The Game Shanty

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2009-07-13T22:44:00.001-04:00

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2009-07-12T11:31:00.000-04:00

Video Games | HAWP | Once Upon a Pixel

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

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2009-07-12T10:59:00.001-04:00

Video Games from MUSCLEBEAVER on Vimeo.

I Just Wanted You to See This

2009-06-26T11:34:00.001-04:00

Remember how fun this game was the first time you played it?

Plants vs. Zombies

2009-06-14T14:06:00.014-04:00

Wow, another zombie game. The latest (and arguably greatest) from PopCap games, masters of all things casual, is a cute, wonderfully designed tower defense game with loads of extras, and quite a bit of replay value as this sort of thing goes.

In PvZ, a variety of zombies are trying to invade your home, and your only defense other than a series of lawnmowers are the rows of plants that you place in order to prevent passage. You collect a number of "seed packets" (which are basically cards) that allow you to place a specific plant on the "lawn" which is basically just a grid. Each plant has a specific purpose, cost, and downtime before they can be planted again, and the order and manner in which they are placed will pretty much determine success or failure. The sunflower, for example, is your only means of producing sufficient "sunshine" during the day--the points you have to collect in order "buy" a plant, so they are essential to success. They must be planted early, but they cannot defend themselves, so it is up to you to also set up some defense early on, in the form of a pea-shooter, etc. so you can defend the lawn, at the cost of not being able to plant as many sunflowers right away. There are also wallnuts, which are edible barriers that block encroaching zombies and buy you some time to set things up, but they don't last forever. Every plant in the game is useful, and it allows for a broad array of strategies, as there are only so many slots for the seed packets--you have to choose carefully.

There are at least six main levels in the game, consisting of 9 or more stages in each level, with at least two or three waves of zombies to survive in each. Some have great little twists on the game play thrown in here and there. Some levels don't allow you to pick seeds at all; instead, you are randomly tossed seed packets that you must plant as the zombies invade. These levels are hectic, as you have to adapt your strategy on the fly using whatever you are given. There's also zombie bowling, in which a swarm of zombies approaches as you try to take out as many as possible by throwing wallnuts down the rows.

Stages take place during day or night, sometimes with various weather effects, and play during the night is completely different than during the day, as all of the plants are different (it's a fungal theme), and so the flow of any given level changes. New challenges are also introduced, as graves rise from the ground and take up valuable grid space, as well as spawn more zombies during the final wave of each level. Fog will obscure at least half of grid at times, so you have to choose whether or not to use up a valuable card slot in order plant something that will push it back.

The art direction in the game is awesome: endearing and funny, with a wide variety of zombie types, each with different powers (though as my wife points out, there are no female zombies, which is weird), and a few will probably make you laugh. You can access a compendium of all plant and zombie types, and the descriptions are fun to read. The music is subtle, and there isn't a whole lot of variety, but it fits the theme well, and fills it's in the background nicely. There's almost no voice acting to speak of except for the occasional moan or cry for brains from an approaching zombie. But it's all good. The sound effects for the plants are enjoyable, especially during the later stages where you'll have several rows of different shooting plants, each with a different effect. It makes the craziness of it all seem more tangible.

After beating the game you open up dozens of challenge and puzzle levels, and in a lot of ways they're more enjoyable than the adventure mode itself. There's a survival mode, in which you must evolve your defense over a five day period under certain conditions (with at least 3 waves each day) in order to win. There's "I, Zombie", in which you play the zombies themselves, and you have to choose the right zombies in the right order to get through the plant defenses and make it to the sweet brains at the end. There's also a great assortment of puzzles that have you playing anything from Bejeweled with your plants as a zombie swarm approaches, to actually having zombies with plant heads shooting down your defenses. You also open up the zen garden, where you feed and nourish plants you find during the mini games or the second play through, and they give you cash or diamonds periodically, or you can sell them back after they're grown for chunks of money. Speaking of which, I'm on the second play though now, and it's a lot of fun. You have all the plants you've collected throughout the first run ( I still haven't seen all of the plants, or even all of the zombies), but the catch is that the game will automatically select three plants that you have to take with you, and this can often make the levels more challenging than before, as they often would not have been the seeds you would have liked.

Overall, this is probably the the best $9 I've spent on a game in a long time. The art style, the humor and game play are fun, and while the game isn't very hard overall, specific levels are quite challenging, especially towards the end. The main adventure mode will take you 4 or 5 hours to complete, but with the dozens of extra games lasting at least that long, and a worthwhile second play through, it's a lot of game for the price. You can also buy it through PopCap's sight as well, but it's twice what the Steam price is, but will probably have free content for download in the future.

Zombie Shooter

2009-06-08T18:46:00.011-04:00

Perhaps the most efficient and direct game title ever, Zombie Shooter is in fact, a zombie shooter. There is no story; you simply begin the game with one of two generic characters whose descriptions I didn't bother to read, and slaughter literally thousands of zombies, while occasionally fighting your way to power generators or dynamite caches in order to open new parts of the level. Other than that, kill everything. The floors of any given level will literally be caked with the viscera of what the game description on Steam claims is" a thousand zombies on every level, 100 on screen at once", and each zombie killed almost immediately being replaced by another one.

The graphics are actually pretty good for this sort of game, but your main character resembles a broken doll, as you move around with the W,A,S,& D keys, while rotating and aiming with the mouse. This means the torso tends to twist around unnaturally when things get crazy, which now that I think about, just adds to the overall feel of the thing. As you mow your way through this gore fest, you gather little orbs that give you experience points which you use at the end of each level to raise your characters stats, which have a noticeable effect on the game play. Raise your speed, and your character will move faster and be able to avoid the swarm a little better. raise your accuracy, and you will do more damage with each shot, etc. Zombies also drop monies, which can be used to purchase armor, ammo, health packs, and weapons upgrades.

The best part of this game, by far, is the weapons. It is immensly satisfying to kill in this game, and each weapon is equally suited for taking down dozens of enemies at a time in some cases. You start with dual wielded pistols, which is immediately cool, but quickly gain a shotgun, a grenade launcher (my favorite), a rocket launcher, a chain gun, a flame thrower, a laser rifle, a laser canon, a laser chain gun, and this thing that shoots saw blades. The pace of this game is relentless, and I literally said "holy shit!" out loud a few times as I was surrounded by scores of undead (and some other crazy stuff ), and it was only by running around like a mad chicken and using every weapon and just about every bit of ammo I had that I was able to survive. On and on it went until I played through the entire thing in three hours without stopping, And I enjoyed every minute of it.

Zombie Shooter is not the best game you will ever play. For $4.99 on Steam, you will get a 3 hour game with literally no ending, only this:

but with multiple difficulties, and a decent survival mode and a few other extras, you will get your money's worth. If you enjoy zombie games, or just want something intense and well made, even if it is a bit generic, go buy this.

Winter for the Adept

2009-06-02T19:04:00.009-04:00

Well, that didn’t last long. After listening to The Land of the Dead a couple of months back I was incredibly excited about hearing more Doctor Who audio adventures. I discovered the Big Finish audios at just the right time, having viewed well over half of the 159 stories from the original television program that ran from 1963 to 1989. I was also thrilled that I enjoyed Peter Davison’s portrayal of the Fifth Doctor far more now than when he first took on the role back in 1981. When I looked at the stories I had to choose from I decided on one that immediately followed The Land of the Dead called Winter for the Adept. Unfortunately, it was quite a disappointment.

Every now and then in Doctor Who there appears a story that doesn’t play by the rules. Sometimes these stories are brilliant (Ghost Light, Blink) and sometimes they’re absolute rubbish (Underworld, Love & Monsters). Winter for the Adept doesn’t exactly play by the rules, either, but it in this case maybe it should have. It’s not that it has any glaring flaws, but it seems much closer to uninspiring fan fiction than the work of a serious author.

The story begins with a woman reading an old diary entry and the melodramatic way in which she does so immediately evokes the mood of Jane Austen and 19th century England. Unfortunately the story is set in Switzerland in the winter of late 1963, so we’re already off to a rocky start. At least the locale of a finishing school for young women has the air of Austen about it, if indeed that is a good thing. A couple of girls find themselves stuck in the aged academy for the Christmas holiday and decide to make a break for it…in the freezing cold.

Meanwhile, the Doctor’s companion, Nyssa (Sarah Sutton), is all alone on a nearby mountainside…in the freezing cold. She’s left to carry the early part of the story on her own as the Doctor won’t arrive until the end of the first half-hour episode…when he explains why Nyssa ended up here in the first place. Nyssa isn’t very well written in this story and comes off sounding more like Tegan (the complainer) or Adric (the whiner) than her usual logical self. Of course, having nearly been frozen to death by the Doctor may certainly explain her behavior. A Lieutenant Sandoz discovers Nyssa and accompanies her to the academy where he’s surprised to hear the two girls have run off. He goes after them and it’s later revealed that Sandoz and one of the students, at least twenty years his junior, were planning on eloping.

And it just goes downhill from there. The story makes a surprising amount of left turns and none of them quite work. There’s a plotline about one of the characters being psychic, in the middle of the story we find out the school is haunted, and the final episode is inundated with aliens. The aliens, referred to as Spillagers (because they spill into different worlds and pillage them…get it?) would probably work better in a story that focused on them exclusively and not merely used them as bookends to a melodramatic ghost story.

I mentioned in my review of the previous Fifth Doctor audio story The Land of the Dead that I recognized none of the actors that were part of the supporting cast, but I was rather impressed with their work. In Winter for the Adept I found the opposite was true. I recognized many of the people involved, but I couldn’t say they were all that remarkable. The head of the school, Miss Tremayne, is played by Sally Faulkner who memorably appeared as the young photographer in the 1968 Second Doctor story The Invasion. I wouldn’t have known this if I hadn’t looked it up, because Tremayne is a pretty forgettable caricature. Lt. Sandoz is played by Peter Jurasik, best known for the role of Londo Mollari in Babylon 5, but he really takes a back seat in the story and seems wasted in the part. Finally, India Fisher plays one of the school girls, but you probably know her as Charley Pollard, the Eighth Doctor’s companion in over two dozen audio stories.

Only Peter Davison remains on top of his game in Winter for the Adept, but as he’s almost entirely absent from the first episode it’s a long wait for not much of a pay off. I recommend skipping this story unless you’re a big fan of the Fifth Doctor as there are so many better audio stories available. Winter for the Adept was enough to put me off of the Peter Davison stories for a while and I decided to move on to his successor Colin Baker, but that…is another story for another time.

2 Daleks (out of 5)

Across the Nightingale Floor

2009-05-12T13:04:00.008-04:00

Tales of the Otori, Book One

Set in an ancient world of warring clans, birthright, and ancient powers we start our first story of the Otori clan – Across the Nightingale Floor. Whether you look at this story as a brilliant fantasy or a skilled presentation of storytelling in multiple points-of-view, it’s a book not to be missed. Set in an alternate feudal Japan, we are introduced to a people of fierce pride, honor, and hidden skills. The sword is still the greatest weapon and the mainland is mainly stories told by the scarce few who have actually seen it. The emperor is still deferred to, but he is a distant figure on a distant throne, far from the lives of our characters.
The Three Nations have been in upheaval for half a generation now, ever since the battle of Yamagata which secured the strength of the Tohan and pushed the Otori back to a minuscule remainder of their land. To the west lie the Seishuu, the Maruyama, and the Shirakawa who have so far stayed out of the bloodier struggles, but now they feel pressure from the Tohan to cooperate or be quashed as their neighbors have.

Otori Shigeru has been left alive but striped of his position as ruler of the clan, instead he travels the land studying and improving farming methods and food storage. At least, that is what his resentful uncles and enemies have been led to believe – that the once powerful and beloved Otori Shigeru has been reduced to nothing but a simple farmer. Will he be able to prove that the love and loyalty of his people and knowledge outside of a standard ruler (you must all obey me) is the true key to success?
The Hidden, persecuted, hunted down and adamantly anti-violence to their deaths. Wanting nothing more than to be left to their quiet lives and simple beliefs, these people are slowly but surely being eradicated by the Tohan. Tomasu spent his life in one of their quiet villages until Iida Sadamu, lord of the Tohan, burned it and his family to the ground. With this one violent act, his destiny spirals out of his hands as his true history and future potential exceed anything quiet and gentle Tomasu could ever have expected… and his new life as Otori Takeo will most literally fill books.
The Tribe: families with a blood line spawning from the mystic history of the island and possessing abilities bordering on magic and impossibility. Isolated from the rest of the clans of the three nations as are the Hidden, they instead use their skills to churn and use the ruling classes to their advantage – performing assassinations here, working as mercenaries there, and always in an elaborate web everywhere. Muto Kenji slips in and out like an omnipotent wraith, helping to lead Takeo towards his future, proving that sometimes blood is held above loyalty, no matter what one’s heart might want.
Heart is also a strong motivating factor in this story, or more rightly love. Be it love hidden and stretched across the years with the powerful and graceful Lady Maruyama Naomi, or new lust kindled by former political hostage young Lady Shirakawa Kaede, the women of the realm are not ones to be crossed. Prepare to fall into a fast moving world of loyalty, love, and power, then prepare to scramble for the next in the series: Grass For His Pillow.

The Book Shanty

2009-05-11T20:17:00.015-04:00

Okay, so I haven't played many games in the past couple of weeks. Disheartened by the lack of worthwhile Virtual Console purchases of the past couple of months, and in general feeling a little underwhelmed by a lot of the freeware I've been checking out lately, I've turned to books for solace. And by that I mean I've been reading like a maniac the past two weeks. Seeing as how I'm broke and all, my strategy is this: scour the Science Fiction Book Club website, refusing of course, to purchase my featured selections, then putting anything interesting in my wish list there and reading through user reviews to see if it suits me. I cross reference the general feedback there with that of Amazon, often adding the same items to my wish list there so I can receive recommendations for other books I may be interested in. Then, I go to the local library's online website, and add the chosen books to my wish list there, or outright request them, depending on what I'm interested in. They give me a call when my shizzle is ready, so I roll a mile down the skreet and make the pick-up, gangsta style. I'm talking free books, yall. As long as I don't accrue late fees.

I'll start with A Dirty Job and Practical Demon Keeping by Christopher Moore, both very funny and light reads. He seems to have a thing for thrusting the everyman into the most bizarre occult/supernatural situations possible, and the results are almost Pythonesque.
I also read the first two books of Alan Campbell's Deepgate Trilogy, Scar Night and Iron Angel, both of which are bit stranger and bleaker than what I expect out of a fantasy novel. I then devoured two books by my current favorite fantasy author, Peter S. Beagle, A Dance for Emilia, a novella, and Tamsin, hands down the best ghost story I've ever read. I first read another of his ghost stories, A Fine and Private Place about a year ago, and loved it.

By far the best book though, has been The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson. An amazing bittersweet love story about a porn star who is hideously deformed after being burned in a car wreck, he finds meaning and love when he meets a mental patient who claims they were lovers in another life of his, though she herself is 800 years old. It get's really interesting and wonderful from there. If I had a top ten list for the best books I've ever read, this would be in it.

On the Sci-Fi front, I just discovered Robert J. Sawyer with his latest novel, WWW:WAKE, the first in a trilogy about a blind girl who, with the aid of experimental technology gains the ability to see, not reality at first, but the web itself--while at the same time, an awareness is forming in within cyberspace, and it's fate and consciousness is bound to that of the girl. I wasn't sure about it after reading the jacket, but it's was a great read, and I've added a few more of his books to my library que.

Doctor Who: The Time Meddler

2009-05-10T01:07:00.028-04:00

One of the better First Doctor (William Hartnell) stories after the departure of Ian (William Russell) and Barbara (Jacqueline Hill), The Time Meddler is at its best when the Doctor and the Meddling Monk (Peter Butterworth) are on screen together. Their chemistry together is impressive and Hartnell is really on his game here, perhaps spurred to such heights because he was working with an actor (again Butterwoth) of his own caliber. Vicki (Maureen O'Brien) and Steven (Peter Purves) are quite a team as well and certainly better than some of the companions to come (i.e. Dodo Chaplet).

Keep in mind, this is the first time in the history of Doctor Who when audiences discovered there was another individual flying through time and space in a TARDIS. It's impossible today to fully appreciate the importance of the cliffhanger in 'A Battle of Wits' (Episode 3) when Vicki utters those words: "The Monk's got a TARDIS!" Furthermore, how the Doctor decides to deal with the Monk is simultaneously hilarious and rather cruel, but you can't say he didn't deserve it. All in all, a fun pseudo-historical romp and an excellent way to end the second season of the original Doctor Who!

4 Daleks (out of 5)

YAY

2009-05-05T13:42:00.001-04:00

This comes out today. Do want!

BitTrip.Beat

2009-04-27T20:21:00.005-04:00

Available for the odd price of $6.00 on Nintendo's WiiWare service, BitTrip. Beat will make a man (or woman) out of you, depending on your gender or preference, assuming you can even get your name on the high scores list--which will in the very least, require you to achieve a score of 50,000 points or greater in a given level. Good luck with that.

BitTrip.Beat walks through the valley of the shadow of Pong in a slick, attractive fashion, with addictive rhythm based game play and a twist on the old Pong formula. You play as a rectangle thing floating along through space with groovy 8-bit music and colorful, distracting pixelly stuff happening in the background while dots and blocks come at you from the right, intent on making sweet music with you.

There are two "life bars", one at the top, the "Multi" bar, and on the bottom, the "Nether". As you deflect dots, adding blips and beeps to the ongoing rhythm, the Mulit meter fills up and once it reaches max, you enter Hyper mode; the music gets funkier and more complex, and thus more enjoyable, while the graphics also get a face lift, adding flashes and effects to the game play. Eventually missing too many blocks will throw you back into normal mode, which is sad. On the opposite end, missing too many beats in normal mode will throw you into the Nether Realm, where there is no music, and the graphics are reduced to Pong-like black and white shapes with blips coming through the Wii-mote in a bland and dissatisfying way, until you earn your way out by successfully hitting enough blocks to get back into normal mode. It's a simple formula, and it will humble you, as the game gets more complex, the backgrounds more distracting, and the dots come at you faster and faster--often shifting behaviors and patterns without warning, forcing you to adapt quickly or suffer for your incompetence. Strangely, over the course of play I actually adapted to my incompetence, so there's really no need for me to play this anymore.

There are only 3 levels in this game, and I have only seen 1 1/2. You must progress through each level to reach the next, every time you play, unless you get your name on the high scores list for a given level , which took me over a week to do for the first track. Each level or song is at least ten minutes long, so you can imagine how frustrating, nerve wracking, and emasculating it is you get through the first song for the 50th time, then getting to the same gaw-damn spot in the second track for the 50th time, and having to go through all that shit again. My tail is tucked, and I am officially running away. I should have bought Star Tropics, or a 12 pack of grape soda instead.

If you're the kind of asshole that's good at old arcade games games like Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Pong, etc., then by all means give this a try. Us cool people need to steer clear of this nifty nightmare.

Urban Dead

2009-04-14T19:50:00.025-04:00

“Urban Dead is a low-tech zombie apocalypse browser game where thousands of survivors and zombies battle for the control of a quarantined city.”

So reads the front page of what, out of necessity, has become my favorite online diversion in recent months. It’s rather fitting that the only game my shambling wreck of a computer can run these days is one in which humans stalwartly slog it out with semi-functional corpses. If anyone is here looking for a game on par with Resident Evil, Dead Rising, or even Zombies Ate My Neighbors in terms of graphics and storyline then you’ll be sorely disappointed with Urban Dead. If, however, you’re looking for an intriguing text/browser-based zombie MMO which also happens to be free…then you’ve come to the right place.

As I’ve alluded to already there are no real graphics and there is virtually no story in Urban Dead. What you do have is an intelligent game based on the time-honored horror movie premise of zombies taking over a city and the human survivors fighting for their lives. The game is set in the city of Malton which is divided up into a 10 x 10 square grid of suburbs. Each suburb is further divided into a 10 x 10 square grid of streets, buildings, cemeteries, parks, monuments and so on. These 10,000 squares give players a pretty big sandbox to play around in and as far as I can tell a freshly created character might begin the game in any of the one hundred suburbs that make up Malton.

Creating a character is quick and easy as you simply select a class, provide a name and password and begin the game. There are nine classes from four different categories to choose from all with distinct advantages and disadvantages. The Military classes are the Private (your basic grunt who is competent with a gun), the Medic (a healer armed with a pistol) and the Scout (the most effective class at evading zombie threats). The Scientist classes are the NecroTech Lab Assistant (who deal directly in identifying zombies and in turning them back into human survivors) and the Doctor (who begin the game with the ability to see the hit points of all fellow survivors). The Civilian classes are the Police Officer (similar to the Private), the Firefighter (specializing in the fire axe), and the Consumer (John Q. Public armed with a random improvised weapon and a mobile phone). The remaining category is Zombie and there’s only one class – the Corpse (any of the above classes can become a zombie if infected or killed by another zombie, but the Corpse starts out stronger than survivors who are later turned into zombies).

The four categories of classes directly relate to the four types of skills available to characters in the game: Military, Science, Miscellaneous (or Civilian) and Zombie skills. Civilian characters pay the same amount of experience points (100 XP) for all four types of skills. Military characters are predisposed to learning Military skills and can thus purchase them with fewer experience points (75 XP). However, as it’s further from their area of expertise, Military characters must spend far more on Science skills (150 XP) than other characters. The exact opposite is true for Scientist characters. I have yet to play the game from the point of view of a career Zombie, so I can’t say exactly how it works for the Corpse class.

Military skills are based almost exclusively on the use of firearms. If you want to gun down zombies with a pistol or shotgun (the only firearms available in the game unless you count the one-shot flare gun), then you’ll want to focus on Military skills. Perhaps the most universally useful Military skill, however, is called Free Running. It allows survivors to move from building to building throughout Malton without having to travel through the zombie-infested streets. Free Running is extremely useful for staying alive in Urban Dead as survivors often over-barricade buildings making many of them inaccessible from outside.

Scientific skills are of basically two types: 1) those related to NecroTech Labs and 2) those related to mundane healing. The NecroTech skills allow you to create and use devices such as DNA Extractors (used to test a zombie to see what abilities they possess and who they were before becoming zombies) and Revivication Syringes (which allow you to turn a zombie back into a survivor). The healing skills are just that, they allow you to either heal more points with first-aid kits or to diagnose survivors.

Miscellaneous or Civilian skills are simply skills that don’t fall into either of the above categories. It includes everything from Construction (allowing you to barricade buildings and repair equipment) to Body Building (providing you with a bonus of +10 hit points). There are quite a few of these skills and they’re far more varied than either Military or Scientific skills.

Zombie skills are exactly what they sound like: skills which improve the Corpse class by leaps and bounds. While I haven’t played a zombie myself some examples include Lurching Gait (zombies move as fast as survivors), Memories of Life (zombies can open doors to buildings) and Scent Fear (zombies can track badly wounded humans). Each of these allows access to greater powers later on. For instance, Scent Fear leads eventually to Scent Trail, allowing a zombie to track any survivor who has recently occupied the same square in which the zombie is located.

That’s pretty much it for skills. All characters start the game with 50 hit points and some equipment related to their chosen class. This equipment could be anything from a pistol to a pool cue or from binoculars to a first-aid kit. First-aid kits are the best way of healing either yourself or fellow survivors, but bottles of wine or beer will heal minor wounds in a pinch. Long-distance survivor-to-survivor communications require that both characters have a Mobile Phone and that they are on each other’s Contacts List. Properly tuned Radios will allow you to listen to anyone broadcasting from a specific station with a working Transmitter, as well. There’s an assortment of other items, both useful (reading books is a slow, but safe way for characters to gain experience) and cosmetic (newspapers, poetry books and crucifixes are attainable, but they serve no practical purpose).

The goal of Urban Dead is simply to stay alive or, if you happen to be undead, to convince survivors to join your ranks by gnawing on/killing them. The usual set up is that survivors barricade themselves inside buildings and zombies try to infiltrate those buildings and attack survivors, but sometimes you’ll see this scenario turned on its head. I once saw a military fort filled with survivors get overrun by zombies and just two days later the entire fenced-in nine square city block was populated with the living dead. Of course, sometimes the best defense is a good offense, so you’ll often see survivors venture out into the streets to try and take down some zombies and earn some sweet XP. This is fine as long as you remember to give yourself time to back to safety before you run out of Action Points.

Everyone starts out with 50 Action Points which regenerate at a rate of 1 point every half hour. These points, as their name so aptly states, allow a character to perform 50 actions per day* before becoming exhausted. Everything your character does from searching an area to moving from one street to another to firing a weapon uses up one Action Point. If you happen to run out of Action Points your character immediately goes to sleep. If this occurs while your character is outdoors the next time you log in you will likely find yourself zombie chow…and thus a zombie yourself. If this happens you can either decide to make a career of eating people or you can find your way to a revivification point ASAP. Revivication points are various places in each suburb (often a cemetery or an area near a NecroTech Lab) where NecroTech scientists have established a safe zone for zombies looking to return to their former lives. Of course, there’s nothing stopping a survivor who doesn’t know better from blowing your undead brains out even if you’re standing in a dedicated revivication point. For that matter there’s nothing to stop survivors from blowing each other’s brains out either…

Player Killing (PKing) is prevalent in most MMOs so it should be no surprise to find it in Urban Dead. In fact, there are entire groups dedicated to PKing. Groups are basically organizations of like-minded players working towards a common goal. The most common type of group is a Pro-Survivor group, but there are also Pro-Zombie groups composed of deadites and even some groups composed of mortals who were once Zombies and seek to aid their undead brethren by working against the survivors. You can find groups that are extremely militant, groups that focus solely on healing, groups of axe-wielding Firefighters…pretty much anything you can think of.

A lot of the joy of playing Urban Dead is lost on those who only give it a cursory glance. If I had a computer that could run anything other than solitaire or owned a console, I probably wouldn’t have taken the time to get beneath the surface of this game. If you really want to learn how to play the game you’ll pretty much have to familiarize yourself with The Urban Dead Wiki. It’s invaluable to the player who doesn’t want to stumble around blindly and wake up dead or lost every time he/she logs in.

Beginners should also probably choose a class based on what they most want to accomplish early on in the game. Privates are the best choice for a character who wants to focus on firearms. Scouts are great for traveling long distances right off the bat because of their Free Running skill. Firefighters make the best melee combatants as they’re already trained and equipped with the fire axe. If you don’t mind staying close to one area and avoiding combat, the Doctor is easily the best choice as they can gain XP by healing other survivors. Either way you go the first skill you’re going to want to procure is probably Free Running. It’s the safest way to travel and the easiest way to get access to heavily barricaded buildings.

Survivors tend to keep most buildings EHB (Extremely Heavily Barricaded) which means they’re virtually inaccessible from outside unless you have a Crowbar and want to spend all your action points tearing down walls so you can get inside. Only buildings VSB (Very Strongly Barricaded) or less are accessible from the street and these usually serve as Entry Points for survivors while the EHB buildings basically act as walls to keep out zombies. Unfortunately, it’s all too easy for an incautious survivor to end up trapped out on the streets. Again, referring to The Urban Dead Wiki is probably the wisest choice as you can locate Entry Points before your character starts wandering around aimlessly.

Urban Dead isn’t the kind of game you can just run into blindly and start hacking and slashing. It’s more or less like an elaborate chess game set on a gigantic board with the ability to customize your playing pieces. While it is an MMO, the game has no set system for creating and maintaining parties, so even if you do play with a friend you won’t be able to share XP or trade items. In fact, all you can really do with an ally is communicate, attack walking corpses that are in the same area and heal one another. When it comes down to brass tacks, however, you’re basically on your own in Urban Dead. Just like in any good zombie movie.

*A final note or those interested in running multiple characters. I would suggest you read up on the Hit Limit and how you can exempt a character from said limit by making a one-time donation in support of this excellent game.

Close Range

2009-04-07T19:01:00.002-04:00

Once in a while a shooter comes along that reinvents the genre, breaking boundaries in game design and storytelling, and giving the genre a new set of tools to move forward with. This is not that shooter. It is, however, hilarious. And grotesque. Be sure to watch the "news" clip on the site before or after playing the demo.

5 Days A Stranger

2009-04-06T18:38:00.005-04:00

5 Days A Stranger is a traditional point and click adventure made on the cheap by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, the often funny critic behind Zero Punctuation. The first of a Quadrilogy of games in the "Chzo Mythos", 5 Days A Stranger begins as the gentlemen thief Trilby infiltrates the ominous DeFoe manner in search of loot, only to find himself inexplicably trapped with 4 other people, and a bloody secret the mansion has held for over 200 years.
The graphics in 5 Days are typical of what you might see in an old Sierra or Lucasarts adventure, but a little bit simpler, but seeing as how the game had a budget of $0.00, it actually does an admirable job in terms of the character art and environments. Everything is colorful, and the "hotspots" are generally easy to find. The interface is clean and simple. The sound effects are sparse but repetitive, particularly when you're walking, but the occasional ghostly footsteps and whispering add some ambiance. Where this game really shines though, is the script. With the exception of a few inconsistencies in logic, and one or two tedious dialogue trees that you will have to wade through repeatedly to get to the one correct result, the dialogue is very well written, and often funny. Trilby is an excellent character for this sort of game, and his dry, sarcastic quips add a lot to the experience.
The game isn't very long--in fact, I would say it's about the perfect length for an adventure title: it doesn't wear out it's welcome, but it doesn't feel like anything in the story was left unresolved. It will probably take you about three or four hours to get through the whole thing--the puzzles aren't really that tough, and overall, it reminded me of those good one-shots The X-Files used to have during their first couple of seasons. There's more to this story if you want it, but what you'll find here stands up well enough on it's own.

Bars of Black and White

2009-03-18T18:51:00.003-04:00

Yet another cool but brief experiment by Gregory Weir (The Majesty of Colors), Bars of Black and White stands in sharp contrast to it's predecessor. You use arrows to navigate around a sparse, crudely drawn apartment while solving simple puzzles and using items you find along the way to open up new areas of the game. Of particular interest is the game's main gimmick of using a bar code scanner to reveal hidden messages. A creepy little game worth checking out.

Don't Shit Your Pants

2009-03-16T20:28:00.007-04:00

I think we can all identify with this. In this "survival horror game", You have 40 seconds to guide a fat man to the shitter (or find some other solution) before he poops his man-panties. Your only means of doing so is by typing the right series of text commands in the proper order. The game is not very picky, so proper grammar isn't necessary, but expect him to be shat upon a few times before you get it right. Saisissez la toilette! Pro tip: you can gain more time by relieving some of the pressure.

7 Minutes

2009-03-11T19:46:00.004-04:00

What would you do with the last 7 minutes of your life? I would probably play something else, but as freeware goes, 7 minutes tries something interesting, and succeeds for the most part. You play as a square guy, trapped by a talkative, three-eyed floating head who doesn't seem to like you very much. You have exactly seven minutes to reach the end of the game, and frequent death throws you back to the beginning of the screen you're currently on, robbing you of precious seconds in the process. This game is tough. Many times you have to reach certain platforms before they dissolve, or else you may as well throw yourself on spikes because they don't reappear, or worse, you reach a difficult area of the level only to discover a dead end. The platforming is difficult and the controls are a bit floaty, but after a few minutes you get pretty well adjusted to it. The music is darkish sci-fi fare to go along with the visuals, and adds to the stress-inducing gameplay already present. There are multiple endings, but honestly I can't see anyone attempting this more than two or three times before tossing it in the recycle bin. At least it's short!

Chalk

2009-02-28T22:56:00.004-05:00

The premise of Chalk is brilliant but simple. On a chalkboard come to life, you must guide the heroes Line and Target through six intense stages filled with monsters and environmental challenges, facing off against mini bosses to earn checkpoints and fighting incredibly imaginative end level bosses in each stage. You do all of this by left-clicking and holding while moving the mouse to draw lines through points on objects, between enemy shots and the enemies themselves to reflect the shots back, and various other actions which I won't spoil, as it's fun figuring this sort of thing out on your own. It's a beautiful but largely monochromatic game, keeping in theme with the setting, and all the artwork has a suitably hand drawn feel to it. The music is simple but upbeat, and the controls are perfect. I would pay money for this game on WiiWare. It's free for download on the website, and I can't think of a better way to idly spend 30 minutes than with this game.

Doctor Who: The Land of the Dead

2009-02-28T02:07:00.017-05:00

The Land of the Dead (2000) is one of the first Doctor Who audio dramas from Big Finish Productions. This series, now counting well over a hundred stories, features Doctors Five through Eight in their ongoing adventures through time and space. This particular story involving the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) and his companion Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) is set in contemporary Alaska and takes place between seasons 19 and 20 of the original BBC television series.

I would be lying if I said I was a fan of Peter Davison’s Doctor. In fact, when asked to put the Doctors in order of preference (and, trust me, this is a challenge no hardcore Who fan can resist), I find that Davison is nearly always dead last on my list. That’s because he comes across as an ineffectual, namby-pamby, vanilla-flavored ninny who spends more time running about with his hands in his pockets and looking exasperated at his companions than he does in getting the job done. Say what you will about the Sixth Doctor’s garish costume, but at least when push comes to shove he’s…well, he’s willing to do either!

Nevertheless, I’m one of those Doctor Who fans who still enjoys watching all of the Doctors, if not all of their stories. I’m moderately fond of The Visitation, Mawdryn Undead, and The Caves of Androzani, but even these stories I feel I enjoy more for the sake of completion rather than true admiration. I tried to pretend it was the tacky 80s clothing or the annoying gaggle of companions that so turned me away from the Fifth Doctor’s era, but in the end I say the buck stops with the Doctor. If he doesn’t strike the right chord, then it’s all off.

Now, I’m not going to say it’s all Peter Davison’s fault. A lot of his Doctor’s laissez-faire approach is in the scripts themselves, but there is something so unassuming and apologetic in Davison’s very nature that he often comes across as dreadfully ordinary. He is strictly white-bread-with-the-crusts-cut-off Doctor material and doesn’t seem to have the gravitas for the role. His era, that of the early 80s, also sees some of the gaudiest costumes and unconvincing studio sets of the shows original run.

Thankfully, The Land of the Dead doesn’t have to deal with either of those problems. Davison has grown as an actor in the 20 years since his debut as the Doctor and a lack of visuals is vastly superior to conspicuously bad visuals. While it’s obvious that both he and Sutton (returning as my favorite Fifth Doctor companion, Nyssa) have aged, I think it actually benefits them both tremendously. They’re joined by a cast of five Brits I’ve never heard of, but most of them do a decent job. It’s always funny hearing the British do American accents, but everyone here is still more convincing than Nicola Bryant was at Peri’s American accent back in the original show…even the guy playing a Native American. Admittedly, he sometimes sounds like Tonto, but I guess some stereotyping is required considering we need to be able to tell everyone apart by voice alone.

The story here is really quite good, though to reveal too much would greatly reduce the mystique of the early episodes. It features an ancient life-form, older than the dinosaurs, awakened by an affluent eccentric through his macabre obsession of turning his home into a shrine to his dead father. The creatures themselves are really quite unique in that they do not speak and are more like a sort of supernatural raptor when we first come across them. They absorb the abilities and characteristics of whatever they eat and the Doctor and company are on the menu. It’s nice to see the Doctor (this one in particular) faced with an animalistic foe for a change. This is an adversary he can’t reason with or talk his way past. So, what does he do? Well, mostly he runs away. But it’s an understandable sort of running away that’s actually quite entertaining in a Jurassic Park sort of way.

I have to admit I was thrown off by listening to Doctor Who at first. I’m too young to remember when radio dramas were even available, let alone popular, and I found myself having to concentrate while the story played rather than let my eyes and mind wander. Towards the end I decided to listen to it in the dark and I have to say that it helped tremendously. Probably the best thing this story has going for it is its sense of atmosphere and the sound effects are fantastic; they're far more effective if you’re not trying to do too many things at once.

There’s also more to this story than just the central plot of the Doctor versus monsters. The mysterious tragedy that binds two key characters together is well explored and reaches a satisfactory conclusion. A healthy dose of Native American mythology and archaeology brings an added level of complexity to what could otherwise be a rather sterile setting. There’s even a hint of moral environmentalism thrown in for good measure. All things considered The Land of the Dead is a solid, straightforward Doctor Who story that feels far more fresh than nostalgic. More importantly, perhaps, it’s renewed my faith in the Fifth Doctor and gotten me excited about the dozens of other audio stories that remain ahead!

4 Daleks (out of 5)

Mirror's Edge (2D)

2009-02-27T18:41:00.009-05:00

Who needs a silly Xbox 360? Mirror's Edge 2D is a free, fast paced recreation of the 3D platformer released earlier this year by Electronic Arts. Made in cooperation with Brad Borne, creator of the cool side-scroller Fancy Pants Adventures, ME2D controls much the same way, with fluid animation and great controls. Faith leaps from building tops, slides along floors and even runs along walls while trying to collect suitcases and other goodies while heading toward the end of each level. I hear it's very authentic in terms of capturing the feel of the original, and I had a lot of fun with it. The game is still in it's beta phase while some bugs are being worked out, but EA plans on expanding the content with new levels and time trials later on. It's rare for a company to sink this much time and money into a Flash game of this sort, and if it's a marketing ploy, which I'm sure it is, then it's a successful one--playing this made me wish I could play the original.

Flow

2009-02-26T21:53:00.009-05:00

In Flow, you play as a microscopic organism trying to survive in a seemingly primordial environment by devouring other creatures and filling up your health meter, represented by body segments, in order to increase your size and evolve. Certain "boss" organisms, for lack of a better term, leave behind special pieces of themselves that cause you to evolve in specific ways, possibly taking on characteristics of the creatures themselves. You pass through multiple levels of the watery environment and into darkness by devouring a red organism to go deeper, and a blue to go back up. This is a beautifully done game, with a clean, simple art style that makes it easy to figure out what you have to do next. Everything has a soft glow about it that looks even cooler as you progress into the darker levels of the environment. The music is ambient and sets the tone of the game very well, and is quite relaxing, even when things get hectic as you eat and try to avoid being eaten by some of the game's larger creatures. It might take you 30 minutes or so to reach the bottom, and once you do, your creature ascends to the topmost layer and evolves into a completely different form, allowing you to play through the game again, which is a very different, and much more challenging experience. One of the most impressive in-browser Flash games I've played, it's also available for a free download to play directly from your desktop if you have a slower connection speed.

Xiao Xiao

2009-02-26T13:58:00.005-05:00

Xiao Xiao combines two of the best things ever, stick figures and kung fu into a series of short (but awesome) flash movies and interactive games designed by the infamous Zhu Zhiqiang. I remember seeing his work in one of my early Flash classes in college, shown as an example of just how fluid animation could be using the software. While all of the animated shorts a great, with each one exploring the software and premise a little more (the 7th and 8th shorts are actually a two-parter featuring *gasp* 3-d effects), the interactive games are hit and miss. Xiao Xiao No. 4 is definitely the best of these, as it mixes things up with on-rails shooter gameplay similar to Virtua Cop. A great way to kill a few minutes.

365 Days of Dudes

2009-02-26T08:23:00.004-05:00

This guy Andy is drawing a dude a day. A noble effort! Be sure to check out his comic, Barbarian Diary.

Jumpman

2009-02-25T19:17:00.017-05:00

Jumpman is an old school (and by old school, I mean Atari era) style platformer where you play as the titular hero, striving for the exit. This is not as easy as it seems, as the game is full of perils--large yellow bouncy balls, green beasties, and "lava" are out to ruin your day, and it doesn't help that Jumpman runs like he's on ice all the time. Along with running and jumping, you can rotate the level itself; timing jumps to coincide with level rotation later becomes necessary to complete levels, and the difficulty ramps up as the game gets trippier, and the enemies more prevelant. Just when you become used to the rules, it throws new ones at you; the game is divided up into sections, with each one bringing a different set of rules and obstacles for you to contend with, which is nice. Another cool feature is that you can see all of the levels in a particular section stacked behind the level you're currently on, with monsters and everyhting. I managed to kill about three hours in one go without even realizing it, dying dozens of times in this one particular level before figuring out what I needed to do. Overall a great challenging little game, and at free, the price is right.

The Several Journeys of Reemus

2009-02-24T13:43:00.007-05:00

Actually, there are only two chapters and a prologue so far, but what's there is great. Reemus lives in the bizarre fantasy land of Fredericus, looks like a washed-up Motorhead roadie, and travels with his sidekick, a purple bear named Liam. Bad things are afoot in the kingdom, and it is up to the pair of exterminators to make things right, or better yet, survive.
This is a very simple flash based point and click adventure similar to Zeebarf's previous game, the brief but wonderful The Visitor. You check for hotspots, and click to interact with objects. Solving puzzles boils down to clicking on things in the right order, and for the most part the puzzles will be common sense, with a few places where you might have to experiment a bit to figure out what you're supposed to do. Nothing's very difficult though, and like in most adventure games, it's usually something you missed. There is no inventory, and no list of actions to select from--once an object is selected, Reemus or Liam will automatically perform the neccesary action to solve that part of the puzzle. You can also click on each character to gain a vague hint about what you're supposed to do in each area.
The art style is great, with everything handrawn and animated, and the soundtrack is excellent, ranging from hair metal to spooky ambience. The adventure won't take you long, maybe 10 or 15 minutes for each episode, but it's very funny throughout, and with a little more time and some money behind it, could rival a some commercial releases available in the genre today.

I Fell In Love With The Majesty of Colors

2009-02-23T14:29:00.005-05:00

The Majesty of Colors by Gregory Weir is a pixel based Flash game where you play through a dream as a Lovecraftian horror who is just seeing the world's surface for the first time. The goal, ultimately, is to let your curiosity and your own sense of morality determine the decisions you make when interacting with the tiny pixelated humans the creature encounters. There are 5 different endings to see depending on how you choose to act, ranging from tragedie to something a bit happier, all played out though colorful sprites. The text is short but well written, and you can tell alot of thought went into the story and game design. There isn't really anything to win in this game, no boss to fight, and no high score to beat, and you'll be done with everything in less than 10 minutes, but I found myself thinking about the game well after I had seen all the endings.

Secrets

2009-02-11T17:00:00.013-05:00

There's really no better way to lure in a roleplayer than to smack the word "secrets" somewhere in the title of the book. Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) knows this better than just about anybody (with the possible exception of White Wolf). Best known for their asian fantasy themed Legend of the Five Rings (L5R) collectible card game and roleplaying game, AEG put out an entire line of splatbooks called "Secrets of the [insert samurai clan here]" several years back and, living up to expectations as a good consumer, I bought every single one.

In 2001 AEG was trying something different. Partnering up with Wizards of the Coast (WotC), innovators behind the extremely successful d20 System (also known as Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition), they released L5R in a dual-system format. That is to say each book contained two sets of rules: the first for players of the original L5R system and the second for players of the extremely successful d20 System. The idea was to cater to both audiences, but it ultimately failed as players on both sides of the aisle felt as if they were paying for a whole book and only getting half of one. Regardless of whether the experiment failed or not, it did get AEG in the business of producing a lot of third-party products for the d20 System and one of the very best is Secrets.

There was no shortage of d20 books in 2004. In fact, the market was veritably glutted with them. It got to the point that there were only so many books one could afford and many of them slipped through the cracks. Secrets is one of those books. I only got around to purchasing it a couple of months ago and I'm really glad I did. This book does something rather unique in the world of D&D, providing the reader with alternate explanations for the various mysteries within a traditional fantasy setting. It does this by setting up a premise behind the tome's origin and presenting the material as if it came from various chronicles of sages and scholars.

The brief introduction sets all of this in order by including a letter of an adventurer who has spent a good chunk of his life tracking down the chapters contained within the book. He's done this not for his own curiosity or amusement, but at the behest of his master, all the while trying to keep one step ahead of someone he refers to only as "The Adversary". Fearing for his life, he's bundled up the scrolls and notes he's managed to collect, hastily written his letter and sent them to his lord. There's also some brief business about each chapter and what was necessary to win the works away from their guardians. All in all, it's a very stirring introduction and makes you really want to dive in right away.

The organization of the book is intentionally (and sometimes unintentionally) slipshod with some chapters missing and others out of order. In truth, each chapter is a short work unto itself and so there is no reason to read the book in any particular order. It's all done to make the book feel more like a real tome and less like a long list of rules or bland descriptions. AEG has always had a bit of a problem with editing, however, and so you'll find some fairly amusing sentences at times: "...[they] wear the finest silken blood silken red robes to signal they are followers of the god of retribution." Oh, really? If you're the sort who finds this sort of thing infuriating, then you'd probably be better off avoiding most of AEG's books. I personally think the quality of the ideas and the presentation more than makes up for some minor proofing errors.

There are seven main chapters, each with an evocative title like "Veritas Majere" or "The Mad Ravings of Gilibran the Old." They're all set up in generally the same way, a bit of fiction that speaks to the origin of the work or the fictional author thereof followed by the new concept or secret in question and, finally, rules for including this new knowledge in the game itself. The information may take the form of something vaguely familiar, such as a new race, class, spell or feat or it might be something entirely unheard of in the tradtional setting before.

I'm reluctant to give away too much of what the book offers because, hey, it's called Secrets for a reason! This is definitely a book for the Dungeon Master (DM) to keep away from the players because much of the information loses its appeal once the cat is out of the bag. However, this wouldn't be much of a review if I didn't reveal a few details, so here's some of what you'll find within:

*The Secret of Dwarf Children: In this tale, one Fazzil ibn Kardun discovers why he's never seen a dwarven child or a female dwarf for that matter (obviously this is using a very Tolkienesque approach to dwarves, because there are plenty of female dwarves in D&D art these days). While visiting a dwarven city under siege his hosts reluctantly evacuate him through a strange underground chamber filled with dwarf shaped rocks and statues. Indeed, he realizes then that dwarves are not born at all, but form out of the earth itself and when the time comes, emerge from the stone cocoon as fully grown dwarves! There's some follow-up information on certain dwarven priests whose entire duty lies in seeking out these dwarven stones and bringing them back to hidden grottos beneath dwarven cities so that the dwarves within might emerge in safety.

*Another chapter offers up the philosophical concept that the world we percieve is but an illusion and, by knowing this ultimate truth, great power can be attained by dedicated students. Included are eight levels of awareness called The High Aethyrs that represent various dimensions of "reality" and how one can transcend them. There's even a class called the Soldier of Truth who can perform the most amazing stunts based on his/her understanding of reality as illusion. Some pretty deep stuff for D&D!

*There's also a group of dedicated (and perhaps mad) paladins and clerics who believe they have discovered the source of all evil and seek to eridicate it entirely. While this might sound like something every good soul would be in favor of, the ramifications are astounding. Destroying evil entirely would end the delicate balance of the material world and likely be end of everything. Whether the order is aware of this and actively seeks to usher in the apocalypse or if they are simply ignorant in their fanaticism is difficult to say. They would make an interesting twist for the villians of a campaign in that they are, essentially, good men dedicated to a cause.

Those are but a taste of the new ideas presented in Secrets. For those of you more interested in "crunch," you won't find this book lacking, either. The book contains about a dozen classes, most of them variations on the core classes. The Seasonal Druid, whose power waxes with their chosen season and wanes during it's opposite, and the Chaplain, a Cleric variant for a setting where the gods do not exist, are among my favorites. Scores of feats are available, including an entirely new kind of feat called Past Life feats. These allow a character to gain various abilities based on the knowledge of previous incarnations or ancestors. If, for example, a character was a barbarian in a past life, he/she might have their ability to rage in this life, even though he/she is now of a different class.

There's plenty more I haven't even touched on here...from 10th level spells (traditionally in D&D the most powerful spells are 9th level) to ley lines and from the dragons of the nine rings of hell to the real truth about immortality, Secrets is brimming with new ideas and ways to shake up those players who've seen it all before. What the book offers is quite inspiring and it goes a long way in reintroducing mystique to fantasy settings where things can become fairly bland after a player has killed his/her hundredth orc. Even if you go through all of the ideas in the main chapters, there are a couple of handy tables in the appendix offering 100 more secrets and those who keep them.

The interior artwork, mostly by the amazing Amandine Labarre, is splendid; the cover by Matt Cavotta is one of his best and particularly fitting for a book of this kind. Despite the niggling detail of some poor proofreading and editing, Secrets is a success. It uses the same approach that fills almost every World of Darkness book, that of combining gaming ideas with fiction, but it benefits from being completely self-contained and not heavy-handed in it's approach. This is a book every d20 System (or Pathfinder) DM should own and every player should leave on the shelf. Trust me...you'll thank me later.

4 Dusty Tomes (out of 5)

Broken Sword 2: The Smoking Mirror

2009-02-09T15:29:00.005-05:00

Turns out, they weren't kidding with that title. The mirror actually does smoke a little toward the end there.

This is a good game. A cheap game. And it does alot of things that many who have been burned by adventure games in the past will probably appreciate, maybe.

There are two main characters in the game you play as, George the American who may in fact be a patent lawyer, which does not explain why he has such crazy adventures, and Nico, the saucy French reporter. You know she's French, cuz she has that thick accent. You bounce back and forth between the two as you travel from France, to the Caribbean to South America, trying to solve some sort of mystery. Just trust me, it's a good story.

This is a very linear game. While some areas are larger than others, maybe 3 or 4 screens, wherever you happen to be, the solution is nearby. Most of the puzzles make "real world" sense, but when stuck, you can always just try using every item in your inventory on something until it works, and then you'll be like "Ahhhh!" and feel dumb, cuz it would have actually made sense if you were good at adventure games. I got through approximately 13/16 of the game without having to resort to some sort of walkthrough, which made me feel proud--and it made my mom proud too.

I din't really get enough sleep last night, I think. I laid down around 10:30pm, and just sort of hovered between sleep and wakefulness until well after midnight. Then I tossed and turned alot, and woke up sometime before 7am. What a bunch of horseshit.

So the game's not too hard. It's got a refreshing, different kind of story--it's not your typical
Sci-fi or Fantasy setting. And, it's $5.99 at Good Old Games, and it will run on most old computers, assuming they aren't broken. So...

F*ck Computers.

2009-02-06T14:18:00.005-05:00

This Wednesday, I added an extra gig of RAM to my PC, then everything went to shit.

Mourning the loss of me not being able to play TF2 for hours on end, I decided another stick of memory was in order for my B-day, especially since McAfee hogs more than a third of the miniscule gig I already had installed. The package finally arrived this Wednesday, and I tore that shit open and popped it in, re-installed TF2, and damn if it didn't run. In fact, Counterstrike Source didn't work either, or any Source related thing I tried to run, or anything 3-fucking-D (except PA:ORSPD), so I was right pissed.

I ran diagnostic programs, thinking it my be a driver problem in the videocard. In my foolish optimism, I had updated the whole Catalyst software package (I'm running an ATI 9600 pro),
as well as the latest version of DirectX. I downloaded a program to sweep the registry of any display drivers, and then reinstalled the ATI software, just to be sure there weren't multiple drivers causing a conflict--nope. I updated the chipset drivers on my motherboard, which I hadn't done, ever, and was actually a good idea--nope. I scoured the Steam support forums, looking for anything--I ran another diagnostic on the processor to see if it was still compatible with the source engine (a lot of changes have been made)--nope. I mean, yeah, it was. That wasn't the problem though.

I was feeling thoroughly fucked at this point. I had spent at six hours shining a turd, and for what? I checked more forums, and finally came upon the idea of running a diagnostic of DirectX itself. Turns out, some thing, some option for rendering Direct 3d, was turned off by default when I last updated the software. Never did that before! Anyway, I reinstalled TF2, and it sill ran like crap, so I give up. Whatever. At least Diablo 2 runs better now. :P

Mega Man 2

2009-02-03T17:00:00.002-05:00

I recently threw down $5 on the Wii Virtual Console for Mega Man 2, and after randomly picking one of the 8 robot masters to challenge, I played for about 10 seconds before thinking I had made a mistake. Suddenly I remembered my 12 year old self throwing the remote to the floor in frustration after trying so many times to get past that stupid dragon in the first stage of Dr. Wily's fortress, and I was expecting the same thing to happen all over again, so I chose to play another game instead and Mega Man 2 “collected dust” on the Wii's flash drive. It wasn't until an afternoon about 3 months later that I played the game again out of boredom, and found it was just as hard as I remembered it—but out of shear spite, I kept playing until I had beaten the level, and a feeling of real accomplishment came over me.

I spent the next few days picking at the game, and after beating it, went through the game again. After Mega Man beats a boss, he gains their powers, and as each boss is weak to another boss weapon, figuring out which works best for each makes the game a lot easier than it was the first time around, where I went through half the game using only the P-shooter. On my third attempt at the game I beat it in just under 45 minutes, and have been working my way through Mega Man 3 in the same way. It's almost as good as 2, but the series declines sharply from there. Mega Man 2 is a labor of love—Capcom had no plans to do a second game after the first one sold poorly, but the game's director begged for another go, and he was allowed to make the game only if it didn't affect his regular work, which means this game was essentially made off the clock, and it shows. This is the peak of the series, and a better game didn't come along for the system until Super Mario Bros. 3 . The levels are challenging and clever, the bosses are creative, and it's more accessible than other games in the series: it's the only 8 bit Mega Man game with 2 selectable difficulty levels: normal (hard) and hard (harder).

Book of Auspices

2009-01-25T17:45:00.010-05:00

I wanted to kick off my initial review of obsolete role-playing games with White Wolf’s final book for Werewolf: The Apocalypse (not surprisingly titled Apocalypse), because I derive a certain amount of pleasure from doing things ass-backwards. In the end (no pun intended), I couldn’t be bothered to digest that reference-heavy tome again just now, so I’ll be substituting a slightly older volume from the same system – the Book of Auspices.

A little background information is probably in order for the uninitiated, so here goes. Werewolf: The Apocalypse (W:TA) is set in White Wolf’s World of Darkness, a world very much like our own, but secretly inhabited by a number of supernatural creatures like vampires, werewolves and ghosts. In W:TA, Garou are not the victims of a disease called lycanthropy, however. They are living embodiments of Gaia’s energy and will, beings who live in both the material world and the realm of spirits (the Umbra), who are in fact composed of equal parts flesh and spirit themselves. Garou constantly walk this line between worlds and as such they are part of both, yet belong exclusively to neither. Gaia created the Garou to police the land, to keep the cycle of life moving along its natural course and, in essence, to protect the status quo. Due to an imbalance in the Triat, the world has derailed from that path dramatically in the last century with the rise of the Industrial Age and the focus on material rather than spiritual matters. Furthermore, a corruption has festered in human societies in recent decades, a putrid evil that threatens to bring about the apocalypse and the end of life as we know it. It’s up to the Garou to struggle against the oncoming tide of bleak materialism and devastating malevolence…and time is running out.

Now, anyone who has ever played W:TA knows that there are three major factors that determine a Garou’s basic character. These are: Breed (whether the Garou was born in human form, wolf form, or in the form of a baby werewolf…ouch), Auspice (the phase of the moon under which a Garou is born and what determines his/her role in society), and Tribe (one of the dozen social/genetic factions that divides the Garou Nation). Since W:TA’s meager beginnings back in 1992, plenty of material surfaced about Breeds (see Ways of the Wolf and Guardians of the Caerns) and Tribes (too many books to mention here), but it wasn’t until 2003, the same year it all came to an end in the eponymous Apocalypse, that they bothered to release a book about what might be the most telling selection a player makes when creating a Garou character – choosing an auspice. Better late than never, I suppose…

The Book of Auspices begins with a narrative, as pretty much all World of Darkness books do. This one, “Four Out of Five”, is a cautionary tale about why every Garou pack needs at least one member of each auspice. The story itself isn’t all that captivating, but it manages to get the point across: Every auspice plays a fundamental role in Garou society. An introduction follows, relating exactly what an auspice is, clarifying it as a blend of profession, mindset and obligation. As Garou exist to protect Gaia they are tasked by her with different responsibilities. Essentially one’s auspice represents this duty, but in a setting filled with such profound mysticism as W:TA one’s auspice indicates something beyond mere responsibility, it’s quite literally a Garou’s raison d’etre or “reason for being.” The rest of the Book of Auspices is divided into five chapters, one for each of the five possible auspices: Ragabash, Theurge, Philodox, Galliard and Ahroun.

The nights of the New Moon are the darkest of the month and Garou born at this time are experts in the fields of cunning and stealth. These sly individuals are known as Ragabash and they’re often identified as Tricksters. Don’t let the title fool you though, the Ragabash are not mere comedians. They’re the con artists, saboteurs, thieves, scouts and assassins, in addition to the mischief-makers and innovators. It’s their job to question tradition, to use humor as a method of instruction and to relieve tensions within the pack by remaining cool under pressure.

The chapter on the Ragabash begins with a story within a story. It’s fundamentally about a young Galliard by the name of Ian Gleam-In-His-Eye and his apprenticeship under a wily old Ragabash. As Ian learns about the Ragabash so does the reader. This is a common approach in World of Darkness books and it usually makes the reading both informative and entertaining. Unfortunately, it can also seem a little forced at times and tracking down a specific bit of information later is rather difficult (especially as there’s no index). Still, there’s plenty of information on renowned Ragabash, their place in the pack and how they differ in each of the twelve tribes scattered through out the prose. There’s some surprising stuff here, actually, like how Ragabash from the conservative Silver Fangs tend to be extremely eccentric, while those of the nomadic Silent Striders are often very effective hit-and-run combatants. There’s also a brief discussion on how Ragabash view the other auspices and, eventually, the fiction comes to a close.

The rest is basically a brief guide on how to play a Ragabash character. There are tips on avoiding using Tricksters as “comic relief goofballs” (after all no one wants a Jar-Jar in their pack), making sure they always question tradition and what to do if a player has second thoughts about playing a Ragabash. There’s even a section on Ragabash archetypes such as “Stereotypical Tricksters,” “Sneaky Scouts,” and “Trendsetters.” Each of these is discussed in general and then given additional notes on how Ragabash born under the waning or waxing phase of their auspice are unique. The chapter closes with some excellent gifts for the Tricksters, including a level six gift called Firebringer, which allows the user to steal virtually any supernatural power used against her. The catch is the Ragabash can’t use the stolen power, only teach it to others. Furthermore, they become more susceptible to the power if it’s used against them in the future. It looks like the last laugh may be on the Ragabash.

The Crescent Moon sheds little light, but by it things that cannot normally be perceived are made evident. Filling the role as priest, magician, healer, medium and visionary the Theurge perhaps shoulders greater responsibilities than any other auspice. It is the duty of the Seers to interact with the abundant spirit world, the Umbra, as well as entreaty, appease and, sometimes, combat its inhabitants. Theurges are the masters of ancient rites, the guardians of Garou wisdom, the crafters of items of great power, and the keepers of secret lore.

The anecdote opening the chapter on Theurges is a substantial improvement over the one regarding Ragabash. In this tale, a human Kinfolk is angry with a local Theurge who invaded her privacy and announced that she should abandon her current mate, the love of her life, and choose another. It’s up to Philodox Aaron Fourpaws to hear her out and try to resolve their differences, all the while explaining the basic functions of the Theurge in Garou culture. This added conflict makes for fine reading and the resolution is both considered and poignant. Included here is the legend of the first Theurge, the many functions Theurges must fill and, as before, information on the Seers of each tribe and their opinions about the other auspices. One interesting fact from the narrator is that his own people, the diverse Uktena, are often lead by their uncanny Theurges, a fact that troubles him to some extent. There’s also mention of how the Seers of the Children of Gaia tribe are among the most altruistic and self-sacrificing individuals within the Garou Nation.

Perhaps that’s the one word that best sums up a Theurge in general – sacrifice. From their Rite of Passage, during which they face a near death experience that mirrors that of the first Theurge (who sacrificed himself to the spirits to pay for the crimes of his fellow Garou), to their ongoing role as shamans and spiritualists, Theurges function as the soul of their people. The notes given in the second half of the chapter touches on this, but most of it is advice for Storytellers, not players. Apart from a slew of new gifts and some optional rules on rituals, there’s a new background here, as well. A Theurge’s Spirit Network rating determines the number and cooperation of watchful spirits he/she can call upon for reconnaissance or information; sort of like having an Umbral iPhone.

The Half Moon is equal parts darkness and light, therefore a potent symbol of balance. Philodox embody this concept of equilibrium as the lawmakers, intermediaries and arbiters of their people. As such, the Judges are often leaders during times of peace, standing as proud examples of what all Garou should aspire to be. It’s the duty of these wise counselors and philosophers to know and enforce the Litany, the ancient code of laws the Garou Nation is founded on, and to determine punishment for all transgressors.

Chapter Three begins with a mystery of sorts. Two Philodox, teacher and student, are summoned to an out of the way caern to investigate the death of one of their own. However, what initially looks like a clear-cut case of murder by one of the deceased’s packmates turns into a study on prejudice and perception with a twist ending. There’s also a record of distinguished Philodox, the roles Judges serve in the pack, how they differ in each of the tribes, their estimation of the remaining auspices and notes on the training they undergo from cub to elder. The idea that Philodox of the raucous Fianna tribe have perhaps the most thankless job imaginable is rather amusing, but it’s the revelation that the Judges of the Machiavellian Shadow Lords are the real masters of intrigue and stratagem in their clan that may be the most significant. Perhaps they should be called Lawyers…

The section on playing Philodox characters centers mainly on breaking stereotypes, providing ideas for solo or all-Philodox campaigns and offering up some very unusual models like “The Inquisitor,” “The Unready Leader” and “The Itinerant Adjudicator.” These are included to create unique Philodox and I applaud the effort, but I think they’re mislabeled as they’re anything but archetypical. Several gifts, rites and fetishes follow, most of them based on discerning truth and, unsurprisingly, rendering judgment. Commendably, several of these featured prominently in the preceding fiction.

The promise of fulfillment is an intrinsic aspect of the Gibbous Moon, auspice of passion and creativity. Galliards serve as celebrated historians, lorekeepers, teachers, diplomats and artists, crafting and preserving tales of the legendary Garou. These stories serve both as instruction and inspiration to the Bards’ packs, as well as the additional benefit of being high entertainment. Galliards are the firebrands, whipping war-parties into a frenzy prior to battle, and the funerary masters who howl out a dirge for fallen heroes after the encounter is long over. The Bards are also responsible for remembering the deeds of their pack, ensuring all members are fittingly honored for their actions.

In the opening of the chapter, two Bards with a passing dislike of one another take part in a challenge, officiated by another Garou, to find out which can best demonstrate what it truly means to be a Galliard. It’s a clever way of using an important component of the game, the challenge, to illustrate and describe an auspice. All the standard features are here: the origin of Galliards, their function in the caerns and in packs, a rundown of the different tribes and attitudes toward the other auspices, a view of their life cycle, but it’s the affirmation of the importance of the Gibbous Moon itself, that constant striving for, if never reaching, perfection that seems to be at the heart of the Galliards’ values. Most striking on the subject of tribal variations are the city-dwelling Glass Walkers who incorporate multimedia in their storytelling, such as synthesizers, computer-generated imagery and PowerPoint presentations. Even the corrupt Black Spiral Dancers get a surprise mention here, their Galliards being portrayed as gibbering prophets of doom. Good stuff all around.

The second half of this chapter is quite impressive too, presenting some interesting character concepts for Galliards. From the diplomatic “Manipulators” to the rowdy “Rabble-Rousers” to the introverted “Artists,” Bards seem to come in all stripes. There’s some very helpful advice for players who may not be performers themselves, but want to play a Galliard nonetheless. Advice such as staying in character and including the other players’ characters might seem like common sense, but they’re solid pointers for those unfamiliar with the game or the auspice. In addition, Galliards receive perhaps the most astonishing level six gift included in the book: Storyteller. This gift basically allows a Galliard to rewrite history, the danger being that the results are irreversible and may have “world-altering ramifications.”

The Full Moon is the moon of war among the Garou and those born under its radiance are the Ahroun, the Warriors of Gaia. While all Garou are blessed with unbelievable strength and stamina, the Ahroun have potent abilities that make them the ultimate killing machines. They are Warriors among a race of warriors and the most straightforward of all the auspices. They are the spearhead of every pack and form the frontline in the battle against the Wyrm.

Without a doubt the final chapter is the strongest of the book. While it includes the same kind of information as the earlier sections, the presentation takes a rather original approach. The fiction here is the 1949 testament of Ahroun William Bloodsong, born to the Aryan Get of Fenris tribe. Far from the stereotypical arrogant, bloodthirsty, war-monger normally associated with the Get, Bloodsong is angry with his own tribe after the events of WWII and pulls no punches in his opinions. There are sidebars to explain that many of Bloodsong’s opinions stray far from the norm, but ultimately that is what makes it such an interesting read. He stresses the fact that Ahrouns, powerful as they are, are ultimately only one-fifth of the equation. Apart from being the grunts and officers on the battlefield, however, Warriors inspire through action, being the vanguard in a spiritual war for Gaia. Ahroun are, quite simply, the heroes of legend. There’s a lot you wouldn’t expect in this chapter, really. Such as Bloodsong’s concern that tribes like the matriarchal Black Furies, through their chosen form of bigotry, might make a similar blunder as his own or that Ahrouns and Galliards are more likely to break the Litany in terms of mating with one another than any other auspice pairing. Still, it’s mainly the no nonsense style and unique presentation that makes this chapter such a winner.

The information for players is sweet and short, consisting of advice about not hogging the spotlight, understanding the Curse and a discussion on the source of Rage. The latter is the most remarkable; contesting the idea that Rage is simply Gaia’s anger at her own destruction, it hints that Rage may very well stem from the Garou Nation’s most significant foe – the Wyrm. This contrasts directly with Bloodsong’s personal opinion earlier in the chapter where he tries to dispel the myth of Rage being mindless and unmanageable, calling it a directed anger with a purpose. As usual, nothing in the World of Darkness is ever black and white; it’s all about the shadows somewhere in between. New gifts and a handful of Merits and Flaws bring the chapter and book to a close.

The artwork in Book of Auspices is pretty good, using some long-time contributors like Ron Spencer (one of my favorites), Jeff Rebner and John Bridges. Steve Prescott contributes both interior art and the cover, which depicts the same five characters used to illustrate the auspices in the revised version of the core W:TA book. It’s acceptable, but I prefer his take on the Glass Walker Ragabash on the back of the cover. Melissa Uran’s anime-influenced style (featured heavily in the Kindred of the East and Exalted lines) does little for me, but it befits the nature of a metaphysical Stargazer Theurge and is confined mostly to the corresponding chapter.

The Book of Auspices is written by three different authors and it shows. The introduction and the chapters on Theurges and Ahrouns were written by Julian Mensch and, for my part, they really stand above the rest. It’s interesting because the name doesn’t turn up on any other rpgs from White Wolf Studios or any other company for that matter. This almost makes me wonder if it’s a pseudonym, because the guy is too good for this to be his only rpg contribution. Matt McFarland (“Four Out of Five”; Galliards) and Deena McKinney (Ragabash; Philodox) are longtime World of Darkness writers. Their work here is reliable and informative, if not particularly rousing. Overall, the Book of Auspices is a solid effort; a satisfying way to dig a little deeper regarding Garou and the various roles they play.

4 Moons (out of 5)

Fallout

2009-01-18T17:56:00.007-05:00

Fallout is a hell of a game.

Released in 1997 by the now defunct Interplay, and developed by the now defunct Black Isle Studios (key members of which formed the now defunct Troika Games), Fallout takes place in California in the bleak aftermath of a nuclear holocaust brought on by a war between the U.S. and China. Civilization has basically crumbled, with few crops to grow, most of the water undrinkable, and most technology scavenged from the wreckage of the old world. Cows only come in the two-headed variety now, and bottle caps and barter are the only monies.
A lucky few completely escaped the devastation by retreating to the safety of self-sustaining underground vaults built in the decades preceding the war, and you begin the game as a member of Vault 13. Oblivious to what has become of the outside world, most of the older vault dwellers want it to remain that way. The vault has fallen on hard times, however--specifically, a chip that controls the purification of the vault's entire water supply has malfunctioned, leaving only 180 days of fresh water remaining. You, as the young protagonist, have been tasked with finding a new chip somehow, since no one remembers how the damned things work anymore. There is more going on than you first realize however, and the story takes you further away from the vault, and into the middle of a plot which could destroy the human race once and for all.

Fallout is first and foremost, a role playing game. Character creation involves spending points to shape your characters Abilities (strength, agility, intelligence, etc.) and Skills (Sneaking, Science, First Aid, etc.), and choosing Traits or Perks, which act as quirks that set your character apart—usually on a tit-for-tat basis. Finesse, for example, means you do less damage overall, but are more likely to deliver critical hits during combat. My personal favorite, Bloody Mess, does nothing more than ensure that anything you kill will die in the bloodiest, most explosive manner possible.

If all this clicking sounds too boring, you can choose from three pre-made characters which represent some general archetypes available-- a not-so-bright burly man-person, a fast but fragile lady thief, and a charismatic haggler fella. These work fine, but I should point out that if you do make a character from scratch, read the manual, or find an FAQ online. I tend to do neither, so I ended up with a character that wasn't particularly great at anything (7 strength was my highest trait, before getting the power armor), which sucked balls toward the end of the game. You can offset poor ability choices by throwing a lot of points into compatible skills, but if you “tag” the wrong skills (basically you can specialize in three different skills and get a 20% boost in those particular skills at the beginning of the game), you will feel like the biggest dummy later on, when you realize you can't change anything, and you don't earn more points to raise your abilities, because you didn't read the manual. There are also drugs available that will temporarily boost Strength and Intelligence and such, but using them too often will result in addiction, which is no way to live. It says a lot for the quality of the game that I still had a great time playing it, and it even gave me a cool way of beating the game with my shitty character, so the whole experience didn't feel like a waste of time.

The battles in Fallout take place in the various locations you find yourself traveling to, or in random encounters on the large map while moving about in the vast distances between towns and other landmarks. Your weapon skills and abilities like Strength, Perception, Agility, and even Luck play a key part in how things go down during battle, so don't be a dumbass like me and not boost your Perception a little, as that has a lot to do with how Initiative plays out during a fight, as well as ranged (read: most worthwhile) weapons. Also, don't put too much stock in the small weapons category—you don't see some of the cooler weapons for a while, so it may seem really important during the early game, but I would throw some points or at least “tag” the heavy or energy weapons depending on your characters strength, or else you'll be a large man in a mech suit holding a water-pistol at the end of the game, and everyone will laugh at you.

In terms of visuals, Fallout is an old game, and so runs at a lower resolution (640 x 480) than what most people are probably used to, but the graphics are detailed enough so that I never had a problem telling what was going. In fact, I would say the game looks really good in terms of how well it evokes the mood and theme of the Fallout universe. The game has a cohesive sense of style, from the buildings and props, to the interface, evoking the feel of a post apocalyptic landscape as seen through the lens of early 20th century science fiction themes, down to the intro music and the sarcastically cheerful pip-boy, the game's mascot. The death animations were more visceral and satisfying than pretty much anything I've seen in recent memory. The audio is also excellent. I'm no audiophile, but the music was nicely sparse and ambient, and the voice acting was excellent throughout the entire experience. Every scrap of dialog was elaborate and well written, with some really wonderful NPC conversations, and I finished the game feeling like a lot of mysteries were left unsolved, or even unknown to me. It didn't help that my character wasn't very bright—while he could have been worse—like an invalid, I suppose, most of his dialog options were pretty blunt. Still, it's obvious a lot of work went into giving you the option to solve things in a way that was compatible with the sort of character you chose, and while on my first play through I pretty much shot and stabbed my way through almost everything, while occasionally (I'm not kidding) saying only “Duh” or “Uh” in certain conversation trees, you could definitely sneak, charm, or bluff your way around most of the game's obstacles if you have the right skills and attributes.

I will admit that I suck at games in general, and so I played Fallout on the Wimpy setting, and still found some of the boss encounters to be so frustrating I actually laughed and shed angry tears at some of the boss fights, particularly the last one-- and I was actually looking for cheat codes at one point when after firing 12 rockets into an super-mutant-lieutenant-boss, with almost no critical hits, the bastard was still standing. Fortunately super mutants have bunks and lockers and shower rooms in this one place, so I had no problem raiding their stashes for more ammo and drugs. Speaking of the last boss, and indeed, the entire Cathedral part of the game at the end is crazy tough—I wasn't manly enough to storm in and take out all the super mutants (who suddenly seemed way tougher than before), and I didn't have the book learnin' the pick or hack, or the people skills to talk my way through either. I spent a few hours trying again and again to beat the final boss, “The Master”, a crazy mess of human and machine parts, through shear force, but he kept spawning mutants behind me, so I would either kill him and die at the hands of a mutants, or a random critical hit from him would cut me in half in one go. So, I switched out my armor for a priests robe and ran around “Incognito” for a while, until I found a room with two super mutants, a nuclear warhead, and a control console. My idiot took out the mutants fine, but was too dumb to do anything with the controls. At this point I was about to give up, as I had exhausted all my options, when I decided to try this mysterious key I had been toting around for a while—and wouldn't you know, it armed the warhead, and suddenly I had four minutes to tear ass out of their before everything went to shit. And so I beat the game! I won't spoil the ending, but it was short and sweet, and makes me really interested in playing Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics (The Brotherhood of Steal is one of the coolest groups in the game). This is definitely one of the best RPG's I've ever played, so yeah, give it a try.

The Game Shanty

Watch

Watch

Watch

I Just Wanted You to See This

Plants vs. Zombies

Zombie Shooter

Winter for the Adept

Across the Nightingale Floor

The Book Shanty

Doctor Who: The Time Meddler

YAY

BitTrip.Beat

Urban Dead

Close Range

5 Days A Stranger

Top 10 Most Underrated Doctor Who Stories

Bars of Black and White

Don't Shit Your Pants

Top 10 Most Overrated Doctor Who Stories

7 Minutes

Chalk

Doctor Who: The Land of the Dead

Mirror's Edge (2D)

Flow

Xiao Xiao

365 Days of Dudes

Jumpman

The Several Journeys of Reemus

I Fell In Love With The Majesty of Colors

Secrets

Broken Sword 2: The Smoking Mirror

F*ck Computers.

Mega Man 2

Book of Auspices

Fallout