Daily Archives: September 23, 2005

@set Game=!oldgame

Shadow of the Colossus. I’ve been watching this game, mainly because it is an unofficial sequel to another game I enjoyed, Ico. Now, you have to understand, Ico is a game without an explicit narrative. There isn’t even dialogue.

These are games that assume that the player can put together a narrative based on how the characters interact with each other and how they interact with their environment. Who is this boy? Why is he carrying a dead body? What is this temple?

You can take a gander at the official website. Avast!: Flash ahoy!

This is one of those games that breaks out of traditional gaming clichés. Rest assured that when it comes out in October, I’ll be picking it up. Kind of like supporting independent music and movies.

Incidentally, this is part of the reason I’m hesitating on the next generation of consoles. I’m tired of racing that car, shooting that crate, leveling that hero with the big sword, and jumping on that bad guy.

It don’t care how many polygons it has, it’s still the same game at the end of the day. I am amazed that we’re still playing Pole Position, Castle Wolfenstein 3-D, Nethack, and Super Mario Bros.

The PSP didn’t really appeal to me, (other than watching movies and homebrew apps) and now I know why. The games that have been released are portable rehashes of games that I have already played.

Then I look at the Nintendo DS. When you have games like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, and Trauma Center: Under the Knife, you can tell from the title alone that you haven’t played these games before.

It is a shame they are almost destined to fail commercially, as the vox populis cries out for more sequels, and sequels to football games.

Total Overdose

So I played the demo, after seeing that it was quietly released. Let me tell you this. It is Max Payne as directed by Robert Rodriguez. That’s all it is. Now, that doesn’t necessarily make it a bad game. The demo was fun, but I still have to wait and see if I could play an entire game based on this premise.

On the other hand, it is Super Stylized Uber Ultra Calienté Mexico. Pronounced with a “hee” in the middle.

We’re talking “Unce Upon a Time” here. Machine Gun Guitars, diving off of roofs, Really Big Mexicans ™, and Carnicerias.

Oh my!