Been there done that

Regular readers would note that I’ve been paying a lot of point and click adventure games over the past few months. Well, another one has been cast down from my Hall of Shame. Who’s out on their arse this time around? Ben There Dan That!

As is often the case, I’d become aware of this game largely through word of mouth: As was my understanding, it was a more recent point and click adventure game which was really funny. Ho Hum right? After all is there ever a point and click adventure game without humor? And isn’t The Dig?
But wait! Ben There Dan That boasts an animation quality on par with South Park! And shares the same demented sense of humor too! And it’s made by British people! Well, I’m all for that. Now as far as I’m concerned the point and click adventure games made by the British are in the minority and the few I have played (Beneath a Steel Sky and Simon the Sorcerer) are of high quality so what the hell? I’m curious.

So I found the game on Steam, played it all the way through and at the end of it? Well to begin with, this is more or less a love letter to the various point and click adventure games from the early nineties. There are various references, in both the visuals and dialogue that call back to this era – but whilst that may sound like a bad thing it never once bogs down the game itself. Yes in an age where people seem intent on celebrating the games they enjoyed as a youth, Ben There Dan That never once gets blinded by nostalgia – no it has something of its own to say and won’t stop in getting its message across.
Holy shit! I can’t believe I just typed that! Yes unlike a lot of other modern point and click adventure games Ben There Dan That seems to have been made by people who have a clear idea of what they want to convey and avoiding pioneer reverence like the plague. I guess stranger things have happened…

Okay, cynicism aside, I found a lot to admire about Ben There Dan That. The puzzles are well thought out and there is a lot of hilarity in the humor and the crude nature of the graphics. The South Park comparisons are inescapable but it’s nice to think of Ben There Dan That as a visitor from a parallel dimension where Trey Parker and Matt Stone were from the UK. Now whilst there are some signs of being a first time game (the limited locations being one such example), this is still an impressive feat for game bashed out by two guys.
And apparently, someone else thought so too for apparently, there does exist a sequel….

A Tribute to LucasArts

As you all may have heard by now, something terrible has happened: LucasArts has been closed by parent company Disney due to disappointments with not much happening.
Sad news to be sure. Okay true LucasArts haven't really done anything of note in recent years but for a moment there, these guys were at the top of their game, delivering games that were lot's of fun and have stood strong against the march of time.

The LucasArts I knew were makers of superb adventure games. They were both real written and imaginative in their premises. They boasted puzzles that actually made sense and had a sense of humor that worked even when humor in gaming tends to fall flat on its face all too easily. These games had brilliant graphics complimented with gloriously rendered backgrounds and presented wonderfully realized worlds. And these games were designed by people who truly loved their craft and knew exactly what made a great game. Finally, LucasArts took chances with new IP - most of them paid off in dividends. They fostered talent and proved they were bursting at the seams with genuine creativity.

I spent this summer playing a lot of LucasArts adventures - namely Day of the Tentacle, the Dig, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Sam and Max Hit the Road and, of course, Monkey Island 1,2 and 3. Some of these I played for the very first time. From the perspective of twenty years, these games still hold up remarkably well and they certainly are impressive - even to someone who spent the early nineties as a one-eyed console devotee. What worked originally still works very well and it's a testament to building games that are well-designed. Indeed, these games were made by people who are genuinely passionate about what they do and it shows.
And whilst the LucasArts adventures may have been a mainstay of PC gaming twenty years ago, even if I wasn't aware of it at the time, it's hard to imagine PC gaming without the Midas Touch LucasArts has provided.

So here's to LucasArts and the adventure games they made. We've never seen anything like them and we probably never will again.

Bass in the Place

And we're back.
Welcome to 2013 everybody. The world didn't come to an end (in your face nay-sayers!) and a whole new year has opened up before us all. So lets not muck around - time to go back to work.

So what did I do during my Christmas holidays? Well I took the time to work on my Hall of Shame and had the pleasure of striking another game from it: Goodbye Beneath a Steel Sky.

During the nineties, whereas other kids had a Nintendo or a Sega (or eventually a PlayStation), I however had an Amiga. It was through being an Amiga user that I became aware of Beneath a Steel Sky. I saw some screenshots and it getting excellent reviews from critics who were acting like they'd just found a gold mine underneath their house. Of course I had little access to Amiga games at the time so I never got to play it - until recently, of course, through my good friend Good Old Games where it was available for free. Yeah, a game you wanted to play being made for free - such an endpoint for a journey begun eighteen years ago.....

Anyway, with high expectations behind this game how did it turn out?
Well quite good actually.

From my early impressions with the game, stemming form my Amiga days, I gathered a sense that Beneath a Steel Sky was set in a scifi universe ruled by a totalitarian dictatorship - at the time I'd never heard such a scenario in a game before and I was keen to see how it would play out. Very well as it turned out: I liked the setting of this world and how the oppressive nature of the setting is gradually established as the game progresses (note the message accompanying the game over screen). Like all adventure games I've been playing, the backgrounds were beautiful to behold and, impressively, were drawn by comic artist extraordinaire Dave Gibbons.
But what I found particularly puzzling is the setting being located in Australia. Now I'm all for Australia being a setting for a game - and a sci-fi setting at that - but it is strange to see an Australian setting where everyone speaks in British accents. But the Australian setting does have moments of hilarity to the Australian resident with the totalitarian government and having a revolutionary group operating out of Hobart (!!!!!).
Another aspect that left me scratching my head is the humorous moments. Now with the setting described above, one would think the game would be grim and dour. Not so: there are a lot of nutty characters and witty dialogue. Its an odd choice but  there are times when it seems like the humorous moments seem strained and seem to have got lost whilst on the way to a completely different game (the courtroom scene springs to mind). Granted such moments may add to the idea that everyone's gone insane but to make the humorous moments come across as off-putting. Indeed, it makes me wonder how much Adventure games rely on humor - if anything the inclusion of humor sweetens the deal of having to solve baffling problems whilst the absence of it could prove to be fatal to the game itself (The Dig anyone?).

Still, I enjoyed playing Beneath a Steel Sky. I enjoyed the setting and exploring the world before me and it did lead to some memorable moments (the scene in the cathedral being one). I liked this game and am glad to have (finally!) played it. It's just a shame it ended when it did because I would've liked to have seen more of the world presented in this game.
And sequels have been granted to less deserving games... >:(

Join the DotTs

Hey: 12/12/12

Anyway, Simon the Sorcerer wasn't the only game I beat last weekend: Another game has been struck down from my Hall of Shame in the form of the adventuring classic Day of the Tentacle.

I mentioned earlier this week in that the graphic adventuring games have always been something that has constantly eluded me: In particular, the LucasArts games that have been held in constantly high regard during the nineties (and still do). So, in the name of tracking things down that may have escaped my notice first time around, I was fortunate enough to pick up several titles for a really cheap price. These titles were The Dig, Sam and Max Hit the Road, Grim Fandango and Curse of Monkey Island. As these titles are hard to track down nowadays you wouldn't think that I got these games, in 2006 may I add, for a really good price. And you certainly wouldn't think that I got these games at my local Post Office.
Yet it is only now that I've been able to finally get them working. Needless to say, as this is my first time encountering these games (with the exception of The Dig) it would be interesting to see how these games hold up. Plus, it is always reassuring to know that LucasArts made something that didn't have the Star Wars brand attached to it.

So about Day of the Tentacle. I was fortunate to pick this up online based around the understanding that it was one of, if not THE, finest game of it's genre. Looking back I feel compelled to agree: There is certainly a lot going for Day of the Tentacle: The graphics are nice to look at, the animation is great, there's a lot of hilarious jokes and some real inventive solutions to the many puzzles throughout this game. The time travel element is used to great effect and the voice acting, the first of it's kind may I add, is remarkably stellar. Throw in a surprisingly threatening villain and

All in all, there's not a lot I can add about Day of the Tentacle that hasn't already been said before. The game has endured the passage of time remarkably well and still looks great nineteen years on.
Guess it goes to show that, once again, if it's well regarded it's often for good reason.

Simon Says

On the weekend I had the satisfaction of striking another game from my Hall of Shame. Goodbye Simon the Sorcerer.

Looking back at my previous post about Simon the Sorcerer, there's not really much more I can add: The writing's great, the voice acting is all top-notch and there are moments of hilarity abound (the Woodworm scene had me rolling). And special mention must go to the gorgeous backgrounds  which, in all honesty, are the kind that makes me want to frame them and put them up on my wall.

Having lived through the supposed 'Golden Era of Gaming' - that would be the early to mid-nineties - I did recall Adventure games being something of a big deal. I knew little of this as I was a Commodore 64 user and my experience with adventure games were those of the text base variety (Zork anyone?). Yet I knew that people who regarded the likes of Kings Quest and Monkey Island with a sense of awe. Having grown accustomed to the aforementioned text games, I was puzzled how actual gaming graphics could work within an adventure game context but I did manage to play the Leisure Suit Larry games and was surprised how it worked so well.
Other than that, my experience with graphic Adventure Games has been minimal to say the least. I've played through the Dig and found it a fascinating gem - even if the Dig is the least regarded of the LucasArts canon. Yet it is only recently I've manged to finally play some forgotten classics - both through collecting and GOG.

Needless to say, Simon the Sorcerer is only the beginning - seems there's a whole lot more Adventure games waiting to be explored......

Mature like old cheese

With many gamers today being adults - many of whom grew up playing games - there is talk of games getting mature. This is due to games catering for a change of tastes and doing things beyond the restrictions of a child demographic.

Decent enough intentions true but I've grown suspicious of games proclaiming to be 'mature'. It's nice you cater for different tastes just don't make a big show of it!
In addition, claims of being 'mature' seem to come across as being silly: Sex, cursing and killing so many dudes in gruesome fashion seems to me, pandering to a sense of spectacle. Sure, it may be great that we can do such things but it is indeed problematic that such things should get more attention than the game mechanics themselves. Other times, the 'mature' content comes across as trying too hard to please an audience that's growing older. I personally thought the use of cuss words in Mass Effect 2 as coming across as trying ever so hard to such pretensions of 'maturity' - so much so that it kind of distracted from what was a stunning game on all accounts.

No, for me, 'mature' games seem ill-defined. In my eyes, 'mature' gaming is really a sign that that games are growing beyond their original intention as a sense of entertainment. 'Mature' games for me those which are trying to get a point across that challenges the player until well after the console is turned off.

So what games do I think meet this criteria? Funny you should say that:

Cannon Fodder (1993)
A game that came out on the Commodore Amiga with other systems following suite. Seeing as war games are a major driving force in the gaming industry, it seems strange that one game should come along which criticizes warfare. Strange yes but it works: You control a small group of soldiers through a succession of missions involving entering enemy territory and blowing shit up. Thing is, each soldier has a name and, upon each successful mission the player is confronted with a list of who survived and a list of who got killed. This is then followed by a screen image consisting of a line of new recruits ready for action - a line that encircles a hill covered with graves of the fallen. You wouldn't see a game biting the hand that feeds it but here it works a treat.

The Dig (1995)
Sure the dialogue's questionable, sure the period in development was beset with problems and sure it's stern/serious nature seems out of place to the rest of the LucasArts adventure games, but there is still a lot going for this game. I like the ideas that are really being put forward that suggests a gaming maturity: It breaking from the humor that the adventure genre is known for to do something different. It is conveying a sense of wonder in exploring an alien planet. It is the sense of atmosphere on being on a barren world where an advanced civilization once inhabited and is doing something with a tiny cast of characters.

Metal Gear Solid (1997)
Heavy handed in it's approach to war and nuclear warheads but at least they're having a stab at it.

Final Fantasy VII (1997)
A dying planet that would be glad to see it's human inhabitants gone? That makes heaps of sense to me. Though it is interesting to note that, considering the backlash to the game's conclusion, whether or not gamers are really ready for 'mature' gaming as they so claim....

Chrono Cross (2000)
Can't say I've played this game (call it being in a country that apparently doesn't matter) so pretty much all I know about this game comes from this slice of wisdom. Still, what is said is enough to get me interested.
As indicated by the linked piece, Chrono Cross, as a game, has as many good ideas as bad ideas. But the one that works, is the one that challenges the borderline between the player and the player character. This eventually reaches it's apex with the game's conclusion with text addressed directly to the player and a montage made up of some life action footage shot in Japan.
Won't give too much away (you could read the linked article or just look the ending up on youtube) but I commend the balls the game designers had in presenting such an idea and connecting the player at a personal level. This type of thing needs to happen more often.

So let's drop the pretensions: Let's make something with more substance than style. And while we're at it, someone get me a Ferrari!