Posts Tagged ‘video games’

« Older Entries

Star Trek Online: Latest Screenshots

By Chief Oddball on February 28th, 2010 at 12:25 am

Filed under Reviews ··· 2 Comments

I last posted about the massively multiplayer PC game Star Trek Online during the open beta phase. The game hit retail release in early February, and now that it’s been several weeks since then, what’s the current state of the game? Am I still playing?

In fact, today was the first time I logged onto Star Trek Online in almost two weeks. I have Mass Effect to thank for this — as much as I love all things Trek, Mass Effect is simply a far superior sci-fi RPG in every conceivable way. But I like to bounce back and forth between my hobbies (and obsessions!), and because today was a Star Trek day in every other regard (hint hint), I decided to change things up and take a seat at the helm of my Constitution-class starship once more.

Star Trek Online has been steadily improving over time, and a number of the more irritating bugs have been fixed since I last ventured out into the Alpha Quadrant. Notably, my ship’s bridge officers are finally allowed to wear the custom Next Generation style uniforms that came with my Collector’s Edition of the game, so now we all look pretty spiffy as we tool around on those away missions. (Also, if you have the TOS-style uniforms, the “Roddenberry Special” miniskirts are now available to your female officers, for which I’m sure they’ll, ah, thank you.) There has also been a litany of gameplay enhancements, new missions, new ship designs and other errata that are detailed in much depth on the STO website. If you hate the lack of content on the Klingon side or have a beef with the overall gameplay mechanics, you’re going to continue to be disappointed — probably forever. But there it’s clear that Cryptic does keep improving and evolving the game as we go.

I’m still a lowly Lieutenant Grade 6, which essentially means I haven’t amounted to a hill of beans in the STO universe. Unlike two weeks ago, now I find myself surrounded by huge Galaxy and Sovereign-class ships as I fly through sector space, a grim reminder of the fact that tons of other players have leveled way, way past me while I was busy recruiting the galaxy’s best and brightest for Commander Shepard’s suicide mission. (Hey, the Normandy ain’t gonna fly herself, no matter what EDI might tell you. I make no apologies.)

While I haven’t yet spent enough time to offer a more in-depth review of the new content and the other enhancements that lurk just beneath the surface, I did take a bunch of screenshots that might give you a glimpse into the exciting and ever-changing world of Star Trek Online. If you have a soft spot for the original Enterprise as I do, some of these shots may be a real feast your eyes.

U.S.S. Songkhla (NCC-104750-A)

Tugboat Duty: Towing a Wrecked Freighter

Entering Standard Orbit While Deftly Avoiding the Asteroids

Ensign Sansanee and Captain Harvie on the Bridge

Not Exactly an Ideal Vacation Spot

The Constitution-Class Ship's Unique Blue Phasers

Sansanee, More Interested in a Tribble than the Mission

Ready to Repel the Klingon Invasion of Vulcan

It's Drive-In Movie Time at Starbase One!

My Recreation of a Classic TOS Orbit Shot

Second Star to the Right, and Straight On Till Morning

Lending a Hand to a Disabled Crewman

If It's Borg, Shoot It!

Comments (2)

Thoughts on Being Thirty

By Chief Oddball on February 23rd, 2010 at 11:22 pm

Filed under Journal ··· 5 Comments

At 6:43 p.m. this evening I officially turned thirty. For the last few days — weeks, even — I haven’t known exactly how to feel. Mostly I wasn’t even thinking about my upcoming milestone birthday; I’ve been too preoccupied with how wholly dissatisfying and depressing life seems to have been of late. My wife and I have dealt with a lot of stress: career issues, medical issues, and some that have been a combination of both. This has been going on for months, and is largely responsible for the dearth of posts on this site. On any given day, after I finally get done with work and chores for the day, I don’t want to think about doing much more than playing video games or reading.

I feel like things started taking a turn for the better today, though. It seems odd to say that now, because the first half of the day was filled with little stresses that really got under my skin: incompetence at work; awful seasonal traffic filled with bad drivers making dumb decisions; my doctor treating me like my time wasn’t valuable by making me late for a meeting while he carried on a conversation with his next patient during my appointment time. After that, though, things got a lot better — thanks in part to my wife and family, and thanks in part to my simply freeing my mind, taking charge of things and declaring, “Fuck it.”

I had an impromptu meeting (which I was late for, as I mentioned) at work, during which I received another massive assignment that came out of nowhere as they always do, to design all the user interfaces for a new web app that’s going to do project management, customer management, task management, time tracking, employee management, support queueing and just about everything else. At its conclusion, I pretty much said, “Bye, fragsters.” I hung up the phone, logged off the computer and went to Gamestop. Yeah, no shit.

My wife bought me Heavy Rain (the new PS3 game) and more Microsoft points. We picked up my parents, who are here in town, and went to Carrabba’s for dinner. After a good meal we came back home for some birthday cake, and queued up the Office Space DVD for a few laughs (we’d been quoting it in the car all the way home). It was a great time, and a great way to kick off the next decade of my life. For the first time in a while, I felt like I actually have something to look forward to as that next decade marches on.

I’ve always allowed myself to be taken advantage of to some degree, and I’m about tired of it. If I could make one personal resolution as I enter my thirties, it’s to stop being such a goddamn pushover. Or, if I absolutely must accept being pushed around, to have the balls to push back when it’s strategically advantageous. My company has really put the screws to me over my health care, and since Christmas it’s been one stress after another, more and more bills, confusion and red tape — all so they could save their W-2 employees a few dollars a month while I lose my coverage entirely. For the month of February I’ve paid for two insurance companies at once while my employer drags me through this transition, and most of it I don’t really expect to get back. How bad do you think I feel about “cutting class” early today so I could do something for my own birthday? Not a damn bit, frankly.

I am, however, going to go into my work tomorrow with a clear head, with a renewed focus and energy on my tasks. I finally feel like I’m breaking through into a place where I can actually care about my work again, in a way that I haven’t been able to for weeks upon weeks. At the same time, I’m going to remember that that in this world, no one gets ahead without taking advantage. If you play the nice guy every day, you’re not going anywhere. You just have to know when the right time is to unleash your inner “bad guy.”

So, while I go forward into my thirties with the aforementioned in mind, what else have I got in store for my week? Well, when I’m here at home — this doesn’t apply in Thailand, where I don’t have full control over my activities — I like to bring a little slice of birthday celebration to every day of my birth week. A nice meal, a slice of cake, a marathon session of gaming, a favorite Star Trek episode, or whatever else suits my fancy.

On the gaming front, there’s plenty for me to do. I’m still going through Mass Effect 2, which is easily the most amazing game I’ve played in 2010 — and which I feel will be a Game Of The Year contender, even knowing the kinds of titles that are yet to release this year. It’s the perfect blend of adventure, role-playing and shooting, all tied together by a well-written story with a cast of excellent characters voiced by some real powerhouse talent. If you even remotely like sci-fi space opera, Mass Effect 2 is unquestionably a game you must play.

There’s also Heavy Rain, a PS3 exclusive that I just picked up today (thanks honey!). This is a different type of game — a sort of interactive narrative that makes you feel like you’re playing a movie. Admittedly, there could be limited appeal with such an approach, leaving players to grow bored or complain that they’re not playing so much as watching. But the free demo I tried was actually quite engaging, and despite the fairly wonky controls, I decided it was worth a purchase. I like these “interactive story” type games, and felt like rewarding and supporting the developer rather than saving it for the bargain bin or the rental store.

I almost picked up BioShock 2 today as well, but had to be realistic: I wouldn’t be playing it for weeks to come. I’ve still got Mass Effect to get through, and then — although I am embarrassed to admit it — I still need to finish the original BioShock! It was a game that I got about halfway through before putting it aside thanks to a tidal wave of amazing games that all landed at the same time, and the fact that I missed the first three weeks of the game’s launch due to my Xbox failure. Once I get ready to play the sequel, I may frankly pick it up used. To be honest, I never thought of BioShock as a game that needed a sequel — but I hear that, as a sequel, it’s actually quite good.

As an outro, I’d like this post to serve as a the first in a new line of posts that return to my original theme — commentary on news items, reviews of movies and games, and general gabbery about work, music, life, and whatever else I may be into at the moment. I’ve really let this place go, because in a way I think I really let myself go, emotionally at least. With so much to talk about in the news now that personally interests me, and with my goal to set foot on a new path, now seems like the perfect time to get back to that. Starting tomorrow, I hope, that will come to fruition. Stay tuned.

Comments (5)

Oddball Review: F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin

By Chief Oddball on December 28th, 2009 at 9:41 pm

Filed under Reviews ··· 3 Comments

“What is this, Retro Gaming Month again?” I hear you asking. After all, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin was released way back in February of this year (2009). No, my friends — it’s just that I’ve only very recently completed the game’s single player campaign, and I was reminded yet again of why Monolith Productions is currently my favorite game developer. If you’re curious why that is, keep reading. If you’re not, then…um…eat a banana? Seriously, don’t let me stop you.

Back in November of 2005, I reviewed the original F.E.A.R., then a PC-exclusive title that was on the cutting edge of not only graphical and audio gaming goodness, but also featured some of the most engaging and challenging enemy AI yet seen. More importantly to a player like me, who appreciates the tense atmosphere of story-driven survival horror games, F.E.A.R. was dripping with paranormal spookiness, and featured that peculiar combination of modern military might vs. unstoppable supernatural forces that I love so much. It netted a 97% on the Oddball rating scale (a scale which, amusingly, never appeared again).

Not including the two expansion packs for the original F.E.A.R. (one of which actually continued the story from the first game), the sequel, Project Origin, was a few years in coming. When it arrived it was a cross-platform endeavor available for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Since most of my gaming these days revolves around the Xbox 360, that’s the version I’m reviewing herein.

In the F.E.A.R. franchise, Monolith has created an unusually deep series of expository events and backstory behind the actual games themselves, even going so far as to put together a 62-page “Field Guide” that was offered as a preorder bonus to purchasers of the sequel. In short, a very large, very old and very arrogant defense contractor known as Armacham Technology Corporation (ATC) has gotten itself into deep shit. Back in the late ’60s and early ’70s, Armacham was commissioned by the CIA to participate in some of that agency’s “super solider” development projects. As part of the ethics-bending experiments of the day, Armacham created the concept of “replica soldiers”: mass-produced human clones meant as cannon fodder for military use, equipped with instant tactical training built right in.

Quick, find a refrigerator!

Not content to stop there, Armacham also concocted the idea to produce telepathic controllers — specially-gifted men who could control entire armies with their minds alone. The circumstances around which they achieved this, however, were about as macabre as you can get. Suffice it to say, they involve school children, secret experiments on an unsuspecting populace, and, in the end, a mushroom cloud.

Ahhh, Armacham. Another company in the long list of greedy entities who failed to realize that when you fuck with nature, nature fucks with you.

Continue Reading…

Comments (3)

Charted!

By Chief Oddball on October 19th, 2009 at 6:00 pm

Filed under Reviews ··· 2 Comments

Last week I succumbed to the powerful marketing pressure being exerted upon me by Toys ‘R’ Us. Now, this might sound a bit strange coming from a 29-year-old dude. After all, “getting my Toys ‘R’ Us fix” hasn’t been part of my list of things to do since sometime in the mid 1980s. But, much as the toy retailer sold NES and Sega Master System games back in those days, today they stock Xbox, Playstation and Wii games, and last week they offered a buy-2-get-1-free sale on the whole lot of them.

I attempted to resist, but in the end, I failed. My failure resulted in three shiny new game boxes landing on my shelf: Halo 3: ODST, Brutal Legend, and the subject of today’s post: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, a PS3 exclusive.

Let it be known right now that Uncharted 2 is, I believe, the best game the PS3 has to offer. Before last week, I would have told you that Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune — the first game in the series — held that title. This only proves that developer Naughty Dog has not only learned from the success of that original game, but they’ve taken it to the next level with the sequel. For those of you who (like me) grew up on Indiana Jones, and can only shake your head at George Lucas’ wayward wanderings since, trust me when I say that Nathan Drake is your new Indy.

Nathan Drake, star of the Uncharted series

Nathan Drake, star of the Uncharted series

The Uncharted series is a third-person action and adventure game hybrid. It mixes one part Tomb Raider (the exploration and climbing puzzles), one part Gears of War (the shooting and cover mechanic) and one part Indy-style cinematic awesomeness. The result is one of the most epic games ever made, a moniker that can be applied to both Uncharted games with no hesitation.

In the game, you play the role of Nathan Drake, an adventurous young descendant of Sir Francis Drake who trawls the globe looking for the answers to some of history’s greatest conundrums (as well as great personal fortune, which has so far eluded him). In Uncharted 2, Drake gets involved with a group of adventurer/pirates who think they’ve uncovered a clue to the location of the mythical kingdom of Shambhala, and at the same time, unlocked the mystery of Marco Polo’s lost fleet. But nothing in Drake’s world is ever as easy at it seems, and before long he’s chasing an entire army of seriously evil terrorists who also seek the city and its hidden treasures. It’s like a summer blockbuster, except with twice the scriptwriting prowess, five times the length and 100% more interactivity.

Visually, so far as I can tell, there has never been a more impressive looking video game. Ever. Naughty Dog claims to have taken the Playstation 3 to its limits with this game, and given the number of jaw-dropping moments wherein I simply couldn’t believe what I was seeing, I don’t have any trouble believing them. You can stand atop a skyscaper in Nepal and swear you’re looking at actual video footage of the landscape and mountainous terrain between you and horizon. The rain, water, snow and ice effects are all hyper-realistic, even affecting the characters in the appropriate ways — packed snow clings to their pant legs, wind buffets their hair, water soaks their clothing and makes it stick to their skin.

The gameplay is richly varied and never gets old. In between the climbing, jumping and exploring, and the shooting, ducking and fisticuffs, there are numerous set pieces where you outrun enemy vehicles, shoot at pursuing trucks with mortars, climb to safety from the wreckage of a derailed train and so on. You’re never quite sure what will happen from one moment to the next, and I simply lost count of the “HOLY SHIT!” moments. From start to finish, the game is an epic masterpiece. The “2″ in the title could be short for “Twice as good as the first Uncharted“, and it would be no lie.

The personalities of the characters — not just Drake, but the supporting cast as well — comes through better than in nearly any other game you can name, with excellent scriptwriting, frequent banter and funny comments throughout. Drake, somehow, managed to be thinking the exact same things that were going through my own mind during many of the game’s sequences, and proceeded to blurt them out before I could. He even uses a lot of the same expressions that I do. It’s kind of weird.

The game’s musical score, too, is fit for a big-budget Hollywood movie. Composed by Greg Edmonson, who is also responsible for the unique Western-fusion music of the Firefly TV series, the score is brilliantly done, classy and evokes just the right emotions at exactly the appropriate times. In a display of marketing smarts, they’ve already made the soundtrack available on iTunes, so people (like me) who can’t get enough of the music can go get their fix.

While it’s great that the PS3 has another exclusive title that can draw fans to its base, I find it personally disappointing that this game isn’t on the Xbox platform for one reason alone: The multiplayer. Unlike the first Uncharted, the second game has full competitive and cooperative multiplayer, with bonuses and trophies for each, and I’ve love to get into a game with my friends. Unfortunately, nobody I know owns a PS3, and playing with strangers (especially cooperatively) is never as much fun.

Still, if you do have a PS3, you’re a fool if you don’t pick up Uncharted 2. In my opinion it’s the best game 2009 has seen so far. I rarely finish video games, but I finished this one in less than a week. And now I can’t stop thinking about going back and playing it again, this time at the highest difficulty (“Crushing”) to see how I fare.

Next week I’ll be back to review Forza 3, so I’ll likely be gushing all over something else. One thing Forza gives me that Uncharted won’t, admittedly, is months worth of replay value. Oh, and did you see the Forza 3 Car of the Day on the 14th? Hello again, old friend!

I haven’t gotten into either ODST or Brutal Legend yet, but if I find either of them particularly compelling, I’ll make a note of it here. I expect ODST to be the typical Halo affair: Highly polished, highly enjoyable, and good for one campaign playthrough ever. I don’t know what I expect from Brutal Legend, except to say I had no interest in the game at all until I played the demo, which was fantastic. But now I hear that the demo is only representative of maybe the first 1-2 hours of gameplay, so I dunno. We’ll see what happens.

Comments (2)

Wolfensteal

By Chief Oddball on September 24th, 2009 at 2:33 pm ··· 2 Comments

Such irony. After posting my impressions of the Wolfenstein Xbox 360 demo last night, and deciding that it wasn’t worth $60 to me — but that I’d pick it up on sale — today I discover that Wolfenstein is Amazon’s deal of the day. You can save a cool $20 and pick up the game for $39.98. Naturally, I’ve put my money where my mouth is and ordered a copy.

Edit: Apparently my brain really has melted, because I misunderstood Joystiq’s post and thought that the Wolfenstein discount was good until 4 PM. In actuality, it’s good for the rest of today. So, go to it.

(Thanks to Joystiq for the timely tip.)


“We’re Going BACKWARD in Time.”

By Chief Oddball on September 23rd, 2009 at 11:17 pm

Filed under Reviews ··· Leave a Comment

So said James T. Kirk, he of much maudlin sleeve-rippage in “The Naked Time,” upon discovering that the Enterprise was on its way back to November 5, 1955. Er, no. That was something else, something that I believe involved — of all the preposterous things — a stainless steel car. I, meanwhile, am taking my own separate trip back through time as I dust off the shocking number of Xbox 360 games that I never finished, never even played, or simply haven’t seen in a long while.

Yes, the video game “holiday release cycle” is once again almost upon us, and we’ve got a slew of excellent titles bearing down on us, many of them pumped up to the usual extreme levels of hype-factor. There’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves on the PS3, the sequel to what I still believe is that console’s best game. There’s Halo 3: ODST which just dropped from orbit — shocking! — yesterday, Need For Speed: Shift (possibly the first non-turgid NFS game in years), Forza Motorsport 3, Brutal Legend, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2…can I get a glass of water here? And I’m not even counting the stuff scheduled to drop early next year, or even the recent releases that I haven’t picked up, such as Wolfenstein, Dirt 2 and Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Of the aforementioned games, I currently have the funds available for exactly one. And those funds are as good as spent: They’re going to Forza 3. As the Xbox 360’s answer to Sony’s Gran Turismo series, Forza provides an unmatched driving experience on Microsoft’s current-gen console. Being a serious gearhead, I probably put more hours into Forza 2 than any other game on the system. Thus, for maximum value-for-dollar, Forza 3 seems like the one to choose. My preorder is already locked in at the local Gamestop (although admittedly, I went with the standard edition, not the big-money collector’s pack that comes with — of all non-sequitur things — a 2GB USB memory stick.)

It’s not that I’m poor — indeed, I was just paid for some sidework I performed during July and August — but that all of my money is earmarked for the restoration of a real car: our 1979 Trans Am. So, given that I must make hard choices governing my entertainment in the meantime, I’ve opted to put a select amount of money toward a select few games that I expect will bring me maximum enjoyment over a long period of time. To that end, I’ve already picked up The Beatles: Rock Band — its downloadable albums releasing over the next three months will no doubt keep me occupied over the long term. And I’ve already mentioned why Forza 3 makes sense for me.

So, with my gaming fix for the remainder of 2009 already planned out, what am I doing to prevent jealousy from setting in as my daily browsing of gaming blogs inundates me with news about the spiffy new releases I’ll be passing up? For a start, I’ve decided that it’s time to deal with my overwhelming video game backlog problem — I’ve got so many games that I’ve completely fallen behind. There are titles on my shelf that I bought on sale or as part of a volume discount and have yet to even play. This very evening, then, I decided to start resolving this problem.

Continue Reading…

Comments (0)

Confirmed: Trans Am WS6 in Forza Motorsport 3

By Chief Oddball on September 21st, 2009 at 2:34 pm ··· Leave a Comment

Firebird Trackdays Event from Forza 3

Sweet Forza Motorsport 3, you have done this fan the ultimate service: Included a ‘98-’02 Trans Am WS6 Ram Air in your list of cars. Moreover, there’s an entire event dedicated to the Trans Am line. As proof, I offer this screen capture from a Forza 3 demo video recorded last month at Germany’s GamesCom 2009. (Click it to enlarge.)

This is the first time I’ve ever seen a fourth gen WS6 in a video game, and thankfully it’s one of the best-looking racing games out there, complete with fully-modeled cockpits and a livery editor that will allow me to dress it up exactly the way I dressed up my real WS6.

Forza 3 comes out in the U.S. on the October 27th. My preorder is ready and waiting.

Edit: The 2002 Trans Am WS6 was the Forza 3 “car of the day” on October 14th. Check out this awesome gallery of a Sunset Orange Metallic T/A…looks amazing!


Review: The Beatles: Rock Band

By Chief Oddball on September 13th, 2009 at 6:08 pm

Filed under Reviews ··· 4 Comments

The Beatles: Rock Band

The Beatles: Rock Band

I spent last week (mostly) on vacation in my Michigan home town, where I had the opportunity to get together with my good friends for a rousing day of Rock Band 2. We spent a great many hours jamming on the massive array of songs (many of which were DLC) offered by the game, which all served to remind me of how much fun these music games are. I myself have Rock Band 1 for the PS3, but haven’t played it in quite a while, so I resolved to dust it off once I got back to Florida.

However, as our return trip neared, I hatched a more grandiose scheme: I wanted The Beatles: Rock Band. The full game, complete with Beatle-inspired instruments, runs a whopping $250. But because the instruments from Rock Band 2 are compatible, I realized that I could buy the marked-down Rock Band 2 full game, along with the Beatles software only, and get two games for $160. (Note that I could even have used my Rock Band 1 instruments, but I wanted to platform-switch to the Xbox 360.) So yesterday, after our flight home, we went to Gamestop and picked everything up.

First, a word about the hardware. Coming from Rock Band 1, I noticed a few improvements to the instruments in Rock Band 2. I like playing the drums more than anything else, and I was happy to note that the RB2 drum pads are softer, much quieter and register hits far easier — in fact, they’re almost exactly like the practice pads I used when I was taking lessons many moons ago. The new kick pedal has a much stronger return spring and a vastly improved feel overall, to the point where you can actually rest your foot on it like a normal person. There are also expansion jacks for a cymbal add-on kit, which I’d love to get because it would allow me to use the familiar cross-over pattern for the hi-hat and snare which is used when playing an actual drum kit. Lastly — and this is big — the RB2 drums are wireless, so there’s no frakking around with cables.

The guitar feels mostly unchanged from the original Rock Band’s simulated Stratocaster, although I noticed it now has a faux-woodgrain finish on the fretboard and is no longer equipped with the largely-pointless on/off switch. It remains to be seen whether this guitar will hold up better than my original Strat, the strum bar of which started to get flaky after only a few plays, but so far it’s working well.

After setting up the instruments, I popped in The Beatles: Rock Band game disc. I should note here that the game comes with two free codes to unlock two Beatles: RB T-shirts for your avatar to wear: One female and one male. Loading up the game, I was presented with a pretty impressive animated opening movie, and then dropped at the colorful main menu. Pumped through my 5.1 surround system, the audio was pretty impressive.

We had a lot of trouble with calibration on our impromptu Rock Band 2 setup in Michigan, but I’m happy to report that the calibration routine on my home system yielded a perfectly playable setup that felt perfectly spot-on. Having never played a music game on my Xbox before — only my PS3 — I was pleased to find that I could actually use my home theater receiver (and thus my 5.1 system) for the game. By contrast, Rock Band 1 on my PS3 lagged so badly over my HDMI pass-through that I was forced to switch to my TV’s built-in speakers whenever I played, and it was annoying.

After calibrating, Apple joined me on the couch and we set aside The Beatles: Rock Band’s story mode in favor of a Quickplay session.

Continue Reading…

Comments (4)

Shadow Politics

By Chief Oddball on August 21st, 2009 at 3:55 pm

Filed under Commentary ··· 2 Comments

I’m a regular reader of the Joystiq video game news blog, and this week my daily scanning of its pages revealed a lot of praise for a game I hadn’t heard of previously: Shadow Complex. This Xbox Live Arcade game by Chair and Epic Games is a 2D sidescroller built on the 3D Unreal engine, combining old-fashioned, Metroid-style gameplay with modern day graphics, effects and combat. The whole thing is set in a modern-day universe similar to that of Metal Gear Solid, and finds you stepping into the role of the reluctant son of an NSA officer who stumbles upon the underground base of a terrorist army that’s just hours away from taking over the city of San Francisco.

I downloaded the free demo available from Xbox Live and had such a great time with it that I purchased the full version about 30 minutes in. (It’ll set you back 1200 Microsoft Points, or about $15.) For your money, you’ll get what I believe to be a tremendous gaming value that easily surpasses some of the $60 retail games I’ve purchased over the years, and also comes with excellent replayability since it encourages exploration, doubling back and finding hidden items you missed on your first run-through. From an entertainment perspective, I can heartily recommend Shadow Complex as one of the best titles I’ve ever downloaded from XBLA.

But today I uncovered what many believe to be the “sinister underbelly” of Shadow Complex: Its affiliation with Orson Scott Card (author of Ender’s Game), whose creative universe its story is based upon. Specifically, the game’s story is set in the same continuum as Card’s Empire novel from 2006, which tells the tale of a second American Civil War (between right- and left-wing political ideologies) instigated by a radical leftist organization called The Progressive Restoration.

Why is this a problem? It’s a problem because Orson Scott Card is a very vocal opponent of gay marriage, and in fact has made a number of very vitriolic statements in the past on any number of right-wing causes that have ruffled a lot of feathers. Card is also a member of the board of directors of the National Organization for Marriage, a group that seeks to retain the definition of marriage exclusively as “a union between a man and a woman.”

Continue Reading…

Comments (2)

Retro Game Review: Ghost Master (PC)

By Chief Oddball on July 23rd, 2009 at 9:40 pm

Filed under Reviews ··· Leave a Comment

Rather than devote an entire month to subjecting myself to retro video games — which will never succeed, if history is any indicator at all — I’m going to simply revisit a classic game whenever the mood strikes. When my dalliances in gaming’s ancient past are noteworthy enough, you’ll even get to read about them here. Who knows, you might be inspired to go look in the local second-hand shops for a gem you missed when it was new.

The subject of today’s Retro Game Review is 2003’s Ghost Master by Sick Puppies Studio, a small UK developer that was a division of Empire Interactive Europe Ltd. This somewhat unique strategy game casts you in the titular role of a Ghost Master, whose job it is to command a squadron of spirits as they haunt various locales in the town of Gravenville. You’ll hand-pick a team of ghosts for each mission you’re asked to undertake, and use them to accomplish your objective — whether it be to free a trapped spirit, punish a mortal for meddling in the supernatural, or simply scare everyone away.

The map screen lets you choose your next locale to haunt.

The map screen lets you choose your next locale to haunt.

I had fun with Ghost Master when it first came out, but eventually I got bored of it and forgot about it. While waiting for the release of the new Ghostbusters video game on PC and consoles this past month, I was inspired to retrieve my Ghost Master disc from the closet and give it another spin. This time I’m having even more fun with it, and in just a few days managed to get much further in the game than I had before. It was such a good time, in fact, that I was inspired to write this post about it.

When you first start the game, you’re quickly thrust into the world of “supernatural politics” that reminded me a lot of the spirit bureaucracy of Beetlejuice (and do you realize that’s two Beetlejuice references in two consecutive reviews on this site? One more and Michael Keaton will probably show up). Before embarking on your first haunting, you’re assigned a small cadre of ghosts who will do your bidding on the assignment. The map screen lets you select which part of Gravenville you want to haunt next, although at the beginning you’re guided into a tutorial mission to start you off.

Next, on the Team Selection screen, you can choose which of your ghost team you want to accompany you on the mission. You’ll be presented with this same screen before each haunting, where you can either choose your own ghosts or let the game recommend a team for you. I typically find the recommendations sound, especially when you’re trying to free trapped spirits from the next level — more on that later.

Continue Reading…

Comments (0)

« Older Entries