Alone in the Dark

Call me crazy but I was mildly excited about this game as I figured it would be a decent romp to tide me over until the release of Fable 2. I also I got ten bucks off of it for reserving it which in retrospect should have probably been my first warning sign. Another problem I have was apparently being the only person among my friends, coworkers and associates who remembers the original Alone in the Dark from 1992, where you were just a dude in a haunted mansion, and I was somehow unaware they made like 5 or 6 more games which involved more guns and less housing. So needless to say I thought I was in for a badass next-gen haunted house survival game. Even when I found out that was untrue, I figured it would still be fun. This is what I get for being optimistic.

What’s so hard to understand is how Alone in the Dark got so much right and yet it manages to all go so horribly wrong. All of its various infuriating game mechanics would actually sound good on paper, however the design team should have realized they weren’t working out when put into application and, I dunno, maybe tried something else?

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Nights into PS2

If my excitement leading up to the Wii sequel flop, it’s own fanart section in my gallery, and the Parody into Dreams section’s very existence didn’t clue you into the fact I’m somewhat of a rabid Nights into Dreams fangirl well… I don’t know what the hell could. Now, I never import games. Mainly because I can’t read Japanese and America gets games well before all the PAL regions anyway. However, when I first heard the original NiGHTS into Dreams was being remade on the Playstation 2 (which probably should have just been done in the first place instead of Sega USA, fresh off their landmark title Shadow the Hedgehog, deciding to strain out NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams like a bad kidney stone on the Wii) I was excited to say the least.

Then it turned out it was going to be Japanland-only. Bastards.

But I would not be deterred from a fresh, re-rendered version of my favorite childhood game where I could actually see what was going on and the baddies and goodies in the various levels weren’t scrambled 2D sprites. I got myself a shiny import, I got myself a Swap Magic, I spent two days trying to find the right screwdriver with which to mutilate my 7 year old Playstation 2, and in the end was out more money than I’d like to admit just to facilitate my shameless fangirlism. But damnit it was worth it!

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Xbox Live Bans Teh Ghey

It just makes me want to set up a new Live account called ImHereImQueer. I don’t exactly know how to feel about this, Microsoft has apparently taken to banning gamertags on Xbox Live with the word "gay" in them, including a dude who supposedly used his last name "Gaywood" in his. Yes that’s right, the service known for being stuffed to the gills with 13 year olds calling each other "faggot" fifteen times in any given match of teh Haloz finds a little gay in your gamertag offensive. Or rather, the "greater Xbox community" finds it offensive according to one supervisor.

Which leads me to question: are they trying to protect gay people from being made fun of by homophobic Xbox Live gamers, or are they trying to protect homophobic Xbox Live gamers from having to knowingly interact with someone who identifies themselves as gay? This insofar is pretty unclear, but many gay gaming sites (yes they do exist) are a tad concerned about this.

Where it may come as a surprise to some people out there that gay people are gamers… and tax payers, and home owners, and generally walk the streets among the general populous, you can rest assured there are gays on Live. Read the rest of this entry »

Bioshock

Alright, so I’m a year behind everyone else in the world playing this game but that isn’t going to stop me from talking about it anyway. I only acquired an Xbox 360 late last year, and I had my reservations about Bioshock. It wasn’t that I doubted it was as good story-wise as people have constantly told me, it’s just that I’m not big on first-person shooters: namely I find them disorienting. However I knew Bioshock wasn’t going to be your typical shoot-em-up fps and from even the first moments of the game this was confirmed.

I had heard about the whole Objectivist dystopian theme, and I do love stories about dystopias, and I knew the graphics were pretty but I didn’t realize just how pretty until I started playing. The first thing I did once inside a structure was begin ogling the detailed textures on the walls. As the game takes place in 1960, in a secret dsytopian underwater city called Rapture that was built throughout the late 1940’s (you heard me) everything, and I mean everything was Art Deco. I was in eye candy heaven.

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Okami (For Wii)

You know all those ads around the internets calling Okami "the greatest game you never played"? Boy is that ever the truth. Admittedly, despite hearing how good it was, I never got around to playing Okami on the PS2. Upon hearing it not only featured brushwork as part of a gameplay but it was coming out on the Wii with motion controls for just that, I resolved to buy it.

It was a good decision, and I was certainly not disappointed. It’s an inspired, well-made and artful game, full of wit and humor and many heart-warming moments. It may be an action-adventure open-world game, but it’s so unlike anything else I’ve ever played.

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