The blog is moving!!

I decided that I’d have a lot more control over the blog (and its content) if I moved to my personal website so here it is:

http://SeeingRedRant.com

I’m still working on configuring everything – I think RSS isn’t active yet but this will be fixed soon if it isn’t. See you there!

BFTP: The Dig

It’s funny how history treats games and movies. Some were looked down upon at the time of release, called “outdated” or “corny” yet become the biggest cult classics. Take the movies Dune or Flash Gordon – both labelled B movies at the time and heavily criticized and yet they both have a strong following today. Aspects that were deemed unpopular at the time come back into fashion or appreciation grows over time. For The Dig, this is no different. Back in 1995, it got a pretty hard kicking from the press – most reviews put it below every other Lucas Arts adventure game of recent years and Gamespot (I checked) even gave it an extremely low 4.5 out of 10!

There’s a range of reasons why The Dig got a reasonably poor reception:

• It had been delayed again and again and the press back then weren’t as patient as today. Entire games were made in less than a year and for a game to take 6 years to appear (causing quite a lot of preview articles to come and go), it did tend to tick journalists off. Heart of Darkness was another such game to get on the press’ bad side for similar reasons.
• It was different from other Lucas Arts game: it contained very little comedy and the puzzles were more logic based than item based. Where the press got used to zany and crazy games such as Sam & Max and Day of the Tentacle, The Dig was a lot more serious and down to earth, with a real world setting (if you can call an alien planet real).
• The game made a few errors that, combined with the above, got blown up in reviews (more about those below)

Reading the reviews, I can see why they came to the mediocre scores but, to be frank, a lot of them were just being hard because they were expecting a game that wasn’t there. It’s like getting a car when you wanted a brand new computer – you should be happy with either but when you set your sights on one thing, it can still be disappointing.

The Dig does many things right: the atmosphere is absolutely brilliant and the best of any Lucas Arts game I ever played with Grim Fandango a close second. The music, the gorgeous alien ruins, the animated scenery – it really brings the alien world alive. The interface is also kept nice and simple – look and use are the two actions you can perform, meaning you no longer have a whole bar of verbs at the bottom nor have to deal with any other system (like that of Full Throttle). Puzzles are a lot more logical than in any other Lucas Arts game I know – Sam & Max was notorious for being nail hard and having some really illogical puzzles for example, yet still got full marks from most magazines because of the excellent comedy yet The Dig got panned for a lack of the latter and a much improved former: its puzzles can be solved with some lateral thinking meaning that you won’t end up using everything with everything.

Despite these positives, I admit The Dig has many niggling flaws but nothing serious: some puzzles are a bit too ‘trial and error’ (for example, to open doors you find rods that show a combination lock but there’s no way to know which door uses which rod so you spend your time trying the combination on every door until one opens), the dialogue system doesn’t accurately grey out things you’ve already asked, having to right click to get a looking glass to let you example items should have been replaced with the right click button (the “i” button on the lower left does the same thing as a right click), there’s a lack of character interaction (which is to be expected when you’re stranded with just two people, I guess) and the game is a bit on the short side. But all of these are only minor nuisances, really.

So would I recommend this game? Definitely! Yes, it’s more serious than Monkey Island or Sam & Max, yes it has its share of flaws but it also has a beautiful world to explore, many clever locations that still look attractive today, some genius puzzles, a great setting, a wonderful musical score and compared to modern adventure games, this easily trumps them despite being over 16 years old!

Demo: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

These days, a publisher deserves a small pat on the back for releasing a demo due to how rare it has become. Kingdom of Amalur did take me by surprise: I had never heard of the game and it just appeared on several sites and forums less than a day ago. Always eager to try a new RPG, I decided to check it out and downloaded it on Steam. Here’s what I discovered …

I really had zero expectations and wasn’t even sure what kind of RPG it was. A quick check in the controls menu showed no movement keys so I assumed it would be a Diablo-type of game. However, I was wrong. They simply don’t let you reassign the movement keys which is a first big mistake since several countries in the world still use AZERTY keyboards, Belgium included. A very bad start then … . When the game actually started, I quickly realise what this game really was: a mix of half a dozen RPGs. The combat takes many elements from The Witcher 2 and other action RPGs, the graphics look to be an improved World of Warcraft style and the dialogue system is a little bit of Bioware. These are all classics, of course, so in a way this is not bad but sadly enough the game makes many mistakes.

The FOV (field of view) is set quite low giving me a headache in no time – there’s no way to change this that I know of. The game is also very buggy – especially using the bow. Half the time, my character put away her bow instead of shooting it – or she’d refuse to shoot or would lose the target. For a game boasting extremely responsive controls (in the trailer after you try to leave the game), this is pretty bad. You can also only equip two weapons it seems – maybe using the quick bar you can juggle more, but why won’t the game let you cycle through more weapons? The design of the game means different weapons have different uses so besides a ranged weapon, you may need a fire staff to torch through webs, daggers to perform sneak skills and a sword to do some good serious damage. It makes no sense to just let you cycle through a single melee weapon and a single ranged one.

When everything works, the demo isn’t too bad – but it’s never that good. It pales next to The Witcher 2’s tight combat and just feels a bit too generic for its own good. By borrowing from many games, it seems to have an identity crisis – the demo doesn’t seem to show me anything that makes it a game of its own. Oh, and did I mention that the user interface is atrocious? Obviously designed for gamepads, a simple matter of equipping an item takes several clicks too long – not unlike Skyrim’s terrible interface.

You might want to check it out anyway, though, if you enjoy the games it tries to mimic but don’t expect anything ground-breaking.

The Sound of Game Music (part 2)

As promised, here is part 2 of my favourite game music. Enjoy!

Star Control 2 (Yehat Theme)

Ascendancy (Intro)

Portal (Still Alive)

Battle Isle 2 (Return to Bulumdum)

Broken Sword (Hotel Ubu)

Red Alert (Hell March)

Secret of Monkey Island (Theme)

Duke Nukem (Megadeth version of Theme)

Earthworm Jim (What The Heck !?)

A little bit of info:

Star Control 2 was infamously delayed because of its music, causing the game to go from just a single floppy to four. Yes, just for the music – and do you think it was worth it? You bet! Without the music, this game is brilliant, but with the music, it’s just … godlike. I only added one of the songs here, but check out Youtube for the rest. The game used something similar to MOD music. MODs (Module file music) were an advanced kind of music, similar to MIDI but where MIDI relied on the software and hardware to determine how it sounds (different sound cards had different sound banks), MODs always sounded identical and supported samples. Too bad so few PC games made use of them … .

Ascendancy was one of my first mail order games and after playing the demo, I was sold. The music made a huge difference in creating the right kind of atmosphere – in fact, this is a prime example of how modern space games are really missing the mark. I honestly can’t think of any modern space strategy game where the music moved me.

Portal’s Still Alive was a welcome surprise after a disappointing game. Yes, I’m one of the few people who don’t rate Portal too highly as a game. Too easy, too short – brilliant back story though. In fact, that goes for Portal 2 as well and even more so (even greater back story and even easier).

Battle Isle 2 (a game very similar to Advance Wars) had some surprisingly great music – the song above is one of the best from the game (although it has to be said this Youtube version sounds off – as I said above, MIDIs have the disadvantage of not always sounding the same depending on the settings and hardware).

Broken Sword was a game that completely knocked over by its music alone. The demo had already convinced me to buy it even though it would barely run on my 486 but that didn’t stop me. The main theme was hauntingly beautiful but then I entered Hotel Ubu and … wow. I love piano music and these two songs are so filled with emotion that, even now, more than 15 years later, I still drift away when I hear them.

I loved Red Alert’s Hell March from the first time I heard it. At the time, not many games dared to have such a violent soundtrack (Quake being another exception) but this song fit the game so well that it was hard to imagine the game with a song that wasn’t so powerful!

You can’t have a list of favourite game music and not have Secret of Monkey Island in it. Impossible! This theme is legendary and still gives me shivers when I replay any of the series’ games (except maybe the last).

Duke Nukem‘s theme is so good, it’s the only theme that earned a fixed place on my MP3 player! The Megadeth version is just amazing.

Earthworm Jim had some brilliant music as well but if one sound stood out, it was this one. The PC version easily had the best one of all platforms (it was CD audio after all) and the brilliant intro leading to a mellow muzak song filled with screams is just too clever to not include here.

And that’s that … I may create a Part 3 if I remember enough songs to make one but I hope you enjoyed the music!

BFTP: Legend of Kyrandia: Book One

How many gamers know Guybrush Threepwood? Quite a lot, I’d imagine. But mention “Malcolm” and you’ll get mostly blank stares. A shame because the Kyrandia trilogy are some of the best adventure games out there! And they weren’t made by just any studio either: the highly talented Westwood Studios made these games, famous for Command & Conquer, Dune 2 and Lands of Lore. Because of this, I thought it would be nice to create a Blast From The Past to remember these games, starting with the first.

When you first start the game, you’ll quickly notice how amazing the graphics look for a game of its age (1992)  – great attention to detail and some of the most beautiful locations I’ve seen in a game of that age. The voices (in the CD version) are decent as well and are mostly suitable (although nowhere near as great as those in Book Three) and the animation is brilliant. The game has some very clever puzzles as well, using all sorts of items you can find around the game. Whereas most adventure games let you use an item in just a single way, Kyrandia takes a more natural approach by basically giving items all sorts of uses. An empty bottle can be filled from any source of liquid and can often be drunk to name but one example.  There’s some big problems with this way of working in Book One but we’ll get to that later but the game has to be commended for trying something different. Book Two did it much much better but they were already on the right path here.

The story isn’t too bad either, but it has to be said that it’s a case of hits & misses. The premise isn’t bad and the character Malcolm is interesting if nothing else but the game is perhaps too cheap with information. Most of the game, you’re given pieces of info and you have to work out the rest. This works when done correctly, but here this is not the case. It seems every character you meet only tells you a few scraps of info and then leaves or tells you to get lost. You usually are told what to do, but in such a vague way that you’re left scratching your head. The Birthstone quest, for example, can be a real pain in the rear if you don’t find the first gem (the sunstone) and quite a few puzzles give no explanation at all why it works the way it does. You put three sorts of nuts in a hole and a plant grows out of it that gives you a magical power. Okaaaay?

Or how about having to collect gems of one colour and an item of the same colour to create a potion of that same colour which you then have to put into two huge crystals which then create a new potion. And did I mention that there is not a clue AT ALL why you’d be doing this? No-one told you to, the game doesn’t hint at it in any way and when you have the potions, you don’t even know what they do until you’re in the right place at the right time. Drink them anywhere else and you can start all over and waste at least an hour gathering the ingredients together again (a lot of ingredients and gems regrow or reappear). Thing is, not ALL items reappear. It’s perfectly possible to use something that you’ll need later – the game won’t even tell you! At one point in the game, you have to go to Malcolm‘s castle and if you dropped one item that you’ll later need, you’re screwed. And because there’s some 50 items you can keep with you, and only 10 slots … well I don’t need to draw a picture, do I? It’s extremely unfair and such bad game design has no place in any adventure game.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the game uses the King’s Quest way of creating its locations: by making screens connect. Walk up, left, right, down – and you can basically make an old-school map the way you did with the ancient Zork text adventure games. At least 8 out of 10 of these screens are devoid of absolutely anything and merely serve to waste your time not to mention they reuse the same 4 or 5 forest backdrops over and over. On top of this, the game has quite a nasty labyrinth as well, which can see you dying a lot in a trial and error way to find your way out.

So in the end, this is another oldie I wouldn’t recommend unless you keep a walkthrough at hand. I used a tip guide which simply made sure you wouldn’t get stuck telling you what you shouldn’t do or what items you should keep. The puzzles I mostly managed to solve myself and without the fear of screwing up, it was a lot more enjoyable so if you want to give it a try (and it’s quite a charming game if you can overcome its flaws) be sure to a guide like mine!

Should small scale piracy lead to lawsuits?

This is a very controversial point – and one that is hard to make in a few lines, so bear with me.

We have a generation of parents now who just missed the technological boat, so to speak. They grew up just before computers (and the Internet) became popular and many can only use it for the bare minimum. Now, computers are everywhere: every kid needs it for school and most kids know way more about then than their parents ever will. And therein lies the problem: Kids are kids and you may be as good a parent as you want, but you know your 14 year old son will end up looking at porn just like you know he’ll find a way to download music and games even when you tell him not to.

Now, the dilemma is caused by combining the two: kids will do things that are illegal AND theyusually know more about computers than their parents. Even the parents that are smart enough to put a parent lock in place, would be surprised how quick their kid can circumvent it. So this poses a problem: as a parent, you’re responsible for what your kid does, yet the current reality makes it incredibly easy for your kid to do stuff online that could cost you millions as a parent!

And that’s where I object. This is simply not right – the current legal system basically forces parents to know more about computers than their kids (which is virtually impossible for most parents, ask them). A few years back, a mother was fined an enormous amount for downloading a pinball game – except her son had done this, not her. She could barely use a computer let alone prevent her son from downloading content illegally. What was she supposed to do? Take his computer away? I’m sure she did after it was too late – but it’s hardly a realistic thing to do. Kids need computers for school – a lot of school content is online so you can’t even unplug the Internet.

Some people say “just watch over what your kids are doing” and I call them naive fools. When I was 13, I was allowed 2 hours of computer every day (back in 1993) and my father had added a password so I couldn’t cheat. It took me less than a week to figure out the password and sneak on while I was home alone. You can try as hard as you want, but when kids get the chance, they’ll do it. That’s what teenagers are – they do stupid stuff. The thing is, in the past most of the stupid stuff involved petty crime – which the police would usually ignore unless it got too out of hand (like vandalism) – but considering the large scale of downloading music, games, movies, etc. AND considering how hard it is for a parent to prevent your kids from doing it, it strikes me that the current laws are far too harsh.

Of course, you may say it’s a non-problem because only a tiny tiny percentage of people who pirate get caught which is partially true. It’s not like a load of people have to pay these outrageous fines, but that’s just it – because so few people get caught, most people shrug it off and it essentially becomes a game of chance. It’s like lining up 10.000 people and shooting one at random!

If they increased the rate of prosecution and got the fines to be a lot lower to a more realistic level, I’d be more fine with it all but of course, fines wouldn’t go to the greedy corporations so, gee, I wonder why this never happened …