German audio track. It’s always annoying when they neglect to include that. The DVD also has some neat special features – like an audio commentary – but again due to the lack of English subtitles, I’m unable to enjoy them.

The story revolves around a cat who starts investigating a string of gruesome local cat murders. Are humans behind it, other cats, or maybe other animals? While the plot was occasionally tricky to follow and left a few questions unanswered, I greatly enjoyed it. The story was fascinating, the animation was impressive, it had some delightfully disturbing and eerie scenes, and it had great atmosphere overall. Very interested in reading the novel it’s based on and the other novels in the series, but sadly only the first two books have been translated from German and they’re both (currently) out of print.

The film has a title song sun by 80s super star Boy George, which fits the movie’s gritty noir feel perfectly. The lyrics are both a bit silly and clever, hitting a few of the plot elements while staying sufficiently vague, and it’s this week’s featured tune.

Boy George – “Felidae”

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Fidelity Wars #116: Islands – “Tender Torture”

February 29th, 2012

My feelings about the band Islands are mixed, as you could read here. They have some decent tunes with interesting lyrics and arrangements, but too many of their songs are lost in radio friendly mediocrity, and I still miss the fun and whimsy of The Unicorns. But again, they do have some decent tunes.

One of which I’m featuring this week! (Or perhaps I should rather say this month, since this will be my only blog entry this month.) The song is called “Tender Torture” and it’s a catchy, borderline synthpop love song where the narrator still seems to be stuck on that damn deserted island they’ve been at for the past few albums. The song is off their 2009 album Vapours – which might be their best album so far, despite having their worst album cover (and font) so far.

Islands – “Tender Torture”

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Fidelity Wars #115: The Divine Comedy – “The Frog Princess”

January 30th, 2012

I have a couple of albums by The Divine Comedy, but I’ve yet to really dive into their back catalog. The band has some catchy, witty songs, but at times seem too full of themselves, with songs far too grandiose and pretentious than they’ve any right to be.

But one of their rather catchy and somewhat witty songs is “The Frog Princess”, which I recently discovered. As far as I can tell, it seems to be about a failed relationship, with the female in the song possibly being French.

The Divine Comedy – “The Frog Princess”

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Fidelity Wars #114: Jeff Bridges & Colin Farrell – “Fallin’ & Flyin’”

January 15th, 2012

Crazy Heart was a rather disappointing film. It’s about a fictional has-been country musician, played by Jeff Bridges, and his attempt at getting his life back together. But the lows of this washed-up country musician’s life aren’t particularly low, and the characters feel far too bland for one to ever start caring about. The overall atmosphere and pacing of the film remains too relaxed throughout, without enough conflict to really engage. Plus, a key scene in the film is severely mishandled (see this discussion), destroying whatever little “audience engagement” the film had managed to build up by that point. Jeff Bridges’ performance is also rather underwhelming, yet it won him an academy award.

Fortunately, the film does have a few decent songs which helps make it more bearable. The highlight is a duet between Jeff Bridges and Colin Farrell, who are both surprisingly competent country singers, singing the song “Fallin’ & Flyin’”. It’s catchy, and the lyrics are actually rather fun and clever. And it’s this week’s pick.

Jeff Bridges & Colin Farrell – “Fallin’ & Flyin’”

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Fidelity Wars #113: Jeffrey Lewis – “Cult Boyfriend”

January 8th, 2012

I think I’m warming up to Jeffrey Lewis. While I’m not yet a fan, I can definitely appreciate some songs of his and can see his overall charm and appeal. Amusing, clever lyrics from the urban outcast point of view, half-spoken to jangly guitar with too many syllables squeezed in. There are few other established artists who quite offer the same package.

His song “Cult Boyfriend” off his 2011 album A Turn Into The Dream-Songs is the best new song I’ve heard so far in 2012, applying the concept of cult media to that of boyfriendhood, and it’s this week’s featured track.

Jeffrey Lewis – “Cult Boyfriend”

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Fidelity Wars #112: The Human Hearts feat. Franklin Bruno – “Inland Valley Water Table Blues”

December 31st, 2011

Happy Halloween! Emh, I mean, jul. Or new year’s.

Seems I have missed a few weeks and a few seasonal events, for which I apologize. I don’t have a particularly good excuse, other than my growing disdain towards mankind and my general disgruntlement regarding the overall state of my various affairs.  I had also originally intended to post a particular track for Halloween, but I was wondering if the copy I had of the (legally obtained) song was somehow defect and I never got very far in my research regarding the matter.

So for this much delayed installment, I offer you a song that is entirely unrelated to any holiday, namely:

 The Human Hearts feat. Franklin Bruno – “Inland Valley Water Table Blues”

The song was featured on the digital only charity compilation Grow Up / Move Out, released earlier this year. It does seem somewhat arbitrary to credit the song to The Human Hearts feat. Franklin Bruno considering that The Human Hearts is a band fronted by Franklin Bruno. That would be like crediting a song to The Mountain Goats feat. John Darnielle, Hefner feat. Darren Hayman, and so forth. I’m guessing it was done because there might be people who know who Franklin Bruno but who don’t know about The Human Hearts. Trivialities aside, it’s a great song. I’ve never been the biggest fan of Franklin Bruno’s vocals, but it works pretty well here. It’s a catchy, rockin’ indie pop song. The compilation also has some other decent songs, so I’d recommend checking it out.

Happy new year!

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The Bewildering Case Of Mass Effect 2 Collector’s Edition

November 25th, 2011

I liked the first Mass Effect game. Except for a few caveats, like clunky combat and a bunch of anticlimatic and superflous side-missions and grinding objectives. Other than that, it was good. So I’d hoped to get a copy of the second game sooner or later, which was supposed to be even better if game reviews are to be believed.

So when I saw the Mass Effect 2 Collector’s Edition on the PC on sale for 129 NOK minus 20%, so 103 NOK, I figure I’ll buy it. Or rather, I go home and try doing some research and give it a think, then ask a friend to buy it for me. But then this friend calls me to say he is unable to buy it for me because he wasn’t going downtown after all, so I have to ask another friend to do it for me instead. But he isn’t able to find the game at the store at all, so I eventually go down to buy it myself the day after that again. I find it without any problems.

When I get handed the game by the cashier, I see that my copy isn’t sealed. I’m a bit annoyed, but I shuffle along, figuring I’ll give it a closer look when I get home. Which I do. Turns out I got, as I feared, one of the “demo copies”. That is, I get the cover that has been out on the shelves, and the contents have been hidden behind the counter or in their storage room somewhere, and the contents look to have been through some noticable wear and tear as well. So I’m not at all happy, as I’m very particular about having my media in mint condition. I’d also considered making it a juletide or birthday present for myself, but it’s no fun getting an item that looks used for either of those occasions.

I’m rather annoyed the cashier didn’t (a) warn me about the condition of my game, and (b) offer a considerable discount due to the condition of the game. Instead they’ve made one of their costumers rather displeased with the end result of his visit to one of their shops. So displeased that he wants to write a blog entry about it, and show horryfing pictures of the copy of the game he was given.

So I consider maybe returning it. Except, I can’t find the receipt for it anywhere. Which is very odd – and perhaps it might even qualify as being ironic – as I generally make a point of getting the receipts for anything I buy, and saving them. But this particular receipt seems to have disappeared. My guess is that it fell out of my bag or pocket in Oslo somewhere. That makes returning the game hard, maybe even impossible, considering the game isn’t sealed, looks somewhat used, and comes with a one-time online code which I could have potentially already activated.

But the same retailer is offering the game for 129 NOK through their web shop – without the 20% discount. They also have a warehouse sale, apparently trying to get rid of some of their stock. I see some CDs I like, and after a few days of deliberation, I decide to order both the CDs and another copy of the game. I figure I’ll try selling the unsealed copy, or making it a birthday or juletide gift for someone. They also have another campaign going where shipping is free if your order contains a book. So I include a cheap book as well, which costs as much as the shipping would have – about 30 NOK – to get the shipping for free.

I get a receipt by e-mail shortly thereafter. Everything looks to be in order. Then a few days later I get a message saying they’ve sent my order, but a couple of the CDs I’d ordered (two copies of We Shall All Be Healed by The Mountain Goats, a great album) were out of stock. I get a second receipt, now without the two CDs listed, but including another new item instead: they’ve listed Mass Effect 2 Collector’s Edition twice, but the extra copy is listed as only 30 NOK. So I suspect that they’ve charged me for the shipping after all, and it somehow got listed as something else due to database confusion. I’m a bit annoyed by this and plan on e-mailing them about this after I’ve received my parcel, as the shipping was supposed to be free.

When it arrives and I open it, I find it actually contains two copies of Mass Effect 2 Collector’s Edition, one in plastic and one already opened (but looking less bruised than the one I got at the shop). So seems the extra 30 NOK was actually for an extra copy of the game. I’m guessing they added it because they wanted to get rid of their stock, and because it made packing my order easier, and they wanted more of my money. So I won’t be complaining about the added 30 NOK, since that’s pretty cheap. But I now have three copies of the game, for which I’ve paid a total of 262 NOK, and two of which I want to get rid of.

Apologies in advance if you end up getting one of these from me for jul, but in my defense, it’s supposed to be a pretty good game. And hey, you get an artbook, too!

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