DAY 59 / GAME 59 Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time

DAY 59 / GAME 59

Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time

           I played the original Prince of Persia once on Super Nintendo.  It was pretty cool but I never did pick up a copy for myself.  Prince of Persia for me started with Sands of Time.  I'm almost definite that I had first heard about this game on Penny Arcade.  And in typical fashion I moved this one to the top of my list to procure.  

            Prince of Persia was one of the most beautiful games I had played on the PS2.  It had a magical air about it that I didn't feel was captured again until it was rebooted for the PS3.  The outdoor levels, especially the ones at night were where this was the most obvious.  The fighting mechanics were smooth and unique.  The common theme of time control was fluid in your battles as you outpace the enemy and use your surroundings to your advantage.  The platforming in this game is what really set it apart though.  Flawlessly executing parkour style moves meant when you got it right, you ran like water from platform to wall to post and up.  It took practice, as you had to time your buttons presses just right.  But when you did the payoff was fantastic.  You found yourself scaling towers, ceilings, rooftops and balconies in the bid to restore the palace from the evil infecting it before it spreads across the landscape.

         Prince of Persia also featured one of my favorite relationships.  The 'Prince' and Princess Farah are an unlikely couple at the start of the game.  The fact that the Prince's father and his army captured her along with the rest of the palace's treasure certainly didn't help matters.  But as the story progresses and the two are forced to work together, they continue to grow closer.  It's with much resistance as the Prince sees Farah as a typical princess and is constantly reminding the player about how 'fed up' he is with her.  The narrative continues and eventually the two of you develop this fantastic bond which I found was mirrored nicely in Prince of Persia for PS3, but sadly missing in Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands.  (The most recent release in the series.)

           I absolutely loved this game.  It's a real wonder why I never bought or played the other two parts of this trilogy; Warrior Within and The Two Thrones.  Though I did hear that Warrior Within was a unsuccessful departure from the first.  The trilogy is available as an HD collection, I may have to try it someday.  Even if just to replay the first.  
             Also for note:  A fourth 3D title was released for PS3 simply titled Prince of Persia, but known as Prince of Persia 2008 and Prince of Persia PS3.  This one is both unique from the trilogy and fantastic on it's own.  And a fun fact, Stuart Chatwood of the Tea Party composed the soundtrack for the original Trilogy.  Go Canada.

DAY 58 / GAME 58 Toe Jam and Earl

DAY 58 / GAME 58

Toe Jam and Earl

           While spending time at my cousin's house one day, my uncle brought over this game with his Genesis.  There is virtually no other game like this.  There is Certainly no other game where you crash your 'righteous rapmaster rocketship' into Earth and find yourself searching for the scattered parts while avoiding it's horrifying denizens.

             Toe Jam and Earl is a ridiculous adventure that finds two hip-hop aliens from planet Funkotron rapping their way through a skewed version of planet Earth.  One of the core mechanics in this game is the overall level design.  You start on the 'ground floor'; which is more or less a series of randomly generated islands full of 'presents' and earthly dudes.  The islands are connected by water you can swim in, just watch for sharks.  Your goal is to find a ship piece and the level exit.  (Though, not all levels contain a ship piece.)  The level exit is an elevator that brings you up to another level full of floating islands.  This time they have no water in between and if you fall over the edge, you fall straight into the level below.  This can continue until you reach the bottom if you're not careful.  

       TJ&E was chock full of wackyness.  Everything is just this bizarre caricature of humankind.  You're chased by crazed dentists, women pushing their kids in a shopping cart, cupids, sharks and monster mailboxes. Santa has a rocketpack and leaves presents behind if you find him.  Hula dancing girls entice you to dance along with them.  Random presents contain both helpful and harmful contents; including rocketshoes, inflatable decoys, moldy cheese, extra lives and pogo sticks.  You're 'level' goes up as you score more points which rewards you with a new and better title.  You start as a Wiener and go up the chain as a Doofus, Pointdexter, Peanut, Dude, Bro, Homey, Rapmaster and eventually, Funklord.

             There was even a sequence at the start where instead of playing the game, you could choose to just make a music video.  You pick the song and then just play along with each button on the controller playing different audio samples as the background danced and so did Toe Jam and Earl.  And of course, one of the best things about this game, was the multiplayer.  Because of the level design, when playing two-player you didn't need to be nearby the other player.  When close enough, you are both on one screen.  When you go far enough apart, the screen splits into two.  It also had no problem handling one player falling into another level.  So sometimes you found yourself waiting for the other person to make their way back up to your level so you could progress.

            This game was just great.  And it's another timeless classic you can play at any moment because the game design fits well within the limits of the system.  You can get a ported version of the Wii, or on Xbox Live Arcade as a combo of parts 1 and 2.  Part two was actually quite a bit different as it ended up being a side-scroller.  There was also a little known part 3 for the original xbox, which was actually quite Jammin'.  

DAY 57 / GAME 57 Costume Quest

DAY 57 / GAME 57

Costume Quest

           After they finished Brutal Legend, Double Fine pitched Brutal Legend 2 which didn't get picked up by any publishers and so they fell back on their other 8 pitches for smaller games.  4 of them got picked up almost immediately; Stacking, Once Upon a Monster, Iron Brigade and Costume Quest.

             Costume Quest was this super smart little RPG with simple mechanics and great writing.  It was like a bite-sized RPG.  Costume Quest takes place during Hallowe'en as you find yourself trick-or-treating in a town taken over by monsters.  Monsters who want to steal all the candy and in doing so, accidentally capture your twin brother (or sister, depending on who you choose to play as).  The whole thing has that whole Double Fine charm where the focus is on great dialogue and likable characters.

          Pitched and directed by Pixar animator Tasha Harris; in Costume Quest you scour your suburban block, a mall and the outskirts of town during Hallowe'en looking for costume parts.  You can switch different costumes between your characters providing you with different powers during battle and some in between.  The neat thing about this game is that it's small enough to enjoy multiple times. Which is nice because being a holiday themed game, it's nice to pick up when October show up and you want to roll around in the virtual leaves.  

             This is another great game I love to play with Leia.  She calls it the "Hallowe'en game".  And since she knows all about the holiday already the whole theme rings true with her.  She loves that you can pick between a boy and a girl to play and that you get to go rescue the other.  The other thing I love about this game is how Tasha snuck in a bunch of Double Fine employees and friends into the game as characters.  Stuff like that really humanizes the project.  So next time you go through it, keep your eyes out for Tim, Nathan, Scott and more.  

DAY 56 / GAME 56 Earthworm Jim

DAY 56 / GAME 56

Earthworm Jim

           Back when the 16-bit systems were reaching the end of their cycle, game developers started to pump out some really special games as they had finally learned to really take full advantage of the available hardware.  Earthworm Jim was one of those games.  I remember seeing the commercial on TV and I was in fair disbelief.

           Doug TenNapel and Dave Perry created a legendary side-scroller featuring a worm in a super suit that fell from space.  Earthworm Jim featured eccentric landscapes, wacky creature designs and an obscure story that finds you traversing crazy levels in search of your girlfriend Princess What's-Her-Name.  Earthworm Jim was super tough.  I've only ever beat it on normal and even then it took quite a while to get through it.  It's got a ton of really difficult levels including one where you have to navigate through tight underwater tunnels in a (very) fragile glass diving bell.  

           I ended up buying a copy for the Sega CD, which to this day I find is the best version.  It featured the best mix of the soundtrack, additional audio for the endings and a couple extra levels.  I never did beat it on easy or hard, but I found out by tossing the CD in a player that there are special endings for the two of them.  The easy ending finds you being harassed by (Doug TenNapel?), calling you a worm for taking the easy route and then goes on to yammer about worm biology.  Beating the game on easy ends with Doug praising you and claiming your achievement is worth making up for any downfall in your life.

         Earthworm Jim was just great.  It's so wacky and bizarre.  Jim was one of those characters that begged to be drawn.  I think that's part of the beauty of TenNapel's designs in general.  They're just so unique and offset and tremendously peculiar and this game encompasses that whole charm.   

           Anyone who's interested in more Earthworm Jim style stuff, there's also the Neverhood and Skullmonkeys which were stop-motion animated games.  As well as any of TenNapel's great graphic novels like RatFist and Ghostopolis.

DAY 55 / GAME 55 Twisted Metal 2

DAY 55 / GAME 55

Twisted Metal 2

           Twisted Metal 2 was the first game we received for the Playstation when we got the console for Christmas one year back in the nineties.  Twisted Metal was and always has been a fairly unique game.  Arena-style weaponized vehicle combat would probably be the best description.  Pretty much a demolition derby full of murderers and ranged weapons.  

    Twisted Metal was totally ridiculous and yet at the same time, super fun.  There isn't much quite like driving around in various locations in crazy vehicles tuned for mortal combat.  Each driver with his or her own backstory, from a psychopath in a ice-cream truck, to a man condemned to live as a vehicle himself.

      Twisted Metal was endless fun for my brother and I.  It was split screen combat that allowed the two of us to brawl endlessly.  The whole thing really was quirky.  There was all kinds of hidden secret paths and easter eggs.  A bunch of moves like jumping and firing in reverse required you to input key sequences similar to combos in a fighting game.  

        Twisted Metal 2 was far more polished that it's first.  It had a decent single player story mode and a great split-screen multiplayer mode.  It was dark, silly, fast, violent and fun.  The basic arena combat is very easy to pick up and play.  It's no wonder it has continued to receive sequels a few generations of consoles later.  I totally missed the release of Twisted Metal X, but I think I'm going to try to get a hold of a copy.  Looks like it's about 10$ on Amazon.  In the meantime, I think I'll pick up my old copy and go through a few rounds for old time's sake.

DAY 54 / GAME 54 Re-Volt

DAY 54 / GAME 54

Re-Volt

           I can't remember how I got a hold of a copy of this game, all I remember is that I played a TON of it.  Back in college, when I lived in a dorm room most of my gaming was done on my PC.  Now, I've never been a big fan of racing using a keyboard.  But really, that's how it was always the way I had to do it in the past.  Until I got a Dreamcast I hadn't really started to ignore racers on the PC.  Re-Volt was the last of those racers.  

           Re-Volt, as the title suggests, is a RC car race game.  Which is always tons of fun as all the tracks are based on scaled up real life locations.  Places like the supermarket, the suburban streets, alleyways, construction sites and I think there was a museum.  The controls were ridiculous.  It was very easy to spin out and kinda hard to control.  At first this really bothered me.  But eventually I really mastered the quirky style and when I did I realised that it was more than likely done on purpose to keep the feel of real RC car racing.  Which is no doubt very difficult and similarly hard to control.  

         I played this game a ton.  It was super fun and just difficult enough that you really had to keep at it if you wanted to master the tracks.  And you could if you gave it enough time.  The other fun thing about this game was that it played whatever audio disc happened to be loaded into your cd-rom drive at the time.   And at the time, I had one of the James Bond soundtracks sitting in my drive.  Which was perfect, because it was full of car chase music and nothing is better than racing an arcade style racer like this to car chase music.   

DAY 53 / GAME 53 Desert Strike

DAY 53 / GAME 53

Desert Strike

           Hot on the heels of Desert Storm, Electronic Arts released this great game for the Sega Genesis.  When making a helicopter simulator would end up being a game that is very hard to read visually and difficult to control with a d-pad and 3 buttons, this was a much more appealing alternative.  

           Desert Strike is yet another game I would have never laid eyes on if it hadn't been for my uncle.  And of course this was right up his alley.  He loved military shooters and this one one of the best at the time.  It was a 3/4 top down shooter that had you crossing various maps to complete various objectives.  You may have to escort a caravan of friendlies, or take out an enemy installation.  Like a lot of military shooters this game was not easy.  I think I only ever completed the first level once.  Even then, it was more of an arcade style game with less ties to realism.  Which would usually make it a bit easier, but this was not the case.

          I played this an awful lot for a game I never owned.  Until I checked recently, I thought I actually did have my own copy.  I'd love to see this game remade in the same style with updated graphics.  Even though, they were actually quite good at the time.  Apparently they used early 3D tech to render the sprites from models at various angles to create a smooth rotation of the different crafts.  I think I'll have to sit down sometime and really get a nice emulator setup to replace my Genesis for all these games I thought I owned.

DAY 52 / GAME 52 LocoRoco

DAY 52 / GAME 52

LocoRoco

           If you enjoy games where you control tiny blobs that sing to the background music, then you'll love LocoRoco.  Back when I first got my Sony PSP handheld I hopped online and started downloading a bunch of demos.  It was kind of a first at the time, you could download them onto your PC, load them into a memory card and play them off your card on the PSP.  LocoRoco was one of the first of these I tried.  It was actually a while before I bought the game because they kept releasing new, holiday themed demos.  

Leia enjoying LocoRoco

           LocoRoco is a unique platformer where your characters can only jump.  Jump and either burst into a bunch of baby blobs, or merge back into a big blob.  You're able to move about the platformer format levels by titling the world right or left.  Your blobs then roll one way or another where you can hop up into moving level components like windmills and tiny cracks that require you to split up into tiny baby blobs to make your way through.  

           LocoRoco has this great 2D graphic design that works well on both mobile and larger platforms.  The level is full of great characters.  It's one of those things where all the enemies and obstacles have cute smiley faces like a Scott C. painting or something and everything is singing and dancing along to the music.  It's really something actually.  When you're a big blob, it lipsyncs to the music and sings and when you're a bunch of baby blobs they all sing in sync with slightly higher pitch voices.  It's super cute.

            This game was super fun and unique.  I remember Leia loved just staring at the little guys singing their little songs.  The only thing I'd love to see now is for someone to port it to the Wii-U gamepad or the 3DS (or iOS for that matter).  Something with tilt control.  It would be perfect.

DAY 51 / GAME 51 Heavy Rain

DAY 51 / GAME 51

Heavy Rain

           I've been following Quantic Dream closely ever since they made that crazy sci-fi game featuring David Bowie, Omikron.  But they've come a long way since 1999 and in 2010 they created one of the most emotional, story driven games I've ever played until Last of Us in 2013.  

            Heavy Rain was generally well received and won multiple game of the year awards but truth be told most people I talk to have never played it.  They were turned off by the idea of a game that was essentially one big Quicktime event.  I saw it as a lot more complex than that.  In a typical game, you're still basically just hitting designated keys at appropriate times.  But in Heavy Rain your controller is being remapped constantly.  Everything is context sensitive.  Button options float around on the screen and different kinds of button combinations and movements are necessary for different scenarios.  This is particularly great during tense action scenarios where you have to really be keeping an eye on what you need to be doing.

               Heavy Rain is an insane psychological thriller.  Drawing from movies like Seven, you find yourself playing five different characters.  Each a part of a larger story.  A story where a serial killer is kidnapping children and forcing their parents to prove they deserve them.  It's even more complex and interesting than even that, but there are people here who may get around to playing it sometime and I don't want to ruin the fantastic story.
  

              Heavy Rain's demo showed you the introductory backstory where the one character looses his child in a busy mall.  The stress is palpable.  This is a real scenario and anyone with a kid knows this very well.  But there's humor to be found everywhere.  During this playthrough, you 'pressing X to call to Jason'.  You run around yelling "JASON!" into the crowd.  While attending PAX East, just after this demo dropped, we heard people in the crowds yelling "JASON!" over and over.  It took and second before it clicked, but when it did it was way funnier than it should have been.  In fact, one of our friends explained this to his wife when he got back and she thought it was absolutely awful.

           Heavy Rain looked absolutely beautiful.  It was a fantastic story with terrific acting and the option of multiple storylines all depending on how you attack different parts of the game.  I recommend anyone who is iffy on the gameplay style to put that aside so they can enjoy one of the finest movies gaming had ever produced.

     Oh, and by the way.  If you do, I recommend playing in French audio with English subtitles.  It was produced in France and so it was written for French language and it seems to be better voice acting. .

DAY 50 / GAME 50 Super Mario Brothers 3

DAY 50 / GAME 50

Super Mario Brothers 3

           Ok, 50th post!  May as well be something big!  So how about a blanket favourite?  Super Mario Brothers 3.  I never had a Nintendo, our first system was a Sega Genesis.  But I remember playing Super Mario at other people's houses and I remember how excited everyone was about the release of Super Mario Brothers 3.  
          Eventually, with the release of Super Mario All Stars on the SNES, I had the opportunity to put some real time into it.  Super Mario 1 was good, but basic.  It got the job done.  Super Mario Brothers 2 was a weird departure from 1; super fun on it's own, but was missing a bit of the Mario feel.  Mario 3 however, was about as polished as the Mario platformer could get on an 8 bit system.

         It really had it nailed down.  There were a ton of levels, each divided nicely into 'worlds' with their own theme.  There was a bunch of variety, providing a real draw to getting into the later worlds and little mini-games loaded into the 'overworld' map between levels.  You could play 2 player, which worked out a lot nicer than just taking turns as in previous games.  Since you could use the map to pick levels and collect powerups individually.  Graphically it really pushed the system.  I'm a little surprised still how nice it looked on the original NES.  I think this was just one of those examples of stylistic choices that really don't try to do something the system can't do and instead push within the limits so that it's visually readable and not messy.  Mario 3 also really introduces a whole slew of great characters.  Here we got to see more than just 3 different baddies with minor variations.  We saw Piranha Plants, Chain Chomps, that big angry sun and a whole ton of dudes whose names I can't recall.

           Great game or not, it was just one of those staple games most everyone from the time has enjoyed at one point or another.  It's become basic gaming knowledge for everyone; everyone knows raccoon tails make you fly and as long as you get into a giant wind-up boot you're pretty much safe from anything underneath you.  Denise and I have had some great times going through this one together.  And yet, we still can't beat the last world.  Nice thing is, 5, 10, maybe 20 years from now we'll still pick this one up and perhaps we'll beat it then.

DAY 49 / GAME 49 Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

DAY 49 / GAME 49

Enslaved:  Odyssey to the West

           Enslaved was one of those games I remember seeing incredible pre-release screen shots for, drooled over them and then never heard anything about the game ever again. 

           I found it one day cheap, not too shortly after it's initial release.  I'm guessing it didn't do too well so far as sales go and I'm certain it was due to the lack of marketing.  Enslaved was one of those 'top most amazing games you've never heard of' games.  From it's exterior, it's a basic post-apocalyptic third-person action/adventure title.  But at heart, Enslaved contains some of the finest characters backed up by some of the best voice and facial acting.

           It takes a little bit to kick in, like most stories.  But the relationship between Monkey and Trip quickly becomes very tangible and the shallow looking brute and princess become two very likable characters.  And when Pigsy shows up, Ninja Theory shows you what they are really capable of.  Imperfect characters are always the most interesting; especially those who are both physically and emotionally imperfect.  And Pigsy, the overweight pig of a man whose most recent goal in life is to build himself the perfect girl; is the kind of great character I want to see more and more of in the games I play.  

              On top of it all, Enslaved featured some of the best facial animation and acting I've ever seen in a game.  They stylized the character designs just enough so that they don't look out of place in the gorgeous detailed world, but lend well to proper over-expression and easy readability. 

              I absolutely loved this game.  And although I do recommend it, especially for the price you can find it at now, I can't guarantee everyone would love it.  Because this is the kind of game where the story and characters are so great that I tend to completely overlook other flaws.  But I totally don't remember any in Enslaved.  So play it!

DAY 48 / GAME 48 Soul Calibur

DAY 48 / GAME 48

Soul Calibur

           I can't remember why I bought this game.  I've never really been into fighting games, but for some reason I bought both this and Dead or Alive 2 for my Dreamcast at the same time.  Maybe it was a Penny Arcade review or something else I had read online; either way it worked out quite well.  

              Previously I had enjoyed Mortal Kombat, but that was about as far as my fighting game experience really got.  Even then, I only played it because my brother bought it.  Soul Calibur felt different from the rest though.  First and foremost it was a weapon based fighter where each character had a different fighting style with different hand-to-hand weapons like swords and staffs.  This was the biggest draw for me.  This gave each of the characters very distinctive differences in the manner in which they fight.  Attacking, counter-attacking and blocking; weapon reach and stances all really gave your character choice more personality, which is important because there is little story in a fighting game to help build up each individual.  

             This was another thing that made Soul Calibur great.  The single player missions were much different than usual.  Single player in most fighting games are simply a ladder climb, where you fight your way to the top through increasingly more difficult opponents.  But in this game, you made your way through a story and as you did you had different kinds of fights unlike your typical rounds.  And for once, I actually had a fighter that I had really mastered.  I played enough of this game that when friends were over, I was pretty much unbeatable.  Not just with one character either, I made sure to perfect my skills with most all the available options.  

              I love this game.  It's solid, responsive and had this real tangible feel to it that made the fighting feel less cheap and impossible than other games.  The characters were interesting and the 3D/2D arena style really felt less restrictive than the usual fighter.  It was another great game that reinforced how great it was to own a Dreamcast.  I never did really get into any of the newer ones, but I think they just updated the graphics and made the clothing more revealing.  So I'm happy to just hook this one up again instead.

DAY 46 / GAME 46 Michael Jackson's Moonwalker

DAY 46 / GAME 46

Michael Jackson's Moonwalker

           If someone made a game like this nowadays I'd probably toss it in the garbage.  

     But seriously; I mean, if they managed to make an action game based on Justin Timberlake I doubt I'd give it the time of day.  When Moonwalker came out though, it was unique, inventive and exciting.  Or at least, my 10 year old self figured as much.  

      Now, at the time I actually quite enjoyed Michael Jackson.  I remember having watched Thriller and other music videos.  We had a vinyl of his I'm sure.  So this wasn't unfamiliar territory when I first saw the game.  A game that, yes, you guessed it, my uncle brought over one day for us to try out.  

        I had never seen the Moonwalker movie.  But this game had everything.  I mean, there was a monkey, you danced, there was zombies, you turned into some kind of robot or flying car or something in the end; it was very over the top.  But I thought it was just amazing.  At least half of it was the music though.  The Genesis did a great job of emulating a whole bunch of Michael Jackson tracks for this game.  It set this great mood for the game and when you performed dance move attacks the whole thing felt like a 16-bit music video.  

         In the end though, I can't really imagine a game like this ever being made again.  I could see people like Justin Bieber wanting this kind of immortalization.  But this really was a product of it's time and only an insane madman would try to see this through production.  Actually, I take it back.  If Justin Timberlake wanted to make a 16-bit action dance game with zombies and robot cars my interest would definitely be piqued.

(I know I shouldn't have used two Justins in this writeup, but it was just what was in my head.)

DAY 47 / GAME 47 Half Life

DAY 47 / GAME 47

Half Life

           When I first saw the box for Half Life in 1999 I immediately dismissed it as a cheap Alien rip-off.   Right on the back of the box even featured facehugger equivalents.  But one day, when I was at a computer hardware shop picking up some new parts, I caught this incredible game on display.  The intro sequence for Half Life, which looks very cinematic and felt very fresh and smart at the time, was playing on a bunch of computers.  I couldn't believe how wrong I was, how I judged a 'book' by it's cover almost literally.  

           This was back when I was no stranger to game piracy.  And very shortly after first seeing it, someone had produced a copy of this game for me.  I started into it and I was hooked.  It was incredible, but the soundtrack wasn't playing properly and I really wanted an excuse to purchase a real copy, so I ran out as soon as I had the opportunity and bought it.  (Turns out, I somehow had the music turned off, I discovered after buying a real copy.)  But this was a purchase well worth it's price and more.  Half Life, which turns out is based off of the Stephen King short story The Mist, is an incredible advancement from the usual FPS format.  It was scary, eerie and a solid piece of sci-fi.  Level puzzles were much more complex and the story was fantastic.  Not to mention, the Half Life source engine made way for Team Fortress and CounterStrike.  Some of the best online FPS games to date.

            Half Life is absolutely iconic to gamers at this point.  Gordon Freeman the silent protagonist of the ages, one who made the Crowbar a symbol of 'smart' FPS gameplay.  Half Life is another one of these games that started everything.  It wasn't taking itself very seriously to begin with, but when they realised what they had created, Valve turned that around.  Without Half Life there would be no Half Life 2, no Portal, Portal 2, Team Fortress 1 or 2, Counterstrike and no Garry's Mod.  Think about that.

DAY 45 / GAME 45 Neocron

DAY 45 / GAME 45

Neocron

           I always really enjoyed the idea of a Massively Multiplayer Online game, but most of what was available prior to World of Warcraft didn't really appeal to me for the most part.  I think my choices pre-Neocron were Everquest and Ultima Online.  Both were pretty tame visually, which was most of the drawback for me at the time.  So when Neocron came out, I was pretty impressed that a MMO could look this good.

             Neocron was shown to me by a classmate when I was studying at Toronto Film School, so it was around 2003ish.  As soon as it launched a few of us hopped on and tried it out.  We only played for a few months, but it was a pretty awesome experience for my first MMO.  Neocron was a FPS design, which was unique for an MMO.  It basically ends up looking a lot like System Shock or Deus Ex.  You equip yourself with weapons and cybernetic upgrades to battle your way through a post-apocalyptic world.  You find safety in the city and have to traverse the dangers of the outer-wall in order to really discover anything of the world.

            Combat was a little more fun than your typical MMO since it wasn't turn based, or had to rely heavily on cooldowns or other means to slow the pacing of a fight.  You could build hoverbikes and trucks with mounted guns so you and your friends could go into a fight together outside the wall.  But the real appeal for me with this game was the whole experience of a persistent world full of other real players.  Hanging out virtually and conversing seemed like such a neat thing back then.  Keywords in conversations triggered animations in the characters, so when walking by groups of people it looked like they were having real life conversations.  

           I had a couple really cool moments in this game.  I also had some terrible ones.  Ideally at a certain point you want to traverse the badlands from the city to an outpost across the map.  It's pretty difficult and you really need a vehicle to do it.  So I finally get a cheap bike and I almost made it on my first try, but I got destroyed by some huge monster.  Second time around, (It takes a good hour to get there.) I finally make it to the outpost and I'm about to hit the save-point station so I can start up there from now on and some player goes on a rampage and wiped out every low-level player in sight.  So then I had to try again.  This time I make it there no problem, but for some reason I make a wrong turn and quite literally fall into an open elevator shaft, to my doom.  On my fourth try I finally get there unscathed.  It was quite the experience.

             Games like this are all about the little quirks and moments and experiences that make your play unique; quite often caused by other player's interactions and influences.  It seems to me this game is still around in it's updated form.  (Neocron 2:  Beyond Dome of York.)  I'd seriously love to load it up again.  For old time's sake.

DAY 44 / GAME 44 Alice: Madness Returns

DAY 44 / GAME 44

Alice: Madness Returns

           I have a very special place for properties that treat Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland with the respect it deserves.  When American McGee and Shanghai's Spicy Horse studios returned to the Alice property, they created one of the best visualisations  of his material since Disney's 1951 film.  In Madness Returns, Spicy Horse faithfully delved into the content of the Alice novels and really fleshed out all the great elements of the stories and the world that surrounds them.

                Madness Returns was just beautiful.  So many elements drawn from the original Carroll illustrations, so much moreso than the Disney version.  (For obvious reasons.)  I'm convinced that the majority of the staff must have taken this project on as a labour of love.  Everything from the level design, weapon designs, costumes, characters and promotional posters were no more perfect than I could have asked for had I control of the project myself.  Being a sequel as well, it gains all the advantages of being on a more powerful system and having had all the bugs worked out from trying to build a game out of this property once before with American McGee's Alice back in 2000.

               This game is such an absolutely fantastic, completely gorgeous romp through the twisted combination of both the minds of Lewis Carroll and American McGee.  It's quirky, haunting, whimsical and terrifying.  I just love it.  It's hard to describe exactly what makes this game so great.  I wonder if noone else would agree with me on this one.  I mean, it's clear that the art direction is beautiful, that the gameplay is solid and that the whole game is polished overall.  But perhaps it's all about being a huge fan of Alice in Wonderland and that's really where the appeal comes from.  

              Really in the end that's it.  I absolutely love Alice: Madness Returns most simply because as far as I'm concerned, it's the best adaptation of the Lewis Carroll property I've ever had the chance to enjoy.  And being a videogame, it allows me to enter and wander around in my most absolute favorite storybook. One I've enjoyed since I was very young.

DAY 43 / GAME 43 Doom II

DAY 43 / GAME 43

Doom II

           I think I read somewhere that Doom is the single most installed piece of software to date, possibly surpassing Microsoft Windows.  Of course, Doom 1 was 'shareware', available for free with the option to mail-order the rest of the game.  Doom II was the first, proper retail version of Doom, which I promptly purchased from my local computer hardware store when it was released.  

             Virtual Reality was a big thing in the 90's.  It seemed like it was going to be the future and with the FPS genre just starting up it seemed like it was all coming together.  And so games like Doom felt like they were about as close as I was going to get to proper VR while I waited for it to become commonplace.  In the end all that fell away and the gimmick that I put together in my head was long gone.  Instead I was just absolutely absorbed in this dark, sci-fi, paranormal horror, action first-person-shooter.  

Few video game weapons rival the simple Chainsaw.

             Doom II came on 5, 3.25" floppy disks.  I installed it so many times the disks ended up failing on me.  It was a good thing I had never lost the original install files because I played this game a ton.  Doom, like a lot of earlier FPS games were very basic and had a certain simplicity to their fun.  You can speed run games like Doom 2, powering through it, running past most of your enemies and just grabbing the keys you need to continue.  But back when I first got it, it was a pretty scary game and I most certainly hobbled my way through it.  Frightened to go around the next dark corner, because it probably had a Hellbeast or a Cyberdemon or a Mancubus waiting to murderize me.  

             Doom II had an actual bit of a story that was kinda neat.  You made your way through various levels on Earth, saving humanity from demons that made their way over from some kind of Hell from the first game.  After saving humanity you discover a way into this same alien hell.  I don't know what it was about being a teen in the 90's, but any visualization of hell, especially in a videogame, was pretty cool.

            Doom II may have been the game that really started the FPS genre.  Doom 1 and Wolfenstein were not really big enough commercially.  It wasn't until Doom II exploded into the market that it really added this whole new angle to the action games of the 90's.  After Doom, we got Hexen, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, Half-Life, Serious Sam and even more I can't think of.  Some of which really took the genre to new places.  But it all started here and I enjoyed it from the very beginning.