Time marches on

Sometimes whole months can pass by without the realization sinking in that yes, another part of your life is gone and there have been many things that you wanted to do, but actually didn’t. I won’t go into the realm of the totally unbelievable by claiming that I didn’t have the time, rather, I was just too stinking lazy to update this blog. So there.

So yeah, uhm, stuff happened.

First of all, something that I knew a while back already, but haven’t deigned to write about (for fear of evil spirits jinxing the whole affair, I’m sure): I am going to be a daddy. Yes that’s right. Mr. Irresponsible is going to get a little diaper-worm of his own. A boy no less (so you all know he’s going to get weaned on an Xbox360 and a Wii of his own).

That’s not to say that I wouldn’t have liked to have a girl. Actually, I might have preferred it because little girls are infinitely cuter than little boys, but let’s just say (in a very politically incorrect way) that I presume a boy means that I’ll have to worry less when he gets older.

I suspect I am going to regret that statement sooner or later.

Check out the shirt I bought for him at Jinx.com: it's totally awesome!

Next, Obscure 2 was released on PC and Playstation in Europe on the 7th of September. People seem to like it, even though the review scores sometimes are a little bit luke-warm, but I’ve heard that it sells well. It was also a nominee at a french game design festival for best game, and the original designer and creator of Alone in the Dark, Frédérick Raynal, who was also a juror on the panel judging the french entries (can you believe that G.R.A.W.2 won the award? In what way is that game french? Never mind, let's not go into that--I know it is made by Ubisoft, yes.) said that "the game has it's flaws but is strangely compelling and forced me to play it to the end". How cool is that? The boys and girls at hydravision were understandably very proud. Frédérick Raynal is something of a hero to them.

I am currently working on the Wii version of Obscure 2, and brainstorming on what we could for for the DS. Nothing specific to mention though.

The release of the Wii version will coincide with the North American release in Q1 2008. I can already tell you that it will have a lot of extra goodies, and I can definitely say that it is the most extensive and complete version of the game.

The Tyranny of Evil Men

Yesterday I finished Overlord while sitting in my shorts and guzzling cold Jupiler beer. It was excellent. There is something about playing an evil demi-god while drinking beer that makes life good.

So how was the game? I think it was a very favorable experience. I like the Overlord universe, I like the gameplay mechanics. Especially the minion assaults are a lot of fun. You get to fight opponents by commanding your evil critters to surge forward with a gesture of your hand (a maintained directional push on the right stick op de controller and/or a pull from the right trigger), in a way that instantly signifies “this dude is an evil overlord”. It is terrific. Especially if you don’t necessarily hunt the monsters that populate the typical fantasy world Overlord is set in, but if you terrorize hapless villagers and their livestock!

There is nothing like walking into a little town, see people go about their lives merrily, tending cute pumpkin patches, hanging around on town square, tending their little sheep—only to stretch out your hand in that command of woe and watch as your minions tear through the town destroying people, sheep, pumpkins and the interiors of houses as they cackle insanely and villagers run around screaming in terror.

Truth: I have never enjoyed going on a rampage in a video game this much. Each and every moment my little minions present me with gifts and trinkets (bags of money, globs of life force, other items of value) squealing “For you!” or “For the Over-lard!” is memorable and hilarious.

Good stuff: the graphics and gameplay. I don’t understand reviewers who say that this game didn’t look next gen. Are you kidding me? This game kicks the arse of Fable 2 three times over! Every scene, level and area is painstakingly handcrafted and beautifully textured. Normal Maps are used in the 3d graphics but they don’t come to the fore or muddy the visual direction (Oblivion anyone?) at all.

The ending of the game could have been handled differently in my opinion, but then again, I am pretty much averse from endings that feature annoying endboss battles.. You are stripped of your powers and have a final showdown with another entity of evil (which confused me because I couldn’t remember it being mentioned earlier in the game at all) and the whole ending left me feeling a little bit under whelmed (overall though, the experience was the best I had in a long time: it made me forego playing WOW...and as Marianne will attest to, that is something special).

Conclusion: I think Overlord is really cool and Triumph Studios is to be commended on the job they did. Hurrah for dutch game development!

Heart-Eating Game Mechanics and Powerful Script makes for Good Times

So I played The Darkness for the Xbox360 this weekend and I can heartily recommend it. To be honest, I hadn’t expected to like The Darkness so much: I didn't like the comic. Imagine my surprise that it was good: one of the best FPS experiences I've had. The Darkness isn’t really an FPS for me though. It’s more like they decided to use the FPS style as a medium to tell a very cool story. Without the solid script it would have been like F.E.A.R. and without the awesome production values and graphics it would have been bargain bin material.

But the solid script isn’t what sold me on The Darkness. It is the fact that they serve up a gripping experience and they certainly employ all of the genre’s standard trappings to do that, but they went further and used everything at their disposal in the thing. In my mind stands out the last sequence of the game: assault on The Lighthouse (Darkness - Lighthouse - get it?) . It is fucking brilliant in the way it presents a climactic cinematic battle that felt like an evolution of the way FPS games usually serve up this kind of fare. In that regard it has placed itself way above anything that Halo does (for me), and I doubt that it will be surpassed for some time to come.

Most likely I am the only one who sees it that way, because I obsess over storytelling and I was hugely surprised that the FPS genre can serve as a medium for a gripping story-driven experience. I thought that it had become nigh impossible--or the art of understanding it was solely in the hands of Bungie. I was wrong: it is in the hands of Starbreeze, and long may they hold it.